RPGWW

by **SALSAlys** » Thu Apr 10, 2003 10:14 pm

Aboard the Trailblazer, in the year 2271....

Two men in black uniforms were practicing their hand-to-hand combat near the center of the ship, a relatively short walk away from the engine room on one side and the ship's physician on the other. Both of them are of above average height, but one is truly immense; over six and a half feet.

The large one has slightly wavy black hair, with lightly tanned skin and green eyes. Despite his size, he carried himself with an easy, lithe grace, and moved deceptively quick.

His opponent was getting the worst of it. Half a foot shorter than the other, the blonde man with the slicked back blonde hair was getting thoroughly trounced, but his expression was fixed to no more than a slight grimace. His cold blue eyes surveyed the enemy, and then he saw an opportunity, darting forwardâ€”

THWUMP!

The black-haired man stepped back, and rubbed his jaw gingerly. "Dammit, Calvin, you didn't have to hit so HARD."

"Better from me than from a REAL enemy, Jon," replied the blonde, cracking his arms slightly.

A slender, willowy young woman with pale skin and large, delicate green eyes was watching them. Her luminous golden hair was tied back in a loose ponytail, and Jennivere bit her lip slightly, unsure of whether to offer assistance or not.

* * *

In the office nearby, the ship's physician was busy finishing a transmission to his wife. His thin silver spectacles were starting to slide off the bridge of his nose, and he pushed them back up with a dark hand, then brushed back a lock of prematurely graying hair.

Well, not much else has been happening lately. Calvin's being an ass about Ake, but it's not too much of a problem. She doesn't like him either. More than I can say about her opinion of the nurse, but she's behaving, since Jenni really doesn't feel comfortable with that sort of attention.

That's pretty much it for recent ship's gossip, Maggie my darling.

love, Eduardo

* * *

Sam Lemington, communications technician to the starship and looking very underfed despite practically inhaling all food within reach....

Was asleep in his room, dozing lightly.

* * *

A tall, rangy black woman was pacing the ship. A black jumpsuit with a small red badge over the left breast identified her as being Captain Tanake Ozulu. Small, gold stud earrings caught the light as she moved, and her head was nearly shaved. Eyes nearly as dark as the voids between stars flit about as she walked. A metallic blue raygun hung at her left hip.

Edited by: [url=http://pub30.ezboard.com/brpgww60462.showUserPublicProfile?gid=salsalys>SALSAlys</A] at: 6/30/03 10:56 pm

by **JoshuaDurron** » Thu Apr 10, 2003 10:59 pm

One Derrik Roberts Jefferson, chief engineer of the Trailblazer, sat slouched to one side, almost dozing in his chair after last night's marathon paperwork organizing. The sound of the engines, not five feet from his head, soothed his tired mind, almost bringing him to relax. This sound, and only this sound remained of his memories of the war. It was the only thing that had been with him then that had stayed with him until now, and it was the one reminder of that time that he didn't mind.

Well, perhaps that was not entirely true. The captain was also from that time. In fact, he had met her once briefly, at the end of that time. She had been part of the team that had pulled the crew of the Idaho out of the remains third front after the war ended. He found her to be a reasonable, levelheaded woman, and they seemed to think alike on many aspects of the war...

With a start, Derrik shook himself out of his musings, looking around. The five foot, five inch tall man stood and stretched, brushing a few locks of his dark brown hair out of his eyes, shoving them roughly towards the loose ponytail that fell in a ragged shower to just below his shoulder blades.

"Hm... where is that old grease monkey, Liam?" He thought. Now might be a good time to overhaul engine three while it wasn't needed. It hadn't been performing to specs the last few weeks...

by **CaptainCommando** » Fri Apr 11, 2003 9:42 am

Space, the final frontier. A place of near infinite mystery, a place of calm and beauty. One could stare off into it forever.

Mostly though, space, was a place of boredom. A thin young man with short sandy blonde hair and light green eyes lay on the small bed in his quarters and stared up at the ceiling, his eyes nearly closed, and his mind wandering. He was Edmund Cypress, an advance scout assigned to the Trailblazer by the army, in case they ever found anything that needed... well, scouting. So far, nothing had been found. The waiting was killing him. (Even though he hadn't really been waiting that long, relatively)

Until that time came though, there wasn't much to do aboard the ship that interested him. With a sigh Edmund hopped up and stretched with a loud yawn. Well, I shouldn't just lay around all day. he thought to himself as he stepped out of his room, and headed off to take another, (his tenth) tour of the ship, humming quietly to himself and thinking ahead to what might be found on the expedition.

Edited by: [url=http://pub30.ezboard.com/brpgww60462.showUserPublicProfile?gid=captaincommando@rpgww60462>CaptainCommando</A] at: 4/11/03 4:26:06 pm

by **FlamingDeth** » Fri Apr 11, 2003 12:04 pm

A grey haired, blue eyed man of average height quickly brushed past the two men sparring in the hallway. Liam O'Fearghail, engineering assistant on the Trailblazer, had taken more time than he anticipated in fixing a little problem with the power conduits to the messhall, and was now late on his way to the engine room.

However, he slowed to a halt as he entered said room, eyes scanning for the chief engineer. Being the only other person in the room, Liam spotted him fairly quickly. "Aye, sorry 'bout that, laddie, but they insisted that th' mess 'all 'ave heat 'n lights afore I left..."

by **JoshuaDurron** » Fri Apr 11, 2003 12:57 pm

Derrik gave a wry smile as Liam came in. "I suppose that's understandable, although I'm not sure we'd notice the difference in the food if it wasn't cooked. Anyways, there's no real hurry today, I think. But I wanted to have a look at engine 3 while we're cruising, it seems to be acting a little tempermental of late. Do me a favor and get out the engine kit?"

by **Blaze Yamato Spirit** » Fri Apr 11, 2003 1:55 pm

Candice was in her "room", which really consisted of four walls with just enough space within for her to sleep lying down. Long Auburn hair fanned out behind her head as she lay down from a sitting position, looking up at the ceiling, and blinked, long lashes closing around her brown irises like shutters and pulling apart again in a splitsecond.

The girl was feeling decidedly claustrophobic. She was an outdoor person; Candice loved the feeling of being alone in some uncivilised place, with only plants, insects, and animals for company. She had been on starships before, but she had never got used to them - how confining they felt.

Sighing, Candice closed her eyes and imagined herself alone on a windy moor. Slowly, she drifted off to sleep.

She had left her door unlocked, so that she could easily be woken up if she was needed.

by **ChristianC** » Fri Apr 11, 2003 2:00 pm

In one of the small gun-turrets on the ship a loud cursing and swearing originated and echoed down the ship. A mix of english and french with a coarse voice made even worse by the clear corridors, the sound would've made even a "Maiden of Paris" blush.

Sticking out from under the control board of the turret was a long pair of legs dressed in a typical mechanic outfit, covered in old spots from any kind of substance used in maintenance together with food stains. Coming from inside the machine was a loud clanging and banging noise, always accompanied with a curse or two. Every now and then the feet twitched slightly and from time to time they paddled around to bang into whatever unfortunant object in the way.

Suddenly the feet stopped moving until another loud bang was heard, this time accompanied by a shriek.

"Accursed piece of scrap MACHINE!!" The voice finally yelled when it'd been groaning in pain for a few moments. After that a pair of thin hands grabbed the edge of the open hatch and pulled out the source of all these sounds.

The mechanic looked like the reject from a bad cyberpunk movie, dressed in an old and worked-in overall as mentioned before, but together with a yellow-gray scarf worn directly under the nose and knit tightly so as it wouldn't drop.

What could be seen from the face of the person was his large and protounding nose, rather sharp and straight with a big black spot over it and the rest of the face. Worn over the eyes was a pair of dimmed goggles, and above all rested a kind of hedgehogy-styled brown hair, like everything else covered in oil.

The man stood up and brushed off the legs of the overall, resulting only in it gaining another layer of grease and oil. He took up a small brown handkerchief from a pocket and wiped his face, barely thinning the thick black gunk on it.

by **ArgusDevilmen** » Fri Apr 11, 2003 2:23 pm

In the pilots seat, well if you would call it a seat. Felt more like a sticky hammock.... Sat Kyoko Suzaharu, (last minute last name!) a red haired, blue eyed, 28 year old Japanese pilot. She spun around in her hammock-chair and went back to piloting the ship. "Aiyah...... It's so quiet in here!"

She was dressed in a pair of Dark blue pants and a Grey top which resembled a swimsuit to a degree. Over it though she had a green jacket which was currently not zipped up. On each of her arms was a blue armband and on her feet were simple brown boots.

"Boy..... I wonder if I can set this on auto-pilot and stretch... I better wait though...." She sighed, "Guess I will just keep to my job..."

(( will post more, gotta go out for a bit. ))

by **SALSAlys** » Fri Apr 11, 2003 2:36 pm

Jenni waited, and eventually Jon and Calvin began practicing again. With a slight sigh, the nurse walked away. Normally she'd be reading, but she had left her book in the office and liked to leave Eduardo alone when he was writing to his wife.

She bumped into the captain, who glanced at her and gave a brief nod. "Hey there Jenni."

"Hello, Tanake."

"Ake. Don't need to stand so much on formality, Ms. Talis."

"....yes, miss Ake."

The black woman chuckled. "You'll loosen up later. See you around. Our two army-boys still at it?"

"Yes."

"Heh. Maybe I'll check on them. Speaking of which...." Tanake cocked an eyebrow at her. "Mind checking on Phillipe? For some reason, I mistrust him around the gunports." Only a slight quirk of her lips indicated she was joking.

"....yes miss Ake."

Chuckling again, Ake went to watch Calvin and Jon, and Jenni went to check on Phillipe.

Ake watched the boys for a while, analyzing their techniques. Jon was really the best one of them, but she was about on par with Calvin. She was a little faster, but he was stronger....

Then Tanake went to the pilot room to check on Kyoko. "Doing all right?"

* * *

Jenni walked behind Phillipe quietly, and bit her lip before speaking.

"Um... hello?"

by **CaptainCommando** » Fri Apr 11, 2003 4:52 pm

Yup, this is a nice little ship... Edmund thought to himself as he walked down the hallways with hands in pockets, humming silently as he went. Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted by an echoing stream of harsh curses in what sounded like a mix of French and English, and loud clanging.

Gah! Now... that's hardly appropriate... He shook his head and sighed and continued on through the ship, his hum returning to his lips as the working mechanic's fierce cursing finally stopped.

Finally he came to the area where Calvin and Jon were sparring. He stopped and smiled lightly, Well, this might be entertaining to watch. He thought as he leaned against a wall to relax.

"I'll take on the winner." He said jokingly. Both men were nearly a foot taller than him and muscualar to boot, and Edmund knew as well as anyone that he couldn't stand up to either man in a fair hand to hand fight.

by **ChristianC** » Fri Apr 11, 2003 5:41 pm

Phillipe, who had been busy checking that the system was functioning froze as Jenni spoke. However, he did a miraculous recovery and turned around. No emotions could be read on his face, considering that both eyes and mouth was hidden but when he spoke he did so with a widely more milder tone than he'd done recently with the machinery.

"Bonjour, madam. I am terribly sorry, but I didn't hear you comming, or I would certainly had made sure I would look more proper." Phillipe turned silent, as if he was expecting something, a laugh maybe?

However, before Jenni could respond to it he continued. "Things have been a bit too quiet around here lately, and I've decided to do a routine check on all our equipment, and sacre blieu, thank the gods I did!" He motioned to the control board.

"This piece of garbage have been malfunctioning all since the beginning, who'd know what'd happen if we encountered any of those alien freaks without working weaponry!?"

by **SALSAlys** » Fri Apr 11, 2003 6:17 pm

Both soldiers shot Edmund a dry look, Jon with a faint expression of distaste, and Calvin with amusement.

"Well," drawled the blonde man. "If you're really intent on learning.... want to try a practice round or two right now?"

* * *

Jennivere nodded to Phillipe, glancing at the control board. She didn't understand much about the mechanics of the ship, but had an instinctive fear of hostile alien races.

"Do you think we'd really encounter any aliens?" she asked worriedly.

by **ChristianC** » Fri Apr 11, 2003 6:23 pm

Phillipe waved the whole idea off.

"I doubt it, but of course we had no idea they'd even attack us in the beginning, no?"

He took up a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and managed to place one in his mouth without pulling down the scarf.

"It's ALWAYS good to be ready for anything," he mumbled as he lit the cig. " first I ever learned on the field."

by **SALSAlys** » Fri Apr 11, 2003 6:28 pm

"I guess so..." the nurse replied quietly. She didn't really know the man that well, and felt at a loss for conversation.

"Well, sorry for disturbing you."

by **ChristianC** » Fri Apr 11, 2003 6:39 pm

Phillipe looked up from his cigarette.

"Disturbing?" He blew out a trace of smoke. "To tell you the truth, I'm finished with this, so there's no harm in talking to you."

"Besides, it's not everyday I get the chance to talk with someone else, people generally avoid me for some reason." He shrugged and chuckled a bit.

"You're the nurse aboard, right?" He nodded for himself slowly. "I've never needed to visit you, so I'm still not quite familiar with everyone on the ship."

by **SALSAlys** » Fri Apr 11, 2003 7:05 pm

Jenni gave a slight smile. "Yes, I'm the nurse. Jennivere Talis. Jenni for short.... would you be interested in meeting the others?"

by **CaptainCommando** » Fri Apr 11, 2003 7:11 pm

Edmund smiled and laughed lightly, "Well, seeing as I don't have much else to do now, I suppose I could take a bit of time out to 'learn'." He said stepping off from the wall and towards the two.

"Alright, just don't try to break too many of my bones." he stated, mentally preparing himself.

Edited by: [url=http://pub30.ezboard.com/brpgww60462.showUserPublicProfile?gid=captaincommando@rpgww60462>CaptainCommando</A] at: 4/11/03 7:30:44 pm

by **ChristianC** » Fri Apr 11, 2003 7:16 pm

Phillipe nodded slowly, blowing out another cloud of smoke.

"Yeah, I guess... I mean, I don't even remember half of the crews' names." He chuckled again and continued. "I'll just drop off my toolbox in my room on the way, if it's okay for you."

by **ArgusDevilmen** » Fri Apr 11, 2003 7:28 pm

Kyoko spun around in the pilot's seat seeing the captain. "Hai! Everything is okay Ake-chan!" she smiled at the captain spun back around returning her attention to the controls.

(( Blah sorry about shortness...... ))

by **SALSAlys** » Fri Apr 11, 2003 7:52 pm

Jon smirked, and stepped aside for Calvin. Calvin stepped towards Edmund, in a relaxed fighting stance.

"One. Two. THREE," counted Jon, signalling the start of the match. And Calvin lunged forward.

* * *

"It doesn't matter," Jenni said quickly. "We can just stop by your room."

* * *

Tanake nodded. "Well, see you around later then." With that, she walked out of the room.

by **ChristianC** » Fri Apr 11, 2003 8:00 pm

(OOC - This'll be my last post. I complained a lot about people posting too much, and when I do this it just feels wrong. Here's to everyone not posting currently. Cheers! ^_^)

Phillipe nodded and gathered together his tools, checking everywhere to make sure he hadn't missed any one of them. When he was finished he closed the toolbox and motioned for Jenni.

He started walking down the corridors, from time to time slowing his pace to make sure Jenni didn't lose him. After all, he rarely if ever walked with anyone somewhere, and he preferred moving around fast.

When he arrived to his little quarters he pressed the combination for the door to open and stepped inside.

While it was certainly cramp, the room had a lot more feeling than the sterile corridors. The walls were covered in sketches, blueprints and posters, mostly weapons or other high-tech stuff. The bed was a mess, as he usually never bothered to make it every morning, and the desk was completely covered in tools and spare parts.

He dropped the box on the floor and kicked it into a corner. The loud metallic clank echoed down the corridors and halls.

"Right, there we are." He said finally, readjusting his goggles.

by **SALSAlys** » Sat Apr 12, 2003 12:09 pm

Jenni glanced in, blinking slightly. Some vague maternalistic instincts wanted her to help tidy the room up, but she doubted that it would really help the engineer.

"Come on then," she said, and began leading the way towards where the men were practicing their combat.

by **FlamingDeth** » Sat Apr 12, 2003 2:31 pm

Liam dissappeared into a closet, and the clanking noise of metal hitting metal was heard. It seemed that the storage room was less than organized, which certainly didn't appeal to the old man.

"Why, laddie, back in my day, we had ta work on engines while they was runnin', and we only had two of 'em!" Liam said, slightly muffled by the fact that it was coming from the closet. "Not enough room fer three, there wasn't! There wasn't nearly this amount o' room fer tools, so we had ta use our hands instead o' wrenches half th' time! And we LIKED IT!"

With that, the enging kit slid out of the closet, soon followed by the old Irishman.

by **JoshuaDurron** » Sat Apr 12, 2003 2:55 pm

Derrik hid his ammused smile by turning and grabbing the maitenence log and making a note of the repairs in it. He put the log down and turned back to Liam. "Well, safety regulations these days say we shouldn't try to investigate running engines outside of emergency situations. In any case, we'll go have a look at it. And if we have time, we should probably set that closet in order..."

Derrik reached down under his desk, set in the wall next to the engines, and pulled out his own personal toolkit, and got up to lead the way into the innards of the ship.

by **CaptainCommando** » Sat Apr 12, 2003 3:20 pm

Edmund's smile dropped from his face as Calvin charged towards him. With a quick hop he moved to the side, cleanly avoiding the larger man.

He's quick for a big guy... He thought to himself as he took a quick move forward and launched a flurry of fast punches at his foe's midsection, trying to get in a few good hits before moving back and waiting for the next attack...

Edited by: [url=http://pub30.ezboard.com/brpgww60462.showUserPublicProfile?gid=captaincommando@rpgww60462>CaptainCommando</A] at: 4/12/03 3:21:56 pm

by **SALSAlys** » Sat Apr 12, 2003 4:29 pm

Unexpectedly, Calvin BLOCKED instead of dodging, twisting his grip on the younger man until he had thrown Edmund over his shoulder. The scout was sent tumbling.

* * *

Derrick found nothing seriously abnormal within the engine; a few things he could tweak or modify to get rid of some inefficiencies, but...

There was a slight difference in the air. Something odd, and difficult to define. Over time, some mechanics discovered a 'sixth sense' regarding engines, usually their subconcious mind finding data and not fully rationalizing it, but giving it to the men in the form of 'hunches'.

Nothing looked overly out of place though.

by **ChristianC** » Sat Apr 12, 2003 7:04 pm

Phillipe nodded at Jenni.

"Right, lead the way madame." Even though his scarf hid it, Jenni was sure he was grinning.

by **CaptainCommando** » Sat Apr 12, 2003 7:12 pm

"Uuf!" Edmund exclaimed slightly as he hit the ground hard and rolled another few feet before coming to a painful stop.

"Now... that, was unexpected..." Edmund breathed out as he slowy got to his feet and stumbled back a little dizzily before catching himself. He shook his head and waved his hand at Jon and Calvin, "I, uh, think I'm just going to sit over here and keep my mouth shut now." He said, taking a few steps backwards and flopping onto the ground with a heavy sigh.

by **JoshuaDurron** » Sat Apr 12, 2003 7:25 pm

"Hm... doesn't look terribly out of shape, now does she, Liam?" Derrik reached for a spanner* and began tweaking one of the things he had spotted on his original once over. "Unless your greater experience tells you otherwise?"

by **SALSAlys** » Sat Apr 12, 2003 7:56 pm

Jenni took Phillipe to the men, and arrived to see Edmund's being thrown. Making a distressed sound, she moved towards the scout.

"Are you all right?"

by **ChristianC** » Sat Apr 12, 2003 8:10 pm

Phillipe looked in a mixture of puzzlement and amusement as Jenni rushed over to the fallen man.

"Mon dieu, and I thought it would be dull to meet the others."

by **FlamingDeth** » Sat Apr 12, 2003 8:54 pm

Liam hoisted himself onto a ladder attached to an adjacent engine to get a better view of the engine. "Nay, laddie, seems we got ourselves a ship that actually works, fancy that." said the older engineer. "Ye might want to tighten up that transfer conduit, though, jus' to be safe, and I'll get on cleanin' the Bussard collectors, cause ye know how finicky they can be when they got too much friction...

by **JoshuaDurron** » Sat Apr 12, 2003 9:45 pm

Derrik nodded once, switching spanners and reaching further into the innards of the engines. "When you're done there, check the primary innertia compensator. Make sure it's not getting to much stress. If it is, rerout through the backup, and we'll replace the coils. Might as well be exacting while we're here."

by **CaptainCommando** » Sun Apr 13, 2003 8:58 am

Edmund looked up at Jenni with a broad smile, "Thankfully, I'm fine, just a little dizzy and bruised." He said shaking his head.

"Unarmed combat definently isn't my point of expertise... you'd probably do better against Calvin over there than I did," he said, then paused as he tried to remember the name of the woman next to him, "... Jenni, right?"

by **SALSAlys** » Sun Apr 13, 2003 1:11 pm

Jennivere nodded in acknowledgement of her name, then flushed slightly when he mentioned fighting.

However, that triggered the original reason that she had brought Phillipe over.

"That reminds me... I don't know if you two have met, but Edmund, this is Phillipe. Phillipe, Edmund. And over there..." She lowered her voice slightly. "The blonde one is Calvin, and the big one's Jon."

Calvin ignored her pointing him out, and stretched his arms again. Jon gave her a slightly amused look, then quietly asked Calvin to practice again. Then the two were in another flurry of blows and blocks.

* * *

Meanwhile, Tanake Ozulu was examining the ship's systems, in a console which ran up data on all aspects of the engines, the scanners, the transmissions.... it didn't pinpoint exact trouble spots, which was why there were the techies and the engineers, but it DID give her an idea of what was wrong.

She habitually checked on them once a day, most of the time giving them a brief skim, so used to reading them that anything out of the ordinary jumped out at her like a jack-in-the-box.

Engines performing smoothly... heating, lights, intercom.... mhm....

Then she blinked. That could NOT be right.

Tanake reread it, certain that she'd find it.

....what the hell...?

She couldn't find ANYTHING on the ship's scanners. Not even a small section of text that told it was malfunctioning.

Frowning, Tanake pushed a button on her mouthpiece, getting the frequency that allowed her to speak to Derrik.

"Hey, Derrik? Something funny about the ship's scanners. Check on it, all right?"

It wasn't precisely a war environment, where the scanners were VITAL in keeping the ship and crew safe, but still.... sometimes there were chunks of debris in space, and Tanake instinctively hated having any sort of blind spot.

Then Ake switched frequencies, getting to Kyoko.

"Kyoko, stay in your seat. DON'T go on auto-pilot... at least not yet. And be prepared to dodge if need be. Scanners aren't functioning."

Edited by: [url=http://pub30.ezboard.com/brpgww60462.showUserPublicProfile?gid=salsalys>SALSAlys</A] at: 4/13/03 1:46:39 pm

by **JoshuaDurron** » Sun Apr 13, 2003 1:34 pm

"Acknowledged, captain." Derrik put his comm piece away and called over to Liam, "Hey old man, the captain says scanners just went down. I'm going to go take a look at 'em and see if I can figure out what's wrong. You finish up here and come join me when you're done."

With that, the engineer clamped both feet on the outside of the ladder and slid down it's poles, landing with a light thump and hurrying down the corridor towards the forward scanners. While what he had in his kit wasn't ideal for repairing scanners, it should be enough to fix anything minor. And he had just been over those systems two weeks ago, so nothing terribly bad could have happened, he thought as he lifted off the access panel in the forward repair crawlspace.

He took several scanners and circuit probes out and began examining the system carefully.

by **SALSAlys** » Sun Apr 13, 2003 1:48 pm

Derrik could find nothing visibly wrong with the scanners. Everything looked as if it could have been a visual example of a working system from an engineer's handbook.

by **JoshuaDurron** » Sun Apr 13, 2003 2:32 pm

Derrik looked over the circuitry once, a bit at a loss. Nothing should be wrong...

He shrugged and gave them a firm smack with the palm of his hand and pressed the comm piece's activator again. "Captain I'm not seeing anything wrong down here... The equipment itself is in perfect condition. It might be a software problem... I'm gonna head over to the interface and run a few diagnostics. Unless you want me to do something else?"

by **SALSAlys** » Sun Apr 13, 2003 2:38 pm

"Sounds good. It's your area of expertise, not mine," she replied to Derrik.

by **ArgusDevilmen** » Sun Apr 13, 2003 2:44 pm

Kyoko blinked and nodded, and applied the proper frequency.

Hai! I will make sure to do that Ake-chan!

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