Our Space Is Vast (IC)

[trollthumper]

Cavalier was about to give chase to Aquaria. He could feel the armor already coalescing around his legs, the power flowing through to the jets... when he heard Eclipse shouting over the din. And she was right. Another fight here would be like the Spectrum Knight planet all over again, only with a greater chance of somebody innocent getting caught in the crossfire. He shut down the armor, moving across the bar. 

 

"Jessie!" he cried out across the bar. "Jessie, Erin's been looking for you! She wants you to come home! She says Charlie misses you! She knows what's happened to you and Aquaria, and she wants you both to come back to her!"

 

We'll have to deal with Aquaria as best we can. But right now, the main concern is making sure they don't break away again... or that this place turns into a slaughterhouse. 

[Brown Dynamite]

Stahnze's trip to grease up the bartender was cut short by the distant sight of the man he knew as Kyl Stuar.  A familiar, and oh so attractive, face was the last thing he wanted to see.  It made it all the harder to travel unseen.  To makes matter worse, he began shouting at one of the the Voidrunners two clients in that strange Terran mudball language.  Which instantly drew the Zultasian's eyes to the commotion happening.  He didn't have eyes on Aquaria, which was worrisome enough.  But, everyone else seemed to have eyes on Jessie. Not to mention how dangerous that "everyone" appeared.

 

"Oh, by the karking deserts of Khan could this get worse?"  Roulette began sprinting forward.  Bliss and Ruby weren't likely to come to the bar any time soon at the rate they were going.  Which meant he had to act now.  The situation making him hate the Terran's strange sounding native tongue all the more.  Roulette reached out for the nearest bar patron and in his most frightened voice began to call out while pointing back and forth at Jessie and "Kyl".  "Oh no.  That Lor girl's in danger.  She told me she was being chased by a jilted lover and his hired thugs.  But, I didn't believe her.  Won't someone save her?"

 

Here's hoping she knows when to run without prompting, I still have to find the smaller one.

[Gizmo]

"Why can't anybody use a bloody gun like a normal person?!" Nae-Dae screeched in objection as Aquaria's armour visibly powered up within arms reach from her, a distance she immediately sought to increase by scrambling over the back of the chair she was perched atop, putting the first the furniture then several started bar patrons between herself and the amphibian. She wasn't much keener to be anywhere near the mammalian Terran, what with the way she'd demonstrated her unnatural strength, but Nae-Dae hadn't watched a video of Singularity sending a flarking Star Knight to an ugly death. She ended up in the middle of an occupied table with a clatter, sending drinks and bowl of something green spilling over onto the seated patrons as she lugged her toolbox along with her and prepared to pop it open and retrieve the ordinance within.

 

It wasn't that Rock was ignoring his captain; the big boulder-on-legs wasn't trying to escalate things any more than they already were. It was just that he wasn't about to stands still while his little buddy was in danger of being torn limb from limbs - a more dire prospect for an Irreran than most species. "ROCK!" he bellowed over the rising shouting in the bar, reiterating what their powered-down Star Knight acquaintance had said, albeit somewhat less clearly. He raised both broad hands in front of himself as he continued to advance through the crowd, trying to make and maintain eye contact with Jessie with the smouldering red coals set deep into his cragged face. "ROCK."

[Electra]

Jessie's head jerked around at the sound of her name and someone speaking English. There was a man, and he didn't look like an alien... and he knew Wander, and Charlie. Did she had an ally she didn't know about? Before that thought could take root too deeply, though, she had to keep paying attention to the very present danger right in front of her, in the form of an enraged rock creature shouting something she couldn't understand as it trampled its way towards her with its arms outstretched. She was incredibly glad that Aquaria had already gotten away. That had been smart, and it gave Singularity room to work. It was room she was going to need, she realized, as the threats that had gathered around her on all sides began to make themselves known. If they got ahold of her, well, she wasn't quite sure what would happen, but it would be very bad. Images of white walls flashed through her mind, and it was time to fight. 

 

With a single vicious movement, she kicked the heavy table aside, sending it flying into the air so that it hit a light fixture with a shower of yellow sparks. "No," she growled, stalking towards Rock with her club in both hands. A stalk became a jog, became a flat-out run as she closed the distance between them, scattering patrons left and right, and brought her improvised weapon down on the creature's stony cranium. 

[Avenger Assembled]

The crowd had been on their feet, ready to rally to Jessie's behalf (or against her) in the boisterous style of the bored pilots, smugglers, and other lowlife characters who dwelt in dives like this and who usually loved a good scrap. 

 

Until Singularity kicked the table aside and advanced, weapon in hand, and hard men saw the look of cold remorseless murder in the eye of a pretty young woman. Jessie hit Rock with the table leg and it shattered against his stony skin, she threw it aside and it pierced the steel wall, then she punched him with her other hand. The deep, sickening crack of impact was nearly deafening in the confined space. It was like listening to a shuttle crash against stone as Rock, Rock of all beings, staggered backwards, his stony skin cracking as if he'd stopped a meteor with his face, whole chunks cracking away as hot, sizzling lava blood spattered against the ground. When Rock hit the ground at Jessie's feet, the crowd ran, screaming. 

 

-

 

Up above, out of sight of the people on the lower level of the bar, realizing her mistake, Sea Devil hesitated, listening to the sounds of combat below. What she done - left her friend to the monsters below? No! 

 

- 

 

Ruby, Bliss, and Eclipse soon caught onto the melee too as "Emergency alert! Get out of the commercial dome! Run! RUN!" filled the air as a horrified station operator, evidently watching the fight on camera, called for an evacuation. They all knew where their friends were - and as an oddly organic BOOM echoed through the air, they had a pretty good idea that they were in the middle of all this. 

[Electra]

Singularity paused for a moment when the rock monster tumbled to the ground, actually looking slightly surprised by the damage she'd caused. It didn't last long, though. She swung around to face the others who'd been confronting her, singed club held at the ready, her body language screaming that she was ready to keep on fighting as soon as she figured out who she was supposed to be fighting against. So far none of the others had done anything overtly hostile, but with all the running and the screaming surrounding her, it was hard to keep that in mind. 

[TheAbsurdist]

 

Bliss was able to moved about people readily, swing, leaping, and skittering along walls.  So it was easy to see what had happened over the crowd as Jessie swung wild and aggressively in a manner that would even give Bliss pause.  That did not, however, stop what came next, just made it difficult as it was clear the girl was not precisely level headed.  Neither was Aquaria, but she wisely turned tail and ran.

 

Her attack had to be a bit crazier than she wanted, as mid leap, her tentacle shot out to embed in the ground and pulled her at Cavalier in the intent on knocking him over.  "Jessie!  Run!"  She snarled out the word as it happened, missing her target, and skidding along the ground.  

 

[Brown Dynamite]

That's one way to make an entrance.  Now let's just work on the exit.  Roulette thought upon seeing Bliss arrive.  Not that he had much faith the Terran would understand the call to run.  Looking around Roulette scanned the nearby tables reaching for a nearby glass bottle.  Quickly and without warning Roulette threw the bottle towards the ground in an attempt to draw attention towards him and away from the very violent looking fugitive.   

 

"Such a waste of a perfectly good drink."  He openly mused, before addressing the man who introduced himself with a fake name upon their first meeting.  "Kyl!"  At this point Turk began shuffling his feet awkward while waving his arms like loose tentacles in the air.  "Come on.  You and me.  Standard Jerreid Hemogony Dance Battle rules.  No biting above the neck."

 

He didn't actually know if the Hemogony had standardized dance battle rules.  Frankly, he was pretty sure no one in that room had an answer to that question.  But, what the former conman did know was how to keep all eyes on him.

 

[Gizmo]

"Rock!" Nae-Dae screeched as her friend toppled over, completely ignoring the arrival of the Voidrunners to throw her toolbox open and retrieve a rocket launcher nearly as long as she was tall. Gripping it securely with three hands while the toolbox trailed behind her in the third the pint-sized mechanic vaulted over tables and overturned chairs to land atop Rock's chest, planting herself between the concussed living statue and his attacker. Pointing the barrel of the weapon squarely at Singularity with a noticeably quiver, the simian sentient snarled, "Back the shranx off! He di'n't do nothin' to you! The old Lor broad was right about you and yer crazy friend!" She flicked her eyes downward, expression turning scared in a way that made her seem even smaller for a moment. "Aw, mate, yer bleedin' all over..."

[trollthumper]

So. In the space of just a few seconds, the muscle of Cavalier's travel buddies had been reduced to a gravel pit, his primary target had taken flight - but wasn't moving much beyond her vantage point, so that was good - a woman had just slingshotted herself at him, and Turk was challenging him to a dance battle. 

 

Yeah, things haven't deteriorated this fast, since... what, October? Yeah. October. 

 

"Gonna have to take a rain check on the dance off, Stanze," he said. "Kinda trying to put out fires." He wanted to will his blaster into existence, launch a containment round off at Jessie... but given the short work she'd made of Rock, he was afraid that would only make her angrier. There was only so far a replenishing energy matrix could be taxed, after all. He really, really wanted to call up the armor... but then that would make them both run harder. Right now, they were standing still, if thrashing. 

 

"Jessie! Nobody is here to hurt you! Whatever happened to you, whatever you got dragged into... we just want to make sure you and your friend are safe!"

[Fox]

"You can't keep running forever!" Eclipse called out - she'd caught up to Sea Devil in the commotion, though she didn't seem keen to get too close...and seemed awfully keen to keep at least one or two sturdy objects between herself and the Terran. "Believe me, I've tried it once or twice. These people are pretty happy to overlook or forget a lot of deaths, but you killed someone they can't just ignore. They're just gonna keep sending worse and worse people after you, and everyone else is gonna get dragged in. I mean, look at this - this is just the start!"

 

She made a silent prayer to whatever space-gods were listening that everyone down below showed good trigger control, but she kept her focus where it needed to be. "Look, for what it's worth, we don't really care about your friend. As long as she isn't killing anyone, she can go do whatever she likes, including go back home in peace. Believe me, we aren't looking to pick a fight with her or her sister."

[Avenger Assembled]

Clinging to the rail at the top of the bar, Aquaria looked down at someone sacrificing herself to save her and remembered every time she'd run away. So many places, so many homes, all discarded when they became too hard, too frightening, or because she wanted something better. And now Jessie was...she turned her upper body and met Eclipse's eyes, but couldn't bring herself to speak. Not when she knew what the female was saying was right.  

 

"No!" She leaped down, interposing herself between Jessie and the bounty hunters, her glowing tridents vanishing into her hands as soon as her feet hit the floor. Once there, she squatted down on folded back legs, forelimbs arranged before her, body still crackling with charged green energy. "No, stop fighting! We need to talk." She looked up at Jessie and croaked, "All of us..." 

 

 

[Darksider42]

"Frakk. Rivals. Make sure my ship is ready soon or else." Ruby said before dashing away from the technician. Chaos and fleeing civilians were enough for her to guess that something had happened to the Voidrunners passengers. Press of a button on her collar and soon her head was covered by her helmet, battlefield condition data streaming just on the periphery of her vision. Rifle was drawn and ready, Cryo rockets blast radius factored in space and collateral damage. By the time she had reach the doorway leading into the cantina she was ready for whatever chaos she was expecting.

A standoff between various mercs, Sea Devil surrendering and...Was Roulette looking like he was about to break into dance? "What are they up to?" She wondered as she kept her rifle trailed on anyone she did not recognize while keeping cover near the doorway. This job was starting to get stranger by the second even by her standards...

Edited February 25, 2016 by Darksider42

[Electra]

Singularity very nearly punched Aquaria out of sheer surprise at the abrupt descent, but managed to pull her strike at the last moment. The adrenaline of the fight began to feed back on itself, making her shake visibly as she darted glances wildly around the room. "You shouldn't have come back here," she told Aquaria. "You could've gotten away." One of the pursuers was different from the others, looked human, spoke English. Jessie wasn't sure they could trust him, or any of them, but what else were they supposed to do? The Voidrunners, people who had been nice to them and had given them a ride so almost-close to home, they were getting caught up in it now too, and everything was bad and dangerous. Jessie took one more look at Aquaria, then let out a breath. Raising her arms over her head, she sank slowly into a cross-legged position on the floor, not that far from where her opponent was still crumpled. 

[Tiffany Korta]

By the time Sitara was aware of what was going on the situation seemed to have sorted itself out, though a bar room was still a possibility, and she wasn’t about to make thing any worse. She stepped closer to Jessie and spoke to her again in English

“We're here to help you get home and find out exactly what happened. Let’s start this by help each other out.” she offered a hand to help Jessie back onto her feet “Besides we’re going to need all the help we can get to Rock back onto their feet.” she gave a friendly grin.

[Brown Dynamite]

Roulette raised a wary brow as the tense situation seemed to cool with Aquaria doing the complete opposite of fleeing.  Although Roulette wasn't quite positive of what was going, what with all the Terran speak, but they had spend enough time cargoing Jessie around for him to figure that the surrendering posture wasn't some sort of ploy for a grand escape.  Hanging up his dancing boots the Zultasian made sure to keep an eye on the other group.

 

This is going to cut into our pay isn't it?  An exasperated sigh escaped Turk's lips.  There was no question that none of the focus was on the Voidrunners.  If they wanted to avoid being charged with harboring a fugitive it'd be a good opportunity to run away.  A consideration far outweighed by the idea of what their reputation would look like if they couldn't get a simple job done.  It helped that if the violent pair that appeared to them so desperately not long ago was willing to give up without so much as a fight, sucker punches notwithstanding, it was probably talk worth sticking around for.  "So...the conversation that's about to take place here.  It probably shouldn't take place here." 

 

If they were going to stick around to have it all go sideways.  They might as well not stick around in the exact sight of their latest public spectacle.

[Avenger Assembled]

At that moment, the entire station rumbled with the familiar vibrations of a nearby vessel coming out of hyperspace. Looking outside the window, the adventurers familiar with space could see the familiar, albeit unwelcome, lines of a Lor military intelligence ship, a fast, stealthy craft designed for long-range infiltration. When the ship broadcast, the station's controller put the signal on loudspeakers, the automatics translating it for everyone on board to hear. The cultured voice was immediately recognizable as Grandmother Frankan herself. 

 

"Attention Wolf 359 station. This is Grand Nauarchus Bucklin Frankan aboard the Lor Star Navy vessel Redeemer. As of now, under Article 403 of Star Navy Code, I am assuming military command of your station. You will depower your weapons and prepare to be boarded!" 

 

-

 

"You have to take her back home," Aquaria was croaking to the Voidrunner crew, something in her suit finally translating the words for the aliens in the crew. "Jessie's sister will give you the reward you want - whatever happens to me. There are people left who love her." When the announcement came, Aquaria gave a nervous hop back beside Jessie and rose to her feet, facing down the hostile aliens with uneasy goggle eyes. "I...I am sorry about what happened to that Star Knight. But I wasn't the one who killed him. I was just trying to help my friend. " 

[TheAbsurdist]

 

Bliss' heart sank, and she sighed, curling her lips back from her 'teeth,' before snarling a little bit as that happened.  This was... so not good.  So very much not good, and she remained near Aquaria and Jessie.

 

"Enough with the heroic sacrifices, tch!"  It was her mantra, something she told herself she wasn't going to do.  But then that was why she was chased from her home.  How the Voidrunners had formed, and she got sidled up against the Collective.  And vowed to Aquaria.  Sometimes she wished she had a fist big enough to push everyone and everything, whenever it was being stupid.  "Now is not the time for these talks.  Now is the time for the fleeing."

Of course she had already knew where they were thrown in with.  She hoped that the bounty on them would not be insulting, at least.

[trollthumper]

Kyle sighed with relief. Somehow, just barely, this had managed to avoid turning into a gigantic bloodbath. He approached Roulette. "I agree," he said. "Look, about what happened... we are trying to make sure Aquaria and Jessie get the best care they can. No one here's out for blood. We just--"

 

And then, like some miserable cosmic punchline, the Lor Navy showed up outside with all its best guns on display and decided to loudly proclaim that fact. Just once, he thought. Just once I'd like this to go easy. He opened his communicator, trying to establish a connection through the channel Frankan had set aside when laying out the plan. "This is Star Knight Steward. Grand Naurachus Frankan, the fugitives have stood down." He looked to Aquaria, eyes wide with regret. "There is no need for superior firepower."

[Gizmo]

With a sound like a minor avalanche the great hulking mass of stones Jessie had laid out stirred, groggily sitting up and bringing his hands to either side of his head. With a pair of loud, grating cracks he readjusted the interlocking boulders that made up his necks and blinked blearily between the Terran sitting in a pose of abject surrender and the one making a case for her friend.  Glowing magma still dribbling down his chin and making a scorched mess of the barroom floor, he grated out with an odd lisp, "'Ooock."

 

Skittering about to make way for her friend's movements, Nae-Dae gaped at him before scowling anew. "What're you even going on about?! You get a concussion, didja?" She circled about to perch atop his shoulders, careful to avoid his scaling lifeblood. "Izzat what happened? You gone stupid?"

 

Reaching around with one hand Rock eventually located what was left of his crumbling lower jaw and shoved it back into his face. The stones stuck where he placed them, cracks flowing with magma as he worked it back and forth experimentally. "R-r-rock," he answered the diminutive mechanic before turning and giving Jessie a rather painful looking grin and a friendly wave. "Rrrock."

 

"I don't care if 'she seems sorry', gravel brains!" Nae-Dae objected, emphatically waving her rocket launcher in the air with a flagrant disregard for firearm safety. "She bloody laid you out! Now you think we oughta help 'em run from the bloody Lor? Stupid!"

 

"Rock," came the calm reply as the mineral mercenary attempted to get to his feet before swaying unsteadily and falling back to the floor with enough force to knock a few errant glasses off of tables in a wide radius.

 

"Well it's a stupid suggestion, is what it is."

[Electra]

Singularity startled at the voice coming over the loudspeaker, rounding her shoulders and trying to shrink down small even as Aquaria pleaded for... something, she wasn't sure what. She wasn't sure who the bad guys were anymore, or where they were coming from, but it was getting very crowded here and she didn't have her shoes. And the rock monster was getting up again, and the little alien thing had a gun and looked angry, and there wasn't enough air in the air with so many people inside and so much space outside, and pretty much everything inside her was screaming to run except she couldn't run because terrible things happened when you tried to run except that she didn't know what they were because all that information was gone and hidden behind the smooth white walls. White walls like space, like negative space, inverted space, white vacuum behind white walls, so that every so often a little chunk of leftover space debris from some ancient disaster could come along and blow through a bulkhead-- 

 

She grabbed for Sitara's extended hand, but instead of pulling herself up, exerted a little of her strength to effortlessly pull the friendly humanoid down into whispering distance. Up close, Singularity's pupils were blown so wide that the brown was nearly invisible, and she was shaking in fine tremors of stress. "You have to run," she told Sitara in a hoarse whisper. "Go now. It's too late, you have to go! The bad-luck man, the man with no face, the music man, the strong man. Pathos!" She released Sitara's hand just before her grip became tight enough to seriously bruise, then dropped her head to her own upraised knees. 

[Tiffany Korta]

Sitara didn’t have time to react to the the Admiral turning up before Jessie grabbed her down and whispered into her ear. It was a shock after the tale of the deeds of her hard-bitten clone sister, but clones did tend to develop very different personality traits. She couldn’t help but feel the need to help protect this fragile young woman.

“Actually Nae-Dae I agree with Rock we should get both of them away as quickly as possible. Could you explain that to you Captain and get the ship ready as quickly as possible?” rising she looked at Kyle “I know Aquaria is technically under your jurisdiction, but if she’s under Praetorian protection I can take them to any of our facilities one of which just happens to be in the Terran system.” finally she looked over at Aquaria “All I can promise right now that we’ll listen to you story, but I need you to help friend so we can leave as quickly as possible.”

[Darksider42]

"Funny thing about that." Ruby announced as she moved out from the doorway, rifle lowered but it was obvious it was ready for any split second attempts to attack her. She was surprised to recognize Sitara among them. The galaxy could not be that small could it?  "I was on my way to do exactly that. Up until you brought a bloody Lor fleet on top of us and drove two hardened killers to tears." The sarcasm was laid on thick as she nodded to Jesse and Aquaria. There was no real point in hiding, Bliss had barreled in trying to save them and it would not take long for their association to come to light. 

"Look, obviously some of you are having something of a change of heart and quite frankly after seeing these two in action I have doubts they could actually kill a Star Knight. So it might be smart to get them off the station." Fighting them was not gonna help so co-operating with them while they were having second thoughts seemed like the best course of action. "Might need to think of something soon. Place is gonna be swarming with Lor Marines and some of them tend to get a little... overzealous.."

Edited March 1, 2016 by Darksider42

[Brown Dynamite]

Roulette looked over at the talking pile of rocks.  The thud it made when it dropped (whether due to Singularity's assault or the aftermath) was anything but light.  That was a problem when it came to making a hasty escape.  The small furry one was on the money that they had little reason to help with an actual escape.  Further compounded by Ruby reminding them that they were running low on time.

 

"Doing anything quickly other than dying might be off the table if they come in shooting.  Heavy ordinance, desperation to prove the Lor Navy is still worth anything, and just all around being bores.  I'll take whatever dumb suggestion that thing over there had."  Roulette called out while pointing at Rock.  "Or we take my suggestion.  Which is letting Ruby call our ship here remotely.  And hoping for the best as we fly away while the station is powered down and unable to aid the Lor in shooting us down.  Because as much as I like hearing tall, dark, and apparently armored talk down the Lor.  I think we all know clone number five billion isn't going to hesitate going overboard and dropping a building on us."

 

Roulette didn't share Ruby's view that this pair couldn't kill a Star Knight.  Especially after Singularity dropped that guy like a pile of rocks.  What Roulette did have was doubts that they actually did the deed regardless of capability.  They were dangerous, maybe even unstable.  But, killers?  Even with the pink one's temper, the amphibian wasn't exactly a hardened anything.  This smelled foul.  In the Khanate the most effective cover up was one that left all the witnesses dead.

[Fox]

"Call it here and do what, punch an exit through the hull? Unless you've got teleporters on that thing - and I don't think you do - it's not gonna do you any better over here than it is back in the dock," Eclipse pointed out, leaning over the second-story railing. She had her blaster in her hand, but she wasn't pointing it at anybody, which was...probably a good sign. "Plus, half of us are working for the job-infringing station-nabbers out there, so they probably won't go shooting at us."

 

'Probably' being the operative word, there, but she didn't really feel like emphasizing that if she could help it. She frowned down at her crew, injured and worried as they were, expression largely unreadable. "....look, the normal Terran we really don't care about. She can go with or do whatever she wants, even if you've gotta carry her there. The other one is in a damned recording murdering a Knight, and you'll pardon me if we don't just take her word for her innocence...but we don't really have the time to get an explanation, either. Plus," she added, gesturing lazily at the larger room as if she'd forgotten her gun was still in hand, "this timing sucks. This whole place would have been full of smugglers and pirates and just the worst lot. Some Lor show up and demand control of the station, I bet there's a mad dash to the docks, all sorts of people piling up in ships and kicking off into space."

 

"You could lose a lot of people in that kind of crowd," she said, leaning over the railings. Glowing purple irises stared down at the fugitives and fugitive-aides, their expression flat. "Half my crew's hurt and I'm waaay up here, and I bet you could beat me to your ship and take off while Franky's getting stalled by station controllers trying to jettison their records. And then I'd have to give chase, 'cuz I've got a job to do, and when I finally caught up to you we'd be somewhere calmer and more conducive to a nice, rational discussion. And wouldn't that be terrible? I bet you'd have to leave right now, though. Right now."