Unity Station

First topic message reminder :

Just outside of Imperium space, a small but well equiped research station.

Unity is a joint venture between multiple worlds, hence the name. Xenobiology, anthropology and astronomy are some of the things researched here.
There's a small school, a few shops, one or two tiny restaurants and a coffee shop but generally speaking, the majority of the inhabitants are either researchers or family of researchers.

The chief of medicine is an insectoid woman named Yessalia.
Chief of security is a man named Tias.

"Yes, I'd like to know how Matt an Lana's meeting went," Asher said. "Matt must be having an interesting day." He really hoped Matt was doing better mentally than he had been a few weeks ago, for both Matt and Lana's sake.


~~
The glass cutter looked relieved that he hadn't apparently annoyed his customers. Although he was still confused. Oh well. "Thank you for your business," he said politely. "I'll do that."

Zara picked up her tea thermos, and would help collect any of Mourn's tools that were still lying about.

"Matt is good with children, i'd joke it was because he WAS one but that would be cruel wouldn't it?" Web smiled a genuine smile, looking for just a moment less tired and unwell.

---

Mourn stuffed things back into the pockets of his coveralls randomly and gestured that Amity follow.

the little drone kept high above everyone's heads while the projection smiled again to the glass cutter.

Mourn grinned at Zara, he'd taken a liking to her. Nothing like a bit of doing what he wanted and geeking out over technology to get the felid to decide you were now a friend.

Starr nodded again, walking with them towards the ship. "I hope he can be as at peace with himself as he once was." She said softly, maybe too soft to be heard.

Asher gave Web a small smile, but he wasn't quite sure what to say, so he kept quiet for now. Not for the first time, he wished that he'd taken more time to get to know Matt better back when he'd had the chance. Maybe then this would have been easier.
(To Vestia?)

~~
Zara smiled at the glass cutter, then headed out with Mourn and Amity. She grinned back at Mourn, it was fun to meet a hero shrouded in mystery and talk with him about really cool technology.
Not to mention she was feeling pretty good about the fact that she'd been hired today, and that neither the captain nor the ship where setting off any red flags yet. She had a pretty good track record for picking good crews to join, but even so, she was starting to think she'd done an unusually good job picking one this time.

(to vestia!)

---

Mourn grinned back at Zara, she looked cheerful. Of course now Amity was mostly fixed he still had that damn Terran United code which kept eluding him. Bah.
Still, it was somewhat nice to take a break with someone who actually got excited about technology.

"So what you do before?" He asked curiously.

(to Vestia)

"I travel," Zara said. "I stay with a ship for a while as part of the crew, then move on. There's so much to see in the galaxy, it'd be a shame to miss out on it." The explanation was as effortless as ever. She really had used it a lot over the years.

Mourn tilted his head. "Why leave old crew? Get bored or do something?" He grinned. "Old ship blow up, big boom, no more ship. So I get new ship." And he didn't seem overly distressed about that. Go figure.

"I like meeting new people and traveling, so I move to new ships regularly," Zara said, like that was a perfectly normal thing to do. "I haven't been fired in a while, and never for doing anything bad."
She frowned at his story, "Your old ship blew up? That's terrible, I'm sorry." He didn't look bothered by it, but he must be, she thought. How could someone not be bothered by an experience like that?

Mourn shrugged. "most crew get off, maybe survive. " He sounded pretty casual about it. "Like new ship."

Zara didn't see much pain, if any, in Mourn's expression. Normally she was fairly good at reading people's emotions, so that was odd.
Then again, by now she had started to get the impression that Mourn himself was pretty odd. Maybe he really didn't care much about losing his old home and crew.
"Have you managed to contact any of them?" she asked.

Mourn shook his head. "no try, old rule, if get separated, on your own." He nodded. It was fairly standard for pirate crews to be pretty mercenary like that.

Zara nodded, thinking that over. "What sort of crew were you on?" she asked. That sounded like the sort of policy more morally sketchy crews would have. "Most of the crews I've joined were super close, almost like families. But usually I join merchant crews." She didn't want a bounty on her, and hanging out with boring, law-abiding merchants was a good way to do that, yep.

Mourn shrugged. "Salvage." He told her, but the expression on his face suggested it was more than just that. "How long you think you stay this time? Ship big, fancy, very comfy." He nodded. "Also danger magnet." He cackled. "Big fun."

"Salvage, right," Zara said, skeptical. Oh well, none of her business if the Felid had a sketchy past, lots of people did.
"Probably a few weeks, maybe a month or two. I don't usually stay very long, even on really comfy ships." She nodded, "From what the Captain says, you guys run into trouble a lot. Where are we headed next, or is it secret?" Sometimes people were reluctant to share that sort of information with a newcomer, but Mourn seemed friendly so maybe it was worth a try.

Mourn shrugged. "No know, no care."

Amity followed along behind them quietly.

"been away long time or something, crew got family. Lots of crying, lots of hugging." He made a face. "That probably go on a while." Which in his opinnion was pretty damn boring.
"You only stay month?" He grinned his lopsided grin. "We see. I think you end up stay longer." He nodded. "most people do." He chuckled.

Zara nodded. "Sounds like this ship was away a long time... wherever you guys went." Had their navigation system been wiped, leaving them stranded? she wondered. Or maybe they had been captured in battle. The ship looking the way it did, neither would be a surprise.
She smiled lopsidedly. "We'll see. The longest I stayed with a crew was almost three months, I think traveling is just in my blood."

Mourn shrugged. "We see. Maybe you like it too much. " He chuckled, heading back toward Vestia.

(To Vestia?)

(yess)

(From Vestia)

Tala headed with Silence onto Unity in search of Esk or Hewitt and Amity. She sniffed the air, nostrils flaring, as she tried to catch their scents. Among the jumble of smells on a space station, it could be complicated to get a fix on one person's scent, but hopefully she could find someone.

"Can you smell anyone from our ship?" she asked Silence. She'd never really asked how strong a Shifter's sense of smell was.

Silence ambled after Tala, she wasn't particularly graceful. her form was far better suited to climbing than it was walking around a space station and she kept stooping and walking on all fours, claws clicking on the hard flooring.
People were definitely watching, not sure what the hell they were even looking at but trying hard not to be caught staring.

Silence didn't seem to notice, or much care.

She tilted her head at Tala's question, sniffing the air and shaking her head. Her sense of smell was pretty decent, but she had no real practice at differentiating humanoid scents. The scents of coffee and perfume and food was muddying it all anyway.

"You worried about them?" She asked curiously. "Is here dangerous?"

"I do not worry for them, they made their choice to come out here as is their right," Tala said. "Still, Vestia worries for her crew, and so we help to ease her worries."

She considered the people around them, gaze flicking from one person to the next. "I do not think this station is particularly dangerous, but hostiles can be found anywhere."

Silence shrugged, eyeing the locals suspiciously. Their thoughts didn't seem overly suspicious, if anything they seemed rather wary of the minotaur and her companion. This pleased Silence. She liked being seen as scary.

---

Meanwhile

Esk had left his appointment and headed across the main atrium, intending to head back toward the docks until something, or rather, someone, caught his attention. A humanoid man with a scarred face was standing nearby and caught Esk's eye with a cruel smirk.
Esk froze. He recognised the guy, a bounty hunter, they'd worked for the same boss back in the day. But if this bastard was here, he knew it wasn't for a friendly catch up.

His suspicious were confirmed when he felt something hard jab into his back and a gruff voice in his ear. "Shhh now, you don't want all these nice people to get hurt."

Esk swore under his breath and chanced a look over his shoulder. The other man was huge, closing in on seven foot, a brutal beastial looking creature with a small firearm pressed firmly against Esk's spine.

"I suggest you come along quietly. We've got business." The smirking man strolled over, talking in a casual tone, as if this really was just a business meeting.

Esk glared. He felt the gun dig in a little deeper.

No sense crying for help, he'd be dead before anyone could do anything anyway. He gave a begrudging nod and let them lead him off, away from the atrium, down a service corridor to some sort of warehouse area.
Esk knew this meant they fully intended to kill him.

"Do I at least get an explaination?" He asked as the door to the warehouse shut behind them with an unpleasantly final click. The big guy relieved him of his firearm.

The smirking guy shrugged. "you go dark for a decade, we all assumed you were dead after that Artruvian bounty." He chuckled. "Should have known you were too much of a weasel to stay dead huh?"

Esk glowered.

"Did you really think nobody would come to investigate if you reactivated your credentials?"

Esk continued to glare. Honestly he'd not even considered that, though reactivating hadn't been his idea in the first place.

"It's nothing personal you understand." The smirking guy continued, he always had loved the sound of his own voice. "Ahh who am I kidding, you know I never much liked you."

Esk snorted. "I assure you the feeling is mutual." He felt the rough hand of the ogre-like man on his shoulder. "Where'd you get the meat shield?"

"oh yeah, he's new. Cordar, this is Esk."

Cordar grunted a vuage response.

Esk really wished he'd put that damn gun down. Right now he just had to keep them talking. "So, the boss wants me dead huh? Figured that much when he sent me on that damn bounty. " he honestly wouldn't have been surprised if the slavers werent' part of the whole plan too.

"Yeah I dunno what you did to piss him off, all I know, there's a nice payday in it for us." The smirking guy shrugged.

Cordar laughed.

"So an even split, fifty fifty huh?" Esk turned his attention to the big guy. "How much is he paying you?"

"Don't try that shit." The smirk had fallen from the other man's face.

"try what?" Esk feigned innocence. "Hey, i'm just curious how much my head's worth nowadays. It's almost flattering that after all this time the boss still gives a shit."

"Listen, it's been fun catching up, but you know how it is, things to do, credits to spend." The guy withdrew his own gun. "Get him on his knees."

Esk waited for his chance.

He felt Cordar holster his gun, the pressure on his spine relenting at last. They'd want to go for a headshot, it was clean and quick. He felt hands on his shoulders and took the gamble.
He ducked down, kicking backwards as he dropped, catching the large man in the knee cap and sending him howling to the floor.
His partner barely had time to react before Esk had rolled forward and kicked his legs out from under him.
The gun dropped to the floor and both men were scrambling to grab it.

As the wrestled one another, Cordar managed to get to his feet, though he didn't look overly steady.

"Shoot him you idiot!" His partner yelled.

Esk managed to hit the fallen gun further from either of their grasp, taking several punches to the face as he tried to gain the upper hand. "Shoot me and you'll hit him" He pointed out.

This sufficed in stopping Cordar. The big guy wasn't sure what to do, he stood there, leg throbbing, gun drawn but a look of panicked bewilderment on his face.

Esk lost his grip on the other guy who scrambled on all fours toward his weapon. Esk dove for cover behind some crates.

"shit." He thought, spitting black blood onto the floor as he scanned the area for anything he could use as a weapon. This wasn't ideal. Unarmed with two thugs with guns, he didn't much like his odds.
His head throbbed but he ignored it.

He heard the other two moving around. The big guy was limping.

Ducked down behind crates Esk began to move, listening carefully, trying to remain hidden.

"Oh come on, at least die like a man!" The smaller guy was getting impatient now, he didn't want to have to play hide and seek.
Esk stayed silent.

He froze as a shadow fell over his current hiding place. Any moment and they'd find him. His gaze fell on a crowbar nearby, resting against an opened crate. He gripped it tightly, waiting for the moment and as the smaller guy rounded the corner, brought the weapon down with all his strength across the guy's head.
It made a satisfying cracking sound as the man was flung against a stack of crates by the force, hitting them face first and slumping, unconcious to the ground.

Unfortunatly that gave away Esk's position and Cordar opened fire.

Esk dove for cover as fragments of crate rained down on him, each shot uncomfortably close. He knew he couldn't engage this guy hand and hand, he needed his gun.
Or any gun really.
The unconcious man's firearm lay next to him, he picked it up, checked it and paused. The gunshots had stopped. He listened. Was the guy reloading? He couldn't pinpoint his location. He risked poking his head out from behind the crates to look, which proved to be a mistake as two huge fists came down on him. Cordar picked him up like a doll and flung him. Esk hit a wall, winded, the gun now somewhere between himself and his assailant who was charging, yelling as he came.

Esk managed to scramble for the gun in record time, raising it and pulling the trigger blindly.
Three shots hit the large target but it didn't slow him down. He plowed into Esk with a roar.
Esk nearly dropped the gun again, using his free hand to try to fend off the frenzied blows. The gun's muzzle was pressed hard against Cordar's gut, Esk could barely get enough leverage to pull the trigger but he managed it at last. The gunshot was muffled, at first Esk wasn't even sure it had gone off, till he saw Cordar's expression. The man had frozen, eyes wide. Then he let out a gurgle and Esk shoved, the huge ogre-like figure pitching to one side and rolling to the floor where he didn't move again.

Esk lay there beside him, panting. His hands were shaking but he clasped the gun tightly anyway. Was it over?

After what felt like several minutes he hauled himself into sitting position, leaning against the wall, trying to catch his breath. His face was soaked with blood, his body ached, his head was swimming.
He was just starting to relax when he caught sight of movement in his peripheral vision. He dodged to one side as a crowbar smashed against the wall where his head had been only moments before.

Bloodsoaked and with a deranged look in his eyes, the smaller guy wasn't smirking now, he was positively fuming. Crowbar in hand, he took another swing.

Esk ducked, scrambling to his feet and fleeing blindly into the maze of crates once more.

"you were supposed to be fearless, that's what they said." The man called after him. "But i've known children who've died with more dignity!"

Esk tried to aim the gun, he still had a couple of bullets left, but his hands were shaking too hard. He swore under his breath, giving away his position. The crowbar clanged against a metal crate just inches from him. A second swipe caught him in the shoulder. He dropped the gun.

---

(should be enough noise to alert anyone right? lol)

(Hahaha poor Esk)

They made it some distance in their search, before the gunfire started. Tala's ears perked and swiveled as she tried to triangulate the sound, then stilled as she settled on the source of the noise. "Come!" she ordered Silence, and set off at a run toward the fight.

Silence tilted her head at the gunshots, not sure what to make of them. She blinked slowly, then lumbered after Tala. She had no real turn of speed though, falling behind quickly.

---

Esk cursed and kicked out at his assailant, managing to get him to stumble back a pace and give him a chance to scoot backwards, hopefully out of range. He tried to ignore the searing pain in his arm as he struggled to get one glove off.

The other guy laughed as he bent to pick up the gun, cocking it and pointing it at Esk's head.

"Any last words?"

Esk glowered. "Go fuck yourself."

Tala drew her gun as she approached, readying for a fight. Upon reaching the warehouse door, she would open it quietly, so she could look in and hopefully get an idea of the situation without being immediately fired upon. Her ears twitched with irritated amusement when she saw what was happening; it seemed Vestia's worries had been well founded.

"Choose your next move carefully," she called, using the doorframe as cover as she took aim at Esk's attacker. "If the young man dies, your life is forfeit."

(Assuming the door is unlocked, of course)