ic Blood Runs Cold [ic]

[Kolohehonu]

GM

 

Coalition Victory Station

The Shift Work Bar, Brickstown 

March 24, 2017 (Terran Calendar)

 

The Shift Work was hardly the most upstanding establishment. Tucked right in the heart of Brickstown the bar was an easy stop off for the various workers in the manufacturing plants of this part of the station. The patrons were mostly honest working people, looking for a place to rest after a long day's work. Some of course were looking to do a little more, get into fights or get drunk on cheaper and stronger stuff than you could find in plenty of other places in Lor space. People from around the galaxy, people who were in danger of this new menace.

 

The disappearances had been getting worse. More and more people were vanishing or else being found dead. All of them were either drained of blood or they were left flash frozen. Rumors were that some metropolis on Earth, millions of light years away was facing a similar problem. There was an air of unease at the Shift Work. Two patrons had been last seen leaving this bar. 

 

In one corner a patron watched the bar, waiting. A Green Xobron, an uncommon sight in this part of the galaxy. His two pairs of arms were folded as he slowly used one of his tails to raise a drink to his lips. Life goes on, no matter how hard someone tries to stop it. Gear thought to himself, it was inspiring. The killings had felt odd, and targeting those who would have little impact on the galaxy, the tell tale mark of a time criminal. He would know. So he waited, and watched, for something that felt off. 

Edited March 24, 2017 by Kolohehonu

[Tiffany Korta]

 

Sitara lowed to find little dives like this. Maybe it was her simple upbringing all those centuries ago but she felt more comfortable among the simple working folk. In fact she’d slipped out of a rather stuffy do you come down here, she Moon-Moth had agreed to babysit for the night and she knew Paradigm did even if she did roll her eyes at Sitara slipping out of the party. Cause it was also a good place to pick up those tales and rumors that could be useful to the Praetorians as well.

 

She slipped into a much more comfortable jumpsuit that despite the self cleaning nanites was still dirty from today’s maintenance on the Aquilia craft, helping her fit in with the general clientele of the bar, it wasn’t the type of place for expensive Lor dresses or (ugh) Dress Uniforms.

 

Sliding up to the bar she took a seat and caught the barkeeps attention, she been here a few times and had gotten to know quite a few that worked here

 

“Do you still have some of that Rodnak Fire Nectar in stock?” she’d picked up a taste for the stuff when she’d spent some time out there retired.

[Kolohehonu]

GM

 

The barkeep, tonight it was Zax a young male Lor, came over. He grabbed a bottle off the wall. He grabbed the bottle swirled it and poured some of it into a glass before sliding it to her.

 

"I don't know why you like this stuff, eh but I just make the drinks." Zax laughed. As he came over Sitara saw that Zax was wearing his stun baton on his hip. She had seen the young bartender use that to break up a few fights. He always kept that thing tucked away though. She could also see what looked like a laser pistol tucked into his belt, something she hadn't ever seen him carry. "So you here about the vampires?" Zax asked. He tried to play it cool, but he was clearly eager to talk about that. 

[Ari]

A harsh yellow lance slammed into the hall outside the bar, the pedestrians side-stepping around the coalescing beam of energy with annoyed ease. Tau Rays brought people to CoVic Station all the time, usually from neighbouring systems. People who knew exactly where they had to go and what they had to do.

 

Not this time.

 

A spindly, willowy creature in a gray and red encounter suit flew out of the Ray and slammed into the wall with a force that would have killed her if she wasn't already long dead. Rebounding off only to collapse bonelessly to the floor, Atraxia of Farside City stared blankly out of her opaque helmet, ignoring the sight and sound of her traveling companion also crashing out into the Station.

 

"Apologies, Sun Walker" her voice, garbled by an echoing chatter and hiss of her suit's translator, croaked wearily "I may have set the power a decimal too high."

 

Finally, she levitated off the floor and rose to a standing position, taking in the strange, maze-like industries of Bricktown. "At least we are in the right place?"

 

Floating over to the soft-spoken solarian, she offered a skeletal gloved hand "Shall we question the locals? Perhaps that drinking establishment?"

[Kolohehonu]

GM

 

The blast outside turned almost no heads. And yet two heads did, one of them was the green Xobron in the corner, three of his four arms went to his waist as he looked over at the wall. Then he relaxed. Another patron turned as well, a young human in a long dark coat. He took the young Grue  he had been chatting with and started heading towards the door. 

 

The Xobron rose as well, laying cards and money on the table. 

 

"Sorry, cuttin' an' runnin' got a mark to catch, drinks on me." He said to the grue he had been playing with. "And if this is what I think it is? That won't be the last round." All four hands grabbed his guns as he walked out after the two people leaving. 

[KnightDisciple]

22 hours ago, Ari said:

A harsh yellow lance slammed into the hall outside the bar, the pedestrians side-stepping around the coalescing beam of energy with annoyed ease. Tau Rays brought people to CoVic Station all the time, usually from neighbouring systems. People who knew exactly where they had to go and what they had to do.

 

Not this time.

 

A spindly, willowy creature in a gray and red encounter suit flew out of the Ray and slammed into the wall with a force that would have killed her if she wasn't already long dead. Rebounding off only to collapse bonelessly to the floor, Atraxia of Farside City stared blankly out of her opaque helmet, ignoring the sight and sound of her traveling companion also crashing out into the Station.

 

"Apologies, Sun Walker" her voice, garbled by an echoing chatter and hiss of her suit's translator, croaked wearily "I may have set the power a decimal too high."

 

Finally, she levitated off the floor and rose to a standing position, taking in the strange, maze-like industries of Bricktown. "At least we are in the right place?"

 

Floating over to the soft-spoken solarian, she offered a skeletal gloved hand "Shall we question the locals? Perhaps that drinking establishment?"

 

Propelled out of the portal-column with notable force, Sun Walker tumbled through the air and over the ground, ending up crouched down, tail gently lashing behind him. He raised his eyes to meet Atraxia's own through her helmet. He accepted her hand and stood up. 

 

"No apologies necessary, Red Moon. Having never used that mode of transportation, I'd likely have had to compensate no matter what. Seeing as, yes, we're in the correct location, it's a non-issue."

 

He looked around, giving her a slow nod.

 

"That seems as good of a place as any. Every journey starts somewhere."

[Tiffany Korta]

 

“It’s a little reminder of somewhere I’ve been recently, a few more of these and I’ll might tell you the story.” she didn’t plan on telling him to much , it didn’t help to become a legend in you own drinking establishments. “You know most planet’s have legends of vampire somewhere, I heard a theory from some Lor that it was a memory of a massive galactic war involving massive space vampires. Mass of teeth and curls and could drink like no ones, it was an interesting night that one.”

 

Her instinct made her scan the room when they heard the explosion, how people responded to such things could be interesting and maybe a suggestion of some sort of guilt. Technically she was off duty but this could be something more interesting that exchanging fairy tales. She down her drink and gave the bartender a smile

 

“I’ve got to go take a look at what's happened, keep my spot I’ll be back soon.”

 

She followed the others out, though not close enough to attract too much attention from the others she tagged as trouble.

[Kolohehonu]

PC

 

Gear followed the two out into the street where he saw a face he wasn't expecting to see. Or he thought it was, but it just looked like Sun Wukong. Good he wouldn't need to try and scrounge up the credits he owed. The other, well he had no idea. But now this guy had nowhere to run.

 

"Yeah Tau Rays, uncommon in this part of the universe in this time. Now I'm sure you and I can have a nice little chat. Let the grue go." 

[Kolohehonu]

GM

 

The human looking male glanced around as the Xobron pushed his coat aside to reveal four exquisite pistols. 

"You can come quietly or we can do this very very loud." Sighed the Xobron. "Up to you." 

"Well then." Snarled the humanoid, his arm wrapped tightly around the grue, which gave a yelp of surprise and tried to pull away. The human held fast and leapt up over the Xobron, landing on the wall. "Catch me if you can." Snarled the creature as it turned to flee with it's captive along the corridor wall. 

Edited April 19, 2017 by Kolohehonu

[Tiffany Korta]

 

Sitara was just out for a quiet night of drinking and intel gathering not dealing with a rather blatant kidnapping. So without much thought or effort, she grabbed one of her cylinder like blasters and fired off a shot from the hip.

 

<"Please don't make this more complicated than it should be."> Galstandard seemed the best option for now, her tone should convey everything that needed to be said

 

And she had to admit yeah perhaps this was just as fun as a night drinking, time would tell like always.

[Kolohehonu]

GM

 

The kidnapper just barely evaded the blast from the Traveller. It sneered down and looked like it was about to speak at her. But in evading the blast it opened itself up to Gear. Like a western quick draw all four pistols spun out. There was the distinct buzz as all four pistols discharged. Each bolt of sonic energy found it's mark and tore away flesh. Or rather synthetic flesh. Revealing wires and metal beneath. 

 

Gear hadn't accounted for the fact that his target was thirty feet up, and holding a hostage. As the sparks from the battered machinery raced across the wall there was a loud shriek, as the Grue who had been held up by the vampire started to fall. Amongst the metallic wreckage. 

[KnightDisciple]

Sun Walker had seen the fight break out, and while he wasn't going to immediately leap into action, he had prepared himself. He wasn't necessarily prepared to see what looked to be a vampire grab a Grue as a hostage. Curiouser and curiouser. Seeing the Grue falling was actually easier to deal with, by comparison. 

 

"Please give me a moment, Red Moon."

 

His tail lashed out seemingly from nowhere, looped around a nearby fire escape, and propelled him through the air. As quickly as it had shot out, it retracted, giving him a fairly aerodynamic profile. His arms reached out to catch the Grue. As soon as he had a halfway-decent grip, Sun Walker shifted so he was holding the shapeshifter close to his body and turning his legs to face the ground (rather than his pseudo-flying orientation before).

 

"Please tuck your chin and don't tense your limbs."

 

The Grue had just enough time to follow that advice before the human-simian hybrid landed, his own legs immediately going into a crouch to bleed off the energy of the landing, his tail shooting down to serve as a makeshift spring just long enough to make it a rough but survivable landing.

[Kolohehonu]

GM

 

"Thanks." Slurred the grue. they were shaken, scarred, and perhaps drugged. But they were very grateful to be alive. "What was zat?" They managed. 

 

Gear on the other hand spun his pistols and slid them easily back into the holsters. He looked over the mangled wreckage of the "vampire" a pool of fluids and oil gathered around it. Gear kicked away the torn "skin" and looked at the electronics. 

[Tiffany Korta]

Never a boring day on CoVic and always another mystery winging its way towards you. At her age, Sitara had just learned to roll with whatever life brought her way, it was amazing that even now she hadn't experienced anywhere near everything.

 

"Well this is new, I've never seen a mechanoid with hematological tastes. Let's see if we can find where this Synthroid came from shall we?"

Holstering her two rod-like blasters she bent down and began to examine the robot for clues as to the origins of such a device.

[Kolohehonu]

GM

 

The design of the android was different from most others. There were some rather odd redundancies. It seemed like there was some way of storing what one could only assume to be blood. The coolant wasn't just looped around the containment, it looked like it had been looped into the hands, maybe as some kind of weapon. 

 

The fangs as well were syringes of some kind, which made sense. Inside the cracked brain was a still running transmitter. The eye still moving between the two inquisitive heroes. 

[Ari]

Atraxia had frozen, shamefully, at the sight of something so like herself. 'You knew this was possible, the Morbians are not the only blood drinkers' she reminded herself, approaching the twitching pile of mockery with heron-like strides on her long legs. As she got closer, her head cocked to better examine the newly-revealed innards. The synthetic monster was reminiscent of some Lemurian creations, and had something else she'd seen before. 

 

'Saw it while trying to understand why I am'

 

"~Excuse me, I am Red Moon~" her thin, rasping voice hissed from her faceless helmet, echoing with other voices as it shaped into modern Galstandard "~I have some experience with systems such as these, may I?~" Stopping and creaking into a crouch like a bipedal spider, Atraxia's long arms reached out to ease open the remaining chassis "~What do you think of this, Sri Praetorian?~" she asked Traveler politely.

[Kolohehonu]

GM

 

Peeling away more of the ruined clothes and synthetic skin it became clear that a large portion of the droid was a tank. Or more precisely a series of perhaps a dozen tanks. Most were broken and the blood was pooling in the street, but the few still in tact seemed to be sealed with valves, the blood came in, but short of disconnecting the tank there was no way of using the blood.

 

it was also worth noting that once the skin had been removed the chasis opened fairly easily. Seemingly designed to slide open without much resistance. The power source was fairly common, a compressed nuclear reactor of sorts. But cooling it seemed to take a back seat to cooling the tanks. All across the inside as well were flowery etchings, that seemed to increase the surface area for the cooling fluid tubing, and also look beautiful in the process. 

[Ari]

On her long, spindly neck, Red Moon's helmeted head twisted and crooked in almost serpentine movements as she inspected the interior of the robot.

 

Most feelings took a certain concentration, a moment to remember how someone who was angry might react, for instance. But the curiosity sparked by this device required none of that. Peering closer, Red Moon gently extracted a broken, jagged shard of the mechanized guts, turning it over in her gloved fingers. For a moment, she said nothing, poring inside over the long, dusty rows of what she could recall from capturing transmissions out of the Republic and Khanate over the slow decades in isolation on the Moon.

 

With a jerk, she scrambled to her feet. It was impossible to see her face behind the black faceplate, but a staccato, thrumming giggle escaped the suit's voicecircs. 

 

~"Xobron! This style, I mean, it is from the Chorus Age of Xobron's First Crash, when the old art was destroyed by the Prescientists!"~ With nervous, twitching fingers she held up the tank, tracing a line of the golden filigree shaped like a thousand blooming flowers ~"The gold conducts electricity, so it helps with the power/heat balance, while the electrum zonath hawks strengthen the tanks' physical integrity. By incorporating art with technology, they prevented a new thought purge by making a luxury crucial to their infrastructure!"~

 

Turning noiselessly to the Xobron closest to her, Atraxia asked eagerly ~"I do beg your pardon, goodarm,"~ the archaic honorrific translated awkwardly, but more or less technically correct ~"but are you aware of any recent mass-injuries or fatalities on this station? This robot might have been meant as a collector for some underclass, to obtain what was not easily gotten with limited means. As well, may I ask your name?"~

[Kolohehonu]

PC

 

Gear looked the robot over. To call it a piece of his history would be... crude, but at the same time extremely accurate: He remembered the fall and rise of the High Artists four thousand years ago. He'd been there. A life time ago. 

 

"You're right Red Moon. The patterns match that period of history, but this looks like a new machine. So either someone has a great respect for the classical or-" a fellow time traveller perhaps. This could be the work of the Rel at worst. "Name's Gear. Greasy Gear." 

 

"I believe I heard about an explosion in the Spinal Core market place. Just a few days ago. People were blaming the Third Hive Nameless."

[Tiffany Korta]

 

“And I’m Sitara, some call me The Traveller.” she gave the others a friendly nod “I remembered seeing some of the Xobron's early work, they seemed to show really artistic potential back then. I hope that this isn’t the only thing they’re spending their time one.”

 

She gestured down towards the vampire robot at there feet, wondering briefly what she’d missed off the Xobron over the last thousand years, she’d not had a chance to catch up on every race she’d met over the many centuries. The Nameless was something she did know a little about, she’d like to frequent various bars in the less savory parts of the station, and a race that she’d never heard of before.

 

“Right now they’re being blamed for a lot, but such is the nature of when you get newcomers anywhere. I might know a few place down there where we can pick up a few rumors about all this.”

[KnightDisciple]

Sun Walker steps forward slightly, and offers a bow to Gear and Sitara each. His face bears a gentle smile, the strange ape-man having found peace easily enough in the midst of this strange situation.

 

"Greetings to both of you. It is my inestimable pleasure to make your friendly acquaintance, Greasy Gear, Traveller. I am known as Sun Walker, at least as I stand before you now. I may have another name, but you will forgive my caution in these complicated days of today if I do not offer it too quickly to any I meet. Still, it is good we have met here. This robot...I am not familiar with the origins, but the design is impressive. Still....these rumors, this violence. It's worrisome. I would like to help however I can."

[Ari]

~"It may be best, Sun Walker, if we let the others take point"~ Red Moon drifted up alongside her fellow Solarian and linked her arm with his. ~"We are very strange, even in such a cosmopolitan locale. As well, they are more aware of the current social and cultural tensions. For instance,"~ she inclined her helmeted head to Greasy Gear ~"Goodarm Gear, you know about these 'Nameless' while I am wholly ignorant of such. Would you lead us to this crime scene?"~

 

~"Sri Praetorian,"~ she added brightly to Sitara ~"Your position and implicit authority would be invaluable, if you would act as our mouth."~

 

Inside the smoking, murky confines of the terrasuit, Atraxia couldn't help but feel the squishy comfort of the bloodbags she'd brought along for the ride. When they'd first arrived there had been a frantic, horrible moment when she'd though they had broken. But that was just one of the coolant tubes, it would keep. It had already leaked out and been soaked into her dessicated skin, and it would be easier to synthesize that than get a handle on suitable blood.

 

Red Moon surveyed the broken vampire robot. How much difference between us, I wonder... 

~"As well, this must be brought to the proper authorities as evidence of a crime. Does anyone know of anywhere this could be put?"~