Decendants of Mars - The Plague

[Anaxial]

On Haumea
Krega's squad had their weapons trained on the humans, not backing down. Krega replied in English in a voice that was unnaturally warm and living, as if from a corpse, but well-simulated human speech.


"Insolent humans! Stand down! We are officers of the Plutonian Starfleet and you are under our custody!"


As soon as Krega had finished his sentence, the life support and artificial gravity failed. The Plutonians were unnaffected, as the gravity of their homeworld was so slight, but the humans would most likely feel the effects.


"I repeat, as the ranking military officer on this instillation, I order you to abandon your weapons or die an agonizing death."


The prongs on Krega's rad rifle sprang to life, emitting a menacing red glow as it locked on to the Henson Corp mens' signatures.

When the Plutonians responded, the RASeF squad immediately became unnerved.


"Did they say Plutonians?" One asked, thankfully he had the discipline to keep his eyes forward.


"Holy shit... Is the start of an interspecies war?" The second shifted uncomfortably in his positron on the barricade. Thankfully the Plutonians wouldn't be able to hear their panic. Ahlan was quiet as the squad continued to murmur fearfully, though he never had personally seen a Plutonian- non of them have! It was something that they had said;


"...you are under our custody! " If they wanted the RASeF squad dead they could have just shot them in the back. Ahlan came to a conclusion and jumped up from the barricade, becoming quite a large target. He held his rifle in one arm and clearly displayed him laying it down.


"Everyone shut up, they didn't commit this, they're investigating. Calm down and got god's sake don't shoot me." He said before jumping over the barricade and approaching the Plutonians hands clearly visible. He switched his helmet back to public speak and shouted to the aliens;


"There's been a misunderstanding. No need for violence, let's talk this out."

 

[Jarkov Malachai]

That bitch better not scratch my paint job.

Tyr glanced at the small cylinder. “For personal use? Deal. I believe I might have a few idea’s of which I can throw around. As of the moment, ready to go however no. This isn’t a retail store.” The Fabricator said gruffly, scorch marked arms crossing his chest.


“We only deal in custom pieces so if you want a Higher end shield you might have to wait…” Tyr tilted his head thinking. “4 days or so for me to get it done. One for brainstorming and building, two or so for testing and another to finalize the design.” The man’s eyes already had a slightly far-away look.


“The thing about energy shields is everyone thinks so small, just give it more power and that makes it better.” He murmured more to himself than the plutonian.


“But the thing is there are so many other factors, the actual energy matrices which is doing the blocking, how can the weave be made better? What power sources could be used to make it more efficient? Do you even have to block incoming projectiles but rather wouldn’t it be easier to create a spaced hexagonal shield some feet from the user to deflect incoming fire at a fraction of normal power required? I have made star ship energy shields which make use of on-board AI and that type of shielding for amazing results but I Don’t think, without a decent computing system, it could be adapted for Smaller use.”


Tyr stared at the plutonian again, this time not as the proprietor of the shop, but as a man trying to figure out a problem.


“Any specifications of which you wish to incorporate? I’d need an example of the power source your people use otherwise you might be screwed should you leave here and it be damaged and you are unable to repair it since its wired for a different source. I could put in an interface for ease of maintenance and personal settings. And… other things.” Tyr trailed off, getting dragged into his own mind staring up at the ceiling brow furrowed.


Two things were on his mind, one how to build this and complete a deal and up his relay’s capabilities, and another one freaking out about what the hell she was doing.


Haumea


A ship warps in, not too far away to be outside of sensor range but far enough no one would get squirmy and take a potshot at it even though it was just a slightly larger than average Freighter type ship. It sat there for a few minutes and ignored any and all hails sent towards it though if they were smart it wouldn’t be too difficult to see who owned it as the serial number and name was brightly lit. Aparently whoever was piloting it didn’t give one fuck about remaining anonymous. There was only one life form detectable and it was only for a moment as the bio-signature kept fading in and out.


The airlock opened and out shot a black-luminous green shape across the black. It hurtled through space with unerring accuracy and slammed into one of the bio-domes of the colony out here on their floating rock.


The impact rocked the area with small tremors and dust fell, cascading from the ceiling. This event coincided with the little skirmish between plutonian and Terran forces. Deeper in the facility, Bloodlust reigned.

(@Shireling and any other fucker there on the colony plot)

 

[NeoLeaf]

Daniel Hans Werner

Daniel stared at the window of the shuttle and frown upon the piss yellow mist and the waves of plump orange clouds. God save him from this terrible scenery. He turned away from the transparent glass and swiped his light brown hand across his tablet. The tablet featured a number of things for the user's entertainment such as looking at some local news networks, reading about the latest gossip, having a number of radio stations for the person's listening pleasure and some games playable on the tablet. Daniel went for the radio stations and fitted a comfortable headset over his ears. He swiped from various stations until he arrived to something that he enjoyed. Whale songs. He sank into his chair as the sound of the oceans swayed his mind and the deep beautiful tones of the aquatic mammals softly stimulated his ears.


Ding! Daniel opened his heavy eyes and slowly turned his head towards the window.


<Dammen und Herren, we'll be arriving to Franklin's Shuttle Bay in half an hour. Please begin preparing for your departure. Thank you for you time.> A monotone voice of a female AI had replied though out the shuttle. The message repeated a second time for the passengers and the captain also gave his five cents in the intercom.


"Ugh..." Daniel groaned. A series of shadowy objects could be seen. Smaller stations supported by balloons or cheap inexpensive versions of gravity drives, a lot of them being no bigger than a home for a small family or person,and most of them being attached to one another forming clusters that are at average a couple of kilometers in length. Ahead of the cluster fuck stations rose a large ugly looking dome shaped superstructure. A large mountain in the middle of a kingdom of spiderwebs and mothballs. Yup. This is the Jeremy State.


The sleek tear-shaped shuttle arrived to an entrance of the ominous black dome and slowly flew inside. The shuttle's thrusters began to 'pop' or release energy in rapid succession until the transport vehicle hovered perfectly above ground and landed softly within a circular platform. The shuttle's engines began to turn off and grow silent. A moving staircase built itself out of the ground and in front of the shuttle's platform and the passengers began to leave their seats once the captain gave the go ahead.


Daniel stepped out of the calm latte colored inside of the white shuttle and looked up towards the ceiling of a dark spacious room filled with other transport shuttles and cargo ships. Workers with flares were up and at them, huge chunky old mech-suit that were piloted by workers roamed around, transporting containers or bringing teams of laborers to their next station. Scooters and small fork lifts zoomed about along with these mechs to do whatever it is that they were doing. On his side there wasn't much going on save that the large moving stairway was bringing them away from the busy shuttle bay towards the underground subway stations and metros of the city.


He took a 1 hour train ride after he's been checked through by the security checkpoints and the law enforcers. Jeremy State is pretty urbanized, the place would be more or less comparable to the old U.S city of New York... Well, if it weren't for the fact that the population was around a hundred thousand instead of tens of millions. The place had kept it's 21 century appeal and even dared to keep the automobiles models more or less unchanged from the precious eras. Traffic jams happen, streets would sometimes get crowded and privacy was hard to come by with these men and women.


The train had stopped and started to move again. Daniel sat in a sound proof private room in the first class segment of the train and chilled there with a cup of coffee in his hands. That was until an Elderly man came into the room and sat across from him. White full grown beard, oval glasses, skinny long white hair put into a ponytail, pink face and greenish grey eyes. The caramel man watched the elder sit down and forced a curly smile on his face.


"Hello, Chancellor McReady."


"Howdy do, partner." The man replied in a low but sarcastic voice.


"Is there something that I can help you with, sir?" Daniel asked.


"There is something that you can do for me, boy." The man gave the dark man a head nod before glaring deeply into his eyes.


"Once you are done here with your little investigation, I want you off this city pronto."


"Will do. I have no intention on staying here after all." Daniel winced at the thought of the food that they serve around these parts.


"Good. While we are both stuck here together until the next stop, would you care to play a game of Risk?"


"Ehg, uh, I don't mind." Daniel stammered at first but quickly regained his calm composure.


"Great. I'll get board set up." The old man hid a cheeky smile under his white beard.


Daniel arrived at an abandoned area of the city. A ruined manufacturing facility, stinking of oil, chemicals and metal. Old metallic walls are stained with copper stripes. Floors are wet with whatever chemicals and fuel that had remained and rotted here. Machinery and Mechs are all abandoned and pretty much everything here is worth a bit of salvage. Daniel looked down at his tablet and reviewed the documents and data that he had gotten from Mr. Schönwälder and looked for the list that showed a number of names that could help him in this investigation.


One name seemed very out of place from the others.


Trevor Black...

 

[NecroKnight]

Buchard was about to reply to him, when one of his own tech's - a man with more tattoos than manners answered him. Buchard merely chuckled to himself, looking at Tzu.


"It would seem, I have to cut this meeting short," spoke Buchard, as Tzu' ship could soon detect blue-shifts on his sensors - the pirate group' numbers started to dissipate, all jumping to FTL and likely back towards the Asteroid Belt. Good news, they were leaving; bad news was, why were they suddenly leaving, if they wanted to raid this place.


"But - before I go, a little note of warning. Try not go charging in, as the Mongols likely planet-side are pissed their ride-out is destroyed. Interesting to note, that the Mongols arrived here first - although, we had purchased knowledge, that this colony was supposed to empty by a suit. Watch your back Commander; not everything comes stamped with ink," spoke Buchard, before his own ship jumped to FTL. The mighty Ares-class battlecruiser, jumping away because of Mongols.


Well, they had a habit of getting under anybodies skin - while the Anarchists were mostly pirates. They didn't atleast practice the loot-kill-maim cult thing. Mostly, what was more distrubing was the suit indication - or the nickname for politicians/rich-men by navals. Being that there still was a rumour, among naval personnel - that the Mongols might be funded by the Federation. Seeing as they had advanced technology, and colonies were usually left destroyed - even those armed well-enough to defend themselves, with Corporate-owned defense systems.


And, if somebody had led both Mongols and Anarchists here - it could be a likely chance, somebody might be after him too. Seeing as Buchard' crime, was simply verbal offense against a politician.


(Funny thing about Anarchists - they take stuff from Corps' guys; but they still stick them into the same category as politicians. As most believe, the politicians and corporates guys are the same people. So more drama, because of a lack of understanding)

 

[Shireling]

On Haumea


The Plutonians slightly lowered their weapons, then stepped closer to the Henson Corporation men. Seen in the dull light of the emergency wall-lights, Ruum Krega was a tall humanoid dressed in black and toting a very dangerous-looking weapon. His head, covered with an officer's cap with an unorthodox peak in the back, was devoid of a face, save a seemingly random assortment of colored lights across where his face should be. Closer inspection suggested that these lights betrayed the location of optical and auditory sensors. For brief moments, the humans might see what appeared like a black-irised eyeball in an unnatural position, but this would prove to be a trick of the light. As he neared them, the lights seemed to move, and indeed they did, for he was examining them from various angles by moving his sensors below the translucent surface that made up his skin.


When he spoke, he spoke in an untraceable accent, one that was devoid of any human emotion, save perhaps a slight twinge of irritation. Many have likened the simulated speak of the Plutonians to what a corpse might sound like. In short, he was alien in every way.


"Who is the ranking officer among you?" Asked the Plutonian simply.


Far away, what could only be guessed to be an explosion made the room shake slightly and rocks and gravel crumble from the ceiling. Krega's two robotic servitors flanked him on either side and turned their heads about.


The Bunker, Venus





"Well, Mr. Ruggard," Kles began, unlatching a small component from his belt, "here is my current model. I'll allow you to study it for a few days. It's a rudimentary model, actually, but they all use the same power core."


He turned about and gave the machine shop another glance.


"Any improvements you can make on the overall durability of the design would be appreciated, especially in kinetic absorption capabilities. We don't like to admit it, but being shot with bullets is not a pleasant sensation for us either." The Plutonian released an odd, unintelligible sound that might have been his impression of a chuckle.


"I'll come back at the end of the week and leave you to your work, sir." And with that, Kles turned and walked away with a flourish of his coat.