143 replies to this topic

[Lancer]

"Good call, Ross. I seem to have gotten sidetracked. Layle, as much as I admire your curiosity, there will come a time and place for me to explain the rest to you. First, we need to quickly make our way off Terra. What are the readings on their positions, Ross?" Thalisar spoke with haste. He was quickly making way towards the bridge and signaled the rest of the crew to get into position. "I'm afraid I haven't told you yet," Thalisar announced to his new recruits, "but the Citadel is still after me for stealing this ship. I hope being on the Citadel's hit list doesn't bother you too much."

[kirant]

The statement seemed complete new to Selene. It wasn't the most ideal situation, but not one she could argue with, given the circumstances.

Plus, that gives them similar goals.

"I understand.

Layle, if it would be fine with you, I'd like to take you to the medical facilities. They probably have some diagnosing equipment for you. Hopefully it's not a cerebral contusion."

[Cero]

"I'm already on that hit list." said Lambda going towards the bridge. "So where is our first destination?"

[Shu]

Ross took a seat in front of the radar equipment on the bridge. "It appears the first of their search parties are hitting the atmosphere, captain. We wait much longer, they'll zone in on our location. We should get out of here, on the pronto."

[Ristau]

Z takes a seat next to Ross and began to look at him strangely until Ross finally looked over at him. "So how long have you been on this ship alone. By alone I mean you and the Bions of course. Also, how'd you get tangled up with them in the first place?" Ross take out his knife and a grinding stone and began to sharper his knife. He also took his two handguns out to be cleaned after he was done with his knife.

[Shu]

"I've always been a pirate. Last crew I was in bit it, the officers got tried and executed at the Citadel, but I managed to weasel my way out of it. But, piracy's kind of my thing. When I caught wind of Thalisar's plan to steal this ship and go rouge, I couldn't pass that chance up. Hard to get back to pirating from the Citadel, dude. So yeah, I've been with these guys since then. Good group."

[Ristau]

"Haha, well let's hope it stays that way. With 3 different races on board, you never know what's going to happen. I'm curious, though. What made you think that I was someone looking to be recruited in the bar? Also, no need to thank me for disabling storm's weapons and saving everyone" said Z in a playful manor. He sheathed his knife and began to clean his guns.

[Shu]

"Whatever, kid." Ross jams his cigarette into an ashtray. "And no one hangs out in that bar if they have something more important to do...except me, of course." Ross chuckled. "Anyway, if you had more pressing matters to attend to, you wouldn't have followed me into that back room."

[Lancer]

The Dread Starr's UI displayed an alert for take off, and that all crew should take a seat and tighten their seat belts for the initial acceleration. The data was indeed correct; although planetary permissions were slowing down the search party's progress, they were without a doubt about to zone in on Terra's northeastern shipyard. Of course, to make such a narrow escape, some less than safe measures would need to be taken; faster than light (FTL) speed travel would need to be engaged as soon as possible, which would require a gravity acceleration that pushes the edge of most biological beings. The gravity shields of any standard space faring vessel would not be able to activate until they were a safe distance from the atmosphere, in order to engage in FTL travel within 10 minutes of exiting the atmosphere. This wasn't such a problem with a fully cybernetic crew, but there humans on board now as well. As the ship approached the atmosphere's exit, the UI flashed once more with Thalisar's voice filling the sound shield of the Dread Starr. In addition, the ship would need to push the time to engage in FTL travel to 5 minutes in order to completely rid their chances of getting spotted, otherwise the travel coordinates could be followed.

"Attention, crew. Current acceleration is at 5 EG's, but the Bion search party is about to make the clear to enter the planet's atmosphere. We are about to engage in dangerous acceleration speeds in order to make it out of the atmosphere ASAP, in order to make it out of the atmosphere right as the search party clears entry. To do this, we will increase acceleration to 10 EG's after 30 seconds, and this will eventually jump to 20 EG's for the duration of the next 5 minutes. Be prepared for a rough time, gravity shields will activate immediately upon exit of Terra's atmosphere. You are free to move once we reach FTL travel at cruise speed, which will be in roughly 30 minutes."

[Echo-279]

Layle sat himself near the captain, in case that his rifle couldn't weigh him down enough.

"I'm staying back, what with my horrible luck with mechanical things that aren't guns." Layle says jokingly.

[Ristau]

Z grabs onto Ross. "Are you familiar with the speed's we will be reaching? They're known as 'faster than light' or 'FTL'. During this type of travel, the g-forces are literally so strong that they can rip your body into shreds. Move into a corner, curl up like a ball and keep focus on something, with your eyes closed. If you do that, you may feel a bit of pain when we're done, but you'll be fine." Z did what he told Ross to do, but because of his strong psych, he wouldn't feel much pain in the end.

[Echo-279]

Layle heard Z and immediately did what he was told, hoping for the best.

"This is going to hurt a lot." Layle complained.

Layle closed his eyes and had his rifle behind him, not losing his lifelong companion in combat.

[Shu]

Ross yawned. "Yes, yes, I've been on one of these before, Z. You don't need to tell me." Ross stood up, and walked over to the corner and crouched.

[Ristau]

"Ahahahaha. Silly Ross. That was completely made up; I was only kidding." He raised his voice, "LAYLE. IT WAS A JOKE. GET OVER HERE."

Unbeknown to anyone, Z managed to dock his ship in hangar 2 of the Dread Starr. Because he owned his own ship, he must have know a thing or two about FTL speed travel.

"What you clowns really need to do is go into cryosleep. Unfortunately, this ship is not made for humans, and therefore there are no cryogenic chambers here. Follow me to hanger 2. My ship is there, and I have everything we'll need for that. Unfortunately, the lowest amount of time we can sleep for is a 2 days, so we'll need to notify the bions that they'll be without our presence for a few days.

If anyone would like to try their luck without going into cryosleep, be my guest."

[Lancer]

The ship UI responded to Z's calling in regards to the cryo sleep. "That will not be completely necessary," Thalisar's voice announced. "While it's true that human vessels carry cryo chambers for FTL travel, the gravity shields on board this ship should be more than sufficient to allow you to be actively roam the ship the moment we've reached a cruising speed, and should keep you safe during instant acceleration where we accelerate at far higher EG's than 20. However, I do recommend you stay still while we're still accelerating, the gravity shields have still not activated as we haven't yet left the atmosphere. Please remain seated in the chairs provided on this ship and fasten your seat belts in the meanwhile."

[Echo-279]

Layle uncurled and went to Z, ready to follow into the cryogenic sleep.

"Way to be a joker Z, anyway, lets get going into the chamber." Layle thought aloud.

[Ristau]

"Thalisar just mentioned that it won't be necessary." Z felt awkward after trying to make a joke, as his social skill aren't all that great.

[Lancer]

5 minutes had passed, and the insane acceleration was felt by everyone on board the ship. It seemed as if the world was bending inside the ship, and Layle was just about ready to lord consciousness. Strangely enough, despite appearing to be the most fragile member on board, Selene was the most unphased of the human bunch. Even for standard space travel, these take off speeds were completely over the top; even the veterans of space looked like they were going to pass out. Right as everybody looked like they were ready to go out, the UI made an announcement. "Atmospheric exit successful. Gravity shields activating. Activation will complete in 10 seconds. Commencing instant acceleration in 30 seconds. FTL cruise speed will be achieved in exactly 29 minutes and 14 seconds after instant acceleration commences. You are free to roam the ship as you please once cruise speed has been achieved. Meanwhile, please hold on to something tight!" It seemed despite the serious topic that was at hand, Thalisar sounded jolly and light hearted about the whole situation by the tone of the UI. Suddenly, a colossal blast was felt and consisted throughout the ship, but strangely it didn't wear on the humans half as much as the atmospheric acceleration had. "I think you'll be finding instant acceleration much more bearable than what you had just previously experienced. Please remain seated and enjoy your ride until we have reached cruise speed. Make conversations with your neighbours and please enjoy your social interactions until it is safe to leave your seats. Thank you for choosing the Dread Starr."

[kirant]

The flight out of orbit seemed to be over fairly quick. A quick look around with the ship active in the meantime began providing clues as to the layout of the machinery: where scanners were, maps of the local area, some adapted visuals...simple works. It wouldn't be hard to read into them after.

It seemed all some of the others weren't feeling well after their unexpected takeoff. The deployment of the warming reactionless drives seemed to be easing it a bit though, but not a great deal until it was fully functional. Generally in these sorts of situations, it's best to engage the ill party to attempt to keep them awake and focusing on something other than the pain or sickness. One simple story trope came to mind:

"Where are all of you from? ...As in birth...place."

The delivery was forced and contained a couple awkward pauses, but given the circumstances, the parties interested probably had enough difficulty making out the words, let alone notice minor details.

[Shu]

"I was born aboard the Bannegir, son of merchant captain Danforth Halleck. Got raided by pirates when I was about 8, and they forced me into servitude. I eventually grew to enjoy it, so I kept to piracy, heh heh."