YWS in Space

*Scar it'll be an honour to serve*

Name: Skull3670

Nicknames: Skull, Skully, LeeCh

YWS Age: 2 years, approx.

Occupation/Rank: Member. Sparrow Class Pilot and Science Officer.

Appearance: 6ft2 with shaggy blonde hair. Mk.II Combat boots (because the old ones are far comfier, Stella be damned!), faded old world blue jeans, standard body armour over a tight black t shirt and a chemical stained lab coat. Evidence of cybernetic implants can be seen on close inspection.

Skills: Chemistry, Xenobiology and Morphology, Swordplay

Other: Wields one katana, a selection of knives and a pair of Boltok Revolvers.

Ship:
Fleet: ERA.
Name: Arwen.
Classification: ERA Escort/Frigate.

Personal Ship:
Fleet:ERA
Name:The Iron Casque
Classification: One man dog fighter
Appearance: From afar it appears sleek as a needle. Up close the clunky almost home made quality of the block becomes apparent. Many bumps and scrapes adorn it's thick metal plating (in a mish mash of colours from being repaired with whatever was on hand). She's a noisey, quirky old brute but she does the job.

*Room for one more?*

Name: Kobain LXXII (his family gave up on thinking of original names for their sons a Very long time ago). Kobain will do just fine though

YWS age: Nearing 3 years

Vices: A gambling addiction which may or may not have caused him to lose his ship, leaving him stranded - for now - at the space port

Strengths:

Appearance: 5'8"; male; buzzcut brown hair; maroon irises; currently sentenced to an indefinite stay in a full-body fighter pilot's uniform with thick boots till he can find more clothes.

Items currently on person:
a wallet;
a rudimentary PDA which is little more than a to-do list and a map (it does have Angry Birds though, so all is not lost);
a lighter
a packet of chocolately snacks
an old blaster built by Kobain LXIX and given to Kobain LXXII as a present on his eighth birthday. As nice as it is, Kobain was always a little miffed he only got a shooter while his brother got LXIX's latest invention: a sword with a laser for a blade that could cut through anything. He called it a LaserSabre (for copyrite reasons)

Ship:
Fleet: pah! who needs a fleet when you've got an Armada!...oh, that's spanish for...nevermind then.
It used to belong to a gang called The Armada, but was rudely won fairly in a game of Five Finger Fillet by some alien bandits who promptly flew off in it
Name: Nostromo (copyrite be damned!)
Classification: stolen bucket of rotting bolts
Appearance: a ship-shaped plot device used primarily to force my character to interact with people

I grinned with glee as the viscous purple fluid oozed down the tube and into the fractionating column.
"Time to see just what your made of," I smirked looking down at the head less corpse. "Clean work if I do say so myself...I really need to stop talking to corpses." I turned and elbowed the console, not wanting to use my gore encrusted gloves.
"Science log 36 dash 9. Once the initial chitinous plates are removed they are of fundamentally Origin Species make up. Muscle over the usual functional organs with the interesting addition of a large green sack. Note that for further investigation." I peeled off my gloves and threw them nonchalantly into the bio-hazard bin, stepped through decontamination chamber and out into spacious central corridor of the Arwen.
"Approaching YWS station. Prepare for docking procedures, All crew are cleared for personal time while refuelling is under way but please people, keep an eye on your comms piece." Scar's voice echoed through the ship. I could almost feel that last comment being directed at me.

"And all ten of them come at me at once; teeth and talons everywhere! At first I'm just batting them off in every direction - acting more savage than they are haha! - then I remember the flare gun. And, as one of the... things starts wrapping its salivating jaws round my left shoulder I pull the gun out - don't forget we're in the engine room - and I wait..." Kobain could feel his entire inebriated audience's bated breath all over him. He grinned at them knowingly; assuring them their brave raconteur would survive this tale shortly and completely unharmed.
"Now there's only one thing other than vile alien flesh I can see at this point: that's the lone window they put in that engine room. I'm guessing it was there just to stop the guys down there going crazy way back when - before the breach - but now it's so much more: it's my salvation. I stare at it, blind to the pain in my shoulder 'cause I know... I know any second now a big old ship piloted by none other than my good friend Lazarus Bareknuckle will come drifting into view through it. And that's when I make my move..."
"How did he know your ship needed help?" a more sober heckler shouted from the back of the now-substantial crowd.
"There! I could see it now!" Kobain ignored the heckle, figuring with the bar at near full capacity a couple more patrons and the offending logical thinker would soon get pushed out.
"The nose of the ship glides into view and I am out of there. I can already see Lazarus readying his doors for my entry. With a quick tap on the head I dislodge the one pesk from my shoulder, aim the flare gun directly at where I know for a fact the engine of my old beauty is and..." the bar was nearly bent in half by this point they were leant in so close. Kobain lowered his voice slightly for added tension. "There was a split second where all that alien scum realised - as one - what I'd done... and that they were all going to hell that day." Then it was time for a rapid increase in volume for the tales finale.
"Then the flare hit the engine and I rode that explosion out that window with enough time to turn and flip 'em all the bird before they were incinerated and I landed safely in Bareknuckles ship!" Kobain finished with his arms aloft and was pleased for his story to be greeted with actual applause. "And that is how I sadly lost my beloved Nostromo and ended up here. Bareknuckle had some pirates to go help, so couldn't hang around." There were a few grumbles at this conclusion, but once the fun was clearly over the crowd quickly dispersed.
Except for one lad. Probably only about eight by Kobain's approximations. A stowaway; lied about his age, Kobain figured.
After an uncomfortabley long bout of staring and silent adulation the boy finely spoke.
"Is that really all true?"
Kobain thought for a moment. How much did he want to break the kid's heart?
With a nod, he replied "Some of it."

The Cat's Eye docked at the YWS Station with a hiss. Nobody heard it because they were in space, but Grif had assured them on countless occasions that there was, indeed, a hiss.

Rydia was already waiting at the exit. The rest of "lunch" had passed without event (despite Charlie's suspicions that Noni was simply biding her time). Charlie had changed into a spare suit and, with the PSG holstered inside his jacket, they trio left the spaceship and entered the site proper.

They were greeted by the "Welcome Area". It was a large foyer, more like a hotel reception than your standard spaceport arrivals zone. The floor was a buffed chrome that looked like it had been polished recently. Noni and Charlie immediately ran forward and tried to see who could slide the furthest and with most style.

Rydia laughed and moved over to the sign-in desk to log them in. As soon as she did so a PM popped up on her HUD. It was from Grif.

"Time to move, guys," said Heather to Charlie and Noni. She spoke with a gentle but firm commands. "Grif's sent out a mass PM. We're needed at the SPEW Gryphon."

"Is this about the state of the Randomosity forum?" asked Noni. "Because I totally had nothing to do with that."

Heather looked puzzled. "What's wrong with the Randomosity forum?"

Noni blinked. "Err... Nothing?"

Charlie stepped forward. "If Grif needs us then we'd better get moving. There could be writers in trouble."

"That's right," said Heather. "Let's not waste any more time."

"But let's not be too hasty either," added Charlie unhelpfully. "If it's writer trouble then we may need to REVIEW the situation."

The other two just set off down the corridor. Charlie shrugged. You can't win them all.

"...he replied, "Some of it"." I finished, waiting for the shiphand's response.

"Ha! That b******. How do you know this Kobain anyway?" He seemed impressed.

For a moment I contemplated telling him the truth: that the whole scene in the bar was a lie just as entertainingly woven as the one my counterpart in said fictional bar had spun; that the only truth in either of the tales was that I had indeed lost my ship.
I considered admitting, shamefaced, that I simply got bored waiting for new ships to dock and lies were just too tempting a treat to wrap my tongue around for me to ever resist the taste of one. It seemed only fair to be honest with the man. And considering lying was what had gotten me into this shipless mess in the first place, maybe I should cut back on it...

"I was that boy," I replied sincerely, promising myself that that would be the last lie. For a while.

With that, a wave and a smile I parted ways with the shiphand. I had just seen an escort frigate docking not far from our position named Arwen, and considering The Lord of the Rings was one of my favourite stories, it seemed as good a ship as any to start my search for a lift with.

Skull3670


The ship docked soundlessly. Well soundlessly if you were floating in space. Inside there was an almighty clunk followed by a series of hisses as the connecting tunnels were pressurised, oxygenated, etc.
I ran a hand through my hair. Two washes a day had finally removed the last of that lab assistants remains. I warned him about dissecting Exploding Slug Worms of T'othic without a blast screen and due to his stupidity I had found an ear in the air vent.
I was jolted from my revelry by the swish of the corridor doors opening. I blinked twice and the world in front of me was overlaid with information. A minimap in the top right corner, facial recognition giving me names and important information including one big flashy: CHECK YOUR HANDS!! I had added that after post-dissection I had attempted to shake hands with a diplomat while still wearing my gloves and nearly caused a diplomatic incident. Damned Vegan Overlords of Vegetaria.

The Gryphon wasn't docked far from The Cat's Eye and as the trio rounded the corner, they could see other members already boarding and even more waiting outside.

"What do you think's going on?" Noni wondered.

"Must be something big. The message said he wanted at least one representative from every ship docked here." Heather pulled a walkie talkie from a slot in her armour. "Mac, turn on the recording device on my armour, I want you to play this meeting back to the rest of the crew."

"Can I add my own sound-track?"

"No, Mac. This could be serious." Heather relayed a few more instructions as a very excited Jabber came bounding up to the group.

"Hey Jabber, what's the situation?" Charlie asked.

"You guys are back, you're here! Did you hear about the trouble with randomosity?"

"What trouble?" Heather broke away from her conversation and put the walkie talkie back with a frown.

"Never mind! Grif wants us on board, or he might have said he wants us to be bored, I'm not really sure which it was!"

"Then I guess we'd better get going." The four members made their way through the crowd to the front where they were quickly granted permission to come aboard. They found Grif who was looking very dashing in his new, Moderator Green suit.

"Grif! Is that a new suit? It really-"

"Charlie! No repeats," Heather chided with a shake of her head.

"Yeah, it looks good," Charlie substituted with less enthusiasm but then his tone jumped back to its usual volume: "So good in fact that I'm GREEN with envy."

"You might want to work on that one," Heather said as the other two girls giggled together. "He's the one wearing green so when you say you're green, it doesn't quite make sense."

Charlie thought about this for a moment and then he had a rare insight into what was going on here and turning to the Heather behind the computer screen, he said: "I guess so, afterall the writer is always WRITE!" Heather blinked and decided it was time to end the post.

Grif looked out over the crowd of pilots and Captains. Quite a few had shown up. He looked over his notes for the briefing. He looked around, looking for a way to leave; but none appeared.

Grif was a moderator without portfolio. Some Moderators, like Rydia and Jabber, were in charge of organizing Jr. Moderators and keeping tabs on portions of the site. Others, like Grif, had no formal assignments; instead they worked as moderators. On certain occasions, they would be called upon to perform special events, such as organizing a review day, hosting a radio show, and, on occasion, they would be sent on dangerous missions to undisclosed locations.

Today though, Grif had been very unlucky. Shortly after Nate had given him this assignment, Grif found that his ship was grounded, his accounts were frozen, and that his messaging system had sent out a mass PM by itself. Such things happened when Nate had Adelaide enforce his orders. Grif gave up. The only way out was through. He stood up on stage and spoke.

"Fellow members," Grif started. "Welcome to the First Annual Safety Meeting for ships and pilots. Today, we'll be going over some of the new safety regulations that Big Brother has put in place for the protection of YWS members in space..."

Within five minutes, the room had fallen into a trance, and the lecture began to take more casualties than they were supposed to prevent. Members were snoring and drooling, others were paralyzed by boredom. Only the AI's seemed diligent.

The saddest group was those that thought that it was a combat briefing. The disappointment on their face was frozen in place. If YWS ever needed to do a site wide combat briefing, an Admin would most certainly be in charge of it. The safety briefing ended two hours later and ended as all briefings should: with refreshments.

"Tell me something," Adelaide asked.

"What?" Grif replied.

"Why were you so boring?"

"I'm always that boring."

"No, you're not. I was monitoring your briefing and I found it was 8.95 on a boring scale between 0-10."

"You have a way to measure boredom? You must have been very bored to have come up with that."

"This isn't about me. It's about you. I've compared the briefing you gave today with other briefings you've given, and found that you are four standard deviations away from your average boredom scale measurement."

"How interesting."

"The probability of someone being that boring by random chance is so small, that it suggests that you were being purposely boring."

"You flatter me, but you needn't be so kind."

"You gave a similar talk on Eurola V. The Princesses became so enamored with you after that speech, that they stowed away in the Gryphon's cargo hold. We're still not allowed to enter that system unless our need is most urgent."

"In fairness, they were only interested in my body," Grif said.

"Terlin III, Prime Minister Altha gave you her private com line and asked you to stop by soon after a short talk on the dangers of space."

"She wanted me for my ship."

"And Chancellor Verdun decided to triple the funds to his space program after your talk about space travel."

"Good heavens. What was your point again?"

"You were being boring on purpose, just so that Nate wouldn't ask you to give the safety brief again."

"If what you're saying is true, then I should be the last person to admit it. Did Nate give us a new assignment?"

"He did, a pirate hunt. The Gryphon and some other ships will be taking part. Should be pretty straight forward. I've scheduled a meeting for tomorrow with those involved."

"Excellent, then all we need to do is relax," Grif said.

Skull3670
YWS station

As I reached the main corridor my internals comms piece sprang to life inside my head.
"Sir, it appears you've missed a safety brief. Since the ship wide automated assistance system was in attendance it is available for you to peruse." Came the clear, posh englishmans voice.
"Upload it to the Arwen I'll take a look at it later."
"But Sir I really must insist."
"Mute," I smirked as the system fell silent. A few important people and places of note popped up in my view including one which caught my eye.
Kobain was onboard. Noted for his silver tongue and gambling problem. He had also one run with a particularly questionable bunch called the Armada. But why did this one human being out of all on board attract Skulls attention?
His last name. Another family intelligent enough to simply number following generations. Sure 72 was a far stretch from 3670 but at least they had learned. With an inquisitive smirk and the glint of adventure in his eye he strode off in search of what he hoped would be a kindred spirit and perhaps even a ... friend.

The SPEW Gryphon slid out of dock and made its way for space. Adelaide flew the ship, as usual. Behind the SPEW Gryphon were a number of other ships, such as the Cat's Eye, the Larvitar, and the some other ships that Grif didn't recognize. In a moment, their AI systems would brief them on their part of the mission.

"We've cleared YWS station," Adelaide reported.

"Alright, tell me about where we're going," Grif said.

"The Lunka system. It is home to eight major asteroid fields, we believe they were planets once, but someone decided to destroy them long ago. Miners discovered the system and have been mining the asteroids for metal. They prospered, which brought pirates."

"Great, so why do we care?"

"One of the mining companies has put a pretty big bounty on the pirates. If we manage to collect on the bounty, then it will go a long way to funding the rest of the Apollo project."

"What data do we have on the pirate attacks?"

"Nothing yet. When we arrive in system we can get more information from their Chief Security Officer, an Admiral Rippa. We can find the Admiral on Lunka IV."

"All these ships seem like overkill."

"The Lunka system is very large, with a lot of places to hide. The more ships we send, the more area we can cover."

"Okay, plot a course for the Lunka system and activate the forum jump drives," Grif ordered.

Scar; ERA Arwen, Bridge:

Scar shut down the video link with Griff's conference and turned away, moving on to more important things. "That was...interesting," Scar commented, frowning at her computer screens. "Elai, where the heck is Griff taking us?"

"I am not entirely sure yet, Captain," replied the AI. Scar looked towards the AI's screen and sighed.

"That would be right. Let me guess, orders from the top?" Elai didn't reply. Scar shook her head and went back to checking her screens. "Either way, I suppose Griff wants everyone's help."

"It would appear as such."

"Elai." Scar eyed the screen and began running a few tests. "Not helping. Now, follow the Gryphon . I don't want to lose him."

"Yes, ma'am."

"And don't call me ma'am, Elai," Scar snapped as the ship fell into line with the others. The YWS Space station grew smaller as the group moved further away. "Run those scans I was talking to you about earlier, too, by the way."

"Yes.... Captain."

Scar ignored the AI as she went about her business. "3670, come in," she called over her com. Her so-called guest didn't reply. "Skull? Are you there?" She frowned when the com remained silent. "Damnit." Where was he when she needed him?

Skull
YWS station

"Sir were receiving a call from Scarlett. Shall I put her through?"
"That depends Jeeves. What is it about?" Of I didn't need to answer I wouldn't. As much as I loved my lab and the Arwen it was nice to get out for a little while. Meet people, see sights, grow as a person and all that other gobbledegook Jeeves spoke about in my psych evaluation.
"I don't know Sir but it may have something to do with why the Arwen and many other ships just left the immediate system."
"What?!" People jumped in surprise and I realised I had yelled that out loud. "Where are they going?"
"No idea. Shouldn't take long I imagine."
"Patch me through Jeeves."
"It would appear she has put the phone down. She does not sound pleased."
"Patch. Me. Through." Each syllable ground out through gritted teeth.
"Skully," it almost sounded like she sighed my name.
"Scar where in all the universe are you going? I'm still on the station and you have a delicate specimen in mid-open dissection in the lab!"
"Open dissection! It's nothing that's going to blow up again, right?"
"Right. You banned that remember. Anything specimen that is believed to be explosive is not to be brought on board without express orders."
"Well get in that bag of bolts you call a ship and catch us up before we leave the system."
"The Iron Casque is on board."
"Then this conversation is over."
Great, off on an adventure without me already. Still how much science could I really miss? Anything important and they'd bring me one back. I may be a little crazy and unorthodox but damn am I good at what I do.
"Oh well. Come on Jeeves lets find this Kobain character."

Noni sat aboard the Silver Shuriken, playing a fruitless game of tic-tac-toe with Kalaila. "Maybe we should play a game of hangman," said Noni as she tapped the bottom right corner of the grid on the screen. Kalaila responds by placing a cross in the square above.

Noni jumped as a high-pitched ringing shot through the cabin. She then groaned as she tapped the glowing icon in the corner of the screen of her n-pad. "Noni of the Silver Shuriken," she said as Charlie's face appeared on the screen. "What's up?"

"Why aren't you heading out with the rest of us?" he asked.

"Huh?"

"I'm currently on the Cat's Eye, heading for the Lunka system. Seems like the SPEW fleet's throwing a party and forgot to invite you."

"Kali, check my inbox, has anyone sent me any messages about a 'party'?" Noni already knew the answer as she already had her inbox open in another window.

"No, Noni. Nothing at all relating to a party."

"Kali-"

"You need the rest."

"Sorry, Charlie," said Noni, "my AI is being a pain again."

"Is it being A pain in the I?" Noni gave a soft chuckle and closed her inbox.

"Well, thanks for that," she said. "I'll be on my way now." Noni then cut the connection and turned to face the big screen on the wall. "Set our course to the Lunka system and step on the gas. We may be a little late, though we shouldn't miss too much fun." Noni then got up and headed to her quarters, preparing for the up-coming battle.

I'd missed it! How had I missed the first good ship I'd seen in a week?!

I knew why I'd missed it, I just didn't want to admit it.
On my way over I'd been distracted. It was that simple. But don't try and tell me if you saw an Englishman, a Scotsman and a Frenchman walking into a bar you wouldn't follow them.
It didn't turn out as entertaining as I'd hoped.

Had anyone even got off the ship?
I decided to head over and check out the dock it had been in anyway.