Alpha Panda, Serenity RPG IC

[Shadow_Elf]

Greg
Lullabelle Mine Docking Coupler #2
A Few Moments Ago
Y'all're clearly better armed than us, boys. I'm happy t'surrender, if y'all promise not t'hurt our crew or the locals, says Greg, advancing slowly. When he's within ten feet, his hand outstretched in a surrendering gesture, his gloves emit an electromagnetic pulse at Fox, messing with his neural network. He allows himself a knowing grin before he drops prone and rolls his smoke grenade along the ground, shielding his face from any follow-up gunfire. Not that that stops them from shooting the rest of him.

[Narmoth]

Adrian Starr
Alpha Panda bridge

Adrian moves to the computer (or so he hopes) and tries to find something out, but turns soon to Jack: "I have to admit, I am in doubt where to initiate. I believe it is on, but that is as far as I know what to do with it."

[Adlan]

Lullabelle Mine

As smoke billowed and gunfire roared, a cry of anguish could be heard from the short tubby miner, Ryan. The Dome above was reactive, and was producing the appearance of clouds and storms.

Greg took two shots, right to the chest, his dive to go prone almost catching the rights round in the vitals. Mordecai and Evan didn't have a chance to retaliate, as Alpha Panda's crew roared their own response.

Cole's shot fired on the run forced Jack Steadman, the eldest, biggest, most bug eyed brother of the three, to dive for cover. Cole reached Greg's prone form.

No blood was visible.

Morgan's shots were more accurate, catching the other Steadman's with a graze on Mordecai, but Evan went down with a hand pressed to his bleeding belly.

The cloud of smoke obscured the #2 Docking Coupler from view save for Greg and Cole, inside the cloud, who could see nothing but blurred four forms around them. Fox and Jack, two of the half hidden forms, desperately leapt onto Alpha Panda's unfortunate crew members, and began struggling with them in hand to hand, desperate to bring their pistols into play.

[Aneurin]

Jack
Alpha Panda's bridge

Jack quite deliberately turns away from the monitor as the fight begins, and looks helplessly at the other two.

"Worst part's waiting. Helps not to watch, sometimes. It's not like we can even provide some air support..." he sighs. "Forget it, Adrian. If they want to talk, they'll hail us,"

He almost glances at the vid feed from the couplet's cams, but at the last moment twitches his head away. No point in watching what you can't change.

"Sorry I've not spoken to you two too much, but what with one thing and another - missing a payment on the Panda and all - I've been a touch distracted of late. If there's anything you want to talk about, well, I'm not going anywhere for a few minutes," he gives Adrian and Grace a tired smile.

[Sunfall]

Grace
Alpha Panda, Bridge

Grace blinks a few times at Jack's question. She gives the silent sensors a nervous glance, then rises with a sigh and takes Jack by the shoulders. Her hands have a surprisingly strong grip to them, and her eyes, old and grey and full of old pain, lock onto his.

"It's a good crew you got out there, Jack", she says. "Boys an' girls will see ter it that this 'ere adventure'll end well. Probably even get her save those miners, too. Imagine what those men outta there would have done with 'em if it weren't fer us. And you'll get ter keep the Panda. Whoever you're owin', ship's gonna make more profit as long as it keeps flyin', ain't it? So that what we'll do. Keep flyin'." The cobweb of wrinkles on her face distorts into her impish smile. "After all, tha's why I'm here. And yer're right, usin' the ship's weaponry close to a structure like this would be a really b..."

She abruptly interrupts herself, straightens up and squints once more through the thick windows, where the curve of the dome obscures most of the view into space. Something that has been nagging at the back of her mind suddenly clicks into place. "Say, where are we exactly? An asteroid? Is that a Geodesic Structure Mark IV"?

[Lentrax]

"Cole! I can't see anything! Be careful!" Sia yanks her pistol from its holster against her thigh, seeing she won't have a patient until after these people stop shooting.

[Sunfall]

Grace
Alpha Panda, Bridge

Grace has stepped to the window and lays a hand on it, staring intently outside. Suddenly she starts to speak, first slowly, but then getting faster and faster: "Dome like tha', it's built ter withstand a hostile environment. Might take one direct hit from a one of 'em heavier handguns ter breach, an' maybe two or three fer the systems not vein' able ter keep up in terms of pressure and atmosphere. An' that you don' wanna happen. Not only will all them people inside be killed, but, if enough damage has been done to them Fuller beams, dome might collapse and damage the ships, too." She motions outside to the skeleton of the dome, just visible between the surface and the holographic net.

"So we need 'em huen dahn bushwhackers ter stop shootin' right now. So here's an idea: How 'bout we threaten them? We've got a PA system that can go inside, haven't we?" Looking excited, she turns around to face Jack and Adrian, not having noticed that her back-world accent is starting to slip.

"So this is what we tell them: We could very well use Panda's port cannon to do copious damage to their ship. I don't know about the cannon itself, obviously, but the curvature and the angles work, so the dome would take no damage in this. So if they want to get away, they better stop shooting at our people."

She swallows before continuing somewhat more quietly. "There are also possibilities to… step up that threat. There are all kinds of things our weaponry can do to that dome, but they don't know we never would, do they?" She looks nervously at the two younger men. "What do you think? Worth a shot?"

She abruptly shakes her head, giving a defeated sort of grin. "Ah, no, wait… bad choice a' words." Those last few words sound pure back-world again.

[Aneurin]

Jack
Alpha Panda's bridge

Jack opens his mouth. Jack closes his mouth. Jack thinks about it for a full thirty seconds. Jack grins like a madman.

"I like the way you think. I also like my crew not dying horribly. Think you can coax the PA into doing that while I fire up our guns? I'll try and pull some manual targetting data too," he adds. "Been a while since we used the weapons systems, and frankly the auto target was never up to much to begin with,"

At that moment, the automated Amber alert degenerates completely into static and random whistles. Jack looks up and swears.

"Even after seven years I haven't found all the bugs," he murmurs, looking mildly put out. "Damn. I really thought that kink in the grav unit was all that was left,"

Shaking his head, he drops in to the pilots chair and starts up the ignition sequence. From somewhere in the depths of the ship comes an ascending whine as the railguns power up.

[Sunfall]

Grace
Alpha Panda, Bridge

"Been a while since we used the weapons systems, and frankly the auto target was never up to much to begin with", remarks Jack.

"You'd better be aimin' real careful, then", Grace answers with a wry smile and steps to the co-pilot's console, puzzling out the right routine to broadcast their message into the dome for all to hear. "I jes' hope we'll never 'ave ter fire a shot at all", she murmurs, giving the dying amber lights a worried look.

"Are you gonna talk ter them, Jack?", she asks, extending the micro towards the captain, shooting a sidelong glance toward Adrian. "It'd need ter be quite persuasive, I imagine."

[Space Lawyer]

Lei
Main Residence of the Lullabelle Mine

...Ok, if you're not going to answer, I'll just assume that its a yes, and you want us to save you. She opens up the terminal, and with a few quick keystrokes, is inside Marie Celeste's systems. She identifies the auto-pilot, and gives it a new destination, one that s very, very far away. She then alters the nav system, so that anybody on this ship will find them a few million kilometers from where they thought they should be. Lastly, she takes control of the Marie Celeste's PA system and airlock. The enemy ship's speaker's crackle to life. "Good evening, you jìn jiāo xì dīnéng ér. I have control of your ship, and if you aren't on it in ten seconds, leaving all of our people where they are, I'm sending it into the nearest large solid mass at top speed. If you get on, I'll send you somewhere nice, and even let you slow down when you get there.10, 9, 8...

jìn jiāo xì dīnéng ér = inbred morons

[Voltaire]

Stirling 'Shooter' Young
Docking Coupler #2

'Right.'

Shooter was behind cover in no time at all. Once again, he was holding his pistol up in front of his face, as he glanced sideways, making sure nothing untoward leaped into view. What happened next was a blur. Gunfire, smoke, the sounds of fisticuffs... By God, he loved it.

'Right! Y'all are in for it, now!'

He stood up above the cover, swiveling his body with stunning grace for a man who couldn't be farther from graceful if he tried very, very hard. His target was obscured by smoke; Gregg was down. It was all looking a bit icky, as close combat situations are wont to do, sometimes. Still, it only took him a second or so to find his target and gently squeeze the trigger of his pistol.

Bang.

[Adlan]

Main Residence of the Lullabelle Mine

Inside the Miners home wasn't as spartan as a commercial venture. These small homesteads tended to develop their own idiosyncratic styles. But at the moment, the garden shed feel was ruined by disarray. At least Lei seemed to have the computers sitting up and paying attention, while Ryan covered the door way and mopped his fear soaked brow.

Lullabelle Mine
Sam Hawkes was still taking cover, peaking out but able to see nothing in the smoke. Shooter didn't have this problem. His Round Caught the dark shape in the swirls that was Fox, as easy as if his spleen were a bottle on the fence. Sam Hawkes eyes opened wide with hope. Maybe contracting with the underworld had it's upsides.

Docking Coupler #2
Inside the swirl of Greg's smoke grenade, the conflict on the ground doesn't progress any further than that, as Fox struggles to stand over Greg, shooters bullet passes through at the same moment as Greg's open palm blasts into Fox.

Bleeding and unconscious, he falls on top of Greg.

[Voltaire]

Stirling 'Shooter' Young
Docking Coupler #2

Bingo!

'Hey, boa-ys! Have you met me? I'm the baddest man in the whole damn town! I'm badder than ol' King Kong! I'm meaner than a junkyard dawg! I'm comin' for y'all!'

His voice is a little shrill, a little manic, but the adrenaline is coursing and he doesn't care.

Shooter stalks forward into the smoke, looking for the Brothers Three, pistol held high.

[Erasmas]

Cole
Lullabelle Mine - Exterior

Through the smoke, Cole was uncertain which man it was that had approached him. It mattered little to him, however, as he saw the form draw his gun and aim it at him. His training kicked into high gear and muscle memory all but took over, causing the soldier to punch his attacker full-on in the throat, his ceramic-plated gloves slamming hard into the man's windpipe.

Looking beside him through the smokey cloud, Cole saw the electricity shoot from Greg's hand, reminding him of a lightning storm back home on Athens. Seeing that the tactician was alright, he called down.

"You stand? If so, get your shii dong tua tail to cover!"

[Sunfall]

Grace
Alpha Panda, Bridge

Effortlessly Grace finds the control for the PA system, over which still a paused image of Badger is gently wobbling, fraying out at the edges. With a decisive gesture, she flips the switch. They can now be heard once more inside the dome.

"Ready?", she asks quietly and just keeps holding the mike up to Jake, who presumably has both hands full with the gun controls.

[Shadow_Elf]

Greg
Docking Coupler #2
Fornicateur consanguine de chèvres laides... mutters Greg as the unconscious man falls atop him. He pushes the bleeding bandit off and rolls aside, unsteadily rising to his feet. Thank ye kindly, Cole, fer the assist. I'll go ahead an' make sure Lei an' the Doc're all shiny. The tactician grimaces and then sort of limp-hop-jogs back towards cover.

French:

Spoiler

Show

Imbred fornicator of ugly goats.

[Aneurin]

Jack
Alpha Panda's bridge

"Thanks, Grace," Jack says, leaning away from the handset for a moment, so his words aren't broadcast across the PA. With a jerk of his head, he indicates that he's ready for the broadcast;

"Well, boys, seems we have a problem. Your hardware's threatening to put a hole in this dome, which means unless you have miraculous vacuum-breathing-powers everyone might want to stop shooting. Just in case you do have said powers, I'd like you to know that I have weapons locked on to your ship - and I don't have an awful lot of compunction about shooting people who try and kill my crew.

"Unless you feel like walking off this rock, then might be worth your while holding fire until we can talk a few things over,"

He winks at Grace, as he carries on;

"'Course, you may have some funky ideas about doing something nasty to that biodome and threatening to kill everyone just to get your way. Might want to think again, as I just spent some time picking out a few nice weak spots that'll make it crush your ship like a can if I take them out,"

[Adlan]

Lullabelle Mine
The gathering storm depicted on the holographic projection that dominated the inner sky of the dome, was turning into tornado, a cyclone sucking up the smoke. And inside, the air moved to the depicted currents, airfilters removing the smoke particles from the air, already they thinned, and in the erie silence that followed the loud speakers of Alpha Panda...
'I.... I.... I guess'n y'all will want to fill up on Ice then?

Ryan, one of the miners quiet voices sounds through out the dome.


This broke the silence, and Sam Hawkes seemed to gather his courage when the unmoving or injured forms of 4 out of 5 opponents can be seen in the clearing smoke.

He approaches the crew of Alpha Panda holding the docking coupler under their guns.

"Me and my partner, I guess we owe you for taking care of these, but I think your ship should use it's guns to destroy theirs. There's still one more left alive on there'

At this, a figure slowly steps out into the light, and drops it's pistol.
"Don't Kill me" he emerges full from the interior of the ship. Grizzled, gray, hard-bitten, he has the look of a hired gun, loyal to the pocket that bought him.
"Please don't kill me, and I'll tell you everything I know"

[Erasmas]

Cole
Lullabelle Mine - Exterior

The soldier looked around as the smoke cleared, trying to find his next target. However, it appeared that the fight had drained out of these boys, in one fashion or another. A smile started to appear at the corner of his mouth and he looked to Sia, but when Sam Hawkes announced that there was another gunman onboard the Buck seriousness returned to his face and he turned away from the Doc in favor of the the ship. Shotgun at the ready, Cole walked forward decidedly until he reached the man who had dropped his pistol. Kicking the hardware with his boot, he reached out and roughly grabbed the man's shirt collar with his off-hand.

"C'mon, Old Timer. Out where we can see ya.", the solider then addressed the air, like he was speaking to Jack through the PA system.

"Cap! Looks like we got ourselves a yella-bellied turncoat! Whaddya want I should do with 'im?"

He once again addressed his hostage, tightening his grip on the man's shirt and giving it a firm tug, "Or is yer belly purple?!"

[Adlan]

Lullabelle Mine

The Man did not flinch away from Cole's grasp.
"I ain't no turn coat... Them boy's is the one what was plannin' to jump claim, got papers and equipment in the back of their ship to do it with...

He nods towards the oddly vulnerable looking Steadman brothers, bleeding or unconcious on the floor.

"I was makin' my cut on deliverin' Sam Hawkes to Frisco Town"

[Aneurin]

Jack
Alpha Panda's bridge

Jack peers at the monitor, trying to make out the detail - and whether or not the fight's stopped. He almost jumps at Cole's voice.

"It's your call, Cole. You have a better idea what's going on. I'll just sit here and keep pointing a cannon at their ship in an intimidating fashion. Gotta love gunboat diplomacy,"

[Creed]

Morgan
Lullabelle Mine

Morgan seems uninterested by the turncoat. In his experience, most survivors would turn for a few days, then jump to run whenever they hit a habitable location.
In any case, he tucks his pistols back into his belt, and takes the derringer out of his boot, walking over to one of the unconscious men, then pressing the derringer against the fallen claim-jumper's temple.

[Voltaire]

Stirling 'Shooter' Young
Lullabelle Mine

'Wh- What in the hell?! Well if this ain't just the damndest thing.'

One couldn't be entirely sure whom, exactly, Stirling was addressing, as he advanced on the prone, unmoving Steadmans.

'Y'all were supposed to shoot back! Then I put holes in you. That's how that works! Y'all had me waxing dramatic, back there. Now I just look like a right ol' fool! I hope you're happy with yourselves, you selfish, yellabelly posteriorholes.'

He wags his pistol menacingly, before squatting in front of them, his hands on his knees.

'If I wasn't pretty sure it would be frowned upon, I'd kill you dead.'

Shooter sighs, before rising to his feet. He walks over to the stricken Fox, before lightly kicking him in the head, with the tip of his boot.

'Next time.'

As Morgan puts his pistol against the temple of a fallen Steadman, Shooter whistles.

'Listen, boy, you better let the Captain decide if these here fools are meeting the Devil today. You're liable to look silly, if it turns out he wanted them for something.'

[Shadow_Elf]

Greg
Lullabelle Mine
The tactician looks at the ship's medic. Doc? Them bullets didn't get through my mesh, but I think I might at least have some bruises an' broken bones from the impacts. If Cap'n's wantin' those'uns alive, might want to treat our fallen foes first, though.

[Erasmas]

Cole
Lullabelle Mine - Exterior

Cole caught the eyes of the elder man with his own, in an attempt to convey the seriousness of the situation, "Sit."

The soldier lowered his shotgun and called over his shoulder.

"There someone by the name'a Sam Hawkes round here lookin' to head to Frisco Town?"

[Lentrax]

Sia
Lullabelle Mine
Seeing the shooting is over, Sia replaced her pistol in its holster. Grabbing her bag, she runs over to Cole.

"Are you okay?" A quick examination showing him to be fine, Sia then went and triaged the other combatants, and begins treating the worst of them.

[Space Lawyer]

Lei
Lullabelle Mine

Lei walks from the residence back to Alpha Panda. She walks back into the bridge. "I can take over pointing the guns. I think they'll want to talk to you, in person. After that though, mind if I head over to that ship and see what goodies I can scrounge from it?

[Erasmas]

Cole
Lullabelle Mine - Exterior

Cole responded simply to Sia's inquiry. "I'm fine." Seeing that she was also alright did a lot to lessen Cole's aggression from the fight.

[Aneurin]

Jack
Alpha Panda's bridge

Jack winks at Grace as Lei comes on to the bridge.

"Always with the working. I'm on my way. Don't shoot anything without my say so, unless you really have to. We'll pick over their ship in good time, mei-mei - don't worry," he adds, as he pulls the airlock closed behind him. He pauses for a moment outside his own cabin, before darting in to retrieve the cutlass that hangs over the bed.


Lullabelle Mine - Exterior

Jack enters the override code to open the main airlock, and strides out in to the biodome. He raises an impressed eyebrow at the swirling patterns of the "sky", before returning his attention to the business at hand.

"Alrighty. You the prisoner? Care to explain what's going on?" he nods to the captured man, then looks around. "Any one else still breathing? My lot, everyone alright? Yes? No?"

[Lentrax]

Sia
Lullabelle Mine

Sia looks up from her patient as Jack calls out, and waves.

"Right an' shiny, Jack."

Then she realizes she is waving a gloved hand covered in blood. Sia blushes as she lowers her hand back to the task of extracting bullets from wounds.