POOHEAD189

Grim Galaxy: Shots and Chances

Neil slept like a brick, unresponsive and heavily. Lonney's loud comm system and Junebug tromping around the Highlander passed his door several times was pretty much white noise to him as he lay unmoving, hair disheveled with no shirt and a phlorescent 'Merc 4 Lyfe' tattoo on his shoulder. Only the fourth time of Junebug pounding on his door did he stir at all. Groaning and smelling sweat and many other odors he was familiar with, Neil sat up and rubbed his head.

She pounded on the door again.

"Hold on a sec!" He hoarsely called through the door, and with slow deliberation he swung his legs over the side of the small bed to touch the cold floor. He wasn't as hungover as Junebug, having been the one instigating more of the mischeif rather than being apart of it (though he certainly partook), but he was not crisp by any stretch of the imagination. He needed to eat, and drink some water for that matter because the pilot's throat felt as rough as the night he had last night.

On the floor, he felt something smooth and circular touching his feet. Blinking, he wondered if he'd bought that booze dispenser he vaguely remembering him and Junebug drinking out of as Taya danced on the holo-pool table. If he had, that was a wise investment. ...That last thought also made him realize he might also still have some booze in his system, which would explain his mellow state of mind despite the headache and the...body ache.

Moments later, he clicked the button for his door activation and it slid open with a 'shp.' Neil stood before Sayeeda with his shirtless and newly tattoo'ed self. Behind him, his room was disheveled and a new laser rifle was on the opposite cot, along with a part of the metal arm from the Hammered Cock barman. What was probably most surprising was the fact he wore her panties on his head like a hat (unbeknownst to him).

"Sup?" he said, scratching his chest lazily. His mind caught up with him, and he held a finger up. "Oh you said breakfast right? I could use some food."
@Penny

Will They Reign Supreme? {Whispers x Poohead}

The speech could have gone better, but he was used to giving charismatic speeches to his comrades and men-at-arms rather than Lords who would now seek his favor. He'd need to learn the ropes from his new fiance. He was certain she would help him. After all she'd picked him, and for what reason he was intensely curious about. His eyes followed the bannermen as they left, and he turned to her as she asked him a friendly question, only to barrage him with some guidelines he was not prepared for.

Watching her sit upon her throne imperiously and look at him, he simply gazed back at her for a moment, sizing her up and appreciating her forward words. He'd rather honesty than passive aggressive any day. "I would say I would not want a Queen or a wife that did not take what was hers or valued her own worth." He said, giving her a bow, his dark hair slipping over his shoulder before lifting himself back up. "And I'll need your help to...serve my country, as it were."

The warrior gave a somewhat helpless chuckle at that last statement, and strode up to her. "As to how I feel, my Queen. Very surprised does not even scratch the surface but, honored as well." Meldyr did not want her to think he was not extremely flattered and honored, even if he had been taken aback. "I figured I'd ride here to gauge the new king, eat some free food and ride back to my small barony, but that didn't go exactly as expected." It was a joke, and he sat on his throne next to her. He hoped his attempt at humor lightened her up. "Since we're being honest, I'd like to ask why I was chosen if you'd tell me."

Grim Galaxy: Shots and Chances

"You can feel it..." the woman offered, her eyes glinting as she grabbed Neil's hand and guided it. The young pilot stared, unable to tear his gaze from the lush, beautiful sight as she gripped the hard rod and began working it over and over to Neil's delight, feeling the grind and the heat of her hands. "Should we be doing this publicly?" He asked breathlessly.

"Why? You shy?" She asked.

"I mean, if other people eye the merchandise they might want a go at it."

"Oh you're the jealous type." The woman replied, giving a throaty chuckle as she let go of Neil's hand. "I'll let you try it a bit yourself then. I like to watch..."

Neil put both hands on the new AF5 multi-tool and screwed in the last ingot on the practice hull, the weight and the grip were perfect in his callused hands. "GoddAMN this is a nice tool." He exclaimed with vigor, having not used such an impressive tool since Fortus when he worked on his old mech. The female engineer placed her hands on her hips and shook her head. "I knew you'd have an eye for quality, but I didn't know you'd be set on it immediately. It'll cost quite a lot, I won't lie to you." Behind her, sparks flew as another sales engineer displayed their new welder.

Neil bought it anyway. The prices here actually weren't that bad, considering. From the wages they just earned (which ironically were made on an unpaid job), and the backwater location of the Node, expensive around here was simply moderate to most other places Neil was used to. This new multi-tool would speed up repairs exponentially. Deftly he flipped it and stuck it within his tool belt, stepping out of the workshop to find a good drink.

He stepped into the Hammered Cock, a name he couldn't ignore, seeing a hardy bar manned by robust man with a prosthetic robotic arm and an impressive red beard. He joked and laughed with the patrons. Around the bar, men and women from all across the galaxy caroused and openly groped, giggling and laughing while other men simply swooped the women up and took them to back rooms. Neil might have partaken but Quetzalli was still fresh in his memory, even after all of the hard travel. He guessed he needed time, maybe.

Grabbing a heavy ale in a to-go cup, he drank greedily and stepped out into the artificial street, nimble hands lifting off a passing man's holo-disk they won't be needing anymore apparently, giving it a once-over look before sticking it in his pack. When his eyes drifted upwards he saw Junebug saluting him, and he lifted his bottle too. "Aint made out yet, but the night's young!" He called, half joking, and he took another swig.
@Penny

Grim Galaxy: Shots and Chances

His head felt like shit and his body was only marginally better, but Neil had been working on desperation and energy only experienced war pilots could muster, and it had paid off. Lonney was invaluable of course, but the young pilot felt very accomplished with the star charts and navigational work he had done, not to mention the piloting itself. Just a few thousand more meters and they would dock and he could maybe enjoy some civilized hospitality.

A female voice spoke through the comm, obviously an AI system to help new visitors dock.

"Welcome to Beckett's Node. I am D3LI1A, or Delilah. Please follow these instructions-" The next minute was simple docking techniques, turning the thrusters down to .04 KM.S and directing him to one of the areas to dock at on the massive station. It looked to be a small sliver in the side of the structure before they drifted closer to see just how massive of a hanger it was, with a shimmering void shield that ships could fade through, yet could block most forms of outer fire.

"-Your bay is 103FA, near the Commons at the center of the station. From there you can gain directions and access to all of the authorized areas of Beckett's node. Please follow the system laws and procedures you are receiving on your HUD display. Thank you, and have a pleasant stay."

Her voice was silenced, and Neil set the Highlander down just right. The ship's landing gear plunked against the hanger, and the shoddily repaired freighter slumped and rested. Neil took a breath, and patted the display as if he was comforting an old dog. "That'a girl. We'll get you fixed right up." He said softly, before ripping his seatbelt off and giving a triumphant smile to Sayeeda, strutting out of the cockpit.

"It feels like years..." Taya began, clutching one of the railings.

"It has been years." Neil replied nonchalantly, reloading his revolver and slinging it into its holster. He wondered if the galactic political scene had changed at all. At least the larger scheme of things. Every system changed every day, much less over the course of a few years. He'd never been on this side of the galaxy, though. "First thing's first, we need to resupply and find good supplies for ship repairs too. But before that, I plan on taking a nice hot tub bath and I plan on sleeping in something other than a cot, with a belly full of booze."
@Penny

Grim Galaxy: Shots and Chances

"Neil?" Quetzalli asked, poking her head into his quarters to find it empty. Her face fell, and she was running out of time. Well, not entirely. She had the full day but, she needed to talk to him soon. The suspense was something she did not enjoy. Her maturity had bloomed once the people began to look to her for guidance, but she felt the pressure somewhat, and inside she was still the wide-eyed and impatient woman she was when they had first met her.

After another ten minutes of searching, she made it to the bottom of the ship near the cargo bay. It was as quiet as Neil's room, and she nearly walked back up the stairs when she heard a humming from below. Looking down, she saw...no one. Yet the humming occurred again. She shimmied down the steps and asked for him. "Neil?" The words fell with no response, and a moment later she called for Neil, holding her hands to her mouth as she did so and yelling loudly.

She heard a jerk and a clang, Neil suddenly wheeling himself out from below the jeep he was fixing, taking his earbuds out. He saw Quetzalli standing there, beautiful and resplendent in her Queenly garb, and he grinned. "Hey there good looking." He said, still glad to see her alive every time they saw one another.

"I was...I..." She began, her smile suddenly disappearing as she became unsure of herself. The shapely woman began to wiggle, and Neil got up and went to her. "What? What's up?" He asked, actual concern on his face. He placed a hand on her shoulder and another on her waist. They hadn't explored anything of a relationship as of yet but...they spent time enough together to be familiar enough. She took a breath.

She decided to just be out with it.

"I want you to stay..." she said, placing her hands on his cheeks. "Could you?"

Neil stiffened and tried to speak, finding it very hard to say no to her right now. He had to admit he had thought about it. "I want to, for you and...I just..." He shook his head. "I belong in...heaven." The word sounded weird but, it was the one she would understand. She tried to hold in the emotion. "I will miss you." She said slowly, even with less of an accent. Neil blinked away tears. "I'll be back." He said.

"You will?" She asked, her tone changing immediately, excitement mounting.

"Yeah, definitely." He said, grinning.

She squealed and kissed him thoroughly, throwing her arms around him. His eyes were wide, but then he closed them and kissed her back. This time, there was nothing keeping them from one another...

---

5 hours later

"Ready to fire it up?" Neil roared over the comm, placing in a lift off algorithm of the display and placing his hands on the thrusters and the lift off switch. Taya skampered around, trying to find her seat in the ship that was still somewhat unfamiliar to her, and Neil had no idea where Junebug was. Outside, the villagers stood in a large crowd, eyes as wide as their smiles as they heard the thrum of the planetary engines.
@Penny

Grim Galaxy: Shots and Chances

Torlati moved with the grace of a hunting cat, sprinting with his long legs toward the greatest ziggurat of the village. This was Wetumpkah's people, but as a rule, all Shaman's kept their 'Rock of the Rakeeri' upon their greatest alter, to be used in the most dire of need. Saving a mere servant woman's life would not have prohibited such an action, but the Star man had told him to. The Star Man would not lie to Torlati.

Neil saw the light fade from Quetzalli's eyes, and he allowed a few tears to stream down his face as he fell onto his ass, her fate now sealed. Even though he knew he'd feel a loss for a few weeks, he merely looked resigned, and to Junebug's eyes she would see him shrug, his smile gone but his face neutral. He'd been torn up because he had been through this before, but now he felt as if this was a tragedy that was doomed to repeat itself. "Let's get the hell off this planet."

A few of the villagers wept as well. Some of them knew Quetzalli from her time in the village, and others wept simply because the male and female Star men were torn up, and so they should be. If your God cries, would you not cry as well? Junebug and Neil would hear Taya softly weeping in the background as one warrior strode up, giving a bow. In his language, he offered to help bury her. Neil understood only most of what he said, but it was enough for him to nod.

That was when an even taller man appeared, pushing aside the warrior and kneeling before Quetzalli's body. There was a square stone in his hands, the marking on it a perfect mirror of the marking upon Neil's palm. He humbly asked to see Neil's 'god' hand, and Neil looked up at him.

"Its over" He said in Zil.

"Please," Torlati said insistently, and Neil reluctantly reached out to give him his hand. The man placed the rock upon his hand, both hand and rock were over the body of Quetzalli, and Torlati began to chant. Neil began to feel a budding heat in his hand, and for a moment he felt some of his energy being sucked out of himself and into the stone. Moments later, Torlati rubbed the stone over the wound of Quetzalli, and it began to stitch up almost mechanically, him chanting all the while. To Neil and Junebug's amazement, the stone grew smaller as it healed her body, until it was but the size of a pea.

He then plucked the last of it into her mouth, and placed both of his hands upon her breast. With a word of power Neil couldn't understand, he pressed downward.

Needless to say, Neil's jaw dropped when Quetzalli's eyes fluttered, and she looked around, holding her head and groaning as the shapely and very much alive woman sat up. Neil fell back, eyes as wide as saucers while his mouth turned into the smallest 'o,' unable to fully speak.

"I am...I live?" She asked in broken imperial.

"What in the fuck..." Neil breathed, choking up.
@Penny

Grim Galaxy: Shots and Chances

Junebug would hear Taya gasp in terror from the other side of the mic even as she felt the recoil of the shot that killed Wetumpkah. A hush fell over the crowd as they bowed, and though a few of them gazed upwards, many were too horror stricken from the explosions and the 'godly' power to dare move their heads. Wetumpkah hit the ground with a hard, wet slap. Dead.

Time seemed to slow for Neil as he saw the jerk of Quetzalli's body and her scream as she fell, the axe stuck in her abdomen. He suddenly felt a pain he'd not felt for many years coursing through his body. His head burning, his chest following suit accompanied with a tightened feeling. His muscles felt too weak to move, and his triumphant face was stricken with a numb horror as he watched. It was only on instinct that he moved, leaping down to catch her before she hit any hard stone.

The pilot with the ever grinning face who'd laugh before leaping into danger had disappeared. His mind went far back to Fortus during that faithful evening when the love of his life had been killed. Flashes of her pretty face and her workman's cap appeared before his very eyes. Her boyish attitude coupled with her girlish charm. A wrench in her hand and a strength to her character, before she would stick her tongue out his way in a teasing manner. He remembered their first kiss, and when he had fallen in love. He wanted to relive those.

Not a death. Not again.

He'd been too busy to entertain and understand how fond he was of Quetzalli, but even if that were not the case she had stuck by him and believed in him. What's more, if it wasn't for the color of her skin and hair, she almost looked like...her.

"No," he breathed, letting her lie on his lip and brushing some of her hair out of her face. "No, no no, come on. Don't you fuckin..." His breathing was as shallow as his hopes, and a chill ran up his spine as he looked down at where the axe was. The haft and axe blade were heavy, and he wished he could have removed it but it wasn't safe to.

"Hi-lo." She said softly, shuddering from the pain and reaching up to touch Neil's cheek, her eyes half closed. He wanted to talk to her and comfort her, but he was too busy checking the axe wound. A small glimmer of hope began to appear after he looked. The blade was embedded in her stomach, but not in a vital way. Thank God she had been wearing some of Sayeeda's armored clothes. If she didn't lose too much blood he could save her. "Sssshhh don't talk alright?" he said, cupping her cheek. "You insane woman."

"You saved my life," she said slowly, finding the words. "I saved yours."

He opened his comm to Junebug. "She's bleeding out. If we don't get her back to the ship soon..." Neil began, but he couldn't quite finish the rest in front of her. Instead he turned to the only Shaman still alive. "You! New Shaman!" He yelled, before he realized he was speaking Imperial and then repeated it in Zil, causing the Shaman to look up in awe and reverence. "You have blessing if you save her life!"
@Penny

WARHAMMER 40K: THE TARSON INCURSION

Grim Galaxy: Shots and Chances

Neil had gone around to the east as instructed, somewhat giddy and excited that he got to handle explosives. He hadn't had the opportunity to blow something up in ages, and judging by how he believed the crowd would react it was a foregone conclusion that he would have to pull the trigger. A part of him felt somewhat sad that he was literally about to decimate what he guessed was a structure of cultural and religious significance, but he saw no other way and primed all the charges, making it back in time.

Neil saluted Junebug. "You too Captain." He said, and then pulled Quetzalli along with him once he had the trigger in hand. The native woman guided him to the opposite ziggurat. A smaller one, but still tall enough to be seen and heard with plenty of torches around. Thankfully Neil was used to moving without being seen, and Zalli could move nearly as stealthily. He'd need to ask later if she had been anything else but a servant girl. She didn't seem combat capable, but she knew how to move through the woods and knew the city well enough.

Down below, Neil saw Wetumpkah standing next to a larger Shaman, crying to the heavens and chanting. He held a stick in his hand that jittered with hollow noise as he shook it. Neil glanced to Zalli, who translated. "He say that you and the other star people are false gods." She said, waiting a moment as he continued to speak before she translated further. "Demons in starman form sent to trick us and turn the people against one another."

"Kind of ironic we're neither." He mouthed low enough to not be heard. He didn't exactly know what Quetzalli believed as of yet and now was not the time to have her question her world view. He cleared his throat, and leaped up onto one of the taller carved seats. "Hey!" he screamed, his voice cutting through the small river valley like a knife. He repeated it again, louder this time. At first only a few looked his way, as well as the lazy guards at post. But his second cry grabbed everyone's attention, and he could see Wetumpkah frantically pointing at him and calling for his head.

"He said-"

"Yeah I understood that much" He whispered, before standing tall and holding up his arms, trying to appear powerful. "Your behavior has angered us!" Neil cried out in what he hoped was coherent Zil. Zalli stood by him, though a step down and behind so as not to draw too much attention to herself. His words brought cries of protest and awe, so he continued. "In punishment, you are to follow our words, or see your village destroyed!"

A few of the villagers shrank back, though Wetumpkah laughed acidly. The aged shaman replied. "You have no power here. Your head will be my drink cup! Quetzalli shall be mine once more."

"Seize him!" Neil called. "Seize him or be damned!" The word for damned was judged, but he believed it worked in this situation. When the villagers looked uneasy, Neil called for obedience again. Seconds passed, and the pilot picked up a torch and tossed it down the stairs, chanting with what Zil he knew 'judged!' And he pressed the button behind his back.

A sudden earth shattering crack shook the valley in a rumble as fire and force beyond any the villagers had ever seen ripped into the lower base section of the ziggurat. The ancient structure swayed, and then its top plummeted inward as the structure fell into itself, toppling as stone cracked and roared across the plaza. Women screamed and men cried for mercy as it fell, and even a few guards were killed from the debris. Even Quetzalli gasped and gripped Neil's pant leg for comfort.
@Penny

Frokane's Mildly Politcal Hangout Thread

@Penny Only the breaching of the Centi Confederation peace accords! *slams fist on table*