Co-authored by: Ray of Meep (GM), Acewing13, ArsenicJohn, Ikate Keda Studios, PaladinGreco, Piston1937, TheCountryWarrior
2320, Six weeks after departure from the Silbern System
Low Earth Orbit, Daheim One
"Juan, Beatrix, Derek, Jami, Luna, Serafina, report to the bridge." Ulrike announced through the ship comms. It's been a few days since Daheim One entered Earth-Luna space, and Ulrike already recruited two new members, one from Luna no less. Another Seraphim V space plane has already docked to the frigate again. It didn't take much to put two and two together.
Jamison Butterworth sighed and put down the cleaning brush and the firing hammer of his MG-130 down. Being interupted wasn't such a bad thing but it was still mildly annoying that they still wouldn't schedule things ahead of time. Tossing the oily gloves into an open crate he snagged a look at the map of the ship he had printed and stuck to the wall with magnets. Ignoring the notes drawn on it with some markers, mainly about where people tended to hangout and what important places were where, he ran a finger along the way to the bridge. His route plotted he threw on a new shirt and stepped through the barricade around the door, which had grown a nice line of barbed wire, before making the hike up the ship to the bridge.
Luna, on the otherhand, was already on the bridge, holding a pouch in her hand. She wore a casual jump suit, and her eyes were hazy and seemed unfocused as she bore a hole into the back of Joan's head, pulling out what looked to be small sugar cookies, and chewing on them without too obnoxious a level of noise. This had been the norm for the woman. She would stare and eat, at anyone really. Sometimes it seemed she was staring off into the distance, but if you stepped in front of her you would have to leave to get her eyes to stop following you.
Sitting in front of a console was a focused and determined Joan. Her entire body was strapped to it, with a wheel chair maglocked next to her. A control stick and fans were attached to it, along with a pair of crutches with their own maglocks on them. She turned around and nodded to Juan with a flat expression, before going back to her work on the console.
Juan nodded back to Joan, his expression largely unreadable. He had been awake for some time, moving about and checking his own equipment. While it wasn't strange for him, he'd been more reserved since the last mission. He stood here now, waiting for instructions, or a meet and greet, or whatever.
Beatrix yawned, kicking out of her sleeping bag as she shook off the nap time disorientation. Taking a swig of lukewarm coffee, she brushed the wrinkles out of her jumpsuit and put on her magshoes, before heading out the door, pulling her hair back into a ponytail as she walked. Once on the bridge, she smiled and nodded to her coworkers as she took an unused chair and turned it to face the group.
Serafina woke to a furry white face with big blue eyes staring at her. “Morning, Hannibal.” She said, reaching over to scratch behind his ears. Despite spending time finding and circumventing any recording devices in her room, she didn’t dare speak freely. Until she knew who she could trust, she would be Serafina. Hannibal was the only one who knew the truth and he was the only one she trusted to be perfectly loyal.
She put on magshoes and then slipped Hannibal’s mag boots on. Yawning, she unstrapped herself and climbed out of bed. Next she squeezed a tube of pureed dog food into a container for Hannibal, connected the straw and stuck the container to the wall with a magnet. Then she took his water container off the wall next to it, refilled it, and attached it to the wall again.
While the dog unzipped his sleeping bag with his teeth and padded over a few steps to eat his liquid breakfast, she heated up a mug of coffee and grabbed a pouch of her own breakfast. She relieved herself in the proper receptacle and straightened up in the mirror, checking that her tan still appeared intact. Her routine complete, she quickly gulped down her breakfast and tossed the tube in the trash. Hannibal finished doing his business and waited patiently. Serafina tied her hair in a bun and opened the door with the push of a button.
She walked to the bridge, the big white dog following close behind. Once she reached the bridge she found a seat and turned to face the others. Hannibal sat down beside her and yawned, examining the other people with his piercing blue eyes.
Derek arrived last, still wearing an old dock yard jumpsuit with numerous burns all over it. He had the matching helmet on, but the visor was presently up. He had his datapad tethered to his hip, and a really old, somewhat battered dataslate stuck to his torso with good old fashioned velcro. There was the distinct smell of something burned and also of ozone about his person. What he'd been doing to be dressed like that was a complete mystery to everyone in the room, except Ulrike. "I'm here, boss." Derek seemed content to just stand where he was, maglocked to the floor.
"Morning to you all." Ulrike and Eberhard were standing in the center of the room in front of the command table. While the couple were both in the normal, grey jumpsuits, Eberhard had a tube coming out of his right lung, its interface with the clothing sealed by plastic, and ended at a box on his belt. His breathing was slow and audible.
Ulrike put up a view of the Seraphim V currently docked to the command module. True to its name, it was a beauty of an aerospace-craft. Twin engines sat comfortably in the back of a sleak, white fuselage with a pair of great wings that currently folded inward. Round windows lined the sides as they would a typical passenger jet. Beside that of the Seraphim V, there was another image on screen, this time a map of an island in the Mediterranean Sea: Sicily.
"I hope you guys have been using the VR room frequently," Eberhard began in a slow a steady talking pace, "because you'll be sent down to the surface. Well, most of you will anyways. Joan and I will be staying behind on the ship for another month, first because of our injuries, second because we need to monitor the systems as we shut Daheim One down."
"In ovah words," Joan said, looking over her shoulder the best she could. " 'ave fun in Italy. Dun git too fat, in make sure da kids git picked up by me mum. Asked 'er ta take care of dem."
"The children are adorable," Luna said, finally pulling her eyes away from Joan, slowly looking at everyone else. "Too bad they will not be staying with us."
"Not a chance..." Joan said sharply.
Jami looked at Ulrike with a tad bit of confusion. "Is this a mission or shore leave?" Being the almost seven foot tall giant he was he wouldn't mind a mission in a place that had a ceiling taller than six feet but if it was shore leave he was probably better off just staying on the ship if only to keep his claimed area intruder free.
"Both. It'll be a change in mission environment, for a mix of reasons." Ulrike replied. "One, the current Hawking Rebellion has sent ripples through the rest of the human community. To be specific, it has galvanized other terrorist and rebel groups: if a fringe organization was able to take down six Statesmen-classes, then they surely would stand a chance at overthrowing the status quo as well. Thus, we're looking at more chaos in vulnerable areas on Earth that demand our attention. Two..."
Ulrike sighed. "We're looking at a budget cut. To be sure, you all are going to keep your salaries, but we won't be able to zip around interplanetary space as much as we'd like anymore. The silver lining, unfortunatley, is that the Hawking Rebellion has temporarily given us a way out of a financial conundrum. Such is the nature of war; we as mercenaries profit off of it." She shrugged.
"Money sounds important," Luna sighed. "Too much stress..."
Castle still looked a bit confused, it wasn't the most direct mission objective he had been given but then again he had had worse. "So we go down there and sit in a hotel room until the riots start? Or are we playing at policing forces?"
Serafina was pretty sure that the dog girl was under the influence of something. She frowned, curious how they had managed to end up with a Daqin on the ship. It was even more surprising to see the state of Eberhard and Joan. Whatever had happened after that trial must have been big trouble.
She wondered what the odds were that they would be going to Italy right after she came from there. It wasn’t a big surprise to be going to a GDW nation, though. She was confused what the mission was exactly, but she was hesitant to speak up as a new member of the crew. When the big man spoke up first she nodded.
“Y-yes, more specific details would be greatly appreciated.” She said, her Italian accent becoming a little more noticeable with her nervousness.
2320, Six weeks after departure from the Silbern System
Low Earth Orbit, Daheim One
"Juan, Beatrix, Derek, Jami, Luna, Serafina, report to the bridge." Ulrike announced through the ship comms. It's been a few days since Daheim One entered Earth-Luna space, and Ulrike already recruited two new members, one from Luna no less. Another Seraphim V space plane has already docked to the frigate again. It didn't take much to put two and two together.
Jamison Butterworth sighed and put down the cleaning brush and the firing hammer of his MG-130 down. Being interupted wasn't such a bad thing but it was still mildly annoying that they still wouldn't schedule things ahead of time. Tossing the oily gloves into an open crate he snagged a look at the map of the ship he had printed and stuck to the wall with magnets. Ignoring the notes drawn on it with some markers, mainly about where people tended to hangout and what important places were where, he ran a finger along the way to the bridge. His route plotted he threw on a new shirt and stepped through the barricade around the door, which had grown a nice line of barbed wire, before making the hike up the ship to the bridge.
Luna, on the otherhand, was already on the bridge, holding a pouch in her hand. She wore a casual jump suit, and her eyes were hazy and seemed unfocused as she bore a hole into the back of Joan's head, pulling out what looked to be small sugar cookies, and chewing on them without too obnoxious a level of noise. This had been the norm for the woman. She would stare and eat, at anyone really. Sometimes it seemed she was staring off into the distance, but if you stepped in front of her you would have to leave to get her eyes to stop following you.
Sitting in front of a console was a focused and determined Joan. Her entire body was strapped to it, with a wheel chair maglocked next to her. A control stick and fans were attached to it, along with a pair of crutches with their own maglocks on them. She turned around and nodded to Juan with a flat expression, before going back to her work on the console.
Juan nodded back to Joan, his expression largely unreadable. He had been awake for some time, moving about and checking his own equipment. While it wasn't strange for him, he'd been more reserved since the last mission. He stood here now, waiting for instructions, or a meet and greet, or whatever.
Beatrix yawned, kicking out of her sleeping bag as she shook off the nap time disorientation. Taking a swig of lukewarm coffee, she brushed the wrinkles out of her jumpsuit and put on her magshoes, before heading out the door, pulling her hair back into a ponytail as she walked. Once on the bridge, she smiled and nodded to her coworkers as she took an unused chair and turned it to face the group.
Serafina woke to a furry white face with big blue eyes staring at her. “Morning, Hannibal.” She said, reaching over to scratch behind his ears. Despite spending time finding and circumventing any recording devices in her room, she didn’t dare speak freely. Until she knew who she could trust, she would be Serafina. Hannibal was the only one who knew the truth and he was the only one she trusted to be perfectly loyal.
She put on magshoes and then slipped Hannibal’s mag boots on. Yawning, she unstrapped herself and climbed out of bed. Next she squeezed a tube of pureed dog food into a container for Hannibal, connected the straw and stuck the container to the wall with a magnet. Then she took his water container off the wall next to it, refilled it, and attached it to the wall again.
While the dog unzipped his sleeping bag with his teeth and padded over a few steps to eat his liquid breakfast, she heated up a mug of coffee and grabbed a pouch of her own breakfast. She relieved herself in the proper receptacle and straightened up in the mirror, checking that her tan still appeared intact. Her routine complete, she quickly gulped down her breakfast and tossed the tube in the trash. Hannibal finished doing his business and waited patiently. Serafina tied her hair in a bun and opened the door with the push of a button.
She walked to the bridge, the big white dog following close behind. Once she reached the bridge she found a seat and turned to face the others. Hannibal sat down beside her and yawned, examining the other people with his piercing blue eyes.
Derek arrived last, still wearing an old dock yard jumpsuit with numerous burns all over it. He had the matching helmet on, but the visor was presently up. He had his datapad tethered to his hip, and a really old, somewhat battered dataslate stuck to his torso with good old fashioned velcro. There was the distinct smell of something burned and also of ozone about his person. What he'd been doing to be dressed like that was a complete mystery to everyone in the room, except Ulrike. "I'm here, boss." Derek seemed content to just stand where he was, maglocked to the floor.
"Morning to you all." Ulrike and Eberhard were standing in the center of the room in front of the command table. While the couple were both in the normal, grey jumpsuits, Eberhard had a tube coming out of his right lung, its interface with the clothing sealed by plastic, and ended at a box on his belt. His breathing was slow and audible.
Ulrike put up a view of the Seraphim V currently docked to the command module. True to its name, it was a beauty of an aerospace-craft. Twin engines sat comfortably in the back of a sleak, white fuselage with a pair of great wings that currently folded inward. Round windows lined the sides as they would a typical passenger jet. Beside that of the Seraphim V, there was another image on screen, this time a map of an island in the Mediterranean Sea: Sicily.
"I hope you guys have been using the VR room frequently," Eberhard began in a slow a steady talking pace, "because you'll be sent down to the surface. Well, most of you will anyways. Joan and I will be staying behind on the ship for another month, first because of our injuries, second because we need to monitor the systems as we shut Daheim One down."
"In ovah words," Joan said, looking over her shoulder the best she could. " 'ave fun in Italy. Dun git too fat, in make sure da kids git picked up by me mum. Asked 'er ta take care of dem."
"The children are adorable," Luna said, finally pulling her eyes away from Joan, slowly looking at everyone else. "Too bad they will not be staying with us."
"Not a chance..." Joan said sharply.
Jami looked at Ulrike with a tad bit of confusion. "Is this a mission or shore leave?" Being the almost seven foot tall giant he was he wouldn't mind a mission in a place that had a ceiling taller than six feet but if it was shore leave he was probably better off just staying on the ship if only to keep his claimed area intruder free.
"Both. It'll be a change in mission environment, for a mix of reasons." Ulrike replied. "One, the current Hawking Rebellion has sent ripples through the rest of the human community. To be specific, it has galvanized other terrorist and rebel groups: if a fringe organization was able to take down six Statesmen-classes, then they surely would stand a chance at overthrowing the status quo as well. Thus, we're looking at more chaos in vulnerable areas on Earth that demand our attention. Two..."
Ulrike sighed. "We're looking at a budget cut. To be sure, you all are going to keep your salaries, but we won't be able to zip around interplanetary space as much as we'd like anymore. The silver lining, unfortunatley, is that the Hawking Rebellion has temporarily given us a way out of a financial conundrum. Such is the nature of war; we as mercenaries profit off of it." She shrugged.
"Money sounds important," Luna sighed. "Too much stress..."
Castle still looked a bit confused, it wasn't the most direct mission objective he had been given but then again he had had worse. "So we go down there and sit in a hotel room until the riots start? Or are we playing at policing forces?"
Serafina was pretty sure that the dog girl was under the influence of something. She frowned, curious how they had managed to end up with a Daqin on the ship. It was even more surprising to see the state of Eberhard and Joan. Whatever had happened after that trial must have been big trouble.
She wondered what the odds were that they would be going to Italy right after she came from there. It wasn’t a big surprise to be going to a GDW nation, though. She was confused what the mission was exactly, but she was hesitant to speak up as a new member of the crew. When the big man spoke up first she nodded.
“Y-yes, more specific details would be greatly appreciated.” She said, her Italian accent becoming a little more noticeable with her nervousness.