[RP] The 'Verse (Accepting profiles)

[Akai_ryu]

"Should be sometime tomorrow, I think." Jas mused. "Or late tonight. Could even be the day after. It depends on how hard it is to find the salvage. Last report from it said that it still had some momentum and wasn't just floating. "

Meanwhile Jaden shot a glance from Aria to Fayra. Had the doctor had enough balls to spike hir drink? Or maybe it had just been the tea that Fayra had given hir and Aria knew a different kind. One of those two options was highly amusing and made hir respect the doctor a bit more and the other...well, it didn't change things. Balls, brains and she was kind of cute. In a pretty, fancy sort of way.


Time skip time! Or maybe it's the Time Warp!

"Now, meimei you and the good doctor are going to stay on the ship like we talked about, right? Jaden, Aria and I are going to go out and retrieve the salvage, but you have to stay out of the decompressed parts of the ship. And we need you to keep an eye on the instruments just in case. Alright?" Jas asked, crouching to put her eyes on level with Jin-Li, who was perched on a crate that had been recently anchored down.

Behind the tall blonde, Jaden was finishing the suiting up process and was double checking hir seals with hir helmet off. In a moment ze would need someone else to check them again to make sure. Once ze was sure that everything but the helmet was properly done up, ze pulled it on easily. For today hir mohawk had been tied back into a stubby ponytail so as not to get in the way of the helmet.

"C'mon, cap. Time's a-wastin'." Ze called through the plexiglass.

On the crate, Jin-Li nodded solemnly before pulling Jas into a hug and balancing the blonde's helmet on her head for her. Then she let go, bounded off the crate to hug Jaden's waist and then scrambled up the stairs to the cockpit.  

[DeirdreTonbo]

For lack of a better place to wait, Fayra followed Jin-li toward the cockpit at a slower pace. She tucked her hands into her pockets and settled into the first available seat that wasn't the pilot's. "Jin-li, they'll be fine, right?"

Aria reached over, hands checking all of Jas' seals one last time, then checking Jaden as well. Once she felt assured they were both secure in their suits, she donned her own helmet. "Do I look good? My seals that is, you can both stop looking at my a**." She was smiling though as she said this, the expression carrying into her voice.  

[Akai_ryu]

"Should be. Could be. Who knows?" The mechanic replied as she perched on Jas' usual seat. "Space is big. Space is dangerous. Simple things become dangerous."

Although Jin-Li's tone was her usual cheerful singsong, it was fairly easy to tell that she was worried about the rest of the crew going out. She had spent most of her life in the Black on one ship or another and was very aware of the dangers of vacuum. Little things like tears in a suit could become big things very quick. Or a mis-estimated jump off by a degree of an angle.



"That's Cap's thing, not mine." Jaden quipped as ze picked up the bag of tools they would need once they breached the other ship.

Meanwhile, Jas was busy checking Aria's seals, thankful for the fact that between their helmets and limited range of motion neither of her companions could see her faint blush. She hadn't been checking Aria's a** out. Hand to God, it was the seals she was checking.

"Good to go." The tall blonde announced after a moment and picked up the breaching tools they would be using. She did a quick double check to make sure they had everything before hitting the comm. "Alright, meimei go ahead. Remember, no going in the cargo hold until we're back."

Almost immediately after Jas let up on the comm button the loud rush of air could be heard as the ship sucked as much oxygen as it could out of the cargo hold. There was no point in venting air out as air was valuable and venting it would have added to their momentum away from the derelict ship they were supposed to be grabbing salvage from.

And then there was silence.

A moment later the rumble of the cargo bay doors opening could be felt through their boots as it slowly swung open. The remaining air rushed out and up in the bridge, Jin-Li compensated for the extra momentum with a slight nudge to the engines. Once they were stationary relative to the derelict once again, Jas strode forward and out the cargo doors carefully.  

[DeirdreTonbo]

Fayra didn't look entirely convinced and pulled her feet up onto the seat with her. She sat with her arms around them, watching Jin-li and the screens in front of her. The medic was ready to run for the infirmary at a moment's notice, listening to the comm.



As soon as she was weightless, Aria smiled. Okay, so normally one was supposed to be extra careful when stepping out, and Aria was. But standing in the cargo bay she smiled and let herself and everything she took as her own responsibility weigh nothing. She leaned back and picked her feet up, laying vertically in the air and just... floated.

"How's the weather, Jaswinder?" Aria asked as she turned her boots on, coming back down to the deck of the cargo hold.

Trailing at the back of the group she followed Jas and Jaden out of the bay. She was rarely required to do much when she went out with them. Holding things perhaps. Without Jin-li aboard she was often stuck at the helm. Out here she was extra eyes, which was just as important as keeping the ship steady.  

[Akai_ryu]

Jin-Li watched the screens intently as she hummed a song that seemed half lullaby or folk song and half cheerful song. The pilot's seat creaked under her as she swung her feet back and forth and twisted from side to side absently. For the most part, her job during actions like these was fairly simple despite requiring her to remember to stay put and pay attention.


"A bit cold. A bit hot. Rather dry." Jas mused with a smile as she clipped one end of a spool of rope to a ring on the side of the entrance to the cargo bay.

Then she clipped herself to the line and stepped out, pushing off toward the other ship. The idea was that even if she missed, she'd be able to reel herself back in as would anyone else clipped to the line. It also made sending their packages back up to the cargo bay easier. Clip them to the line after clipping the other end to their target and a good shove would send them on their way.

Jaden watched as Jas glided out into the black gracefully and as easily as if she didn't care or know about the dangers. The ship's muscle waited until the tall blonde was a good distance out before clipping to the line and shoving off hirself. Hir push was a bit stronger and before long Jaden caught up to Jas and had to slow hirself by grabbing the line lightly.

As they approached the ship, Jas twisted and re-magged her boots so she could land feet first on the surface of the other ship. Almost immediately after her boots hit the hull, she took a step away and began looking for a good place to anchor the line. After a bit of searching she found the hatch they would be cutting open and tied the line to another eyehook, this time it was one that she had brought with her that had a magnetic base to fix it to the other ship's hull. Meanwhile, Jaden inspected the hatch they were going to go through.  

[DeirdreTonbo]

Aria didn't really have to wait much at all before clipping herself to the line and sailing across between the two vessels. She probably couldn't have propelled herself as quickly across as Jaden had if she tried. For the sake of safety though she gave hir a few moments to get most of the way across before the companion too was crossing the gap.

As she got closer, Aria gripped the rope to turn herself, flipping her boots to land on the side of the derelict ship. Once secure enough, Aria turned and waved back at the ship- not that she really thought anyone had a visual on her. But if they did it might be reassuring.  

[Akai_ryu]

Jaden traded the bag ze carried for a small gun like object from Jas' bag of tools. Carefully, Jaden laid a bead down around the seal before handing it back to Jas, who handed hir the detonator. Frowning in concentration, Jaden connected the detonator.

"Alright. Door's hot. I'm setting it to blow in a ten count." ze announced over their comms before taking several bounding steps back.

At Jaden's announcement, Jas took several steps away from the door. Then, at the promised ten count, the bead Jaden had laid down flared, bubbled and a moment later the door burst outward. Or, at least, it should have. The pair exchanged glances and Jas frowned slightly as she pulled a pair of crowbars out of her bag.

"Hold these for a bit, would you?" She asked, turning to Aria and offering the pair of bags she had been holding.  

[DeirdreTonbo]

Aria watched them working on the door from just far enough back that she didn't have to move when Jaden blew the door. Or at least attempted to. Slender brows came together within her helm and she leaned in order to see around one of the others.

"Mmmhmm," there was no argument from Aria as she accepted the bags from Jas. It wasn't as though they weighed anything, all she had to do was keep them from floating off.

"How old is this wreck? It doesn't still have a seal, does it?"  

[Akai_ryu]

"Eight months, give or take a week." Jas said, her shrug lost in the bulk of her suit. "They must've lost air at some point. We'll probably see. It's a pity we can't salvage parts too, it'd save us a fortune."

Turning back to the hatch, she strode back over and met Jaden. The muscle took the extra crowbar and took a half step back before the pair set their crowbars in at the same time. Once again, they exchanged a look and on a silent three count they leaned into the levers. A loud grating, creaking rumble could be felt through their boots then the hatch suddenly gave way with a ping of metal snapping.

Almost immediately the tall blonde and the muscle dove aside as it spun off into space. Then, the pair set about hammering the sharp points down with the crowbars to lessen the chances of their suits catching. Time passed companionably as they worked before Jaden then eventually Jas straightened and seemed satisfied with their work.

"Watch your suit. We did what we could." Jas said to Aria as she walked back over to the companion to stash the crowbars and retrieve the bags.

Meanwhile, Jaden was carefully lowering hirself into the hole with a flashlight in hand. It was unlikely that they would run into anyone on a derelict that had been dead for months, but it was always best to send Jaden in first.  

[DeirdreTonbo]

Aria switched the lamp on her helmet on and let the others go ahead of her. They didn't need to worry about light outside, their own boat was casting enough on the hull. Inside it was likely they would need their own light sources.

Once Jas had let herself in, Aria approached the entryway and eyed the edges of the door with distaste. For a hole torn into the side of a ship, it was pretty smooth. But for someone getting into the ship in a fragile bubble like a suit, it was a jagged, hungry maw.

With as much care as she could, the companion let herself into the wreck, looking at the other two to make sure none of them were leaking.  

[Akai_ryu]

Jaden led the group through the narrow maintenance access before dropping out into what was clearly a large common area. A dozen tables bolted to the floor had been set up in the space along with benches and more than a few corpses floated in the space. The moment hir boots hit deck, Jaden began going through the bodies, corraling them into a corner for later. As ze floated them into a corner, Jaden did a quick check for IDs. Jas would probably want to send an anonymous wave to their families to let them know what had happened to their loved ones.

"Ah hell, it looks like most of them didn't make it to the lifeboats." Jaden muttered over the comms. "Help me with this, would you, Aria? Sooner we ID 'em all and put 'em in a corner, the sooner we can check the rest of the ship."

While Jaden dealt with the bodies, Jas carefully made her way through the area then through a door, down a corridor, and made a left down another. A few more twists and turns (And a ladder) brought the tall blonde to a small cargo room. The job orders had been rather specific as to what she was supposed to retrieve. It was a box from this room and a baker's dozen from the actual cargo hold another level down.

A few minutes after she left, Jas returned, pushing the large crate in front of her. For a moment she seemed to contemplate the scene before she halted the box near the maintenance corridor they had come down.

"Don't bother. We'll get their Better ******** Find Me beacon working and one of the Alliance ships will pick them up. There's probably a hundred or so people still on this ship. There weren't lifeboats." Jas said grimly before disappearing down another corridor.  

[DeirdreTonbo]

Aria sort of stared at the bodies as Jaden started the gather them, and then pointedly didn't look that direction again. Bodies that been been rapidly decompressed were not pleasant to look at. Not that bodies were ever high on Aria's list of things to look at regardless of their state. So she wasn't much help to Jaden corralling the bodies but she did stay out of the way. And... looked for dangerous... commons equipment. Sporks could wreak havoc with suits.

Once Jas got back to them, Aria had her back to the door and Jaden, watching the end of the room that ought to lead to the kitchen. What sort of ship didn't have lifeboats? The whole thing was wrong. She glanced down at her bags, giving them a little bit of a fluff as she stood there.  

[Akai_ryu]

Jaden shrugged, but the motion was clearly angry. Most likely hir anger was directed at whomever owned the ship and not at Jas. Probably. Once Jas disappeared again, the ship's muscle grabbed the crate Jas had left behind and disappeared up the maintenance corridor with it. Ze could be felt thumping around in there and several minutes later ze reappeared without the crate. Once back in the common area, ze looked around, drummed hir fingers against a table once then disappeared down a different corridor.

Several minutes after Jaden disappeared, Jas reappeared, pushing a large crate in front of herself and pulling another after. The tall blonde left them floating near the maintenance shaft and glanced around.

"Where'd Jaden go? We've got eleven more of these to move." Jas asked.

"Hunting out that beacon." Jaden's growled reply came a moment later. "It's not on the bridge. Engine room is sealed up tight. You think they had a meltdown?"  

[DeirdreTonbo]

"Which one has the clicker in it?" Aria asked after a second, looking at the pair of bags, Jas had left her with. "Point me in the right direction and I'll take it to Jaden."

With the added bonus of not having to stand around in a room full of dead people. Of course, she my have to go through a corridor with dead people in it. Or walk directly into a room full of radioactive bodies.

"Jaden, is it true that if a body in the black is radioactive long enough it turns into a zombie?"  

[Akai_ryu]

"Bigger bag." Jas said, gesturing at the bag she had packed for while they were on the ship.

"It's a bit complicated, I think." Jaden replied, almost speaking over Jas. "I'll head back up most of the way. Just...down the hall I went down then fourth right and...I'll meet you somewhere in there."

"You two go search for it then. I'll just...move the boxes by myself." the tall blonde nodded after a moment before heading back down the corridor she had come from.