FTL: Harmony Edition IC

Satisfied with having located the necessary items on their part swiftly, Seva poured out some hot water into the mug, trying to make sure they poured in what was generally the acceptable amount for the stuff. Briefly, they considered if maybe Copperette would need something to eat as well. They did still have that tin of—the idea was shot down immediately by the majority before it had much time to be processed. Other options would be available at the closet already if Copperette was hungry. With mug in hoof, Seva found their way back to the closet in question. It seemed they'd found the coffee at least.

""Supplies acquired,"" Seva announced as they came up near Copperette and Sweetie.

Copperette Seva
"The fun begins," declares Sweetie Bot, and with a little finagling the pot's lid comes loose, the pot itself still in the air. Now that the pot is closer to the floor Copperette can see that aside from the normal coffee brown, the mix also seems to contain granules of purple - which, as she soon finds out, translates to little purple bubbles that fizz out of the drink as they manage to mix a suitable amount of coffee powder into the hot water. Sweetie stops to stare at the fizzing, transfixed at the sight of the purple bubbles popping to the surface.

Borealis
"Some kind of guard rotation, then. I can see why we'd want that. I'll talk to the boys, see what they think about it." Night pauses. "You mentioned training? What kind of preparation do you have in mind? We might not be professionals but back on Daedalus we were enforcers of a kind."

Belgond
"Oh? And what kind of dream would that be?" Golden Gears smirks slyly as she walks along, flicking her tail at Belgond in mock indignation.

Belgond seemed to consider his answer for a moment. How did one go about explaining a dream like the one that he had last night without sounding completely insane? He could have lied about what his dream was but he doubted that he could have gotten away with it; Instead he decided be truthful but in a joking manner, going by the logic that if you got them laughing, they didn't see you as a threat. "Oh nothing major, just the two of us standing side by side as we took over the galaxy. Didn't get to see how it turned out, but you make for a very regal Empress." His tail flicked a little as the approached their destination, looking at the flooring almost shyly before taking a deep breath and turning to look at Golden "Umm... I'm not sure how long it'll take to happen, but maybe when we have some free time somewhere nice would you like to do something together? Just the two of us I mean..."

"The training is more a potential course of action. I don't see any real way for meaningful exercise on this ship that doesn't unbalance the life support. I'm glad you would consider my proposal though." Borealis said. "But that's for later. Right now we need to consider our next move, and we can't do that without the rest of the group."

"How complicated could that be?" Degree stretches out his wings with a sigh, and with a few lazy flaps, brings himself up to the rafters where he sits down comfortably, breathing small puffs of flame to warm his scales. "We drop everyone off at the rest stop and I fly off with the ship. Easy." He grins, making clear that the statement was intended as a joke... probably.

AleneShazam wrote:Copperette Seva
"The fun begins," declares Sweetie Bot, and with a little finagling the pot's lid comes loose, the pot itself still in the air. Now that the pot is closer to the floor Copperette can see that aside from the normal coffee brown, the mix also seems to contain granules of purple - which, as she soon finds out, translates to little purple bubbles that fizz out of the drink as they manage to mix a suitable amount of coffee powder into the hot water. Sweetie stops to stare at the fizzing, transfixed at the sight of the purple bubbles popping to the surface.

Copperette stared at the bubbles with bewilderment. "Whuuuuuuhh...?" Her eye twitched a little. Coffee wasn't supposed to bubble. Nor was it supposed to be purple. "Tha's... Wha'ever," she grumbled, resigning herself and hoping it was still caffeinated, at least, as she sipped at it...

Copperette Seva
In spite of the purple bubbles, Copperette soon finds that the rest of the coffee - the normal, sensible, brown bit - taste and function just like normal coffee. In fact, the purple bubbles seem to add an odd tingly sugary flavor to the drink, giving Copperette a pleasant buzz of energy almost immediately after the first sip. Sweetie Bot cranes her neck to peek at the coffee, "Database indicates that Jump Coffee contains components that counteract Hyperspace lethargy. Has Copperette's processing efficiency increased?"

Borealis
"Right, right. One thing at a time." Night Snow nods, and continues walking. Eventually the pair come to the Bridge, where Degree is perched between pipes in the ceiling, and Clean Cut is waking himself up with a glass of warm water. Emblem, still shaking off the last bits of lethargy of the morning, is busy keeping the ship straight during the last half hour or so of hyperspace.

Belgond
Golden Gears blushes at the question, but keeps her composure as the pair continue towards the bridge. "I... that seems so very distant right now. But after this situation is resolved... a little quiet time would be nice." After considering her words for a few moments , Golden smiles teasingly. "Empress, though? Aren't you getting ahead of yourself, your highness?"

"'Sup." Degree gives Borealis a lazy wave as he enters the room.

"Yes," Copperette replied with a sigh - before the brief rush ended, her grogginess fighting back. "Nggh - no," she corrected, taking another sip. "It's helping, though."

Belgond shrugged before he responded "You asked what I was dreaming about and I told you. What did you dream about?"

As the pair of them arrived at the bridge, Belgond's gaze narrowed into a slight glare at the sight of their dragon pilot as memories of the night before came to mind. Still, he forced himself to remain calm for the sake of the crew. Though he already had an idea for an upgrade to the ship that he was going to need to make once the ship had stopped... A very important one for his piece of mind.

Looking over at Clean Cut, Belgond offered the doctor a small wave before asking "How are things going Doctor Cut? I did what I could yesterday to optimize the life support systems and I rerouted the power from the teleporter into the med bay to assist with the number of patients that we have on board. With the parts I have and the fact that we are in space and actively flying around, I can optimize the engines a bit as well. There is also a possible upgrade to the ship that I would like to discuss with you when you have a moment."

Copperette Seva Borealis Belgond Degree
Golden Gears shakes her head, "I don't tend to remember my dreams. Never been able to, since I was small."

Eventually the whole group congregates in the bridge - Borealis and Night Snow standing by the door, Degree perched up high, Copperette sipping on her coffee with Sweetie Bot bouncing cheerily beside her, Seva remaining close to the pair, and finally Belgond and Golden Gears enters the room as Clean Cut finishes the glass of water.

Turning first to Belgond, Clean Cut nods curtly. "I noticed, efficiency in the healing matrix was higher than usual. Thank you for that, most of the children will be making swift recovery. As for the additional upgrades, I can trust that you'll make the right decisions. I don't know much about ships, more of a colonial doctor than a ship doctor myself. But still,  thank you for the assistance in maintaining the ship. Now, there are a few things I need to say to the group before we exit hyperspace…"

Looking back to the rest of the group, Clean Cut clears his throat. "As you may know we're closing in on our first destination, Junction Beta 5. Unfortunately we won't be able to let the refugees go yet, as the Junction isn't much of a permanent living space - it doesn't feature more than a couple dozen or so permanent residents and it's just a rest stop. Still, we should be able to refuel, pick up any supplies we may need, and go off from there. We should-"

Whatever he said is cut off by a sudden buzzing from the consoles lining the walls, and a vaguely feminine voice can be heard. "Exiting Hyperspace in five minutes." The voice pauses for a moment before saying, "multiple ship signatures detected at jump destination. Detected active weapon signatures. Projecting scan results…"

On the largest holographic display, which dominates the back of the bridge, an image appears in a shower of blue light. A spaceship, distorted slightly by signal interference, can easily be identified. The ship is sleek and optimized for sub-light speed travel, with multiple apertures in the ship's hull sporting laser and ballistic weaponry. Those who are familiar with the more shady side of space - in this case, Degree and Borealis - know that this is a model of ship popularly known as a Corvette: light, mobile, and widely used by pirates and other such individuals.

"Oh hey," Degree hops off the rafters and lands lightly in front of the projection, "Ain't that a surprise."

"Guess the sharks smelled the blood in the water, huh? Gotta say, didn't expect pirates to hop on board that quickly."

Borealis' jaw tightens, but still he tries his best to analyze the situation - as infuriating as pirates were, they weren't necessarily up to no good. "They could be there for supplies. It is a refueling station after all."

Degree chuckles. "Ah, to be young and hopeful."

Streetwise:

Belgond couldn't help but frown at the news that there were ships with their weapons activated at the location that they were about to arrive at; Pretty big social faux pas actually. It was completely possible that those ships were there for a reason besides pillaging and raiding... through highly doubtful.

Sighing a little before turning back to Doctor Cut, Belgond announced "I'm afraid I might have to transfer some of the power in med bay to the engines or the shields very soon..."

Dice Rolls:

"Not necessarily-" Degree reaches behind his back and draws out the Burninator. "All we gotta do is talk to them. They're criminals, but they're my kinda criminals. If these pirates have half a brain they'll back off once we show them we mean business."

Copperette slowly sipped her coffee as she digested the information. They were being attacked. By pirates. In space. And the current course of action was... Talking. Nope.

Copperette quietly put her coffee down. And then quietly turned to leave. She wasn't ready for this, yet. It was too early. And since she was already awake, she would just have to go find something else to do...

Stealth:

Noticing Copperette's attempt at a departure, Seva considered what might be the best course of action. Considering the sleepy state of the filly, it seemed pertinent to make sure they did not harm themselves. This was an important meeting for sure, but Seva was not sure what they could contribute at that moment. Pirates were not their forte. Healthcare however, was.

<<Crewmember Copperette breaking off from group. We are following and monitoring to make sure she is not sick.>> Seva noted to Clean Cut, following Copperette.

Borealis Belgond Degree
Clean Cut nods quietly to the ACHE. Seva, while a valuable member of the crew, probably isn't as significant in lieu of this new development in the situation.

"Degree - what do you mean, your kind of criminal? These are pirates, I don't think negotiating is an option in most cases." Clean Cut massages the bridge of his nose. "Belgond, you probably know this ship better than anyone at this point - would we be able to fight off pirates if push comes to shove? Especially against multiple ships? One on one we might have a fighting chance but..."

Clean Cut sighs. "...As much as I don't think pirates can be negotiated with... we might want to try negotiating. But... we should also prep for a rough landing."

"Exiting Hyperspace imminent." The system reports in a monotone.

"So... what do we have in mind?" Clean Cut looks at the whole group.

Copperette Seva
Eventually the pair - followed by Seva, and Gristle - come to a stop a short distance away from the bridge. "What activity does Copperette wish to engage in?" Sweetie asks, bouncing to a stop next to Copperette.

Copperette tapped her chin in thought. "That disk we made... I feel like we need more," she said with a grin. "Is there anything on board that can help us make them quickly?"

Tapping his chin a little, Belgond considered what he knew about the Dawn and the information about the situation that they were about to get into rather carefully. Clicking his tongue a little before he spoke, he failed to notice the fillies that were sneaking out of the room "It depends largely on if the station decides to aid us by defending itself. If it fires off a couple of shots that connect, the Dawn should be able to come out on top in a shoot out. We might wish to contact the station and tell them that we are friendlies just to be safe. Now if you'll excuse me I have power that needs to be transferred."

With that said, Belgond turned to head off and take his position in engineering; The extra power in the med-bay could be better used in the engines at the moment to start with, but as the battle rages who knew what else would arise?

Dice Rolls:

"Bitchin'." Degree grins widely. "While Stripes gets the ship battle ready, I think we should take a swing at chatting with the pirates."

Turning to look at Night Snow, Degree narrows his eyes thoughtfully. "You with the feathers - you're in charge of the other pegasi, right? Get 'em lined up here, and make them do the tough-guy routine. Borealis, you stand there and look tough as well. Talking to pirates is all about getting the right impression. Ah... lemme just..."

Degree looks around through the consoles and inputs the command to activate voice control. "Ship, can we get a direct line to the ships with the guns or do we gotta wait a bit first?"

"I feel like you're not telling something. How do you know so much about piracy? " Borealis asked, even as he allowed his warden suit to encase him and he assumed the position Degree indicated to him. "I'm contracted to take them down on a regular basis and I hardly know how to talk to them. Effective combat tactics against pirates I know, but not so much about being friendly with them."

"And, don't you think it's prudent to inform the station we aren't hostiles first? You know, the one with the shields and the energy lances?"

"I got friends in high as well as low places. You gotta know how to talk to your clients, bud." Degree smirked, letting slip a few slivers of dragonflame. "And, nah. I'm sure we'll be fine. We don't look like pirates, should be good enough."

Borealis Degree
<Contact can be established at this point. > The ship reports. Night Snow's pegasi file in a couple minutes later, each looking quite intimidating- apparently that was part of their training, as the pegasi seem to have lost all their previous camaraderie and each look like someone you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley.

Belgond
As far as Belgond is aware, the ship is not particularly geared towards combat either - but he's confident he can boost the ship-to-ship battle related systems for a short while, and he definitely can reroute power from unused systems to more relevant systems.

Copperette Seva
"Computing..." Sweetie frowns as her processors makes a few quick predictions, and quickly says, "If we can create a digital blueprint and gather enough scrap material, the onboard fabricator should be able to construct the basic framework super quickly."

Sweetie points towards the engine/workshop/engineering area that Belgond has set up. "It's not much good for teensy parts like the components Belgond works with, but if it's just a big metal disk with etchings, it should work. All big sister will have to do is add in the enchantments."