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Post by marchhare on Apr 29, 2009 18:24:39 GMT -5
"Well, here we are! The glorious Station Eisey!" A grinning, bright and exuberant man proclaimed, arms outstretched while walking off the ship. Behind him a scarecrow looking blonde appeared. "And you did a pretty good job, Vincent! Keeping my baby safe with that skimmer of yours!" the exuberant man congratulated. "Nothing really happened... but thanks. You did a good job erm... steering the ship and not hitting anything." Vincent replied. After the two spent a moment looking around, the exuberant man turned to Vincent. "You know, you ought to stretch out a bit. Why not visit the bar? Get a drink. That whole shpiel. Do you drink?" "After a long day of hard work, aye. After today? Maybe not." "Alright. Why not help unload the cargo then? I'll add a bonus to your pay." "Nah. You know what? I'll be in the bar if I can find one." "Have fun! I'll send somebody to find you when we're ready to head off again."
Vincent headed off into the bustling station floors. He had to stay on his heels constantly to avoid colliding with the small shuttles and people heading in every direction. After a short walk he located what appeared to be a bar and stepped in.
The bar itself was quieter, though only relatively in comparison to the halls of the station. Many pilots and workers huddled around tables, cheerfully talking about their perilous adventures. Vincent quietly settled at a seat at the bar and ordered a drink. After a few minutes of attempted contemplation in the sea of voices, projected and rude voice ultimately shattered his concentration. "Hey buddy! Thatsh my seat!" Vince looked over his shoulder, and found himself face to face with a ragged, older, and much larger man. Sporting an unkempt beard in itself sporting crumbs from sloppily eaten bread. Vince's first thought was to simply give up his seat to the man, but he decided instead to try something more interesting. To be fair, the trip he signed onto for was much less dangerous than advertised and he was itching for something to erase the boredom. "Well sir, I'm sure it was but did you happen to call fives?" "What're you talkin' about?" "Fives! Where you reserve your seat for five minutes so it won't be taken by announcing fives before you get up!" "I've never heard of no fives. Get out of my seat!" "Unfortunately sir I believe you will have to make me." The drunk became infuriated at the immaturity of this man who was wasting his time. "Get out of my seat, boy. Or we've got a problem!" Looking to the entrance, Vince said with a grin "Oh, I'm pretty sure we already do."
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Post by prog17 on Apr 29, 2009 19:30:32 GMT -5
At the same moment, another patron entered the bar. He had been in the space station without work for almost a week. He was restless, perhaps what the humans he worked with called 'Bored'. His name was 17, android for hire.
He scanned over the bar (He'd been coming for a few days now, and some of the patrons seemed to recognize him): crowded, considerably quiet by comparison to outside, and almost homely enough to become a casual meeting place. He also saw some men arguing. The elderly man appeared intoxicated and angrily accusing the younger of taking his seat at the bar. The younger man seemed much more alert, and had an almost animal look in his eyes, as though he was hoping the elderly man would fight him. The younger one then looked over at 17, surprised by his machine like appearance. It was a reaction 17 was used to.
"Hey Security Bot uh...." The young man hesitated, looking for an identification number "17!" He quickly added, seeing the number on 17's leg "Could you please explain to this man here the technical aspects of fives, and escort him outside?" 17 had no idea how to respond, the man had clearly mistook him for some kind of surveillance drone and was obviously joking around with the elderly man...who had lost his temper. "Lishen here yah shilly sod! It twas mah spot whens I left, and Ima prettah shure its shtill mah spot now!" The man was able to stand as straight as his sentences, but he made his intentions quite clear after pulling a stun stick out from his back pocket. Surprisingly to 17, the younger man almost laughed, shouting indirectly to 17, "Pardon me Drone but I think I have a small dispute here, would you mind turning around real quickly? Pretty please!?" 17 almost smiled at the tenacity of this foolhardy man. He was intent on making some kind of show out of this, several of the other patrons were looking on, interested as oppose to surprised. 17 decided he'd do just that, turn around.
17 turned around, he could hear the younger man starting to talk again keeping his audience interested. 17 took the traditional 10 paces forward, then suddenly pivoted and turned on the spot, firing his blaster arm at both the stun stick and the pistol the younger man had pulled out. He hit both before any violence broke out. Some of the patrons clapped at the performance. The younger man stood with his mouth hanging open for a few seconds, but quickly regained his composure.
"Go ahead and take your seat Ben" 17 said as he re-entered the bar "I'll talk with the kid." "Ah, thank ye 17, I'll add another to the numbah of beers I owes yea. Though I must shay you came aufally close to hittin mah hand!" The man replied jokingly "But I didn't did I? And You know I don't drink" Ben had flown in 17 to the station after a routine escort mission. He'd become somewhat friendly with the man, though dully noted his tendency to be drunk when it was least convenient. The young man, having pocketed his pistol, looked at 17, "So you're clearly not a security bot are you?" "Mercenary" 17 replied "Aye, same. Though I reckon I'm more of a Pilot myself....Hey can I buy you a drink? Name's Vincent" "Don't drink... Vincent. You on a job?" "Uhhhh... yeah, you looking for work?" "Yes." the android responded coldly Vincent began feeling that his day was off to an interesting start...
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Post by marchhare on May 1, 2009 23:03:35 GMT -5
Vincent found himself chatting with the android over a couple of drinks. The android wasn't touching his glass, but Vincent insisted to buy one for him anyway. "Well I'm pretty sure we definitely have room for another skimmer in the bay if you're interested in signing on to escort..." Vince stated casually, taking a sip from his drink. "How's the action?" The mercenary inquired. Vince hesitated for a moment and shrugged. The android cringed. "Actually, I'm more interested in the pay." The mercenary rationalized. "It's... decent. The trip was advertised to me as being a more exciting one, that's why I signed on." Vince grumbled. "False advertisement?" "Seems to be the case." Vince answered. He finished his own drink and looked at 17's. "You plan to drink that?" Vince asked curiously. The mercenary looked at his drink hesitantly and shrugged. "...Sure." the android responded. He then quickly chugged down the glass. Vincent looked at the now empty glass sorrowfully. "I was kinda... well, nevermind. Still interested in the escort?" The android nodded. "Awesome! Let's go see the shipmaster then. I bet he'll be glad to have you on!" Vincent concluded cheerfully. The two left the bar and made their way back to the ship bay. They were intercepted on the way by another crew member from the same ship that was sent to pick up Vincent. The three returned to the ship without any other interruptions. "Vincent! Welcome back! Who's your friend?" The ship's captain greeted warmly. "Robot dude I picked up in the bar. Can he come with us?" Vincent asked childishly. The captain gave Vince an annoyed look, then paused to inspect the mercenary. "What's your profession, android?" "Mercenary. I heard you might need some extra escort help?" The captain's eyes lit up. "Yes! Definitely! We need all the extra protection we can get!" "Awesome!" Vincent piped. The captain looked to Vincent. "Go ahead and help the shipping crew get the rest of the ship loaded, I'll handle this android's papers and whatnot." Vincent accepted the order and ran off energetically. The captain then gave an expectant look to 17.
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Post by prog17 on May 3, 2009 20:48:57 GMT -5
17 took a hard look at the captain. He was short, pudgy, but retained an unsettlingly dignified air, as though he felt higher up than those around him. "You have papers android?" The captain asked, though he had said "android" in a rather patronizing tone. It set 17 off a bit. "You can log me in as 17," He replied, nearly menacingly "I don't carry papers, I carry weaponry. If you need references, they should be in a database." "I see, could you provide any statement of your record? I can only hold the best of the best here." The merchant definitely had something to hide here, he was on edge. "My file is on record with Atmosia, its in every major mercenary and skyknight data base. Why don't you make use of that terminal you have there" Pointing to the computer behind the captain's desk. "And see if I'm worth having on this ship."
Five minutes later, 17 was finishing the loading procedures with Vincent in the ship's cargo hold. He had a full pass to the ship, and was head of ship security.
"What'd you tell him?!" Vincent asked when 17 told him he was security leader. "That I don't need to be fed, and that I could shoot any slackers and work double to pick up their slack."
Vincent gulped and wondered if he should start sleeping with his eyes open for the rest of the trip.
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Post by marchhare on May 4, 2009 21:28:09 GMT -5
But of course, he'd need to learn how to keep his eyes open while he's sleeping first. Vince took a mental note to do so.
After he and the dock workers finished loading up the ship's cargo, the crew settled back inside the ship. Attempting to be friendly, Vincent hung around 17 and tried to be helpful. "Would you like a quick tour of the ship? I've had plenty of time to stroll around it on the way here..." "No need. Already logged the ship's layout through a terminal." 17 responded plainly. "Erm... how about the cargo? Might as well be familiar with what you're protecting." "I can safely assure you that I'm more aware of what we are guarding then anyone else on the ship." 17 responded in an equally unenthusiastic voice. Vincent frowned. Apparently his new robotic acquaintance would not be any more entertaining than the rest of the ship was. He shuffled back to his chair and sprawled himself into it, attempting to reassume the only comfortable position he could find in the long trip over.
The captain took extra precautions to make sure everyone was on board and tending to their assigned duties. After a short speech over the intercom system about the pertinence of their safety during flight, they flew out of the station.
Vincent spent a short amount of time patrolling the halls of the ship. Predictably finding nothing of interest, he soon returned to his chair on the bridge, resigning himself to spying on people through security cameras. Although he really shouldn't have been, he found himself listening in to the captain's audio transmissions as well. Most of the logs were annoyingly casual. Though, one transmission surprised Vincent. The name of the recipient of the message had been manually deleted, and furthermore, the transmission was as follows:
First, the captain sounding much more worried and less sunny than usual. "Uhh... this is the Captain of the Maderno speaking. I'm starting to get... cold feet on this mission here." "You and I both know that it's much too late for that, Captain." A rough but conveniently unrecognizable voice responded casually, as if businessman like. "I know, but you've never been so close to this... thing!" The Captain responded worriedly. "I've done my fair share of research on it, and I will be as soon as you finish your little trip." The voice cooly replied. "I'm not going to be one bit comfortable on my own ship as long as that... monstrosity of a creation is here too!" "Well unfortunately it is worth oh so much more than you are. You can either cope with it or I can easily find some other person who is interested in making money." There is a notable pause in the transmission. "Fine... but I'm going to be needing a small percentage increase on the transportation fee." "What?! Why?" The voice instantly demanded, suddenly losing its composure. "In the interest of my ship's safety I hired an extra security detail..." "You mean another mercenary?" The voice asked, as a parent would to a child who had brought home yet another rock home from school because it was bigger than the last one. "Y-yes..." "Send me his information and I'll consi-..."
Vincent closed the transmission. He felt he was prying too far into things that were none of his business. Though, apparently something exciting was very likely to be taking place on the ship. Or, of course, the captain could be overreacting about something that is no big deal.
Just to be safe, Vincent decided to go find 17 and see if there was anything about the cargo that he was not told of. He figured that if he was going to be protecting it, he might as well know what it was, right?
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Post by prog17 on Jul 14, 2009 18:16:24 GMT -5
(geeez its been a while, sorry everybody)
17 turned over the facts in his head. There IS an item on this ship that is being secretly kept elsewhere for a private transaction to an undisclosed party. The sum for this deal is obviously very high or the precautions would not have been made. He had been hired as a third party in this matter and was trusted with this information for an additional fee. Having a memory that could be erased had large benefits.
Now the human, Vincent, seemed to be poking his head into things. He may become a problem or an ally depending on how things unfolded. 17 needed to find out what this item was before he could make any further actions regarding Vincent.
Inconveniently enough, Vincent came skipping around the corner and stopped upon seeing 17. He was obviously looking for him.
"Hey, 17, I was just looking into the ships computers and..." Vincent stopped himself, 17 was standing stock still with a hard stare in his direction. It wasn't an unkind glare, though 17 WAS unable of being unkind... or kind for that matter it seemed too.
"And?" 17 offered. "Yeah, uh there was an audio transmission in the captain's personal logs. I know I shouldn't have been so nosy, but the captain shouldn't have made this ship so boring. But anyway, there's something on this ship that shouldn't be or something of the like. Some sort of extra item or black market deal."
Vincent paused, 17 didn't seem the least bit surprised by this information.
"You knew didn't you?" Vincent asked "Yes, but you did well to tell the head of security about this, so come on." 17 responded as he walked off down the hall. "We're going on a scavenger hunt."
Vincent stood still for a few seconds, grinned, and took off after 17
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Post by marchhare on Aug 2, 2009 3:18:11 GMT -5
(Woohoo! Let's get back to this, aye?)
Vincent bounded next to 17 and synchronized his speed to match, making the two walking side by side down the hall. They passed by the occasional other guard, who would either glare coldly at 17 or stare blankly at Vincent, who would be waving childishly at them. The two came to the door that led to the cargo hold, but 17 casually turned the opposite direction. Vincent furrowed his brow in confusion. 17 answered Vincent's unasked question plainly.
"We don't want to attract any unwanted attention should this be a black market transaction. Even if I'm head of security detail and have been informed of its presence I do not believe it would be taken kindly to if the captain noticed either of us snooping around for it."
Vincent blinked.
"So you mean you don't actually mean for us to go in there at all?! Then what's the point of even walking this far?" Vincent asked disappointedly. "We are going to go in. Use your brain! How suspicious would it look if you ran up to me, and we suddenly made a beeline for the cargo?" "Ooooh. Right." 17 sighed. This human didn't come off as being very smart. His eagerness for adventure was commendable, though it was evident that the boy had really never seen any true firefights. And his cheer would be much more positive of a trait if it wasn't bogged down by immaturity and childish behavior.
The two walked for a moment in silence, Vincent apparently spaced out.
"How did you get on this ship anyway?" 17 asked suddenly. Vincent snapped out of his daydream. "What?" "When I was hired by the captain, he said there was only room for the best of the best on this ship. It's easy to assume he was just being prejudiced against me for being an android, but I still wonder." "You wonder what now?" Vincent asked half focused, while the other half was spent staring at a glowing blue tube of some kind as they passed by it. "Why you were hired and kept on this ship if it's such a high priority mission." 17 naturally assumed it was to keep a low profile. Incompetent security usually meant low priority to no priority shipping, but he was curious to see if the boy had thought any of this out, or if there was some terrible excuse he was believing. Vincent however, seemed to suddenly become aware of what the android was inferring.
"I'm not bad! This is just new to me! Up until a little while ago I was a farmer, really. Never been much for all this." Vincent made a general sweeping gesture to the whole ship, then turned around and pointed to the glowing blue tube behind them while walking backwards. "You didn't even recognize me as an android when we met in the bar. You thought I was a security drone." "Okay, okay. Yes, we weren't exactly the most bustling town. You'd be surprised how much technology missed my terra." "As enthralling as this is, it doesn't answer my question." Vincent frowned. "Well I was getting to that!" "You sure do take a long time to do it, though." 17 commented. Vincent shrugged and turned around to walk facing forward again. "Well I don't mean to brag, but back home I was pretty renowned for my sharpshooting." the boy chuckled. "That explains you wanting to put on that display in the pub back on Eisey." 17 analyzed. "And I just recently picked up this whole "skimmer" business, but from what I've been told I'm a natural at flyin' those things." "I saw that yours seems to be pretty much..." "I modified it!" "Yeah, it's missing a fair share of parts. I assumed you bought one from a scrapyard." Vincent took visible offense from the statement. 17 didn't seem to notice (or care). "It's fine to fly! So long as I don't get hit or run into anything!" "I see. So your tactic is simply to rely on your abilities to swerve and avoid being hit by everything?" Vincent smiled. "Yup! The parts I took off weren't that vital! Less weight means more maneuverability!" "I'm sorry- how are you still alive?" the android asked simply. "Well... this is my first mission." Vincent looked down. "But I've gotten plenty of practice and training! Honest!" "From who?" "Oh, nobody! I learned myself back on the farm!" The android placed one palm on his face. The two had strolled through a good portion of the ship and had finally returned to the area with the cargo hold. Now safely with the guise of being on patrol, the two walked towards the door they had so coyfully avoided earlier...
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Post by prog17 on Jan 22, 2010 18:12:39 GMT -5
"Alright" 17 spoke before opening the door "we are looking for something that doesn't belong here. It's very likely to be hiding in plain sight or in some kind of secret compartment. If anything looks out of place, get my attention and I'll take a look at it."
Vincent rolled his eyes "I'm not a kid you know," he exclaimed "You don't have to tell me everything!"
17 glanced over at his companion, pondered if it was even a good idea to join this crew in the first place, and slid the card key.
The door opened with a light hiss of hydraulics to reveal... boxes. Hundreds of boxes of equipment and supplies for markets at almost every space station you could imagine. Though despite the large amount of supplies, nothing really stood out as unnecessary. Everything that was essential for life on a station was to be found in this cargo hold.
The two mercenaries began their long and tedious search through the items. For what seemed like hours, nothing seemed to be out of place.
"You sure there's something here?" Vincent whined "I'm starting to get hungry."
17 just looked at Vincent. Hunger. It was a joke to 17.
"Just keep looking around," 17 replied "If you find any food you can take a bit of it and say it was rats or something."
Vincent suddenly seemed to double his efforts, now in search of food as oppose to some bizarre unknown. Then, Vincent came across the first thing that would seem out of place but he gave it no heed out of his blind hunger, a single crate of pineapple juice.
Vincent didn't seem to notice at all the bizarre placement of the box, he just couldn't wait to dig into something edible. However as he began to tear at the box, a strange click could be heard from inside of it...
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