Uncharted Skies

[BdrLineAzn]

Transport, Galley

"My apologise if I was staring, but are you relat..." was all Frey got out before the door to the galley opens.

"Commander, there you are! You don't know how long I have been searching for you." yells Enger as he barges in.

With two fingers on his temple, Frey answers, "Councilman, I told you before I left my office that I would be here. What seems to be the problem."

"You are needed back at the Hall, we need to discuss about your decision to join the expidition."

"And by 'we'?"

"Councilman Xin, Councilwoman Alishia and I. Now come they are already waiting."

Enger starts to walk out of the room before he pokes his head back in, "Also, bring a full captain roster. The three of us are interested on who is to fly."

With that final statement, Enger closes the door behind him. Sighing, Frey finishes his sandwich and stands from his seat.

"Well if you can excuse me, looks like I got a meeting to attend. Captain Morgan, Alison."

With a nod to both of them, Frey collects his cane and exits the galley. Frey walks through the Cargo Bay where he sees Carn and several others around the Squid. Not wasting a minute, he strides down the gangplank and to the table set up in front picking up several more applications. On his walk to the Council Hall, he looks through and picks out a few people that stands out to him.

Council Hall

Arriving to the building after several minutes of walking, Frey goes up to the receptionist.

"Excuse me, where is the meeting with Councilman Xin?"

"One moment please," she replies as she shifts through a day planner, "umm it looks like the meeting is being held at his office. He, Councilman Enger and Councilwoman Alishia are already inside."

"Thank you." Frey says with a smile.

Before going to the Yeshan section of the building, Frey heads back to his office in the Baron section to retrieve the instal applicants. With all documents set, he arrives to Xin's office as the three are discussing logistics.

Market District en route to South Docks

"Sure," answers Courage to Lorena's reply after retrieving his weapons. Adjusting his new rifle across his chest, Courage balances the bags as he follow the two.

"So besides working, anything exciting in the last month? Hopefully nothing like fighting off a faction exciting. Ofh, what are in these bags?"

Shifting the weight around, each step Courage takes his prosthetic makes a slight creaking sound.

[Carn]

Galley

Keeping control of her face, Alison mentally goes through her repertoire, or curses. Flak, he knows her. This could complicate things, good thing I don't use the family name but still. "Well I came in here for a late breakfast, now it seems like it will be a early lunch. If you will excuse me Reagan, I need to find a suitable meal." She heads into the storage area, and comes out with a large chunk of bread, a chicken leg, and two apples. Very quickly it is all gone, just the apple cores and chicken bones left in the trash. After that, she goes to the cargo bay.

Cargo Bay

"Oh come on boys, I promise not to make you jump near the engines."

"NO!" They both shout in unison, after, one of them sees the rocket craft.

"What is that beautiful thing?"

"That would be Captain Morgan's baby. I forget what she called it, but it uses rocket engines, and it's got a gatling and I think some banshees on it."

"I think we'd rather go on that one......"

"Behave yourselves, she has a young blonde friend."

"Blonde? I love blondes!" They once again cry in unison.

"If I hear so much as a rumor of you causing her trouble, I'll see to it that your dangling from the lines, and with nothing but Alison's cooking."

"That's cruel and unusual Alister....."

"It IS Alister dude, would you expect anything else?"

"Glad to see you you boys know me so well."

[Piemanlives]

--Merchants District--

"Oh you know, a few odds and ends." Lorena smiles back to him as she leads them through the crowd.

"She means a very large amount of engineering equipment and maintenance supplies. Probably gave you all of them." She sighed, smiling. "Nothing so exciting, in fact it's been quiet. It's... quite nice actually." She looks at him, "You know I didn't sign up to be a soldier, but for some reason I was willing to follow that boss of mine deep into the guild in order to prevent the take over of an entire nation." She shook her head, "I don't understand it really. Not that I mind of course, he's a good man and he pays well. He takes care of us too so can I fault him if occasionally he asks us to follow him into danger? Skies with my job danger always seems to be around the corner, I bet they ran into a spot of trouble out there on the job today."

"What about you? Life throw any curve balls these past few weeks?"

--Galley--

Reagan suddenly realized she was alone, and with the throbbing question of "Now what?" She sighed, there was probably a pile of paperwork sitting on her desk back at HQ. She should finish that before setting off, maybe she should file in for hazard pay, later pick up some records, a player, and find the observation deck on this ship. That sounded like a good idea. One she was going to put into motion after she cleaned the kitchen here, the bloody pigs.

--Captain's Quarters--

Amelia was bored, laying on the bed she watched as Andromeda peacefully rested on the stand she had finished. It was good her sky-squid-pet-thing was enjoying it. But she had no idea what she should be doing. She still had that bag of money that she accumulated the other day. Maybe she should stock the armory with the weapons they now had on board, they were just sitting in the cargo bay last she heard and it wasn't like they were going to move themselves. That sound like a good idea, perfectly valid reason to get her body moving. She decided to leave Andromeda for now, she placed her rifle over her right shoulder and let the sub machine gun hang out from under her left and strode out of the room.

[Carn]

Galley

"Hey! I heard that! My cooking isn't THAT bad."

"Alison," Begins one of the twins, "You could kill a sky whale with cereal."

"Hmph."

[ShadedExalt]

"THAT I'd like to see.  Well Carn, if the twins aren't crewing then who is?  I need to get acquainted."

[Koali]

In the midst of everything, Koali was setting up a small living space on the transport ship.

[Carn]

Cargo Bay

"You and Koali, not sure as yet who the fourth is. She can carry extra crew though, she has the engine s for it."

"I'll crew on her," Alison states with a glare. " You'll need someone who knows how to use mines. And I know your preferred combat style."

"Fine, if we're the main forray team, it makes sense having someone with your talents."

[Piemanlives]

--Cargo Bay--

Amelia entered the cargo bay, and immediately saw Carn was talking with a bunch of others, including including two faces she hadn't seen before. Still, this was not a priority, the weapon carts sitting a few meters away were. She walked on over and began to push the bin, and slowly began pushing it toward the armory.

[Carn]

Cargo Bay

Seeing the blonde girl, the twins immediately set off, taking the cart. One of them asking, "Where to Miss?" while he and his brother flash her smiles. Dark blue eyes under a mop of black hair, with very white teeth.

"Remember. POLITE!" Alister call after the twins, taking some pleasure in the slight pause in their strides.

"Will they ever learn?"

"In this matter? I doubt it."

[Piemanlives]

--Cargo Bay--

Well this was awkward, of course it didn't show on her face what she thought about the situation, she was the daughter of a prominent family! Trained in the art of avoiding potential suitors! Of course that tended to involved dinner parties and exceedingly expensive dresses. Instead she gave a polite nod, stepped aside, and pointed to the weapon cart that looked more custom made for the job of carrying weapons.

"If you could also bring that along it would be most appreciated." without waiting for either of them she turned and began walking off to the armory, wondering if she should make sure her weapons were locked.

[BdrLineAzn]

Council Hall

"To get at least a decent search in, we need at least a months worth of supplies." says Enger as he pulls out a map with different search radius and points to the widest one.

"Even if we have enough supplies, the entire ship fleet wouldn't be able to carry all that. Two weeks of food, fuel, and ammo should suffice." Counters Xin.

"Alishia, how about the Guild? Can they bring replenishment  ships out to us if we need it?"

"I don't know, this is a secret Baron/Yeshan operation. i already allowed them access through our borders, sending ships out to the south will bring in suspicion. Plus I don't believe anyone wants to go out into the unknown from there." Alishia replies while twirling her hair, "Ah Commander, good for you to join us."

"Why, yes welcome Commander. About time you caught up." Enger says flatly.

"Thank you Enger, it's my pleasure." Says Frey as he takes a seat at the table. He then places down the files he has in his hands and distributes them around. All three spread the papers out on the table for all to see.

"So Commander this is the entire list?" asks Xin while looking at one of the applications.

"Yes, around forty people. Leading it would be a Mr. Carn and Captain Reagan. The other three ship captains are Alexi Kasparov, Renard Larson, and Ulric Culvin. As well as four pilots for the planes: Davis Hargrave, Farris Moore, Antonio Gonzalez, and Kei Naga. Plus various crew members that will be assigned later." Frey explains.

"This is quite a list," starts Xin, "Enger this is why we should limit the time outside the borders, and with all this people payment will be stretched thin. You even said that the King and several high lords have to pull multiple strings to get this money."

Sighing, "Alright then, two weeks it is then. Well Commander if you are to head out as well, I hope your search will be fruitful."

"Hmm" says Alishia and Xin upon hearing Frey's participation.

"Well I am part the 13^th, even if we did became the King's Honor Guard, I'm sure that my skills would benefit with the search."

"Very well, this should be all. Thank you Commander, Alishia, Enger," Xin addresses the three, "This meeting is done, you can go about with the rest of your day."

Thanking the Councilman, Frey says his goodbyes and exit the room. Leaving the building entirely, he then starts his walk back to the transport.


Militia Docks, Transport


Arriving after several minuts, he stops and look upon the bare hull.

Hmm, we really need a name for this ship.

Snapping his fingers, Frey calls over to several dock workers standing idly by. Seeing the Commander, the three briskly jogs to him.

"What can we do for you sir?"

"Just need a paint job for the transport over there," Frey points to the ship, "Need you to the the name Eagle's Shadow and that will be all"

"Got it, let's go boys I'll get the ladder."

As the three go off to get the necessary supplies, Frey looks back at the transport.

Let's see how long you can hide with the Eagles hunting.

En route to South Docks

"Oh nothing much out of the ordinary," Courage starts, "Mainly helping out running with the Saloon since I can't do much hard labor at the moment with my new leg. If not there I'm at the clinic doing therapy. I would say the only curve ball is having to adjust knowing that....it's gone" he ends quietly.

Courage stares down at his feet eyeing his right "leg" each time he takes a step. Countless nights he would wake up having ghost pains of what wasn't there, each time grabbing air where flesh and bones should be. His therapist says its normal to feel that after losing a limb, but it still hurts.

He looks over to Dalhia and force a small smile, "Sorry about that, I shouldn't have bring down the mood."

[Carn]

Corridor

For all intents and purposes, the twins act and almost look like two puppies, as they follow this pretty blonde girl. With rather stupid looking, albeit happy, expressions on their faces, they each take a cart a try to subtly flex their muscles. Unlike Alister who is built lean an hard, they are more slim and admittedly have a natural grace when they move.

Cargo Bay

"Well this should be amusing to watch. I heard she's from a rather well to do family, and though they are technically related to the Baronies Royalty, it's through bastardy." Alister ponders aloud as he finishes the last letter of the stencil. After that, he sets it down and goes over to where some black paint and some brushes are.

"Well boys, I'd love to stay here and here you complain about my cooking. But I'll be in town for a few hours."

"Yeah yeah, just don't piss off the guard. After this morning's incident, we don't need the extra flak."

Snorting at Alister's obvious attempt to not admit he overreacted, causing the incident, Alison leaves for town.

[Piemanlives]

--Merchants District--

She looked at him, a soft smile gracing her face. Honestly it worried her, not everyone had escaped unscathed, even the captain had been apprehensive for a little while thereafter for various reasons.

She gave him a little elbow bump, "It's alright, you're alive and here. That's all that matters to me right now."

--Corridor--

Amelia however was doing her very best to ignore them, which was working, if only because she had other things on her mind. She was trying her best to remember what her mother had taught her about avoiding men, it was either that or trying to remember what her father had taught her about escaping kidnappers. The former she was blanking on quite heavily, the other involved gratuitous amounts foot to genital contact. She had to stop thinking though and calm down. Focus on the task at hand for now, and then find a corner to freak out in later. It was at that moment she could vividly hear them trying to flex their muscles. Skies, why must I deal with this?

[Carn]

Corridor

One of the brothers, James, was beginning to notice that their usual antics were having no effect.

"So Miss, I'm James and this is my brother John. What's yours? Shipmates should know what to call each other after all."

John nods in agreement. James was always the smarter one.

Merc Bar, below Cathedral

Alison walks inside, nodding to the bartender. He motions to a shadowy corner booth where one can dimly make out the shape of a person in a cloak. Nodding back to the bartender and flipping him a coin, she goes over and sits across from the cloaked figure. Upon closer inspection a strand of red hair can be seen from under the hood.

"So, you got in."

"Yes." Replies Alison.

"Any possible problems?"

"Three. Alister for one, he knows more about me and my methods than even you."

"This is expected of course. You also have similar knowledge on him. What about the others?"

"The co-commander, Captain Reagan Morgan. She's smart and impulsive. She may start snooping, but she's the one I'm least  worried about."

"And who else is there?"

"Frey. I think he knows, or at least suspects, that we are related. And he is coming as you know."

"Of all three I'd say Carn is the most dangerous. As you said, he's out for blood. If he gets wind of my involvement," a shudder runs through the cloaked figure. "I have no desire for the Headsman of Hanat after me."

"Oh relax sis, your paying me good coin to eliminate any evidence I find. You have worries."

"Glad to see you have such confidence in you skill, little sister. Now I must go, can't be seen here."

The figure gets up and leaves. Muttering under her breath, Alison says. "Good-by Alisha, my dear sister."

[Koali]

In the cargo bay...

With some difficulty, Koali managed to carry several switch axes into the cargo bay.

"We got a spare weapon rack for these?"