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Post by Taffer on Feb 1, 2015 21:54:23 GMT
Once all the team was on board and ready, Taffer announced over the EGO links and the base's and ship's comm system, "Okay, we're ready to take off. All the crew, fasten your belts. Everyone else please clear the deck. Engines online. Weapons online. All systems nominal".
Taffer checked again that all the doors are closed airtight, and looked through cameras around the ship and inside it that there's no commotion. Then he started a countdown and waited for engines to push the ship in the air. The acceleration pressed him into his seat as he tried to check again if he did all that is possible for his team's safety. Team members' roles, weapons, equipment, backup, evacuation. Seems fine. "Yep, Taffer", he thought to himself, "You're going home, home damn it, and you're preparing as if you're infiltrating a Volge Ark or worse. You always thought you like the irony, now here's your irony, have at you!"
The ship stopped shaking and they saw the sun rising over the horizon, or actually they climbed high enough to see the sun this early. "Okay people, stay alert", Taffer said to the team on the bridge, "Our job just began. Chris — maintain the engine power and monitor the air pressure in all the bays, Lady — keep the ship on course, Chloe — radar is yours on free scan. Seek for anything that may pose danger — arkfalls, razor rain clouds, enemy radars and aircrafts. The sooner we detect them, the more time we have to avoid them. I'm setting the course and maintaining our communication with the ground".
He turned on the comm unit and said, "Vo, how it looked from your side?"
"Perfect, Taf", Vo replied, "Good luck to you all!"
"Okay, send this batch of data to Allen Array. It will program the antennas to aim at us while we're up here. This will keep us online much longer".
"Done. Taf, one more thing. I promised Bocar to keep an eye on Lady. He's still concerned about her relationship with Atticus, and although I trust his ability to keep her safe, you never know what may happen".
"I will, Vo. It's my job to keep everyone in the team safe, you know".
He thought again that the task he planned to entrust Lady with, albeit seemingly easy, might be too dangerous for her and the team could end up being too limited in ways of helping her in case something bad happens.
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Post by Atticus Batman on Feb 2, 2015 3:30:59 GMT
Sitting in the cargo hold of the ship with just Tim the Hellbug and our gear, I'm strapped securely to the wall. I look at poor Tim in his cage, and I quietly talk to him, as I pet him through the cage. "I know the feeling little bug. I hate feeling like I can't go anywhere, as well. You are here as our Mascot, I suppose. I am only here for my security expertise and more importantly my ability to ruthlessly get a job done, no matter the cost. At least you will still be a cute little mascot after we are done. I however never know if I will still be wanted, appreciated or liked after a mission or job. Hell I can never tell if I will be seen as part of society or a viciously ruthless, scary and evil monster. The only thing really going for me right now is Lady, but she is young, so that can change. She could outgrow her feelings for me, or get hurt on this mission and blame me for it or worse. I couldn't handle it if I lost her. And what if, I give in to my monster completely in front of her? If they can't get me back in control, then they must destroy me. I know, both Taffer and Mac Guyver know that, but what if Lady ignores them and tries talking Kakusi or Kabule into giving me back control and gets hurt or worse because of it? I shouldn't even be here, so why did I sign up for it? My Grid powers could have a hazardous affect on the Progenetor Core, then it would be my fault people got hurt....again." I just sit there readjusting and inspecting my sidearm and wondering why they would even want somebody as dangerous as me around, and once again why somebody as amazing as Lady would love me so much, that she moved me in with her.
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Post by Lady Christianna on Feb 2, 2015 4:57:52 GMT
Lady Christianna was terribly nervous, but used two qualities she possessed to not show it. First, she was one who always tried to live in the present, so she focused entirely on the task at hand, which was to keep the plane aloft and out of danger. Second, she had sixteen years of playing at not caring, so she knew how to keep a cool façade.
"Razor rain cloud to the west," Chloe Mac Gyver said as she watched the radar monitor, then Lady may a slight adjustment, and she said smiling, "Nice maneuver Lady, you sure you haven't done this for years."
Lady smiled slightly and continued to concentrate on her task of keeping the aircraft on course, only briefly wondering how Atticus was and what he was thinking about, until she reminded herself that his well-being also depended on her keeping the plane aloft, whereupon she doubled her efforts to do her job.
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Post by Belle Starr on Feb 2, 2015 10:19:36 GMT
Belle Starr and Vo Kshaa were in the War Room as the team aircraft took off for the mission to get the progenitor core. Sweeping her blond bangs from in front of her blue eyes with one pale hand, Belle flashed Vo a happy smile as Taffer spoke to him, reaching over with her other hand and giving Vo's red clay one a quick squeeze as all indicators showed a successful takeoff. Then something caught Belle's attention from the corner of her blue diamond eyes. One of the new security guards hired by Atticus Batman, a young Casti woman, stood by the door into the War Room, but when she had seen that Belle had noticed her, gestured for her to follow and quickly exited the room.
Belle muttered to Vo, "Excuse me!"
As she followed the young Castian into the hall, whose pale blue eyes looked worried as she checked to make sure the device she had on the hallway camera was in place, replaying a loop of the scene in the hallway moments before as it also masked all noise in the hall, then said as she put one chalk white hand on the holstered Quickblaster at her side, "Erika Widowmaker sent me. Governor Skarr is back in power in the Votanis Collective and has a spy in your operation and frankly... I'm her!"
Belle narrowed her blue eyes as a frown crossed her pretty freckled face. She leaned back against the wall, crossing her arms looking comfortable in her Green Casti business suit, noting in a calm voice, "Okay, very James Bond and all, but lets get to the point and skip the drama! What does Erika want me to know that she couldn't tell me in a more conventional manner!"
The attractive Casti woman in the base security uniform looked momentarily confused at Belle's spy movie reference, then answered in a straightforward manner, "With the blessings of the Votanis Collective Parliament, Governor Skarr has ordered Erika to lead a six-person Black Ops team to beat you to the Ark Ship parked on the far side of the moon. I'm not sure even Erika knows at this point what he wants to retrieve from it, but she does know he knows you are planning to go there, and he wants the Collective team to get there first."
"It wouldn't be one of our missions," Thought Belle to herself, "If things didn't get complicated!"
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Post by Vo Kshaa on Feb 2, 2015 11:38:43 GMT
Vo watched the ship taking off through security cameras, and then once it disappeared from view, he switched the cameras back to the internal surveillance and checked if everything is displayed normally. Something didn't seem right to him, but for a moment he could not figure out what exactly. Then finally he nailed it — the camera showing the corridor adjacent to the war room didn't show Belle as she was exiting the room.
"What the jek?" he thought, readying his new Volge Breacher and sneaking quietly to the doorway. Once he reached it, he strained his enhanced hearing to detect if someone is at the other side and heard the last part of Casti's reply to Belle.
"Great", he said walking into the hallway, "do you know by chance when they plan to start? Because if not, knowing Taffer, he'll just abandon their current flight, get the ship back here, refuel it and start it to the Moon".
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Post by Taffer on Feb 2, 2015 12:42:01 GMT
Taffer made sure the path ahead of the ship is clear now, and announced through the ship's comm system, "Okay team, we're going through a 30 second zero-gravity maneuver. After 20 seconds of it, I'll give a 10-second countdown so once you hear it be ready to have your weight back".
Then he addressed his team of pilots on the bridge, "Chris, I need the engines to kick in time, so watch them closely. Chloe, back me up on piloting please, especially on pull back, I need it to be as smooth as possible so no one get hurt. Lady, feel free to unfasten and experience your weightlessness in full if you want. Pity we can't join you on that, as we'll be too busy piloting it".
He commanded the engines to full power and pulled the aircraft to climb up at 45 degrees. Once stabilized, he commanded main engines to go idle, only steering ones were active, maintaining a parabolic trajectory back to the ground. As the spaceship turned its nose down and started gaining its speed, Taffer started voicing a 10-second countdown before he commanded full power to the engines and pulled the ship back into horizontal flight.
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Post by Volodja Uljanov on Feb 2, 2015 13:07:03 GMT
It is common knowledge that every expedition ship cargo hold contains parcels, containers, crates and so on. And almost anyone considers them automatically to be part of expedition's belongings. They are right and wrong as well, in same time. At least in and about some cases. Right if they presume that this junk belongs to somebody. Wrong when they think that all cargo hold clutter must belong to crew members or having connection with a ship at all. Not yet anyway. In this particular flight one of crates belonged to a guy who was inside it at moment. But like those things tend to be, he finally decided to climb out, hoping that procedure will be completed in privacy. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. This time it didn't.
"Excuse me for getting intentionally lost in your ship", was his first line, when he spotted figure of huge crew member. "Volodja is the name and if I may suggest some reaction to my unexpected entrance, then keeping your hand away from firearm, would be nice thing to start with. Showing some hospitality would be second thing to do. Do you have something to drink here? Cup of coffee maybe?"
Of course it was arrogant. But if you manage to be arrogant enough to bypass itchy trigger finger syndrome, then chances of staying alive will increase with every minute. If you don't get shot right away and let audience's interest arise, you might talk ourself out of complicated situation. So let's give it a try. There was not very much options after all. At least pleasant ones.
"If you wonder, what I am doing here", Volodja continued, "then I am willing to satisfy that curiosity of yours. I heard some rumours about your expedition and being curious myself is one of my many flaws. So I found nice pair of coveralls and smuggled myself in as a transport worker. And that comfortable crate too. You should really pay attention to small people, working on everyday's little problems. How about that cup of coffee now, when we are formally introduced? And maybe some details about your flight?"
Volodja leaned against his crate and waited crewman's reaction to his speech.
"Oh and one more thing. If you decide to get rid of me, then doing it during flight, would be...mmm...a hard nut to crack? Anyway - it will be your decision, what will happen to my modest person. You know - there used to be a proverb: "Curiosity killed the cat". So if the cat must be killed, then lets get over with that procedure as fast as possible, before all that excitement about things to come, kills me first"
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Post by Atticus Batman on Feb 2, 2015 13:31:19 GMT
I look at the intruder, thinking I need to have a talk with Belle and her staff, just as Taffer announces that we are going into zero gravity. So I stay strapped in and watch the intruder float up. Once gravity is returned and he slams into the ground, I unbuckle myself and walk over to the guy. I pick him up and hold him against the wall as I strap him in and restrain his hands. "first, you forget anything you heard while in the crate. Second I am The Harbinger of Death so be glad I haven`t killed you....YET. Now just hang there and enjoy the ride for a little while."
I then send Taffer an EGO message. "Taffer you may want to get back to the cargo hold right away. We have a stowaway, and I am not sure how long I can resist the urge to kill him!"
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Post by Lady Christianna on Feb 2, 2015 14:07:01 GMT
Lady Christianna felt letdown when Taffer didn't let her play co-pilot, first thinking he didn't trust her but then knowing this was probably a complicated maneuver that needed the most experienced pilots. She unbuckled and smiled as she began to float up from her seat, pushing her boyish body away from it and slowly somersaulting backwards so as not to possibly damage any of the sensitive equipment in the cockpit. She blew a big bubble with the noiseless bubble gum Atticus had gifted to her just to see if there was any effect, experiencing an anticlimax when there wasn't one. Lady braced her thin legs and arms against the entryway to the cockpit door, stretching to almost her full five foot three inches height, in fact standing sideways in the door jam as she busted the bubble. She chewed the gum a little longer, letting it then drift out of her mouth as she giggled and pushed off from the door to chase it, just catching it in her tiny mouth as gravity was renewed, whereupon she fell flat on her face spitting the gum out again as she did.
The tiny Casti teenager got up dusting off the black Goth leathers she was wearing, looking frantically for the gum but not finding it and hoping Taffer wouldn't either, when her EGO, Minx, intercepted the message from Atticus to Taffer, "Taffer you may want to get back to the cargo hold right away. We have a stowaway, and I am not sure how long I can resist the urge to kill him!"
Lady smiled enigmatically, as she pulled her Wolfhound pistol from her holster, saying loudly as she rushed to the cargo hold, "ON IT!"
Lady was disappointed when she saw the rather handsome tall human trussed up in the cargo bay rather than some bigger than life villain she was hoping for, so she merely narrowed her pink eyes and pointed her large pistol held with both small chalk white hands up at the intruder's head and exclaimed with disappointment, "NARP*."
Lady then smiled her Mona Lisa smile once more as she turned her questioning eyes to Atticus and asked, "Shoot?"
*Not A Real Person in Millennium speak!
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Post by Volodja Uljanov on Feb 2, 2015 14:29:12 GMT
Must admit - Volodja was waiting some kind of reaction to his speech act, but finding himself floating in air for half a minute and smashing down after that was not the first in his list of possible reactions. Honestly - that kind of outcome was not listed at all. It hurt. Physically, of course. "Such a shame that I didn't had time to yell: "I can see my crate up here" to enlighten the mood of that boulder like crewman. What a waste of a nice cheesy cliche", he thought. Finding himself in grasp of crew member was not one of his favourite things either. "Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens and so on" - maybe. He could survive that. But being pressed against the wall to hear some threats is a big no no. On other side - there is something relatively good about the situation as well - he is still alive. Hopefully he stays that way. And that "anything you heard while in the crate" thing might be useful. "You hold my oxygen tube, but I have a tiny chance to get a hold of your family nuggets", Volodja thought. "Let's wait and see, what comes next. And don't forget to stay alive."
Waiting paid off. But it was not that pay check he was waiting for. Being at gunpoint meant another try avoiding being shot. Well - it was not the first time.
"M'lady. My life is precious to me as a memento, so let us put aside our differences AND GUNS and discuss my matter in more civilized manner, if I may suggest."
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Post by Taffer on Feb 2, 2015 14:44:08 GMT
"Always on my shift", Taffer joked, hearing Batman's words about the stowaway and Lady's "ON IT!" as she rushed to the cargo hold. As his EGO reported Attucus's health conditions are fine, and there's no shooting registered, he assumed two people can handle the situation.
"Atticus and Lady, make sure he has no firearms, explosives and surveillance devices on him and keep him alive please if you can. I want to talk to him once we land. It'll be not a long wait", he sent to both Atticus and Lady.
Meanwhile he pushed the ship to descend gradually as they were closing to their destination.
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Post by Atticus Batman on Feb 2, 2015 14:50:36 GMT
Hearing the fool, flirt with Lady causes my eyes to glow as I decide on something new.
I grab an extremely long tether then tie it to the hull, and tie the other end securely to his foot, as I adress Lady. "Angel strap in now!"
Jumping at my angry order, she quickly does so. I then unstrap the intruder from the hull as I send Taffer another message. "Taffer there is going to be some turbulance as I throw out the trash"
Next I drag him to the cargo bay door and wrap a safety strap securely around my arm. Then I open the door and toss him out. Once I feel he is out far enough. I hit the switch to close the hatch back up. I look at Lady and smile. "much better. Sorry about that My Snow Angel."
I then respond to Taffer with. "He`ll be alive but very bruised and probably shiting himself"
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Post by Belle Starr on Feb 2, 2015 15:04:28 GMT
The Casti woman's sky blue eyes looked frightened when Vo suddenly entered the hallway, looking from him and back to Belle again before answering, "Commander Widowmaker is, how do you humans put it... oh, yes, dragging her feet as much as she can! That combined with all the damage your team did to our space sites electrical and computer systems last time you visited South America has created a great deal of delay, but Governor Skarr is sparing no resources to repair them and is not know for his patience." The young Casti female fingered a newly formed scar on her left cheek with a chalk white forefinger as she continued, "Furthermore, no one expected you to be as far ahead as you are so far, and I will report that you are really far behind in your preparations for your space trip but..."  Her words drifted off as she glanced down the hallway, before Belle prompted her to begin again, asking, "But?" "I don't know if I'm the only spy Governor Skarr has in your complex," The woman answered, looking frightened once again. |
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Post by Volodja Uljanov on Feb 2, 2015 15:06:05 GMT
If someone could look into Volodja's mind, then that someone could have a sight of vaguely blinking neon sign with a message from Volodja's common sense: "That was not very civilized. I'd preferred bullet to my head". Rest of his thoughts and feelings were a cocktail of fear, pain and agony. The phrase "Shaken, not stirred" popped up from his memory. And shaken he was. His body was tossed around in air, so that phrase was not very helpful at all.
It was a funny sight indeed. Everybody would laugh. Except Volodja, of course. But well - it still could get worse for him. How the jek, he was suppose to survive ship's landing? They probably collect his earthly remains from ground with a help of tea spoon if they ever bother to do it.
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Post by Belle Starr on Feb 2, 2015 15:16:10 GMT
Lady Christianna followed Atticus orders to the letter, holstering her gun and strapping in, but had no idea what he had in mind. Her pink eyes grew wide in shock and her tiny mouth formed a perfect "O" as he tethered the intruder and threw him out of the plane. It took a moment for her mind to register what had just happened, then she quickly undid her seatbelt, fairly leaping to her feet and rushing to Atticus side, grabbing his right arm hard both small alabaster hands.
Lady shook Atticus's arm to get his attention, then pointing to the now closed cargo bay door with the tether leading out of it, and said, "PUHLEEEZE!"
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