Natsucooldude

NCQuest: Favors for Favors (Taking new players)

alive!

A sea most sunless

A merry sacksmas to you too good sir!

A sea most sunless

"The occult then? quite interestign to hear. I must say. Perhaps we'll pay them a visit sometimes when the house has been built." Zeeman pondered buran's other question. "I do suppose we might have some shore leave in venderbight. I never did get a chance to visit the place. And the tomb colonists must have some great stories." He was sure there was something else to talk about. "So doctor, how are you liking the ship? I heard youcame across one of its... perculiarities. Is there any truth to that rumor?

[Dead Thread]

@The Grey Dusthmm... apart from that tree bit, bishop's plan was pretty solid, nevertheless, I think I'll refrain from posting until the matter is cleared up some more.

[Dead Thread]

Adrian had stood down when the robed figure had begun its speech. After all, it was quite rude to have weapons drawn while lsitening to the speech of your host. From the tone of the speech, it could be inferred that the trip would be grave and dangerous... even for those of Adrian's pedigree. "Follow the river, don't die... Easy enough. Though I do suppose the journey itself won't be as simple as it sounds."

Then, the boatman presented everyone with their first task. "Wait, I don't know how to..." The ancient being had already made its leave. "Sail a a boat." It seemed he would be finding out how boats worked today. He looked to the side, and to the coins glistening on the river bed. Throw the coins into the river... The bloody thing was frozen. Adrian decided to do something about that. He reached ovzer his shoulder and retrieved the decorated lance hanging diagonally on his back. With a grunt, he planted the weapon in the ice. WIth a thunderclap, a good-sized hole was created, large enough to put the money through. "Alright people, time to pay up... I'm not going to be this rough with the boat by the way, wouldn't want a hole in it before we've even begun our journey, now would I?"

He retrieved the golden coin from his purse. For a moment, he flipped it around and around in his hands, questions flying through his head. Would there be no going back once he threw the coin to the river? Would people remember his legacy if he failed this gauntlet? Would his family remain propserous? Finally, he cast the coin to the waters. The pure gold quickly sank to the bottom of the river. Whatever the answers to these questions were, they weren't important anymore. He was committed now... Victory or death it would be. "So... anyone have any ideas on how to cut that boat free without destroying it in the process?"

NCQuest: Favors for Favors (Taking new players)

Jan walked into the hangar, a sandwich in hand, it dripped with mayonnaise and other condiments, but that was to be expected from something slapped together in about two minutes. Like this, he walked over to the Goldenspur, and the engineers standing around it.

One alerted him, "Fueled up and ready to go, sir!".

Jan swallowed the chunk of food he was chewing on. "Right, I'll be climbing in and linking up, I take it we depart in a few minutes?"

"Yessir, should. Make sure everything is good on your side, too. Diagnostics.", the Goldenspurs' liutenant engineer finished with a, "Tell us if we fucked up, basically! Hahehe.. Doubt we did, of course."

"I'll know where to find you if you did though." Jan smiled, the man seemed competent enough, and he seemed to share his sense of humor. He clambered over to the cockpit's entrance in the back of the goldenspur and lowered himself inside. The seat seemed to be the same as always, he started clicking into his safety harness. Sighing briefly at the amount of belts he had to click together.

After he secured himself, he took a deep breath in preparation for the startup sequence. He took the neural plug, braced himself for a moment, and plugged in. Electricity shot through his nerves, there was the familiar moment of confusion as to what was his body and what was the machine. He breathed again, he was plugged in.

"This is Sophia, Goldenspur, you fully operational?"

"This is Van Gent, I am plugged in and ready for transport, all systems nominal.

"...Are you really not familiar with that little bit of NC-culture?", Sophia asked, after a short sigh, and nearly audible rolling of the eyes.

"No commander, I just thought I'd finally show a bit of proffesionalism now that I'm in the seat. Can't have you thinking I clown around on the job."

"Eh. You can fuck around a little, who gives a damn as long as the job gets done? ... Plus, it's just strange... Of course, normal people would call that little quirk of NC pilots strange, I suppose."

"Heh yeah, I do suppose it's rather confusing to refer to people as if they're machines... But really, it's rather understandable once you've been in the seat. anyways, if you will, I'll finish my sandwich while I wait.

"We'll launch as soon as both your and Little Dragons' diagnostics are done. If you think you'll need to shit, mention it now."

"Heh yeah, as attractive a lavatory module would sound, I doubt it'd be responsible use of funds. But no, I'm good on that end."

"... Hey, Goldenspur. I have a question for you, from a veteran to another?". Sophia actually asked a question. This was either going to be good, or really bad.

"Ask away commander"

" ... You ever see things that aren't there in the cockpit? I keep on hearing tales. I want to know if they're true or not. Inside or outside, if anything?"

"I... don't know, I don't usually pay attention to my... 'actual eyes' while I'm piloting... never really paid attention to such things"

"Well, can you start? Tell me if you do, one day."

"I will sir... Though I'm not losing sight of the battlefield for doing that."

"Don't call me sir. Do I still apparently look like I have a penis?"

"Eh, then waht do I call you? Haven't bothered to keep track of your 'preferred title'"

"Commander, Miss, Captain, Boss. Boss is only when you want to get slapped, though.

"Heh, alright, I'll try to remember it boss." Jan chuckled, as if to challenge the commander to come over and make good on her threat.

"You're lucky I'm not up to it now, Mook."

[Dead Thread]

There was a flash of color, and the sound of people clashing for a fight. Adrian turned around to see the paladin accosted by a... beastly being of some sort. It backed down soon enough, but another monster had followed in its stead. An elemental monster of snow and ice... nothing adrian hadn't seen before. "Are you trying to impress anyone with that pointless display?" he bellowed as he drew his saber and shield. He wouldn't even need to be mounted for something this relatively weak.

The ice elemental was a pretty typical specimen of its kind. A benign force of nature, twisted and perverted by dark forces. Presumably said dark force was the beastman that had just made his unmistakeable entrance. The frosty being gnashed and sputtered at adrian in a vain attempt to intimidate its foe.

Adrian was not impressed, in factn he simply smirked at the beast. He rapped his shield, seemingly inviting it to strike first. The elemental let out a final roar and struck at adrian with its claws of icicles. With a clang, its blow struck his shield, a sharp screech was heard as adrian pushed against the powerful arms of the elemental, and finally, with another clang, adrian threw the elemental's arm aside and pushed through, delivering a solid shield bash to the elemental's torso.

"Heh, just as I thought, all bark and no bite" Adrian said, as he slashed at the elemental with his saber. As the blade gained momentum, sparks of lightning ran across it's length. With a sizzling sound, the weapon buried itself in the elemental's arm. It lost little momentum tearing through the snow, and even the icy core of the limb couldn't stand up to the divine power put behind the attack. The monster screeched as its arm severed from its body. Without mercy, Adrian swung again, sweeping the monster's legs out from under it.

The situation was much different now. adrian loomed over the fallen ice elemental, much like the elemental had loomed over him just a few moments ago. The being tried desperately to reform its severed limbs and crawl away from adrian. But the cavalier was having none of that. He silently raised his saber to the sky and sliced through the center of the elemental with a wicked diagonal strike. He knew the beings were weak at the center, like knocking the central pillar out of a tower. the elemental, vertically bisected by the attack, fell apart in shards of ice and clumps of snow. It didn't appear it would return from that attack.

After all that, adrian turned to the rest of the group and pointed his saber at the beastman. "Now don't try anything funny like that while we're down there... or you'll be next.

A sea most sunless

The ship made good pace northwards. The zee air was rather clear for the most part, and no menacing silhouettes loomed on the horizon. Zeeman surveyed around the deck of the vessel, it seemed he was not really needed as a captain for now. It seemed as good a time as any to go and have a chat with one of the officers. Get to know them better.

The captain walked over the deck. Over near the cannon, he saw the forlorn marine staring at nothing in particular. Truth be told, he had been skeptical of allowing the man on baord at first. IT was obvious even to a casual observer the man wasn't... 'all there upstairs'. Still, the rugged efficiency with which he operated firearms was undeniable, and if he did turn out to be less stable than he claimed., the ship's brig could always serve to restrain him.

Then there was also the multilangual doctor, staring at london's receding skyline. He had shown himself quite the reliable person, at least going off of first impressions. The brief few words they had shared seemed to hint he was involved with some... unfavorable elements. He briefly attempted to recall what secret he had shared with the man in return. If he couldn't remember quite what it was, it musn't have been that important a secret. Still though, the thought briefly lingered.

Zeeman wondered what a good conversation point would be... perhaps the color of the zeewater? No, that would simply sound silly... Or perhaps the small island bustling with activity on the ship's starboard side. “Ah, the ruins of hunter's keep... quite a tragedy what happened to the sisters.” Everyone knew the stories of how the manor had been claimed by a fire not too long ago. Some whispered one of the sisters made it out alive, but such whispered rumors were just that, rumors. The property had been shuffled about for some time, though it had recently been bought by some new people.

“I heard it's been bought by some enterprising doctors recently, said they wanted a secluded place for their studies. Mister Buran, would you happen to know anything about that? It all sounded quite interesting.”

@Chairman Stein

NCQuest: Favors for Favors (Taking new players)

Jan had a tendency to plan out when he went to bed and when he would come out. It was a rather rude awakening then when this schedule was thrown on its head. “Oh bloody hell, what is it now…” He answered the beeping intercom.

“The mission has been rescheduled due to unforeseen circumstances. Report to the briefing room in 0500 hours.” The commanding voice of Sophia resounded. Jan fell back in his bed for a moment, rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, and searched around the room for his clothes. By 0440 hours, he was fully dressed and buzzing through the hallways, in the other direction, technicians and engineers made their way to the hangar to get started on the pre-mission diagnostics.

Jan wasn’t alone by the time he reached the corridor leading up to the briefing room as he noticed Stein turn from a corner. Perhaps it was a bit ironic, crossing paths in the same corridor as they did after his simulation the other day, but it wasn’t like it was improbable either. Stein seemed more alert than Jan though, indicating she had been awake for sometime now.

“Would it have killed anyone to make the alarm clock on the intercom a less grating sound?” Jan opened conversation with his partner for the day.

“Perhaps you should have been awake already, Officer Van Gent.” Stein responded, her tone as flat as ever.

“Heh… good morning to you too.” Evidently, Jan’s sharp tongue hadn’t been dulled by the rude awakening.

Stein nodded as she held her hands behind her back in a military posture. “I hope Officer Moore shapes up. I won’t be accountable for his behavior on-field.”

“Well, I say we should worry about our own hides for now. Moore won’t be flying with us today, so why worry about him?” Before there was anything else to add, they rounded the last corner before the briefing room.

“It is only a matter of time.” Stein replied as she took a light breath before leaning against one of the walls of the briefing room. “But you are right, I should be worried about you— considering how ‘unpredictable’ people seem to think you are.”

“Yeah, that’s the sort of reputation you get when your basic strategy is charging forward and unleashing plasma-beam hell on people.” Jan smiled as he sat down on one of the chairs, awaiting what the commander would have to add on yesterday’s general briefing.

”So, are you two done flirting? Here’s the updated info, then.”. Their C.O. had a quick once-over with the documents in her hand, then hit the projector.

”Volkov’s ‘Archeological Capture’ mission and its parameters have been changed. The pay has been increased 100%, but now it appears that the weapon is already operating and is simply being tweaked at this stage of redevelopment. You’ll be launching in a few minutes, and now, if it’s necessary to blow it all to kingdom come, Volkov wouldn’t give a damn.”

She motioned over to the screen, showing a picture of two NC’s, a dull red quadruped and a light-blue ‘chicken-legged’ design. ”Red-Oni and Fubuki are still guarding the target, and it appears they have MP-NC’s as well. If you aren’t familiar, they’re a new concept that many of the Ruling Companies are trying out. Dumbed-down, simplified, and mass-produced NC analogues. Ain’t worth a shit in comparison to the real deal, but nice and cheap.”

Stein nodded, though she felt the cheap mechs were a waste on decent pilots. Unless they were somehow unmanned? Something to think on for later.

She finished the little ‘updated briefing’, ”Really, that’s all that seemed to have been changed. The plan is that at 50 klicks away, you’ll separate in-flight and go clockwise and counterclockwise respectively. Pincer-attack. The Little Dragon will focus on the MP-NC’s and the weapon itself, while the Goldenspur will keep the NC’s proper and the standard defenders busy.”

“Noted, Commander.”

“I look forward to meeting those guys… haven’t fought them before, but I have heard Red-Oni is rather… a flamboyant character.”

“They do have a bit of a reputation. Fubuki doesn’t like to talk, and Red Oni talks too much. Don’t let it distract you.” Stein nodded, agreeing with Jan’s comment.

”Yeah, neither is Red-Oni a complete idiot. Fubuki’s the higher ranking one, but considering what I heard, Red-Oni’s the one who’s actually getting stuff done. If you treat him how he acts, you’re going to be sent straight to hell.”

”if you believe in that sort of thing.”

“Heh, Well, let’s not dwell on that, lest we end up like Moore.”

“If this is all, Commander, I request dismissal so I can prepare for launch.”

”Dismissed, the two of you. Don’t fuck up so soon, you hear?”

“Affirmative.” Stein moved her hands from behind her back into a salute before going off to prepare for launch.

“Right, I’ll be getting a quick breakfast before we set off… I’d rather not risk my life on an empty stomach.” And with that said, Jan also left the room, moving toward the mess hall.

”...He does realize there probably isn’t going to be enough time for that, right?”

NCQuest: Favors for Favors (Taking new players)

Maybe, but I'm not totally sure. XD

@ADParis

it seems democracy is leaning to a yes. And yu have to admit good sir, it's been quite an acceptable ride so far.