The ORION Files (Closed/Started)

[Athol]

Mary tried her level best to not roll her eyes at, what she felt were, everyone?s unwarranted fears, at least regarding The Shipbreaker?s motives; but then again, they didn?t have her 30 something years of background with the man and the way he did things.

"I still feel uneasy about all of this, but I can get us where we need to go. If we're lucky, this should be a fairly standard dead-drop smuggling operation. I've got experience with that."

She chuckled into her flask; Mar?s ?devil-may-care? confidence was one of the big reasons why she found herself liking the ex-racer as much as she did, it reminded her of the folks she used to fly with. Stop draggin? it out you coward? Shifting in her seat, she first shot a ?fuck-off? glare at Elliot, before leaning in towards Mar and pitching her voice to keep her words between them. ?Hey?after this?can we talk for a moment?? Her voice carried somethings almost unheard of from the brash and arrogant pirate, nervousness and hesitancy.

 

[Lunar Templar]

"Fine, I'll do a sweep." Shanoa said, though her tone denoted disinterest in doing so. She could think of several reasons the Shipwright would screw them over, sure. She could also think of just as many reasons why he wouldn't, ether way a sweep of the systems would least calm everyone so the could get on with it and she could get back to her own project.

Her avatar vanished, and a display appeared in front of every one to show every one what she found, which given she was omnipresent in the ship meant she could hit all the area's in question at once, and her general processing power meant it didn't take long to give the ship, and the 'questionable new stuff' a pretty decent once over.

Her search resulted in a whole lot of nothing. There was this one error, but that steamed from an old part that needed to be replaced, and not anything anyone was worried about or where the Shipwrights crew had been.

"We good now?"

 

[Generic NPC 22]

The Orion Files | Tortuga | Sweet Child of Mine | Briefing Room
This is what happens when you get me to stop in the middle of writing...
Irina Rostikova | Edward Aubergine​

[hr]

Unlike the majority of those gathered for the briefing, Edward Aubergine did not appear to have any questions nor misgivings regarding their mission, their employer or the conditions that their employer had laid out for the mission. The mission had already been accepted by the Captain and that should have been the end of the conversation. Given the results of the previous mission and the fact that Captain Walker was still willing to work with this motley collection of pilots, privateers and pirate hunters, his fellow crew mates should have been strategizing, not questioning... though it seemed that Elliot had shifted the conversation to strategy at that moment. Those had been Edwards thoughts on the matter until...

"That's assuming Irina can pilot the drones without crashing them." Grace commented loud enough for the target of her comment to hear.

The Former Shock Trooper could sense Irina bristling at the venomous comment and chamber one of her own. Reaching out, he placed a hand on his partner's shoulder, breaking her attention for the moment necessary to respond to Grace's statement regarding Irina's abilities.

"Irina will be able to perform the necessary scans of the ship and the cargo without issue..." Edward stated coolly before eyeing Grace out of the corner of his eyes, "Provided that she is not unduly distracted during the performance of her duties."

His voice sounded a bit tired when he spoke to Grace. On the one hand, he understood the need for Grace to comment on his partner's piloting skills. Were it not for quick thinking on Grace's part, she might have been left in Area of Operation when the Sweet Child of Mine jumped out of the system. On the other hand, Grace was still alive which should have made her happy and less hostile. On the third hand, there was the possibility of a repeat offense by Irina. On the fourth and final hand, there was the fact that Grace should have been able to give Irina some pointers on basic combat maneuvers. He wondered if the Captain had noticed any of the ongoing tension between his two crew members and if so, Edward wondered how he planned to resolve it. Since the upcoming mission was supposed to be relatively easy, Edward would speak to Captain Walker on the matter and perhaps find a solution but for now, there was something else that needed to be discussed. Nodding to Irina, the disgruntled Merchant Mechanic hurried off towards the Redeemer as he approached their current employer.

"Captain. If I can have a moment of your time, I need to talk to you about the prisoner that we took in the last missions..."

[hr]

The Orion Files | Tortuga | Sweet Child of Mine | Briefing Room
Imprintation... is that a word?
SARA​

[hr]

The Sweet Child of Mine's lone prisoner stood at attention near the locked gate of her cell with her eyes intensely focused on the brig's entrance. According to her internal chronometer, it had been nearly six hours since her last meal which meant that her next one would be delivered soon. It wasn't that the prisoner was hungry, her previous training had made it possible to function on minimal energy intake, it was that the meal deliveries was the only time in which she could see her new...

~CREEK!~

The sound of the brig's door was loud but music to SARA-00735's ears as she smartly saluted the person at the door.

"ATTEN-!" She started to say before she was interrupted by the sound of a food tray being quickly slid along the ground, violently bouncing off a wall and sliding to the front of SARA's cell.

~Crshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-BANG-shhhhhhhhhh-clatter clatter clatter- SLAM!~

The brig's entrance slammed shut once again with the prisoner only catching the slightest glimpse of her new imprinted master's red hair and her artificial arm, which had been used to distribute SARA's rations. While it might of struck others as odd that a prisoner now considered someone who had continually suggested her termination through airlock venting her new master, those familiar with the program used to manufacture soldiers like SARA had purposefully requested this "imprinting" feature during the design stages.

The previous version of the SARA program had a fatal flaw. Once one of the bio-engineered slave soldiers had permanently imprinted on their commander, it was impossible to get them to switch their loyalty, even after the death of their commander. This meant that after the death of a squad commander, his squad would have to be put down as well. The newest iteration, of which SARA-00735 was a member, had a weighted imprinting sequence. The more time their spent with a commander, the greater their loyalty... the less time they spent, the lower their loyalty. This meant that squads could be assigned new commanders... this also meant that in the event of capture, there was the potential that the bio-engineered slave would start to go through a sort of accelerated Stokholm Syndrome... but the bombs implanted in their armor were supposed to take care of that.

"[small]I wonder what kind of master my Mistress is..[/small]" SARA whispered to herself, "[small]I bet she's kind, charming, polite, intelligent...[/small]"

 

[FalloutJack]

Could they find out more about the box without causing waves?

"I think so. We're pretty competent here."

There was a fair deal of technical expertise here, and it was good sense for Elliot to question everything. Yeah, maybe Mary didn't like it, but she was the only one here with history with their client, and that wasn't good enough. Elliot suspected Watts, so he was going to damn-well make sure people heard his opinion on the matter. Shanoa, while mildly irked by his request, fulfilled it in short order and found nothing out of the ordinary. Good. That was solid evidence to go by, not the word of one Mary Williams, former pirate. Elliot nodded at the report, ignoring the machine's attitude. Yeah, she didn't like doing it, but if it wasn't worth a little caution, Shanoa wouldn't have done it. So, the current standing here was 'We don't like it, but we need to do it, and it seems like a good idea to double-check the shit if possible'. Now, onto other matters... The big Catican seemed to want the captain's attention at the moment, but Elliot shook his head.

"Get in line, Eddie. I asked first."

And his reasons for doing so were of faiirly-high importance. It had everything to do with their current predicament, after all. So! He and Grace would take the captain aside to speak with him privately, remaining in the meeting room while everyone else was leaving for whatever duties they had. Ed could wait outside, if he was that anxious. Walker took a seat, waving them over to join him, but they remained standing. This was a little too serious for comfort, just now. He pulled out a flask and took a pull now.

"So you wanted to talk about something important?"

"We've managed to get some information in regards to our situation. Our source had to sift through a full-blown military cover-up, but he managed to get this."

The merc pulled out a datapad and showed it to him. The files would indicate a very deep rabbit hole, indeed. Walker looked at each photo over and over again, sometimes going back to the previous one as his face change from indifference to worry. "What did we get ourselves into..." he muttered, as he put his hand on his face and let out a sigh. Rubbing his hand upwards as he clear his face of his messy hair. "So TGR and Chronus failed to mention that Sasleyria was in a middle of a damn politcial move...Great..." Walker was then about to go for his flask once more but went against it.

"What do you think of all this?"

"I think the movement was incited to create the situation. The armor shows up later, but I'm guessing their people were playing as activists long before. They create a political shitstorm, maybe make some empty promises to be benefactors, then swoop in for their take while everyone's fighting. Faith in the system hits an all-time low, they get the device, and we get thrown to the sharks as the last link in the chain."

"Probably...", he said as he looked back at one of the pictures to see the Heavy armor soldier. He flipped the datapad and showed Elliot.

"Perhaps this was our prisoner... If not, it at least shows someone from her outfit was there. We're gonna have to ask questions and get answers out of her. No matter what. We need to know what we might be up against."

"What is her condition?"

There was some mention of her being a bit umm...floppy or something...once she was out of the suit.

"Her condition is..odd. Her body is really frail and weak. As if she really hadn't been out of the suit in a long time."

"And we've established that, due to the explosive that was on her, her group probably doesn't treat her with the most respect. We might get something out of her by angling that, but we might also get very little, since they DID treat her as disposable."

"I don't think that will help...she was probably brain wash to be disposable. Though we can still try and get through her head that our team can help her get a better life."

"You think maybe if she works with us, something may naturally bubble to the surface?"

"All depends on how far she brainwash....but if we put her to work around ship we can probably get her to see our side."

"Makes sense. Do you want us present for interrogations?"

"Probably nearby. Rather have you two then Mary..."

"Mary would just cause arguments."

"She's probably...occupied...anyway."

"Yeah...probably either fixing her ships or getting drunk."

(Grace: figured she was taking a third option, but didn't say anything.)

"Well, our prisoner won't be ready for our current job, but maybe we should get that out of the way beforehand, so we don't have to keep calling her our prisoner."

"Indeed. Anything else you like to bring up?"

(There was a bit of silence, then...)

"Irina is giving me a fucking headache."

"I can't help with that..walker chuckles lighlty. But I can try to keep her away from you."

(Elliot cleared his throat.)

"Grace has been attempting to teach her to pilot properly so that she doesn't break the ship again, but she is a slow learner and frankly did something stupid with a shuttle earlier."

"I have no idea how she's managed to live this long without catching fire or being ripped apart."

"Well...I can see if we can pick up a flying simulator if we have enough money left over. Would that be helpful to you?"

"Keeping her from big guns would, as well. I believe there's a disabled shuttle out there now, correct?"

"Would have to check..but we can probably get Pitt to reprogram it or something. If he isn't too pissed off about the rehaul."

"I had Shanoa perform that check for his peace of mind, and ours. I'm sure that'll make him slightly more at ease."

"....I hope he does...I can't stand when he get like this."