[IC] Planet of Shadows

[Flynn]

"And that makes twenty." Flynn throws down his hand of cards and pulls all the credits on the table to his side. "Gentleman, it was lovely. And now I'm going to buy a drink with your money if you don't mind." He stands up, putting all the credits in a small bag and walks to the bar, where he finds his companion. "Well Williams. Can I buy you one more, or are you already full after your second drink?" He let's out a snicker and drops some credits on the bar. "Two more please."

It was hot and dark on the 248th level of Earth, but it was also the place the two mercenaries felt most at home. True, the drinks weren't of the greatest quality, but at least they were affordable.
Flynn and Williams just finished a job on Earth. A simple, yet well paid job.

[6slyboy6]

"So you beat some more new guys Flynn" Williams lets out a laugh and drinks from the cold beer."They gonna have to learn one day that no ones beats Flynn the master of teh Cards".he tehn takes another sip that empties half his mug."I started missing jobs like this.It's good to get paid so we can hang out here.Isn't it good Flynn?"The with a last sip to the amazement of the pub he drinks all the remainig beer with a single sip.
"So Flynn what are you planning to do next?"

The two mercenaries sat on the bars chair listening to the sounds of the place.After every mission they come here to take a slack.This place is their home after a hard day.

[Flynn]

Flynn looks in his bottle with one eye before taking a sip. "Don't know yet. We've some unopened messages aboard the Argo. Might be something worthwhile. Or not... If that's the case, I'm thinking of hitting one of the houses of Pleasure. Rather an adventure in bed then no adventure at all." He spins around on the bar chair and takes another sip. "I'm taking it you'd want to come along if there was another contract available? Ha! Of course you do. You need some bloody money after all."
The mercenary takes a last sip and slams the bottle on the bar before getting off the bar stool. He spots an angry looking alien striding towards them. "Uuuhh... And let's go quick because I may or may not have cheated on that last game." As Flynn says that 3Y3 comes flying over from under the table that he was just playing at.

[6slyboy6]

Looking at the small drone settling down near Flynn's shoulder, William looks sadly at the empty mug."Well I had fun drinkin beer round here" He than stand up taking a beer bottle off the counter."See you around next time"As the bartender swears at him he takes a sip and follows Flynn out of the bar."Hell you should stop cheating around here.They might get us banned from this place."He takes another sip and looks angry as he realises it is empty."Stupid bartender gave me an empty bottle!"He then throws the bottle towards the angry alien following them.The glass slams on the aliens thick skin."Bloody good shot If I do say so myself.Flynn my friend if you do have any other contracts I am more than willing to help.As you said money talks and I am no one to judge that.And if I may have another suggestion lets go and run because your friend got company!"

[Flynn]

Flynn looks over his shoulders to see a pack of aliens closing in on them. "Yeah, let's. Run to the industrial shaft that leads upwards and just jump into it." And with that said, he ran off as fast as possible, leaving Williams in the dust.

He ran through narrow corridors and other small streets. Whilst running he get's out a small device and pushes a button on it. The device begins to blink. He puts it away and focuses back on running. Now where was that shaft again? Was it left he-... No, right here. And with that turn he had eyes on one of the industrial shafts that were all over Earth, connecting all the different levels with each other, making them reachable by spaceships and other vehicles. He looks over his shoulder to see 3Y3 floating behind him. No sign of Williams though. He simply shakes his head, runs towards the shaft and... jumps.

[6slyboy6]

"Aye ye bastard!Where ya think your goin leaving me here?" With a vigorous smile on his face Williams starts running."Good old Flynn like I know him" Running away from the group of aliens he slaps on his chestpiece and suddenly his armor activates.The helmet's visors snap in place and the armor plates extract from their shells.He then turns back to the surprised aliens."Gentleman.We can do this one way or another.I suggest the only way good for your health.Go now.You have 5 seconds."Turned out 3 was enough to make em all flee but one.A hulking beast who just joined the now fleeing group,looks into Williams eyes."Boy aren't ya a thoughy?Good chat,but I have to go!"With that William cuts the corner and jumps down the shaft with a leap of faith,leaving the beast looking down the shaft."Wohooo!"

[Flynn]

With the screams of the engine, the Argo slowly ascends with Williams on top of it. The alien growls at him and makes some profane gesture. All that Williams does, is slowly waving at him, as to mock the alien. Your radio crackles as it comes to live. "Get in here fool. Don't want you falling off now. I'd doubt our gravity-chutes would even be able to dampen that impact." You feel the ship shaking a bit, making you lose your balance for a second. "And hurry it up!" You hear a hiss and a hatch behind you opens up, allowing you access into the ship. 3Y3 comes popping out, let's out a chirp of bleeps and whistles and descends into the ship.

[6slyboy6]

Williams slowly starts to crawl towards the hatch to get in the ship.The Argo shakes violently and he almost loses balance.A fewmeters and he is in the ship.A handful of seconds later when he enters the cockpit he is still laughing."Oh man you should have seen that guy's face.It was ridicolous.Didn't have such a good laugh in a while." With this he leasurely takes a seat. "So what next?Evil Spider monsters than need a bullet in their faces.Or a ship rescue with bikini girls?I like the second one better,eyh!" With another laugh he settles in his chair,looking at the small droid chirping around,whilst FLynn fiddles with one of the panels.

[Flynn]

He looks up from the panel and gives Williams a nod. "We'll see what we have on offer." He sits down in the pilot chair, taps some buttons and flicks a lever. A holographic display comes up, showing a bunch of messages. He taps another button and the messages sort themselves. "Let's sort on payment..." Again he taps a button and the messages rearrange themselves once more, now showing the one with the largest payments on top.
"Okay, let's take a look at what we have. Saving some hostages, blow up a facility, steal a nanovirus... Eeh... This comes rather close to your wish I suppose. Save the daughter from Joshua Grand, CEO of Plasteel Productions." He opens the messages by tapping on it and begins to read to sum it up. "Got kidnapped... Bla bla bla... 10.000.000 credits ransom asked... bla bla bla... On the jungle planet Typhon in the Armani Sector... Payment will as soon as daughter is safe. Hm." He turns around on his chair to look at Williams. "Good enough for you?"

[6slyboy6]

With a small smile on his face William asks "How old is she?" Laughing over it for a few seconds,Williams conforts himself in the chair."Joshua Grand?Who is that guy?Never heard of him.Any intel apart from bla-bla?"
From a pocket kn his chest,Williams pul out a small terminal.He downloads the file and reads it again.Then he looks up. "10 million credits." With a spin if hus chair he settles down looking at Flynn. "They offer us 500,000 if we do the job.Listen I have an idea" He then spins around again towards the Holo-Screen.He stabds up and turns it.He starts drawing and explaining."What if we go in,"convince" the guy to ask for a reasonable ransom,then kill him when he vets the money,and everything is nice and dandy.Cheap ass dad got his girl,and we got loads of money.So how does it sound?"

[Flynn]

Flynn scratches his beard as he listens to Williams plan. "While I do agree that we should earn more then that, I think our reputation is more important. If we do this job right, this mister Grand will be very grateful, and thus hire us again in the future. Besides, we can always ask the daughter for support. And it's always useful to have the CEO of one of the biggest metal fabricators in the galaxy in your pocket." He shrugs and turns back to the piloting controls and terminal. "So, te yay or te nay?" He hovers his hand above the 'accept' button.

[6slyboy6]

Williams falls back on the chair looking kinda sad. "Pres that button already.I yay." He spins around for until the chair stops.His arms hang loosely on the chairs side,and he is halfway to the floor. "Man we risk our lives to save a girl for that much money?" He slams his chair "Mr rich daddy doesn't care about his girls at all.He could easely pay that much money.But I guess teh support of Plasteel could be amazing.Hey ask them whether I can get a new Exo-Suit if we capture the bastard who keeps his girl hostage." William looks at his Suit hanging a few meters back, with slight disappointement.

[Flynn]

Flynn presses the button and a green checkmark appears on the screen. "Worth the try. I'm betting Plasteel Productions has some sort of finger in the Exo-Suit industry somewhere. But let's not demand any things before the job is done. First... We must prove our 'worth'." Flynn rolls his eyes as he says the last word and grabs the yoke. "Let's get to Typhon. If my memory serves me correct, it should take about an hour to get there." He steers the ship upwards and the Argo begins to ascend.

Higher and higher, until the Argo shoots out of the industrial shaft, leaving the 'surface' of Earth behind. The 1st level always looks so lovely. Skyscrapers everywhere, donned in white. But that wasn't their life. Further up... and up... They fly past a checkpoint in high orbit which automatically scans their ship for illegal contraband and ... they were free in space. The scanners pick up some other ships. Most of them cargo transports, delivering goods from all over the galaxy to and from Earth.

Flynn types in the coordinates of Typon, get's up and leaves the cockpit. As he passes Williams he says, "We have about an hour till we get there. Enjoy yourself somehow. I'm going to the armory. Got some tinkering to do." The door closes behind him with a hiss. If you'd look out the front of the ship, you would see a vortex of green and yellow slowly spinning around. The vortex would spin faster and faster and slowly suck the Argo in... Aaand... a flash! Now, the green and yellow color are all that is visible to see, spinning and swirling...

[6slyboy6]

William looks out the front "window" till his eyes get all funky.He never liked hyperspace jumps.he stood up and grabbed his Exo-Suit "How are you old buddy?We server well didn't we?" With that he sits back on his chair,the armor on his laps.Examining every little mechanism and pocket he sighs. "You are not as new as you were,aren't you?" He stands up and puts the armor in the locker.He plays with the idea of checking on Flynn but he gives up.He started a book yesterday before their mession,and he still has to finish it.

His mind full with the story,and where he left it,he heads for the room thats was considered his own.It was nothing more than a small cabinet that could fit a bed and a small desk.He grabbed the book on the desk and collapsed onto the bed.He was tired and the alcohol he consumed didn't help.The book mark fell out,and swearing left Williams mouth,as he tried to search for the page he was on.After minutes,he threw the book away,giving up on the hopeless hunt.He slowly fell asleep,his mind full of his armor.

[Flynn]

"Now where did I leave that soldering iron?" Flynn looks around the workbench, trying to find the iron without luck. "Where the hell is that bloody thing?" He turns around to take a look around the armory. Some spare weapons, extra armor, lots of scrap, some tossed away modifications... But no soldering iron. "Bah. I'll have to ask Williams where he left it last time."

He makes his way to his partners room and opens the door. "Hey Wil-..." Flynn sees the man sleeping and slowly backs away out of the room. He closes the door in silence and frowns. "Right. No tinkering then." He shrugs and makes his way to a storage room. "Might as well check our fuel rods and food."

[6slyboy6]

Williams runs through a field of wheat,looking at the sky.The time is young and he runs in circles,his hand skimming the crops.Few hourse later he finds a spot to sit down at after the tireful running.He feels like he is a child again,not having to worry about anything.Suddenly a flashing light wakes him up,making him fall out of the bed in suprise. "What the hell was that?" He looks out of the window,to find that they are no longer in hyperspace.He makes his bed,and slowly walk to the cockpit,yawning. "Mornin" He scretches his arms and sits down in the chair.He fiddles with some monitors with dizzy thoughts and looks at various data displayed on the bright screens before turning to Flynn. "How long have I been sleeping?I feel like a train hit me"

[Flynn]

Flynn raises his hand to Williams. "Well, it's just been an hour, and since you made the soldering iron disappear again, I've just been categorizing our storage room. Apparently we're running low Enite canisters. Might need to replenish those soon." He shrugs and focuses back on flying the ship. A small space station surrounded by some satellites could be seen from the cockpit, with behind it a green covered planet. Typhon.

A light begins to blink and as Flynn pushes the according button a voice comes through the intercom. "This is Space Station Alpha-Zeta 45. Your destination is Typhon. We are inclined to tell you that travelling to Typhon comes at your own risk. This is a rather uncharted world and might hold dangers unknown to us currently. Do you still wish to continue?" Flynn let's out a sigh and holds down a button. "We accept all dangerous and scary things that might overcome us. File ship Argo BT-X4 into your logs. We're going down." And with that said, Flynn steered the ship towards the planet.

[6slyboy6]

Williams looks out the window and watches teh breathtaking planet of Typhon become bigger and bigger.With an aw the looks at the stormy atmosphere,and the rivers that flow through the tropical jungles.After minutes,they are too close to examine the planet any longer,so Williams gives up. "Why do you suspect I made the solderin iron disappear?" With this he starts to check data on a nearby panel. "I haven't seen it in a while,now that you mention." Leaning back he start to think.He hasn't seen that piece of junk since the last mission.He closes a warning,telling them that this is incharted sector,making the entire cockpit to glow in red. "Thanks,computer we know.As said I have no idea of it's whereabouts.I haven't seen it in a while either.I'll go check quickly." With that,William stands up and leavse the cockpit.

"It is obviously not in the workshop if Flynn can't find it" mumbles to himself William,heading towards teh storage area.Whith a small sliding hydraulic sound the door opens and William steps in the storage room.He looks around the messy room."Random boxes,no.Food and Fuel,no.Enites...well Flynn is right we do need some." William picks up two canisters of Enites balancing them in both hands. "Well I guess it is not here.And not in my room either." With a small shake,the ship lands,and William goes back to the cockpit. "Didn't find it.Ready to go?"

[Flynn]

Flynn slams his hand on the dashboard. "Blast... That's the third time in two months. Where do those things keep going? Agh, whatever. We'll buy one on the space station once we leave this planet." He sighs and just as he stands up from the piloting chair, the ship starts to tilt slowly... "What the..." The cockpit is bathed in a red light as the alarms go off. "Warning, unstable ground detected. Recommend finding different landing site." Flynn twitches with his eyes as he sits down in the pilot chair once more. "Oh, geez... Thanks computer. Little late warning!"

He reignites the engines and pulls the yoke back, trying to get the ship up. The engines roar as they suddenly come to live. The roaring slowly turns into wheezing as they are pulled their limits. "Dammit!" Flynn slams the dashboard again, harder this time. "We're stuck." He scratches his patch beard as he figures out what to do. "I'm just gonna suggest we put the ship in a anti-gravity field to stop it from sinking further, and come back to this problem once the job is done. I really don't want to dig out the ship now."

[6slyboy6]

Williams shaekes his head with a small smile on his face "Flynn buddy,couldn't you look at the ground instead of the soldering iron.Anyways gonna get my Spartan,and my gear prepped.you just make sure we don't sink any further.We can take a look at the ship from outside".With that he opens the door and leaves Flynn fiddling around with buttons.He heads for the locker,where he last left his suit.The worn out locker is just by the side air wents,and as Flynn passes by he hears fain voices from somwhere.He stops and listens carefully,but hears nothing.He puts on his Spartan and puts all the weapons away in it.As he closes the door,he hears the sounds again,just as Flynn enters the Locker Room.