Desmond Zini's Story

The freighter Nadia was mostly quiet throughout the trip, though the hull creaked just a bit when people walked the halls. It was their first day in the trip from Thebes in the Jupiter Almathea (inner group) to Themisto a large irregular moon. The usual 3 day trip was taking longer than it should have, the Nadia had left port after Thebe's orbit had passed Themisto's and now the latter's retrograde orbit was taking the satellite away from the ship.

Vesta

The girl checked her charts, only two and a half more days according to the adjusted course, and rechecked her inventory, making sure she had enough fuel. "Four passengers and three of them are freaks." She sighed to herself. "At least he promised this last run would be enough for me to have worked off the debt." The man she worked for was ruthless and greedy, but he had given her a chance and she was happy that he'd be letting her off soon. He'd even offered her real work after the run, but she wasn't sure if she'd accept. She went on over the intercom.

"Alright folks, course has been readjusted and we'll be running for two and a half days to get to Themisto. We'll get some minor turbulence as we pass by the outer ring in about 18 hours but other than that sailing should be smooth. Thanks again for flying with the Nadia, if you need anything just buzz me over the intercoms."

The engine room was filled with a mix of noises. The hum of the engines was the loudest, the noise of the life support following it, 1980's rock underlying them and if you listened close enough you could hear mumbling and the sound of tinkering. The hum of the engine came from the very back of the room while the music and tinkering came from a corner near the front. While the noise echoed throughout the room, a soft white glow emanated from the machine near the front of the room. A minefield of tools, scrap metal and junk parts was strewn across the floor illuminated by the lights throughout the room, the only clean spaces being a working space around the life support and engine.

When entering the room in the right-hand corner there was a workbench that was almost as messy as the floor around it. Setting at it was a man in his late twenties tinkering with an orb. This man did not look to out of the ordinary, he had brown hair, approximately 5' 9" in height. However, his right arm looked metallic and was held out in a way as if he was using a wrench that looked as if it was coming out of the top of his hand instead of being held, and a blue glow emanated from his eye on the same side.

Desmond Zini

With the sound of the intercom staring he hit a button on the orb to quiet the music. As he sat the orb down on the bench little legs came out of the orb that it rested on. He walked over and listened to the announcement that was being made, nice two more days in space, that means longer time until I have to be on a planet. He thought to himself hitting the button, "I'm good just let me know if anybody needs anything fixed and I will do my best to fix it." With that a clang could be heard and Desmond looked over to the workbench to see his orb on the floor scuttling away, "So, I may have accidentally automated the legs on my orb shouldn't be hard for me to catch but if anybody comes in here please be careful where they step." With that he let go of the button and ran after his orb.

Vesta settled back in her chair only to almost instantly get two buzzes on her intercom. The first shocked her so much that she barely even recognized the second. She opened a link to the engineering room and stuttered "Ah-alright just don't let it get into anything, and please for the love of everything please don't touch anything." Then she opened a link to the janitor's closet then closed it. "Shitshitshit." She opened the link again. "Current orders are to- um- deactivate, please? And- uh- wait until we have completed transit."

She sat back rubbing her temples and trying not to hyperventilate. "They said it wasn't supposed to turn on. They said it was in the shutdown charging state. Why is this happening?" She began flipping some switches under the UI board. After a few seconds a panel next to the pilot's chair on the floor opened and Vesta reached inside to pull out a blue glowing cylinder with a knob on one end. She pressed the glowing blue side to her neck and gasped as her eyes flashed a fluorescent blue. She tossed the cylinder back in the hidden compartment, closed it, and sighed contentedly. "He's gonna kill me if he finds out that thing woke up on my watch." She got up, stretched, and grabbed a multi-tool. Then she started the trip back to the cleaning closet.

Soon after finishing his announcement Desmond jumped after his sphere muttering things about catching it. Making all kinds of noise kicking the junk all over the floor as well as the occasional dive after the thing he hardly heard the captain over the intercom, "Ah-alright just don't let it get into anything, and please for the love of everything please don't touch anything." After about five minuets of chasing after the sphere Desmond finally grabbed it, it's legs retracting with the whirling sound of gears as he touched it. "I don't know how that happened but I'll have to fix that soon."

He walked over to the intercoms and hit the button again, "What do you mean not to touch anything, wasn't I hired to be the engineer? That means if something breaks I'm going to have to touch it." With that he walked over to his work bench turning his music back on and started to open up the sphere to find out what he had done.

Vesta

The girl sighed and stopped. She turned around and returned to the pilot's seat. The new kid, she'd been so worried about the android that she'd completely forgotten she'd taken on a new engineer so she could focus on intercepting if things got too hot. SHe struggled with snapping back over the intercom and eventually decided against it. She was thinking about the small stashes she'd hidden throughout the ship. If something broke near one of them, she'd be found out. She'd hate to have to space the kid, but if it came to him or her, she'd do it. Messaging him might just make him suspicious. That made her think of the bot in the closet. This cargo was everything, it was her freedom, her future. If it got out and was discovered by the others on the ship, then at best they'd have to be paid off and at worst she'd take the fall for her employer's theft. She took a deep breath, the drugs in her body oxidizing and making her eyes flash blue again. It wasn't going to happen, she had it under control. She reopened the link to the janitor's closet.

"Shut down and wait for new directives upon arrival." She closed the link and waited, hoping for an affirmative.

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Meanwhile, just out of scanner range, a group of fighters, a corvette, and a frigate shut down their engines and emptied their heat sinks, drifting quickly towards the Nadia in stealth.

Desmond Zini

Desmond found that he had placed a couple wires in the wrong place. It was a quick fix for him, after that he didn't know what to do. He sat there and span in his chair quickly getting dizzy before deciding to try randomly put something together. Quickly getting bored Desmond jumped up and went back over to the intercoms, "Does anybody have anything broken, or just something that they don't mind me taking apart?" He sat there bobbing to his music waiting for a response, waiting an waiting and waiting.

Vesta
The girl sighed and rubbed her face. It appeared that she'd have to shut it down herself or somehow dismantle it. Then Desmond asked for something to do and she wished it was that simple. Asking Zini to shut it down would get rid of a couple of headaches but if he asked questions or dug too deep she'd be the one to take the blame. Instead she scanned the ship's outputs to see if anything was down. "Looks like the CO2 scrubbers are performing at 0.03% less efficiency if you wanna take a look at that. Could use some maintenance on the solar batteries as well, though they won't do us much good this far out from the Sun." She opened up a comm link to the android. "What are your current directives then?" She waited a small while for a response before she started to notice blips on her scanner. "Oh-"

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The ships had only been drifting for a few minutes when they got within firing range of the Nadia. Once within range they opened up their engines again and closed in, the fighters circling the ship and the corvette approaching to dock while the frigate settled the sights of its main cannons on the Nadia. The alarms on the Nadia blared to life and then were suddenly cut off by the intercoms. "Attention Nadia passengers and crew. Lay down arms and prepare to be boarded."

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"-Shit." Vesta flipped a few switches on the console and opened a hatch to her interceptor. She grabbed a headset and switched it to an open channel to everyone on board. "Alright guys looks like we've got pirates." She pressed another blue cylinder to her neck with a small grunt then climbed down the chute to the Springbok. Life or death situations always made her think more clearly, act more logically. She'd have pondered why this was if she wasn't hyped up on stims or shoving cables into her cybernetic legs to connect her to the interceptor. She grunted, letting the nerves that connected her to her legs connect her to the smaller ship. 'Anyone with navigation or combat experience chime in if you wanna live."

[OOC: Why does this always post twice?!]

Desmond Zini

"Looks like the CO2 scrubbers are performing at 0.03% less efficiency if you wanna take a look at that. Could use some maintenance on the solar batteries as well, though they won't do us much good this far out from the Sun." Came through the intercom and just as Desmond was about to respond he heard the sirens go off followed by "Attention Nadia passengers and crew. Lay down arms and prepare to be boarded." He did not like the sound of that, he looked around the room to see if he could construct any make shift weapons but there was nothing that he felt would really help.

Then the captain came back on "Anyone with navigation or combat experience chime in if you wanna live." Desmond opened up the intercom again his music able to be heard in the back ground, "Well I'm not an expert but my father did train me how to defend myself with a pistol."

August Model, 13x Series, "Veris"

"What are your current directives then?" Came over the comm link to Veris. Not a moment later, "No directives beyond self-preservation sub-systems detected." was sent across the link. Then the alarms went off.

"Entering emergency mode." Veris stated, turning off countless "non-emergency" drivers. Just as suddenly as they started blaring, the sirens stopped. Replacing them was a simple sentence, "Attention Nadia passengers and crew. Lay down arms and prepare to be boarded."

Veris pulled the pistol out of the plate of its leg that suddenly opened. The self defense add-on began initializing to its full state as what was previously a learning environment became a tactical position and weakness. And within another few moments, a channel open to the entire ship opened with "Anyone with navigation or combat experience chime in if you wanna live." Veris announced "This unit has self-defense systems installed and a shell capable of resisting civilian firearms." over the open channel.

Vesta

The girl sorted through her thoughts, coming up with some plan, any plan, that would get them through this. "Alright we've got maybe 30 seconds before they're on us, Zini you need to repel boarders. Use any means necessary to keep them from getting anywhere in the ship, they're gonna try to immobilize us, don't let it happen. Kasun, I don't know what you'll do out there, but there's an airlock just outside the cargo bay's bowside entrance. Doc, if you can't fight, hide yourself in the medbay and lock it down. Unit Veris, can you navigate a ship or are you only able to perform self defense?"

With that last bit she undocked the Springbok from the Nadia and slowly floated into position. She'd need to surprise them if the fight was going to go her way at all. She opened a com to the main frigate but kept in communications with the Nadia, hoping for updates. "The interceptor, designated Springbok, is filled with goods, take it and let the Nadia pass."

Desmond Zini

"This unit has self-defense systems installed and a shell capable of resisting civilian firearms." echoed out through the open channels. "Wait 'This Unit?' Does that mean that there's a robot on board? No body die I have to see the thing as soon as the battle is over." he spoke back over the open channels. Next came the captain speaking "Alright we've got maybe 30 seconds before they're on us, Zini you need to repel boarders. Use any means necessary to keep them from getting anywhere in the ship, they're gonna try to immobilize us, don't let it happen." Desmond nodded and looked around the engine room. "Yes Captain!" Desmond responded grabbing his orb and cramming it in his pocket the music still playing.

Desmond quickly started grabbing any scraps that he could get and fixing together any weapons or defenses that he could. Once most of the scrap was used up he ran out of the room placing them where ever he felt would be good for defense. Once he got to what he considered to be the entrance they would most likely enter through he fitted the floor with special traps including some scrap metal caltrops.

August Model, 13x Series, "Veris"

As Veris walked to the door to the closet, a new transmission came over the ship-wide channel addressing the various organics on board the Nadia. At the end of the transmission was "Unit Veris, can you navigate a ship or are you only able to perform self defense?"

Quickly running a drivers check, Veris replied back with "This unit has neither learned to complete this task, nor have any applicable drivers been installed. Other tasks this unit is capable of that apply to this situation are self defense, basic electronic warfare, and basic zero-g vehicle piloting along a provided path."

Veris stopped after sending the message, reaching out through the network on the Nadia, quickly checking the remote door control protocols. A quick system check later and Veris set activated the drivers for interfacing with the system. With a single step forward, Veris exited the closet it had been stored in, the door moving out of its way.

Kasun whistled a popular tune as the NG-1337's systems started to register green. Once the suit's artificial muscles were activated she was on the move. Weapons were green though she dared not test the flamethrower inside the cargo bay. She was pleased once the visual HUD was fully up and running. A smack to the helmet fixed a malfunctioning sensor and soon information was overlaying her view. The augmented reality system offered her a perfect view of her surroundings enhanced with information her armor's systems were taking in and processing for her.

She turned her attention to the weapons crates she'd brought along, quickly focusing on the larger container. Her HUD was keen to remind her that the crate contained an NG-43 MagRail HMG. Even for someone is powered armor it was a heavy thing that was going to need an external power source. She pried the case open and extracted the weapon, replacement rails and ammo case attaching to her armor. HMG in one hand and cable in the other she made for the airlock.

Before stepping out into the vacuum of space she activated the magnets in her boots, a soft hum telling her they were active. Now she could walk along the ship's hull with minimal concern. An explosion could still throw her loose sure, but there was no sense in thinking about it. As she stepped out the silence always struck her. Her own breathing inside the helmet to louder, the stamping of her feet along the outside of the ship becoming something she felt more than heard. She needed to find an access panel quickly and get to work.

Once she had the NG-43 plugged in she quickly installed the first set of rails and attached the case. The ammunition itself was caseless and propellant-free and even the belt feeding the ammo into the gun would become little more than dust. She took on a bracing position and using a simple commend to link the weapon to her systems. "Beginning counter-offensive." With a minor discharge of electrical energy around the magnetic rails the retired Marine began to bombard the attaching pirate fighters with accelerated ammo designed to tear them to shreds.

The small cabin of the corvette was overfull, two pilots plus the strike team. Each and every one of the strike team operatives was well armed with submachine rifles armed with bean bags, shock rounds, and tranq darts. They were prepared for an offensive, with 8 troops in medium recon armor and two fully power suited marines. One of the marines spoke up. "The pilot of this ship is a small time smuggler but she's got ties to a major player. We need to secure the asset again. We cannot have this tech falling in the wrong hands. We put down any resistance fast. Capture over kills here though, we need the crew's info on this guy so we can finally nail him for his crimes. We breach in three."

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A few of the fighters strayed closer to the Springbok and hailed her, "Pilot, drop weapons and bring the Springbok in to dock with the CS-Karāchi." The Springbok's weapons began to holster as the ship slowly made its way towards the frigate. The closest fighters surrounded the interceptor in key points above, below and to the sides of the ship. They didn't see the pilot grin or notice her hands move to her legs to release some combat stims.

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"Breach!" The men rushed through the opened airlock and the battle cries of the first few were immediately replaced by screams of pain as impossibly sharp caltrops punched into their booted feet. "What kind of barbarians would use these?!" One of the men cried in pain. A marine stepped forward, the caltrops breaking into tiny pieces under the steel of his massive armor. "Barbarians." He lowered an assault cannon, primed for stun and walked calmly forward.

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Vesta

She had come too close to the frigate for comfort as she switched her cybernetic legs to increase blood flow. It would take some maneuvering to get past the blockade that the fighters had erected behind her on her approach. There was a lucky break though, when the merc onboard the Nadia opened fire with a Mag-rail from outside the ship, tearing apart a fighter in the process. She felt a twinge of apprehension, knowing that the merc wasn't firing on pirates like she believed but military forces instead. She didn't expect to be forgiven but she did like that her chances of escaping with the cargo intact were higher when she had a willing crew. She took the chance the merc had provided and twisted her ship around in a tight arc that caused her to undergo nearly 50g's of force and utterly surprising the fighters that had scrambled to evade fire from the mag-rail. In an instant, her turret was out and she had engaged in a dogfight with four fighters of her own. She hoped the crew inside was faring this well.

Desmond Zini

As soon as Desmond heard the boarding party start to enter he quickly entered the ducts and watched from above trying not to laugh as he stopped most of the men with the caltrops he had placed. He couldn't believe it when the man passed by not even fazed by the traps Desmond had set. He seems a bit over armored compared to the pirates I've seen before. he thought trying to think what do do next. He quickly dropped a light smoke bomb he had been saving for if something like this happened, shooting his pistol into the smoke where he had last seen the armored man then moving as quickly but quietly as possible.

Desmond wasn't sure what to do next, he wasn't expecting this. The only thing he could really think to do was stall them and keep them from getting to their destination. While staying in the vents he did his best to lure them away throwing insults their way occasionally going up ahead and doing his best to block off their path while not messing with the ship itself knowing he would most likely have to fix the damage done.

August Model, 13x Series, "Veris"

The moment that the marines breached hull of the ship, Veris blurted out "Alert: Breach detected." Unmoving for only a moment, Veris sent out a pulse transmission to the open channel, asking "Question: What is the armor and armament of the enemy?" The machine stayed in place as it waited for the response that it wanted. However, its drive hummed with activity.

Scanning its memories of its time with the scientists, Veris looked for anything that it could remember that could help it. Several easily mixable combinations of chemicals were high on the list, the two prominent ones being an acid that burned through organic material faster than most could feel the pain and a thin paste that the scientists used to quickly whip up for alloy heat-resistance testing. The thin paste was a homemade version of the chemical that they normally used, burning slightly lower temperature for only about 15 seconds, but it could easily remove metal plates, its only issue being the potential damage to the ship.

Desmond Zini

As soon as Desmond could he dropped down into a safe place and opened up the channel, "Shhhh be quiet. Most of them are in regular armor and got stopped by my traps but there's this one guy in way better armor. I could try bringing them to you if you want." Desmond quickly darted back up to the ducts moving and waiting for a response.

August Model, 13x Series, "Veris"

Going back over the open channel, Veris stated "This unit requires approximately 7 minutes. Then bring them to the entrance of the cargo bay." Walking back into the closet, Veris got to work. Pulling forth two of the plastic buckets, Veris dumped exacting amounts of different chemicals in each, mixing them with plastic paint mixers.

When Veris was done playing chemist, he looked back at the chemicals that he had made. The acid was a dark brown, sloshy fluid that seemed to rock side to side with the subtle movements of the ship. The paste was slightly thicker than what Veris remembered, but it assumed that was from the lack of pure chemicals.

Moving the two buckets to the door leading to the cargo bay, Veris took the acid bucket and set it up on the ceiling with a simple pull string to open the lid. The other bucket, however, Veris held onto very closely.