Gutter fiends... The world is an evil and unforgiving place; steal and survive, or die. We are better than this. We are skilled. We are more than peasants waiting to die. There are a few chosen by some unseen entity, some god or some fate, to escape this slum. There are a few chosen to be more. The question is if they have the courage to break the mold, to go against the flow. People are trapped in the slums, going on day to day, accepting the fact that this is the way life is... Few indeed will throw off the bonds of acceptance and be different...Be free... There is one such anomaly. One man that has the power to change his fate, to break tradition. This... Yes, this is where we will start out story... [Scene 1: Another Nameless Street] I am a talented engineer, I spend my time scrounging up parts to make robots. Sure, people say they are useless... but not for long. I just need the right parts and I can escape this place on the shoulders of my creations! I know the systems, I see the connections. I can build my own escape... Why doesn't anyone else SEE THIS!!! Eric mumbles to himself has he walks along another nameless street, completely oblivious to the happening around him. The smell of rot and the moans of the helpless have long since faded into the background of this murky symphony that is Alora. Yes, Alora, the last great outpost of humanity. The place where we can all make a new and wonderful life in the unending expanse of space. Yeah right, dont believe everything you read in cyberspace, Alora is a wreck. But, so is the rest of humanity... Eric laghed out loud at that one. What a joke... Wack! the rusted end of a steel pipe slapped Eric across the chin, nearly causing his head to twist just enough to make him collapse. Amateur, he thought. this wasn't his first mugging. "Ow! What the hell man! You think I have something worth anything?! Seriously!? Look at me! Look at all of us!" The would be burglar halted, taken aback by his prey. Eric glanced around. Few people bothered to look up, muggings were common enough. In these parts it was better to keep your head down than to draw their attention. The cruel ran the slums... They ran the whole damn planet really, but those were a different class of cruel. "Why do you waste your time with us!" Eric yelled wildly at his would be assailant, looking around, trying to meet some ones eyes, anyone's eyes. See it just so happened that this one time Eric really did have something of value, something that might get him out of these slums, off of this planet. "WE. DON"T. HAVE. ANYTHING!" Eric's face turned red from anger and fear. "Take your pipe to the upper districts, leave us to search the trash heaps for bread..." Eric shoved past the thief and walked forward, a slump in his shoulders... What will you do? Were you across the street haggling over a protein paste hot dog? Perhaps you were on the other corner trying to sell hypers to some drug addled fool. Maybe, just maybe you were the thief. You need to eat too, and it just so happens you have the muscle to strong arm your way into a crumb or too. This world is not for the feint of heart, you know this better than anybody. But there is something different about this one, he strikes a chord with you. Is he someone else who wants to break the chains holding them down? Or just another slave that is just trying to make them more comfortable...

Borodine was astonished that the thief did not pursue the man who just shoved past him, Borodine now saw this as a point where he should follow this man because he must have something interesting so he stopped haggling over the food with the merchant and then began to pursue said man. By the time Borodine caught up with the man he caught him by the shoulder and said in between his heaving breaths. "Kid stop for a second I need to speak with you..." Borodine took a second to catch his breath then continued "You seem like an interesting fellow, heaving that mugger aside what's your name?".

Eric was taken by complete surprise when the big fellow grabbed him. Maybe in another place and another time Eric would have knocked his hand aside and confront him, but the truth is he is not a fighter and he had used all his adrenaline dealing with the last mugger. "Eric." He said shortly, "and I am by no means interesting." He had to get home, he couldn't risk loosing this device...

"Really know are we" Borodine rolled his eyes and then continued. "I mean no harm to you, you just caught my eye any who why don't I help you with something then your obviously in a hurry so I can help you if you would like.." He looked Eric in the eye and then said extending his hand to Eric. "Please Eric you can trust me I will help you and if it is secret I will tighten my lips so the secret is safe!".

He knows.... Eric's heart leapt to his throat, nearly chocking him. "I.. well um.... I see." Eric shook the man's hand. He knew he couldn't trust someone from the slums, but this guy was persistent. No matter, he had safety measures when he gets back to the lab... "Well follow me and we will see if we can keep from getting into any more trouble..."

Borodine nodded and followed Eric, he seemed like a good guy they walked awhile down the road, and Borodine decided to speak up as they walked. "The names Borodine but you can call me Bo for short, so Eric what's your story!" Eric seemed at unease so Bo decided then that he should let him know that he was trust worthy.

"You owe me money, brother." The thief had wandered into exactly the wrong alley - the alley where Ryan was watching the outcome of the mugging. "And you've reached your deadline." "Wait! No! I just nee-" The thief, who was frantically pleading for his life was cut off by a shot from a silenced pistol. Ryan kicked the corpse into the gutter, before holstering his gun and walking out into the alley. "Let it never be said that I allow those who default on their debts to get away." Though his suit was a dirty, tattered shadow of it's former condition, and his reputation had taken a massive hit from his last failed mission, he still had a code that he followed. And one piece of that code was to never let anyone take advantage of him for a prolonged period of time. A thief like this... he never had any intention of paying Ryan back, of that, he was certain. Now lets see... The person the thief had accosted said he had no money... but he might have connections. Ryan decided to follow him, talk with him, maybe propose a business arrangement. Everyone had SOMETHING of value that they could pay with, and if he wanted to start digging himself out of this hole he got dropped into, he would have to start accumulating clients again.

ooc: I'll come in to you at some point, but I don't want to follow just yet. I'll start off somewhere else. She sat on stoop steps, red lips wrapped around a cigarette, a rather large gun strapped to her back. Her hair was big and blonde today, her outfit a skintight black dress and neat heels. She also had a bronze coloured, metallic bird on her shoulder. "Are you going to work?" An older woman, looking bedraggled was glaring at her, arms folded as she eyed the outfit. "Yes, Mrs Montgomery," she said, looking up at the woman with her sweetest smile. "Young girl like you should be smoking," the woman scolded, a land lady who seemed to think she was her mother. "Sorry, Mrs Montgomery," she said. "And your hair," the woman continued. "You have such nice...." "Go to go, Mrs Montgomery," she said, putting out the cigarette quickly and standing, heading off at speed. She didn't want, and didn't need, a lecture. She didn't want to hear that she shouldn't have a gun, never mind the huge energy rifle. What she needed was a new challenge. Dragging drunks out of Cherry was money, but not enough. "Damn," she muttered to herself, lighting another cigarette. She stood outside Cherry, a bar known to be dark, dingy and where the girls danced 24 hours a day. She knew part of the reason she was hired was to advertise what was inside. She stood outside with a big, burly guy named CJ. CJ was serious and silent, which was how she liked it. She checked her phone, as she stood the other side of the door, smiling at punters who leered as they passed, though some avoided her eyes, when they saw the gun. No messages. No targets. No nothing. She needed a target, something to do. She needed money to get out of this pit and there was only so many ways to get the kind of money she wanted. She reached up and tickled the metallic bird's stomach.

"The names Borodine but you can call me Bo for short, so Eric what's your story!" Crap, Eric thought to himself, he didn't even ask him for his name. He always thouht he should work on his social skills, but... well whats the point? You dont make friends in the slums, you make aquantances. No one else lasts long. "Nice to meet you... Bo" "Im just a wanna be engineer from the slums, destined to spend my life fixing holophones and projtors..." Eric's voice faded off into silence, a strong tinge of bitterness biting at his words... [End Scene]

[Scene 2: A Messy Inroduction] Eric and Bo made their way quitely through the slums, lost in the ambience of muffled house music and squeeling rats. Ignorant of the man shadowing them, close enough to hear but not to be seen. He blended in well enough in his current shabby state. The unknowing trio passed another house of sin. They were like weeds in this place, shrines of hoplessness and vice. A place to forget where you were, whatever the price. It was a sad sight if you were being honest with yourself, Bo and Eric both unconciusly avoided looking that way. If they would have they would have seen a suprising blonde beauty give them an all to calculating look... It was not much farther when Eric turned down a random alley and started fidling with all maner of hidden levers and scanner on a non descript garag door. hidden in plin site by the so called "art work" tagged all over it. "I trust you will be mindful of your suroundings, yes? All that I hold valuable lies in this room. And some of these treassures will bumb you back, should you be so clumsy..." The garage opened to a giant mess of metal, wirs and rust. It was a scrappers dream, an indoor junkyard. Metallic bod parts and plastic faces were scattered about. Small gizmos and gadgets whirled around with no desipherable purpose. A few hovering about Bo as if to see what he was, scannin him with bright blue rays and emitting a multitude of beeps and buzzes. It was a mad house. Plain and simple. This engineer has lost his mind to the slums. Sadly, he wont be the first. Eric walked briskly to a closet on te far side of the room, deftly avoiding obstacles layerd about. It was as if he knew this particular obstacle course like the back of his hand. Once he arrived he quickly stored a briefcase sized bag that was somewhat hidden under his cloak into the closet and closed it securely. Once that was done he hustld to a large workbench seeming to provide some sort of center to this trash heap of a studio. Imersed as he was in his fiddeling it took a polite cough from bo to remind him he was there. "Ah yes!" Eric said brightly, a weight seeming to fall off his shoulders, "Bo!" "Before you get any foolish idea's there are percisely 37 lethal item in this room. Do you understand?" Eric imitated a pause and gave the man a critical gaze before comtinuing wihout a reply. "I just so happen to need a team. I have a plan to get off this planet. A plan for freedom." There was no enthusiam in the engineer's voice. It was the cold resolve of deadly determination.

Bo chuckled and the nodded at Eric's plan then Bo explained his own situation to Eric telling him that he was a mercenary in the slums and wanted to get off the stupid planet he also told Eric that his wife and his children were murdered by a group of hoodlums he had been trailing for years and then lost. "...so there you go oh and I would love a chance to stretch my legs so?" Bo paused then looked at the contraption on the work bench and continued "What be this contraption my friend?"

"That is most unfortunate... Don't touch that!" Eric grabbed a rag and brushed the quicksilver piece of art. "This is a quantum destabalizer... theoretically." In reality it was just a bad idea, he hadnt worked out all the kinks yet. But it had potential. "Anyways we need a ship. Perhaps a pilot. A way to get through the upper districts and probably a way to gest past a few military instalations. Still interesed?"

Jackpot. Ryan had low expectations for these two, but as he overheard their conversation on his approach to the shop, he smiled. This would be a job worthy of his talents, and a ticket off world was worth its weight in gold. This was going to be interesting. Looking both ways, to make sure no one was watching, Ryan stashed the briefcase that contained the parts for his rifle behind a dumpster, before walking to the entrance of the garage. Several hovering devices floated towards him, causing Ryan to back off and remain in the alley. He didn't want to spook these two any more than he was about to. Leaning against the wall opposite to the doorway, he spoke up. "If you are going to try to get off world using less than legal means,... Then you are going to need me."

Eric looked up from his device and saw the man outside his shop door. Interesting... It seems this little escapade is growing! "Don't mind the bugs! they are harmless. It's the dumpster you need to watch out for!" Eric chuckled lightly at the look on the strangers face and gave Bo a wink. "It is a dumpster after all, they have the most horrid smell..." Eric pulled tapped a quick sequence on a touch pad obscured by random bits and pieces. A large holographic map was displayed before them all. It was the capital city. A few red markers were outlining different locations. "We need a ship. We can try to steal one from the spaceport, but we all know how highly guarded that is. I was thinking a little more outside the box... The only place that has space ready vessels outside of the port is at the military base. They have a small docking station there to receive certain important people and merchandise..."

ooc: I'll try to keep my posts shorter after this one. Otherwise it's gonna become confusing! :) Part of Chastity's job was to watch the bar for trouble and anticipate it. After all, she was slender and female. What harm could she do? "Time to go to work," she said to herself, or at least it would have seemed that way until she pushed the door open and the mechanical bird took flight. It had cost a bomb, but the little gadget was exactly what she needed, blinking hard to engage the chip in her eyes. The bird was good for a lot of things, best of which being spying and stalking. It flew around without being obtrusive, and through its eyes she could see what it saw, as well as what was going on ahead of her. It had taken a long time to get used to, and could give her a headache if she tried to look at both visions at the same time. What she had to learn was how to focus on them separately, kind of like looking in a wing mirror when driving. You could stare through the mirror, but you might miss what was going on in front of you. With CJ stood there, she was able to focus on the bird's sight, scanning the room for anything she needed to worry about. She wanted to upgrade it to sound too, but that would come later. Right now this would.... The bird had suddenly stopped it's circle, the camera blurring and making her eyes water. "Crap," she said, blinking hard to turn off the sight and then pushing her way through the bar. It was dark inside, but not so dark as to make it impossible to see what was going on. There was her bird, in the fat fist of a guy who was staring at it through bleery eyes. How the hell had he caught it? He was turning it over, shaking it. "That's mine!" she hissed, her mind thinking how much it would cost to fix if the stupid fool broke it. She was across the room fast, snatching it from his fingers and checking it for any damage. "Hey," the guy said in annoyance, then grinned when he looked at her. "You're pretty." "Thanks," she said, not really listening, still inspecting her bird. "You here to....?" he began, placing his hand somewhere that wasn't allowed in this bar. She grumbled to herself, cradling Sarah Jane like a baby, rather than the hunk of metal. That idiot had not only upset the suspension in her bird, but hitting him with the butt of Sarah Jane had jammed it somewhere. She could tell, and she couldn't leave it the way it was. She needed the gun to work. Being a thief was all well and good, but you needed something to protect you. Beside, she and Sarah Jane went back a long way. She'd had to leave work early, but this was important. She didn't even have time to go home to change, so she was still in her work outfit. She stood outside the address she'd been given. She had called her usual guy, who flat out refused to look at Sarah Jane. To be fair, he'd upset the gun and it had gone off, destroying several items in his garage. He wasn't impressed. So now she was stood at some different place. Well, she could glower and sulk, or she could get this done. She put on her best smile and knocked on the door.

There came a knock at the door and Eric stopped his speech. "Must be a customer I will take care of them quickly." He opened the door stiffly, preparing to send some thief or other unsavory type away. You don't get very many upstanding customers down here. He was rather caught off guard by the beauty standing outside his shop, not the usual thief at all it seems. He would need another distraction... "Please come inside." He said crisply, "we have much to do..."

She gave him a warm smile, following him into the shop. "I wonder if you could assist me," she said, laying down her energy cannon onto the counter tenderly. "I seem to have somehow broken this." Her eyes were currently blue, not her favorite but they were what the punters expected. After all, if she used her own appearance for work, she could be spotted when not there. "Also, my Mercury needs a tune up," she added, taking the bird from her shoulder and placing it on the counter and giving him her full attention. That normally got what she wanted. He'd sounded busy, but the "we" interested her. The other two in the room were treated to a careful look over, but she turned her full attention back to Eric after a moment. She knew what she needed and she knew who would be giving it to her.

Ryan looked at the man, back at the dumpster, then back at the man. He quickly snatched his briefcase away from it, not liking one bit the way the man was talking, before carrying it in with him. Now that he knew he was not going to get immediatly mugged in return, he could carry it with him. "Hmm... The military here is lax, and more prone to bribes than the transit authorities..." He nodded in agreement with the plan. Military vessels had tracking beacons, but there was only so much anyone could do once the object of their search left visual range of the planet. ... And the application of some... choice knowledge and calculated bribes could prevent a search from being issued until they were well out of visual range. An interesting and dangerous plan indeed. A bang at the door got his attention, as a pretty young lady was escourted in by what was apparently his new employer. He nodded in greeting to her as she entered, wondering if she too would be joining them, or if she was only a customer and nothing more.

She looked over her shoulder. She felt a little naked with SJ on the counter in front of her, but resisted the urge to pick the gun up. Instead, she turned so that she was leaning one hip on the counter, the better to see the other men in the room. "Were you boys having a party?" she said playfully to break the quiet. "And me without an invite..." The hand closest SJ was close enough to touch the metal, which made her feel calm. She couldn't even use the Mercury bird to sit at a vantage point. Still, best to play nice.

Eric looked at the equipment on his workbench dully. "Let me guess its jamming?" He deftly disassembled the stock of the rifle, his flying robot 'bugs' swinging in tools and parts as if a giant hive mind was at work. "People never seem to grease these right, there is a small locking mechanism right where the stock meets the assembly and people never think to oil it..." Eric took a pair of very thin needle nose pliers and popped out what looked to others as a small block. In the meantime small bugs hovered around to Chastity and started poking her hand. She eventually got the picture and outstretched her hand and the small bot scanned it before going over to some machine in this maze of a shop, stopping to pick up her rifle stock form the workbench on the way. "You see the lock has nothing to do with firing, but if you have ever built anything above a standard C class rifle you know there is a hollow cavity in there where grit and debris from a gummy lock can get into the nooks and crannies of the barrel slide. Compound that with kinetic shock, such has a heavy amount of firing or I don't know, something as crude as hitting someone with it..." Eric paused and looked down his nose at her before snickering. "Really its quite ridiculous that you would every pay someone to do such an mediocre job. I'm positive you would have been able to clean and oil the barrel to the same standard. No it takes at modicum of knowledge to know the real problem and fix it. But I suppose that is why you came to me!" Eric spoke rapidly has he worked not pausing to take a breath. A bug had returned with the small metallic box that they now understood to be some sort of locking mechanism. Eric reinserted it and set the half disassembled weapon aside and looked down at the mercury. "I took the liberty of cleaning and then carbon plating the lock, it is not the best solution but we slummers don't exactly get the best resources down here. It will not jam due to that particular issue unless you subject it to a rather astonishing amount of heat or manage to survive these streets and keep that weapon for another 10 years... Which makes me think..." Eric looked at her obviously measuring her up... "Why are you useful? We are all tools, you see, some are hammers and some are nails." He examined her curved and slim clothing bugs instantly swarming her, little red globes of 'eyes' scanning her, pulling lightly on her hair and shining light into her eyes. Despite the obvious destination of his stare it was a cool calculating look in his eyes, as if he was running through a lists of purposes and seeing where she fit in the equation. Or if she was a rusted wrench that needed to be disposed of. "No..." He glanced back to his workbench the bugs instantly dispersing. "you are much more subtle then that..." "Oh! A mercury! I love these little guys, I have a few of my bugs based of this little model. Yes he is getting a little old but there are few that match his charm" ZAP! A bug had at one time hovered over to Ryan and zapped his hand holding the briefcase. Eric kept working, apparently oblivious to the situation. "Poor guy has just been tweaked a little, nothing he can't recover from. You really should take better care of your tools Ms." Eric was bending tiny rods with a strange pair of pliers that had some sort of spring mechanism in the handle. "Oh I always wanted to see how well an infrared imprint would register on an optic array! Perfect timing!" Eric turned abruptly to a small workstation and started typing furiously, "Yes! This should go well." A small beeped registered from the console and was immediately repeated by a rather round bug that flew strait at Chastity's eye while another flew up to hold her hair out of the way. "Stay Still!!!" Eric shouted grinning wildly. A quick blast of freezing air into her eye and then a rather unsettling red flash accompanied by a burning sensation in her eye socket that she didn't quite feel but senses. "I wouldn't try to play with that particular toy for at least an hour." ZAP!!! This time Eric turned to face Ryan, "Name?" A dangerous smile flashed across his face. "Yes, well you should probably give up that case, he will get rather incessant shortly. I haven't had the pleasure of working on a Gauss rifle in years." "Now for you..." Eric said giving Bo his full attention, "I have a rather special creation you might enjoy..." A series of flying robot swarmed the stocky man tracing his arms, legs, and chest at varying distances. "It will take some minor tweaking but I think you will find it more to your taste." Eric said, looking significantly at the man's axe. "Now Ms. what is your name, and are you in?" Eric said to Chastity simply.