Nova Chasers (A space Western role-play)

“Oh cmon... godamnit, I gotchya. Wish I woulda known this before we left, ill get you yer guns ontime, sir.”

I say over emphasizing the lat word as I walk out of the briefing room headed back twards the cargobay, one im there I take stock of whats assault rifles, on the downside in the heavy firepower im only able to find an old m60 machine-gun and a pair of rpg-7s with six rockets between the two of em.

“this blows, I mean cmon man. Wheres the good shit?” I mutter to myself as I keep looking.

“oh, well HELLLOOOO nurse!” I say as I spy a stash of ammunition and missiles obviously for the ships guns and launchers. I snag a headset from the portion of the bay dedicated to electronics equipment, well. Closet.

“hey! Al here, err. Ave was it? Or dick, these shells and missiles down here, how many do you need for spares? I have some bright ideas with em, just give me the go-ahead, id only need about five missiles and six shells to make everything I need, I have no idea how your magazines are right now, and im not comfortable with lowering the ships defensive capability, but if your loaders are full, please let me skimp a few off the top, OH! And ave, got a request for ya, if I can spruce up your baby’s guns a bit, can I snag a bottle of the strongest shit you got? I guaranty quality work before payment, well technically I still gotta see what you got on hand, personnel armament comes first.”

I say as I already get to work with the small arms, unloading a few clips of ammo from many of the sub-machine guns and assault rifles, snagging a small pistol for the girl, teal.

When I do I get back on the radio as I start pulling the bullets with the equipment I snagged from the shelf on the far side of the bay.

“oi, teal, come down here for a minute, keep the emotions out of your head to, strictly business please.”

as I wait I keep pulling bullets, working on teals first, a stranded Beretta 9mm pistol, just custom loading the rounds and adding some of my own steal core rounds to one of the mags, when im done I start working on the rest, simple using what I had in my coat and pack to make some armour periceing rounds for everyone, mandatory to carry some, regardless of fighting preference, and offering explosive ammunition..

when its done I plan on looking to see what kind of breaching charges I could whip up with what I have, but for the time being I concentrate on the main armaments.

A few minutes alter i get back on the radio

“oooooh capitaaaaan, just your friendly shipboard pyromaniac letting you know were going to need a SERIOUS weapons upgrade next stop we make, I have more then enough black market arms dealers to get shit cheap, no offense but your small arms stock sucks. Just a basic shipboard compliment, nothing wrong with that, but I believe in being prepared. I can give you the run down later, just letting you know we gonna need a refit, if you feel like being snippy, its out of my pocket, I just dont like going into a fight without covering all possible bases.”

I say as I get back to my busines, pulling bullets and primers, counting grains, melting down shot and reloading. Playing the an old century style country song in my headset as I work, whistling along to “its five o'clock somewhere”


[here we see a bit of Al's work side, he DOES know how to keep work and play separately.... when he NEEDS to :P]]

Rick kept staring intently at the stranger, after hearing her response. The answer she gave...Rick could tell from her voice that she wasn't lying, but she didn't say enough. A 10-year-old would have found that suspicious enough. However, Rick only felt an air of skill from the lady, but not hostility. After a while, Harris had left with Bohr, after some talk about warps or whatever, and he had just received a message from Alistar, requesting a weapons upgrade at the next dock.

"Sure, Al, whatever. Mia can help with business since she helped run one. Take her along if you need a bargaining advantage."

After that, he turned off the earpiece completely and took it off his ear for a while. He got up from his chair, walked up to the woman, still restrained, and leaned onto the table where she lay. He looked straight into her blood-red eyes, taking in the fact that she truly may not be human, before he spoke again.

"Look. I know you can't seem to trust us, but think it through a little. Why would we have saved a complete stranger only to kill them again? Makes no sense. Plus, I doubt that our paths were truly meant to cross, so I don't think that whatever you were doing near that bridge has anything to do with us. However, you're still here, and you need to realize that we really won't hurt you. So, I hope trust doesn't have to be an issue anymore."

He looked away from her and into the space in front of him, as if thinking long and hard about his next words.

"Richard Walken, former bounty hunter-for-hire, now captain of the Infinity, the very ship you find yourself in now. Nowadays, many call me a thief, but I prefer 'treasure hunter'."

Without even looking at her, he released the restraints holding her down, finally releasing her from the table.

"I wouldn't move to fast now, lest you want those wounds to reopen, Miss..."

As her her body is unrestrained, she stretches out her body, showing no signs of rising from table. She feels she is no impending danger, so she rationally decides to allow her body to recuperate. She takes several deep breaths, and she returns her gaze to the ceiling, and returns it back to the man named Richard Walken. She replies,

"Your words are strange, Walken. Your words seem to hold more distrust than you allege mine of."

Rick could only chuckle at the stranger's response, and replies in his typical fashion, while sitting back on the chair.

"Good ear. Well, you'll have to excuse me then, Miss. I find that it never helps to be too cautious. Looking at you, however, I think you would agree to an extent."

As I walk through the hallway, I see that new.... kid, talking with Harris. I ignore the both of them as I walk through the hall to the cockpit. The door opens to the cockpit, and I see the apple siting on the Captain's chair.

"Man, I gotta be extra careful with these coordinates that I enter.", I say to myself as I walk to the apple.

I pick the apple up, but I immediately drop it. It falls to the floor and shatters to thousands of pieces.

"Damn. That was as fucking cold as liquid Nitrogen. I wonder what is going wrong with the machine.", I say as I head back to the Engine Room.

Harris turned to Clover, "Captains inside the med-bay right now, I don't really think you should go in right now though, in the most likely case, you'll be bunking with me or Bohr." With that, Harris began walking off, giving a nod to Bohr as he headed towards the cockpit "Hey Professor, you still testing the warp?" Harris didn't really need an answer, he was just bored.

As he walked, he heard Alistar announcing on the radio, specifically the one calling Teal down to the cargo bay. Harris gave a sigh, thinking that this won't really end in an adequate way so he headed towards the meeting room, running into Teal who was on her way to the cargo, Harris did a spinning manouever around Teal and ended up next to her, walking in the same direction as her."You heading towards the cargo hold?" Harris asked as they walked down, "I'll come with you, I don't trust that Alistar guy."

((I'm going to assume the ship has some sort of kitchen.))

As everyone left to do their own thing, I continued to sit in my chair that is until my stomach growled loudly. I realized that I never got to have my steak, or eat anything really. I walked out of the meeting room, leaving the strange boy by himself. I wandered the ship, trying to find something to eat and encountered short hall with a doorway on the left. I entered and saw a tiny kitchen. It wasn't a gourmet chef's kitchen but it had a small fridge, a couple of counters, one with an electric burner stove top and the other with a small microwave.

I walked over to the fridge opening and examining what was inside. Nothing much but a couple of cheeses, alcohol, water, milk and a bunch of tomatoes, beans, peppers and other vegetables. I saw some butter and sour cream and with a sigh, I opened the freezer and found a pack of ground beef, next to it I saw some chicken. I picked up the chicken and sniffed it, throwing it back in the freezer with a disgusted expression. I took the ground beef and sniffed it as well, this one wasn't as terrible. Next to the fridge on a counter I saw salt, pepper and various other spices and shrugged as I thought about chili. I supposed it was enough for the crew, as long as no one was planning on being a pig.

I took a few pots and pans from out of the bottom of a cabinet and placed them on the burner. I turned it on low and placed butter on the frying pans. I took a bunch of tomatoes and finely diced them, and then started to chop some onions. I continued on the red and green peppers and finished chopping everything up. I tested the pan by placing an onion piece on it and heard a sizzled and I added all the vegetables to the pan. As they sautéed, I seasoned the beef and placed it in the pot. I took a look at the remaining items and saw a few more tomatoes, onions, peppers, some sour cream. I poured water in the pot and brought it to a boil with the tomatoes in it. I drained the tomatoes, peeled and unseeded them, and chopped up all the vegetables. I placed salt, sugar, sour cream and the vegetables and let the simmer together. I spoke into my ear piece, "I hope no one minds but I'm making chili."

Alistar speaks in my ear piece requesting me to go down to the cargo bay, I sigh and respond, "If my food burns, it's on your head." I stirred the pot and pans and turn the heat down a bit before heading down to the cargo bay. I see Harris walking toward me but then he walks past me. Suddenly he was walking next to me and I giggled a bit at that, "I don't trust him either but I already got to say what I had to. I don't think he'll be a problem."
I entered the cargo bay with Harris and looked at Alistar working away. I stood there for a minute or so before poking his back, "Hellooo?"

I nod as I hear the captains response, noting hes obviously preoccupied, I give a simple thanks back and com ave again.

“still neeeda know the situation on these munitions, I could make some pretty nasty demo charges if you let me play a little. Just get back tome when you can, I have more then enough to keep me entertained as is.”

after cutting the circuit I get back to work, finishing the last of the 9mm steel core rounds I was prepping, still humming along to my music, a bit later teal coms me back, saying something bout burnt food.

“just get here quick, I wont be taking much time im sure it will be fine.” I state simply as I loud the rounds into a clip and grab the Beretta I had prepped for her. Just as im finishing I feel a poke on my back and twitch, turning around quickly and seeing teal, along with harris, who was standing at the entrance to the cargobay, I nod to him then look at teal,

“first bit, im sure your plenty skilled with your knives but its a bit foolish to ONLY use them, you should at least have a sidearm, I preped this for ya, standard nine mil, for when your knives just wont cut it so to say, just finished loading a clip of steel core rounds for the instances you gotta shoot through Kevlar, only had time to make the one magazines worth though, if you see yourself needing ore let me know, also. Take these, new straps for your knife pouch, there made out of Kevlar so it will be a lot harder for someone to pull the trick I did.”

I pause as I hand them to her, wondering if im startling her with how professional I am about my work.

“also, had an idea or two floating round in my head bout how to make those knives of yours more cobat effective, I think ill need to talk to the techno kid bout the second, but if ya like, once we make dock n I can do some shopping, I can stick a micro vibration emitter on them, might throw them a little out of balance, but you will be hard pressed to find any form of organic matter you cant cut through.”

I scratch my hairline near my temple as I speak, something I often do when thinking deeply on something.

“ah, and one last thing before ya go, sorry ya caught me in a playful mood, well.. not really but yea, pissed ya sure, but when it comes to work, shooting, explosions, life n death things, dont worry bout me being a flirtatious ass..... however when im not zoned in on things that go boom, or shooting things. No promises” I say winking and smiling

“anyway, thats all I have for now, if you need anything else, or have ideas of your own invouvleing knives or guns, lemme know.”

I bow my head sightly and turn back to my improvised workbench. Were I get back to work on the rest of the ammunition im crafting, mind still grinding gears on the possible exploits of the pile of shells and missiles siting in the corner.

“man, waiting sucks.” I state simply as I keep on working, even making some EMP ammunition in the event of auto turrets or sentry’s, or in a worst case scenario power Armour, god I hate that stuff.

Alistar goes on about my weapon choice, I nodded as I half listen to what he was saying. I was actually surprised he wasn't being a pervert but I assumed it was because Harris was there. Alistar handed me a pistol, he also handed me some straps for my knife pouch, "Oh how nice, you destroy my boots and then you give me straps, thanks. No really, thanks it was the least you could do."

He talked about upgrading my knives and I shrugged, "Do what you want, just don't ruin my shit again."

I walked away after another speech about things going 'boom' and him being professional. I turned to Harris, "See, no problems."

I gave a sweet smile at him and stood a bit close as we left the cargo bay. I left him as I turned the corner and went over to the kitchen where my food was cooking. I finished up the chili in an hour or so. I addressed everyone again, "Food is done, if anyone wants some of course."

I took out a bowl for myself and pour out a serving of chili before walking to the meeting room to eat on the table.

On my way back from the cockpit, I see Teal heading out of a room I've never been in before. I poke my head in through the open door and see Harris standing in front of a large guy that was present at the meeting earlier. I walk in and walk over the the guy.

"So, you're making munition rounds from the scrap we have laying around here, huh? I heard that you like to blow things up, so you can feel free to use the stuff here. But I wouldn't touch the EMP bombletts that we keep there. Those are the Pilot's special munition. I've upgraded the turrets here to fire plasma rounds that can pierce the side of almost any ship. So, they don't require munition.". I say to the large man sitting on the floor.

After talking with Harris, Clover decided to look around a bit more around the ship. As he was walking, he came across the tanned woman, 'Teal', leave a room and head elsewhere. He also noticed Harris heading to the same place as well. Clover was about to follow them but noticed a faint smell that came out the room Teal left. He went in and saw that there was a pot of chili that was made.

"It's warm, so I guess it was cooked recently." He looked around and took a quick taste using a nearby utensil. "Pretty good, but I think it still needs to cook for an hour more." He went ahead and went back to the briefing room and waited there for a while. Once back in the briefing room, he sat in another chair in the corner and took out both his colt and glock. He then started talking apart and cleaning the guns one at a time. After minutes of cleaning and checking, he went ahead and put them back together, but also replacing a few parts with some new ones. After finishing that, he pondered on what else to do. As he was pondering, he heard an announcement that some chili was finished cooking and to go get some. Clover wasted no time to go and head back for a helping of food.

((All this talk of food is making me hungry :P))

No problems at the cargo bay, Harris was glad, he and Teal split off after they left, Teal entering a room Harris had never noticed before. He walked down near the loading ramp, past the cargo hold before hearing Teal announce something about food which reminded Harris about his chicken satay. He headed towards the med-bay to grab his bag, wondering how things were going with the "interogation"

As I finish working on the last of the custom ammo I hear someone walk in and take a look, noticing the engineer fellow, bohr I think people were calling him and nod when he speaks

"Bollocks! You already spruced up the armament on this ship? Damn, guess that means ill have to figure something out to upgrade the rockets to get some booze..."

I trail off for a second gears whirling in my head

"anyway, Alistar McKeon at your service and as your sure to find out, theres nothing better then brass gunpowder and lead in my book, well actually it depends on the kind of bullet and explosion but still. Sadly though, not gonna be able to do to much more yet, just finished making some armorpeircing and EMP enhanced rounds, im gonna be modifying a few weapons next, making sure the can withstand the heavier grain loads I use'd. And as for the rounds over there, I already checked, its about half n half, most of the missiles are emp bomblets yes, but the shells and four the the rockets use god old high explosive, I was hoping to make some demo charges with em, or at least a few door breaches. For now tho..."

I get up stretching out a little cracking nearly all my joints with audible pops.

“I think il grab some food, hear something about chilli over the radio earler. Could really use some liquor though, if you can whisk me away some, youd be heavenly.”

I nod to him and make to walk out the door pausing when I see the sword on his hip.

“ah, one last thing. Im all for close combat n blades, but you need at least one ranged weapon.”

I point at the table I was at, which has a rather organized assortment of weapons, pistols sub machine guns and a few assault rifles a few of them with there chambers and components taken apart and several magazines of ammunition, each labeled.

“Take what fits your style, don’t care if its a pistol or a rifle as long as it shoots bullets, just leave the Fal alone, that’s mine. Anywho, cya round bohr, welcome to join me for a snack if you like.”

Mia needed to figure out where she would be sleeping tonight so she could unpack her belongings. Everyone had left the briefing room already, so she couldn't really ask. She smells the aroma of food coming from somewhere in the ship. Her stomach grumbled; the thought of food made her realize that she didn't eat all day. Still unaccustomed to the ship, she curiously walks around to look for the the kitchen.

"Food is done, if anyone wants some of course." Mia heard a woman say.

Within minutes, she finds the kitchen and sees a pot on the stove. She walks over and opens the lid of the pot. It was perfectly cooked chili; she grabs a bowl and pours herself a scoop of it. "Mmmm...smells very delicious." Mia says as she carries the bowl over to the meeting room. She sees the woman who she had seen earlier in the briefing room sitting down at the table eating her bowl of chilli. "Oh, you must be Teal." Mia says as she sits in the chair next to Teal.

"I have a few things I wish to inquire you of." The woman suddenly asks.

Richard simply shrugs and starts to tap his feet rhythmically, not really caring at what he needed to answer.

"Eh. Go ahead. I kind of figured you'd be asking more questions than I would. So, what do you want to know?"

The woman could sense the man's impatience. In her usual straightforward manner, she asks,

"For how long will you allow me to stay here?"

He closes his eyes for a few moments with his head high, thinking about his answer carefully.

"Honestly? We still have some space here left in the ship. If you don't have anywhere to go back, or don't have any plans elsewhere, you're welcome to crash here, if you want."

The woman ponders. She no longer was under the servitude of others, and she is now masterless. She had been thrown away, so she no longer had a place to call home. She had no particular reason to stay at New Britannia. With her body heavily incapacitated, it would be best to stay under the care of the crew of this ship.

This... was also an opportunity for a new start.

The woman promptly asks, "Could you call the man that had tended my wounds earlier?"

"Harris? Yeah, I could, hold on."

Rick puts his earpiece back in his ear and turns it on.

"Yo, Hare. Mind coming to the sick bay? Our guest would like to speak with you."

He resumes to turn it back off, giving them their privacy again.

"Anything else?"

The woman responds, "I wish to speak with that man before we continue."

Rick puts on a sort-of fake pout, disappointed at not getting much more out of her.

"Fine. We can wait. So...I can assume that you won't answer any of my questions before talking to him, am I right?"

"You are free to inquire me on anything that you wish. However, I will not guarantee that I will answer your questions." She states candidly.

Rick sighs at the answer he was expecting. Literally the most obvious way out of such a lax 'interrogation'.

"In short, you're not ready to tell us how you got to where you are now, huh? Mind telling me your name, at least?"

Rick's impatience clearly showed at the last remark.

The woman had withheld her name for several reasons, weighing the risks of revealing her name. She contemplates, and she feels that it would be of little consequence to continue concealing her identity. The woman replies,

"I am called Nirakaleania ov Nephilim, in this language."

Rick blinks a few times, trying to grasp her 'name' and remember it.

"OK, I'm going to try to disregard the 'in this language' part for now. So, wait, is Nephilim like your family name? As in, were any of your parents or siblings 'ov Nephilim' as well?"

The woman responds, "Nephilim is the surname, and it is the name that is passed down through the lineage. So yes, it is the name of my family. However, it is a little different, as our concepts ancestral relationships are held differently than that of the Solar concept of "families". In your language, "ov" would be considered the nobility particle."

Clarity finally sweeps through Rick's face, as he finally understands the complex name she goes by. He stands up, claps, and, with his signature grin on his face, he speaks up again.

"Alright! Nira, it is! Welcome to the Infinity!"

The woman's expression does not change, but she is a little puzzled by Walken's sudden interjection.

"Nira...?" She says the name to herself, with a confused tone.

"Yes, because no one can really expect me of all people to remember such a long name. No offense. So, now that the formalities are out of the way, I guess we can wait for our medic to arrive. You don't mind the name, do you? Otherwise, I can probably find some other name to call you. I usually find one for everyone."

Nirakaleania pauses for a moment, attempting to fathom the peculiar name bestowed upon her. In all her years of being alive, such a predicament has never occured to her. After seemingly deep thought, she acquiesces, "If you wish to address me as such, I have no qualms in regards to it.

"Awesome. I'll go outside for a while and see where Harris is."

Nirakaleania asks the man, "Do you desire compensation for my occupation?

He suddenly looks back at her with confusion.

"I'm sorry? I don't really get what you're saying."

The woman ponders, and replies, "For my stay here, do you wish for any currency or service?"

Rick simply waves his hand in rejection.

"No, no, please. No money needed. However, I do have a rule that, if you're gonna be part of my ship, you're gonna have to pull your weight and do some work. I'm discuss that later, actually, if you ever decide to come by my room. Right now, I smell something delicious!"

With that, Rick opens the door and dashes towards the kitchen, where he assumes the aroma is coming from.

Alistar left the room heading to where ever this "chili" is to be. I go over and look as some of the work he's done. Each is done meticulously and with care. There's just a bunch of scrap and parts lying around right now, but I think of something.

"He wants something that can go boom, right? Well, there's enough stuff here to make my specialty.", I say to myself.

I set about working on the piece-de-la-resistance. I take apart about 5 of the rockets lying around, and use some of the spare emp grenades I had never found a use for, since they were duds.

As I finish working, Alistar walks back into the room with a fulfilled face and I hand him a small piece of work, about the size of a grenade, and tell him about it.

"This might.... be what you're looking for. It is a very powerful device. So powerful, the GUA Military almost had my head for it. I'm the only one that knows how to put this thing together, so if you would ever find yourself in the predicament of needing more, just let me know. But the jist of this device is that it's meant to destroy everything. Organic and inorganic. It has a blast radius of about 30 yards, but the explosion will stop at that point. It will stay like that for exactly one minute. Anything that touches it will burn to nothing. There, it will essentially implode on itself, creating a very intense point of origin. This point of origin is a black hole. It will destroy everything that gets within one parsec of it. Well, it's not so much of an explosion, but it gives the same result. I nicknamed it, the PBH, which stands for the portable black hole."

I start to head out of the room, but I turn back. "I prefer only my shashka because I prefer not having to fight at all, but when I do fight, I prefer tasting their blood."

As I exit the room toward the Engine Room, I state "Don't go dropping that device now."

As Harris headed towards the med-bay, he saw Avery being shoved out with a half eaten skewer in his hand. Harris gave a sigh as Avery turned to him, "You couldn.t have just asked me if you wanted another?" Avery chuckled and apoligised before heading off towards. . . Somewhere, Harris wasn't really paying any attention, he was more concerned about why he had been locked out of his med-bay.

He attempted to open the door a few times befoere giving up and leaning on the wall by the door. Harris could slightly hear a conversation between Rick and the woman, apparantly named Nirakaleana, although Rick seemed to have decided to call the Nira for short. A message from Rick came from his ear piece, asking him to come into the the med-bay, apparantly, Nira requested to talk to Harris in person. Harris, assuming since he messaged him to come in, decided to go and walk in but was left venting with frustrastion because the door was still locked.

Harris waited by the door again, listening to the conversation before Rick dashed out of the med-bay, not noticing Harris who had slipped right passt Rick and into the med-bay. Nira was lying on the table, looking over to Harris who took a deep breath. "You wanted to speak with me?" Harris asked as he took a seat.

"Yes." She replies to the man.

Nirakaleania turns her head. She promptly asks, "Can you determine the condition that my body is in? And approximately how long will my body be incapacitated?"

((OOC: Slight edit.))

Rick quickly dashed out of the med-bay, paying no attention to Harris standing by the door, looking all pissed. That didn't matter. Nothing did at the moment. All Rick cared about was getting his hands on whatever food was being cooked, getting hungrier by the second.

"Man, that smells like chili. I can't wait anymore!"

He finally started running towards the food, reaching the kitchen after a few seconds to see Alistar leaving the room, looking satisfied, and Clover having a bowl too.

"Fuck yeah, chili!"

He quickly grabbed a bowl and poured himself some chili.

"Man, it smelled delicious from the med-bay, and even more so now! Who made this?"

Harris took some time to think about his answer, "well, it's hard to say. With injuries like that, you would have been dead by now. . . But you're no ordinary human are you?" Harris stared at Nira for a while, as if trying to deduce something. "Anyway, my best guess is that, you should be able to stand in a few hours, if not even less than that but it'll take a while before you'll be able to do any physical work. Try to take it easy for a while, maybe get some rest, I'd refrain you from eating or drinking anything until your condition is completely stable." Harris, after explaining to Nira, got off his seat and stretched a bit, walking over to his desk to grab the bag of chicken skewers. hmm, only three left. . . Harris held the bag in his hand but didn't take any out to eat. "There any other questions you'd like to ask?"