[IC] Starfire

[Crazy Doctor]

Alina was in the process of dealing with new fighters when she heard her comm system crackle. She listened to the orders over her comm system. ”Everyone outside, disengage and land your ships in the Alamo. A ceasefire’s been called so I want you to follow the Babylon so we can finally drop off all this ore.”

She steered the Black Comet in line with the Alamo's entrance before blasting in, swivelling the jets to stop her seconds before crashing. Unarming most of the weapons she printed a list of ammunition she needed to replace and placed it in her pocket. Getting up she went into the armoury and picked up her rifle and pistol. The ladder of the Black Comet rolled down as Alina stood on the bottom rung. As she stepped onto the floor of the hangar with a loud clang she looked around uncertainly, her finger hovering over the trigger of the rifle. Walking toward the only door she opened it and stuck her head out. "No one here. Better I stay with the Comet." Her mutters would be barely audible as she turned around and reentered her ship. Sitting down at the table she fished out the sheet of ammunition she required. Staring at the paper she fell asleep sprawled on the table.

[Zetsuko]

Following the capture of the pirate's captain, and their subsequent surrender, Jaydaar had to have his ship towed out of the pirate's ship and dragged back into the Alamo. He was currently atop it, clambering around as he made repairs. Eventually the ship that had come to support them during the fight flew into the hanger, slowing to a stop and disarming it's weapons before landing. Jay looked over as a girl came out of the ship and looked through the the hanger's door before returning to her ship. "hmm" Jay looked on for another moment before going back to making repairs on his ship. until a message came through about jobs again, he looked over the two choices and opted for the the heist mission rather than the assassination, since his skills as an engineer would certainly be more useful there.

[Lady Seraphina]

Eight's brain was shaken out of self diagnostic mode by an almighty crash. He opened his eyes. The T-40 was just as he'd left it, deactivated. Johanna Hawkins on the other hand was not. She lay on the ground several feet from the battle droid only semi-conscious. Eight's foggy brain identified the sound that had awakened him as a rupturing plasma conduit. He could picture in his mind, with no instructions from him to guide in the safe deactivation of the T-40 Johanna Hawkins had instead taken out her weapon and shot it. Eight could almost see the plasma relay next to the flow control bursting as it was hit.

Eight looked around with difficulty but Krull was no where to be seen. It was up to him to get them somewhere safer than this while the fighting abated. Eight struggled to his feet making a mental note as he did so to never activate an EMP device while he was in range. He felt truly terrible. Despite this however he managed to make his way over to Johanna. The fighting was still going on, if they were to survive in there present condition they needed somewhere to hide.

Eight would have taken her to the medical bay, somehow pirates never seemed to expect there to be people there during a raid, only after. However as the Babylon IV was both a small transport ship and generally considered disposable by the company that contracted it, it did not actually possess a dedicated medical facility.

Instead Eight hobbled over to Johanna, though he was weakened Eight's skeletal and muscular implants granted him greater strength compared to unaltered humans. He still had the strength to carry Johanna. With her in his arms Eight hid them both in one of the storage rooms of the Babylon. It was almost an hour before the Captain's voice was heard over the intercom system of the three ships calling for a cease fire.

When the Babylon landed on planet Eight picked Johanna up again and carried her over to the Alamo. He could feel several of his implants deactivating to consider power. He needed to return to the Aurora for a regeneration cycle rather soon. Eight took Johanna to the medical bay on board the Alamo and left her in the capable hands of Starfire doctors. Then he returned to his ship. As he entered the cargo bay he spotted several other fighters most with there pilots doing maintenance.

If he had been in peak operating capacity his mind would have almost instantly categorized each of the ships present but he was in no state for that at the moment. Instead Eight released the lockout on the Aurora and stumbled into the small medical bay that housed his regeneration unit. He instructed the computer to run a complete realignment cycle which lasted eight hours instead of his usual six. As the Aurora's computer systems zynced with Eight's neural circuitry a wave of emptyness and calm sweap over him. regeneration was the closest thing Eight ever got to peace.

[Guess Who]

Both the Alamo and the Babylon landed on parallel landing decks outside the factory that would turn the raw Oppenheimium ore into the core component needed for Faster-Than-Light Drives. Meanwhile, John made his way to the edge of the platform and took a seat, hanging his legs off the side. Using the datapad on his forearm, he pulled up the requisition log on one tab and his personal credit log on another. Having successfully delivered every ounce of ore the Babylon was carrying, John watched as the number representing his current currency owned quickly rose. John nodded and pulled up the requisition tab again. Repairs to the ship and ammunition for already owned guns would all be taken care of by Starfire, anything else would needed to be specially ordered and would take a pretty sizable chunk out of the mercenary's hard earned credits.

"Hmm, I already I have all I need," he said as was about to close the tab. Before he could do so though, a certain word caught his eye. "'New member is on his way'?" he repeated. "We got another newbie? Well here's to hoping he has some experience." Having finished reading the requisitions log, John placed his datapad on Sleep Mode and watched the sky for any incoming Starfire dropships. Truthfully, he was more excited with the idea of being able to replenishing his supply of ammo than a new member to the team, but if whoever this Yoko person was could handle themselves he'd do his best to get along with them.

[Trevor1001]

Yoko was resting with his back against the wall as the ship was flying towards his new place of work. He didn't mind sitting in the back like some piece of cargo but being alone with nothing else to do sucked. I should be arriving soon so I just need to hold on tell then. Soon the ship started it landing sequence and parked inside of the hanger. Grabbing his bag he waited for the back to open and made his way off of the ship.

[Crazy Doctor]

Alina woke up as they landed outside the factory. Her hand immediately had drawn her pistol but she holstered it as she saw that it was nothing. Muttering to herself about finally meeting John Mason she grabbed her weapons again before descending once more out of the Black Comet.' She ran out of the opened hangar doors of the Alamo and spotted the figure sitting on the edge of the landing platform. Marching over she saluted him before calling in a soldiers voice, "John Mason, Alina Mersenne reporting for duty with the Black Comet. I am yours to command." She pulled her gun to her chest before looking down at the masked leader. Her own tactical eyepiece x-raying the helmet to show a human skull inside. "I was told i need to sync my data pad with yours to get updates on missions and for payment." She held up her data pad waiting for him to offer his back.

[Guess Who]

If it wasn't for the helmet blocking her view, Alina would have seen John looking her with raised eyebrow. The very formal and military-like way she spoke was definitely unexpected. Whatever. Let's see what she wants. "At ease, ma'am," he said after giving a light sigh. John then rose from his sitting position so that he could look at her without having to strain his neck to look behind him. And I was just getting comfortable, too. At the suggestion to sync up datapads, he pulled up his wrist and began typing away to begin the process. Just like everything in this world, the action was wireless and the information passed from his datapad to hers without trouble, though because his model was a lot older than most it took a couple minutes. "There you go, miss. Everything you need: communication frequencies, access to your pay, information on our next job, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Is there anything else you need?"

If Alina were to check her datapad, she'd see she received the exact same information everyone else received for their choice of the next mission, which she would be able to decide on just at the press of a touch screen or hard-light holographic display depending on how recent her datapad's model was:

Corporate Sabotage

Pakhan Xena Nova may be the leader of a very dangerous group of criminals, but that doesn't mean that everything she does is illegal. Case in point, she's a major shareholder in a major banking and financial services holding company. Many times the Mota Clan has tried to find some kind of dirt to bring the company down, but to no avail. So we've been hired to bring it down a different way. Stealing everything of value in their vault. The Mota Clan hopes that no one will trust the bank with their money anymore and the company will end up going under. So, you want to pull off a bank heist?

Assassination

This job sounds pretty simple. The Mota Clan has sent one of their higher ups to make a deal with some politician and we're supposed to kill that guy before he makes whatever the deal is. The problem is that that politician is the lord of Tharvis so he's going to be very well protected and, needless to say, so will our target. Sitting at a window across the street until we get the perfect shot isn't going to be possible, so we're going to have to break in and get our hands dirty.

[Crazy Doctor]

Alina saw as her holographic data pad show the two options for the missions. Her tactical eyepiece increasing the privacy, making the holograph only visible to her eyes. She read the stream of information, the description of each mission, before selecting the 'Corporate Sabotage.' Both types of operation types had been covered in her training in the Corps but the corporate Sabotage mission would be less dangerous, meaning she would live longer.

In response to John's question she nodded, "Where can we get ammunition. Specifically specialised military armament ammunition." After she got the answer she went back into the Alamo and into the Black Comet. Sitting backdown she checked and double-checked her weapons making sure they were all in optimal condition. She tested her X-nav system and all her weapons on the ship before going back to the main room. Grabbing another MRE she started to eat, waiting until the next mission.

[Trevor1001]

Yoko watched as Alina gave a formal introduction that would belong more in the military then a place like this. He approached John as the girl left and got his attention. "Hello, John. My name is Yoko and I'm your new hacker." He put his bag into his left hand and put out his right hand to shake his. "That Alina girl looks a little out of place with that greeting she gave."

[Guess Who]

When Alina asked where she would be able to acquire more ammunition, John simply pointed to the Starfire dropship that had just landed. "Should be in one of the crates in there. If you can't find the specific ammo type you need than it's probably not very common, meaning there are two ways to go about getting it. Option one, you special order it. You'll have to pay for it though as well as wait for the next shipment which will most likely not arrive until after we finish our next mission. Or option two, you buy it from one of many vendors located throughout the city of wherever you're at, in this case the creatively named Tharvis City of the planet Tharvis. You can tell they worked hard on coming up with that name. It'll be even more expensive, but you'll get it immediately," he explained. Once Alina walked away, John turned back around to resume sitting on the edge of the platform.

As soon as he did so though, he heard his name called yet again. John let out a heavy sigh as he got back up. I just sat down, goddammit. Once he was up, he looked at the anthropomorphic fox with a completely neutral expression, covered of course by his helmet. Y'know, when you end up having to work with a human-sized, bipedal, talking skunk and are completely unsurprised in any way by it, that's when you know you've seen some shit. Sticking out his hand to complete the hand shake, John replied, "Yeah, but a lot mercenaries usually get hired because of their prior military service so I'm not too surprised that we've got someone like her. In fact, I'm more surprised that we don't have more people like her on our team." After finishing the greeting, John pulled up his arm and began typing into his datapad. "I'm assuming you need your datapad synced up as well or was HQ a bit more prepared when they sent you here?"

[Trevor1001]

Yoko chuckled a bit. "That is true. I'll probably be one of the few here without actual military experience." He pulled his hand back after the greeting. "When I was accepted I made sure to get up to date information. So no need to risk burning out your datapad with trivial stuff like that. What are the living arrangements like? Are they solo or do we have roommates?" After he got his answer Yoko looked around quickly and lowered his voice. "Is there a place we can talk without anyone else hearing?"

[Zetsuko]

Jaydaar was still looking over his ship when they landed, making sure if he needed to replace anything, so far it wasn't much more than some of the hull and a capacitor for the shielding. He turned around when he heard footsteps to see that same girl running out of here ship, presumably to meet John, he almost forgot they they'd picked up new people, He'd half to meet them later. He went back to examining his ship, only looking over his shoulder as the girl returned and went back into her ship across the hanger. He only had a few panels to check under before he was finished, but as he opened one of them he found that the pirates from before had a similar idea to John and found himself face-to-face with an armed explosive with the words Fuck you written on the front. Jay reacted by slamming his forearms together in front of him and managed to shout "OH YOU SONOFA-" before he was cut off by the explosion and sent flying across the hanger. He let out a yelp when he hit the wall, though thanks to his shield he didn't have any real major injuries, mostly bruises, a dislocated arm, and a lot of pain...thank the spirits for Illyrian shield tech. He coughed and tried to drag himself up into a sitting position. The aftermath of the explosion only really left the front right of his ship in ruins and mostly scorching all around, it wasn't a very powerful bomb at least.

[Guess Who]

John crossed his arms and put most of his weight on his right leg as he listened to Yoko's questions. "Don't worry, everyone gets their own rooms. I know I personally could not put up with having someone else sharing my room," he answered. Yoko then seemed to give any surrounding team members a suspicious glance before lowering his voice to a whisper and asking if they could talk in a more private location. What's so bad he wouldn't want anyone else to know?... Better question, what makes him think he can trust me? Because I'm the unofficial leader? Because I've done so well at keeping my own identity a secret? Maybe that's what he's interested in asking? He is a hacker, and most hackers I know are usually pretty obsessed with information gathering.

"I guess we could go to your assigned room. Knock out two birds with one sto-" he said before being interrupted by a sudden explosion. His experience quickly kicking in, John raced off to the direction he had heard it, one pistol drawn as he approached the Alamo's hangar. Turning the corner, he scanned his surroundings and realized that the danger had passed. "The repair drones that Skunk Man over there arrived with should be able to fix your ship as well if you want," John said as he held a hand out to help Jaydaar up off the ground. "Good thing your lizard tech is so advanced. I don't think you would have survived otherwise."

[Trevor1001]

Yoko smiled at the news of having his own room. No more cramped sleeping spaces with dirty, smelly mercenaries. The smile faded when an explosion went off near by. He started running after John with his weapon drawn and at the ready. Scanning the area turned up no threats but there was an Illyrian on the floor and a smoking ship. Yoko put his gun away and went over to his new teammate as John went to help him up. "Skunk Man? Really? I'm a mixed blood Yasumichi." Tho he wasn't happy with being called a skunk it wasn't the worst thing anyone has called him.

[Crazy Doctor]

Alina had just placed the first spoonful of her MRE into her mouth when the explosion happened. She dropped the pouch and the spoon onto the table where the thick mush splattered everywhere. Grabbing her rifle, while getting out of her chair, she ran over to the door and jumped out, not bothering to wait for the retractable ladder. A quick roll to get rid of the force from the fall and she was on knees, finger on the trigger of her rifle ready to shoot. Muttering slightly about wasting food she looked around normally.

The rifle butt to her shoulder she looked through her eyepiece for signs of heat. Four hotspots showed in her field of view, three humanoid and one large one from the front end of a ship. Turning off the heat sensor she stepped forward, gun still raised searching for threats. No threats on sight she lowered her weapon before releasing a held in breath. Muttering the whole way about attacks and false alarms, she walked over to the John, the lizard-man and the fox-man. Stopping her muttering quickly she glanced at each of them quickly. "What was the cause of the blast? Are we being attacked? Where do you want me?" Her finger wiggled with nervous energy near the trigger, a tad to close to the trigger for comfort.

[Abillioncats]

Johanna let out a small groan as she opened her eyes. Her vision blurred as her eyes adjusted to the light around her. She lying in a bed, but she wasn't in her room. It was...the medical bay, on the Alamo. Had something happened to her? She was having a hard time remembering, and thinking in general. As she slowly became a bit more awake and alert she noticed her right arm was bound in a cast and held in place with a sling. She realised she must have broken it. As she thought about it the memories slowly began to return as she remembered the fighting the pirates, shooting a the T-40...and the cyborg! Was he okay? What had happened? She had a lot of questions, but before she could even think to look around for someone to ask she began to feel the pain from her injuries.

Her arm hurt something fierce, but what was really aggravating was her head, she had the mother of all headaches, she felt incredibly disoriented as the room spun around her, her ears were ringing, and to top it off she was having trouble focusing her thoughts, as if her mind was in a fog. She knew she must of hit her head pretty bad, but she couldn't remember it happening. Everything that had happened after she'd fired on the maintenance cover was a confused blur. She had faint memories of being carried, but she couldn't make sense of them, or remember who it was. It was frustrating.

She let out another groan of discomfort as the pain in her head spiked. It caught the attention of a nurse and she came over and began to speak to Johanna, asking how she was feeling. Johanna slowly looked towards the nurse, barely registering that she was being spoken too. "It hurts...", that was all she managed to choke out as the nurse injected something into the catgirl's arm via an IV. Soon the pain began to ebb away, and Johanna started to feel good instead. She became even drowsier and decided to close her eyes as she dozed off.

[Zetsuko]

Jay looked up and accepted John's hand and got up. He stumbled for a moment and put a hand on John's shoulder to steady himself "yeah, ack It still hurt though" he said, wincing as he brought his arm back and popped his shoulder back in place "if we got some drones with the new guy that'd be grand" he looked at the Yasumichi and nodded his head as a way of greeting "i think i'm gonna go sit down for a moment" he nodded to the girl as he walked toward his ship, heading up to one of the worktables and clearing of the few things on it before flopping down on his back upon the table.

[Guess Who]

John gave a shrug as Yoko corrected him on his real race. "Sorry, never heard of them," he said as he supported Jaydaar off the col, hard floor. Suddenly Alina burst around the corner, rifle raised and ready to fire. John ducked slightly at the sight of a gun now being pointed in his general direction, especially as she had her finger resting on the trigger. He had to fight every instinct he had to not punch the woman in the face. Once Jaydaar was able to walk on his own, John quickly made his way to Alina, grabbed the barrel of her gun, and almost yanked it out of her hands with how quickly he pushed it away. "I thought you were in the military. Didn't anyone teach you the basic rules of firearms!? Number one, always treat a gun as if it's loaded. Number two, be aware of what's behind your target. Number three, always keep your firearm unloaded until ready for use. Number four, always keep your firearm pointed in a safe direction. You broke rule number five though, always keep your finger off the trigger until you're ready to fire!"

John's rage was practically boiling now and he realized it, so he left before he did anything he would regret. If Yoko still wanted to talk to him in private as well as get that tour of the Alamo, he would find John waiting at the edge of the platform like he did when they first met.

[Trevor1001]

Yoko was a little surprised he has never heard of his race. Before he could respond the girl from be before rush in and pointed a gun at them. Thinking quick he dived behind the closest thing that had a chance of stopping a bullet. Then John started yelling at her and he sounded pissed. Yoko came out from behind his cover, watched him lay into her and then walked off. "I think you should take some time a relax. Without your guns near you." Yoko started walking towards where john was at. Even if he thought he needed more time to cool down he still needed to at least know where his room was at. Stopping behind him and to his left Yoko gave a greeting. "Hello, sir. Can you still show me around?"

[Guess Who]

It's a good thing John never takes his helmet off, otherwise Yoko would have clearly seen the rage in the man's eyes. When Yoko asked to be shown around the ship though, John calmed down and let out a heavy sigh. "Yeah, sure thing, man," he said as he rose and made his way toward the Alamo.

The tour was not long, mostly because of the guide's lack of explanation. For every room they walked by, John would usually only give the name of it before continuing to walk. Engineering. Armory. Bridge. Galley. The only room that he gave any information on was the med bay where Johanna was recovering from her injuries. "Med bay. Just like the almost everything else here, it's completely automated. Even the doctor is really a machine. It just looks human to make patients more comfortable. If you don't believe me, have a closer look. 'Her' skin even looks artificial," he explained, putting "her" in air quotes for extra emphasis. Finally, John showed Yoko to his room. "And this is your room. Well, that's the end if the tour. Need anything else?"