Gisk

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Freedom of Devils

"What?" Holly barked shrilly as Martyn tried to give orders. The odds seemed stacked in their favor, and she wasn't worried, but if he kept taking charge like this he was going to sow confusion in their own ranks.

"Fine, but Ku- er, Familiar Three. Break off, destroy that boosters pod," she tapped her display, her hand moving nimbly so that it only left the controls for a bare moment. "That's prolly how he got out here all by his lonesome. Don't let him leave with it."

Fox, crazy as his namesake, was already following Martyn's orders, and dove into the weeds, breaking their contact briefly. Holly wasn't super concerned. He usually followed the spirit of his orders more than anything, and wasn't one to be micromanaged in the first place.

As they moved in, the fancy yellow Graze kicked off the lip of the hold in the wreck's hull, and boosted backwards. It moved in a serpentine pattern, dodging the bulk of bullets sprayed haphazardly in its direction, all the while clinging close to the decrepit Gjallarhorn ship. It raised a gun(it looked like an updated version of the 120 that her Graze piloting comrades used), and sprayed back as it retreated astern of the great wreck.

The Big Boi moved in with the rest of the pirates. Holly just barely got the idea that the Schwalbe's creepy sensor orb was focused on her when it corrected its wild fire. She finally heard the shots(silent in the void until they hit you), but she could only laugh. At this range, most of their ballistic weapons were little more a nuisance.

Holly set her LCS comm to an open channel and taunted. "You're all alone out here, rich boy! Come quiet and we might - Agh!"

There was a distinct popping sound, reverberating through the mobile suit from somewhere above the cockpit, and all of her visual feed went blank. Her comrades on the outside, however, could see as a very lucky(or perhaps incredibly skillful) shot pierced the head of Big Boi in the crack where the nanolaminate had been chipped away.

Holly was knocked off course, and felt herself hit something big(the side of the old ship, she realized). She tumbled along it briefly, but managed to catch onto part of it with her mobile suit's arm, a move that would be impossible without the spacial awareness granted by the AVS.

She cursed violent, but tested to ensure her comms were still up.

"Forget me, go get him. Martyn, I guess you're im charge after all."

Discontinued

Just checking in, still here, ready to go.

Starfighter Squadron RP (Original Setting, non-Fandom)

I may be interested, but I have a lot to read first.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Freedom of Devils

Holly floated to her extended cockpit and pulled herself into her seat, fighting the inertia of her kick off the floor. As the cockpit retracted and closed around her, she strapped herself in and plugged the Alaya-Vijnana interface in with practiced motions. The interface engaged, and her hands convulsed in her lap, her already-bleeding nose giving a particularly strong gush. She wiped it savagely with the back of her hand.

The "Big Boi," as she called her Rodi, was lowered to the catapult deck first, and Holly grabbed her normal suit helmet off the floor and put it on. After everything was checked, she announced into the comm feed:

"Holly, Familiar One, Man Rodi, taking off."

~~~

Captain Brun drifted into the bridge, where the Witch's command and control staff was already gathered. Carrot was standing dutifully by the Captain's seat(the only one that looked reasonably comfortable), and only glanced briefly before announcing "Captain on the deck!"

Brun took her seat and looked over the monitors. There wasn't a lot to see yet, so she glanced at the cockpit feeds in the five sortying mobile suits. "Blood on that one's face. Did it take such a bad hit out there?"

Carrot answered at once, "No, ma'am. Her suit sustained some damage, but she was uninjured when she checked it. I suspect the Bosun bloodied her nose for her."

The Captain sighed, "If he's not more careful with his playthings, he'll break them. And then how will he entertain himself?" As she spoke, her hand reached out and absently stroked Carrot's hair. The girl bore this stoically.

~~~

Holly gritted her teeth against the force of the catapult, even with her inertial control working overtime. As her Rodi’s speed leveled out, she glanced around at her displays. There wasn’t a lot to see in the visual scans yet. The Debris zone was full of detritus from destroyed ships, pulled together by the unnatural gravity of abandoned Ahab reactors. If you didn’t know to look for it, the Mercurial Witch didn’t look all that different from some of the larger chunks. There were a few other full ships just sitting out here, but this was so deep in the Zone that trying to recover one was simply infeasible.

Local area mapping was almost worse. Radar was useless, so the mapping was based on a conglomeration of visual data, with Ahab waves layered on top. This is what she was scanning, after a quick look to confirm that her squad was following on.

“I’ve sent the wave signature to your mobile suits,” Mick’s voice came over the LCS comm. “But it’s moving into an area with particularly high wave density, so keep sharp. And try not to break the LCS line.”

“Don’t stretch your leashes, rats,” the captain’s voice cut in, “Remember where you have to return.”

Holly murmured with her microphone off, “Yeah yeah,” before opening the channel and speaking aloud, “Yes, cap’n.”

Holly spotted the wave in her mapping, but it was in an area that even her visual data was failing to generate. The Big Boi’s thrusters propelled it forward into the cloud of debris, putting on reverse thrust to slow it down as it approached a particularly large chunk of armor plating. She maneuvered around it, and stared into her displays, eyes wide and pupils flitting back and forth.

“There,” she said, “Sending visual, do you see? Looks like a Graze, but… fancy?”

There was a ship here, a proper battle ship of old. Holly could just make out the emblem of Gjallarhorn in faded and scuffed paint. The size of the ship, and particularly the Ahab reactor inside, had attracted a great many smaller ships and other space garbage. Two things stood out, however: the first was a set of boosters resting gently against the hull. It was obviously much newer, and looked like it was meant to attach to a mobile suit. This explained how a suit had gotten all the way out here, and the suit itself was the second thing. It was painted yellow, and had more flourishes in its armor than any of the ones on board a Jolly Rog ship.

“That’s a Schwalbe Graze!” Mick said, in some amount of surprise. “Those are rare as hell.”

“And probably working for Gjallarhorn,” the captain cut across in some alarm, “Do not let it escape to report back!”

Though the body was facing a rent in the hull of the Gjallarhorn ship, the head was turned, and the shroud around its sensor orb was retracted as it stared directly at Holly’s mobile suit.

Discontinued

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WILLIAM BISHOP █ act one: way down we go Hilton on Route 1 ▸ p. johnson's ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔

The classic blue car zoomed down the highway, making an unexpectedly quiet sound as it went. Not the explosive roar of the internal combustion, but the quiet whir of the electric motor. The inside was a good deal louder, the speakers blaring out a Black Sabbath tune, and the driver singing along in good spirits. Billy had set out for Delton four whole days ago; he wanted to drive his own car, so flying wasn’t going to be an option, and he had to make it a road trip. It was a weird, lonely time for him, but he made the best of it. His band’s manager had plotted the course for him, to include charging stations for his car and nice hotels to stop at. This wasn’t, strictly speaking, her job, but Kathy was accommodating as always, and Billy had sent her flowers(using a service, but she didn’t need to know he hadn’t picked them himself). He spent the nights drinking in hotel bars or nearby clubs, schmoozing with fans(and not a few drunk strangers who didn’t know him from Adam), and then in the morning he would grab a huge iced coffee and an unhealthy breakfast sandwich and hit the road without a look back. He passed the Welcome to Delton sign with a weird and unexpected thrill, hands gripping the steering wheel convulsively. Why the nerves? Because his parents lived in town, he thought. Or, they probably still did. Billy didn’t care to see them, and was a little worried he might run into them. It’s not like you’re obligated to talk to them if they turn up, he reasoned. Tell them you've sucked a few dicks and they’ll back away slowly. He laughed at how he imagined the looks on their faces, but deep down he knew he would say no such thing. He would be polite and make his excuses, then go get high. Not long later, he had pulled into a hotel just outside of Delton, and was waiting on the receptionist to confirm his reservation, looking at his phone and checking the Facebook thread. It was the first time he had done so since setting out from Seattle, but there was a delightful image of a mysterious drink, with the legend “Be here or be square.” Billy smirked and commented below, ”be here or be squeer?”, before putting his phone away and apologizing to the receptionist who was waiting on him now. Taking the key card with a smile, he made his way to his room and changed for the event. First he shaved, brushed his teeth, and fussed with his hair. Next, he put on a pink V-neck, black skinny jeans, and a gray cable knit cardigan. On his feet were black Doc Marten boots with yellow laces, vintage from back when they were made in England. He put his round lensed sunglasses in his shirt by the earpiece. He stopped on his way out to look at himself in the mirror by the door of his room. Was he nervous? Yeah. What if they thought he was lame? A sellout? It was weird to go back and see these people when he didn’t know if they’d read something stupid about him in a magazine. He took a breath and wrenched his eyes away from analyzing every imperfection in his hair. Well, he’d made up his mind anyway. Hell, he didn’t drive all the way to Delton to not watch his former high school get demolished. ~~~ Billy pushed the door to PJ’s open and walked in. He grinned around at the reunion that had assembled before him as he pulled his sunglasses back off. Freya - he recognized her immediately - was still standing by the door when he walked through. ”Hey, Freya! What’s going on?” he put an arm around her shoulder and stood with her as they looked at everyone else who had congregated, ”Conner? I thought for sure you’d be fat, but you look great! Actually,” he added, on reflection as he looked around at them, ”You all look pretty damn good! We drinking yet?” ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔

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I think I'm probably gonna go ahead and post after all, though it might not be until tonight.

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Open question to any and all characters: would anyone have joined Billy in heckling at school baseball games etc?

I don't think he would keep doing it if no one joined in, but he definitely did at least once.

Discontinued

I think it's Ben and Genesis left?

Billy isn't gonna recognize Ben, and will ask who who's date he is.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Freedom of Devils

A ship, once sleek but now many times patched and repaired, sat nestled between two ships in even worse condition. This was the Debris Zone, sometimes called The Shoal. Here hundreds of Ahab reactors still produce both power and gravity in the destroyed shells of hundreds of ships and mobile suits. The ship in question is the only one in sight that is still truly space-worthy, and it rests here to avoid being seen while the crew recover from a recent fight. The side of the hull is painted with the name: The Mercurial Witch.

~~~

Captain Brun sat in her personal cabin(the only one on board) massaging her temples and enjoying the silence. It had been a successful raid on a smaller pirate ship, but celebrating with her crew was never her way. Her satisfied reverie was interrupted by the comm bleeping, as a message came through from the bridge.

"Captain!"

Her head tipped up to look at the speaker box on the wall; it was Mick, the sensor technician. Little as she wanted to have a conversation, Brun knew what a call from him could mean. "What is it?" she barked toward the wall.

"There's a new Ahab wave reaction. It's moving."

"Could it be loose debris?" she asked impatiently, "There's so many reactors out here, what's special about this one?"

"It's not moving in an orbital pattern, it keeps changing directions. Like it's... looking for something?" he sounded uncertain, but Brun knew Mick well. He had good instincts, and had analyzed a lot of flight patterns from his chair on the bridge.

"A salvage ship? We can send a sortie to discourage them."

"Too small, Captain. I thought a mobile suit, only it's strange it's out here alone."

Brun sat up straight for the first time, and spoke in something close to alarm now, "Who is flying a mobile suit out here? Widen the range, find the ship that it launched from. And order a sortie now. Get a look at it, and catch it. If it's out here alone it might not be able to send a message back."

Even as the captain stood to make her way to the bridge, the alarm for battle stations sounded.

~~~

In the mobile suit hangar, the various suits of the Jolly Rog crew were undergoing minor repairs. Most hadn't gotten more than a few nicks and chips in the nanolaminate, and the cranky old mechanic was preparing the depositor to make the repair.

"Lefty!" A girl floated down from the catwalk(not much use when the gravity was off), and the mechanic in question closed her eyes and clenched her jaw as she summoned what little patience she was capable of.

"You're underfoot, Holly," she growled.

"I'm above you. Actually, neither. There's no up or down here, y'know. But listen, make sure you paint the scratch on my mobile suit's head the right color! I had to trade so many favors to get that, don't ruin it!"

"First of all, this ain't your mobile suit. If anything, it's mine, and if I wanna paint it white with a target on the head I'll do that. Now go have a ration or something, you're not wanted in here."

"Come on!" Holly weedled, "I'll... polish all your wrenches? For a month!"

Finally Lefty looked at her, a scowl on her face, "If I want 'em polished you'll do it, whatever color I paint my machines. Now get-"

She was cut off by the battle station alarm. Lefty rolled her eyes, but kept on working. She was interrupted again by the arrival of the Bosun.

"Mouse," he addressed Holly, "You're gonna sortie, get in your suit before I throw you in myself."

"The repairs aren't done," Lefty cut in.

"I didn't ask, crone. If she didn't want a damaged suit, she shouldn'ta got hit, right?"

"Crone, am I? And here I thought you cared if you could rely on your repairs..."

The Bosun's hand lashed out in a wicked strike, but it was Holly that he struck, right across the face. She clamped a hand to her nose and kicked back off the deck to float up to her cockpit, blood floating behind her.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Freedom of Devils

Name: Holly

Appearance

Age: 16
Background: Her family frequently traveled in space, but Holly doesn't know why, because when she was quite young, the ship she was on was set upon by pirates shortly before arriving at Mars. Holly was taken in as human debris, and bounced back and forth as she was bought, sold and traded among the usual unsavory outer sphere criminals. When around twelve(she doesn't know her exact age or birth date) she was acquired by the Jolly Rogs

From there, she was thrust unceremoniously into a Man Rodi, and served as a diversionary target for the rest of the crew. It transpired that Holly was quite good at avoiding enemy fire, and she actually performed quite well.

Personality and Reputation: Generally friendly, but fiercely independent. Loyal, very concerned with paying perceived debts(or repaying perceived slights). Has a habit of tallying what she owes and what she believes she is owed.

Mobile Suit:
Name: Big Boi
Frame: UGY-R41, Man Rodi.

Appearance

Equipment: Head Mounted Vulcan Guns, 90mm Submachine Gun, a “hammer chopper.”

Mobile Suit:
Name: Stolas
Frame: ASW-G-36 Gundam Stolas

Appearance

Equipment:
Alaya Vijnana System
Macuahuitl, a sort of club-sword with diamond-hard blades embedded at intervals. It can be wielded with one or both hands, and makes heavy strikes while the blades tear at the target.
Ahab Thrusters
Thermal Phase Transition Thrusters