Chronicles of The Omniverse Archived The Parameta Astro-Mall

as written by Stellar

Incredulous, Pandora's ensuing look would have been enough to shatter a glass. The guy really had a knack for pissing her off. Still, having someone like him on her side could help make things run a lot smoother, despite the resultant aggravation of having to deal with him and his merry band of Plague doctors. (Of course, she didn't know how close to the truth this assessment was). No matter how much she hated herself for having to admit it, she needed someone like Kaim to counter the sort of 'technology' Targard Tillman was running lose with. Without him, in her present state, Pandora would have to resort to medieval methods of taking Targard down; which, to a person like Pandora, sounded about as thrilling as watching paint dry.

Swallowing back her temper with a gulp of recycled air, she let her hand fall back to her side, fingers still aggravatingly tapping against her thigh. "Kaim, don't kid yourself. You and I both know you are presently permeating an air of complete and utter desperation, so just make this easy for the both of us. I need a man named Tillman, you need cash." She was going replay this moment later inside her head and cringe at ensuing taste of self-loathing. "Thirty-seventy. That's my final offer. Don't confuse this renegotiation with weakness."

To the melted-face ghoul, she finally assessed him with little more than a blink of an eye, finding herself already bored with this tirade—which was odd considering Kaim's companion had a face that looked like some Cubist painting left in far-too-close of a proximity to an industrial-sized oven. "And if you think you will get a chance to point a gun at the back of my head by the time this thing is through, then please, by all means, go ahead and try. But you might want to ask Kaim what happened to the last guy that attempted that. Or better yet, ask him yourself. I believe he is circulating Juiperus 9 from deep within the asteroid belt."
 
as written by Hyll

Sterling rolled his marble-like eyes in response to the girl's threats. He had no interest in asking Kaim about her ex-boyfriends and whatnot. Spacing? How original. It's an easy way out for murder, probably can't even stand seeing blood and gore.

"If you think you value your teeth, i know person who them values more."

Sterling had thought of taking skin and tooth implants once, but several cases show that the tissue refuses to couple with those afflicted with Red Throat, even when assisted by medicine. Those people got to live without faces and teeth for the rest of their days, since they couldn't get new ones. It wouldn't probably matter if they had found the fabled tomb-colony. Sterling had heard that the ruler of that place didn't have skin at all and was still ethereally beautiful.

Sterling turned his head to Kaim, he was getting very tired of this debacle. Taking the job would be beneficial at the current situation. He spoke:

"Look Jaechk, are we going to barter and take further threats from this leshanka, or are we going to earn some cash. I wager that the pay is better than anything going on here that doesn't involve scrubbing toilets. Who knows, maybe your super sleuthing skills will take us to opportunities down the road, yes?"
 
as written by Calcos

Kaim flashed a grin that would give the Cheshire Cat a run for his money, turning from the line and striding away at a brisk pace, not needing to beckon the others to follow. "We can talk about what I'm owed after the job's done. Tell me about this Tillman character," he said with an air of optimistic enthusiasm that often tended to grind the gears of individuals in his line of work into fine metal shavings, only to be swept up and used as a weapon in an attempt to murder that stupid, smiling face he so often wore, even in the face of adversity and people attempting to murder his stupid, smiling face.

"What's he do? Where's he live? What's he like to eat?" He fired off questions at gatling speed, undoubtedly getting on the girl's nerves and serving as muffled background noise to the little world Sterling often drifted into whenever Kaim initiated a conversation, as he consulted the holographic screen that erupted from the datapad on his wrist for any and all instances of the name 'Tillman,' which produced a million miles worth of results, the most prominent of those being in the form of a banking chain, a brand of primitive gardening tools, and an aged, rather grotesque-looking ex-porn star; Kaim was safe in his assumption that none of these had anything to do with the man Pandora was after. "The more we know about him, the easier it'll be to track him down."
 
as written by Luxin

Tenna remained rather quiet as he was brought to the spaceyard, focused deeply on the holo-display at his wrist. He was having the Ache'ra navigate around to act as support outside the docks themselves, and to act as aid in the event of a required rapid egress of the sector, while watching diagnostics run from the Solitude. What was coming up was nothing pleasant to his eyes.

As he'd worried, the ordnance had shifted in its containers, and while it hadn't done so in a way that was currently any more dangerous than the weapons were normally, the continued influence of the lock was only causing more problems. Even as the display updated in real-time, he could see that Solitude was doing what it could to reverse the effects, or to at least deactivate the weapons themselves.

And then he arrived at the yards, his cadre of SSSF leaving him on his own. He shook his head and muttered to himself about how it was just like any other bureacracy he'd dealt with, then continued on his way, display helping him wend and weave his way through the crowds.

To his right was the most open area or the port, several people walking and running freely through it to catch flights or get into the mall faster, but ever since he'd been gunned down in a side-street on Terra, Tenna had avoided the wide open spaces of urban areas. He scoffed and walked through the crowds, taking the extra time to do what he could to keep from being in a hurry, but as soon as he arrived at the SSSF blockage that kept others from approaching his ship, he walked through after being questioned only once.

In the background, as he walked forward and placed a hand on the hull of the ship he'd practically built from scratch, a woman shouted at him for being a fool and a ruffian. Someone who had forgotten who he was, and was willing to endanger thousands because of it. The words struck him as odd, but he passed it from his mind, focusing on the grav-lock stuck to the underside of his ship.

Looking at the clunky piece of work, he sighed. It wasn't terribly old, but it also wasn't brand new. Techniques to disarm these kind were little known, because they tended to get upgraded as soon as something better came out, as long as the money was available. He drew his sidearm and knelt beside the lock, fingers grazing over it, dancing lightly across the thick metal surfaces, as he searched for the access panel that allowed for manual operation. He found the small indent that indicated the system and pressed.

A harsh sound, indication of failed access, sounded from the lock and Tenna grimaced. He looked back at his display and shook his head. He didn't have the time to fight the lock.

"Solitude, I need you to very, very slowly release the weapons from their pods, forward from the launch system. I'm going to handle them directly and remove them from the lock's influence. Hopefully, I can fix you after that." His words were soft, as if spoken to a lover, and he walked to the front of the long protrusions on the fore-end of his craft. From them, after a few seconds, emerged acidic green canisters, each pulsing softly and looking almost organic in how they appeared. He held each gently, placing them on the ground perhaps a half-dozen feet from the ship. Every so often, he checked his display, growing more and more pleased as he went.

As the last pod-style weapon emerged and was set down safely, Tenna spun and dropped to one knee, arms raising to hold his sidearm steady. With a calm exhale he squeezed on the trigger four times, releasing a similar number of ferric pellets at several times the speed of sound at the lock. As each pellet struck the lock's outer casing, small pings would sound out, but holes appeared where they struck. He smiled as the lock's 'energized' indicator dimmed and then went out, the lock falling off his ship moments following that.

He sighed heavily and replaced his sidearm on his hip, relaxing and beginning to return the ordnance back to it's casings within the Solitude.
 
as written by Sentry

"Ah, right. Legion. You're a bit more than that, aren't you?"

She continued on. "Did you get here on your own ship? Thought that thing was destroyed on Traxas."
 
as written by Architect

"Affirmative. While we regret to confirm the total loss of the Rohu, it was not the only shuttle that we have within our fleet. This here is the Mk4, Designation: Minnow. A lightly armed transport class ship. Capable of short distance slip jumps. Mostly used in the drop ship role, though capable of providing CAS if necessary."

Legion went on to briefly describe the ship it had been admiring. "We would go further into specifics.....if we were you."
 
as written by Faithy

Zoe was not having a good day, which seemed to be her mantra as of late. It was tough being all alone out in the middle of the universe, but that wasn’t what bothered her. No, what concerned her the most was the fact that she hadn’t been able to find out any more information concerning her older brother. He was still alive, that much she was sure of, but his location was still non-existent. The eighteen-year-old even went as far as to follow a tip that was completely unlikely to actually lead her to him, but she couldn’t take the chance. What if she didn’t go and he ended up being where the individual said? That was her thought process with the last thirty tips, but she couldn’t ignore it. In her mind, there was too much at risk for her to look the other way. So, that was why she had gone to The Parameta Astro-Mall. She had gotten off at the port and went about poking around where she probably wasn’t allowed.

“Well, these computers ought to tell me something, I hope.”

Sitting down in front of one of the advanced looking monitor, Zoe took in a deep breath before clicking away at the keyboard. It took her a bit longer than what she wanted to break into the system, but hopefully she still had plenty of time to find out what she wanted before anyone found out she was there. Time was slipping away and Zoe whined under her breath, becoming increasingly frustrated as every minute ticked away. It seemed that her brother hadn't been on the station, but had left Onef a few months ago. Slamming her fist down, she inhaled deeply before once again pounding away at the keys. She had to find out where he went…!

Unfortunately, before she managed to actually locate him, an alarm started to blare above her head. Swearing under her breath, Zoe flipped up to her feet and shoved the chair against the desk before surging for the door intending on getting out and away before anyone showed up.
 
as written by Emperor Jester and Faithy

The alarm would continue to blare, even as a young man donned his SSSF attire, this time forgoing his helmet. In the datacenters, there wasn't much of a chance of being shot at, but even still, he was breaking protocol. With olive skin, dark orange hair cut neatly into a military crew cut, a strong jaw, and dark green eyes, Marshal 2nd Class Vrinan Laskeet made sure to radio in that he was responding to the situation. Before leaving his private room in the datacenter's security wing, he made sure his side arm, a Kurtrig ARP-320 plasma pistol, was secure in its holster, safety on. There were others in the center, besides the would be hacker.

Which was true. Being a multi-floored, data storage library, it was of course, open to the public. However, some things were kept on more secure servers, on more secure floors. How the intruder had even managed to get to one of those floors, and past the multiple firewalls actually managed to impress the Ruralite security officer. Still, he had a job to do, and even a minor breach of security for the GCUT had to be addressed. He'd probably get his pay docked for this as well.

He ordered for the elevators to be shut down, easily enough with the building's AI being programmed to respond to his command codes, as well as the top three floors, and the very middle floor, put on lock down. While he didn't know where the breach had happened, he knew it had to be somewhere on one of those floors. According to the rapidly updating report he was being hard-fed to his wrist mounted data pad, the criminal had hacked into the records on visitation, to both the mall and Onef. And as if to remind himself, he once again remembered that those floors were on the upper tier of the building. Vrinan couldn't afford another fuck up on his watch.

And with that cheery, optimistic thought, he began his patrol, trying to find anyone suspicious.

____

Cursing at the annoying alarm, Zoe sprinted for the elevators, slamming the button at least thirty times before the redhead realized that the doors weren’t opening. A second string of swear words slipped out of her mouth and she glanced around, looking for a set of doors that would lead to the stairwell. Surely there were steps, right? Frowning, she struggled to find a door that would lead her out of this floor, but every single one she found was very much locked. Shaking her head, she tapped her chin and debated on blowing open the elevator and climbing down.

“Hmm… that could work.” She walked back over to where the elevator was at and dropped her hand down to her thigh in order to grab her knife out. The eighteen-year-old decided to at least try that first. Slamming it between the doors, she wrenched it back and forth, trying to get the things to open up before whoever was hunting for her got to her floor.

____

The elevator wouldn't give much, but the magnetic locks were hardly the best the GCUT had to offer, and after a few agonizing moments, they'd begin to open, if slowly.

The officer was slowly moving his way up the various floors, corresponding his search with security cameras so he wouldn't have to check every room. Unfortunately, the hallways weren't equipped with cameras, which was a huge security oversight. He'd have to talk with the boys in Tech and Securement about that, see if he could get some installed. Not that that helped him at the moment.

However, his datapad would notify him of a forced opening of one of the elevator shafts on the seventh floor, two floors above where he was. This person was resourceful. Unlocking one of the stairwells that would lead him to the closest point of the breach, he'd begin casually jogging up the stairs, more than a little pep in his step as he went, drawing his side arm right before opening the door to his desired destination...

____

Grunting, Zoe worked harder on the doors, grinning when they started to open slightly. This was a lot harder than she thought, but there was no way she was going to give up. Her arms were starting to ache, but the redhead kept working on them. It wasn’t long before they inched open a little more, enough that she could sort of get her body between them to keep shoving. Putting her knife back away, she pressed her back against one and her arms against the others and grimaced, knowing her time was quickly running out.

“Come on, Zoe… you won’t do your brother any good if you’re arrested.” She hissed when she heard the door opening. Jerking free from the doors, she lunged behind a desk, grabbing out her caster gun before loading it with a shell
 
as written by Sentry

Ariel began to scowl at Legion, mouth opening to reply with a harsh comment, but something had her pausing.

She looked around, blinking behind her visor. She made a one-eighty, eyebrows furrowing.

"Legion. You got any... news about... anything going on?" she asked the bot as she began to walk. Her visor lit up, information scrolled across it that was visible strictly to the bounty hunter. "Some massive lunch break? Evac warnings? I dunno," she joked.
 
as written by Emperor Jester

The door opened but no one stepped through it. The lone SSSF officer had heard the rough tumble over a workstation, and tell-tale sound of a weapon being drawn from a holster. It seemed the perp was armed. First thing first however...

A prerecorded message would begin to play from his wrist mounted datapad, an obviously artificial female voice; "Attention law-breaker, you are in violation of several laws, ordnance codes, common-wealth rules, etc. You have exactly one minute to explain your actions and turn yourself over to the Public Security branch of the S.word S.hield and S.pecial F.orces officer or officers present." This would go on for some time, as it would then go into the specific transgressions and the punishment options for them. Once it was over, the officers gruff voice would call into the room.

"Thought that thing would never shut up. You going to put up a fight, or just come out quietly?" He asked this, thumbing the safety on his side arm.
 
as written by Faithy

A million and one different thoughts ran through Zoe’s head at the message being played over and over again, the voice annoying yet doing a pretty good job at making her realize just how screwed she was at that moment. Frowning, the redhead tried to figure out a way out of this mess, her gaze drifted towards the elevator. She hadn’t gotten it open enough to slip through it without being caught. Maybe she could draw the officer away from the door and make a break for it that way. Shifting a little, the teen looked around for something to cause a distraction, temporarily ignoring the male before realizing there was absolutely nothing to help her. Shooting him would give her a murder charge, which wasn’t what she wanted.

“…I’m innocent, officer. Just got lost.” She put the shell as well as the caster gun away and slowly slid to her feet, her hands out in front of her just like she saw many times when others got arrested. She knew that what she did wasn’t the brightest idea, but she was desperate to find her brother. Maybe this man would understand that. Then again, most officers were assholes that abused their powers.
 
as written by Luxin

Tenna stood and leaned against the Solitude after finishing returning the weapons to their containment bays onboard the ship, glad that none had detonated from the mag-lock that had kept him here this long. He looked out at the crowd, and thougha few people still watched in worry, most were going about their business. most, but not all.

There were perhaps four to five SSSF soldiers still watching him and maintaining a perimeter around his ship, if for no other reason than he'd just shown he had live ordnance rather easily accessible he suspected, as well as a few more skeevy-looking gazers. A duo in particular caught his eye, and then his stomach dropped as he recognized them. Well, they looked close enough to the people he thought they were at this distance, and he didn't really want to try his luck. He reached down and grabbed the remains of the mag-lock, a picture-perfect pellet hole in the outer casing from his one and only shot at the thing, and heaved it towards the remaining SSSF.

"Keep your locks off my damned ship from here on out, alright? Either that, or update 'em so they don't tweak with anything inside. If I hadn't been here, this coulda gone a far bit more galactically south than it did." He paused for a breath before continuing, a smirk touching his lips.

"Now, if you don't mind, I've got an AI out in the void waiting for me, and I'd like to take myself a stroll off this station before some other nonsense keeps my wings pinned down. Are you gonna be partial to that, or am I gonna have to find your boss and ask him instead?" The words, directed at the guards that formed their perimeter, were meant to incite them to action, though with their blank-visored helmets he could barely get any kind of a read on them.
 
as written by Architect

"You flesh-bags are sensitive to smells, perhaps those who caught whiff of your arrival elected to vacate the premises." Legion's reply was sharp, a jest in reaction to what it had said earlier.

It turned its head, looking around, and admitted that something seemed....strange.

"Attempting to hack into security systems....would most likely result in a negative penalty to Legion and G-cut relations. Perhaps inquiring with a member of the security staff would provide answers to your questions, with less harmful potential."
 
as written by Stellar

Patience was but a limited commodity.

"First off, he isn't listed in any database you might have access to so you can put away your Ask Jeeves." She said dryly, falling in pace with Kaim as he navigated his way through the crowd. "Secondly, this probably isn't the best location to be discussing details regarding the 'target'. The thing he stole is worth more money than what it cost to build this capitalist metal-giant or what you, I, and your no-face companion"—did it even have a name?—"will ever see in our combined lifetimes."

They walked by a stand selling photonic ball-point pens that holographically-altered fashion accessories with a click of a pen; a clear tourist trap and one hardly worth its advertised value.

The clerk peddling the gadget sung an off-key jiggle at them as they passed.

Pinching the skin between her eyes, Pandora assuaged the early assault of an inevitable headache.

If there was one positive thing to be said about Kaim—ignoring his eccentricities—he would get the job done, albeit in the most unusual and round about way. There was no point in trying to control him. For lack of a better word, she was at his mercy.

"Are you still flying in that deathtrap...something-bird." Pandora knew the name. She was just being purposefully forgetful. "Let's convene there and I'll tell you everything you need to know."
 
as written by Calcos

Kaim smiled as the myriad negatives flew from Pandora's mouth; the woman was clearly downplaying how effective the man she presently stood before was. "You haven't been doing this long, have you?" he said with a smirk, "And I'll have you know that the Lightningbird," he said with emphasis on the part she chose to ignore, "Is one of the safest vessels in deep space."

He continued to walk along, his gaze so fixated on the light-intensive, holographic screen from the datapad on his wrist that he nearly toppled a stack of cages containing domesticated dire cats. As the shop keep in charge of their maintenance shouted at him in a vaguely Asian dialect, Kaim kept scouring the deepest recesses of the deepwebs for Tillman's activities.

They made their way to the docking bay, where they would discuss their business in private upon his ship.
 
as written by Emperor Jester

Vrinan kept himself behind the doorway, his side arm still drawn, his instincts and body trained perfectly to blind fire around the corner and ask questions later. But this wasn't the military branch, this was the security branch. Glorified, over-trained police to the GCUT, its citizens, and its visitors alike. He did not holster his weapon, instead keeping it at his side. But he did turn the the safety back on, and he did his best to keep his voice neutral as he turned the corner, even understanding. "I highly doubt that miss. The computer sensors don't lie about things like that. I must admit, if it was you, I'd be impressed. It takes a lot to get by some of the firewalls, even in the sectors you were accessing. What were you looking for in the Visitor's logs, anyway?"

~~~~~~~

One of the Officer's reached up to his helmet for a brief moment. A few seconds later, the other security guards did as well. Then, the captain would nod, curtly. "Your complaint has been noted. On future visits, your ships have been tagged to receive special locking procedures. In the mean time however, Central has demanded that you report for questioning and processing. It is recommended you do not resist." As soon as the very last syllable was uttered, the other officers would draw their weapons. Not their side arms, no. Close ranged, multi-burst 600 kilovoltage plasma rifles. If they all fired at once, death was almost assured, but the weapons one-on-one purpose was clearing designed as an incredibly powerful, incredibly burn-y stun blaster.
 
as written by Faithy

When the officer finally stepped around the corner, she studied him silently, even going as far to note the weapon while attempting to figure what it really was as if that would really help her. Shifting her gaze back towards his face, Zoe fought to keep her emotions off her face, not wanting to give herself away even as he doubted her story. Truthfully, it was a pretty weak scenario, but she was willing to do whatever necessary to keep out of jail. Could she get to the door? No, he was in her way and would probably shoot her before she took three steps. Sliding her fingers through her crimson locks, pushing them out of her eyes, she just sighed softly and shrugged her shoulders, rolling them backwards to pop them.

“Computers are not infallible. This is all a misunderstanding, sir.” Her face remained blank and she kept her voice steady despite starting to worry about what he was going to do to her. Maybe he would go easy on her if she told? No, playing innocent for now was her best bet. Surely people got lost up on these floors before, right?
 
as written by Luxin

"I don't tend to take too well to demands, you know. You can always ask politely." His words were serious, despite the slightly jovial tone they carried. "I really don't want this to get messy, but if you keep pointing them damned guns at me, then we're gonna have some issues. What are they, 150KV class plasma blasters? Peacekeeping weapons, not really modern military, right?" He chuckled as he tried to figure out what he might be up against, then reached down to his right thigh.

Although his rifle was still aboard the Solitude, the pistol magnetically held to his thigh served as a backup that he was more than happy to carry openly. He lifted it up, fingers kept away from the trigger and the barrel aimed at the ceiling to avoid any confusion about his plans witht he gun. He really didn't feel like being blasted just because he was making a point.

"You see this? Rail pistol, high-quality make. Now, I'm not saying that your boys here have gone the wrong direction with plasma weapons, but ion weapons tend to do better in space. Less power needed per shot. I recommend investing in something more kinetic for peacekeeping and perdonal defense, if I were you." He laid the pistol on the ground and kicked it to slide it to the officer who had spoken.

"I got no problems going to see these people who wanna have a little chat, but I'm going as a free man. No cuffs or restraints, if you please." He smiled, as if he'd done this sort of thing before. "Oh, and I would advise against trying to fire my gun. It's not keen on playing nice with other people. Tends to melt hands off and such." He shrugged.
 
as written by Sentry

"Hm. No, I think I'll figure it out myself," said Ariel, looking over her shoulder. "You coming?"

Without waiting, she began to walk off. There was talk coming from somewhere around the bay. People that hadn't left. The bounty hunter made her way towards it. She didn't have her suit, but... the plasma whip, multipurpose pistol, and spark boots were good enough, right?

It's not like she couldn't avoid bullets worth shit and actually needed the suit.

Right.

"Hey, Legion, wanna play a game? It's called Cannon Fodder."
 
as written by Emperor Jester

The Datacenter officer shrugged his shoulders. "Look, if you don't want to admit it, thats your right. I can't force you to confess to something you may or may not have done, but for now, you are the primary suspect, and the video feeds show suspicious behavior, from you, after the alarm was sounded and the security programs triggered." Of course, he wasn't dumb enough to not realize any young girl might be scared if suddenly they were lockdowned to a floor of a building with no warning whatsoever.

"If you'd like to plead your case, you'll need to come with me to make an official statement, miss...?" He asked, probing for a name.

~~~~~~~~~

"Of course. While you technically are under arrest, we have received instructions to treat you as warmly as possible, Mr. Tenna." He signaled for the weapon to be confiscated, carefully. No telling what kind of trap could be triggered just by picking the side arm up. "There are some people here, as I have been instructed to relay, that have a very keen interest in you. And no, before you ask, no mention of cashing in on your bounty has been mentioned." The Captain smiled behind his helmet. However, now that the crisis had passed, the automatic alarm had ended, and people were once more beginning to roam about the landing bay.

The little scene playing out before the SSSF and the single merc was beginning to draw quite a bit of interest from those passing by. "We should move soon." But it was strange. He'd been told to arrest him after everything had calmed down, but no information had come forward as to where he should take Tenna...
 
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