[Prologue] Downrider

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Outside

Dahlia counted heads as the rest of the unorthodox crew shuffled out of the Inn, some more intoxicated. Satisfied with everyone now outside, the flicked her hand up and turned around, pacing away with her choo-choo of connected luggage containers in tow. "Follow me, we'll see it when we get there!" The train rolled down the hill and along the narrow path that lead into the thicket of evergreen trees. The path was a little wobbly, winding between trees of all size as they approached a clearing not too far ahead.

Dahlia spoke up again, to break the sound of crunching gravel. "Our budget isn't massive, but you all are going to be paid flat on expedition ground." She went quite for a moment, before laughing a little. "Plus bonus from whatever we can sell." The posse broke out of the thicket, entering a rather flat grassy field, washed a brilliant light blue in the moonlight. Soon they found themselves in front of a large concrete plateau surrounded by a barbed chain-link fence. A few ships were parked thee, but it was difficult to make out detail. Dahlia stopped briefly next to a bright yellow sign that read No Trespassing. She fiddled with a key lock on the gate, before pulling it open to the others. "We're near the back!"

After a short trip of anticipation, the group of strange people stopped by the group of ships. The ships had standard fair security in the lot, bring held down by large magnetic clamps that were anchored at each corner of their parking spot. The captain called out as they approached a rather sleek black and yellow ship. It was quite large, boasting at least four decks to it and an impressive pair of triple plasma boosters, plus at least two more for each wing! Its broad crescent-shaped wings cast an imposing shadow on the concrete below, it could be a former military ship. "There she is!"


Dahlia sped up just a little bit as she passed the luxurious starship, moving to the next spot over. Dwarfed in the shadow of the other ship was a smaller, much less imposing ship. It appeared to be a re-purposed cargo delivery ship, boasting only two or so decks and a more boxy shape overall. It had a few dents in its gray and blue hull, and had two engines almost half the size of the rest of the ship. It looked a little more like a rocket than a starship right for a novel expedition, but at least its size looked... livable. After all, it had held up this far, for.... who knows how many years. "I see Merv's got her all tuned up and ready!" If the ship had anything remotely adventurous going in its favor, it sported its name on its starboard engine.

ISS DOWNRIDER
 
Outside

Them big, advanced ships? Bah. The huge, beautiful, yellow ship? Please.

But... The ISS Downrider. Small, bulky, clumsy, probably inefficient. It was, in Juryrig's eyes, just a ugly piece of junk.

The mad genius gasped at the abhorrent sight of the vessel; he was so surprised, in fact, that he dropped all of the turkey legs and mugs of ale. That dinghy is supposed to get them across the stars?

Juryrig shrieked like a fangirl, and ran to hug the blocky blockade runner with a hearty thunk. Just the sensations he feels as he traces his fingers over the cold hull of the ship, it all feels so ... So great!

"C-Cap'n.... She's beautiful.... SHE'S BEAUTIFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUULLL!" Juryrig wept loudfully, slowly sliding down the hull and onto the concrete. "TrulytrulytrulyTRULY the best ship I have ever seen! Downrider, wonderful name for such a sexy beast!"

"It's amaziiiiiiiiiiiiing~!"
 
"I will admit, I was expecting a pile of junk so the fact this has engines attached already has my hopes up." Miko commented as he walked up to the ship. He hit the hull a few times with his fist. Walked over and kicked a tire. When nothing fell off he felt pretty good about this.

He took a few steps back and took notice of the ship name. "Meh, not a bad name but would of gone with something simple like Rider but that is just me." He commented as he walked over to the loading ramp.
 
Even though it wasn't as glamorous as the epic ship it was parked next to, Marie took a look at it and saw something out of it.

"It's...honestly not as bad as it looks first glance." Marie contemplated, looking at it and more trying to convince herself. "Two oversized engines for a 'cargo ship...' that's not that bad. It'll at least outrun pirates, although we'll need to make a few weapons systems...is this a blockade runner?"

That in itself was a piece of gold. Blockade runners were like the little underdog of the story in every war -- no one appreciated them, but they were always amazing. They kept planets fed so that the big warships could do their fighting. But more importantly, a blockade runner had everything they needed. It had plenty firepower to most likely down a vessel or two in a straight firefight; it was zippy enough to get out of anything it couldn't fight. And the best part is a blockade runner could be built for just about anything as long as its engineering team set their minds to it.

"Hey, all of you with technical experience." Marie started. "You guys wanna wake up early tomorrow to see what little optimizations we can give this probably old war relic?"
 
ISS Downrider's Parking Space

The faint pitter-patter of tiny feets approached the gathered grouping of peoples. Arbitrated, a little bit late from finishing her meal back at the inn, was dashing towards the party, easily fitting under the landing gear of the fancypants bundle of engines next to the Downrider on her way there. The tiny sage quickly put herself somewhere that was kinda-ish next to Dahlia, breathing quickly and as deeply as her undersized lungs would allow. It took a bit of time for her to actually start speaking again.
 
ISS Downrider's Parking Space

The larger ships were imposing, daunting, just the sight of them lit up Reman's eyes. But, the prospect of being able to work on a ship that, by all means was junk compared to the rest made him more excited than working on a large freighter. A blockade runner, in the hands of the right mechanic could practically escape the grip of a black hole.

"Are you kidding me? Tomorrow? Why not NOW? I could see some immediate improvements that could be made right this very moment!" His child-like glee was like an explosion in an isolated vacuum, loud and obvious. He ran to the craft and, started looking it up and down, marking every little bit that could be optimized. "It could use a bit of de-rusting, and maybe a new paint job, or maybe-" He paused a moment before saying: "Whatever you need, I've got. Give me the word, and it'll be done before you can think about it."
 
"Because...we need sleep?" Marie replied to Reman.

"Unless if you have a few cans of energy drinks or a pot of coffee, don't expect me to stay up very well. A fresh coat of paint isn't very high on the list and neither is de-rusting. Those can be done by anyone," Marie started, already prioritizing the task list. "What we need to do is do inspections on all the parts and then get together to see how we can optimize everything, from deck layout to the way the systems function."
 
Inspections?! Juryrig scrambled to get up off the ground, not bothering to dust his dirty self. "Did somebody say inspections?! Well what are we all waiting for, we gotta take a look at everything! These bucket-faces are practically blank slates for us, the spirits of ingenuity!" Said the prideful oddball.

The haversack fidgeted and squirmed as... whatever else in there shared the sentiment of their creator. "Come on, we gotta take a look at her mighty internals!" Juryrig sprinted over the loading ramp and right inside.

Then the madman promptly walked back out, and leaned over the side to get a look at Reman. "... Paint job, really?! What about a ballistic bathtub-launcher array? Ceramics are deadly stuff!"
 
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The fox-boy crossed his arms underneath his cloak and shifted his weight to his rear foot. "ISS Downrider, huh? Well I guess all we can hope for is that we can still ride the thing up despite that name." As much as his comment may have been scalding, he was relieved to see a legitimate ship being their mode of transport. He takes a few short steps in the modest craft's direction, and happens to overhear all of the glee of modifying the beast before they've even had a sense of how it runs. Of course, anything could use improvement.

"I'd suggest we don't get too far ahead of ourselves. Renovations cost money and money cuts from our paychecks at the end of the day. I'm not saying I'm doing it for the money, but... I'm sure there's a good reason we'll be flying the Downrider as opposed to something more high-end such as that brigantine beside it." His gauntlet rose to a pane of metal directly in front of him, and he used its thumb to scratch away at some rust on its corner before grinding it up between his fingers, the reddish dust fluttering to the landing pad's tarmac in little glints within the port's spotlights that hung above and illuminated the ships below.

His ear flicked and tail fluttered. The prospect of adventuring once more had planted the seeds of a smile on his teeth and it was sprouting out onto his lips. With his eyes kept in a sort of droopy state, the smile looked oddly forced, betraying its genuine nature and potentially leaving those around him uncomfortable. The fact that the canines hidden within were abnormally sharp made the beam all the less appealing.
 
Downrider Inn

She had been keeping an eye on all of them, slowly forming a semblance of an idea of who was with who. The group was somewhat a rowdy bunch, restless and eating up food while they downed their drinks. When they all started to trickle out of the inn, it would become clear that this was indeed a group set out to do something. Perhaps this was luck shining down upon her and she was about to receive an opportunity at making money on something she's sorta good at. Seriously..she was getting low on money and she wasn't sure if she was ready to even consider doing any of..that..for money.

Leaving her cleaned off plate and a couple bills on the table, she would slip out of the booth she had been quietly along at near the back of the dimly lit room. She quickly made her way to the door and pushed it open, the chill nights air flooding in and making her hair and clothes stir.


Outside

Stepping outside, she would take a deep breath, trying to sum up the courage to just barge into the group. But she just couldn't seem to figure out what to say, her mind a jumbled mess of catchy salesman slogans that she tried to make fit her own selling point. "Need an elf~? Look no further, I got one fresh off the shelf~!"...."Oh my god what kind of selling line even is that?!" Her mind was a back and forth of stupid idea after another, and she was getting to the point of shooting her own self down. She shook her head and Dispelled the thoughts.

When she looked up again, the group had already moved away, heading down the path and disappearing into the shadows of a thicket of conifer trees. "Fuck!" She exclaimed before waddling after them.

When she reached the edge of the forest, she slowed to a stop. The elf would peer down the path, not seeing anyone, for the winding path and tries didn't give a clear shot for seeing anyone in this damned darkness. 'At least they have that stupid cart." She thought to herself as she walked along the path, following the indents made by it in the gravel road.

Ships Lot

Soon she would come to the edge of the clearing, still successfully..or..unsuccessfully unnoticed. She stays back, keeping in the shadows of the trees while the lot of them move in past the gate. At this point, the elf had lost all hope of joining them, her ears dropping at the thought. But they would perk up again as she watched the group slip away, not even locking the gate again.

The gods were still on her side! With a quickened step, she would cross the the small field and reach the gate, instinctively looking around for anyone watching. Breaking the law wasn't her strong suit..so it took a great deal of staring down the ajar gate before the girl even worked up the gut to reach out and touch it.

With a small shriek, filled half with fear and half with confidence, she would squeeze through the small opening she had made with her push on the gate. Now inside, she would start to freak out a bit, her skin breaking out in a cold sweat while the color drained from her face. "Oh gods..breaking the LAW, gotta find those guys so that they say I was with them!" She frantically thought to herself. Of course the group could always turn her in, but she wasn't thinking rationally with all that adrenaline pumping through her.

She would take off running down the path, her eyes searching for the group while she also tried to keep her footing in the dark.

There!

She would see them, down at the end over there! With one hand holding the arrows in place in her quiver, the other would be waving about wildly over her head as she called out. "HEEY! HEEEEY~! I NEED TO-!"

Just as she got everyone's attention with her yelling, her toe would dig into the concrete path, causing her foot to stop. In the moon lit space between two shadows of massive ships, she would face plant into the ground, ass in the air. Her arrows would spill out all over the ground next to her while her bow flipped out of the makeshift holding latch on her back, the wooden antique coming to a skidding stop next to the group.
 
Well, that was a shitshow that elf just displayed. Arrows literally everywhere now.

"A little late to the party?" Marie asked, walking over to stand above the strange elf girl, holding out a hand. She was a weird one, alright. Marie looked down to see what she could have tripped over, but there was nothing but concrete.

Eh, everyone trips. Just bad luck that she tripped at the bad time.
 
Miko looked over to Marie. "I am not technically a tech but when your on your own you learn a few things about how to rig some systems together. I am sure something needs fixed." He said with a grin across his face.

It was at that moment he heard someone yelling and looked just in time to watch them face plant into the pavement. "Uh...who brought the..." His words trailed off as he walked over to her out of concern. He quickly noticed that she was an elf with a fairly nice behind which was easy to spot given that it was stick up in the air.

"I know not all elves are lewd but this pose sure makes it hard not to stereotype." He said with a laugh as he bent down to pick up some of the arrows.
 
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This time, Marie really aimed to injure Miko with a good hearty dose of high voltage as she channeled all the electricity she could muster into one single horizontal karate chop to Miko's stomach.

Marie had decided: This guy sucks. He sucked at just about everything and he should never be let near the comms because if he was they'd be dead as soon as the first pirate showed its face.

"Don't mind him, he's dumb." Marie stated to the elf.
 
Finn had hobbled his way over to the side once they had all left the tavern, he had screwed a small canister to the side of his helmet and inhaled the aerosol contents into his system, almost instantly easing the pain that his leg was giving him since the previous dose had begun to wear off.

Get your ass on that ship, Finn, then you can complain to somebody about it

The merc was staying near-ish the back of the group, examining the ship, when the elf bumbled in and fell to the ground and scattered her belongings.

He hobbled over to where the bow had fallen to and gingerly picked it up, it looked old and pretty intricate so he didn't want to somehow end up cursing himself, Finn had no idea how magic worked if he was being completely honest but this looked like it could be magic so he wanted to be safe.

"I thought Elves were light on their feet, didn't know they were so easily swept off 'em" he spoke with a cheeky tone, sticking out a large, armoured hand to help her get up.
 
Juryrig, before he could head back to the ship, heard/smelled the following, in no particular order:
  1. A yelp
  2. Trouble afoot
  3. Roasted mercenary
  4. Clattering wood
  5. A side of chatter
He craned his head over to the group that formed around ... Someone. It is really hard to tell with three people in the way, but she looked like a blonde. Gotta be one of those clumsy beach babes or something, but Juryrig wouldn't know for certain unless he checked.

He toted his oversized haversack over to the clean-up crew. "Who's this?" He asked, stopping besides Finn, his black eyes looking down at the elf. "Did she miss that meeting or something?" His attention snaps to the bow, and...

.... He immediately starts sniffing the intricate bow. Sniffing up and down the bow that Finn had picked up, knocked on the wood, plucked the bow string, analyzing the details and properties of the weapon in odd ways.
 
"Eerg...nngh.." She would groan as she lifted herself up off the ground, rocking back onto her knees. She would lift a hand to her face, touching where her nose stung from the impact, the whole thing red. Her forehead was red, too, with gravel chunks that had broken the skin around areas that were still stark white, still lacking blood from the force of impact.

"Uugghh..my head." he elf moaned as her head rocked to the side. Her eyes would finally come into focus to look up to the people now standing around her, looking down to her with concerned looks.

One of these people in particular would be holding out a gloved, metal hand. "Might as well.." She would reach up and grab onto it, the muscle in her arm tightening as she pulled herself up from the ground. What a great first impression.
 
Seeing the newcomer faceplant ungracefully in front of the group, Cog simply couldn't contain himself any longer.

In an instant, the facade of a stoic robotic bodyguard was shattered as the android broke away from the crew and briskly strode over to the downed elf, cheerfully proclaiming "Aha! I knew when you started following us that you'd want to join-- we are going on an adventure after all!"

Upon arriving next to the girl on the ground, Cog bent forward slightly, extending a robotic hand in one swift, precise movement. "I'm Cognis. What is your name? Would you like to join us? You have strange ears, and a very nice bow. Also, you dropped your arrows. Is your face all right? You looked like you fell pretty hard."

Each new question was accompanied by a slight tilt of the android's faceless head. Combined with the onslaught of questions that he was currently delivering, the effect was... Mildly disturbing. Still, he seemed friendly.
 
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"A girl trips and everyone rushes over to help her up. I'm pretty sure she has two hands and two feet." He hummed, the smile fading away as everyone's actions immediately become like that of rampant piranhas smelling freshly chopped beef tossed into a river. True, their gesture was friendly, but you can't go around swarming every stranger who comes about and trips over her own foot. Deimos shook his head in annoyance. The whole team can't gather around something trivial like this throughout the entire mission. The result could be catastrophic - especially when there's something as major a discovery as Arcadia on the line.

He blinked a couple times as he watched the hubbub that had emerged around the elf as though she were the first discovery of this mission. As friendly as they were, tact certainly wasn't in their dictionaries. He could tell "try hard" certainly was. Maybe even "desperate".

Now this isn't to say he's against being nice to the girl who had just arrived and spilled her arrows across the tarmac. He could tell by the fact that she was armed that she may have had the intention of joining the merry bunch of oddities. Gods help her if she does. Probably won't be long until he's at his wit's end, himself.
 
Miko was about to look away to pick up arrows when the chop from Marie caught his eye. I don't have time for this. Her hand hit true his strong abs taking the punch. The electric current on the other hand vector arced around Miko and discharged behind him. He just kept on moving not paying much attention to Marie.

Miko looked over to Juryrig who looked like he was trying to make love to the bow. Interesting fellow to say the least but he stayed true to himself and this was something you could count on. Miko had picked up a few arrows by now and taking inspiration from Juryrig decided to play with a few of them. He took one into his hand and tossed it up into the air. The arrow sailed through the air clean and true.

"Got some nice arrows here young miss. Names Miko, and who might you be?" He asked while the arrow reached the top of its arc and started to fall back to the ground.
 
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