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Post by Bannanachair on Aug 11, 2017 23:51:08 GMT -4
"Henry, take over for me. I think I have a plan to get everything to work again, but it may take about thirty minutes. In the meanwhile I need our fighters prepared to launch ASAP." At that, I get up from my chair and run as fast as I can to the prison. "Kaminski, I need the prisoner. All systems are offline, the Schall somehow found out about her and we're going to die unless she get get everything back online."
(Can technomancers do that? Technology manipulation is handled differently from one piece of science fiction to the next so I'm really just guessing here.)
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Post by Tikobe on Aug 12, 2017 0:01:42 GMT -4
(Easily, depending on their strength. For someone like Andrea, it'd be like bending their pinkie. They just need eye contact with the ship. (And not even thirty minutes. It just took thirty minutes last time because I needed to get the show on the road so I decided that the talking was thirty minutes.))
"You want to what!?" Kaminski says in disbelief. Edward and the other Hollis, Clare, were likewise in shock.
"Wooah! You're putting a lot of faith into a death row inmate, one that could use this chance to seize the ship," Andrea says, her face turned to you like she was staring at you through her blindfold.
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Post by Bannanachair on Aug 12, 2017 0:17:35 GMT -4
"You're right. I am putting a lot of trust in you." I reach into the inner pocket of my jacket and pull out my snubnose. I very audibly cock the gun so that she can hear it. "This gun is completely analogue. You can not control it, there is no circuitry. If you attempt to do anything other than restore power I will shoot you once in each eye. Is this understood?"
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Post by Tikobe on Aug 12, 2017 0:24:40 GMT -4
Andrea cracks up at the sound of this.
"You're the craziest motherfucker I've ever heard of, and I lead a fucking revolution!" she said, gasping for air in between her laughs. "Alright, fine. I'll get things working. I'm stuck on this shithole as well. No plans to die on it."
Kaminski, not in shock over her language like the two officers were, looks to you.
"Want me to take the blindfold off now, or escort her to the command deck, first?" he asks. A rumbling is felt. It seems that the fighters are here.
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Post by Bannanachair on Aug 12, 2017 0:30:06 GMT -4
"Take off the blindfold now," I say, raising my gun so that, if she were to close one eye, she would have a clear view down the barrel to ensure that nobody thought that I was bluffing.
(I get the feeling that there's going to be lots of cloak-and-dagger intrigue on board this ship.)
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Post by Tikobe on Aug 12, 2017 0:38:15 GMT -4
(Yes. And no. Intrigue is just a good tool for drama and tension, and I just finished Babylon 5 (Which was the inspiration for this), but there will be action.)
As soon as the blindfold was taken off, Andrea blinked in surprise.
"Holy shit. You just don't stop impressing me, do ya, captain? I don't suppose you could give me a leap of blind faith and get that out of my sight?"
"Finished," Kaminski says as he removes the last strap from the chair. "Would you like me to point my gun at her other eye?"
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Post by Bannanachair on Aug 12, 2017 1:08:29 GMT -4
"No, she needs to be able to see. But keep your gun aimed on her." I grab her by the forearm and force her to walk just to the entrance of the prison, where I open the door slightly ajar so that she can see the lights in the hallway outside. "Turn on all systems - The magnetic latch, all defense systems, everything. And deactivate whatever mechanism the Schall used to turn it off in the first place."
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Post by Tikobe on Aug 12, 2017 1:25:08 GMT -4
"Well, activating things isn't a problem. Just hurts like a bitch."
She blinks and just like that you hear whirs and hums you had not even noticed were missing.
"Good, now there's a problem. I can't shut it off."
"What?" Kaminski says.
"The 'mechanism,' as the captain put it. It's a remote device. A simple jammer from the feeling that the ship's giving me. It's not connected directly to the ship so I can't stop it until we find it. Best I can do is take the ship's pain away while giving it the push it needs to work and give myself a goddamn migraine. All I can tell you is that it's on the ship."
"Which proves what I've been saying!" Drake says as he storms down the hall. Behind him is a very annoyed Miranda and a very nervous William.
"My apologies, captain. I've been talking to him about times and places but he still insisted on this nonsense," Miranda explains. "Our good friend here believes that William is a Schall agent and is demanding that we search his quarters and throw him in the brig pending a 'full investigation.'"
"Good friend? Just say asshole," Andrea replies.
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Post by Bannanachair on Aug 12, 2017 1:31:22 GMT -4
"Can we deal with this after we leave this star system? I'd rather not die because we're all accusing eachother of subterfuge. Kaminski, after we manage the gravitational latch, blindfold her and put her back in lockup." I then turn to Drake, Miranda and William. "The three of you are not to speak of who or what you saw in this prison to anyone or you'll be joining her in the cell."
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Post by Tikobe on Aug 12, 2017 1:41:04 GMT -4
"Too late. Drake just told practically... everyone. Seriously, even the janitor knows," Miranda replies.
"Alright, I guess he's too much of an asshole to be an asshole now," Andrea say.
"You wouldn't even know half the things I've done. Like destroying your little tirade. And keeping you alive," Drake replied.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Can we stop the banter!?" Miranda snapped, on the verge of killing somebody. Well, both her and your Security chief.
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Post by Bannanachair on Aug 12, 2017 1:54:13 GMT -4
"Kaminski, make sure the prisoner doesn't try to escape. I'm going to be going back to the command deck to check on the situation there," I say, as I then put my gun away and step out of the door into the hallway to go to the command deck.
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Post by Tikobe on Aug 12, 2017 2:03:23 GMT -4
"Yes, sir!" Kaminski says.
"In the mean time, the two of you are gonna comply with the Colonel's orders and go to your quarters until this is all over," Miranda says as she escorts, AKA rushes, both William and Drake to their quarters.
When you reach the command deck, it's all yelling and anarchy. Henry has just enough time, "Why, hello Robert. Caught us just as soon as we fell out of the pan and into the fire. Or maybe we're still on the pan and we don't realize it. Anyways, whatever you did, it worked. Our weapons are online and the fighters are backing off, and we can try to latch onto the slingshot, but that Drake character has the whole command deck in an uproar. The only person who's remained calm is Howard, thank god."
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Post by Bannanachair on Aug 12, 2017 2:08:40 GMT -4
(I think I said I'm a captain, not a colonel.)
"I ran into Miranda, Drake and William just a minute ago. As soon as we can get a minute of quiet we need to go over all the personnel files and make sure that everyone's behaving at least somewhat professionally," I say to my younger brother, before grabbing the communications device. "Everyone, stop panicking and get back to your damned jobs. We need to latch onto the slingshot as soon as we possibly can and that means that you need to be doing your jobs."
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Post by Tikobe on Aug 12, 2017 2:28:06 GMT -4
(The Colonel refers to your brother. He's gotta do something as a second-command and you called him a colonel.)
"Captain!" the Themali from the weapons station yells. "Are you aware of just how nearly you got us all killed!?"
"Hey! You heard him, we need to be ready to help the pilot with the slingshot," Kem snaps.
"Uh... Actually, I got this. You guys just keep the show going, makes me forget that we're gonna be losing the latest, new shows out there," Howard replies.
"It hasn't even been twelve hours into your command and you got us into that! What are you going to do about this!" the Themali demands.
"Latching on," Howard begins. "Moving position towards the Avesh-8 system. Checking for obstacles... Huh. Too far to get a read on obstacles. It's what we get for performing the longest jump in recorded history with a slingshot."
"What are you gonna do?" Kem asks the pilot while Howard pulls out the paper copy of the orders.
"Well, it says here 'Avesh-8 under any condition.' So, I guess we're pulling a big eff it and doing the jump anyways. Reversing poles. Release."
The ship flies into FTL speeds, much to the horror of some the crew.
"You know if there's even a single asteroid in our path you'd have killed us, right?" Kem asks.
"Yeah, I know. Orders are orders. It'll take maybe eight hours to reach our destination if we live."
"Great, one person nearly gets us killed and another's about," the Themali mumbles.
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Post by Bannanachair on Aug 12, 2017 2:35:28 GMT -4
(Oh, yeah, but I caught that mistake and edited it so that I called him a lieutenant; I had some stuff confused.)
"If we didn't try the jump the Schall would have killed us," I say, as I then pick up the files I was reading and continue to read them. I would very much like to know everything about everyone on this command deck, especially why the lot of them are so unprofessional.
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Post by Tikobe on Aug 12, 2017 3:03:38 GMT -4
(Oh god. Here we go. (I don't even know how many alien races I just made. Good thing there's no way I could make 27, right? (Applause for making over half of these characters right now? No? Okay, I probably deserve it. (Sorry for the maintenance thing. I don't have the will to make that many characters, especially when I can just represent them through their managers.))))
Dossier List:
First-In-Command (Captain)
Captain Robert Edwards (Human)
Second-In-Command
Lieutenant Henry Edwards (Human)
Third-In-Command
Lieutenant Miranda Greengrove (Human)
Pilot
Howard Wilson (Human)
Orlyn Desfur (K'talun)
Information
Drake Combs (Human)
Kem Argi (Zathrelle)
Weapons Station A
Sunola Emillo (Themali)
Alissa Bartholomew (Human)
Weapons Station B
Chess Kipo (Ta)
Asru Sha (Zathrelle)
Maintenance
William Judge (Human)
Amanda Marx (Human)
Fighter Pilots
Jakti Nem (Lakto)
Ulysses Wiseman (Human)
Chief of Security
Nicholas Kaminski (Human)
Security Team
Edward Hollis (Human)
Clare Hollis (Hybrid)
Ship Doctor
Monica Ricci (Human)
Maintenance
There are over 23 members of the maintenance crew
A lot of these members aren't even former military. Only Ulysses, Orlyn and Chess were once members of the Keeper force, although Jakti does have ties to a local militia back at his home planet. It seems Kem was a famous inventor, and Drake was once on the Board of Conscience, the a Keeper senate of sorts that makes all leading political decision for the alliance. He officially resigned yesterday. The security team was clearly forced on this to keep a low profile on the Andrea issue, although Kaminski has made many unpopular decisions, and there's a lot of controversy over Clare, who seems to be half human and half Zathrelle, and you weren't even aware those two races could have children together. The list goes on and on, but a lot of it seems to be blacked out, so you wouldn't be getting full stories anytime soon.
You did pick out an interesting character from the maintenance crew. Mateo Abrantes. He has a total of 12 espionage and sabotage investigations under his belt. Three of them were with the Schall.
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Post by Bannanachair on Aug 12, 2017 3:08:29 GMT -4
How much time has passed since I started reading the files?
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Post by Tikobe on Aug 12, 2017 3:20:38 GMT -4
Five hours. Right it's evening, earth standard time. The crew settled down after the Themali, Sunola, realized no one was listening. In an hour everyone on the command deck will be swapping out with the night shift crew. Everyone except Kem, that is. You still need to resolve the matter between Drake and William, as well as figure out where the jamming device was. After you were fired off the slingshot, it would seemed that Andrea let go, allowing it to shutdown the weapons and the latch, though you thankfully didn't need it anymore. All you know for now is that Henry organized a search crew out of the maintenance guys to find it. Since it's not back up and Henry hasn't returned they clearly haven't found it. Or at least, he hadn't returned until now.
"Did you find it?" Miranda asked.
"No, but I got good news, and bad news."
"What?"
"Bad news, there's another area where I don't have the clearance to enter. Good news, nothing blew up."
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Post by Bannanachair on Aug 12, 2017 3:27:28 GMT -4
"I also found something of note. A member of the maintenance crew, Mateo Abrantes, has been investigated for sabotage a dozen times, and has multiple known links to the Schall." I get up from my chair. "Someone needs to get Kaminski to arrest him, and I'll go to this other place that you don't have clearance for. This is one hell of a first day."
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Post by Tikobe on Aug 12, 2017 3:39:24 GMT -4
"Alright, just be careful. The area... Well... It's the bottom deck," Henry says.
"What?"
"That's right, Miranda, it's the bottom deck. But here's the weird part: The ship was designed so you can't access the engine or the power grid except by the bottom level. However, I, a lieutenant, can't get in, no one from maintenance has ever gotten in, but according to the records, something has been working down there. Constantly since we left Enceladus, in fact. There's no cameras or anything so I don't who or what. I don't know if you two believe in ghost but something spooky is going down at the bottom deck."
"Don't send shivers down my spine," Miranda says sarcastically. "Who's watching the deck and who's gonna take care of Mateo?"
"I'll watch. You hunt him down."
"Pardon me for intruding," Kem says, "but I had thought you humans considered it rude to send a woman to work?"
"We did, but I'm the kind of guy who'd shoot a criminal in the stomach; Lieutenant Greengrove seems to be the kind of woman who would step on their face and crush their skull for her bread. You don't send a clown for a murder... Wait, that doesn't sound right," Henry jokes.
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Post by Bannanachair on Aug 12, 2017 3:43:53 GMT -4
I roll my eyes at that and begin heading towards the lower deck. If this search doesn't turn up whatever the Schall used to disable the ship I think I have a couple backup ideas in mind, but hopefully it won't come to either of those.
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Post by Tikobe on Aug 12, 2017 3:51:33 GMT -4
You travel down until at last the door to the bottom deck was in view, just down a flight of stairs. Ironically, the lights for these stairs weren't working, giving it an ominous presence, even though the power grid was down here. You climb down and you can just barely see an access panel to plug you clearance card in. However, as you try, it doesn't work. You try a few more times only to confirm that even you don't have the proper clearance to enter this room.
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Post by Bannanachair on Aug 12, 2017 3:58:33 GMT -4
"Dammit..." I mutter under my breath. I begin walking back up the stairs again to the crew quarters. Drake introduced himself by saying that he knew a lot about the sabotage that was transpiring; maybe he can be pressured for information.
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Post by Tikobe on Aug 12, 2017 4:07:31 GMT -4
You enter Drake's quarters, where he's making tea and watching a recording of a circus show.
"Oh, captain! Come in, come in!" he says as he pauses the recording.
"You'll have to pardon the tea. I know we weren't to bring our own food supplies on board but we're all gonna need something to ease ourselves into the next few weeks. I suppose you're here to consider the case against William? Before you ask, I still think he's responsible."
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Post by Bannanachair on Aug 12, 2017 4:14:56 GMT -4
"Actually, that's not what I'm here for. I'm here because the first thing you said to me was that you knew which systems were down and why. I want to know where the jamming device is, and I have the feeling that you might know where it is."
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