The Valiant IC

[Jumi]

​

Zakk quickly stood up, and caught her as she began to fall to the ground. Though she was heavier than most due to her construction, he had little trouble lifting her up in order to carry her over to his cot. It'd be best if she was laying down somewhere safe until she wound up moving around again. As he laid her down on the cut, he moved a few strands of hair from her face, and shook his head lightly as he straightened back up.

"I know how it feels to be garbage... I was a soldier once... and then I became this. I hope you never know what it's like to be shut down, and jettisoned into space. You think like a human... you just don't know it yet, hun... you just don't know it yet." Instinctively, he reached to the foot of the bed, and drew the thin blanket over her. He had a feeling she'd be out for a spell longer than normal, and she should at least stay warm.

Turning back towards his guitar, Zakk sighed. "No practice today then..." he said as he grabbed the guitar after unplugging it, and hung it back up on the wall. He then grabbed the chair, and moved it so the back was against the wall where he then sat down, and leaned backwards so he could look up at the ceiling. "Never expected I'd end up being the teachin' type... I'm probably not making a damn bit of sense neither."

 

[Anglkate]

As with typical shut-downs where her body was still in tact, her systems had shut down and were doing a reboot check. She still had 'neural' activity, but for the most part she was completely powered down. Within her 'mind' she hovered in a virtual world of numbers and symbols. Isolde sighed as she glanced around her own personal world "Diagnostics check" she commanded as she brought herself into a meditative position and waited for the diagnostics to run. There was a faint humming in her mind as the program worked.

In the real world a faint shimmer would surround her body as the scan was occurring. She would seem rather peaceful in her shut-down state. There was a faint beeping noise as the scan finished.

"systems check complete...virus detected...precautionary measures being taken...scanning" her voice once again echoed within her mind. As the anti-virus like program was running to patch up her default, something else was happening. A tear in her system occurred as a voice whispered, breaking her concentration. Isolde. The voice repeated her name softly.

Time had gone by in real time, perhaps 10 minutes. There was a soft clicking noise and then Isolde's systems would start to reboot. Like a battery which has just been charged, there was a soft whirring noise as her eyes slowly began to flutter open, "What happened?" she asked sitting up and then seeing Zakk, "My systems have detected a virus of some sort within my system. Please forgive me" she said politely.

 

[Woodrat]

Marcelo woke with a start, his eyes wide with fear before he recognized his surroundings. Muttering to himself he checked how long he had been asleep before rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands. Nothing but a nightmare, a repeat in his mind of what had happened in reality long ago.

Noticing a flashing red indicator on the display he checked it.

"Low fuel, what the…" Marcelo blinked then cursed. Of course the A.I. wouldn't have told him that sooner, it harbored the same dislike of him as he had of it. If the pickings of jobs wasn't so scarce he would have left long ago due to it. He had refused to work with A.I, in the past and only due to recent circumstances he had remained. Even though the ship A.I. had decided against even speaking to him.

Noting the change of course Marcelo looked at the planet designated, Asperas Prime.
Marcelo arched an eyebrow, when he read that it was somewhat known for being a marsh filled bog planet, with a nasty atmosphere to navigate to boot. Then he realized something else…

"Mizz Naidia" Marcelo called out, "do we actually have enough credits to cover the expenses of repairs and fuel?"

 

[Jumi]

​

Turning to her, Zakk took another drag from his cigarette as he looked at here. "No reason to say you're sorry. Shit happens, and besides... you've been goin' twenty four seven for quite a while. Maybe you just started to wear out yourself? If you want, I could take a look, and see if maybe I can figure out this virus business." He then took another drink of water.

"I can promise ya no funny business. I'll keep my hands to myself like a gentleman... but I'll have to link to ya... don't think you've ever had anyone else in your head have ya? It's not painful or anything... it just feels a little weird for the first few minutes."

 

[Anglkate]

Naidia heard Marcello call to her as she turned on an intercom link to him. A picture of her appeared on the screen "...well technically no, but we'll figure that out. No worries. We've gotten through worse. I'll get things together and make it work. Anything else Marcello dear?" she said with a warm smile. The helmet upon her head hid her eyes, which some found quite distrusting, but sometimes it worked in her favor. The financial issue was actually one she was working on at the moment. Miss Naidia...are you sure this will work? Aqua replied curiously as she watched Naidia tinker with the main system. Naidia was busy trying to change the ship info so that when they docked and were scanned they wouldn't get caught, or had a lesser chance of being caught. She sighed a bit as she glanced back at Marcello "well hopefully if all goes to plan we'll be on our way and happy after we leave Aspearas Prime. Think you can handle the flight dear?"

~~

Isolde shrugged a bit, "perhaps you are right...and I've had many things done..." she sighed some, "I am used to having maintenance done upon me, so your intrusiveness will be nothing I am not accustomed to. It is necessary to keep me maintained" She moved closer toward Zakk as she reached forward toward him, "How are you going to do the linking?" She asked as she took his hand a moment "and I am also sorry that you were unable to practice on my account" She didn't give him much time to answer her question after this. As she touched his hand he would feel a slight tingling sensation rise up his arm as her sensors tried to connect to him.

 

[Boss Frost]

Meanwhile, on the planet of Asperas Prime... The mechanical sound of the arms squishing against the boggy ground was like music to the inventor's ears - keeping him well above the marsh's filth as his backpack's mechanical arms raised him up into a spiderlike walking way. Meanwhile, his hands were clutched around a miniature 'notepad'

He had been inspired. He was going to make an arm with a drill on it, like a miniature version of the drill he had just worked on. He didn't know if it'd ever be useful, but he thought he'd enjoy the option. The mechanics behind it were surprisingly difficult. At the same time, his mind (and another "file" on his digital notepad) worked in rapid tandem as he crafted a newer, more powerful, faster, and automated version of smaller drills that could be used rather than send living miners down.

"No artificial intelligence, of course - no need for them to be unionized. Just miner robots... Hmm... cheaper materials, too. Make'm disposable, the buyers will like that. I'll get possible flack from androids and cyborgs, but the financial opportunities are formidable... hmmm..." he continues to talk to himself, as the arms continue to lift him into the air, using multiple trees to pull him towards a house built up in a tree. He lands upon the deck of it, arms retreating back into his pack, save for one, which opens and closes the door for him.

This was his own home, far from most of the civilizations involved on the planet in case of explosion, though he had been relatively lucky - and save - with his experiments and inventions. He bites his lip, thinking for a bit, before turning towards what would appear to be a blackboard and walking towards it, kicking various trash and scraps of metal - unfinished inventions - out of the way. The 'blackboard' lights up, revealing it to be a large, touch computer screen. Kriv opens one of the programs, writing down various equations at rapid speed. "...Shoot. That won't work at all..." Erasing some things, he starts from the top.

A normal day for him... he didn't have any friends. No one here had been fond of him, until he had patented a few more inventions. He became known as an eccentric - rich, though a little crazy. That he was an alien rather than an anthro didn't help his reputation. Thus, he keeps to himself - focusing completely on his job... to fill the companionship void within him.

An arm from his pack stretches out, traveling to a bottle on the floor, picking it up an delivering it to Kriv - who doesn't notice at first, until it prods him on the shoulder. He jumps, startled. "Hey!" He notices the bottle. "...Oh. Thank you." He takes a long swig, finished the bottle, and gets back to work, tossing it over his shoulder back onto the floor.

 

[Jumi]

​

"Oh hell... don't worry about that. I've got a long time to keep practicing. It's more important that we're all in top shape cause for all intents and purposes... we're practically all family in this metal tub." Zakk answered to keep Isolde from blaming herself. As her sensors kicked on in order to connect to his, he felt a surge jolt up his arm, and nail him directly in the brain. He leaned his head back a moment as the inital feeling felt like a ship slamming into him, but his sensors then attuned themselves to hers. A few other lights began to blink under his skin... most notably a green light just above his right eye.

"Been awhile since I've done this so bare with me..." He said softly as he closed his eyes. It was always the same thing when he linked to another machine. He found himself standing in complete darkness. Slowly hundreds of windows began to light up, and open showing various strings of codes, and symbols. His mental vision of himself began looking at the various windows, and he lightly scratched his head. "So this is what it's like to be inside your head... kinda like mine." he then chuckled. "Well let's get crackin' and see if anythings botched up... now before I do anything... is there anything you don't want me lookin' at? Personal privacy and all."

 

[Anglkate]

For a moment there was no reply from Isolde. Slowly her form began to materialize. In her mind she had no clothing, but a stream of data did cover what needed to be covered, "Personal privacy is something that I do not need. Most of what is inside here is my basic programming. This personal thing you speak of may be found elsewhere within my system, but you would be naturally blocked off from it. This is just the basic level. The windows flashed by as stored memories and data flashed by, "welcome...to my domain..." there was a faint flashing as if a warning were being sent and the same viral message was strewn here and there. Anti-virus like nanties rushed about to try and mend the situation, working constantly.

"Is there anything in particular you need me to access? Or do you wish to search manually?" she hovered nearby and waited for his response.

 

[Jumi]

​

Zakk reached out with his hand, and pressed it against the window. It was warm to the touch. "Well let's see... there a chance I could look at your maintenance logs, and your debugging key map? That should give me a good idea of where to start." Zakk answered as he turned to look at her, and quickly shielded his eyes as he saw her floating there. Slowly he spread his fingers and sighed in relief. "For a minute I thought you were naked... never know what to expect when you dive into someone's subconscious."

Turning back to the window, he began to move his hand across it as he weaved through several unimportant files, and processes. He then placed his hand on another, and continued doing the same with that. At the pace he was moving, he was clearing quite a bit of filler files. He paused on one that stood out to him. "What's this one here? "HUMEMOT Protocol? Let's take a gander at that..." He drew the file closer to him, and the instant he opened it he felt a surge of electricity jolt through his body, and instantly sever his connection with her.

His eyes returned to his room, as he found himself imprinted into the side of his quarters with scorch marks up his arm. Smoke trailed from his hand, and neck. Zakk gave a slight groan as he then fell to the ground with a thud, and slowly rose to his knees. "Well... shit..." he coughed "Guess I should be more careful about that... You ok?" he asked and then fell backwards holding his arm. A few sparks came from his chest.

 

[Anglkate]

Isolde only tilted her head curiously at his statement of her being nude. When he reached for the HUMEMOT file there was a sudden jolt. A sharp spark occurred between the two before Zakk was forced from her body. She stood there alone a moment curious as the file seemed to glisten a moment before retreating back into her systems. Moments later she slowly opened her own eyes to see Zakk plastered against his wall with sparks flying from his arm.

A sudden wave of some form rushed over her. Worry perhaps? Her expression changed to a genuine look as she moved forward "Are you okay? Here let me help" she said in a more human tone. Gently she took hold of his arm, the sparks sending tingles up her own hands. The wires were already starting to mend themselves, but there was still some damage. Without thinking she began to work on patching him up "I'm sorry! I...I don't know what that was about" her face began to tint some in embarrassment as these emotions began to take hold. For a moment, if one overlooked the fact that wires and such were protruding from her hand at various areas to mend his wound, she seemed almost completely human.

 

[Woodrat]

"Yeah sure, I'll take care of it once we start the atmo burn Mizz Naidia. Lettcha' know when we arrive." Marcelo cut the intercom link with a small press of a button. A frown formed on his face before it went neutral again, his eyes distant in thought.

If the A.I. would play nice and not make things a pain for him as he attempted to land he'd handle it.

Crossing his arms across his chest Marcelo eyes danced across the digital readouts, especially the fuel display as it sunk lower into the red. A small sigh escaped his lips and his shoulders sunk a little as he thought of his current predicament.

Glancing up Marcelo then considered the possibility that Naidia was a wanted criminal on this planet as well, forcing another small sigh out of his lips.

"'riffic Marcelo… you've caught yourself a fine pilotin' job now havn't yeh… no parts, no credits, no people, no honor, and soon no fuel" He muttered silently to himself.

 

[Jumi]

​

"No... it wasn't your fault Isolde... It wasn't very gentlemanly of me to go divin' in like that..." He said gently through slightly clenched teeth. "Oh hell that one hurt like a son of a bitch." Zakk almost whispered as he laid on the ground. Blinking a few times, his vision slowly came back to him, and he saw Isolde tending to his arm... it had got zapped pretty good.

Something seemed different though... he wasn't sure of it was him, but Isolde had a different tone to her, and her skin was flushed... that he'd never seen. That wasn't normal from what he normally saw from the woman. Gently he moved his other hand, and lightly closed it over her's. "Honestly, hun... I'm fine... I'll just need a few minutes to sew myself together..." He said as he looked into her eyes.

"Just what the hell did I try and get into? That's got to be what's happenin' to you. You don't get zapped like that from your typical encrypted file. I think I got a nerve with that one... please tell me that your alright. I didn't do nothin' to harm you did I?" He asked with more concern for her than she'd done for him. Having gotten almost annihilated he was worried about how she'd be holdin' up after that blast.

 

[riku]

Things were finally beginning to look up in the cockpit. Power was steady, engines were functioning at seventy five percent, and hyperdrive was finally back online. That meant they could finally get moving. Anderson did a final check on all systems before moving turning audio speakers on for the entire ship.

"This is Anderson. In a few minutes we will be going into hyperspace and will soon be in orbit over Aspera prime. If anyone has any religions they worship, praying should begin before hyperspace and any time after that." With that he turned off the ship's audio controls and began running final diagnostics.

They'd be leaving in a few minutes. He just wanted to make sure that they wouldn't blow up if he started up the hyperdrive engine.

 

[Anglkate]

Isolde blinked a few times, "you...shouldn't worry about me. Really, I'm fine. I think you simply tapped into my emotions folder which is usually kept sealed" she replied with a faint shrug. There was a soft clicking noise as Anderson's voice filled the room.

"This is Anderson. In a few minutes we will be going into hyperspace and will soon be in orbit over Aspera prime. If anyone has any religions they worship, praying should begin before hyperspace and any time after that."

There was another click as his message ended. Isolde simply sighed some, "Some days I wonder how this ship stays in the air..." she chuckled some as she smiled down at Zakk and slipped her hand from his, "please let me fix you up, despite your condition. Healing will still take some time but I can advance even your already accelerated healing, it'll help with the pain" she said as a small laser came from the tip of her finger and began to mend some of the broken wires. His arm would tingle a bit but soon the pain would begin to lessen as his body began to heal it over, "will you be going out on the mission?"

 

[Jumi]

​

With another nearly muted groan, Zakk lightly rubbed his head with his free hand, and blinked a few times. "Well I'm certain I could live with a few thousand volts cruisin' through me if it means I get to see that smile again. That folder there is goin' to be fun gettin' through ain't it?" Zakk asked with a laugh, and lightly rubbed his face, brushing a few strands of hair from his eyes after wards.

"Pain's not really a problem for me anymore, hun... you get used to it after a while, but I'm more than willing to take any help on your part. I can tell you've gotten good at patch ups ever since you came aboard. I got this funny feelin' that you're going to get a damn sight better too in the future." He said with a slight smile before he closed his eyes, and lightly closed and open his right hand, working the fluid back through his arm.

"Will you be going out on the mission?"

"Depends... no one's told me anythin', and I doubt we really need another bullet thrower out there... I'm pretty sure there's a bit I could do on the ship still... why? Is this your idea of askin' me out?" Zakk asked with a friendly laugh.

 

[Anglkate]

A young, female, wolf anthro stood in a large storage unit upon the planet of Asperas Prime. She was taking an inventory for the government. They were expecting a shipment, but it hadn't come. Checking off a few things on her holopad, she glanced around before preparing to leave. In all reality, she was secretly a freedom fighter for the small resistance group upon the planet. Yet, she was still a government worker. Asperas Prime was a bog planet who's industries thrived from coal and diamond mining. For a long while they lived peacefully as a free planet, but once word got out about their prized resources, they were quickly taken over by the interplanetary government and put under a somewhat dictatorship. The inhabitants, civilized ones at least, were instantly put into work camps and scattered about in the different mines.

Kira Moonshine was lucky that she was born into an influential family, and was given the chance for a better life. However, she hated to see her own people suffering so, which was why she secretly joined the resistance. It helped to have government persuasion in her favor, as she could get supplies and such to those who really needed them. It was the resistance's hopes that one day they could reclaim Asperas Prime as their own and live in peace once again. Glancing at the time, Kira moved quickly so she could send private landing coordinates to Valiant for their arrival. Sending in the clipboard information, which would state all was in order, she slipped away to begin the operation.

~~

Naidia finished messing with the coding system so that they'd hopefully get a nice landing station when they touched down on Asperas Prime. She doubted that she'd be recognized, but she had her own plans. She wasn't necessarily an outlaw there, as they were totally false accusations, but still. That had been years ago when she'd been with her 'foster' family. She'd broken away from them to be on her own, hadn't she?

Sighing, Naidia headed back to the pilot's cockpit to check on Marcello. It was nice to have someone else aboard, but she feared he was uneasy and going to leave her. Aqua seemed to be off hibernating for the time being. Walking forward, Naidia took a seat in the co-pilot's chair "Do you trust me, Marcello?" she asked after a short moment of saying nothing. Trust was something she needed to have from her crewmates. Marcello was a good pilot and it would be a shame to lose him. Her eyes fell upon him, though he wouldn't be able to tell from the helmet she always wore, but she wore it for her own reasons.

~~

Isolde finished what she was doing and blinked a few times at Zakk's last comment, "ask you out? I do not understand, so it must be no" She said as the equipment withdrew back into her body and she stepped back a moment, "You should be all set, sir" she smiled warmly, and for a moment the humanness in her features seemed to fade away. Suddenly Anderson's voice came over the PA system announcing they were about to go into hyperspace. He made what Isolde processed to be some sort of joke and so she smiled faintly. Turning again, her hair moving fluently with her body, she faced Zakk once more, "How are you feeling?" she folded her hands in front of her waiting for an answer from him. Thoughts were gathering in her 'mind' but she didn't speak any of them. Instead, they were stored away in another hidden folder within her system.

 

[Warmaster Death]

Armory, Valiant

Silias rose to his feet in a single slow, measured movement, the Genetically enhanced warlord looked across to Hardware, the import of the Captain's message causing Silias' insides to spin
"Back unto the warp once more" he muttered, cracking his neck and knuckles as he walked over to an armory bench, taking up a set of magnification/welding goggles, his large fingers deftly working on dissasembling and cleaning every part of not only his pistol, but many of the 'communal' weapons on board the ship, a habit that had formed to ease the Space marine's paranoid tendencies when it came to Hyperspace, or as Silias insisted on walling it 'Warp' travel.


presently Silias was modifying a compact assault rifle to change the calibre from a standard assault rifle calibre to a heavier, machine gun calibre.
thus far he had acheived little success, having to almost replicate much of the weapon's furniture, making it larger.
He forsaw that accuracy wopuld be an issue also, but the Space Marine was desperate to feel the reassuring bulk of a compact, heavy hitting rapid fire weapon in his hands once more, and so he continued with his tinkering.

The weapon lay partially assembled on the desk, the lower receiver put together made the weapon look almost half finished to most, although the modifications to other parts, such as the barrell (replicated by studying from a .50 sniper rifle, though made shorter)
"These damned componants are still refusing to cooperate Hardware" Silias almost chuckled
"I've worked out how to feed the weapon, a box magazine of twenty five rounds, based off those Kalisnakov rifles, but enlarged, but how to reduce jamming frequency is eluding me" The Space marine said, his tone determined, he WOULD finish this weapon, and when he had, he would prove the worth of the Adeptus Astartes once more.

 

[Jumi]

​

Zakk snapped his fingers in mock disappointment as Isolde seemed to get passed by with his joke. "No need to be doin' that 'Sir' stuff with me, Ma'am. Just call me Zakk like everyone else does. I've never been one for receiving formalities." Watching her a moment, he smiled slightly, and lightly rubbed his chin. "Well I can certainly say that I feel better than a few seconds ago... being patched up by a nurse is much more enjoyable than playing ping pong with metal walls." He answered with a chuckle.

Anderson's little PA announcement had managed to get a silent mental laugh from him as well, but Zakk didn't have time for prayin', or religion. Well perhaps he did, but he'd never made the time for it before, and he wasn't likely to start making the time. "You look like a lady with somethin' on her mind... least that's what your eyes are sayin' to me." Zakk then said as he lightly tapped his forehead to emphasize his point. "What's floatin' round in that head of yours?" He asked as he slowly stood up, grabbing a grey shirt from the small table against the wall, and pulled it on covering the blinking lights, and scars that covered his muscled torso. Truth be told, he didn't know if it was the fact that the metal parts in him kept him in such good shape, or if it was because he was forced to use more energy to move his now heavier self.

 

[Arsenal XA4]

Hardware strode over to the workbench, taking a look at Silias' handiwork.

"I'll tell you what's wrong here." he started. "You need to convert it over from gas operation to recoil operation."

"The gas piston doesn't stand up very well to burst fire with such a large caliber round. We should look at rebuilding the weapon entirely into either recoil operation or a hybrid gas operation."

 

[riku]

The ship was ready to go and all that was left to do was start the hyperdrive up. Anderson began the preparations for launch and slowly the hyperdrive engines started up. It took a moment as the engines picked up speed.

As he waited for them to get up to speed, he got back onto the intercom. "Hyperdrive is now ready to go and we will be going forward in a few seconds. You all have your warning." Anderson turned off the intercom. Checking all the monitors, he went to the ships steering and began pushing forward.

The Valiant began sailing forward. In another few seconds it disappeared as it went into hyperspace.

Time passed and the ship came out of hyperspace in view of Aspera Prime.