Alex Humva

IC [Dorian]

Ashley, I see everything you see. It doesn't quite work.

IC [Dorian]

Had nothing better to do. Kinda boring already, being stuck up here.

Mantis freeze-dried meat kept the colonies going after the invasion. It's a bit of a social fopah but when the Mantis killed all your cattle you gotta make due with what you got. Great protein and a somewhat weird taste.

IC [Colonel Ojeda]

The woman watched her Lt. Colonel go, the door automatically hissing shut behind her. The Colonel gave it a few moments of silence, slowly putting her feet up on the newly cleared table and retrieving her drink.

"Maybe once upon a time," she muttered, downing it in one go. She slid the glass away and pulled her necklace out, a simple little cross made from supermetal. On its back was etched a date, 5/20/94. "Not anymore."

IC [Dorian]

Hey Ashley. For the first time in a while, Dorian's voice popped up. I just figured out how to decrease FTL particle decay by at least fifteen percent, could revolutionize power generation. Also who's the newguy-oh a rebel ok.

Mistranslation doesn't really work with binary, it's kinda something we've known for a very long time. As you said, it's a joke, I doubt we're "spoiling" anyone because I literally figured it out five seconds later when I typed binary translator into google.

You brought this on yourself son.

Mr. Kudos for going to the effort to translate This is alright, pending Tyler tackling me.

IC

Unification Day, August 14th, 94 ALT

"Most sane men would be out drinking right now, General." The Colonel stood out on a balcony, the openness of space being kept back only by a dome of transparent metal. It was a gorgeous view... or would be, if not for the ships and stations that surrounded the planet. They were all in various stages of decay and destruction, the planet still reeling from the Invasion. The Earth itself was still dark, the ash and smoke floating in ominous clouds. Scientists said it'd settle in a few more months, though it'd continue to cause health problems for some time more.

"Most would, aye." General Talos came up beside her, peering down on the planet. "We should be celebrating, celebrating the day we came together as a species to better ourselves and commit ourselves not to die on this little planet."

"Lot of people thinking we should have stayed on this little planet."

"It'll pass." Talos turned, motioning for the Colonel to follow. "You've seen your ship?"

"The Kestrel, aye. She'll be a fine ship, when she's finished."

"State of the art weapons, computer systems, and long-range sustainability." The General smiled to himself, the two stepping into an elevator. "More importantly, though, small enough to evade attention. Your FTL signature will only last a few hours before dissipating. Slippery enough for the cargo you need to carry."

"Of course sir."

"Not very talkative today, I see." The General raised an eyebrow. "You sure you don't need a drink?"

"Drinking doesn't solve my problems sir."

"Spoil sport." The two left the elevator, heading towards a conference room. "What happened to the Lt. Colonel I knew, the one who'd drink men under the table?"

"I visited Mexico City sir."

"I see." The General dropped the conversation, a door hissing open to reveal a long table, and a motly mix of officers present. They all stood at attention, the General nodding and directing the Colonel's attention. "Your command officers, Colonel. Lt. Colonel Sophie Chastain, though I hear you've already met."

"We've known each other a while, yes."

"Major William Daniels." Talos motioned at the man. "Former member of the Archangel crew, weapons specialist. Held out valiantly during the Invasion, took down at least twenty Mantis bombers."

"The ship did most of the work, sirs." the man replied with a grin.

"Mm." The General motioned at a pink-haired woman. "Major Estelle Walker, your flight commander. Shot down over the Nile and crashed outside of Cairo, took plenty of the bugs out before she did though."

The woman also smiled, extending a hand. "It's a pleasure ma'am."

The Colonel shook it, then looked further down the table. "Harken, I see you could join us."

"Ah, yes, your sargent. Staff Sargent Kenshin Harken, protected the governor of Gaia until an evac could be made. Doesn't look like much by himself, but he's got himself a suit of power armor that can tear Mantis in two."

"So you're my command staff." Ojeda gave the group a sweeping look, then settled down in a chair. "Well, you best know what you're getting into. You've all seen the Kestrel; she's going be under construction for the better part of a year. Her mission, is to carry vital and sensitive cargo and information to the Zoltan Homeworlds. You all know the intelligence reports, the Mantis manufacturing capabilities far outstrip our own. Without a superweapon on our side, we will be overrun both in troops and armor."

"So what's the superweapon?" Daniels asked.

"I don't know." The Colonel gave a faint smile. "Not sure General Talos even knows. All I know is that with Zoltan science, our cargo will turn the war around. It'll be a long trip, across alien and unchartered space. The risk of failure is high, but we're soldiers, we don't care. Our job is to make this work. First order of business, logistics. Major Walker, I'll need you to monitor..."

The Present

Ojeda watched Chastain's silence carefully, deciding that she might have pushed the wrong button. "Punching bag's set up in the rec room. Work it off."

IC [Colonel Ojeda]

"Know what you said, but you might want to listen to how you're saying it." Ojeda began shuffling paperwork, trying to organize the desk pile. "I think that if you spoke any more forcefully, you'd break something, probably me."

IC [Colonel Ojeda]

"Kid's not like the insurgents we faced on Asimov." Ojeda swirled her drink, but didn't take a sip; she seemed more fascinated by the swirling bubbles. "Farmer boy, out on the colonies hoping for adventure. Unless Ashley finds some lurking motive buried in his head, nothing more." She slid the cup away, seemingly dissatisfied with it. "Can't let Leto haunt you forever, Chastain. It's been eight years now. There is a time to mourn, a time to remember, and a time to move on."

IC [Colonel Ojeda]

The Colonel had given Chastain a few minutes to come to grips and recompose herself, before pulling out a bottle from the minifridge and pouring the two of them some scotch. Reclining back into her chair, she tossed the XO a nanite vial, jabbing one into herself. "You're on duty, can't get drunk right now. You want to talk about it?"

As someone who was around in the glory days, no, this is the last remnants of a town trying to scavenge to get by. Pokemon exists on life support and Marvel/FTL are basically the same player bases keeping things moving.

Also stop to consider that the three popular RPGs you cited are the only RPGs. Three RPGs is not glory days man, I can remember when the COT sustained over ten RPGs at a time.

They reach full maturity around twenty.

Probably eighteen or twenty.

About a hundred and twenty.

OOC
So yeah we're going sit here for a bit, chalk it up to the FTL node acting flaky. Feel free to use the time to socialize and such. Ashley's giving Roland the impromptu tour and the Colonel has retreated to her office to go think about old times.

IC [Colonel Ojeda]

"Don't attack our Mantis, don't arm wrestle the botanist, and avoid mentioning the rebellion to the Lt. Colonel." Ojeda gave a shrug in Chastain's direction. "She's... not exactly the most happy camper about rebels."

IC [Colonel Ojeda]

"Classified son, you'll find out when we get there."

IC [Colonel Ojeda]

"We're visiting their homeworlds, which if you remember your astronomy lessons, is just about as far from civilization as you can get. Six to eight month voyage, longer since we keep stopping to pick people like you up."

OOC
A reminder of everyone's positions:

 

 

The rebel became aware of the presences; powered armor man in the corner, Rockman outside, three officers around him, and a young... catgirl outside? There was an odd tingling in his head, like the time a slug salesman came by the city.

 

 

They arrived in the brig with little ceremony, a side door being opened and a shimmering forcefield turning off.

Just to make sure it's clear, Ashley and Ameli are actually outside but watching it unfold via a window and audio feed.

IC [Colonel Ojeda]

"Computer, cut the audio feed and tint the windows." The computer chimed, and the room was cut off from the outside. "There, some peace and quiet. Now, Mr. Hamilton, are you familiar with the Zoltan?"

IC [Colonel Ojeda]

Some water slipped in, and Ojeda handed it over. "We're running on limited FTL crystals, not going backwards towards Cardea. We can drop you off at a station with a couple credits to buy yourself a trip back home. Or, if you're willing to switch sides to the enemy, I'm sure our chief engineer can always use a two more hands. No guarantees we won't offload you in Zoltan space, though."

Chastain gave Ojeda a furious look, something along the lines of you're letting rebels join the crew?, to which Ojeda responded with a shrug and some sign language. Skinter's salary is burning a hole in my pocket. Kid's young, little more than a farmer. I'll have Ashley check him out. Should be fine though.

IC [Colonel Ojeda]

The Colonel gave a motion to Ashley to deal with the Vendarian, and turned back to the rebel. "There's more water on its way. As much as I do like the thought of spacing rebels, you seem to be a mechanic, not really suited to fighting. No war crimes under your belt, no massacres or such. You survived five years out in space, your ship's power should have given out long ago and left you to rot in that stasis pod. The fact that you're still alive tells me the Almighty had some purpose for you, and while I try not to do my job based on the quirks of the universe, I don't think it'd do justice for me to space you right now." The man started talking again, and it made Ojeda raise an eyebrow. "Son, you're not helping your case any here. To answer your question though, I don't really care about your convictions. As eyerolling as I find Cardea's quest for independence, which frankly could have been achieved by filing some sternly worded paperwork with our current government, such things are for another setting.

"I'm here to fight Mantis, not you and your rebel friends. Cardea won, they got their independence. They killed too many good soldiers in the process, but I understand when the war is over. What good would it do for me to space you now? Stoke the resentment even more? I loath your methods, but there is simply no point. Perhaps if you had been a mass murderer you'd already be floating outside of this ship, but you're a mechanic and a shoddy soldier to boot. It wouldn't be worth the O2 we'd lose jettisoning you."

IC [Colonel Ojeda]

"Spacing a man for killing two soldiers on the battlefield isn't proper. We space rebels who attacked garrisons unprovoked, who committed the atrocities that we remember back home. Assuming you're telling the truth, and my inside man says you are, then you are merely a soldier doing his job. Somewhat incompetently I might add, but we don't execute men for doing their duty." The Colonel turned to the door, looking out. "Advisor, please, we are working here. Could you retain your comments until we're done?"