Omorfia smiled at the two. They seemed interested in the job, and alright people to boot. As long as they got the job done and didn't betray her, they would be fine in her book. She picked up the picture of The Jeweled Casca. She remembered the trip fondly.

Yes, I thought that the Statue would be plenty of compensation for the job. Let us discuss the terms more.

Soon the table had reached a fair agreement of 8% of the entire ship's population's income for service fees, along with free reign over The Broken Dream, and its resources, such as contacts and any weapons that might be laying around. The crew of The Talon would provide protection to The Broken Dream, including but not limited to;
Envoy Jobs, Defense, Detective Work, and Repairs. At any point they could cancel the contract and still leave respected. If at any point the crew wanted to change the contract they could approach Omor and ask that they discuss it.

This was all decided over the grub of the bar, some of which was... questionable in its origin.

@TheUnknowable

"Yeah don't touch the mech newbie! Or Cap' will put ya in her secret sex dungeon where she does lewd things to exotic species like you!" A hollow clang rang out from above the hangar as Kidd Landed on the chassis of the rather large combat mech. Crouching with her elbows on her knees, she looked down at the newcomer and the returning crew with an inattentive expression, observing as the captain, Alexis, left toward the bridge. A few quiet moments passed as the mossy haired, ambiguous teen stared at the Or’Taleen stranger. Haven't seen one of these before, she thought, picking her nose absently with a pinky. Still somewhat new to traveling through the galaxy, she hadn't seen a whole lot species other than those that frequented the solar system. After watching as the group departed for the rest of the ship, Kidd finally dropped down off the shoulders of the Aegis and landed with a leathery thud next to its feet which hung motionless in the air, her boots squeaking slightly on the plated hangar floors. "I better stock up on snacks before that giant eats them all..." With that she scampered off down a random corridor.

Several minutes later, the sounds of sliding mechanisms echoed through the rather vacant bridge as Alexis entered through the automated doors. She was greeted with small flickering lights and faint beeps from the consoles, along with a subtle snoring. Curled in an awkward upside-down ball with arms crossed in one of the seats toward the front of the bridge, out like a light with a gun catalogue hanging over his face, was the leather clad meathead of a bounty hunter Rulgath. However, slipping out from beneath the catalogue were the pages of a lascivious galactic erotica magazine. Scattered across the floor beneath the seat he was in were a couple mostly empty bags of exotic snacks and a few yellow crumbs. None the wiser as the captain came aboard the bridge.

Met with the bright still image from a floating holo-screen, Alexis could see the wanted poster painted with the face of the criminal Shaw. Below is mulish, unshaven face was a reward tag of fifteen million credits. On screen next to the poster was some slightly grainy footage stuck in a five second loop. As Alexis addressed Edstein through the coms, she could see the video zoom in and discontinue the loop, playing from the beginning normally. It looked like footage from a security camera hanging over a dimly lit alley somewhere on earth. The info on the video indicated it was recorded in the lower districts of New Newyork. There was no motion at first, but after a few seconds, Alexis could see the man identified in on the poster, running for his life as he frantically avoided being fried by plasma rounds shot by his tentacle armed pursuer. The feed wasn't live but it was pretty close to it, with the record time indicating it had happened only a few minutes ago.

"Yes captain. This guy." Responded Eddy shortly over the coms. A few more panels of information scrolled down over the screen showing Shaws current projected location radius among a wire frame map of the city. "Maybe two to three hours away. This can be a quick one."




"All hands. Captain on the bridge." The announcement resounded through the Empirion as Zanith stood and welcomed Captain Elijah McDonnell aboard the populated bridge. "Good morning captain. Command is now yours." With a brief salute, Zanith offer the captains seat to Elijah and took his own behind the helm where he remained attentive toward the captain as he spoke. "Yes sir. Ashatu emperors are still currently threatening to wage war with the Kalthari due to cultural differences and mythologies based around an ancient artifact invaluable to the Ashatu hierarchy. However, with negotiations from UGCP ambassadors, they've been talked into a seventy two hour ceasefire. We've been assigned with locating and retrieving the stolen Ashatu artifact which is the cause of this conflict. After initial investigations revealed there to be no Kalthari involvement, we were provided with a lead on the artifacts whereabouts, leading us here to planet Earth. It turns out the lead was accurate sir, as our scans have just picked up on the artifacts current location."

After a few tweaks to his console, the small topographical image of New Newyork emerged among the blueish luminescent hard light display in front of Zanith. He rose the image up and slid it through the air toward Elijah. As it slowed down and stopped in front of him, it showed a small red blinking dot slowly making its way through the lower infrastructure. "It appears to be on the move sir. Somewhere in the denser parts of the city. Shuttle access only. Judging by the speed, I'd say on foot. What are your orders sir?" The voice of a crew mate rang out from the lower helm. "We've made contact with NNYPD sir. They're willing to coordinate but it may be delayed due to other assignments." Another called out from close by. "Just got a report from the hangar. We have a squad shuttle loaded and ready for deployment sir." The pale blueish hue of the Earths cloudy surface peered through the bridge windows, casting a gentle glow over the smooth chrome surfaces and reflective monitors.




A low and repetitive revving hummed from the bottom-side engines of the shuttle as it made its way through the concrete and steel jungle that was the lower districts of New Newyork. Within, the small group of makeshift reinforcements sat, waiting to arrive at Shaw's side. It wasn't too slow but it wasn't all that fast either. They likely would have been moving much faster if it wasn't for the auto pilot guiding them toward their destination. It would still be a few minutes before they arrived. The rather bulky form of CB17 sat across from Grace, hands resting in his metal lap as he motionlessly stared at the nervous girl through his visor like optical units. 'HE' was a relative term, as CB17 was no more man or woman than any other fully automated heavy combat and defense assault droid. The crew of the hellion simply refereed to him as a 'he' do to his male voice program. After several moments of watching Grace as the tapping of her heel against the hull of the shuttle faintly rattled out under the buzz of the engines. "Observation. You appear to be in distress Miss Grace. Recommendation. Would you like a glass of water?"

"What are your orders, Sir?"

The words seemed to linger there in the air between the two men for a few seconds. "Deploy the squad shuttle," was Captain McDonnell's order. He glanced over to the crewman: "And tell them they have Coalition authority. This is our mission, our jurisdiction. If the cops wanna help, fine. But they don't answer to the police."

Bureaucracy. It was everywhere. It was stifling, smothering, suffocating. If he was to be honest with himself, which he tried as much as possible not to be, he really couldn't care less about the artifact itself. He just didn't want another war to have to deal with. Even if the Coalition stayed out of it, which they wouldn't, it would still affect him and everyone else in the galaxy. In space, wars are big.

All for a Holy Cheese Sandwich.

Elijah rubbed his temple, staring at a monitor blankly. He should probably see the ship's counselor. Did they even have one? Their last counselor got sick and had to be hospitalized, but she'd been gone ever since the captain got the command. It's just as well, he thought. He already knows his lack of sleep is due to stress, both professional and personal.

He reclined back in his comfy chair and closed his eyes, awaiting the visuals of the drop shuttle soaring down toward the Earth.

A low unearthly bellow echoed out from above the dark seedy alley as an unseen gaze watched Aurora and Alan land. Something large and heavy collided with the ground in front of the bar door as they approached it, leaving massive claw shaped footprints in the dust before them. The dim light of the alley bent as it passed through a massive shimmer of a silhouette blocking their path. A piercing red light shot out from the cloaked entity, scanning over the pair for a few moments before subsiding. After a series of clicks and whirs, the optical camouflage concealing the creature faded. The bending light began to refract off the monster's chrome plated and metal meshed skin. Looming over the two, the mechanical beast hissed.

A cold eyeless gaze looked down over Alan, a breath of steam brushing past him, before the beast slowly neared. Blinking neon lights scattered along the length of the creatures body flickered briefly before a slightly robotic voice suddenly rose from its jagged maw. "Momma's gotta go do some business inside...No one enters, got it?" Other than a moderate mechanical echo, the voice was mimicked perfectly. Orders from its master. The monster wasn't letting the two past. It made that clear with its quiet snarls and arched posturing while it transmitted the information to its host.

@t2Wave@Thread Generator SIN@GingerBoi123

---

Seeing Tara apparently had no questions for her, the AI gave her a friendly wave before leaving, making her way down the hallway and towards the engines where she usually stayed.

Alexis, simply looked a Rulgath with a frown and a sigh. Now, she was going to be completely hypocritical when she did this because she had the same exact magazine in her room for a bit of entertainment every now and then, buuuut, this was the bridge. He can do stuff like that in his own free time. As she walked passed the half-breed, the cyborg smacked him on the back of the head just hard enough to get his attention and wake him up, turning her attention to the screen in front of her. She couldn't help but to whistle as she saw the price tag on that guys head.

"Fifteen Million." She chuckled to herself. "Just what did this guy do, eh?" Alexis asked absentmindedly as she watched the footage and Edstien reply. That was a pretty hefty sum of credits - something she was in dire need of for a number of things. And only three hours away to boot! This was better than that sleazy strip club she was going to be going to after this, heh! "This'll be easy, and a good way to see if that Or'Taleen is worth those rumors. Meg, when can we get going?"

"Whenever you are ready, of course." Omega replied, as one of the consoles in the rooms interface went from a light blue to a red. A symbol anyone among the crew would be familiar with was displayed on it. "Edstien, is there anything we should know about this...Shaw?" The AI asked, as she went through the collected files and data herself. "It would be better to go in with a plan and knowing what he's capable of then none at all." Alexis grunted in response. Well, she couldn't exactly tell Meg to shove it. She was right of course, but she wasn't exactly a planning mastermind.

"Meh, Just drop us somewhere near him. The 'Nova and I can off him easily enough." No, she wasn't talking about a certain tin can that was currently sulking somewhere, she was talking about her rifle.

"It would be a good idea to let Tara do a bit of work, Alexis. At least let us see what she's capable of." Meg rebutted. Speaking of, wouldn't it be best if she was also here for this? It'd be better to hear the mission status first hand, at least so as to not get confused about it. She sent another message to the coms in the ship towards Tara and Nova's room. "Tara, Nova please get ready and come to the bridge if you would. We've found ourselves a target." A few seconds of silence passed before she made a small quip direct towards Kidd.

"And Kidd - unless you want a trip to the sex dungeon - that I recently added some new fun things too that I would love a test subject for - keep your fingers off of the food!" Alexis shook her head, ignoring the mostly false comments.

Cass was perched on the rooftop of a desolate, abandoned building nestled in the lower levels of New Newyork's slums. She was hot on the trail of her new quarry. She needed the work. Not so much for the money. Not that she would pass over fifteen million. One would be crazy to and Cass wasn't crazy. Well, not the refuse-fifteen-million-crazy anyway. But she needed the distraction. She'd had a bounty hunting crew with a couple of her splice buddies, but one after the other they all got mated and eventually left the business to settle down with their mates. She bore them no ill will. After all it was what she eventually wanted for herself. To find a mate. Maybe not settle down per se, but still... to find that connection with someone and hunt bounties together and live happily ever after.

Cass chuckled wistfully and shook her head to clear out the last lingering romantic notion. She switched gears quickly and lifted her head to sniff the air. Just to make sure she hadn't lost the trail. She hadn't. The scent wasn't fresh. A couple of hours old, but she could follow the quarry non the less. Due to her splice genetics she could discern scents and smells that were a couple of hours old at least.

Cassidy extended her 5'7 frame gracefully and without so much as a twitch of a muscle flew into a full sprint so fast an ordinary human would need a slow-mo cam to detect her movement. She dashed across the rooftops, jumping over the gaps between the buildings with apparent ease. Thoughts of her ex crew already stuffed neatly in a box somewhere in her subconscious. Slowly, but surely Cassidy receded and the huntress surfaced. She had a job to do and a damned good reason to do it. She needed to get off Earth. She needed a change. And it looked like this Shaw fellow was going to be her ticket out.

But Cass was a cautious hunter. For one man to have such large bounty on his had, he would have to be dangerous. And right now she was a one woman show. She needed to be careful and not underestimate her quarry. She would pursue him and wait for the opportune moment to strike. She could tell by the scents and smells she was detecting he was being pursued by some sort of reptilian or reptiloid creature. She could smell raw power and strength. Maybe even on par with her own. But she also had cunning.

She was getting closer now. She could hear the commotion caused by the chase. Her enhanced hearing picking up scattered bits of conversation. Insults being thrown about. Shouts.

She readied!

_________________________________________________________
Grace, New Newyork

She quickly lifted her head, glancing at CB17 with a hesitant voice "What, n-no, no, I'm fine thanks." with the tapping coming to a halt, leg still. Even after speaking her direction would come to the floor again, something so prevalent that one could think she'd be an expert a floor tiles. Silence taking over once more as the shuttle moved it's way through the depths of the district, the suspense and adrenaline in her body became a source of irritation. How much longer did they have to wait? It was a case of nervousness that dictated her to not fly the shuttle, New Newyork- let alone Earth -being such unfamiliar territory, it was hard not to overthink and break down in fear at the prospect of piloting through such a world.

However, this oncoming irritation only fueled motivation, and the motivation was that of getting this shuttle on track. "We need to get there faster, so uh, I'll just be...piloting." Grace was still as nervous as ever despite the newfound urge to get things moving, glancing over at bulky droid before opening the door swiftly, disappearing even faster as the pilot's seat would be taken up, controls wrangled back from the autopilot. A new shuttle would provide a lot of obstacles in the way for someone who was used to simply operating these machines, but, for someone of Grace's background, the only different thing was the logo of the company who owns the plating. The insides of controls like these had been torn apart too many times. Once gawking at and getting used to the controls was done, the great urban abyss was left to be piloted through, endless rows of lit up windows, long pipes and a hard time finding out what was up from down when the sky was out of sight. Giving a heavy sigh, Grace would glance over to the nearest indicator of where they were suppose to go, trying not to be too distracted by the scenery. And trying not to think too much on if the autopilot was actually faster...

Rama sat in the transport alongside CB17 and Grace double checking his weapons, making sure that they were operational and moving smoothly. Meta, his mech. sat on the floor across from him, he made sure that it's maintenance protocols were all green, didn't want to get into a mess of things and find out it wasn't full ready for combat. As he looked in his optical scanners they blinked all green in his view showing that it was prepared as well.

It had been a while since he had worked on a crew but Shaw had somehow convinced him that being apart of The Hellion Crew was worth his time and skills. Rama had thought that he would be living the rest of his life with his mech and the two would be dead in a blazing blast of glory.

Meta, what is the status of our captain? Can you pick him up on your scanners yet? He asked with his robotic transmitter that linked him to his mech, it allowed him to speak to Meta without having to actually speak out loud.

There is nothing yet, but don't worry and just be prepared for when the time comes that we do meet up with him. He won't likely be alone giving his track record. Meta replied.

Rama put his gun down by one of his extra arms that pick it up and kept its hand on the handle, he then brought out his three balls and began spinning them with his mind. It calmed him before going into potential battle, relaxed him.

He then heard CB17 speak to Grace asking her if she wanted some water. She politely said no and he had to chuckle, he didn't know if she belonged here as a pirate but her skills as a mechanic were good and he felt that as there were a number of robotics between him and the two robots she was the right fit for the mission. He then saw her decide to pilot the transport to see if she could get them there sooner than it was on autopilot.

When she left the room he turned to CB17.

"What the girl needs, is combat experience and training." He commented to the robot, as he stopped the balls from spinning, placed them in their designated pocket and got up and patted it on it's shoulder and walked up to where Grace was sitting.

@Vecee "Don't worry Grace, it's just me, 'was getting bored back there myself. So you know how to fly this thing? I sure hope it's faster than the autopilot." He said to Grace as he made his way behind her seat and took a look outside. Earth, what potential it had and what a waste it had become. He thought to himself as he looked at the lights of the city, it's advertisements for new products everywhere you looked never getting a break to look up and see the stars. To enjoy the sound of the wind or trees waving in those winds. The faster they got Shaw the sooner they could get off this rock.

"Hey, when we get close to Shaw let me know, I prefer to be on a vantage point on top of the ship in case he is bringing company to the party." He said to Grace as he kept his focus sharp looking out at what was in front of them.

"What are your orders, Sir?"

The words seemed to linger there in the air between the two men for a few seconds. "Deploy the squad shuttle," was Captain McDonnell's order. He glanced over to the crewman: "And tell them they have Coalition authority. This is our mission, our jurisdiction. If the cops wanna help, fine. But they don't answer to the police."

Bureaucracy. It was everywhere. It was stifling, smothering, suffocating. If he was to be honest with himself, which he tried as much as possible not to be, he really couldn't care less about the artifact itself. He just didn't want another war to have to deal with. Even if the Coalition stayed out of it, which they wouldn't, it would still affect him and everyone else in the galaxy. In space, wars are big.

All for a Holy Cheese Sandwich.

Elijah rubbed his temple, staring at a monitor blankly. He should probably see the ship's counselor. Did they even have one? Their last counselor got sick and had to be hospitalized, but she'd been gone ever since the captain got the command. It's just as well, he thought. He already knows his lack of sleep is due to stress, both professional and personal.

He reclined back in his comfy chair and closed his eyes, awaiting the visuals of the drop shuttle soaring down toward the Earth.

Achieng browsed the Freelancer's web while picking at the remnants of her steak. She pursed her lips as she found an opening for a ship's counselor. Apparently their last had taken ill and had to leave. "Hm... Emperion. Captain McDonnell. Human. Hmmm..." She uploaded her bid to the site, which included her price as well as what she needed to be on the ship. Her prices were a bit lower than usual, but the caveat was that she needed a large tank of water that was constantly filtered and temperature controlled. Many ships wouldn't or couldn't handle the expense, or the space. Maybe this ship could.

"Oh, and they're nearing Earth. How fortunate." She paid for the meal and went to find a few leisure novels to read.

Being separate from the ship's systems, Em had to learn everything the same as anyone else did by being told. She'd known that they were after some artifact that for some reason had significance. She did not quite understand the need for sentient species to develop attachment and meaning to less intelligent species and inanimate objects. There were also oddities like religious motivations and such. Things like that were beyond her current capacity to understand beyond documentation and observation.

Summed up though she simply failed to see why this object could start a war. Judging from the captain's mannerisms he was of a similar mind. Left to roam with her little holo projector she appeared and looked out at the Earth as it came into view. It was pleasing to the eye. She'd never been to Earth. She had been created off world on one of the many space stations controlled by the UGCP. She had never actually been on a planet either. Once again stations and ships were the most common for her. Though that shouldn't be that surprising considering she was an AI. Fauna and flora aren't really things essential for her in any way.

Turning back around Eli looked stressed. Suppose that was to be expected given the circumstances. Sadly she wasn't of too much help when it came to emotional needs. That was not her primary purpose and wouldn't likely be given updates for such. "Are you alright captain?" The question was more rhetorical than anything. Clearly he was distressed.

The 01 AI that was stationed there seemed to pick up that there was a need as well and spoke up. "A new application for ship counselor has just come in from Earth. Credentials appear to be in order. Would you like me to send the details to your console captain?" Standing still she waited for a response.

@Thread Generator SIN@Infamous Empath@Mistress Dizzy

@t2wave"For the love of God, yes!" was an outburst that did not occur.

The captain, however, had to clear his throat and pretend like he was considering it for a moment before answering, "Uh, Yes please E-1."

He'd shortened ECAI-01 to E-1 because he wasn't very fond of long abbreviations, and his memory wasn't exactly the greatest. Elijah would've called her just "One", if he didn't occasionally jokingly call Zenith "Number 1." That would just be too confusing.

Although he'd been serving with Zenith for a few months, Captain McDonnell was not at all sure his XO liked him. Like most people on the Empirion, the bridge crew showed their commanding officer the respect of his rank, but that didn't mean they liked working with him. And the few people (mostly civilian contractors) who didn't bother showing McDonnell any respect seemed to him to be a breath of fresh air known as "honesty," something rarely seen in military units. Elijah inwardly groaned as he recalled threatening to demote a man for sucking up too much.

Despite the stress of his first command, Captain McDonnell looked forward to getting into the thick of things, whatever that entailed. He wanted this mission to be over quickly, though, so he could go back to patrolling some unclaimed sector of space. But he was also looking forward to talking to a counselor again. He just hoped he or she was an easy person to get along with.

As a man who abhorred unneeded conflict, it was often a shock to his crew or friends when he engaged in it, verbal or physical. However, he was never one to back down from his beliefs. And sometimes, Elijah had to remind himself that counselors - at the end of the day - have a job to do, and they get paid to do it. So when their discussions got too combative, Elijah would just stop going to therapy altogether. Some did not care about helping him, or anyone, just the paycheck.

This was why Elijah was so shocked to be given a command; usually it's the people who put on an act for their superiors and subordinates who get the jobs, not those who can actually lead. Not that he was a great leader- he'd only had the job a few months, and his leadership skills up until then had been little better than average. But there was one thing that did separate him from other leaders: he cared about people, especially those who served under him. And he felt like that would be the driving force behind success.