Futuristic ⋆ ☆ ★ into the starlight will I go ≡ space mercenaries ★ ☆ ⋆

[Hiuly of Starmoon]

Ren walked in and crossed her arms. She had hear what Ace had said about her and Evatt. "You know, you're lucky we're around in the first place. Otherwise you wouldn't exist", she said. "Though I also gotta say that wouldn't be such a bad thing", she added. "At least I wouldn't miss you", she finished and walked out of the armory and to the docking bay, where they would meet up anyways.

Evatt was already there as her and the others arrived. "Yeah, I'm ready. Let's go!", she answered and walked over to where they could board the mysterious ship. She was excited, since that had never happened so far and she could already feel that this was going to give her a lot of experience.

She walked inside the ship and immediately started scanning for more subtle things, as Evatt had told her to do. She didn't see anything, so she stopped and her dark vision kicked in, enabling her to see in the dark as if it was lit up. She carefully started inspecting the ship a bit, noticing some things written in an extraterrestrial language, though she didn't know which one it was, so she couldn't translate it. Ren walked down a corridor, which she figured would take them to the cockpit. She also started noticing how windy it was, meaning that there was a hole somewhere in the hull, where oxygen was escaping.

After a short inspection she found out that it wasn't the cockpit the corridor lead to, so she walked back to Evatt, to offer him assistance in case he needed help with the person on the ship, which was hopefully still alive.

 

[PixelSymphony]

Val'sharra Nightshroud​

---

The instant the personnel hatchway opened, Val slipped through in the blink of an eye, disappearing into the murky cargo hold with only occasional flits of motion and the rustling of cloth and metal indicating she was sweeping through the area. A few moments later, everyone's comm unit would crackle with the demoness's voice. "Hold's clear. I'm going to head towards the cockpit and check the logs. If we're in luck somebody left us a note." Another whoosh of movement like a bat in the night, and then all was quiet in the hold.

Even if it hadn't been for the bevy of scanning equipment currently on her person, Val had been on enough spaceships in her life to know that when builders made cockpits, they tended to put them up high and in the front even if the cockpit itself did not necessarily have any viewports to the world outside. By her best guesses, she was willing to chalk it up to the wonderful principle of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", the designers clearly drawing inspiration from how nautical and aerospace vehicles were made. But some part of her did wonder if perhaps there was a greater psychological reason, something to the concept of sapient life needing to see the vessels that carried them about, whether it be across waters, through the air, or amonng the starts themselves, as creatures in their own right, tending to them as a caring mother would and protecting them from the dangers of the world. Were that the case, she felt as if a small creature, some pyschopomp of an insect crawling up this dying titan's spine, as she clambered up a set of access ladders, aiming to penetrate the ship's skull and retrieve its last thoughts as a swan song?

Wouldn't be the first time, I guess...

Shaking herself out of her reverie, Val'sharra cleared the last few rungs and brought her weapon to the fore again as she stalked down the ill-lit hallway. Flickering lights interspersed with pools of shadow were exactly the sort of thing that in most circumstances brought her a kind of tactical glee, the environment facilitating the rapid repositioning that was the hallmark of her mode of operation, but in this case it merely served to highlight just how bad of a shape this ship was in. With due haste, she advanced towards the door at the end of the hall, activating her comms as she pulled up behind a bulkhead. "Hey chummers, I've got eyes on the cockpit and I'm picking up EM; guessing that's our boy's radio that just ate it. I'm sending my location; get your butts up here pronto or I'm kicking the door in..." And with that, she seemed to fade into the darkness, once again a mere shadow in the night.

---

Interactions: noil Huntertabbysandshark3 Hiuly of Starmoon Teltex

 

[ChasmOfOrganicMatter]

Unheard and unnoticed, 024 crept on all 16's unnoticed by friends and strangers onto the new vessel. Like an enormous house centipede he crept over ceiling, floor, and walling with a twitching, jittery speed that seemed unfitting of his huge size. Every one of his senses was working at full capacity; multiple eye-modules scanned every corner for movement, olfactory sensors across his body absorbed even the most mundane of scent particles, auditory receptors sensed for the slightest changes in ambience, and even synthetic skin analysed potential changes in air pressure.

If this ship was a trap, he wanted to be the first one out.

The others could go find the survivor, if there even was one. His job as far as he was concerned was to make sure they were just finding a survivor and not walking into a trap. A derelict ship was bait but either the trap would be sprung from without or worse, within.

Of everyone on the ship, he reckoned he had the best chance in a close quarters engagement. Wrist-mounted blades cocked themselves, ready to swing out, as he scoured corners, nooks, and crannies for the slightest hint of a potential ambush.

"024 to command, inform me of how scans of the surrounding area are looking." He buzzed over his personal coms back to their own ship.

 

[Huntertabbysandshark3]

Oralious
interaction: noil PixelSymphony​

"Oh medical escort.... dissapointing" was the only thing oralious would say letting out a annoyed grumbling noise that wad more or less just a bit unsettling. Aside formnthat the heavily armed neten followed quietly beside val as they docked with the new other ship. "Hmmm see the ship requires some repairs.. I'd assist but I believe I lack the time for it" Oralious would comment. The crew wandering through the halls of the decrepit ship as oralious's heavy footsteps made loud echoing noises however a radio call from val changed the neten's direction heading towards the cockpit and possibly breaking though a few walls and doors in thr mean time. "Ok.. would you like me to remove the door?" Oralious asked.

 

[Nothingness]

canine
Interactions
Huntertabbysandshark3 PixelSymphony
Mentions
N/A
Location
Cockpit of Judgement
____________________________________________________________________

After responding to the message that the other ship had sent to him and receiving no word in return, all Jin could do was stare and wait since his transmitter was no longer functional. With the ship now at least aware of him, he began diverting power once more into the life support systems before exhaling a low sigh. Turning in his seat just to face the bulkhead door, he'd help himself up from his seat carefully just to call out for his canine companion. "Luva! C'mere boy!" Upon hearing his master's call, the robotic canine slowly pulled itself up onto his four legs began limping towards the sound of his master's voice. Eventually reaching his designated location, the canine dropped onto the floor giving off low mechanical whimpers while Jin slouched over his companion to give off any bit of warmth he could to the canine. The canine had extensive damage litered all over its body with electrical wiring hanging out in certain spots, dents into its body frame on other spots. "Luva...bite down. It's okay, I have plenty to spare..." Whispering under his breath, Jin offered his arm to his companion before the creature bit down and began to absorb the electrical currents throughout Jin's bloodstream allowing for the creature to begin wagging its tail limply to show it had at least some energy now.

While resting in the cockpit and making sure to shut the doors to converse whatever power left there was into a single room for life support, Jin paid no mind to the fact that his ship had finally been pulled into the docking hanger of the other ship that reached out to him. It wasn't till the sudden heavy metallic thud of his ship landing in the docking bay did he gasp just to look up from where he sat with his companion. "Wha...what? Where are we...?" Questioning himself and his pet, Luva stayed laying on the floor due to his wounds while Jin attempted to turn on the exterior lights of the ship to no avail due to practically all power had been drained by this point.

Moments went by and the sound of his ship's ramp lowering had Jin quickly on guard though making any rapid movements seemed to only put a strain onto his body as he winced at the sudden attempt to stand only to immediately collapse back down onto his rear.
Multiple footsteps were soon heard echoing down the corridors of his ship while he sat there staring at the bulkhead door to the cockpit, closing his eyes slowly, he waited for whoever or whatever was on his ship to enter the cockpit and either capture him or kill him.

Before long voices were heard on the opposite end of the metal door about ripping off the entirety of the bulkhead just to get through as well as something about informing a crew to head to this exact location. "W..Wait! No need for that!" Calling out to possibly stop an unnecessary outcome of damaging the ship any further, Jin carefully and slowly helped himself back up to his feet just to pull onto the emergency lever beside the door that would bypass the locking mechanism to allow for easier manual opening of the bulkhead. After pulling upon the lever, he'd forcibly pull the metal door to the side only to come face to face with a female and what appeared to had been a rather large robotic-like figure. "Um...I come in peace?" Raising his arms up above his head to show that he was unarmed, Jin stared at the two figures unaware if they were a threat or not before motioning with his head to the damaged and resting canine behind him in the cockpit. "Please, if you're going to rob me...at the very least. I ask that you tend to my friend."

 

[Hiuly of Starmoon]

Ren was still walking around the ship, trying to find a clue about what language the ship was in, when she heard some commotion coming from the opposite direction from where she currently was, as well as some voices talking. She turned up her sensitivity for sound and could now make out entire sentences. The others had apparently found something, that was worth looking at a bit closer. She turned the sensitivity down again and ran towards the place where the others were.

Arriving there, she immediately started with the x-ray and scanning the pilot for injuries and called Evatt to the cockpit. As soon as he arrived she started with her status report.

“Pilot. Age: unknown, species: unknown, I suspect he’s male. Several cuts, stab wounds and bruises, most require stitching, bite on arm, most likely canine. Bruised ribs, but no broken bones and no fatal internal bleeding. High possibility of head trauma”, she tuned to the pilot. “Anything I missed?”

Then she saw the dog and repeated the process. “Patient nr. 2: canine creature. Species: unknown, age: unknown. Severe damage in general and broken leg. Most likely the cause of bite wound on patient nr. 1. In dire need of repairs”.

She looked back at Evatt. “So, how can I help?”

Nothingness Teltex

 

[Teltex]

Evatt

The ship was a mess. Loose wiring, electrical sparks, the way the ambient interior lights kept flickering off an on in a run-down distress routine... Evatt hadn't seen many ships this hopeless-looking in a long while. He walked through the halls slowly while the others moved ahead, thinking about what type of impact had caused this. He flinched back as 024 moved past him and down another hall of the ship, looking for traps. Well, Evatt was grateful for that, at least. The creature's... motives were unknowable, but it hadn't caused any large issues on the Insidiae yet, and that was enough. There was muffled conversation by the cockpit, and Evatt walked in that direction, hurrying now that victims had been found thanks to Val. She was a bundle of negative coping mechanisms, but Evatt had to at least appreciate her tracking skills. Few came close.

It was a man - though he didn't look human - resting next to a robotic dog. Evatt kneeled by the pilot while Ren gave him a rundown of what her scanners had picked up. She had no ideas about his species either, but that didn't really matter. Evatt breathed a sigh of relief when she told him there was no internal bleeding or broken bones.

"Relax," he told the pilot, opening his medical kit. "We're not here to rob you, as much as some of us may want to. We're here to fix you up."

Evatt tried smiling reassuringly, but weariness cut through. "Now, if you could tell us... what exactly you are, that would be appreciated."

He glanced towards the dog and tried to hide his disgust, If you wanted a pet, why settle for one that only thought in binary code? In truth, the pilot was Evatt's main concern and the dog barely a tangential afterthought... but saving the dog would improve mental health outcomes, and if you could... why wouldn't you?

He sighed, then looked to Ren. "Apply stitches to wherever is needed, and basic dressing for the head. His species is unknown, so I'll let you use your own discretion for the specifics. I'll work on the dog. Just treat the minor stuff, then I think we should be right to bring them on-board."

He turned and looked closer at the canine. Collector was far better at machinery than he was, but when you were a medic on a crew that was half-machine anyway, you picked up a few things on how to fix robotics. Not enough to fix a android like Ace for sure, but... well, Ace was skilled enough that he never came to Evatt with severe injuries, anyway.

"Alright," Evatt said, looking at the dog. "Let's get you fixed up."

 

[noil]

^{- - -} A-C3 ^{- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -}
Ace moved casually through the ship, the sense of urgency that the organics were swept up in not quite making it into his own concerns. The ship was in rough shape for sure. It had definitely seen some kind of conflict, wasn't out here on just a breakdown. With an afterthought, he switched on a few more scanning functions, trying to get a better feel for what kind of ship they'd docked to. He opened a connection back to the Insidiae, transmitting the results as they went.

The electrical systems in this ship gave him pause. The wireways seemed excessive, crisscrossing and tying in to seemingly everything. And the currents running through them, even in a low power state, were notably higher than human-standard vessels. Whoever made this thing either wasn't hurt by electricity, or crazy enough to not care about safety protocols.

He was just about to enter the section that seemed to house the ship's drive systems, when he heard conversation coming from back toward the front of the ship. Ace gave the section a quick glance then turned away reluctantly, jogging up to the cockpit to join the others.

They were gathered around a pretty banged-up looking guy, Evatt and Ren talking a lot of medical nonsense, and there was a-

"Is that a dog??" Ace didn't slow his pace as he came up on the group, shoving Val aside to crouch down in front of the robotic animal, one hand held out towards its snout in greeting, "Hey there guy, what did these meanies do to you?"

 

[ChasmOfOrganicMatter]

"Don't touch. Maybe it's got rabies."

The voice of static scraping, mocking tone, and imitated humanity descended from a shadowy corner; a long spinal colum outlined by twitching centipede legs holding an upper torso semi-skeletal, semi-beetle and its insectoid mask-face with clattering, twitching mandibles. In the shadows above, the lower body this grotesque entity had descended from was shrouded.

He'd been creeping through the vessel quietly, staying out of everyone's way, but regarded the mimicy of mammalian life with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion. A little bit of disdain; canines were tedious animals and there were far more cunning, clever lifeforms to create a machine copy of.

The rest of his body snapped forwards, returning him to his slightly less grotesque default form, towering over the others as he scanned the dog with his own not-exactly-natural eyes.

"If we're picking up a dog, make sure it earns its keep. Machine or not, it is an extra level of maintenance."

 

[Huntertabbysandshark3]

Oralious
interaction: noil PixelSymphony Nothingness​

Oralious looked down at the scared man who seemed to believe that they where pirates of some sort? Everyone else rushing towards the cockpit to tend to them and frankly Oralious was just a bit disappointed as they where expecting more interesting situations however they had mentioned that they had friends to tend too. “Hmm what about these friends of yours where would they be? I presume we should go tend to them first before interrogating this man yes?” Oralious suggested to everyone.

 

[Nothingness]

Interactions
noil Huntertabbysandshark3 Teltex Hiuly of Starmoon
Mentions
ChasmOfOrganicMatter PixelSymphony
Location
Cockpit of Judgement
____________________________________________________________________

One by one, strangers had started to arrive into the cockpit of his ship to the point that the situation was starting to become uneasy for Jin. Eyeing each of the individuals separately just to get an idea of each of their stances in case any of them had been attempting to attack him, his attention was soon taken over toward the female who spoke up about both his and his canine companion's injuries both external and internal. Surprised as to how the woman had been able to diagnose him so quickly after only just looking at him, Jin gazed down at his own body along with the bite wound on his arm, even he wasn't aware of the fact that he had bruised ribs underneath. Eventually only shaking his head to the woman's question on whether she had missed anything, he'd bring his attention next upon the next individual to speak which appeared to had been named 'Evatt', or so the woman called him such.

At the very least, the man had confirmed Jin's suspicions that these people weren't pirates and that they weren't going to rob him or at least they weren't even though they wanted to. While it wasn't exactly the greatest way to calm him, at least the confirming the fact that they weren't going to rob him and were going to help him gave him some temporary relief until he could see the entire situation through. As the man questioned him right after about what he was, however, Jin stared blankly at the man while pondering on the thought of whether or not it was wise to be telling strangers about his race and risk getting their ship into combat; though, not saying anything might make him appear untrustworthy and risk not getting any help at all. "My name...is Jin Vaquil, of the Quinn." Right as he had spoken the name of his race to those outside of his people, he could already feel the marking on his tongue activate even if it was faint as he only stated the name of his people and nothing more. He was already being hunted by his people as it was, so having them know even a faint signal of his location wasn't exactly going to change anything.

Meanwhile, the canine who had been lying beside Jin the entire time stared up at the multiple strangers while its mechanical tail had stiffened behind it, along with its ears lowering and a low growl leaving its maw. Still believing those around them were a threat, the instant one of the strangers had extended a hand to touch Luva's snout, it was quick to bite down upon the stranger's hand firmly before releasing and backing away further towards the dashboard of the cockpit. Hearing the sound of the mechanical bite from his canine companion, Jin quickly turned his attention back to dog just to kneel down in front of it and extend a familiar hand to it. "It's okay Luva...we'll be okay. C'mon...they won't hurt us." Seeing and listening to Jin, the beast carefully and slowly approached Jin's hand before calmingly nuzzling its head against his palm. "This is my friend...please, do not hurt him. You may have anything else you want as compensation, just not him."

 

[noil]

^{- - -} A-C3 ^{- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -}
"Shit!"

Ace snapped his hand back to his body, cradling the damaged appendage and making a hasty retreat back behind the safety wall that was Oralious. Dogs were supposed to be friends, right? He felt betrayed. Dogs were great. Easily excitable animals that seemed eager to please and always ready to roll with whatever the galaxy threw at them. A robot dog should be even better, instead it had tried to chow down on his hand. Ace flexed his fingers, grumbling unintelligibly at the grinding noises of protest the digits gave in response to the movement. This Luva had definitely earned a place firmly on Ace's list of sworn enemies.

He straightened up as the word compensation snaked its way around Oralious. Now they were talking.

"Well we can't fix this slag pile here," he spoke up, edging back out from his retreat, "But if you're paying we could piggyback you to the nearest service base." He looked to the other crew for confirmation. 'Piggybacking,' jumping while docked to a smaller vessel, wasn't an ideal way to move a damaged craft, but judging from his scans the ship would be a tight fit for their cargo bay if it fit at all, and he really doubted it had the maneuverability right now to get in position even if it did. If they could just tighten down their docking clamps they should be able to make a low speed jump together without issue.

 

[Hiuly of Starmoon]

Ren have a Short nod towards Evatt showing him she understood what the had to do before scurrying to Exatt‘s medical kit, he had placed on the ground before, in search of a needle and some thread to stitch up the wounds on Jin, as she had now learned.

Just as she had found all the materials she needed, she heard Ace talking to the dog. She turned around And had to stifle a laugh. „Looks like the almighty Ace has a soft spot“, she remarked and walked over to the patient to stitch him up. Right in that moment the dog bit down on Ace‘s arm. Now she really couldn’t hold her laughter in. „Be careful! Maybe it’ll bite your big ego the next time“, she barely got out.

As soon as she calmed down, she sat down next to Jin and got everything ready for the stitches. „Alright, you can watch if you want to, but most people prefer not to. Also it’ll only hurt for a few minutes at most“, she said. „Alright, if you‘re ready I‘ll start now“, she announced and got to work.

„aaaaand done!“, she announced after a while, after having carefully stitched up all the wounds. „Okay, now don’t strain your body too much because the stitches can pop and then I have to redo everything. So, I guess take it easy for the time being until the stitches come out“, she advised Jin while correctly packing up the needle again so she could throw it out back on their ship and made a mental reminder to restock Evatt‘s kit. „So? What now?“, she turned to the group.

 

[PixelSymphony]

Val'sharra Nightshroud​

---

"Oof!" Val coughed out as she was roughly displaced. "Hey, Acehole! Watch where you're-" Her ire came to a halt as she watched the canine companion chomp down upon Ace's outstretched hand, and a deserved grin spread upon her face. "Pssh, how's that Karma tasting, bucko?"

While the medical staff got to patching up the captain and his loyal companion, Val stepped around them and began to have a look over his cabin consoles, taking in the various readings coming from them. "Whoo buddy, I dunno what you got yourself into, but yeah, your whole system is having conniptions at this point. Not gonna lie, as soon as we get you out of here, I'm shutting everything off before you accidently electrocute the lot of us."

Taking a glance over to Evatt working with Luva, Val had a momentary idea. "You know, if you want, I could probably redirect what's left of the electrical system into your pet here if he's running low on juice." Without even waiting for permission, Val stooped down below one of the consoles and popped off an access panel, already rooting through and isolating cables.

---

Interaction: Nothingness