Stardust Revival: a Sci-fi RPT (PG: Language and Violence)

[jep'ray]

OOC: Remember to flag all out of character notes with OOC. Notes more than a couple lines long should go in the OOC/signup thread. Remember to check here in the OOC thread often for major news.

IC:

In orbit above Earth, above the halo, in Lagrange 5 orbit was the space dry dock/repair station Angel 5. In one cavernous hanger sits the Last Exile, an old and well worn stardust class ship, which has just been given another chance at life. The ships crew was gathering at a pub, Fhloston’s paradise, as the Exile was nearly complete.



David brought another round of drinks for everyone, “So Capt’n I talked to da Dock sergeant and he said the Exile will be done in a few days, and we’ll be on our way” he said smiling, picking up a pint of biter and taking a large drink.

[$tormin]

Yushev raised his glass with exaggerated care. "I'll drink to that. An end to this round of toil and tears and the start of the next." Yushev lived nearly his entire life in the zero gravity section of his home and was not completely trusting of gravity. Though he knew it wouldn't happen, his body expected his drink to slosh out of its open topped glass and float away in a ball.

[Soria]

Emily grinned, taking a sip of her second gin and tonic, others, like David, were on their third and fourth.

"Aye on to new dangerous place and new faces, that hopefully don't wanna throw us in the brig." And new marks to steal from. While Emily would never steal from her crew mates, she had no problem lifting a trinket or credit from a drunken dock hand asking her to dance. None had caught on, yet, but the sooner they left, the better.

[Gumblackwood]

Dwyde polished off his stout and started the next. He hadn't been in the pub nearly as much as the others, being the ship's engineer he had been overseeing repairs. "Bah, half the ships here'll be back in a month. Here's to some actual good repairs, and not the twine and bubblegum jobs these sots think they can get away with."

[Soria]

Emily laughed, " Dwyde, to you, everyone does twine and bubblegum repairs."

[Gumblackwood]

Dwyde nearly fell over in his chair laughing. "Well, now I know what to call my ship if I ever get one of my own," he mimicked painting the name on the hull, "Twine and Bubblegum."

[jep'ray]

"Oy, wheres our famous Captain anyways?" Lister asked as he finished his mug and got up to get another pint...

[Soria]

Emily shrugged, waving away a dock hand.

" Hell if I know... that man's a quiet one, almost as quiet as you Yushev."

[$tormin]

"Hey, I resemble that remark!" Yushev gave a momentary face of mock hurt pride before sitting back. "Be just great if the man missed his own party though, or is it the ships?"

[Soria]

" I think its the ships... or the crews."

[$tormin]

"That's one difference from where I come from. Usually the ship is the life of the party. Poor thing, here it just sits all alone." Yushev raised a glass in toast.

[Rookie]

James entered the pub and said, "You had news, David? I couldn't help but hear you from outside. And indeed the sooner the better. This little part of the universe is a little shady for my liking. Or maybe its the amount of people zipping between planets and structures. I don't know, but its more cramped."

Captain Harlequin had been making sure they weren't going to be thrown off the halo because they couldn't afford it. They would be secure until the ship was repaired.

[$tormin]

"You have the cramped part right. Poor little small town me is too used to being not able to throw a stone out an airlock without having to file an orbit plan."

[jep'ray]

the crew was enjoying themselves at the pub, as the Captain sat with them. Just then two figures stood up from across the room and walked towards them. a shorter fellow followed closely by a giant of a man in a suit 2 sizes to small. they reached the table, and the smaller man took a seat from the next table over and placed himself at their table. The bigger man stood behind him, with a Bat in his hands

"hello sirs and madam, I am your Agent from Family Friendly Starship Saving and Loan Mr. Vinnie Longstock, my helper behind me is Mr. Ivan Tolovle. we understand you and your crew have taken out a loan to refurbish a Stardust class ship named the Last Exile..."

[Soria]

Emily looked the two other and got ready to run if needed.

[Gumblackwood]

Dwyde wasn't about to run, this guy was just trying to impress on them the need to pay later. The repairs weren't even done, so there'd be no reason to actually pay now. Plus he'd probably just fall over and whack his head on something hard before he even figured out where to run to. So, he just gave the men an amusing smile and waited for the captain to speak up.

[jep'ray]

"...the repairs are nearly finished and Per the contract the captain signed it requires full payment or you can of course take one of our payment plans. We have several to choose from, both me and Mr. Tolovle. But trust me, you'll want to try what i have to offer before you ask him" Mr.Vinnie said pointing at the big man with the bat, a smile across his face.



Lister downed the rest of his drink in one huge gulp, it helped him feel alittle better. Then he looked at Mr.Tolovle and he instantly felt bad and needed another drink...

[$tormin]

"Lemme guess. Out of system or else you would just shoot it out of a gun and let the other guy catch it. Low mass or you would have gotten a omni transport to move it. Dangerous or illegal, so the mail service is out unless it's to some godawful failed world where nobody bothers to run a regular service. Not quite time critical because nobody is dumb enough to hurry a refit job on a century old hull. Is it a person you want moved on the hush hush?"

[jep'ray]

"That my good friend is for a later time, i just wanted to drop by and make sure all of you good folks knew the score. Don't try to leave without paying us, we will be watching" Mr. Vinnie said with a smile, tiping his bowler hat at Emily they both left with out another word.
As they all watched them exit the pub an unlucky drunk bumped heavily into Mr Vinnie. They untangled themselves, the drunk was turning to leave when the massive hand of Ivan landed on the top of his head. turning the man around, the drunk had a wallet in his hands, and he timidly handing it back to Mr.Vinnie. At that point they left the pub, the drunk firmly in Ivans hand, as his other still held a bat. a few seconds later came a sound like someone breaking sticks of celery and a muffled scream...the patrons of the pub just turned back to their drinks...

[$tormin]

Yushev turned back to the rest of the crew from the scene. "Don't leave without paying? I wonder if he thinks a ship is going to earn his money sitting in dock collecting fees. Never thought I would ever meet a pair of people who worked so hard at being cliche."

[Gumblackwood]

Dwyde laughed, "Makes me think they paid that drunk guy to make the breaky noises just out of sight of us."

[jep'ray]

"Yeah, they paid him..." Lister laughed nervously, "Ok, im Smegged for today guys, im going to bed" he said, turning to leave..."don't forget, we need to look over the ship tommorow before they finish it, to make sure its how we want it..." As Lister steped out into the main street, turning to his hotel he saw the paid drunk, laying on the ground in a very painful looking position. his arms were very broken looking and he was out cold..."um" he stumbled turning back to tell the others...no they'll fine out..."never mind...laters"

[Rookie]

The Captain had sat quietly as the crew took the two bankers into their own hands. If they would have to resettle the terms of the loan, then so be it. But if the big bloke tried to do something stupid like intimidate James Harlequin with a bat then the negotiations may have to be more hostile.

"I expect the crew not to be drunk when we take off, so enjoy it tonight, but if we have trouble getting out of orbit because one of you passes out and hits the control panel, i'll see you get to clean the food pans instead of eating what was in them. Or i could drop you off at the nearest planet with an atmosphere, depends on how bad you send us off course. Good night to you all, ladies and gentlemen." With that he stood and walked out of the pub.

(**OOC: sorry about lack of postage. I've got a lot of stuff going right now, but i'll try to get around as much as i can.)

[Soria]

Emily sighed, finishing her drink and getting up with a stretch. " I'm done to lads. "

Emily paid for her drinks and headed out, giving the poor drunk some coins before heading to the ship.

[$tormin]

"Well fellas, I have a date so expect me late."

[$tormin]

Yushev mopped away the sweat from his brow before it could fly off and become an annoying obstacle for the rest of the match. The game was so called Grav-Ball but was essentially squash played in the middle of the rotating station. In addition to altered ball flight due to no gravity there was difficulty in getting enough grip to hit the ball enough that it would go where one wanted. It was a tough sport but one Yushev was good at.
Not good enough to win this game unfortunately. He was getting worked by Karline, Sol Oim Estuvar Thirfir Septre Karline to be specific, a woman who served on the destroyer Armchair General that was in port for recreation.
Having lost the game Yushev returned the equipment to its place and as he left he tapped his wristwatch to the meter. The biometrics in both devices confirmed it was him and deducted the sport rooms rental from his account.
"So, you still haven't answered why you left and why you are planning on serving aboard that air sieve." Karline asked as they reached the one eighth gravity section and could walk almost normally.
"I don't really know. I think it's boredom really, there were challenges back home but nothing felt real. I easily fulfilled my work quota by participating in public sports that I enjoyed and that seemed wrong. I've been called a throwback and I could have taken up a less enjoyable hobby such as doing construction planning or joining the military but none of those appealed to me."
Karline looked puzzled. "I had an uncle who said the exact same thing when he went on sabbatical. He came back four months later and never left again. You have been gone for three years now, are you considering actually making the separation permanent?"
"Honestly I don't know. I like the feeling of failing or succeeding on my own merits and somehow knowing that I am not being taken care of, however distantly, by the massive AI that controls the world or a community that would do anything to help one of their own feels right. I might just get bored of this later and go home."
When their paths separated they both said they would consider meeting up again if they were ever in the same system and Yushev went back to his hotel.

[Soria]

Emily was already in bed asleep, dreams oh those horrible men dancing in her head.

[Gumblackwood]

Dwyde was the last one out of the pub, but it was mostly because he was taking his time to drink a few of his special anti-hangover hydration drinks before he went anywhere. The taste and fizziness was horrible and he was still quite tipsy, but he knew he'd be better in the morning.

Dwyde helped a couple of concerned individuals haul the busted-up drunk to the medical wing. The thought that the moneymen were crazy enough to actually hurt the man helped Dwyde sober a bit, and he found himself back on the ship making sure that the repairs hadn't been sabotaged. After a bit, he realized it had been a crazy thought; the sharks seemed crazy enough to bust up a ship to keep it from leaving, but final check was still a ways away and he'd have plenty of time before then to double-check. He fell asleep in his bunk to the station's vidbroadcast of Kingdom football highlights.

[jep'ray]

the next morning Lister got to the hanger before the rest of the crew could join, in his arms were two great big cases of lager. The work crews had finished inside and were putting in the engines and final touches on the upper hull, so no one was inside the ship. Lister went in as he started to hide the cans across the large cargo hole and in what would become his room. Secured with some duct tape, he was happy with the installation, and no one would find it, so he went ahead and drank the last can in the cases. a large hand landed on his shoulder and Lister almost choked on his drink. Turning around he saw a large man in a small suit.
"um...yes" he said nervously
Ivan just looked at him, and then shoved a data disk and some files in to his hands and stalked off with out a word.
looking down at the package, the main envelope and data disk had the captains name across it. the others were for the crew. Lister walked to the empty cargo hold, sat on a box, papers in hand and started to look though the files

[$tormin]

Yushev awoke and got out of the bed, which was more of a sensory deprivation chamber half filled with a fluid that would easily support him. Some thought it weird, preferring a solid bed themselves, but the chamber was as comfortable as sleeping could get in a gravity well.
Following his exercises, shower, grooming and breakfast he turned on the news. The top story was rioting that happened about a week ago on a Kingdom colony world. Apparently the sea plants had boomed, clearing the air of almost all carbon dioxide then died off. The result had been a planetary temperature plummet and quickly rising CO2 levels which were already causing health problems. The government was spending massive amounts of money it couldn't spare to seal peoples houses and provide breath masks to everyone while working on a crash project to restore the atmosphere and get the world's temperature back to normal.
Yushev sighed. What was normal for a world that only three hundred years ago was a lifeless ball of rock. Thouroughly depressed he dressed and took a lift to the ship. Arriving exactly ten minutes early he first downloaded the log onto his phone and scrolled through the major events list. Surprised to find that some unknown person had been on the ship he found where Lister was and went to find out what had happened.

[Soria]

Emily was close behind Yushev in the lifts and followed him to Lister.

" What's this about someone being on the ship?" She asked, mind picking out the hiding cans of lager.

[jep'ray]

Lister was sitting on his crate, the open can of lager in his hands, a stack of papers in the other..."it was that smegging git in the ape suit. That big thing, Ivan i think its called. he droped off some papers for us and the captain" Lister said, holding up the files.
"its not dangerous, i dont think. Its our first job, from Mr. Vinnie. hes given us directions and some data/ident cards, along with clearance codes for the ship. As far as i can see its all legit." scratching his head "we are gonna owe him for these trinkets..." Lister said, downing the can in his hands he walked over to a access maintance panel for one of the bay doors. pulled open the panel and pulled out a six pack of lager
"im gonna need these right now! you want some?" he asked, offering a can to each

[$tormin]

"That stuff gets banged around nastily during zero gravity, if you are gonna hide booze at least chain it down." Yushev said in an offhand way as he considered the situation. "You did phone the captain right?" Getting a negative he signed and pulled out his phone.

[Soria]

"Lister, when shit like that happens, phone the bloody captain. And no lager for me. Beer tastes like horse pee."

[Gumblackwood]

"One here Lister," Dwyde said as he exited the next lift, carrying a small crate of replacement fiber optics. He grabbed the tossed can, shoved it under his arm and managed to grab the crate again before dropping it.

[$tormin]

"Odd, the captain's not answering." Yushev put his phone away. He pointed at some of the items Lister had that had crewmember names on them. "What's with those?"

[Rookie]

James entered the ship for a preliminary inspection. He became curious when he heard voices on the ship. He moved deliberately towards the cargo hold, hand on his side-arm in case he had to shoot trespassers. He feet thumped on the floor.

[jep'ray]

(ooc ok i need to get the ship map up...soon...soon...but were all in the cargo hold, that is up in front...)

Lister just shrugged, passing the files to the crew. "Looks like our papers to ship cargo in all the systems, and ID's for us all...good quality by the looks of it" Lister said as he pulled out his ID card. "looks like we are official cargo haulers for FFSS&L. our first delivery will arrive in a day or so, right about when the ship is finished..."

[Gumblackwood]

Dwyde made his way to one of the in-hold control panels. At this point, the cargo hold was only moderately filled with the normal and emergency supplies that would be kept elsewhere in the ship when it was necessary to make room for the supplies the ship could actually make money on. Not being one of the massive, half-mile long, multi-bulkhead freighters Dwyde was used to, he could actually still see and hear everyone else.

"Any idea what the cargo will be, Lister?" He asked as he opened a panel and checked connections. He reached in further and pulled out a bag of curry powder.

"Last I checked, Lister," Dwyde said as he brought the bag over, "there's still plenty of room on the galley docket, so once you're done poring over those, you can bring this and any others there instead of stuffing them where you see fit."

[jep'ray]

"oy mate, that theres the emergancy supply, i have a case coming in for the standard stores" lister took the curry and started to walk back to the galley, and when no one was looking he stuffed the packed behind the extinguisher mounted near the stairs...

[Rookie]

Captain Harlequin found his crew in the cargo hold.

"Taking a peak around 'eh? Those the ID's and our shipping information?" James took his package.
"I suggest you all get acquainted with the rest of the ship. I'd like you all to be able to get to your stations as fast as possible and know where everything is at in a moments notice. Where's Lister by the way?"

[$tormin]

"Lister is transporting a misplaced package to the galley." Yushev examined his ID and the other items in his package. His said he was from Earth, which would be rather interesting if he actually had to prove it since he had never been to Earth. "I would be guessing that details of the first job would be in the captains package."

[jep'ray]

as the crew looked over their packets the station's delivery system deposited a few container cars near the ship for loading. The Last Exile has recieved its first paying cargo load, the crew had 3 days to finish loading it all...the ship was due for an engine test in the next day, and completion the day after.

the large door inside the cargo hold, along the back wall and to the left, which lead to the engine room opened up. Out steped a grinning Lister in his powered loader suit, "Heey lookit what i found" Lister said as he steped out into the hold. bits of packing tape and packing peanuts still clung onto the suit here and there...
"I can't wait to try this out, Hiya capt'n. Bloody brilliant isnt it?" he said waving...

[Rookie]

James assembled his crew later during the day and read the essential parts of the contract he had gotten to his crew.

"You will load a shipment of ship parts from this station for delivery to Midgard Halo, in Corp space, it is a standard fare and a normal parts run.

Additional Data:

We at FFSS&L have found ourselves in possession of some documents that need to be verified by certain special people. We wish you to take them to Midgard, in Corp space. Our associate, a Mr. Vinnie will bring directly to you a locked case, it will NOT be opened, attempts to open this case will result in death.
Your contact is a Mr. Hamilcar Barca, he will contact you with further information upon delivery of the parts to Halo. He will most likely be on planet..."

He looked around at the faces of the crew, "Well i guess that is all ladies and gents."

[$tormin]

Yushev spoke. "Anything about not taking additional shipping orders or cargos to that destination? This shipment can pay for the trip and get us in good graces with our gangster overlords so anything else will go a long ways to ensuring our solvency.
"Right now the Midgard Halo has it's manufacturing geared towards expansion, most of the ship building is going towards corperate military. These parts we are taking are probably small engine parts that they can't keep in stock for the civil construction market. I can think of dozens of things that would be cheap here, expensive there and not worthwhile in the quantities that would interest the major shippers."

[Gumblackwood]

"My guess is that FFSS made calculations on our hold and will fill it up as well as they can, but this ship has a lot of space elsewhere." He tried to take a stern look at Lister at this point, but the man was riding around jollily in the loader, so he couldn't help but laugh. "It might be tough to explain how we've got more cargo than can fit in the hold, but I'm sure the Corps would be happy to have it."

(OOC: Corps, pronounced like corpse, is Dwyde's slang for anyone from anyone from Corporate space, joking about the zombie-like qualities of most of their businessmen.)

[Soria]

" No kidding. Bloody twits want a piece of paper for every bit of metal."

[$tormin]

"I doubt they would fill the hold, the cargo rating on a ship like this is measured in mass rather than volume. Depending on how the engines test out we may have our cargo license upped. It would just require some discussion with SACA (Sol Aeronautics and Cargo Administration). Dealing with Corperate shouldn't be difficult at all provided we have the manifest match when customs comes through.
"Speaking of customs, a ship this size wouldn't have an actual doctor so what provisions are being made for the health ticket? I haven't seen inoculations and tests on the schedule."

[Gumblackwood]

"I don't know about anyone else," Dwyde said, "but I got a full interstellar travel physical before even signing onto the ship. I had a friend on a long haul years ago get an ulcer in deep space and it wasn't pretty."

[jep'ray]

Lister waved from across the cargo hold, "my shots are still good for a few more years" he said...
In fact, everyone on the halo had valid medical papers stamped onto their ID's. As Space required constant recycling of air and water, it was vital that everyone was healthy. No one wanted a repeat of the Pax128 station outbreak...as the crew outside continued to fit and test the engines, Lister started to load the bay with the goods. Parts that were easier to make in earth gravity or more likely that earth just happen to have the tooling to make these parts. Large crates and machine parts started to fill the hold. the heaviest items taking the center line of the ship and set further back to help keep the ships natural center of balance. as the work day started to come to an end, Lister had emptied the cargo container into the ship, she was alittle over half full but they had met the ships weight specs...

((ooc: ok i got a rough ship interior tossed onto graph paper...ahh flash backs to my D&D days...ship is split into 3 floors above machine room (engine room) and aft hanger bay...several stairs are needed...plus the cockpit and turret housing the railguns...will post soonest))

[Soria]

" Interesting.."

[$tormin]

"So, scanners and comm are working to specs. Wasn't easy getting newer software working with the hardware but I contacted Armchair General before it left system and it did a software crunch for us." Yushev paged the captain. He then turned the intercom to engineering. "So how are those engines coming along?"

[Gumblackwood]

"Fit and happy as a Liverpoolian after a shutout," came Dwyde's response from the intercom, "I can't complain about Sol system's ability to have cheap and plentiful supplies. There's even some new pieces in the backup supplies that should work if we want to test them on the roundabout."

[$tormin]

"Yeah, that's an advantage to being among the largest manufacturing base in human space. It's pretty much impossible for them to use what they make so it goes cheap. You figure whether or not we can test high enough to get our cargo rating upped?"

[jep'ray]

Lister had been nearby when he heard about raising cargo ratings and had to jump in..."Oy it took alot of talking to drop the cargo rating to what it is, this ship can carry more alright, but thats for emergancy loads..or special case orders" he stated proudly "the fighter in the rear hanger isnt standard equipment, nor is that smeging Pod you brought with you, o yeah, the guys outside said the main engines are ready for the shake down run..." Lister turn adn jumped back into the loader to finish transfering cargo...


The ship was ready to leave the station and test the engines...flight plan was approved for a straight flight to lunar orbit to test orbit ins and outs and some free manuvers...

[Soria]

Emily sat back, looking very bored.

" The sooner we get moving the better."

[Gumblackwood]

"I don't think these'll do it for a cargo rating upgrade, but they should be a good kick in the pants when we need them. I don't have any of the new stuff hooked up to the control room yet, so I'll have to be down here if we want to test them. Gotta get these loafers out of the engine room if we're going to test soon."

Dwyde ushered the local workers that had been assisting him out of the ship and headed back to the engine room as the others got ready for test flight.

[Soria]

Emily grinned, sitting in the pilot seat.

" When ever you guys are ready.."

[$tormin]

"Final confirmation received, course confirmation sent to nav console. Scanners set to default test mode, dual input on mark....mark.
"Internal com set, all crew stand by for movement. Gravity will drop to zero one minute from second warning. Stow all loose items now. I repeat, stow all lose items and prepare for zero gravity." Once the ship detached itself from the rotating station there would be no gravity from centrifugal force and due to negative effects on the station, the ships internal gravity planer would not be turned on until the ship was well clear. Soon the ship will be moved from the stations general bay to a launch chamber where it would be released to move under its own power.

[Gumblackwood]

Dwyde closed up access to the engine room, switched goggles from his usual dirty work goggles to his pressure mask, and strapped into a four point harness while the engines warmed up. They were emergency precautions, but Dwyde had been in plenty of situations where they were priceless. Even though Last Exile had been tested and retested for seal, the most likely place for a breach was in the engine room and in a breach situation the pressure mask kept ill-effects at bay long enough for Dwyde to find and repair the problem. Under varying gravities, the retractable tie lines holding Dwyde's harness were the fastest way around the engine room.

"Control room has master on all ship's systems now," Dwyde called over the intercom, and several new lights blinked on in the control room, "I'll manually toggle the new boosters whenever the captain's comfortable, just give the word."

[Rookie]

James was on the bridge looking over the crews actions, "Take us away." he said. The ship lurched as it began to move.

[Soria]

Emily carefully took the ship out, eyes on screens and scanners, hands in motion when needed.

"You guys warn me if anything beeps when it shouldn't."

[$tormin]

Yushev turned the intercom on. "Gravity will resume in twenty seconds. Everyone brace for one tenth standard gravity." Earth gravity is 9.8 meters a second per second, standard gravity was upped to 10. 1 meter/sec^2 was easily enough to move about comfortably for a while until everything was checked out. Then after about an hour it would be slowly raised to its operating setting of 7m/s^2.
With intercom off Yushev began reporting to the captain. "Scanners checking out fine. No major discrepancies against the input from system nav. Low power actives and passives at 115% hardware efficiency." There were standard targets placed in the area they would be passing through, most were inert lumps of metal that reflected enough to be detected with passive arrays and all had unique enough patterns that they could serve for navigation if the dozens of other systems failed.
"Captain, reading no loss in energy or gases beyond expected leakage." Outgassing would always be a problem that couldn't be completely dealt with but was acceptable on any trip that lasted less than decades. Yushev set the intercom to engineering. "I'm reading radiators deployed, is everything ready down there for main engine firing as soon as we are in position to not fry everyone on the station?"

[jep'ray]

Lister was in the cargo hold, the suit was locked down as well as the cargo. He just sat down to open up a beer when the gravity clicked off. Cursing under his breath as blobs of his drink went flying, he started to swim after it...only to have gravity turned back on, as he fell onto the cold floor, his drink a splotch in front of him...

The Exile exited the Halo control zone on route to lunar orbit...

[Gumblackwood]

"Engine room reading sub-Einstein, no resonance," came Dwyde's report, "main engines at the ready."

[jep'ray]

the comm unit came to like as Halo control confirmed their status. "Halo control to Last Exile, you are clearing Halo space. Last Exile you are clear on Main Burn. Have a safe flight, Halo Control out."...

Lister finished cleaning the mess and ran for the pressure door to get out of the cargo bay and back into the crew quarters of the ship...

[Soria]

"Ready boys?"

[$tormin]

Yushev got on intercom. "All crew, brace for acceleration." The ships artificial gravity system would modify its direction to counter part of the acceleration force but unless there was an emergency the standard power would only give up to 1.2 standard gravities of counter force. More power or having counter gravity in only a small area would up the number but in normal situations that would be plenty.

[Soria]

Emily accelerated moving the ship carefully into open space.



(OOC: BTW I hope nobody minds me making Emily the pilot... since she knows nothing about how the actually ship works, she didn't have anything else to do.)

[$tormin]

With multiple gravity acceleration, most of the time on short hops like from the station to Luna orbit was coasting. Yushev leaned back in his chair and turned it to Emily whom he directed a question to. "So, what is it actually like living on a planet?" He motioned towards the moon. "Isn't it unsafe? Don't they get hit by things?"

[Soria]

Emily laughed, " Sometimes... but you don't feel it... Unless it something big and they warn us about that. In any case... very typical I guess. Lots of uniforms."

Emily sighed, for whatever reason she had alot of trouble respecting people in the uniforms of coporations or governments. It was like she couldn't resist stealing from them.

[$tormin]

Yushev shrugged. "You can't really use terms like typical around me. Since I went on sabbatical I have come to barely understand just how different things are with people from my background.
"As an example, the only reason any rock or system vehicle's military has a uniform is because outsiders expect it and there were a few difficulties in the past before we adopted them. Occasionally military style clothing becomes fashionable but I never payed any attention to such things."

[Soria]

Emily arched an eyebrow. " Okay... I guess it was it safe and stable."

[$tormin]

Yushev nodded. "I guess I can understand that. I'm not a fan of stable myself though, probably why I got kind of eager to shake the dust of Sol system from my boots. Oh, I could have played tourist for a while longer but frankly Earth creeped me out the hours I spent on it. It was so...inside out.
"Looking up without seeing bulkhead or the world curved over you is just strange. Irrational I know."

[jep'ray]

Lister was in the lower level of the ship keeping an eye on the cargo, as he found and open yet another can of Lager. Hitting the intraship commm pad, he gave a short report. "Lister to bridge, all cargo lock downs are holding and the craft in the hanger are secure and holding. By the way, that smeging pod in the hanger is complaining about the smeging view, permission of chuck its smeging digital butt out the back of the hanger?"



As the Exile boosted out for Lunar orbit, other ships were comeing and going, delivering and droping off cargo to the Halo, among them a private Heavy fighter had clearance to launch from Halo space, after a short burn it made its way to lunar orbit as well...

[$tormin]

Having heard Listers whining, Yushev's pod decided to get some revenge. Setting it's long range communications MASER it set it to a tight beam and slowly ramped it up on Listers beverage, careful to not to damage him while it boiled the drink.
The man registered what had to be surprise as the can suddenly became too hot to hold and as he threw it to the ground steam began to shoot from the drinking hole. There was no visible sign of what caused the event leaving Lister a very confused man.

[Rookie]

"What pod are you talking about, Lister? I don't recall anything about a pod unless it's one of the crew's pods? I want somebody to tell me what that pod is and what it is doing in the cargo hold, ASAP." The captain requested, "And is that literal complaining or your opinion that it is moving around too much?" he added into the comm.

[jep'ray]

"Smegin hell!" Lister jumped back as the beer suddenly heated up..."no Captain, its that smeging four person transport pod i stuffed in the corner of the hanger, it belongs to Yushev...its not that big but it does talk alot...if you bother to listen to it...mostly it just sits there" thinking of the captains remarks...shruged went off to get another beer...

comeing in at a diffrent trajectory the heavy fighter silently closed in on Lunar orbit...

[$tormin]

"Captain, the pod would be item 17 on my personal manifest. 7 tonne inter-ship transport pod. It's probably still upset I wouldn't let it link with the ship's scanners, I told it it had to ask your permission first so it went into a sulk."

[TheSavageHamster]

-- incoming transmission from Valkyrie class fighter on collision course.

"hello? is this thing on...? Ah trasmit, yes. Good. This is FFSS&L Valkyrie class fighter designation... *sigh* Ivan you are making the joke yes?"

Ivan - "No"

Toki - "Fine. Designation 'Fluffy Bunnies'. Requesting to dock with Last Exile. We're on behalf of mister Vinnie. About the, eh, yes. Mr Vinnie, he sent us."

[Soria]

Emily sighed, Oh hell, Vinnie's goons...

"I'll bring her to a slow stop on your orders captain."

[jep'ray]

the Heavy fighter was in starting to turn to intercept when the transmission beamed across space. A tight laser transmission assured that no one else could listen in.

The heavly armed ship seemed to be stuffed full of weapons systems, missile pods and a rail gun seemed to be welded on more for the sake of show than usefulness. Of course no one wanted to find out if they actualy worked on or not. As she came along side the Exile, you could see the nose art of the fighter, a giant rabbit with a belt of ammo around its fuzzy body... they started to line up on the forward airlock, above the main cargo hold.

[TheSavageHamster]

Bring her in gently yes? watch the paint lady!

[jep'ray]

the flight computers started to talk, as the ships came into range, and the automatic systems linked in and gently touched the ships together. The airlock mark over the cargo hold blinked from red to green, as the pressure equalized...

[TheSavageHamster]

Toki walks into the hold, dufflebag over his shoulder.

"Hey guys. Mess on the left, quarters on the right yes? I go put bag down."

[Rookie]

Captain James met the stranger at the hold.

"Hold on, you're not going anywhere until you tell me who you are, and what you're doing on the Exile. You said you worked for Vinnie, now what does Vinnie want?"
James kept his left hand on the handle of his pistol, he didn't trust anybody who mentioned working for Vinnie. Hindsight is perfect, and in hindsight James shouldn't have made the contract deal with Vinnie, but now he was committed and James Harlequin wasn't about to go back on his word. He only hoped that his crew would back him up if necessary.

[TheSavageHamster]

"Hey, easy sir. I'm Toki, Vinnie offered me a job on board... He tells me 'they need pirate insurance' and I tells him 'ok, I's tired of this hole anyway'. So he says - "

Toki stops mid sentance, as Ivan walks into the hold.

"Oh yeah, Ivan's here too"

[Rookie]

"Piss..." James mumbled. He looked over his shoulder to gauge the crews reaction. He didn't know what to make of this Toki character, but they all knew Ivan was going to be trouble.

"Pirate insurance? I wouldn't worry about pirates with my crew. Judging by your armament you're set to fight a whole crew of pirates on your own, but what the hell is Ivan doing here? I'm guessing Vinnie doesn't trust us?"

[Soria]

Emily, who had gone with the captain, snorted, " Probably doesn't." Okay... The boys I know and can deal with, strange men with arm bigger then my thigh make me nervous. Emily wasn't stupid, open space, in a ship full of men being the only female....I'm sleeping three hours a night with a knife under my pillow.

[TheSavageHamster]

Toki kept quiet. Something told him that Vinnie hadn't painted a precise picture of his relationship with the crew. Under his breath he muttered "pff. no good Solarian silver tongue..."

*Sigh*

"Well. As much as I am fan of small talks, this bag... very heavy" Toki dropped the sac with the delicacy of a finely tuned sledgehammer. "I guesses I don't know Vinnie any more than you".

"But I am professional. I have good track record. Well... good enough" Toki paused for a while, then leaned over to James "I don't think they'll let me keep the fighter... Just for show, yes? But good pilot don't need fancy equipment. And besides, this tub looks like she needs a friend" Punctuating the last sentance with a few loving taps on a nearby bulkhead Toki then fell silent. Staring over at Ivan with obvious discomfort

[Soria]

Emily caught the remark about the ship needing a friend, " Something wrong with my piloting Mr. Toki?"

[TheSavageHamster]

"Oh, uh no is fine. Really you do very good job, not all your fault. Only some"

Great Toki... not a minute in and you managed to get in trouble

[Soria]

Emily sighed, " Sorry, I'm kinda touchy.. When your the only one on a ship who doesn't know damn about the engines, but one of many who can pilot, you get edgey."

[jep'ray]

Ivan seemed annoyed...maybe he hadnt beat anyone up yet, but Ivan walked forward and pushed Toki off to the right and faced teh captain.

Holding out a suit case, he simply waited in silence...

[TheSavageHamster]

"Hey! watch where you going yak breath!" Toki recovered his balance and held his arm "Yeah, The big troll held that case the whole way like a baby, yeah? I thinks he has the motion sickness" Toki made a face at Ivan and wiggled his fingers mockingly "Big babies".

[Soria]

Emily despite herself laughed, then glupped when Ivan looked at her a second.

" I um... Captain.. I'll show Toki to a room now." With surpirsing speed and strenght Emily grabbed the bag and headed down the hall.

[TheSavageHamster]

"Wait! My axe!!" Toki's protest was of no use, as Emily made haste to put as much distance between him and Ivan as possible. He'll have to go back for his guitar later

[Soria]

Emily stopped half way down the hall panting.

"Sorry... That Ivan guy scares the pee outta me."

[$tormin]

Yushev sat back and eased some of the tension out of his muscles. Being present there if the situation was bad wouldn't have helped but from here in the control room he could have done some good.

[TheSavageHamster]

"Oh hey yeah, he scary alright. But like wolf, you know? Outside he show fangs but really he cute and cuddlies" Toki paused for a moment "Only instead of cuddlies there is more fangs".

"Is this it?"

[Soria]

" Oh no. That's my room..." Emily lead him to the next door. " This is yours... I want to apologize for earlier... I don't do well with militants... and when I saw the tattoo. Again I apologize.. my mouth didn't wait from my brain to remind me you were probably ex-militant."

[TheSavageHamster]

"Heh... I get all kinds of faces for my inks. People think we all the same. Military folk. Its the price though, for me the core was family, friends, everything. But now it is like... uh, it was in different lifes. The ink is like a memory on the skin, I take the core with me. Keeps me strong."

[jep'ray]

Ivan pushed the package into the captains arms, hard enough to almost knock him over. Suddenly turning and with out a single word, Ivan marched back to the air lock, climbed back into his ship and shut the doors...the green light on the wall turned red as he decoupled the ship. Ivan personaly hated these ships, he would rather be on something more firm like a station or better yet a planet...turning to go, Ivan was ready for a few stiff drinks and someone to beat up...

Lister watch from across the room, not wanting to go anywhere near that muscle bound freak. Seeing the package delivered, Lister started to get its hideing spot ready, no one will ever look in here...

[Gumblackwood]

Dwyde unhooked from his equipment and left the engine room, trying to get a crick out of his neck. He found most of the crew in the cargo hold near the airlock as Ivan was leaving.

"What in Bloody Hell was that about? One second I'm about to kick in the boosters, next my head's nearly sheared off when the ship goes into docking mode."

[Soria]

"Crap, sorry about Dwyde. " Emily said, coming back with Toki. Noticing Vinnie Emily quickly nudged the other pilot in the ribs. " Quick, go get your stuff before Vinnie decides to take off without letting you get it.

[$tormin]

Yushev was still on bridge watch when the ship cleared the moon and a hidden part of the system was revealed. The most notable object was the system vehicle Galactic Vagabond.
150 kilometers in length for the main body, 30km wide and slowly rotating. Ahead of it was a giant boom that was the radiator for the artificial micro star that powered the entire thing. Zooming onto the boom revealed dozens of ships in the shipyards there that took advantage of the free energy from the heat dispersion system.

[TheSavageHamster]

Toki tossed his duffle in the new room, noting to himself how much more spacious it was than his previous abode. He then started down the hallway back to the hold, hoping to catch Ivan before he made off with the rest of his gear. Unfortunately by the time he got there, the only sign of Ivan was the blinking light on the airlock doors

Ugh! Always in a hurries. I swears if there is scratches on my baby when we gets back, I use G string to garrote that lard brain.

Toki then turned around to face the group still gathered in the hold

Uh... We are still goings back one more times yes?

[Soria]

" Sorry Toki, I tried to grab your stuff."

[jep'ray]

Lister keyed in to Soria's comm " i found his stuff, that ape Ivan droped it near the airlock at the front of the cargobay"...

Holding station in the shadow of the moon and away from traffic was a Sol fast frigate "devil's sea" the ship was incharge of the live weapons testing area, and the control contact in the area. The Last Exile changed vectors to the test range...

[TheSavageHamster]

"Oh! Well there still better not be scratches on hers"

Toki moved an empty conrtainer aside to reveal the rest of his belongings, consisting of a guitar case and a smaller backpack. He immediately opened the case to examine his guitar for any damages. Hoping he won't have to go back for Ivan's head since that would be far off course and generally inconvenient.

[Rookie]

James had stared down the brute until Ivan had roughly pushed the package into his hands. It couldn't be a bomb, Vinnie would be a fool to blow up a contracted ship of his, and it wasn't rigged to assassinate, James was the best available to him. James went to the bridge to open it, although he wouldn't put it past Vinnie to be clever.

[$tormin]

Yushev was still on the bridge, the only one keeping watch during the activity below decks. As the captain approached he checked the hall monitors and then unlocked the door. Noticing what the man was carrying he spoke. "That the package we are supposed to deliver? 'S your ship but I wouldn't feel safe with that thing on the bridge seeing as the instructions you read out earlier said it was rigged to blow if opened. I wouldn't trust whatever trigger they set up to not decide to go at some stupid time."

[jep'ray]

lister comm'ed the Captain "OY, Captain. Lister here, wheres that package the big ape sent us? I have the perfect place to put the smegging thing it till we deliver it"...

[$tormin]

Having gotten a version of the events earlier from his pod, Yushev knew what Listers suggestion was going to be. "Even odds that Lister is about to suggest duct taping the bomb to my pod's hull. R^3 is a former military ship mind so it would be offended by that and I can't vouch for it's actions in response. I never armed it but it's too damn clever after thirteen hundred years experience..."

[Rookie]

James shook his head. It didn't occur to him that the package he had just been handed might be the one to be delivered that would blow up. He radioed Lister, "It's here at the bridge, come and pick it up for me would ya? and try not to provoke Yushev's pod...at all."

[jep'ray]

"smeg...how did...never mind, ok, i'll find another place. i'll be right up"

[TheSavageHamster]

Toki decided to take advantage of the trip around Luna to get situated. He promptly tossed his duffle on the bed and hooked up his guitar, using headphones (matter of convenience, not consideration of course. carrying around an amp is just not very wise) he set forth to get some shredd on

[$tormin]

"Attention all on-duty personnel, we are approaching the live fire weapons testing area in twenty minutes. If we are all done with these distractions everyone needs to be getting to what they should be doing. Thank you." Yushev turned off the intercom then went to his pending message.
Quickly sending off a reply he sat back and waited three seconds before the message light came on the captain's panel.

xRepairs Respectfully Required (Sub-Vessel of No Fixed Abode)
oCaptain James Harlequin (Last Exile)
xCan I have access to the ships scanners? It's boring in here...

[TheSavageHamster]

Toki perked up, and unplugged. He missed the first few words but recognized the tone immediately. He promptly got to the comm

Yeah hey boss, Toki here. Orders?

[Gumblackwood]

Dwyde grabbed his toolbox from the clamp lock in the engine room and headed to where he could adjust turrets. He tuned a handheld diagnostic device into the control readings for calibrations but knew there'd likely be some manual adjustments needed. Dwyde wasn't well trained with any sort of ship guns, but with any luck he'd get a chance to take a few shots on the firing range.

[$tormin]

Setting up a simulation was a quick task and the ship went into combat reflex mode. The targets were quickly acquired and the information was sent up to gunnery for priority setting and confirmation before the automatics took over. In a real combat the ship's engines would be firing up to randomly change the ships course to avoid incoming projectiles and the battlescreens would activate to deflect or absorb fire.

[Soria]

Emily grinned to herself, " Looks good to me."

[Gumblackwood]

Dwyde made his way into the bridge. "Diagnostics show weapons systems are spot on at the terminals, just wanted to check here that we're getting the fireworks we wanted." Dwyde was in fact getting bored, this was the first ship test run he'd been on without some lifethreatening complication, but that came with the territory of working on Kingdom ships.

[Soria]

" Aww Dwyde, you almost sound sad..."

[Gumblackwood]

"No worries there Em, just makes me proud I still have it in me to get a ship through its testing on the first go. Back on Nth (OOC: New Thames Halo) my old man wanted me in charge of the maintenance crews. I didn't want a paperwork job, and even when I managed to get some handiwork on a ship, the screwheads aboard the ships couldn't get them back from the test run in the same shape they left. So I shipped out on my own and I must say this freelance stuff is a might more satisfying."

[Soria]

" Ah.. I see."

[Rookie]

James was satisfied with the ships performance.

"Very good. Isthere anything else to do on this shakedown run, Yushev?"

[jep'ray]

the ship had passed the inspections and shake down well. The motors power output seems to be higher than what was stated in the ships parameters but that was fine. The Devils Sea signed on the line and the Last Exile was cleared officaly for operation in the Sol system and its operaters permit was valid in all known space..."good job Last Exile, head to the Jump point, your contact is the "Henry Ford" Devil's Sea out..."

The Exile has passed its weapons and safty checks, now with its first jump to past the last test before returning to the Halo. a quick jump out system and back, a safe designated route, another picket ship is waiting to clear the ship for its returen voyage...

[$tormin]

((OOC: Deleted. My mistake))

[jep'ray]

((ooc: Psst, $tormin, i think your jumping ahead a little, and i'll change my post alittle...))

[Soria]

" You wanna do it Toki, or shall I?"

[TheSavageHamster]

Yeah I'll takes her in. It's good, I'll gets a feels for her handeling.

Toki sat down, ready to take the helm.

[Soria]

Emily stood behind him and explained the few quirks the Exile had.

[jep'ray]

the ship started to move to the Sol transit gate...

[Soria]

" Okay, easy does it..." Emily blushed, " Sorry Toki, I don't mean to baby you."

[TheSavageHamster]

Oh it's okay. I think the last times I handled one as big as her was in advanced trainings...

Toki manouvered into position for the Sol gate

Ah, I'm no good with comms protocols, Sol is so uptights, like barmaid in officer's mess on first shifts... Ushev, tell thems we wanna hop.

[$tormin]

"Luna Transit Gate Command, this is vessel Last Exile on scheduled run codefile attached. Entering transit gate to Esperance jump point at three thousand meters per second velocity."

[jep'ray]

the Last exile stared to speedup as it hit the entrence of the transit gate...a flash of light and they were simply gone from lunar orbit...a few seconds later they transit gate at the Esperance jump gate flashed and the ship returned to normal space...the crew however were busy recoving from their small jump. the feeling of leaving your stomach on the other side of the gate was familier, as always happened when they jumped. It affected people diffrently, and many people had their own remidies to help the sick feeling go away. which is what Lister was doing down near the cargo hold...

Lister was slumped down in a corner several empty cans of beer surrounded him, as the effects of the jump started to wear off...he always thought that he survived the trip alittler better buzzed, but there was not scientific truth to it...honestly you could say that he was so loaded that he had a hard time trying to figure out what made him sick in the first place, the beer or the jump...over all the ships crew was feeling miserable...

[TheSavageHamster]

Toki looked around the cockpit. Noticing the various shades of green his shipmates displayed, sending his mind back to his outer rim missions. The jumps out there were the worst, he reeled from the nausiating flashbackand and nearly steered the Exile into the gate structure.

Whoa, sorrys about that. Damns jump sick... Emily can you takes over maybe? I still needs to unpacks some more.

[Soria]

Emily nodded, rubbing her face, grabbing her bottle of water and chugging. Emily found putting something in her stomach that wasn't food always helped her get back to normal faster. Taking the helm Emily punched in the controls.

" Okay, so what are the headings?"

[$tormin]

"Well, we are going to have to cut gravity soon." Artificial gravity would mess up the jump point as much as the real stuff so when a ship jumped the gravity had to be turned off before they got too close to the point itself.
Turning on the intercom Yushev announced. "Zero gravity in twenty seconds. All hands brace for possible acceleration following jump." If there was an obstruction such as an oncoming ship the automatics would fire the engines and change course without time for a warning when it happened. It was unlikely but at a point as trafficked as Sol to Esperance then the possibility had to be prepared for.

[Gumblackwood]

Dwyde was back to being strapped in in the engine room, this time with his welding goggles on his face. The casual observer wouldn't notice that he was half asleep, an old trick many engineers used to avoid getting too sick on multiple jumps.

[jep'ray]

"Gate control to Last Exile, you are to hold at position Alpha 6 B, your cleared for main gate jump in 15 minutes, control out" came a bored voice over the speakers. two Bulk freighters and a few smaller craft were lined up in a sector of space off to one side of the main Jumpgate. a Sol frigate was also parked near the gate control station, ship traffic was light for today's test run...

[Soria]

Emily yawned and stretched, patiently waiting.

[TheSavageHamster]

Toki took a seat on the bridge and started picking at a loose thread on his fatigues. After a few moments he gave a frustrated grunt and pulled his knife out to finish off the pesky piece of fabric.

[$tormin]

"So, interesting fact. Because we are doing this test run with a full load of cargo the money paid for the extra propellant and fuel would have supported a family of three on Earth in a Class 2 lifestyle (middle class) for three months." Yushev played with the scanners for a bit. "The guy ahead of us is coming in to jump soon and is gonna pass close enough for us to touch him...figuratively. Actual distance is three light seconds at closest point and he's going a tenth of light speed. Want me to put an enhanced view on the primary screen?"

[jep'ray]

Lister came up to the bridge just to stare blankly at him, and turned to head back to the cargo hold...

[Soria]

Emily blinks, " Sweetie, yer nuts."

[jep'ray]

As more ships moved across to the gate, and others arrived to transfer to other gates or head in-system to Sol the ship was finaly at the front of the line of waiting ships. As Gate control gave the go ahead signal to the Last Exile the transfer gate had an unauthorized activation.
The frigate that was holding station next to the main gate started to boost for the transfer gate. The Exile had just started its run for the gate when three heavy fighters came tearing out of the transfer gate. They were not trasmitting a transponder signal, no visiable markings on the dark hulls. They were unregistered warships, and they were armed well enough to be unfriendly... the three ships split off, one to engage the frigate and the other two started to scan the waiting line of ships, as if they were looking for something...

[Soria]

" Oh snap." The captain barked orders for Emily to get to the guns, just in case.

"Toki, take the helm." Emily called, heading to the gunning station.

[TheSavageHamster]

Aye Ayes!

Toki took to the helm, shaking off the last bit of jump sickness. Noting the approach vector on the fighters he started to change course, attempting to position the Exile so the turrets will get as clear a shot as possible

Better gets there fast Emily, these guy doesnt look likes they haves flowers for us.

[Rookie]

Captain Harlequin impatiently watched the warships drifting amidst the other ships.
He had a suspicion the bastid Vinnie's cargo was what they were looking for, but he didn't want to raise suspicions. He tapped his fingers on a rail as one of the ships came closer off their port side.

"Em, if they fire on us, return the favor unless we're about to make the jump. Yusev, stay to the course. Hold tight."

[$tormin]

Yushev took control of the battlescreens and strengthened them directly between the ship and the marauders. The action should be starting soon between one of the ships and the Sol frigate. That was happening about 9 light seconds away so there was significant delay, by the time they saw the fight it would have been finished.

[jep'ray]

The unregistered fighter was jinking for all it was worth, having what amounted to a knife fight between ships. Moving suddenly in along all axis, it kept the heavy fighter away from the probing shots from the frigate. It was almost to fast to keep track of, and the fighter was geting some shots in. Already the larger ship had taken some minor damage to its upper hull and the loss of 2 light plasma turrets could be seen, more importantly it was drawing the frigate away from the rest of the ships.

the other tow fighters started to coast along the line of waiting ships and started to scan them, one crossed the Exiles spot at the front of the line, but it didnt seem to notice, the ship kept on drifting...its partner on the other hand, suddenly stoped its scan and made a boost towards the Exile. The ship that scanned it was now out of visual range, its image blocked by the bulk of the transport behind them...

[Soria]

" Son of a B*tch.." Emily growled, hands twitching.

[TheSavageHamster]

This is gettings messy...

Orders 'cap? I dont likes being the sitting ducks...

[Rookie]

The captain kept mumbling, "go...go...go..." hoping they would reach the gate soon enough to get the hell out of there and avoid a skirmish. The crew was new and ship-to-ship combat experience varied. He'd been in his share of fights, but it took unity from the crew to survive.

"Just stick to your guns, Toki. That's all i can ask right now. How soon till we can get to the jump gate?"

If access was denied he planned to begin an immediate retreat. The incoming ship was drawing closer as he awaited the answer.

[jep'ray]

The fight with the frigate seemed to go one forever until suddenly the heavy fighter seemed to jerked and stoped its evasive actions. Those few seconds of sitting still spelled the end for the fighter as the Frigate finaly zeroed in on it. The explostion was breif and very bright as the fighters own weapons added to vaporised fuel and hull.

slowly the frigate started to turn, bringing its attention to the last two raiders...

The fighter that had started to boost for the Exile seemed to slow down as everyone watched the explostion then two spots of light could be seen from under the fighters hull, Two missiles now barreled down on the Last Exile...

the gate was still open, waiting for the next ship in line...

[Rookie]

The captain slammed the rail suddenly as the missiles launched.

"Move! Go Go Go! Clearance or not, go!"

[$tormin]

The missles began to deploy decoys and Yushev worked the scanners to differentiate between fakes and real. Lasers struck from the Last Exile and detonated one of the missiles harmlessly.
"Mr. Haegl, I recommend this course." Yushev sent the data to Nav station.
Turning on the internal comm he announced. "Everyone get strapped in for combat acceleration now. Any loose objects will become deadly projectiles." The gravity planer inside the ship couldn't compensate for full acceleration and manuvering, life wasn't like one of those shows where the crew could stand around or sit without straps during battle. Down was about to become the back wall and everything was about to become six times heavier and fly six times faster, walking could snap ones back and even a beer can could cause major injury.
Yushev double checked his straps and set his head brace so a manuver wouldn't snap his neck.

[TheSavageHamster]

Toki punched the throttle to max and pushed back on his seat, bracing for acceleration.

Ok's lets see what this baby can do huh?

With a blast from it's aft burners the Exile lurched into high speed. The hull seemed to be creaking around the crew as they narrowly slid up and over the ship still on queue for the gate.

Yushevs, is that bogies still after us?

[Soria]

Emily felt her heart leap out of her chest and she clenched and unclenched her hands feeling sweat just roll down her back.

[jep'ray]

the Exiles wild acceleration and the crazy close course it took skimming over the bulk frieghters hull was enough to confuse the second missile as it struck one of the cargo cells on the bigger ship.

The fighter then boosted to try and over take the Exile before she could reach the open jump gate. But it wouldnt be enough, as the Exile continued her hard acceleration boost all the way to the gate...

The third fighter could finally be seen making a run for their transit gate

[Gumblackwood]

Dwyde was essentially upside down in his engine room harness, but at least he was strapped in. At full acceleration his data pad was showing an engine imbalance he didn't see in testing. The ship's computer was compensating, but the Last Exile wasn't going as fast as it could be by Dwyde's measurement and the new boosters were still on manual control. He zipped to the boosters' panel and patched it into ship balance control. Dwyde warned the bridge before hitting the button.

The Last Exile shot toward the gate, it would be the first there.

[$tormin]

"Enemy ship is slowing acceleration, it must be getting ready to jump. It has less mass than us so it can go through a lot further from the center of the point than we can. I think it's safe to drop battlescreens and jump out but it will be seconds behind us still on the other side." The battle screens took a lot of power that would need to go into the ships jump drive, the testing of which had been the entire point of this trip. Dropping the screens with this sort of distance meant that the ship might be vulnerable to a well placed railgun shot but such fire would hopefully take too long to arrive. Lasers were diffused too much by the range already and missiles couldn't hope to get enough acceleration time to even cover part of the distance.

[jep'ray]

the Last Exile plunged through the gate, and suddenly poping up on the other side, a number of light years from her last position. It was the main Gate Node, a region of space where multiple jump gate points seem to connect. Here with in a few light minutes were no less than 7 jump gates. The ship exiteed with some speed and the computer fought to slow to posted limits, it was instantly scanned by several targeting systems...

The comms channel light up "This is the Sol heavy crusier "Sierra" to the "Last Exile", decellerate immidiately to zero velocity and prepare to be bordered, Lock down your targeting array and all weapons. Any hostile actions will be met with deadly force. This is..."

Gate control had sent a message pod through the gate seconds after the three fighters were deemed hostile...on the other side, the small fleet stationed there was ready and waiting...

[TheSavageHamster]

Toki muttered something unintelligible while fighting to stop the Exile as fast as possible, presumably it had been some sort of criticism towards the Cruiser comm operator's ancestry. The nav computer winced at his tinkering.

[Gumblackwood]

Dwyde listened happily as the main engines powered down and the Last Exile's counterbalance thrusters brought it to the ordered halt. The ship was at a distance that was far enough from the gate that he felt the hostile ship wouldn't get a scan in before being similarly halted, or blown to smithereens, Dwyde would be happy with either. A search by the military probably wouldn't find anthing suspicious on the Last Exile, even if the crew's employers were quite suspicious in their own right.

[Soria]

Emily sat back, hands twitching.

[jep'ray]

Two Sol Fleet heavy cruisers closed in to the ship, they started to scan the hull. The space around the jump point was a globe of ships, from light and nimble Frigates to something as large as a dreadnought, all with in light minutes of the entrance. Suddenly the air around them was filled with targeting systems, armed and ready. The two cruisers came even closer to the Last Exile and blocked it from the jump point, as the last fighter appeared.

[Soria]

"Ooohhhh Crap!"

[jep'ray]

"unregistered war craft, stand to and prepare to be boarded. This is your only warning!" the crusier broadcasted across all channels...all the ships seem to hang in space as the small fighter drifted on...the seconds seem to drag on when suddenly the ship seemed to implode. The fusion light of the engines overloading had simply eatten the ship whole, the owner chosing death over capture...the targeting systems started to click off as a shuttle was sent out to check for survivors and recover what wreckage was left.

The "Sierra" moved in closer and docked to the Last Exile...

[TheSavageHamster]

Puts your happy face on...

[Gumblackwood]

Dwyde had been through military boardings and cargo checks before, and the other ship burning up at least proved that the Last Exile wasn't the hostile one the fleet got word of. He unhooked from the engine room and made his way to the others.

[Soria]

Emily sighed, and dusted herself off a little.

[jep'ray]

The airlock door light blinked from red to green, the door swung open spilling marines out of the hatch. They secured the immidiate area and waved in more people. A Sol officer with a datapad in hand walked straight to the waiting crew and stared at them all.

"This is a routine inspection following a gate disturbance...it will be quick and painless, just a double check of your ship and cargo and you will be on your way" the man droned out, as if he were bored already at the thought of another inspection.

[Soria]

Oh please don't let them find anything wrong with Vinnie's package...

[Gumblackwood]

On his way, Dwyde checked the internal cargo and system manifest. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary to him. Vinnie's package was buried in with other items, labeled generally as "paperwork and private business communications". The crew hadn't had time to work out any lies about why the pursuing ship might have been after the Last Exile, and Dwyde just hoped that the description of them hadn't gotten out to whomever was involved.

[TheSavageHamster]

Toki fidgeted. He had long since realized he simply had the wrong kind of face as far as law enforcement agents were concerned. Praying to the Gods that they wouldnt ask him about the risky manouver on the other side of the gate, he fixed his gaze squarely at the nearest bulkhead, and counted bolts...

15... 16... 17...

[jep'ray]

the officer seem to make a bead line to Toki, looking him up and down, letting out a disgusted *Tsk* he turned and faced the crew again...
"You know you folks are lucky, I see your hauling for Vinnie. I'm suprised that slime hasnt been spaced yet," as he tapped on the data pad "I've had reports all week of random attacks on small cargo ships all across the sector, Random folks except for one factor. Vinnie and that company of he works for. they all carried cargo out of Sol Halo, heading out to various points, maybe dead drops or a transfer point, but we will never know. Six ships gone, along with 40 souls onboard them."

A soldier came up to him and whispered into his ear. he look at the grunt like he was an idiot "Of course everything checks out...it always checks out!" he shouted at the soldier.

Calming down he returned to a normal voice..."but i dont have time to take this bucket of bolts apart to find out what Vinnie has thats so hot to cause someone else to attack a Sol defense ship. Were done here, go on and get moving. I suggest you go to where your headed, i dont think its safe for you till you put as much distance between you and what ever that slime put in your hold" he said as he turned to follow the soldiers to the exit...he turned and smiled

"thank you for your cooperation"

[Soria]

As soon as the officer was gone, Emily let out the breath she was holding in and flopped into her chair.

" I hate Uniforms..."

[Gumblackwood]

"Bloody bastard," Dwyde rubbed his chin, "if Vinnie wasn't trying to get people killed he'd have told them about the vultures. I'd have installed some extra defenses too."

"Forty people, Ha! Like he cares," he mumbled as he went off to check on the systems again, "Bloody psychopath, that one."

[Soria]

"No kidding. Lousy jerk." Emily fished for her packet of smokes, she didn't smoke often, just once in awhile.

[TheSavageHamster]

Toki handed Emily a matchbook

Nasty habits, that... mind if I bums one?

[Soria]

" No problem man." Expertly lights one, and then lights one off of hers for Toki.

"Here ya go... Ya know... Maybe Vinnie has us set up as prey for a death hunt or something..." Shivers.

[TheSavageHamster]

I dunno. Vinny seems like scums, but he didn't have the looks of a complicated mans.

I think more like too many peoples are after what he gave us. And to be honest, I would rather have bounty hunters. At least them I know are only after the monies.

[jep'ray]

Lister came back after rechecking the cargo. "Oy, those Gits tried to tag us" he said, holding up a bag of odd looking bits, "Toki mate, can you hook this onto a rocket motor and space it. Let thos Smeg heads chase that..."turning to Emily " lets go ahead and ask the captain to set course to the cargo drop point, i dont wanna get spaced with this crap" he said pointing back to the cargo

[Soria]

Emily nodded, puffing out smoke from her nose.

[TheSavageHamster]

Ya, sure things.

Toki took a close look at the contraption, and decided he didn't know enough about tracking devices. He went to the nearest terminal and looked at the astrogation charts for the area they were currently floating through, trying to find a vector that wouldn't seem too fake. If fake trails didn't work on jungle cats, they're not gonna fool Sol Security...

Hey Dwyde, can you gets to the airlock down here? We gots some trash to takes out.

Oh, and do we haves a dud rocket? Gonna need one.

[Gumblackwood]

"Don't think I can find you a rocket, but I can do you one better." Dwyde carted out a large canister to where Toki was near the refuse airlock.

"Nearly spent fuel rods," he said proudly, "couldn't afford to recharge them back at Sol, nearly useless anyway, but they'll look near enough like our engine output to add to the illusion."

[TheSavageHamster]

Ah good good.

Toki pulled out some duct tape from one of his pockets, and his knife from his bootstrap. Crouching over the assorted bits and pieces he motioned for Dwyde to help him

So... How about this... Emily go puts us on course, and we's launch the trackers in opposite directions. Give one burst to gets us going, and after the trackers burn out we's hit the gas.

Sound okies?

[Soria]

" Sound okies.. I mean, sounds good." Emily laughs to herself, setting them on course.

[jep'ray]

the ship made the jump to the next few gates unmolested. After a total of 10 hours of standby as they waited in the gate traffic lines they finaly made it to the primary gate to Corprate space and the transfer gate to their primary world.

[TheSavageHamster]

Toki rubed his eyes. The multiple jumps made the relatively short trip feel like it took several days. He turned the inter ship comm

So where are we dumpings this?

[jep'ray]

the ship went into the landing que, as a row of ships awaited for clearance to land on the halo above the corp home world. Odd but no other attacks looked to be comming, as the Last Exile cleared customs and went into final landing sequence.

[Soria]

"Easy does it Toki. She bird gets kinda fussy when landing."

[TheSavageHamster]

"Ah she's a good girls, she can takes it."

[jep'ray]

The ship came in perfectly as the bay doors closed and the ship landed gently on the landing pad. It automaticly retracted into the station. The ship started automatic atmo leveling, a offical in a light pressure suit, a data pad and a annoyed look on his face was waiting as the auto lift came to a stop. Lister cracked the cargo hold and started to power up his suit to off load the goods. The offical stormed on the ship demanding to see the captain...