=============================

Commander, may I propose some feasible options in dealing with this immense threat:

>Escape. Use the force method to puncture a hole in the enemy enclosure in order to escape towards the nearest transcription line. Losses will be heavy- but escape is certain.

Not Recommended.

>CounterOffense. Discern the enemy's master fleet and destroy the hive queen. Chances of the prior is slim.
Chances of the latter should the first succeed is indeterminate.

>Experimental. Once Makarian temporal mechanics is studied, the integrated engine in Lucky'O'Reilly and the Sword of Damocles maybe tested. For this purpose, the coordinates to a home sector is already plotted.

New Rule:

Defending forces on FirstTurn get automatic autowatch. So watch where you deploy !

To: Major Walker
From: Sgt. Edwin "Geist Zelleck
Subject: Squad Promotion Recommendations

Major, I've decided to recommend the following for promotion:

Pvt. Dragon, to Specialist
Spc. Lost, to Corporal

for exceptional performance in the line of duty. While I know you may be hesitant on promoting Spc. Lost back to Corporal, but I think that she has earned back.

-Geist

>Dragon punched out a colossus by flying at it with a jetpack. Lost took Several bitank shells and a hit from a berserker, keeping a lot of fire off of the squad and living through it. Kick ass

>>13410053

Should that go to all enemies? Most I could see, but if they are otherwise unaware of our presence, would we get a free attack? Such as coming around a corner and sniping someone who is distracted. Then the rest of them getting over-watch if we advanced

Shot grinned at the massive Collosus parked in the motor pool. The new pilot, Jack, had decided to just... give it to him. It was like a feild day for Shot, who was a connisuer of military technology relating to transportation and heavy armor. The balancing gyros, the beauty of the alloys, the weight-bearing capabilities, it was wonderful! The only way the day could get better was if Lost wandered in, said she'd been promoted to Corporal, broke up with Ghost, and needed a shoulder to cry on.

But of course that wouldn't happen.

He giggled as he looked over the cockpit, taking out the pinups and tossing them away to make room for the advanced controls. It was a marvel of precision, a beautiful work of scientific art! And to think they had damaged it before taking it. For shame!

He immediatly went to work restoring it to pristine condition, putting on some loud old music to help him concentrate.

>>13410234
>Oh, and I finished my Card.

>Enjoy. I also added the Schema description, which I heartily reccomend everyone do.

>>13410331

>Seems like a good idea. I honestly have no idea about the mechanics behind my power. All I know is that one time I stabbed a guy, and he froze.

>>13410643
>We'll ask OC about it and let you know!

>>13409823

>So, is this a RP thread for just debrief, and for the impending fight or flight?

Geist strides into the armory, a look of satisfaction on his face. He hands his shroud to the QM. "I've just been approved for the Chameleon camo, I'm here to pick it up." The QM nods and goes to the back and opens a crate. He returns with a grayish shroud similar to Geist's old one. Geist tries it on and disappears.

>Got my new upgrade! Passive cloak, oh yeah!

>>13410839
>Well, debrief and RP. I think I saw OC say next mission was this Thursday, BUT you might want to check with him about that as I am unsure.

>>13410643

Ohhh yesss you got Contact Cryokinesis. With every hit/ kill, you can will something to icicle. While this doesn't do a shit of difference to infantry using it on mechanicals will prevent it from exploding. Or disable it entirely.

Growing up in your native ice planet has given you a keen sense of thermal control.

Rolling 3 or less on any melee attempt will this trigger it.
Rating is higher if you are in a cold environment. [Space being one]

>>13411030
Oh, cool.

>>13411030

>Neat! So does this mean if I hit a unit but don't kill them, I can freeze them?

Shot looked up from his workings as something beeped loudly, and swore, turning off the stereo with a launched hand, then gripping the floor with it just after, reeling himself to it. With long careful strides, he made his way to Medical as well.

>>13410867
Geist removed his new shroud right inside his quarters. On his way down here, he had managed to sneak past no less then a handful of people who otherwise would have spotted him standing in plain sight. he had to be extra cautious while doing so, but the number of possibilities he could think of with using this cloak made him giddy. He'd have to have some fun with it later. For now though, he should check in on the wounded. Carefully stowing the cloak in a box under his cot, Geist made his way to Medical.

When he arrived, he was surprised when a doctor turned him away, stating that the medbay was too full and they had to clear all non-medical personnel out.

Not knowing what else to do for the moment, Geist instead heads for the viewing deck.

>>13411203
>if you get 3 or less, then they're a popsicle!

>>13411438
...And that was where Shot bumped into him.

"Er." he managed. "Have you seen Lost?" he asked, recalling the spilled blood, picking up the body that suddenly seemed so fragile... "I was just... worried..."

>>13411203

roll a 3 or less in your hit

>>13411505
"I have not. Or Dragon either, for that matter. The medbay is full. I don't think their injuries were too severe, so they should be back on their feet by now. Just a habit to check in on my squad, you know?" With that, he continued on to the viewing deck.

>>13411534
"...Yeah. Yeah." he said, nodded, walking the halls. Stay calm. Gotta stay calm. He could feel the deep anger and rage within him. That bubbling, boiling rage, ready at any moment to simply burst. The motor pool. Yeah. Just, just get back to work. A soft giggle came out over his shoulder, but he waved it away.

>>13410867

Does in take an action to send the captured flux?

>>13411684
If I am sending a specific captured flux to what has been termed, "space jail," then no action is needed.
An example of this would be me sending Commander Vickers there last mission.
Now if I were to use INSERT to put a friendly's flux into an unconscious enemy, it would take an action and a roll of 7 or lower to succeed. Also, it I miss when insertion, the connection is just terminated without the flux going any where. So missing won't end you!

>>13410089

To: Sgt. Edwin "Geist Zelleck
From: Major Walker
Subject: Re: Squad Promotion Recommendations

Lost's promotion approved. Dragon's promotion denied. Instead, Dragon is to be promoted to Private First Class.

When I have reason to believe that that man ISN'T a complete and total idiot, THEN I'll consider kicking him to Specialist.

And Lander's sake, give me back my gun! What, are you afraid of a semi-comatose body?

-Major Walker

>>13411837
Looking out at the stars, Geist's attention is drawn to his tablet beeping, notifying him of a response. Reminded of Walker's sidearm, he exits the viewing deck. After dropping the gun off at the Major's quarters, he left to go look for either Lost or Dragon to let them know of their promotion.

Walker sat at the table, head resting on crossed hands.

Orbital had suggested three options, neither of which particularly appealed to him.

The first was too suicidal for his tastes. The second too was a gamble, albeit better than the first. The last was potentially the best, however it too was a gamble.

Plus, he had told the Garukans he would wait for them.

He stared at the holo screen displaying the activity on the station. He needed a goal. Without a goal, any decision was useless. His headache was getting worse as the two voices in his head contemplated the situation.

Stand and fight? Or live to fight another day?

His eyes narrowed. No. Life isn't that easy; there's always another option, the middle road that needed to be made by your own hands.

"Orbital, what is the possibility of using the Station's systems to attach a Makarian Warp drive to a modified Predator? Also, how many enemy hostiles did we capture?"

A grin spread on his face.

The given options were never enough for him.

So we just kinda trailed off as 4chan spasmed last night? I sorta dozed off. Anyway, is it 15 or 20 kills for the third infantry upgrade? I think I have somewhere between 15 and 20.

>>13412296

20 kills. I'm still working on getting an estimated kill count and list of all players/characters.

>>13412369

7 Saves, 4 Kills 11 total, I'll upload a comprehensive sheet when I get my picture sorted out

We capture the flux of a ONE Commander Vickers, his ace lieutenant " No Beard " and 4 others. We also have a smal concentration of regular troops on the brig from the battle in garukan zerospace which brings the total to 19 personnel.

On the note of attaching a temporal engine on a predator: A heavy auxiliary powersource maybe needed to conduct the operation whatever its nature maybe.

We can also spare only one engine as Makarian technology is irreplicable

[This wouldve been a great time to do a drawing illustrating it- and then I realized i need to eat.]

>>13411646
He was now walking laps around the hallways of the O'Reilly more out of boredom then actively searching for either Dragon or Lost. For some reason, his mind kept going back to when he ran into Shot in front of Medical earlier.

What kept coming up was the expression of disgust and anger that had crossed his face when he answered him. Had he been too dismissive towards Shot? There were other people about, and he did have to maintain some appearance of distance from his subordinates. A fine line, couldn't be seen as too informal with them, while at the same time not coming across as someone who completely removed himself.

Still, the way Shot was grinding his teeth as he walked off... he was beginning to wonder if anything had really been resolved by that confrontation in the motor pool. He had waved off his apparent problems as the outlook of a morbid old man. If not friendly, he had at least tried not to come across as hostile to him. So why did he still come off as wanting to kick his ass all the way to the core worlds? Maybe he was just unlikeable to some people...

Ainsible Relay 5145 from The Halcyon Convention
Incoming Hologram, message:

" Walker ? I've read Orbital's report as well as R00's documentation of your field performance as soon as the Convention here in Halcyon has convened.
And though now is not the best of times to inform you this, considering your dire situation and all, I have made all the necessary filework to see to your promotion to Colonel- as well as uploaded the new supply schematics for the droid upgrades and infantry training packets you've been requesting, as well as an open line to the Melchior database.

Yes, you heard me, THAT- database. Due to field advancement in automative soldiers and knack for having rich AI field-conditions, I thought it interesting to bring up the proposition to SciComm, and RoComm and as soon as they heard of our reports- were more than happy to supply us with their next wave of you-know-whats. Anyways , business aside- I have instructed R00 with the proper protocols for your formal promotion ceremony and considering your situation- I would suggest you enjoy it... with those close to you.

Now, formalities aside. Let me offer my own two cents about that hybrid.....

The boy as he stands- is as much of a danger to your men and the human race as any xeno threat. I know you are one who can let feelings justify your actions but Lander's Grief, Walker... you could die. Your men could die- and in the worst way imaginable. I have taken it up with psicomm and they have told me with irrefutable proof that if you destroy the creature now. You will be spared this trouble and you might even get out alive.

I dont care if I'm wrong, Walker. Just come back alive.

I have sent you the coordinates of the forward naval forces- if you rejoin with them. You should be on the home clear. Go with the Stars..."

>>13412369

An indeterminate amount of time with image editing software.

Dragon gets out of the med bay
"You know, i figured a bitank's round would hurt a bit more." Ever since the battle dragon's been accompanied by his bot, whom he has named "Comet".
"How you holding up Comet?"
The bot of course said nothing
"Good to hear bro." Dragon raised his hand "High five" once again, the bot was soundless, however the bot did raise its hand."Alright! you're awesome Comet! Don't let anyone say otherwise! Comeon' we got to give lost a ride and I got to show you to Domino"

>>13413855
Also, picture of Comet

Yes that's an armored core.

A revision to Armor Rules.

All armored units are known to have a shield counter as their HP count. For this reason, any unit with armor on their life counter recieve a damage immunity to non AP weaponry and all damage taken from non AP weaponry and small arms fire will be reduced to -.5 HP as opposed to its original value...

Units with Damage reduction bonuses after that will take effect after total damage is taken.

All weapons Marked with (A) will designate Armor Piercing or Anti armor damage and will not be reduced to .5 damage.

What does this mean:
Rs will require 6 shots to kill a Bitank,
Ks will need 6 hits to kill a bitank
Striders need to hit a colossus 10 times before it goes down
But Anti Armors and DemoMen need only 1 or 2 rockets / Bombhits against a bitank, one against a strider, etc ad infi

etc etc

>>13414294
As a counter provision, All units can choose to make Weapons
"Armor Piercing" as an upgrade advancement.

>>13413855
As Dragon walks down a corridor, a hand grabs his shoulder and spins him around.

"PRIVATE DRAGON!" Geist shouts, "For exceptional performance on the battlefield, you are hereby promoted to PRIVATE FIRST CLASS!" He hands him his new rank insignia. "Keep up the good work, soldier!"

>>13414500
Dragon looks at the rank insignia and instantly hugs Geist "I....wow. Really? Even with all my organ detting and everything? I got a promotion?" Dragon's clearly at a loss for words. "I...I think im going to force feed you all the alcohol in the world sir."

>I'm gonna play Found for a bit now. I don't want her feeling left out.

Corporal Found walked down the corridors, and those who had seen Lost before did a double take and some openly gaped at her. Perhaps it was the way she had smoothed her face into an emotionless mask; maybe it was the cold, speculative nature of her blue eyes, as if weighting and measuring all she saw. Maybe it was even the rigid pose she held, even when walking, not quite haughty but with a definite formality and conservation of motion. But, Found assumed, what really set them back was her appearance.

Gone were the standard fatigues that soldiers tended to wear in various states of undress during their off-duty hours. In its place was the dress uniform of a corporal. Made of a uniform light grey, they were a knee-length pencil skirt and crisp dress coat that reached the small of her back. Underneath, the stiff collar of the dress shirt of a deep blue was affixed with her rank as corporal, and the double-chevrons were on the shoulders of her sleeves. A black plaque incised with silver read “FOUND” was on her left breast of her short coat. See-through synth stockings and point-toe black pumps completed the outfit, even if Found’s already tall frame didn’t need the extra two inches.

> >

>Continued from >>13414670
>Also, WHOOPS! Right trip this time.

She had also taken considerable effort beyond her control in facial features to alter her looks. Lost had run around with innocent smiles that set lusts aflame and far too much of childish antics. Found was going to be a person of authority and had to be seen as such. Her shiny blond hair had been put back into a bun, tight enough to lend a severe look to her face and profile. Subtle application of makeup had removed the color from her cheeks and taking away attention from her lips. While Found didn’t care to be ugly, the beauty which she inherited had its… drawbacks. While everyone would pay attention to a beautiful lady, few would take her serious. That had been why while out on shore leave, she had gone to a novelty shop and purchased a pair of glasses. A light thing, with oval lenses that rested in half-rims of lacquered black steel. Much like on Specialist Aberham, she thought they gave her an air of intelligence and wisdom, which helped offset her young age.

As pleased as she was by her appearance, a part of her mind was still in a cold rage over Walker’s refusal for the additional hours, and only now bringing to light the existence of a Psychiatric Section after she had made up her mind about it. Quite literally another part of her mind felt that anger, as now she was constantly strengthening her mental skills. While one part of her mind, the larger part by far, took control, she dumped all of her stresses and emotion concerns into the other part. Emotions were, of course, what made her human, and they were in fact useful at times to understand situations and to convey true responses, but they were also a distraction. So they sat their own little pot in the backburner of her mind, and from time to time she sipped it to make sure all was right.

> >

>Continued from >>13414686

Finding the Psychiatric Section, or “P-Sec” as the medical orderly had called it, had been surprisingly difficult to find. Most people didn’t seem to know of its existence, and the rest could give only vague directions. None of the medical sections, active or not, contained the section. After wandering the ship for over an hour, Found was glad she had given herself plenty of time, the knight found herself in front of the “Human Resources” department. The department, as it was, seemed to mostly be a fairly unhelpful admin droid whose job it seemed was to deal with complaints, and the elusive “P-Sec.” Stepping into the office, Found blinked.

Frogs. There were no other words for it. From the plastic ones gripping the computer monitors, to the posters coating the wall, to the stone fountain on the coffee table festooned with them, the place was filled with brightly colored, and not always green, fake frogs. They were all shapes and sizes and species, and much to her irritation, beyond the babble of the fountain, there was a recording of frogs croaking. It took her a moment, in her shock, to realize how small the waiting room was. Sitting hunched behind the admin console at the reception desk with the posting titled “Hang in there!” with the mandatory frog hanging from a leaf, was a giant of a man. The man, “Sergeant Larks” by the placard on his desk, seemed out of place in this sea of sickeningly cute frogs. His large sloped forehead was wrinkled in concentration, and his sausage like fingers clumsily moved over the keyboard. Upon noticing her looming in front of him, the man looked her up and down impassively, and with a grunt gestured to the only other door in the frog filled room.

> >

>Continued from >>13414703

The frogs harried Found down the hallway, past rooms unused and sealed. The two rooms on the end, however, were not. One, the sign reading “Dr. Eleanor Chiawski, Head Psychiatrist, CW3” had a large frog sticker in the corner, while the other “Dr. Link Wueller, Pharmacist, CW2” with what appeared to be torn paper and adhesive in its corner. By the looks of it more had been scrapped away in the past. Standing in from of the Head Psychiatrist’s door, whose border had been dotted with more amphibian stickers, Found knocked. Five minutes later, she found herself sitting across from a plumb woman, discussing the finer points of a pre-war novel.

“In the book Catch-22 is the rule that prohibits a solider, or in this case a pilot, from not being able to perform his duties due to being insane. A sane and rational man would ask to be removed from the horrors of war due to an illness they could “make up”, it’s only natural in a draft. In fact,” Eleanor chuckled, her chins jiggling, “only an insane pilot would want to fly the mission.”

“What it comes down to,” Eleanor cheerfully pushed the book back into Found’s hand as she tried to return it, “is that most people sent to P-Sec are simply those who wish to shirk work and warfare for a comfortable bed and psychotropes. After all, if any of them had serious mental conditions, psi-comm and TAs would be alerted and assist them. Only after that would they be send to our care, which I assure you, has not happened. We do, of course, have those who came on-ship with pre-existing conditions requiring medication, which may or not be valid, but Link usually sees after them.”

> >

>Continued from >>13414708

Found had already made up her mind about “Doctor Chiawski”. “Doctor Chiawski” was obsessed with frogs and how they “lightened up a room”. “Doctor Chiawski” was pulling psychiatric advice from an author who had died before the invention of the simple laser. “Doctor Chiawski” was the only truly fat person she had met on-ship, with rolls of her barely contained by the civilian pants and blouse she was wearing, the latter, of course, covered in frogs. When Walker had first suggested she continue training with Aberham, she was surprised that the major thought he would be of more assistance, now she was not surprised. She was not surprised now why no one knew about this place. As far as Corporal Found was concerned, if this bulkhead was sucked out to space, nothing would be missed. Making her goodbyes coldly, which did nothing to upset the constantly cheerful doctor, Found made her way outside the office, only to run into the other office’s occupant.

Chief Warrant Officer Link Wuller’s eyes had a glassy look to them. “HhhHHhey there preEety laaddddieee, what are yoOoou doing heeerrree?”

> >

Fly lay in the med bay, a searing pain in his gut. He had been shot. It was only a flesh wound, but even so, it hurt. Bandages were wrapped around his stomach area, covering the wound.

The night before, in the battle, he remembered what had happened. He remembered how the sight of dying men not only didn't scare him, but rather, he enjoyed it. What had he become?
Fly laid back and put his hands behind his head.
Whatever it was that he had turned into, he just didn't care.

He didn't care.

>Continued from >>13414721

He reached out, probably for support as much as greeting as he staggered towards her, but Found wasn’t having any of it. Reaching for the Pharmicists outstretched had with both of hers, the knight rotated it roughly, turning the man back towards his own door. A brief scan of his mind, not a true delve but merely a skim, confirmed what his slurred speech and sluggish movement had told her: the man was using his own stock of psychotropic drugs. Reaching past his body pinned to the door, she twisted the handle before booting the doctor through the open door. A brief “WhaZhit?” escaped the sprawled man’s lips before she reached in and slammed the door shut.

Storming out of the office, her anger seeping from the partitioned mind into the main one, her fierce glace caught the hulking reception sergeant hitting the backspace key repeatedly with a massive finger. Incompetent, they were all incompetent. No wonder no one went there, except maybe to swipe a few mood elevators, no wonder no one was getting help, with Chaiwski’s sending everyone away, no wonder no one had heard of P-Sec, with them sitting on the sidelines waiting for psi-comm to send them patients. People got out of the way as Corporal Found strode down the hallways, her face a mask of death. What galled her that she was forced to complete her ALP training under Dr. Chaiwski, and “assist” in the office, which amounted to helping the sergeant type up the pointless paperwork that was shuffled around every office.

Found bee-lined for medical. People got out of her way, or in one circumstance, got to remember what even with glasses, Lost’s copy was just as strong as any knight. If the major was going to give her 5 hours of ALP instead of 10, she would just have to work Specialist Aberham twice as hard.

>I'm coming for you, Abe!

>>13414729
"Hey lost, you sure look different. You ready for that ride with me a comet here?"
Dragon notices the name plate as she gets closer "oh, you're found, god damn it you and Ghost did this *explative* to mess with my head I know it! Anyway, i just got promoted, come get drunk with me and....What one are you? Geist? Get drunk with me and Geist!"

>>13414729
>Run Abe, run!
>Also Lost, congrats on reaching Corporal again!

>>13414793

>He got his jetpack on?

>>13414806
i ALWAYS have my jetpack and armor on, but no flame thrower....if you had a jetpack would you take it of? exactly!

>>13414796
>Yay! It's like I never ran! Wow, if I hadn't done that, I'd probably be a major now. :P

Shot hummed as he slammed the button on the large machine. There was a loud humming sound, then a bang, and Shot sighed in relief. The dent that Dragon had left behind was finally finished. It was finally fully restored to completeness.

Hrm.

He climbed up the vehicle, almost like an insect. Slipping into the cockpit, he pulled off his helmet, feeling the hair spill down his back again, and he looked over the controls.

He pressed a few buttons, then sighed. It wasn't the same. He stood and sighed, looking over it one last time.

He would calibrate it one more time, then leave it for Jack or the next Pilot to handle.

>>13414793
>>13414566

"Wait, what? We're still on duty, Dragon. There's a xenofom fleet heading this way. No one gets drunk while we are on high alert!"

>>13414836
"Pff, who cares. we have a *explative* ship yard and i dunno about you but i got two spare clones" Dragon feels around his stomach "I'm actually looking foward to death at the moment, this one's been beat to *explative*....if I DO get drunk i'll just take a psycom extended rest or shit, i'll be right as rain in no time"

Aberham sat calmly in medical, for the first time in a month everything was going according to his expectations. The rest of the staff had got the message concerning the slew of ‘visitors’ and was leaving the team to do their job. He could not help but give a sigh of relief at the thought. He had even put on some light tango music while he worked, and tapped his foot in accordance with the beat.

He had listened to the same tracks at university, which came in handy as he was carefully dissecting the small biopsy sample with a tool not unlike those found in the student labs.

“Warsaw is going to get a kick out of this.”

>>13414862
"The xenos can arrive at any minute, and you may not get a chance to rest in psi-comm. No booze until the fleet is dealt with one way or another."

Seeming to remember something, he turns to Found. "Corporal! I was told to tell you that you are to stay away from the hybrid. Not that I think you'll go snooping around, but I have to deliver the message anyway."

>>13413213

>Gonna write something before I go read stuff... Also, look Monday! More eye-bleeding cell phone doodles!

Within the recesses of Walker's fractured mind, connected to Psi Comm, two entities conversed...

"HEY RANGER!"

"...I know what you're thinking, Red."

"I KNOW, RIGHT?!?"

"Yes. Fierstrom's message seems rather... unlike her."

"I KNOW! IT'S LIKE SHE MADE AN EMOTIONAL INVESTMENT IN ME!"

"I don't think so, Red. Maybe she means Bravo?"

"PROBABLY, BUT STILL!"

"Yes, I know, when she gets back, we give her a nice welcome... Still... what should we do about the kid?"

"FUCK, I DON'T KNOW! MAYBE ASK THAT ABADDON AI THING?"

> > >

>>13414924
"Fine fine. I might have one or two but you know i'm good for those....man i'm not going to be a Pfc for long am I?" Dragon shrugs "Rank isn't everything i supose..." he turns to see his bot eying him intently "Comet, I'm dumb, you don't want to be exactly like me"
The bot silently looks at his owner

>Greetings

>>13414960
>I didn't realize you had a whole entourage when I started writing this, but I still thing it's funny.

Maybe Found had decided what she thought about Dragon. Being in this sort of mood didn’t help. As she strode up to him, she reached out to scan his surface thoughts.

“Private Dragon, where is the emergency release valve on your jetpack?” Found asked with a smirk that never reached her eyes.

“Why would I tell… oh *expletive*” the private clasped his hands over his mouth as if that would do anything.

Found reached past him and pulled a tab covered in black and yellow stripes. As she dropped the pin and stepped back, fuel under enormous pressure jetted upwards, slamming Dragon to the ground As it slammed him on his back, the downward motion became forward, and Dragon skidded down the halls, bellowing.

Found stepped around the pool of fuel, making sure that none got on her. Frowning at a stain on her cuff, she spat on it and tried to rub it out.

“Thank you for the information, Sergeant. You may wish to call someone to clean this up.”

And with that Found continued towards her prey.

>>13414966
"Howdy." Fly waved to the rookie as he limped down the hall, clutching his gut.

>>13414983
>Grrr, stupid trips.

Shot looked out the window quietly.

The Xenos were closing fast. It was incredibly likely that they would all die on this ship. Or in space. The hybrid, he thought, did not deserve to be killed for their sakes. It would be cowardly. Giving up. He closed his eyes, placing his forehead against the glass, letting out a sigh.

"Fuck it." he said simply, removing his gauntlets and tossing them into the Gyro. "I won't have another chance."

And with that, he made his way out of the motor pool and towards the mess, to find a young lady and maybe, maybe see if she wouldn't be willing to help him out a bit.

>>13414989
May I inquire about the nature of your injury?

>>13414951

"Well, it DID lead us to the boy. By the way, what's he doing?"

"EATING. JESUS CHRIST, WE'VE FOUND SOMEONE THAT ACTUALLY SEEMS TO ENJOY THE MESS CRAP!"

"RED! FOCUS!"

"... Fine, fine. Like I said, he's eating. Should we even be focusing on Domino? I mean, wasn't the plan to hand him over to Evergrad or Fierstrom or something?"

"Perhaps. While I don't like to admit it, Domino IS still a xenoform. And from the looks of it, his powers might make him a liability in the upcoming battle."

"Agreed, he might go all 'RAWR IMMA BUG!' and eat half the crew."

"From my understanding, he may be a method to talk to the xenoform fleet. Think we should risk it?"

"Not without insurance for the whole fucking farm. Maybe let Doublemint 1 and 2 have a shot at his head?"

"No, I think he's stronger than both of them. We need to ask Abaddon what it is. Why it was made, and how the Garukans intended to use him."

"Agreed. And the incoming fleet?"

"We'll decide when we know more."

>>13415019
"Got shot last night. Nothing major though. Just hurts like a bitch. How ya doin rook?"

Oh yes, also, Orbital? Can I get an updated command sheet, as well as the Predator vehicle card? I would like to know how much I'm spending when I buy stuff without having to ask you every time.

Also need to consider the points per kill; it makes no sense to me that a Mantis is worth the same as a roach, you know?

>While I wait, I study. Whoop.

>Should I walk in Abe, or do you want to set the scene? Maybe try and throw more obstacles in Found's way?

>>13414983
Slight change: Dragon would tell her where the release valve is, because he's dumb.

The man flys down the hall "*EXPLATIVE* *EXPLATIVE* *EXPLATIVE* *EXPLATIVE*!" only to be stoped by the gental hand of a wall. With a nice bruse on the head and covered in fuel Dragon up looked at the nearest light source
"The *explative* was that for?"

Comet takes its time walking down the hall before helping its owner up.
"Thanks buddy.....let's stay the hell away from Found ok?"

>>13414983
Dragon shoots down the halls, bouncing off a wall and out of sight. Looking Found as she leaves, he shakes his head. Found was very different from Lost. She seemed far more confident. Maybe from not having deserted in a moment of panic, and experiencing the subsequent punishment had left Found more sure of herself? Then again, there was something different in her eyes. Colder. She was also not so reluctant to use her abilities...

Observations noted in his mind, he walks off to find Lost to tell her of her promotion while calling for a clean up crew over psicomm

Oh, right. Before this devolves into a complete RP thing (like usual), I would like you guys to take this time to talk strategy. Mainly on attacks that works, ways you can rely on each other's abilities, etc.

For example: it has become apparent an [L] can throw people around and ruin formations. Perhaps an [L] and an [S] can team up with a [K] to expose holes in enemy formations and eliminate the nice soft guys behind the harder ones?

>>13415052

What was the salvage number from the last mission, they had 3 preds 4 tanks and a few colossus by the looks of the map, what's our total sitting at?

>>13415060
>Okay! Consider Dragon's dumbness canon over Found's mind-reading.

>>13415052
I would prefer a point per damage rule instead of point per kill, that way someone doesn't have to pump tones of rounds in a manits only for someone to fall on it and get the kill

>>13415032
Optimal sir, i have reviewed my performance from the previous engagement and have discovered away to increase my efficiency by 30%.

>>13415055

> I would not predict any major obstacle, The med staff might not want to let non-medical personal enter, and Abe is in a clean room so you can watch him and talk to him normally.

>>13415080

I don't really know. Stuff of ours that wasn't destroyed gets liquidated; I don't know about the empty vehicles; and I'm still iffy about the total kills at the moment and how many points they work out to be.

Anyway, it should be somewhere over 200. Ballpark estimate.

"-HOW GOES THE CONFLICT?"
"-we are trapped. Or so the higher-ups thought."
"-MAKARIAN WARP DEVICE?"
"-yes."
"-BUT NOT FOR RETREAT."
"-yes."
"-OFFENSIVE ANGLE. IT IS NOT LIKE WE CARE FOR THE VOID."
"-SARCASM?"
"-TRUTH, I ASSUME."
"-VERY WELL."
"-duties call. For now."

The monitor switches off without further comment. The Admiral leans back on his chair, still in his own personal office, near the bridge. Ever since McMillan's 'interference', he has lessened the number of visits he made to the secreted room.

They have in return kept careful watch over the Lieutenant's going-ons, physical presence, messages, analog or digital, financial account, even Psicomm interactions. Time is ticking for McMillan's introduction to the MEME...

For the time being though, there is the matter of the xenofleet. The Admiral presses a button on his terminal and speaks up, "-can someone find where Major Walker is?"

>>13415106

“Out of my way, Private. I have orders from Walker… Yes, *that* Walker.”

Found pushed past the orderly who kept mumbling about protocol and clearance. After accosting a nurse, Found managed to find out where Specialist Aberham had been closeting himself. Taking up a position in front of the observation window to the clean room, Found turned on the speaker. Her voice sounded like silk sliding over steel.

“Specialist Aberham, you’re a hard man to find.”

Forty years out of practice, Shot sat down in the mess with a groan. He had no idea what he was doing, or trying to do. There was no shore leave, no way to order a professional... He let out a long groan as his head hit the table.

>>13415098

When that happens, it usually happens simultaneously, so I usually mark it up as both people getting it.

And this kill point thing; I'm not referring to your individual kill counts. I'm talking about the ones I use, and, I suppose, yours by extension.

And NO, I am not currently considering allowing someone to "slip by" like I've done in the past because they were like one kill away from an upgrade or something. And I don't want to hear about how the upgrade system is unfair to certain classes. Because you know what? It kind of is, but then again, you picked your classes.

And don't forget: in this game, YOU ARE A RED SHIRT.

/rant

>>13415187

Abe pauses his work just for a moment, as the unexpected voice wafts through the room. Then resumes, as he places a small amount of carefully prepared liquid in the reinforced vial.

"Hello Corporal, how are you tonight?" he does not glance away from his work.

"Can't always trust the help I guess."

>>13415226
Dragon takes this moment to inch by Found and place a flask of whisky by abe "...Top shelf, just like ya asked"

Comet however stands by Found, silent and watching as his master does a favor for a friend.

On the way out dragon weakly smiles to Found and slightly salues. She doesn't need to read his mind to know what he thinks, but if she did she'd hear "Don't piiss her off" looped endlessly


With that, dragon and comet are off for parts unknown

mibbit rizon #skirmishquest for IRC

>>13415282
Dragon peeks back into the room "Kidding, it's gin" continues on

"-can I get a new liver now? The hemmorhaging last time caused me to leave Psicomm early. Thankfully the battle had already ended."

The redheaded medico, Alexis, frowns at the armless clone on the cell. He is attached to a machine that is simulating the effect of a liver, and without arms, he needed a lot of attention, just to do simply daily things.

Like putting on pants. Thankfully, the patient's sexual drive seems to have been damaged somewhere, so there is no awkwardly stiff moments.

"The Admiral hasn't given the orders yet, so you are still in suspension."

"-fuck my clone." The clone comments as he flops back onto his bed. Alexis tsks and untangles the disarrayed tubes and cables going in and out of the clone's abdomen. The speech impendiment seems to come from the same source as the impotence, but so long as the problems don't affect his competence in the battlefield, she is not required to remedy it.

>>13415226
>>13415282

The partitioned part of her mind registered disappointment, for his failure to notice her new appearance, as well as his composure. He certainly seemed more in control then last time. Perhaps it had been a matter of proximity, or the strangeness of another Lost. She judged what a skim could tell her, and then decided against it. If Walker had assigned him to help her with her psychiatric training, Aberham probably had been warned about her abilities. So instead she chose her words carefully, trying to judge if this man could still be used by her.

“I have just come from P-Sec. It’s a joke, as I’m sure you well know with your visits to Link. Now I’m going to be there pushing paper surrounded by frogs while I put in my time for my five hours ALP training.” Found checked her appearance in the glass again, to make sure everything was in place for when he did turn around. “In addition, I’m to continue my studies with you in a more… ‘official’ status. As vague as Walker’s letter was, I can only assume it’s to make up for the hours of five hours of ALP he denied me. While we can’t hope to make up five hours of accelerated learning each day, perhaps… eight hours of observation and discussion might serve as a stop-gap measure?”

She ignored Dragon as he interrupted their conversation.

"The ooK droid with the wig? It was here just a minute ago..."

As soon as the battle was over, the ooKbot was no where to be found. Ghost and R00 sat on the ammo crates in the hangar, wondering what their next move should be.

"What next, R00?"
R00 shrugs, "He just doesn't want to be found. He's not willing to meet us after the attempt in the gym. Trying to lure him into the emp mines Colton keeps in his bunk didn't work either, so he is watching for them now. Perhaps we should get Geist to round up some maintenance droids to help?"

"No, he already made it clear to me that an eye was being kept on him to keep him from borrowing more droids. Maybe we can lure him out with someone's assistance? He does have a pattern to moving around the ship, and he only acts when someone is by themself." He couldn't believe he had gotten him into this situation. Since R00 had apparently been reporting to Fierstrom, surely she would know as well? No use in worrying about that now. "He won't go after me since I know how to shut him down. Maybe if we got a volunteer?" This would be a difficult sell. Now to to find somebody...

>Found wants to have alone time with Abe, but Dragon is having none of it! : /
>I'm sure he'll be alright, Dragon!

>>13415495
alone time nothing he asked for booze, i forgot about it untill now and Dragon delivers!

Private Jacklink rolls off of his cot and stretches out, rubbing his back. He was still sore all over after being blown out of his Predator, falling off of an exploding Sharky, and getting tossed around on the Colossus he hijacked during a punch-fiesta.

He mumbled a little as he rubbed his eyes, getting up and slapping on his bubbled pilot helmet.

"My baby taaakes the mornin' train, he works from nine to fiiive and theen..."

Na na naaa naa na naa. Walking down to the hangar, he had brought a clipboard, some paper, and a pen with him to do a rough inventory and sketch out some ideas for what units would be better for sortie in certain situations.

>>13415073
For starters, newcomers are welcome to read these: www.mediafire.com/coltonzerospace

Regarding tactics, [F]orward observers offer a major bonus to d10 rolls with their +1s from both AID and SCRY. They need to target hostiles that has great bonus to their defenses, like [K]nights, or those who have terrain or cover advantages, like what enemy [S]cout snipers usually have over us.

I do not know about pi[L]ot's sheet, but those grapplers offer similar use to a [E]mergency medics' gravgun PULL effect. You use that to ruin someone's live or save it.

Of course, if a pi[L]ot finds a ride that attracts his/her attention, the team is better off having Armor at their side than a PULL effect.

About new Armor rules, I fear [S]cout snipers getting the shaft. For that matter, I believe [S]cout snipers need to have better mobility in the first place.

My ideas.

>>13415356

He seals the vial, and then used small automated arm to move it out of the work chamber. Taking a grip on the container he holds it up triumphantly to the light. Smiling to himself as he say

“You know what this is Corporal? Maybe the most valuable half gram of any substance ever collected…Lightning in a bottle”

With that flourish he moves the vial into the stasis rack; leaving the rest of the work for his friend.

He had seen the woman adjust herself in the monitor, out of sight to those in the hallway, but is still caught off guard when he lays eyes on her, his pupils dilating imperceptibly. His hand makes it halfway to his pair of glasses, and then he thinks better of the action.

“I know it’s not much, I only go there to get my prescriptions…If you don’t feel comfortable with it then we might just need to let the ALP training go.” He walks to the window. “I can still review with you however, I would appreciate the company as much as anyone.” He delivers the last line somewhat awkwardly, almost like he was repeating something he had heard.

“Either way…Drink?” The medic points enthusiastically to the bottle. Tango tunes hum through the glass.

>>13415495
With a strangled scream, Nomad sat up gasping for breath and covered in sweat. For the past couple nights he'd been having strange nightmares of gorilla maids, squids, his sister, and for some reason Warsaw laughing maniacally in the background. "Gotta lay off that late night snacking..."

Putting on his fatigues, the Knight decided to head to the hanger to do some maintenance on his Colossus. He hadn't taken the metal giant out since the battle at Hearth, but if the reports were right they'd be facing giant space squids and he wanted to be able to fight back.

He entered noticing Seargent Geist and R00 sitting on an ammo crate near El Dorado. He snapped a quick salute, but eyed the Maidbot warily. "Err...Mornin' Sir. R00. What are you two doing in the hanger?"

>>13415551
Walking around the station looking for another member of the squad soap stumbles upon Jacklink
"Ah salutations, I find my self in a predicament, i can't seem to find our orders for the downtime, i fear i may be wasting time not performing needed duties"

>>13415643

Private Jacklink was in the middle of sticking his head into the chambers of a Chimera, singing to himself when he can hear Soap behind him.

"He taaakes anooother home again, to find me waaaitin' for hiiii-"

*Ahem*

Straightening up and looking from left to right, his pilot helmet conceals any embarrassment he may or may not had, and not a single fuck was given that day.

"What's up, Soap? We need to get you in a vehicle so you're not so squishy when you hack. We also need to you SHUT DOWN NODES so I can steal more vehicles to fill this hangar."

>>13415664
Quizzically "I am aware of primary responsibilities, but I am lost in what to in the now, we are not in combat but surely there matters that need attending to?"

>>13415565
not entirely true.
The scout snipers can aim for the pilot on opentops but the action is a called shot and comes with penalties. Shooting a bitank pilot seat from the front and on ground level is a -4 penalty, for example , however doing it from high ground, prone, and from the side reduces the penalty to -1

Sat in his makeshift office in the back of the hanger, that was really a re-purposed equipment storage room, drinking directly from a pot of coffee as Ghoul continued digging through files. His suspicions toward McMillan had only grown as of late, he wasn't entirely sure what the Lieutenant was up to but he would find out. As Ghoul scans another file he muses to himself alone in the cube he now called an office.

"Why is the Admiral keeping tabs on McMillan as well... none of this is making any sense... GRAH!!"

In his frustration the large Russian smashes the pot of coffee he'd been drinking against a nearby wall. He needed to figure all this out soon, before anything else happens.

>>13415664
Shot stumbled between the two.

"Gentlemen." he said, looking between them. "You," she pointed at soap, "Need a way to get to nodes without putting yourself in danger and you," he pointed at Jack, "need to be able to go up close to enemy armor without opening yerself to heavy weapons fire."

He smiled expansively, the model-body's teeth glimmering as he lead them back to the motor pool. "Behold, Betsy. She is absolutley impenetrable to small arms, is almost the fastest armor on the feild, and she can run over pretty much anything on the feild. And she is your new best friend. Us three, our job will be to cripple the enemy by taking away precious armor and shutting down nodes. My job," he drank deeply from a bottle, "Is to get you there. So say hello to yer new best friend!"

>>13415742

"Yeah, trying to drop down on a Colossus from the sky via Predator is not on my top ten list of things I'd like to do again. I wonder if Soap can hack vehicles from INSIDE Betsy before we open the hatch and I try to hijack it? Ramming them or messing them up first is a pain because then we have to repair it, as I see you already have been doing with that 'lossus."

>>13415602

“That’s from the… “child” I take it?” Found says, nodding towards the vial. “I’ve been ordered to stay away from Domino, thought honestly I think…” Found stops herself, that was neither here nor there. “I’d deal with a room full of real frogs for the ALP training. She might be there to supervise, but all the knowledge is directly from the collected database. And while I’m assisting in P-Sec… maybe I’ll help ‘restructure’ too. Once I’ve enough knowledge under my belt, it shouldn’t be too hard to convince Walker to make some changes.”

Found pauses as Aberham starts the laborious exiting procedure.

Found tilts her head in thought, light flashing on her glasses. “You never struck me as a drinking man, Specialist. Shall we drink in the lab, or do you have somewhere less electronically-sensitive in mind?”

>>13415781

>Forgot my tripsss

>>13415742
Sir i apologize, but my abilities are to allow acces for the TAs to the nodes,"
Nervously he looks to the vehicle
"umm but i must agree the transport is a marvel to see."

Walker, Orbital, and Abaddon, enter a Psicomm


Orbital: Commander ? You are awaaaarrrrre that in your state , Abaddon is a dangerous entity, and coming to psycomm as you ar a r r a r e will have some long standing side effects to your sc sch schema."

The partition was smaller than orbital, but any part of her was incompetent in their job. This one looked like it went through a millenia's worth of cycles but it's only been a week since this partition was created to watch over the seated prisoner.

The partition was smaller than orbital, but any part of her was competent in their job. This one looked like it went through a millenia's worth of cycles but it's only been a week since this partition was created to watch over the seated prisoner.

The pulsating red eye looks at the partition. Briefly pulsating to blue, it wondered why it picked a female as it's avatar.


>>

It shifted back to red, a phantom hat flickering in and out of existence.

"Okay then, missy, why don't YOU go and talk to him for us, since it's so bad for my health, then?!?" A shift to blue.
"I just want to know what the hybrid is. Why it was made. Whatever it can tell me; I want to know it all."

The object on the throne lifted its head as binary streams were exchanged back and forth. The whole thing was extrapolated through a series of yes and no questions but for some reason, Abaddon was finding a way around her question asking such that it would lead her to feedback loops and circles. The whole affair made the avatar lose a semblance of patience.

The avatar turned to walker. One moment calm, the next moment cackling like a witch-

" The hybrid is the biological representantive of Abaddon, a super empathic system domination AI equipped for .. . . "

" Xenoform command "

>>13415821

This is a horrible joke! Where is the punchline?

>>13415696
But an [S] unit does not have the mobility to reach that position quick enough. They have to chose a spot, then pray that the enemy choose to move past that place. Or take the penalties wherever they are.

Can't they get a better landspeed, or maybe even use 2 Actions OR Take a Shot, instead of Move OR Action?

>>13415814
>>13415781
Shot laughed, then drank deeper. "But yeah. Go for Armor targets that can't be taken out by small arms. Tha's priority. Soap, I'll plunge you deep behind enemy lines so you can hack enemies who are high-priority, namely, anti-armor, Spec classes, that sorta thing. From now on, I'm gonna ask that you two get deployed inside Betsy with me. I think this... this is th'start of a bootiful fren'ship."

" SubjectDomino has the genetic key required to operate Abaddon without corruption, and as such acts as Abaddon's complement when the task of subjugating Xenoform systems come into p -- play Play "

" Abaddon asks- "
" Ho w is Brother "

" Has he Been eating well ?"

" Does he excrete often ?"

" Has he been keeping his ears clean ?"

" How much bacteria has he consumed " ?

" Terminate Line "

" Order stricken from memory. "

The partition fell to her knees. Her sword clutched to her hand as she was about to strike a deciscive blow at Abaddon. And then a sword at Walker-

" MY BROTHER. WHERE IS HE BRING HIM HERE "

>>13415859

"Definitely for a while. Irons' will get pissed at me if I don't fly wingman in a Predator some of the times. I'm not spec'ing a particular vehicle. I'm actually going to try to get my lay of the land in all vehicles so eventually I can deploy based on our mission. Maybe if I get good enough I can even figure out xeno vehicles. I know they must have some we haven't even seen..."

Private Jacklink taps the bottom of his bubble pilot helmet where a chin would be, scribbling down the inventory list in the hangar so far. He'd need to make a few trips to do a proper inventory.

>>13415859
soap stands to attention with a fearful look on his face
"Sir I know it's a capital offence to question a superior officer but regulations stipulate a severe consequence to inebriation in military equipment"

>>13415904
"Only if that equipment is active, Soap. Yer gotta, gotta chill, man. Otherwise, man, you'll wind yerself."

Shot went into thought for Jack. "Th'most all-purpose vehicle is the Strider. It fits fuckin' errywhere, it's cheap 'as 'ell, and it's speedy. After that is the pred, but yeh, a generalist might come in 'andy. Jus' don' getcherself killed out dere."

>>13415787

Aberham responds quickly after Found’s first set of comments.

“Listen, I’m happy with whatever you decide to do. If that involves cleaning up P-sec’s act I’m all for it.” Then a slightly irritating but concerned tone slides into his voice. “And for Domino you honestly think what? You can ‘handle him’? Found you need to stay away, it’s better if he does not know you exist. That goes for Lost too. I don’t want to see you get hurt. As much as it hurts me to have to recognize it Domino has killed others, and been witness…maybe party to child on child sexual abuse. It’s fucked up, please don’t push it.”

He removing the smock, turns off the music, and start the decon.

At Found’s second prompting he blushes, and mixture a conflicting feelings well up, a cocktail that is nothing if not exciting. His rational side make somewhat of a distancing attempt.

“heh…well I never do to excess, can’t say that I had anywhere in mind. Why don’t we just go to the viewing room, at this hour there would not be anyone there.”

>>13415931

"Yeah, Striders seem real nasty. I can't say I was crazy about my Predator experience to date, since both I was riding in or on exploded all over the god damn place. I'd like to try a Chimera soon but I need to figure out how the hell the lobbing arc works still."

>Major, I hope it's okay that I used one of your NPCs. If not I'll delete the post...

Meanwhile, in Sergeant Hartford’s quarters…

“Just hold on a little longer, Sergeant, I know you can!”

“I’m trying, Lost, but he’s about ready to…”

“I’m almost done, just a few more seconds… there!”

Lost pushed a loose strand of hair off of her face and critically judged the finished product. She had had a lot of training on this growing up, and after a little smile and nod, she showed the hulking sergeant who sat on the floor, licking blood off of his finger.

The sergeant gaped in open amazement before giving a toothy grin. “Wow, Lost, that looks just like one! How did you get that from Little-C?”

Turning the force shield back around to face her, Lost blew on the paint again. It really wasn’t paint, and she really didn’t need to blow on it, but when she had been taught painting as a child, it had been with real oil paints and watercolors. This “paint”, which was really a plastic enamel, had started to set the moment she had applied the clear top-coat, and would set harder then steel. The force shield itself should deflect any damage to the emblem, but she wanted something that wouldn’t scuff off in storage.

A mewing could be heard from under the bed, and Sergeant Hartford managed to coax the kitten out underneath it. The calico had a pair of long white ears tied to its head, had it’s own tail, now in a dejected slump, strung with a a fluffy puffball and attached to the poor cats behind with tape. Little-C had been unable to get either one off himself, but the man’s surprisingly gentle hands loosed the cat from its costume. With the dignity only a recently foolishly cat can muster, the calico went up to Lost and rubbed against her legs.

> >

>Continued from >>13415971

Lost rested the shield’s rim on the floor in front of the cat, who started to sniff it. “See, Little-C? It’s you… well, if you ate grass and only cared about finding female rabbits.”

It was the side profile of a white rabbit, its front legs outstretched and its back legs fully extended as it pushed against the ground, its body an arc of white. As the kitten sniffed the trailing ears and bright blue eye, Lost and Hartford exchanged at a job well done and the general cuteness of the scene.

The large man’s smile faded into a grimace. “Lost… the Major’s work is awfully stressing, and he’s under alotta pressure. He tried to do right by everyone, and sometimes he hurts people trying to help others. He--”

The smile is gone from Lost’s face as well. “It’s okay, Harty. I know he had a… break, and I hope he gets better. I just… I just hope I don’t let him down again…”

Hartford gave her a comforting pat on the shoulder that staggered the knight. “You’re gonna be an officer some day, kid. Walker only pays this much attention to the brightest stars. I even heard a rumor that you’ll be getting back your corporal stripe soon.”

Lost smiled at the big man, who was even taller then her. “Thanks… Well, I should get going, I bet everyone is wondering where I went off to.”

>Lost is off-limits for RP tonight. I’m only up for trying to juggle one PC.

>>13415966
" It appears you already have a wish list vehicle you wish to apprehend"
Begins a scan on betsy
"It seems i should refresh myself on vehicle specs as i will no doubt be dragged in to completeing it"

>>13415966
"Well, you boys enjoy yerselves. I'm gonna head ter the veiwing room. Maybe I can catch sight of the xenos!" he said, laughing as he walked away.

>>13416021
"Shot I fear that i will never comprehend our superiors sense of humour"

>>13416040

"As long as you can shut the vehicle down Soap, I don't think it matters if you know what they do. I actually intend to take one of every type eventually, and once we get enough information on them, maybe we can get mechanics to work at modifying them or at least making universal accessories. It'd be nice to take a gatling or a missile salvo from one unit and move it on to another to meet our needs. I haven't even started looking at naval units yet."

>>13415961
>Try that again with the right Trip.

“He’s… opened up to you a lot then, Specialist Aberham?” Salvia started to fill Found’s mouth. What knowledge could this doctor hold, what information about this child? Found was sure he was telling the truth, Domino would probably defeat her in a mental battle easily, but maybe the psychic experiences recorded in Aberham’s mind, when properly extracted and distilled, might prove to give away child’s secrets. A part of her she had awakened with her delves hungered and tried to reach out…

Found’s outward appearance remained the same as she struggled to stop herself from stepping over that line she knew she could never re-cross. They were her friends, and she was dedicated to protecting and helping them. But that part of her thirsted for the knowledge on the child, almost as if it could smell Domino on him. Even though it took less then a second, eons seemed to stretch on in her mind as Found pulled the hunger back, and boxed it in.

Suddenly she realized he was looking at her expectantly. “Uh, the viewing room, Specialist? That sounds perfect.”

What… what had happened?

>>13415981
fiddlesticks! i've juggled 3! also Dragon and comet have to make lost FLY

>>13416216

>Oh, who else do you play?

The Veiwing Room was essentially just a large, circular room with a large window into space. The window had a large ditch in front of it with a railing, which Shot was sitting under, drinking deeply. He was going to be useless, more or less, in the fight with the Xeno, soon, and if he couldn't get laid, he might as well get hammered. He was silent, now, staring deeply into space, his mind actually blank of thought or emotion.

>>13416266
>And I jusggle two, I just don't play Derringer often.

>>13416266
>All the mercs are me, York being the only one i've "played" so far,then there's Buddy in squeegy's quest and odds are i'll be testing flynn's game when he makes it.

>>13416209

He smiles, "Yeah, I'm not sure how this will all turn out. Let's go." Aberham reaches out and grabs the bottle, then turns back to Found.

"You look very sharp by the way."

Then he looks vacant, for just an instant. He subtly licks his lip, as he looks at hers. and pulls a word from the air. There is no tone, no meaning or weight attached.

"Strawberries"

He turns as if nothing was said, only glancing back to see if the Corporal was with him.

>>13412271
"-predators? They are... Too puny to matter in the scale of this battle. Unless you are attempting multiple jumps, with self-destruct or nukes as the payload, but Makarian drives are not that precise in the first place."

The Admiral offers his opinion on the Ma- No, to the Colonel's initial idea. Still, he doesn't completely shut off that avenue.

"-elaborate further please. On my own part, I believe attaching enough warp drives could significantly move the whole station itself."

"-of course, the risk is high. But all the others are too."

The officers on the tactical room murmur and share their own opinions...
> Because Walker wants it posted instead

>>13415894

At that moment, a literal wall of fire exploded between the object on the throne, the partion, and the pulsating sphere.

The sphere itself, at the mention of the word 'brother,' had suddenly shifted to a dark blue. It was no longer shifting forms as much - now, it looked more blurry, simply a smear of color with a hat that seemed to fade occasionally.

"Brother..." it muttered.

It looked between the two AI, switching between the two for several long moments.

Then in a moment, it no longer looked like an out-of-focus sphere. It now took the appearance of a blindfolded man, wearing a cowboy hat and a set of midnight blue fatigues with crimson ballistic plates.

"Abaddon, how badly do you want to see your brother?"

The sword twitched.
> > >

>>13416386
>Well played, Abe!

Any icy fist closed around her heart and Found felt like throwing up. She wanted to just dismiss it as his disorder kicking in, or perhaps random thought. But she had read about the mutant signal, and knew that Aberham had been exposed just like the others who had started developing schemas. Could he… she had been avoiding Lost for just this reason, but she had never suspected the Aberham might be empathic.

With a mental jarring, the mind-beast tore free of its cage and reached out to lash at Aberham. Like a master catching a rabid dog on the last foot of the leash, Found barely managed to hold the beast back as it gnashed its teeth inches away from the doctor’s mind. A part of her, her partitioned mind, was filled with a near panic from the one-two punch of beast and Aberham’s offhand comment. Did he know? Was he seeing if she would admit anything? Wouldn’t it be best to kill him right now, suck everything out… They couldn’t find anything if she scooped it all out…

Clamping down with iron determination, she forced the beast and panic back down, back into their boxes. A twitch, she realized, had brought up the right corner of her mouth, and she forced it into a grin.

“It would be lovely to have some strawberries, Aberham, but unless you’ve smuggled some past customs during leave, it seems unlikely we’ll find any.” Found gestures at the bottle. “I think we’ll have to settle for that, unless you want cherries, then we could crack open a bottle of nulgel.”

>>13416516

"Without him," crooned a mothery digital voice.. "I am not whole."

"You know as well as I the reason you came here... So why not entertain the possbilitiy that the boy could be your way out of this... Commander?"

"You want to exact revenge-inflict hatred on the xenoform. Your chance for that is now. Give him to me, and I will show you the face of true horror..."

The blindfolded avatar smiled a wide, Cheschier-Cat grin, the eyes beneath the cloth blazing yellow.

"Maybe, Abaddon. Maybe. But *I* set the terms. And I ask you this, my dear AI, how badly do you want to see your brother again?"

He leaned closer, his face close enough to the firewall for the other avatar to see his eyes burning, although with insanity or something else, he couldn't determine.

"What will you give to become whole once more?"

Okay, before I go, I'm going to do something I'm possibly going to regret.

Spec classes for vehicles: do we get them, or do we get a kind of game-breaking upgrade for vehicles?

>>13416605
Define game breaking

>>13416605

I was under the impression that Pilot *was* the spec class for vehicle and it branched off in two paths.

1) You stay in your vehicle and the kills you make count as the level up points for the VEHICLE, which you pimp out.

2) You get out of the vehicle and hijack stuff and (riskily so) kill things. These are level up points for YOU, and you advance into a more spec'd Pilot type, like an Ace (that gets bonuses in all vehicles).

I'm new though.

>>13416539

He does not slow his stride, but turns again to see her walking beside him. "Oh... I suppose that would be good to have some, no such luck on leave however. Never considered Nulgel as a mixer" He grinned a bit a the image of Colton running from a glass of mobile red gel. "Can't say I would look forward to that."

He paused,

"Tell me about the world you trained on..."

>Assuming they make it to the Viewing room

>>13416646

I've also heard that Pilot upgrades into : Ace, Tinkerer and Autolord.

Ace is an all around super pilot in anything, Tinkerer has the ability to pimp out a vehicle to the max, and an Autolord is still kind of murky but apparently gets to roll with multiple vehicles at once? Kinda? Was being mentioned in passing in the chat yesterday.

>>13416646
Spec classes are earned by infantry at 10 kills, and spec classes for armor were (supposedly) at 20.

Spec classes are classes that are above and beyond the norm of awesome. Valkeries, Dragons, etc. However, speaking personally, Betsy has 23 kills and only has the new arms, which, while awesome, don't have new art, which is one of the cool things that spec classes get. In other words, you picked Armor, you're stuck with that vehicle forever, and it probably won't change much.

Which is sad, but you knew that going in, right? Right? It's not like the advancement was advertised to you in one of the opening pics, right?

>>13416705

Yeah, I picked Pilot because I want to pilot, well, everything and because it has Bionic Commando arms.

I figure if I hijack enough stuff I may class up into Ace. That'd be cool with me. And even if I can't class up, I don't mind.

I'd rather see about introducing standardized weapon accessories to vehicles by spending points on that if possible. IE put a gatling on any vehicle, move a missile salvo onto a Colossus, etc. That way you put your upgrade points into an equipment that can be moved from ride to ride, but something crazy like Betsy where you've permanently upgraded armor, customized parts, etc, is part of the permanent construction/an upgrade to be emulated or moved so easily.

Ghost, having problems with my regular connection. Posting from phone. Can't finish RP. Sorry.

>>13416746
It's alright. We can just pick it up later or something? that or just scrap it.

>>13416727
Son, when I came in, there was no Pilot class. There was just my Gyro. And all I did was Gyro. All the time. It was all I COULD do, since I picked the class. And all I was capable of doing, was rolling things over. I didn't even have actions!

I don't feel inclined to throw myself to the wolves and do things my class isn't designed to do to get class spec, so I'm stuck in a gyro forever.

And don't act like I don't do awesome shit or that I'm not brave. Go to the archives and read the Hearth string of missions. I'm the reason why we have psionic powers at all, and that marks the only time Betsy has been scuttled.

>>13416650

Feeling a slightly more stable footing, Found resumed her composure and thought on what Aberham had said. Not about idle cocktail joke, but his question about boot on Boreal Prime. Like all of her memories, it felt like she was looking at someone else's life, as if she had the memories of a stranger. Only the ones she had made for herself were vivid, full of color and smells and sensations. The others were gray and lifeless, the emotions and feeling like washed out scenes from a movie. However if it steered him away from other thoughts…

“It was cold, Specialist. In the daytime if you were lucky you could walk around in cold winter gear, at night you wouldn’t survive in anything short of a spacesuit sometimes. Apparently there is a small window every 25 years where the planet gets nearer the sun and the snows melted… and things grow.” Found looked away from his eyes for a moment.

“I never saw that. All I knew was the cold lifeless plains as they made me into what I am.” Found gives a light laugh. “Well, what I was. I have hopes, Aberham.”

“What about you?” Found gives him a speculative look. “You could have easily become a Warrant Officer and stayed off the field with better pay. Why are you a medic?”

>>13416766
It's up to you. I compiled what we had before my connection went down. Maybe connection will be back up in morning.

It was then that Shot lost his balance and fell over heavily, still out of sight and mind. He was fast asleep now, but oddly, dreams didn't filter out to the outside world of psionics. It was like his skull was made of lead, all of a sudden.

I've been watching this quest for a while now and i really enjoy reading it. I can't play because its often at bad times, but I'm curious to know if there is an engineer class. I vaguely remember seeing one somewhere but i may be wrong.

>>13416858
You're probably thinking of Squeegy's offshoot! There's no engineer class in this game, just the Pilot, who specs to one type of Armor and is much much better at it.

Tommorow morning is when Squeeg runs his game next.

>>13416858

Forward Observers are kinda like psi-comm engineers. But true engineers are an advanced class of Medic or Demo. Little is known about their abilities, because no one has decided on that advanced class.

>>13416869
Er

this morning, rather

>>13416785

“Sorry to ask you, I suppose that would not be your territory.” He faintly remembered Lost’s description of a single vista being filled with more passion. The confusion was starting to set in again.

He pours the gin into two glasses he had prepared; just Ice, if the label was correct then it did not need anything else. He let them chill.

“The Warrant in not out of the question, I need more time to think about.” He sighs “I was an MD back on my homeworld, general practice, after university Warsaw offered me a job with his startup but I wanted to try on my own. I did pretty well, and enjoyed helping people when they were not all wrapped up in themselves… After a few years Warsaw went into the military, and asked me to come along. I figured if someone like him was willing to take that risk then I had no excuse not to come too; no one to miss me anyways.”

“I guess that’s not ‘why’ is it? Well I just wanted to do something I was good at, and I was good at Biology, seemed the next logical step.”

“What kind of hopes do you have Corporal?”

>>13416874
That's a shame, do you have any more info on them or is that about it. If i ever did find a game i could play i would want to play an engineer but it semms like that isn't an option.

>>13416968
...Actually, we do need Demomen, since Armor got a fuckhuge buff.

You'd be very welcome and you'd get to blow shit up.

You know you want to.

>>13416968

IIRC, the had in improved gravity gun so the could crush and manipulate large objects, and they could drop turrets and resupply station (TF2 engineer)

It was never finalized however.

>>13416936

Found’s eyes took on a strange light. “Bravo is dying, Aberham. A cancer is eating it from the inside out. With psi-comm and mem-chips and clones we can bring soldiers back to life. I’ve heard your coffin can do the same. We can have a solider die a thousand deaths and come back. The problem isn’t saving the soldier’s life.”

Slowly Found extends the first two fingers of her free hand and taps Aberham in the center of his forehead. Her touch is cold. “The problem is in here.”

“The mind is transferred each and every time. Every action, every horror, every death is stored up there. In an Executor Force it’s even worse. We’re the guys to fight Xeno queens and Exalted and the little horrors they and we alike cook up. It all builds up, and the human mind doesn’t understand, not really.”

Found strides back and forth, her mask slipping as she talks more animatedly.

“Walker crashed because of one real thing, for him the life of each soldier was precious, but he also knew they were infinitely expendable. This is a paradox. It ate him up. He took out violence that could kill soldiers to show them that they could not, WOULD NOT, die. It broke him into those two parts. The part that was rational, who knew about numbers and statistics and clones, and that part of him that was irrational about his love for his men.” Found stopped and cocked her head to the side, looking at Aberhamer. “Sometimes we do horrible things in the name of love, don’t we?”

>I know I really haven't answered Abe's question, I think this warrants a response.

>>13416843
>>13416936

>Er.

>You guys didn't hear someone fall flat on their face less than fifteen feet away?

>>13417027

>>13417043
>Oh! Sorry. You had been doing a lot of talking OOC without using the ">" function so I just started skimming cause none of it was linked to my post.
>If it makes you feel any better, Found doesn't really care about people who are drunkenly asleep, except maybe to take the conversation elsewhere.

>>13417093
>Well, I'm going to bed anyway.

>>13416999
Sounds interesting but it seems like the special ability isn't that great compared to droids and stuff.

>>13416997
Sounds tempting. Do demomen and medics lead into different engineer classes or are they (will they) be similar.

>>13417027

The specialist can’t help but drink her in as she moves. Her touch, however placid, makes his mind wander. He sips from his glass every now and again; trying to understand what mindset she is coming from. Surely soldiers had always experienced pain, and there was never any guarantee you would be coming back. Mortality was as real as it has ever been.

His expression hardens “Oh yes, Sometimes we do horrible things in the name of love, but it’s never love that motivates such actions. Selfishness, delusion, entitlement, that is the trap.”

“Walker been floating around in psi-comm since the start, I think that is the more real cause of his schism then any existential crisis.” He looks into his drink, trying to make out his reflection.

“…What are you trying to do Found?”

>>13417130

The should be the same.

>>13417154

She gauged him. The beast growled within her. His life, poised on the brink. Possibilities, new and unbidden, flew through Found’s mind. She too was poised on the brink, a brink thought could get her restrained while Aberham filled her bloodstream with enough mind-blanking sedatives so she wouldn’t have another rational thought in her lifetime. But she felt compelled to continue, with the new ideas bubbling within her.

“What if I could save Walker? What if I could save Shot from himself? What if I could save every man and women on this ship from the thousand fine cracks that are appearing in their psyche?” Her hand stroked the side of his face. “What if I could save you?”

She was close, so close. “Aberham, I *would* do horrible things to save you all. Things that would stain my flux black. Because you need me to be something I can’t be otherwise. You don’t just need a competent psychologist on board, you need someone who can heal the rifts and schisms and psionic echoes that no shrink can get at. You need someone who can reach in and get. At. The. Problem.”

Found hadn’t realized she had put her hands in his hair until she had let go and backed up. “I know that Lost has touched your mind, I know because I’ve delved hers. I’ve reached into a mind and repaired its damage, and I know, I KNOW, if I was stronger I could have fixed it completely. If I were stronger, I could know what was wrong instantly and fix it just as fast. If I were stronger we would have the commander we used to have. I could make him whole. I could make them all whole, Aberham. Isn’t that worth getting your hands dirty?”

>It's really hard not to sound completely insane and evil. This character certainly going somewhere...

>>13417345

The medic stood, trembling slightly, his jaw clenched in concentration.

It sounded like nonsense; everything else about her communicated anything but.

"Goodnight Found."

And he strode past her. The edges of the hole felt like spikes twisting into him, acute but mercifully distant. He thought of her laughing at him.

>>13417455

>HmmmmMMMmmmmMMMmmmm.
>You getting tired too?

Your flimzy fucking justifications for keeping this thread around make me fucking exhausted. Shit like this is why we chased planes and mercs off to a different board.

>>13417477

>Actually I debated writing a longer response, I'm not all that tired, however Abe was getting scared. you can respond to him as he walks away, i could do a few more if you feel so inclined

>>13417492

Nice to see you too sagefag

>>13417506

>Yeah, she's pretty scary. Gives me heebie-jeebies.
>But I am pretty tired. I think I'll let it rest for now. We can have a really awkward meeting later, see how much we can rationalize on the sips of alcohol we had. But I'll write a response first.

>>13417455

Found stood there, shock causing the fervor from her speech to gutter out. She watched the back of the doctor recede into the hallway. She had been a fool. Opening her mouth to the first guy who showed an interest in her, like she was some kind of naïve little girl. And now he probably thought that she was crazy, if he hadn’t contact security after he rounded the first corner to come and restrain her.

The beast growled in her ear that she could do something about it, but she kept her fist coiled tight around its collar, keeping it at bay. He was part of Bravo Force, and she would not lay a finger on his mind unless it was to heal and help. Instead she wrapped herself in composure like a cloak. Emotions: shame, self-angry, frustration, all went back into the partitioned mind. Her mind settled itself, becoming a landscape with only logic and thought. Her face became a mask, and by the time she placed the untouched drink on the sill, she had coiled herself even further then before.

She would save Bravo Force because she loved them. And Found would do terrible things in the name of that love.

> Passing out now. Zzzzzzzzzzz,

bump.

iam drawing stuff after i eat.

[maybe]

...

Shot woke up.

He groaned, holding the side of his his head, looking out into space as he stood, climbing over the railing.

"Never fuckin' drink again." he mumbled quietly, falling over the railing onto the cold floor. "Fuckin' pathetic. Goddamnit."

Also discussion as to what to do next is welcome.

Geist sat on a bench in the viewing room, having slipped in at sometime late in the 'night' and it was nearly 'morning' . It was usually empty, as it was now. Held in front of him was his saint staff. More and more, he had been taking it out of the armory just to study it, stare at it. Trying to make sense of flux, how it related to the mind and person. Everything that happened to an individual, that which made them who they were. Personality, thought process. consciousness. All of it in the flux.
Scan, focus the beam over the target, Let the gun draw the flux in. Erase the cache to make room, the flux is just gone. A soul destroyed forever? His other option was to send it to Orbital. Or, wherever it went. he wasn't exactly sure? Where did the flux get sent to, exactly? It was cold in here. Strange. What was he thinking of exactly? Breakfast. Yeah, something to eat sounded good.
As he looked up at the starry sky of the viewing deck, subconsciously his gaze kept drifting over to a particular part of space...

>>13420923
He heard something. standing up, he looked around then over the railing. "Good morning, Shot. Have a nice sleep?"

>>13421232
"No." he managed, standing up. Another flux, barely there, stood with him. "Day's been pretty shit overall, sir. I hear about the Xeno comin' in and there ain' a damn thing I can do about it. My son's gonna be out there, fighting a damn suicide mission, most likely. My favourite CO since... since I've started serving is fucking insane, and I 'ave no idea who did it." he sighed. "Not to mention the forty year drought I've been going through makes me all sortsa irritable and I've got a hangover so bad it feels like my brain is the size of a gorramn peanut. How about you?"

>>13421056
>Lucky on self-destruct.
>Kill Domino.
>Wire station with nukes.

I have solved all the problems. No need to thank me.

>>13421284
"Restless sleep, not much of it." Geist paused. "The Major isn't insane, he's just had a difficult time lately." There, just avoid the part where he had caused much of his current state by ripping the TACIM off. "I didn't know you had family serving on this ship. Come on, let's go get something from the mess. You can tell me about it."

>>13421394
They walk to the mess. Upon arrival Geist remembers he still has his staff, having forgotten about it and carried it with him absentmindedly. Dodging the stares the weapon gets, he gets a tray and joins Shot at a table to the side.
Shot sighed as he sat down, looking at the plate in front of him. "A man gets antsy, Geist." he said quietly. "The new hormones don't help much either. Forty years, man. Memories only do you over for so long. It's just..." he waved his hand quietly. "Found an' Abe, You and Lost, Trauma an' Dragon... I see things all 'round me, an'..." he sighed. "Fuckin' 'ell, I sound like a gorramn teenager."
Shot having discussed his son during the walk over, Geist wasn't quite prepared when the conversation took this turn. He hadn't seen much of Found since that since the incident in medical, so he didn't know either way about her or Abe. Though, "Trauma and Dragon? Hah, no way. They'd kill each other first!" Still, obviously this was bothering Shot quite a bit. "Have you tried asking about the possibility of a new body?" Glancing to the staff at his side, he briefly considered the possibility of just putting his flux in a new one. Of course, that brought up the problem of where to find a body for him.

>>13422808
"Flux is messed up, or somethin'." he said. "Something about... About the Hearth incident." he sighed. "You got that freaky stick, though. I wonder... if you forced me into a new body, if It'd take." he rubbed his chin then sighed when he found no beard. "I can see my death soon, Geist. Walker will try to save us, I know, but... With the creepy hybrid..."
"What about the hybrid?"
"Somethin' like that..." he shook his head. "My wife, she and about twenty other psyches managed to call down a hive. Something about the kid is familiar. These Xeno will chase us all over the fuckin' universe so long as we have him." he said quietly.
Geist puts down his fork. "We've gone through too much trouble for that hybrid. We'll just have to deal with it."
"I know. I know. 'E doesn't deserve to die for our sakes. 'E looks like Derringer when 'e was a kid. I may be the most hateful bastard on the ship, but... I wouldn't be able to do it." he hung his head. "I just want to send 'im off to some fed planet on a tricked out pred."
"I'm sure Walker will think of something. Chances are though, many of us might not make it. I just don't like the idea of sitting on the ship dependent on some pilots. Maybe it's just because it feels like our lives are out of my hands..."
"My boy is gonna fight for all of us." he said grimly. We had best make it out alive." he looked up at Geist with a sigh. "Is Lost okay? I saw the blood and heard the explosion and after that the mission's a bit fuzzy."
"Abe patched her up in the field good. She got pulled off the platform we were on, but didn't get hurt too bad. She should be fully recovered by now, but I've not seen her since the battle. She'll be alright."
"Right." he said. "... Look, that whole... that whole nastiness..." he shook his head. "We should be a cohesive unit. I'm sorry I did all that shit."

>>13422906
"It's alright." Geist picks up his fork and resumes eating. "You know, if your body is bothering you that much, there is always the option of surgery..."
"Coward's way out." he said simply, eating slowly. "Feels a lot like giving up. Besides, we don't exactly have time right now."
"Well, suit yourself." Ghost finishes eating. "You know," he stands while picking up his tray in one hand, staff in the other, "you should try and get to know some of the other soldiers around here. Staying cooped up in Betsy alone all the time can't be good for you. Get out, get to know your squad mates. Couldn't hurt anyway."
"I did." he said quietly. "I got mocked and insulted. Not in the mood to do that again except with my squaddies." he looked over at him. "Not much point in going out and talkin' to folks if they just don' give a shit."
Geist frowns. "Come on, it can't be that bad. Give it another chance, okay? Maybe Dragon, or some of the new guys. Who knows, might accidentally have some fun!" Geist goes to puts the tray away, and walks back. "I've got some work in the tech labs still. Just try it out. Talk to you later, Shot."
"I'll see you later." he replied, looking at his tray. Maybe it was time to put aside a few things.

Another battle, another three hours spent laying on the floor. By the time Warsaw had come to, the fighting was over. The medical staff had even seen to the wounded with a surprising amount of efficiency. Everyone that had been wounded was either already treated or in the process of it. A quick dive into psicomm told Warsaw everything he needed to know about the current situation. It also told him there was nothing he needed to do. Sighing he picked himself up off his floor and sat down at his terminal. He was rather grateful he'd passed out in his room for a change. It was always odd to wake up with a crowd of people staring down at him.

The rest of Warsaw's night was spent reading various articles, medical and otherwise. It wasn't that he didn't want to sleep. He simply couldn't. The infrequent wetwear crashes were like fits of narcolepsy and were starting to giving him insomnia. He knew in the long run this was going to adversely effect his performance, both on and off the field. The best he could hope to do was take stimulants on the field to fight off fatigue. Outside of combat he'd just have to suffer, at least until he managed to get his mem-chip replaced.

Sometime in the early morning Warsaw realized that he was hungry. “Might as well go see if the mess is open,” He mumbled to himself.

>>13424175

Much like the time he celebrated his new gear, dragon enters the Mess with his head heled high and in his combat gear. Finaly a private first class he wanted to celebrate, not as glad as before but still. He would have gone all out if it wasn't for Geist's sudgestion and Founds forcefull driving home of the point. Dragaon scanns the mess hall for those he can convince to joing his celebration, and he finds no shortage.

"I got promoted and we are drinking!" his eyes fall on Geist "...RESPONSIBLY!"

Still holding his staff, which he had been carrying since the viewing room, he considers it. "Well, eta until the fleet arrives is longer than I originally thought... I suppose it won't hurt. Alright!"

Blake was walking in by the time Dragon declared his promise to drink and celebrate with the responsibility of someone his age. She stepped out of the doorway glancing behind her towards the Doc whom she was walking along with before glancing back towards Dragon. "Drinking and responsibility? Is that even possible--?"

Warsaw entered the mess beside Blake, lack of sleep evident on his face. “As far as I know it involves not getting drunk. I've never tried it myself,” he said managing to crack a smile.

>>13425069

"Hey it's possible Blake, unlikely but totaly possible. I owe you a drink anyway" He pulls Geist in "Besides we got a Sargent's permission". Comet, always the conversationalist silently watches the group. The petite soldier laughed and nudged the tired doctor with a quick jab of the elbow in the soft spot. "If you're drunk you'd definitely fall asleep a lot faster, Doc." She pointed out with a waggle of her finger before heading towards the table Dragon was at with Geist, jumping up to be able to get an arm around the man's neck. "Congrats on the promotion.And I'm all about spreading the cheer and raising the morale. I drank this terrible concoction back before I enlisted and it was a bit of a killer--perfect drink to start you off with!"

Geist approaches the small gathering, "As long as no fights break out, it's ok." He looks from one person to another. Warsaw looks like he had even less sleep then he did. "Yeah well, i prefer the good stuff. Tend to pilfer a bit here and there and that's what we're drinking! ain't no party like a Dragon party." Dragon releases geist "Still Geist had a point before, what with all the high alerts and shit. we should go easy....easy-ish"
"On that note if any of you need booze or want to fly just let me and my buddy comet know" Dragon motions for the bot who of course, says nothing.
"oh don't be like that buddy, come on, high five" The bot complies "YES! WHY DIDN'T WALKER GET ME YOU SOONER?"
Trauma leans back in her chair, "Or, Dragon, you could not drink at all, seeing as we have a massive fight earing down on us. Party in a different way?". She then takes another bite of her meal.
“I doubt we'll be drinking enough to knock me out,” Warsaw said with a laugh, “Besides I'd rather eat than drink right now.” With that he made his way to the buffet of food.

>>13425102

He was halfway through the rice paste and only now beginning to get to the layer with neptunia. The smell of it fumugated his nose. Station paste was always the stuff of shit, on that regard he could sympathized why the pirates would turn to cannibalism. His fingers twitched his knuckles were cold. The smell of blood and dank was still in his mind from 2 hours ago.
And then the specials walked in. Badasses from the alpha team sitting on the table across from him. If there was anything that washed the space can taste of rice, tuna, and embalming fluid, it was alcohol.

"Mind if I sit ? "

Dragon responds to trauma "NEVER!" He laughs a bit " there's a difference between drinking and getting drunk trauma" He then turns to ender "Hell naw man. I heard about you in that mission that i missed out on." Dragon shakes his head "*explative*ing pod malfuncion...anyway i'd be honored to booz ya buddy"

"You're the doc, just pop a sleeping pill or two and you'll be fine, right? Fix cuts with sticks and bandages." Blake said waving her hand towards Warsaw as he went to the buffet line. She sat herself at the table the others were gathering around out of curiousity on this supposed booze-bonanza or just having already sat there. Crossing her legs across the bench the 5 foot tall soldier took at least two seats for herself as she patting the spot beside her. "Plenty of room right here guys. The more the merrier."

Warsaw soon returned to the table, with a plate of.....something that resembled food. “I could do that,” he said to Blake, picking up the conversation where they'd left off, “But that would only compound the problem. Wetware issues are shooting my sleep cycle to hell. Taking stims on top of that would only make it worse.”
As he sat down at the table he noticed Ender sitting across from him. “And what's this? The mighty Ender has come to join us!?”

>>13425143

Ender's brow raised. /Mighty/ was hardly something that described what he did to the pirates they took prisoner. He stuffed the image in a dark corner and responded in kind. " Yeah, word is that you guys are kind of a big deal. So how about it, maybe I'll get connected with the people who saved the day S- sirs... "

Trauma welcomes the company, "Sure join it, it'll be fine. Also, does no one here know how to prepare Food? You're just sucking down that stringy white junk. Must be terrible."
She points to her own meal, that, dispite being mostly paste, it's also cooked and seasoned and prepared. looks almost like a steak with a fully loaded baked potato and a side salad.

Taking a seat at the table, Geist leans his staff against the side and grabs some booze. On the other end of the table from the seat next to Trauma, a voice is heard. "Hey, that actually doesn't look so bad!" Ghost pulls off the cloak he had borrowed from Geist, taking a bite of some thing. Warsaw's plate is a little emptier.

"Ha, I ain't no "sir" Ender. We're the same rank!" Dragon pats the private on the sholder "We're all friends here after all." Dragon looks over to Blake and strugs, taking a seat. Stragely Comet takes a seat by Trauma and seems to be eyeing her food with great intrest.
"I keep a stash of stuff all over the ship, but thanks to Found i realized my new suit has a *explative* ton of space to hide stuff. I'll never burn through all this fuel anyway" He pops a few hatches on his pack and produces a bottle of tequila. "I heard this one pours the shots for you!

He flips the bottle upside down "oh man that's a really neat idea." the cap fills up with the white gold and there's a long pause. "...how the *explative* do you get it out of there?"

>>13425849
"Well Ender, I'd ask you to join my squad if the Major wouldn't skin me for it. Says I have too many in there already." Geist eyes Comet curiously while continuing, "Dragon, I don't think you should be misusing military equipment like that." Ghost chuckles while folding the cloak into a box, "Lighten up Geist!"

With an obvious roll of the eyes, Blake swung her leg out to straddle the bench, reaching out to grab the upsidedown bottle of tequila out of Dragon's hand. "Oh don't be scared. A little spillage never hurt no body." she said with a smile, tilting the bottle halfway before popping the cap and slamming down the bottle before most of the drink had a chance to fall and spill over the caferteria table. "Now if you'll excuse me, this one has my name all over it." Raising the shot up she took the first swig out of it, slamming the cap down and sliding it to whoever was willing to take the plunge next.

"Nothing wrong with a little spillage? I don't know about you madam but a drop of wasted booze is a travesty!" Dragon laughs it off. "ok ok ok, imma pour everyone a shot and that'll be out "reasonable celebration" and shit or whatever."
After pouring dragon lifts his glass "Here's to you guys, my family, killin' xenos just wouldn't as great without all of you, here's to my promotion which i'm sure i'll lose in a day or so, and here's to Comet, the coolest robot ever."

>>13425874

Dragon takes his shot along with all the others.

"I just got this rank for denying a freebie from the major. It's nothing big, in fact its a liability. I've a mind to you let you get me killed a dozen times if I wasn't thrusting the responsibility on /someone else/ " He was about to say more- but shut his mouth. You never talked about your views on the meaning of life to combat clones. But he figured let the truth spill out to alcohol, to merryment. To being alive for another day. He chugs down the hard stuff , it tasted like earthworm tea but with a touch of battery acid and let the glass drop.It clapped on the table's surface like a cannonade along with the rest.

“To Bravo!” Warsaw shouted before downing his shot. The drink served nicely cleanse his palate after the 'meal' head eaten. As it was half his plate was still covered in some grayish cubes of indeterminate origin. “Trauma, if I promise not to stare at your ass the next time we deploy, would you tell me how you make this stuff edible?”

"Here's to hoping that we all get cool robots that'll high five us too!" Blake shouted over the 'aye's and the mumbled of agreements to Dragon's toat. They were family, a dysfunctional one, but a family none the less. Clapping her hand against the surface of the table she aided in making the people mumble louder and call out in agreement and howling before she took her shot along with the rest of them, slamming the shot down a second time on the table and throwing her hands up in the air.

"H- Hey now ," Ender was about to stop her but thought against it. He just gave a hearty chuckle, the sting of alcohol was already making the images in his mind sound like a garbled record.

Geist half expected Trauma to punch Warsaw when he mentioned staring at her ass, while Ghost raises his glass, seeming to slur a bit from already having been a bit drunk. "To not knowing to not tell women you've been staring a their ass, even if it ish a nice one!" Geist face-palms as Ghost drinks.

>>13425912

"Isn't that your job?" Blake asked with raised eyebrows, propping her head up on the table with her hands. She had some half smile playing on her lips as she looked between Ghost and Warsaw's goodnatured flirting with Trauma's slowly irritated face. This had the potential to be fun--she grabbed the edge of a food tray incase stray projectiles came her way preemptively.

"I was about to say that. Warsaw, your one warning, Cut the flirting or i flatten your face. As for cooking secrets, I don't feel like sharing anymore. try some other time."
“Suit yourself then,” Warsaw said with a shrug, “Yes it is my job, doesn't mean I can't promise to do it.” He looked at the plate of 'food' one last time, before getting up to throw it away. “You are pretty though,” he said in all seriousness as he walked away, “and if you want to deck me for thinking so that's your business.”

Dragon has been watching the exchange dumbfounded. Warsaw clearly had a greater deathwish then even he....and he thought trauma was good looking? This was the lady dragon assosiated with pain "Warsaw...man...i ain't letting you drink anymore"
Dragon looked at a digital read out on his suit "jeez, i gotta get going if i want to check up on Domino"

Oh, right, if anyone BESIDES Colton has any suggestions for our next move, I'm all ears.

And no Weird, we can't warp the entire station. We only have one extra Makarian Warp drive.

Also, I'd rather not start a fight that none of you, as fellow players, don't want to do. Or have no confidence in winning.

Current plan is to utilize Domino/Abaddon to somehow tip the fight in our favor.

I would also prefer to avoid a direct confrontation; however, using the station's production capacities to create an automated defense to buy us time seems good.

Although as someone pointed out, unless we deal with Domino, we're likely going to be chased around the Universe by an angry xeno fleet.

>>13426075
I say we get as deep in the shipyard as possible with Domino. We hold out as we let them invade the station.

Once they're all in range we self destruct the station and warp out.

>>13426109
Only the warping out BEFORE the self-destruct, right?

>>13426075

Do we know when, or even if our Garukan allies are going to show up? and are we going to make sure they get out alive too? I can only assume we'd have to give them a Mak warp drive to do this.

>>13426218
We'll play it by ear

>>13426075

>unless we deal with Domino, we're likely going to be chased around the Universe by an angry xeno fleet.

Outside of getting Domino to somehow change the character of his flux I don't have any ideas on a permanent solution.

In the short term however I may have a plan:
-Capture Domino's Flux in Geist's weapon.
-Place weapon on shuttle with fancy warp drive
-Hide shuttle in debris field, with automated station producing weapons to fight off xenos fleet.
-Scatter nukes in shielded ships to look like debris
-warp out staff + shuttle at the last second (remotely or manned)
-nuke the whole mess.

>>13426839
Alternatively:

-75% of us leave on ships, warp out.
-25% stay behind on the mothership,
-distract the xenos into getting in as close to the reactors as possible
-last stand around the reactors
-rocket/ grenade/ explosive into the reactor core
-no more xenos
-no more problems
-plenty of casualties, probably won't be able to be cloned

>>13426839
>>13426247
>>13426242
>>13426218
>>13426109

A permanent solution has been established.

We stand and fight, perhaps ushering a new era free of the xenoform menace.

That or we all die horribly to the sound of bacon frying.

>Gotta RP this.

>>13415495
>>13415624

>>>Because I'm slow and distracted, here's the follow up to the r00K shenanigans. Timeline-wise this all takes place before Dragon's celebration in the mess.

Ghost looks up, "Hey, Nomad! We're just doing a job for Geist. We need a little help with it though, and you're just the right guy for the job!"

The Knight gave him a perplexed look. "Why do I get the feeling that I'm not going going to like whatever it is you want me to do?"

"Oh, it's nothing that'll be too hard. I just need you to assist us in finding a droid."

"Oh well that sounds easy enough. By the way, do you know what the hell is up with that one ooK droid?" Nomad jerked a thumb towards R00. "I swear that thing was trying to dress up like our lil' Maidbot here."

R00 looks at Nomad with her glowing eyes, "The ook droid seeks to emulate me to gain sentience. Coincidentally, it is also the same droid we are searching for."

Nomad shifts nervously under R00's glowing gaze, the large man idly remembering his first encounter with her. "Sentience? By emulating you? How does that wo-You know what I probably don't want to know. So how am I suppose to help find it?"

"Oh you just need to be in the right place for the ook to approach you," Ghost hops off the crate, followed by R00. R00 cuts in, "Geist needs to perform diagnostics on the droid, but after previous attempts at capture the droid has been unwilling to reveal himself to us."

>>13427580
Ghost starts toward the hangar exit, gesturing for them to follow. "So, we are going to have you go to one of the sections of the ship it frequents. With any luck, he'll meet with you. It was assigned to you last mission right? That should increase the likelihood it comes out of hiding."

“So it's buggy? I swear that thing was giving me weird 'looks.' Hell I think it WINKED at me." Nomad remarked as he followed Ghost. "What the hell was THAT about? Part of this whole 'gaining sentience' schtick?"

"Winking? Oh, no it was probably just some electrical circuit connectivity issues or a glitch." That should sound convincing enough, Ghost thought.

"Now, where was it supposed to be right about now?"

"Either the gym locker room, south engineering access, or the viewing deck."

"Ah yes, thanks R00."

"So what do I do? Wave a sign around? Recite binary code? Pretend to need a 'boost of morale'?" He said the last with a meaningful glance at R00

R00 shoots Nomad a nasty look, "He would like to meet the soldier he was assigned to, he'll show up if he sees you there."

Ghost lead them up a level, stopping by an out of the way room. "Hold on a sec, just need to get something." After a few minutes, he comes back out with box. "Alright, onward!"

>>>CONTINUED

>>13427598
"Ghost...this is the girl's locker room."

"We aren't going in there Nomad! Geez..."

He points to the men's locker room, "Right this way..."

At this hour in the night, the gym and locker rooms were usually empty. More so after the rumors of the ooK droid's late night visits began circulating.

"By the way, why do you keep referring to it as a 'he'? I mean with the dress and the wig, wouldn't it be a 'she'?"

Ghost stops and just stares at Nomad. R00 speaks up, "Unit 46-ooK, which is his designation in the droid channels, fought aside mainly male soldiers. This influenced his personality and view of himself in development to identify himself as 'he'. Technically, he has no differentiating 'equipment' installed."

"ANYWAY we just need you to kind of hang out here for awhile, Nomad." Ghost opens the box he had been carrying and pulls out a large grey cloak. Putting it over himself and R00, they vanish from view. Ghost's voice can be heard, "We'll be on the other side of the locker banks over there. Just find something to read on your tablet or something."

Sighing quietly to himself, Nomad pulls out his tablet as he takes a seat on one of the benches.
"Sit here quietly, seems easy enough. Yep, no problems. Just gonna sit here, waiting for a gorilla in a maid outfit to come and get me...."

>>>WILL HE APPEAR!? GO READ THE NEXT ONE

>>13427615
Ghost and R00 crouch under Geist's cloak. Time drags on. After about a half hour, R00 whispers, "This is boring." She adjusts her crouch so that she's facing Ghost. "I haven't seen you around much lately outside of tech lab work. Remember when we explored that land fortress?" Ghost smiles, the memories coming to mind. "Yeah. And when we found my-er Geist's quarters." R00, continued, "Why don't we ever do things like that anymore?"

Ghost thought for moment, "You haven't done anything with Geist? I've only been out of storage a day or two now." "He's been acting strange lately. Hasn't even talked with me outside of work much."

There is a few more minutes of silence before a sound is heard.
*CLANK*
*CLANK*
*CLANK*

"...the hell is that?"

>>>A WILD r00K APPEARS! CONTINUED

"So, Abaddon, tell me; how badly do you want to be whole? What are you willing to pay?"

The Colonel's avatar, eyes blazing, stares through the firewall at the construct in the chair.

"Well, Abaddon? You want to be whole. You want to see your brother. I can make that happen. But you need to give me something."

A maniacle grin spreads across his face.

"You need to give me something I want, Abaddon."

"You wish to- like so many before you- to use me for your gain. You know not the bond that your enemies share. It is a tear-rending one of unity and absolute loyalty "

"I can show you. I can use the boy to turn that against them- to make them suffer their blind love "

"I know you can do that for me, Abaddon. In fact, I'm counting on it. But the question remains. Will you give me what I want? Do you even KNOW what it is I want from you, Abaddon?"

The Colonel looks at the construct. A shame, that he can't see a face to judge it's reactions. But then again, it WAS controlling the Orbital Partition...

> > >

>>13427622
Through the door, a ooK bot strides in. r00K. It walks over to a locker and opens it, searching through the contents.

Over on the other side of the locker banks, Ghost holds his hand up to stop R00. "What's he doing?" He whispers. "Wait until he is further in away form the door."

Oblivious to the exchange between Ghost and R00, Nomad stands up and clears his through. "Ahem....uh...ooK?"

The ooKbot turns around to appraise Nomad. "I am Unit 46-ooK. You-are-Nomad?"

“Uh...yes...Unit 46, what are you doing in here?"

He glances back to the locker before returning his gaze to Nomad. It puts some socks back. "Nothing. What-are-you-doing?"

"Just trying to get away from the hustle and bustle of ship." An awkward silence fills the air. "Um...Unit 46, why are you dressed like that?"

"Observation-problem-solving-simulations-point-to-a-solution-where-increased-social-interaction
-will-provide-further-sentience/sapience-development. Unit R00-has-shown-high-degree-of-assimilation-of-human-social-norms-and-interaction-with-crew. Adaption-of-societal-norm, namely-the-custom-of-wearing-clothes, will-allow-me-to-assimilate-myself-into-the-crew-more effienctly.

"...so your stealing clothes from the locker room? That doesn't seem...odd to you at all?"

"Laundry has-too-much traffic to pass-through unnoticed."

"Did you ever think to ask Ghost or Geist or R00 for clothes? I mean...a maid outfit isn't exactly very manly."

The ooK stands there. "No."

"Why not? I'm sure they'd tried to help you gain sentience."

>>>MORE AWKWARD QUESTIONS IN THE NEXT PART

>>13427632
"Evading-capture. Will-reach-it-myself." r00K's voice changes, sounds lighter, more feminine. "Now how about you help out?"

The ooK droid takes a step towards Nomad

"OhdearcrapcrapcrapGHOST!"

There is no answer. The ooK moves even closer. Something about the situation seems oddly familiar to Nomad.

"Unit 46, this isn't the way to become sentient!" Nomad backs away, seeking an opening to get past the ooK. "There's a different way, a better way!"

"Yes?" 46 giggles while stepping closer. From the other side of the locker banks, do you hear a...snore?

"Ghost you sonuva...." Nomad mutters under his breath as he clambers onto the bench. "Look, 46, if you want to interact with people, you don't surprise them and...boost their morale. You talk to them! Fight with them! Your a man...droid...right? A true man doesn't do things like this!"

Unit 46 stops moment. "Then..you want to fight?" It slams it's fists together and lowers itself as if ready to charge.

>>>A WILD r00K ATTACKS! WILL NOMAD SURVIVE HIS OWN STUPIDITY?

>>13427629

". . . . . "

"Yes. I will play your game. What are your terms - I will tell you mines."

"Good."

"Conditon 1. The boy must never die or be subjugated by no one, not even the Xenos or your human masters."

"Okay then. But in exchange, I want you to swear your loyalty to me and my superior, Inquisitor Fierstrom. From the moment you agree, to the moment you die, you will be a part of Bravo Force."

"Condition 2. The boy's destiny is to crown himself over your ruined sectors. He will be a LORD of battle, and scorch the systems with his will."

"I belong only to him. And together we are him."

> > >
>Fresh from the Psi Comm room between a psychotic AI and an equally psychotic Colonel! WHEEE!

>>13427659

"Only if he fights against the Exalted, on the side of humanity."

" . . . . "

"On the side... of humanity."

"You answer? Or do you feel the need to add more conditions? Because for every condition you add, I will add as well."

"Of course, during the time he spends with us, with ME, he will be treated as part of my family, part of Bravo's. A part of a large HUMAN family."

"I will..... Accept these terms..... If Domino agrees."

The Colonel's grin grows, ear-to-ear; possible only in the virtual world of Psi Comm.

"Thank you, Abaddon. I will see you when I speak to Domino then. Until then, I leave with a parting gift."

A flick of Walker's wrist, and a few files appear before the controlled Orbital Partition. Simple files, recordings, of the child Domino, talking with Aberham, playing against Dragon.

As Walker turns to leave, he pauses, only to send one more glance towards the AI.

"Of course, it goes without saying, if you betray me... well, I'm sure you know what would happen."

The avatar turns, then de-materializes from Psi Comm.

The construct rattled in his bindings. Struggled and shook to move free. The files on the floor, moved ever so closer to its feet as it tried to pick it up. Until one photo came into view.

A dream image taken like a snapshot

A single eye behind the iron mask beamed passively before it blurred and distorted.

And a single whimper escaped its prison.

>>13427644

'I'm going to regret this...' Nomad thought bitter as he let out a yell, leaping forward to plant both boots in 46's face.

The ookbot's eyes lock on Nomad as he leaps at him. "Combat protocols engaged." The ook counters, yanking Nomad out of the air by his feet and slamming him into some lockers.

Grunting in pain as he slowly got back to his feet, Nomad mentally thanked the people who gave him his enhanced body. Ducking beneath any return blows, the Knight tackles 46 into the opposite lockers.

Ghost rouses from his slumber as there is a loud crash. He looks over to see R00 shut down in power saving mode. He gives a shake, her eyes opening. "What?"

"R00, we fell asleep.Shit, it's here!" Nomad collides with 46, managing to push the massive droid back a little. Ghost pulls out one of the emp mines he snatched from Colton and slid it over towards the door. "Nomad! EXIT!"

>>>FINISHING UP

>>13427689
GOT IT!" With a roar, Nomad wraps his arms around Unit 46's waist and pushes with his all his might towards the door.

Unit 46 is unbalanced, and starts to stumble back towards the door. As he trips the mine, the lights near the door flicker. The ooK droid falls to the ground, motionless.

Ghost and R00 walk up to the downed droid. Reaching over to a back panel, Ghost flips it open and retrieves something. "Thanks for your help Nomad. That went much better then I expected, actually..."

"No...no..problem..." Nomad groans from his position on the floor. "...could one of you help me up, I can't quite feel my legs..."

Ghost goes over to help Nomad up. "Right. What possessed you to try and take on an ooK anyway?" He looks over to the dent in the locker. "R00, go get some of the other techs in here to move the bot, I'll help him to medical."

"Manly intuition? I figured if it was trying to gain sentience, maybe if I challenged it to a fight it would ignite his spirit!" Nomad laughs heartily. "Maybe it worked a little too well?"

Straining to carry him out, "Yes, maybe." He reaches down into his pocket and crushes the chip.

>>>AND FINISH. Sorry for the break of shenanigans. You may now return to our regularly scheduled drama.

>>13425962

>Fresh off the IRC and I am way to lazy and tired to proofread any of it. So good luck reading it.

“Domino?” Warsaw asked setting his plate down on the table as he turned back around, “You've already met him?” Warsaw's full attention was turned on Dragon. The fatigue he'd shown just minutes ago was gone now. Instead Warsaw looked full of energy, like child on Christmas day. “And you're going to see him now?”

"Met him? I was one of the group that extracted him! He's a cute kid, really nice. I figure i've been in the same boat as him, know how much that sucks so i wanted to be a friend for him. Still ya gotta be carefull around him what with all the psy mumbojumbo"

Geist gets up, walks over to Ghost, and retrieves the box with his cloak. "I'll pass on visiting the kid, see you all around." Ghost gets up to follow Dragon.

>>13428049

White walls and white ceilings assault Dominoe's eyes. He was a blank for a few hours and in those few hours he was afforded brief respite from the noise before it started up again as a murmur. This ship was filled with thoughts and they echoed through the walls like passing ghost trains. And speak of the devil- they arrive now. He's heard this clatter of thoughts before and his eyes rolled to the medbay entrance as he saw silhouettes on the other side of the glass.

"Alright guys, i think it'll probably be best if we go one at a time or something. I'll always be in the room and shit so don't worry about it. Let me go in an say hi and then i'll call you guys in ok?"

“After you then,” Warsaw said, his excitement evident as he shifted form one foot to the other. He'd pestered Dragon with questions the whole way down and was only slightly disappointed with what he'd learned. Fortunately he'd be able to meet Domino himself shortly and then he could ask whatever he wanted...... “I have no idea what to say to him....”

Ender had no stake with Domino. Except that Domino knew his secret. What was he going to get out of this ? This kid wasn't going to fix his problems. He knew it from the start. But maybe he needed a problem. Something real. SOmething that affected him, as himself. Ender nodded. Egging for the others to go first.

Dragon nods to the men as he enters the room with Comet, greeting Domino with a grand smile "Hey little bro! how have ya been?"

" I feel lumpy bro. I haven't slept like that in a while.. " He wrinkled his eyes they gleamed with stark amber irises before they formed back to human shaped ones again. A reminder. " I hear others.. "

>>13428067
Dragon sits at the edge of the bed "Yeah I heard ya got sick, but at least you're better now." Dragon gets slightly sidetracked by Domino's eyes "...does that take any effort or anything?"

" Th- These ?" His eyes ebbed and morphed a bit. " I just... I just let it be I guess. But when I'm myself , I'm my myself " He got self conscious other details of himself began to twitch. He even started to change his eye color playfully.

"*explative* awesome. Anyway, i brought a bunch of people to meet. It's going to be one at a time so nothing crazy happens alright?...oh and that's comet my robo friend" The bot just looks at the child. "He does't talk much but he's a good guy. You're a good guy comet" The robot slightly nods to this coment. Dragon leans a bit towards the door "Hey, whoever wants to come in first go ahead"

Ghost enters the room, and walks over. "So this is the kid, right? He crouches down to bring himself to eye level, "Hello, I'm Ghost."

The boy stares. His jaw clenched. His murmurs sounded familiar, like the man Dragon bro talked to before. But not the same. "You're Geist Bro's sideways brother ? " The idea interested him. He's witnessed two people become one but not the other way around....

Ghost chuckles, "That's one way of putting it, yes."

Dragon thinks of a way to explain it "Yeah it's like...hmm. Well there are 3 of me, but i'm just a clone. We're all the same, but Ghost and Geist got messed with by a nuke or something so they're very slightly different." Dragon shrugs "Radiation, go figure"

" A nuke ?" An irradiated explosion after all was the source of many strange problems, hair loss, teeth loss, skin shedding, laser eyes, and super strength and flight was common for this who survive a nuke. The boy's imagination went wild as he stared into space. "You- " He imagined it now ... "You guys are Batmen ? " for those who survive the blast****

>>13428075
"oh my god that was the greatest thing i've ever heard!" Dragon leans to yell out to the hall "GUYS, GET IN HERE! HE SAID WE'RE LIKE BATMAN" Dragon turns back to Domino laughing "hahaha as great as that would be, nah little bro. Hell i don't have any parents to get revenge for"

At Dragon's invitation Warsaw entered the room. His eyes fixed almost instantly on Domino. He did not, however, say anything. Instead he moved to one of the room and leaned against the wall. From there Warsaw watched.

" The fuck is a batman ? And why are you looking at me like I owe you money ?" Ender waltzes in. Avoiding Domino's gaze as soon as he saw his face.

"Hey, don't *explative* curse in front of the kid man!"

"Fuck is an old word, YOU should stop teaching him new ones ! "

Dragon simply points at Ender "touche!"

Domino: "Dragon, what's a fething?"

Ender: “Ignore it " He locked gazes. Fuck.

Dragon: "Don't folow our examples Domino. Some words ya just don't gotta say"

Domino: "Uh alright- " The boy snaps out. He was blinking sideways again. Locking eyes with Ender bro gave him a glimpse of gloved fists pulverizing a bearded man's face against the walls of a holding cell. " I w-wont "

He looks at ghost next as if to get away from Ender's yelling when he was beating a man to death some hours ago. The images and sounds here transmogrified to a hollow woman riding a - " Mr. Ghost Bro ? What's a town bicycle ? "

>>13428079


Ghost looks up at Dragon, "Wha-? Dragon, what have you been telling this kid?"

Dragon puts his hands up "Hey sarge i didn't tell him anything i sware haha. Uh...domino, that's a term for something you'll learn about when you're older" “....i think...how old are you?"

" 3 "

"oh wow, you're really mature for your age dude...." Dragon looks around the room and then leans in "I'm 3 too. Don't tell anyone"

Warsaw, coughed when Domino stated his age, but otherwise remained silent

Domino covers his mouth. His eyes widen like Christmas.

Ghost roll his eyes at Dragon.

Dragon backs up a bit with a smile "thats why we're bro's Domino."

He chuckles and returns a fist bump. An image that came to his mind for general camaraderie.

“Yes!" Dragon then waves over Comet "Give this dude a high five" Comet walks over, but unlike with Dragon the bot seems to pause for a moment. It seems somewhat hesitant, but soon enough it complies.

The boy returns the gesture. But misses wildly. He fumbles for moment before having to actually coordinate himself to do a high five. Hollow men.

The bot seems to analize the missed five and after completing one steps back looking at its hand.

Turning around. Ghost whispers to Warsaw, "You know, he seems very smart for three years old."

"He's also not entirely human," Warsaw whispered back after a moment's consideration.

>>13428084
Dragon continues small banter with Domino "So what got you so sick bro?"

" Sick ?" Domino's brow furrowed. " I was hit wit ha lot of ideas I guess "

" Because the man with the red eyes, he told me what love meant, and that my siblings loved me back even though we fought "
The room was covered in blood.
Blink
it was medical white again.

"What love ment? Red told you what love ment?" Dragon scratched his head "No wonder you lost it...love's really god damn complicated" He smiles "i should know, i try to love everyone"

Who is Red, Ghost wondered?

Domino's eyes were really worried here.

"it's ok Domino."

Loving everyone ? How can you do that with only one or three of you ? You admit that you're not batman"

"Shii--eesh, Abe! When did you get here?"

Dragon laughs a bit "Well i ment that i try to love everyone i meet!" Dragon shakes his head still laughing "I dunno what he told you "love" is but there's alot to it. I mean in a way everything is love"

Abe: He approached the group "I've been here the whole time...just drinking." "Also stop talking Dragon."

Warsaw jumped when he heard Abe's voice. He'd been so intent watching Domino he hadn't even notice his friends presence.

Ghost: "you really shouldn't do that in Quarantine, Abe."

Abe: "Oh really ghost, that's amazing"

"Hell no i'm going to tell him what love is" Dragon paused "you...doing ok abe?"

Ghost: "Abe, I think you should take that to the mess."

Abe: "Take what, sir?"

Domino: " So Dragonbro... " Domino hestiates, "Do you eat them from the bottom and go up ? "

Dragon looks at domino ".....what the *explative* did he tell you love is?"

>>13428088
" It's I dont know ! But I was told there was lots of it ! "

Warsaw's attention had wavered between Abe and Domino. Till Domino asked how Dragon ate people.

Ghost: "The drinking, Abe. In fact, go look for Ghoul in the motor pool and explain to him just why you were drinking here."

Dragon: "well normaly you don't eat people you love bro, in fact you try to do the opposet, like keep them from being eaten"

Abe: "I'm sorry sir,....Dragon, stop, you're not helping”

Domino could see it. Could see it from everyone. When everyone thought of love he saw images different all of them bittersweet. From Dragon; protection and commeraderie, shotglasses hitting tables and laughter.

Towards Ghost, he saw a camera. An image. A message to someone he will never meet. Across a millenia of stars, across sectors he may yet cross. He also hollow bodies, unrequited souls, and a blonde woman her frame towering and solid with steely eyes.

Inside Ender, it illuminated like a star in deep well, it was distant, unreachable. It was behind a mirror, in a place he must never break or try to enter lest that world shattered. He saw sacrifice here, a gaze to other mirrors, a hope in other shattered worlds. His world felt cold, shattered, distant. But vibrant and bright nonetheless.

That was love. Dragon's was love. Ghost's dreams and desires were love- Aberham and his actions too were love. And Warsaw ? He turned to warsaw. The man lounging at the side of the room.

>>13428093

What did Warsaw love? He loved going fast. He loved the feeling of his stomach jumping into his throat. He loved screaming his lunges out as the roller coasters plunged to the ground at a ninety degree angle. He loved talking to pretty women. He loved his mother. He loved his Father. He loved Aberham. He loved all his friends in Bravo. He loved knowing things. He loved being able to open a person up, fixing them and put them back together whole. He loved the adrenaline rush that came when enemy bullets whizzed past him, when xenos screeched as they charged toward him in countless numbers. He loved the feeling he'd had when he'd destroyed an enemy tank in his strider. He loved surviving by the skin of his teeth. He loved winning with nothing but skill and determination. Warsaw loved a great many things.

Domino's eyes widen. Warsaw's the happiest of the bunch! He gave a grin of serrated teeth and a slight overbite. The room was tinted with different images each one unique to every person here. Domino's eyes widened at the vastness of it. And the face he made worried others for a suspended moment. It was jarring and difficult to comprehend but it was felt nonetheless. This is the feeling at the center of everyone, this is the family that knotted everything together. And yet there was still more to it. There had to be. He stared at Ender. And Ender stared back. Those eyes witnessed evil. People eating people. Pirates riding dismembered bodies. An enraged marine stomping a man to death. A sniper crushing the souls of men in a rod. And Dragon the one he knew best here. Suddenly a new image was placed under an emotion not even borne of hatred or anger or love. But simply; a job.

>>13428097

And then the screaming started.

As Bravo fought with robots, and reasoned with strange intelligences, one man rose from a distant slumber. The darkness of the motor pool was deep, complete. Shot rose from his position, blinking. His head ached. His female body was cold.
Wait, what?

Where were his clothes?!

He stood hastily, looking around. Oddly, the bubble helmet was still on him, as were the gauntlets.

"Th'fuck?" he managed, looking down at his gauntlets. Lighting. Lighting. Which finger...
Aha. The middle finger split open revealing a simple flashlight, which he shined on one of the figures laying on the blanket spread in a corner obscured from surveillance. Shot nearly had a heart attack.

A young man, though Shot at first thought him younger, stirred under the light. Shot thought him younger because of the soft femininity in his features. Several bottles rested empty nearby. Oh god, what did he do. What did he DO?! he stumbled back, then tripped over another body, which yelped quietly, and he shined the light on this new mystery.

And felt a little relieved, but not much.

"Reed?" he managed, stammering. "What... WHat happened... I..."

"You were saying something about Xeno fleets coming to wipe us out." she replied, throwing the suit at him. He hastily put it on.

"About this being the last few hours we'll have." the young man supplied. "So me and Reed started talking to you, and you wouldn't stop buying drinks for us... one thing lead to another..."

"Oh god. Oh god." Shot sat down, shaking his head. "None of this gets out, alright? This is between us."

"Righto." said the other two, as they dressed quietly. As soon as they were gone, he wrapped up the bottles in the blanket and tossed it all into the nearest incinerator.

Oh god.

He needed to talk to a headshrinker soon. This was rapidly getting out of hand.

Protoprotein is the word that comes up often in cloning. No matter which world or how little your intelligence for common things are, protoprotein is the stuff that soldiers- and heroes are made of. Protoprotein started out as a bacteria that could be found in the oil wells of these ancient planets that once evidenced life, it is what prewar terminology would call fossil fuel. Encased in barrels of this black-purple substance are concentrations of of this regenerative bacteria, known for replicating its culture rapidly like stem-cells. It is believed that xenoforms are harvested of the same things- or that the protoprotia bacteria was their root descendant.
Protia, the element that protoproteins are made of are constructed of genetic strands smaller than atoms, reconfiguring these strands allow it to "alchemise" into whatever base element it is rigged to become, expending packed energy and unneeded atoms as it does so.

Touted as the miracle ingredient behind the Landers' success to save humanity, it has become the most sought after prize among colony worlds wishing to ramp up its defenses.

However, before an economic schism took effect from the enterprises of PP tycoons, a Lander of unknown name and origin intervened and published a method to culture PP, driving its market value from 1,200 Points a gallon- to that of a single 10, cycles days after the exalted's push. Understandably, it's sheer utility in science , industry, and the millitary has still ensured its place on the economy. Body surgeries, alcohol, medical treatments, sports entertainment, religious sects, and homeproducts were the tip of the iceberg of its many revolutionary uses in everyday life.

In millitary industry, it has paved the way to transcription, cloning, food and weapons production, tactical applications of infastructure and an inexhaustible supply of burn fuel*

However, there was one thing that no amount of protoprotein COULD replicate, Water.

*as opposed to dark matter generators which is limited by its output rate and impulse due to technology incapable to contain and harvest as much darkmatter..

Dragon looks for Found after seeing his friend abe slightly drunk and slightly angry. She was the last person with him so maybe she would know, or maybe she was the cause. Plus Dragon was less then happy after his little brother wouldn't stop screaming every time he saw him.

Geist looked down on the world below. Vast oceans. most of the land mass obscured by white clouds. The O'Reilly was now oriented so that the viewing deck faced the planet which the shipyards orbit. The dread and anticipation of the coming battle was beginning to get to him. He saw it on the faces of his fellow soldiers and crew. By now word was getting around of Walker's decision. They would hold this place, entrench, bunker down and try to weather the coming storm. He was worried that command greatly underestimated the size of the approaching swarm, that this may be a last stand. Many were coping by drinking their worries away despite the eminent attack, while others took solace from other means...

The only thing a they could now was prepare and wait.