⧫ One hell of a surprise 08-06-831. A.S.
⧫ [Kepler System]
⧫ 13:37 Sirius Time.
⧫ ENCRYPTION: Bulldog[V]
The local hotspot
Ames Research Station had always been somewhat of an odd location, a scientific Zoner endeavor to research the Dark Matter storm in the area, as well as the anomaly hidden within, smack dab in the middle between Liberty and Kusari. People from all walks of life would visit the station or loiter around it, Liberty officers making a pitstop on their way to Junyo for leave, pilots from trade convoys, hardened criminals and recently there were even rumors of Nomad sympathizers hanging around. Little did the crew of the station know what they were in for when a small freighter with flames painted on the sides initiated docking procedures.
The vessel appeared to be a modified Dromedary with...a maintenance drone welded to the side? The crew of the docking bay moved slightly more hesitantly when attaching the ship to the needed maintenance utilities, they weren't in the business of turning people away but this definitely seemed odd. With a small hiss the Dromedary started to open, a bright light from inside the ship making it hard to see who was inside, though the silhouette of a single humanoid figure standing in the doorway could somewhat confidentally be seen.
"Erm excuse me? one of the hanger bay crew said as he walked towards the now open Dromedary. "Welcome to Ames Research Station? Could you turn down the lights? They're a bit bli-" Right before the man could finish speaking, the silhouette's head dropped to the ground and rolled down towards the man. A loud scream followed, resulting in the rest of the crew and security running up to see what was going on.
All they saw however was a volleyball with a blond wig and a face crudely drawn on it resting at the feet of the shocked man. A few moments of silence followed before a loud boisterous laughter was heard behind them, coming from one of their work terminals. Bob "Bulldog" Bobberson adjusted his ragged trenchcoat while walking up to the volleyball, picking it up while ignoring the baffled crew. With a grin on his face he handed the somewhat traumatized looking man some dog biscuits before turning towards the entrance of the station proper, a small compensation for the shock. Security rushed to surround him but all Bob did was put his hands to his mouth and shout: "Honeeey I'm hoooooooome!" before giving the volleyball a wink and whispering under his breath. "Dinnae worry Milleh, just sayin' that to keep the Eggman happy."
Ames Research Station. A place that he called home for a long time. Still, after all this time it felt very familiar to him but the reason that brought him there was still rather puzzling; Bob calling for assistance in the defense of Erie. However, while puzzled, he was still very glad to see Bob still going at full force with being himself and to have a drink with him.
As Martin approaches the No Fire Zone of Ames, he starts noticing the traffic around him, not being used to travel in such crowded places and he proceeds to queue the docking sequence. While doing so, a familiar voice replies to him with the queue number and docking hangar number. He smiled, and thanked his old coworker.
The black paint on Martin's Obsidian made it seem like it was a shadow moving in the hangar, due to the not so bright lights of Ames. But one thing did seem out of place. A ship. More precisely, a Dromedary, that had flames painted on the side."He's here."Said to himself and laughed.
So he started the landing sequence not so far from Bob's ship, which gave him an opportunity to see what other "improvements" Bob did to his vessel.
After he landed he started walking towards the ship, sounds of yelling in the background caught his attention however. Not understanding what was going on, Martin started walking in a faster pace, only to see Bob with his volleyball in his hands arguing with security, because apparently he had made quite the entrance by making them think he decapitated somebody and gave them animal treats "for the trouble".
Martin stopped for a few moments to take in the situation and process everything before turning to the security personel and explaining things to them.
Afterwards he looked at Bob while scratching his head. "You really have to make an entrance, don't you?" he then went to greet Bob."Let's go grab a drink"
⧫ One hell of a surprise 08-06-831. A.S.
⧫ [Kepler System]
⧫ 13:55 Sirius Time.
⧫ ENCRYPTION: Bulldog[V]
A mad man, a scientist and a volleyball walk into a bar
Bob let out another boisterous laugh as he and Martin walked into the bar of the Research Station, slapping the man on the back in the process. "The more things change the more they stay the same eh Eggeh!?" he grinned, taking in the sight of the bar. Several years ago the bar on Ames had been rather spartan and clinical, what one might expect from a group of scientists. It seemed the increase in traffic had impacted the internal decorating however, the bar had been expanded and contained more comfortable seating. "And tha think them Libbies tried cuttin' off the system due to the wee storm outside, ridiculous I tell ya! As if a little dark matter radiation ever killed anybodeh!"
With a satisfied smirk Bob pulled a seat to an empty table, placing it backwards so he could rest his arms on its backrest. "How about some drinks over here aye!?" he shouted. A waiter came up to them and placed two drinks infront each of them, drawing a small glare from the erratic Zoner as he pulled the waiter close by the collar. "Oi lad, where's the drink for me lady friend aye?" before nudging his head in the direction of the wigged volleyball. "She prefers em shaken, not stirred." The waiter looked in disbelief for the briefest of moments before glancing at Martin with a pity in his eyes and walking off again. Bob was satisfied however, convinced he was heading out to grab another drink. "So tell me Eggeh, what ya got planned in that big brain o yers?"
The bar didn't change as much as he thought. Mostly some of the furniture but still like it was when he was administrator. Entering there brought up a bit of nostalgia within Martin; all the late nights working on some project, all day running around to put out some fire. Now everything was more calm, and sometimes rather uneventful.Then he felt Bob's slap on the back. "Well Bob, Ames can resist the dark matter storm because there was an alloy used to reinforce the hull. It was during my time as an administrator here that we applied the reinforcements."Then he stopped for a second to process in disbelief what Bob said."If those weren't in place, Ames would be long gone. You know that right?" Then the turned to the bar."Find a table you like Bob, I'll be there in a moment."
He could recognize some of his coworkers so he went to greet them before ordering the drinks then Martin joined Bob at the table. "They are coming Bob, don't worry."
As he finished speaking, the waiter arrived with the drinks. A few seconds later, Bob has the waiter by the collar because he didn't bring his volleyball a drink. He stood there in disbelief for a few moments watching what was happening. "Can we please leave the waiter alone? He's just doing his job."And he took a long sip from his drink.
He looked at Bob and then he changed his tone."Well, I took the liberty to assess the situation myself, so here is what I found."And he pulled out a tablet with a lot of data gathered on the situation in Pennsylvania. "Tell me what data I have wrong and what data am I missing."
Chugging down his last drink, he places the glass on the table with force making a loud noise. "As for what I have in mind, it's better if I show you. Let's take my ship."
Then he got up to his chair and started heading towards the hangar.
Martin and Bob arrived at his Obsidian, where he walked him through the basic need to know of the ship.
They get ready for launch to space, and Martin starts placing some coordinates in his navigation systems."Well this should bring us there."
And they exit the station, and start the small voyage to their destination.
While going, it seemed that they were simply just going somewhere in the middle of nothing. Seeming so indeed even at the arrival to the destination.
He turned to Bob and he smiled. "It's here."
As he finished speaking, a blazing purple light started glowing behind him.
⧫ One hell of a surprise 08-06-831. A.S.
⧫ [Kepler System]
⧫ 14:30 Sirius Time.
⧫ ENCRYPTION: Bulldog[V]
Ships and socks
Bob listened attentively as Martin spoke, well, as far as frequently tuning out the scientist so he could steal glances at the volleyball could count as attentively. If one was able to read the mans mind, they would find the experience to roughly come down to: ""Bla bla bla dark matter storm bla bla look at what I found bla bla." Once Martin handed over the datapad however Bulldogs eyes gleamed with what could only be described as a brief moment of clarity, going over the data contained in the device at an impressive speed before shoving it back at the scientific Zoner. "Aye lad, that about sums it up well 'nough. Well, minus the stuff evacuated to the clouds durin' the Libbeh assault o course, that's under tight wraps. Also, not unrelated but WHERE IS MILLEHS DRINK WAITER!?" It was hard to ignore the last sentence, causing a panicking waiter to quickly rush over in the hopes that serving a volleyball a drink would prevent the man from further causing a scene. Bulldog brightened up immediately and handed the drink to the volleyball, a smile on his face as he said: "That's betta', gotta treat a dame right ya know?"
After they finished their drinks and Martin gestured to get up Bulldog complied and handed the volleyballs drink back to the waiter on their way out. "Sorry mate, she's nae thirsty anymore. A wee bit shy bout drinkin' in public." He gave the man a shrug before following after his friend, leaving the waiter behind to process the encounter.
While Martin had previously noticed Bulldogs ship in the hanger, the same could not be said about Bulldog. In all fairness, he had been preoccupied slightly with station security at the time. At the sight of the obsidian Bulldog couldn't help but let out an appreciative whistle. "Look at you Eggeh! Bein' all fanceh!" with a grin on his face he quickly rushed over and started inspecting the ships hull, letting his hands slide over the outer plating before pressing his ear against it. "Ssssh deary, tell uncle Bob what ya need." he whispered, his own peculiar state of inspecting a ship. After a few moments of ignoring Martin he finally backed away from the ship and turned back to his companion. "Not bad at all, ye're been treatin' her right. Could use some flames painted on the sides though, makes the ship faster ya know." he said with a confident look at his face as he entered the vessel, seemingly truely believing what he had just said.
The flight was filled with many stories about 'Milleh', sock puppets and the good old days on Livadia shipyard, probably testing Martins patience, before they finally arrived at the coordinates. Only when a purple glowing light started appearing behind Martin did Bulldog slowly lower his sock puppets, interrupting his avant-garde performance of King Lear to investigate the matter. "Oi lad, are ya glowin'?"
The purple light filled the Obsidian's interior for a few seconds, after which it started going back to normal.
However, in the front of them appeared something. "May I present to you, the Caladbolg and the Fragarach."
And he turned towards the front."They have been one on my projects in the past years, to actually have something do defend our installations and what not. Now they have been de-armed and we have been using them as research vessels, since the powercore would let up mount cloaking devices powerful enough to last a very long time, but we had to give up the defense capabilities."
The Bretonian destroyers were sitting idle in space, with their escort wings around them, made up mostly by Crayterian vessels, giving out a very imposing impression. "Now, we can rearm those, but we will temporarily lose all cloaking possibilities, until we have the means to actually modify the cloaking devices, which at the moment we cannot."
He took a deep breath like he was a bit annoyed."A shipyard could come in handy at the moment, but most of the work we can definitely do it without one."
Then he turned back to Bob."Now I know this is a lot to process, so just tell me , what do you think."And he smiled to him.
⧫ One hell of a surprise 08-06-831. A.S.
⧫ [Kepler System]
⧫ 21:49 Sirius Time.
⧫ ENCRYPTION: Bulldog[V]
Pegi-12 nostalgia
Bob squinted his eyes slightly as the purple glow faded away, while part of his fragmented mind had briefly considered Nomad involvement it quickly became apparent that the glow was caused by cloaking devices, and the sight that greeted him now? Oh Bobby liked. Bob got up from the poorly constructed wooden puppet theater he had built in Martins ship during the trip, walking past the Zoner to get a better look as he gently nudged him to the side by pressing one of the sock puppets to his face. "Ye glorious bastard." he uttered, a quickly widening grin on his face at the sight of the two Bretonian "Crecy' class Destroyers. The Crayterian vessels didn't seem to particularly register to Bulldog, not when presented with such a nostalgic sight from his home. For the briefest of moments he was taken back to his childhood on Leeds, the occasional sight of one of the Armed Forces patrols flying by far far above in the sky. After a few seconds the man turned back to Martin, the ships needed weapons? Oooh Bulldog knew a thing or two about weapons. "Explosions, blasters, fire, mortars, things that go BOOM IN THE NIGHT!" he half shouted before starting to laugh. "Oh we're goin' to have some mighty fun Eggeh! Mark me words! Who needs a cloak when ya can shove a mortar right up their a-!" a quick glance at his prized volleyball caused him to pause before resuming in a more calm pace: "exhaust port. Gots ta mind the language for the missus, not ta mention the wee ones." Bob turned towards a wall as if facing a camera, giving it a wink before turning back to Martin. "Lets get cookin' lad, Bulldogs got work ta do."
Martin seeing Bob's reaction made him laugh.Then he made Bob a sign to come closer to him, to whisper something to him. "You know Bob, we should really be talking about finding somebody more...organic and living."Nodding towards volleyball.
Then Martin jumped out of the pilot's seat and went in the back of the ship to get something.
Briefly after he came back with a bottle of luxury Bretonian gin and three glasses. "Well I believe this deserves a toast."Then he gave Bob two glasses so Martin could fill them up."To a new beginning!"As he rose his glass up.
After drinking it all in one sip, he rushed back to the pilot's seat and started going towards the destroyers. "It's time to get you aquatinted with everyone and start planning this whole thing out."