Post by EmperorMyric on Mar 22, 2021 15:46:46 GMT
Stracken strides toward his shuttle with long purposeful steps, the dead hyena on his shoulder bobbing with every thud of his heavy set boots, he had just secured the singers aid in purging the shades and restoring Skalia in a civil and productive meeting, if only everyone was this co-operative his job would be so much easier he mused.
Arriving at the small angular shuttle Stracken opens the door with a mental command, the vessels ramp dropping to the floor with a slight thud, halting at the ramps bottom Stracken turns and holds his arm out towards the cavernous insides of the vessel and nods to the subjugator the BSO had lent him.
"Ladies first"
While Strackens strides made resounding thuds with each step Angel's were near silent. Training and practice had left the Subjugator's footfalls near silent. She said nothing as she stepped aboard the vessel. She paused just over the threshold and turned back toward Stracken, waiting for him to continue.
Making his own way up the ramp the Annointed captain enters the shuttles holding room and takes a seat in one of the many seats that line the void vehicles sides and settles in for the ride.
"Take a seat."
Angel sat down wordlessly, digging through one of the pockets on her tactical vest for a crumpled pack of cigarettes. She lit one up and then returned the pack to her pocket, taking a long drag and then staring at Stracken, waiting for him to explain what exactly this was all about.
Rather than leaping into any sort of explanation the old captain opens his mouth with a rough grin.
"Those'll kill you y'know."
It seems small talk was the order of the day for now
He chuckles gruffly at his own joke as he reaches into a small pouch on his belt and begins to ruffle around inside it.
"Like I haven't heard that before," Angel replied gruffly. Clearly not amused. She took another drag before lowering the cigarette.
"You going to tell me what we're doing here?"
"I need you to kill someone."
Finally finding what he was seeking in the depths of the brown pouch he withdraws a small manilla folder and levitates it over to the unamused women.
"One Astor narcime, also goes by SS Hourglass, he's a battleship last i checked."
"A... battleship?" Angel asked incredulously before taking the folder. How precisely did one kill a battleship? Unless it was also a person... she'd seen that in an anime once hadn't she?
Still that didn't seem to make much sense here...
"Usually you destroy battleships... you don't kill them," She commented.
"Well we are a special case, the corvette we are heading towards is called the TSS Visiual, although from what i remember he prefers people call him Stracken."
The captain grins at Angel as he continues.
"As for how to kill us well... you find our soul bridge, usually on the bridge and apply a generous helping of soul killing murder juice to it."
"So I infiltrate a battleship, go to the bridge, and then what? Shoot the glowy bits with a high calibre discarding sabot round?"
That didn't sound difficult at all, she thought bitterly. Especially considering how well her last attempted infiltration had gone... and that was with an enemy that couldn't sense thoughts.
"Sounds like a borderline suicide mission," She said, flipping the folder open and going through the contents.
The folder was filled mostly with pictures, standard battleship layout maps, forty seven photos of visually distinctive and clearly different individuals as well as a small profile on the Hourglass including its likes, dislikes preferred forms and known service history.
"Not the bridge no, you'll be looking for a large crystalline construct, a soul gem used to house the vessels gestalt and by extension him."
The shuttle shudders as it finally begins to make its departure from the singers vessel.
"You wont be doing this alone either, you'd be caught near instantly."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Angel dead panned, flipping through the folder and taking pictures with her implants, saving them to her neural processor for later recall.
"So who are you sticking me with?"
"It wasn't a criticism of your skill simply a statement of fact, you stick out like a sore thumb."
Stracken hands out another profile similar to the first but lacking in maps.
"A minor gestalt named Merello, he/she/it wont be accompanying you in the traditional sense, you'll be wearing them."
Angel decided not to press for details on what exactly was meant by that, nor did she feel like explaining the specs of her active camo either so she settled on the most obvious question.
"How exactly do you wear s person?"
"Despite our human appearance by now should it not be obvious we are anything but? Morello is like me made up of innumerable nanites they will simply wrap around you like a suit, so when someone reaches out to you telepathically they don't see Angel the human infiltrating the ship to kill it, they see Morello the Annointed defector."
"And I can trust Morello to not like... turn into a flesh eating robot swarm or some bullshit like that?" Angel asked, folding her arms across her chest.
"Probably."
Replies the captain non chalantly
"Not reassuring," Angel dead panned. "I feel like they're going to mess up my optical camoflage... also wasn't the psi block the singers gave us precisely for this sort of thing?"
"If you block psi waves then you'll a big ol hole in the sensor fields, they wouldn't be able to see you but they'd know precisely where you are, your optical camo suffers a similar flaw in that it wont hide you from telepathy or telekinesis."
Stracken raises a finger and points to his eyes.
"These things are mostly decorative."
"So then why bother with me at all?" Angel said with a sigh, rubbing her forehead and folding her arms.
"Why not just have Tom Morello or whatever destroy the crystal? Seems like a much better strategy than trying to kit me out to do it,"
"We have literally no one apart from morello to spare and he's to young to maintain a proper physical form so he cant fly solo."
He answers matter of factly
Angel heaved a sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose as the beginnings of a headache began to set in. It wasn't exactly confidence inducing to be told you'd been picked for the sole reason that there was no one else.
"Infiltration and exit strategies?" She pressed instead, deciding not to comment on her growing sense of impending doom.
"Infiltration should be the easiest step honestly, you will be deployed via a specialised FTL torpedo fired to coincide with the dreadnoughts own jump in order to mask its presence, exfil we expect to be much harder as the ship will literally be disintegrating around you, make it off that vessel alive and into space by any means you see fit, at that point the frigate TSS Dingo ate my baby will be on task to pick you up."
"Great," She said with a sigh. "So I get fired in on a torpedo and then I get picked up by a meme if I survive that long,"
She sighed, pressing fingers against her temples and rubbing them in a gentle circle.
"Might as well get this shitshow started then,"
Stracken laughs a short guttural chortle.
"Yes that about sums it up."
As he finishes the lander finally grinds to a shuddering halt having apparently landed at its destination.
"Try and get some rest once the soldiers have shown you to tour quarters, you're going to need it."
“Sure," Angel muttered.
It was always the waiting wasn't it? It was never get up and go now... there was always the waiting. She hated the waiting.
Once shown to her quarters the Subjugator flopped down on the bed, stuck a cigarette between her lips and pulled on a pair of headphones. The playlist cycled to a song she only vaguely remembered hearing once in the kind of bar where no matter where you went your shoes still seemed to stick to the floor.
"Always the waiting," She muttered, bringing a lighter to the cigarette.
Arriving at the small angular shuttle Stracken opens the door with a mental command, the vessels ramp dropping to the floor with a slight thud, halting at the ramps bottom Stracken turns and holds his arm out towards the cavernous insides of the vessel and nods to the subjugator the BSO had lent him.
"Ladies first"
While Strackens strides made resounding thuds with each step Angel's were near silent. Training and practice had left the Subjugator's footfalls near silent. She said nothing as she stepped aboard the vessel. She paused just over the threshold and turned back toward Stracken, waiting for him to continue.
Making his own way up the ramp the Annointed captain enters the shuttles holding room and takes a seat in one of the many seats that line the void vehicles sides and settles in for the ride.
"Take a seat."
Angel sat down wordlessly, digging through one of the pockets on her tactical vest for a crumpled pack of cigarettes. She lit one up and then returned the pack to her pocket, taking a long drag and then staring at Stracken, waiting for him to explain what exactly this was all about.
Rather than leaping into any sort of explanation the old captain opens his mouth with a rough grin.
"Those'll kill you y'know."
It seems small talk was the order of the day for now
He chuckles gruffly at his own joke as he reaches into a small pouch on his belt and begins to ruffle around inside it.
"Like I haven't heard that before," Angel replied gruffly. Clearly not amused. She took another drag before lowering the cigarette.
"You going to tell me what we're doing here?"
"I need you to kill someone."
Finally finding what he was seeking in the depths of the brown pouch he withdraws a small manilla folder and levitates it over to the unamused women.
"One Astor narcime, also goes by SS Hourglass, he's a battleship last i checked."
"A... battleship?" Angel asked incredulously before taking the folder. How precisely did one kill a battleship? Unless it was also a person... she'd seen that in an anime once hadn't she?
Still that didn't seem to make much sense here...
"Usually you destroy battleships... you don't kill them," She commented.
"Well we are a special case, the corvette we are heading towards is called the TSS Visiual, although from what i remember he prefers people call him Stracken."
The captain grins at Angel as he continues.
"As for how to kill us well... you find our soul bridge, usually on the bridge and apply a generous helping of soul killing murder juice to it."
"So I infiltrate a battleship, go to the bridge, and then what? Shoot the glowy bits with a high calibre discarding sabot round?"
That didn't sound difficult at all, she thought bitterly. Especially considering how well her last attempted infiltration had gone... and that was with an enemy that couldn't sense thoughts.
"Sounds like a borderline suicide mission," She said, flipping the folder open and going through the contents.
The folder was filled mostly with pictures, standard battleship layout maps, forty seven photos of visually distinctive and clearly different individuals as well as a small profile on the Hourglass including its likes, dislikes preferred forms and known service history.
"Not the bridge no, you'll be looking for a large crystalline construct, a soul gem used to house the vessels gestalt and by extension him."
The shuttle shudders as it finally begins to make its departure from the singers vessel.
"You wont be doing this alone either, you'd be caught near instantly."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Angel dead panned, flipping through the folder and taking pictures with her implants, saving them to her neural processor for later recall.
"So who are you sticking me with?"
"It wasn't a criticism of your skill simply a statement of fact, you stick out like a sore thumb."
Stracken hands out another profile similar to the first but lacking in maps.
"A minor gestalt named Merello, he/she/it wont be accompanying you in the traditional sense, you'll be wearing them."
Angel decided not to press for details on what exactly was meant by that, nor did she feel like explaining the specs of her active camo either so she settled on the most obvious question.
"How exactly do you wear s person?"
"Despite our human appearance by now should it not be obvious we are anything but? Morello is like me made up of innumerable nanites they will simply wrap around you like a suit, so when someone reaches out to you telepathically they don't see Angel the human infiltrating the ship to kill it, they see Morello the Annointed defector."
"And I can trust Morello to not like... turn into a flesh eating robot swarm or some bullshit like that?" Angel asked, folding her arms across her chest.
"Probably."
Replies the captain non chalantly
"Not reassuring," Angel dead panned. "I feel like they're going to mess up my optical camoflage... also wasn't the psi block the singers gave us precisely for this sort of thing?"
"If you block psi waves then you'll a big ol hole in the sensor fields, they wouldn't be able to see you but they'd know precisely where you are, your optical camo suffers a similar flaw in that it wont hide you from telepathy or telekinesis."
Stracken raises a finger and points to his eyes.
"These things are mostly decorative."
"So then why bother with me at all?" Angel said with a sigh, rubbing her forehead and folding her arms.
"Why not just have Tom Morello or whatever destroy the crystal? Seems like a much better strategy than trying to kit me out to do it,"
"We have literally no one apart from morello to spare and he's to young to maintain a proper physical form so he cant fly solo."
He answers matter of factly
Angel heaved a sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose as the beginnings of a headache began to set in. It wasn't exactly confidence inducing to be told you'd been picked for the sole reason that there was no one else.
"Infiltration and exit strategies?" She pressed instead, deciding not to comment on her growing sense of impending doom.
"Infiltration should be the easiest step honestly, you will be deployed via a specialised FTL torpedo fired to coincide with the dreadnoughts own jump in order to mask its presence, exfil we expect to be much harder as the ship will literally be disintegrating around you, make it off that vessel alive and into space by any means you see fit, at that point the frigate TSS Dingo ate my baby will be on task to pick you up."
"Great," She said with a sigh. "So I get fired in on a torpedo and then I get picked up by a meme if I survive that long,"
She sighed, pressing fingers against her temples and rubbing them in a gentle circle.
"Might as well get this shitshow started then,"
Stracken laughs a short guttural chortle.
"Yes that about sums it up."
As he finishes the lander finally grinds to a shuddering halt having apparently landed at its destination.
"Try and get some rest once the soldiers have shown you to tour quarters, you're going to need it."
“Sure," Angel muttered.
It was always the waiting wasn't it? It was never get up and go now... there was always the waiting. She hated the waiting.
Once shown to her quarters the Subjugator flopped down on the bed, stuck a cigarette between her lips and pulled on a pair of headphones. The playlist cycled to a song she only vaguely remembered hearing once in the kind of bar where no matter where you went your shoes still seemed to stick to the floor.
"Always the waiting," She muttered, bringing a lighter to the cigarette.