Starbolt's Pride Alpha topic

[Jabber Swarky]

Jabbers grumbled a little, still tethered to Blackstar, reaching a paw up to his mask to adjust it a little. Hrumph. "This place is falling apart..." He mumbled, stamping his foot a few times against the deckplate to see how sturdy it was. Still. "....You guys are gonna need a new bulkhead there, right? Because I've got one, nearly new... fell off the back of a freighter..." He grinned... though, it was hidden behind his mask, just his eyes visible through his eyepieces, voice slightly tinny through the speakers

"Blackstar, how long till i can make myself comfortable in your berth?" He chuckled. "Oh, and how long until we go back to your ship, too?"

[Mikey]

"Whaddya mean, you don't know what I'm talking about?!" Sharkey was quickly getting frustrated by the Yridian's evasiveness. It was becoming clear that humans were far from the preferred species in these parts.

"I'm a simple trader in spices. I don't know where to acquire such things," replied the Yridian with an obviously put-on air of humility.

"I'm not asking for anything restricted. I just want a skimmer chassis. A legitimate used one will be fine - as long as its in good shape."

"Hmmm, yes, but the cost of finding such things will of course increase the actual price," murmured the leathery-skinned alien. "How will we cover that, I wonder?"

Despite himself, Sharkey reached over the counter and grabbed the Yridian by the collar. Pulling the small-framed merchant off his feet and over the countertop, Sharkey growled, "We'll see. Selling things is your profession. For 25 years, killing things has been mine. Would a fully-functional, unregistered Xindi particle rifle cover a finder's fee? 'Cause I think it will - either as a trade, or with someone looking down the barrel."

"Hmmm, yes," said the Yridian shakily, "it appears that such will indeed be sufficient... and the show of faith of crediting an account here will certainly make procuring something easier... Yes. Be here in three hours, and I will have something to show you. Bring your collateral."

"I will. And you bring some information - I might be in the market for some heavy personal firepower... Fed tech, none of that Breen crap. Let me know who to talk to, and we'll count that finder's fee settled."

[Reliant121]

Now, Talora was really bored. It had seemed to have been ages since she Returned to the ship. She doubted it was, but she was determined not to look at the clock.
And then it came...it was a little late today. She trembled with the memory of him, the essence of his conscience. She felt his cry of pain ring through her body as she remembered the Disrupter beam piercing his body. Her senses lost all comprehension as she collapsed against the bulkhead, wrestling to gain some control on her emotions. And then it left, like it had never been there.
She had lived with it ever since Her love had died years ago. she had been told that it was almost impossible to cure. Only the Vulcans had this kind of discipline. And she'd never submit to their way of living. Never.
EDIT: ADDITION:-

She walked into the bridge, still disorientated by the effects of her lapse. Collapsing into a chair, she rested her head on the control console.
But then she noticed the numerous signals...
"Dammit..." She said, checking through the data. The signals had come from a Runabout. Danube class by the look of it. She decided to answer.
"Unknown vessel, this is the Independant starship Starbolt's Pride. Please state your identity."
"I'm Cech. I'm an independant freelancer looking for work. As an engineer. I was hoping i could come aboard? For work?" Came a male voice.
Now came the decision. Did she leave him...and perhaps deny her ship a useful ally...or bring him aboard and possibly risk the ship. Any self respecting Romulan would deny him docking clearance. So she did the opposite.
"Standby. Manouevre your ship to within tractor beam range of the Pride. I'll tractor you in."
"It's alright, I can take her in myself." Oh no you don't she thought.
"I would prefer that I bring your vessel in." Moment of silence.
"Very well."
She locked onto the hull signature. It wasn't hard. The bright blue tractor beam lanced out, grasping the Runabout. She slowly dragged it through the energy barrier and into the shuttlebay, parking it next to her shuttlecraft.
This would be interesting she thought as she picked up her disrupter rifle and walked into the Turbolift.

[Sionnach Glic]

"Right. Well, I'd better be off." Sekhot replied to Bossk, who was trying to ignore the bartender's requests for payment. "I want to take care of a few things before I leave the station. I'll see you on the ship."

With that, Sekhot wandered out of the bar to find the station's many traders and merchants. After buying some fuel and spare parts for his ship, he headed back to the station's hanger.

Sitting in the middle of the almost deserted hanger was Sekhot's gunship, the Diaga Cúiteamh. The aging ship, a blocky mass of metal and gun mounts, sat away from the handful of other ships in the hanger, giving off an air of silent power.
The ship sat with it's nose pointing out towards space, with it's engines facing the entrance to he hanger. Steam billowed from vents along the gunship's spine from the cooling system and collected around the roof of the bay.
The gunship was burned and blackened in several places, a testiment to one too many close calls the ship's various owners had had. Along the side of the ship, just under the cockpit, someone (most likely the a member of the ship's last crew) had taken a can of spray-paint to the steel-grey hull, and crudely daubed the words 'Diaga Cúiteamh' along the side in red paint. Sekhot hadn't been particularly fond of this piece of grafiti at the start, but had become fond of the name over the course of time. He had to admit; Divine Retribution had a nice ring to it for such a well-armed beast.

Sekhot walked around to the front of the ship, and strode up the lowered ramp under the gunship's blunt nose into the forward hold. As he got inside he yanked the lever to raise the ramp, which lifted up with a whine, covering the main exit of the ship.
He strode through the hatch that led to what had originaly been the main troop hold and was now Sekhot's cargo hold, and dumped some of the supplies he had purchased among a pile of equipment and various objects at the back of the hold. He also stowed his shotgun in an armoured locker to the right of the ladder that led to the upper deck, and decided to do something about the damned faulty AI system.

After an hour or so of fiddling with the ridiculously complex computer systems, he wandered into the cockpit and decided to check if the AI was working again. Turning the computer systems on, he flicked the switch that activated the AI and ordered it to scan the Starbolt's Pride.

'display scan results' He typed, after the sensors had finished scanning his employer's vessel.
'UNABLE TO COMPLY. QUERY TOO VAGUE' Well, it was a start, anyway.

'display ship status'
'SHIP STATUS: FULLY OPERATIONAL' Good, he was getting somewhere.

'display ship armament'
'SHIP ARMAMENT:
4 BOLT-STYLE ENERGY WEAPONS; UNKOWN MAKE
2 BEAM-STYLE ENERGY WEAPONS; UNKOWN MAKE
3 TORPEDO SYSTEMS; UNKNOWN MAKE'

"How very helpful." Sekhot snarled at the computer. Deciding to just give up on attempting to find out more about the ship, he started up the engines and headed out of the station. The sensors registered the Pride a small distance away, with some small shuttle-sized ship hovering around it. Sekhot flicked open a comms channel, and decided he might as well ask permission to come aboard.

[sunnyside]

In the cargo bay Cech stepped down from his ship.

"I hope that settles that I'm hired." He thought to himself. "Ah looks like someone is coming in the turbolift."

He then looked over, was that a Romulan craft?

At that moment the doors opened and Talor rushed forward rifle in hand. Sweeping back and forth to check for others in the area.

"Who are you!"

Check instintivly jumped backward and managed to hit his head on the Danubes hull.

"Ouch... I'm Jackson Cech. Hopefully head engineer around here now. I just intereviewed with Blackstar and I thought it went well. I figured you brining me in meant I'd been hired.

Look do you have something that needs some work?"

He steps sideways and Talora keeps tracking him with the rifle. "And could you please not point that at me, maybe aim a little off to the side, geez."

[Blackstar the Chakat]

Blackstar began talking into hir comm, from an outside viewpoint it looked like shi was talking into hir arm. "Sally, several shuttle craft may be requesting entry soon. Including a runabout with a human pilot, an alien craft type unkown with an insectoid and possibly a Gorn aboard, and I think I'm forgetting someone. Well, if you get an unknown requesting entry, just ask me about it. I'm going to be getting a new weapon. Blackstar out."

Blackstar made hir way to a local weapons dealer, intending to replace hir gauntlet weapons, which had been confiscated by the Daystrom's security forces. Shi browsed through a ton of weapons, finding some more types of hidden weapon types similar to the wrist mounted devices that shi had constructed hirself. However what shi found most interesting was what looked like a shotgun.

"That's a baby railgun," said the salesman, "accelerators any metal shells to a much higher speed then any powder could. And it has a mini-transporter to reload the shells from an allied transporter. And if all else fails the gun can still fire with the powder. Won't be as powerful and you'll have to manually reload it, but still useful in energy dampening fields. It can work anyplace except space and underwater. Well, actually if the railgun works you might be able to still use it. Not as well underwater but, you get my point I think."

Blackstar nodded in approval, "I'll take a dozen and the replicator patterns for them and their ammunition. I'll give you 20% extra over the normal price if you can ready them in an hour and have them delivered to my ship. Here are the access codes you'll need. They'll only work once so bring the whole purchase."

"Excellent. I just need your thumbprint here." Blackstar pressed hir finger on his PADD's thumbprint scanner. "Here's your receipt, and it has been a pleasure doing buisness with you."

Blackstar took one of the shotgun-styled railguns and a pack of non-lethal ammo called birdshot. Not lethal to most species at least, but it still stung like a sonofabitch. Since it wouldn't penetrate the skin of most species, much less the hull of the station the security people let it go. "I suppose I should check up on the Pride, see if Tallora's back yet. I just hope Jabbers doesn't piss her off with his innuendo."

[Reliant121]

Talora stood, letting the weapon droop a little. She wasn't sure whether to trust him.
"Hm..I'll aim my weapon where I wish. As for the job...If Blackstar trusts you then I won't fire. But you aren't touching anything until shi gets back." Talora said. She beckoned for him to get in the lift. He did so and she followed, pressing the key to take her to the bridge.
They emerged into the quiet control centre. A console was bleeping. Another hail. Talora answered the call, while Cech started to look at the panels. He reached for one, but was abruptly halted by a Projectile Hypospray. He turned to see Talora's stare.
"This is the Starbolt's pride. How may i help you?" A voice crackled in over the comm.
"I'm Esthu Sekhot. I'm looking for a job and your ship came up top of my list. I'm here to see Blackstar," came the voice.
"Hm...She's on the station at the moment. But you can dock until she comes back. I'll tractor you in," Talora replied. The comm signal ended, and the aging shuttle craft moved into tractor range. She activated the tractor beam and dragged the shuttle into the bay, near to the Xindi craft.
Once again she left, followed by Cech, craving a hot chocolate.

[Sionnach Glic]

"I'll tractor you in." Replied the female voice from the Pride.

Sekhot wasn't too pleased with that particular turn of events. He preffered to have full control over what was going on, and the idea of someone else flying his ship for him wasn't that appealing. Still, the voice didn't sound like she was willing to debate over it, so he just flicked off the comms and waited for the jolt of the tractor beam latching onto his ship.

As the Diaga Cúiteamh was pulled towards the open shuttlebay doors, Sekhot's paranoia began to act up again. He got up out of the pilot's seat, and walked over to one of the other stations in the cockpit. Tapping in a command to the ship's computer, he ordered a scan of the Pride's shuttlebay with all scanners.

For a moment, every sensor and information screen in the cockpit went dead as every sensor on the gunship shut down and refocused on the larger vessel. After a moment, the screens flickered back on. Sitting back down in the pilot's seat, Sekhot tapped in a queery to the AI.

'display hanger contents'
'CONTENTS OF SCANNED AREA:
1 XINDI ASSAULT CRAFT; UNCREWED, UNPOWERED, MODERATELY ARMED
1 DANUBE CLASS SHUTTLE; UNCREWED, UNPOWERED, LIGHTLY ARMED
1 UNKOWN SHUTTLE; UNCREWED, UNPOWERED, MODERATELY ARMED
13 FUEL AND CARGO CRATES
NO LIFE SIGNS IN HANGER'

That was pretty reasuring. Despite this, he commanded the AI to arm the gunship's weapons, and train the turrets on the two ships already on the Pride. The four computer controled turrets on the gunship's fuselage and wingtips swiveled quickly to aim at the two other shuttles, optical sensors mounted on the turrets displaying a 'gun's-eye-view' of their targets on various monitors in the cockpit. The targetting system bleeped, telling him that the missiles were ready to launch. From somewhere below him he could hear the whine of the forward beam-cannon's generator powering up.

His precautions turned out to be unecassary, though, as the Cúiteamh landed in the shuttlebay with no incidents. Looking out through the gunship's reinforced cockpit canopy, he couldn't see any movement in the hanger. Nor could he see any one through the turret's cameras. A second sensor scan showed a couple of life-signs on the upper decks, though. Deciding he may as well take a look around, Sekhot switched off the ship's systems and exited his vessel, but not before grabbing his shotgun and a pistol.

"Anyone there?" He called as he stepped off of the exit-ramp at the front of the shuttle. The hanger was deserted asside from him and the three ships. The only noise came from the Cúiteamh's cooling system, which was clanging incesscently and billowing an ominous amount of steam from the vents near the engines.
Sekhot made a mental note to take a look at the engine's coolant devices, when there came the noise of a turbolift door sliding open. Out of the lift stepped a thin looking human. Right behind him was a Romulan female holding a rifle in her hands. The human didn't look completely happy with the situation, and perhaps he was the reason that it had taken someone that long to actualy get down to the hanger. Still, had he wanted to he could have planted bombs on each of the shuttles in the Pride's small hanger before anyone could get to him. Even then, one armed Romulan wasn't exactly a terrifying opponent, and he'd put more faith in his shotgun than some fancy energy gun any day.

"Your security could do with some work." Sekhot said, suppresing a smirk.

[Blackstar the Chakat]

"Actually our security monitored your ship targeting the other shuttle ships," said Blackstar who had just walked into the bay. "Had you fired my ship, the Chakat's Dream would've destroyed your ship." Blackstar had a rifle slung over hir arm. "I had the Pride's AI covering the missle clamps with an adhesive. You should remove it before you try firing. Depending on the torpedo type it'll either send your ship off coarse or the torpedo could be torn apart and possibly detonate, destroying your own ship. Your beam's primary firing circuits have also been disabled. You would've been destroyed before the secondary circuits came on line. They're still in place, mostly. You just need to put them back in their correct slots, or whatever your ship uses. I wasn't concerned with the details."

"Can't you fix it yourself? You did do the damage after all." asked Sekhot

"Yes," said Blackstar, "however as punishment for targeting an allied vessel on purpose you'll fix it yourself. You shouldn't aim a gun at friends. Remember that."

[Reliant121]

The interplay between Blackstar and this Sekhot brought a smile to Talora's face. It wasn't often that Blackstar exercised this kind of discipline. I suppose this might be happening alot more, now she had a crew to lead Talora thought to herself.
Talora walked over to the small replicator mounted in the bay and asked for a hot chocolate. A large mug with the drink materialized on the pad. She picked it up and sipped, letting the warm comforting liquid seep into her taste buds. She felt alot better for having a drink.
"Tally?" Blackstar called...Talora snapped out of her daydream, which for some reason concerned decorating her and Blackstar's quarters.
"Yes?"
"Could you take Mr. Cech to his quarters?" Blackstar asked.
"Tur Norhaviin Ilaa mirsuul?" Talora asked, knowing that the UT wouldn't recognise her little known Romulan dialect. Blackstar got out her little hand-held padd, and translated the recording.
"Thats the one." Blackstar said, smiling. Deck 4 section 17. Talora nodded and walked out of the room, followed closely by Cech.
It wasn't long before she reached his assigned quarters. She keyed in the sequence, unlocking the door.
"Here you are Mr. Cech. If you need anything, just call me," She said indicating to the comm panel in the wall. "I have to ask you to either remain with me or in here."
"I'd prefer to remain with you..." He said, not wanting to miss anything.
"Very well." She said, turning on her heels, Again followed closely by Cech.
They met up with Blackstar and Sekhot on the way to the bridge...

[Mikey]

"Transport is complete," said the Ferengi, "and so is the transfer of funds. Since that knucklehead Yridian had no concept of how to promote future business," he looked at Sharkey's massive form and icy stare, "or personal safety, I reduced the selling price to a a suitable amount."

"And the difference?" asked Sharkey without uncrossing his arms.

"Will cover the finder's fee he mentioned. The information you asked for will be more expensive then he estimated, but if what you have to offer is real, then I'm sure we can talk..."

Sharkey unslung the long, wrapped bundle he was carrying and unfurled the cover. Inside was one of the Xindi-Insectoid rifles from the Myrmidon. Despite himself, the Ferengi gaped. "Do you know that they don't make these for export?! I have collectors who would pay big for this." The Ferengi sighted along the electrostatic generators ringing the barrel, and then scanned the weapon with a small tricorder. "And legitimate. Can you produce items like this regularly? We might be able to arrange an... er... ongoing business relationship..."

"We'll see," answered Sharkey shortly. "Do you have something you want to share with me?" he said, advancing slowly toward the small Ferengi.

"You want to talk to a man named Kortaga. I can get you all the CRM-114's you could carry, but he's got the hottest new Fed tech. I of course wouldn't know where to find such a man right now -" Sharkey growled - "but, uh, of course I have heard about his most recent trail. Here." The Ferengi tossed Sharkey the PADD with the skimmer specs on it. Recently added were course and system coordinates.

"If these are cold," Sharkey said matter-of-factly, "the only arranging I'll be doing with you is finding a new arrangement for your internal organs." Sharkey turned on his heel and walked out of the cargo bay.

**********

Back aboard the Pride, Gunny first checked the shuttle bay. Sitting directly behind the Myrmidon was the skimmer, as promised. Open-topped but with high gunwales, it was roughly 4 meters long. Reaching in and hitting the power, Sharkey was pleased to see the craft rise slightly and all the proper indicators turn on, but it would still need an overhaul - and perhaps some special modifications.

Gunny's head snapped from side to side as he entered the bridge. He recalled the twitchy human from the bar on the station, but then turned and caught sight of Sekhot. "Hey, it was empty when I found it!" he yelled, and then narrowed his eyes at the insectoid alien. "Whoa, sorry - I thought you were Xindi." Turning to Blackstar as if nothing unusual had occurred, he tossed hir a PADD. "Looks like I got a lead on your buddy, skip," he said, then reached into a pocket and tore open an MRE.

[Blackstar the Chakat]

*error*

[Monroe]

Bossk grabbed the last of his belongings. He had a padd of information concerning Earth's history and culture as long with thousands of songs and movies. He also had a model of Earth's starfleet's Enterprise, the ship captained by Captain Archer. The model would play real sounding battle noises based on which button along the back were touched. A commlink designed to resemble a batman communicator. He also had a bag of twenty-three different pairs of shorts and lastly he had an oily substance he used to bathe.. then lick off himself.

"Bossk to Cap't Blacksun. One big one to beam up." He then turned to his room, with the commlink still open to Blackstar, "Bye good room. Bye bed. Bye counter. Bye beer. Wait beer!" He leaned down and grabbed the beer in his mouth as he felt the tingle of being beamed aboard Starbolt's Pride.

[Jabber Swarky]

Jabbers, meanwhile, would be at a commlink himself, having spent his time gathering up any of his useful belongings... and several of his belongs which could potentially useful, along with a few that were just shiny, to be used as presents. Still, we always did suscribe to the phrase "Efficiency is everything in space", and had somehow managed to cram them into a trio of crates, all emblazoned with the Swarky Trade Affiliates logo. And, for some reason, he was still wearing his breather. Looks like he REALLY didn't trust the station's integrity.

"Swarky to Starbolt's Pride, New crewmember asking for permission to come aboard." He grinned, spraying a little breathspray into his mouth... fur starting to frizz up as the teleporters started yanking his particles aboard.

Though, to put it eloquently, he would be less than pleased to see Bosk again after he threw off his groove in the bar.

[Reliant121]

Talora sat, in her and Blackstar's quarters, deep in thought. What if it happens when everyone is around. What if I can't control it. What if...it kills me. At the sound of the door chiming, she was dragged back into the world of the living. Dragged with infinate pleasure.
"Come in," She said. Silvertail walked through the doors, carrying a padd and not looking happy.
"What the hell happened?" Shi asked, flinging the padd. it landed squarely on the desk. Talora glanced at it...Damn.
"You were monitering me...Why?"
"Because I monitor everyone...Your chemical balance wen completely out. Your pain meter went through the roof. What happened?"
"For that we have to look back into the past. Its a long story." Talora replied.
"I got plenty of time."
So, Talora began to unravel the past....