Dimensional Knight Hetairoi (IC)

[Rupudska]

OOC

It was a lovely morning deep in Soviet space in the Cepheus constellation - and not too far from Alderamin, either, and the USS Constellation was on a record twenty seven hours without a single thing going wrong on board. For such a massive ship, and for one of the ships of the Sixth Fleet of the Terran Hetairoi, that was pretty bloody impressive.

Even more impressive considering what they were doing. The nebula structure they were in, known as the Krasovsky Nebula after the Soviet scientist, was an absolute mess of electromagnetic radiation, comparable to a less dense, more child friendly version of the dreaded Briar Patch on the border of American, French, Saharan, and Byzantine space, named after the nebula in Star Trek known for playing similar amounts of Hell with sensors and engines both. Why was the Constellation in such dangerous space, cruising along at just over twice light speed to get through it?

Pirate hunting of course. The Krasovsky Nebula was bloody full of them, and one shipful of them had managed to run off with a Soviet scientist and their prototype weather control satellite. Who knew what they would do with it. Whatever it was, it wasn't good.

Which is why Ava Gutierrez, aka Black Eye, was still on long-range scan patrol in her own mech in front of the ship, as she had been for the past three hours. Normally shifts weren't so long, but the Krasovksy Nebula wasn't pleasant on the hangar equipment, so they had to minimize the exposure by having everyone with scanner equipment training (meaning Ava and a few others) take longer shifts.

Joy. At least it was ending soon.

<<Black Eye to Connie Mae, nothing to report. Tell MacReedy he better have my double espresso and McMuffins ready the moment those hangar doors close when I get back.>>

[Mundeo]

USS Constellation
First Lieutenant Lucas Cruzado
The Hangar

Pirates, man. Now that was something you don't hear every day. And not just regular pirates, though - space pirates. Probably not the kind that's obsessed with life-sucking jellyfish and led by a giant pterodactyl, though. Or was it? Either way, it was going to be some time until they actually find some action at this rate; apparently travelling at over double the speed of light wasn't quick enough to find some brigands floating about the aether. Until that time comes, though, Lucas was going to be spending most of his time... in the hangar. The Krasovsky Nebula worked wonders on the hangar equipment, apparently, so while they worked around this issue by sending out some mechs to do some scouting, somebody had to stay behind to keep a look on the equipment. That meant the new guy had to do it. Not that he was complaining, though; working with machinery is what Lucas did best. The ship has been flying accident-free for the past twenty-seven hours, but after being on constant watch of the machinery for the past five hours without a wink of rest, he wasn't sure how much longer he was going to keep that up.

[Danceria]

USS Constellation
First Lieutenant Jinhwan Choe
The Hangar
Morning(?)

---

"<<Another day, another toast on egg...>>" the Korean man sighed as the scrambled yellow-white substance was dutifully flipped onto the pan-toasted bread, and a Korean-American hybrid of breakfast was born. Turns out being a bachelor made you the designated cook, or the "number two" as far as Commander Sheridan said. Honestly, if all it took was being an early riser and a fast driver, he'd be a five star general by month's end. Right now he had to make his rounds.

Walking through the sterilized corridors from the Rec-Cook (or "Re-cook" room, as the crew knew that there wasn't exactly a Space Grocery Store you can stop off at for resupply, so he had to work with Fresh-ish(?) ingredients), with a cupholder of coffee in one hand and the egg-toast sandwiches in the other, he made his way to one of the most surprising people he's gotten along with.

"Mornin' Cruzado." Jinhwan smiled "Anything too important explode on us while I was gone?" this of course was all good teasing, as the past few days of absolute mechanical madness forced the two to become fast friends and faster workers. If someone would've told him that this hot-shot hot-headed Brazilian would be teaching him how to work a few mechs, the inside of a ship, and be a fellow grease-monkey, Jinhwan would've laughed in your face and said that Cruzado would've been dead before the mech even turned on. Turns out the two had a lot more in common that first glance, despite being polar opposite in personalities. Cruzado jacked mechs, Jinhwan stole cars, and both knew that with a little patience, duct-tape, wrenchwork, WD-40, and a metric gigaton of grit, you can fix just about anything. All in all, not bad for the designated newbie.

[Mundeo]

USS Constellation
First Lieutenant Lucas Cruzado
The Hangar

Lucas waved back with a cheerful smile. "Morning, Jin. Everything's explosion-free so far" The mechanic gave a yawn, stretching out his arms. "But if I can't keep my eyes open, I don't know how long I'll be able to keep it that way. Maybe I should grab a cup of coffee"

Lucas had plenty of respect for his fellow O-1 engineer. Despite the plethora of differences between them, their common love for the machine was enough for them to kick it off right from the start. Thank goodness, too, since they have been working together non-stop ever since they entered the nebula. The two had come from a similar background, born and raised in some of the more rougher parts of human society. Lucas was able to stay on the right side of the law, though, but that doesn't really matter now. Now they were all fighting the same fight, soldiers to a unified cause. In fact, he was somewhat jealous of Jinhwan's marksmanship skills; maybe the Korean could teach him a thing or two. Only time will tell, or once they both get into their mechs.

The Brazilian looked back at the equipment, yawned again, then looked to the doorway that Jin had come out of. "You know what, I really need some coffee" The mechanic then walked off, his shoulders slumped over as he made his way to the Rec-Cook room. He was never much of a coffee drinker, but space changed that. His circadian rhythm was all out of wack from being up among the stars, and now he's having trouble keeping his eyes open for any extended period of time.

Lucas returned to the hanger with a mug in his hand, but in it was just a shot of espresso with one sugar - simple, but it gets the job done. Once he returned to his work, he turned to Jinhwan and said, "You think we might actually run into some pirates today?"

[Pax Nerdvana]

USS Constellation
First Lieutenant Ed Jackson
The Hangar

Ed Jackson walked into the hangar stretching his arms. He had slept weirdly, so his leg injury was bothering him this morning. He was a little late this morning because his leg had been acting up. But he had made it, and was only a minute late, so it didn't matter to much. Apparently this area was chock-full of pirates, so some people had longer patrols because they had better long range scanners and sensors.

Ed was a little hungry, so he pulled a power bar out of his lefthand pocket, and removed the wrapper. He took a bite out of it. It was a little grainy and stale tasting. It was from the commissary, which probably explained that. He ate it anyway, and stuffed the wrapper in his back pocket. He said,"So what's this about space pirates?"

[Asterdan]

USS Constellation
Second Lieutenant Eli Ramsey
The Hangar

Oil, machinery, cogs, and gears. This was Eli's world. This was where he came from, heck this was how he got a job in the air force to begin with! He never dreamed that finding that crashed hunk of metal would lead to all of this, but now he couldn't imagine his life going any other way. He was up under his mech, which he called Hurricane, making some routine repairs and maintenance, smiling as grease and oil fell from the metal to his face and hands. Elias dug around in the machinery, tweaking this and that, doing what he could to ensure the Hurricane was at its best. After a while, he heard voices in the Hangar. Once he heard them mention pirates, Eli knew it was time to slip out and join the conversation.

He pulled himself with his heels, sliding the creeper out from under his mech, sitting up and looking around at his colleagues. Eli stood up slowly, taking a rag from his pocket and wiping some of the grease off of his hands. He saw Ed, Lucas, and a couple of others, milling about and talking. Ramsey waved to the group and walked over, smiling at them as he shoved his rag back into pocket.

[Rupudska]

At this time, or perhaps a little after it, did Lieutenant-Commander Sheridan arrive. She had a cigar in her mouth (a vice she shared with Gutierrez, and thanks to the advances of nanotechnology, neither had anything to worry about regarding lung cancer) and a thermos of coffee in her hand as she surveyed the domain that was the hangar. There were some of the men of her unit giving out their good mornings, and that was good. What wasn't good was that some of them had apparently slept through the briefing on pirates.

Such is life in the service of UN Spacy, in comparison to the US Navy.

She gave Ed a little smack behind the head.

"As I so eloquently went over in the briefing," she said as the time on Gutierrez's patrol wound down to nothing, "we're dealing with what are apparently ex-Saharan Navy officers turned pirates who have stolen a weather control satellite designed by some Russki scientist, and to ensure it works they took the scientist too. Their demands are unknown, but there is a planet known to be a haven for mostly African and Arab pirates within the nebula, so they're probably taking it there. Problem is, they're taking a roundabout means of getting there, and their ship is an ex-Saharan Navy frigate. It's not really a threat on its own, but there are dozens of cutters and corvettes among the pirate planet's defensive fleet, and it probably has one of the cloaking devices built by the Facmaitoans the Saharans have a trade deal with. So you can see why finding it is going to be a tad difficult."

A ding resounded, and the hangar doors started to open as Gutierrez landed her mech in walker mode, the hangar ceiling being too low to land it in humanoid mode.

"That's why you're all carrying high-power radars on your mechs for this - 'cept Gutierrez of course, 'cause hers already has a high-power radar."

[Pax Nerdvana]

Ed Jackson
USS Constellation
The Hangar

Commander Sheridan slapped Ed in the back of his head because he had slept through the briefing. She than proceeded to give a quick rundown on the situation. Some pirates had stolen a satellite and kidnapped it's designer. They apparently had some sort of cloaking tech, which is what would make them difficult to track. Ed nodded as she finished talking and said,"Yes ma'am." As soon as he started to speak, the hangar doors slid open and Gutierrez landed her mech.

He picked his flight helmet up off the floor, pulled it on, tightened the chin strap, and said,"Ma'am, should we get to our mechs?"

[The Knockout Gun Gals]

Serena Antariksa
USS Constellation
The Hangar

Pirates. Goddamn pirates. If it wasn't for them, well...she may not know what to do right now. Serena is in her Yojimbo's, fiddling around the cockpit. In her mouth, a toast. She bit on it, all while taking care of her Yojimbo's. It may not be hit strong or move fast, but it is a multi-role one with the entire roles of fighting and moving on its disposal and all. Nice things to have. Well, a quick maintenance proved normal, nothing harmed or wrong. She dropped down from the Yojimbo's, and then she saw the others.

And Lieutenant Sheridan, apparently. She arrived a bit late, but heard the briefings.

"As I so eloquently went over in the briefing," she said as the time on Gutierrez's patrol wound down to nothing, "we're dealing with what are apparently ex-Saharan Navy officers turned pirates who have stolen a weather control satellite designed by some Russki scientist, and to ensure it works they took the scientist too. Their demands are unknown, but there is a planet known to be a haven for mostly African and Arab pirates within the nebula, so they're probably taking it there. Problem is, they're taking a roundabout means of getting there, and their ship is an ex-Saharan Navy frigate. It's not really a threat on its own, but there are dozens of cutters and corvettes among the pirate planet's defensive fleet, and it probably has one of the cloaking devices built by the Facmaitoans the Saharans have a trade deal with. So you can see why finding it is going to be a tad difficult."

Well, that's hard. "Well, that's hard," she said.

[Danceria]

USS Constellation
First Lieutenant Jinhwan Choe
The Hangar
Morning

---

Jinhwan nodded as he was apparently the only person who remotely paid attention during the briefings. "In the words of my ever-wise and slightly senile Asian Grandpa "It is not what you see, it's what you don't see". the Korean man brought out a y-Pad and booted up a file called "번개 타기", or "Riding the Lightning" in Korean. "What I think he was getting at is if our pirates are doing the sane thing and going around the maelstrom of death, we'd pick them out pretty quickly. Since we're going through this mess, that means they are as well. Which means they must be using some low-tech gear. I don't think I have to re-iterate how many times both the ship and myself blew a gasket."

With a flourish of buttons, a craft that looked like one of the old pre-FTL Photon Sailship but the sails surround the actual vessel. "So the best way these pirates can go through here without frying their systems is if they're riding the rads in the area. Maybe calibrate our scanners to pick up large amounts of moving electrons?"

[Mundeo]

USS Constellation
First Lieutenant Lucas Cruzado
The Hangar

Lucas took pride in being one of the few present that actually knew why they were in the Nebula. He may have been have asleep at the time, but we was at least able to listen to what Lieutenant-Commander Sheridan had to say regarding their mission. He wasn't the one to brag, of course, but he felt a lot better not being slapped in the back of the head.

The first-lieutenant took another sip of his espresso. "Whatever we gotta do, lieutenant-commander, you know I'll be staying here keeping the equipment from frying unless you need all of us out there"

[Rupudska]

"So the best way these pirates can go through here without frying their systems is if they're riding the rads in the area. Maybe calibrate our scanners to pick up large amounts of moving electrons?"

Ava nodded as she joined in the conversation, stepping away from her mech. "That's what I've been doing up there. I have the general path they've been taking, and was gonna feed that to the navigation systems, see if it can't extrapolate from that and figure out where they're going. They're smart, but they're just pirates, there aren't that many places they can really hide."

"Good call," Sheridan said, patting the feral on her shoulder. "Just be sure to wake up in time for briefing this time. Just because you found them, or think you found them, doesn't mean you can nap the briefing away."

"Yeah yeah."