**I'm confused, is Day in the generator room with Shiro and Felinity?** Aaron resisted the urge to point out the blatant irony of a tailless dog being named, "Longtail Felinity," for fear of another "incident" with the Farbian's knife, and instead sat heavily down on the floor, folding his segmented legs beneath him. He idly picked at a callous on his arm. The cords binding his made this somewhat difficult, but the habit provided a distraction. Being subjected to the pirate's control had been terrifying at first. However, now it was just tiresome. It was surprising to him how quickly he'd become apathetic to his situation, but what could he do, anyway? He was powerless. Better to be impartial than scared stiff. "Do you still need me?" Aaron asked with a sigh. "Or can I go now? I mean, it's not like you need a hostage; Beaky already gave up, for some reason." He sighed again. "It's not like the captain..." he mumbled. "Not like him to give up so easily."
'Well, we will need you to help us pass through some doors. Your clearance is a pass all because you are security. If you are wondering how I know that, it's the way you dress. And about your captain, even the most steadfast and hardy people sometimes break. It happened with my dad... anyways, he pretty bably just didn't want all of you to die in the ensuing battle, and he would've thought that it was his fault.' She started speaking a bit more emotionally at the the end, then she realized what was happening and toughened up again. 'We should get a move on, don't want the crews to get antsy and start fighting. Or at least, not without us there.' She bared her teeth in a grin, then pulled Aaron to his feet. Getting out her knife, she sliced the nanocords with one swipe each, then left the rest to Shiro.
Shiro stifled a yawn as she stepped into the room "I want only life support active, toast communications, weapons, and propulsion. Hell, toast everything aside from Life support." She said as she walked over to Aaron "So tell me Mr. Daake, which way is the cargo bay, and more importantly, what is the special cargo?" She said, a grin flickering upon her lips "If you don't tell me, im afraid my little friend here will have to persuade you" She said, gesturing to Longtail, who in theory would know about how to interrogate someone easily. But why do that when you have feminine charm right? Maybe she could give him that glare that gets sooooo many people. I hope it worked on that poor old captain. she thought to herself
Walking back to the terminal, longtail said over her shoulder, 'He probably didn't tell them. If the cargo is so secretive that he was willing to die for it, and he said that the Serik Gate was sanctioned for only his use, so probably only he knows about it. We'll have to go and find out ourselves.' A whirring sound went of, and the lights dimmed a little. 'Ok, I just set the reactor core to low power export, so only the fundamentals are supported. Lets go.'
Aaron gestured dramatically to Longtail. "Like she said, I have no idea what the cargo is. I can take you there, but I think you'd want the captain there. He's the only person who knows what it is, and it could be dangerous." Upon seeing the skeptical look on the pirate's faces, he quickly added, "He's not a threat, guys. Like you said, he's... he gave up. He won't try to stop you."
**he was in there with the others** "Yeah, sure. He could be faking it and sent a squad of guys while we were in the reactor room. We should enter the cargo bay carefully." he said skeptically. "Though I'm pretty sure you don't know about the cargo."
Aaron tilted his head and dropped an antenna down, a Katamain equivalent of rolling his eyes. "That's ridiculous. Your men have us captured and surrounded. All the security guards were already on the docking bay when you entered, and they're all quite unarmed. Your filthy pirate crew saw to that." He was starting to speak out of turn increasingly often. It gave him a bit of a thrill. I'm back-talking pirates! He thought. His instincts told him it was a bad idea, but Shiro didn't seem keen on killing. He doubted she would be overly offended by a rude-mouthed Katamain. If he ever got out of this, it would be a hell of a story to tell back at home... How he bravely spat in the face of danger, how even after the captain had resigned to the pirate's control, he, Aaron Daake, refused to go quietly. He could exaggerate a little where he needed to, of course. ...If he got out of this. And if anyone even believed him.
Shiro smiled as she took a step towards Aaron "What was that?" She asked, sliding her index finger down his cheek, all the way to his chin, and then pulling it upwards "I always did want to try dissecting a Katamain before." She said, her eyes flickered with fire as a grin creped across her face. "Ohh Felinity~" She called "Would you mind letting me borrow that good ol knife of yours? I want to see what happens if you cut his antenna. Will he shout? Will he scream?" A wider grin came across her face "Will he stop his foul mouth and talk only when spoken to?" She said, slowly pushing him against the bulkhead "Ohhh~! There are soooooo many possibilities here!"
'No.' Longtail grabbed Aaron and pulled him out into the hallway, headed towards the place they had entered the ship. 'I'll give you four reasons. 1: We need him uninjured, or else they might try doing something to your crew. 2: We don't even need to torture him, there are plenty of other crew members we can switch out this one with another. 3: We don't have the time. They could've put out a distress signal. 4: I'm not letting anyone take this knife from me. This is for a special someone. After I slide this knife between his ribs, you can borrow it. Now lets get going.'
Nervously following Longtail towards the docking port, Aaron stared intently at the ground, embarrassed. He could always leave out the part of the story where a human girl probably half his weight had pushed him up against a wall and sadistically mocked him. Not that his insult against the pirates had been anything but honest. --==||==-- There has to be a way to get them off this ship. Beaky thought, glancing nervously at the pirates surrounding him. There has to be a way. I won't let them... Tarrak-feh, what can I possibly do about it? The sound of footsteps attracted his attention. The tailless Farbian was leading Mabi Daake behind her. The other pirates followed; The human captain, the Kerrik, and two guards trodding alongside them. Beaky stood up suddenly. "What's the meaning of this, Mabi Daake?" The Katamain didn't look well. Beaky felt bad about sending him to accompany the pirates to the generator room, but he had to choose someone. Daake rubbed his wrists, where blue marks had been made by some cords tied too tight. "Captain, I, uh, I suggested that you come with us us to the cargo room." "You what?!" Daake quickly began to rationalize his decision. "I thought whatever's in there might be dangerous, and maybe if we let it out without you around it could be dangerous-" "You're dietan right, it's-" Beaky began, but quickly caught himself. The pirates around him gave him a curious glance. He took a moment to think, then sighed. "I'm sorry, Daake. I didn't mean to snap." "Sorry, sir." Why does that boy have to be so apologetic? "I think you're right. It would be safest for everyone on this ship, pirates included, if I accompanied you to the cargo bay." Shaking with nervousness, he approaches the pirates. Beaky, keep your nerves calm! He thought furiously, but it was no use. He couldn't blame Daake, but he still felt betrayed. For the first time in a long while, Captain Antero Beaky prayed.
((Sorry for the double post, but Steadford is in the game now! Fresh blood!)) Jack Steadford was not having a good day. It had started off poorly; Whittouch's B-125 apartment district was less than pleasant, and he had been woken up for the third time that week by that stupid Arriak next door, what was her name... Skaley? Whatever, the point was, if she wanted to sing in the morning, she should soundproof her freaking wall. From his early wake-up, one would assume he'd be able to get to work on time, but his cab got caught in traffic when the GMPF shut down the main road. Apparently, they were organizing a major supply movement, and they needed the whole road secured to protect against IPSF terrorists. The GMPF presence on Whittouch had increased by quite a bit lately. And small wonder; This planet was rich, powerful, and had some of the GRP's heaviest supporters outside of Shorma-Katama. It was a perfect target for the IPSF terrorist strike that everyone had been fearing since the beginning of this nightmare. But Jack didn't have time to worry about politics; He was late He read the news update off his pocket computer as the cab made its way through the streets of New Adaro, Whittouch. There was a breaking news update only about half an hour old. Unbelievable. Jack thought. Why would a GMPF captain do something like that? Something about the story unnerved him, something achingly familiar... Something from before the accident... It was frustrating, being cut off from his past like this, but he just couldn't remember. He cursed his failed memory. As the cab pulled into the Craymart parking lot, He hurriedly made his way to the main building and flashed his ID card past the sensor at the side door, stepping inside to grab his stuff. He passed through the tight hallway, sneaking past Mabi Eso's office. His boss, Eso, would not be happy to find that he had punched in late. The Farbian had never liked Jack, for some reason. As he passed Eso's office, he glanced inside through the window... and froze. There was a human inside, chatting with the Farbian across the desk. Tall, muscular, and very pale skin, wearing a black, cleanly pressed Earth business suit. Jack had never seen him before, but he would recognize him anywhere - It was a Suit.
Jack panicked as he noticed the imminent danger he was in, he felt like he was thatguy from the old Earth film, The Marfix, Martix, Markix? Jack started to edge away from the window in his boss's office, about halfway down the hall Jack broke out into a break-neck sprint strain into the lobby. Jack calmly walked up to the buzzer as not to attract attention but as he tried to swipe his card it wouldn't work "You have 5 hours until you can sign out Jack" the machine read "Would you like to take your lunch instead?" "I dont have time for this shit," Jack thought as he franticly searched for a solution Suddenly Jack saw it, he started to run for the gate when he heard a loud voice boom through the relativly quiet lobby "STOP RIGHT THERE WITH YOUR HANDS UP," Jack turned his head to see who it was who had yelled this command, it was the Suit, he noticed out of the corner of his eye two more Suits running out of his small Janitors Closet into the lobby, they had a laser pistol each "And i thought this day couldnt get any worse" Jack thought as he heard the first shots being fired at him It was dawning on him, he had to do it now or it would mean certain death for Jack. Jack vaulted the barrier rail into a small pool below, he landed in it by a few Centimeters, Jack proceeded to run out the main door onto the pristine street, something big had changed since this morning but he couldnt put a figer on it, then i dawned on him as he looked up to see a bilboard with his face on it with the description "CAUTION THIS MAN IS DANGEROUS AVOID AT ALL COSTS"
((Moving the events of Darasis-Ali along. Shiro can retake control later. This will be a long one, sorry)) Darasis-Ali. Hallway to cargo bay. The seven of them made their way through the halls: Beaky himself, Mabi Daake, Shiro, the Farbian, and two Shorman pirate guards standing off to either side. A Kerrik trailed behind them, flying forward a few steps every now and then to keep up. "If you don't mind me asking, Captain," Shiro broke the silence after about a minute of walking. "Could you provide us with some insight as to what we're to expect in the cargo bay?" Beaky sighed. "When you say, 'if you don't mind me asking,' you're being rhetorical?" "Obviously." "It's..." He thought about his mission. About what he was supposed to do, and what he had done instead. Had he betrayed his values by aborting his mission for a new, more personal one? Was he still betraying his values now? "We have guns in the hold. Quite a lot of them. Mostly kinetic rifles, a few plasma weapons, and some light ordinance." "That's it?" The pirate guard to Beaky's right didn't seem impressed. "Just weapons? Tarrak, we thought you were moving some sort of secret military project through here... or something." "That was the idea. That was the cover story we put out." Beaky suddenly decided to improvise. "It was bait for the IPSF. We were trying to goad them into making the first strike. Apparently it worked." "Not exactly," The guard said with a shrug. "We're not IPSF. We-" Shiro spun around suddenly, a gun leveled with the face of the guard. "I thought I made it clear that we're to be getting information, Mabi Eli, not giving it out." Had the captain detected Beaky's lie? Why would she, though? It was a decent cover; it did seem to make sense... As they walked down the halls and he waited for the conversation to resume, he began to add details to the story. When he felt he had constructed something realistic, he spoke. "The thing is," Beaky began, "The way things stand, we're going to have a war. It's inevitable. At the moment, the GMPF has a military advantage over the IPSF - We control the more powerful planets, we have more outposts, ships, weapons, and so on. So if the war is going to start, now would be the best time - While we're in a good position to win it. The goal here was to get someone to attack our ship, escape, and then frame the IPSF - Regardless of whether they'd actually done it." He was about to keep going, but Shiro interrupted him. "That's very interesting, captain. And very honest." He swallowed hard as she spoke, walking alongside him. Her face smiled. Her eyes did not. "In fact, it's so honest and candid, I can't help but wonder if it's something you made up to distract us from the real story." He froze for a second, staring, trapped, into Shiro's eyes. After a hesiation that lasted far too long, he said, in a choked voice, "Why would I lie to you? You'll see the cargo soon enough. It will prove what I'm saying." They finally reached the door to the cargo bay. Beaky closed his eyes, pausing for a moment. Calm down. He willed himself, as he punched in a short code. There was a hiss, and the door slid open. "Thank you, Captain-" Shiro began, and stepped forward, but Beaky threw out a hand and held her back. "Wait!" He snapped. The pirate looked like she was about to say something, but he cut her off. "Kaya? Are you in there?" Of course she was. It was a code phrase, signaling for her to hide. He pretended to wait for a reply before he stepped inside. There were, indeed, lots and lots of guns. The pirates looked at the crates scattered all over, looking surprised. "Well then." One of the guards said. "Lots and lots of guns."
Longtail thought to herself, 'Who's Kaya, and why did he call out for her if anything, it would have been a better idea to tell her to hide. She looked over at the captain sweating it out, then walked up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder. When he turned around and looked down, she asked him, 'So, what do have in here besides guns? As far as I can see, this is all lowgrade kinetic weapons with a few higher techs interspersed amongst them. Even if you were just a bait, as you were saying earlier, you wouldn't have this crap as the bait and have as much defense as you did. What is the real cargo?'
Aaron couldn't believe it. This whole time, this whole damn time that Beaky had been insisting, "Top secret cargo," "Something worth dying for," and his other crap, and it was all lies! The shipment was nothing more than armory stock! He was furious. And not only that, it was a plot to start a war! Aaron had played a hand in the start of the war, and he hadn't even known it. "Don't be ridiculous," Beaky forced a laugh in response to the Farbian's question. "I told you, this is the cargo. We were supposed to get to a military base on Whittouch. That way if the IPSF didn't take the bait, we had some real cargo to transport, and this whole endeavor wouldn't be a waste of time" "All the same," Shiro glanced over from the crate of weapons she was examining. "I'm still calling BS on your story. If you were really here to start a war, I very sincerely doubt you would be so open about it. I mean, Tarrak, don't they have you captains stand up to conditioning and whatnot? Torture and interrogation proof?" "Why would I need to keep the plan a secret now?" Beaky asked. "Now that you've attacked this ship, the war has already started. Not officially, of course, but when the distress call we sent out reached the listening post on Whittouch, about ten minutes ago, you set into motion an insanely complex chain of events. War is coming. I'd suggest you get your damn cargo and get the hell out before the Eon Star gets here. We ordered it to follow us a few minutes out of the gate so they could destroy our attackers. At that point, only the GMPF's side of the story would get out." "You son of a bitch!" Aaron suddenly snapped. All eyes, pirate and captain, were suddenly upon him as he strode across the room and punched Beaky square in the jaw. The captain stumbled back, putting a hand to the injured portion of his face. "Are you insane?" the Chipi roared, baring his fangs. "Stand down, Mabi Daake!" "This is evil, Captain!" he said. "You lured a crew of soldiers onto this ship with promises of preserving the GRP, and then you arranged our deaths!" "It's not like that, Daake. Nobody was supposed to die. Nobody has." "What if some other pirate had come along with a slightly smaller aversion to killing? Then what?" Aaron jabbed a finger at Beaky's chest. "Are so you stupid that you think this is right? Laying a trap, risking our lives without telling us, plotting to get us attacked so your precious GRP can act like the injured party?" "I - I -" The captain stuttered. "I'm sorry, Daake. Look, nobody's hurt. We get the pirates off the ship, and they get to keep the cargo in return for their silence." "Um, excuse me?" Shiro said. "You're not in a position to negotiate, Beaky." "I will be in about half an hour when the Eon Star gets here. You either grab what you can in the next fifteen or twenty minutes, or you die." There was an intense silence as the two pirates glared at each other. Shiro finally broke it with a laugh. "You're lying." Turning to her guards, she ordered, "Eli, Tris, run back and grab the rest of the boarding crew. We're grabbing the cargo, and then we're searching this whole ship top to bottom for something - anything - that our dear friend Beaky might be hiding from us." "Yes, Ma'am," The one she had addressed as Eli saluted and began to leave. As he passed by one of the crates, Aaron watched him go. A slight twitch from the shadows of the room caught his eye, and apparently the pirate's too. Eli opened his mouth to say something, and Aaron had just enough time to see a flash of silver, when suddenly- What happened next was instant, violent, and amazing; Eli collapsed to the ground, the quick schwick of a knife entering flesh announcing his sudden death. The other pirate guard, leaning against a crate a few feet away, had just enough time to cry out and reach for his gun before a lithe figure sprang several feet forward and drove the point of a knife into his chest. "Kaya, no!" Beaky screamed as the Katamain and fell back, clutching the blade lodged in his chest. The Chipi child standing over the dead man sprang out of the way as Shiro raised her gun and fired. Rolling over to one of the crates, she picked up a small handgun and pointed it at Shiro. However, the weapons weren't stored loaded, and the gun let out a click instead of a bullet. When frightening accuracy, she whipped the weapon across the room, connecting it with the human's head with a sharp crack. The captain was down, and the Chipi girl snatched gun of the the now-dead pirate guard, Tris, out of his holster. Drawing it level with Longtail's head, she shouted, "Nobody move!" The whole event had taken about ten seconds. Aaron's mouth hung open in shock.
Longtail looked morosely at the girl pointed a gun at her, then looked back at the captain. 'Who the hell is she and why does she have a gun pointed at my head?' Longtail said in a calm, matter of fact tone.
Beaky watched as, gradually, Kaya's expression faded from fury to confusion, and then to horror. Ignoring the Farbian's question, he approached her, gently, and set his hand on her arm, pushing the aim of the gun to the floor. "What - What did I do?" Kaya whispered. "Shh..." Beaky pulled the weapon from her grasp. "It's alright. They were just pirates." "Just a..." She turned around slowly to see the dead man at her feet. "I...I killed him." Her gaze found the second dead pirate. "Two of them." Shiro got unsteadily to her feet, rubbing her forehead where Kaya had hit her with the thrown pistol. "Captain, drop that gun now." Not wanting to anger her, Beaky obliged, unloading the gun and setting it on the ground. "Mabi Beaky, I believe you owe us an explanation. This child just butchered two of my crew and gave me a knock on the head, now why don't you start by explaining who the hell she is?" "This," He set a hand on Kaya's shoulder and turned around. "This is my daughter. And she is the reason you are here." "I'm not sure I understand." "I don't expect you to." he sighed. "It's not a short story, but she's... A test subject. A victim of Scio Kio's less-than-legal medical research program. You were right, earlier, about the war bait being a cover story. I'm on a rescue mission for my daughter." He glanced at Aaron. "Sorry, Mabi Daake, about the lies. In any case, I broke her out of their facility a few weeks ago.They only announced the attack a short while ago, probably trying to keep things quiet until they had someone to capture me..." He trailed off thoughtfully, "Look, this isn't safe for any of us. You need to get off this ship. You don't know Greskel like I do - You don't know what you've gotten yourself into."
'At least let us help you then. We can cover your asses while you get out of here, or we can shut the gate off.' The story that the captain said made Longtail think of her own parents, who had died for her. She scratched behind one of her ears, then said, 'It's the least we could do for holding you up this long. We will need to take some of the cargo. We can say it was all we could salvage from the wreck. Then, they will think that you and her are dead.'
Beaky shook his head. "I can't guarantee they'll believe you. And even if they do, it won't end well. Scio Kio doesn't want anyone finding out about the truth. This goes farther than just my daughter. If I'm to explain it all, you'll need some background. Do any of you know what Terikapta is?" He was met with four blank stares. "That sounds familiar..." Aaron muttered. "All I know is that it's a disease, right? A Chipi genetic disorder?" "I'm surprised you even know that much about it." Beaky said. "You're not a Chipi, after all, and Terikapta isn't the sort of thing one brings up at dinner parties. A few hundred years ago, during the First Chipi War with the GRP, our society went through a genetic bottleneck. The Bombing of Queseto left 65% of our race dead, and a good amount sterilized. After that, we saw a rise in this genetic condition, called Terikapta. It's completely undetectable, but at an arbitrary point in an affected person's life, usually around their thirties, they'll suffer an extremely rapid decline in health. It's fatal within days." Kaya cut in. "It's not just the disease that kills you, though. It's the stigma that comes with it. To control Terikapta, the Queseto Science Committee created a eugenics board. When someone died of the disease, anyone closely related by blood would be marked with a black stripe." She held out her arm and rolled up her sleeve, where a black tattoo band was placed above the crook of her elbow. "We were raised to hate the mark. After all, if everyone hates those with the black stripe, we won't reproduce and the disease won't spread. It's logical." She said all this calmly, with a face clean of expression. "It's logical." Beaky sneered. "It's also racist. After my-" He stopped for a moment and choked back his emotions, with little success. "After my wife, Darasis, died of Terikapta, my daughter was marked. I thought it was the end. Years of prejudice and hatred and then an early death. But Scio Kio offered a way out. They said they were working on a way to detect and beat the disease. A way to prolong her life, maybe even remove her condition all together. What I wouldn't give to grant her that life..." "But they needed test subjects?" Aaron asked hesitantly. "Yes. They offered her free treatment and first priority if a working treatment was found, but they needed to bring her to a lab. She would be provided for. She would be happy. That's what they told me." His voice cracked slightly, and the four of them could see tears in his eyes. "Only that's not what happened." Kaya took over the narration. "They just needed test subjects - lab rats. We Chipi have healthy bodies. Because of our use of tattoos and piercings, our bodies respond well to invasive surgery. And nobody cares about the Terikapta - Who would notice if a few hundred of us went missing? A few thousand?" "Tarrak-feh, that's horrific..." Aaron stared, shocked, at the little girl. She couldn't be more than eight or nine, and yet her eyes were ancient. "They made me different." She continued, her face still blank. "Sometimes I'm me, and sometimes I'm this. Logical. Emotionless. And very very good at killing." "When I found out what they were doing to her," Beaky said with a sigh, recovering from his tears. "I organized a way out. I called in every favor, used every resource, and broke her free. Thank god I got to her before they got any farther. For now, she can usually control herself. But..." He turned his gaze to the two dead men. "Not always..." Aaron stepped forward. "Captain, this is... this is insane. Yesterday we were getting ready to make a supply ruin to a military base, and now I'm wrapped up in... whatever this is. But I just want you to know; I will do everything in my power to help you."
((I am sorry T^T)) Shiro pressed one hand on her head, and another on the bulkhead "Ohh... That kid sure is good at killing, ill give her that." She said straightening up "If this is the case I can take her to a secure place, controlled by my group and my group alone. You can make your cargo run, settle ties with those bastards, and come visit. After that I can get you clearance to pick her up and you can be on your way" She said "Of course im not going to do anything to her, and its not like I would. Being similar myself I can understand to an extent what shes going through." She yawned "And besides, you have my word that she wont be turned over or hurt." She shrugged "Ofcourse you can deny us this and we can be on our way, but I know a few guys who can make her... disappear, so to speak" She said with a smile "Ohh, don't worry, if my men even try to hurt her, they're gona get hurt a lot more than they would expect." She said as she looked at the young woman. A face that had seen ages of abuse, a body that had felt a thousand hardships, a mind that had broken and split. Maybe she should take a fight for this poor old foolish Chipi. "I can go and destroy this man and his lab. That is to say, after saving the subjects"
