My logic:
1) I doubt the military would go through the trouble of boarding the civilian ships just to slaughter the people on board. If they wanted to space everyone, they could have just blasted the ships again once they'd powered their engines down. Chances are the really were only firing to keep them from fleeing the system as a quarantine measure.
2) It's the military's inspection, not ours, so I say let them handle it. In the event that the civilians letting them board is a trap (or in the event the military does start shooting), there's no need to put any of our own crew in harms way by boarding the ships along with the military, especially not Scarlet, since she's the only one that can pilot the Scudo.
3) If by chance the military does have an inkling to get trigger happy during the inspection, the fact that we still have ship advantage over them should discourage any foul play since we could just as easily turn their ship to scrap for betraying their word.
My logic:
1) I doubt the military would go through the trouble of boarding the civilian ships just to slaughter the people on board. If they wanted to space everyone, they could have just blasted the ships again once they'd powered their engines down. Chances are the really were only firing to keep them from fleeing the system as a quarantine measure.
2) It's the military's inspection, not ours, so I say let them handle it. In the event that the civilians letting them board is a trap (or in the event the military does start shooting), there's no need to put any of our own crew in harms way by boarding the ships along with the military, especially not Scarlet, since she's the only one that can pilot the Scudo.
3) If by chance the military does have an inkling to get trigger happy during the inspection, the fact that we still have ship advantage over them should discourage any foul play since we could just as easily turn their ship to scrap for betraying their word.
+1 to this. Besides, they would likely take Jeana away from us, saying that she was a hazard risk or some such bullshit and we can't lose our only futa girl on the team... that would be very bad indeed. Though I seriously doubt that she's infected or whatnot in any case, because she would more than likely already have attacked us one way or another if she were.
I say A4 - send Scarlet and Yumi to "assist". More precisely, find out what they're looking for and where they got these "shooting quarantine" orders from. And keep the destroyer from massacreing innocent civilians. This lets Kar'rak and Uyard stay clear if everything goes sour.
Kar'rak watched as the Destroyer's Umbilical slid through space, making a seal around the first Civilian Vessel's airlock. A bemused expression crossed his face, "Huh, it surprises me that she was actually able to do it." He twisted in his seat and cracked his back. "I'm forced to wonder if they're looking for what was on our station..." He muttered to himself, his brow furrowed. The Sparrow and Scudo held position just out of weapons range.
On board the Scudo, Jeana ran a hand over Scarlet's back just as Yumi arrived from the shielding station. "Whats going on? Is everyone alright?" The shielding engineer asked.
Jeana looked to her, a frown on her face, rubbing Scarlet's back. "She's worried about the civies over on the colony ships. She wants to go over there and make sure they're given a fair shake."
Yumi folded her hands over her chest, "We are getting no closer to any Skorm military vessels than we have to. I almost died to one of their hit squads on the station. I doubt they would go through the trouble of boarding the ships if they were planning on killing them all anyway." A hint of bitterness in Yumi's voice as she leaned back and raised an eyebrow.
Scarlet slammed a fist into the wall of the room. "D-Dammit, I served under Admiral Dimitrii before..." The red head took a moment to compose herself. "H-he's the one the Emperor calls in to clean up the mess. Something is wrong on those ships, wrong with this whole system." She panted, shaking her head clear. "I-I should get back to the bridge," She groaned, "If I'm not gonna be on the ship with them, I should at least give them a voice to talk to." Scarlet gave a sigh and jerked away from Jeana. "I'll be in the cockpit if anyone needs me." She said, storming out of the room, avoiding eye contact with the other girls on the crew.
The door slid shut after her, Jeana looked at Yumi, a bit of sadness in her eyes, "I hate seeing people so upset." She sighed, rubbing her arms...
Yumi looked to the side, "Yeah, you're not the only one..." She muttered under her breath.
From the bridge the pilot of both ships watched the destroyer carefully, the title, S.I.N. DIGNITAS written across the side of the ship, dim running lights illuminating the glimmering white Halium alloy. The com system on board the Scudo lit up, the scared young man appeared on the other end. His dark hair plastered to his face. With trembling breaths he looked to Scarlet, "Scarlet, Corporal O'Connor... The Marines are on the ship. They've got the crew moving to the mess hall, I-I've got to go line up."
Scarlet opened her mouth to respond, but he cut her off, "Whatever happens just... I've got a girl on Heaven Two, her name's Elizabeth, Elizabeth, Lizza Quay Hammond. Tell her I love her." He said, forcing a smile on his face, "I'll see you when the inspection is over."
A deafening silence befell the bridge, Scarlet leaned forwards, biting her bottom lip anxiously. It felt like hours, the lack of motion was overwhelming. Soon, the seal on the umbilical detached, and the destroyer began do drift away, starboard of the
The com quickly reestablished, the young man quickly fell into his seat. "Scarlet, they took someone from the crew, a man, our engineer. That's all they wan-" The com was broken, and an explosion detonated on the bridge of the civilian ship. The craft jerked violently as several more hull breaches opened up along the port side, explosions from the inside of the ship ripping it to shreds. It twisted backwards through space, bodies and parts being forced out through hull breaches. The second Civilian Ship quickly engaged its engines, attempting to escape, but as the Destroyer maneuvered back and away from the debris, its spinal laser having fully charged, erupted in a blaze of red light, the lance cracking its hull open like a tin can. Its engines quickly overloaded from the pulse of energy, and the ship melted in front of them.
Scarlet's eyes went wide, "Oh my Godess..." The coms opened up on the Scudo and the Sparrow again... The face of the Sargent on the SIN Dignitas appeared on screen, speaking to both Kar'rak and Scarlet.
"Thank you for convincing the civilian vessels to stand for inspection, unfortunately the crew was unrecoverable, and had to be terminated. The planet below is under quarantine, please return with us to Executas Mother ship for debriefing." The man said with an emotionless face, cutting the coms unceremoniously after that.
Scarlet was left mouth agape, her counterpart Kar'rak glared at the blank com screen, his pulse picking up.
CHOICES
A- Comply with orders from a superior officer.
B- Dust this bitch!
C- Collect scrap from the civilian ships before we comply with orders.
D- Let the crew fight about what choice to pick.
E- Other
I was hoping some sort of communicated threat would have been made to the military ship saying what would happen if they decided to be fuckers (in order to deter them), but too late now, I guess. Space 'em, and make a note to do the same to every military vessel we come across from this point on.
Confirmed for this Empire once again being a bunch of dicks, as any Empire ever is
Anyway, refuse, cite having orders to proceed rendezvous with a contact at [somewhere else], then head on over to RnD planet or something. Maybe they have some cool shit.
E I'm pretty sure we're not military, and these guys are not the space fuzz. But they do have gunz... Grab some scrap, take note of that guy's requested message drop, then make not of this military goon's name for vengence later...
Also, ask for a copy of this guy's orders so that we can 'help him out' with some 'offhand scouting'.
Then FTL to the research station.... unless the destination he told us to go to is at this star, in which case we do all that except FLT away.
MID POST UPDATE
I'd like to encourage audience input on Character development as well. Feel free to add in with your vote, or a PM character interactions or personalities you'd like to see emerge. Even if there's new crew you'd like to see, we have an infinite number of possibilities in the galaxy!
I do have some plans ahead, but in the spirit of CYOA's, I'd love to hear YOUR input!
I apologize for not making this more clear, but the entire crew are enlisted members of the Skorm Imperial Navy, save for Jeana, who's a mining engineer.
See, this is why I originally stated to blast those mother fuckers and turn them into space dust, but does anybody listen... fuck no. Now we just condemned probably hundreds of innocent people to their deaths and better yet... we fucking watched them execute after promising to help them out. Lucky us the vote went the way of not sending anybody over to that ship to oversee the whole ordeal or else they would have been jettisoned out into space as well along with them.
E Have our lovely futa engineer work some Isaac Clarke shit and make some sort of bomb... then tell them that we have a gift of some sort for them to commemorate their success in stopping the traitors or make up some sort of other lie if you have to in order to get the crate holding the bomb over on that ship. And then what we do is detonate said bomb... making sure that it has the force of a several kiloton nuclear warhead if possible, but only pack in enough explosives to destroy that fucking ship if we can't get that much of a punch in it.
Assuming that isn't possible in any way whatsoever, and assuming that we wouldn't stand more than at least an 80% chance of winning against this ship then I concur with the_taken's vote in getting a bit of scrap and getting the fuck to that research station. In this way we can refit our ships in some way, then go back at some point in the future where we can be sure and blast hull breaches on every deck of that ship and decompress it fully, that way they can die a cold hard death just like they did to the civilians that soldiers are supposed to protect.
I knew they'd try something, but this was rather more...direct than what I expected.
While I'm sure we can space that destroyer, do we want to? If we don't drop their comms, or it gets away it could well broadcast our ships as traitors to the entire empire as far as I know.
I'd say we open comms again, interrogate the destroyer for what it's worth, and depending on how coöperative that captain is, we either try to make him believe we're on his side, and then scoot off to warn all civvies to not go to the military, or if he's going to be a jerk...We space him and pray he's put on hold on the space-phone at HQ.
Scarlet sat back in her chair, a bit stunned. She didn't know what to do, all she knew is that she couldn't go to the Executas. Blinking, she stared at the communication controls. Her hands fell to her lap, and she let out a pained laugh. She pulled her shoulders up and shuddered, then relaxed as best as she could. She had to think fast. Reaching forwards, she was about to open communication with the Dignitas, but she suddenly saw Kar'rak appear on screen.
"S.I.N. Dignitas, this is S.I.N. Sparrow reporting." the Hunter said. Scarlet marveled at his ability to remain calm after what they'd just witnessed. "We and the Scudo are under orders to ensure proper protocol enforcement in the Hell system, and are unable to comply with Admiral Dimitrii's orders at this time."
Scarlet took a deep breath, and sighed to herself, "Yeah, that sounds good." Collapsing into her seat, she let her arms hang to her side. "I'm glad one of us has a head on their shoulders."
The commander of the Dignitas appeared on screen, "Your orders are out of Date S.I.N. Sparrow, Admiral Dimitrii now has complete operational control of the Hell system." Scarlets eyes went wide again, her breath stopped... She heard her heart beat in her head. Kar'rak wasn't answering.
The pause was becoming excessive... She had to think. Her mind raced, Admiral Dimitrii, who did he answer to, what was his weakness? She gripped the side of her head, her mind trying to remember back to her time as a private. She wasn't told much, but what she heard was what kept her alive...
Skorm Imperial Navy Records (SINR): Admiral Dimitrii on Guilde World Cassius 3
A tall, pale man in dark military robes stood in the center of a room, his arms behind his back. The dim light from a holoid display cast a dim orange glow across the room, illuminating the trembling face of a man in an officers uniform. The tall man turned, a scowl dressed his face, his head was smooth, save for thin white hair forming a crown about the sides of his face. "Dammit Juliard. These contemptible Guilde rats continue to evade you." The tall man snapped, his peircing glare causing the officer to wince. "You're a Colonel for Skorm's sake, you humiliate yourself and tarnish my reputation for letting these filthy Outlanders to slip through your fingers."
Juliard's form quaked at the reprimand, "P-Please Admiral Dimitrii, I have no excuse. If you only-"
"If I only what, Colonel Juliard?" The Admiral spoke sharply, "You have had ample opportunity to display your incompetence. It is clear now that I must delegate your tasks myself. You know as well as I do, if this outbrake of free enterprise is not contained, the Emperor will relieve me of command, in favor of his newly appointed 'People's Hand.' I was not considered devout enough to be granted the position myself..." He took a deep, rumbling breath, "And I shall not have my loyalty questioned." The man straightened his back, composing himself. "Private O'Connor, please escort the Colonel to his shuttle, so he can resume his service to the Emperor."
A red haired private stepped into the light and provided a stiff salute, "Yes'ir." Scarlet said, as the Admiral motioned for the Colonel to leave.
"Yes Sir, thank you Sir, Skorm be praised." Colonel Juliard said with a trembling voice. He stood and moved through the door, Private Scarlet O'Connor following him. The two stepped into the hall, which was lit only slightly better. The Colonel walked down the hall, still trembling, leading the way to the shuttle bay. "Oh, thank Skorm, I-I honestly believed today would be the last day of my life. I thought he was going to kill me right there." He took in quick, jittering breaths without looking back at the Private. "Oh goodness. I just... I hope you don't mind my confession, but, I think there may be a part of me that sympathizes with the Guildies... I mean, are certain freedoms really a cause for death?"
Behind him, Private Scarlet O'Connor had stopped, silently drawing her weapon.
"Are they?" The Colonel stopped, turning around to face her.
"I'm sorry Colonel."
The report of a single bolter rang through the hall, then the sound of a body collapsing to the ground.
Scarlet leaned forward and pressed the transmission switch, "We're under orders from the People's Hand, please send a copy of your orders for review, we shall attempt to assist further as a secondary objective to our own mission." Scarlet blurted the first solution that popped into her head.
The Sargent took pause, "Yes, yes of course, I apologize for the inconvenience, thank you for your assistance, we shall transmit our orders to you now. Our ship designation is included as well as a crew manifest, please remember us in your report." The man said with a deep bow. Do you require further assistance Sparrow?
"We'll be collecting scrap and black boxes from the civilian ships. If you have any extra resources they would be appreciated." Kar'rak added.
"Of course, please hold while the engineers cataloge our goods for use in your mission."
Scarlet had an idea, a smile brightened in her mind... "We'll need your systems range coms array as well, the relay on board the Scudo was damaged by a conflict during a boarding procedure."
"Our coms systems?" The stone faced Sargent stuttered.
"Yes Sargent, your coms array. You can collect a new one from Executas, we are on a time table that cannot be delayed by a lengthy docking process."
As she spoke, the orders were being transferred to the two vessels, Jack cracked his neck, pulling a scroll from his animated satchel... He considers for a moment, his animated face contorted in thought... "What are you up to..." Jack began displaying a list of orders for Kar'rak to read...
Executas Orders: Dignitas
Mission Background:
-Artifacts Recovered by Dig Team: Designation Infinity
-Skorm Engineer (SE) Mark Iplier has had direct contact with artifact designation Infinity during excavation at [Data Expunged].
-Subject Mark Iplier may be experiencing severe psychological side effects.
Directive Alpha:
-(SE) Engineer Mark Iplier
-Terminate all non critical personal who have had contact with SE Mark Iplier.
-Return SE Mark Iplier to Executas Mother Ship for debriefing.
Considerations:
-Subject may be experiencing severe psychological trauma. Retain subject in sound dampening cell and disregard all information subject attempts to impart as unfounded and dangerous to the Empire.
Your performance will be monitored by the Admiral for consideration and possible advancement.
"Up to no good obviously..." Jack muttered, a disturbed look on his face as he held the scroll away from himself before he dropped it, shaking his digital hand to rid himself of its memory. "I'm allergic to creepy."
The scrap from the civilian ships was quickly collected and delivered to the Sparrow, as well as some extra equipment from the Dignitas, and an extra system's range array. Now the Dignitas would be unable to transmit across the system, or to the mothership Executas...
CHOICES
A- Keep the Dignitas in mind for later retribution and move on before they catch wise.
B- DUST THIS BITCH!
C- Go back to the Executas with the Dignitas and see what we can find out?
D- Let the crew fight about what choice to pick.
E- Take a moment to upgrade our fleet.
F- Other.
I'm leaning towards destroying the Dignitas here and now: They might be following orders, but they clearly are shooting anything that moves. In addition that captain there will babble about how he helped one "O'Connor, from the People's Hand" only to be told we've got no missions from them, which probably gets the entire skorm fleet on our tail.
Well: No comms, free supplies and a clean shot...I'm not one for backstabbery most of the time, but let's do this:B.
Oh, and listen to the Black boxes after we give the Dignitas a proper farewell greeting. B1 as endvote.
I'm leaning towards destroying the Dignitas here and now: They might be following orders, but they clearly are shooting anything that moves. In addition that captain there will babble about how he helped one "O'Connor, from the People's Hand" only to be told we've got no missions from them, which probably gets the entire skorm fleet on our tail.
Well: No comms, free supplies and a clean shot...I'm not one for backstabbery most of the time, but let's do this:B.
Oh, and listen to the Black boxes after we give the Dignitas a proper farewell greeting. B1 as endvote.
