NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: This starts at the end of Avarice, but make sure you know these threads as well, they are critical: Undiscovered Natives (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=75748&highlight=), Red Dragon Appears (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=79902&highlight=), and Capsule Dig Site (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=80640&highlight=). Read these, please. Also, there was a slight godmoding problem last time. Let's keep things sane. Okay, let's go!

OOC: Whatever you say, Kau. It might have been wise to put Kigari off of the Argus before you took off.

OOC: Roania... I think it can be safe to say she got off... don't worry about it.

IC:

http://www.bateshome.com/jordan/patriarch1.jpg

The CCSS Aaron, a modified Patriarch-Class cargo foldship, defolds near Neptune, towing the CCSS Overseer... who unfortunately lost its fold drive in an escape from a fight with a ship from the Red Dragon's army. The ship lets the Overseer loose and sallows it to fly over to Triton City on its own power, to undergo repairs.

The Aaron, commanded by Special Projects Director Adrianna Jensen, enters orbit of Triton and waits for their allies to arrive. Another great mission lay ahead, and they needed to get underway as soon as possible. With TRSN's "Bane" incapacitated, it will be very hard to track down the Guardians that she seeks.

The Aaron has been modified with a new Fold Drive, top of the line, a few weapons, such as 2 Mk III Rail Cannons and a few Plasma-Bolt Cannons for defense. But most importantly, it has been modified with a lot of the latest science equipment. It is manned by a crew of 200, mostly scientists. Director Jensen is guarded closely by Lt. Commander Jeremy Biggs, and Lieutennant Sr. Grade Jason Wedge.

Character Pics:

http://www.bateshome.com/jordan/jensen.jpg
Director Jensen

http://www.bateshome.com/jordan/biggs.jpg
Lt. Com Biggs

http://www.bateshome.com/jordan/wedge.jpg
Lt. Wedge

*TAG* (For when I know what this thread is about)

OOC: BUMP, Made my post that I said i would ;) TRSN says he'll be on later... he's sick of RP for now lol

please note, this RP is Invite Only... please Telegram Me or TRSN to enter.

In this Rp so far:

Capsule
TRSN
Merc Soldiers
Klonor
Krowmeh (sp)
Phalanix

bump

The Argus appeared in a flash of pure light, then sets course in-system for Triton. "Triton Command, this is the TRSN Argus, requesting permission to tkae orbit."

Triton City Command: "Permission to take Geosynch orbit at coordinates 301, 46, 100. Pull in right next to the Aaron.

Monroe nodded. "Roger that. Helmsman! Take us in!." The Argus pulled into place in the orbit. "Lt. Riev, report to the bridge."

*The CCSS Aaron unfolds back into real time. Davik's Firespray unfolds with it, the old ship having been caught in the foldin field as he left Avarice Station to hunt down Kuro. This, of course, caused no end of confusion for the man, as he had no clue where the hell he was and what the blank just happened. His starmap updates itself, showing him to be near one of Neptune's moons, specifically Triton, in the Sol System. A grin crept across the man's face.*

Davik: "It looks like I'll be waiting for Kuro when he drops out of Hyperspace! Hmmmm... Oh, it appears I need to restock my missiles and Siezmic Charges for the upcoming battle..."

*The Mandalore sends a request to dock with Triton City. The three million credits he got from that man were stored safe in his account, and should be more then enough to fully restock his ship to max capicity.*


((OOC: The Slave V (http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/338831/SlaveV.jpg), Davik's ship and quite possibly the uglist Firespray in the galaxy.))

Triton City Command. "You have clearanc e to dock at either the shipyards or in the atmoshere at level 900 docking bay... choose whichever you feel most comfortable with, Your reloading crew will be waiting there with your requested weapons. Triton out."

((OOC: A quick poll: Since I've made Davik a Mandalore, given him a ship famous for being used by both Jango and Boba Fett, should I go one step further and outfit him with Mandalorian Battle Armor? Yes/no?))


*Davik pulls his Firespray to dock with the Triton shipyards. No sooner does he docks then the reloading crews start about reloading the stores of Seizmic charges and Concussion Missiles. Davik, however, doesn't leave his ship.*

Crimond sat in his Intel Suite, watching the data flow by on thrirty screens at once. His alarms chimed when another ship spun out of the Aaron's shadow. He cocked his head. It wasn't an attack... no it was familiat from Avarice Station. He ran the checks on his database. People would kill for this data. he chuckled. Davik. Good. I can help him avoid the Praetorians.

Crimond opened a secure channel, isolated from the Argus's own systems, and requested, "Mandalore, right? Is this Davik?"

((OOC: A quick poll: Since I've made Davik a Mandalore, given him a ship famous for being used by both Jango and Baba Fett, should I go one step further and outfit him with Mandalorian Battle Armor? Yes/no?))


*Davik pulls his Firespray to dock with the Triton shipyards. No sooner does he docks then the reloading crews start about reloading the stores of Seizmic charges and Concussion Missiles. Davik, however, doesn't leave his ship.*

OOC: Laugh. That's cool, as long as it doesn't restart the spiral of godmodding we just escaped. :oops:

((OOC: Mandalores and their armor are tough, but they don't godmod. I'm not gonna be like Roania with his inpenatrable HOPLITE-3 armor with the unbreakable forcefield generator.))

*Davik eyes the comm wearily as he hears his name.*

Davik: "Who's asking."

*Was the reply.*

"You can call me Havok." Crimond replied. "You are being doublecrossed. After you kill Kuro, you will be killed by the man who hired you. If we may meet somewhere in person, that would be preferable. I can get you out of this mess."

OOC: Black/gray scheme, to match the ship! And who are the Praetorians again?

IC: The CCSS Aaron pulls alongside the argus. Director Jensen hails the Argus. "Hello! Glad to see you want to continue on with us! Wlecome to our little Home!" she says with a smile, pointing to the clearly visible Triton City Shipyards.

http://www.bateshome.com/jordan/triton2.jpg

OOC: Full stats on the Aaron... I would appreciate if you guys posted some basics about your ships as well.

http://www.bateshome.com/jordan/patriarch1.jpg

http://www.bateshome.com/jordan/patriarch.gif

CCSS Aaron - Heavilly Modified Patriarch-Class
Length: 750 meters
Crew: 200 people, 25 droids, and 3 central AI, one for mechanical, one for weaponry, and one for science and information.
Powerplant: Chlorophusion control chamber
FTL Drives: Mk IV Capsule Space-Folding drive, Back-up: x2 Hyperdrive (SW Type)
Docking Capabilities: 8 Fighters, 8 Mecha, 2 Corvettes
Cargo Capacity: roughly 25% of it's frame is reserved for cargo.
Weapons: 2 Forward-Facing Mk II Rail Cannons (100km/s x100kg) 16 Dual 5MW LASER turrets, and 25 point-defense plasma-bolt cannon turrets.
Defenses: A very thick LiquidMetal2/Steel armor, made from triton-mined alloys, A heavy (SW-Type) Deflector Shield
Atmosphere Capable: Yes. Landing Capable: Yes.

OOC: The Praetorians haven't been explained, or even mentioned, to any other characters. Here's the ship's basic stats, no pics, sorry.

Argus Deep Space Scout Frigate
-200m long/75m wide/100 m thick(not at all points, just on the Array)
-Surveilance Vessel/hides and scans
-2 Rail Gun Turrets (Triple)
-2 SLAM boxes
-Laser Point Defense
-med shields
-Extremely Powerful ECM
-Cloak
-DS Sensor Array--->Incredible Power, can scan systems away, very accurate
-3 Shuttles Hard Docked
-Crew: 60

*Davik smirks.*

Davik: "I see, Havok. And why are you telling me this? Surely you're expecting some reward for informing me, am I not correct?"

*He glances back at the Mandalorian Battle Armor hanging up on one of the walls behind the pilot compartment. The armor was primarily black, with gray components. The helmet itself with the T-shaped visor was a smoky gray, the lens blood red outlined in jet black. The armor was old, like this ship, but even so he kept it nice and polished so that it gleemed with the pride of a Mandalorian. Hanging next to the armor was the optional Jetpack, complete with a single guided missile. Like the helemt, it was primary gray, with black outlining.
*Sure, there were flashier armor out nowadays with lots of neat extras, but he perfered the armor of his heritage over any of the new crap. 'Sides, it gave him good luck when he wore it.* ~.^

Crimond winced. "Because you have been promised something in my name. I will not betray a promise, and I cannot undo it. I will explain more in person."

*Davik rubbed his temples with both hands.*

Davik: "Fine, whatever. Meet me just outside the shipyards docking area in one hour exactly, not a minute sooner, not a minute later. I'll recognize you by the phrase 'To go with honor and glory...' I trust you know what I look like. Good day."

*With that he closes the channel.*

Davik: "To go with honor and glory... Have I... Forgotten honor?"

Crimond closed the channel. "Computer, purge the memory of that transmission."

"Done, sir."

He pulled on a coat, tucked an N.03 in his back, just in case. He walked into the boarding area. "I will be taking a shuttle."

"Yes, sir!" The marine snapped. No one messed with Intelligence.

Crimond headed to the surface.

((OOC: Skipping time ahead! ^_^))

*Right on the dot, Davik was waiting at his assigned meeting point exactly one hour after "Havok" contacted him. He was wearing generic clothing, nothing that would stand out or draw attention to himself. Under these clothes however, he wore light battle armor, a basic layer of protection. A holdout blaster rested snuggly in a secert pocket of his jacket top, easily within hand reach.*

OOC: Sorry I'm so slow tonight, I'm studying for a lesson I am teaching tomorrow in sunday school lol

IC: Jensen crept off the bridge and took a lift down to the docking bay of the Aaron, and went to find her Legolas Mk. III mecha. When she dound it, she hopped inside, just to make sure everything was working fine. The mecha had been outfitted with enough Vernier thrusters and xsecondary propulsion system upgrades to actually put up a decent fight in space if the occasion called. her bes speed in it was about Mach 4 in atmosphere... she could almost race some of the Older CC starfighters in it. With her chlorophusion nanites installed inside her body... she could feel everything about the mecha as if it were her own body. Every Radar readout, ever sensor, every guage... all displayed in her head as if they were senses as easy to read as sight or sound. Her mecha had been outfitted with 3 Heavy Gauss Shotguns, a 7MW LASER, and even 2 Heavy 20cm Auto-Cannons.

She decided to take her out on a spin... she had to visit a few people on triton and pick up a few supplies anyway. She received clearance to depart. 2 Massive Doors on the front of the ship openned slightly and her mecha flung out at full speed, on course for the Shipyards level of Triton City.

She approached a bay right next to Davik... the next open slot on the list by order.

However, she did manage to catch the other two ships as she passed by. "hhmmmm" she thought, deciding not to eavesdrop. She continued on.

Crimond entered the bay, dressed casually. He placed Davik from the files, approached him. "To go with honor and glory." he stated calmly. "You are in danger."

*Davik smirks.*

Davik: "You say that as if I never am. Let's go somewhere private. Is there an elevator around?"

Jensen is walking around the halls of the Shipyards docking bay rings... trying to find her way around. "Man... I haven't been here in ages," she said quietly. She looked and looked, trying to find the lift tubes, walking rather smoothly in her tight white anti-energy armor jumpsuit, disturbed in design only by a few silver armbands that serve as signal enhancers to her Mecha. She carried he shotgun on her back still, but this was only allowed because of her Capsule Rank... no one else would be able to be armed on the station. Guards roamed the halls frequently.

Crimond points over to a service lift. "It's clean." They enter it, and Crimond jams it between floors. He begins to explain. "Okay, you don't know me, but you've seen my work. I part of the group that reamed Kuro before he fled. We were setting him up, making it look like he was offing his rivals and TSD. Then we left evidence that TSD was after him. We wanted to make them fight for us. But Kuro fled, took off. I was fine with this. The station was secure, clean. But others weren't so content. They wanted all evidence erased. Kuro had to die, and so did you, once you killed him. And to top it off, they wanted me to do it. But I don't double-cross."

Crimond leaned against the wall. "If you want out now, keep your three million, go feral. We'll cover your path as best we can. I don't like betrayong others, and I will not be someone's dirty-work bitch. If you continue, we'll pay you the other three after. Either way, we'll set up a new identity, a new life. Its the least we can do for someone who's in a predicament we caused... you have my word on this. On my honor, I will not betray you."

*Davik saw Jensen on his way to the lift, but as he was busy he didn't say hi to her. He listened calmly to the one calling himseld "Havok."*

Davik: "I am harder to kill then most people would think... Well, I'm never one to turn down a job, or three million credits, so it looks like I'm still your man."

*He waved a dismissing hand as he swore on his honor he wouldn't betray Davik.*

Davik: "No need for all that, I believe you. Hmm... What are the chances of turning the tables? Killing those who want me dead?"

Jensen, still confused and disoriented, finds her way to the same service elevator and presses the down button.

.....
.........
..............
...nothing.

She frastratedly kicked the door to the lift, then walked on to find another.

Crimond almost fell over laughing, but entirely without humor. "You would never get away with it. I would never get away with it. They don't exist, first off, and they control everything that happens in their dimension, including me... somewhat. Even now, I am not defying them, but modifying their objectives. We will "kill" Davik, and you will be someone else." His false humor faded. "If they come, we can defend, but we could never attack." The elevator beeped. "Someone's trying to use this."

*Davik was humorless, finding nothing of this funny.*

Davik: "I am not one to simply to run away and hide under a different persona. Do you know what I am? A Mandalore. My people lived for battle. War is in my blood. Long, long ago, my people sought glory by finding and defeating unknown and never before encountered enemies. You may change my name, but you will never change who I am. Whatever identity you could possiblly give me would not work. These people who you say do not exist, I get the feeling you could lead me to some of them."

*He too hears the beep, but ignores it. He continues.*

Davik: "You say we can defend, but in my book the best defense is a strong offense."

Crimond glances at Davik, trying to gauge the man. He speaks the truth. "You want to know? I can give you that, but I cannot take arms against them, for they are my superiors. They are called the Praetorian Guard, and they guide the TRSN from the shadows. They are Chancellor Trevalin's inner circle, his guards, and his advisors. No one knows where they come from or how they are chosen, but they are highly elite killing machines. They demonstrate either high intelligence or low level psychic abilities, I do not know, and they are completely ruthless."

He continues, "There is one in this reality that I am aware of. His name is Janus Forscythe, and he is whom you met. He will be somewhere in this reality, always watching us, always observing. Because of Gate Alignments, he can't report anything for another six months. If you can find him and kill him before then, you will be fine. If not... find a rock, and bury yourself deep below. If you chose this path, I have more information, but I must aquire it..."

OOC: Goodnight.

jensen, frustrated enough, decides to just take her chances and put her mecha directly onto the space elvator. She walks briskly back to her docking bay... when she walks in the door, she see's the Mandalorian ship. "Whoa... this definately isn't mine... man... a mandalorian ship way out ere... I wonder who it could belong too..."

She had obviously missed her bay's door... one off.

She looked at the ship for a moment... just admiring it... sure it was a piece of Junk.. but she had rea all sorts of stories of Mandalorians.

She took a few moments to get some holorecordings of it.

OOC: I think I'm goin now too ;) g'night all

OOC: Don't forget the point of this RP... we're all gonna be going on a mission to the Next Guardian at some point... just wanted to remind you all to tie this in somehow :)

*Davik listened. Yes, killing the man who hired him would settle things nicely, and it might even prove to be a worthy opponent.*

Davik: "That is the path I desire to take. Here, contact me when you have acquired the neccessary information using this communicator. It's secure. Be safe. I will stay in my ship for a few more hours, then I will be off to finish Kuro."

*With that he unjamms the elevator door and leaves Crimmond to his own devices, returning to the Slave V, where he finds Jensen taking holorecordings of his vessel. Davik stands about ten feet behind her, his arms crossed, waiting until she noticed him.*

((OOC: And with that, Davik is out of commission until CC and TRSN come back tomorrow. Or Monday. Whichever is true.))

OOC: One last post ;)

IC: Jensen jumps in shock of surprise as she sees him enter the room. "Oh! Sorry! I didn't know you would be back so soon... it's just, well, these old ships catch my interest... it's definately still a useful thing even today.... hey wait a minute, don't I know you? Yeah, you were at Avarice... heh... you killed that poor cheapskate vender man... did you ever remember to clean up your mess?" she says with a wink.

OOC: really gone now.. honestly! :P

((OOC: Un huh... Sure you are.))

*Davik let out a single chuckle.*

Davik: "Yes, I did clean up after myself, got all the blood off the ground and everything. Yeah, this baby is old. Older then me. Yet she still runs better then anything I've ever flown... My grandfather gave it to me, as a gift..."

*Just then the head of the reloading crew comes up to Davik.*

Head Tech: "Mr. Davik Ordo? All the Seizmic Charges and Concussion Missiles have been reloaded to maximum capicity, just as you asked. Service charges will be billed to your name."

*Davik frowned.*

Davik: Could he have chosen a more opertune time to inform me of this? Feh... "Thank you, that will be all..."

Jensen Smiled, "Seizmic Charges and Concussion missiles? heh... where do you think you're goin' with all that?"

OOC:Hey did you forget someone?

*Davik shrugs.*

Davik: "Can never be too well prepared, I always say. Which brings me to my next question. Any specific reason you came in here? Or did you just want to look at my ship?"

OOC: oops, Phalanix is in too ;) (edited)


IC: Jensen smiled, "Your bay was right next to mine, I accidentally wealked in The computer didn't stop me because of my security clearance. Sorry. Wanna see mine? It's actually a mecha, but it still rocks!"

((OOC: Oh, and if Phalanx brings Eric to this, Ariel is gonna be tagging along with him. ^_^ Is that okay? Perhaps, since Eric's ship is gone, they could arrive on the Oni Matta?))

*Davik shrugged.*

Davik: "Sure, sounds fun. You've seen mine, it's only fair I take a look at yours. Lead the way, my fair lady."

*With an extragent sweep of his arm, Davik motions for Jensen to lead.*

Jensen laughs lightly and guides him out into the hall, right to the next door.

http://www.bateshome.com/jordan/legolas.gif

"It's not much... but it's spaceworthy. It'll put up a good fight though, and I've outfitted it with several extended sensor packages."

OOC:*grumbles* Sure why not. BUT NEVER FORGET ME!!!!!!!!!!! Or we can just use shadow travel yet again. I've realy got to limit the travel


Eric smirked slightly as he looked at a hold picture of him and his sister when they were younger. He was surprized at how much he had changed and his sister hadn't

((OOC Can Eric use Shadow Travel on the Oni Matta? It's doubtful Ariel would abandon her ship.))


*Davik gives the mecha a quick once over.*

Davik: "Nice. Although it's not really something you'd use for deep space travel. There's a carrier ship nearby, no?"

Eric:So lets get outa here. Um do you have a ship? Or do I have to steel one?

jensen nods, "Yeah, I only use it on away missions from the Aaron. It's best on the ground... it OWNS the ground... but I configured it for space combat as well... not too bad... could probably put up a decent fight on your ship... maybe.." she laughs to herself, "I have a Tachyon Corvette as well, i use it whenever I need to take a special mission away from the main ship. Even The Aaron has been modified for combat."

*Ariel grins.*

Ariel: "I have a ship, it's called the Oni Matta. It's in the hanger. Follow me!"

*Davik folds his arms, giving Jensen a 'Confident now, aren't we?' look.*

Davik: "Who knows. Hey, are you available for dinner, oh say... Tonight? I'm an excellent cook."

*The smoothness in which he asked Jensen out on a date was remarkable, no pressure, no nerviousness. He didn't seem to be lying about being a cook either. But then again, he is a very good liar...*

Eric:Good. I'm not that popular here. *gives the finger to some guy*

Jensen smiles, "Yeah, as long as I am still here... as far as I know the Aaron is only here for a little while... but, I suppose I could stick around a lil' longer."

She laughs, "So sdo you always go for the shotgun-wielding Mecha Pilots?"

((OOC: I take it Ariel/Eric are still at Avarice?))

*Ariel heads the way back to the docking bay, where her custom made ship, the Oni Matta, awaited her return.*

Ariel: "Let's go!"

*She exclaimed, running up the ramp to the outer hatch.*

Eric just smirks and walks up. "Nice stuff," he says "What kind of weapons does this baby have?"

Jensen smiles, "Yeah, as long as I am still here... as far as I know the Aaron is only here for a little while... but, I suppose I could stick around a lil' longer."

She laughs, "So sdo you always go for the shotgun-wielding Mecha Pilots?"

*Davik chuckles.*

Davik: "You could say that. I like a woman who can handle herself."

She smiles, "I gotta get going, call me tonight, I'll be back on the Aaron."

She walks up to her mecha and climbs in through a hatch in the underside.

OOC: Jensen and Biggs' gauss Shotguns, cuz I never posted the stats:

http://www.bateshome.com/jordan/jbrc.gif

AGS-12 Automatic Guass Shotgun

Ammunition: Magazine of iron pellets (Enough for 20 large shots), additional top-loader for single-fire grenade shells or special ammo.
Reload time: .5 seconds
Firing force:
.....Typical mass: 2-3 ounces
.....Typical Speed (Varies with charge): 1,900 m/s
Has magnetic clamp to allow it to clip onto a special back holster.
Full Sensors package mounted.

Riev stood by Bane's bed, his hand resting on the other man's chest, feeling the faint heartbeat. "I have to be going, brother. I won't be long." He hung his head, the pain seeping through. But there was more than pain, there was anger. It was unfocused, generalized, aimed at the entire mulitverse and every being there within. "They used you until you dried out. You never complained, never retaliated. You took their hate, their disgust, without comment. And you lie here, and no one mourns you... Only now do I see, only now do I understand..." Riev's eyes narrowed. "We'll find these damn artifacts, we'll win this damn war, and then I'll see you home." He turned from the medical chamber, entered the hall.

The Marines, still guarding Bane, even when he was comatose. Riev ignored them and entered the hall. A group was waiting in the shuttle area. "You ready to depart, Lieutenant?" the pilot asked.

"Yes. Let's get started on this..." Riev borded the shuttle, settled into his crash seat, and tried to plan his next move.

*Ariel shakes her head.*

Ariel: "Just the four Medium Lasers you see... It's not a fighter, it's just my personal craft. Come on inside!"

*She stood at the hatch, keying in the open phrase, and the hatch slides open, revealing the interior of the vessel. Ariel disappears into the insides of the ship.*

*Davik leaves the bay where Jensen was docked, entering his own. Waiting for him was the Slave V. He enters the ship, and starts up the engine, planning to spend the day practising.*

The legolas jumps out of the docking bay, and immediately after enters zero gravity. She passes in front of Davik's bay, waves an arm, then dives straight down, trying to find an "onramp" onto the massive highway that was the space "elevator." She hops into a military tunnel and rides it straight down towards the planet, held tight to the road by graviton energy fields.

*Davik spies Jensen's mecha wave to him as he powers up his Firespray. Smirking, he raises the Firespray up, then directs it through the magnetic field covering the exit of the docking bay. Once outside the shipyard, Davik rotates the Firespray so that the view window is facing forward instead of straight up, then rockets away from the shipyards, searching for an asteroid field to blast through.*

Jensen spends a few hours down in the upper levels of Triton City, checking in with a few of her superiors and updating them. Preparing for a long mission up ahead, she heads to her apartment and gathers a few things she forgot last time, including a set of scriptures she somehow failed to remember to bring.

She pilots the Legolas back up through the elevator and eventually docks back with the Aaron. Commander Gidoni had been temporarily reassigned to the Aaron as XO while the Overseer was undergoing repairs.

Jensen went back to her quarters, settled back in, then prepared herself for her little date.

*Davik zips through the small ring of asteroids around Neptune at high speeds, dodging large chucks of rocks and blasting any that get directly in front of him with the Slave V's Turbolasers, not wasting any of the charges or missiles. Weaving in and out of Neptune's ring, the Kuat Drave Firespray nimbly avoids more then one near collision, the pilot's guiding hands saving not only himself, but the ship from certain disaster.
*A few hours of this pasts, and Davik soon returns to the Shipyards, docking.*

Davik: "Better get ready for the dinner with Jensen. What should I cook? Ahh... I know, I'll cook my secert speciality..."

Jensen goes through a closet and picks out a modest, yet very nice dark blue dress, then goes into her bathroom to fix her hair and makeup. When she finishes with that, she sends a message to Davik's Firespray, leaving a quick "Where should I meet you?" on his text mailbox.

*Davik, hearing the beep of his com system, leaves the makeshift kitchen in his Firespray and checks his message. He hmms for a moment, then replies with 'Does my ship sound good?'. He thinks about it for a moment, figures she'd probably take it the wrong way, but pushes send anyways, just to see how she'll react.*

An IM replies: "Your ship? Sounds good to me. Do you have anything planned for dinner?"

IM Reply: "Nothing too fancy. A family recipee I know of."

IM: Allright, See you there in 30 minutes.

She closed the computer terminal and went off to finish getting ready, then jumped into her mecha and prepared to take off.

OOC: Good night, finish this later

*Davik blinked.*

Davik: "30 minutes? I'll need to double step it..."

*Davik sets to work finishing the meal.*


((OOC: Not sure what it is he's making. It's probably very exotic... Maybe Kyrat Dragon bar-bee-que? ^_^))

*Ariel shakes her head.*

Ariel: "Just the four Medium Lasers you see... It's not a fighter, it's just my personal craft. Come on inside!"

*She stood at the hatch, keying in the open phrase, and the hatch slides open, revealing the interior of the vessel. Ariel disappears into the insides of the ship.*
"Well it dosn't look like it could stand up to a Pulsar XX," Eric says under his breath ha he boards the ship and looks around it

*The inside was rather spacious, although there was only one sleeping bunk. Ariel climbs into the pilot's seat, placing an odd helmet over her head. The helmet was connected to the ship.*

Ariel: "Um... Just find something bolted down and hang on tight!"

*She says, little lights on the helmet blinking on and off. Grasping the control yoke in her hands, Ariel powers up the Oni Matta, turning it so that the long nose would point out of the station.*

Planetside, Riev was haggling with a merchant. "Listen, I need digging equipment! I need Plasma Cutters, Laser Surveyers, and an Excavator."

The merchant placed his arms across his chest. "I'm sorry, you don't have the correct permits. You could do some damage with those-"

Riev shoved his pistol up the man's nose. "Listen, I could do more damage with this! Or perhaps I should have my ship smack your stand here with a rail! That would do some damage! I have a small army behind me, and you're worried about some damn digging gear?"

The merchant stammered, the gun barrel poking his nasal cavities. He slid a paper to Riev. "Just sign here, please!" he was quivereing.

"That's better." Riev holstered his gun and signed the form.

"I'll get your equipment."

"Good."

Eric:No need to find something *his cloak begens hardening to the floor*

Crimond stood in the Armory aboard the Argus, thinking hard. Two of his Ravens were with him, gathering equipment. Crimond spoke, "Okay, we'll need to break out the Fusion Weaponry now."

One of the Ravens responded, "Sir? Fusion Weaponry is banned except for use against the Shadow. You know its inhumane, to say the least."

Crimond nodded, "And dirty, too. But, if this Red Dragon is near what it's cracked up to be, we'll be glad to have the firepower. Grab the Fusion Weapons, load 'em up. I'll want the PAW for squad use, make sure the Marines are trained. Riev says he'd prefer a SLAW, but we don't have the powered armor for that." Crimond paused. "Better bring out the HVPs and the Maug RS-60. I wish we had a positron beamer, but they keep those locked up."

The two Ravens began to fill their large utility cart with boxes of weapons and ammunition. Crimond walked off into another section of the Arsenal. He passed several security checkpoints and stepped into the Intel Armory. All of these weapons were traceless, not recorded by the Argus's own personell. Only he knew what was here. Crimond walked around to the back, picked out a small selection of clean weapons, and headed back for the surface of Triton.

Commander Gidoni, now XO of the Aaron. Sends a transmission to the Argus.

"Greetings, We wish to speak to you about tactics in this upcoming war... my superiors have ordered me to look for non-lethal weaponry. Do you guys per chance have any Ship-Disabling weaponry?"

Cmdr. Johanson had the conn when the communications came in. "Not exactly." he responded. "We can use our standard loadout to cripple, rather than kill, but in our fights, we usually don't have the option to take prisoners. We'd probably try to pinpoint their weapons and engines, then board by force. Our Marines are incredible at ship to ship assaults."

"Our goal is not to destroy the Red Dragon's armies, but to destroy the Red Dragon herself. We will only destroy what is necessary. We should concentrate on disabling methods."

"Acknowledged, but our soldiers are trained to kill. If they're in a fight, it's at their discretion. We'll try to disable, but that's a call I can't make for them when they're getting shot at. We have some neural weaponry that we can configure to knock out, but we don't know the effects on this Red Dragon." Johanson closed the transmission and remarked to the helmsman, "We'll just shoot their legs off, right? That'll disable." The bridge crew snickered darkly, and Johanson reopened the channel.

My orders from my superiors are as follows, I expect you to obey them:

Ground infantry may be destroyed at your discretion, starfighters may be destroyed at your discretion, mecha may be destroyed at your discretion, corvettes may be destroyed at your discretion... Frigates and Foldships should no be targeted for destruction, but rather disabling. In otherwards, if they're small, go ahead, but don't try to blow up the big ships... PLEASE try to disable them first.

The one exception is the Red Dragon's throne ship... that may be targeted. In fact, if you see the Red Dragon's throne ship, do not hesitate to fire everything you have at it.

Overall, we know for a fact that if the red dragon loses her power, her slaves will be set free... and thus, we want to try to keep as many of those alive and unharmed.

"Roger that, that is acceptable. We'll try to minimize casualties. Argus out." Johanson closed the channel. "Gunnery?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Start training your boys not to try and frag reactors."

"Yes, sir. We'll get on it."

The commander re-opens the channel:

"Umm... I assume you want to know key areas of Capsule Corporation ships to disable... We'll go ahead and tell you."

A visual aid pops up.

"This is your typical Omni-Class Frigate. As with any Capsule Corp ship, There are no fusion reactors or things that will blow up the ship if you hit it. So in otherwords, a CC ship can take a good deal of critical hits before it is disabled.

Targets include:

The Plasma Heatpile Engines... which are very heavilly armored... so that might not be the best...

Power distribution heavy circuitry, located directly beneath and on top of the Chlorophusion power core.

Weapons banks, such as the Laser arrays, or the Rail Cannons, can be targetted, and will probably shut down as a whole if you hit the pallette just right. However, Weapons banks only exist on the larger ships. On the smaller ships, it may be easy to just target a single weapon and disable it... they tend to stick out.

The Command Center... Although we encourage you to only target this as a very last resort, there are several key systems tied into this area that will knock out the ship.

OOC: Whoops, assumed that it was a given transmission.

IC: "Roger that. What kind of armor on the Engines? Particle or ray shielding, or physical armor? Are they susceptiable to Sleds?"

OOC2:Sleds are large "missiles" loaded with Marines. It busts into the hull (cutting if need be), and the Marines storm out in EV gear.

"On the Frigates, such as the Omni, it may not be so hard to target the engines. But, as far as defenses go:

The avergae CC ship has a hard, Ray-Energy Deflector shield. It does a fair job at deflecting energy weapon, but heavy missiles and projectiles will most likely pass through to the armor. The aror is a series of layers of LiquidMetal^2 plating, reinforces with steel infrastructures between the layers, and titanium under that system. In other words, anything like conventional missiles or light projectile weaponry like machine guns, will have almost no effect. Heavy Kinetic weapons such as Rail Guns or Gauss Cannons will most likely damage the armor.

Overpowering the ship with weaponry should knock out it's armor and shields, as long as you don't completely destroy the ship.

Like I said before, there's nothing on the ships that will just blow up if you hit it... so CC ships will be very hard to try to explode, you would literally have to TRY to blow up the ship, so as long as you refrain from nuking it or vaporizing it, you won't get in any trouble with us :)

THis isn't too much to ask... just no killing blows.

Any questions?"

Johanson nodded to himself. "No problems. Anyway, we don't carry AM loads or even Nukes except when going directly into combat. And, this ship can't carry anything like that."

Gidoni smiled, "Yeah... please, a final note, when and if this conflict escalates into a full scale fleet battle, heavy weaponry will be allowed, and all these rules will be nullified. But that will be at the Authority of the CEO himself only. Gidoni out."

OOC: Can I get a quick update? I've had RL issues to attend to over the weekend.

OOC: Editted as promised, Merc.

Okay, we're on Triton, the moon, that is. The Argus and the Aaron are in orbit, while Jensen, Davik, Crimond, and Riev are planetside. Eric and Ariel are inbound. Davik and Jenses are having dinner. Crimond is gathering up info and guns, and has warned Davik about his impending assassination. Davik wants revenge for this, and is getting Crimond's help in attacking a man called a Praetorian. The Argus and the Aaron are being outfitted for an expedition to combat the Red Dragon... which is the main point of the RP series. Got it?

OOC: Aight, homeboy.

Crimond departed his shuttle, stood on the landing pad, took a breath of the recylced air. Doesn't anyone believe in fresh air anymore? He walked into the facility, he duffel bag filled with all sorts of illicit toys. A guard tried to stop him and ended up taking a long nap on the deck. Crimond found a terminal, sent a message to Davik.

"I'm in the Bay Seven loading area with info and supplies about your gift." Crimond sat down in the darkened area, turned on his enhancement goggles, and sat on a bench against the wall, his pistol in his hand just in case, waiting.

*Thirty minutes later, Davik had a wonderfully smelling meal for two cooked up. The main course was a slab of roasted Kyrat Dragon hind quarters, cooked in it's own juices, with a side of Terran style steamed rice, buttered french bread, and a bottle of 1947 wine.*

Davik: "A good year."

*He said to himself.*

Davik: "Jensen should be here any moment..."

*His comm went off, and Davik checked his messages.*

'Havok:' "I'm in the Bay Seven loading area with info and supplies about your gift."

Davik: "Hmm..."

*He sent a reply, telling the one called Havok he was... Busy at the moment but would come as soon as he could.*

Crimond sighed and pulled out a GamePig (OOC Cookie if you know where that's from) and began to play Swinekeeper.

((OOC: Ahem! Me me me me! So fa la do re so la me so da! BUMP!))

*Ariel tiolted the control yoke to one side, powering up engines and lifting up off the docking floor. Then, easing throttle up to 30% thrust, Ariel guides the Oni Matta out of the docking bay.*

Ariel: "'Fore I hit this baby up to Hyperspeed, know where we wanna go?"

CC Technology, for reference:

Vehicles and Vessels (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=69082&highlight=)
Farad Technology (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=64664)
Chlorophusion Technology (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=66190)
LiquidMetal^2 Armor Technology (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=74364&highlight=)
Chloro-Borg Technology (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=74141&highlight=)
FTL Technologies (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1882087#1882087)

OOC: Too late to join in?

OOC: Too late to join in?go ahead, jump in somewhere, just pop in at triton city.

A rental spacecraft landed at the Trition City docking station, and the temporary owner was glad to be rid of it. He was six feet tall, and weighed a little under 190 lbs. He was good-looking, his nickname being 'poster-boy' back home. His curly black hair was long, and tied in a short ponytail at the nape of his neck. The bright and intellegent blue eyes shone with wonder as he gazed at his surroundings. He was lightly armed, carring a custom-built W2000 rifle and a nickel-plated Berretta. He wore the uniform he'd been issued for travel, a non-descript set of black BDU's, fingerless tactical gloves, and black combat boots. He paid the dues at the docking station before heading out into the city, leaving his rifle in its case on the rental ship.

Cmdr. Johanson and Cpt. Monroe were reviewing the Argus's sensor logs for any datum on a potential artifact when the call came in.

Mayday! Mayday! This the TRSNS Icarus, a Ticonderoga Class Cruiser! We have been struck by an energy pulse of some kind while surveying Helios Six! The Scout Frigate with us, the Apollo, was destroyed, and we were heavily damaged retrieving the survivors. We've lost our drive units, and life support is tenous! Any TRSN Ship receiving this, this is the Icarus, in the Helios System, and we are in need of assistance, Class Four!"

Monroe glanced up. "Well, that answers that question!" He opened a channel to the Aaron. "This is Captain Monroe. We're receiving a distress signal from one of our ships, and we think they stumbled onto one of our artifacts. We are recovering our crew and departing immeadiately. They are in the Hellios System, sixth planet."

Johanson was already recalling the crew from leave.

Commander Gidoni Acknowledges, "Right, we can leave within the hour!"

Jensen gets in her mecha and starts up all the engines. The bay doors open and she zooms out before they are even halfway open. Eroute to Triton City SpaceDock for her Date wit Davik, a voice comes over the Comm...

"Director Jensen, this is Gidoni, I'm afraid you will have to come back."

"What's the deal?!"

"We've received a priority One Distress call from a TRSN ship, they need our help. it's in one of the regions we've been investigating. This could be very big."

jensen sighs, "How long till we leave?"

"Well, the CEO got the report as well, and he says we should leave in about 45 minutes."

"Ugg... well i've kinda gtot a date... but I'll see if I can't cut it short."

"You're gonna have to, I'm Sorry Ms. jensen."

"yeah, right. Try to find out what the source of the attack is while I'm gone, got it? Jensen out."

Jensen's mecha flew towards Triton City and asked for permission to land in Davik's bay.


Commander Gidoni hailed the Argus again, "Any word on the source of this attavck? Anything valuable to us? Do you think we need to bring along some military support?"

Monroe answered, "We really don't know yet, but if the Apollo or the Icarus triggered a defensive act from the artifact, we'd do well to be careful..."

Johanson explained further, "These Artifacts were created to fight the Shadow, and to prevent being taken by that evil, the Elder Races errected defenses. Guardians, traps, and riddles, all to lock out the impure. Now, these Artifacts are older than our recorded time, and some have decayed, lost their stability... we have to be ready for anything."

Monroe finished up. "Taking an offensive tact will get us wiped off the universe by this thing. It tore up a ship comparable to ours with relative ease, so I'd assume the Elder Races put something powerful there."

Riev was loading the shuttle when his comm beeped for recall. He rolled his eyes. "Load 'em up, boys! We've got a priority call!"

The Shuttle was soon heading back for the Argus.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Crimond was done with Swinekeeper and playing Overworld Zero when the call came. He sighed, sent another call to Davik. "Sorry, but there is unexpected and pressing business at hand. When I return, I'll relay the gifts and info, but I must go." He headed for his shuttle.

"Hmm... so perhaps an inoffensive ship would pass? or maybe a heavy shield? or is there some other way of entering... some riddle, answered similarly by a rifter like what happened at the last place? Either way, I beleive most definately that a non-threatening position would probably be welcomed... so the Argus probably shouldn't come along. Any ideas?"

Johanson answered Gidoni, "We should be fine, as long as we hang back from the site until we know what's going on. Besides, we may need the Argus's sensors to probe the Artifact. And we may need a Rifter, we may not, it depends. Basically, stay back, don't shoot first, and don't do anything stupid or abrupt, and we'll be fine. I'd recommend stopping on the outskirts of the system and trying to figure out how the Apollo tripped the reaction."

"Sounds good. Now, how far away is the Helios System? if it's too far, we probably will have to hitch a ride with you guys."

"About 9,000 ly." Monroe answered. "We're attempting to get a Gate Line on it now."

OOC: Goodnight, world.

OOC: Please note my new FTL technology (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=84189&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=)... it will be installed in the Aaron by the next RP hopefully, or maybe I can cheat a little and get it installed why they're here at Triton City. :)

*Davik recieved a message from the dockmaster, requesting it was alright that a Legolas-class Mecha dock in his hanger bay. Davik okayed it, and closed the channel. Then he got the message from 'Havok.' Nodding slowly, Davik leaves the pilot compartment, locking the hatch so that Jensen won't be able to see his Mandalorian Armor. He waits for Jensen to arrive.*

Jensen's legolas comes to an abrupt landing just inside the bay. IT lowers to the ground, and a small cable with a footstep lowers itself to the ground, Adrianna standing on it, gliding to the deck in a long dark blue dress. She doesn't see Davik Immediately... "Hey, Davik you here?"

*The rear hatch slides up, a ramp extending from it to the ground, Davik at the top of it.*

Davik: "Right here."

She smiled and slowly glided towards the ramp. "So what do you have in store tongiht?" But before she could hold the smile too long, it faded slightly... "Oh... and I'm dreadully sorry, but my superiors say I only have 40 minutes here... i gotta ship out... but we can still have dinner!"

*Davik nods, understanding.*

Davik: "Of course. 40 minutes works fine. I hope you like Roasted Krayt Dragon, it's my... Speciality. Come on in."

*He motions for Adrianna to follow him deeper into the ship.
*At the moment he wears a simple, unassuming dark brown tunic, with loose tan cloth trousers. A black leather sash is tied around his waist, holding the tunic in place.*

She smiles again and walks up the ramp into the mandalorian firespray. "Wow, this seems a lot nicer on the inside than the outside!" she says with a laugh, "I guess there aren't as many plasma burns and bullet dents inside, hehe." She looks around with the eye of a little kid. "So what brings you to Triton?"

*Davik follows Jensen, allowing the girl to get a good look around.*

Davik: "I'm on business, for a private employer."

*He left it at that, letting Adrianna interept it as she pleases. He subtly guides her to the main hold where cargo is usually stored. The hold is currently empty, however, save for a table for two with Davik's prepared meal sitting on it.*

She walks over to the table, idly waiting for something, "So.. what kind of work do you do? Bounty hunting or something?"

*Davik sits, motioning for Adrianna to do likewise. Instead of straightout lying, he's truthful.*

Davik: "I dabble in a bit of everything: bounty hunting, contract killings, smuggling, assassinations, hacking, kidnapping. A man's gotta make a living somehow."

*He wasn't ashamed, but he wasn't boastful. He spoke as if the things he does are as normal as being a cargo pilot, or a news reporter.*

Adrianna smiles, somewhat dissapointed, half expectring the gentleman approach of seating her. She takes her seat, "So, I guess your some big Jack of All trades!" she says with a slight laugh.

*Davik snorts.*

Davik: "Not really. I'm just a simple man trying to make my way in the universe."

*He half-stands and pours Jensen a glass of wine.*


((OOC: Cookie to whoever can guess where that quote comes from! ^_^))

OOC: Ep. II, duh lol

IC: "Heh, thank you." She says, taking the wine. her nanites would nullify the alcohol anyway, she didn't care if it was alcoholic.

((OOC: *Hands CC an Orlando Bloom flavored Invid Cookie.* There ya go! ^_^))

The newcomer stopped in at the local bar, near the spaceport.

OOC: It isn't Dekker this time.

The CCSS Aaron pulls into Triton City Spacedock to undergo some last minute modifications on it's FTL Drive systems. The procedure normally due to take an hour will be completed in 30 minutes.

OOC: It is being upgraded to perform cascading hyperspace fold jumps. It should be able to reach helios in less than 8 hours instead of a day.

*Davik waits for Jensen to try her slice of Roasted Krayt Dragon, awaiting her opinoin of it.*

Jensen cuts off an unusually large piece and chews on it for a moment. She smiles, swallow, then exclaims "Hah! Tastes like steak! A very good steak mind you."

*Davik grins wide, then digs into his own meal.*

Davik: "Glad you like it. Like I said, Krayt Dragon is my speciality."

*He cuts the slab of thick, juicy meat into small cubes, then impales them with a fork and plops them in his mouth, chewing each thoroughly.*

"i bet it is!" she says, taking another bite. Between pieces she talks, "So right now, we're upgrading our FTL Drives... we'll be able to go about 25 times faster now! it is so awesome! I can't wait to try it out."

*davik tilts his head.*

Davik: "Heh, 25 times faster then before, eh? Sounds like it'd be an interesting experiance. You'll have to tell me about it one day."

*Davik mixes eating cubes of meat with bites of bread and spoonfuls of steamed rice. He talks between bites, always making sure to NOT speak with his mouth even partially full, as that's just bad form.*

"Yeah, it uses all the same drives we had, but mixes them together..." she takes another bite, "...like running on a moving sidewalk, Total synergy!"

Meanwhile on the Argus...

"Well, Riev, did you get the gear we might need?" Crimond asked.

"Yeah, got it all loaded into the first shuttle for transport. You got the weaps?"

"Yes. We broke out the Fusion equipment. Let's just hope there's no being-rights activists with us, or people who prefer not to glow in the dark."

"Jensen will throw a fit." Riev smiled slightly.

"Oh well. Our perogative, our equipment. Just remind her to stay behind the blast deflectors."

"Right. I've given the Marines full VR reviews of Fusion Weaponry. You get a SLAW?"

"Nope, had to go with a Plasma Thrower. Be careful with that, would you?"

Riev smirked. "Oh, I'll be careful. What's the thought on the Artifact? Why'd it attack the Apollo?"

"Don't know. It could be unstable."

"Damn. What do you think it is?"

"It could be the Big One. If it is, we'll be swarmed by Trevallyn's cronies in no time."

"Damnit."

OOC: Just posting something to keep myself occupied.

*Davik couldn't help but chuckle at the anology.*

Davik: "Running on a moving sidewalk can be dangerious, in it's own right. Proper precautions have been taken, I would assume, so that an accident couldn't possibly happen."

*It wasn't a veiled threat, but it could have just as easily been one, had he beed hired by someone to sabotage the Aaron. Luckily though, he was on assignment to kill both Kuro and the man who hired him. Of course, he was keeping his eye on the one calling himself 'Havok' too, he didn't quite trust the man.*

"Nah," she said, with some food still in her mouth, she swallowed, "It's perfectly fine... so long as the rush-job they're doing to install the system goes without a hitch."

*Davik raised a slighly bushy eyebrow.*

Davik: "Rush-job? Well, for your sake as well as the others on that cap ship, I pray it does go without a hitch."

*He was near finished with his meal, 1/10th of a piece of French Bread, and a few scattered cubes of meat to go.*

She had already finished the last bit of dragon, a very fast eater. She smiled as she went for her share of the french bread, "Yeah, but I trust them."

On the Argus's Bridge:

"Well, sir, it looks like the Aaron's almost out of dock." Johanson reported to Captain Monroe.

"Very well." Monroe sighed. "I don't like this, Johanson..."

"The rush job on the engines, sir?'

"Yes... it bothers me. You ever heard of the Philadelphia Expirement?"

"No, sir."

"Well, it was an Old Terra test of a wet navy vessel in the 1940's. They fragged it good, Commander... all hands lost. I don't want to be part of another disaster like that."

"Sir, I'm sure they know what they're doing over there... I hope."

*Davik nods, not commenting as he lays waste to what remains of his meal.*

Davik: Hmm... This meal took about fifteen minutes, that leaves about ten minutes until Jensen has to leave. Alot can happen in ten minutes...

*Davik thought to himself, dining on the flesh of dragon.*

Jensen thought something to herself, but in a more cautious tone. She took the last sip of her wine, then smiled and asked, "So what else do you have planned? I figure I got 10 minutes left..."

*Davik shrugs non-chalantly.*

Davik: "Originally I figured dinner and a holomovie, but since you only got like ten minutes left, how about a quick tour of my ship and chit chat?"

She smiles and stands up, "Sounds great to me," she looks around the immediate area, "What's the cockpit like?"

*Davik shrugs as he stands to his.*

Davik: "Pretty steorotypical. Seen one cockpit you've seen them all. I'm sure you don't want to see that area of the ship."

*They were still in the hold, without doubt the largest part of the ship. It was here that bounty heads and the like were stored.*

Jensen sighs to herself briefly, "So don't you guys fly this ship upright? Like is the cockpit rotated like an old space shuttle or what?"

((OOC: Which, by the way, was closed and locked. You never told me Jensen could pass through solid objects? :P))

On the Argus:

Riev entered the bridge, paced about. "Sir, why haven't we departed yet? Is there Gate problems?"

Monroe growled a response, "No, the Gate is set, but we can't leave without Capsule, and Director Jensen is down on the surface still."

"What?" Riev asked, incredulously. "Wasn't everyone recalled?"

The Captain snorted cynically. "She's having dinner with someone."

Riev felt his lip curl in anger. "Our men are dying out there, and she's having a nice dinner?" his voice was bladed and cutting. "Give me her comm channel, please, sir."

The Captain handed him a communicator. "All set, Lieutenant. I'd do it myself, but I have to be diplomatic. Let her have it, LT."

Riev reached her. "Hello, Director." he stated sweetly. "Are you enjoying dinner? I hope you are, because people are dying while you eat your damn food!" His voice turned cold. "I suppose your hunger is more important than lives, but if you would, madam, could you return at your earliest convenience so we can attempt to save some people?" He closed the channel with a vengeance, stabbing the button angrily.

The bridge crew clapped a little, and he sullenly dropped into his station. Johanson commented, "Maybe now the bitch'll hurry up."

Jensen moaned to herself as she heard Riev's communique in her head, Ugg, that idiot... why doesn't he just leave without us? he'll arrive before us anyway!

Jensen sighs to herself briefly, "So don't you guys fly this ship upright? Like is the cockpit rotated like an old space shuttle or what?"

*Davik nods.*

Davik: "Yep. When landed, the pilot's seat is directed up, and you hafta climb into it from behind. I'll show you one other day."

*He sees Jensen's actions.*

Davik: "Something the matter?"

She nods slowly, "Yeah, I gotta get outta here real soon... the other ship that's flying with us is bugging me to come back... I don't see why they don't just go ahead and leave right now if they think 5 minutes will make a difference on a 6 hour trip... Ah well, i guess I better go 'fight the red dragon.'" she says as if it was an expression commonly said.

Crimond entered the bridge. "We leaving yet?"

Monroe responded. "Still waiting on Director Jensen to finish dinner." he snarled, angry with the universe.

Crimond nodded, also angry, but cold, as always. "Shall I retrieve her?"

"No, she's finally on her way." Monroe stated.

"Right. I'll be running sims in the briefing room if anyone needs me."

*Davik raised an eye brow. Why would they need a cap ship to fight a simple Red Dragon? Hell, he could take on a Red Dragon by himself with nothing but his undergarments and a sharp stick.*

Davik: "If I may so inqiure, why would you need two Cap ships to take on a red dragon? To me, that's just overkill and not very sporting."

She laughed, "Two cap ships? HAH! These two cap ships are going to go investigate the site of a temple guarding a weapon that might help us... it will take a LOT of cap ships to defeat this red dragon... a true demigod." beeps started going off in her head, multiple pages, "I'm sorry, I have to go... if you're not busy, you can hang out with us for this trip, it's just a piece of cake rescue/investigation mission."

*Davik pnders it for a second.*

Davik: I have six months to kill that one guy... "I'll tag along, but only for a few months. I could take you up in the Slave V?"

-Deleted as no longer applies-

--Deleted by Author--

"Well if you're gonna come, you better come right this second!"

She kissed him on the cheek before running off down the ramp, "Thanks for dinner, it was great!" she said, backing off into her mecha. Seconds later, seemingly before she was even inside, the mecha powered up and began gliding towards the magnetic shield. She passed through and headed towards the Aaron, already out of spacedock. The Aaron's doors were already open and she quickly landed.

Jensen ran towards the lift to the bridge, hearing the hyperdrives warm up as she yelled over the comm "Ok! I'm here, hold on 5 more seconds, someone is coming with us!"

Riev watched the mecha dock, followed by an unknown craft. "Who's that?" he demanded as the Argus's Jump Gates activated.

The ship reoriented, Gates aligned. In a spinning flash, the Argus vanished into nothingness, hurtling towards the Helios system.

*Davik hurried into the pilot's compartment, unlocking it and climbing into the pilot's seat. Strapping himself in, he powers all systems and kicks in the repulsorlifts, the Slave V lifting off the hanger floor. He guides the ship out, the ship tilting so that the flat 'underside' was pointing behind him. The Firespray jets towards the Aaron, following Jensen's slower Mecha. He enters a mere split second after she does, landing the Firespray in the cap ship's hanger bay. He sends a comm to the ship.*

Davik: "I'm in. Hit it."

"Hurry up! Get in!" Jensen screams over to the comm to the firespray as it enters through the doors. Immediately after the doors closed, the ship's hyperdrives engaged and the ship lurched forward, carrying everyone with it.

By the time Davik's ship landed, Jensen could hear the loud initial firings of capacitors letting energy in, charging up and then firing, engaging the cascading fold drive.

She waved Davik over to the lift. When he reached her, the doors closed and they rode up together. The elevator ascended, and the world seemed to fade in and out, double vision... it would definately take some getting used to... one fold right after another, one ever 5 seconds.. While leaving the cargo bay, she could see the engine room, glowing an orange red where the fold generator vents were releasing energy. Distortions flew all around her... definately a new, yet somehow safe experience.

*The only term Davik could think of to describe the experiance was...*

Davik: "It's like having a bad Spice trip!"

The final Gate aligned, and the Argus was spat into the Helios system. "Systems check!" Monroe ordered as the ship and crew recovered from the transit. Even veteran spacers were queasy after a Jump, and that one had been brutal, flinging them out a few dimensions before looping them back in.

Johanson answered. "All go!"

The main screen flickered to life, revealing the sight beyond. In system, the Icarus was listing badly in orbit around the eigth planet. There was a nasty scar on the surface of Helios Six, left by the crashing Apollo. There was background radiation around a debris field in orbit around the sixth planet, probably where the Apollo had been struck.

"This is the TRSNS Argus. Icarus, respond. What is your situation?" Monroe declared.

OOC: Stats on the Icarus:

Ticonderoga Class Missile Cruiser
-100m long/200m wide/50m thick (like a stingray)
-80 CM Tubes
-70 CM Hardpoints (External Racks)
-8 SLAM boxes
-Laser Point Defense
-8 AF Missile Banks
-Light Shields/ECM
-Strong Sensors (For Missile Guidance)
-Crew: 100

CM = Capital Missile, a Standoff Deep Space Weapon

This is a military ship, pure and simple. But why is it here? :shock:

The Aaron soon after arrived at the Helios system, with little to no problems. It was certainly an iunusual trip. The only thing one could do for 6 hours of messed up vision was to just sleep. Jensen noted that davik could probably find comfortable sleep as any in the comfort of his own quarters on his firespray. She had slept in her own personal quarters, leaving the trip to AI computers with minimal crew observation. She drempt odd dreams... not the usual fantasies,, but somehow... visions... perfect images of past... and even a little unclear image of the future...

jensen arrived at the bridge just before defold, and gave the final order. Davik was probably also on his way to the bridge, she hoped.

She observed the surroundings as the ship stopped folding, consolidated, and then dropped out of hyperspace. She noted the Argus that had already beat her there, as well as the Apollo and the Icarus... what remained of them anyway.

She hailed the Argus. "What's the situation, Johanneson? (sp)"

OOC: Good night!

*Davik spent the 6 hours in his Firespray, cat napping for the first five and staring at the ceiling the last hour. The Aaron returns to real space, and Davik blinked several times to clear his head.*

Davik: "That... Was an experiance."

*He debated going to the bridge, but decided not to. He hadn't been invited, so going there would probably be rude. Not that he was one much for manners, but he had other things to do. Like run a diagnostic on his Firespray's systems, see if any of them were out of whack by the jump. There were a few anomolies, he didn't power down all the systems, a the ones left running during the jump were glitchy.*

Davik: 'Crap..."

((OOC: Davik's skillz, minor stats on the Slave V, and info on Davik's Mandalorian Battle Armor.

Cooking: Despite what most people would think, Davik is a gourment chief. The woman who raised him taught him how to cook from childhood on up until his teen years. He doesn't seemed to be ashamed.

Heavy Weapons: Davik is a heavy weapons specialist. He's trained exclusively in the use, miantainance, and repair of weapons weighing 78lbs or more.

All other weapons: Davik is trained in the use of nearly all forms of armed combat, ranging from small arms to grenades to melee/hand-to-hand combat.

Mechanic: Davik is a proficent mechanic, doing most repairs of his ship on his own, usually on the fly.

The Slave V.
A Kuat Druave Ship Yards Firespray, the Slave V was given to Davik by his grandfather as a gift. Weapons includes Twin Turbolasers, Concussion Missiles, and Seizmic Charges. It has a basic but strong deflector shield and has it's own Hyperdrive.
Davik's Firespray has been customized to fit him. At any time, Davik can shunt power from engines to the shield generators, resulting in a big boost to the shield's defensive capilities, but with an overall loss of max speed and mobility, all for a relatively short peroid of time (3 minutes).

Davik's Mandalorian Battle Armor:
His armor includes a helmet that has a macrobinocular T-shaped viewplate, infrared capabiites, motion and sound sensors, an internal comlink with Slave V, a broadband antenna for intercepting and decoding transmissions, and external targetting rangefinder. His left guantlet houses Mini-twin flame throwers, Traq dart launcher, and serrated blades that pop out the side. (Think epi II) The right gauntlet houses holds a fibercord whip/grappling device, non-serrated blade that pops out the side (similar to the left gauntlet), and a cutting torch. Davik's jet pack includes the main rocket thrusters, directional thrusters, and guided Concussion Missile. The twin mini-flamethrower gets it "fuel" from Davik's jetpack, which uses a small Plasma Torch to operate. The fuel is automatically restored when not in use. The guided missile can be fired with or without a lock-on. Lock-on improves accurancy.
The armor is mostly black, with gray components. The helmet is smoke gray with jet black lining around the blood red visor, the jet pack is gray with black lining, and the rest is black on gray. The armor is kept polished, so it gleems with pride whenever Davik wears it, which is rare. The armor, like the Firespray, is old, older then Davik, even so, due to the superior craftsmanship of the Mandalorians when it comes to weapons and armor, there has been no degrade in the quality of the armor.
Davik weilds a Heavy Repeater Blaster, and carries a a sidearm a single Mandalorian Heavy Blaster Pistol. It is said that a single shot from one of these pistol can destroy a capitial ship's Hyperdrive. However, this has yet to be proven...

There, that's all of it. ^_^))

The crew stood at attention on the Argus's bridge, waiting for a response. Monroe repeated the hail, "This is the TRSNS Argus, what is your status, Icarus?"

A crackling feed broke the silence, and the viewscreen was filled with the flickering, off focus image of a young man in a hazard suit with the helmet off. There were circles under his eyes, and his hair was an unwashed mess. He showed every moment of terrror and tragedy he had undergone. He started to speak, his words fading in and out with the video, which flickered between color and black and white. "This is Lt. Cmdr. Allens, Third in Command of the Icarus. The captain and the XO are dead. Thank God you're here!"

Monroe nodded. "We got here ASAP. The other ship with us is the Capsule Corporation Ship Aaron. They are our ally, and we're sharing this feed with them." The last words were a hint to keep Secrets secret. Monroe glanced to Johanson, "Pipe this to the Aaron."

"Yes, sir."

Monroe faced the battered Icarus officer, "Now, what's your status, and what happened?"

Jensen watched as she sat down into her chair. Biggs walked onto the bridge, while Wedge made his way over to the makeshift hangar where Davik's Firespray laid. He rapped on the side of the hull with his fist, "Hey, Mandalore! Jensen requests your presence on the bridge."

OOC: Quick Bios on my 3 main characters:

http://www.bateshome.com/jordan/jensen.jpg
Director Adrianna Jensen is a very faithful and very young woman given a high position in the Capsule Corporation Special Projects Task Force for her extreme intelligence. Being one of the few privilaged enough to be born of a mother with Chlorophusion nanites in her bloodstream, she was able to have a semi-cyborg body since before she was even born. Usually implantation would not be possible until much later. She developed motor skills very early, never got sick for more than a few hours, and absorbed information at an accellerated rate. Though she was privately tutored, she reached high school level at age 8. She was learning college courses by age 11, all the way up to age 14. Then, in a tragic explosion in a starship fight against pirates, they were killed. She was immediately "adopted" into the military, half voluntarilly, half because she had no where else to go. She quickly rose through the ranks, as a mecha pilot and starfighter pilot for several years. When Capsule's priorities began to change at the discovery of the Red Dragon, she was appointed leader of a task force that would seek out some form of a weapon that could destroy or bind the Red Dragon. This is currently her task, personally teamed up with Biggs and Wedge. She has hundreds of archaeologists (sp) at her disposal onboard The CCSS Aaron, her personally tailored foldship. Her talents and abilities are many, and most have yet to be discovered.

http://www.bateshome.com/jordan/biggs.jpghttp://www.bateshome.com/jordan/Wedge.jpg
Jeremy Biggs and Jason Wedge grew up together, and although they are far older than their 23-year-old Director, they served as her wingmen for years, and even became friends. They've all been through a lot together. Biggs and Wedge both received nanite Implantation 12 years ago, before a special operation in the Excelses system.

*A sudden rapping on the hull catches Davik's attention as he works in the engine room. Sighing, he stands and leaves the small room, heading for the exit. Thumbing a button, the rear of the ship lowers, and there stands Wedge.*

Davik: "Right."

*He wears a black tunic and smoke grey cloth pants and long sleeve shirt. His clothes are very unassuming. He isn't wearing any armor, seeing no reason to. Descending down the ramp, he passes Wedge, meeting the other man's gaze.*

Davik: "Let's go."

*Davik pulls back the sleeve of his shirt, revealing a communit on his wrist. He thumbs a button, and the ramp raises, closing off the Firespray. He presses another button, and the dull clicks of the ramp locking in place is reassuring to hear.*

The mercenary sits in the cantina, sipping on a drink from some place he'd never heard of.

The mercenary sits in the cantina, sipping on a drink from some place he'd never heard of.ooc: umm I guess you are gonna sit and wait for ariel and eric to show up, till then, have fun rping with yourself lol

On the screen, Allens was speaking. "We were dispatched to the Helios System when the Apollo picked up some sort of dimensional activity paralleling this star. We came in, and managed to trace the disturbance back to the Six Planet. We lowered into orbit to scan. The Apollo reported finding something in the southern continent, and it began to run scans. Then something happened... I can't really tell what, other than we were scanned and our systems got all funky. We lost helm, as did the Apollo. They reported massive energy transfers between the Sixth Planet and its primary moon, and then there was a beam of some sort, white as a ghost, that flared up from surface and impaled the Apollo's drive unit. The reactor cooked off, but Captain Suravich managed to trigger an Omega Dump first, and some of the crew managed to survive. Then Gate Key kicked in, and the ship got Jumped into the planet!"

"What?" Monroe demanded. "How would the Jump Unit come online?"

"I don't know sir, no one does, but it did come online, and the Apollo got flung into the planet. About two-thirds of the crew went down with the ship, or got pulled in by the shockwave. We tried to swing through and catch the escape pods before they hit the atmosphere, and the thing clipped us. We lost control, were spin off into space. About a fourth of our crew got spaced, inlcuding most of the officers. we managed to stabilize our flight, we cut our external racks, and we sealed up our reactor leaks. Our medical facilities got blasted, so we had to cryo-freeze the wounded, including Captain Suravich of the Apollo. They need immeadiate attention. Other bad news... the only data on what really happened was recorded by the Apollo, and it got Omega Dumped, but the drone crashed onto Helios Six. All of the data to figure out what happened is down on the planet we need to know about!" Something shook in the background, and large coolant pipe blasted free from the ceiling, swinging about. Allens turned, began yelling orders. The screen cut out, then back in, and Allen was facing the camera again as engineers tried to fix the tube. "We need immeadiate assistance. Icarus, out." The screen went blank.

Jensen nodded at the screen, then resumed transmission to the Argus. "Argus, Recommend you evac the Icarus Immediately. Tractor them out of the area... we'll move in, passively monitoring everything on that planet. Do NOT actively scan it in any way. Moving in now."

The Aaron was currently 12 Million kilometers from Helios 6 and just now started up her sublight engines. This would take about half an hour to an hour to reach Helios 6... and Jensen sat on a ship capable of folding space and teleporting there in an instant... but she resisted the urge... she didn't want to end up like the Apollo.

"Roger that." Monroe stated, closed the channel. "Who does she think she is? "Don't scan it." No shit." Monroe dropped into his chair. "I need a rest."

The Argus had emerged from its Gate closer in system to the Icarus than the Aaron, and it approached on an arcing path, trying to give the Sixth Planet wide berth.

The Argus approached the Icarus for docking.

OOC: Skip ahead a little..

The Aaron entered into the space around Helios VI, passing one of it's moons. Jensen ordered the shut down of all transmitting sensors. The ship was approximately 5 minutes away from the Argus and Icarus. "What's the situation, Argus?"

*Davik arrived at the bridge with Wedge in tow. He finds Jensen on the captian's seat.*

Davik: "Hmm..."

*Instead of asking questions, he watches, trying to find out for himself what's going on.*

Monroe recieved the hail as they were just finishing docking. "We're docking now. We're not attempting a tractor, for fear that the energy might trigger a reaction. We're going to try to help the injured, and we might be able to get some info from the Apollo survivors on what triggered the reaction."

Meanwhile...

Riev stepped through the umbilical (large enough for a shuttle to pass through) and into the Icarus. The onyx decks were marred and the metal walls ragged. The alarms still pulsed, and Riev eyed the Plasma tubing cautiously. A man stepped out. "Don't worry about that, Lieutenant. The ship has stopped blowing itself apart. Now its just losing air and power." The man shrugged in exasperation and stepped into the light. It was Allens.

Riev held out his hand, "Lt. Cmdr. Allens? I'm Lt. Riev."

"Pleased to meet you. I just wish it could have been under better circumstances..." Allens led them into the ship. "We'll get you to the cryo rooms. Did you bring transport?"

"Yeah." Riev motioned to the hoverskids behind him, and the other Marines and Spacers began to push them along. Riev asked, "Now, how did you end up out here?"

Allens rolled his eyes. "Praetorian Janus. He said that there were several Artifacts in this dimension, and that we had a priority to recover them before the indies (OOC: indies=indiginous peoples) got them. Didn't realize we had indie allies, though..."

Riev nodded. "I hate Praetorians."

"We all do, but we have to say yes, sir, and smile real nice when they tell us to go off and die for them."

They reached the Cryosleep Bays and began loading the cylinders onto teh skids to be transfered back to the Argus.

Jensen nods, acknowledging Davik's presence, then turns back to send a message to the Argus. "Allright, we're entering orbit now... we're going to see if we can't land at the site. Entering atmosphere in T- 118 seconds."

As the Aaron passes in orbit, there is a sudden burst of emissions from the surface to the moon, then back. There was a sudden increase in radiation on several surface points. On the Argus, the scanning officer bolted upright as the Frigate's high-res sensor suite picked up the growing flare. "Capsule! Get out of there n-"

The beam of white fire speared up at the Aaron.

*Davik's eyes go wide as the beam of white light flies up at the Aaron.*

Davik: Lovely, I've always wanted to die on a Cap ship.

*The sarcasim in his thoughts was thick enough to cut with a dull butterknife.*

"Evasive Action!" Jensen screamed out to her helmsmen. The Aaron darted to the side as the white spire of energy began to shoot. it came so quick that the nimble ship could barely avoid it... and barely avoid it was all it did... it hit the ship's shields, sending a heavy feedback energy pattern through the Deflector Shield generator, frying half the emitters. An officer yelled out a damage report as the ship rocked about. Jensen yelled out a direct order to the pilot, "keep advancing, forward deflectors full, full evasive patters. I want to this ship down there! Keep trying to avoid the bursts, do not attack unless I say." With that, the Aaron maneuvered around, almost in a spiral formation as it descended.

Standing up, she turned to biggs and wedge and Davik. Her guardsmen could already hear her thoughts, but she had to explain to Davik as they headed to the lift. "We're gonna drop our mecha... or in your case, your firespray, down onto the Surface... trying to land a foldship would be suicide!"

They all headed down to the hangar. They felt the ship swerve about as they climbed into the mecha... jensen awaited her XO's confirmation of a safe re-entry.

*Davik clambered into his Firespray, powering up all systems. He looks at his Battle Armor. He may need it when they go down to the planet. The repulsarlifts kicks in, and Davik waits for the go ahead.*

Monroe leaned over the sensor data. "What the hell?" The whole southern continent was covered in a splay of energy channels, all flowing towards small junctions, a spiderweb of some unknown force. The points began to glow with the tachyon emissions, then pulse up again in a spray of multiple columns. "Good pilotting." he muttered, as the horrendously beautiful energy roared skyward, flashing past the evading Aaron and the small ships emerging beneath.

Johanson, standing behind Monroe, his hand on his chin, spoke quietly. "They've been bracketed."

"What?" He asked his XO, then spun and yelled into the channel. "Get out of there! You've been ranged in!"

Just as Johanson had predicted, a tremdous swath of energy sweapt across the sky, as if to merely swat the Argus from the atmosphere. The wall of energy flashed brighter, and the Argus's sensors, across the system, flickered ominously, attempting to refocus. Johanson bit his lip, staring at the point he predicted the Aaron to be, if it still existed. "The die is cast, and the wager is up." The light faded, and they attempted to figure out what had happened....

Biggs, Jensen, and Wedge step into their respective Legolas-Class Mecha and warm up the engines with a dark whirr.

The Aaron suddenly began to swerve more violently. "What's going on up there Gidoni?!" "The attacks are getting stronger!" "keep going! ETA?!" "10 Seconds, opening doors now!"

The massive forward cargo-bay doors split open, sealing the air in with a massive force field. The ship was descending in a nose dive, and the pilots could see the ground in front of them as the high-speed ship roared down. "now!" jensen shouts to the other pilots as they jump out through the force field. Gravity reorients them a little and they perform a jet-assisted dive towards the surface. As soon as davik left the bay ((sorry for posting for you)) the aaron pulled up and closed it's doors, turning tail and gunning it straight out of the planet on the fastest vector they could find.

The mecha and the Firespray were at 50,000 feet and falling fast.

*No sooner then they left the ship then Davik and the Three Mechas were started on by the beams of light. Davik did the best he could to dodge most of the lights, his Firespray not bing the most nimble thing out there, but even so, gut instinct and a healthy dose of luck allow him to dodge almost all of the beams, the one that did hit nicking the shields, bringing them down completely.*

Davik: "Crap! A near miss devastated my shields!"

*He sends a comm to the others.*

Davik: "Watch out, those beams can probably destroy us with one solid hit!"

The Aaron flung out of the top of the maelstrom. There was a sigh of relief on the Argus's bridge. Monroe queried, "Status?"

The Mecha glide down on cushions of anti-normalforce thrust, "skating" downwards at a controlled rate, dodging shots left to right. After about a minute of chaos, they approach the surface. Biggs and Wedge Land first, followed shortly after by Jensen, who took one grazing hit which did neglegable (sp) damage. "We should be somewhat safe down here, the cannons can't shoot us." "Where's the Mandalorian?" Biggs asks.

The Aaron soared out of the planet and stopped near the Argus. Gidoni hailed them "What the heck was that?!"

Monroe replied to the hail. "We don't know, but we got dimensional and tachyon surges before each shot... I think the Apollo had good readings, but its Omega Drone crashed on the planet, and the crew is still being treated from stasis. If your people can find that drone, we can get the data back, and as soon as the Apollo's suriving members recover, we'll check with them. What's your status?"

*The Firespray roars down behind them, tilting so it's flat underside rested on the ground. Nothing happened for fifteen minutes. Was Davik injuried? Why didn't he come out? Then, as if to quell their worries, the rear of the ship opens, the ramp lowering. Standing at the top of it, in his fearsome Mandalorian Battle Armor, was Davik. Or at least, they hoped it was Davik. With the Heavy Rebeating Blaster in both hands, Davik walks calmly down the ramp and towards the gathered trio of Capsule Corporation soldiers.*

Davik: "Let's party."

*It was definately Davik's voice behind the helmet. Light gleamed off the shiney armor, somehow making him even more fear inducing then before.*

Jensen smiled and barked an order at Davik, "Get back in, we have a mission to complete, Follow us." The Mecha lit up their engines again and blasted away at about 300 km/h 3 feet off the ice-covered ground, skating on a cushion of energy, propelled by thrusters on their backs. Jensen hailed the Argus while waiting for Davik to follow. "Hey, we need the decryption code for that Omega beacon. Send it down... we can't get an exact fix on it!"

*Davik hurried back to his ship, and then followed the others as they 'skated' along the surface of the ice. His ship has little trouble gaining on the trio of Mechs, and once he's caught up to them he slows down and matches their speed.*

OOC: Description of Helios Six Terrain....

You are on the Southern Pole, and its lit by two pale blue suns that give no warmth, relfecting from the glistening ice that has built up over the millenia. The snow drifts about. Not much falls, but it never melts. Ice caverns and pillars dominate the landscape in stark but beautiful ways, icicles(sp) hundreds of meters tall, some meeting in an arch. This land hasn't been touched in hundreds of thousands of years. The harsh wind whips through these ice walls and towers at high speeds, and the temperature is well below fifty celsius. An exposed human would die in seconds, preserved in the perfect ice.

IC:

The Argus replied to Jensen's hail. "It's not a code, it's a physical item. We'll have to get it down there somehow. Until then, just keep it inside the cargo bay of one of your vessels... its only about 2x1x1 meters in size. Be careful with it, it's armed to explode if entry is forced, and we can't undo that until its safely opened. We're tracking its position at... twenty-one degrees East of you. We're putting it on your scanners now. Try to check out those emitters while you're down there. Look for tachyon traces. Good luck, and we'll be along to help soon!"

Jensen nods and sends a brief 'thank you' message to the Argus. "Let's move!" she barks to the others as they receive coordinates. They kick up their speed to 400 km/h and blast off in the direction of the given coordinates... "ETA 5 minutes, keep your scanners on, checking for anything matching the probe's description!"

Jensen checks her scanners to see Davik's position, right behind them, matching speed, flying dangerously low. "How's it going, Davik? You make it down alright?"

*Davik replies.*

Davik: "Oh, everything's peachy over here. Nevermind my shield generators are blown to shit, and that funky jump through space on board the Aaron screwed with alot of my on board's systems. I'm having some trouble maintaining altitude, but it's nothing this baby can't handle. I made it down in one piece, I'm such as heck ain't gonna blow it all by crashing..."

*Davik also scans the surrounding area.*

Biggs shouted out something a moment later, "I got it! i have visual contact... now!"

The Mecha all brake to a stop just beside the downed probe. "Aww man, it's frozen over," Wedge muttered.

Jensen slowly advanced, then extended a Laser cutting tool, chopping the Ice-Block free. "Hey Davik, think you can make a run for it? or do you want to just stick this in your hold and wait for us to find a safe way outta here?"

*Davik considers this, then shakes his head.*

Davik: "Negative on making a run for it. Not until I can repair my ship's systems. Just toss it in my cargo hold for now."

"Allright, open your door..." she says, picking up the probe with her two limited-use robotic hands, and then slowly moving towards the landed Firespray. She sets it inside and lets Davik shut the door. "Allright, now what?"

Biggs pointed an arm down about a quarter of a mile. "Director... look there."

She didn't see it at first, but then Wedge saw it too. On normal optics it looked like a wall of ice... but on thermal vision, there was a vastly contrasting source of heat. "There's heat in there!" Wedge exclaimed.

Biggs nodded, "Yeah, and I'm picking up metal and circuitry... let's try it."

The Mecha walked over and Jensen signalled to Davik to hold on for a moment. "Well, it looks like it's an emitter for those beams that were shooting at us... but it has some sort of an access tunnel under it.

Biggs' mecha reached first, and scraped away some snow, revealing a large metal wall. he flipped on a flamethrower and melted away the ice and snow. "hey look... a door... what do you know."

Jensen signalled to Davik, "Come on bud, we're going in." She and her guards wrapped up their armor tight and snuggly then hopped out of their mecha, leaving them running as to not freeze over. Jensen grabbed her weapon and blasted the door down with a blast from her mecha's rail cannon before she or any of them got out. They ran inside, awaiting the warmth.

Upon entering the door, it was instantly a hundred degrees warmer. "sweet!" Jensen said, undoing her helmet and thermal layers and discarding them off to the side. "Where's Davik?"

*Davik jumped in a bit after Jensen and the others.*

Davik: "It's warmer in here."

*He observed dryly. He was wearing his black on gray Mandalorian Battle Armor.*

Davik: "Motion sensors are only picking up you guys. I think we're alone, right now."

*He said.*

Jensen smiled, "Wow, you look like a full blown Bounty Hunter in that getup!" she says, referring to his cheesy armor.

Biggs pointed to another door on the other side of the 'room,' "Check it out, I think that's a lift"

"Where does it go?" Wedge says as he walks towards the old-looking elevator door.

Biggs rolled his eyes, walking up and pressing the only button on the door, "It goes down."

Jensen smiled and walked towards the lift, resting her shotgun on her shoulder.

OOC: I think this is where we wait for mr. TRSN Co-Gamemaster to tell us what is down there ;) Good night.

*Davik snorted as he followed the other two.*

Davik: "Obviously you have no idea of the significance of this armor, but I'll save the story for another time."

((OOC: Later.))

Another drink, another few hours in the bar. Damn, this is boring. I can see why Dekker doesn't like this kinda thing... Then again, he always finds a way to get into trouble...

OOC: Sorry, everyone, but I've tripping on Codine medicine all day for my bronchitis. Wow! :shock: The walls do move!

Peter takes his nickel-plated M92FS out of its holster, setting it on the tabletop. He spun it around, passing the time.

((OOC: Bump!))

*waits for TRSN to come back to life*

OOC: I'm baaaaack!

IC: The door rolled back, revealing a circular pad inside of an ice shaft running down, but to what no one knew. On the wall were two glyphs, one an odd symbol of curves, the other a simple needle, wider at the top. The pad inside was also covered in these glyphs and was a pure white material of unknown composition.

Meanwhile, on the Argus:
Captain Sturavich opened her eyes with a scream. She tried to bolt upright, but the restraints on the medical bed held her down. Seeing the TRSN staff and medical symbols, she relaxed visibly, wincing in pain. "Sorry." she breathed. "The last thing I remember was the bridge honeycombing for evac, then darkness. What happened? How many lived?"

Lt. Reiv, Lt. Allens, Crimond, and Captain Monroe were waiting on Suravich to come around. Monroe spoke, "Good to have you back... unfortunately it is under terrible circumstances... two thirds of your crew is dead, many are still being treated. The Icarus suffered about 20% casualties as well, the Apollo is destroyed, and the Icarus is dock worthy."

"God forgive me." she muttered. "You must finish our mission!"

Monroe asked, "What exaclty was the mission? We received a distress call and showed up with an allied ship."

"Janus didn't send you?"

"No. We had no idea the Praetorian was here!"

Suravich coughed harshly and laughed bitterly. "Figures..." she coughed again, then continued talking. "There's a Gate Forge in this reality. Astropaths picked its resonance up. Travellyn dispatched Janus to pick it up, and he scattered us across this galaxy to find it. We thought we found traces of it here, but when we tried to scan..."

"Why didn't Janus just contact us? He knew we were here! And why did the Icarus accompany you? There's no need for an assault ship."

Suravich was racked by coughs. "It was.... it was to prevent any Indies from getting the Forge..." In the corner, Crimond inhaled sharply, pieces coming together. Suravich smiled slightly, darkly, "Ask your intelligence chief... he knows... We need that Forge... Janus... damn him... wants to move up..." Suravich began to cough up blood.

Alarms began to wail in the medical bay. Doctors rushed over as Suravich began to convulse. She choked out her last words, "The key is in- urgh- it's in my pocket, keyed to my genetic code! Oh God! He's killed me!" She jerked on the bed, clutched her chest. The monitors went haywire. "He's gone mad!" She screamed in pain. "He's murdered me!" with a final convulsion, she flatlined, and the doctors tried t bring her back, to no avail.

Monroe spun to Crimond. "What the hell was that?"

Crimond frowned. "Check her nano-machines... I'd guess they killed her. She failed, so Janus had her removed." He bit his lip. "I can't believe he'd do this. We have to move fast. The Overlord will be after us now."

Monroe turned pale. "He's lost his mind. Riev! Get a speed drop on that planet! I need that Drone opened!" he removed the key from Suravich's pocket, it was a small vial with a slight bit of substance inside... probably a tissue sample. He handed it to Riev. "And when you're down there, inform our Allies in person about our problem... our comms are probably being monitored."

The Argus began to move.

The Aaron Cautiously stood close to the Argus. When it began moving, commander Gidoni hailed, "Where are you going?"

Back on the surface, everyone had piled into the elevator. Biggs was pondering the glyphs, while wegde tried pushing buttons to no avail. "I think that needle thing is supposed to be an aarow."

"Duh! We already know we're gonna go down though!"

Jensen sighed and pressed a few logical buttons and the elevator began to move.

Wedge sighed, "Hey, she cheated..."

Jensen smirks and they begin their decent through the ice shaft.

Johanson replied to the Aaron, "We've got the key to the probe, so we're launching a team down to open it and retrieve the data. Can you advise the surface team not to go anywhere until we arrive? We don't know what we'll encounter until we open that thing up."

OOC: As capsule Corporation, too lazy to log off

Gidoni: "Last transmission received suggests that the probe is stored inside the Manadlorian's ship. I'll see if I can get a message through........ .....no response. You'll have to send a team down after them."

"Roger that." Johanson stated. "We're going to do a fast drop of two marine squads." The Argus moved into position just out of orbit with the planet, and the shuttles began to be readied.

In the lead shuttle, Lt. Riev checked his Fusion Rifle. Satisfied, he placed it back in his weapons rack. He sat down, sealed his crash harness. Around him, the squad of Marines was also settled in. The pilot looked back, "You guys ready?"

Riev opened his mouth to acknowledge when there was a rap on the hull. The pilot opened the rear ramp, and Crimond, dressed in Marine gear, climbed aboard. "Permission to join you, sir?" he asked Riev.

"Granted." Riev nodded to the pilot after Crimond buckled down. "Let's rock."

The shuttle detatched from the Argus, and the pilot banked away, the other shuttle following. "What made you come?" Riev asked.

"Thought you jarheads might need some brains down there." Crimond replied with a smile as the shuttle accelerated.

Riev rolled his eyes. "If ego's were shields, we wouldn't have to worry about the beam weapons with you aboard."

The shuttle prepared to enter the planet's outer atmosphere.

In a chamber visibly parallel to The Elevator shaft the Capsule team was descending, a Beam of bright energy shoots upwards, startling almost everyone.

"The cannons must be firing again... someone is trying to land." Jensen looks at the man with the jetpack, "maybe you should go back up topside and wait, in case some one is looking for us, cuz they can't hear our transmissions from down here."

The pilot yelled back into the shuttle's passenger compartment, "We're getting energy surges! They're firing!" the shuttle rolled violently, banking hard. "Brace yourselves!"

The two shuttles banked and rolled through the atmosphere in a carefully orchestrated ballet of lethal consequnces, spiralling amid the towering beams of pure energy. In the bays, the Marines looked sick, and several threw up. Crimond placed his no-flash sunglasses on and smiled, whistling a small ditty as the shuttle banked yet again.

In the cockpit, Chief Warrant Officer Marselles was sweating profieciently, his jaw clenched, as he watched the patterns on his screen, trying to predict when the next beam would fire, where the next energy spear would exert its lethal presence. A beam rushed past about twenty meters ahead and ten to port, its dazzling brightness casting unnatural light into the shuttle, pulsing and rippling with power. The pilot banked the shuttle away, still running full throttle towards the ground.

"Ready!" the pilot screamed. The Marines tensed. With a roar of retro rockets, the shuttle pulled out of its death dive mere meters from the ground, blasting a crater in the ice with its thrusters, roaring away and banking into the canyon beyond. "This is Eagle One. Eagle Two, what is your status?"

The second pilot checked in, "This is Eagle Two! We are intact but rattled. A beam passing managed to frag up our sensors on the starboard. You?"

"All clear. Inbound on target." The two shuttles slowed, guiding in on the Mandalorian's signal. As they approached, they came to a hault, then gently lowered to the ground, the snow and ice melting and billowing away as steam, only to refreeze in seconds. The Marines inside unclipped their harnesses, attatched their breath masks, picked up their gear, and jumped out into the snow.

OOC: They are in Arctic Combat Gear, not standard Marine equipment. White uniforms, helmets, masks, goggles (except Crimond in his silver glasses), gloves, thermal gear, weapons, scanners, food, med kits, and other equipment.

*Davik nodded his head slowly.*

Davik: "Very well."

*Without further comment or ado, Davik triggered the Jetpack and rocketed straight up, reaching the floor where they got on the elevator. Landing softly, he taps the side of his helmet near the antenne with one hand.*

Davik: "Remote access code Bravo Delta Charlie Charlie Oh Six Niner."

*He was rewarded with a soft chime as he was granted remote control access to his Slave V. A window popped up on the inner side of his visor, and the readouts from the Slave V's sensors popped up. He counted two dropships on approach.*

Riev stepped out into the harsh cold glare of midday Helios six. He grinned into the wind, challenging it with bared teeth. The wind responded with an icy whirl, and most of the Marines shuddered. The pilots stayed with their ships to maintain them and repair the damage after the near hit. Riev pointed to the Slave V. "Doesn't look like anyone's home. We'll have to go looking. He spotted the cave. "They're in there, they have to be."

Crimond leaned against the shuttle's hull. "I'm not so sure about that. That ship's decked out, a lot of it illegal in most of the galaxy."

"What do you mean, and how do you know?"

"I've seen it before, on Avarice. I know all of the ships that came through that station." He tapped his head, near his memory implant. "Just wait. I'm sure he's already seen us, heard us, or otherwise detected us..." Crimond took a bite from a ration and calmly waited, while the Marines stared at him dubiously.

*Sure enough, momentarily Davik appeared at the entrance to the cave, and started walking calmly towards them. His black armor stood out sharply against the white snow. As he neared hearing range, he shouted to be heard over the roaring wind.*

Davik: "Jensen was right. Someone did land. You here to pick up the Probe?"

Riev nodded. He shouted back, "Yeah! We've got the key, and it could make everyone's job a lot safer and easier!" He held out the vial. "Can you take us to the Drone?" He tucked the key away for safety and tried to block the wind with his hand as a chunk of ice whirled past. "It's getting bad out here!"

A few meters away, Crimond smiled at the Marines in self-satisfaction. "That's why I'm in Intelligence, troopies."

*Davik nodded.*

Davik: "Very well, I'll open the cargo bay for you."

*Tapping the side of his helmet again, Davik speaks in a low tone.*

Davik: "Cargo bay. Unlock. Open."

*The loading ramp for the cargo bay clicks, the locking bolts sliding out of place, and the ramp lowers.*

Davik: "It's in there."

*A few ice pebbles smacked into the side of his armor, but he paid the assault no mind.*

Riev approached the Drone, removed his glove, and touched the pocked black surface. Responding to the touch, a small panel emerged, and Reiv punched in a code. A small slot opened, and Riev dropped the sample in. There was a click, and the probe surface cracked open, revealing a large datacard. Riev imputted another code, even though the drone was open. There was a click, and an invisible field dropped away. Riev removed the card and plugged it into his PDA.

<<<RECONSTRUCTING DATA>>>

Biggs, Wedge, And Jensen, soon enough reach the bottom of the shaft.

OOC: TRSN, what do we see? you are kinda like the gamemaster here lol

The elevator door rolls up into the ceiling, and they are facing a large circular room. The walls and floor are ice, and there are glyphs of red ice burned into the blue throughout the room. The ceiling is a slightly curving clear ice sheer, shimmering somehow. There is a very large crystal formation in the center of the room, and a hollow disc covered in runes spins above it in midair. There are three other doors from this room, each of them a solid ice panel covered in symbols, with no obvious way to open them. Energy seems to crackle through the room.

"whoooaaaa...." they all gasp simultaneously.

"Riev... where are you when I need you...?" Jensen says to herself, wondering when he will make his way down to the cave. She is startled slightly at the sound of the elevator returning to the upper level.

"What is that thing?" Biggs asks, pointing at the structure. Wedge approaches slowly, saying a silent prayer to himself as he advanced, praying that he wouldn't get struck down or vaporized or something.

*Davik waits for the man to finish whatever it is he's doing.*

Riev smiled as the unit chimed. "Got it!" The data scrolled past rapidly, row after row of images and text and graphs. Riev shook his head, "Well, it looks like our data is here..." he tapped the touchscreen. "Okay, we can tell those beams are about to fire by a Level 4 Displacement scan... there's obviously something on the moon, because a lot of data got exchanged before it opened fire... and we're standing above some sort of incredible energy source. It was only when the Apollo scanned that that the reaction happened. As soon as they scanned, a jamming field activated and they couldn't get any better data." Riev glanced up and shrugged. "That's the best I can do with the data. An expert might decode the transmissions, but we can't afford to run the scientists past those weapons."

Riev handed it to a Marine. "Transmit this back to the Argus." He faced Davik. "Can you take us to meet the others?"

As Wedge appoached the crystal structure, the air began to almost hum with power, and the electronics on his unform began to behave eratically. The closer he got, the more powerful the effect became, until it was almost a visible wall of energy before him.

*Davik tilt his head forward in a nodding action, then turned back towards the cave mouth.*

Davik: "Follow me."

*A tap of the side of his helmet with one hand.*

Davik: "Cargo Bay. Close. Lock."

*The Cargo bay ramp rose back up, and locking bolts slide into place.*

Davik: "Kept up."

*He said to others, his stride easy and paced.*

The Marines followed Davik. At the entrance to the cave, Crimond glanced back. He raised his Tactical Binoculars and focused on the horizon. "Nasty storm brewing." he stated, observing the whirling ice storm. "We're going to have to hurry." He lowered his binoculars and walked inside.

*Davik leads them to the elevator, which has returned to ground level.*

Davik: "They're down there."

*He steps onto the pad, and waits for everyone else to do likewise. Once they're all on, he presses the symbol of the arrow pointing down.*

Davik: "Everyone get comfortable... It'll take a moment."

The elevator descended through the shaft, and Riev commented to Davik. "We're going to have to move faster. We're under new time constraints." With a silencing glance from Crimond, he stated no more until the door opened into the room below. The door rolled away, and they stepped into the room.

Jensen turns back to see the oters arrive. "Glad to see you drop by!" she says with a slight laugh.

"No problem, just dropping in. What's the status?" Riev asked.

jensen pointed to the structure Wedge was approaching. "I have no idea what it is... but we can't open any of these doors."

*Davik looked at it.*

Davik: "Perhaps it the main power source for the nearby cannon?"

*He tightened his grip on the HRB, motion sensors set on maximem, scanning for motion outside the group around him.*


((OOC: Does Davik sense anything.))

((OOC: Bumpy de bump.))

OOC: There is plenty of energy transfering from the crystals on the walls to the center, but everything is scrambled, as if jammed.

IC:
Crimond leaned back against the wall as Riev went over to explain the scanner use to Jensen, attempting to decode the runes on the walls. Crimond heard Davik's comment, considered it. He glanced up at the perfect ceiling to think. As he saw the ice, his blood ran cold. The ceiling was curved up, but the actual roof bowed back in, convex. The forcefields held it perfect. Crimond commented quietly to Davik, "You ever repaired a laser rifle?" He paused. "Look up and tell me I'm wrong about where we are. I think we may need to move." He stated calmly.

Jensen sighed, "Go where? Back up? Our options are pretty limited, as all these doors seem to be locked."

Wedge tapped a large object on his shoulder, HIS current weapon of choice, a heavy rail gun. Pretty big, but it could snipe someone behind a brick wall, and most especially blast open any door bein his way.

Jensen nearly shouted, "Wedge, no! you could disturb something we're not supposed to!"

OOC:I'M BACK!!!! So what the hell has happened while I was gone fo r my LONG time

OOC: You better just read the thread, b/c it was a TON!
IC:
Riev saw Wedge pull his rail gun. "Don't fire!" he bellowed. "You'll get us all killed!"

OOC:I am not going to go through 8 pages in 4 minutes. Just tell me anything important

Wedge smirked, half dissappointed, "Awww, I wasn't really gonna do it. So what ARE we going to do?"

*Davik looked up, and frowned.*

Davik: "I see it."

*He takes a step back.*

Davik: "Those doors may be locked for a reason."


((OOC: Hmmm... Nothing concerning our two charas, really. Ummm... The Oni Matta has to go to Triton City, as we're still at Avarice.))

Crimond pointed to a Marine. "You! Get topside and send a message to the ships to stay away. I don't want this thing firing while we're in the damn focusing chamber."

The Marine looked at the lens/ceiling and inhaled sharply. "Yes, sir!" The Marine boarded the elevator and head back up.

Meanwhile, Riev had decoded one of the doors. "Got it!" He tipped his head. "Well, this can't be good. It says the that the door opens to only those whose death approaches."

Crimond leaned against the wall. "I'm not opening that door." He shrugged. "It's a riddle. But what does it want?"

*Davik thought about it, the riddle.*

Davik: "Only opens to those whose death approaches. Well, this is just a random stab, but I think it means the first person who goes through there will die, but everyone after him can enter free of charge.*


((OOC: *Davik points to a random Marine.* "You there, Nameless NPC, open that door." lol ))

Lt. Riev pointed to another Marine. "Kawalski, rig the door to blow. Enderson, rig a forcefield." He faced the other people. "This is just a precaution. There's got to be a way."

In the corner, Crimond was thinking. "Robotics? Anyone got a probe?"

*Davik shook his head.*

Davik: "Got a 'Droid back in my ship. Whole lot of good it'll do us there..."

OOC: Corrected.

((OOC: Waiting for TRSN to post. ^_^))

OOC: Letting Capsule get input...

jensen and the others just sit back and watch. Wedge shakes his head, "I ain't going in first," he says, taking a few steps back.

Riev stood from against the wall. "Well, someone has to do it." He stood and pointed to a Marine.

The Marine looked around. "No way!"

Crimond rolled his eyes. "Not that! Give him your gauss rifle."

The Marine handed it over. "Sir, are you sure-"

Riev snapped the rifle to his shoulder. "We need to figure out what it's defenses are to survive it. Now... brace!" the rifle screamed, and the rail driver sang, hurling the slug at its target. The ripple spread across the door as the slug struck the shield, and the room's energy realigned there, the crystals humming as the field flowed about. The backblast knocked everyone over, a wall of energy that scrambled their electronics temporarily and sent a rushing wind through the chamber. The door remained. Riev stood up, brushing himself. "Okay. It's strong."

((OOC: Bump to the next page.))

*Davik stands to his feet.*

Davik: "Damn, I'm blind."

*The Blood-red T shaped Visor slides down, revealing Davik's pretty blue eyes.*

Davik: "Better. Electronics are out tho..."

Jensen got back up slowly, "OK kids, now what did we learn..."

Crimond answered from the doorway, his flash glasses already back on. "Well, we learned that it was an energy based system, and that we can't open it until its firing the orbital beam." He waited for the flurry of questions with his arms crossed and a smug smile.

Davik: "What a bright perspective of the future."

*With a low hum Davik suit kicks back in, and the visor slides up. He tries to contact his ship, but is unable to.*

Davik: "So basically, when the cannon fires, the door will open. But! We're in the focusing chamber..."

*He let his sentace go unfinished, letting everyone's imagination finish the rest.*

Crimond smiled. "Bingo. The crux of the issue... how much radiation? How much energy? How contricting are the fields? Do we have time to barrel out of the room in time to evade the blast?" He paused. "I believe one man can. It read that only one facing death could gain access... so, we file through one at a time. Now, this is merely Russian Roulette, but as I layed the wager, I'll go first. Anyone wish to challenge me for the honor?"

*With a small pop, Davik's wristblade on his left guantlet popped out.*

Davik: "Fine by me. We'll be waiting topside."

*With that, he turns to go to the elevator, but it's already topside.*

Davik: "Looks like I'm gonna have to climb back up..."