Void Emissary

IC: Rynekk | The Fowadi "Yeah, that should be about it," Rynekk said, pushing himself up from the crate. "Unless you'd want to join up with the Sentinels as well, I don't think we have enough of a budget to pay you a salary -- but you'll get food and board, and plenty of stories to bring back home." He held out his hand. "Welcome aboard, Tekmo." -Void

IC: Rynekk | The Fowadi "You're asking the wrong guy there, Tekmo," Rynekk said, taking the last steps down to the very bottom of the ship, where only a dim collection of lightstones illuminated the shadowy masses of crates and barrels in the Fowadi's hold. "I've been away on medical leave since Ko-Koro was liberated -- only got back in the desert today. You'd be better off asking Kale-- sorry, Mr. Ironshaper, as you ought to be calling him; or Dehkaz, who commands this rig the last time I checked. Surely, he'll be around here somewhere...." The trip from Ko seemed to suddenly hit Rynekk like the Iron Mahi itself, and he found himself sinking into a seated position on a crate. Was he really ready to get back to this? "From what I hear, though," he continued, "a lot of the goon squad that had taken Ko-Koro way back when are still on the run. I reckon our job'll be to keep an eye out for them, and prevent a repeat of Ko." -Void

IC: Plagia | Dark Walk Entrance God, it was good having Skri around again. "Hey, yourself!" I said, wrapping both my arms around her neck and bonking my forehead against hers. "I've probably trained half of them up to be here now. Not about to let them go off to graduation without being in the wings, now am I?" Slowly, the two of us disentangled ourselves from one another, Skri letting me back down to the ground until I had to crane my neck to look her in the eye. Bet she gets a kick outta that, huh. "Sorry to interrupt," I added, glancing apologetically to the hapless lieutenant. "You two carry on with your military talk or whatever. Pretend like I'm not even here!" -Void

IC: Rynekk | The Fowadi "No problem at all," Rynekk said. "When the Aggressors found me, I was real down on my luck. No money, no place to live. A wreck. We'll put you up. "Although I've gotta ask," he continued. "What are you looking for here? What're you hoping to get out of this?" -Void

IC: Rynekk | The Fowadi This fellow certainly seemed defensive. "Glad to hear that it all went right, in the end," he said, leading Tekmo down to the waterline deck. "There's the armoury, the sick bay-- Yes, it happens more often than you'd think. Or, maybe not, all things considered. We've worked with a particular ship, the Infernavika, on more than one occasion. Of course, both of those instances were after a change in leadership -- their current captain, Lohkar ... well, I think he just likes calling himself a pirate and doing the old 'yo-ho-ho' routine. So there hasn't been much to worry about from him. His predecessor, on the other hand...." The pause was quicker this time, nearly imperceptible. "I'm guessing you haven't been a Toa long, then?" he continued. "And this hostile fellow of yours, he have a name? Might be we've run into him a time or two ourselves." -Void

IC: Rynekk | The Fowadi "Hey, to each their own," Rynekk said, shrugging. This guy seemed to be avoiding something, but there would be time enough to dig into that later. "Well, Ostia itself is a bit of gathering point for them," he answered. "For the most part, Sentinel presence doesn't reach this far out, so there's a tendency towards what some might refer to as 'lawlessness' -- but in all matter of fact, it's just a port as much as any other. There'll be all sorts. To be quite honest, most of the pirates around the island tend to be either too small-time to pay much heed to, or have some variety of deals going on with some variety of military organizations that keep them out of too much trouble." Nowadays, anyway, Rynekk thought to himself. The kidnapping of the Turaga all those years ago was still a jagged wire of a memory in his brain. "You have any military experience?" he asked. "Or maybe mercenary? Fight any good fights you wanna brag about?" -Void

IC: Plagia | Dark Walk Entrance "Aw, don't go scaring everyone, Skri," I said, sidling up to the growing group (squadron? battalion? How should I know, I'm no soldier). "Just a nice little recon mission, s'all." -Void

IC: Rynekk | The Fowadi "Well, let's walk and talk!" Rynekk led Tekmo down into the ship, doing his best to look authoritative -- but, in all honesty, he was just as surprised by some of what he was seeing here. Since when had Kale put in a frickin' radio room?! "I'm actually a pretty recent addition to the team-- oh, there's the officer's cabins! Even I'm not allowed in those," Rynekk said, gesturing to different doors with vague and distracted arm movements. "Only got recruited a month or so before the Maru first arrived -- just in time for a wedding of one of our own, actually! Marine by the name of Juturna.... at least, I think he was a Marine. It's been a long time since I saw him -- the marriage didn't ... end well." For a moment, he drifted into silence. "Here we've got the crew bunks, and the commons, and the mess," he said, his cheery demeanour returning as suddenly as it had first vanished. "This'll be where you'll likely spend a lot of your time when you're not working. But yes, where was I? Yes, the Marines. The Aggressors broadly grew out of the Po-Koro Sentinels during the past few years, but the group itself isn't exactly part of that military structure. We've had members from the Marines, the Gukko Force -- even a couple of mercenaries and other civilians, like yourself. Suppose we're closer to privateers than anything like a real navy ship. Broadly, we used to fight pirates and the forces of Makuta. I guess, nowadays, we just fight pirates." Yeah, right. "How'd you hear about us?" he asked. -Void

IC: Daijuno | Ga-Koro "If you'd feel better doing so, Karoru," Dai said, noting that this particular soldier looked like she really needed a win today, "she's a little taller than me, and certainly slimmer, wearing a Volitak and probably being deeply nervous about committing some sort of social faux-pas around so much of the Kentoku glitterati." OOC: @TL01 NUVA -Void

IC: Daijuno | Ga-Koro While the thought of continued politeness towards a royal bodyguard irked Daijuno to no end, this Karoru had been generous to her. And she seemed to be having almost as rough a time right now as Dai was. "No," she said, forcing a gracious smile. "We don't need to be bringing the saihoko anywhere. Let's just tell them about this, and leave it to their own decision-making. Although, Ms. Karoru, if you'd want to coordinate that suggestion-giving with the menti just getting off the ship, that would also be much appreciated." OOC: @TL01 NUVA -Void

IC: Daijuno | Ga-Koro "I ... yes, yes, I'm fine, not to worry," Daijuno said, trying to casually sidle away the mob of well-wishers that seemed to be growing around her. It was strange -- in another life and time, she would have been crowing to have so many high-and-mighty Menti hanging on her every word. But now, for some reason, it seemed more claustrophobic than anything. The idea of needing help from anyone ... even at a time like this.... "I appreciate all of your generosities," she said, nodding to each person in turn, "but I ... I don't think we'll have much luck running around the beach looking for one person in this rush." She turned back to Toa Leah. "Ms. Maru," she continued, "I hate to ask another favour of you, but if you could find a way to have those directing the docking process suggest to any Saihoko who've made it here to head to my offices? They're over just across the street from the Tidalpool. If Zyla's here, she'll be sure to go there once she hears that. And if not ... there will be plenty of my caste who'll be needing a benefactor here." -Void

IC: Rynekk | The Fowadi "C'mon, Tekmo," Rynekk said, slowly making his way to the door leading belowdecks. "Let me give you the tour." -Void

IC: Rynekk | The Fowadi "Well," Rynekk said, clapping Kale on the shoulder, "glad the two of you found each other, then." It was good to see Kale happy. The man had always struck him as a bit of the solitary type, forever tinkering away in the bowels of the Fowadi where the rest of the Aggressors were getting up to ... well, the kinds of things that the Aggressors seemed to specialize in, for better or worse. That solitude had made him solid, dependable -- and Rynekk had depended on him more than once. But no man is an island. He knew that well enough. "I don't suppose I can leave the Sergeant in your hands, can I?" he said, glancing over at Ember with a wink. "Figure you can give her a proper tour of the ship, where's I would just lead her around in circles. I'll get Tekmo's recruitment under way, in the meantime. You good getting stuck with me there, Toa Tekmo?" -Void

IC: Daijuno | Ga-Koro Daijuno took the iStone in her hands with more grace and gratitude than most would expect of her -- especially those of the old order of Kentoku. She quickly began scanning through names and, while not being able to spot any that matched directly to Zyla, there were a few that would be worth checking out. Perhaps Zyla had used a fake name to get aboard, for fear of being rejected as a Dastana (or, more likely, as a Saihoko). Or.... ...maybe Dai didn't know Zyla as well as she thought she did. "Thanks, Ms. Maru," she said softly, pushing the tablet back into the warrior's hands. "I owe you one. I won't be forgetting this anytime soon." OOC: @Vezok's Friend -Void

IC: Rynekk | The Fowadi "I've seen stranger," Rynekk said, tipping his hat towards the small figure. "Howdy do, Luten. You been with Kale long, now?" -Void

IC: Daijuno | Ga-Koro Under normal circumstances, anyone putting a hand on Daijuno's head would have gotten their ear chewed off -- both figuratively and literally. In the wake of what was happening now, though, Sinshi Umbraline was granted a small reprieve, as Daijuno desperately tried to think of what other names that Zyla might have used -- Had Zyla just been a nickname? Was it just a middle name, I know some people just go by those? Could it be-- "Do you know how many Saihoko made it over?" she stammered out. "Merchants, dockhands, sailors, their stock." OOC: @Vezok's Friend -Void

IC: Rynekk | The Fowadi "Yeah," Rynekk said idly, squinting his eyes at the stranger that seemed to have gotten Skyra and Praggos into such a tizzy. "I wouldn't mind learning a bit more about this guy's deal, either." He looked familiar -- but then, Rynekk had been around the island more than enough. Hackles seemed to have been dropped between those three, anyway, so maybe it was all nothing. Besides, there was another guy who needed a hand, and who didn't seem to already have friends on board. Rynekk strolled over to the newcomer, leaning his spear up against the side of the ship. "If there's chicken scratch required, we'll deal with it on our end, no worries," he said easily, holding out a hand to shake. "Toa Tekmo, is it? Name's Rynekk. You here to join up?" -Void

IC: Daijuno | Ga-Koro Sinshi's voice pinged in Dai's head and, for neither the first nor last time in her life, she resented the fact that she couldn't talk directly into other peoples' heads. "You're very generous, Ms. Maru," she said, having to double her walking pace just to keep up with the two soldiers' massive strides. "I'm looking for a Zyla, of Clan Dastana. She looks like me, but she's generally nicer and more people tend to like her more and-- Oh, Ms. Karoru, would you mind sending out an Ideatalk for me? Try to find a Sinshi of Clan Umbraline and let her know that Daijuno is with you, and where she can find us?" OOC: @Vezok's Friend @TL01 NUVA -Void

IC: Rynekk | The Fowadi "Ah, sorry about that, Skyra," Rynekk said, stepping to the side so that Kale and Ember could have a moment. "I spent too long in Ko-Koro for my own good. Must have missed a lot, huh?" -Void

IC: Daijuno | Ga-Koro Beach Daijuno hunkered back behind the quickly-chastised Menti, keeping her eyes squarely fixed on the affairs of state in front of her. On either side of the Commodore were the Akiri -- of whom she knew very little except the gossip that Whitehot shared, which Dai tended to take with a grain of salt -- and, of course, Yumiwa Umbraline. Even in the freewheeling Village of Water, she couldn't help but figure that spitting on the ground would have gone over very well with any of the parties present. It was the figure next to Yumiwa, though, that actually intrigued Dai. She was obviously royal from her dress and bearing, but she was little more than a reed in the sea wind -- even the most pampered politicians tended to have a little bit of heft to them. Despite her panic, she couldn't help but find her curiousity piqued. -Void

IC: Rynekk | The Fowadi The more things change.... "Kale, Commander Daring!" he said, his grin fully revealing itself as he walked up to Ironshaper, hand outstretched to shake. "It's been too long -- how in the name of Karz are you?" Kale and Daring had hardly changed a day -- although was that a new Kanohi that the first mate was sporting? Rynekk couldn't remember, but the face was familiar enough to be true-blue comfort after so long amidst the brave new world of Ko-Koro. There was another man there as well, whom Rynekk suspected was this Praggos character that the Aggressors tended to bring up. He returned his nod, noting as he did so the strange diminutive figure racing about the ship. He would have a lot of questions for Kale -- but before all that-- "Pardon me," he added hastily, gesturing towards his companion, "where are my manners? This here is Sergeant Ember Velliae, formerly of both the Guards and the Marines. She came all the way over to Ostia just to check out the Fowadi. Figured it would be nice to give her a closer look at the old girl." -Void

IC: Rynekk | Ostia Docks Rynekk nodded. He stood back up, waved a hand for Ember to follow him, and slowly made his way up the gangplank and onto the Fowadi herself. "Ahoy!" he shouted, barely restraining a grin. "Permission for two more to come aboard?" -Void

IC: Daijuno | Ga-Koro Docks "'Taka blast it," Daijuno muttered, holding her cigar in shaking fingers. Of course the royal family had been given safe passage, of course the military made it across fine. But what about the rest of them? What about-- "Yeah, yeah," she said, following after the Menti. "Lead the way." OOC: @TL01 NUVA -Void

IC: Daijuno | Ga-Koro Docks Even Daijuno wasn't enough of a heartless hind to be unfazed by this news. Her cigar nearly fell out of her mouth in shock at what she was hearing. "Kentoku's ... gone?" she said in a quieter voice, looking around at the Dashi and Dasaka who were climbing their way, stiff-jointed and seasick, from the fleet of ships at shore. "Is this all that's left of us?" And then, suddenly, was a memory of the only person that had cared about her on the Archipelago.... "Who all made it?" she asked, now suddenly frantic. "Who was able to get on the ships?!" OOC: @TL01 NUVA -Void

IC: Nika | ??? Nika landed in the hallway just as Pae had finished mopping up the rest of the resistance. The ones that they could see, anyway. "Saw crabs incoming," he said as he climbed, painfully, back up to his feet. Even then, his hands were busy loading another sliver of lightstone into the cartridge of his rifle. "I'll buy you some time. You get the mark. Meet at the rendezvous." -Void