Nest of Angels

Nar poked about the screen, ignoring the mounting impatience from the crewmembers behind him as he worked through a map of the deathly little rock that they were now orbiting, in search of the settlement that Angel had told them of. The co-ordinate grid had been incorrectly mapped for this backwater world. It had been abandoned when it showed few useful resources and an atmo that was so flawed it led to an extended death by suffocation over a period of several weeks.

The furtive computer was nestled in Nar's lap. Unable to see at all and having been disallowed from connecting to the Vega, the method of locating the landing spot was a painstaking process of the mechanic describing what he saw, and following her verbal instructions of where to look next.

"Wait, you said a V shaped valley... one that spits off to two?"

Angel sighed, then uttered a wordless noise of the affirmative.

"I think I've found it." Nar exclaimed, scrolling the screen to bring the feature into the middle of the screen, outlined in a green on black contour map. A narrow valley that had been split, running from the South, and then splitting North East and North West due to some freak geological event.

"At last. You should be able to land on a large cliff shelf a mile East of it. The base is up a cliff path, out of sight of the landing spot, ig there's anything left of the path now. Just don't hang around outside and you should be fine. "

There was a sharp 'click' as Angel turned herself off, and Nar glanced around at the others. He soon pinpointed the shelf, and left the chair for Shai to exmaine the landing spot, crading Angel under his shoulder. "Well, we're here."

Since leaving Harvest Skywake had little choice but to warm up to the crew bit by bit. The first couple of days the young boy had been mostly silent, giving one word answers when he had to and being as pathetic as possible. He didn't want to eat, or sleep or do anything any of the crew suggested. Ori was the only one who had any luck with him at all, and if she took any of the suggestions from Nar's note she'd find out he did indeed like Hide and Seek. Especially the 'hiding' part. Sky had discovered the engine room was a 'great' place to sneak away. He'd also discovered that Nar's tools made great toys along with anything he could filch from the sick-bay until they'd wisely learned to keep it locked up.

Now that Sky had figured out he had an entire ship to play in and crew to play with he opened up to be the little child-terror that he was. He'd taken to imitating different members of the crew now and then. Twitching around Ori, limping when he followed behind Quinn. He went shirtless around Kasai and begged play with any of the man's weapons he saw. He managed to steal a tie from Xin's room, wrapping it around his head and covering one of his eyes like a patch.

Copying Shai's handicap was his latest game, much to the pilot's dismay. Shai fended off as many questions as he could from the kid about what it was like to be 'blind.' As much as he tried to explain to Skywake that he did have most of his sight it didn't seem to matter. He'd decided he'd try to distract Sky by giving him some of his paints to play with...which had become a bad idea. Shai had been called away in a rush as they'd neared their detestation and he'd made the mistake of leaving Sky all alone in the kitchen with the paints.

Whoever found him first would find the little blonde boy covered in purple and blue paint, along with his name and various squiggles painted all over the room...including the dining table which he sat in the middle of, pouring puddles of paint all over and then smearing them into an even bigger mess all over the table top with a large grin on his face.



Shaiyat jogged in, stopping to stand silently behind the pilot's chair as Nar had taken over to search for their mysterious destination. His arms were crossed, a look of doubt shot towards the odd computer-box in Nar's lap when it spat out instructions now and then. It wasn't that he didn't trust computers. In his line of work he had to. All of Vega's navigation systems and the like were run by computers. No, it was the thought that a computer could have a mind of its own that didn't sit too well with the pilot. If Quinn hadn't been behind Nar with going on this side mission Shai would've been all for locking Angel away until it quit complaining. Angel scared him. Plain and simple. And following its directions hardly gave him any comfort...even less so when he switched places with Nar and got a better look at just where he was supposed to land his ship.

"Might want ta strap in...assuming Nar's box is right this might be an interesting landing." Shai called out over his shoulder. "Once we hit atmo it'll either be a nice slow trip down or...quick and painful." He gave an uneasy smile to no one in particular as he quickly typed in co-ordinates to Vega and gave the engine more power to push through whatever short of resistance they met once they entered the planet's atmosphere.

"Trick is ta not over-shoot the cliff..." The pilot mumbled, mostly to himself again as he kept Vega as steady as possible. Their decent was moving a bit quicker than he'd like but at least Angel's instructions seemed to be right on. Once the wide expanse of the cliff shelf came into clear view Shai cut most of the power from the engine, jerking the ship quite a bit but causing her to slow to a safer speed as well. They landed semi-smooth, Shai pulling back on the 'brakes' as hard as he could while punching the controls that caused the landing gear to descend in a succession of creaks and groans that rocked the ship from below. He'd aimed Vega in such a away that she landed back-end first in an effort to slow them down as well...seeing as the ship was tail-heavy in nature. The Vega's front end came to earth a few minutes later with a small thud. The ship skidded to a stop a little closer to the cliff's edge than the pilot liked...but they were safe and in one piece. And that was good enough.

Shaiyat could finally breathe, sighing heavily as his hands still moved quickly over the controls to shut things down. "Quick and nearly painless." He sent a shaky smile Quinn's way if she was still around....the silence then broken by Sky's ear-piercing cry from the kitchen.

A.I. were dangerous. All the processing power of a sophisticated computer, and all the raw intelligence of the scientists who created them. But none of the humanity, none of the warmth, none of the emotion. You can't read an A.I. You can never tell when they're lying, or if they're even capable of it. Kasai hadn't been completely on board for this side-quest, but as in most things he had no say.

During the trip, he found the child's antics amusing at least. He had given everyone quite a scare when he handed one of his daggers to Skywake, whom he had taken to calling fēngbào yún₁, for when the little brat got into a mood the whole boat felt it and trouble often followed in his wake. No one actually got hurt in the incident, Kasai didn't consider the cut on his arm Xin had to stitch up to actually be an injury. The merc defended his choice plainly, stating "He needs to learn to defend himself someday."

Currently, he was walking into the mess hall, on his way to get a snack. Completely dressed, which was odd for him, Kasai ignored the child on the table as he searched for something to sate his stomach. He turned around with a red apple in hand, blinked at the sight before him, and took a bite before moving off. Obviously this wasn't actually his problem, nor would he be the correct choice for disciplinary action. He spoke as he passed Skywake,
"Like what you've done with the place, fēngbào." and then made his way to the cockpit.

He leaned at the threshold, looking outside at the jaggedy planet in front of him. The back of his neck itched, the place seemed familiar for some reason. Then again he had glossed over almost every file to pass through Alliance airwaves, so he brushed the feeling off.
"Your box has led us into a deathtrap, burro." He joked to Nar before taking another bite of his apple.

After the Vega had finished it's descent, the merc's immediate reaction to the child's cry was to place his index finger on his nose and say, "Not it."

-----
1 - fēngbào yún / storm cloud

Nar grunted and wiggled a finger in his ear after the scream. "I think he fell off something." He said, moving to discover that the little horror had indeed been pitched off the table during the decent. He made a half hearted attempt to catch the paint covered boy, before he returned to do his best to clean up the paint before it dried. The cleanup delayed the opreration an hour or two, much to Angel's vocal disgust.

Nar eventually pushed her into a crate until they were done cleaning up the ship.

Then eventually, the team was assembled. The plan was simple. They'd go in armed, find whatever it was Angel was looking for and hopefully not encounter the trouble that the computer had promised them wasn't there. The poison in the air wouldn't matter so long as they didn't spend more than a day or two here. The base had it's own air filtration system, but there was no guarantee it was still operating.

There was of course, one other little problem.

"What are we gonna do with Sky?" Nar asked, shooting a glance across at Quinn as he stood by the main door controls in the cargo bay. He had angel slung under one arm, with his shotgun angled across his shoulder in the other hand. "We either take him with us or shut him in somewhere and hope like hell he doesn't do much damage."

"I think my crate is free, now." Angel remarked. Exasperated by all the delays.

(Apologies for the delay!)

Oriana entered the room to find the table covered in paint. She pursed her lips, amused and pissed at the same time. She helped Nar clean the table in silence, then went about cleaning the walls and finally snatched the little boy up and took him to the bathroom, where she set about wiping all the paint off of him with a wet rag.

“When I find out who gave you these paints,” she said, sounding angry, but she was teasing, and Sky probably knew it. She’d been unnerved by Sky imitating her, and was glad the attention had moved to Shai. The boy was still wearing his makeshift eyepatch.

After she’d finished cleaning him up, Ori tugged him down to where everyone was assembled and responded to Nar’s question. “I’ll take care of him,” she said. “Sky and I will stay on the ship while you guys take care of business. We’ll find something fun to do.” She shot a look over at Shai. “Without paint this time.”

Javan wandered in not too long after all the others had gathered, packing and making plans for this dangerous expedition their computer was sending them out on. He found the whole idea a bit crazy, but was smart enough to voice his opinions to his brother only. Shaiyat had his own reservations but Quinn thought it was worth the risk. Therefore so did he. Twins or not, Javan came from a whole different world than the pilot. It was self preservation over teamwork in his world, and he was clever enough to find a way to get out of going on this suicidal quest.

He kept quiet until the question of Skywake's babysitter came up. There it was, his way out. Of course, Ori had jumped at the chance first but the musician knew how to work around that as well. He made his way up to the mercenary, a small smile forming as he moved to place a hand on the young boy's head. He'd managed to build a playful friendship between himself and Skywake and he was going to use that to his advantage. "I could stay." He finally spoke up after Ori, motioning for her to hand the child over as his smile grew. "I've got more experience with kids than guns. An' I'm just takin' a guess on this trip it may be better to have one of the best mercs in the 'Verse on yer team than a musician." He winked at Oriana as he sent her a large smile, waiting for someone to try and argue his point.

Shaiyat certainly didn't try. He was a little leery of leaving his brother with the ship alone, but he couldn't argue with the trade-off. They would need Oriana. And his brother did pilot a few small ships back home, right? Hopefully they wouldn't need anyone to come rescue them. He did his best to ignore Skywake's 'additions' to his paint job in the kitchen. It was his fault for leaving the kid with the paints after all...a fact made clear by the guilty look he shot Ori's way when she look at him. He mouthed a 'sorry' her way before turning his attentions to Nar.

"This shouldn't take more'n a day, right? Thinkin' maybe I should leave Vega in stand-by mode...ya know. Jus' in case we do run inta trouble that ain't there." He gave a nervous smile the mechanic's way. He'd dressed in an all black flight suit, this one void of any of his normal patches or add-ons. He carried a small pack, holding mostly extra ammo and a little food. Mostly ammo. And he remembered his gun this time, holstered under his right arm at his side. It felt odd. And not nearly as comforting to be behind as the big guns Vega had. He shot a look Quinn's way. "Been awhile since we did any sort of genuine stealing. Should be fun seein' as no ones supposed ta be here." His nervous smile gave way to one more heart-felt. Some part of him was actually excited to get out and do some honest pirating...though that may change once they stepped out of the ship.

At the tail end of the cleaning process, Kasai had disappeared into his room. He reemerged a few moments after Javan joined the rest of he group, practically a walking arsenal. Clad in his scouting armor under his longest coat, Kasai was also toting one of his katanas and had a rifle slung over his back. Something still itched at the back of his neck, an annoyance he could neither shake nor identify the reason for it.

He stood quietly as both Oriana and Javan volunteered to stay with the kid, letting out a small hmph as the performer suggested the small woman was "one of the best in the 'verse". At least he wouldn't have to bother watching the brat. It glossed over his thoughts that if they needed the ship defended or emergency piloted, he would definitely be the best choice, but he was much too curious about the planet and the feeling it was giving him to stay behind.

He tilted his head to the side, thinking out loud,
"Sneaking around and stealin' stuff, huh. I know a guy who would love this." A smirk danced across the merc's face for a short moment before returning to his usual blank expression.
"So what the hell are we actually looking for, anyways? Does anyone but that box even know, Nar?"

<< posted from my iPhone >>

Nar also had reservations about Ori staying behind, despite the need for someone to look after Sky. He was almost about to suggest they took the boy with them, when Javan stepped in and thankfully took on the prospect of keeping the boy more or less under control.

When the crew was assembled and ready, Nar lead the way off the ship. "Whew, that was a neat landing, Shai." He commented as he saw how close the firefly was to the cliff wall.

"I don't see what the fuss is about, the Vega has backburners doesn't it?" Angel piped up. Nar gave the box under his arm a look. "Not so much. Lets go."

The narrow path led along the side of the cliff, sloping upwards until it reached another ledge of sorts, though this was much broader. The open space was dominated by a huge set of white painted metal doors, but the path also continued on over the ledge and passed the doors. The doors themselves stood forlornly open, showing signs that they'd been forced open. Dust collected heavily about the open doorway.

Beyond the doors, there was the shape of a large alliance skyskimmer. The sleek vehicle was designed for low altitude flight and pinpoint handling, which it would need to enter and exit the base. The walls of the skimmer bay were marked with scratches, and burns from wild weapons fire. The skimmer itself didn't seem to have suffered much damage, whoever had been shooting had been aiming at someone or something swarming around the little craft.

And inside the craft, there was a small bundle, wrapped up in a blanket and coughing fitfully.

"Geez.." Nar shouldered his gun and hurried inside. "Someone's here."

Dusty kept herself wrapped tightly in the blanket, silently cursing her luck with every passing moment. She'd known that ship had been bad news from the start but she'd been so eager for a crew that she'd ignored every instinct and gone on ahead. Now she was wishing she'd stayed on that backwater moon.

She froze in place when she heard the sound of people approaching and did what she could to stifle her coughing. It was too late, they'd noticed her first. It was probably her old crew. Dusty had been wondering when they would second guess leaving her for dead and decide to come finish the job themselves. She carefully gripped the pistol on her belt and waited for Nar to enter before pulling it out and aiming it at him. She had to use both hands to hold it steady as she staggered to her feet, looking like death warmed over. "...The hell do you want?" Her voice was weak and hoarse but she put as much authority behind it as she could manage, which given her situation wasn't much.

[Sorry the post isn't all that long. Got a cold that's kicking my ass.]

After the youth had come aboard Quinn had attempted to sit him down, hoping to scare him into behaving with threats of punishment if he did x, y and z. Although the child's eyes had grown large during the first half of her speech, he was soon bouncing in his seat and complaining about being hungry. The captain gave up. Her new approach was to avoid Sky, handing childcare tasks largely to Ori though most of the crew played a part in entertaining the kid. A simple glare and thrown object usually stopped Sky from imitating her for a while, but it certainly didn't earn her a new friend. The child rattling on and on about how mean she was to anyone who would listen.

Quinn remained quiet throughout Nar's search and during the trip down to the abandoned planet. Narrowed eyes scrutinized the landscape as the Vega made its final descent. She pushed herself up from her vantage point at the back of the cockpit once the ship touched ground, arms crossing as she came forward to continue the staring contest.

An impatient glance was shot Kasai's way after his announcement following Sky's scream. She followed Nar out, eyes growing large as she rounded the corner into the mess. "Oh my god," she said, turning around and walking back the way she came. She petered around the cargo hold, cleaning gear and otherwise avoiding cleaning up Sky's renovation attempt upstairs. Everyone was given a small oxygen mask - chances were they wouldn't be needed, but in case something happened Quinn wanted everyone to be equipped. Ammo, food stuffs, water, lock picking tools, spare weaponry, lights and the such were laid out on a fold out table near the air lock for everyone to load up on.

Quinn shook her head when Ori offered to stay behind. "Javan's right - we'll need a gun more'n a musician. Make sure the brat stays outta trouble, Javan." Unlike Shai, the captain didn't have any reservations about leaving Javan alone in the ship because, at least so far, he hadn't done anything worth being suspicious about. The strangeness over being shot at when in close proximity to the man was nearly forgotten by Quinn, and he had turned out to be a friendly, even charming passenger. She also really liked that he didn't complain about doing laundry. Quinn was glad to finally meet one of Shai's brothers who was actually tolerable.

She gave a short nod to Shai's question. "Should be a real quick in 'n out deal. Don't want anyone by themselves, so we'll split to groups a two. Kasai, yer with me, then it's Nar 'n Doc and Shai 'n Ori." If anyone found anything useful she figured it would be Nar with Angel's help, or Kasai... and Quinn wanted to keep an eye on the latter.

And so the adventure began, everyone following behind Nar up the trail. Quinn's hand came to rest on the pistol at her hip when a cough echoed out of the gloomy entrance way. "Nar," she began, the warning too late. After asking everyone to stay put by the door Quinn advanced, her own weapon joining the party as she slowly walked up beside Nar.

"We ain't here to start nothin'. Put yer gun down 'n we'll do the same. You alone?" Considering the woman's health and the condition of the base, Quinn figured she was.

Nar hadn't even unshouldered his shotgun, but he stopped when Quinn called to him, even if he was a fair bit closer than the others and an obvious target. He held up his hands, if the poor young woman could see them. "Yeah, calm down and listen to the cap'n. Don't be pulling no triggers and maybe we can help eachother eh?"

Angel made another exasperated noise from beneath Nar's arm. "Is she a scientist?" She snapped. "A survivor?"

Nar didn't even pause. "No, now shush." He said, tapping the lid of the box. The reply was unintelligable muttering.

He stepped back again, waiting to see if the young woman would start shooting, relax or collapse to the floor. She seemed entirely undecided as to which to do first.

[I am so sorry for the delay. Been really busy with work and haven't had the chance to get online]

Dusty frowned as she saw who it was that rounded the corner. She'd been expecting that they'd decided to come and finish her off but these guys...they were strangers. "What?" She blinked a few times and tried to clear her mind. Was she being rescued?

"Who the hell-?" She was cut off by a series of coughs and stumbled sideways into the wall, wrapping her arms around her midsection and going down to one knee. The gun fell to the floor, forgotten. "I'm sorry." She managed to get out between coughs. "Thought you were m-" Dusty paused and took a few deep breaths. "Someone else."

She turned a bit so that her back was to the wall and looked up at the small group. "Think you'd be willin' to give me a lift?" She wiped her face off on the sleeve of an old and battered brown long coat that looked to be a size or two too large for her. "I'd rather not die here." She was trying to stay calm. Nobody wanted a crazy person on their ship. But if they said no, she couldn't say what she would do.

A mumble came from Kasai's direction when Quinn decided how they'd split. In his experiences unevenly split groups led to trouble. On top of that he still had his qualms with leaving the musician behind in the ship. Something about that man still didn't sit right with the merc.

But all of that left his mind when they came upon the skimmer. Immediately his thoughts were focused on the ship. He could tell from the scoring that whoever had fired the shots weren't aiming at the skimmer itself, but someone or somethings that had been on it. A prospect he wasn't quite fond of. The other marks, scattered wildly along the hull only fed his theory. He ran his hand across one of the long, deep scratches, his eyes gazing off into the distance.
Something else was on this desolate planet, or at least something else had been there. He was sure of that, at least.
"Akuma no jishin no un₁." The words slid from his lips as his eyes trailed every crevice, every hole, every shadow that was within his sight. Watching for even the slightest movement, he carefully stepped towards the door to the skimmer.

His voice entered the ship calmly, but with a noticeable edge. "What were they shooting at?" He spoke quietly at first, but even the small moment of silence was too much for him. He raised his voice, stepping into the threshold of the ship. His eyes fell on the other woman for a moment, his heavy armored appearance hopefully not startling her any.
"What were they shooting at?" He maintained a calm tone, but both dreadfully and happily anticipated the coming answer.

His sharp gaze didn't last long, glancing once to the captain before turning his back to those inside the ship and scanning his surroundings once more.

-----
1 - Akuma no jishin no un / The devil's own luck

[Sorry, I only just now realized I had a PM telling me that we don't go in order. I've been waiting for others to post x.x]

Dusty took a step back as the armored man came into view. She hoped that she hadn't ruined her chances of rescue by threatening the one who had come in first. She slid down the wall further until she was sitting on the floor, looking up at them weakly. "Some shot at us...dropped us off and shot....others, I don't know." She lowered her head and coughed before gesturing to a body back in the corner, her old captain. There had been a mutiny and it had been Dusty and the captain who had taken the crew's wrath. If they would examine the man they would notice that he had been shot in the back.

"C-can I come with you?" She didn't know who they were or what they might do to her once she was in their custody but there were few things she could think of that were worse than being left on this planet to slowly suffocate to death.

Nar stepped across to the body after glancing at the young woman, and knelt to examine him. He was shocked to find the nature of the gunshot wound. The idea of shooting someone who wasn't even looking at him, let alone shooting back disturbed him. But then, there were those in the 'verse with no such finer feelings. He remembered all too well the shooting incident at the party they had attended oh-so recently.

"I'd be murder to leave her here Cap'n." He commented, glancing over his shoulder and leaving the body alone. His trusting nature did not allow him to believe that Dusty had shot the man in the back herself. "But I'm afraid, the Vega needs parts. And we need to explore this place to get them. So let's be about. I'm sure someone can help you back to the ship if you need to get out of here." He said, giving her a reassuring smile. Then he moved off and put his shoulder to the door that led to the rest of the complex.

Unexpectedly, the door slid back into it's niche as he approached it, and he fell head first into the ajoining corridor.

"Gorram place still has power!" He exclaimed loudly, picking himself up and heading deeper in, after collecting Angel, who he'd dropped. She was swearing quietly, but glad that he was resolute to explore. The way forward immediately turned right, down a curving set of stairs. Brandishing his shotgun he headed cautiously down them, wary of automatic turrets.

The scene at the bottom of the steps was not what he'd been expecting.

The large room spoke of a fed command station, the first line of defence in the event of unwelcome visitors. And unwelcome visitors had certainly arrived.

Bodies were strewn everywhere. Some wore Fed body armor, others did not. Most were nearly unrecognisable. The cool, dry filtered air of the facility had turned them all into shrivelled mummies, devoid of moisture. Dry cracked skin stretched over brittle bones. "Hnn...." He groaned, stumbling to lean against the wall.

"Angel, what the hell happened here.?"

"The facility was attacked. And the attackers took what they came for and left. Corpses are just corpses." She replied glibly. "They can't hurt you."

Ori was perturbed at being pretty much ordered to go with them, but she obeyed without complaint. She would do anything the captain told her to. Part of her was glad to leave Sky on the ship, so when she was paired up with Shai, she happily hooked elbows with him and gave him a smile. “Bet we can find the parts faster’n y’all,” she said.

The sight of the woman and the body was enough to get Ori to take a step back, though. She made a face and, though she was okay around wounds of any kind, seemed a little nauseated at the sight of a corpse. “I think I’ll go check over here,” she said, heading to a door farthest away from the body.

((Sorry I haven’t been playing, and sorry my post is kinda bleh. D: But I’m back! ))