The Ships Inn ... Wall Street Station, Honshu

[onca]

~Pete looks around for the disembodied voice like an idiot~
"What the....? Holy moly, a talking basketball.... hey Dis, is it really you in there?"
~Pete goes to rap on the floating sphere, whence a small lightening bolt zaps Pete's hand, and he quickly snaps it back with a yelp~
"It really is you in there! Here's to returned mates. Yeah that X-scow, heh, it's a real tub."

[McNeo]

A manta whizzed past the Viewing deck on the Newark station bar.

Screaming into dock, it was apparent to the trained eye that the fighter was on its last knees. There were loose gunmounts, and the general hull was steaming despite the coldness of space.

Stuart Payne tumbled out of his ship, right into the bodies of some unsuspecting dockworkers. Quickly composing himself after the fall, Stuart got up quickly and rushed into the Inn, leaving the startled workers on the floor.

As he entered, all heads turned towards him as he made his way to a stool in the Inn. He sat down, heaving his arms on to the table.

He exclaimed:

"Im looking to Join the IND's Epsilon wing!"

[Koolmo]

As the door swings open, all eyes turn as not one, not two, but five men stride into the bar, and form a ragged line. Their uniforms range from the dashing blackness of an LSF Commander, to a while boilersuit with a warrants pips on the shoulders, to a battered flightsuit and jackboots worn by a surly youth with a pair of crossed torpedoes tatoo'd to his burly forearms.

"Allo!" barks the commander, stepping forward with a theatric air, "We're the crew of the Beacon Hill, that booty-full ship fighting the whales for space out front. These're the boys:"
"Chief Gunner's Mate Eili Bay 'Gunny', former-BAF, he swings the turrets, eh!" A tall, thin man, with a cheroot stuck between yellowed teeth, glumly waves. He appears to have been smoking his entire life, as clouds of it arise from his formerly-red uniform at evert move.
"Leading Misseleer Stuart Quadra 'Boomboy', former-RM, thats him with the boots!" The youth strolls forward, and snaps a crisp salute, greeted by the bar with a loud belch from Derek.
"Petty Officer Second Class Ricardo Cook 'Sparks', former-LSF, he's the only one who can figure out what 'over' means." So dull-looking he practically floats away on the paint, 'Sparks' opens his mouth and issues a dry "Hi."
"Last, but not least, Warrant Officer Mike Dobrescue 'Chief', former-everything, the Engineer, and coffee-machine fixer. The second bit is the more important one, eh!" The pristine boilersuit gives a casual nod, and begins to eye up sophie with the air of a man making a professional measurement. Satisfied, he nods.

"Erm," begins Kirkalamen, "what do they call you?"

With the air of a man dealing with the seriously stinko, the Commander replies. "Geez, I have a nametag -i ts Commander Johnny Fisgard, former-LSF and LN. They call me 'Skipper', for obvious reasons."

"And what're those?"

"Gor luvva duck, it's 'cause I'm the skipper, eh!"

"What, you skip?" As the bar erupts with laughter, Kirkalmen stands and wanders over to Fisgard. "I was C&I, back in the day. I remember the Beacon Hill, always patrolled Ontario, didn't she?"

"Well, that she did! I though you looked familiar!"

"That she did. Now, come and have a 'Silly Helghast', you look parched."

---

<span style="color:#FFFF00">&quot;General Solo, is your strike team assembled?&quot;
&quot;Barely, they're pretty drunk.&quot; </span>
SCRA Recruiting--SCRA Feedback--SCRA Message Dump--SCRA Faction Status

I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it.

[DBoy1612]

"Oyi! Watson! Welcome to the IND!"

"Just so you know, there is a sign up fee. 10 mil is meant to be deposited in to my bank account in order to get in."

Jay walks in to the bar

"Oh ssshhi"

Derek runs out of the bar before finishing his sentence.

---

Retired Admin
What Dustin now spends his free time doing... Don't hurt me... Though EVEMail me if you play. ^_^

[McNeo]

James, totally perplexed by this entrance and exit of so many at once, had his eyes glued to his cup so as to not draw attention to himself.

Stuart drew up the chair next to him, and stared at him.

Just then, Jay walked in, and Derek ran out, shouting somthing behind him. Jay simply glanced at Derek, and then turned his attention to the two sitting at the bar.

"Ahh, the new Trader and the bounty hunter sitting next to each other! How perfect. Lerts start with you bounty hunter. You say you want to join the Epsilons...why?"

" 'Cause the Shadow stalkers are falling apart, and i simply do not have the time to deal with it."

"Sad to hear... So about this job application, do you think you got what it takes to be an epsilon?"

Stuart glared intently at Jay.

James was eagerly listening, but still keeping his head close to his pint of orange juice....

[onca]

~A small view screen pops up out of the bar-top... on it is a sour face unused to grooming~

"Oi! It's Pete here. Hey who's that on my barstool? Bleeding war has everyone spooked. Now I'm stuck here at Rappongi, sipping something warm from a tiny china cup with me pinky stuck out. And can you believe it, this 'tea room' as they call it, has a dress code!"

~The back of Pete's head is seen as he addresses someone out of the screen's view~

"What? No I said *bacon butty*! BACON! You know, slices.... oh never mind, gimme the wagyu sashimi, and don't spare the wasabi....."

[McNeo]

The second time Stuart walked in to the bar after being accepted into the IND, his head was pounding with a headache, he thought, of biblical proportions.

He slowly eased himself on to the stool...

"rough day at work then?" asked the Bartender

"Im glad you asked" was the response. "Well, where do I begin? Ahh yes, it all started when i recieved a call from the RM about a certain SirRed. Not to offend the RM, i immediately made my way to New Berlin. He was dispatched in a timely fashion with help from Bs| as well as RM though i do not recall their names...damn my headache! ... ... ... Anyway, Rick in his fighter, the Electric Sheep and I docked on New Berlin to 'Refuel' at the bar there."

"And then? You got Shattered"

"I'm getting to that...We had our comms on still, and while drinking, lightly at this point at the Bar, Rick and I were having a chat with some 'Ivor Brokenback' guy. He said somthing about James Watson and thanking somthing he did, but its a little fuzzy. Anyway, we ended up about having a chat about his daughter, Paris, who apparently was arrested for drunk and disorderly behaviour. He also said somthing about 'She did somthing to the Officers that a father shouldnt know about'."

"At this point, as Ivor bid his leave, Rick and I entered into a drinking competition...what a way to get my first of these rumoured IND hangovers. Anyway, I won but we were both completely out of it."

"I bet those RM blokes loved to watch your antics then"

"Well, not exactly. First off, the RM didn't want to help us get to Bonn, where we had rooms waiting for us. Secondly, Rick crashed his fighter into the docking ring, disintegrating his ship. When he got out of his escape pod in my cargo bay, he was literally knee deep in vomit. At this point, i decided it was best to vomit aswell, but unfortuantely for Rick, it went all over him."

"Nice"

"You bet it was...We both keeled over and uncontrolably started Vomiting on the cargobay floor. Rick got up first and made his way over to the cockpit. Not to be outdone, I lunged fowards and grabbed his waist. We both tumbled over, and Rick got knocked out for a bit. Trying to regain control of the fighter, i sat in the seat. First thing i did was grab hold of the control stick. Second thing I did was vomit over it and my hand."

"So, how much is the cleaning bill gonna cost you then"

"Lots...Anyway, the RM person refused to help us, and so i tried to make my way over to the lane. Many hours passed as I tried to dock with it to get to Bonn, but I could never quite get there. Luckily for us, a bloke in a Clydesdale named 'Orvidos' managed to, for a fee, help us get to Bonn by getting in formation with him."

"So...what happened then"

"Nothing that i can remember...I blanked out about then and found myself lying in a heap with Rick on top of me in the middle of the docking bay at Bonn. This hangover was so bad back then, that i couldn't even see or hear properly. I think we both made a feeble effort to move, but nothing really happened."

"This Orvidos person, anything you think he's good at then?"

"You bet I do. We reckon he would do well as a shuttle for IND Epsilons like us who get drunk beyond comprehension. I mean, hes was a life saver, and depending on how many times us guys get mashed, he could make a lot from it. He certainly wont get drunk himself, and its always nice to have a backup when you cant pilot a battleship through a wormhole."

"Heh, i know what you mean"

"You do?"

"Oh yeah...."

[DBoy1612]

"Oyi! Bartender! Give me a beer!"

Derek walks in to the bar, looking amused.

*Well you looked pleased*

"No, just amused..."

*From?*

"Blood Dragons..."

*How so?*

"I had this one Dragon tailing me for almost half an hour. He just kept following."

*Thats one dedicated Dragon*

"Not really, he forgot his cruise disrupter."

*Oh, maybe not*

"It was funny, I would come out of the jumpgate from Honshu and he would just fire and follow... I even started toying with him. Let him get my shields half way down to think he was winning... Then I took his shields down with one blast"

*Thats fun.*

"Eh, thats Blood Dragons for ya..."

...

"Oh crap, look at the time. I got to get back out there... Put the beer on my tab"

---

Retired Admin
What Dustin now spends his free time doing... Don't hurt me... Though EVEMail me if you play. ^_^

[Nightfall]

The man at the bar was speaking into his neural-net voice recorder...

'... and another one came on later, a Gunboat this time, designation {Helghast}Ferdinand. After I fixed my flight controller we made a short work out of him. I would suggest adding these names to our list. To recapitulate: Vulture of HF, Tommy and Ferdimond of Helghast.'

He emptied the contents of the tequila glass and spoke into the device 'encode, sign, Pat Boone.'.

'Sophie, hit me once more! ... And could you hand this to Jay?'

---

If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God? - from 'Nightfall' by I. Asimov
The Outcasts consider Siniestre Nube a sacred place for several reasons. Early explorers discovered a jumphole within the depths of the cloud that leads to a strange world of ringed stars and strange craft. All ships in the burrial ground are placed facing that hole to honor the Alien Spirits. - An Outcast rumor

[DBoy1612]

Derek walks in to the bar, looking amused. He sits down on a stool and the Bartender asks;


"Whats so funny?"

*Pirates, good old Pirates.*

"Good?"

*Yes, good. Seems I have pissed them off again. Its kinda funny.*

"Uh oh, what did you do this time?"

*Hey, calm down. I was flying through Omicron Theta when a Corsair came out and asked for cash. I told em you would have to catch me first.*

"He got you didn't he..."

*Hell no, I got away without any problems. The part I find funny is that every pirate in Sirus will be on my ass. He told me that a Helghast pirate a few days back was not to happy when I got away. He told all his buddys I was a prime target*

"Great, how much this time? 5 million? 10?"

*20 million credits*

"Ouch"

*Eh, not to bad... Nothing I can't handle... If those pirates want the cash, they will have to catch me first*

An watch alarm goes off

*Oh damn, brakes over. Put that beer on my tab*


Derek walks out of the bar and launches in Tannix Shipping.

---

Retired Admin
What Dustin now spends his free time doing... Don't hurt me... Though EVEMail me if you play. ^_^