Jennifer ignores the salute and studies Conners, her arms are still folded, and she narrows her eyes.
Does she detect his sincerity behind this apology? (Pyschology skill, since it's a main skill, I'll say it's 2 to the right of 50/50, so Likely)
(Likely | 8[d10]) Yes
Jennifer curses softly and shakes her head. She looks at him staring down at his drink. She catches the sincerity. Her mouth parts slightly, but she shuts it with a click and frowns, and runs a hand through her hair.
"Well... Captain," she says slowly, as the bitterness fades out of her tone and she lets her arms drift to the table. The hard edge is gone and now she just feels a tired resentment. She looks at her hands and picks at her finger nails. "I didn't expect an apology. You just ruined my 41 day hate streak. And it was going so well. I was going to have a party and do something rash when I got to a hundred."
She sighs, "What's a girl to do? You destroyed my career and now you just removed the the one thing giving me motivation! You really are a downer, you know that?"
She can feel the buzz from the drink she'd tossed down earlier making her thoughts slightly fuzzy. She'd never been able to hold down the booze like her old boss could. But right now? Right now, she couldn't care less.
She reaches cross the table, takes Conner's drink and tosses that one down too, slapping the glass back on the table with a TWAK. Then she leans back and watches him folding her arms again. Zinta starts complaining about Conner's booth invasion.
“Hey Zint, I didn’t mean to intrude but I’ve got something you might be interested in. But first I should introduce you to and old friend of mine, Zinta this is Jennifer Harrison, and... you know vice versa”
Zinta and Jennifer politely shake hands.
Illusions
“I’m under no illusion that neither of you trust me all that well..” I begin
(50/50 | 1[d10]) No, and...
“You’ve only just received my forgiveness”, says Jen, “You’ve got a long way to go to get my trust back”
I cut straight to the chase. “Ok here’s the deal, and this is for both of you: the Confeds have a new sleek little Corvette, the “Plasma Cutter”, Im sure you’ve heard of it?”
(Likely | 3[d10]) No
They both shake their heads.
“Ok, you’ve heard of Project Iridium, right?”
(Very Likely | 6[d10]) Yes, but...
They both seem to know about the Confederacy’s secret skunk works project to develop long range, independent, deep strike ships.
“Well the Plasma Cutter is a result of 10 years of Project Iridium research.” I continue, “Now here’s the thing - I know where it is, I know how to break security and best of all; I have a buyer for it. All I need is a team to go in and get it with me. I need muscle, I need weapon jocks, and I sure as shit need hackers, programmers and a damn fine engineer.”
“So there it is. If you can find it in your hearts to give me your trust, the offer is there. What do you say?”
"Okay Conners, this all sounds very interesting but what's in it for us?"
"You say you have a buyer, what's the offer? and who is this buyer? I don't need anymore crap trailing me across the sector"
Is Zinta interested in joining Conners?
(Likely) Yes, but...
I lean in close "you know me if the money's right I'll help out but I don't want to get involved in a fiasco like last time."
"By the way are you still puttering about in that rust bucket the Humming Bird?"
"If so we'll need weapons to have any chance of survival"
Does Zinta know any arms dealers?
(Somewhat Likely) Yes
"I know just the person an old acquaintance Crazy Eyes he's based on Chada not too far from here he owes me a favour so should help out."
“Payment split equally across the board. You have my word on that. In fact in lieu of the fact that you obviously won’t put your trust in me, I’m paying 10% up front. I wrangled that out of my buyer. Once the team is finalised we divide the advance payment.”
Are they impressed with that?
(Very Likely | 9[d10]) Yes +Event: Praise / News
Both Zinta and Jennifer agree that they are good terms.
“My buyer of course can not be disclosed’, I tell them. “I’m sure you can understand that?”
“The Hummingbird...yes. We’ll be taking her, and no she won’t be armed. We will need small arms for the assault on the Gateway and capture of the “Plasma”, But the Hummingbird will have to arrive on the scene as any other old transit freighter so we don’t raise suspicions.”
“The broad plan is simple. Arrive on the Hummingbird on a standard transit run. Berth the ship, assault the dry dock, steal the ship and leave. The Hummingbird get’s left behind. The details, we’ll plan those together.” I outline the plans to them.
“What we need are as follows: Hacked transit and registration docs for the Hummingbird. Access codes to the dry dock and as much instrusion software we can get our hands on to make our break in as seemless as possible”
“We need smallarms. Powerful stuff we can carry. Not your regular hip shooters, we need assault grade firepower. And last of all Zero-G gear and vacuum rated combat armour. That’s my shopping list. What can you guys get?”
Jennifer's mouth turns up in a slow smile at hearing the numbers of credits they'd get paid. The monetary terms were indeed inviting, and with the ten percent bonus she could pay this months rent and have plenty to spare.
Were we part of the Confederacy military?
(50/50 | 1[d10]) No, and...
...and she hates the Confeds.
But truth be told, while the money was nice bonus,she would've done it for free. But no need telling Connors that.
"I'm not much of a fighter. I've done my stint in basic training but," she shrugs, "but if you need an experienced engineer, count me in!"
Jennifer leans forward on her forearms, and her smile turns feral and her blue eyes blaze. She knows she's getting drunk, but she'd need buckets of booze to even come close to wiping the memory of what the Confederacy had done to her family and friends when they invaded Salara 5. The high-density orbital bombardments from space had a lot of kinetic energy. One of them could level entire city blocks. They had turned Salara Prime, the proud capital city of Salara, into a blasted heap of rubble and dust in a matter of hours. Her family never made it out alive. Her little sister was... was... she couldn't shake the memory of the blood and fabric sticking to the rubble.
Jennifer had left the rubble strewn streets and joined the local military shortly thereafter, vowing to make the Confeds pay.
Well, she wasn't in the mil anymore, but this was a chance. A chance to strike back. This would be even sweeter. She wouldn't have short-sighted military rules of engagement tying her hands. This time she could pay them back with interest in her own way and The Plasma Cutter seemed like just the chance she'd need.
"When do we leave?"
Zinta has been swayed by the cold hard cash and also the thrill of the hack, when she's in the zone there's nothing like it the buzz is insane.
"So the plan is a stealth mission for as long as possible, fooling the authorities then we just climb on board the Plasma and make a run for it."
"If we can get access to a terminal I can look at hacking the transit system so we don't get noticed too soon and I can also start the wheels in motion for the intrusion software."
"Access codes are a different matter I expect a very high clearance level will be needed especially if this is Confed property."
Does Zinta have any thoughts how the codes could be accessed?
(Likely) Yes
Does she have a contact at the Gateway?
(50/50) Yes
"Once we arrive at the Gateway I have an acquaintance I think I can trust who may be able to help with the codes but it will be risky."
"regarding the weapon side of things if it was ship based no problem but small arms are not my thing so no luck on that front I'm afraid."
Zinta takes a swig of the vicious but strangely warming liquer.
"So get me access to a terminal and I can get this party started, I'm ready when you are."
It was just at that time that a Kla'vi would step up to their table, their gaze locked onto Zinta. Under one arm, they had a ReVolTech Confederate Military-issued Blast Helmet, though it looked a bit beaten up. In his other hand, he held a device that only the Vargi at the table could grasp the use of.
"Excuse me, Miss uh...Za...Zi...hmm...Miss Vargi, I have finished your request...to some extent. To make a convoluted process short, I wasn't able to make a typical Backstabber program. The coding is simply too mundane and primal. I was, however, able to pull together the skeleton on one, and do something you couldn't do with any other type of equipment today. If you link this up with any other higher-tech device, it will run a full-fledged Backstabber off of the data processing and code of the device you're linked to. So if you ever have Tracers following you around again, you can jack up to any current-day device, let the tracer get real close to the data of the tool itself, and then run the backstabber off of the jacked-up device without slowing down the processing speed of the tool by absurd amounts, and compromising its firewalls. I tested it on Zilch myself a few moments ago, and everything else you had on it checks out to be fine too."
He turned the device over and looked at it a few times. "The only downside being that it kinda requires other pieces of gear to function at its full capability. Not sure why you're still using this old piece of history, but I'm not paid to ask that kinda question." He set the device down on the table in front of everyone, but moved it more towards Zinta. "Thank you for your business, and payment up front. I promise its going to a cause."
Possessions
He turned from the table without waiting for a response, and walked away. An eye-catching piece of equipment was strapped to his back, in the form of a Earthen Oakland 32-Stage Gauss Rifle. The polished redwood grain stock still looked brand new, and the silver emblem logo of a tree on it made it easily distinguishable from a fake or replica. The part that was vexing about it was that there were a handful of individual sections that were missing plates, parts, or wiring altogether. It definitely didn't look like a functioning Rifle, but it seemed to be kept in excellent condition.
Conners look on quite surprised, he looks at Zinta, at Jennifer, then at the departing Kla’vi.
“Hey, um....Kla’vi!”
Does the Kla’vi turn around?
(Likely | 7[d10]) Yes
“Hey”, says Conners who has left the booth and ran up to the departing humanoid, “Hey, Look my name is Conners and you obviously know my associate Zinta here.”
Cyprus 22 looks on, blank faced but obviously interested.
“I’ve been trying to put something together and you might be the last piece of the puzzle we need” Conners continues, “and by the look of the gear you’re carrying I bet you’re pretty handy in a fight?”
(Likely | 10[d10]) Yes, and...
The Kla’vi nods, “Y...Yes, please go on...”
“It also seems from that little conversation that you know how to cut code. Well I have a need for a bit-jockey like you, especially one that can hold up in a firefight. It also looks like that rail gun you’ve got slung on your back needs a little fix up work. Well, I have a damn good engineer who could look at that for you”
Cyprus 22 looks at his damaged Gauss Rifle.
Conners continues, “I’m putting a team together and I’m offering you a spot on it.” He then goes on to tell the Kla’vi the details he had just laid out to Jen and Zinta.
“So what do you say my friend, are you in?”
(I thought it might be interesting to move this one along... so I'm posting for Thanatos's char. Hope that's okay. Doing RPGSolo with other players might be a failed experiment, but I'm not ready to give it up just yet. I recommend if someone doesn't post in a few days that someone else in the party can post for that character trying as best they can to keep things inline with the existing backstory etc.)
Does the Kla'vi take Conner's up on his offer?
(50/50 | 9[d10]) Yes
Oookay. That was kind of sudden. What's "his" motivation? (Sorry LazzerusThanatos...that might have been sudden for the vision you had for your character. Since the race is technically genderless, I'm going with the masculine pronoun anyway for ease of writing.)
Abnormally / Amusing
He's simply bored spitless...
The Kla'vi looked from the table with the helmet and the device and frowned. That job--and it's challenge--had held his/their interest for a while, and he had received payment. But... but in the end it was only a helmet.
Cypress-22 looked back at Conners and shrugged somewhat indifferently. "Why not, Mr. Conners. Should be an interesting challenge, and one can always use the credits. I am named Cypress-22. Anything I should know?"