(M) The Black Star Privateers: Smugglers and Heroes IC

[SikstaSlathalin]

Rated M for possible mature content including sex, violence, language, graphic situations, and drug use.


The Black Star Privateers: Smugglers and Heroes





By the rings of Saturn and the tits of Venus, money is our game and defying death is in the contract.

The OOC Wide open to new sheets now.

"Space . . . the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the Privateer ship, The Black Star. It has been on a new five- year mission: to be exploring strange new worlds; to be seeking out new life and new civilizations; to be boldly going where no crew has gone before. And be lining our pockets with enough money to be getting drunk and forgetting all about those strange new worlds and new civilizations"
Captain Dar-Togga 2300 AD

Too bad they can't do any of that when they're under attack by the Silver Quasar Bounty Hunters at 2 in the damn morning! Thinking the ship would be an easy target after they had just escaped the Skorne Planet Cracker Fleet, the Low-End Merc stalked the limping Black Star into orbit around Cairn's moon, Barrow. Much like the planet it was a scorched mostly molten rock that rotates too close to the orange sun of the Sigma Quadrant.

It was decided they wouldn't be able to re-enter the atmosphere in their present state, they would need to do some fast and dirty repairs to at least bring the shields back up. So on top of being up for 48 Hours straight dodging death, the entire crew is going on another 12 hour shift with everyone helping to bring the ship back into a ship-shape, shape. No one was happy, no one was talking, there was only growling at growled orders. And a seething desire to kill the next problem that came their way.

And unluckily for the Silver Quasars they were just that next problem. As the first laser round shot by exploding a small meteor a few feet from the ship peppering it with bits of stone. The Captain's whose head was right next to the hull when the meteor hit it got a painful ring in his ear. Shouted he stumbled out of the little cubby he was working in to connect some frayed wires and smashed into the dolly of spare parts, sending them scattering all over the hall.
"Chert voz'mi!" He shouted rolling to his feet, he looked out the nearest window and saw the Merc ship coming their way. Both the Comm and Sensors were fitzy and it wasn't until the second shot hit the side of the ship that the alarms began warbling out their broken sounding screeches.

Slamming his meaty hand onto the PA system he roared into the mic.
"GUNNERS,SCOUTS, AND ANYONE THAT CAN BE SHOOTING THE SHIP'S GUNS GO TO BATTLE STATIONS, SOMEONE JUST SIGNED THEIR DAMN DEATH CERTIFICATE! MECHANICS AND ENGINEERS GET THE SHIELDS UP! AIDEBOT AND ZERO BE HELPING THEM GETTING THE INSTRUMENTS UP! SYRAN TRY TO BE MOVING THE SHIP!" With the order given the Shart stomped his way to the bridge, wishing he could get aboard that ship and kill them all with his bare hands.


*Killbot*

"These pissy Squishies, and their biological needs." Those words rumbled out of Killbot's voice module as he was trying to calibrate his heavy Rail Cannon on the front of the ship after he got the back lash explosion from blasting a Skorne Scout Ship out of existence. Being up for days or even weeks at a time was nothing for the Togga-Tech prototype, his power cell could run him for a year and half if it really had to. He just liked being at 100% all the time. Right now he was still at that and feeling fantastic about it.

What he didn't like was listening to the Organics and other half Organics bitching about being sore, and tired, and hungry, and horny, and thirsty, and tons of other petty little things that never meant a thing when there was work to be done. And they had a lot of work to do. He wasn't any kind of Mechanic, but he knew about his weapons and would have it up and working again soon. Then he would help the bitchy Squishies fix theirs. At least that was his plan, but as he learned soon after he was brought online a decade ago. Squishies never respect a good plan unless it beats them over the head.

He felt the ping of meaty meteor bits hit the space glass of his work station. He had just got the gun working when the PA system and alarms blared forcing the Cyborg to switch to inner coms that connected him to the bridge and look up noticing for the first the Merc ship barring down on them. As Togga's roaring voice gave them all their orders Killbot fired up his heavy cannon and took aim. Sensors were down still, but he had his own targeting system that would help him out. Locking his optics on the ship and opened fire.
"Killbot is ready to kill!" He shouted into his coms to the bridge calling in he was ready.

[Aureyon]

Theme Music


Korion had been up for countless hours taking care of the wounded of the Black Star. She had always known that the role of Medic would be a busy one as long as the ship found its way into fights, and with a captain like Dar-Togga, the ship would always be finding its way into trouble. Her face remained impassive even through the chaos that was the med-bay, through the cries of the dying and the moaning of the wounded.

She was diligent and efficient in her duties as Head Medic of the Black Star, and would see to it that Dar-Togga had the soldiers he needed to fire back at the damned hunters firing at them. She did not fear death, nor had she ever been one to do so; Death was not something to fear. That was the last thing her father taught her before he was taken by the beast below the depths on Volus II.

It had been many years since she had seen her home planet, or any of her people; they weren’t exactly a social race, and they weren’t the easiest to find. Sure there were colonies of other races on the land that inhabits her planet, but not many, and fewer still that socialized with the Veeltix. These were the thoughts that ran through her mind as she allowed her healing gifts to flood over a crewman, and watched as his wounds were sealed and he was able to return to duty.

But, the gifts of her people never came without a price as proven by a jar that sat on the shelf of her private office, filled with The Saphyrus, a poison particular toxic and fatal to her people. It was ironic that the one thing that could kill them quite efficiently came from within their own bodies. As she began to examine a make-shift monitor that beeped monotonously in response to the heartbeat of the patient it was currently hooked to, a rock shook the ship and she had to steady herself as the lights in the med-bay faded, and the only source of light coming from the glowing ends of her hair and eyes.

“Captain, we need someone to reroute power to the Med-bay. We have wounded in here, and they will not live long if we cannot see what we are doing.” Her voice lacked emotion as it relayed her words through the comm and directly to the captain. It was not uncommon of her to have an emotionless outlook on everything, as it was that very lack of emotion that allowed the use of the Veeltix gifts. It was a sacrifice that she was willing to make in order to practice her passions.

Having faith that the Captain would get the power back on in Medical, she began working with what little vision she had by her hair and eyes on the patient before her, ensuring that he would be sustained until the power came back on, and the machine came back on.

[Imperial1917]

"Weee!" shouted Ellie as she spun in her swivel chair. "Weee!"

The whole ship was shaking. Shouts echoed from the hallways beyond the door. Camaras around her showed lasers and plasma and all manner of other things being fired towards the ship. The clambering of the sirens around her annoyed her and dented her fun slightly, so she disabled them. It got a good deal quieter.

"Weee!" she said, spinning around again. "Weee!"

Morning Soup was shouting something about shields now. She frowned slightly. She remembered something about rations and not doing things. And it was bad. Well then, she had best do things.

Beginning another rotation of her chair, she stared up at the lightscreens around her. Numbers and charts and data, oh my! she thought. A buzz in her link came. "Killbot ready to kill!" It made her giggle. He was so cute! She wanted to pet him! Well, shields first, she guessed.

Data swirled around her. She could see it on the screens. She could feel it with her fingers. She could smell it. It smelt good. The computer made noises as she plunged through the data like a wading swimmer. Finally, there was the problem. She tagged her comm link. "Mechanics to Panel 49. Mechanics to Panel 49. We have a blown fuse. Please replace."

That done, she spun in her chair again. "Weee!"

[Angevin]

The kitchen, was in the best shape Kenny could keep it in. Pots, dishes, utensils and all other kitchenware were stuffed, neatly, but stuffed, into any cupboards which he found empty. Kenny was tired but his body kept going without fail. He grabbed what remaining teffi beans he could, and ground them down to a fine powder, he had been using as a form of stimulant to keep the crew awake. Much like coffee, only Kenny had run out of that a while ago, and so Kenny spiced the drink as best he could, to keep it from tasting like feet.

Kenny ordered the two others that worked in the kitchen, Owen and Thomas, to put the two dozen nutrient pastries filled with all the vitamins and calories of the rainbow, to keep the crew healthy, even during these times, into the ovens, as he began to start the second brew of beverages.

The two complained, but did the task. "Hey can we have some of that brew Ken? I'm going to die soon, if I don't." Owen asked rubbing his shoulder.

"I'm sorry gentlemen, but the crew requires these beverages. They are keeping us alive, you are only making my job harder." Kenny replied, without breaking away from his work, sounding calm but stern.

"Ken, please man." Owen asked pleadingly.

But Thomas grabbed his arm and said "Owen, you sound like a child, just do your job."

Everything shook, and both of the assistants fell over. Kenny grabbed the drinks to stop them from falling as well. The pastries had finished and Kenny took them out, as Thomas stood up, and Owen just groaned. Kenny took several small colored tooth picks and placed them in the pastries color coding who and where they needed to go. He reached to a wall mounted dispenser and poured Roberts nutritional paste into a cup.

Kenny looked to his assistants again "Owen, get off the floor, and take these down to engineering." Owen groaned again. "Thomas, takes these to the gunners." He handed Thomas and Owen each a platter holding pastries, drinks and paste, and set them off. He took two and moved off to the bridge and infirmary.

[Cfavano]

The sounds of that Shart yelling awoke Roberts from his meditation. He calmly got off of his recharging chair, and began his start-up procedure. Not nary a minute after he was done, he began walking towards the nearest 'small' gun. He sat himself in the chair, and started up the system. He was about to touch the controls when he remembered how sluggish the response was, and instead, made a fist and his data spike shot out. Looking for the port for connecting thins to the system, he targeted it, and rammed his spike into it, beginning his direct interface with the ship's system. His vision changed to the feed the targeting computer itself received, and used that. He began controlling the gun itself, becoming one with it, and is now firing.

[Kreddy]

Choo Choo stood back, admiring his handy work. He’d just finished repairing one of their M-G4 Bugs. It was a project he’d been meaning to get around to for a couple weeks now. He’d been repairing the ship left and right the past day and half while they dodged that damn Skorne Fleet and had another 12 hour shift tacked on until they reached Carin. Instead of moaning and groaning he had decided he’d take this time to finish up a project or two. You think he’d be sick of fixing thing at this point but it was the only thing keeping him going. In order to repair the Bug he had to tear the entire engine apart just to replace one little piece deep down in the bowels of the thing. It pissed him off that such a small part caused such a massive problem, but such was life and he got over it.

Standing there, knowing there were no important repairs to be made at the moment, he let out a yawn. A long, loud yawn that echoed throughout the hangar. There was only a few hours left before they got back to Carin, what could possibly go wrong in that time? And so Choo Choo decided he’d have a nice nap in the back of the Janeiro. He was on the verge of sleep, dreams had just began to slip into his consciousness, when those forsaken alarms rang. He was pissed again, unjustly so, but pissed nonetheless. Their captain’s voice growled out of the intercom that reverberated throughout the cavernous room. He had his orders, and he wasn’t about to shirk them while they were being attacked. Rushing to the fore elevator another message came over the PA, “Mechanics to Panel 49. Mechanics to Panel 49. We have a blown fuse. Please replace.” On his way out the hangar he stopped at the com-link panel, “Choo Choo to engineering: Don’t you worry your pretty little head, Ellie, on the way now.”

Up on Deck 2 Choo Choo was just about sprinting to their parts room. It was a disorganized mess. Photon accelerators here, exano limiters there. Piles of rubbish next to piles of perfectly good parts. Sometimes you wouldn’t even tell if a part was good until it was in the machine. He’d been meaning to organize this place for years but he either never had the time or the willpower to get around to it. Maybe he and Naleek would get to it someday, probably no time soon though. But back to matter at hand. Choo Choo was rummaging through crates and boxes looking for their damned replacement electron fuses. It’s times like these that he wished he wasn’t such a lazy bastard. He found them under an old neutron aligner he’d replaced months ago. He grabbed two, just in case one was bad and was out the door.

Fuse panels lined the reactor room, handling the appropriation of power to all parts of the ship. Lucky for him every panel was labeled in big black numbers. He didn’t have to look for long in order to find the blown fuse. In fact blown was probably the best adjective to describe it; the thing was totally and utterly shattered. He ripped the bits out of their socket, glass and metal tinkling down on the floor. After shoving the new fuse into the socket, maybe a bit too roughly, he flipped the breaker and jogged across the room to the com-link, “Choo Choo to engineering, new fuse in place. Now get those shields up!” But he was too late. An explosion shook the Black Star, knocking Choo Choo to his knees. Back on the com-link, “Engineering, where’re we hit? What’s the damage look like.”

[Arthera]

Ekaterina was good at not sleeping. When she decided not to.

Being told not to sleep and do "shifts" was another thing entirely.

That and the snack pile next to, behind, under and above her desk had dwindled to what could only be conceived as catastrophically low. You couldn't really tell by the amount of opened packets strewn about, the discarded ration boxes and the empty shake bottles stacked up on yet more boxes, but 'Kat knew she was running out, and the Captain was going to blow a fuse if he saw her anywhere but glued to the chair of her post.

And now they were under attack. Great. Oh, and Hyper Ellie was doing spins again.

Usually it didn't bother 'Kat so much, she just put on the VR goggles and used a headset able to drown out the sound of the ship breaking in half. But the VRs were flickering and had to be taken off, which didn't seem quite as bad as watching Ellie spin over and over. For the last 24 hours. At least Ekaterina wasn't hearing the girl whoop aloud, or the damn sirens, or the disquieting creaking of pressurized hull straining. Or, she had to admit, the satisfying groan of muffled anti-ship cannons being shot.

'Kat had a program running on one of her side screens, a small thing cooked up to automate the smaller ship guns until someone sat in one. All the small weapon's platforms were chugging away at the attacker all on their lonesome. Not the best aim or reaction speed, but she didn't exactly polish the darn program, and it was still making guns shoot at stuff! Maybe she should wire that to Kill Kill's post...

The real focus for her right now, was the spastic screen of ship systems flashing like some city holiday gone crazy. The shields were shot, light systems were going down left and right, guns needed power, comms. were sketchy, the list went on. Ekaterina's fingers were a blur on her main console, with occasional swivels of her chair to give a secondary and tertiary station around her sitting space a look and a few commands. It felt like playing one of those "fit the shapes" games, but with power ratios and tolerance levels, juggled with output efficiency and mandatory allowances into certain systems. No one's gonna die with a 3.4% reduction in life support, and the empty personnel quarters could go without 100% lighting during a crisis. Med bay needed... lights? Fixed by removing the AC in the Cargo bay, not like there was anything in there anyway... A bit of pulling here, some re-routing there, a coms call about shields up? Chair swivel to forward, main monitor report. Oh, yay, something going well for a change! She sent a smiley and thumbs up to the closest display panel to the Fixer.

"Cap." she said into the mic attached to her headset, sending the call to Sharkface. "Got you shields back up. Don't tank the shots please. Everything we need to not tank the shots has most of the juice, and the guns you can hear chugging away have what they need. Still not, like, up to full on the ship, but tell Kill Kill to fix the enemy encounter and I'll get to that."

There was a shake in the ship. A chair swivel, second screen on the right. Beam weapons impacted incoming shots. Damage assessment... Not even a glancing hit... -0 HP. Another smiley to Mr.Fixer.

After this, she was sleeping for a week after emptying the food stores...

[MarchingThunder]

With the alarms blaring, Bailey Gray, chief scout of the Black Star, pulled herself out of her bunk in a quick and practiced response, quickly rushing into the hall and down to the armory, past a number of other crew members. Quickly arriving in the armory, she rubbed the last bit of sleep from her eyes as before yanking open her locker and pulling out her armored suit. She slid the black and gray body suit on over her underwear before sealing up her suit and then tugging on her combat armor over it.

Briefly, Bailey ducked her head and sighed before gathering up her long, silver-gray hair in her hand and holding it in place against the back of her head as she grabbed her helmet and tugged it on, the interior screen displaying the armory around her before lighting up with various bit of information. Nodding now that her suit was sealed and ready in case things turned truly south, she grabbed her weapons and stuck them in place on the magnetic pads on her armor before using her chin to open a comm link to the captain as she asked, "Togga, where do you want the scouts? I'll have them prep if you'd like to board."

[StormyNyte]

The little Tuitarian was busily trying to reconnect some important wires within one of the walls because she was the only one nearby small enough to squeeze through the access panel, murmuring to herself a little rhyme she made up to help her remember which wires where suppose to go where. Shikah was almost done with the job she was voluntold to do when the loud crashing thumps of meteor bits reverberated through the metal wall, assaulting her sensitive ears and momentarily reeking havoc on her vibration sensors. "GAH!"

That one shout, followed by a long string of heated Tuitarian curses was soon drowned out by the booming voice of the Shart captain as he roared his commands. Still mumbling, Shikah quickly connected the last wire and scurried out to heed the Shart's orders. As she scampered to the nearest small gun to her, she couldn't keep from grinning, hehehe... Shart... giving a abrupt laugh at that, she slipped behind the gun and made ready. As she locked onto her target, she murmured in a sing-song fashion. "Do do dodo dodo dodo, can't touch this!" And as soon as she started firing, so did her sound effects. "Pew, pewpew! Takakakakaka! Pew pew!"

[Dnafein]

Xanatos rolled over, sleeping through both the impact of meteoroid bits and the captain's orders. However the engineering report about the blown fuse cause the Rodentian to sit bolt upright. Banging his head on the shelf above the one he was sleeping in. "Damn." He shifted and slid off the shelf still rubbing his head. Bringing his left wrist in front of his face he brought up his shopping list on his omnitool, adding another fuse to the list. "It'd be nice if just once we made it home without being shot at."

Xan boarded the elevator as he heard the air conditioner turn off. Stepping off on deck 2, the ship shook he moved into the hall. He nimbly moved along the rocking ship till he reached engineering. Opening the door he stepped into darkened room. "What guns are manned?" he asked, trying not to watch the assistant engineer spin herself dizzy. He made a mental note to talk to the cook about cutting back on her sugar intake. "And Ms. Rovitz anything that melts in the cargo bay is going to be replaced with your pocky money."