[IC] Hitchhiking Through Space

[LeonVon]

Imperial Date: 2857.11.01
Location: Unknown
---

A rush of sensations hit you as you awaken from a deep sleep. Slowly coming to your senses, you groggily begin moving around and using stiff muscles. You find yourself lying on a very uncomfortable metal cot. It takes a moment, but you're eventually able to roll onto your side and begin getting up. It's around this time that you realize that you're wearing a strange form fitting grey jumpsuit. Standing up, you take a second to survey your surroundings.

You find yourself in a small room with stone walls and floor. A single heavy metal door is the only visible way into or out of the cell. Against one wall is the cot you awoke on and in the opposite corner is a grimy looking toilet. The single recessed fixture in the ceiling provides barely enough light for you to see many details of the furniture.

The only other thing of interest is the pile of clothing at the foot of the bed. A quick search shows that it looks like the clothing is in your size, so you presume they must be yours. You don't seem to find anything of use or value in any pockets.

After several minutes, a buzzer sounds and the door opens, leading into a larger empty group cell, similar to the one you were just in. Along one wall are 5 doors, now open, and across from them is a single door, presumably leading into the main interior of the jail.

---
OOC

Gained
ALL: Personal clothing and Grey jumpsuit

[Stekkmen]

Chris rubbed his bald head and squinted his eyes, blinking as he adjusted to the light. He slowly sat up on the metal cot, grunting as he went. Damn. His muscles were sore, his head hurt, his jaw had a kink in it. What happened last night? His face went blank for small moment. The cogs in his mind were going into overtime.

...

Yep.

That's amnesia alright.

Shit.

This is not good. He felt like he'd been a quite a few rough spots in his time, and though he could not remember anything in particular, he had a feeling his gut that this was the stickiest of the rough spots. He assured himself that metaphor made sense and glanced around the room. Clothes in the corner, probably his.

They were grey, just like this ugly jumpsuit he was wearing. A three piece suit, complete with stylish black tie. Nice. It had a few small holes, but they were hard to see. He slipped out of his jumpsuit and tossed it aside on to the floor. Feeling in his new- or, old- clothes' pockets, he felt something circular and metallic. Between his middle and index finger, when he pulled his hand out, was a double-side silver coin. Both sides of the coin were the same-- heads.

A phrase entered his mind.

"Heads, I win. Tails, you lose."

With nothing to do but wait, he shook the phenomenon away and sat casually down on his cot, crossing his right leg over his left.

After a brief way, a sharp buzzer burst from an unseen megaphone, causing Chris to jump. A door slid open. Ominous. But, hey, at least it was progress!

He took a long step outside his "cell", and it was only a moment before he had company.

[MarsAdept]

Victoria awoke from her stiff sleep slowly and angerly. Her body seemed to lag behind her mind in awakening. Her body felt semi-paralyzed. She rolled herself over and without stopping she rolled off the steel bed. She hit the floor hard. It was not a long fall but it hurt her enough to fully awaken her. She quickly jumped to her feet and checked herself over. She patted down her grey jumpsuit and straightened her hair with her hands before looking around. She saw the grey stone walls and what little furnishing that were around her. Victoria noticed the cloths at the foot of her bed. She examined them and once realizing they felt better than her jumpsuit, she began to strip off her jumpsuit.

Victoria put on a green blouse and black shorts. When the metal door to the cell opened suddenly, Victoria was still in the process putting on a earthen brown knee length skirt. She quickly finished and put on her boots. For some reason she felt a desire to see what was beyond this room, but felt she needed to be proper before leaving. Finding a scrunchy hairband in her skirt pocket, she pulled her brown hair back into a single ponytail.

Victoria burst through the threshold of her cell into the interior of the jail. Silently, she began to wander through the area. She avoided getting close to any cell doors. It was not long before she saw another person, a well dressed man. Keeping a safe distance she addressed the man, "Hell... Hello.." Her voice sounded strange to her like she had never heard it before. She gathered her condidence and tried again, "Greetings? Who are you, sir?"

@Stekkmen

[Bluetommy]

Ahras awoke with a full-body twitch. Sore all over and very stiff, he climbed from the bed and scratched his head. He felt slow, and as he climbed from the bed, he felt light-headed and was struck with a splitting headache, leaving him blind for several seconds. His clothes were form-fitting, not a good thing, he couldn't remember much, but he could remember enough to know why he hated tight clothing. Noticing a pile of clothes at the foot of his bed, he grabbed them all and threw them on, not even removing the jumpsuit.

Quickly, he became very warm, a comfortable feeling, better than the damp coolness of the cell. Speaking of the cell, where was he? There weren't many clues. The door was still closed and it was not very bright. Just as he was about to finish putting on his right boot, a buzzer rang out and the door shot open.

Ahras was not prepared for this.

It was around five minutes later that he finally crawled out from under the bed, slowly and clandestinely. He felt no desire to leave, but he knew staying would get him nowhere. Contentedly sitting on the bed would have been nice, but this was a prison, and a prison meant guards, the doors were open, so it had to be time to get out and about. Dillydallying would only get him a lecture if he was lucky, a beating if he was less lucky, and something much worse if he was unlucky.

The door was open, and it beckoned Ahras, and he felt that no matter how hard he tried to resist, he was eventually going to end up outside. So, with knocked knees and slow gait, Ahras left the room, only to find that other prisoners had left beforehand. Prisoners were bad, hell, people were bad. Hiding behind the door-frame, Ahras barely poked his head out to listen to the others conversing.

[Stekkmen]

@MarsAdept

"Chris Buckland, 'at 'cher service, madam." Chris confidently said, flipping his new found lucky coin in the air and catching it. He glanced over the unnerved woman standing in front of him. She looked younger than him, by quite a bit.

"My friends call me Buck." He adjusted his cuff links, only to find that one of them was missing. A loose thread hung from the end of his sleeve. His tight mouth turned into frown. Picking at the loose thread, Chris continued.

"...Though I ain't sure who my friends are. Or was. But, they called me Buck, I guess. So that means you can call me Mr. Buckland." He sniffed, and adjusted his awkwardly pronounced jaw, and it make a small cracking sound.

[GrizzTheMauler]

Soren grumbles as he sits up. "What the..." He rubs his eyes and shakes his head, trying to get past the daze. He gets out of the bed and checks himself. "Huh..." He spots the clothes at the end of the bed and looks throught them, noting a chain with a skull on it. "Aren't you a curious litle thing..." He puts on the clothes quickly, letting the pendant rest next to his skin, as if it makes him feel just a bit safer. Pulling on his jacket he heads out the open door, blinking away a wave of confusion.

He notices two people talking. "So... What is this place... Because I have no idea what is going on..." Soren zips up his jacket and puts his hands into his pockets.

[MarsAdept]

@Stekkmen

Victoria casually step to the side as Buck replies to her. Strategically, she puts a bench seat table between herself and him. If he attacked, he would have to hurtle a table to seize her. Confidently she addressed him, "That is acceptable to me, Sir Buckland. I myself cannot recall who is friend or Foe. I am..." Victoria paused suddenly as she struggled to push the away to fog of amnesia from her mind. "I am Victoria... I think. I cannot recall this place either. Do you have any idea how to answer for this situation?"

Victoria looked around the area while still squarely facing off with Buck. She did not feel safe here, wherever here was. Something was wrong she just could not recall what. She looked for any kind of weapon she could use or a reasonable route to escape.

Suddenly a voice interrupts the conversation. Victoria turns to face this new presense. Cautiously, she backs away from the new man putting on his jacket. She was careful to keep the table between her and Buck. "Your guess is as good as anyone's, i guess." She replies cautiously. Her eyes now swing between Buck and this new man.

@GrizzTheMauler

[Sam12435]

Deloran awoke to the sound of a buzzer and a splitting headache. He glanced around the room as he rubbed his temples, trying to get a grasp on the situation. The room was small, and he found himself wearing a rather un-flattering grey jumpsuit. Though, there seemed to be another pile of clothes on the ground in front of him. They consisted of a grey hoodie and a pair of jeans, as well as a black t-shirt.

“Now those don’t suit me at all…” He thought as he picked up the clothes. He wondered where his clothes were for a moment, before he realised that he wasn’t sure what his clothes would have looked like. In fact, he couldn’t remember much at all, apart from his name. He was understandably a little scared, but he did his best to contain himself. Panicking wouldn’t solve anything, so it was better to conserve energy than to waste it stressing. But as he took a moment to breath, he heard some people chatting from out the open door. He debated for a moment whether to put the clothes on or to simply stay with the jumpsuit. He begrudgingly donned the clothes, abandoning his jumpsuit to his bead and making his way into the room. There was a small group that seemed to have arrived here a little before him. Or perhaps he just overslept.

“Looks like I am a little late to the party. My name is Deloran, or I assume it is, its excellent to meet you all.” He glanced around the group, wondering if they were in the same situation as himself. The memory loss was a concerning idea, but there was an odd sense of déjà-vu that came with it. “So I might be presumptuous here, but considering our situation it might be safe to assume I am not the only one with a bit of a mental blank." He said, tapping his head. "But at least we don’t appear to be in too much trouble just yet.” He wondered for a moment what kind of situation could have landed them here. Did they know each other? They could be the best of friends and not even remember a thing. But he didn’t feel to familiar around them, so it might be safe to assume that he didn’t. But something seemed odd. There were five doors, but only four of them were standing in the room. He looked at the doors, and to his surprise he saw what looked like someone head just barely sticking out from the door.

“Seems we have another friend” He said as he gestured to the door. “You don’t have to hide, I don’t think anyone here plans on causing a scene” He did his best to sound friendly. Since they seemed to be stuck here, they might as well be friendly. Who knows, they might end up being useful to him at some point. He felt a little surprised at himself though, that was an awfully self-serving way of thinking. Perhaps that was the kind of person he was.

[GrizzTheMauler]

Soren shrugs. "Well, who knows what happened... I barely even know my name, I think it's Soren..." He finds a bench away from the obviously skittish woman and sits down. For some reason he doesn't feel any fear, just worry for someone, but he can't remember why or who.

[LeonVon]

Imperial Date: 2857.11.01
Location: ???, Clomia
---

Before any of you are able to continue your conversations, another buzzer, similar in sound to the one you heard earlier, goes off. The door across from your cells opens, allowing three military figures dressed in an odd black and yellow armor to quickly walk in. They carry dangerous looking rifles and take positions around the room just as a new figure, wearing a smart white suit walks in. This new man is quite large and has the look of a military officer to him. He has close cut black hair, several small scars on his right cheek, and has a finely trimmed goatee. On his right shoulder is a black and yellow triskelion symbol. On the left side of his chest is a single row of six stars, under which is his name tag reading "O. Scenay".

Scenay strides confidently into the room, receiving a quick salute from each of the guards. He walks over to the table in the center of the room and takes a second to look over each of you that are outside the cells. He seems confused for a second before seeing movement from Ahras' cell. He calls out in a deep, gruff voice. "Come on out child. I'd really rather not have to send one of the guards in after you."

Not waiting for a reply, Scenay turns his attention back to the the main group. "My name is Major Orin Scenay, Planetary Marshall here on Clomia." He lets this sink in for a second before continuing, "You lot were brought in in cryo pods a week ago with only a bag of clothing. No ID, no chips, nothing. We even did a DNA scan and didn't get any matches, just a handful of red flags for each of you, which means someone is withholding your identities." Once again, he pauses to let you absorb this information. "Now, officially I'm supposed to ship you off with the next shuttle to an Imperial Station, but I think you could be useful to me, and since I'm a nice guy, I'll give you all a choice: Either get shipped off and probably executed or imprisoned, or help me with a quick problem. If you're lucky, I might just forget you were ever here."

Scenay takes a step back and eyes you all closely, waiting for an answer.

[Bluetommy]

Ahras let out a squeak when Scenay noticed him, though he slowly left the cell as asked, listening to the man speak with wide eyes and tented fingers. Ahras twitched at the mention of his identity being withheld, he had no idea who could want to hide his identity, hell, he didn't even know why he was so terrified of everyone.

Eyeing the rest of the group with a contemptuous expression on his face, though his eyes probably betrayed at least a bit of his fear, if his actions hadn't already done that. As he heard the end of Scenay's proposition, he gulped, it seemed like he had little choice in the matter, it was either go with him or probably die.

"I-I'm Ahras, I think, I'm a pilot, if you need that, I can also fix things... I think. M-my memory's not doing too... too well." He said meekly, using what he did remember to sell himself. Hopefully he wouldn't end up having to actually fight, he couldn't help but feel terrified of fighting.

Examining the others, Ahras' eyes shifted to the bald man, perhaps even thinner than Ahras himself, he stared for a long while, studying his odd face and gangly body. He could tell that the man was something... different, someone that Ahras should be careful around. When the man's head turned his direction, Ahras averted his eyes and stared at his feet. He definitely was in a bad spot, he clinged to his jacket, pulling it closed in the front as to cover his face.

"D-do you have a scarf i could borrow?" He asked the security guard.

@LeonVon

[Stekkmen]

@LeonVon

Buck paused for a moment, and made funny faces as more people joined him.

A man with a better suit than him entered the room, called himself Deloran. A fella named Soren. Girl called herself Victoria. And a little boy called Ahras.

"You can all call me-" Buck was about to say, when another loud buzzer made him startle. A military Major, Orin Scenay, strode into the room and gave them all big a spiel.

It was all a bunch of shit.

Sent on some ridiculous mission so Mr. Goody Two Shoes over there can keep his good rep, and we get all the problems shunted right off to us. If we succeed, good for him. If we fail, we're probably dead and he doesn't lose a thing. As soon as he gets the chance, this Scenay guy is getting a permanent bath in the nearest river.

At least, that's what Buck got from Scenay's "quick problem."

"Mhm. Okay. Sure, Mister Scenay. What do you want us tuh-do that's so secret you can't just send your dogs here," He said, gesturing to the armed men, "Tuh-do it for ya? Can't afford to getcha' hands dirty?"

[GrizzTheMauler]

Soren watches the others. When the big man comes in with his guards, Soren just notes all the ways he could take tbeir rifles if something goes wrong. When Scenay said his part Soren just watches his face, studying him. When the spiel is over Soren just shrugs as a response, he would rather live than be shipped off somewhere, especially as he has no idea what he's missing, or who.

For now, Soren will do his best to survive. 'Survive, learn about what the hell I'm missing, and why I keep feeling lonely...' He just sits back on the bench, eyes scanning the others in the room, making mental notes on tics and body language.

[MarsAdept]

Victoria had continued to yield ground as more people came out of the cells. She felt a strong need to play this situation defensively until she could understanding of who, what, where, and why of what was happening around her. The who of it was more or less answered. From her first impressions: There was Mr. Buckland the honest one. There was a young boy named Ahras who was more shy. The man calling himself Deloran seemed a natural leader. Soren was still a mystery.

Victoria jumped startled as the buzzer went off. The buzzer forced her out of her thoughts and back into what was happening. She immediately turned to face the man that came through the steel door into the area. His uniform seemed to make Victoria less concerned and more safe for some reason. However, his tone of voice and attitude raised her guard again. Something was not right, but Victoria realized she would not know what was right anymore. She did not have the memories to compare with this moment. Victoria gathered the confidence to answer Scenay, "I feel my option is only to go with you, Major. The alternative does not seem to lead to anything great. I feel like I like the idea of having my head on my shoulders."

[Sam12435]

Deloran was surprisingly calm as the man came in and started offering them a choice of some rather interesting magnitude it would seem. But Deloran didn’t much notice the part where he mentioned execution, he found the withholding of identities to be far more thought provoking. Why would someone hide their identity, even going as far as hiding their DNA signature? It seemed a little extreme unless they had some kind of value. But it seemed that they had been offered a deal, one that the group was somewhat divided over.

The man with the beard raised a rather good point though, their inclusion was somewhat strange. His hypotheses at the moment was that they had, both individually or as a group, some form of skill that made them valuable to this mission. But, perhaps someone didn’t want it to happen and removed their identities and memories. It was a long shot, but it was all he had for the moment. Not that he was about to go telling people, he was the type to hold his cards close, not let anyone see what he was up to until it was important enough to tell them.

“So, I guess our options are doing what you say unconditionally and we can potentially walk free, or execution. I would like to think I am wise enough to know a good deal when I see it, but I can’t help but agree with my bearded friend here” Deloran gestured to Buck as he spoke. “Why us in particular? Oh and just out of curiosity does Cryosleep have any kind of side effects, including but possibly not limited to memory loss? I’m asking for a friend.” He said in a somewhat sarcastic tone, carefully watching Major Orin Sceany and making a mental note to look into that name if he ever did get out of here.

[LeonVon]

Imperial Date: 2857.11.01
Location: Furnuss, Clomia
---

After hearing from each of you, the Major lets his mouth turn into a slight smirk. Addressing you all he says, “I’ll take that all as agreement of sorts. I really would have hated if you’d said no. If you’ll follow me to the conference room, all your questions will be answered.” Scenay thinks for moment. “Well, most of them at least.” After that, he gives a slight nod to the guards who begin herding you all out of the room and into the hallway.

With Scenay and a guard in front, and the other two guards behind, you’re lead down a long, twisting, dark hallway away from the cells. The journey is made in silence, only occasionally broken by one of the guards growling a command or giving a shove, mostly to Buck you notice, when someone moves to slowly. As you’re walking, you notice that you seem to slowly be moving up in elevation. It seems you may have been below ground.

After several minutes, you all finally arrive in a large empty conference room. This room is much nicer than the rooms and hallways you previously were in. The walls are a nice wood and the floors, while still appearing to be stone, are smooth and covered with a nice carpet. In the center of the room is a large circular table with several finely crafted wooden chairs around it. In front of each seat is a single metal wrist band, similar to a smart watch.

Once everyone has entered the room, Scenay takes his place in front of you and the guards take positions along the walls behind you. “Please take a seat. In front of you, you will find a CIM Band. Please put it on, and yes you must wear it.” Scenay gives you all a moment to put the bands on before continuing, “Before you ask, the bands are to make sure you keep your end of the bargain. They have GPS, allowing us to track you, and they act as communicators between both us and each other. You also likely felt a slight prick when putting it on. That’s because it also provides readings on vitals.”

As you settle into your seats and adjust the CIM bands on, Scenay begins fiddling with the holo-keyboard on his personal CIM band. After tapping a couple buttons, a holographic map with three dots, on larger then the other, pops up on the table in front of you. “Let’s get started then” the Major says as he presses a final button to dim the lights. “What you’re seeing in front of you is a map of the settled part of Clomia. The larger dot represents Furnuss, the administrative center of Clomia and where we are now. The dot to the south east is Rodnok, a small mining town. I need you lot to travel to Rodnok and deal with a local troublemaker by the name of Diego Elvira. He’s a criminal with a small following and has been harassing the Empire’s assets here on Clomia. Kill him, bring him in, honestly I don’t care. Just get rid of him.” Scenay presses a button and the lights come back up and the map disappears. “I want you merry bunch of no-goods to do it because I’m short staffed and can’t leave an Imperial Outpost undermanned. As a bonus, if you fail and get killed I have one less problem to deal with.”

“Now, I’ll give you all a moment to talk things over and get accustomed to the CIM bands,” Scenay’s eyes set on Ahras for a moment, “while I go get the child a scarf from requisitions.”

---
OOC

Gained
ALL: CIM Band

Galactipedia Activated

[GrizzTheMauler]

Soren grunts and checks the thing out. "Well, looks like it'll be a party... But you guys going to give us some weapons?" Soren leans back and crosses his arms. Doing a mission like this feels normal for some reason, but that just makes him uncomfortable. 'What did I do... What kind of person am I...' The more he thinks about it, the more confused Soren becomes. But the one thing he knows is that he needs to do this mission, then find out who the hell he is...

[Bluetommy]

Ahras sat at the back of the room and watched silently, letting out a small grunt of gratitude when the major said he would leave to go grab him a scarf. Wiping up a bit of blood from the CIM card, he began fiddling with it, playing with the communicator. It was probably more like a radio that a walky-talky, though even radios had limited range. Ahras did know, however, that the signal was probably strong enough to detect them if they left even the planet.

He would have to try and crack it open once they were out of the guard's hearing range, see what was inside, hopefully that didn't set off any alarms. Placing it at his side, Ahras eyed Scenay, uncomfortable with his authoritativeness. Ahras began to feel more and more terrified, his face turning an eggshell white. He wasn't a criminal, he wasn't a murderer, he wasn't going to kill someone, he was going to have to get out, he had to leave.

"Uhh... are there any pirates in this system?" he suddenly blurted out, having no idea what he was even talking about. "I-I mean, is our uh... t-target... a pirate?" he began mentally beating himself for saying something so stupid.

[MarsAdept]

Victoria grabbed her CIM band and cautiously put it on her left wrist. She was expecting the coming prick, but when she felt it she could not stop herself from yelping in surprise. Looking up from her band she spoke, "For reasons I cannot explain, I cannot help but admiring your intent with this mission. You obviously have some expectation of success, but you have no information that would make logical justification for that expectation. If this goes badly, you lose nothing, and no one will be able to trace it back to you. If you cannot identify us, neither can your enemies. While I cannot understand why I am enjoying this tactic, but I am not pleased to be wasted in this way." Victoria's head was whirling. It was like the gears were working out something and in some way, but she could not understand why she felt like this or what her mind was trying to do.

[Stekkmen]

Buck glanced over at the kid, Adam. Aaron. Altos. @bluetommy2

His deep-set eyes were overshadowed by the overhead lighting as he looked at the kid who seemed to be way out of his league.

"No. He's a charity worker." He said, voice completely dry and without obvious sarcastic intention. He smirked and the lady he first saw, Victoria, started praising their captor for some reason. He shook his head, and turned away from the group, staring intently at a wall, running his two-headed silver coin between his fingers. Still, she was right. Scenay comes across a bunch of people with no memory or ID and he uses them as some kind of hit squad. Damn. Asshole.

Once they got out of this, he'd dedicate a small portion of his time here in the galaxy to get some good old fashioned revenge on this guy. Hell, maybe this Diego fella might be able to help them out; if he didn't shoot us first.

This CIM band would be a pain. Maybe he could fake his death and get out of Scenay's pocket and vanish back into the cosmos. There was nothing stopping this guy from shipping them all away once they completed their job. They had nothing. Buck needed some figurative cards to play on this guy, but he had jack shit.

A second or two after saying his first comment, he once again turned to the group.

"I agree with this fella." He said, thumbing at Soren. "Can't kill-a man with no weapons, now can we?"