The Vagabond vs The Artifact, Private - Vagabond Crew Members

[Rasengod7]

((Before we start I figured for each mission we go with a title like above xD. Thought it would be fun. Also if anyone wishes to join the crew let me know via PM or through the OOC thread New Beginnings. Also if your post will be delayed let us know the same way. Thanks!))

The sleek silver ship raced through the small cluster of asteroids, easily evading each piece of space rock. Tyragarus sat at the helm as he maneuvered the controls expertly. Of course he wasn't the one actually flying the ship. Arza was more adept at that to his dismay. They learned that when he ended up hitting a fellow travelling ship. Of course he was drunk, but noone took that as a good enough excuse. One would think as Captain his word was law, but...oh whatever! Tyr stopped 'flying' the ship and left the helm to return to their lounge like area. The rest of the crew was either lazing about or getting accustommed to their surroundings. Tyr smiled and then moved over to the computer console nearby.

Their objective was inside Batarian Space. Right now they were approaching the Mass Relay leading to Batarian Space. On the other side was a fleet of their ships ready to welcome any unwelcomed guests. Such as them of course. Tyr planned a way around this though and it relied heavily on his connections within the Hegemony navy. His time as a Turian Hierarchy Captain, while short, did offer him some benefits. The Turians and Batarians were not 'friends' but they sure as hell weren't enemies. Tyr made friends with a Hegemony Captain back then who was now a Rear Admiral. With clearance by that guy their ship could pass through, but it relied way too much on his old friend coming through for them.

"Listen up everyone! If everything goes well Arza will quietly pilot us through the Batarian fleet and we can head straight for those pirates and their base. If not then we will all die in a blaze of glory. So if anyone is still a virgin I am sure our only female will gladly offer her services..." Tyr said in the intercom before bursting out laughing. "I hope noone took that seriously. If so sorry Vyrrinia!"

Tyr returned to the helm and sat back down in his chair next to Arza. He leaned back a bit as he waited patiently as their ship began going through the mass relay. It took the briefest of moments for them to pop back out into Batarian Space and what greeted them was scary to say the least. Massive and ugly ships all over. Tyr never liked the design of their ships. Almost immediately a beeping sound engulfed the entirety of the cockpit signalling a message was coming through. Tyr tapped on a button and a holo display appeared on the dashboard. A single Batarian, well decorated soldier seemingly, stood there as a hologram.

"Captain Tyragarus Vesilus of The MSV Vagabond!" the Batarian said.

There was a short pause and all Tyr could see was the serious face of that Batarian. He gripped his talons and gritted his fangs as he waited for the worst.

"You have been given clearance to pass through, but you are restricted to the system you plan to go to. If your ship is found leaving that system to go venturing deeper into Batarian Space we will shoot you down immediately. You also only have 72 hours. Anymore time and you will be shot down. Understand!?" The Batarian said in a booming and commanding voice.

"Got it! We'll be on our way then." Tyr replied with a grin.

The holo disappeared and Tyr breathed a huge sigh of relief. He nodded to Arza for them to keep going and he leaned back again.

----

Upon exiting FTL Tyr was already geared up from fringe to talon. Their ship was now driftng towards the planet where their targets were residing. They would land in a huge crater south of them and move on foot towards the pirate base. Tyr waited for the others to finish preparing as he leaned against the wall of the ship.

"Once we touch down we will all move out on foot. Vornak, myself and Rut will take point. The rest of you will take the rear. We will leave the ship on lockdown. Our objective is to infiltrate the pirate base, find the artifact there and bring it home. A bonus would be to kill the pirate leader so if things go well we'll shoot for that as well. Everyone got it? If so we will just wait to land in the meantime."

[The Quarian Biotic]

Arza pushed a few thermal clips into the pouch strapped to his forearm.
Approached on their blind side and staying in it... but wouldn't these guys be smarter than that with something they'd know is valuable?

The landing approach was simple and clean enough for the navcom to handle the maneuvering. We definitely passed their patrol ships easy enough. All the debris from the planet's ring would have concealed us easily from ship scanners once we dropped out of FTL. Was only two ships on a circuit anyway.

The Vagabond reached it's LZ, coming to a rest on it's landing struts. Arza keyed the intercom as he started prepping the lockout. "Captain, please tell me you had a plan coming here and that we're not about to run blind into a pirate base. Chances are they had sensors running on our approach, so I'd think we're walking in hot. We don't even have some orbitals to work off of for their layout."

He glanced out the window before the blast shields slid down. A barren, lifeless rock of a planet with barely enough xenon and krypton to call an atmosphere. The others would need to wear sealed hardsuits, though a lighter-than-average gravity would make the experience none too difficult. One of the few times living in an enviro-suit is useful. According to the navcom, mined out ages ago by the Batarians, and too far out from the system's sun to be good for development. Wasn't even a good charge dump. Perfect for a band of pirates to set up a base on.

[GrauWolf]

Passed out in between a few piles of crates, Gatatog Vornak was sleeping soundly in the cargo hold of the Vagabond. The krogan lay sprawled out on his back, his head resting on one of the large ryncol bottles strewn about his 'nest', so to speak. As he slept, he snored, so loudly in fact that the rest of the crew insisted he kept the door to the cargo hold closed.

"Listen up everyone! If everything goes well Arza will quietly pilot us through the Batarian fleet and we can head straight for those pirates and their base. If not then we will all die in a blaze of glory."

And suddenly, his wonderful nap had ended. As Tyr's voice echoed through the cargo bay, the big krogan woke with a start and grumbled, rubbing his eyes and kicking a few ryncol bottles as he stirred, causing them to roll across the floor loudly.

"So if anyone is still a virgin I am sure our only female will gladly offer her services..."

"I'd rather get scale-itch," muttered Vornak as he stood up slowly and stretched. Slowly, the still-bleary eyed krogan rummaged around the hold, finding his shotgun and assault rifle and slinging them over his shoulder. Taking a wake-up swig of ryncol, Vornak shook his head and headed out into the ship's common area.

-----

Vornak sat in the common area, scowling. They'd been flying for at least a few more hours; time that could've been part of his nap. There was no reason for the Captain to project his voice over the ship just for the hell of it. Damn turians... he thought to himself, taking another deep chug of ryncol from his flask.

Fortunately, though, the period of waiting ended as he felt the ship come out of hyperspace. Tyr entered the common area, apparently having been up in the cockpit with Arza previously. The Captain was already fully decked-out in his armor; nothing as strong as krogan armor, Vornak noted, but it still looked like it could get the job done. Any sight like that was a good sign; armor meant battle, and battle meant excitement. Vornak could barely wait; all there was to do in the long periods of hyperspace travel was just drink and take naps.

"Once we touch down we will all move out on foot. Vornak, myself and Rut will take point. The rest of you will take the rear. We will leave the ship on lockdown. Our objective is to infiltrate the pirate base, find the artifact there and bring it home. A bonus would be to kill the pirate leader so if things go well we'll shoot for that as well. Everyone got it? If so we will just wait to land in the meantime."

"Works for me," said the krogan flatly. "It's been entirely too long since I've cracked some heads; I'll skin that pirate captain for you myself."

[Angelic Leviathan]

Vyrrinia rolled about in her sleep as she dreamt, a nightmare about her young life on Omega. The dream itself was just a very young female turian sitting on a dank sidewalk, brooding to herself and starving to the point of near death. The image wasn't purely terrifying, just the though of that period in time worried Vyr, But she was slowly roused from her sleep by the dull and muffled sounds of someone talking. It slowly became clearer and louder until the female turian was roused from her slumber. She opened her eyes and listened, Tyr was making an announcement over the speakers.

"...goes well Arza will quietly pilot us through the Batarian fleet and we can head straight for those pirates and their base. If not then we will all die in a blaze of glory.So if anyone is still a virgin I am sure our only female will gladly offer her services..." The captain said in a suggestive tone, laughing shortly afterwards. Vyrrinia let out another deep sigh, about to think to herself 'what a pig' but her very own though cut off by his next statement "I hope noone took that seriously. If so sorry Vyrrinia!"

So he was just 'joking around'? It irked her for a moment before she thought on it and realized how stiff and strict she'd been acting as of late. What was the harm in a little goofing around? She silently chuckled to herself as she thought of ways she could mess around with him.

"All right. Let's get going." She said to herself quietly before standing out of bed. She stretched out a bit before slipping into her armor, the cool metal feeling relaxing against her tough skin. She clipped her pistol to her hip and then made her way up to the common area of the ship, a few other crew members already waiting there. It seems they had gotten through the batarian fleet without a scratch, and they had come out of FTL speeds near their target planet.

"Once we touch down we will all move out on foot. Vornak, myself and Rut will take point. The rest of you will take the rear. We will leave the ship on lockdown. Our objective is to infiltrate the pirate base, find the artifact there and bring it home. A bonus would be to kill the pirate leader so if things go well we'll shoot for that as well. Everyone got it? If so we will just wait to land in the meantime." The turian captain said, looking over the crew. It seemed good, and basic enough, but Vyrrinia sure hoped that it had a few more intricacies than that. The pirates might have noticed their presence by now.

"Sounds good. Maybe I should run ahead instead though, act as sort of a scout? I'm certainly fast enough to get away if things get hairy, and I'm stealthy." She said, speaking up. It would be a good idea to have someone survey the area, in her opinion. And she felt that she was the person for the task, if Tyr approved, that is.

[Pandut]

Well, this was certainly an improvement.

Though he tried not to show it, Jayne was nearly ecstatic when he inspected the size of this "med bay" the ship's quarian pilot briefly alerted the man of on their meeting on Omega. It was rather spacey, able to store medical equipment, personal provisions and objects while still leaving enough room for a cheap cot-mattress that was essentially Jayne's "private" quarters. The entire med-bay was his to command, which was a vast improvement then his profession on Omega. The human may have felt a small twang of discomfort for leaving those poor boys so hastily, but in the end, they were probably better off.

Wiping his hands wearily on a rag, Jayne plopped the dirty cloth down onto one of the medical counters rather carelessly. The few days of his recruitment, the human doctor had been inspecting the wares this Captain Tyr had to offer board the ship. Merely, just to make sure he was capable of working with something instead of having to "wing it". Occasions had happened before, where Yeltsin was nearly forced to proceed with surgery's using eating utensils because his payer had lacked the means to provide him with proper tools.

Luckily, this seemed the opposite of that sort of scenario. The Vegabond seemingly came stocked with up-to-date medical supplies. A blessing onto Jayne as he had grown tired of using shitty hand-me-downs.

"Listen up everyone! If everything goes well Arza will quietly pilot us through the Batarian fleet and we can head straight for those pirates and their base. If not then we will all die in a blaze of glory. So if anyone is still a virgin I am sure our only female will gladly offer her services... I hope noone took that seriously. If so sorry Vyrrinia!"

Hearing the voice of their obviously quite valiant captain over the intercom, Jayne interpreted it as a sign to ready himself. Silently, he advanced towards an adjacent counter with his rifle laying lazily atop it. Almost akin to a robot, the human grabbed the weapon slowly and adjusted it's sling around his shoulder. The manner of which was fairly straightforward, obviously practiced to the point where he could handle managing his weapon without using his eyes. Eventually, the ship's medic left the med-bay, the lights dimming and door shutting silently upon his departure.

---

"Once we touch down we will all move out on foot. Vornak, myself and Rut will take point. The rest of you will take the rear. We will leave the ship on lockdown. Our objective is to infiltrate the pirate base, find the artifact there and bring it home. A bonus would be to kill the pirate leader so if things go well we'll shoot for that as well. Everyone got it? If so we will just wait to land in the meantime."

Jayne wasn't a fan of these enviro-suits they had to wear on the planet. As he lacked a suit of personal armor to call his own, the human was forced to rely on the ship's own brand which seemed to tote a deep hatred for the word "style". It was bulky and loose in some places, while tight in others, ushering a deep sense of discomfort for Jayne. Hopefully the cash reel would've been worth dressing up like like a tin can. Boorishly, the doctor withdrew his sidearm rather melodramatically, holding it in front of his view so that he could make sure it was properly loaded.

"Ah' goodies. I was' hopin' when we'd staht our goody-two-shoe gigs." Jayne remarked, sarcastically at best as his sidearm was eventually retracted back into his holster. He wasn't entirely sure what to think of the captain, or the crew for that sake. Hopefully, this relationship would be vastly better then some of his past employers.

"Works for me, It's been entirely too long since I've cracked some heads; I'll skin that pirate captain for you myself."

Offering a humorous smirk and raised brow at the krogan's outburst, Jayne made a mental note that he'd no doubt warm up to the brute-fellow the fastest. Krogan, in the humans own experience, were literally the exact same. Loud, rowdy and generally drunk. Always looking for a fight, always wanting to kill. Despite how brutal it sounded, krogan were generally humorous about it, often cracking jokes as well as the skulls of their enemies.

"Ya can use mah' knife if you like." Jayne suggested towards the krogan, in jest though wouldn't have been surprised if the krogan accepted the offer.

[Rasengod7]

Tyr found himself anxious to get started. This would be the first time his entire crew would be on a job together. Sure, he Vornak and Arza teamed up before to bust some heads, but now it was all of them together. So exciting! The ship finally touched down in the designated crater and in turn Tyr opened the doors to the outside. He hated wearing helmets, but if he didn't he'd probably die of suffocation. Shit like that sometimes happened in space.

"Captain, please tell me you had a plan coming here and that we're not about to run blind into a pirate base. Chances are they had sensors running on our approach, so I'd think we're walking in hot. We don't even have some orbitals to work off of for their layout."

"Oh come on! I always got something cooking up right!?" Tyr replied as he raised his arms out. "While they may know something landed over here we still have a distinct advantage. Our client provided us with some useful intel. The pirates's base is undermanned currently. Supposedly a large group of them went off on some raiding run in Alliance space. We'll infiltrate their base from the east where their defenses and security is weakest. Go straight for the room where this artifact is and if we have time off the head honcho inside."

"Sounds good. Maybe I should run ahead instead though, act as sort of a scout? I'm certainly fast enough to get away if things get hairy, and I'm stealthy."

"Be my guest, but don't take unnecessary risks. We still need to get our weapons at the ready. Alert us if the enemy has advanced any. If not we'll head straight for their base with Vornak and Rut taking point. Doc and Arza will stay by me. This should be a simple job so let's get going!" Tyr replied.

He raised his rifle up and kept it level with his shoulders. Tyr was confident they would avoid much trouble. He hoped his confidence would translate to reality!

[The Quarian Biotic]

"Well I guess that's reassuring enough..." Arza muttered as he got up out of the navigator's chair. They already took the landing ramp... so I guess I'll just hop out the airlock here. Coming out of the cockpit, he went through the forward airlock door. The ever tedious task of airlock cycling began.

A beep and a green light signaled the pressure inside was the same as out. Arza tapped the door control. The outer airlock door slid open with a short lived roar, what little air left in the compartment venting out. Taking a running start, he leapt out into the uninviting landscape. The ship's still running mass effect field kept his fall going as it should have for only a moment, replaced by the planet's natural low-grav. Arza landed with a roll, his clothing leaving a floaty trail from his back. Certainly fun to weigh less for a little while.

He flashed his omni-tool, finishing the ship's lock-down. Another few taps, and he opened the comm-link. "Just sent you lock-down access for the ship, Captain. Just in case." Arza jogged his way under the dark belly of the Vagabond, back towards the landing ramp. "Would be a real buzzkill to get the job done and then find out the dead quarian was the only one who could unlock the ship." He slowed up into pace with Tyr and the doctor. "Keelah, you look awkward in that suit Doc."

[sgt. cookie]

Rut was pacing the room in the makeshift enviro suit made for him. It was hot, clammy and generally uncomfortable. But he couldn't take it off, so he would have to endure.

Rut could, vaguely, hear Tyr's voice through his helmet, futility scratching at it. After a few minutes Rut decided to sit down next to Vornak, the Krogan was the only one who, really, had any real measure of control over Rut.

After what seemed like an eternity the landing ramp opened, Rut followed Vornak out onto the planet. ((OOC: I am going to make a possibly erroneous assumption that the gasses on this planet are enough for smells to function.)) Rut's makeshift suit had a small airlock type thing where his nose was, allowing for him to smell.

The place smelled weird, though it reminded him of his bedding place, behind a sewage plant. Rut ignored it and carried on with Vornak, suddenly, he told Rut to stop. Rut looked around and smelled the air, but he couldn't sense anything...

[Angelic Leviathan]

Vyrrinia nodded her head as soon as Tyr gave the okay. It would be best if she gave the crew ample warning if the base was particularly well fortified or perhaps a scouting party was coming at their position. It might also give her some time to think about where she had been going with her life. It had, after all, changed drastically from an uninteresting bar tending job into that of a paid pirate. Rolling her shoulders a little before placing her helmet on her head and grouping with the others at the airlock.

The airlock hissed open as soon as the bay doors closed behind them. The dusty ground of the planet still hadn't quite settled from their landing, further proof that the gravity of this place was much lighter than usual.

"Give me the coordinates of the base, I'll start heading out immediately. I'll communicate with you the second I see anything." The female turian said, checking her omni-tool and weapon. As soon as she was obliged she sprinted off onto the planet, even faster and quieter than usual because of the lower gravity. It would certainly be interesting working by herself, it wasn't as if she was some sort of elite soldier, but it would be a chance to prove herself to the crew.

[Rasengod7]

The area ahead seemed clear for the most part. Rocks and more rocks littered the barren fields and really was all that was in between his crew and that pirate base. Tyr already passed off the coordinates to Vyrrinia and now waited patiently for her to scout out the area ahead. He knew that infiltrating wouldn't be the most difficult thing in the world. These pirates weren't on alert and half of them were out on some raid or something. Nonetheless the pirates still remaining were much more numerous than his smaller crew and when lugging around a big Krogan it was highly likely they'd get detected. How fun.

"Vyrrinia should be back shortly. Once she feeds us her intel Vornak will take point and we'll advance to the enemy base. Hopefully we will have a good location to hit. Remember everyone! We go for the artifact first and only if things aren't too chaotic will we go after the pirate boss. Our doc won't be able to bring us back from the dead." Tyr said in a low voice to the others as he kneeled on the ground.

After waiting a few more minutes Tyr spotted Vyrrinia's slender frame. He signalled for the others to move up and he immediately sprinted forwards, rifle in hand.

"How are things looking? Good or bad?" the Captain asked.

((We don't need to wait for anybody specific to post so anyone planning to post feel free to advance the plot.))

[Angelic Leviathan]

Vyrrinia sprinted back to the group, panting. Even with the low gravity, sprinting the large distance two times over winded her a bit. No matter, rest wasn't as important as delivering useful, possibly life saving, information. It had been easy to sneak up and spy on the approaching squad, they probably didn't think any intruders would make as much ground as she had. There were approximately 5 of them, and Vyr could have sworn that one of them had a high powered rifle. Perhaps it had been paranoia, but she hadn't dared get too close lest she be noticed. The female turian readied herself as the rest of the crew approached her, she would need to hurry.

"Apparently they did have sensors online, seeing as there's a small patrol heading this way. If we hurry we could meet them at a rocky area a couple of miles from here, it could be trouble if they caught us out in the open like this, they had a sniper with them." Vyrrinia said quickly, but not confusingly. "They probably have a few more lookouts stationed around the base, but I had to get back here and warn you about the patrol."

[The Quarian Biotic]

The group had walked towards their goal from the Vagabond for the better part of an hour now. Practically nothing of interest in the land save for the occasional odd rock, old rover tracks and footprints preserved in the never-changing ground. Arza continually found himself amused by the awkwardness his compatriots moved themselves with. Rut in particular, with the cannibalized enviro-suit Arza had wrapped him in. Fortunately for Rut, he'd have to remove it when they got in the base. Until then, Arza hoped they didn't get in any engagements and that the krogan could control it. He hadn't been able to preserve the protection in the suit, so there wasn't much of a damage control system to save the varren from a suit rupture.

Their volunteer scout came into view at the horizon. A rather easy thing to spot in the relatively flat landscape. And of course, bearing unpleasant news.

"Could've just called it on the radio while you were still out, Vyrinia. Like you are right now." Arza shook his head. "Whatever, they don't necessarily know we're here then. I kept us well out of visual with them on the landing. Probably just a routine patrol... though, they arn't in a rover, so maybe I'm wrong."
In which case someone probably gets a slug from 500 kilometers. Wait, no, they'd still have a rover if they were coming for us... so I guess..?
"Or maybe they just don't have a vehicle on hand, I guess." He grabbed the rifle hanging off his belt, casually pushing the stock into his left arm as it assembled. "So, what's your call, Captain?"