[IC] The Endless Struggle

[Rennac Faintheart]

Rennac was about to extend a hand to shake but soon found Reaper get up and walk away. "... pleasure to meet you too." Suddenly, the Litharian's previous words about seeing a united galaxy seemed more hollow and like idle banter. Of course, he was probably still trying to pass off as someone other than the man he had met the other night. Time to burst that little bubble. He got up and left the ship on autopilot till they arrived, moving to the preserver and grabbed two beers he had been saving for a job well done. Afterall, was a tradition after a successful battle to indulge and celebrate a bit. Wouldn't be the usual end of the hunt feast since he figured his partner would be more mild mannered. Rather not cause any severe culture shock. With a sly grin he looked over to Reaper. "Now, about that beer I owe you. Want it now or at the bar once we bag and tag Klith?" He said it with every bit of casual flair he could while also aiming for shock value, wondering how well composed Reaper would be.

[FrozenPhoenix]

Virathus was dicing up a selection of fruit when Rennac made his little remark. And when he mentioned that moment his muscles tensed and the knife dug into the cutting board, sinking in deep. He then turned abruptly towards Rennac attempting to point the knife at him, but the knife stayed behind in the board. Almost causing him to double take, but in an attempt to recover he just pointed at the Wolkar instead. "We will never talk about that day again." He then looked down at the beverage in his hands, attempting to take it one in a single falling action. "I won't be associated with a raunchous drunkard. We never will go back to that bar, and you will never sing that song again for as long as I live." His words while mean didn't really advocate malicious intent. He meant them, but he was starting to like the Wolkar.

[Rennac Faintheart]

Rennac laughed seeing the near double take thanks to the knife embedded in the cutting board and gave Reaper a shit eating grin, enjoying how embarrassed the Litharian was quickly becoming. "Well, that shouldn't be a problem. There are plenty of bars in the universe and plentiful songs to sing. Most are FAR worse than the one I sang at the bar of course. How did that verse go? Oh yes! 'Ol' Rover was 80 though his wife was just a pup, he died upon the honeymoon when she got his hackles up!'" The Wolkar was laughing merrily at the even more raunchy verse, wiping a tear from his eye. "The Wolkar enjoy what little time we have among the living. A moment wasted in sorrow is something we know only leads to a more depressing life. Live life as if there is no tomorrow, and you will never regret a day in your life." (The verse is modified from this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz9nHvmdAb4 )

[FrozenPhoenix]

Virathus had to physically hold back the urge to hit Rennac. Teh further he went with his song the urge grew. And while he had a point with teh quote after the urge continued to grow and resisting it was... ah fuck it. Virathus wound back and socked the Wolkar right in the shoulder, making sure to pack some heat behind it. "I'm done talking to you until we get to Shad-noir." And with that Virathus turned back to unwedge the knife from teh cutting board so he could finish lunch.

[Rennac Faintheart]

Rennac's look was impassive as he felt the punch and rolled his body with it, having to shift one of his feet back to absorb the impact. Regardless, he was hardly hurt from the punch. Honestly, he was almost more worried about Reaper's fist considering the Wolkar literally wore his beskad plated armor EVERYWHERE. "Heheh, fair enough. Just grunt in pain when you want a cold pack for the hand." Respecting Reaper's wishes he stayed silent for the rest of the trip short of humming or whistling a tune as he managed his gear or did some of his limited training on the ship. Soon enough they would arrive and he could consider the speaking ban over.

[FrozenPhoenix]

Virathus' hand was fine, though he did stretch the fingers and heard a few cracks, nothing serious. Knife back in hand he finished his lunch and ate it on his bed in silence. Shockingly the Wolkar respected his demands and their verbal exchanges remained low. Before long the two days in space seemed like nothing and Shad-noir was in sight. Suiting up in his full REAPER armor he went to the pilot's chair and booted up the terminal getting ready for their drop out of warp space and to resume manual control. "Wolkar, get in here! We are about to arrive." He shouted back into the hull of the ship.

[Rennac Faintheart]

The Wolkar was quick to respond, arriving in the cockpit in short order and plugged himself into the system. He had done further improvements along their journey and was confident the system would not have any negative side effects when he links in directly. As he did the computer's speakers came to life. "System link complete. Retrieving landing vectors from Shad-noir air control... Fuck it. Not gonna bribe those assholes. I'll find my own vector. Starting approach." They quickly turned and headed to a nearby landing zone, touching down shortly to have a few men coming out to meet them. More than likely concerning how they did not pay for the landing coordinates. Unhooking himself Rennac got up and donned his helm, heading down the gangway to see a fuming, though corrupt, looking traffic official come down with a few thugs. "Just WHAT do you think you're doing?! You wanna land, you gotta pay like everyone else!" The visor in Rennac's helmet lit up giving him an unseen grin, relaxing his posture. "Oh don't worry, I got that covered. Afterall, this planet is rife full of bounties to catch, including.." The Wolkar brought his wrist up to the unsuspecting official, a cold sneer under his help. "You." His Incapacitating foam quickly coated the man, solidifying in seconds while ensuring he still had oxygen. "Dino Ray, former triad smuggler. Wanted for seven counts of smuggling, two counts of murder, ten counts of grand theft auto, five counts of racketeering, and three overdue library books. Wanted Dead or Alive. Alive 1500 Cells. Dead 1000. You are hereby under arrest under the authority of the Mercenary and Bounty guilds and will be brought to the nearest office before you are sent to face justice on the worlds you have wronged. Any who interfere will be considered to be aiding and abetting and will be summarily given death marks and hunted." With Dino immobilized his guns were pointed at the two thugs, each only worth maybe a 100 cells each, and was ready to blast them. Of course, there was a hidden method to the Wolkar's madness. Start tagging bounties, and it just looks like you're cleaning the trash out of Shad-noir. This alone will have already given the two a cover story as to why they are here.

[FrozenPhoenix]

Virathus took note of Rennac's strange ways of navigating this planet. He'd never been here so it was rather odd to ignore flight control protocals. When they got to the ground he saw the thugs coming up thanks to the ships sensors and got out of his seat to reach his gear from the bunks, slinging his OMEN over his shoulder, holstering his SCYTHE, and grabbing his twin MAGNUM pistols, slapping a BURST on one and holstering it. The other one he carried with it's BURST unit out the door just in time to see Rennac spray a sort of foam on one guy and threaten the other two. "Well now that everyone knows we are here." He said in a droning tone under his helmet. He slapped the BURST Module onto his pistol and aimed it at one of the goons, pulling the mount's trigger and releasing a massive burst of dense plasma in a wide cone directing at his chest. Following that he shouted, "Get out of here!" To anybody who would still be standing.

[Rennac Faintheart]

If the two goons weren't thinking of soiling themselves at Rennac's proclamation, they certainly were when Reaper came out of the ship. The one that was shot writhed on the ground for several long moments before finally dying. The other thug quickly turned and ran for his life, a chuckle coming from under the Wolkar's helm as he set about removing the head from the fried thug. "Bit of advice. If you're gonna be able to pass as a bounty hunter, learn to keep the face intact. Becomes a hassle to have the office identify the bounties if they are unrecognizable." Rennac's plan soon fell into place. His little display and the fact that Reaper was travelling with him painted him as a newbie hunter, taken to the cesspool to hunt lower ranked targets and get some first hand experience. It was more or less a basic and well known right of passage for the bounty hunters in the guild, something few people would question. Though it was probably not what Reaper had in mind, it more than did enough to keep their purpose here shrouded. Soon enough the head was removed on the thug and he hefted up the foam encased swindler over his shoulder. "Ready to trade these in? Gonna need to get a spot in the redlight district. Right by all the known rats on the planet."

[FrozenPhoenix]

Virathus tilted his head in a curious fashion. This was the textbook definition of foreign to him and while all of these practices were apperantly normal he couldn't help his head from becoming crooked. "What a strange place." He muttered as though talking to Rennac. "One moment." He said and then went back into the ship, grabbing a pair of STILETTOs, a pair of WITNESS Packs, and a PRISM Unit. Exiting the ship he made sure the door was properly secured and locked before walking towards Rennac, gesturing towards the exit ramp.

[Rennac Faintheart]

Rennac sighed and resolved to explain the plan more thoroughly when they got a place. For now he would focus on getting their accomodations and doing the usual traditions to keep up appearances. Once Reaper came back with the gear he lead the way. "Basically, you're posing as a newly recruited bounty hunter. You've got experience in combat, but were discharged because you were a bit overzealous, like with our crispy friend here. This way, fewer questions and we can head to the usual intel spots without it seeming too odd. It's just routine to them at this point. You don't really question why you eat breakfast in the morning, right?" After a few minutes they arrived at the office, trading in the bounties before Rennac tossed a bag with the lower thug's reward. "Congratulations, you just earned your first bounty." Another short walk later and they arrived at their location, a run down looking motel in the red light district. As they entered a lizard looking woman who appeared to have some kind of addiction whistled to him. "Hello there handsome~ Decided to finally give up the hunting biz and run away with little old me?" The Wolkar had to chuckle. "Keep dreaming Ketra. Got a new recruit here for the initiation run. Usual deal." He slipped a stack of money and a datapad with a list of names, going to their usual deal. "Get good info on number 13, and I'll throw in a bonus to get you an extra fix." This made the lizard woman beam happily and ran through the list on the datapad, nothing to her but a list of deadbeats for the hunters to round up. "There's a lot of heat on number 5, but I'm sure I can beat the rush." She handed them a room card and left, leaving them to get settled. "She'll do some of the legwork for us. For now, lets get a secure connection to my people and see what they've got for us."

[FrozenPhoenix]

Virathus followed and listened to Rennac, catching the meager bag of money in one hand, looking it over. It was hardly anything, but maybe it would cover lunch tomorrow. All the while as they were walking to the Red Light District he was looking around at the terrible conditions and questionable activities that were happening wide in the open. He may have been in culture shock as his mouth was open for more scenes than not. Back on Havatk everything was orderly and just, but he just watch somebody get murdered and nobody even gave a second glance. When they got to their... home? He was even more shocked. Even the Green Barracks back in military training was this terrible, and they had to pay for it. He was debating whether or not to actually sleep in the alley, it was probably cleaner at any rate. He looked to Rennac with an extremely hesitant look, though Rennac couldn't tell due to his helmet that he refused to take off lest he catch some sort of disease. "Are we really going to stay here?"

[Rennac Faintheart]

Rennac chuckled at the complaint, nodding. "Not a five star hotel, but it is the best spot to gather info. She may not look it, but that drug addicted lizard knows how to find intel. Thats the main reason this is a typical hunter resting spot. And if she can find our man, she'll have earned what we would pay at one of those stuffy high rate hotels easily. Also, the only major hotels here are attached to casinos. Those are filthy for a whole different reason." They soon got to their rooms and took a look inside. At the very least it seemed like there was an effort to keep this one clean. Another chuckle came from under Rennac's helm. "Heh, you're in luck though. Seems Ketra is still trying to impress me enough to run away with her. Just in case though, better to sleep with your armor on."

[FrozenPhoenix]

Virathus continued to follow Rennac through the motions of this new world, still appalled by the sights and sounds. When they got to their... "room", he was disgusted. True, it looked better than the hallway leading to it, but this still looked to be a bigger mess than even the most rundown Litharian home. "Don't worry, I hadn't planned on removing my armor." He said unslinging his OMEN. Though as he was about to set it down, he desided to try and find a cleaner spot for his prized weapon. Then tried again, and again, and again, and again. This persisted for probably about two minutes before, "Hey hand me that foam thing of your's."

[Rennac Faintheart]

Rennac couldn't help but chuckle seeing the Litharian trying to find a clean spot for his weapon, shaking his head at the request. "My armor's gear only works when it's attached. Lets me clean them easily while keeping marks from trying to take pieces off and fire them at me. Just point to a spot you like and I'll cover the spot. Though I am surprised a bit of filth is enough to wig you out. True, don't exactly enjoy it myself, though it apparently doesn't annoy me as it does you."

[FrozenPhoenix]

Virathus shook his head at Rennac's words. It was true, normally dirt doesn't bother him, "Dirt doesn't bother me, it's the dirt on this world. This entire place makes my scales crawl." With that he pointed to a far corner of their room, "Make sure you get good coverage, I don't want that mold creeping in over the night."

[Rennac Faintheart]

Rennac removed his helmet and set it aside, moving a bit closer to the specific corner and giving it a liberal coating of the foam. True, Ketra won't be thrilled, but he could clean it up easily enough. "Heh, what? You biased against the dirt here? WHat makes it different from the filth on your world? What are ya, a filthist?" The smirk on Rennac's face showed he was just teasing, passing time until they got their list of leads. Though it was mostly random bounties, a good number were likely contacts and arms dealers Klith would logically contact should he try to hire protection or try and get his own operation set up.

[FrozenPhoenix]

"Hey call me what you will, but there is a difference between dirt and grime nature makes and dirt and grime people make. And these people seem to be quiet adept at making the worst kind of filth." He said back, snapping somewhat. When he saw the amount of foam Rennac sprayed into the corner he stopped the Wolkar by grabbing his arm, maybe a tad too forcefully. Shaking his head he attempted to aim the Wolkar's arm and spray more into the corner. To be fair, the original amount was probably more that what a normal person would have called necessary, but not Virathus. Overkill was the only way to survive this Hell hole.

[Rennac Faintheart]

Rennac's chuckling subsided as he felt Reaper hold his arm in place, clearly wanting him to keep spraying. He kept going for a time before turning to Reaper. At this point he was growing legitimately concerned that Reaper suffered from a form of OCD. "You mind? I love overkill as much as the next hunter, but I'd like to still have some foam left for bringing Klith in."

[FrozenPhoenix]

Virathus stopped using the Wolkar as a sort of builder gun and returned the arm to it's owner. "This place is going to kill me." He muttered solemnly walking over to his new "clean" corner setting his gun and gear down, sitting down on the foam as well to avoid having some sort of fungus begin growing on his armor.