WAYPOINT SHRIL, PT.3

[onemind]

CHARACTERS: All (New Hosts may tag anything from their arrival date on Waypoint Shril forward.)
WHERE: THE FAIR HEART, WAYPOINT SHRIL & SURROUNDING SPACE
WHEN: Day :038 - :039
SUMMARY: A theft, a rescue, and of course - the grand finale of the galaxy's most fabulous competition.
WARNINGS: N/A, will update as necessary.

LATE ON DAY :038, a select group of Hosts makes their way to the imposing mobile headquarters of the ABA!, the retrofitted prison ship known as The Fair Heart. The goal? Steal those prizes, break out the captured rescue team, and make a clean getaway.

Or just get away at all. That works too.

THE FAIR HEART
     A. THE RECON TEAM Congratulations, you're in a cell and stuck with a tracking bracelet. But it isn't all bad. The food's okay and the company is-- well, whatever. It could always be worse. Sure, getting interrogated isn't the best part of the day, but if you're lucky you might get to sit down and have a conversation with the mercenary group's second in command, Vinka. Vinka is nice. He cracks jokes. He plays space chess. He's clearly the good cop. If you're unlucky you'll get stuck answering the questions of a very dry, humorless cyborg called Bradd who likes to use his arm attachment to shock people.

But eventually you begin to sense the minds of your fellow Hosts nearing. Time to prepare for an escape.

     B. THE HEIST TEAM You all know where you're going, right? Now it's just a matter of getting there more or less safely. There's a bunch of security measures between you and your goal, so proceed carefully. Or don't. After all, the rescue team is headed in the opposite direction and someone will need to cover their tracks won't they?

     C. THE RESCUE TEAM Here's what you know: somewhere in this labyrinthine ship your friends are being held captive. Where they are and how to get to them is a goshdang mystery. And once you figure it out, it looks like you're going to be getting very close with The Fair Heart's personnel. On top of that, shouldn't you be helping to distract security from paying attention to the vault? Boy, you've got your work cut out for you.

     GET THE HECK OUTTA DODGE Once the prizes are removed from the vault or the prisoners are taken from their cells, an alarm will sound. Time to go! Fight or cleverly elude your way out of The Fair Heart. Get a ride (any ride will do) and take off. Mind The Fair Heart's guns, darling.

     FASTER. FASTER WOULD BE BETTER. What's that saying? Out of the frying pan and into the fire. Once you've escaped The Fair Heart, you'll be facing off with a literal armada of ships trying to blow you out of the sky. Luckily you've got backup. Station 72 is the biggest thing in the sky and it's moving. Towards you. Through other ships. There's a lot of explosions.


WAYPOINT SHRIL
     LET THE GAME BEGIN! Remember how everyone had to carefully register their team and jump through a bunch of hoops to get to the finale of the ABA!? Well there's been a scheduling change. Thanks to Miss Mystery's announcement, everyone and their great grandmother is now an official competitor. And lots and lots of them are taking it seriously.

     GET TO THE CHOPPER! There's a mad dash to take to the sky. Waypoint Shril has been transformed into utter chaos. Platform Alfa is a mess. Ships are being hijacked. ABA! employees driving shuttles are now ditching their jobs to compete. Waypoint civilians who stuck around through the madness are taking their ships out of their garages and taking off through the Jump and the Graveyard. If you're a Host on Waypoint Shril, it might be a good idea to get off it.

Luckily if you were competing in the ABA! you're practically ready to go. After all, weren't most of you building a ship to compete in the finale with? If you take the fruits of your labor, you better hope your astroengineering holds up to a high stress environment.

CAUSE A RUCKUS: Your friends are flying against an armada. Shooting down the competition might be a good idea.



THE GRAND FINALE
GUESS WE BETTER JUMP: Just make sure to get to the Station before it jumps to the void. It would be very, very easy to get left behind. (Be aware that if a Host is left behind, you will be dropping the game.)

---

((OOC NOTES: This log is the catch-all for the finale of Waypoint Shril. It covers the heist, the rescue and the escape from The Fair Heart in addition to any events taking place concurrently on Waypoint Shril. It covers the escape from this universe and taking the Station back into the void. Questions? Check out the OOC POST. If you have additional questions that aren't answered there, feel free to either drop a note in the log-specific questions thread or touch base with us on the Mod Contact page.

'Wait, can I NPC this character?' When it doubt, the answer is probably yes. Use your best judgement, but we encourage you to go wild. Should you desire mod input or for us to bounce into a thread, feel free to reach out to us and we'll be happy to accommodate. We may also be threadjacking some of these threads, however don't feel compelled to wait for us to do so. Have fun and don't get killed!))

NAVIGATION • SETTING • FAQ • MOD CONTACT • GLOSSARY

( CODE BY WHAMBAM )

Comments

[earthborn]

My door's always open, Sam.

[She once used a similar phrase to let herself in for bad news; now it sounds like blatant innuendo. Is she aware of the thing between him and Shiro? Of course she is; hard not to be, and today no less. But that doesn't mean there's nothing left to negotiate. Besides, Shiro is pretty damn hot.

But of course, now he's got her interest.]

...Keeping secrets? [If she's incredulous, it's for a good reason.] I'm pretty sure I just got an intimate knowledge of the layout of New York City, a city I have never visited by the way, and you're still hiding... Alright. Show me.

[sizeofyourbaggage]

[ He remembers that, the start of a conversation that lead to the first time they connected as strongly as they are now. Sam doesn't regret it - any of it, even if it makes things complicated. Hell, at this point, Sam's pretty damn sure just about everyone knows about what's between him and Shiro, in one way or another - the Nest is a hell of a thing.

In more ways than one, and Sam tilts his head in acknowledgement of that before he lights up a little when he catches her interest.

He'd gotten a lot from her, too - a fucking hell of a lot, and most of it is going to take a little unpacking before he knows what to do with it - but he's been hiding this as best as he can for a while, because he wanted to surprise her.

Sam'd worked real damn hard for that, and he's glad he was able to keep it buried. She's either going to love it or punch him for setting it up without telling her - or maybe both. ]

Come on, it's back in the life support area.

[ In what passes for her "room," actually. Set up in it are two aquariums made up of some kind of translucent alien material, with a few softly glowing alien fish swimming in them. ]

[earthborn]

[Shepard scoffs at his reaction, gesturing for lead the way. She's not a woman given to surprises, can in fact count on one hand the number of times a surprise has been welcome. But... Well, it's Sam. She can trust Sam. Shepard knows better than to even think the phrase, "What could go wrong, when we're here on the Station?"

So many, many things.

But, as much as she might have anticipated an ambush, or a lesser gift...not this. Shepard stops in the door to her little makeshift quarters and stares.]

Son of a bitch.

[It comes out in a whisper-- this in reference to Sam himself. Her first reaction is sheer surprise, a blank, unknowing thought: but who will feed them? No Kelly Chambers here, all helpful suggestions and easy manner. She forgets to shield, for that single breath of surprise, and then pulls herself together. Shepard crosses the few steps between, and puts one hand on the alien glass.

Cool, not cold. Humming gently with the action of the compressor and the soft buzz in the light, like an old companion. She doesn't know how to feel; eyes closed, letting the sound work its way back into her bones like a sympathetic vibration.]

You got me a-- [She stops, voice on the edge of something... Something she's not really equipped to manage, right now. Still raw, from their impromptu joining. Shepard swallows and continues, with more dignity.] ... You got me fish?

[When she opens her eyes, the largest of the fish is nosing at the glass just beyond her fingertips. It's an ugly little bastard, misshapen and alien, brown as mud where it isn't iridescent blue. Shepard loves it immediately.

Then she turns right back to Sam and punches him, hard, right in the meat of his shoulder. Not as hard as she could have done, really.]

Dammit, Sam. [She's not mad, she's just having a moment.] You're a conniving little bastard, you know that?

[sizeofyourbaggage]

[ He recognizes the face that spills across the mental link, pairs it with a name, and his brows furrow a little. There's something there, something that's bothering him from somewhere in what he'd picked up from her mind -

But he loses it as he watches her press her hand against the aquarium, as her eyes slip shut and he can feel just how much this means to her. And that, hell, that makes everything worth it. ]

Yeah.

[ It's soft, barely above a murmur, and his own voice reflects the rawness of the moment between them. He got her fish, because while this isn't home for most of them - he wanted to give her something to make her feel a little more herself, a little less disconnected.

And he knows it worked when she turns around and socks him one. There's a sound that's half laughter and half ow fuck as he grins at her, wide and unapologetic. ]

Yeah. [ Might be the same word, but the tone makes a world of difference - light and playful and unabashed. ] You know I could just heal this, right?

[earthborn]

You could. If you were a wimp.

[She doesn't mean it. Indeed, she can't stop the smile, can't even keep it out of her voice.]

Sam-- [Words of kindness don't come easy to her. Shepard doesn't even know what words she means to say, the message that migt underlie them So she settles for] ...Thanks. This is a hell of a thing.

When did you even find the time to bring this in here?