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Post by Tribulation Cain on Sept 19, 2009 19:36:23 GMT -6
It was later afternoon when the Morning Star, the greatest ship in the Terran fleet, landed in the Antheia spaceport. The ship had been bound to Corus, but when the alert came in. Someone had accessed one of Micheal Nida's 'secret' accounts and withdrawn a great deal of money. The account had been located during the investigation and left open as bait for Cassandra.
She'd taken it. And as the Morning Star was the closest ship, they landed to search for the girl.
Tribulation Cain stepped out of the ship's enormous cargo bay and walked down the ramp, his men by his side. The orders were simple. Six men were assigned to every ship in the port. They were to search them from top to bottom, to get a head-count of passengers, and to look for witnesses. And if they spotted the girl, they were to knock her out and bring her back for questioning. Cain did not want her dead. He planned on having a very long conversation with the girl.
A very, very long conversation.
Cain assigned the ships by alphabetical order. The first was Cain's, and so, he headed to the Adeala with a group of five other men. The rest of his troops split up and went out to search the ships, while others went into the main port to see if the girl had been seen by anyone.
The Adeala appeared to be legally registered. It had recently changed hands and was now owned by one Solomon Taylor. Cain did not recognize the name, and the criminal database brought up no results. He approached the ship just as the spaceport began broadcasting a message.
"Routine inspection." The eletronic voice said, blaring out speakers bolted to the walls and pillars. "Your cooperation is required. Routine inspection. Your cooperation is required."
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Post by Solomon Taylor on Sept 19, 2009 23:14:47 GMT -6
Sol was on his way out of the warehouse--work finished as per the agreement--when the loudspeakers began calling for a routine inspection. His immediate reaction was worry, knowing there seemed to be all sorts of secrets aboard his ship, most of which he wasn't even in full knowledge of.
The second thought was one of confusion. Antheia doing inspections? It didn't make sense. Especially when they didn't even inspect incoming ships as part of protocol. Something must have been up.
And it better not be my ship... he thought to himself as he exited the main spaceport building and arrived at the docking area, noticing that the whole place was covered in men, checking ships.
He noted a man waiting at the door of the Adeala, and felt a little worried. As he approached, he did his best to put on a casual manner. Nothing to be worried about yet. Just routine inspection. If Antheia had routine inspections, that is.
"Is there something I can help you with, Sir?"
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Post by Tribulation Cain on Sept 19, 2009 23:30:37 GMT -6
And there he was, the captain. While there were no photos on record of Solomon Taylor, Cain had a talent for identifying men in a crowd. With a look he could tell you a great deal about them. For instance, he could tell you that Solomon Taylor had military training at some stage in his life, perhaps full training or just a boot-camp experience. He walked like a military man.
"Solomon Taylor?" He said, waiting a second to make sure he was right, then proceeded, "I am Commandant-General Cain, and we need to do a search of your ship. As well, I have a few questions to be answered. Your cooperation is appreciated."
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Post by Solomon Taylor on Sept 20, 2009 0:37:09 GMT -6
Search the ship? Well, it couldn't hurt. As far as he knew there was nothing physical on the ship that they had to hide. Not now that a deal had been made about the shuttle.
"Sure." Sol headed for the the control panel next to the loading ramp and began typing in the access code, having locked up the ship earlier when he'd left it to go work for the day.
Commandant-General, he noted. This was big, whatever it was. "Has something happened?" Sol asked, pulling on the jacket he was carrying as he waited for the ramp to lower. It was chilly on Antheia in winter, though they didn't ever get snow except for in the mountains.
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Post by Tribulation Cain on Sept 20, 2009 1:04:45 GMT -6
He waited until the ship was open then sent the men aboard. They would do a sweet and looking for anything, or anyone, suspicious. Mechanical parts were their main priority, besides the girl of course. If she had half the talent her father did, and the interrogation had yielded information that made Cain believe she might be even more talented than the old man, then anything could be made dangerous in her metal hands. As well, they were looking for synthetic skin or equipment that could be used to grow it. A thing like Cassandra would need to keep manufacturing her own skin now that she was without her father to do it for her.
Cain brought out his eInkr and brought up a picture of Cassandra, turning it to show to Solomon. "We're searching for this girl. She has information that could lead to the prosecution of a very sick individual. It's important that we find her before anyone else does." This was the truth, though perhaps not all of the truth.
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Post by Solomon Taylor on Sept 20, 2009 23:46:08 GMT -6
And there it was. Cassandra's face flashing across the screen that Cain held out. It was his ship. Sol almost allowed himself a sigh, but forced it back when he realized it might make him look like he actually knew something, which he definitely didn't. He was suddenly glad he hadn't asked Cass any questions.
At first he wasn't sure what to say, knowing any information he would give would probably hand Cass over to them all at once, and she seemed like a nice girl. Then again, it wasn't like she'd stuck around to converse with the crew much. Maybe it was only time before she did something to a crew member. And then there was the issue of losing her passenger fares, the only income the ship had until Reese officially joined them for take-off.
But, Sol wasn't a liar, and so far the truth had worked out for him okay so far, even with a somewhat stolen shuttle. He decided then to answer truthfully. "Ah, yes, she came in on my ship. I took her on as a passenger on Terra. She's a strange girl... keeps to herself mostly, so I know very little about her."
The random men rummaging through his ship were a bit of a distraction, and Sol couldn't help but keep an eye on them. It felt slightly violating watching them search every inch of his new home. He glanced back at Cain. "If you don't mind me asking... what's she possibly done?" With his experience with dealing with military men higher than he was in rank, Sol wasn't exactly expecting a real answer, but it didn't hurt to ask, just in case.
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Post by Tribulation Cain on Sept 21, 2009 0:04:04 GMT -6
Cain was shocked to have found the girl this soon, or a man who was willing to give her up. She clearly hadn't picked her ship well, or had underestimated how moral the man was. Either way, it was a very lucky break for Cain. "That doesn't surprise me." He said in response to Cassandra's behaviour. There was some irony in it as well. Distancing herself from the crew had made it easier for Solomon to give her up.
"She hasn't done anything. It's what her father did to her." Cain sent a message out on the eInkr saying that the ship had been found, and that they should cease inspections as soon as possible. The fewer troops around, the easier it would be to lure her back. "We had reason to believe that Micheal Nida turned his own daughter into a lab rat, removing her limbs and replacing them with state of the art prosthetics. All we want is to find the girl, discover if this is true or not, and then proceed with the charges. Without Cassandra, we cannot charge Micheal Nida with any crime."
Of course, if Micheal Nida was to be believed (and seeing as Cain had overseen the man's interrogation, he was certain he had been telling the truth before he became too incoherent with pain to string together words), the girl had voluntarily chosen to become a lab rat. Which meant that Micheal Nida would be going to jail, and Cassandra Nida would be going to the Chamber to find out what made a cyborg tick.
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Post by Solomon Taylor on Sept 21, 2009 0:24:11 GMT -6
Prosthetics? That's all? Sol was completely surprised that it was the only reason for the bounty on her head. Still, though... there had to be more to the story if a man like Cain was in pursuit of her so thoroughly that he would order the lock down of the space port in order to search for her. What sort of prosthetics did this man Nida deal with? And why would he do that to his own daughter? It certainly explained Cass' strange withdrawn behaviour, though. She'd probably been mentally scarred by the whole ordeal, for all he knew.
"Ah..." was all he could say in reply. He didn't know where to go from there. Well, other than to make a mental note to check the backgrounds of his future passengers from now on. He would have to remember to do a search on Reese before they left the planet.
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Post by Tribulation Cain on Sept 21, 2009 0:44:09 GMT -6
"If you don't mind, I'll station some troops in and around your ship." He saw a few men coming toward him. Cain motioned for them to take cover, which they did. As far as he knew, her torso and head were organic, and a few darts to the chest should take her down. And if not, there were the guns. A few well-placed shots would leave her alive, but hurting and unable to get very far.
One of the men came out of the ship, shaking his head. Nothing. Dammit. The girl had taken everything with her when she left the ship. That compromised the likelihood of her returning to the ship. "Did she pay you for passage to Antheia, or to another planet?"
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Post by Solomon Taylor on Sept 21, 2009 8:32:18 GMT -6
"Uh, sure. Whatever helps." Sol agreed. It wasn't like he had much choice in the matter anyway. Though to be on the safe side, he thought that maybe he should seek out Magdalen and tell her not to come back to the ship for a bit. He still didn't know who or what she'd been trying to lay low from, so it would be better safe than sorry.
"She's paid me for a few weeks room and board," Sol told Cain. "She didn't have a destination in mind, so it was somewhat of an indefinite agreement that she would continue paying me as long as I would take her after that. Now I suppose it all makes sense why..."
"Should I go round up the other crew members?" he decided to ask. They might be needed on the ship anyway. Even if he couldn't get away from the ship to find Magdalen, hopefully if she spotted all the men around the docks she would think to stay away.
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Post by Tribulation Cain on Sept 21, 2009 14:04:58 GMT -6
There was some good news. If she had paid up, there was a better chance of coming back. That meant she was carrying her possessions around with her to keep the crew from looking at them. They'd have to be careful not to damage them too much. They would be evidence in a trial.
"That would be fine." If the crew was out, she'd be more likely to look at them, and not the men stationed in the spaceport. It might even be enough to lure her in. And it would give Cain an opportunity to see if Solomon was carrying any more fugitives. "They'll just need to act naturally. We don't want to frighten her off."
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Post by Solomon Taylor on Sept 21, 2009 23:10:53 GMT -6
"Alright," Sol nodded. "I'll go see if I can find them. They should be scattered around the space port as far as I know."
He wandered off back towards the entrance doors. It felt a little weird leaving his ship in the hands of complete strangers that he didn't fully trust--he knew better than anyone that the military didn't have the "little guy"s best wishes in mind. They would do what they did whether it was right or wrong, as long as it was protocol.
He began wandering the halls wondering where he might spot some of the others. It was close to dinner time... the food court-like cafeteria was probably a decent bet for Booker. Booker would be a good one to find first. Sol wanted him back at the ship with him for sure. He headed that direction.
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Post by Cassandra Nida on Sept 24, 2009 23:35:18 GMT -6
Cassandra hadn't heard the announcement. If she had, she would have panicked and run for it. But she'd been underground, in a U-Store. There was no way she was carrying all her electronics onboard, not without someone noticing she was carrying something too heavy for her. So she'd rented a large storage space and put her things inside, using a false name. The renter, a bored teenager, hadn't paid any attention to Cass.
Now she was heading back to the ship. She would go out late at night and bring them back either at once, or one by one when no one was watching. Then she could start building lighter limbs. Cass wished her father was here. He'd be so excited to see her new designs and ideas.
Her eyes misted up, and Cass didn't pay too much attention as she headed to the ship, carrying her possessions with her on her back. As she wiped them away, she looked up and saw a strange man standing near the ship. Cass frowned. He looked kinda familiar...
"Cassandra Nida?" He called out. Cass turned and ran, not even thinking.
Darts hit the ground beside her. One hit her arm, and another hit her back, bouncing of the steel support just beneath the skin. And then she heard him yell again, and it was real bullets coming at her.
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Post by Tribulation Cain on Sept 24, 2009 23:39:42 GMT -6
The girl appeared about ten minutes after Solomon left to find his crew. She clearly wasn't paying attention, as she walked straight toward the ship. He could see a bag on her back. There's where her tools and money were. The girl looked sad, but none of that mattered to Cain.
She noticed him, slowing her walking. He called out, "Cassandra Nida?" and before he could ask her to come with him, she turned and ran. His men were waiting and they shot. Cain saw one dart hit her back, but it didn't stick. That hadn't been mentioned, only the prosthetics. What was it, some sort of support structure? Made sense. That much metal would tear a human body apart without something to hold it in place.
"OPEN FIRE!" He yelled at the soldiers, who quickly switched to live rounds. If she was mostly metal, then Cain would be glad to see the thing die, or at least hurt. People hit the floor at the soldiers fired and pursued her out of the docks.
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Post by Tribulation Cain on Sept 28, 2009 1:03:53 GMT -6
[later that evening]
The war room of the Morning Star was a magnificent thing. The designers had taken their time crafting it, using real wooden tables and mounting screens everywhere. You could even project holos in the middle of the room, though the technology was still lacking and it gave a person a headache to look at them too much. It was opulent, a room worth more than many Terrans made in their lifetimes.
Cain hated it. And so, when it came time to work, he had his men build him a base camp in a nearby empty dock. The plain canvas walls and simple metal tables were more Cain's style. He worked from his eInkr while sitting one one of the military issue chairs, recieving soldiers as they reported back on the sectors they were searching.
The news wasn't good so far. The girl had run faster than they'd anticipated (and Cain was going to tear a strip of the idiot who had done the calculations wrong) and they were still attempting to redefine the search radius. If the girl made it to the Elf portion of the forest, they would be unable to continue the search. She had to be found before then.
Someone appeared at the tent flap. One of his aides. "Sir, there's a woman here. She claims to have information about Cassandra Nida."
"Send her in." Cain finished typing on his eInkr and set it to the side. He would have to see if she had anything useful to offer.
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