Jacob Farris's Story

Atop an adjacent overhang, a shadowy figure watched from afar. The figure said nothing while the group of 'foreigners' moved through the streets, one of them moving up a fire escape.

The figure stared through a pair of high-powered binoculars, before grabbing a their radio. "I've got five foreigners, I don't know how they got here, how should I proceed?" They said in their native language.

The radio chirped it's response, and the lone man nodded before he moved back into the shadows, not long before an unmarked black car pulled out from a side road, slowly creeping towards the group of people.

A spotlight from the car suddenly illuminated them, and a voice cracked from nowhere .

"Teishi! Ugoku na!"

Molly and Joe were overwhelmed by the sudden activity, when they had only just found each other. The newcomer Rosie beckoned for them to climb up the fire escape and they did so without question. Molly and Jacob went first, and Joe brought up the back. When suddenly a car brought up a bright spotlight on them, and someone shouted at them in a foreign language. Joe beckoned for them all to come back down, and put his hands up, assuming that's what they wanted them to do. The others followed suit. Molly walked over to Joe, and they held hands. Joe squeezed her hand, and Molly squeezed his. Molly took a deep breath and shouted out. "Hello! We don't mean any harm! We're merely travelers! Who are you and what do you want from us?!" She let go a breath, hoping she hadn't messed up anything. Joe put his arm around her in a supportive way, and she relaxed.

Jacob was struck by panic, glancing about for a possible escape route - he always finds a way out. No ladders, only one fire escape (the one they got up on, and that one had officers positioned at street level), and a heli prepared to turn him and his new friends into swiss cheese. Just as he was about to fall to his knees in defeat, he felt a gust of air pull behind him, hurling him backwards through a doorway. Rosemary turned and yelled, reaching her hand towards me, but the doorway shut and vanished before she could do a thing.

Darkness... for the longest time, and then he saw - he was sitting in a dumpster and could still hear the blaring police sirens. They must have tried to open a doorway to Niihama to bring him back, but failed, sending him a short distance from the doorway. He climbed out of the rancid container and noticed police on the street opposite. He ran down the alley and smashed the window of the nearest apartment building. As he climbed inside, he collapsed, exhausted, onto the sofa. He abandoned them; Molly, Jacob, Rosemary. For all he knew - they were already being interrogated by the authorities as he sat here. He then cried for a while, before finally falling into a deep sleep, realizing he was finally... truly...

Alone.

(3 months man. 3 months.)

Molly and Joe didn't get a reply, and they heard guns being loaded. Molly wanted to repeat her question of what they wanted, but knew these people weren't the type to answer questions, more the violent type. Joe thought differently. He leaned in to Molly and whispered. "Hey, you got one of our translators on you?" Molly looked at him, her face in an expression of both surprise and cynicism. "What happened to yours?" Joe shrugged and looked back at what seemed to be interstellar police. Molly got her backpack slowly, showing it was no threat, and brought out a chunky translator. "You haven't even upgraded it or anything?" Molly shook her head, and turned the device on. Joe took it and typed in what the police had said. "Um, it translates as Right, Ugoku now." Joe said. Molly spoke into the device and pressed the translate button. She held the device out, and pointed to Joe and herself respectively as it spoke. "Aš Molly ir tai yra Joe. Mes nereiškia jokios žalos. Ką tu nori?" Suddenly, they felt a strong gust of wind behind them, and they turned around. They saw Jacob being sucked into a strange sort of gate thing, and their eyes widened. "NO!" Molly cried out with Rosemary, and reached out her hand. Joe used his longfall boots to propel himself over their heads. He almost grabbed onto Jacob before he disappeared. Joe turned around, confused and angry, and was about to shout at the police before Molly stopped him. "It wasn't them, Jacob told me about how he had enemies coming after him that could use dimensional gates." Joe was even more confused. Molly sighed, turning towards the police. "What I'm saying is, don't try and look for him. He's back on his home planet now."

Jacob awoke with a start, as terrors woke him from his sleep "No, this isn't me." Jacob assured himself, standing up from the sofa. "I wouldn't just give up and abandon people in a deathly situation... I've gotta save them!" Jacob climbed back out of the building and searching for anything familiar. He noticed a fire escape with an officer aiming his rifle up it. Seeing as his friends didn't have much time, he skipped the stealth, opting to yank out the Webley he swiped from the fink earlier, popping off two rounds into the officer's skull, leaving him in a slump on the pavement. As fast as he could, he climbed up the steps, finally reaching the roof, where the trio was attempting to reason with the chopper pilot. Feeling a fleeting sense of unease, he acted at the spur of the moment, firing the revolver at the aircraft's windshield, causing the pilot to swerve to the left. "Come on, while we still have the chance! I took care of the goon downstairs!" Rosemary ran along without hesitation, while Joe and Molly shared an incredulous and infuriated look before following suit. "Rose, didn't you say you had a place we could crash at? Now would be the time to take the lead!" Jacob demanded as the three ran down the alleys.

(sorry for the 3 months thing, my account was locked and I never saw the verify account button :P)

The four finally outran the authorities thanks to Joe's street-smarts and quick-thinking. They finally stopped at some project apartments.

"Rosie, is this the place?" Jacob inquired, panting after all the running.

"No, I don't even recognize this part of the city..." She said, disappointed.

"Well, we're not going to keep outrunning the fuzz at our pace and numbers - we need a place to crash for the night. Besides, they might've scanned our faces, it wouldn't be a smart idea to hide in one of our own properties." Joe expleted.

"Hey, you know - I did smash into some flat back when you three were about to get made, but that's far back now... the way I see it, we either ask one of this sector's lovely citizens to let us into their home, or follow my example." Jacob finalized, not knowing any other way.

Molly was sitting on an overturned oil drum, staring dumbstruck into nothing. Jacob was worried and stepped over to her.

"Um... are you okay? You seem pretty... disturbed, is all I can think of."

"I have been here for two days, and I'm already a fugitive, along with my best friend, an odd ginger lady, and a techie who's being followed by some beatnik in a trenchcoat. I just wanted to come here to make a good life for myself, now I'm stuck in all... THIS!" She exclaimed in utter frustration, knocking the barrel into a wall with her staff, causing Rose and Joe to jump in surprise.

Jacob placed a tentative hand on her shoulder. "Hey, we're not exactly in the clear yet, but we've still got a chance - we're not dead or captured yet, so that's two strikes in our favor. And remember, none of us broke any laws as far as I'm aware of... well, Rose did shoot someone and Joe was participating in disorderly conduct and we all resisted arrest and I don't have a passport or visa-- I think I'll just shut up now, but you get what I'm trying to say, right?"

Molly looked up at Jacob and smiled. "Yeah... I know."

"Hey guys, this apartment has been foreclosed for a while... should make a good hideout!" Joe yelled over.

"Good eye, Joe!" Jacob said as he walked towards him, Molly eventually following suit.

...

It was a bit of a walk, but they finally made it to the third floor. Jacob turned the door knob to room 7, finding the knob wouldn't budge. He lifted up his leg and rammed it hard into the splintery wood, causing the door to sink slightly inward. A few more well-placed kicks and the door came tumbling down, revealing the interior of the room: a drab yet ornate carpet skewed across the center area, underneath a coffee table with a steel pipe smashed through its glass top; a plasma television with a hole in the corner, leaking its contents onto the already scuffed floor; a kitchenette with a overturned refrigerator, the floor littered with rotting food; and finally a short hallway that forked into two rooms, most likely a bedroom and bathroom.

"Well... it's better than nothing." Jacob said contently.

"Looks like a real dump to me!" Rose piped up earnestly.

Jacob stepped into the living space and sat carefully on the couch, not knowing whether its architectural integrity was equal or not to its neighboring fixtures. Thankfully, it seemed to be quite sturdy, causing Jacob to usher over the gang to sit with him - he had some things to set straight.

"Okay, when I was dragged off by that... man, I met Rosie here - she shot him, but unfortunately he's still alive. Before you ask, I did give him the slip, and managed to snatch these off of him before he came to;"

Jacob pulled out of his knapsack and lay on the wooden bevel of the coffee table the revolver as well as the strange syringe of glowing red liquid.

(OOC: Please try not to control my characters. :3 Sorry for not posting sooner, been busy)
Molly and Joe were just beginning to get through to the authorities when Jacob came back, with a gun in his hand. Molly. Joe and Rosie had to run. As Molly clambered down, she nearly stepped in a growing pool of blood and brain fluids. She nearly threw up. Although she'd been on the run for a year or so now, it was the first time she'd seen a dead body. She would have frozen in that spot if Joe hadn't jumped down next to her and grabbed her hand to keep her running. Molly felt anger and sorrow clench her heart in an iron cold fist. She snapped, and although Jacob said none of them had broken the law, she still felt crap, and wanted to shout even more so he would just understand that that wasn't true. But instead of explaining her whole reason of being on the run, she lied. Joe found a rundown apartment building, and they climbed up to the third floor. They all got into Room 7, glad to catch their breaths. Joe picked up the splintering door off the floor and set it back in its doorway. When he turned around, he didn't see Molly. He frowned, until he looked at the fridge lying on it's side, and the figure curled up on top of it. Joe gingerly sat down next to her, and put a gentle arm around her shaking shoulders.

Molly had a million thoughts racing through her head as she sat quivering on the fridge. Seeing that officer lying there... Is that what happened to her parents? Is that what would happen to her if they found her? She felt Joe put an arm around her, and relaxed a tiny bit. She leant into him, her hood pulled up, casting her face in shadows. She wasn't listening to Jacob, she wasn't listening to anything except Joe's heartbeat, trying not to think about her parents or the man whose family would be receiving news about him pretty soon. Joe looked worriedly down at Molly, and wanted to do something. He looked up at Jacob. "What do we do if they find us?"

"They won't." Joe said assuredly, but in reality, he was just as concerned as Joe; he had just been punted into this strange world where he didn't know the law, and already there was a murder and an assault on his account. It was pretty clear that regardless of the circumstances the group would slip up eventually... The best he could do was ensure that they did it as late in the game as they could last.

Jacob stood up and brushed some gravel and cobwebs off himself. "The sirens have stopped at least and I haven't seen any cruisers drive past, so we should start by fortifying this place. And in the meantime, I really want to figure out something that's been puzzling me since I got here - who the hell WAS that guy in the big coat, and what is this thing he was holding?" Jacob said, pointing out the almost comically oversized needle, the crimson nectar still glowing and swirling in the corrugated glass vial.

Molly didn't even look up as she spoke. "It's eversor." Joe looked towards her in surprise. "What? How did you know that?" Molly glared at the crimson vial, her face giving off a heavy air of disgust and hate. "My parents risked their lives trying to destroy the machine that stuff powers, and every last drop of it. And so did yours Joe..." Joe screwed his eyes up tight, holding back emotions about his parents. He sighed. "How do you even know this Molly?" She shrugged. "I overheard bits of my parents' conversations, but didn't understand them til recently..." She wiped a tear from her eye. "Now I can't even tell them that I understand. I don't even..." She moaned and curled up into a tighter ball. Joe rubbed her on the back and walked over to Jacob. "So do we destroy it or keep it?"

Jacob gripped the syringe tentatively, turning it over constantly to examine every inch of it.

"Hm... Nothing on this vial says Eversor, or whatever you were talking about. I don't think it would either, to be honest - that guy who was carrying it looked completely out of place for this place, maybe even this century. They might call it Eversor here, or Eversor might be something completely different - but one thing's for sure, wherever that agent is from - they call this a 'plasmid'."

He gripped the end of the syringe and removed the safety plug, revealing the long, silvery proboscis, a small drop of the 'plasmid' dripping out the tip.

"I think... I should give it a try."

Joe looked back at Molly, who wouldn't say anything. His eyebrows practically shrunk together, and turned back to Jacob. "I'm not sure it's a good idea... Wait a second." Joe opened the fridge, and saw nothing there, and turned to Molly, who obliged and budged off the fridge door. He looked, and found an old chunk of meat. It was frozen stiff, and was starting to smell, but it would do. Joe put it on the counter and nodded to it. "Wait for it to thaw, then see if it does anything if it's injected with that."

"You think that would work? I mean, a hunk of meat isn't exactly a living thing... Oh well, I don't have any less risky plans, but find a straw or something to use as an infuser, if I wanna stick myself, I don't want to get E. Coli." Jacob asked Molly as he picked up the syringe and rolled it in his palms.

(BTW - I erased Rosemary due to her continued absence, and I don't want to play her character for her)

Molly rubbed her arms and stood up, walking through the other rooms in the apartment, eventually finding a crappy straw in a moldy cup from who knew how long ago. She washed it with a water bottle in her backpack, and handed it to Jacob with a weak smile, trying to look on the bright side of the situation. She felt Joe's hand on her shoulder and calmed down a bit. "So. I suppose we'd best do this?"

"Yeah... get it over with." Jacob stated stonefaced, lifting his sleeve and turning his inside arm toward Molly, who Jacob motioned to pick up the syringe and do it. Jacob began to sweat a little - what the hell was he thinking?! Oh sure, let's stick myself with this strange fluid I found in some old creep's pockets! On the one hand, it could be little more than morphine - something he might've used to knock him unconcious, considering he's currently surrounded by trusted folks, what's the harm if it was so? On the other hand, it might be some sort of fast-acting toxin, he might've wanted to get rid of him the moment he was in his clutches! "Oh shit, what now?!" he thought, watching Molly hold the syringe tentatively. "No, I can trust Molly... she was the one who saved me in the first place...". "Okay Molly. Stick me - now."

Ithon sitting in the shadows, observing all those who are there. I wonder who needs me for hire, he thinks to himself. He then jumps out of the shadows and walks, waiting to be noticed. An assassin for hire, cheap too. He will work with whatever you give him and he never betrays his customers.

The Global Self-Defense Army and Niihama's Skywatch had been tracking the object ever since it entered Niihama's solar system. Every trajectory had been carefully plotted into hundreds of supercomputers, and the course analyzed, it was projected to crash far outside any major urban zones, what few existed on the planet. Was this deliberate? Skywatch was concerned, so the decision was made to redeploy the fleet, and move ground forces towards the mountainous region south of the Yukikaze megacity, one of the few untouched regions left on the planet.

Whatever it was, no chances could be taken, so the Army deployed, and set up fortifications all around the small crater, powerful resonance barriers kept the radiation contained within the local area, and a combination of machinegun emplacements, sandbags, and hastily poured concrete redoubts marked the first line of defense, as hundreds of Taiyou soldiers took position surrounding the crater.

Each one was in a fully hermetically sealed combat suit, which offered a second layer of protection from the radiation, their weapons consisted of the Seburo C26A Assault rifle, a 5.45x45mm box fed high velocity assault rifle that fired high-powered armor piercing rounds.

The Area had also been closed off to the public, but the surrounding area began to fill with news crews, reporting the affair all across the Empire.

Two wasp-like Jigabachi AV attack helicopters were circling the crater as well, their rotors thundering through the still, thick air, thirty-millimetre rotary cannons mounted on their tails crooked forward, like a wasp about to sting it's prey.

Four Armor Shrikes, and two HAW206 multiped tanks rounded out the ground response, their main weapons trained on the small object below, was it a simple meteor?

The Director of Public Security, and the General of the Imperial Ground Self Defense Forces were both standing on the back of a large troop transport, under the camouflage canvas cover that was flapping in the wind, With most of the government pre-occupied with other things, both had been placed in charge of the response here.

"Director Miyagi is on his way from Niihama City." Aramaki said, turning to the General. Whom turned back to Aramaki. "I was redeployed from the gate to this location, fortunately the situation with the Vikings has yielded little in the way of events." Hama said, taking a pair of binoculars to gaze into the crater.

"We'll wait for Director Miyagi before we approach the object." Hama added.

Whatever this was, it certainly could not stay here, on Niihama. With the area secure, all that was left was to extract the object, and secure it in a place where it would pose no threat to Niihama, or it's people.

A Large six wheeled heavy duty army transport truck was slowly beginning it's descent down the crater walls, flanked on either side by large, bright yellow humanoid mecha that sported various attachments on their arms. The glass canopies of the humanoid mecha that comprised it's torso held the pilot, surrounded by a various assortment of controls. These humanoid machines were what the Taiyou called a Yunboro, which was a general multi purpose exosuit that allowed the operator to conduct operations in a multitude of environments.

Director Miyagi joined General Hama, and Director Aramaki in the observation. His eyes focused on the crater below.

"Fleet's been instructed to saturate this immediate area with nuclear ordinance if we lose control of the situation." Hama commented, turning to Miyagi, Miyagi simply nodded. "I've arranged for the object to be transferred to Yukikaze Space Elevator, where it will be transferred into orbit."

Miyagi's voice was briefly drowned out by a pair of tachikoma, the spider-like multiped tanks quickly skittered past, kicking up a small cloud of dust as they moved into the crater to support the pair of Yunboros.

The moment they reached the object, soldiers in full hazardous materials gear emerged, they wore full face visors, which were affixed to hermetically sealed suits. One soldier produced a pair of bright, orange light up sticks, directing the Yunboros to approach the object, as the truck slowly backed up closer.

The Armor Shrikes, humanoid mecha much like the Yunboro affixed their weapons, large high-caliber anti-materiel cannons onto the object, each Armor Shrike painted a brilliant blue, in contrast to the bright yellow yunboro that approached the object.

"Approaching object now..." One of the Yunboro pilots remarked onto the radio, slowly, the Yunboro approached, large clamps attached to it's arms opening up to find purchase on the glassy surface, the second Yunboro approached at the opposite angle, attempting to allow it's own clamps to find purchase on the object.

"Alright... now we'll need to load it into the truck." The second Yunboro operator remarked. A trio of soldiers moved in the truck, preparing a large nanosteel box strapped to the chassis of the truck, this hardened casket would accept the strange object, where it could be secured for transit off world.