--Space Pirates-- IC

[Stalzyn]

The Hades

General Luke Drag stood staring through the window pane at the cosmic beauty of the universe. One looking at Luke would think he was enjoing a pleasant view and was probably relaxing. Alas it was the opposite. The earthling was worried, his days as a general had been uneventful, he'd failed in many tasks and missions, lost so many crew and weapons and waisted lots of funds.
Not that it was entirely his fault though though, they were just too smart and evasive. I mean how would one expect to catch a genius with a similar IQ of an AI like Clarke Darwin, or a sophisticated weapon like Allison not to talk about the one time Alliance Universal Assassin Brandon Phobos, and now, now there was a fucking xeno-archeologist on the loose.
A whooshing sound on a small flat disc at the middle of the SB drew Luke's attention.
"General, we've got the court online." Cassie Rey a genius in her own right alerted. Her fingers ever ready on the screen keyboard.
"Let then through." Luke said

 

[Rpkitten]

"I-I-I d-d-don't appreciate having m-m-my mind altered. You're going t-t-to stop whatever is you're d-d-doing, or I'm going to r-r-reduce you to a sm-sm-smoldering pile of g-g-goo."

"What? I~ I never..." Nima's face recoiled from the man, feigning innocence but genuinely surprised that he could detect the seemingly undetectable. Perhaps these humans were more sensitive to felinoid projection fields than she ever guessed, or in her moment of haste she had applied the field too liberally. Regardless of how he detected her, he had... and now she had this situation to deal with.

Just then a woman at the table next to them interceded with a well-paced bulled and pacifistic remark about avoiding violence. Wasn't this the same woman who a minute ago shot a man in cold blood and tossed his remains into the airlock? The inexplicable human trait of sarcasm, she surmised.

There was a longer exchange between the two... lots of macho posturing and nearly incoherent babbling. Nima took advantage of the seconds she had been afforded to tighten the projection field around her -- it should be sufficient to disperse a discharge from an energy weapon. Two if she was lucky or Twitchy's aim was bad.

Just when she was on the verge of springing for the door and rushing away with no plan at all, the deranged monkey-man said something that caused the tuft of her right ear to poke up from under her hood.

"You'd b-b-be worthless as a lab a-a-assistant, but you seem l-l-like a capable s-s-solider. If I could f-f-find a research assistant, m-m-my expedition c-c-could begin within a week."

Ching-wah tsao duh liou mahng Nima silently cursed in another of the monkey languages she had mastered. One that had a certain phonetic lilt she found pleasant for expressing annoyance or frustration.

Was she really going to do this? There didn't seem to be any other options save for "Plan C". And she didn't want to move to Plan C unless she absolutely had to.

"Excuse me, Mister Doctor-Professor?" the catgirl smiled warmly and nudged herself into their exchange. She lowered her arms and took a more conversational posture. "It appears we can all help each other here. I'm an academic and well-versed in how to conduct proper research. All I ask for is safe passage." She, of course, had no ambitions of being this madman's assistant, but if this was the ruse required to get her the Hell out of here, then so be it. "I can aid your studies and your armored... friend... would excel at ensuring your studies are no longer disturbed.

"It is a win-win scenario, as your people say." Her head turned, taking in the room and the scene they had created. "But we should move swiftly," she advised with tilt of her hooded head for emphasis.

 

[Stalzyn]

The Hades

A t-D.H.S.C.T.L (tri-Dimensional Holographic Satelite Communicative Time Loop) appeared on a small disc on the Strategy Board (SB). The hologram showed the seven creatures, only one seemed humanoid, sitted around a round table. The apparent leader spoke up first.
"General Luke Drag, we've reviewed your performance in the last four years you've been in control of the Alliance army. And sadly enough we've found more failures than success to your name."
Another council creature piped in, "as is protocol, we're going to list down all your failures and weigh them to your success."
And then another took up the mantle, "Five years ago, an agent of ours gone rogue Brandon Phobos, infiltrated Alliance Artillery Bank on Mars and stole the Pineal Eye. Your mission was to kill this man but you failed. Luckily for us he'd had an amnesia and had not been heard of since."

 

[Stalzyn]

"Another misguided agent of ours Clarke Darwin left our field on nearing a breakthrough on a data pad we gave him. On a project we funded. Again you've failed to capture this man or retreive the data pad." the fourth council creature continued.
Luke had had enough of the biratings, he bursted out.
You seem to have forgotten that Clarke Darwin is the same man that invented the t-D.H.S.C.T.L, he was among the scientists that worked on the Hades, more than fifty percent of the Alliance weapons were created or inspired by him. How the hell do you expect me to get hold of such a man."
"Need i remind you your place Mr Drag?" the fifth asked angrily.
"I am sorry. My Lords." Luke apologised now on one knee.
The tirade of blames and errors went on till the first council humanoid looking creature spoke again. "And because of these, you're hereby relieved of command over the Hades. General Mart Vladingra is to take over the operation and the ship." with that the hologram disappeared.

 

[Stalzyn]

General Mart Vladingra, Commander of the Hades

"And you're to return to Lycan ASAP where you shall face the full penalties of failure." Mart said entering the command center with four H.I.W.As (Humanoid Imprinted Weaponised Androids) behind him. He gave a slight nod and two moved to escort the old commander out of the Hades.
"I'll gladly leave this fruitless pursuit. Do you think you'll do better in my place. It won't be long before you come share my fate. Or face even worse." Drag said then cackled.
Mart confidently walked up to Drag wearing a sly smile. "The difference between you and i is that while you plan before acting, i analyse before planning. Have a nice day Mr Drag."
***
***
Moments later.
"Where're we headed general?" the chief pilot asked. Mart threw his gaze from the by-the-books junior officer. Cassie Rey as she was called has unknowingly kept his mind occupied ever since he stepped into the Hades. He must move thoughts from her, from all whims of pleasure to allow clear thinking till the mission is complete

 

[Stalzyn]

"Set course for earth's natural satelite. Minutes ago HQ picked up felinoid's bio signature entering a space bar on the moon." then on second thought he quickly added. "No set course for Neptune axial 63.5.4. We'll use the jump point there and in less than 30 mins we'll be on the moon."
"Yes sir. Ofcourse." the chief pilot replied, happily to be working with someone who knew what he was doing.
Mart turned his attention from the screen to Cassie again, her looks, her innocence, they appealed to him, intrigued him, aroused him. He wanted to talk to her, know her, hold her.
She turned and caught him staring, not knowing what to do, Mart sheepishly smiled and turned away. He was a master strategist in war. Not in matters of the heart.

 

[Rpkitten]

Lt.(jg) Cassie Rey watched the exchange between her commander and the council in professional silence. She could see where this was heading a lightyear away, even if Drag could not. When the conversation reached its conclusion and the general was escorted away, she tossed him a sympathetic smile and slight wave farewell from her delicate hand. A farewell for her commander and now-former lover that showed the longing in her heart.

Thank God I'm done with that fool, the young lieutenant thought a nanosecond after the door slid closed. An idiot when in his uniform and an unimaginative bore when she got him out of it. He will not be missed.

With the charade over, she resumed her professional demeanor, raven hair pinned up, glasses perched atop her delicate nose and not a wrinkle or stray crease to be found on her skirted naval uniform.

~~~~~

If there was one certainty about the military it was the machine never stopped for anyone. One cog in the machine breaks and is promptly replaced with a new one. In this case, the new cog was a tall humanoid man with a mane of fiery hair and crimson eyes. Eyes that seemed to find their way back to her at every opportunity.

"Sir?" she asked the general and lowered the datapad she had been reading. "Do you need me for something?" she asked, deep emerald eyes twinkling behind the lens of her glasses.

 

[Stalzyn]

"Sir?" she said looking up from her pad. "Do you need me for something?"
There were many things he needed her for, more than 50% of it was unprofessional.
[COLOR="Deep Red"]"What field do you operate in lieutenant?"[/COLOR] he asked instead.

 

[Rpkitten]

"What field do you operate in lieutenant?"

"Administrative, sir. I was your predecessor's yeoman. So literally whatever you require is my field," she answered before adding "Strategic Forecasting was my Academy MOS." And Forecasting was where she expected to be once she got another gold bar or two pinned her uniform.

 

[Stalzyn]

"Strategic Forecasting. You'll really be useful to me." before turning to the screen, Mart gave her his first instructions.
"I want a list of all ships currently docked on the moon and the captain of each. Call the center on the moon. Every unregistered ship must not be allowed to leave till i have given word."
If Nima was in the space bar, that means she was looking for a ship that'll take her out of the sector. Only a pirate ship will accept her since all captains has been warned about the traitor. Only an unregistered ship.

 

[Rpkitten]

"I want a list of all ships currently docked on the moon and the captain of each. Call the center on the moon. Every unregistered ship must not be allowed to leave till i have given word."

"Aye, sir," the young lieutenant said dutifully with a fetching grin towards her new commander as she turned for her station. Her training in Strategic Forecasting predicted she'd be in his bed within a week. One cog breaks, and is replaced with a new one.

 

[SlySparrow0003]

"Agreed, but I warn you, this armor is very important to the alliance, and I have a AI, very very classified, and very useful to the alliance. Many have tried to capture me for the armor and AI, but have failed. The AI is linked to me and will do no good if I'm dead. So to answer your question, yes they are hunting me down, but have failed. And will always fail. Now, it would be most wonderful if you would restore my systems." Allison said the last sentence with a hint of sarcasm.

"I cannot tell you my name here. But I reckon, you get this feline women aboard too, she's desperate, as you have seen, and has the looks of someone that has been running. And who would run from but the Alliance? Tell me Nima, why are you running?"

 

[Rpkitten]

"Tell me Nima, why are you running?"

"Just a simple misunderstanding is all. I've found your Alliance tends to overreact when it comes to non-humans." Nima left it at that -- no way was she going to talk openly about her issues in a public bar. Especially one populated by thieves and scoundrels.

 

[SlySparrow0003]

"Right, well I understand. Smart. I would take off my helmet but uh I can't move, unless scrawny will fix my systems. A unmoving soldier, isn't to useful, you agree?" Her serious tone mixed with sarcasm.

 

[Othermoose]

Darwin stood up and began to tinker with Allison's armor as he considered Nima's offer. He'd have to test her academic skill, of course, but he couldn't be too picky right now. It would be hard to find anyone near Darwin's level of intelligence, and our here... Well out here he'd take what he could get. "Th-th-there. Your armor is in w-w-working order now. I-I-I also saw some im-im-improvements I could make t-t-to your suit if we have the t-t-time." Darwin said returning to his seat and grabbing a data pad.

Darwin pulled up a short test that would determine if the feline woman could keep up with him in a lab, several advanced scientific questions, and a few equations, all of them created by Darwin himself so there was no room for cheating. "I-i-if you c-c-can pass this t-t-test, I'll allow you t-t-to travel with me. The test w-w-will show if you have enough academic kn-kn-knowledge to be beneficial to m-m-my research." Darwin says handing the data pad to Nima. "A-a-and don't worry. If you're w-w-what you say, the test sh-sh-shouldn't take you t-t-too long." Darwin said.

 

[Rpkitten]

"I-i-if you c-c-can pass this t-t-test, I'll allow you t-t-to travel with me. The test w-w-will show if you have enough academic kn-kn-knowledge to be beneficial to m-m-my research."

Nima frowned but accepted the datapad anyway. This was exactly the kind of nonsense she didn't have time for. Fortunately, this wasn't going to take as long as she thought.

"These are trick questions," she said and handed the pad back to the man. "Minovsky's third law forbids it and nothing 'unreal' exists."

 

[SlySparrow0003]

As soon as Allisons systems came back, she checked with Omalie, "Omalie, you good?" Omalie's tiny holographic projection appeared. He looked like the armor she was wearing, but purple, and holographic, and in male armor. And was about as tall as her ankle. He appeared hovering over her shoulder. "Yes, I am okay. All systems are restored and in good shape. I have detected a Alliance ship, in your motion radars, it seems to be going in direction of the moon." Omalie spoke calmly, and neutral with not a slight of emotion. Allison checked her motion sensors. Sure enough there was a ship, and it looked familiar. She pulled out her sniper and stepped outside, zooming in, she read the title. Hades. It was the Hades ship. Very popular and well known throughout the Galaxy.

She zoomed in to full strength, and looked to see who was at the front. And was not surprised to see who it was. Mart and finally made his way to the top it seemed. She stepped back inside. "Decide quickly , The famous alliance ship, Hades is on his way to the moon." She said commandingly, and serious. She grabbed her pistol, and put it back in her holster, and strapped her sniper back unto her back.

 

[Othermoose]

"I-i-impressive. Very impressive. N-n-now for th-th-the real test..." Darwin was cut off by Allison's report of the Alliance vessle coming towards them. "The Hades." Darwin thought gathering the various equipment he had spread out on the table. "The best ship in the Alliance fleet. Father was too smart for his own good building that monstrosity." Darwin mused to himself as he stuffed his data pads into a satchel. "My ship is one o-o-of the only ships in existence that c-c-can outrun that ship. My f-f-father was an Alliance engineer wh-wh-who specialized in ship b-b-building. He built th-th-that behemoth, but he taught m-m-me everything he knows about e-e-engineering. We can escape if w-w-we leave right now." Darwin said leading the two women out of the bar.

The group made their way to the bar's small hanger. Darwin led them to a large green ship. He walked forward and typed in a code on a keypad and the ship's ramp opened. Two droids stepped out of the ship pointing large plasma rifles at Allison and Nima. "Unknown lifeforms detected. Permission to terminate?" Their robotic voices asked in unison. "N-n-negative. Allow t-t-tempory access." Darwin said walking up the ship's ramp. He waved the women in after him and closed the ramp once they were safely onboard. "W-w-welcome to 'The Outsider' ladies." Darwin said with pride in his voice as he led the women down the corridor to the cockpit. "We'll discuss q-q-quarters later. For now we n-n-need to get out of here. S-s-strap yourselves in." Darwin said pointing to the seats behind his pilot's seat. He hit a few buttons and flipped a few switches before finally sliding a lever up.

Darwin smiled as his engines roared to life. He grabbed the controls and guided his ship into the air and out of the hanger. "I t-t-trust you know how t-t-to use a standard l-l-laser turret, soldier? W-w-we may need it if th-th-they send fighters after us. My turret's c-c-controls are the same, b-b-but the weapon is much more ad-ad-advanced than the average l-l-laser turret." Darwin explained as he flew his incredibly fast ship away from the bar. "There's a small sp-sp-space station on the other side of th-th-this system. We'll h-h-head there so w-w-we can settle affairs and p-p-plan my ex-ex-expedition." Darwin said switching the ship to auto-pilot.

 

[SlySparrow0003]

Allison strapped herself in as they took off, and answered in amusement to Darwins question, "Of course I do, why do you s-s-stutter, so much, personal experience? Or were you born with it?" Her tone more serious. "Once were out of satellite distance, I'll tell you my name. I may have said to much as it is, in the bar. Your family worked with the alliance, so why don't you?" Allison sat, with her sniper rifle in her lap, emptying and reloading it.

 

[Othermoose]

"I stutter b-b-because my m-m-mind moves faster th-th-than my mouth can." Darwin says in a cold tone. "And I d-d-don't work for the Alliance b-b-because I have a sense o-o-of morality, and the information t-t-to apply that knowledge to. T-t-the Alliance kn-kn-knows of an ancient civilization, m-m-more advanced than we'll b-b-be in a century. Th-th-they've hidden this knowledge fr-fr-from the public until they find a way to c-c-control that technogy. I d-d-discovered this conspiracy q-q-quite on accident. My studying of hyper-space t-t-travel revealed to me that it is n-n-not only possible, it ha-ha-has been done before. After that, figuring o-o-out that we were not the first c-c-civilization was not d-d-difficult. I intend to t-t-travel into deep space and find the skeletal remains o-o-of this civilization. Or die trying." Darwin said.

 

[SlySparrow0003]

Allison nodded. "I'll keep that in mind, but right now we've got bigger problems, as predicted we're being followed. If there's anything that can spark up my day, it's ruining Mart's." She said amusingly. She got up and with the turrets began to fire, easily and will skill sending them into fireworks or spinning out. Occasionally shooting the pilots.

 

[Stalzyn]

The Hades on approaching earth's moon recieved a transmission that an unregistered ship known as the Outsider has just left and it was on hot pursuit.
Using the ship energy boosters, Hades turned direction towards the red glow on the radar.
"I want both thermographic and holographic view of that ship, i want to know its make, weapons and standard." Mart ordered.
Surprisingly from what was displayed on the screen, The Outsider was like a sister version of The Hades, a weak version that is. Mart recognised the laser turret was developed by Williams Jackson Known as Darwin. Either Darwin was alive or someone had gotten hold of his tech.
The Holographic images of the lifeforms on the ship soon appeared on the SB.
"Well, well, well. This is my lucky day." Mart whistled, thanking his stars. Two of the Alliance most wanted on the ship of a man that looked like Williams Jackson.
Mart looked up at Cassie that was at the other end of the board, her ample cleavage was what captivated him first.

 

[Stalzyn]

He imagined what her size was, The thought of squeezing them, kneading them and mawing on them till they become beat red. Those thoughts, "ahh!" Mart said tearing his eyes away.
"They are firing at one of the station ships." a pilot alerted.
"Cassie, set up a t-D.H.S.C.T.L with the Outsider. I want to have words." he ordered.

 

[SlySparrow0003]

"We've got there full attention! My motion sensor detect thermographic and holographic sights, they know who we are! If you can make this go faster, I suggest you do so NOW!" Allison yelled back, in a commanding tone. Over her firing turrets. Another explosion sounded as ship exploded. Pulling her sniper out, she aimed in at the Hades, Mart was going to do all in his power. She aimed in on Mart, who seemed to be putting out orders. As a large asteroid came into view, Allison pulled a sticky grenade and threw it at the side of the asteroid l, it blew in half, sending a large half in front of two ships, causing them to slow, during this time Allison pulled out to grenade and threw in in between both ships, blowing up both ships. She saw five more heading their way, "Shit" she muttered.

 

[Rpkitten]

Unable to contribute much to their escape, Nima rushed to the center of the odd man's ship and strapped herself tightly into a seat. The felinoid had no space combat experience, and limited mechanical knowledge, so she surrendered her fate to the skill of her new-found comrades.

"Well, well, well. This is my lucky day."

"Yes, sir," Cassie agreed from her station across from Mart. "All of our eggs in one basket. Convenient, but a touch too much so for me to dismiss this as coincidence." The young lieutenant pushed her glasses up and held in place by an index finger as their ship fired engines to pursuit speed. The deck rumbled, her body pinned back in her chair and her usually tightly-buttoned uniform fell free an extra button to give her commander an enticing view of cleavage rumbling with the engines beneath them.

"Cassie, set up a t-D.H.S.C.T.L with the Outsider. I want to have words."

"Aye, sir," Cassie replied and thumbed a few buttons on her console. "Opening hailing frequencies now."