• 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 5 & 6 Intermission 1: Aftermath

Ray of Meep

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Co-authored by: Ray of Meep (GM), Acewing13, Ikate Keda Studios, TheCountryWarrior

23XX A.D, 24 hours after the raid on the warehouse

Silbern System, Stahl Belt, Nikolaus Otto dwarf-planetary system, Magnuski Station

Captain Rain was driving one of the shuttles bringing the vigilantes back to Daheim One. Poodle was driving the other. In the backseats of each were Joan, Juan, Eberhard, and Beatrix, bounded by zipties. They were still in their suits, disheveled. At least Juan was bandaged up, given the necessary treatment for his wounds. Ulrike rode shotgun. She hasn't said a word to the team yet.

After they stopped in front of the ship's airlock, Rain let them out and cut their zipties. "You better keep an eye on them this time." He admonished to Ulrike.

"We'll talk later." Ulrike flatly replied. Rain looked at her curiously, but simply nodded and drove off. Once the two shuttles were off out of hearing range, she grabbed Eberhard by the ear and pulled him down to her height. "I hope you're fucking happy. You just costed me a couple of months of work with this stunt of yours!" She then glared at the rest of the team. "You're not innocent either! You know we're on thin ice right now!"

Eberhard protested, "They have nothing to do with this, it was all on--- ow ow ow!"

"Jus' shut it Eber'ard," Joan sighed. "Yer gonna 'ave it easy, believe me," she said, sounding concerned.

"To be fair we could have said no. I forget why I signed up in the first place. Probably to lower the chance of the team getting in trouble and also fucking dying." Juan sighed, and rolled his head around on his neck. "We really shouldn't have done that, that was immensly stupid."

"Ah'm gonna 'ave ta explain dis ta Tylah," Joan groaned, rubbing her hands together nervously. "Ah'm nevah gonna 'ear da end of it."

"Guys, shut up," Beatrix said with her own sigh. "Don't talk unless your lawyer is around."

"Bee, Mom has it handled. I think." Juan moved his wrists around, now free of their ties.

"I expected better of you." Ulrike shook her head, still holding onto Eberhard's ear. "From now on I expect you to be back on the ship within an hour of your shifts save for extraordinary circumstances. You will not touch anything in the armory without explicit permission. Is that understood?"

"Yes ma'am," Joan sighed. "Can ah go see me kids in git dis ovah wif?" She asked.

"Of course." Ulrike nodded, watching Joan leave quietly. "And you!" She turned back at her husband. "Hand it over!"

"Hand what over?" Eberhard winced and asked.

"Don't play daft with me! The weapons tracking data!" Ulrike growled.

"Sigh..." With great reluctance, Eberhard pulled a thumbdrive out of his pocket and handed it to Ulrike. Only then did she let him go.

"What are you going to do with it?" Bee asked, holding her hands behind her.

"Nothing. I don't want Eberhard to do anything with it, but I can't just delete it either. After all, you guys risked your lives for this idiot's dumb idea." Ulrike inspected the hardware, looked at Bee, then clenched it in her fist.

"Alright," Beatrix said, with a shrug. "Guess it'd be wrong to use it when we told the police we wouldn't."

"What's the whole point then?" Eberhard crossed his arms and frowned. "We're supposed to do work that law enforcement can't. Day by day on this station it feels like we're just government lapdogs. The team wasn't recruited just to do beat cop duties. We're wasting talent here."

Ulrike massaged her nosebridge. "For the love of---" She looked at Juan and Bee. "What, you're feeling bored?"
 

Ray of Meep

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"Seems like a relevant conversation to be listening to," Bee said with a shrug.

Juan pointed a finger at Bee. "Exactly that."

"I mean your time on the station overall. I'm paying you pretty well to do far safer work just to keep you guys around." Ulrike explained. "Don't listen to Eberhard. He's only looking at the short-term. I'm fighting tooth and nail right now to allow us to continue to do work later on."

"Excuse me?!" Eberhard was about to object again, when the group could see Joan storm out of the ship, followed by a disheveled Monty.

"Grab her!" Monty shouted, his voice sliding concerned. Joan, however, was the image of seething rage as she floated.

"Ah'm gonna kill him!" She sneered, repeating that comment over and over again.

Eberhard turned around instinctively and put an arm in front of Joan. "Hold--" He started before Joan punched him in the face, grabbing onto him to stop him from floating away. She had some paper in her free hand, but that didn't stop her from hitting him again, and again, and a third time. From the sound alone it was obvious she wasn't holding anything at all back, and was probably going far beyond what she was normally capable of.

"This. Is. Your. Fault!" She screamed, tears streaming down her face as she punctuated each word with a punch.

"Whoa, whoa," Beatrix said, kicking off the floor and colliding with the pair. "What the hell is going on?" she asked, pinning Joan's arm to her side, but without missing a beat, Joan headbutted her in the face, pushing them both away and using them to start floating again.

Juan rushed forward at Joan and grabbed her arm, swiftly moving behind her and grabbing at her other arm to hold them behind her. "Joan! Who the fuck are you going to kill? Why?"

Montgomery helped Juan keep the hysterical Joan pinned while Ulrike checked on her husband. Eberhard was barely conscious, floating in place, with a broken and bloodied nose, and a black eye. He tried to keep the blood from clogging by purposefully snorting out, creating bubbles of blood midair.

"That fucker took 'em!" Joan screamed, struggling against the two, trying to find some kind of traction in the 0g environment, yanking with all her might, before finally collapsing. "Ah shouldn't 'ave done it!" She sobbed, the fight gone as quickly as it came. "Ah fucking knew ah shouldn't 'ave gotten inta dat car!"

Juan paused, eyes widening. Her rambling started to make sense. "He didn't. When? Why? By who's authority!?" He stopped imprisoning her, and wasn't sure what to do. He tried to pull her into a hug. "Where did they go?"

"Ah don't know!" She shrieked, finally letting go of the papers in her hand, burying her face and breaking down completely.

"Mont, get Ebbey into the medbay." Ulrike ordered.

Bee groaned as she held a hand against her bruised forehead, before snatching the papers out of the air and reading. "Well, shit," she said, before looking at Monty. "Do you know when he left?"

"Two hours ago. He said they were going to the park." Montgomery replied before pulling Eberhard through the airlock.

"Course he did," she said, twisting in the air to maglock herself to the floor. "Ulrike, is it possible to track down Tyler or Joan's kids? Want to make sure they're still on the station."

"I can call up Rain again." Ulrike tapped at her datapad. "May I?" She asked for the paper and skimmed over it, frowning further. "Son of a bitch..." She muttered. "He can't do this." She said out loud. "Ebbey's stunt was a stupid idea, but he's not acting legally either."

Juan held Joan in a hug, letting her sob. "What does it say damnit? Are we just passing the paper or is somone gonna save us the trouble and read it for the rest of us?"

"It's a letter and a legal document. The letter is Tyler being all high and mighty. 'I don't want my children raised by blah, blah, blah.' The legal document seems to be their custody agreement, with a circle around a part that says that it's null and void if either party is charged with a federal crime."

Juan seethed, clutching Joan close. "We weren't charged though, we're scot free, barring Ul's justified restrictions. I'm gonna fucking murder him. The bastard was just waiting! He's been here a couple weeks and he think's he's gonna parent them better than Joan will? I'll show him a fucking federal crime! He wants to be a parent, maybe he should have actually given a fuck while he was here!"

"Don't do anything you'll regret later." Ulrike admonished. "You two get Joan inside. I'll deal with the litigation."

"Let me know if you need any help, lawyer wise," Bee said, walking over to Juan and Joan, pulling them close to the floor. "Got a few strings I can pull, if needed."

"Fucking stupid..." Joan muttered to herself, sniffling. Her tone was defeated, as she locked herself to the floor. "Ah... Ah'm going to mah room..." She added, starting to walk away.

Juan watched her leave, and stood there. "Damn bastard. I wouldn't really regret killing him. I'd regret being jailed though."
 
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