Brown Dynamite Posted January 4, 2016 Posted January 4, 2016 Roulette studied the hologram display for a moment. His lips pursed up, and a curious expression forming on his face as he began to examine the situation from various angles. Weighing a risks versus reward he finally spoke up. "Sounds like this transport job just got more expensive then. No problem with raising the retainer a bit. One hundred million credits is nothing to sneeze at." There were few things worth more than credits. One of those was having a substantial asset like Wander owe them one in the future. If the Zultasian son of a deceased Star Knight was bothered by the revelation of their crimes he didn't let it show. No, Roulette was keeping his eye on the prize. Hypocritically so, for as much as he chided the more gun ho risk inducing methods of his partners, he oh so missed the thrill of being chased. "This may be a backwater planet, but we just caused a very public scene. Any way you look at it we're going to be on someone's radar now. So we may as well make a profit out of our situation. Be that turning them in for the bounty or taking them all the way home. The former probably pays more, but the latter has the benefit of having the real terror of Garron-9 owe us a favor. It's not as if most of the people on this ship hadn't already earned their own bounties before."
Darksider42 Posted January 4, 2016 Posted January 4, 2016 Ruby sighed, shaking her head at the amphibious terran. "Don't underestimate hunters. Not all need to fight armies to catch their prey. And you really do not understand the situation. The Star Knights are protectors of the galaxy, responsible for saving billions of lives a galactic day. And the Praetorians are part of the reason planets continue to live when the communion attacked. They do not randomly chose someone and submit them to bloodsports." The gold helmet she wore hide he face, but the ton was enough to emphases just how dire their situation was. She turned to Roulette. "They managed to get the Praetorians on their bad side. Delivering them to terra is gonna get us more enemies than allies. Plus blacklists and bounties on our heads are never fun." Becoming prey herself was not something she relished. Her hand never strayed far from her pistol.
Brown Dynamite Posted January 5, 2016 Posted January 5, 2016 "So what you're saying is. All we have to do is not get caught?" Roulette responded to Ruby. Even with the commotion they caused. The Star Knights weren't going to capture them without any evidence of colluding with the murderer of a Star Knight. And the Praetorians were just glorified privateers that came from out of nowhere as far as Roulette was concerned having not actually interacted with any of them during the Communion war. "If you want to turn them over. Go ahead. A pay day is a pay day. You won't hear me complain whether our pay comes from being a courier for Terra or one to the Star Knights. More callous than I expected from out of you, but, pragmatism is good. Glad to see I'm rubbing off on you. These guys are still two primitives out of their depth with intergalactic law though. We may be able to get even more credits out of sending word to their family on Terra after delivering them to the Star Knights that is."
Electra Posted January 5, 2016 Posted January 5, 2016 "We won't let you turn us over," Jessie told Ruby matter-of-factly, even as her hands curled into tight fists. "And if you don't take us home, my sister will come after me anyway, and she'll be very mad about it. She's already looking for us, so it's just a matter of time." Jessie was taking this as an article of faith, it was something she'd clung to all through the interval with the Spectrum Knights. She turned her attention to Roulette, the only one who seemed to know her doppelganger already. "Wander being angry is a really bad thing for whoever she's angry at, but if you do her a favor, she'll pay it back. And she has lots of friends. I don't even know who the Praetorians are, but they can't be more powerful or more dangerous than all the superheroes on Earth. I mean Terra." She bounced once on the balls of her feet, waiting to see whether it would be time to fight.
Darksider42 Posted January 5, 2016 Posted January 5, 2016 (edited) Those words Roulette uttered made her shudder. He was not the sort of being one should emulate. The following words from Jesse just made her throw her arms up in the air. The Bounty Hunter never heard of this Wander before but the fact she kept being brought up seemed to indicate they were going to anger someone somewhere somehow no matter what she did. "Fine, we'll take you home." She said, clearly exasperated by the situation. The fact they were not locked up in the ships cells meant they could do a lot of damage."I'll set a course for Terra. I am risking a lot on this. I hope you remember that." She said before turning around and heading for the cockpit. Truth be told, going to a forbidden planet home to some of the most dangerous beings in the galaxy was something she always wanted to do. The costs might be high though... Edited January 5, 2016 by Darksider42
Avenger Assembled Posted January 8, 2016 Author Posted January 8, 2016 When she was sure no fight was coming, Aquaria dropped to all fours (something Jessie knew she did when she was very upset) and hopped away to the rear of the ship, where she found an empty cabin to crawl into. There was a water dispenser here, one that she recognized from her time at the Spectrum Knight compound, so instinctively she first stripped off the armor that had done so much damage, then began running a flow of water as warm as her native seas. Cupping the fluid in her hands, she bathed first long, muzzled face, then spread the water down her body where it ran warm and wet over green and white bumpy skin, giving her a brief touch of the element she'd been denied for long. That she might never feel again if they failed - if they were handed over to the terrible Star Knights or Praetorians. Or were they so terrible? She was unsure of everything - except that she was going to get Jessie home, whatever it took. She'd lost the ocean, and maybe she's lost the Surface too when her pride had led her to take the trident of the Spectrum Knights. But Jessie didn't have to lose.
TheAbsurdist Posted January 8, 2016 Posted January 8, 2016 Did you ever watch two asteroids collide? It was like that. She couldn't quite look away, lingering in the doorway, when she wanted to be moving. Wanted them to be moving. So she slinked back in after Ruby agreed sort of, and she had her arms folded across her chest as she stood there, staring at the holoprojector with an unreadable expression on her face. Thoughtful? Pensive? Whatever it was, it wasn't like the normal ones of annoyance, aggression, or anger, the three A's. Eventually she would look at Jessie, and Bliss spoke, softly, levelly, responding to things that pushed into a space where she was nominally not. "I am glad for this Ruby." From here it might sound like a threat, or something unfriendly, but in some ways she was the heart to this outfit, compared to the more clinical mannerisms of the other two. Her gaze moving back to Ruby, and she nodded. "Engines are good, we can go, but leave the license to the pod to the dock owners, they'll scrap it. Or take it with us and jettison it in an asteroid field." She shrugged after that big of advice, and she went back to where Aquaria had gone. There were limited places to go on this ship, there was some space quarters for when they had people tagging along, or transporting things and people. She stopped at it, and thought about knocking, but she had less than a nominal sense of privacy, so she opened it, and looked at Aquaria. "Know this, your friend's sister isn't unique. The people on this ship ran towards the Collective when tasked to. Know who I am child. I am Bliss. I am warrior. The rest of the Voidrunners are mine. You are fleeing, I know what that looks like, and there will be a time when there is a reckoning from that. But if we are to take you back, then until that obligation is release, you are mine as well. And no one will take you. No one will take here as long as I draw breath." There were things she had never removed, she had... had herself changed when she fled her homeworld for crimes against her people. But the markings of her station remained, they shown under infrared. Along her arms, and the sides of her face. While she nominally tried to avoid people paying too close attention to her there times, like this, and others where who she was, what she was... it resonated and shown through. It made that statement more of a vow that any proper articulation of it could do. No boasting or anything else could heap onto that. It was what Roulette did. She... she was the strong one. The one asked to resolve when the words and the brains failed. She was the hammer of the Voidrunners, and she was allying herself, personally, to seeing the two back to Terra.
Electra Posted January 14, 2016 Posted January 14, 2016 Jessie stayed where she was for a few moments after Ruby left, not sure if it was safe to stand down, not sure if she ought to follow Aquaria or let her have alone time. When Jessie fled to her room, it was because she needed to not be around people for everybody's safety, but Aquaria wasn't quite the same as her. Aquaria tended to feel better when she was with people. But if the danger wasn't over, then Jessie should stay here, ready to fight! But at this point she didn't even know what danger would look like, so standing here was pointless and strange. In the end, she crept off in the direction Aquaria had gone, following the faint trace of slime left by the amphibian girl until she reached the guest quarters. She was surprised to find Bliss already there, but hearing the end of the odd-looking person's speech reassured her that there was no present threat here. She gave Bliss a tentative smile, then turned her attention to her friend. It was important to be very focused, so she didn't notice how small the room was, how there were no windows and only one door. "Are you okay? Do you need some more water?"
Darksider42 Posted January 15, 2016 Posted January 15, 2016 By the time Ruby reached the cockpit, her helmet had retreated back into the suit. At this point she was trying not to think too hard on the consequences of what she was doing. Second guessing herself too much lead to more problems down the road. She sat down on the pilots seat and started pre-flight checks. A few screens flickered to life. A few were streaming in intergalactic newsfeeds and others were linked into ships internal security systems, including the cells. Their psychic, vaguely eldrich prisoner was still locked up and still wrapped in metal. "If anyone starts acting strange, knock our prisoner out again." She said over the intercom system. Once everything was done, Ruby fired the engines and started to take The Voidrunner out of the dock. Ships gravity activated just as it started heading back into the starry black void of space.
Avenger Assembled Posted January 16, 2016 Author Posted January 16, 2016 "I am Ackweerea In-His-Mouth," said Aquaria, sitting back on her haunches in response to Bliss's words. Stripped of her clothing and on all fours, her long legs folded up beneath her and arms and three-fingered hands spread wide, she looked far more like the Deep One she was than the Surfacer she acted like most of the time. "My people know much of fleeing. Those who sired me are gone. Those I swam with are gone. The young I spawned are...gone from me." The latter might have sounded devastating from a mammal, but Bliss knew enough egg-laying species to know that the bond between sire and young was rather different among amphibians and their sort. For her part, Aquaria padded up onto the wall, bringing her face up to eye-level with Jessie, then looked at Bliss. "I swam too high, and brought my friend with me. Just let us go home and take your reward, and you need never hear from us again." "I am OK, Jessie," Aquaria croaked. "Just tired. I miss being able to sleep in water," she admitted, "The suit is not the same. Are you all right?" she asked, looking Jessie up and down with her big eyes. "Are you safe here?"
Brown Dynamite Posted January 17, 2016 Posted January 17, 2016 Roulette figured Ruby would go along with what he wanted as soon as he complimented her not doing so. Ruby and Bliss were off a softer persuasion, driven more by emotion. So, of course as soon as she heard Roulette's praise she'd think twice of following that course of action. At least that's what the Zultasian reasoned. Whether Roulette actually played any part in Ruby's decision making process didn't really matter though. The end result was all he was really concerned with. Of course, he had his own doubts with their current course of action. Maybe their passengers were really Grue in disguise and they'd be charged with the crime of instigating a Grue Invasion on an undeveloped planet like Terra. Maybe the Star Knights would catch them before the prisoner escaped. Maybe their actual prisoner would escape or spill the beans when exchanged. A whole lot of things could go wrong. Ruby's concerns weren't without merit. Yet, when Roulette entered the cockpit he did nothing to acknowledge such reservation. "Just try not to get us shot out of the sky captain. You already own one crashed ship."
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