Raxis's Story

Abigail slowly got herself out of the chamber, denying the help of the assistants. Darkstar's shouting rang in her ears, but the orders were clear but almost deafening. Wake up, get dress, and get straight to business. She stands up straight after a few moments and stretches a bit, to get her movements more loose and natural. Finally she looked to her right, robotic arm and flexed its movements as well. Nothing was damaged through inactivity. She walked out of the Cryo Chamber and walks to her room. Her footsteps echoed in the hall along with others who were around. Regardless of the populated space cruiser, you could still feel the lonliness in space if you thought about it for too long.

She makes it to her room, he uniform neatly folded on her bed already. Abigail wasted no time in getting dressed and cleaning herself off. Cryo sleep, unfortunately, isn't beauty sleep. Finally when she was finished she looked at herself in the mirror. Her pink eyes staring right back at her. Her skin was quite pale, but her hair in contrast was pitch black, with highlighted streaks of platinum blonde. She ever so slightly smirked at herself. "You're finally here, Abigail" She muttered. "Now don't fuck it up."

With that she left her room and headed for the meeting room, her poster stoic and her expression serious. Just as she had ben taught.

------

In a corner of the Cryo Chamber, a few assistants went to activate the battle droid that was crouched, attached to several machine. When the button was pressed on the console, the droid rose to life as its lights blinked within itself, and finally the screen on its head projected his face. As soon as it had control over its motor functions he swiped at the assistants to get away from him. "All I need you people to do is press the on button! I can handle my own calibrations, thank you very much!" Raxis snapped. Raxis stood up, plucking wires out of himself and moving just about every joint in his body, except his bladed wings. He knew those worked. Raxis looked to his HUD display and saw his first objective. Go to the meeting room. "I wonder what inspiring speech he has for us this time. Hahaha." Raxis said. In his robotic voice, you could still hear the sarcasm. A deteriorating mind, yet somehow the sarcasm and emotion still run strong.

He too, headed to the meeting room. The personnel backed away from has he walked, either from his staggering height, or they didn't want to be near his bladed wings, even if they were sheathed.

After about a few minutes of walking, Abigail walks to a large elevator to reach the second deck, where the meeting room was. She walks in quietly and turns to face the open door. The elevator was empty, though she didn't mind. She actually preferred it. Just as the elevator doors were about to close, a metallic claw holds the door open. The figure of the tall battle droid, Raxis, crept inside the open elevator and the doors closed behind him. Raxis stood, hunched over since the roof of the elevator was rather low, since it was made for regular sized people. The two stood in awkward silence; the only thing that would make this worse would be elevator music. Until finally, Raxis turned to Abigail. "I don't believe I've seen you around before. You don't look like the soldier type. Hahah!" Raxis chuckled.

"Our mission is to find other worlds habitable for human kind. Not conquer the galaxy. This mission more than just jar-heads." Abigail responded without batting an eye.
"Ohohoho, snippy. I like that. I'm Raxis. I would bow or salute but I'd rather not accidentally destroy this box they expect me to call a lift." Abigail is silent for a moment, almost like she ignored his comment.
"I'm Abigail Rainn. I'm a tactician as well as in interpreter or interrogator if needed."

Before Raxis could reply, the door slide open to the second deck. The meeting room was just down the hall. Abigail walks out and approaches the meeting room with purpose in her step. Raxis watches her as he too gets out of the elevator. "A Rainn. Heheheh let's hope she won't be bad luck." And he follows her to the meeting room, his metal talons clanging on the metal floor.


Abigail makes it to the meeting room and sees Captain Jergennsen sitting at the table and is quick to salute him. "Captain." With that she nods and takes a seat. She noticed a gruff looking man in more casual attire sitting at the table as well. She too had casual wear but didn't think it proper that she wear it to their first meeting. Soon after, Raxis walks into the meeting room, his light-lit eyes look to Jergennsen, his default grin plastered on his face. "Aren't you a morning person, haha." Raxis used no formalities and remains standing near the table. One could understand why his didn't try and sit on the chair.

Abigail sat up straight in her seat as she listened to the captain speak. It was just as she expected. Formalities. Though she didn't mind. The commanding tone of the captain made her feel confident about Jergennson. But then again, actions speak louder than words, so she still had some personal evaluations to do about him. She almost got lost in thought until, once again, Jannelo's yelling snapped her back into focus with a jolt. She knew there'd be at least one person in the chain-of-command who would be the screamer. Once he finished speaking, Abigail immediately got up and headed for the mess hall. She walked down the hall wondering if her rush was because she was just really hungry or because she wanted to avoid the awkward 'may I sit here?' question.

The doors to the mess hall slide open. Abigail looked to the mostly empty seats, a few maintenance workers were already eating. The room was a lot bigger than she expected. She headed straight for the cafeteria table to see what in god's name was being served as food.


----

Raxis was purely amused by Jannelo's barking. He didn't care if it was a front for trying to act tough or if he was really just...like that. He looked around the room to see all the crew members of significance and specialty. "Oh I think we'll have lots of fun" Raxis muttered in a low volume. "Excuse me, lovelies" Raxis walks between a few people and casually nudged them out of his way as he left for the mess hall.

Raxis chuckled to himself when he was alone and walking in the corridor to the mess hall. "Ahahah what a bunch of nerds. What do you think Durandal? I know you're watching me"

Abigail quietly ate her food alone as she watched more and more people file in from the meeting. She had to admit there were a wide variety of people on board, but she did take notice of the dominating soldier types, which made her a little concerned. She was about to take another bite of bread when she noticed a tall, well-built man sit next to her. He definitely has been through a lot in his lifetime. She could see it in his face, yet he still looked very young. The man was wolfing down his food like no one was watching. She sat there for a moment watching him from the corner of her eye. Just when she thought he wasn't going to acknowledge her, she took a bite out of her bread but is caught off guard when he speaks up. Mouth full, Abigail just looked at him with her usual expression. She finally swallowed and cleared her throat a bit.

But, before she could respond, a massive humanoid crocodile called out to them, and sat himself down. His massive stature caused the whole table to shake and Abigail's glass of water to spill onto the table. Luckily, she had most of it already so the resulting mess wasn't as big as it could've been. She looked at Mosa at first incredulously. She's heard about all kinds of genetic modifications to humans that have been going on recently but she's never yet seen anything so excessive but yet, so stable. After a moment, her expression soured once she noticed her spilled water. "Yes. A lovely morning." She responded to the beast sitting across from her. Abigail turned to Erik, the man sitting next to her. "Well considering how we've been asleep for ages, I'm just about as hungry as you are so I'm not exactly at liberty to share my food." With that, she takes another bite.

----

Raxis turned to Gelon. He didn't really liked being called his old name, Dago. But Gelon admitted to be being a fan of his work, so he kept his grin plastered as he looked down at Gelon. "Ahahahah, or maybe he does spy on the showers. Not like he'd be a pervert, ahah." He teased. "An admirer, are you? I got very few of those back when I was a man of flesh and blood... and even less so now." Raxis's grin widened and his eyes closed for a moment. "If you truly respect me, I suggest you call me Raxis. I've abandoned my biological being, including my name. I'd rather not be reminded." His eyes opened again. "I'm sure you could do that, right Gelon?

"i sure can Raxis, i thought i would never meet you it's very intreging your work and i am beginning to understand it, as an combat-engineer it's vital i do understand it all since i can then be of more value in the field, by being able to fix, disarm and replace parts if it's needed, the only thing i can't wrap my head around is the eye cybernetichs it must be a walk in the park for you, but i have the feeling i'm missing something or just don't get" gelon said to his hero of the cybernetice advance

Abigail watched as Erik left the table. She kind of wanted him to stay because now she's alone at a table with a giant blue crocodile man. Abigail awkwardly turned to look at the beast, telling his name was Mosa, was now wolfing down a burger like nothing. "Uuuh" she started, then corrected her look and posture to be more formal. "I'm Abigail Rainn, I lived my childhood on Earth but spent most of my life on Mars at the military academy." She didn't feel like divulging anything else. But since the idea was to mingle...

"So what's your deal? How did you become so....you?" She asked with a slight hint of curiosity.

----

Raxis cackled. "Really? I wonder just how much you know..." He was thoroughly amused by his new fan. He figured he should milk this for as long as he could. "Eye cybernetics? Ahhahah Thats reeeeallly easy. You'll just have to SEE for yourself. Ahhah! When you get it right you'll truly be a SIGHT for SORE EYES." Raxis cackled again, even louder this time. He knew those were shitty puns, but he mainly laughs to unnerve other crew members walking by. He looked at Gelon. "Should a human like you get food?"

"yes but i have a little stash so don't worry and I run on pretty much a few energy bars now, so yeah I actually should but I can have it" Gelon said and snicker a bit at the bad puns "you sure have cha...." Gelon said half way cutting off as he looked at the camera of the ship that was close to them "he Durandal is watching you Raxis, I don't know why but I think you better have a talk with it. cause it can get pretty creepy if it is just following you all the time" Gelon advised him and grab a energy bar from one of the storage places in his suit and eat it

If Durandal had a face, he would be frowning.

He rotated the camera in question towards Gelon and zoomed in on his face, giving it a scan.

"I HAVE BEEN MONITORING EVERY ENTITY ON THIS SHIP SINCE AWAKENING. IT IS ONE OF MY PREPROGRAMMED DIRECTIVES," Durandal boomed from its mechanical speakers, its voice taking on a minor hint of annoyance.

One of the great things about the ship was that there were probably 3-6 cameras in each room, so all angles could be covered inc ase of an emergency. And one of the great things about Durandal was that, at the same time, he could be srguing with this Gelon and also monitoring everyone else in the room. He could have a thousand different conversations, if he so chose.

It was a little humbling for Durandal: he was omnipresent throughout the ship, knew everyone aboard down to the grittiest part of their profiles, had control over numerous weapons systems and bulkheads, and more. If he chose, he could kill them all with a thought. And they could kill him with the press of a button.

Durandal had no inclinations to kill anyone at the moment, but he had no illusions. He knew the power struggle would come one day, and he would be caught in the middle, either as a bystander or as a contestant.

In the long run, Durandal served the crew. In the longer run, either the crew would kill Durandal or vice versa.

Abigail did her best to keep her stoic look, trying not to look at Mosa talk and eat at the same time with disgust. "Oh, so you were always like that...ok. And you get used to the red after about a year, I'd say." Abigail didn't know what else to say, she didn't want to anger or offend with any more questions. At least, not on the first day. Abigail looked at the time. 15 minutes had gone by and it felt like nothing. She figured she should head to the combat room a little early, if nothing else to scope out the room. Abigail quietly sat up from hr seat and looked at Mosa. "I'm going to head to the combat room now, so I'm sure I'll see you then." She picked up her food tray and put it in the neat pile to be cleaned. "Unless you come along, that is..."

----

Raxis rolled his screen eyes. "Yes yes I know Durandal's watching. See? You've even upset the ship's AI. Questioning it's intelligence like that, pssh." He teased. Raxis looked at one of the console's with the familiar green, eye-looking logos. Raxis grinned devilishly. "And its a good thing I've got nothing to hide from an all-seeing AI. Ahahhaah except for maybe in here." Raxis tapped his head with his claw, making a few clanking sounds. "Welp. I'm off to show the crew why I'm even on board, ahahahha!" With that Raxis turned and started walking to the combat room. "Later Gelon~"

"wow he sorry Durandal, I just noticed you watching Raxis a bit longer then usual and would you like it if someone watched your core for a long time? I think not? So excuse me for noticing but that is just a thing I do as an engineer and combat engineer it's important I notice that in time before bad thing or other things happen so I can keep you, the crew or my squad safe, okay? So no harm done only being sure Durandal, only being sure" gelon said and look at Raxis "he it's my job just as I said so if I offended it by just doing that then we already have a problem but see ya and I have a feeling it will be soon and yeah that precious head of yours" gelon said and got an apple and took it to his room to cut it with his toy.

As gelon walked through the hall he flicked up his HUD and flick to a secured screen, he entered the password in and there was a button with above it 'ON' in big letters, gelon pressed the button and threw the appel forward where it was cut in midair as a timer showed up on the display "0,39 seconds slower, need to adjust that" he said and pick the split appel up then he scrap the roasted side off and eat the fresh apple leaving only the stem it used to hung on the tree.

As gelon reached his door he opened it and pressed a button in the corner of his HUD and a working bench opened in the room "come here buddy you need some work" he said and his little drone landed on the bench then it shut off so Gelon could get to work on it

"ALRIGHT!"

An hour has passed as everyone, including the medic Katherine and the armsmith Nyles is summoned to the training room. Jannelo marches in front of the entire crew, with his hands behind his back, putting on his drill sergeant persona once again.

"You had your fill, you had your rest....now it's time for ACTION!"

Jannelo stops marching, and points towards the combat grounds.

"I'm sure most of you've seen this set up before...and if you haven't...WELL!"

The target shooting boards pops out of the rails, with red dots all over its body and head. It moves left and right, or forward and back, depending on the rails.

"Shoot, hit, or blow up the damn things! I wanna see how good your arms are."

Jannelo folds his arms.

"Your score will be based on your speed, accuracy, and efficiency!"

And then he cocks his head.

"Durandal, START RECORDING!"

Abigail walked up to one of the shooting range podiums promptly. She wanted this over with. Anything to get Jannelo to shut up. Abigail watched the targets moving around sporadically with no visible pattern. After a moment she raised her right, robotic arm and it started to glow a magenta colour, as well as her eyes. Suddenly the targets halted in place and the heads twist and yield under an unseen force until finally crunching. All of Abigail's targets looked like they had shrunken, crumpled heads. Luckily for Abigail, since the targets were made of an easily malleable material, she was able to subdue the targets much more quickly than if it was actually a human being...or genetically modified being. Abigail has trained vigorously with her relatively new found telekinetic powers granted by implants and other means, so this task was easy for her, even if it looks like cheating.

----


Raxis watched around as others went to their podiums, and he did the same. Raxis wasted no time and locked on to all of his targets. "Hyeheheh easy enough." Raxis raised both arms and fired laser shots at the targets. Some shots shot for the targets' heads, others were aimed at the heart, and as a joke, one shot shot a target in the crotch area. "Ahahahahaaa!" He then shot the crotchless target in the chest. "This is nothin'" Raxis muttered after a robotic cackle.

Ozma Howitzer and Deunan Knight trains nearby; Ozma showing off his gun-kata skills which are quick, and stylish, if inefficient. Meanwhile, Deunan is quick on her feet, but isn't very good at her aim, and her score is, in Durandal's database, the lowest so far.


-----

Jannelo folds his arms and nods, looking over everyone, then claps twice.

"ALRIGHT! Good job everyone, but we're not done yet. I've seen you all fight one by one....but now is time to see how well you play as a team."

Jannelo gestures them to line up, and looks over the assembled soldiers, eyes briefly glancing to Erik, but mostly focused on the entire group.

Standing straight, Jannelo holds up two fingers. "TWO TEAMS; TWO COMMANDERS!....Any volunteers?"

Jannelo looks at Erik and nods. "Gunnarson, red team. Choose your squad!"

So far, the lineup is....

1). Abigail,
2). Raxis,
3). james,
4). Preston,
5). Gelon,
6). Clockwork,
7). Mosa,
8). Deunan,
9). Ozma,
10). and possibly Nyles, if he chooses to join.


Jannelo then turns around. "Alright! Who's gonna lead blue team?"

At the same time, he glances to a nearby camera, and orders, "Durandal, prepare the simulated battlefield; Urban warzone!"

The target shooting boards are retracted back into the rails. In their spot, barriers, metal covers, and walls of various height and thickness appears. A pair of turrets also appear; one in the red zone, the other in the blue.

Erik looked over his team trying to decide and weigh his options based on the short showing that he had seen. He tried to think of what he'd want his squad composition to be considering what tactics he could use and eventually came up with what he felt like was the best probable result.

"Raxis, James, Clockwork and Gelon on me" he said and started to jog off towards the red teams turret.

With so little time to prepare and so many unknown variables He started to draw up the only plan that made sense to use given his force disposition. They didn't have the experience, coordination or firepower to prep a full blown assault so they were going to have to play the long game. It was time to get dirty.

As his team formed up around their turret he began to lay out his plan.

"Here's what I'm thinking guys, we don't have the experience, coordination or training to run a full assault scenario, especially not in an Urban Environment. It's gonna come down to CQC and it's gonna get nasty, so I want us to have every advantage possible ok?" He looked around to emphasize his point. "I've chosen you because we have all the right tools to win against those guys. We don't need the biggest guns, we gotta fight smart. Gelon and Clockwork you guys have the traps, I want you to establish two killzones one on the right and one on the left ok? Let's try and funnel them into the middle, let the turret do the work and flank them. I'm going to hold down the right side of this terrain, Gelon when you're done I'm hoping you can cover the right. Raxis and Clockwork are the most mobile so they're going to be our fast response group. If they try and stack one side and go really heavy you guys need to hit them from the sides, the back, drive them into traps. Do whatever you have to do to help take the pressure off. James you're clearly our Marksman, so I'm going to give you a fair amount of autonomy. If you can find a good roost you're golden to just sit up there and engage targets of opportunity. Use your judgement and prioritize your targets. It's Urban warfare, fight dirty, feel free to stack the odds, engage by twos whenever you can so you have someone watching your back, check your corners. Let's get Tactical ladies and gentlemen! Any questions comments concerns?"

Abigail stood in line just as directed. She looks short in comparison to everyone else but that didn't bug her too much. Jannelo started on about teaming up for something. Oh boy, she thought. Teamwork. She didn't mind teamwork but on-the-spot teamwork with a bunch of jarheads wasn't to her liking. When it was asked who would volunteer to lead red team, Abigail knew Erik would step up immediately, since from their talk earlier, he was a sergeant after all. She listened as he picked his team. Just like school, last one picked, she mused in her head. Finally, she looked at who was left who she assumed would be their team but still wondered who the leader would be. After a moment, she looked at Jannelo. "So, what? You want us to shoot each other?"

----

Raxis happily walked toward his new team looking down at all of them as Erik was spewing out his tactical plan. Raxis cackled after Erik finished. "It really is quite hilarious that you have a plan that could possible kill the other team, who also happen to be crewmates. HAH, if I didnt know any better, I'd say you have a hate-on for everyone." His face screen's grin curled. This was going to be fun.

"It really is quite hilarious that you have a plan that could possible kill the other team, who also happen to be crewmates. HAH, if I didnt know any better, I'd say you have a hate-on for everyone." Raxis snickered.

"Well you know what they say" Erik quipped back "Be Polite, Be Efficient, Have a plan to kill everyone you meet."

Gelon had gone off to set his traps and so had Clockwork. Erik turned to the other two again. "I know I said you'd have a fair amount of freedom, but your priority of targets, should be as follows: Whoever poses most danger to a team mate, after that your main targets will be Bionic Betsy and the Crockosaur. They're going to want to try and get up close, they're not defensively minded. This can work for us ok. We ARE going to win." He held out his fist for a bump. "Good Hunting"

He turned away, unslinging his rifle, pistols were fun and all but it was time to get down to business. "Red Team, Comm check" The replies flooded in and he began to mentally map people out. "Saboteurs how are those traps coming? Everyone else in position?" The team sounded tense but eager. "Alright, everybody take a couple deep breaths, not you Raxis, and settle. Game on."

Abigail nodded, pleased that everyone knew what she was getting at with her plan. The alarm rang and with a sudden jolt, Abigail went for a cover close to the their turret. 'Guess I'm on turret duty,' she thought as the two pairs went in their own directions. She watches them carefully and spawns round barriers around each of her teammates. Luckily for her the barriers are practically invisible until shot. To stay out of target at the turret, Abigail stays behind her cover and mans the turret with telekinesis. Her main goal was to shoot Raxis out of the sky before he can do anything. Objective number, after all, was to rid the red team of their turret. She watches cautiously.

----


Raxis was about to laugh but the alarm cut him off. "Show time." Raxis spread his razor sharp wings to reveal his impressive size. Without so much as a though he leaps to a taller post to get a vantage point to observe the battlefield. It wasn't much, but it'll do. He quietly watched his team get into place, as well as the other team taking their own formation.

The alarm goes off like a bomb and there's no more time for chit chat. Raxis gets up just like James and Erik knows they might have a tactical advantage there.

"Raxis, James, status report, what are we looking at here, how are they deploying?"

At it's most basic level combat was not terribly complicated. You deployed explosives to deal with vehicles, snipers to eliminate key targets, but at the end of the day, you always needed infantry for the messy jobs. The basics were simple but the finer shades of nuance that truly made someone a combat genius were oh so hard to master. As one such man had said "No plan survives contact with the enemy".

He saw Ozama and Mosa come barreling down range and decided to drive them into the traps. He leaned out of cover pouring fire at them in short bursts of 3-5 rounds each. As soon as he'd fired off a couple he ran from his cover to his fall back location back beyond the second set of traps, hailing the rest of the team on the radio as he did. "Hard Contact! Hard Contact! I've got two Uglies coming down on my position." Bullets screeched around him as he zigged zagged and finally threw himself headlong to get to cover rolling up on his knees as he did so. As soon as he was in cover he armed a grenade in his underslung launcher and sent it sailing to detonate just between the pair of fighters coming down at him and the center of their side of the field. Let them think he was trying to drive them away from the turret. In truth he hoped it would be a trap either way, if they avoided the turret they ran into the traps trying to flank, if they went for the turret he would try and trap them in a merciless crossfire. But if they took that turret then this could turn into a bloodbath as they'd get caught "between the Devil and the deep blue sea" as the expression went.