The Statistical Probability of a Bad Day [Rhi-Rhi and GIR] [OPEN]

[SuperMachinegun]

Was it the fourteenth or fifteenth time? Renilius can't remember anymore. Ever since he had Bayes to mentor him at Stage 5, all the missions he ever got to do were delivering cargo to TRIM. Here he was again walking on the same boring hallway to the lounge where most of the Pilots and spacecraft personnel hung around as if they had all the time in the world. Ren would have liked to do this to but he wanted to be where the action was. He did not want to become a Pilot to deliver scalpels and dehydrated pudding to isolated space stations. He was thinking of how lucky most of his friends are going out to reconnaissance  missions, scouting trips and even selecting a Dragon and getting a sleek Pilot uniform.

"Hey Renny, my man! Just chill out for a bit," called one of the cargo engineers who clearly was having a good time himself. He put up his glass with some green fluid in it "Have a drink!"

"You up to being a beating dummy for a good hour, Farels?" Ren asked sarcastically to the man as he cracked his knuckles.

"Blackliss," A dark blue haired man said. He was a Pilot, a nerdy one from the looks of it. He was lean but he was definitely not as lean or bulked as Ren was, but he was able to alert him as if Ren was a pet to him. "Just calm down for the next few days, By tomorrow we should be at Thanatos and you can relax there and do whatever you want."

"Great offer, gee. As if there's something to do in that place, the things they do there are pretty messed up anyways. It still bothers me that you always like going to TRIM, Pilot Bayes," Ren said in an arrogant tone.

"It's a great source of money without doing so much hard work, only requires me to be smart, which I am!"

"Yeah and being a Pilot also means you must have some muscle to do some serious combat."

"Also means you need to be dead-ass smart and not be some knucklehead, Candidate."

Ren curled his lips and breathed in as if he was ready to do some serious damage to the Pilot's jugular. Instead he just let out a loud sigh, punched the wall in frustration and walked away. The two men were left staring at the wrinkled crater on the reinforced wall, they did not seem to be alarmed by it.

"He'll get around it once he becomes a Pilot and gets some cash," Bayes said to Farels as they continued on with their drinks and discussion.

((OOC: Hopefully this entry decent enough ))

[Rhi-Rhi]

[ooc: Okay, fair warning! I have no freakin' idea how to write a space confrontation, or any clue as to the jargon or mechanics. So I am just...sorta...wing ing this. A lot. And gonna gloss over like...as much as I can get away with. |: Bear with me and my lack of knowledge/experience here! xD]

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That was when a blast of plasma struck the hull of the cargo ship, and the Sassy Juice swept in close, shields up, target locked, and weapons at the ready. Another blast quickly followed, taking out the turret closest to it.

It had been following the cargo ship for some time, hiding amongst the space debris that was so plentiful this close to TRIM and navigating nimbly among it as it waited for the perfect time to strike, like a shark circling its prey. Now it was showtime, but Ari wasn't worried; these little cargo ships were, generally, a piece of cake.

With the ship now hobbled, he set up a comm-link and dialed in.

"Evenin', gentlemen. This is the captain of the Sassy Juice speakin'. I'm gonna be real blunt here and just cut to the fuckin' chase: surrender nicely and give me your shit, or I finish what I started and y'all join the space debris over here. Easy enough, right?"

[GIR]

Also hidden within the debris field was a fighter craft only slightly smaller than the Sassy Juice, hidden by means of a cloaking system that contained the ship's IR and UV radiation, as well as projecting a false magic profile, disguising it as an ordinary piece of debris to anyone who could see or feel magic, and shielding the minds of those within. As long as no one looked out a window, it could pull right alongside another ship without being detected. The craft was of Draconian make, though rather than the matte black with dark silver markings of a normal Schatten Falken AR-122, it was painted matte violet with the same black-and-red skull nose art as the ship it had been deployed from, the Avarice. As soon as the two ships passed by, the fighter stalked along after them in pursuit, its pilots already at work sending assault AIs into the cargo ship to disable it from within. Sure, their band had orders to trash the ship, but nobody had said anything about not looting it first. The fighter then hung back to wait and see what Ari would do, as well as sending a report to Drake. The response he received was an order to cripple both ships as soon as the Sassy Juice docked with the cargo ship.

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Sarah worked hastily in her quarters, her goal to create a machine that could block psychic abilities, preferably without harming the victims. So far, she had yet to be successful in any of her thousands of attempts, though she had, on her most recent attempt, managed to nearly kill herself with a machine that had worked wonders as an anti-magic device. That attempt exploded 42 milliseconds after activation, thankfully, as she'd used very weak materials in its construction as a precaution. No one had really asked her to make the device. It had simply occurred to the mechanic that a cargo ship headed to TRIM might have Aedolian psychics on it. Psychics Ari might want to interrogate.

The next attempt lasted a whole 420 milliseconds before destroying itself, and managed to produce a splitting headache with the magic she'd infused it with. As to whether or not it had blocked her telepathy, she couldn't say, as her headache had been too strong for her to even think, let alone speak. Sarah committed the plans to memory and moved on to the next attempt, making a mental note to conduct further testing to see if anyone else had had headaches as a result of the device's activation. The next several attempts were all failures with minor effects (well, aside from one that briefly caused a dizzy spell, but that one had barely lasted 10 milliseconds.), and Sarah's quarters continued to fill up with debris from failed attempts as she plowed on with trying to make her idea a reality.

((Drake himself will probably show up next post.))

[SuperMachinegun]

Sirens and alarms wailed out in every corner of the ship. "AD-84 Cargo Vessel is under attack. AD-84 Cargo Vessel is under attack. AD-84 Cargo Vessel is under attack."

 Ren jumped out of his bunk to look outside and saw a small graffiti-ridden ship. Grey smoke and debris floated past his view. The ship could hold itself from such small attacks. Renilius quickly put on his Caniddate jacket and ran to the control centre of the ship. Pilot Bayes and the rest of the control crew were there minding their own spaces as they quickly typed on buttons and sent verbal commands to the ship's A.I. The pilot stood in the middle of the room looming over a holographic map. At the middle of it was AD-84 itself, and not too far from the bow of the cargo vessel was a horribly-coloured ship with the words "Sassy Juice" written all over it.

"We're under attack!" Renilius declared as he swept in next to Bayes.

"Don't state the obvious, Candidate," Bayes replied in a casual tone. He zoomed in on the holograpahic 3D image of the Sassy Juice. Certain parts of it were outlined in red,orange and green. "It seems like our little pirate friends are prepared for looting cargo vessels. Never thought I would encounter pirates at this time, but whatever. They picked the wrong ship to loot today."

Ren cracked his fists and smiled mischievously. "Heh, now this what I'm talking about! Finally some action! I'll take one Waspoid and pelt them with some serious firepower--"

"No one is going on a Waspoid. Orders are we deliver this cargo to TRIM. AD-84 would be enough to deal with this nuisance. Standby for now, candidate. Watch how the pros take care of this. Captain Farels, send a message to Sassy Juice."

A transmission played through the the speakers of the Sassy Juice. Pilot Bayes' voice was loud and clear. "Good evening Captain, this is Pilot Bayes of AD-84. Surrender is not an option to us. However it is definitely one for you and your ship. Your attack on this ship gives us the right to retaliate and we will. We look forward to apprehending you and your crew for attacking an Aedolis Government vessel." And the transmission ended

An incoming missile detonated on the starboard side of the Sassy Juice's barrier. It was as if it had no impact on the pirate vessel.

"Pilot Bayes, C3 heat missiles are useless against the ship. I must say they have a good barrier set up."
Farels said turning around from his chair to face the pilot.

"Then hit them with C6's and C7's," Bayes commanded confidently. "And make sure we finish them with one hit. I would've loved to take them as prisoners but I would love them more if they were pieces of ashes on our wake."

[Rhi-Rhi]

Sassy Juice shuddered under the missile's impact, but the shield held strong, still at 90% capacity according to Ari's monitor. Still, there was no sense in testing their luck and remaining a standing target, so Sassy pulled back and up, and Ari ordered another ion strike to its port side.

A government vessel, huh? That was a first. Usually he'd targeted civilian ones, but there was a first for everything. In any case, now that the attack had begun, they were committed to finish it.

"Looks like we're in for an interestin' ride, folks," Ari told his crew over the intercom. "So sit tight, hold on, and man your stations. In whatever order makes most sense. Ya know what to do, people."

As soon as the strike landed, they maneuvered out and back as quickly as they had come, heading back for the cover of the debris. With any luck, they'd pissed the vessel off enough for a chase and could lure them onto their turf.

[ooc: I hope this makes sense. |: I am medicated at the moment.]

[GIR]

As the Sassy Juice pulled back, so, too, did the Falcon, its bombardier already locked on to the Sassy Juice's engines. "Captain Drake, Maxwell seems to be pulling back into the debris field, probably to try to lure the cargo ship in. Should I pursue?", the pilot asked, having been on long enough to know that it was highly inadvisable to make a move on a raid like this without consulting him.

"No. Focus on keeping the target out of the debris field. If Ari still wants his prize, he's going to have to come out of the shadows and take it.", Drake ordered, "You're free to open fire, but keep it to a minimum. The target's dead either way, but Maxwell's got something I want. Let's not scare him away just yet.".

"Got it.". The craft slipped through the debris field, switching targets from the Sassy Juice to the cargo ship. "I'm thinking Longswords to their engines."

"You're thinking right." The bombardier's tone would not have been out of place in a discussion of the weather on a calm day. "Target locked. Opening fire on the cargo ship's engines.". There was a brief tingle as the Longsword cannons drew on both magical and physical energies , then released them in a stream of antimatter infused with powerful destruction magic. The stream lasted for three seconds before ceasing, during which the stealth systems had automatically shut down to prevent an overload, or worse, cooking the pilot and bombardier alive, then the stealth systems went back up.

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Sarah had just made a successful prototype when Ari made the announcement, and got two words into an attempt to reply and give Ari the news before she realised that the device was blocking her telepathy as well. As Sarah constructed a sturdier version with magic, she sent an email to Ari, which read, 'I made an anti-psychic device. Still have yet to test the range, but it should prove useful for interrogation. Use it on me outside of interrogation, and you'll become left-handed. Other than that, have fun!'. With the captain having (if he'd checked his emails) now been given word of his new toy, Sarah made her way to the barrier generator, with the intention of reinforcing it, if need be.

[SuperMachinegun]

Another blast sent the AD-84 shaking. Part of one of the screens blinked an alarming red sign. "Captain! Vessel's barrier is compromised! The analysis of the blast shows a very much different composition than that of the first hostile ship. AD-84 is under attack from behind by a different ship. Sending psyionic sonar image of the ship to you Pilot Bayes."

A red hologram of a smaller ship than that of the Sassy Juice showed up on the screen. Bayes frowned to the hologram and watched the movement of the two ships.

"Captain, abandon the pursuit of Hostile One. For now, We'll take care Hostile Two. I do not want to risk driving this vessel into a storm of debris. Remain stationary and face the ship to our new friends and fire."

"I'll go after those Sassy Juice pirates," Ren insisted beside Bayes. He wanted to be included into the action. Something excited as this was all he ever wanted. "Just give me a chance!"

"I said no and that is an order. Ask me one more time and I will have you confined until we return to Aedolis." The pilot said sternly with a loud voice that for a second everyone in the control room went still and silent. "Captain, where are my missiles? Fire at Hostile Two right now."

"Fire the Electric C6 missiles." Farels commanded to the ship's A.I. Immediately ten, twenty, thirty elongated slim rockets homed in on the Falcon.

[Rhi-Rhi]

An email notification flashed up on Ari's screen, and Ari broke out into a grin before firing off a quick response.

Darling, I don't want to nitpick, but I think you misspelled my name.

Other than that, awesome. I'm not going to even ask how you come up with this stuff, I'm just going to treasure it always. And use it to nefarious ends. And if this shit works, baby, I owe you some serious sexual favors. Or a slight raise. Your choice.

-Ari Maxwell

Good timing, too. While he'd never encountered Pilots or anything before, if this was a government vessel, that could mean anything and it was best to be prepared.

What he was not prepared for, however, was the arrival of a third vessel--obviously cloaked, since the only scanner reading he got was the heat from the missiles it fired. Shit!

"Hold fire," he instructed, and pulled deeper into the debris jungle. The ship wasn't firing at them, but at the cargo vessel, but now the situation required a little more delicacy. No doubt this new ship was a competitor, and things could get ugly once the military vessel was taken.

Still, this new distraction had also provided a golden opportunity, and he was nothing if not opportunistic.

While the military vessel fired at the mystery ship, Sassy Juice slipped from the debris.

"Sarah, I'm gonna need ya keepin' an eye on the shields, now," Ari said over the intercom as they slipped around to the starboard side and opened fire.

[GIR]

"Missiles incoming. Looks like they've found a way around our stealth systems.", the pilot commented, as if the inbound missiles were more of an inconvenience than a threat, "Activating guidance jamming.". A press of a button later, a jamming field was up, knocking out radar, psionics, magic, and communications on all frequencies other than that the comm ones used by the Falcon in a 150-meter radius around the fighter.

"Returning fire.", the bombardier announced, sending two more Longsword bursts, this time aimed one of the missile pods.. As the ship once again winked in and out of detection, the AIs it had transmitted to the cargo ship continued their sabotage, attacking the cargo ship's systems and any of its AIs they came across. "Can you get us behind them again?".

"Did you forget what we're flying? Dorothy, see what you can do about losing us again.", the pilot snapped, already using the Falcon's powerful engines to zip around the cargo ship. Like the race that had originally constructed the fighter, the Falcon was much faster than one would typically expect, appearing as little more than a blur to anyone watching it through a window. Within seconds, the bombardier had a clear shot at the cargo ship's engines again, while the AI known as Dorothy quickly worked to figure out where the gap in the stealth was,and, more importantly, how to fix it.

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By the time the reply reached her wrist-mounted terminal, Sarah was already next to the main shield generator, in full battledress, had already set up a monitoring station of sorts, and was in the process of belatedly adding an off-switch to her invention. A slight chuckle escaped her as she fired back a reply.

A raise or no more pet names. Your choice. As for if it works, consider the fact that the range of my telepathy is bigger than the ship.

After hitting 'send', Sarah finished installing the on/off switch, then shut the device off. <Do you really think I'd write out an email if I could simply tell you telepathically?>, she asked, her tone bordering on chiding, <It still needed an off switch.>.

<Already doing that, Captain. I'm guessing our prey decided to quit dicking around and actually put up a fight?>, Sarah responded, <Let me know if you need me to coax a bit more out of them. I can up the power on the main generator if I need to, but I'd have to very carefully maintain it so it doesn't overload. Good side to that is the shields being around destroyer strength, if I'm careful. It puts a lot of strain on my mind, though, especially doing it right.>.

[SuperMachinegun]

"Missiles have been completely jammed and redirected by the other ship," Farels said as he clicked away and swiped through the command screen. "Sir, our shields will not be able to keep up with simultaneous fire from two ships. The barrier is seriously compromised. We will have to retreat! If not, we're going to die."

Visible explosions were seen all around the ship, though the barrier, or what was left of it was barely held intact by the ship itself. The barrier flickered wildly as if a hologram losing transmission. The foreign AI's were destroying the systems of the vessel. A few more hits would render the AD-84 exposed to any absolute means of firepower.

"Trust me," Bayes replied in a calm tone. "They don't want this ship to explode. We will fightback. Launch missiles and I want everyone to guide it towards the targets, manually. Send out sentinel probes to knock out any possible electric-tech or magitech they have on their ships. Keep the AD-84 moving to TRIM. We should be able to reach their zone in a few minutes."

The crew followed all his orders straight away, focused on their own screens as if their could not see anything else. It was astounding how everyone had kept their cool even with the flashing alarms and the ship's AI declaring anomalies in the ship. Bayes turned around to face Renilius, but the candidate was no where to be seen. His jaw tensed and lips tightened. "He better not be thinking about it." Bayes thought to himself.

"Farels, You're in command until I get back. I need to find a candidate before he does anything stupid." And with that he left the control room and ran through the corridor.

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Ren brisked walked through the silver and brightly lit hall of the ship. He was opening every room he came across and took a quick glance at it before proceeding to the next one. "The waspoid access should be here somewhere. Near the engines, according to the map. Damn where is that room."

"Candidate! What are you doing?! I told you no one is using a waspoid!" Bayes voice came to his mind.

"We will have a chance if you let the AI deploy and control some of them to protect the cargo!" Ren replied aloud.

"The waspoids are designed as escape pods. Any fire power they have will not have a great effect on these ships!"

"Whatever, if I find that room, I'm commanding AD-84 to send out the other pods in auto-pilot. I'll meet you in TRIM then after we take care of these pirates."

"Blackliss, disobey me one more time and I will be forced to kick you out of the program. Do not--"

Ren disconnected his mind from the pilot's telepathy. He got sick of being told what to do. He was confident in his plan and no one was going to stop him.

"Warning: shields depleted to 12 percent. Please follow the blue lights to safe zones." The AI declared calmly through the speakers.

((OOC: Feel free to completely obliterate the shield and that will give you complete access and sure hits to whatever part of the ship.))

[GIR]

[Skipping to Ari being docked to the by then probably crippled AD-84]
"Captain, the Sassy Juice has docked with the target. Permission to cripple?", the pilot asked after waiting several minutes without firing. With the stealth systems active, he was banking on Ari thinking the Falcon had split.

"I believe you already had orders to do so. Prep the Longswords. I’ll put a holding gate on their ship and dock with the target.", Drake snapped as a white circle appeared below and behind the AD-84, at just the right height to allow near-instant docking. As the circle filled in, both Warmonger and Avarice drifted out of the gate, the two ships moving as a pair so that the Warmonger's warp gate generator was free. As soon as his ship was in realspace, Drake gave the order to open a gate in the middle of the Sassy Juice as his own ship docked with the Aedolean cargo ship. "James, Lucius, Qui'ek, Inglip, and Pyrrha, you're with me on the boarding part. Alice, you have the deck. Suit up, people, we haven't got all day!", Drake ordered, already moving to the armory.

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<Ari, we have a problem.>, Sarah snapped, <A few milliseconds ago, I was standing in front of a console. Now I'm standing in front of a warp gate.>, she continued, <And, no, it's not a magic one. I checked. Speaking of warp gates, two warships just dropped out of one.  One's a Nova-class super transport... The other one... I'm not sure. It could be a modified Nova, but it's too long and that prow isn't human in design... In fact, if I didn't know better, I'd say the big one's packing a Holy Lance. Bad news is, I've never had the pleasure of working on Novas or Karmid ship-based weapons, so I can't shut it down from here. Question is, what are Novas doing in this system of this galaxy? Tartarus is a Union colony, and Novas are military ships. Judging by the profiles, those would likely be Fourth-Gen. That generation's still in service.", she continued, trailing off slightly as what began as a report to Ari became musings.

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The boarding party proceeded with caution as they moved through the AD-84, shooting any bodies they came across just to be certain. Each was dressed in an Aresian assault suit, a black cross between an enviro suit and assault armor, striped with different colors depending on rank, with the exception of Qui'ek, a Maraki whose insectoid physiology would not allow her to fit in one, and whose sealable exoskeleton meant she didn't need it anyway. "Qui'ek, start moving cargo to the Warmonger. Lucius, Inglip, watch her back.", Drake ordered as the rest of the party continued toward the bridge, Pyrrha, prosthetic blade-arms protruding from her back like wings, twin prosthetic tails, each tipped with a plasma projector, aimed at her flanks, took point, with Drake, his suit striped in grey, and James, his suit striped orange, watching the flanks.

[masonwolf]

in the Cargo hold behind a few boxes was a sleeping/cloning pod made out of technology that is a few decades more advanced than most technology in the system. suspended in a thick watery substance was a albino Wolfen female wearing a black jumpsuit that covered her body excluding her head, tail, and feet.

she would feel and hear the presence of those in the cargo room and opened her eyes slightly to see the boxes moving and shifting before she closed her eyes again, feeling the chemicals in the pod starting to kick in again and making her body and mind numb again before drifting back into sleep.

[Daglobster]

Au'Nvratyis opened his eyes.

Something was wrong.

He could tell by the way the ship rumbled, even all the way down in the cargo bay, where he was stowing away. It wasn't a very dignified way to travel, but it was the only real option he had at the moment. It's not like he had been bothered, he had spent the entire trip meditating behind a wall of crates, but it would seem he had to terminate his status as "secret passenger" sooner than he predicted.

He focused his senses. Ah yes, he could hear it, but only just so. The telltale sounds of weapons beig discharged. Without anymore thought on how unlucky he'd have to be for this to happen, he stood up from his cross-legged seating position, adjusted his hat and trench coat, and stepped out from behind the crates.

Immediately, he went for the stasis pod, looking around to make sure there wasn't anybody else. He laid a hand on the glass, looking at the Wolfen inside. Wordlessly, he set about opening the pod.

[GIR]

As Qui'ek continued to move the AD-84's cargo, Inglip and Lucius moved about the cargo bay in a search pattern that put them in sight of each other every ten seconds, keeping in constant radio contact.

It wasn't long before Qui'ek noticed it. What looked like a stasis pod. The Maraki walked past several crates to get to the pod, mandibles clicking in anticipation of food. So long as the male-queen did not decide the contents were too valuable to allow her to eat.

As she approached the object, Qui'ek began waving her antennae madly, having caught the scent of a being not of her crew, and camouflaged herself, her scales changing color to match her environment, and her wings folding to hide under hard plates which had also changed color.  The large insectoid inched closer to the source of the scent, tail arched over her shoulder and poison-cored stinger ready to fire. As soon as she was confident she couldn't miss, Qui-ek fired, then unfolded her wings and took to the air, the deafening buzzing causing Inglip and Lucius to run toward her location.

[Daglobster]

Almost like the giant insect stalking him from the shadows, content to believe it had the drop on him, Aun'Vratyis too immediately detected the presence of the giant insect. How could he not? His eyesight was far too sharp to be fooled by the primitive camoflauge his attacker was utilizing, and his hearing too keen to not notice the subtle noises made by a man-sized bug walking on starship floor plating.

Still, he allowed his feigned vulnerabilty to let the creature get closer.

When the stinger came flying at him, the gloves came off. Without skipping a beat , he merely leaned to the side, the stinger passing by ever so closely to its mark. In the same moment, his two other arms (which had already been clasping the handles of his splinter pistols) came out in a flash, sending forth a veritable swarm of lightning-quick shards of hardened light at the insect with precision that belied a true master of combat. His intent was most definitely to kill.

[GIR]

The hardened light may as well have been cotton balls for all the use it was. As the projectiles were fired, the scales in front of them emitted light of the same frequency and amplitude, but with the wave form reversed, cancelling out the light.

"Pretty lights.", Qui'ek buzzed, her 'voice' more felt than heard, "Like many races, you assume the camouflage is for hiding. Maraki come from a world of intense sunlight. Our scales evolved to cancel out the harmful frequencies. Over time, we learned to control those emissions, to use our defense to change color. To hide. It is a reflex which renders light weapons useless.".

As she spoke, Lucius and Inglip opened fire on the unknown being, plasma and explosive crystals raining on the alien.