Dragons presses another button to try to get the coms working
Seeing that the engines are working, Zakary sprints back to the bridge, accidentally tripping on some collapsed comrades on the way.
Ow.
Realizing that the station won't take them back because they are under quarantine, that Zanbabe would never willingly surrender to Borak, and that democracies are the worst way to run ships... oh, yeah, I already knew that part, Zakary tries to reason with Borak himself.
He puts Borak's visage up on the big screen on the Bridge. Hey Borak. How's things? What say we do a straight trade: the vaccine for Zanbabe? You know that everyone else here is mostly innocent.
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Through the power of random-button pushing, AMD eventually finds the right ones. Unfortunately he has also pushed enough wrong ones to cause a disruption in the
The several turret-mounted rail guns bolted to the outer hull suddenly report as non-functional. The will require 3 repair rolls to bring back on-line.
Between the efforts of Sampet, ADM, his clones, and Zakary, you are able to establish a stable communication signal to Space Station Gemini.
Unfortunately you are not able to raise Lord Borak himself, but you do get Random Receptionist #3.
"Greetings ship designation Sweet Doomed Angel. This is the friendly Space Station Gemini. How can we make you smile today?" she replies in voice so artificially sweet it makes your jaw ache.
And the virus. That's probably making your jaw ache too.
Riven attempts a dangerous double combo diplomacy maneuver by lifting up Rowdy to the view screen and saying as they transmitted their hails. "We come in peace and bring...small furry animals. Please allow us to dock and share our services with the station."
He looked at the others for aid as his diplomacy circuits strain at full capacity.
Zanbabe shoots a withering look over at Zakary, and guides the ship in towards the station. She'd almost rather die than deal with Borak again... but only almost.
"yipe!" Rowdy tries to keep it together
getting a handle on what he percieves the situation to be, rowdy knows what he must do.
"bork!" he borks to the screenlady as if to say that his ship and family are under attack and their fate is in her hands.
why no people-types speak dog?
Fours had only just started walking toward the bridge when the hall lights turned red and the annoying whine of sirens started up. As if this day couldn't get any worse he stops to roll his eyes and look up to the gods above, A little help here?
Entering the bridge Fours regards the pandemonium unfolding; error lights flashing on the weapons array, no one at the helm, correction the one called Zanbabe is pressing buttons there. Looks like she knows what she's doing too. Say didn't someone offer up as a trade? Sensing his fingers will probably be needed at one of these consoles Fours falls back on his training, eenie meenie miney mo... then heads for the weapons array. I thought Sampet was the cook, what's he doing there?
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As Zanbabe sets a course and brings you closer to the station, the receptionist is in awe at Rowdy's cuteness and elevates your call to the Commander of the Station himself!
Unfortunately the Commander seems to have a problem with being told "bork" and things just go downhill from there.
"Sweet Doomed Angel, this is Commander Gurden of Station Operations. Do not approach. We are having trouble with our docking computers and are unable to give you permission to dock. We expect operations to be normalized again in twelve hours or so. Please await further instructions.'
Riven's internal system stutter, and his core temperature begins to elevate uncontrollably, indicating his hardened form is not immune to whatever plagues the ship. The copious amounts of dog urine running down his legs probably doesn't help much.
Zanbabe's hands start sweating profusely.
Rowdy feels the need to pant heavily and has massive thirst.
Reaching the weapons array console, Fours announces, Ships comms appear functional sir.
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SO 4-44 manages to contain a truly epic amount of vomiting he was about to do, so the divine intervention worked. But then his left hand twitches three times and threatens to arc back painfully before returning to normal, so he's not out of the woods yet.
The nominal owner of the ship, Captain Attero, mostly gives you assignments and leaves the rest up to the capable crew as he reclines on Beneficium IV, the Pleasure Planet. For his eminent guidance he only asks a lousy 47%, before expenses.
Riven begins to twitch rhythmically as if shorting slightly but only for a minute. He gently set Rowdy down and looks at the Commander. Damn Captain Attero and his leaving them in such a state. "Tell us what malfunctions you are having, we may be able to assist Commander."
Riven begins to use his science console to scan for any malfunctions or lack thereof on the docking area of the station. He also begins to consider alternative methods such as a dangerous dimensional teleportation effect that almost certainly would kill anyone it was used on...or unleash unknown chaos.
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We don't *have* twelve hours. She continues to guide the ship towards the station. Borak the Dismembered is a much better title.
ANYONE in the med bay... how are we coming on that emergency vaccine? We're all going to die like dogs up here. (Sorry Rowdy.)
Fours... what say you take a team down there and murder Borak for me. Get the antidote while you're at it. The teleporter should be fixed since the incident with Jerry. Poor Jerry. Anyway, he was wearing a red shirt... you're not. You should be fine.
Zakary types Borak into the teleporter and waits for the location to pop up.
Oh, don't bother with that. I know where he lives. She sends the address to Zakary's hand console. Make sure he's dead this time, not just apprehended, okay? I thought the whole getting him captured by the cartel was a good idea so I didn't have to break up with him myself, but I guess the airlock would have been better. My mistake.
"I would like to go with the away team Zanbabe, my chassis is highly reflective of conventional weaponry and my built in camouflage will assist in scouting the station. I will bring you the vaccine as soon as we can."
Perhaps his logic circuits are malfunctioning but Riven kneels next to Rowdy looking into his adorable canine face while his glowing lens flash with red overlay error message scrolling across them.
"Rowdy...we have been through worse times then this. Let us take down Borak together. I will need you to program the coordinates into the teleporter."
Riven headed for the emergency teleporter pad at the side of the bridge and stood there waiting for someone to flip the lever that would send him somewhere on the station...ideally right next to Borak.
You're in, Riven. Any other sacrificial... er, I mean... volunteers?
Post 93
Diplomacy: 2 successful, 0 failures
Repairing the guns: 4 successful, 2 failure
Piloting: 1 successful, 0 failures
Riven scans the ship: 1 successful, 0 failure
Fixing the Comms: 3 successful, 4 failures Result: Fixed Comms, Guns need repairing
Zanbabe checks the comnet: 0 successful, 1 failure Result: Zanbabe discovers that extra ship communication is down
Zakary checks the ships log: 1 successful, 0 failure Result: Zakary discovers nothing has happened for the last few hours
Faith sierra scans: 1 successful, 0 failure Result: Faith discovers that nothing strange is happening outside
Isolate the Ships Virus: 0 successful, 2 failures
Fixing the engines: 1 successful, 2 failures
Track the ship: 1 successful, 0 failure
Lisa scans faith: 1 successful, 0 failure Result: N/A
Find some bombs: 0 successful, 1 failure
Lie to the space station: 0 successful, 1 failure
Boosting the guns power: 2 successes, 3 failures
Shoot the station: 1 successes, 0 failures
Maintain the systems: 1 successes, 0 failures
Call the receptionist: 0 successes, 1 failures
Zakary typed in the new coordinates and gets a teleporter lock. He wasn't sure if Borak still lived there, since Z's information was probably 5 years old, but someone was there, or it wouldn't have given him a lock. He waited for other volunteers to step up before activating.
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As the crew gathers around the teleporter, a few things become apparent.
1) Zakary failed to find Lord Borak's address, other than "Currently believed to be on Space Station Gemini". A moment's thought remembers that Gemini is a -big- station. He could be anywhere, but to be honest about it, no one has thought about it that much as yet.
2) The Station's shields are up, which would completely block any teleportation attempt. By "block" that would mean "scatter their particles against an unfeeling shield into the coldness of space".
3) The Commander replies to Riven: "Ah, negative negative, we've also got a, um, ah large reactor leak here. Large leak, very dangerous. We're gonna need twelve hours to lock it down. You will be allowed to dock at that time."
The Station's guns spin up and begin tracking the Angel as she continues to maneuver closer.
Jerry? The name sounds familiar but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Fours acknowledges Zanbabe's request to lead a team down to the station, Yes ma'am. But before he leaves for the teleportation room Fours tries his luck on the weapons array. The green one looks good... As the console flashes alarmingly Fours takes a step back, Right.
On my way! Fours heads for the teleportation room, selecting a standard issue weapon along the way.
Dragon goes over to fix the guns by virtue of button mashing. Hitting the button with a crying face that was the embodiment of the epitome of sadness
"Commander...my b%%#@~~~ detector seems to be malfunctioning. Please cease tracking us with your stations weapons and we will provide with with a vaccine to the nanovirus that has likely been used to ensure your cooperation."
Promising vaccine they don't have yet.
Oh great. Why do people always force me to hurt them?
Zakary refrains from scattering the molecules of Fours and the other volunteers. Instead, he tries to repair the weapons.
Fours, abort that teleport, and man the guns. Shoot them until they let us land.
She turns the shields to maximum, and the stealth frequency to rotating algorithmic non-detection.
"Just wait before you do that. I think I can boost the guns power."
Boost or boost not. There is no wait.
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"I see there's no stopping you," Commander Gurden sneers at Riven. "I tried to warn you off. I tried to reason with you! So be it. Do not! Attempt. To land that piece of la su that you call a ship, borg! If you do I shall darken the sky with your ashes! Pulse gunner, if the Sweet Doomed Angel approaches any further, see to it that she earns the last two words in her name. Gemini out."
The screen fades to black as, outlined by the far off star that warms the Skylar system, the heroes' ship, their rail guns once again showing life, maneuver into attack position against the uncaring guns of the space station.
Somewhere on that base Lord Borak the Despoiler is grinning deeply, enjoying the vengeance that he so long awaited.
"Target Acquired."
How will our intrepid heroes get out of this one?
Fours freezes in his tracks, Shoot? The station? The security officer thoughts begin to question the order but then a nanobot's microlaser cuts a nerve sending his left eyebrow up in a surprised expression, Yes, ma'am!
The security officer rushes back to the console and lets his fingers fly into action. Seconds later two silver joysticks pop up before a high definition screen. A targeting overlay loads up and Fours maneuvers the sights upon Gemini, exhales and squeezes the trigger.
Rosie, the ship janitor, finally finishes her nice recharging session. She wishes she could hit snooze again, but instead, she notices that there are about 17 urgent notices for her from crewmembers. She goes to take care of the biggest emergency first. Dog urine all over the bridge.
That rowdy is going to be the death of me yet she thinks, and takes her mop to clean it all up, wondering if she will ever escape this life of drudgery.
When she gets to the bridge and realizes they are about to die, she finishes cleaning up, stows the mop, and goes to stow away in one of the lifepods so they won't leave her behind when the ship gets destroyed by the big station guns.
what is this 2/2
Zakary tries to keep all the stealth, gun, and power systems online at the same time.
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Riven moves back over to the science control panel and begins to work on calling back the receptionist who loved Rowdy. If he can have her put him on hold and keep an open line perhaps he can hack through the station's firewalls...and fill its memory banks with petabytes of cat memes or porn.
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ANYONE in the med bay... how are we coming on that emergency vaccine? We're all going to die like dogs up here.
"Dammit, I'm a GP, not a mechano-virologist!" Lisa comments back, frustrated.
Attempts basic antiviral techniques on her own blood sample:
Target their weapons systems so they can't shoot back. I'll be back.
She runs to the med bay to see how Lisa Lisa is doing. Because of Zanbabe's past relationship with a mad scientist, she knows something of the theory, so she attempts to assist concocting a cure.
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As Riven uploads petabytes of porn at the console next to his, Fours tries to keep an open mind. One flashed scene in particular provides a glimmer of inspiration causing him to exclaim, Ma'am, we could go in through the back door! Sensing a bit of confusion from the others on the bridge the security officer elaborates, We can't beam over because the Gemini's shields are up, but those other ships haven't raised theirs. They're flying in there unprotected. We could send an away team over to one of those ships still in the process of docking, slip through the Gemini's shields and make a run at Borak.
Just coming back from the medbay, Z listens to Fours' idea.
Hmm. I like it. You might be craftier than I thought. If you think you can do it, go for it. Just tell Zakary where to point, and when your team is ready to beam over. And let me know if you succeed.
Our current plan is to suicide run straight at them and then crazy ivan at the last second, with the combination of firepower and flame hopefully burning us a clear place to dock. Admittedly it is a crazy plan, but unless this cure works, crazy is all we've got. Maybe your plan gives us another way out. Here's hoping you've got what it takes, kid.
"bark bark!"
Rowdy is very excited that everyone else seems less depressed.
With Zanbabe's blessings, Fours adjusts his scanners trying to find a suitable ship.
"Sapphire please remote into my console and feed the transmission tracing to the ship's navigation. When we are in range we can aatempt an assault to obtain the vaccine required. Good boy Rowdy."
"As you request Riven"
The feed starts coming in. Sapphire had been dealing with all the random panic driven button pressing. She did not tell the crew but after the 1st batch of pressing from the Dragon clones she had discontented the console it was swarming over and re-rutted it to the drinks dispenser.
As for the comms she had of course told the station of there infection. As per regulations. She was a little perturbed when the stations guns started pointing at the ship.
"You know the EVA Pod will get past the stations shields, it just may not get past its guns"
She said trying to be helpful. She put light and relaxing music over the ships inter comms. Her programming told her that death could be stressful for organics and soothing music helped.