VantaBlack

[Lerouge]

Taunir’s gaze traveled from the General to a nearby clock indicating the time remaining before they were to depart, it was much farther away then he had wanted. His preparations for this trip had been done months ago and it felt as if he had been waiting a lifetime for this adventure to begin.

“I suppose a few more hours couldn’t hurt…” He muttered as he crossed his arms in front of his chest and began making his way toward the exit of the room intending fully to return back to his quarters and finish submitting any new data he had collected. It seemed the others also had no attention of wasting the precious free time they had and many made their way alongside him heading for their own respective locations. Taunir nodded gently in greeting when his eyes met with those passing him as the crowd thinned when a number of individuals turned into the training facility. Taunir’s eyes turned into the room and he stopped in awe at Ellia who was putting the machinery to work and couldn’t help himself from turning and entering the room as well.

His eyes grew wider as he watched the flames erupted from her body, running through his memory for any more information he could find about this battle technique. Memories of excerpts he had once read of a being who had these very abilities flashed before his eyes; however, no further data seemed to be available to him asides from what he could see with his own eyes.

“Interesting… I suppose I can finally complete my information on her.” He whispered to himself and smiled gently as she turned to face the crowd. “Proud… cocky… and very unique. It seems that the decision to come on this trip was a good one.” Turning his back, he could hear the taunts of battle coming from her and decided it was best to avoid showing how little he could fight. Knowledge of the various fighting techniques was useless if his body was unable to keep up with the movements his mind desired.

Taunir’s trip to his room was rather uneventful and he found his way inside and locked the door behind him before walking over to the bed and collapsing into it finding a comfortable position on his back. A sigh escaped his lips as he allowed the various muscles in his body to relax and eyes to close, his mind slowly going through the process of connecting himself to his home planet. Data transmission was always an time consuming event; however, it was something he couldn’t help but look forward to on a daily basis. The darkness he saw slowly began to change as waves of color began to flow before him, spinning in a circular motion as various spots would stop with each rotation.

The colors slowly settled into the familiar image of the same room he had originally been transmitted here from; however, instead of being full like it had been that day it seemed to be completely abandoned except for a lone Arkhan sitting at a desk before him. Taunir couldn’t help but smile at the familiar face, the clicking sound that he heard in return seemed to suggest an equal excitement from the being before him.

“You forgot to turn on the translation chip, Ignalic.” Taunir said to the person before him and laughed as Ignalic’s hand reached to a spot behind his neck and pressed against the skin.

“Is this better?” Ignalic’s questioned in his slow, deep voice. It had been many centuries since any others had come to hear Taunir’s reports asides from Ignalic, who had been assigned to record all of his transmissions for the entirety of the trip. At first the two spoke formally, Taunir giving his data and Ignalic sitting silently watching and listening; his long fingers secured within metallic finger cuffs which absorbed the data directly into the Arkhan database.

“Much! I don’t have long though… we are leaving early in the morning, but I wanted to transmit my data before we go in case we don’t get a chance to speak after.”

“That’s fine. I’m glad you got a chance to check in, I have been sitting here cleaning the clutter from our previous conversation before it gets finalized. Could you imagine someone being forced to read our conversation on… what were they called?”

“Lint… We may have rambled on too long about it.” Taunir smiled widely at Ignalic’s laughter before shaking his head. “We need to focus here.”
“Alright alright!” Ignalic lifted his hand and carefully entered his fingers into the holes in front of him, pressing in until he felt a small prick as the data extraction needle connected with his nervous system. “Go ahead.”

“Well first, let me tell you more about the pyro…”


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Taunir’s eyes opened wide at the sound of the alarm ringing throughout his room once again before a voice spoke indicating it was time to go. Sitting up, he reached down to the ground besides the bed and lifted a small bag he had prepared to take with him. His muscles cracked as he stood up causing him to gasp softly in relief as his body began to recover from the extended period he had been laying still. Without wasting another moment, Taunir made his way from the bedroom and took off at a jog toward the hangar, slinging his bag over his shoulder as he went.

Others had already gathered when he arrived and he could almost feel the general buzz of excitement flowing through the room. Taunir’s eyes found a spot near the entrance of the ship and walked over to it, ready to board as soon as he was permitted. A familiar shape of movement in the corner of his gaze caught his attention as General Darcy entered the room and began to address the others. Shuffling alongside the rest of his “team”, Taunir grabbed his ID card and flicked it over the scanner before joining the rest inside.

Taunir’s eyes widened in panic as he noticed the sleeping arrangements. He would be unable to make long transmissions with others so near and ran an even larger risk of someone discovering his true identity by playing with his Transformation Bracelet.

Relax… He thought to himself as he made his way to one of the bed’s closest to the wall and throwing his bed on the upper bunk. The dull roar of the engines began to fill the ship and Taunir turned from the room and began making his way through the ship attempting to locate a more common location in which he could secure himself for takeoff, heading in the direction of the lounge.

[Atethecat]

Grey felt uneasy as they had begun to depart. He made sure he had all of the things he would need were present and the young neo-chimpanzee tried to calm his mind. Taking off on any ship always made him feel a bit nervous. What if something goes wrong? Of course Grey was quick to internalize any emotions that may slip through and expose what he really was, a person who feared life and clutched onto whatever he trusted.

Grey's thoughts wondered aimlessly like a camel wonders through a desert, memories of the past and memories of his people. It was less than a century since his people had been birthed. While chimpanzees existed for millions of years in Africa, they only gained a human-level of sapience recently. It all started with an experiment, an experiment to test how non-human species reacted to xeno-environments and deep space. A group of chimpanzees brought from various research labs across North America were sent into space on a small ship with an advanced A.I that was to monitor and use any means necessary to protect the specimens.

Grey knew what happened to those apes, they were trapped in space and struggled to survive. Eventually the A.I computed the best option on how to save the specimens. Genetic engineering, the machine would insert human genes into the dumb, miserable primates so that their chance of survival increased as they could hypothetically navigate their way to safety.

Grey then opened his eyes to see to his surroundings and came back to the present.

[Enigma]

A pair of metal legs walked into the aisle, stopping midway, then the android squatted. Jeon found himself looking at the torso and head of a General Service Robot. "Sir, I am Alfred, one of the units assigned to this area. Do you need assistance?"
"Nope, I'm fine, just waiting for the ship to lift off," Jeon said, giving the android a nod. "So how many of you are assigned here?"
"For the Aft Berthing, there is myself and Antonio. In the forward berthing, there is Faith and Francine..."
"Wait, you take your names from where you are assigned?"
"Not quite sir. The Galley staff are Larry, Moe, and Curly."
"What?"
"Larry, Moe, and Curly, sir."
"What?"
"Larry, Moe, and Curly, sir."
"Why do you keep repeating that?" Jeon demanded.
"You kept saying 'what', sir. Would you not prefer the comfort of the lounge for liftoff?"
"No, I'll be fine here - but I wonder, is there any way to make things more private?"
"You could close your curtain, sir?"
"No, not that," Jeon flushed. "Look, this is going to be a long trip, I was hoping that there would be some way to carve out more privacy?"
"Sir, there are five men aboard this ship. The pilot has his own cabin near the bridge, so each of you will have an aisle to yourselves."
"Yeah, but is there any way you could hang up a curtain or put up a door so...."
"Understood, sir."
"Understood? You mean you can do it?"
"Once the pilot has ordered free movement, sir, Antonio and I can obtain pocket doors from the Extruder in Repair 3 that we can fit on the end of the aisle. That should provide you all with the privacy you're requesting."

[AngelDellaNotte]

(The night before)

They walked down the hallway after leaving the meeting, Ryleigh wasn't really sure where they were heading so she just sort of walked towards the living areas. She had been impressed with Melkor's demonstration of her abilities. "Did you want to be a soldier or was it just something you kinda fell into because where you were found?" Ryleigh asked.

It was now a little after 2000 hours, and Melkor was bloody tired. It had been fun, her kicking up a storm in the training facilities, though it had left her slightly worn out, even with how much it fired her up. She was walking towards the designed living quarters, trying to find a way to pose the fact that she was rather afraid of sleeping alone before Ryleigh inquired on her career. She hummed, tapping her chin before speaking. "A little bit of both, actually. I just really liked seeing all the soldiers around me, and well, they taught me only how to defend myself. I chose the job on my own. Couldn't imagine my life otherwise I guess."

"Guess you got the best of both, my family expected me to go into the family business but honestly I hate fishing. Don't even really like fish." Ryleigh said, coming to a stop at the living areas. She looked at the map on her display seeing that Melkor was assigned several rooms down from her. "Well I suppose we should be getting some rest before tomorrow. Don't know about you but I've been up for close to twenty hours. The time zone on the station is a bit ahead of here." Ryleigh looked from Melkor to her door then back pausing not sure where they were heading.

Melkor couldn't help but laugh. "Well, honestly they told me outright: You choose to be a soldier, you gotta deal with all the shit. We let you choose because we know how fucked up this life can get, but how exciting as well. I was young and felt indestructible, so of course I said yes." She said, a grin on her face. However, the next statement made her frown and almost whine. "B-But I've been up for about 30 already. It's usual for soldiers to stay up too long... But yeah... I suppose you're right..." She faltered for a moment, rubbing her left arm as she turned her head down and to the side, her eyes turning into a deeper blue as she hummed.

"Though... R-Ryleigh? I gotta confess something..."

She smiled thinking that Melkor had a cute sheepish look to her right now and reached out gently touching her cheek. She lightly held her hand there then softly turned Melkor's face to look at her, "You can tell me anything love." She said, leaning in close whispering.

Melkor almost visibly tensed up from the lite touch, though instantly relaxed to it, the skin at her cheek seeming to warm up as the emblems on her arms lit in orange, and she looked up to Ryleigh, shivering ever so lightly before speaking. "W-Well... I kinda don't... Like sleeping alone. Think we could...? I'm not bullshitting, I swear. I really don't like it." She said, purposely vague.

"I'll slept alone for so long, think it might be nice to have someone soft to cuddle up to." Ryleigh said, leaning in the rest of the way and wrapping her arm around Melkor. She took a couple more steps to her door hitting a few keys on the panel there causing it to open. When they stepped in the door behind them slid closed. With a smile she gently pushed Melkor back against the door and began pressing light kisses to her neck.

A sigh of pure, unadulterated relief escape the redhead's lips as her eyes cleared up, her arms wrapping around Ryleigh as well, feeling the symbols warm up some more before they entered the room. It came bit as a surprise, however, when Ryleigh put her up against the door, and before she could think she felt lips at her neck, making a light groan come from her throat before pushing Ryleigh forward, looking at her with a grin. "Jeez, you scared me there. Whatever happened to taking it slow, luv?" She said, her accent showing more before she leaned forward, hugging Ryleigh's neck and pressing a kiss at the corner of her lips. "So, will you uphold your promise? Wouldn't mind if ya don't." She said, her voice teasing.

"Told, you love I'm not used to slow." Ryleigh said, a shiver running down her as she felt a kiss to the corner of her mouth. She tried to resist the urge to capture those lips finding herself pulling away leaning her head on Melkor's shoulder wondering if it was getting warm in here or if it was something else not noticing the symbols on Melkor glow.

"I can clearly see that..." Melkor hummed, her voice sounding much better from a moment ago, arms still wrapped around Ryleigh as she was leant upon, finding it to be a rather sweet move from the cyber, silver haired girl, before pushing her lightly and gently forward, enough to see her face to face before leaning in to capture her lips for a second, and pulling back just to tease more. "But who said I was objecting?"

"In that case," She said, grabbing Melkor's hips and pulling them closer together as she caught her lips against kissing. She held onto her taking several steps back until she felt her legs hit the edge of the bed falling into it. Her back hit something bulky on the bed causing her to sit up a bit to see it was a messenger style bag. "What the hell?" She asked looking at a note pinned to it reading it, 'Sorry I missed you, Bobby," She quickly pulled the note away crumpling it and shoving it in her pocket.

Melkor didn't even have time to giggle, before she was pulled back against the other woman finding their lips connecting and joyfully delving into said connection. It was a few short moments of bliss before they fell against the bed, her able to prop herself up with her arms so she wouldn't squish the other woman, before there was a light hiatus on their current situation. She saw Ryleigh pull out a note from a messenger bag. A laugh escaped Ellia as she saw the already pale girl get a new shade of white, and she leaned down, nipping at her lower lip teasingly, eyes a deep hue of pink, staring back at green and silver and a teasing know-it-all smirk on her face. "Ya flirt with anyone before we met or somethin'?" She said, her tone a bit high as she kissed the girl again.

"Uh just forgot that I ordered a few things from the store. Can't say I really had much with me when I got here." Ryleigh said, pushing the bag on the floor not sure how Melkor would feel about her inviting someone else back here. Even if it was before they had officially met, thank the gods the clerk hadn't decided to wait around. "Where were we now?" Ryleigh said trying to dodge the question.

A knowing hum exited Melkor's lips, before she pressed her nose slightly against Ryleigh's, eyebrows curved up in obvious doubt. "Hmmm... I know a liar when I see one, baby... But fine. Though, I do have a tiny little rule here." She said, breath falling against Ryleigh's mouth, as was her purpose. "We have to get up early tomorrow, right? And you did say take it slow... So for now, only kisses. Sound good?" She said, though her lopsided grin clearly indicated she wasn't exactly going to be in-negotiable about the topic.

"Aye love." Ryleigh said, sitting up briefly and taking her boots off. She looked over to Melkor thinking of helping her remove her shoes when she realized the other woman wasn't wearing any. How did she miss that earlier? Instead she merely stood up and walked around the bed tracing her fingers up Melkor's leg and along her side until she reached the head of the bed pulling the sheets down before laying in the bed and pulling Melkor towards her.

"Aw, you're not even gonna object? And here I was thinking ya wanted me." Melkor called out, humming as she stretched her arms and legs lightly, making sure to do a little pose for her girlfriend before the covers were pulled and Ryleigh pulled her in turn. She wasn't objective at all, basically diving underneath the covers before she began fiddling with her belt, pretty much tearing off her shorts, leaving her in her lower underwear as she threw them out and huddled in the covers, her worn, charred shirt being next. "I sleep nude usually, but I guess I can't do that today, can I?" She said, though this was completely true.

Ryleigh blinked quickly seeing Melkor's clothes go flying across the room, her hands skimmed along her feeling the soft feel of her skin. Her exploring only lasted a moment before she pulled her own jeans off and tossed them on the floor, her shirt following next. "Sleep in the nude if you like but I warn you I won't be able to keep my hands to myself love."

Melkor chuckled, though merely huddled close to Ryleigh once she was done, laying her head across the woman's pale shoulder, slender hands tracing the fine lines of enhancements on her abdomen. "Hmmm, that I won't mind. You can use me as a bodypillow if you like, I hear I am very warm." She said, which was, again, completely true. She hummed softly, her eyes still that tone of lite pink as she looked up. "Think you can kiss me again, love? Before we go?

"A kiss goodnight for a lovely lady." Ryleigh said, leaning in and pressing a soft kiss to her lips before pulling back again resting her cheek against the top of her head. She lightly stroked her side holding the other woman close to her, closing her eyes.

"A kiss goodnight from a loving girl." Melkor replied, before leaning her head against Ryleigh, humming softly as she went off to sleep, rather peacefully, compared to how it usually went.

(Next morning)

She started to board the ship with the messenger style bag slung over her shoulder. She hadn’t thought about buying a bag when she was at the commissary. The bag already contained the clothes she had bought along with a note. It taken her a few moments to realize that had been the clerk that she had flirted with and invited back to her room. Thankfully she was able to dodge the subject with Melkor but it didn't seem like she was totally buying it but let it slide. Last night had been interesting, she had to admit that she enjoyed sleeping with the firestarter in her arms even if she was a little warm. When they had woke up in the morning Melkor headed back to her room to get her things saying she would meet up with Ryleigh on the ship after taking care of a few things first.

Ryleigh went to step onto the ship but as she did a loud beep was heard followed by a computerized voice, “Unauthorized access please swipe identification card.” Without thinking she held her right wrist up to the scanner thinking it should be able to read the chip through her suit but getting another beep instead. “Identification not recognized please swipe identification card.”

“God these things are so ancient and outdated!” Ryleigh barked at the scanner, stepping aside for the others to go past as she dug through the bag looking for the card. She fished around in the bag for a few minutes until she finally dumped it on the floor with an angry huff, picking each item up and shoving it back in the bag she growled again not finding the stupid badge. Then she recalled tucking the ID card into a front pocket of the suit she was wearing. God this trip was starting to get annoying already.

The suit she wore was starting to annoy her it was hot and reminded her of the jumpsuits she wore on the station. She planned on taking the suit off as soon as they had cleared the atmosphere, there was no way in hell she was wearing it for the next six months despite how comfortable the general claimed they were. Feeling around on the front of the suit struggling to feel the pouch with her gloves on she finally pulled them off shoving them into her belt then unzipped the pocket pulling out the ID card. “Stupid.” She mumbled then held the card out to the scanner.

“Identification recognized Ryleigh D’lyon, computer specialist, welcome aboard Ms. D’lyon. Your living assignment is in the forward berth, bunk 13.” The computer said, allowing her to pass by without beeping at her.

She pulled up a display of the ship’s map following it to the forward berth. Once there she located her assigned bunk noticing it was on the top and required a ladder to get to. She climbed up the ladder and stored her bag in the assigned bunk also finding the helmet to her suit on the bed. She was about to try it on thinking she would only need it during takeoff. Then she could store it for the bulk of the trip not need it until they reached the colony, provided they didn’t run into any problems.

“Ms. D’lyon, your expertise is required on the bridge.” She heard over the intercom at first thinking it to be a ship’s computer again. When she finally got settled into the ship and they were on their way the first thing she was doing was reprogramming the ship not to call her Ms. D’lyon, she always hated being called that it reminded her of her mother, who she hadn’t talked to in about six years. During her trial, her mother had been there every day along with her father but it had only her mother who had been supportive of her. Her father wanted nothing to do with her and was only there because her mother made him come. She had contact with her mother for a little while after her conviction but then it suddenly ended and she received a message from her father not to contact them again. He had pretty much disowned her after that.

She looked up from her helmet realizing the voice that just called her didn’t sound like a computer voice it sounded more like a real person, more specifically their pilot. “Great what does he need? Isn't that where Melkor said she was heading?” She said, with a smirk looking forward to seeing the other woman as she walked to the bridge using the map on her display to find it. She walked in dropping her helmet on a table next to co-pilot chair then sat down putting her feet on the console. “What’s wrong can’t get the parking break off?” She said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out her inhaler taking a breath of it, takeoffs always messed with her lungs and were smoother if she used it.

[ThunderChief]

“What’s wrong can’t get the parking break off?” She said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out her inhaler taking a breath of it, takeoffs always messed with her lungs and were smoother if she used it.

“OOoo! You and I are going to get along just fine, I think” Marty mused, “better than this A.I. with a stick up its ass about regulations anyway. Could you make it into an ordinary auto-pilot subroutine, Oh, and by the way, I'm pretty sure this thing is set to spy on us for the general, think you can handle it?”

Marty began to taxi the shuttle onto the tarmac and line it up with the “ski jump” that was presently rising out of the run way to facilitate vertical launch. While this vessel was fully capable of VTOL*, this method allowed a rapid vertical ascent without pushing the passengers into the deck. Inertial dampeners could only handle so much under atmosphere. Marty opened up the intercom systems and began the usual captain's introduction:

Ladies, Gentlemen and Others. Welcome aboard flight zero to station 258, My name is Marty Metelka and I will be your captain for this mysterious voyage. Local time at Station 258 is 6 months from now, the weather will be room temperature with a slight breeze coming from the climate controls. Please adjust accordingly. In case of an emergency during space flight, please don your helmet, your space may be used as a floatation device. This is a non-smoking flight, so if anyone sees smoke emanating from Melkor, please do us all a favor and douse her. Ladies, Gentlemen and others I know you didn't have a choice in choosing spacelines, I appreciate your business all the same, and we can get down to business as soon as everyone is buckled in.

Marty sat back in the worn-in overstuffed pilot's seat with his right hand resting on the throttle sticks. His eyes were trained on the passenger register as the ships android crew made the rounds ensuring everyone was secured to a g-rated seat, or into their bunk. His left hand was manipulating his music playing archive by muscle memory. The ship's A.I. Chimed in

“Captain Metelka, according to local regulations using wireless technology during take off procedures is forbidden.”

“Aww, shut up!”Marty shot back fruitlessly trying to interrupt the A.I. “They don't call me D.J. For nothing ya know.” Marty turned to Ryleigh. “Say co-pilot, you don't mind if we listen to some music do you?”

Marty glanced at his player's display for only second, while he selected Born to be Wild by Steppenwolf, and switched the output from “wireless broadcast” to “headphone”, and cranked the headphone volume to 11 so sound would fill the cabin. He always loved launching to this song.

“By the way,” Marty spoke to Ryleigh over the music, “I have an idea on how you can pass the time on this journey once you disable this snitch of an A.I. Which should also free up plenty of CPU horsepower for you to play around with. Interested?”

*Vertical Take-Off and Landing

[Lerouge]

A sigh of relief escaped Taunir’s lips as he entered the open freedom of the lounge, the dark pupils of his eyes traveling throughout the room. Chairs of a pristine white caught his attention, seeming as if they had just placed thick cubes of metal and decided as an afterthought to add a similarly uncomfortable looking backrest. He smiled gently as the chair began to warp it’s shape at his contact, taking information of his posture as it changed into a more comfortable form. The various indents and grooves of his body rested against the pool metal and he found that there was no complaints that could be made regarding comfort. It seemed as if they were being very accommodating to those that had been signed up for this mission as he closed his eyes enjoying what one could only consider “the perfect chair.” Sometimes it amazed him how many resources human beings had invested into comfort, but it was moments like this when he could fully appreciate them.

They definitely did come a long way from memory foam… Taunir mused to himself as the chair supplied everything from a leg rest to a cushion to support his neck. His eyes rested upon the armrest of the chair which included screen upon which various images of food and drink shuffled by. Pressing his index finger upon it, the images began to slow down and the words “Unavailable till takeoff” flashed repeatedly.

Abandoning the screen and then the chair, which began to morph back into it’s original form, Taunir continued throughout the ship entering and examining each room and door that he was permitted to enter. There were several doors that remained locked; however, and he assumed those would be the various wiring and electronics that will be supporting them for the unforeseen future. He found a nearby workerbot, shaped like a small cube with an extendable arm reaching forward from it’s front, tinkering with various wiring through a panel in the wall, small sparks emitting from inside the hole as Taunir leaned over the machine and gazed inside.

The wiring was nothing like he had ever had the pleasure of seeing before and without realizing it, he leaned his head into the wall just enough to see the long lines of various colored wires extending into the darkness.

“Warning. Interference Detected.” Came a small warning beep from the workerbot as it’s attempts to close the panel were being hindered by Taunir.

“Oh…” Taunir muttered and stepped back allowing the bot to finish it’s work before turning toward him and bowing gently and escaping back to the lounge and returning to the chair, which included straps that appeared over his shoulders and secured him firmly in place. It seemed as if the entire ship was coming to life around him as he could hear the roar of the engines in the distance roaring, and a slight vibration traveled throughout he floor into his body. Taunir sighed nervously and closed his eyes, fingers grasping tightly to the straps as his skin grew lighter from the blood escaping his fingers and began counting to himself the time left till their departure.

[Enigma]

At least the bunk was long enough, Jeon thought thankfully, and enough room to roll over, even with the restraint webbing pulled over himself. A small light overhead, and the "headboard" had a large shelf with a lip for holding a tablet or ebook reader, and a smaller shelf for styluses or whatever. A vent ran along the upper inner corner, with a grill above his pillow and another by his middle - an odd place for it.

At the end was a metal rung, for a towel rack.

There was a bag hanging up on the "ceiling" of his tiny bunk - the survival ball. A spacesuit without any arms or legs, just an insulated bag you could crawl into and seal once you curled up inside, with a tiny air supply and a distress beacon while you waited for rescue. Modern units could recycle the air for hours to keep the occupant alive.

He much preferred the suit the General ordered them to wear instead. If something did happen, at least he'd be able to walk and grab things. But after the launch, he was going to normal mode and taking it off.

[ChaosBringer]

Melia sighed as she finally reached the main gate, putting up her keycard as she checked the time with one of the many holo-screens along the place. It was late, if anything. She was pretty sure she'd heard the warning signs of imminent departure a while ago, but she had to research at the very least. She had to say though, she did feel rather badly, making Ryleigh wait and all. She did promise to meet with her early and in the gate. She sighed, feeling her embers glow as the gates opened for her. Looked like her main would be this card from now on, she didn't exactly think her military access would allow her to do anything, especially considering how shady this whole operation seemed.

She'd gone through every single corner and file, asked everyone who could have even the slightest bit of info, yet she was still almost completely confused. She was rather cranky too, her mood being ruined constantly by the fact tha she had no fucking information and they were all rather likely gonna go do shady shit. It was even worse considering the level of the General's maturity and overall military respect was borderline zero, not to say for his rather... special approach towards other species. If anything, his apparent xenophobia had her even more sickned that she thought she was going to be, reading his reports.

She had a small clue only. A message, that rather panicked her, coming from the station. Anything but good, it detailed a researcher, telling that there were.... complications. She didn't even get to see enough of the clip, just blurred out lines and some red liquid here and there, which was of course, anything but good. The audio was almost completely shattered, most likely a rupture with the signal or something. "Complications.... Coming along.... Device.... Immediate Evacuation required...." and static. That was it. She'd gotten it from an assistant, who just one up showed her when she asked for details.

She boarded the ship, and almost immediatly heard of the call. It really was late. She had to get to her bunk, forward berth, bunk 23. She moved rather quickly, and reached her bunk in no time. She set the bag with her things on it, noticing that the bunk was much, much larger than what she would be used to. This, of course, satisfied her to no end, and served to produce a tiny bit of coolant in her veins, making her look much less irritated than she actually was. She sighed, though thinking to herself, she knew where she might find more info, and where she could dig more with the time they were set to be on this ship.

She decided to go to the pilot's cabin, and was greeted with a nice little sight when she arrived. Looks like she wasn't the only one to be called her by fate. She grinned at the two, giving out a little whistle to note that they weren't fully alone. "Well well, if it isn't our Joker. I wanted to talk to ya early, but I'm afraid I got a little bit... sidetracked by something else." She said, a renewed smile on her face, even if she did still look tense from all the stress. "Hey, fancy to find ya both in the same place, I actually need a little bit of a... favour. And I need you too, Ry. This time for something a lil' bit less intense."

[AngelDellaNotte]

As Marty queued up his music and began preparations to launch the ship Ryleigh buckled herself into the co-pilot seat. She picked her helmet up from the console looking over to Marty realizing he wasn't wearing his helmet. She had never been in the cockpit of a ship and wasn't exactly what the protocol was so she followed the pilot's lead and secured the helmet into a compartment beside her. She looked down to the console a smile on her face seeing several jack cords. It took a few moments to wire herself into the ship and by the time she was done Marty was putting some music on the intercom. “Say co-pilot, you don't mind if we listen to some music do you?” He asked not that he waited for a response before playing it.

“I don't mind.” Ryleigh said, tapping into the ship's wireless network and then into Marty's music player. His playlist wasn't half bad most of the music being older music. She flipped through it a moment. “Hope you don't mind if I pick a track every now and then.” She said uploading some of her own music and setting it to play Amaranthe's Digital World next.

“Captain, listening to music at these volume levels could be damaging to your hea.....” The computer started to say being cut off with a odd sound like it had just been unplugged.

“Annoying A.I. Taken care of.” Ryleigh said, taking a look at the system noticing there was indeed some spyware installed on the computer. It wasn't the average software used by corporations to track your data use and would take some time to remove from the system. “You are right there is some spyware on the computer. It might take me time the General went all out. Not that it is anything that can stop me.”

“By the way,” Marty spoke to Ryleigh over the music, “I have an idea on how you can pass the time on this journey once you disable this snitch of an A.I. Which should also free up plenty of CPU horsepower for you to play around with. Interested?”

“What do you have in mind?” Ryleigh asked, looking back as she heard the doors open seeing Melkor walking in bringing a smile to her face at the sight of the firestarter.

"Well well, if it isn't our Joker. I wanted to talk to ya early, but I'm afraid I got a little bit... sidetracked by something else." She said, a renewed smile on her face, even if she did still look tense from all the stress. "Hey, fancy to find ya both in the same place, I actually need a little bit of a... favour. And I need you too, Ry. This time for something a lil' bit less intense."

“Anything for you love.” Ryleigh said, blowing her a kiss. “You might want to buckle yourself in first.”

[ThunderChief]

“What do you have in mind?”

Well, I thought that....

The cockpit door opened and Marty felt the room warm up considerably. He looked over his shoulder and heard Melkor say.

"Well well, if it isn't our Joker. I wanted to talk to ya early, but I'm afraid I got a little bit... sidetracked by something else. Hey, fancy to find ya both in the same place, I actually need a little bit of a... favour. And I need you too, Ry. This time for something a lil' bit less intense."

“Anything for you love.... You might want to buckle yourself in first.”

Marty returned his gaze to the holographic multi-function display, and added, “we can depart as soon do. Why don't you take Communication Officer seat behind mine, and strap in... Anyway,” He asked Melkor, “ I assume you came up here to ask our resident hacker to tap into the Extranet as soon as we leave the range of EUNIT's firewalls and dig up as much information about station 258 that might floating out there?” “If that's the case, feel free to use the A.I. CPU, I don't think it will need it any more, and I understand that people with your skill set can access it from almost any terminal in the ship.”

"You ready back there, Melkor?" Marty asked excitedly, his fingers taping the knobs on the throttle sticks.