Mosa Belkan's Story

He took off with Ozma and Mosa as the maintenance drones and Galba made their appearance. As much as he wanted to stay back and help, Ozma was in charge, and orders are orders. Besides, they had been tasked with finding Captain Jergenssen, someone they could not afford to loose. Every ship needs it's captain.

As the trio ran through the halls, they were suddenly stopped by Ozma in front of his brother's door. Preston was about to knock before Ozma beat him to it, pouting and pounding on the door. Ignoring the child-like crap of Ozma's attitude, he remained on his toes, glancing around, scanning the halls. If there was an ambush he'd see it coming, as he kept his eyes open for any signs of trouble as the three waited for his brother to emerge.

Ozma squints from James' lights and buckles from his shove, but recovers just before he fell, and wipes away at his shoulder armor, in his typical posh way. He watches James go, and lets out a simple,

"Tch."

They make their way through the corridors, Ozma's bunny ears sensors attempting to locate him. Mosa, meanwhile, chooses a less...subtle....method. Shouidering his machinegun, he yells out,

"CAPTAIN!! YOU HOME?"

While looking left and right.

"Where on earth could he be.....", Ozma mumbles. Suddenly, he looks up, as three unidentified hostiles are picked up by his sensors.

<!>

"Something's coming!", Ozma yells as he reloads one of his pistol.

Mosa looks ahead.

Five Orb Shape drones are seen flying through the air, with large round 'eyes' in their center and assault rifles mounted under their spherical bodies.

Bullets starts flying through the air, as Ozma takes cover, while Mosa steps in front of everyone, taking the brunt of the hit while firing back. The bullets of the Drones' assault rifles bounces off his battleship-class armor harmlessly, and he roars out in glorious laughter.

"BWAHAHAHHAHAHA!!"

Mosa may be inaccurate, but he has the bullets to spare. As a hundred shots blaze through the air, the agile drones evade them...though one was successfully shot down, while the other was grazed and is swaying badly, though it continues firing.

Preston dropped down to one knee and shouldered the rifle. He waited for an opening and was quickly presented one as one of Mosa's shots grazed one of the drones, throwing it off it's stabilized flight. He quickly put the drone in his sights and fired a short burst from the rifle, the bullets impacting the drone, causing it to explode.

Mosa notices Preston's shot, and chuckles. "HA-HA!! Good reflexes!", before he continues firing at more of the drones.

Ozma shows off as well; utilizing his gun kata style as he shoots down the drones; every step he takes, two shots are fired, and with every step, he changes his aim. It's less like a fighting style and more like a dance, and with his heightened, GMP senses, his shots are not only stylish, but also accurate.

In no time, the Defensive team takes down the drones; their scrap parts decorating the corridor.

"Alright!!", Ozma exclaims, running ahead.

As they run through the corridor, they are suddenly ambushed by more drones.

But before Ozma, Mosa, and James could react, a dozen vibro-knives are hurled through the air; piercing most of the drones at the same time, causing a synchronized explosion, followed by rising smoke.

"Whoa!", Mosa exclaims, skidding to a halt.

As the smoke slowly clears, they see a pair of katanas swinging through the air - slicing a drone down vertically, and another horizontally, with what seemed like a milisecond between each hit. Both drones' halves can be seen tumbling down.

They see the dark blue and azure silhouette of Jannelo Darkstar, in his armor.... as the Butcher of Jupiter. His twin vibro katanas stops humming as the smoke completely clears.

"Sir!!", Ozma stands straight and salutes.

Darkstar looks back at him, with a disdainful look behind his helmet. He turns to James, and after a second of delay, he asks him a simple question.

"Orders, Squad Leader?"

Ozma flinches, and turns to James. You can almost see his envious glare.

Preston turned to Mosa, flashing a quick smile and giving him a simple nod in acknowledgement. He then continued down the hall with his squad, stopping in his tracks and raising his rifle as more drones appeared before them. As he was lining up a shot, what sounded like tiny whistles resonated in the air. Knives, dozens of them tearing through the drones, causing them to explode. Unsure of the source, he kept his rifle raised, waiting to see what appeared next. The sight was both amazing and relieving. It was none other than Jannelo Darkstar, who, a second later, cut down the last drones before them.

Preston lowered his rifle to his side, while Ozma stood at attention and saluted. He said nothing, though he did feel a bit of pity for him when Ozma's salute was left unanswered. Darkstar instead turned to his brother, asking for the next set of orders. Preston turned his head to his brother and awaited his answer.

Gelon's drone successfully distracted Galba; whose eye glows red with hostility as he fires away at the highly mobile drone. The mega particles melts through the ceiling and the walls as they fly through the air. Noticing Terminus charging at him, Galba turns his gaze away from the drone, and hovers to dodge, swerving through the floor like a drifting race car.

Turning around quickly, he unloads yet more barrages at Terminus. the energy-based weapon drains Terminus' shield like a sponge drains water. At the same time, Terminus lets loose his autocannon, Galba stands there for a good few seconds, taking Terminus' solid bullets to his mechanical inner frame. However, he can only take it for so long, before his gun overheated and becomes a smoking deadweight. Becoming fully defenseless, his entire body flails and they can hear the bullets ricocheting inside Galba's armor as the autocannon tore him asunder.

And finally, Abigail's telekinetic assault connects, and pops off Galba's limbs and head off his main body; the pieces clattering as they fly off fall.

Galba's head rolls across the floor, and stops as it hits a maintenance drone between abigail and Terminus. The mono-eye flickers as the red glow dims.

...However, they can detect....brain activity inside the head. It's unconcious, but it's there.....there's organic matter inside this thing, it's not just another drone......


-------


Jannelo looks at James, and nods. Behind his helmet, he has an amused expression.

"You and Erik are like day and night.", he says, before chuckling. He said that in a tone that is neither praising nor criticizing, more like an analysis. An introspective. Either way, he doesn't elaborate more, and looks ahead.

Mosa cracks his knuckles. "Indeed we do, comrades~"

They run through the corridors, destroying all the malfunctioning drones in their way. It took a while, but they eventually find the Captain's quarters.

Ozma looks and tries to access the control panel.

"It's locked...."

"No problem!", Mosa states, pushing Ozma aside. He punches his right fist into his left palm, then lets out a battle cry as he launches himself forward...

...and bashes the door down with his right shoulder, his entire weight bearing on the door and causing it to collapse immediately.

Jannelo's right hand rests on his sheathed katana, and he looks ahead. The three enters, and looks around.

Ozma walks towards the manual security controls, and reaches for his comm. "Abigail! Erik! This is Ozma. We're in the Captain's Quarters..still no sign of him, but we found the manual security controls. Is it safe to shut it down for now?"

The room doesn't look like it suffered any violent scuffles. Everything seems to be in place. The Captain seems to be fond of collecting vintage bottled ships from over 4 millenium ago.... Jannelo looks over a shelf of these vintage bottled ships, and pushes a particular bottle so that it would line up with the rest tidily.

"Where in hell is da captain....", Mosa wonders out loud.

Preston looked around the room while Ozma contacted the other group. Like Jannelo, he found an interest in the many bottled ships that decorated the shelf. He walked up to the shelf and looked at the tiny vessels that lay inside, marveling at the perfect replications of the ships themselves, and how someone was able to fit it inside the bottle. "These are pretty cool," he said as he moved from one bottle to the next, "though Mosa's right. Where's the captain?"

-Captain's Room-

Durandal and Tycho's intertwined screams echo throughout the ship, and was so loud, that even the Defensive Team could hear them here. Ozma and Mosa covers their ears; with Ozma hunching over from the pain.

"GAAAAAAAAH!!!!", Mosa roars out in agonized annoyance.

Jannelo staggers and shooks his head, but quickly recovers.

Ozma gets hold of the comm again, and demands to know; "What the HELL was that?!"

Mosa walks over, looming over Ozma, and talks to the comm as well. "No Captain yet! But with situation secured, we should find him soon, da?", his tone jovial and optimistic.

Just then, Preston notices lights coming from inside the restroom. Odd. Usually, the lights wouldn't be on, unless somebody's inside.....


-----
-AI Core Exterior-

Clockwork looks up to Gelon, and gives him her usual amused smirk. "Don't worry about me....I may not be able to take a hit, but I will always survive~"

With that, she stands up perfectly upright, despite her still bleeding, and looks at the downed Deunan and Erik. "Now, let's go and take them to the medbay, shan't we?"

With Durandal down, they'd have to treat the wounded manually. Unfortunately, according to the status report a day ago, the Nurse assigned to the Marco Polo apparently froze to death in her cryo cofffin from a previously unforeseen malfunction....

At the very least, Tycho and Galba have beeen dealt with. For now.

The two screams from Durandal and Tycho had a lesser effect on him, as his helmet muffled the sounds around him, save for radio chatter. Regardless, the sudden outburst did send a chill through his body. Just then, he caught a glimpse of light bleeding out from the restroom. He set the rifle down and unsheathed his knife, holding it above his head in a reverse grip while his free hand slowly opened the door. "Captain?"

(I like flame bikinis)

Mosa and Ozma turns, looking at Preston as he opens the door....

"Zzzzzzz..."

...And they come upon the captain.

With his pants down, on the toilet seat, clutchingan old people magazine.

"Zzzzzzzzzz...."

Ozma and Mosa are left speechless. Jannelo, on the other, voices his baffled thoughts:

"What the fuck?"

The Captain is fine. He somehow fell asleep on the toilet, but he's fine.

Preston sheathed his knife and walked up to him, placing his hand on Captain Jergenssen's shoulder, shaking him gently. "Wake up, Captain. We have to move."

The Captain is shaken awake by Preston, raising his head and opening his droopy eyes.

"....Nggh?"

An exasperated Ozma grabs his comm to contact Abigail.

"We found the Captain....he's....he's fine.", his tone annoyed, but there's a very subtle break in his voice, as if he's holding back laughter.

Mosa, on the other hand, laughs freely and heartily.

"HAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAH!!! Poor ol' Cap'n just got a lil' bit DROWSEH!", Mosa exclaims, smacking James on the shoulder energetically.

The Captain looks at everyone, then down at his.....exposed self, before looking back at them again, trying his best to hide his embarassment.

"UH. Ahem. Situation under control, I Presume?", he asks, changing the subject.

"Yes sir. The Offensive team took care of it.", Jannelo says, stoically.

"Right........You can all tell me about it once you let me...proceed with my business.", The Captain replies.

An amused Mosa and Jannelo leaves, followed by a grumbling Ozma.

"HEY! What if we have some drinks at Erik's room tonight?", Mosa asks loudly, heard through the comm. "HE DID PROMISE! BWAHAHHAHAHA!!!"

With Tycho and Galba defeated, and the Captain found, lit ooks like the Crisis is averted today on the UEGS Marco Polo.

Abigail listened to Ozma and couldn't quite place his tone of voice until she heard Mosa yelling through the comm. She didn't laugh. She just had a look of extreme annoyance. "Well at least the situation's been eased." She replied coldly. She walked over to Deunan and Erik still having trouble. Abigail looked over to Gelon. "He's wounded, you can't just tell him to wake up. Help me get them to the med bay. You take Erik." She said and she was already helping Deunan up. She let's Deunan's arm go around her mechanical shoulder so Abigail could support Deunan's weight. Normally she'd use her telekinesis but Abigail preferred to preserve her strength in case anything else decided to go wrong. Abigail spoke into her comm over Mosa's bellowing laughter. "Somehow I don't think that offer is on the table. I think a meeting is top priority...probably in the Medbay would be best." WIth that, she helped walk Deunan to the medbay, looking back to see if Gelon and Clockwork with Erik were following her.

Preston set the mug down on the table, fumbling with one of his various pouches as he tried to find his cigarette pack and a lighter, not caring too much for Ozma's hot chocolate at the moment. He found the pack at last, pulling out a cigarette and lighter, lighting it, and then returning the pack to it's pouch. He took a long drag from the cigarette, exhaling as he, his brother and Clockwork were assigned to maintenance. Though his face displayed nothing more than a neutral expression, the fact that Clockwork was going to be with him made him slightly uncomfortable. He wasn't afraid of her, just something about her was off. Regardless, he tossed the thought away and took another drag.

"Fine."

Abigail frowned a bit. A spacewalk with a giant croc-man looking for tracers? Didn't the ship have a maintenance crew for that? She sighed and salutes the captain reluctantly. "Yes, Captain." She replied between her teeth, and looked up at Mosa. "We better get started, let's suit up." Abigail promptly turns to leave, expecting Mosa to follow. She receded to her thoughts. How on earth did this man she has to call Captain get to be in charge! First the questionable team assignments, and then having been informed by the defensive team that during the whole Galba crisis, the Captain was found asleep on the toilet! Before Abigail boarded the UEGS Marco Polo so long ago, she was informed the team she'd be with were unorthodox. She had no idea that THIS is what they meant. She looks back at Mosa following her, not realizing she looks a bit troubled thanks to her thoughts. "Let's hope results are negative."


----


Raxis snatched the brain in it's new containment capsule and nodded at the Captain. "I assure you I will get everything this thing knows, hyehehhahahah." His cackle is much more dark and sinister than his usual loud mocking tone. With brain-in-jar in hand, Raxis snatches some tools in the med bay along with the arm of the Terminus husk and headed into the Emergency Room where he knew he could get some privacy from the rest of the crew. Raxis shoves the Terminus husk nearby so it's always within Raxis's view. Just in case. He then places the brain on the operation bed and attached some nodes directly onto the brain. The nodes were connected to a multitude of devices Raxis had brought with him from his own laboratory. The room's sterile white matched the cold, unfeeling creature that was Raxis. "Alright you little devil, hear what you have to say to for yourself." With that, Raxis twisted a knob on one device that sent an electric shock into the Galba's brain, effectively reanimating it from it's unconscious state. Raxis moved in close to stare at the lone brain floating in the preservative fluid. "Morning, sunshine~"

In his room, Jannelo listens to Gelon's suggestion. After considering it for a few seconds, he nods to himself, and replies, "We can always use some precautions. We don't have a lot of information concerning the asteroid belt. I'll arrange it with the Captain, thank you."

---

Clockwork looks over at Preston. There's something about her gaze that looks....curious, Confounded..intrigued. She nods, gets up, and walks over.

"Well then....let's be mighty janitors, shan't we~" She stops in front of Preston and James, then glances at them for a bit again, then runs towards the supply rooms to grab the appropriate cleaning tools.

There's already quite a few people in here; they're not the only ones cleaning. They actually should have enough men here to clean up in less than a day, so perhaps Jannelo is just giving them work for the hell of it. Clockwork opens one of the lockers to grab a grey janitor jumpsuit. She grabs the bottom of her cardigan, and before she lifts it up, she looks at James and Preston across.

"Are you going to watch?"

A very neutral tone. Not mischievous, not seductive, no nothing. Completely straight-faced. It's as if she briefly turned into a robot when she asked that question.


----

Mosa nods, letting out an enthusiastic, "Mm-mm!" and a nod, tailing behind her. He walks leisurely and casually, though one can just feel how heavy he truly is with every firm, muscular step. Mosa looks over at Abigail as they walk, with a big smile on his face. He keeps quiet as she does, but in his mind, he is getting more and more amused by the second, in a good natured kind of way. Abigail's very short size (Especially compared to him), her seemingly frozen scowl, hard working attitude, and her blonde-black hair reminds him very much of a bumblebee. A tiny, forever frustated buzzing psychic bumblebee.

"Hehehe...you need to take it easy, comrade.... If you keep being so stressed out about everything, you'd be more wrinkled than my two hundred year old grandmother! HA HA HA HA!", his laughter bellows and echoes throughout the corridor.

They suit up in the armory, and grab two pairs of gravity boots for themselves. Mosa picks the largest set and fine tunes it, before turning to Abigail.

"Lead the way~", his voice slightly altered thanks to the helmet.


----

"GAHHH!!!!!"

Galba's still-intact eyeballs moves left and right inside the preservative liquid. He looks..surprised, and takes a few moments to recover, taking a look at his surroundings.

Of course, he didn't have much time before Raxis' face is all that he can see in front of him.

".......What...the....devil did you do to me?! I feel so....weightless....."

He takes a moment to pause.

"....Did my ex-girlfriend sent you?"

---
(Before they were given their duties)

Abigail looked at Erik. "Unfortunately there is still much to do. Like help figure out what just happened." She gave him a look, appraising his condition. "It would be rather stupid to not at least rest a bit. This fight had no limiter field. You could be damaged internally." With that, she turned into the med bay with her squad and joined the rest of the crew for their next steps

---
(Present time)

Abigail sneered a bit at Mosa's comment. He clearly didn't know the implications of what was going on, but she knew not to expect much out of him anyway. Though he did have a point. If she was to start getting along with her crew or even her squad, she'd have to lighten up...or at the very least fake it. She quietly suited up back into her armour that doubled as a spacesuit. It clung to her tightly but had a streamlined design, as well as durable armour but also accommodated her robotic arm. Her helmet activated and a magenta face-visor covered her face. She turned to Mosa, seeing he was ready and headed for the air lock. The doors closed behind them with the heavy sounds of pistons sealing the room. "Alright, we need to keep together so that if something happens, we can help each other out. It'll take longer but its more efficient." She was interrupted by the automated message.

"OPENING AIRLOCK IN 3....2....1..."

And then instantly, the doors are open and the massive void of space could be seen beyond.

----

Raxis looked gleefully at the talking brain. "Well, to put it simply...I ripped off all the parts of you that I DIDN'T need, and kept just the little thing that make you.....you." He cackled. "Welcome to your new accommodation, stowaway! You'll have lots of time to THINK about what you did." Raxis winked at him and sadistically grinned as he showed the brain-with-eyes, a mirror.

Raxis waits to give him a moment to react, with a smile of sadism.

A few seconds of awkward silence passes between Preston and Clocwork. Eventually, she grins, and turns around. "Just kidding~"

It's amazing what a malfunctioning AI, several rogue maintenance drones, and a stowaway cyborg could do to this ship. It takes about 2 hours, even with the help of the non-combat crew on board, to finally wipe away all the rubble, patch the holes, and restore any damaged cables or sensors.

Clockwork closes the lid of her locker, and takes a deep breath, now dressed in her casual attire. She turns to Preston and James, and chuckles, before leaving.

That odd stare she keeps giving Preston.....there's something....or rather, a lot of things..one can see from them...

Mischief. Jealousy. Fear. Anger. Confusion.

If the eye is the window to a person's soul, then Clockwork's soul is a very odd and jumbled one.

------

Mosa salutes, and follows her outside.

The deep space....is certainly a sight to behold. A vast ocean of stars. Dark, yet bright. It's amazing to imagine, that for every star up there, there exist a world. A billion worlds amongst a million stars.

Mosa and Abigail proceed to sweep the ship. Being an explorer-class ship, the Marco Polo is of average size compared to other ships in the UEG fleets. Nevertheless, for two people, this ship is like a great beast. The gravity boots ensure their safety as they walk across the hull, though they still feel the lingering lightweightedness of space in their movements. 5 hours pass as they sweep the ship clean, finally making sure no more dangerous or undesireable objects are around.

Mosa turns to Abigail, shouldering his sweeping device; shaped like an upside down bowl on a golf stick, and nods, giving her a thumbs up. One can't see his face behind the power armor, but with Mosa, it's not hard to guess how he's feeling.


--------

Galba looks at Raxis with utter confusion. "What are you blathering about-"

Until he views himself in the mirror.

His eyes widen. It's amusing to see those lidless eyes expanding like a heated iron ball in a physics class.

"W-WHAT?! W-what is going on?! I DIDN'T SIGN UP FOR THIS!!"

His eyes roll to look at Raxis.

"YOU!...You guys are organ thieves, aren't you?! I knew that suspicious hooded man looked suspicious!!"

He sounds genuinely confused and frightened, yet unaware.....though considering his brain was apparently offline when his cyborg body rampaged.....