Seeing the look the young man's face, Brooke sighs and tells him, "Relax son, none of us is gonna bite. So how bad's the odds?"
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I actually think Jack's our best bet. He can hit harder than Terra and he's much more likely avoid damage since his dodge is higher. Brooke would be a second choice since she'd also be more likely to avoid damage, is only a little less tough than Terra, and able to hit harder as well. Terra is more likely to land hits, but she's also going to be taking them barring some amazingly good dodge rolls.
"I think a psyker using their powers would be cheating, and that's against the code of honor," Brooke says, "They may be criminals, but most of them have some quirky sense of honor, Folman's gang excepted. We still don't want to lose, even graciously, since that would nix any chance of us being able to bargain with them, I think. I can hold my own in a fight, but I'm not sure about my chances if they bring knives or some other weapon. Besides, I'd have to borrow someone's armor because I know I don't have a snowball's chance in heck if he brings some brute into this and I don't have some protection. Depending on how good Jack is, he may be our best bet, unless Terra's got some hand-to-hand skills to back up her crazy psi powers." "As for what they are asking us to do, I have some ideas, but... oh crap. Crap! I completely forgot about that! What if they are expecting Blackjack," Brooke asks as she comes to a very, very disturbing conclusion.
"Thank you, but no. I think you've caused enough dadgum trouble Silicon Sally," Brooke tells APRIL rather brusquely. "Anyone else?"
Yup, but don't worry, Brooke isn't the kind of person to stay mad for long. Also, we still gotta figure out what to do with these kids. GM, would Brooke know if her family's fuel depot is close by, relatively speaking?
Brooke nods once, knowing better than to try and weasel out of this, and leads the others back to the ship. Once aboard and the hatch is closed, she takes in a deep breath and lets it out slowly. "Any of you know how to fight," she asks, her voice cold and crisp, though the way she glares at the little dragonfly bot makes it clear who the young woman is currently angry with.
Now both of Brooke's hands are covering her face as she shakes her head in denial of what is happening right in front of her.
Eh, I'd leave it in there. I don't think this will get us all killed out of hand.
Brooke facepalms as APRIL breaks into the conversation. "AI musta gotten a short," she mutters to herself as things quickly escalate.
Dramatic tension. We didn't request a berth under the name Turing. On the plus side, APRIL does bring up a good point.
Completely understandable. Don't worry too much about me, I'm still here. That said, oooooooh boy, I'm not sure how we're going to get this one done. A false flag operation might work, or we could try sneaking aboard a Terran ship heading out that way, but I don't think the Turing is going to be able to get out there and survive.
Brooke's eyes go wide as she hears what the favor is. "Mind explainin' how this is different from just killin' us," she asks.
It took all of Brooke's self control for "Cap'n Lin" not to shudder as the Admiral ogled her. She hated it when people started trying to undress her with their eyes. "I think I speak for the whole crew when I say thanks for not doin' that," she says in response to what they had considered doing. "Now, I know we ain't exactly in a bargainin' position, but afore I agree t'do this, what sorta favor are ya wantin'?"
"Aw! Don't worry now. We'll be as nice as ya please," "Cap'n Lin" tells the pirates before heading inside.
"Thank ya right kindly, Admiral," Brooke says before finding a nice comfy chair. "Must say, ya'll have quite th'operation out here. I wasn't aware that Cere's was turnin' into such an industrial hub. So, how can we help ya?"
As soon as the hatch behind her is closed, Brooke breaks out in a dead sprint and skids past her room as she palms the door open. Once she manages to scramble inside, she begins to hurriedly take off the battlesuit.
"Oh C'mon! I wore the stupid undersuit so this wouldn't happen," she half-shouts in frustration as she gets stuck in the suit again. After fighting to get it to open up the rest of the way, she grabs a hoodie and a pair of jeans from her bag and tries to pull them on as she makes for the hatch. === About three minutes after Blackjack disappears into the Turing, Brooke comes stumbling out in a hoodie and a pair of jeans. Her cheeks are a little flushed and her hair's a mess, but she is otherwise fine. "Sarry fellas," she says in that exaggerated belter accent she used earlier, "was busy gettin' her shut down all proper like. Now, I was told to go with ya'll t'meet someone?" Anyone who's used Battlesuits before and looks closely at Brooke's feet or neck: You can see that Brooke is wearing the undersuit to a battlesuit under her clothing. She also isn't wearing boots.
Woo! you're back!
Yeah, you're right. Barring being lucky enough to catch them during a transfer we really don't have a shot yet.
"So you did come here to try and corner me," Brooke jokes before sitting up and looking more squarely at the doctor. "After you helped me out, how can I say no. I'd rather do it here, if it's alright with you. Less chance of having another accident 'n' all." As Dr. Rix gets ready to examine Brooke, the young belter decides to learn a little more about the motley crew she'd fallen in with. "I've tried to get this out of Jean, but I had to get into the suit before he answered. Who's in cabin C-6? I've never seen them come out," Brooke asks, hoping to actually get an answer this time.
I've got two plans, one requires some trickery and the other is more of a shell game. In both plans, we trick some pirates into docking with us and taking a ship or three for ourselves. One will be our new ride while the Turing and any other ships we manage to nab are used in our nefarious schemes. Plan 1 has Dr. Rix cooking some organics and stuff up that will hopefully make it look like we got turned to vapor when the bounty hunters tried to board. We haul the Turing to the Gauntlet and board under the cover of claiming the bounty and seeing if there's more work. This is when we have any other ships we captured attack the Gauntlet, hopefully creating enough confusion for us to find Nedora and get her out. When we go to leave, we blow the Turing's reactor, which will hopefully forestall any pursuit or attempts to blow us out of space since that would take attention away from trying to keep the ship from getting any more gutted. Alternatively, we can load the Turing with something called a Cabasa Howitzer. This is basically a shaped nuclear charge. We orient the nukes so that they launch spears of nuclear fire at as many vitals as we can manage, focusing on the bridge, the reactor, and the engines. In either case, we're setting a nuke off in the Gauntlet's hangar. Plan 2 uses the Turing and any extra ships we acquire as kamikazes. We move as much armor as we can to the front of the ships and then try to ambush the Gauntlet when it's in a low orbit around an asteroid or something. The ships ram the Gauntlet at high speed, aiming for the bridge, engines, and reactor. Our ship docks in the confusion and we rush in, nab Nedora, and bug out. I'd like to leave behind a present to cover out escape. Maybe a wanted Pirate Lord rigged with nuclear hand grenades? In either case, we also need to nab a Hyperspace Navigator so we can get the heck out of Sol because after this stunt, Baron Silus is going to want us alive so he can torture us for the next few decades while he thinks of a fitting punishment for our crimes. Unfortunately for the navigator, I think they'll be stuck as part of the crew since helping us even under duress is not going to go over well with the Baron.
"Sorry," the young woman gasps after it's done. She collapses on the bed and catches her breath. "Sorry 'bout that," she apologizes in a more normal tone after a few moments of gulping air. "I'm fine. It's only m'pride that's hurt." She moves to sit up, then decides that the laying down is good enough. "S'far as I know, it's you, Jean, Jack, and Tera that know. The kids, their guardians, and whoever's in the port cabin closest to the flight deck () don't know." She turns to look more directly at the doctor, her gray eyes lighting up as she smiles. "Thank you for promising to keep this a secret. You have no idea how much that means to me."
For a brief moment, Brooke considers trying to bluff her way out, but given the way her luck had been going lately, she decides that it'd be better to get this meeting over with. Besides, she couldn't pitch her voice low enough to match "Blackjack's" tenor. "I'm not hurt, but I could use some help," says a belter-accented, feminine voice through the door to Dr. Rix. "If ya would be so kind as to come in and close the door behind ya, I'd much appreciate it," she says calmly. The door is unlocked and once inside, Rix can see a beautiful young woman of asian descent halfway through getting out of the battlesuit she'd been wearing. "Would you believe this the second time today I've had trouble getting changed," she asks with an embarrassed giggle. "I think something got caught, but dadgumit if I can't get to it," she adds as she twists around to show where the suit opened up to let her in and out of it. She's wearing a black- longsleeved t-shirt and a pair of jeans underneath the suit. "Can you see anything?"
"Who said I wasn't," Brooke replies to Jack saying she should be proud of where she came from. "I'm proud of what we've done out here, and most of us hate it when we're belittled for being raised out here." She looks at the time and sighs. "Sorry, Jean," she apologizes, "But it looks like I'm going to have to cut the look at the suit short. The kiddos are about to wake up."
So, I found what may be a pretty good soundtrack for this game here. Hope you guys enjoy. :) As for the ally thing. I should have included it in the original build. I did some math and it's simply going to take too long to get that. Given that, and the fact that Blackjack's support network is more informal and based on the reputation as a hero for those that the government doesn't bother themselves with. It's my fault for not thinking things through, so I'll just live with it. Which brings me to something that I've been thinking about. I never meant to get Nedora written out of the story like that, and I'd really like to get her back. I've also been playing through a few scenes between her and Brooke in my head, and the banter between them would be pretty funny once Nedora gets a little snarky. If you guys are cool with it, and the GM is okay with having one person play two characters, I think I have a plan to get her back. I'm asking as a player to other players because I think that at least two of the PCs would jump at the chance to rescue her. Also, anyone know what happened to APRL's player?
"Terra, right? I'm Brooke," the young women answers with an obvious belter accent, "though you probably know me as Blackjack." She nods to the distinctive battlesuit lying on the workbench before relaying a shortened version of the tale she had told Jack and Jean, along with a request to keep the fact she's Blackjack quiet. The idea about contacting a Martin newsgroup brings a shadow over Brooke's expression. "Even if we gave them the sensor logs, Terra would just claim they're doctored up to make it look like they're lying. I'm not saying we don't do it, but we need to be realistic about how much good it'll do," she says quietly.
Thankfully, the Hero of the Belt doesn't do anything rash, and seems to have calmed himself down by the end of the day.
"Maybe," she says instead, the voice filter off since the kids in question were having a lesson given by the caretakers. "The thing is, most of the people that I know are just people trying to scrape by and make an honest livin'." Servos whine softly as one of her hands tighten. "Dadgumit Jean," she says more quietly and with an edge of desperation, "what have we gotten ourselves into?"
After a few minutes of conversation, Brooke's expression grows a little quizzical. "I've been wondering, who has the cabin next to mine? I don't think I've ever seen them come out since we left Styx," she asks.
Brooke's eyes widen in surprise as she looks at Jack for several seconds in stupefied silence. "Well, this is a first," she mutters in bemusement before answering Jack's question. "Y'know how there's this mess of asteroids around the sun between Jupiter an' Mars? Most people call it the Asteroid Belt, an' those of us that are born an' raised on the asteroids or anywhere in the Belt are called Belters, since it'd get really confusing if we started tryin' to call people by what asteroid they come from, especially since some of 'em ain't got a name," Brooke explains. "Just be careful about what you call us, though. We don't mind Belter, but rockrat, vacuum-breather, sardine, or canned idiot are liable t'get ya killed if ya say it in the wrong place or to the wrong person."
"I prefer the silly ones like that one, too," Brooke says with a laugh. "Trust me, I've heard just about every legend about Blackjack there is. The best ones seem to come from the Belt. The worst ones always seem to come from Terra. Have you heard about the one where Blackjack is the lovechild between Baron Silus and the Technomancer Rylith," she shudders at the memory that particular tale. She blushes when complimented about her flying, making the fact she's the (in)famous Belter Blackjack seem almost too incredible to be true. "Thanks, though I think you and a few lifetimes of good luck had more to do with that than I did. I'm just glad we got of that in one piece." She smirks as the bolt falls out, and can't help but give Jean a smug look. "Just promise me that isn't going to happen with my suit. My brothers and I would be rather ill with you if Blackjack's image got a little smudged by some loose bolts," she teases before her expression turns more serious. "As far as Ceres is concerned, as long as I don't wear the suit, I'm pretty much anonymous. I pay with cash, so it's a lot harder to trace me if I use different names. The only issue I have not wearing the suit, besides the fact I'm a lot squishier, is everyone finds me to be pretty, and I've had more than one Terran 'daddy's li'l princess' get ugly about it." The young woman takes a deep cleansing breath to clear away the bad memories. She was tough, but some of those girls were vicious and relentless. "Anyway, I picked Ceres for a few reasons. One, it's a big port of call, we'd effectively be invisible there. Two, it's large and affluent enough that the kids have a decent chance of growing up well and making a good living. Third, we can get information that'll help us find a good target. Fourth, I can finally get some decent Belter grub. The slop they call 'genuine Belter cuisine' near Terra and on Luna is terrible! My Aunt Chun can cook better than that and she isn't allowed anywhere near the kitchen after almost burning the station out. The poor woman cannot cook."
"It opened up an' locked closed when the ship rocked,"Brooke tells the engineer. "That's it. We're gettin' ya'll a new ship," says in a voice of finality when she hears what company made the door. "We chunked e'er bit of Haiwen garbage on station after m'great-uncle Shu lost both his legs t'one o' those Chinese slag heaps," she grumbles as Jean gathers his tools. "We really need to get off this rustbucket," she says before timidly testing the door. "Is it supposed to be sixty celsius or fahrenheit," she asks as the door opens properly. She locks it open and waves both Jean and Jack inside the spartanly furnished and decorated room. At least she does before noticing the open bag on her bed and pile of dirty clothing laying in plain sight. Almost before the two man even realize what's happening, the clothing is thrown into the drawer under the bed and the bag is zipped up. "Sorry," she says sheepishly as she brushes a strand of loose hair form her face, "I'd forgotten about the mess I'd left. You said you wanted a good look at the suit, right? The kiddos should be asleep for a few more hours, so If you don't mind helping me with the bags, I'll let you look at some of the other goodies I get to play with sometimes." A wicked grin spreads across her face as she points to the other two large bags she had tucked away in a corner. Both are freaking heavy, and Brooke is winded by the time they make it to Jean's workshop. One of the bags contains the distinctively styled armor of Belter Blackjack. Looking closely, it's easy to see that it began life as a standard suit, but repairs and maintenance over the years has turned it into a fairly unique model tailored to the petite Brooke. Inside the bag are a few cushioned compartments containing spare power cells and a big one underneath the suit with a spare cell for it. The other bag is filled with guns and ammunition both loaded into clips and still in boxes. The guns are obviously well cared for, and stored in several cushioned cases. Besides the signature gun that matches the suit, there are a few pistols, a PDW, a shotgun, and rail-gun designed to punch through tanks. A couple of cases have accessories that fit onto the Picatinny rails. "So, I guess I should start with where I'm from," Brooke begins once Jean and Jack seem to have recovered from the shock of seeing how much heat the small belter woman packs. "I was born on a prospector in the outer belt and raised on the fuel depot my family runs. The funny thing about being in a family that's lived on the frontier for generations is that you can grow up never having to go to a government sponsored anything." Brooke's grin grows wide and devilish. "So far as those psykers are concerned, I don't exist, and I'd like to keep it that way, especially after what happened on Styx." The grin disappears as suddenly as her tone darkens. Shadows haunt her eyes, but it passes soon enough. "Anyway, that's one of the reasons I use the software in the helmet to change my voice. It helps keep people from connecting me with Blackjack," she says after a moment, "But I didn't wake up one day wanting to be the Hero of the Belt. I kinda fell into that. My family got the suit after pirates tried to raid our depot. I guess one of them wanted to make a name for himself, but he wasn't after getting his brains blown out. I was twelve, I guess, and the Dealer came with it. A few years later, we had another batch of pirates try and raid us. I put the suit on and marched out to meet the pirates before putting fifteen holes in our hull. Papa said I wasn't supposed to touch guns after that, but my uncles, brothers, and I have never been good listeners. I've gotten a lot better since then, obviously. Now I only manage to vent the hull every third trip or so." She gives Jean an impish grin before continuing, "don't worry, this is trip number two." "Anyway, I started helping out flying the haulers and prospectors we used to look for places we could get fuel from. Pirates would attack, and I would help beat them back wearing the suit. My brothers helped me maintain it and fix it up, along with any weapons we managed to salvage. All of those used to belong to pirates," she says, nodding to the guns. "That one, was Big Boss Kells's," she adds, pointing to the anti-materiel railgun. "The idiot nearly cored out reactor with it before he ate a few slugs. Amazing how that small brain of his made such a huge mess." She shakes her head remembering the cleanup after that particular fight. She'd thrown up at least twice. "So, after a year or two of that, and me starting to hitch rides on freighters to pay back favors owed and for services rendered, Blackjack's name started getting around and people started to laud me as a hero. I took to it because I wanted to help people, and if pirates are afraid of Blackjack, they might leave people alone. Too bad I seemed to have riled up Gaou Folman and his slap-happy band before that fiasco on Styx," Brooke sighs as her expression changes into one of annoyance. "It's not like I meant to blow up his brother's ship. But no, he has to put a price on my head and I can't wear my suit on Ceres, Pallas, or Eros without having to fight a bounty hunter ever few hours!" Suddenly realizing how loud she'd gotten, Brooke slouches and looks more like a young schoolgirl for a moment as she looks up at Jean and Jack. "Sorry," she mutters in apology, "but the first time I was attacked nearly got a few people killed."
So, all of you GURPS vets, I'd like to know which would be better for a folk hero to have, a group of contacts or a group of allies? I've been thinking about it and my plan right now is to save up for the advantage and just handwave why she hasn't taken advantage of them before she uses them. I don't want to out shine everyone else, or take over the game with Brooke, so I figured I would ask all of you to see what we can come up with. The other thing I wanted to bring up was an idea I had. What if we got the Turing's replacement or even a second ship by luring some pirates and taking it from them? I'd also like try getting Nedora back at some point, but that more for you guys to decide than me (seeing I play both characters. :* ) Thoughts? Ideas?
"Nothing," Brooke blurts out at Jean's question about what he was supposed to have seen before calming down and breathing a sigh of relief at having dodge that embarrassing bullet. She giggles as the blush in her cheeks lessens. "I figure belle's a good thing, right," she asks as she flashes a shy smile at Jean. "Well, if you can fix th'door t'my cabin an' promise not t'tell anyone about Blackjack bein' a small li'l belter girl, I guess I can tell both o' ya'll about m'self."
"Of the tumble I took," she mumbles, her cheeks turning a little redder as she looks at a spot about two feet to the right of and five feet behind Jean. "And I'm not a stowaway. I was the one that brought the kids on board. I'm Brooke," she answers, relaxing just a little, until she gets a whiff of the very strong cigarette Jean is smoking. "Dadgumit," she says as she covers her mouth and nose with her hands, "I didn't notice it before, but those cancer sticks are really strong smellin'!"
Oh, oops. Sorry about that. That post is indeed set back in time. It happens right after she asks about, which I assume is right after we escape the Gauntlet. I hope it's okay that I've been playing the kids and their caretakers a bit. ^^;
Brooke is Blackjack. She has a pretty sophisticated voice modulation software package installed in the helmet of her armor that she's set to make her sound like a young man, which along with the armor doing a pretty good job of obfuscating her figure makes most people think Blackjack is a man, which suits Brooke just fine. To keep up the charade, Brooke has been hiding in her cabin while not in her armor, and only comes out while wearing it. She's been keeping up the charade because it's a lot harder to find a young woman when you are looking for a young man, and she doesn't want the kids to know and blab. The morning of the sixth day, there was glitch in the systems that happened while Brooke was changing. The violent lurch from the RCS going haywire sent her tumbling through a malfunctioning door right as she was putting her jeans on. The door closed and locked and Brooke can't unlock it. I actually had a list of what states of dress Brooke could be in when the mishap happened. Randomizing the list put the result of her wearing her shirt and holding her jeans at the top, so that was what I used. She could have been tossed out in just her underwear if that had been the top result, which would have lead to a rather more sitcomish situation. I hope that helps clear things up.
First, I hope that my sense of humor wasn't too off putting. I just thought it'd be funny, and it could have turned out much worse for Brooke. (I used the list randomizer from Random.org to see how bad it was going to be.) Second. I picked out a different avatar for Brooke. This one fits how she looks a bit better. Third. I hope you are enjoying this as much as I am.
"Uh? Hi," the young woman asks uncertainly before her cheeks redden a little more and she adds, "h-how much did ya'll see?"
Anyone out and about in the cargo hold early in the morning on Day 6: Early in the morning on the sixth day, an electrical glitch runs through the systems of the Turing, causing many of the systems to behave erratically for a moment before resetting. The ship rocks for a second when the RCS fires at random at the same time the hatch to Blackjack's cabin snaps open. A young, stunningly beautiful woman of asian descent, who is obviously in the middle of getting dressed, tumbles out of the cabin with a squeek before the door snaps shut and locks. After her tumble out on to the walkway, the young woman is a little dazed and it takes her a moment to get her bearings. She's wearing a black, long-sleeved t-shirt, a pair of thick crew socks, and a pair of black panties. In one hand is a pair of jeans, which is fortunate for her given the locked door to her cabin. Her cheeks burn red with embarrassment as she realizes where whe is and scrambles to pull her jeans on, falling over once as her feet get tangled. The whole episode is less than thirty seconds, but to her, it felt like several minutes. After she finishes buttoning her jeans, she looks around to see who saw her in such an embarrassing state. She checks the door, trying to open it without any success. Her shoulders slump as she hangs her head and goes looking for Jean.
Okay, finally got Brooke's stats done. Let me know if the reaction bit is confusing. I'll change it to see if I can't make it less so. It's 3:30 AM here, I'm about to crash. |