Out in the Black: Alpha Panda

[Creed]

Morgan
Frisco Town

The mercenary watches the others go, then approaches the counter and, wordlessly, lays 8 credits in a small stack on the counter. With a nod to Sherman, he picks up the case of wine and heads out into the street, proceeding to Sackett's place across the way.

[Aneurin]

Jack
Alpha Panda's Cargo Bay -> Mess

"See, this is why I don't like playing Panda poker," Jack heaves an exaggerated sigh. "I keep telling you all; dealing the cat in is a mistake. She cheats. I don't know how, but she's never gotten worse than a pair of Aces - and she still won the hand!"

Shaking his head, he wanders in to the mess with Sia and sets to digging through drawers in search of the elusive deck of cards.

"Tell you what; when I win, I'll loan you some of your money back, hmm?"

The room's pretty neat and tidy, dominated by a rectangular, metal military-issue table with built-in magnetised place-settings in order to keep food on the table during even the bumpiest rides. Well, it'll keep the plates on the table - just pray you're not having soup for lunch when the fighting starts.

Off to one side is the kitchen area; again, functional, utilitarian and not especially pretty. It does feature a decently sized oven, though, which in turn features a cat asleep inside it.

With a sigh, Jack fishes the Cap'n out before anyone decides to do some baking without checking for cats first. The lingering aroma of scorched fur left the mess unusable the last time it happened.

"No. No sleeping in ovens," Jack scolds the still-sleeping Rogue as he dumps her on a chair. [color="Sienna""Any luck on those cards, yet?"[/color]




General Notes:

Panda Poker - a novel modification of poker than can be applied to almost any variant of the game. Panda poker probably doesn't actually require it's own special name as it simply involves dealing a hand to the cat, who is automatically assumed to call any and all bets. While Cap'n Rogue's calls don't add to the pot (she's a cat, she has no money), she is capable of winning the hand. All her winnings go to the Panda's coffers, although she always gets at least one fresh fish out of the money she wins.

[Chambers]

Jay

Cole's abrupt exit catches Jay out his reverie, staring off into the crowds instead of actually keeping an eye out for trouble. Well, maybe it will find us. He nods to Cole and catches up with the group.

[Adlan]

Balley Sackett's Engineering
The building looks small on the outside, but holds more than one might assume from first glance. A sign over the door proclaims “Sacket Engineering.”


Inside is a workbench covered three layers deep with assorted mechanical parts. The walls and ceiling rafters hold what appears to be an explosion of technological junk.
Scattered around the room are wooden and plastic kegs, some filled with parts, and some used as seats for a few individuals who look to be miners or otherwise professionally involved in getting dirty. The stop discussing what ever they were as Cole, followed by the rest of the shore party.

Balley is a handsome, rugged, balding man with broad shoulders, a quick smile, and a glint in his eye. "Kin I help you?"

[Erasmas]

Cole
Sackett's Engineering

"I'm hoping so, yeah. You Balley Sackett, I'm guessin'?", Cole waited the man to confirm this before he continued. One he had, the soldier continued, "Seems a mutual friend of ours that lives out on a meteor wanted me and my friends to bring you somethin' that he thought you had a mighty big interest in."

[Adlan]

Sackett's Engineering

“Comet ice is an illegal commodity in this town, fellers — and anyone who so much as talks about selling same will most likely be turned over to the feds for the ree-ward.” Balley said sternly, but then he winked at his fellow townsmen lounging around the workshop.

“On the other hand, if someone were to land with a cargo hold full of ‘containers’ — not specifying exactly what was in them, mind you — and could tell me just who sent them ‘containers’ — well, then I reckon I might be in the market.”

[Lentrax]

Sia
AP mess

"Tell you what; when I win, I'll loan you some of your money back, hmm?"

Them sounds like fightin' words to me, Jack. And I promise that when I win your shirt again, I'll let you wear it on occasion. When I ain't hangin' it up for posterity an' all.

Sia's hand rifled through a drawer, and she came up with a deck of tattered old playing cards.

So it's just the two of us then? No dealing the Cap'n in? Sounds like old times.

[Erasmas]

Cole
Sackett's Engineering

Cole had started to slowly make his hand towards his shotgun when Sackett starts in about the feds and the reward - the soldier would rather shoot the man than let that happen. But when it became apparent that the man was being sarcastic, he let the matter go and visibly relaxed.

"As it so happens, our mutual friend is none other than Sam Hawkes. Now, I dunno nothin' about no sheng duo mi 'comet ice', but he said that what we got sittin' in our containers was of interest to you. If he was wrong, I'm sure that my captain would be a tad bit displeased with your answer, but I'm sure that we could find a different buyer for this most troublesome cargo..."

[Adlan]

Sackett's Engineering

"You ain't the usual fella, but I assume you are aware of the arrangements? I've been expecting my Containers for a while now. The Town's all busy with getting ready for the parade and all that folderol, so if it's all fine with you, I'll be around in the evening to collect."

He glances at the gang still lolly gagging around his shop, and breaks into a slight smirk

"Wouldn't want to upset their preparations with our noise in the day time…"

…."I hope that's agreeable with your captain?"

[Erasmas]

Cole
Sackett's Engineering

"I reckon that'll suit him just fine. We're on the outskirts a' town; down the road that heads back up the mountains; out past the schoolhouse. I'll be seein' you gents after while.", Cole nodded his head and exited the store. Once he was back outside, he spoke with Robin, Jay, and Morgan.

"Everyone okay with meeting back up at the mule in... say about, an hour? I got one other piece a' business that I need to tend to 'fore we head back yonder."

[Yawielas]

Robin

"Sure, one hour. I'll be browsin' through these stores. Sackett's got some tools I might be interested in." Robin nods and heads back into the store to check out the machine tools.

[Creed]

Morgan

Morgan nods, then heads back to the mule, sliding the case of wine under Cole's seat. He then sits down in the back of the vehicle, keeping an eye out for anyone coming too close.

[Shadow_Elf]

Greg Reaufort
The tactician looks around at the crowd, looking to see someone that knows something about the event, rather than someone who has just queued up with the rest out of groupthink. Approaching them, he taps them lightly on the shoulder to draw their attention momentarily from the pad.

"Hey podnah. Any idea when this M.O.P. is plannin' t'make 'is appearance? Ah came from outta town t'see 'im, but me mates want t'head back home soon."

[Lentrax]

Sia
Alpha Panda Mess

Sia laughs as she pours herself another drink. She won another hand, and looks over at Lei, who had started cleaning the mess. You sure you don't want in on the next hand Lei? I could use some help getting the good Captain Tightpants here to lose his shirt to me. Again.

Sia pauses for another drink.

You sure you don't to give up now before I win it again? Wouldn't be the first time I got my hands on it. You remember that business outside of Kaitsun? When the Alliance had us pinned down inside of that tiny town?

[Aneurin]

Jack

He snorts softly.

"You're just jealous 'cause it looks so good on me," Jack grins broadly, and pours Lei a drink. "Engine Gin, seven year vintage from back when my old mechanic decided an inter-engine still was a good idea on a warship. It'll either put hairs on your chest or make you go blind," he adds, pushing the glass of ominously clear liquid over the table.

He gives Sia a faintly owlish look of puzzlement that owes a great deal to the fact that the bottle wasn't exactly an alcopop before it had seven years to 'mature', and is now several glasses emptier.

"Hum. Kaitsun? Is that where we were sent to help a MASH unit evac after the Setsa Front collapsed?"

[Space Lawyer]

Lei
Alpha Panda's Mess

Lei picks up the glass and sniffs, the gives a devilish grin. "Oh, is this what you dìmiàn liànrén drink? My bàba made stronger baijiu to brush his teeth with." She slings back the liquid, feeling the warmth shoot to her stomach.

She takes a seat. "I was at Kaitsun, too, you know. Well, sort of. I was on an outer system interdiction cutter."

dìmiàn liànrén = ground lovers
bàba = father (colloquial, semi-young way)
baijiu = Chinese white alcohol. Don't drink it if you can help it.

[Lentrax]

Sia
AP Mess

Well, we was down there. On the ground. Purple bellies had us dead to rights, Lei. We were holed up in some building, local whorehouse or something, all prettied up and such. Anyway, they was yelling at us to come out we were yelling at them to come in, and I was rushing around trying to keep everyone on their feet. That was including one devilish Captain, here. Sia jerks her thumb over at Jack.

'Course back then he was just another LT, bit handsomer, slightly taller, less Captainy.

[Aneurin]

Jack

"Yeah, I shrink as I get older. I started out at fifteen feet high," Jack says, dead-pan. "And I'll thank you to remember that as commanding officer of a ship, I was still a captain!"

He smiles wanly, looking back through the years.

"Wasn't the Panda we were flying back then, mind," he says wistfully. "She was Saving Grace, the ship before I had the Panda. And the ship our dear Cap'n first came aboard," he adds with a nod towards the cat, who's now slumbering on the hob.

"Anyway, not really the point. It was us, a bunch of doctors, nurses and patients. Walking wounded propped up at the windows taking potshots at any purplebelly that got too close. Rest of the crew were still with the Grace, trying to hold the landing pad 'til we could get clear.

"Wasn't a good place to be. Mind you - things weren't all bad. We had the youngest rating ever to enlist on our side - she signed up at just six months old.

"...yeah, I'm talking about the cat," Jack adds, slightly chagrined as she catches their expressions. "She was just a Petty Officer, then. Newly minted. Can't quite recall why she was with us, rather than on the ship, but she was.

"Pretty lucky she was - she just about saved our lives,"

[Adlan]

Frisco Main Street
The Sun was high in the sky now, which was clear and blue stretching to horizon, the other half marred slightly by the shadow of the mountains, smoke and dust.

The crowd was the whole kit and kaboodle; dignitaries, fine-dressed ladies, and the band. This individual was less steller than the grandees closer to the port authority.

"Well… I ain't exactly sure. They think they got the radar blip that was his ship a' commin' in. But we don't know for certain when he can slip his way past that there Alliance Blockade."

Greg could smell the onions on this man's breath, not the real smell of onions, blue sun's artificial imitation onion style.

Sackett's Engineering
"We'll Hello Again Miss...? Balley smiled as Robyn reterned his shop.

"What can I do you for? Your Mule had a little Fādòngjī* Trouble?"

One of the men leaned to look out the window, although most of the others were staring, the way townsmen leer, at you. He examines your mule through the grubby plastic, and snickers, until he catches sight of Morgan, calmly perched.

Fādòngjī

[Yawielas]

Robyn

"Hi again," Robyn smiles at mr. Sackett. "I was noticin' you got some tools, and I be needin' to fix the propulsion stabilizer." She nods a little to the men starin', then looks back at Sackett. "You got a packet of SM-G3s? And a small fuselator?"

[Shadow_Elf]

Greg Reaufort
He nods. "Guess I'll convince my pods t'come back this evenin' t'check back again, then. Thanks fer the info!" At this, he turns and makes his way back towards the shore party's Mule.

[Lentrax]

Sia
AP Mess

Rogue's earned every single one of her promotions. And she was there as the distraction team, obviously. Went just like... This!

Sia jumped up, and grabbed a placemat off the table, holding it in front of her like a hat, then she looked down at Lei, giving her the best cute, sweet, innocent kitty look she could.

I can't pull it off, but, you've seen her looks, yeah? No one can turn those looks down. So I was trying to get my patients stable, Jack was too busy staring at the nurses to aim proper, and the Cap'n was keeping the alliance folk busy.

[Adlan]

Sackett's Engineering
"I'll see what I can find miss... Balley smiled slightly condescendingly.

"Is that it? Or are there other parts you might be needing?"

As he starts both flicking through his wares and his inventory notes, he continues making small talk.

"Going to see the Parade? How long are y'all plannin' on stayin' in Frisco?"

[Yawielas]

Robyn, Sackett's Engineering

Robyn lists the items she is most interested in. "The parade, aye, that sounds mighty fun." She smiles. "Not sure we'll be stayin' long, but if we do, I'l prolly be back here for more parts. Those you find, I'm gonna have to ask you to put aside for me till I can persuade the cap'n we be needin' them."

[Aneurin]

Jack
Alpha Panda's Mess

"And was she ever," Jack adds, taking a gulp of his own drink. "Some bei bai shiou ren purplebelly came sneaking in through the back door when no-one was looking. He had a rifle and a couple of grenades - if he'd gotten much further he would have had a room full of patients and non-coms as his hostages.

"Then he stepped on the cat. She went mad, you should've seen her!" he laughs, as he tops his glass back up - and adds a shot to Lei's while he's at it. "Poor guy. He signed up to fight human browncoats and enslave worlds, and there he is getting mauled by a cat. We all came running at all the shouting, and there he was, dancing around, rifle on the floor, trying to get this hissing, spitting cat off his leg.

"Saw us all coming, weapons out, and he tries to run. Then he falls flat on his face, 'cause the Petty Officer was still trying to claw his leg off through the body armour," he grins, wiping a tear of laughter from his eye at the memory. "Y'know, if I recall, she got a medal for capturing a prisoner," he adds with a faint frown, trying to remember through the pleasantly alcoholic haze just where all those medals had gotten to. Must be in the air vents along with their commissions.




*Bei bai shiou ren - shameless, dirty little person.

[Lentrax]

Sia
AP Mess

Sianodsfro. Where she was still standing, and started wrestling with her placemat. Did he ever curse us Browncoats for how low we'd stoop to win the war. I still think enlisting Rogue was the best thing the 36th Volunteers did in that war. Anyway... you following along, Lei?

Sia, dropping her placemat back on the table, walks over to the galley to retrieve another drink, but instead picks up a large knife off the counter. I'm still convinced that the only reason the Captain was so angry with the fellow was because he looked like one of those cans of Blue Sun tuna. Smelled like it too. Do they even have showers on them fancy Alliance cruisers? Cause I swear, I've smelled a lot if dirty people as a doctor, but nothing ever compared to a Purplebelly without his armor.

[Aneurin]

Jack
Alpha Panda's Mess

"...Yes. Yeah," Jack says, his eyes suddenly slightly glassy. "He certainly did stink.

"Ash. And heat. And blood and ash and fire and death. Lots and lots of things," he blinks rapidly and gives Sia and Lei a too-bright smile.

"Excuse me a moment, I need to get something from my cabin," he adds, stumbling - a trifle unsteadily - a trifle unsteadily to his feet. "We're nearly out of Engine Gin. I'll get another bottle,"


Shadow

The sky had gone out - there probably wasn't any atmosphere left to burn. It had been almost thirty hours since the bombs had stopped falling, and the molten oceans had set in to continent-sized slabs of glass.

To someone in the right frame of mind, the death of a world could even be described as beautiful. Pillars of flame as tall as mountains bursting from the ground; super volcanoes tearing in to furious, earth-shaking life and tearing themselves apart with the strength; the reflected light from the enveloping nuclear dust storm birthing a spectacular sunset.

To someone trapped on the ground, in the wreckage of a crashed ship - struggling to keep the over-taxed life support sytems and the crippled engine alive - it's a nightmare. Consoles burst into fitful fires before being smothered by a desperate captain, bodies lie where they fell, damaged wiring rain sparks down on everything starting even more fires.

And everywhere the smell; blood and ash and fire and death.

It never goes away.

[Lentrax]

Sia
AP Mess

Goddamnit, Jack. Sia slams the knife down into the protein she was starting to cut into.

Sorry, Lei. Storytime's over.

Sia went after Jack. Pausing at the door to his bunk, her own mind goes crack to the last time she was here, consoling the man who pulled her off of so many rocks. And then there was Serenity Valley....

Sia knocked on the door. Jack?

[Aneurin]

Jack
Alpha Panda, Captain's Cabin


"...hey, Doc," he says quietly. "Sorry. Couldn't find any more booze,"

He's sitting on his bunk, back against the wall, staring straight up with his legs kicked out in front of him and a cutlass held in a near death-grip. It's the only thing that made it all through the war with him; everything else lost in some wreck or another, clothes, captures, trinkets, everything gone but a sword and a locket. That's not much.

"You weren't at the final battle of Shadow, were you?" Jack says listlessly when it becomes apparent Sia's not going to just go away. He still doesn't look at her - after all, what's the point? She's just another reminder of what isn't there. Of who isn't there. "I was. I got to watch a whole world die. I saw the Murder Wagons soaring high in the sky as they rained down every piece of hell the Alliance had ever built. Chemical, nuclear, biological, nanotech, NewTech, old tech, and every other damn thing.

"It wasn't a battle, it was a massacre. They killed everyone. And I was right in the heart of it, shot down as I tried to get the civvies out. The cheong bao ho tze lurn shwei jah jwohn wouldn't even let us rescue anyone. Lost half the crew to the blast that took us down, and the other half when the hull breached as we crashed in a sea of molten glass that used to be a prairie.

"They're probably still there, you know. Frozen forever. Trapped in the moment they died, the moment they were murdered.

"I spent three days in the wreckage, all on my own, trying to keep alive. All the exit hatches were buried by the glass crust - and even if I could've opened them, I'd never have survived the radiation, the ash clouds, the poison, the heat, or the fact that most of the atmosphere had burned away. So... three days. All alone, with bodies all around me. The only living soul on a dead world,"

Jack jerks forward, hauling his knees up to his chest and letting out a strangled sob as be buries his face in his arms.

"Rung tse song di ching aai wuo tzo. How could they do that?"




*Rung tse song di ching aai wuo tzo - Merciful God, please take me away.

[Lentrax]

Sia
Captain's Cabin

No, I wasn't, Jack. Just like you weren't there on the ground at Serenity Valley. You weren't there when, when they...

Sia chocked back a sob. It wasn't right. None of it was. Neither of them should be here wallowing in misery.

Hell, Jack. Ain't none of it right. We all lost in that war, but none I think as much as you. I don't know how you do it. Not without going crazy, anyway.

Sia reached over and prayed Jack's hand from the saber and took up his hand in hers. She gave it a soft, gentle squeeze. Alliance gave us all demons aplenty. We got to deal with them best we can. That's why we ended up on the same boat, Jack. To help each other. To survive. To live.

The tear fell onto the back of his hand. Alliance wanted everything from us. We fought 'em. We lost. But they won't take it. They won't take everything. They can't take the sky from us. We still have the sky, Jack. And the black.

They took my love. They took your world. But they won't take the sky from us.