Futuristic The Deep Dark: A Space-Age, Galactic Freeroam RP

[Cry U 945]

Haven is a colony in the outer reaches of colonized space. It is indeed a Haven- for backwater, lowlife scum. Pickpockets and drug dealers are at home on a colony like this, especially due to the OIGA's lack of influence this far out. Criminals dwell here in droves. The colony is centered mostly on manufacturing and shipping, leaving it a prefab warehouse-covered maze of destitution. Our story, however, begins in one specific warehouse here. We'll share this tale with you, as well. But first, we must start where all stories do- The beginning.

Setting the Scene

We begin inside a dingy warehouse, alongside an Illegal deal involving L-crystal trade. There is a main room, some side rooms, plenty of shelves, towers of storage crates, and lots of crevices for the stealthy opportunist. There are also catwalks above the floor that can be accessed from the roof, as well as rafters that run alongside the underside of the ceiling. The building's walls are a dull, steel grey, one that seems to suck what little color there is out of the building. Due to overcrowding and tightly compacted buildings, the nearest spaceport is about ten miles away, give or take.

Current Objective

Right now, everybody is somewhere in the warehouse, specifically at their pre-planned position. Everybody is to interact with one another until the next objective occurs.

 

[Cry U 945]

Ryder moved as silently as he could, ghosting across the pre-fabricated instacrete roof of the warehouse. His eyes scanned, searched, before finding an entryway to the building below- a trapdoor, one that was rusted severely. Ryder drew close, but stopped at the site of the low-tech lock holding the trapdoor shut. He drew his blade, slashing it across the lock and destroying it, rendering it useless. A small flinch at the moderately loud noise, but then he was pulling the trapdoor open, trying to minimize the creaks it broadcast.

"Heh. Open Sesame."


He slid in, lightly closing the door behind him, and landed upon a catwalk. Inside the warehouse, there was a tense atmosphere, the same one that seemed to follow all underground deals. He scanned the floor below, noticing quite a few unique individuals, but stopped his eyes on a specific one.


The Red Queen of Pirates herself, Vinnie.


Ryder noticed her speaking to a couple of her Echan, and at the sight of them, muttered to himself.


"Damn. Those guys are tough. Gonna have to work around them."


Ryder was about to move to his right when he heard something from the left. An Echan was patrolling the catwalk, and walking straight towards him. Hadn't noticed him yet, but he'd be caught in seconds.


The Echan walked along the catwalk, thankfully not noticing the armored hands keeping a white-knuckled grip on the lowest rung of the catwalk's railing. Ryder hung from the catwalk for a moment before dropping onto the top of a storage container pressed to the wall, one right below him. He stood as close to the wall as he could, directly under the catwalk, and slid into the shadows.


He then began his vigil, and waited.

 

[whitefoxkiller]

Vinnie calmly looked around the warehouse as she sat on one of the many metal crates around her. She was surrounded by a group of Echan, the ones she trusted the most. There were ten of them. There were also two Echan in the catwalks: Snipers waiting for trouble. Vinnie silently counted the crates again, it relaxed her. Seven crates. Seven crates full of the finest L-crystals, which she’d seen her fair share of. Most times, Vinnie would actually find her own vein of L-crystals and contract a discrete mining group to mine them for her, which she would then sell. Once in a very lucky blue moon, however, she became aware of another criminal who had some in their possession. This one had been a doozy. This ship was carrying at least twenty crates of the stuff, and it wasn’t well defended! It was hidden on an exotic produce barge. She easily took all the product and destroyed the barge. Normally, Vinnie always split up her finds into smaller sales, 2-3 crates. She did it this time as well, only selling seven crates out of the twenty, but it was still a much larger-than-average deal. And larger deals meant larger risk. More people looking to steal the merch. Vinnie, however, had never been stolen from and didn’t plan to ever get stolen from. Especially not on a huge deal like this.


She got up and paced around a bit, her hand resting on the hilt of her gun on her belt. She turned to her right-hand-man, F-1. He was the Echan who first decided to join her crew and who convinced the others to as well. He was sharper than the rest of them, almost as quick-learning as a real human, and he was getting smarter everyday. The two shared ultimate trust. Vinnie turned to him.


“what time was this contact supposed to show up?” She asked quietly


“in five minutes boss.” He replied crisply. Vinnie raised her eyebrow. She thought it had been longer. She looked back up at him with a look he instantly understood. “I can’t track any specific ship in this area, it’s too densely populated.” He quickly added, looking at a handheld device he drew from his pocket. Vinnie sighed. She hated waiting. She walked over to different echan and held her hand out. He gave her a red helmet she wore to all trades. It wasn’t to hide her identity or to protect her or anything, but to make her seem a little more…intimidating. Vinnie knew she had a baby face. She was only 27, after all. And she wanted to be feared, which she was. But allowing anyone to see her baby face in person wasn’t a wise decision if she wanted to keep her reputation. She slipped the helmet on and clicked it shut. She then squared up her shoulders and took her position right in the middle of her posse, waiting for this contact to show up.

 

[Yesman]

Jared sat at the back of the warehouse, his robotic eye whirring behind his helmet as it zoomed in and out. His robotic hands ran over his guns, checking them once more, making sure that it was in perfect, working condition; it wasn't like he hadn't already checked them beforehand, but the last thing the merc wanted was for his guns to malfunction during a firefight. Although technology had made leaps and bounds over the past centuries, some firearms, which were also advanced with technology, still jammed or overheated. Scorch, the assault rifle which Jared now wielded, was, thankfully, not one such firearm. It fired in either a three-burst or automatic mode. Its ammunition usually came in the form of plasma, but Jared had modified for this job. It now fired weak bolts of electricity instead, able to stun anything that got hit but not powerful enough to damage anything in the warehouse. Other than the rifle, Jaks had his two favored side arms equipped as well as his hard light sword strapped to his back.


The mercenary stood and pulled up a digital copy of his contract: protect his employer's goods and he'd get paid an agreed amount. An Echan walked up behind the merc and tapped him on the shoulder, letting him know that he could go join the employer.


"Is your queen ready?" asked the cyborg mercenary as he got up and followed the silent alien. "If you don't mind me asking, why would your little queen hire me to babysit her goods? Doesn't she have enough of you guys already?"


The Echan shrugged without turning around. "You can ask the princess yourself," the alien replied. "There's been talk among the crew that there are several other...skilled individuals who wish to steal the princess' hard earned products. She wished to hire you to deal with these individuals." He turned his head and gave Jared a smirk. "I do agree with you though, there is no need for you to be here. We Echans are more than enough."


To this, Jared made no reply but silently followed the Echan.

 

[Quarantinetimer]

Main Storage Room- Access Hallway


Stacked up on the door along with the rest of the OTC Tactical Law Enforcement Team, Agent Crix was starting to feel the tension. Beads of sweat were running down past his brow and dropping onto his ablative vest, causing him to lower his X-7 in order to wipe them off. A younger fellow officer wielding a thermo-kinetic breaching tool gave him a sweeping look with a hint of contempt, before quickly returning his eyes to the door's locking mechanism. On the opposite side of the warehouse, a similar team was positioned to make entry simultaneously, and two sharpshooters with authorization to fire on anyone who presents an immediate threat were poised to strike from nearby vantage points.


At this point, Crix began to run his mind through the tactical situation. So far, Two gunman perched on the catwalks have been spotted by the sharpshooters, and the two entry teams have managed to clear the access hallway without alerting anyone. Or have they? Brushing aside such thoughts, Crix gestured to the younger officer. A nod was given in return and a few fibers extended from the breaching tool were inserted into the lock's pinhole.The originally blank screen of the tool started to display feed, while the officer manipulated the fibers until a complete scan of their sector was completed.


Nothing. Just piles of storage crates. Of course, with this type of layout, no one can really expect to see anything, Crix reasoned. At least we're certain that they're in there.


"Reaper 1 to entry team. New contact spotted. He's moving along the roof, and...he's in! Dropped in on catwalk C-2. Wearing a hard-suit...whoa, that's a HUGE blade!"


Disturbed by this sudden turn of events, Crix orders for further reports. A flurry of information is exchanged, while the team maintains their stack position in silence, exercising tactical patience for the situation to develop before making their move. Calculated, Professional and Aware.

 

[LeviathanL]

5 minutes


Fasir checked the read-out on the bracer of his suit. Power was sufficient, life-support stable. L-crystal capacity was running low, obvious given the nature of the meeting, but there was enough left to give him maneuverability in the event of unexpected surprises. Satisfied with his suit, he went on his way.


3 minutes


The warehouse was in range, he just had to calculate the trajectory for safe entry. A blind jump was not to be undertaken lightly. Even if the actual range was just a few meters, without confirmed visual one could easily get stuck inside a wall. He would need to be careful in setting this up.


1 minute


Done, this should allow for a safe jump, or at least as safe as experimental technology could be. All that was left was to make a flashy entrance. He was dealing with uncivilized criminals here, a little bit of menacing flair should provide adequate mystery to dissuade them from double-crossing him.


3 seconds


2


1


Fasir activated the L-drive and phased into the designated spot in the warehouse. Where his supplier was waiting.


"Red Princess, I assume you have it." It was not a question.

 

[whitefoxkiller]

Vinnie looked the man who just entered up and down and, at first, didn't say anything. She was surprised at his appearance. He was wearing so much armor he almost didn't look human anymore. She nodded to F-1, who opened one crate up. The crate wasn't filled to the brim with l-crystals, that would be dangerous. Instead they were packed separately in firm foam, like weapons. F-1 pulled a single crystal out and gently tossed it to Fasir for inspection. While he was doing this Vinnie casually clicked a button on her wrist that sent an already prepared message to a mercenary, Jared. It told him to begin sweeping the warehouse and killing anyone who was unauthorized. She wanted to tell him herself, but since the contact had already arrived it was too late.


"The quality is good and I've brought all you've asked. Where's my money?" Vinnie said. Her voice came out deep and warbled, her mask was hiding her true girly and high voice. Despite the voice modification she still managed to get through a tone of control and competence.

 

[LeviathanL]

Fasir catched the crystal and nodded to the smuggler as he used his bracer to analyze the quality of the item. Satisfied, he remotely accessed one of his anonymous bank-accounts. He did not relish in dealing with criminals, but it was neccesary in order to achieve the funds and goods required for his goals. As such he often found himself in similar situations, trading ill-gotten funds for ill-gotten services. It was for the greater good, he always told himself, and the more he said it the more he started to believe it.


"The agreed upon amount has been wired to your account, please confirm."

 

[Yesman]

A beeping sound from his com notified Jared that the princess wanted him to begin his work. The Echan had given him a quick rundown of the warehouse which his AI had recorded and built a virtual map of the building for him.


As he patrolled the grounds, he periodically casted a glance to the cat walk overhead. Something made him feel uneasy. He eventually came to an area where a mix of technology, intuition, and experience made him stop. He looked up at the cat walk above him, his eye zooming in and focusing on the rungs before turning to the stacked containers and crates. He knew what made him feel uneasy. Somebody could have easily hung from the catwalk and dropped to the containers.


He called up to a passing Echan on the catwalk. "Hey, have you seen anything?"


The Echan answered with a shake of the head.


"Is there anyway from the outside to access the carwalks from the outside?" inquired the mercenary.


"Several trapdoors and windo-"


"Go around and check them for tampering."


The Echan hesitated but ended up grumbling something and conveyed the mercenary's order to the other Echans on the catwalk.


As Jared continued his patrol, he clicked on his comm and spoke to the other patrolling Echans. "Keep your eyes and ears open. It might be something, it might be nothing but better safe than sorry."

 

[AlphaDraco]

Taz hated this colony. Well, perhaps not hated, that would indicate that some sort of personal offense had been done to him. The more correct vernacular would be that he really, really disliked this colony. The government did nothing but ensure that they remained safe from the crime that perpetrated the city, while the city itself was filled with nothing but thieves and murderers. Honestly, it was somewhat impressive that this colony had even been able to form with such a disjointed and mentally questionable group, but something impressive could still be held in contempt.


With an exasperated sigh, a human gesture that Taz was quite fond of, he walked up to the abandoned warehouse, or more accurately the until-recently-abandoned warehouse.


Several days ago, Taz had been scouting out a relatively close asteroid field when he found the motherload. The entire belt was rich in high quality minerals and metals. There were massive amounts of tungsten and titanium, even a few of the larger asteroids had some uranium and plutonium, two elements always high in demand. Of course, he would need a place to store his wares as he minede them from their rocky homes. If mining had taught him anything, it was to always sell in bulk volume. So thirty minutes ago, Taz had bought the deeds to the decrepit building.


The building itself was a somewhat interesting color, mainly for the fact that it was just as dull to Taz as it was to a trichromatic species. The structure of the building itself was mostly standard for a warehouse, wide base with a high ceiling, even with a docking port on the side for unloading and loading. Any problems that the building may hold, as well as that of the surrounding slums, could be taken care of with several drones from the ship. They would be tasked on repairs, upkeep, storage, and of course, guarding the warehouse. It should all be as simple as that.


Instead of taking the front entrance, Taz went to the docking port. The codes he had gotten from his purchase had only applied to the large hangar doors, the rest being able to be changed from within. With a quick series of taps on alien numerals, the un-oiled doors began to open with a shriek of a Yukipao in heat. It was not a pleasant sound.


Taz had already began to prepare himself for what may lie within the building. Perhaps the catwalks had collapsed, or the floor had been eaten out. Their would probably be a pest of some kind, like a Trilkips or one of those furry rats that had hitched a ride with humanity across the galaxy. What he was not prepared to see, however, was an illegal trade of L-Crytals taking place.

 

[whitefoxkiller]

Vinnie smiled when the large man nodded at the crystal. He seemed satisfied enough. If he was happy, Vinnie was happy. It seemed this deal was going to be a smooth one. She pulled up a screen on her wrist and was about to check her account when she heard a terrible screech and one side of the warehouse began to fold up her and the Echan quickly formed up in front of the crates, facing the opening door. She quickly puller out her pistol and pointed it to the door. All her Echan aimed their rifles at the feet they soon saw. As the door got higher and higher the more everyone could see of a Rooktan standing shellshocked. Vinnie growled lowlike. It was the most random and inopertune interruption she could think of.


"Hands up, get on the ground NOW!" Vinnie yelled at the poor alien. She quickly checked her account with a sideways glance. the money had been transferred in full. She commed her shuttle driver and told him to pull up immediately. She waved the Echan waiting on the catwalks down and they jumped down and landed on their feet, no damage. "Pleasure doing business with you, I'll be going now." She yelled to Fasir.

 

[LeviathanL]

"You did not ensure the integrity of the exchange site?" Fasir asked incrediously. "Sloppy."


No matter, he turned away from the smuggler and the interloper and started to attach small devices to the crates. Through his research he still hadn't found a way to transmat large objects with the L-drive. The mass was simply too big for the tiny crystals to handle. However, that obviously didn't apply to the crystals themselves. The whole technology was built around controlling the natural phasing of the strange objects, so it wasn't hard to fashion a device that told the crystals, even unrefined ones, to phase to a specific location.


It was nevertheless a delicate process, demanding absolute focus. Fasir didn't look up until the last box was safely phased to his ship. Only then did he deign to take note of his surroundings.

 

[Yesman]

Jared's comm came back to life as an Echan reported in.


"There's a trapdoor who's lock seems to have been sliced through. Nobody up here has seen or heard anything, though."


"Alright," Jared answered. "Have you notified the queen."


"There is no need of that. The princess," annoyance was obvious in alien's voice. "Has just finished the deal. We'll be pulling out s-" The Echan suddenly cut out but came back after a second. "An intruder has been apprehended at the front of the building. Looks like you really weren't needed, mercenary."


"Whatever," growled the cyborg, his turn to be annoyed. "Just tell her highness to hurry up. I don't think somebody would cut through a lock just to come in through the front door. And tell her about the breach."


Jared hung up and looked around for a medium-tallish container. Finding one, he gave himself a running start before his exoskeleton enhanced legs ran up and off the container. His free hand, the other was grasping his gun, grabbed the catwalk and pulled himself up. From the heightened platform, the mercenary resumed his patrol.

 

[Cry U 945]

Ryder stiffened as the Silver Rose flew literally over his head, just missing him. He was bound to be found at some point, and probably sooner rather than later. His instincts told him to start pulling the trigger, but his brain was telling him to flee, now, before he got stuck in something he couldn't get out of.

The Echan, Vinnie, And the Silver Rose were bad enough, but who the hell was tin-man down there picking up the L-Crystals? And the poor Rooktan who'd opened the door? The situation was getting worse and worse, almost reaching the status of a word Ryder was hesitant to use, one he only even said if the situation was well and truly screwed. This one was bad, but still salvageable.


Besides, who said he hadn't blown his way out of a bad situation before?


He wanted to take down Vinnie, and the Buyer, and the Silver Rose (especially the last one, as he'd lost a few contracts to the gun-for-hire), but his first priority was protecting the civilian. Hopefully he'd have an easy time of it, but knowing his luck, things were looking grim. Vinnie was leaving, and as far as he could tell, the Rooktan was going with her- and not by choice. So Ryder, desperate and running out of time, did what most people in his shoes would do- bring the pain.


Speed was needed here. Not firepower or brute force, but speed and precision.


That may take all the fun out of things, but hey, at least he'd be getting shot at, right?


Ryder pondered the thought before dismissing it. Sometimes you should stop looking for a bright side to everything. The Silver Rose was patrolling the catwalks a distance away from him, and two Echan were watching the Rooktan, with guns out, scanning the catwalks. They were, luckily, next to the wall on the other side of the warehouse, and the door out of the main atrium was literally a few feet away.


Ryder pulled two grenades from his belt- a concussion and a smoke. He still had one of both and an incendiary for if things got tough, but was keeping those in reserve. He hoped he wouldn't need those too. The Concussion was sent flying through the air to land on the catwalk next to the Silver Rose, and the smoke was placed in the midst of Vinnie's group, the one that was currently leaving. Ryder waited for the smoke to go off, drew Scarlet, his sidearm, and without looking to see the results of the concussion grenade's placement, was leaping the gaps in between storage containers to drop down by the Rooktan and his two 'buddies'.


Ryder sent the first one to the ground conscious but stunned with a massive right cross to the jaw. The second was pulling the trigger on Ryder when he turned to face them, his shields flaring, about to give in any second now.


The Echan stopped after the third round caught Ryder's shielded body in the shoulder, as Ryder had been forced to pull the trigger. The bullet pounded out Scarlet's barrel, pushing through the Echan's throat and dragging visceral content out the back.


Ryder didn't stop however, grabbing the Rooktan by the shoulder with a "Come on!" and running towards the door he'd planned to go to earlier. He gripped the handle, ripped the door open, and-


Stopped as he caught sight of a full team of OIGA law enforcement with guns pointed directly at him.


"Shit."

 

[Yesman]

The exo-skeleton's AI notified the cyborg of an incoming projectile. Jared spun around only to have a his vision flare up as his robotic eye caught the glimpse of a grenade sailing through the air in front of him. Instinctively, he grabbed the barrel of his rifle and swung, batting away the grenade like a ball. It went off, becoming quite evident that it was a concussion grenade. Despite being partially deafened, he was aware of several shots ringing out from the front of the warehouse. Sprinting along the carwalk, Jared vaulted over the railing and landed several feet away from an armoured figure, letting his AI assess the situation as he landed. One Echan stunned and one Echan dead, shot in the face. The princess and her group, or where he guessed they would be, had been hit by what seemed to be a smoke grenade.


"Oh," said the mercenary as set his Scorch's charge to lethal and leveled the rifle at the figure's back. "Crimson, was it. I remember you. We've had a couple of run ins before. What are you doing here?"


Several faces behind Crimson was highlighted by the AI: OIGA.


"Well..." Jared began. "This is awkward. Hey princess!" Jared hoped his employer could hear him. "You might, just might, want to get moving now."

 

[Quarantinetimer]

Despite the unexpected entrance of a new suspect, the plan was still on track, until ---


"Reaper 1 to entry team, Um....a civi just entered the AO."


"What?!" Crix was in shock. The team stared in surprise. Several of them tightened their grip on their weapons in anticipation. "Didn't they seal off..." KABOOM!


The sound of an explosion shook the entire wall. Before he had the time to realize what was happening, a firefight has already begun.


"Reaper 2 to entry team, smoke is filling my sect..."


"Clear comms, we have to breach NOW!" Crix was not pleased with the situation. "Execute. Execute. Execute." Discarding all thoughts of uncertainty and indecision, he commanded them to move in. Before his words were even over, the team have transitioned into the final stance. A shield projector was activated, its bearer crouching down in the doorway, while another grabbed a flash-bang and adopted a throwing position. Nodding in agreement that they were ready, the younger officer racked the charging handle of the breaching tool's sonic jackhammer and was just about to bring it's 4000N of force upon the lock when-


The door swung open as if the jackhammer had already been applied, and three humanoid shapes appeared before them, with a backdrop made of a dense smoke cloud. Reacting upon instinct, Crix aimed the X-7 at the figures and took cover behind the shield-bearer, while the other officers quickly pulled out their own armaments and joined him. Now, with his sights aligned, the icons *ASSUM. HOSTILE* and *ARMED -MULTI.* materialized.


Uh-Oh, were the words that flashed through Agent Crix's mind briefly. "OTC! Drop the weapons and put your hands on your head!"


This was definitely not what the plan entailed.

 

[AlphaDraco]

Taz raised his hands and got on his knees, knowing that it was best to make himself seem innocent and harmless enough while he could figure out the situation. Apparently, the human woman in the red helmet was in charge of this operation, as all the echan seemed to differ to her. If memory served him right, she fit the tag of the Red Queen of Pirates. The being in the purple suit, which Taz surmised was human, was busy teleporting the L-Crystals away. From his general apparel and his involvement with illegal goods, the man was most likely some form of terrorist. On the catwalks above, a human cyborg was busy walking too and fro, trying to find something, or more likely someone. If he saw colors in one more base form, he would have found what he was looking for.


"So, you guys know something is about to happen in say, fifteen seconds, right?" The Rooktan tilted his head at his captors, who were now scowling at him with amusement.


"You trying to pull something newt?" The taller echan growled, laughing at his oh-so-clever joke as he pointed his gun at the Rooktan.


"Oh no, of course not." Taz said, shaking his head in denial. "I would never do something like that. Anyway, five, four, three, two.."


The countdown was interrupted with the blast of a concussion grenade and the sound of two downed echan.


"One." Taz said as the man grabbed him by the shoulder and began to run for the exit. He could not believe what had happened. He had been off by a single second. Perhaps he was getting a little rusty, he would have to work on that later.


The man who was his 'savior' had continued on pulling Taz through the warehouse, even managing to kill another one of the echan. Sloppily really, but still a kill. He was rushing them down to the front door and ripping it open when the armored man came face to face with a task force. It seemed that the universe was sticking to a theme today.


Thanks to the loosened grip on his shoulder, most likely caused by the sudden surprise behind the door, Taz was able to back away from the area. It would not do to get shot by mistaken police officers right after not getting shot by a bunch of criminals. It would be too ironic. Still, he would just wait around the corner as this little misunderstanding was cleared.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


"Oh, that is not good."


Zenx had been preparing the ship for docking procedure when Taz had walked into the warehouse. The place was apparently already occupied by the types of criminal scum that were almost typecast to the place. Surely, Zenx's friend could take care of himself, he had been in far worse situations than that before. However, Zenx could not be 100% sure. There was a point zero zero zero three percent chance that something would happen to the Rooktan, and he could not allow that possibility to occur. So, of course, he would be following Taz from orbit in case he needed his help.

 

[whitefoxkiller]

Vinnie was shocked at how fast things turned bad. Suddenly she was surrounded by smoke and someone had grabbed the Rooktan. She did have a few things going for her though, The smoke wasn’t affecting her or the Echan. She was wearing a mask and the Echan simply didn’t appear to be affected. Whether that was because of their biology or just because the smoke wasn’t toxic, she couldn't say, but she was grateful. One of her Echan, she couldn’t really tell who, pointe and said “The Rooktan is that way.” Vinnie remembered the enhanced vision of her friends and smiled, running in the direction he specified. The smoke broke and she saw a couple troubling things. The Rooktan had been pulled along by a red-clad merc, and there was a troublingly large group of OIGA operatives.


“Fuck.” She muttered to herself. Luckily, though, the smoke was dissipating and a shuttle, her shuttle, had arrived. Vinnie pulled out her pistol and strode towards the Rooktan. An Echan followed her closely and attempted to push the red merc aside using his superior strength and size. Vinnie thrust the pistol onto the back of the Rooktan’s head. “Come with us, slowly. Or I’ll blow your fucking brains out.” Vinnie said quietly to her hostage. Louder this time, as her Echan began forming up all around her, Vinnie yelled “Alright everyone! Listen up!” She paused for a moment, “Me and my rookie friend here will be going, but don’t worry, if everything goes smoothly, this won’t be the last you’ll see of him. When I get up to my ship and I’m a safe distance away, rookie here will be released in an escape pod. Okay?” But if any one of you slick bastards follow us… little rookie here will get his head blown away.” She yelled boldly.


By this time the Echan had fully formed up around her in a tight circle and the Rooktan,who she was now holding in front of her with a gun still pointed at the back of his head. He and the Echan were her living shield.

 

[LeviathanL]

As the last of the boxes faded away into the void, Faris finally allowed himself to take in his surroundings. They surprised him. In mere moments the private exchange had turned into a slug-fest with both smugglers, mercenaries and the OTC scrambling about like chickens without heads. Fasir sighed in his helmet, he was definitely picking the site next time, too many security holes leaving it to the other party. Speaking of the so-called 'princess', she appeared to have resolved to hostage taking. Not a bad strategy to escape from overwhelming odds, assuming of course the other party gave a damn about innocent lives. Which in this mega-corp dominated part of the galaxy wasn't all that bloody likely.


At this juncture, it might be wiser to let her have all the attention, and to just casually glide into the shadows. Which is exactly what Fasir did.

 

[Yesman]

Jared kept his gun aimed but was forced to lower it when the princess walked in front of him and grabbed the Rooktan. Waiting, he held out his right hand as a void portal was generated and two grenades popped out. One was his signature smoke bomb which was dropped besides his feet. The other was a hand grenade that . As soon as the princess and her group had moved out of the way, Scorch was pointed again at Crimson.


"I hope you know that this is not part of our contract, princess," the mercenary said to the retreating pirate. "Regardless of how this goes, I expect to be paid."


Jared's AI began to run calculations. If I kicked the smoke bomb there, shot it, and then proceeded to throw the grenade...there...yes, that might work.





The smoke bomb was sent skidding across the ground, stopping between Ryder and the OIGAs. An electric bolt blasted it, resulting in a billowing cloud of smoke mixed with a flurry of silver rose petals. Next, the hand grenade landed between Ryder and the OIGAs (closer to the OIGAs) and went off, killing or knocking down those within range. Meanwhile, the mercenary had darted behind several crates for cover.

 

[Cry U 945]

Ryder was, for lack of a better term, screwed. Whether it be fate or Karma, or just plain bad luck, the cosmic forces that be were intent on insuring he had a bad day. Great.

Lots of guns in his face, Ryder did something he rarely ever was forced to do: lower his weapon.


"Ya know, there's a lot of ways this could go down. I could get shot, you guys could get shot, we could all get shot. But I'd just like to clarify, you all suck. I hope you all have a bad day and that..."


He rambled on, empty sentences full of empty words with no real direction, attempting to divert their attention from his reaching fingers, the ones going for the smoke bomb on his belt. He was almost there, saying something about somebody's wife, when a metallic roll caught his attention. He looked down to see a silver smoke bomb stop at his feet, and didn't have to look to feel the massive grin that had spread across his face.


The last thing the OIGA agents saw before he vanished in smoke was a middle finger.


"I owe ya one, Silver!" Echoed out across the warehouse as Ryder shifted into place behind a storage container, ready to make his next move. Probably something along the lines of A: get the hell out of there or B: get the hell out of the- help the Rooktan who was being moved towards the ship. As a hostage. The one across from him and the now smoke-free warehouse currently full of pissed off OTC operatives.


The universe seemed to just hate him today.

 

[Yesman]

Jared popped out of his fire and laid suppressing fire with Scorch against the OIGA.


"I suppose we could call a temporary truce, Crimson?" he called as his rifle went zap, zap. "I'm guessing you're planning to help the Rooktan. I can't attack my employer but I can...I dunno, maybe throw a couple more smoke bombs at them?" He ducked as he swapped Scorch for the Cannons, his two sidearms. "Actually, no. I can't do that either, they hold my paycheck after all. Here, take these instead."


A void portal could be heard opening and closing behind the crates Jared was hiding behind. Several Silver Rose smoke bombs rolled from his cover over to Ryder's cover. He popped out again and fired a flurry of revolver bullets before ducking again.

 

[Quarantinetimer]

With the team pushed pass the "fatal funnel" into the room proper and the suspects complying, Crix fumbled about retrieving a few pairs of magnetic flexi-cuffs. When his line of sight was angled enough to finally see Jared still aiming the rifle at Ryder, Crix wasted no time in bringing up the X-7 with the full intent of neutralizing the remorseless mercenary. But t out of the dissipating smoke cloud, more trouble was coming his way.


In mere seconds, a hostage situation has arisen and the scene was once again engulfed in smoke. Just as Crix was wishing they had brought thermal imaging gear, a fragmentation grenade bounced its way out of the smoke.


"Grenade!" cried the young officer who was caught closest to the blast zone. He attempted to dive towards the ground, only it was too little, too late. The explosion ripped him to shreds in an enormous flash of light. Shrapnel flew absolutely everywhere, but Crix was miraculously uninjured. The shield in front of him absorbed the blast, causing it's bearer to take a few steps backward to brace against the impact, otherwise causing no harm. Immediately moving out of the smoke into fresh cover behind crates, the first thing that greeted them were shots fired from automatics.


"Shit! We're getting pinned." Agent Crix noticed as the team returned fire. Never expected this kind of overwhelming firepower...the leads suggested it's going to be big, but- a round nearly hitting him square in the face brought his attention back to the present. "All elements, weapons free! Weapons free!"

 

[whitefoxkiller]

Vinnie and her Echan kept slowly moving into the transport while random people talked. Jared tried to ensure his paycheck, which was now in question, and the red merc obviously was trying to take up time. But when the grenade rattled agaisnt the floor she started moving faster and when if went off she broke into a run, dragging the poor Rooktan along with her. She just made out a short conversation between the two mercs as she got into the transport shuttle. She growled again. Aparently Jared wasn’t loyal to the money. He would not be getting paid. People who even slightly betrayed her normaly got one in the heart and one between the eyes, but there was no time for that this time. The Echan layed down some indiscriminte cover fire as the door closed and the shuttle began taking off. The shuttle was a basic troops transport vehicle, with a line of seats on both sides of the wall, hand loops on the celing, and closer to the nose a partial room divider. Beyond the divider were two seats in front of the controls. Only one Echan occupied the cockpit. Vinnie shoved the Rooktan into a seat and still fixed her gun on his head, as did several of the Echan. Staring at him, she adressed the Echan, “What the FUCK?” was all she said. Several looked down. They hated disapointing her, and she knew that she shouldn’t scream at them because it wasn’t thier fault but she was darn angry. Sure she got her money, but that was too close of a call.


“Uuuhhh…. m’am?” The Echan pilot called from the cockpit.


“Keep an eye on him.” Vinnie warned all the Echan from the deal. The one who didn’t already have thier guns pointed at him now trained their sights on him very quickly, all being eager to please their princess after the shitshow that was that deal. Vinnie moved up to the front and sat in the seat to the right. The Echan in the left seat pointed to the tracking screen. There was a a wall of ships comming right in their direction. “What...the...fuck...” Vinnie furrowed her eyebrows in worry.

 

[Yesman]

Jared rolled out from behind his cover as bullets shredded through it. He sprinted behind another container while firing several more shots from Scorch. As the firefight continued, Jared noticed that his employer had left.


Connect: check pay, he silently commanded his AI. His robotic eye pulled up a small pop up that clearly indicated that the Red Princess had not yet paid him. Well, son of a bitch. Then again, I was openly talking with Crimson on helping him rescue the Rooktan.





The cyborg was forced to run again, using his arm generated hard light shield, as his second cover was blown away, literally. Sliding behind yet another cover, Jared's right arm got busy as a void portal was opened and three frag grenades and two incendiary grenades were sent sailing through the air before going off at or around the OIGAs feet.


"I friggin' love this portal!" exclaimed the mercenary over the explosions as two more smoke grenades were dropped into his hand.