OOC: It would only be fair now to let Codename or Athena get online and write something, so us piggies shut up until that happens .

Edit: Good writing DSQrn, by the way

Edited by - Wilde on 3/11/2005 7:16:29 PM

OOC: Well, here's a bit. It may not make a whole lot of sense until Wilde edits his post a bit though. So Wilde, check your e-mail. Ultimately it's meant to give the rest of you guys a bit more insight into the workings of Rob's mind. You should all bear in mind, however, that while *you* now know more about him, your characters don't. So their interactions shouldn't change at all. I've put this in so you can all write more freely about Rob while remaining faithful to my conception of him. Just so it's clear, Rob is generally quiet and reserved and his main goal - his "agenda", if you like - is to keep Sirius in a state of relative balance. Exactly what that means, and why he feels that way may be revealed later. Just please remember that your characters still know none of this.

And Stormtrooper, don't be afraid to go fairly wild with your character. His world is your oyster, make the most of it.

-------------------------------

"So, now what are we going to do?" Rob mused, finally able to get a word in edgeways. The long conversation between Tanya and Damien didn't bother the elder freelancer; he soaked all the information up like a sponge and filed it away for potential future use. He hadn't seen the need to add anything - though some of the young revolutionary's more radical opinions troubled him to no small degree - and neither of his compatriots had asked for his input, not that he would have revealed anything important even if they had. In fact, were it not for his burning desire to deal with the problem that went by the name Jack Mason, Rob would have remained silent. Silence brought with it a profound sense of pleasure for Rob. He recalled fondly the memories of an industrial espionage mission he had taken eighteen months earlier for Kishiro Technologies. He had infiltrated a Samura factory on New Tokyo and spent a full week evading detection and gathering information on a new manufacturing process developed by the dominant Kusari keiretsu. Rob spent that week in complete, utter silence; not once did he so much as utter a word. It was bliss. It also was an unmitigated success by both his and Kishiro's standards. Kishiro was happy because they were able to remain competitive in the capricious Sirian economy, and Rob was happy because some semblance of balance in Sirius was maintained. That balance seemed rather tenuous to Rob at the moment. He knew that action was necessary. A question remained, however; How do I restore balance?

Rob's brief reverie was ended when he realized his two companions were looking at him expectantly. Presumably they had thought his question a rhetorical one.

"Well?" Rob said, indicating he did expect some input from the other two. "I'm open to suggestions."

"I suppose we might as well get back to chasing down some of the survivors." Tanya said, "Rheinland's not far, why not start there? If I can get hold of Travis, he might be able to fill us in on some of the details." Tanya also hoped to get away from the two men for a while and see Rutger again.

At the mention of Rheinland, Damien's face drained of all color. "Um..."

"What?" Rob fixed the rebel with a questioning look. "You on a 'most wanted' list or something?"

"No, it's not that." Damien said.

"Well, what is it?" Tanya asked.

"I'm terribly sorry, but I believe that the fleet you seek no longer exists."

"What? What do you mean?" Rob demanded. "And how do you know?"

"Because I led the mission to destroy it." Damien confessed.

The news came as a serious blow to Tanya. If Travis had been onboard one of the Rheinland ships, he was surely long dead by now. That realization left the young woman reeling. She suddenly felt very alone.

Rob also took the news badly, though for a different reason. Damn that kid! He thought angrily. Damn him! Him and his trigger-happy band of reprobates! When will people learn to ask questions first and shoot later? Rob knew that much information was lost along with the Rheinland fleet; information that could have helped in the fight against Mason and his allies.

"Of all the things you could have said, that was probably the absolute worst, my friend." Rob said, keeping his seething anger in check.

Damien looked down, full of shame and sorrow. "Why is it that even my successes must be failures?" He wondered aloud.

(Okay, I got nothin'. Please, somebody, take over from here. *Looks expectantly at Wilde and Athena*)

Edited by - Codename on 3/12/2005 1:24:56 PM

"Depends,whats your name?" asked Hans."The name is Dev" said he."Right,and which one are you after,as i am looking for the one Damian Soklovsky"."That does not matter right now" Dev replied."Well then,meet me in Honshu,we will take down both our targets."

THANK YOU codename for writing that, I was having trouble. Ok, my creativity is back

Damien looked towards Tanya and Rob, his face nearing despair. "I am sorry...Rhineland is a House that must be demilitarized, and we took the oppurtunity to destroy the Westfalen. Forgive me." His eyes rested on Tanya. "You think this Travis was on one of those ships, don't you?"

She did not need to answer.

"There were some survivors of the attack that are being held at Bruschal. Twelve, as I recall. Your Travis was perhaps one of these...I will ask. Give me a moment." Damien loaded his neural net computer, and proceeded to type a message. Rob silently rose from the table and walked out of the bar, slinking into the shadows.

Tanya's mind was in turmoil. The man who had been like a brother to her, whom she had been through so much with, whom had meant so much to her....could be dead, or anywhere in the galaxy. All she could think about was his face...

"Hey, who's this guy?" She looked up from her reverie to see a familiar face lined by spiked blue hair. "Old Dev not good enough for ya?"

Tanya looked up at him, smiled sadly and shook her head. "I wasn't available then and I'm not available now, Dev."

"That's moneybags, right? The Daumann heir." He grinned at her surprise. "Ok. So who is the prettyboy over here, anyways? Why're you hanging around him and grandpa?"

"Damien. Don't ask me why he's hanging around, he feels guilty about trying to kill me. If you're going to try and kill off Rob, by the way, I really wouldn't bother."

Dev smiled devilishly. "Who said anything about death? I only kill if there's money involved. Otherwise its a waste of profits--I could make money off of killing them later. By the way," he said towards the Bundschuh typing away furiously at his neural net computer, "There's some guy here tracking you down, just so you know. Hans Jurgghy or whatever."

"He's a fairly greedy man. I owe him some credits I believe...Tanya, no information has yet been entered on the neural net about the survivors. We're going to have to trek down to Bruschal to find--"

A red blast from a laser by his head interrupted him in mid-sentence. Damien looked towards the door of the bar to see an angry man in Hessian dress storming towards him, gun pointed forward. He stopped beside a pillar.

"You!" He exclaimed. "Pay up my creds, you Bundschuh son of a traitorous b*tch!"

Rob stepped out from behind the pillar, twisting the man's arm around, wresting the gun from his control, and beating him across the back of the head with it. Hans slumped to the ground, temporarily knocked unconscious. "This one," Rob drawled out calmy to Tanya, gun pointed at Dev, "we are not sticking in our cargo hold for five hours."

(OOC: Codename please tell me if I misportrayed Rob again...)

Edited by - Wilde on 3/13/2005 7:25:37 AM

OOC: Oh, don't worry, I will. I've no problems at the moment, though. Good writing.

You might want to add a bit more though, as the temptation to have Rob shoot one of Dev's legs off is growing stronger by the moment.

Edited by - Codename on 3/12/2005 9:09:02 PM

Arrr! maybe a leg shot but keep in lower leg, if you shoot there it'll be a bounty on your head

Oh and code, watch out i get to write the end of a fight scene with you... dont tempt me...



Edited by - DSQrn on 3/13/2005 6:43:15 AM

OOC: I re-posted this as opposed to editing my previous post cos some people were having technical issues reading it.

The young bounty hunter stared at his adversary and his eyes hardened. He pulled out his gun. "Bring it on, grandpa!"

The two advanced on each other, circling around on the tiled floor of the Dragon Palace. Dev made the first move, lunging forward towards Rob while shooting off bullets wildly in all directions, his eyes burning with a fire that could only be described as demonic. Making use of nearly superhuman speed, Dev slid around the older man, forcing his arm around Rob's neck and j erking sharply upwards. "Got you," he whispered in the man's ear--right before Rob smoothly stepped to the right, elbowed him in the ribs, threw his fist up into the youth's chin--throwing his head backwards--and manipulated Dev down to the ground, driving his knee into his adversary's spine.

Dev twisted upwards on the tiled floor, turning to face Rob. His legs, possessing a strength that surprised the older freelancer, wrapped around the older man's legs in a powerful scissor lock as he rolled over, forcing Rob under him...

Unnoticed in the fight, Damien slunk like a shadow out of sight and behind a pillar, picking up Dev's dropped firearm on the way out.

OOC: There ya go DSQrn, finish it off.

Edited by - Wilde on 3/13/2005 7:29:58 AM

Rob then threw Dev off him, He smashed into a pillar. Rob stood up and muttered "Damn punk..."

Dev stood up and Grinned "Sorry bout that buddy" then he pulled another gun from his jacket "Never leave home without several" He said with a laugh
Then he ran up and jumped on a table shooting in all directions. People screamed and ran, he laughed as some slumped down bullets in there legs.

Rob ran up and tackled Dev off the table, Smashing him to the floor. Then he pinned his arms down. Dev smiled and hoofed him as hard as he could in the nuts. Rob loosed his grip and Dev slipped out. Rob starting crawling back, pain washing over him, Dev lowered his gun down at him.

A bullet knocked the gun out Dev's hand.

"Hey!" Dev yelled "Who's the wise guy. Damien emerged from behind the pillar, gun pointed at Dev.

"Give it up bounty hutner" He yelled "Its not worth dying for"

Rob managed to get to his feet, and grabbed Dev's fallen gun. Pointing it at his head he said "We need to have a little talk." Dev grinned sheepishly.

OOC: Sorry code but i sucumbed to temptation. of course now i have it comming

Edited by - DSQrn on 3/13/2005 7:39:22 AM

OOC: YOU BASTARD!!!!!!!


Edited by - Codename on 3/13/2005 9:45:54 AM

Dude, WAY too brutal.

Here, try this one...

---------------------------

"Get up." Rob said, gesturing with his free hand. Dev did as he was told, the laser sight centered on his head saw to that.

"So, what now grandpa? Going to kill me?" Dev smiled defiantly.

"No." Rob replied. "You're tenacious, and I respect that. But you need to be taught a lesson. Head on over to the bar. And keep your hands where I can see them."

Devi didn't know exactly what Rob had in store, but he also didn't see that he had much choice in th matter. Slowly, he walked over to the bar.

"Good." Rob said, approaching Dev from behind, gun aimed at the base of Dev's skull. "Now, slowly put your hands on the table. Any funny business and I will kill you."

Dev did as he was told and slowly lowered his hands until they touched the plastic countertop. Moving swiftly and surely Rob dropped his free hand to his right thigh and unsheathed a combat knife. Rob gripped the molded plastic handle firmly and plunged the blade down, right into Dev's palm. Dev's fingers dug into the plastic countertop, gouging four furrows in the material. To his credit the bounty hunter made no sound despite his obvious agony.

His opponent immobilized, Rob relaxed his grip on Dev's gun. He set the inelegant weapon down beside his young "captive". Dev's eyes flicked to the weapon. It was just within reach of his left hand. He knew he was fast, but was he fast enough to get it in time? Screw it. Dev thought and lunged. Rob was ready for this, however, and effortlessly deflected the bounty hunter's arm away from its intended target. Grabbing Dev's wrist Rob forced the young man into a vicious hammerlock.

"Now," Rob said, leaning in close to Dev, "you listen to me, kid and listen well. I'm only going to tell you this once. If you don't get the message, and continue on your infantile quest to get revenge, know that I will show you no mercy. I don't have time for these silly little games. There are things happening in Sirius now, things which are bigger than any one of us, things which threaten to destroy our ways of life. I need to stop these things from happening. But I can't if I'm constantly harassed by the likes of you. I don't want to kill you. But you're forcing my hand here.

"If you value your life you'll give this up. Let me blend back into the shadows. Forget you ever saw me. Forget my face, my body, my voice. Forget my name. From this moment on I no longer exist to you. I am nothing more than the dream of a ghost's shadow."

Suddenly there was a blinding flash and the noise of one thousand guns firing. The abrupt, unexpected sensory assault left everyone in the bar stupefied.

Amongst the first to come to were Tanya, Dev and Damien. They all looked around, wondering what had just happened. Rob was nowhere to be seen. Dev clutched his wounded hand; the knife that had held it in place was gone. He flexed his fingers experimentally. As Dev closed his fist blood spurted from the still open wound but there was little increase in pain and all the bounty hunter's fingers moved as they should.

Damien felt something hard pressed against his thigh. He looked down to find a small credit chit hastily fastened to his jumpsuit. Next to it was a small note:

---

Don't know who that other guy was or how much you owed him but here's some money all the same. The chit's keyed to one of my accounts with roughly 1 million credits. Pay the guy off.

Thanks for the assist,

~Rob

---

Damien couldn't believe what he was reading.

Tanya also found a small "gift" on her thigh. It was a small commlink. It too came with a note:

---

Tanya,

Sorry I had to leave like that, but I think I need to disappear for a while. I'm still interested in taking Mason out but it seems we'd be better off chasing down leads independently. If I come across anything I think you need to know I'll make sure the information gets to you. Likewise, if you uncover any juicy bits, please let me know. The commlink I left is keyed to your voice alone. It broadcasts to an automated memory system which I have remote access to. Leave any messages for me there.

I hope that some point in future we might again work together.

~Rob

---

---------------------------

Rob's Falcon decanted from jumpspace in the New London system a while later. He had decided to try to find out what had happened to the Bretonian remnants of the fleet he had seen when he picked up Tanya. He figured that he'd have better luck finding something out; the Bretonian terrorists weren't nearly as bloodthirsty or effective as those Rheinland had to deal with.

His first port of call was BAF Fleet Command on Planet New London. He had a lot of friends there, surely at least one of them would know something...

OOC: Excellent Chapter, Thanks for sparing my leg btw

Excellent work Codename

Athena, get yourself online and write something!

Edited by - Wilde on 3/13/2005 12:44:40 PM

OOC: Guys,just wake my guy up,dont have to pay him