Sep

No Turning Back - Surving the Abyss

@13org Puppetting should be just that. Thankyou.

No Turning Back - Surving the Abyss

@13org You have my permission to puppet Audrey as @Cairo hasn't posted here in two weeks.

No Turning Back - Surving the Abyss

Rear Admiral William Locke
^{Commanding Officers Quarters}

William poured over the data and sighed. This was such a big step, and he wasn't sure what telling everyone about this would be. if it turned out to be a bust it would just destroy morale even more, forcing it lower than it already was. If that was even possible. The other announcement, the introduction with elections would probably go a hell of a lot better. It would be chaotic, and he'd need a sit down with Lopez and TreVayne first but it was certainly doable. They just had to make sure that all the details were hashed out first. William was at the point where he believed that the structure would work, there'd be growing pains but it would certainly be worth it in the end. Especially if they ended up staying behind for years to come.

He sighed as Peter announced the arrival of Lopez. He sat himself up straight. Pressing the button on his table: "Very well, let him in. Just let the Commander in as soon as he arrives as well." After releasing the comm button William took another swig of his coffee, it was begining to go cold but had not yet reached the temperature where it was completely untolerable. He still found it odd, even after all these years that on a ship on which he was serving it was possible to get a reasonable cup of coffee. Most ships of the line had terrible coffee, and that's because it was all filtered coffee out of a pot that constantly brewed and was never any semblence of fresh. The coffee got better once he made Commander, better when he made Rear Admiral, and the best once he got onto the Ark. The work was tedious, it always was. He could push through it though, so long as the coffee kept flowing to keep him awake.

William didn't stand as Lopez entered the room. He could hear the tell tale thud of the armoured boots on the deck of the ship. "Take a seat Colonel, though if you stand up and that armour of yours takes a chunk of the couch with you I'm not going to be happy with you." He couldn't complain at Matthew wearing his armour rather than his officers garb, he himself had buttons undone on his tunic, his black vest visible underneath. A clear indicator that he hadn't been a career officer, he had been career military. Working his way to where he was, through all the levels of shit you had to go through.

"While we wait for the commander there's something I want to discuss." He waited until Matthew had finished sitting down before he spoked, smiling politely at Matthews retort to the comment about the couch. "I'm going to open up Civillian Elections, and restructure the Civillian structure aboard ship. This was never meant to be a long term solution, and while Martians have all served in the military, and every Martian is used to serving an Admiral or a General it isn't sitting so well with the other nationalities." He took another sip, sliding a datapad over the worktop to Lopez. "The idea is, to divide powers round the Hub. The elected official will have control over the Hub, the Civillian Laws and Civillian research projects, as well as matters such as births and family rights. While I will retain military control, and control over everything outside of the hub. Including any civillians working on military projects. There's nothing concrete yet, I still need to meet with the Civillian Reps and TreVayne. I'm just letting you know there's going to be some changes-"

He took a sip, before lowering the mug again as with a -hm- as he realised something. "-On that note. I need you to request transfer. Lieutenant John Lowry was apprehended last night by ArkSec. The CAGs after his ass and I plan to give it to her. Let ArkSec get whatever information they need from him, then he's ours to courtmartial."

Star Wars - Lawless Galaxy

Paradise

Koren had to resist the temptation to shoot at Elias. He had failed his mission, he wouldn't get paid that was for sure. Koren walked over to him and he was tempted to slap him across the face. Instead he turned and then walked away again. He had to keep a level head, he couldn't let his emotions get the btter of him right now. All this chaos going on right now, he couldn't afford to stop now. To break down, he had to keep everything turning. His plans were far too close to fruition to be foiled now, far too close.

He turned to face Elias again. "You'll go back to Nar Shadda. Pick up some of my assets caught in the lockdown. Then you'll bring them back here."

He moved and sat down at the desk, picking up a datapad and pouring through the data. "That is what you'll do."

No Turning Back - Surving the Abyss

Cryogenics Bay

Cryogenics was one of those rare areas on the ship that are defended by both Military and Ark Security personnel. That made it decidedly difficult to infiltrate, the cameras and drones had twice the personnel scanning them for anything out of place. The remote drones weren't the problem, they would ignore them. The issue would be the cameras, you couldn't alter a humans programming to ignore you. As such their more public members had leaked the information on the drug abuse aboard the ship the second they caught wind of an upcoming away mission. Everything had to be cheorographed perfectly, they could only loop the camera feed for a short period of time before Noah would detect something and alert security. While they could insert commands into the drones aboard ship it was above their programmers ability to interfere with the programming of a complex A.I. It didn't matter, they knew the cryotray they were going for. They'd be in and out before anyone knew what happened.

As the guard passed the hatch slipped of the service duct, three of them crawled out. The leader immediately lunged at a passing guard, stun stick in his hand he jabbed it into her neck. She fell down, he caught her and lowered her to the ground to prevent her body drop from creating a noise that anyone nearby might hear. A Hound Drone flew up, looked at them, a subroutine had the droid ignore them. It would replace the footage of the breach with a clip from earlier in the same hallway. It wouldn't pass up to extreme scrutiny, however the subroutine that did this would be harder to discover. At least quickly. Their only hope was that their member in droid maintenance wouldn't be discovered. If they were, then things would get far harder.

They reached the cryo-tray in question and a grin pulled across his face, carving a menacing look across his face. His teeth rotting or fallen out. He pulled the latch on the side of the cryotray, the emergency release popping open. The cold air blasting over him, mist formed spooling out of the pod and spilling out onto the floor. Grabbing the occupant by the shoulders he pulled her out, tubes rupturing and ripping, fluids rushing everywhere. As he slung her over his shoulder, he turned to his compatriots. "It's time to go, I've got the package."

Amanda Lorne would pay for the sins of her father.

The Spirits Within / Silversky

It's a shorter post, I hope that's okay. Though that's really all I have to add to the conversation.

The Spirits Within / Silversky

Chodak

---

Chodak shook his head. He had to admit, there had been fear on the reasoning for him being brought here. The Universe had called, and he had answered. He hadn't expected to be confronted with the fact that they would be expected to fight, and kill. "Just because we are expected to be protectors, this doesn't mean we have to kill. There is always an alternative, rather than to condemn ourselves and others to the continued suffering." He stood up slowly, looking around the room and all the other individuals gathered together.

Everyone was here for a reason, he truly believed that. He also believed that his role in this was to help guide the group to avoid condemning themselves. There had been Guardians in the past who had sought violence, pain, and domination. Rumours surfaced that such individuals existed in modern days, he couldn't believe that is why they were chosen. They were chosen to help restore peace, and bring balance back to a disturbed world. Only then could their spirits rest, and their hosts with them.

"Patience, and all will be answered within time."

No Turning Back - Surving the Abyss

Shorter post is shorter.

No Turning Back - Surving the Abyss

Rear Admiral William Locke
^{Commanding Officers Quarters}

---

William flicked through one profile, as he brought another prospective member of the team up before him. He'd let Eli have the final say over the crew however there were people that he needed down on that planet. He flicked another member onto the team, Michael Smith. File laregly redacted, expert in multiple scientific fields. To Elis eyes he'd be a scientific prodigy, whereas William knew better. Michael was an android, a sophisticated A.I system with an even more sophisticated robotic body. The idea was to make a perfect companion, scientist and leader to help guide the human race onwards. If they continued into the abyss for years to come, he was sure that Michael would maybe one day become a real leader.

He leaned back in his chair, rubbing his hands over his face and releasing a sigh that he didn't know he was holding in until he had let it go. This job had been taxing over the past five years, he hadn't even realised that the anniversary of five years had been coming up. Usually the civillian population planned some form of celebration, he put in an appearance ofcourse. Made a speech, celebrated with everyone else. The first had been a true party, the second had started to slump. Last year was virtually dead, he had spent most the time navigating the crowd. Being accosted by individuals for being a tyrant, he was hoping to make the announcement in a couple of days for changes aboard the vessel.

William leaned forwards and changed the data. Swiped the pile across the table, and looked at another two lists of names. One was made by Matthew Lopez, the individual in charge of his marine contingent. While Gavon TreVayne was in charge of civillian security, Matthew had compiled a list of possible security threats for him, basing off what would constitute a military threat. The list used to be short, but was growing longer the lower morale fell. The biggest problem that William could see was the lack of representation, yes there were civillian reps however they had no real authority and were just a glorified HR department.

He typed onto the table, sending a message to both Matthew and Eli. A reminder of the meeting, and then he pressed the button that activate the intercom to his aide. "Peter."

"Yes Sir?"

"Commander Ross and Colonel Matthew are on their way up. Let them in as soon as they're here, and bring in a fresh pot of coffee and prepare the info-graphs."

"At once, anything else Sir?"

"Yeah-" He let loose another sigh. "-Let Doctor Larson know I'm going to be on time for my bi-annually checkup for once."

"Very good sir."

No Turning Back - Surving the Abyss

@Xandrya PM me about it. For reasons....