• Nobles of Null is a forum based roleplay site where sci-fi and magic collide. Here, Earth remains fractured and divided despite humanity reaching out to the stars. Worse still, the trans-human slaves of one major power have escaped, only to establish their own Empire, seething with resentment at abuses of the past. Even the discovery of aliens, though medieval in development, has failed to rally these squabbling children of Earth together with its far darker implications. Worse still, is the discovery of the impossible - magic. Practiced by the alien locals, nearly depleted and therefore rare, its reality warping abilities remains abstract and distant to the general populace. All the while, unseen in the darkness of space, forces from without threaten to press in. For those with eyes opened by insight, it is clear that an era is about to end, and that a new age will dawn.

Chapter 3: Into Darkness

TheFirstOne

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Hawking System
In Orbit of Planet Bruno
Fuminsho Station
Back of some cargo truck


"You were supposed to see if ONE woman was there!"

"Things got a little outta hand but we got her."

"You got half a whorehouse back here."

"We got every blonde we saw, no time to check faces when its dark and a buncha guys are trying to slice you."

*THUCK* The back of hand hitting someone's cheek was an unmistakable sound.
"FIND HER! bring her downstairs when you got her and if she's not in here then go back to the Grand Cabaret."

There was the sound of a door opening, and then the sound of one being slammed closed.

"OK, Which one of you is Hilda Oil Lander?"

The lights turned on in the back of the van, showing nearly a dozen women who'd been tossed in the back. Some of them had their hands zip-tied, others had been fitted with collars with built in speakers and noise-cancellers to keep them from speaking up.

"Look, we're only looking for the one girl ok? We don't have a problem with the rest of you. Just point her out and everyone of you can go home. We can even get you a job at one of the local Cabaret clubs if you're lookin... I know your last place of employment is going through some troubles," The man laughed. He had a Tanto on his hip, still sheathed, with his hand resting on the hilt. He had what looked like a pho-snake-skin suit on that looked offensive to the eyes with a mix of scaled black, yellow, and green along with a set of night vision goggles that had been pulled up off his face while the lights were turned on.
 

CadetNewb

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The expression Hilda made at hearing her own name be uttered was one of disgust, much like when she would accidentally open up a container of still fermenting sauerkraut back home. She had to think fast though. If she pretended to be someone else, what was going to happen to the others? Were they going to befall a horrific fate worse than debt death?

"Wait, if you're not trying to meet your boss's fetish request, what are you going to do with this 'Oil Lander' person? Is she supposed to be an in to petroleum industry?" she asked, curious as to what terrors they were planning to inflict on her.
 

Uso

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"The boss just wants to have a chat with her. She's supposed to be some kinda weapon dealer. Turns out her Moneymaker wasn't her ass, which is why we're keen on talkin to her."

The girls seemed to be mumbling to one another... or maybe not. They still had their hands bound and many of them still had those noise-canceling collars on keeping them from speaking. Some were getting quite annoyed with being unable to voice their opinions on the matter.

"Look, you girls ain't gonna have a cabaret club to go back to if we don't get ahold of her. Neomni clan getting firepower means we gotta get firepower just to keep the peace. You'd hate to see the place if the fight gets serious." The man said, now starting to pace his way through the back of the truck. He'd pull out a small display and start holding it up to the girls one by one, trying to compare the blonde on the screen with the blondes in the back of the truck.
 

CadetNewb

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"Oh. Okay," she glanced at the ground, downcast. Disappointed with the answer, Midnight began idly trying to remove the collars off of the other girls. "Why didn't I get a collar," she mumbled, dejected at having found a pretty reasonably good ending for all the action. She was going to get a new employer, make more guns and money...everything was going great! Too great.
 

Uso

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"HEY! STOP THAT!" The thug shouted out, walking over to Hilda and drawing his Tano off his belt, leaving it in the scabbard so he could thwack her on the hand without injuring her, "You're supposed to sit there until-"

"THAT'S HILDA!" The woman who had just been decollared called out now that she could talk, "Look, none of us want to get wrapped up in whatever this is so just-"
"She doesn't look like Hilda?" The Thug said, pulling out a small display and holding it up to Hilda's face, "Yeah she's blonde, but she's supposed to look kinda dumpy, glasses, kinda fat, not at all like a dancer." He'd show the picture around to the other girls, and then to Hilda herself. It seemed that they were working off an older picture of Hilda taken when she was still with her family from before the Daqin gene mods.

"That's Hilda" The woman repeated, "She's the only Hilda in the club so either that's her or you grabbed us all for nothing!"​
 

CadetNewb

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"Booo, you spoiled the fun," Midnight pouted just a bit. She reached over and grabbed the image of herself and looked it over. "Could you at least get my mug-shot when I showed up here?" she asked. "I look a lot better in that one!" she whined. "You even called me dumpy and kinda fat! I worked really hard to look good you know! This is a mortal wound for a woman! Apologize!"
 

Uso

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"I said you don't look dumpy and fat," The man said, squatting down in front of Hilda and holding the picture up to her face. "Which is a problem because I'm supposed to be looking for this dumpyfat girl..." It would take the man a bit of looking to reach his decision, looking at the picture, then at Hilda, then the picture again...

"Ok, I guess it is you... The 'resta you are free to go." He said, grabing ahold of Hilda's arm without so much as an Apology and lifting her up to standing, pulling her out of the truck with him and into the back of another Cabaret club.

"HEY! ARE YOU GOING TO UNTIE US?!" shouted the woman in the back of the truck as they left...
---
Hawking System
In Orbit of Planet
Bruno
Fuminsho Station
The Odyssey

"Alright," The man said, still holding Hilda by the arm as he took her into one of the back rooms of the club where a private lift could take them to the upper levels. "Look, when we get up there all the boss wants to hear from you is that you made the Omi some weapons, and that you're gonna make weapons for us too got it? Don't waste the boss' time with ok?"

He wouldn't bother with waiting for her response, taking her up to another door where an electronic lock and camera system was guarding the door, "Boss, that Hilda you wanted is here."

He'd take ahold of Hilda by her hair, using the firm grasp to tilt her head up towards the Camera.

The door would then 'CLICK' and open.

Hilda would be rushed inside and the door closed up behind them.

The room itself was certainly extravagant. There was a four post bed and numerous sofas all decked out with pillows. The massive floor to ceiling windows of the room were completely blacked out, and lighting was being provided by numerous candles. A man was standing near the center of the room wearing one of the few clearly expensive and well tailored dark charcoal suits that Hilda had seen on this station. In the center of the room was a woman who looked to be in her mid 30s, wearing quite a lot of black lace and not much else, thigh highs, a garter belt, and a blindfold accompanying a series of red ropes that held her tied up and suspended above the ground.

Hilda's guard would then nudge her and whisper, "say the thing..."
 

CadetNewb

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"Ah, wait! Shouldn't I be tied up like them?" Midnight realized. Whisked away on the burly gangster, she looked back at her former co-workers longingly. "Cuffs maybe?" she offered. However, it was all in vain. Standing before the next mafia-yakuza-triad-whatever boss, she was once again in a position that made her less than happy. "You all want the same thing, don't you?" she half-grumbled. Still clad in her skimpy, skimpy outfit, her ears twitched in anticipation. But even so, she was also primed for disappointment given how proper and un-lecherous the hired muscle was. "Guns, or else I'll end up rented out to the highest paying ugly fat men you can find, right?" The truth was, as much as she wanted to make them bad weapons, she couldn't.

Excellent guns were a proud tradition of the Olander Family, passed down across generations!
 

Uso

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"That's not what you 're supposed to say," The guard said, sounding annoyed that Hilda had already gone off script, "Just give me a few minutes with her boss and I'll teach her some respect for you."

The restrained woman would huff slightly, and then carefully state, "I appreciate that you brought her right to me like I asked, but in the future would you please knock before entering?"

"Yes ma'am, I ju-"
"Thank you, please wait outside for us to finish in here and leave Miss Olander where she is." The woman said, dismissing the guard beside Hilda while the remaining suit'd man started to lower her carefully to the floor and untie her, followed by bringing her a bath robe... then heading to an area off to the side to get some tea ready. "I hope my men weren't too rough with bringing you here," She said, taking off her blindfold and setting it aside, the woman moving to sit down on the edge of her bed and get a better look at Hilda, "And I suppose you've already confirmed what we've suspected. The Neomni clan is arming themselves well beyond what's expected of them. We could easily go to the station's leadership and get them raided, have their whole operation shut down. I didn't think he would be so dumb as to make it this easy for us..." The careful thinking tone quickly turned to a more laser focus as her eyes fixated on Hilda rather immediately. "...which means there is something here I am missing. Surely you must have overheard something that would be interesting for me to know?"
 
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