Date - August 25th, 2188 AD
A large room, filled with reporters snapping pictures and chatting amongst themselves settles as a man steps up to a podium at the front of the room and begins to speak.
“Ladies and Gentleman, the President of the New Earth Conglomerate,” the man steps aside as the president of the New Earth Conglomerate stands up at podium and begins to speak:
"Earth, our home, is no longer able to support us as a species. We have so recklessly and so selfishly filled our atmosphere with toxins, stripped our ground of its natural resources, polluted our water with chemicals, and scarred our landscapes with war. We are quickly running out of living space, food, water, and even breathable air. The time has come to cast down the shackles that bind us to this planet. The time has come to take the next step of human history, and that step is called Operation: New Haven!"
"What exactly is this Operation: New Haven?" a reporter shouts out.
“Operation: New Haven,” the President begins, “is our grasp at a new tomorrow, our second chance at prolonging the human race.”
“Mr. President,” a reporter begins, “what do you mean by ‘our second chance?’”
“It’s our chance to begin anew. We have learned from our mistakes and we, as a people, are ready to begin again, on a new planet,” the President says.
Camera flashes and questions from reporters overtake the room. The president raises his hand, the commotion quells, then points to one of the reporters in the front.
“Sir, where will humanity be getting this second chance?” the reporter questions.
“That’s a good question,” the President responds, “as you all know, in recent years we’ve been pushing more funding into our outer space exploration and planetary analysis programs. After billions of dollars and many years of hard work, we believe we’ve found the perfect planet to colonize.”
A large hologram of a planet appears next to the President’s podium. The planet is covered in very large bodies of water, what is not water is a lush green color. The North pole of planet is a tan yellowish color where the South pole is where. There appears to be seven moons orbiting the planet. The President begins to speak again,
“This, is Andromeda 7. Being four times larger than Earth with nearly the same gravitational field, Andromeda 7 is the perfect planet to colonize and begin Humanity’s next step into the future. To talk more about Andromeda 7, I introduce Chief of Extraterrestrial Exploration, Dr. William Howard.”
The President steps down from the podium as Dr. Howard takes his place.
“Hello, thank you all for joining us here today during this monumental part of human histo…” before the doctor can continue he is cut off by a reporter.
“Doctor, tell us more about the planet. What makes Andromeda 7 the best option for colonization?”
“Well,” the Doctor continues, “Andromeda 7 is made up of nearly 70% ocean and 25% lush, green, rainforests, with the remainder being the large deserts and tundras that are located at the North and South poles of the planet. Deep surface scans reveal the planet to be extremely rich in minerals and metals. There are six moons and one red dwarf star that orbit Andromeda, three of them are similar to our moon but boast a much higher metal concentration, two are covered in extremely dense rainforests, one consists of a massive ocean. Andromeda orbits a blue giant and takes approximately 3 Earth years to complete a full revolution. The planet’s day is about 32 hours long with daylight taking up about 20 of those hours, at certain times during its year the daylight can fluctuate to about 29 hours, depending on where its orbiting dwarf star is located. The average, year round, temperature is estimated to be about 30 degrees Celsius which, again, can fluctuate depending on where the orbiting sun is.”

“Doctor, you estimate the temperature to be 30 degrees Celseus, can’t you scan or land a probe that can determine the exact information?” a reporter questions.

“Well, getting exact and precise readings of the planet’s surface is quite impossible, at the moment. The orbiting star emits a unique radiation that interferes with precision temperature, atmosphere, and lifeform scans. It also blocks long range communications between the various probes we’ve attempted to land on the planet. In order to relay information from the planet’s surface to Earth, we would need to set up a short wave transmission system on the surface that would relay information to an orbiting station which would then transmit the data here to Earth. We’ve done hundreds of thousands of calculations and simulations to determine the temperature and atmosphere of the planet and we’re quite confident on our results.”

Another reporter shouts out, “Doctor, what are the native creatures of this planet like? If this planet is so perfect to sustain human life then surely that means there are already creatures living there.”

“Like I stated, due to the excess solar radiation created by the planets orbiting star, surface life form scans from the outer atmosphere are impossible. We have run probability calculations that state a 95% chance of life on the planet with a 15% chance of life boasting the sentience and intelligence of humans.” The doctor pauses to look down at his watch, he then looks up and begins speaking once more, “For the past 25 years, we’ve been monitoring and searching for habitable planets to colonize. In the most recent years, we’ve been observing and narrowing down our selection of possible planets between 3 until we finally concluded that Andromeda 7 was our best option for colonization. One more question?”

The room erupts as all the reporters try to get their questions in. The Doctor points to one reporter in the front of the room, the rest quiet themselves.”
“What’s the plan to get to Andromeda, Doctor?”

“We’re going to build, what we like to call, The Ark.” the hologram of the planet changes to a massive space ship, “The Ark will be the largest space faring vessel ever created by man. Its capable of housing and supporting a total crew of 100,000 people and has the capability to grow food for the entire crew as well as support the livestock and foliage that will be transported to Andromeda 7. The trip to Andromeda will take nearly 15 years, so the majority of the crew will need to go into cryogenic hibernation for most of the trip. This will be the largest undertaking humanity has ever grasped at. Thank you.”
The Doctor steps down from the podium as reporters start shouting and cameras start flashing.

((This is merely the beginning into to New Haven! For further information on the thread, please check out the OOC section. And feel free to submit a character app once you've read the rules of the thread!))

Reserved

RESERVED

The ship’s intercom system buzzed on, a voice sounded through the entire ship,
“Good evening everyone, your current time is 09:35 June 21st, 2213, my name is Captain John Royal and I am your commanding officer aboard this magnificent vessel. I hope you’re all getting settled in and ready for the long journey ahead of us. In about 23 hours you will be entering Cryo-sleep for the entirety of our journey to Andromeda. A handful of the crew, myself included, will remain awake to maintain and manage the ship along its journey. It will take 15 years to get to Andromeda and once we get there your Cryo tubes will automatically begin to wake you up; oh and don’t worry about the 15 years aging your bodies, when you come out of Cryo you won’t feel a day older than when you went in.” the Captain chuckled a bit, he always had an odd sense of humor, before clearing his throat to continue speaking, “I ask that you all be ready to enter your Cryo-tubes tomorrow at 0900. Thank you, everyone.”

The voice on the speaker faded, now the only sound Leon could hear was the hum of the elevator as it quickly climbed up higher and higher towards the bridge of the ship. The elevator slightly jerked and made an audible bumping noise as it continued along its path. Leon closed his eyes as he leaned up against the back wall of the elevator and exhaled, his anxiety was beginning to rise.
*Its fine, nothing’s gonna happen,* Leon thought, *This ship’s been being built for a couple years now, I’m sure some parts just aren’t used to being used.*
“You heard about that ship that crashed into the Alpha Phi 15 station last week right?” Fura said, “120 people died, such a tragedy…”
Leon grumbled, “Fura…”
“Mhmm?”
“Shut the hell up..”
“Wow, rude! I was just messing with you, geez. But seriously don’t worry about it. I ran tons of diagnostic tests on the ship’s systems when we came aboard and everything is completely and totally safe. So don’t be such a baby!”
“Sorry, let me just get right over my irrational fear…” Leon replied sarcastically.
“Ok ok ok, I’m sorry. But seriously, this ship is bigger and more advanced than anything else out there, nothing bad can possibly happen aboard this beast.”
“Yeah you might be right, thanks.” Leon replied.
The elevator dinged and the doors slid open as it reached its destination. Now revealed was a short dimly lit hallway with another door at the end of it. Leon stepped out of the elevator and walked down the hallway. As Leon approached the door it quickly slid open, a bright light poured out, it was a jarring change from the dimly lit hallway causing Leon to wince as his eyes adjusted to the light. Before him lay the bridge, it was a huge and very expansive room. There was a platform that ran into the center of the room, raised above everything else, with a large holotable in the center of it. Around the holotable stood 3 men, one of them was Captain Royal. Below the platform were hundreds of terminals, holotables, and other computers and equipment that were used in maintaining the ship.There must’ve been at least 200 people running around and working down below, many of them at terminals, some of them running around with tablets and diagnostic work, and the rest conversing with others. Above all the terminals and computers spanned a massive, open view of the outer space. The massive windows gave roughly a 190 degree view of everything going on outside the ship. Leon gazed in awe at the view, he could see Earth, it took up a good portion of the view and could be seen in vivid detail, and all its polluted, dark atmosphere.
*Such a pity, Earth. Our home. I’ve only seen it this close-up in books and videos, it always looked so lush and beautiful, but now, it’s so…* Leon thought as he began walking to the center of the platform.
Fura cut off Leon’s thought “Pathetic, disgusting, deathly?”
*Not exactly what I was thinking, but… yeah.*
“I’ll never understand how you humans could take for granted the gift you had. Earth was the perfect planet, an Eden of sorts. And your species destroyed it.”
*It’s not like we did it on purpose and it’s not like it was us all as a whole. Just a select greedy few that were able to take over and run things with their fortunes.*
“But the ones that weren’t ruling could have stood up against those that were, and changed everything.”
*That’s not as simple as it sounds.*
As Leon approached the center of the room the Captain motioned for the other two men to leave, turned towards Leon and said,
“Ah Major Wilkinson, hello.” He had a small smirk, it looked out of place on his stern face but was reassuring nonetheless. “Its nice to finally meet you in person.”
Leon quickly stood straight and saluted at attention.
“You’re too formal…” Fura said.
“Ah, you’re too formal, boy. At ease.” Captain Royal commanded.
“Wow, that was weird.”
“What do you think of the ship?” Captain Royal asked.
“Its… nice, sir. I’m not the biggest fan of space ships so I’m a bit biased.” Leon replied.
“Ah not one for the stars are you? Well that’s fine, in a days time you’ll be in the deep freeze, then you’ll have your boots on Andromeda. We’ll be there before you know it.”
“Can’t wait, sir.”
“Yes. Well anyway, I just wanted to meet you and get acquainted before everyone went into Cryo. After all, I can't command one of my guardsman without knowing who they are," the Captain chuckled.
Leon chuckled back, "no sir, you can't."
"Geez would you stop being so formal. Call me John, enough of this Sir crap."
"Sorry sir I don't know if I can. It's just been drilled into me, my parents were in the service and formalities are all I've known my whole life," Leon replied, "but I'll try."
"Good," Captain Royal replied happily, "listen, tomorrow I'm gonna want you to help other personnel into their Cryo tubes before you yourself goes under. I think it'd help a lot of them feel better knowing there's a trained professional guiding them through the process and watching over them. So get down there a little early and help everyone out."
"Will do, sir."
"Great, now we have to deal with a bunch of civis who're worried about going into the deep freeze. That'll be annoying..." Fura said with a hint of irritation in her voice.
Leon grimaced at Fura's comment, *Would you quit it. It won't be that bad.*
Noticing Leon's change in expression, Captain Royal questioned, "something wrong, boy?"
"Oh no no, it's nothing, sir!" Leon replied, hastily, "I'll make sure to be down there tomorrow nice and early, before everyone arrives! Oh sir, where are my quarters going to be? I don't recall being given my assigned quarters in the message I received a few weeks ago."
"Oh yes, you'll be in room AG0013. It's in the military crew quarters but it's one of the nicer rooms. You've got your own private weapons and armor storage, along with a few other perks. Your weapons and armor should already be there, if they're not, just go swing by the cargo hanger and talk to one of the officials down there. Cargo's been a bit hectic with everyone coming onboard these last few days."
"No problem. Oh what about the..." Leon began.
"Yes, the special computer parts you requisitioned should be in your room as well," Captain Royal cut off Leon as he turned towards the holotable.
"Thank you, sir," Leon saluted, turned, then began to walk away.
The Captain turned back around and yelled to Leon, "and stop being so damn formal!"
Leon flashed a thumbs up as he continued out of the bridge to the elevator.
"Well that was... Interesting." Fura said.
"It was. It's good to know he's not such a "I'm the Captain listen to what I tell you" sort of guy. Maybe I'll be able to actually stand serving under him," Leon replied, "what room did he say?"
Fura sighed, "Room AG0013..."
Leon laughed, "what would I do without you?," as he pressed the button in the elevator that went to his floor.
"Ya know, I ask myself that same question... You'd probably be dead or at the very least you'd be constantly lost." Fura replied.
With the doors closing Leon let out a big laugh as he replied to Fura, "You're probably right!"

The view of space from the Ark was undeniably amazing. The vast expanse of glittering nothingness seemed eager to swallow everything up, and the casual space-gazers knew for the first time what it was like to truly feel small. The Earth could be seen as well, at least what was left of it. But even in its poor, depleted state the planet still demanded a meager amount of awe from anyone lucky enough to view it from orbit. The scene outside did indeed take the minds and imaginations of the Ark's passenger down a journey of wonder, and the realization that they were leaving to find a new home for humanity set the shimmering of hope in their eyes.

Dr. Daphne Davenport, with her back to the panoramic window that was the outside wall of the lounge, was completely oblivious to all of that.

She stared straight ahead at nothing in particular, a glass, wet with condensation, held loosely in one hand as she sat at the bar. The dazzle of the soft light sparkling off the many bottles of liquor on the shelf in front of her simulated the glitz of stars in her mind. The gentle thrum of the Ark sang her a comforting song, almost as if it were alive, and she focused on that to drown out the chattering of the other patrons who had wandered into the ship's lounge.

It occurred to her that she had never been so lonely in her life.

With her empty hand she pushed her black, thin-framed glasses up on her nose and blinked for the first time in many moments. That involuntary action was enough to jar her out of her trance and remind her that she had come into this exact location to complete a mission:

Daphne raised her glass to her lips and drained it; one small step for Daphne, one giant leap toward getting smashed. And she had been sure to ask for the real stuff and not that synthehol crap that the light-weights preferred. Her body could break down real alcohol just fine, the way it was supposed to. Daphne didn't care what anyone else said about it, it just wasn't the same.

She put the empty glass on the bar and and the pretty bartender replaced it with a full one. Not a word said - they had been doing this dance for awhile now. With a sigh Daphne sat back in her chair and ran a hand through her long blonde hair. She knew she was supposed to be checking into her quarters and preparing to enter 'the deep freeze', as she had began calling it in her head. Her anxiety shot through the roof at that though and she took a long pull on her new drink. There was also an impressive selection of anti-you-name-the-emotional-condtion medication in her bag, but Daphne was saving those for later. When she woke up from 'the deep freeze', who knew what kind of medical supplies she would have to work with. But, she surmised, that was a problem for future Daphne.

With a toss of her shiny blonde hair Daphne killed her drink and slapped the empty glass on the bar.

Osmond woke up a little later than expected, with little time to spare. He flipped his arm up with his gauntlet on, a transparent blue shield popped up displaying information for his jobs. The names of clients, the payout, job description, prerequisites, all of the things he would need to succeed, but he was more than capable by himself if push came to shove; and usually it did.

"Ok, name... Terrace Ambrose... hm, says here he was to be on Ark." He toyed around with the gauntlet for a second, talking to himself as he did so.

"Wouldn't put it passed a jumper to want to escape to another planet."

Osmond stood up and walked over to his closet, and spoke. "Work"

The closet doors closed around him, applying his work clothes to his skin before opening again with a flash of steam from the cracks in the moving wardrobe. Os walked out of the contraption in his work attire, he had on a signature black leather trench coat like outfit, something that would have been more common years back, it had strange markings all over it and a second layer padding near the shoulders, perhaps to remedy slashing. He figured carrying a gun around would be a little too dangerous, he instead sheathed a blade on the back of his waste, concealed by his coat. Then proceeded to leave his room. It automatically locked as he stepped from the door.

People were few and far between in the area of his bunks but he didn't mind, in fact it was better for him not to explain any questions brought on by his attire, or demeanor. He proceeded to the bar, perhaps on the way and or there he could find out some information on his target, if anyone had seen him. Which was more than unlikely for a vessel this size and not to mention that if he wanted to stay hidden, it wouldn't be particularly a hard thing to do aboard. Regardless any passerby's were prompted to answer the question - "have you seen this man" whilst Osmond held up his arm revealing the man's face. None had, as expected. But perhaps someone of a higher authority would...

He continued towards his destination. Still repeating himself on the way there, "have you seen this man" or "know a Terrace?" an odd name like that would stick out like a sore thumb. Still with no luck, perhaps Ambrose would find him first.

Osmond was still searching for Terrace, he rounded the corner close to the bar. 'The Owl and The Father' was somewhat of a normal place aboard The Ark, like any other. Osmond walked inside, the bar wasn't full but there were quite a lot of people there. Still a few open spots at the bar, and even in booths and at tables.

"Gimme a... Gin Martini" He streamed the credits through to the barkeep via his datapad. He cycled through the holographic screen and find the picture he was showing everyone on the way over.

"Seen this man? Name's Terrace, Ambrose." The bartender placed the drink in front of Osmond, he took a sip of it.

The bartender placed his elbows on the edge of the bar and pulled out a cigarette. "Name's Warren... That man there-"

He pointed his cigarette towards the screen, "Seen him back maybe... a day ago, he was shuffling through here all suspicious-like. Perhaps hidin'" The man lit the cigarette and tapped a button under the bar, it lit up a glowing screen above the bar, reading On Break.

Osmond looked around the bar, there were a couple people looking at him from across the bar, seemed to draw attention wherever he went, a getup like that'll do that for you. The scene of the bar was a little lackluster, still a fine place but nothing to wag a stick at, not that there would be many of those on the ship anyways. The bar was probably the nicest place in establishment, the wood was in near perfect condition, with the exception of a couple spots where water had stained the surface.

"You figure that do ya'?" Osmond continued. "Man just hidin' - What you figure from?"

The barkeep ashed his cigarette and looked up at Osmond. "If I've to muster a guess, I'd be guessin' you."

Osmond pulled his coat to the side revealing the hilt of his knife only to Warren. "You'd be right, that man is wanted for trespassing, he ain't to be on The Ark, I'm a bounty hunter of sorts"

Warren eyed Osmond's knife, and looked towards the door. "I'll give you what I can, the man came in a little late, not sure where he went after but. I got some footage if you want, place is running near 24/7 on a security feed in the back."

Warren motioned Osmond to come through the back with him, leaving his half full martini at the bar. The men from across the bar sitting in a booth were still eyeballing Osmond. He walked through the back door to find the barrel of a gun aimed at him, the men from the booth followed behind. Keep thing the exit from Osmond.

Warren spoke with the pistol in Osmond's mouth. "Hand over that fancy gear you got, hunter. Gotta be worth a fortune, and that's exactly what Ambrose is looking for on this new planet."

Osmond looked at the men behind him. "He think's he'll find safety away from Earth? I've looked for him since I got wind of the plan to board without proper authorization, he'll be hunted by someone else if not me. I'm just to get the money first."

"HA!" Warren laughed - "How do you expect to get the money if you're dead?"

In a flash, Osmond ducked sideways, pushing Warren's arm to the side and squeezing the pressure point behind his forearm, Warren fired off by accident, Osmond pulled the gun towards one of the guards at the door, he twisted and threw his cloak over the second guard. Pulling his blade as he did, and taking the arm off of Warren. With a swift clean spin he threw his knife into the chest of the guard - Ran towards him and kicked the blade further into his chest. Knocking the guard through the door of the bar.

The fighting settled, Warren passed out, probably gunna die soon, the guards were dead and the whole bar was staring at Osmond.

"Shit, gotta start over." Osmond edged the blood from his knife and sheathed it, swinging the door to The Owl wide as he stormed out.

Leon wandered through the crew quarters with his head held high. He was supposed to be an example of protection and security aboard The Ark. He was supposed to be an example of how the other soldiers should act.
“What are you doing?” Fura questioned.
“What do you mean?”
“Walking around looking down your nose at people. You’re acting like a snob.”
“I am? I was just trying to look authoritative... protective……… responsible. Captain Royal said, a few weeks ago in his message, that I should act like a symbol of authority on this ship. I should make people feel like they’re safe. Isn’t that what I’m doing?”
“No, no its not. The way you’re carrying yourself makes you look like you’re better than everyone else. Stop it… You’re not good at being an example, just be you. Act like yourself. I’m sure all that junk about “being a symbol” and “making an example” was just formal run of the mill stuff that some secretary wrote up in that email, doesn’t really seem like the kind of thing John would write, especially after meeting him.”
“Yeah you’re probably right,” Leon replied as he relaxed his stature and continued on his path. On his way to the soldiers quarters he saw a variety of different people, he’s always been used too “a type” of people. He’s always jumped from station to station, moon colony to moon colony, and everyone he’s met his whole life has always seemed “the space type.” But everyone he saw today, it was a nice change, an interesting variety to the norm that he’s used to. When he finally reached the soldiers quarters section of the ship, it was quite easy to tell. The architecture changed from one that was more homey and protective to one that was more rugged, tough, and secure. Everything was a little dimmer, there were fewer windows along the hallways and you could hear… a lot of noise. Whether it was loud banging from people moving heavy ordnance and equipment or yelling from soldier squabbling amongst themselves, the average noise level was higher in this part of the ship. As he made his way through the soldiers quarters he noticed the numbers crudely painted on the doors, they were descending as he made his way down the corridors, some of the doors were open allowing Leon to see inside as he walked. From what he saw, most of the rooms were larger and comprised of about 30 bunk beds that lined each wall, each of them had large lockers or crates by them, the rooms gave of that stereotypical military barracks sort of feel, large rooms that stuffed as many soldiers in them as possible.
*Great, if I’m crammed in one of these rooms with these idiots, I’m gonna lose it,* Leon thought.
“Well hey look on the bright side, you could probably easily win in a fist fight against any of these guys!” Fura exclaimed, with a bit of cutesy optimism in her voice.
“Yeah but that’s not the point. I don’t really feel like having to be stuck in one of these small spaces with any of these stupid jarheads…”
Leon wasn’t paying attention to where he was walking as he was conversing with Fura, his sentence fell short as he walked into, what felt like, a wall. He backed up, and upon quick inspection it was another soldier. This soldier was at least 7 feet tall and must’ve been made entirely of muscle making Leon, a rather tall and fit man as it is, seem tiny by comparison.
“Who you calling a “stupid jarhead?”” the behemoth uttered, his voice carried a bit of weight with it and sounded exactly what you’d expect a man like him to sound like.
“Well,” Leon began.
“Great, here we go,” Fura said with a sigh…
Leon continued, “I wasn’t really talking about anyone specifically, but you seem to fit the bill…”
“Huh?,” the soldier curiously muttered out, “who do you think you are, some sort of tough guy?”
“No it seems like you’ve got that covered, Tiny. Why don’t you just carry on, I think your father, The Hulk, is calling...” Leon said with a smirk.
“Why you little piece of…” the soldier began to say, you could see he was becoming agitated, a small vein on his forehead began to show. The soldier lifted and threw one of his massive fists towards Leon.
Leon rotated his body to kick the behemoth behind his knees, dodging the fist in the process. The hulk of a man began to fall to his knees. Leon’s rotation continued until his was completely behind the huge man, he quickly unsheathed his blade from his waist, holding the man’s forehead, Leon brought the blade to his neck once he was completely on his knees. Leon’s necklace jingled as it came out from under his shirt, due to the velocity of his rotation, and came to a hanging rest, his Ghost squadron tags shone under the light above him. A bead of sweat ran down the man’s forehead.
“But yea, now that you mention it, I do think I’m a bit of a tough guy,” Leon said with a small grin.
Leon looked up and noticed that a small crowd had gathered around him, he could hear a few whispers among the men.
“Are those Ghost Squadron tags?” “There’s a member of the GS on this ship, seriously?!”
Leon brought the blade up away from the man’s neck, giving him a tiny paper cut sized incision on his cheek as he did. Sheathing the blade, Leon continued on his way down the corridor towards his quarters. He grabbed his dog tag necklace and tucked it back under his shirt as he cleared his way through the small crowd of soldiers.
“Well, you’re certainly a shining example of what the soldiers on the ship should be” Fura said, sarcastically, “nice job, tiger…”
“Hey he started it!” Leon retorted.
“You called him a stupid jarhead…”
“I wasn’t talking about him, specifically. I was more talking about all of them..”
“You kinda started it. Wait, stop! Fura yelled.
Leon halted, “what, why?! What’s wrong?!”
“Your room…”
Leon looked to his right, he saw a dark, steel colored door with the letters AG0013 painted on it. There was a thin black bar above the door. The bar emitted a line of blue light that run up then down Leon’s body then let out a low beep, the door opened immediately afterwards. Inside was a decently sized room. In one corner was a bed with a full sized mattress, it appeared to be of low quality. Tracing along the wall there was door that lead to what looked to be a private bathroom. After the door was a decently sized metal desk that was covered in various small boxes and computer parts, there were a couple larger boxes on the floor next to the desk as well. Going to the opposite side of the room was a very large locker that was flush in the corner, it was about 7 feet tall and 5 feet wide. The final wall had a very large window that granted a nice view into outer space. There were numerous light strips along the ceiling that provided a good amount of light to the room.
Leon stepped into the room, the door closed behind him, “Hmm, I could get used to this.”
He glanced over to the desk and ran a mental inventory over the things on the desk to see if all the parts he requested were there, they appeared to be. He walked over to the locker, there was a retinal scanner on the front of a very large computerized lock. He scanned his right eye with the scanner, it let out an audible “buzz” to alert that it denied him entry. Leon tried scanning his left eye, the lock clicked open.
*Hmm, it must not be programed for my cybernetic eye,* he thought.
Leon opened the locker, to one side were the various pieces of his armor, they were somewhat useless in the state they were now, they required the help of another person or machine to correctly equip onto Leon; to the other side of the locker was, emptiness. Leon's weapons were nowhere to be seen in the locker.
“Where the hell are my guns?!” he blurted out angrily.
“I guess we’re making a trip down to the cargo bay.”
Leon sighed as he closed the locker then made his way to the door, “I guess so…”
Exiting the room he made his way to the cargo bay, the door sliding shut and locking behind him.

After several moments of staring wide-eyed at the man whom she was pretty sure had just killed a few people, Daphne decided it was time to go. She held a finger up at the bartender to get her attention, but the poor girl was too scared to acknowledge her in the least.

Alright, Daph. Let's make a break for it.

Getting out of her seat went more smoothly in her mind than what happened in reality. Daphne barely caught the bar with one had to keep from stumbling over.

Just play it cool. Everything's cool.

Daphne put a smile on her face like nothing was wrong, reached down for her bag, and carefully began swerving her way toward the exit. She thought she probably waved at a few stunned patrons on the way out, as if they had no reason to be preoccupied with losing their lives, but she couldn't be sure. At this point, as long as she didn't end up another dead body, she was willing to count the night as a win. Outside of the bar she crashed into a wall and leaned there for a few minutes, laughing at her own state of drunkenness and trying to remember what is was that she was trying to do.

You're room, Daph. Let's go to your room.

"Shut up, you alcoholic bitch," she muttered in response to her own internal dialogue, which prompted another burst of laughter that caused passers-by in the corridor to look at her strangely on their way past.

She managed to produce the orders she received to board the Ark from her bag and, covering an eye with one hand, was able to read where it said her room was in the civilian quarters of the ship. The rest of her journey was a bit of a blur, but, just as she always seemed to manage in the past, somehow Daphne made it to her bed with plenty of time to sleep it off.

0900 would be approaching sooner than she could imagine.

“Guuuuuh,” Leon let out a loud, unhappy moan, “I didn’t know I’d have to get this much exercise on this damn ship! I’ve been here a couple of hours and I feel like I’ve walked the whole thing…”
“Oh stop your complaining, exercise is good for you,” Fura replied.
“Who’re you, my mother?”
“With all the things I help you with, I should be! Now shut up, you’re at the…”
“Cargo bay,” Leon cut Fura off, “I know, I can see.”

Walking in through the, rather large, open door revealed the cargo bay, the room was massive and brimming with activity. There were workers running rushedly around, people and machines moving large crates and various other equipment, huge ships that were being loaded and unloaded; it was quite an impressive site to witness. The cargo bay was more of a hanger, on the far, very far, end of the room was a large opening to the space outside. There was a blueish tint that overlaid the view, indicating there was an atmosphere barrier separating the vacuum of space from the atmosphere inside the ship. In the center of the hanger, commanding the most attention, was a massive VTOL landing craft, it sort of resembled a traditional C130 aircraft from the early 2000’s except it was evidently sealed for space travel, had four wings that had the ability to rotate from a vertical take off position to horizontal flight, and was much, much larger. Leon looked around for the closest person that didn’t look like they had a million things to do, he noticed one man standing in a small crowd of other workers, he seemed to be issuing orders to the others.
Leon walked over to the man and began,

“Hey, I’m Major Leon Wilkinson, Ghost Squadron soldier on board. I’m looking for a personal shipment.”
The man turned around and asked, hastily, “Huh, what. Who’re you?”
“Major Leon Wilkinson, designation number LW0130Z226. I’m looking for a personal shipment that wasn’t in my quarters.”
“Hmm one sec,” the man said as he pulled out a tablet and began furiously tapping on it, “yeah, yeah here it is. Just wait right here, I’ll have one of the loading drones bring it to ya.”

The man started barking orders at other workers as he wandered away from Leon. As he waited, Leon began looking around and observing all the activity in the hanger. After a few moments of observation, Leon could see that there was some organization among the mass of clamoring drones and workers, it was sort of a controlled chaos. A few more moments passed and Leon noticed a man carrying a large metal crate stumbling towards him. The man looked to be about 5 foot tall, he wasn’t very muscular, he was actually kind of stringy; it was sort of humorous to watch him carry this case that must’ve weighed more than him. Once he got over to Leon the man dropped the case on the ground, putting both hands on his knees he bent over and began panting heavily, it appeared that carrying the case exhausted him. The case had a dark, brushed metal finish to it, on the upper right corner had the letter “LW” spray painted on it, in the center was a small touch screen that had a symbol of a lock rotating on it. Leon knew this was his weapon case.

“I thought a drone was bringing my stuff over?” Leon questioned.
The exhausted worker gasped for enough breath to respond, “yeah well… the floor foreman isn’t the most organized of people… all the drones are busy moving actual cargo… so I got stuck with getting this to you.”
“Oh, well… I’m sorry” Leon said, with a quizzical tone.

He reached down and tapped the touch screen, the lock symbol changed to a number pad. Leon typed in a long number code, several mechanical locks could be heard twisted and moving, eventually popping open. After eight locks popped open, the entire top of the case bumped and shook a bit. Leon grabbed the top and lifted it open, inside the crate were his Combat Pistol and Gauss Rifle along with several magazines for each, a holster for his pistol, sling for his rifle, and a couple other various tools. Leon observed the crates contents until he was interrupted by Fura.

“Leon, you’ve got a message from the captain. He said there’s been an issue he wants you to look into. Something about a couple dead bodies that were found in a bar on the civilian level?”
“Ok fine, put a map up on my hud and I’ll head over,” Leon replied as he picked up his pistol holster and put it on his torso. The holster was a tactical shoulder holster, it had two pieces that went over each shoulder then down the sides of his torso, connecting at his waist; the pistol was secured under his left arm, since he was a right handed shooter.
“Um… are you talking to me?” the exhausted worker questioned.
“N… no. It was nothing. Make sure this makes it to my quarters, please.” Leon said with a sternness in his voice.

After finishing putting strapping on the harness, he holstered his pistol, closed the case, and began for the bar that Fura was now directing him to.

“Any other information on what happened?” Leon wondered.
“Nope. I was just told that there was some sort of issue, it was in a bar named “The Owl and The Father,” and it was on the civilian level. That was it.”
“I hope he doesn’t expect me to take care of every little problem that happens on this ship. That’s what the security detail is for.”
“Yeah but seeing as how you’re one of the highest ranking military officials on the ship, he probably figures it’d be wise to have you take a look; just to make sure everything’s under control.”
“I guess so…” Leon reluctantly muttered as he continued on his way to the bar.