Galactic Sea: Cosmic Tales

Snakeye looked at his teammates, "Shall we get ready?"

After pausing for a moment to confirm the transmission was completely cut off, Kitcha released the princess, lowering her dagger as she slid a few steps backwards.

"Alright, game plan, pronto", she clapped her lower hands together, pointing one of them at Snakeye. "Snakeyes! Keep Her Highness at gunpoint. Holding her in knife's reach limits both of our mobility way too much in case anything goes hairy".

"Gonzales!" Another arm pointed at Ray. "You're fun and all, but we're not playing for fun. We're illegitimate businessmen. Stay in character, but watch what you say before we get a missle in our faces, alright?"

"Featherface!" A third arm pointed at Shira. "... you do you", she concluded, clasping her hands together as she headed towards the bridge. "If anyone's got any other plans, make 'em snappy. She's expecting us any second".

Snakeye stood up from his seat drawing the Diamondback pointing it right at the princess.

"Gladly," was his only word as he glared.

Shira makes a face like this: =_=

"... Okay then.." She takes the rifle off her shoulder and begins inspecting it.

Bella immediately said, "Uh, question: where's the part of this bullshit plan where I'm not used for stereotype. Because I do not like being used as a-"

The 'bridge' opened up between them. Two Armored Zombies stood at attention, pointing their guns down the hallway that connected to the spooky-looking ship that was connected to theirs. Apparently, they would act as a sort of escort for our heroes-whether they liked it or not.

edited 17th Feb '16 5:28:17 PM by HydraGem

The earthling was loading a fresh battery into his pistol when Kitcha made her demand.

"The Great Gonzales shall acquiesce to your request." Ray said, though he wasn't looking at Kitcha. Instead, he was searching the ship for something that could help them. He found a minifridge, and within, a six-pack of beer bootles, with four of them still in it. They were well past their expiration date. Ray had just finished pouring one out when their escort arrived. Ray had suspected that Marigold would send someone. It wasn't as if she was shorthanded. Now would be the perfect time to feel out their opponents. Ray made sure to keep on eye to see if they reacted to Snakeye. He really wanted to know how they sensed things. If they were dead, none of their sensory organs should work.

"Nice to meet you. Name's Gonzales." Ray said. He casually tossed the bottle over his shoulder, and it shattered loudly. Watching them like a hawk to see if they reacted to the noise at all, he then extended a hand to them. "Your boss. She single? Is she into bodacious space pirates?" He asked.

edited 18th Feb '16 11:22:19 AM by HeroicSociopath

What did I JUST fraggin' say, Kitcha thought as she furrowed her face at Ray. "Feh... Earthlings neva change..." she gruffly commented while hacking at the ground. The bug woman gave the shambling corpses a wary glare, intentionally shaking her eyes a bit as to upplay herself as an... unreliable personality. "Let's get a move on!" She simply said, moving forward with a strong grip on her dagger and a fierce yet watchful eye on their undead escorts.

Oh great, now it's going to leave a stain... Shira groaned inwardly, as she forgot her priorities for a second.

She shifted her grip on her rifle a bit and moved forward as well.

"..." The Zombie Escorts didn't say anything. They most likely couldn't and simply pointed down the corridor for the crew to walk down.

"We're gonna die. I'm gonna die because this idiot is gonna get us all killed." The Martian Princess mumbled as the escorts started leading them down the corridor to the enemy's ship.

The enemy's bridge was gothic in design, looking like the interior design was done by Dracula rather than a sound mechanic. The Zombies walked around, mumbling their weird 'Zombie Language' as sitting in her chair above the controls, a glass in hand and getting wine poured in by a Zombie, was Marigold herself.

"Welcome to my not-so-humble abode." The Venuxian said to them, "I was afraid you would've gotten cold feet after getting a good luck of my troops."

"More like smell." mumbled the Princess as the smell coming from the undead soldiers smelled of rotting flesh and caking blood. The entire ship reeked of this foul odor. Wasn't Venus known for it's lush jungles and exotic smells?! Who trades Vanilla and Habbood for rotting corpse and decaying organs? Marigold, that's who!

Snakeye looked around the hull and the room calculating any possibilities of ricocheting a shot through the zombie guards or their Load Bearing Boss.

Shira nose wrinkled at the smell. She tried to hide it, so as not to tick off Marigold or something. She wasn't doing very well.

Ewewewewewewewewew

Kitcha feigned a smile as she inhaled deeply. "Not bad..." she said, her gruff accent a little moreso than she had made it previously for Marigold. Most likely because she was attempting to not cough out the horrible stench.

"Raisin' the dead's pretty hardcore, you know..." she nodded at Marigold, forging an impressed tone as she took a few steps towards the witch. Kitcha remained several arms' lengths away from her, but she wanted to get a good enough look to confirm that she was talking to the real Marigold, as opposed to a hologram or some such. "I could have fun with this kind of thing... what is it, black magic? Nanomachines? Biokinesis?"

Like the rest of the crew, Ray went a bit green as the stench of Marigold's ship hit him like a bag of rotting meat. He'd smelled the sickly-sweet stench of death before, and he knew that in a few minutes, he wouldn't even notice it. Until then, Snakeyes was the subject of Ray's envy.

"Charming decor." Ray said. He showed no outward signs of disgust, aside from his face growing a fraction of a shade paler. "Naw, these guys are great. Pretty hip, tibia honest. Zombie minions? It's a no-brainer." He was surprised she let him into the control room. That was bold. He reached over his shoulder and unhooked his bandolier. He tossed it to the Venuxian, giving her all his ammo. He then took the rifle from his shoulder, and deftly opened the clip. The fission battery fell to the floor, and he handed the now harmless weapon to one of her minions. All he was left with was his pistol, concealed in his armored jacket.

"And now we're on even terms. You can kill me whenever you like. But if you do, Snakeye here will behead our hostage. I don't think she'll fetch much of a price like that. It probably won't come to that, but you don't last long in this profession by being reckless." Ray continued. He looked for a chair. "May I have a seat?" He asked.

edited 19th Feb '16 2:30:44 PM by HeroicSociopath

"How...quaint." The Witch flexed her wrists as a Zombie caught gear Ray threw at her, "Yes, yes. Have a seat. I honestly, don't care." Marigold seemed to be more annoyed with Ray than she was impressed.

Marigold didn't see, but Bella was facepalming. She always thought Ray was stupid, but now she was assured.

She turned to the Urani, chuckling, "Magic? That's a laugh. This whole 'Witch Motif' is just for appearances. But, you're right the second time. It is nanomachines. Specifically, nanomachines in the brain, keeping it alive enough to work the rest of the bodies like a puppet. It's quite brilliant if I say so myself. Ho ho ho~" laughed the Venuxian. If Kitcha looked hard enough, she'd notice an odd lighting effect around her. While the Zombies seemed to be under the effect of the ship's dim lighting, Marigold seemed to almost shimmer, with a small field of light coming around her from where she was standing.

edited 19th Feb '16 3:19:08 PM by HydraGem

Ray watched as the undead caught his ammo. Interesting. He was willing to bet she was a hologram, then. And from the looks of things, Kitcha had the same idea. Ray locked eyes with her, and gave her a subtle nod as he took a seat on the far side of the room. As he did so, he scanned his surroundings, especially the control panel, for anything that looked like a camera or projector. If she wasn't actually present, she had to be watching and hearing them somehow. He'd let Kitcha do the talking for a while. Marigold seemed a lot more interested in her.

edited 19th Feb '16 4:18:20 PM by HeroicSociopath

Sure looks like a hologram... 'course it wouldn't be that easy. Good to know they like their brains, at least...

"I like the way ya think", Kitcha lied with a nod, giving the zombie with Ray's firearm an interested look as she folded her lower arms. "Alive enough to be useful, too dead to resist... sharin' this tech just might be a fair trade fer Princess Charmin'. How 'bout ya give us a tour of the works?"

Shira narrows her eyes a bit.

Hm.. That's suspicious.

She tries to scan Marigfold.

Snakeye noticed a slight shimmer with his electric optics and targeting computers.

Seems he had lost a advantage and just squinted, "Tell me. Why the heavy armor? Surely if they are undead servants then bullets and lasers won't do much to them anyway."

It seemed that the Zombies didn't take too kindly to Ray's choice of seat-or rather, Marigold didn't as with a flex of her fingers, Zombies had guns pointed at the Human's head, "Now, when I said anywhere, I meant anywhere that wasn't near my controls, ape."

Marigold gave another, bellowing laugh as she looked at Kitcha, "Oh ho ho ho! For appearance's sake, of course! After all, it's not enough to be bad, ya gotta look the apart two! Walking dead flesh isn't enough to intimidate people, ya gotta show a little pizzazz! Make them look scary! Give them so heavy armor so that when they break through the armor, it gives off the illusion they're making progress~"

"So your idea of being intimidating is playing dress up with oversized dolls." snapped Bella.

"...Oh, you'll sell for quite the pretty penny for that mouth of yours." chuckled the space pirate, pressing a few buttons, "You remind me of this other Princess I sold not too long ago. A pretty young thing. Called 'Leila' or something." Coming from the control panel was a flash drive and a bottle, a zombie grabbing. "Alright, we have a deal, Urani. That zombie has the blueprints for my nanomachines and a bottle. Leave the Princess here and you get both. Forgive me if I don't plan on giving you a tour, I'm on a schedule." As the Venuxian spoke, she was subtly flexing her fingers. Some of the Zombies, in response, seemed to twitch and move slowly closer to each other. The ones that were moving also seemed to have guns at their sides and their hands looked far from stiff.

edited 22nd Feb '16 2:44:01 PM by HydraGem

"Hooold yer horseflies", Kitcha held a palm out, putting on her best eerie grin. "I said 'might'. Can't exactly give such a pretty lass away fer just any corpse maker. I wanna know what specs we're dealin' with, ya know...?" She explained, reaching at her belt to draw her retracted Earth sword.

"Surely ya can spare a few test dummies...?" She remarked, pointing the blade's hilt at the neck of a zombie that didn't look like it was doing much. "Or ya could just let us have a looksee at yer production line? Yer schedule can wait until we check everythin' out. Ain't that right, Princess? I don't think yer magic nanomachines can repair her market price much if her face gets 'accidentally' melted..."

Snakeye grunted, "Tell me Marigold. You seem so confident, aren't you concerned with any faults of these freaks?"

Ray froze as he felt the cold kiss of the rifle upon his forehead. So no dice on getting into position to weld the door shut. He took a seat to Marigold's left, then. At least that would mean that the zombies wouldn't be able to murder them all in one sweep of assault rifle fire.

Ray glanced at Kitcha as he sat down. He was getting really, really worried that she was actually going to sell Bella. He didn't want that. Growing up aspiring to be a mercenary, he knew the obvious risk of dying on the job. But he had also begun to worry about someone else dying on the job when he could have stopped it. So even though he was seated, his mind was racing. He twirled a lock of brown hair in his finger. He didn't trust their odds with the undead. They were a pain to bring down, and they far outnumbered the crew. They were on the enemy's turf, too.

As Snakeye spoke, Ray lifted his chair very slightly off the ground, silently scootching forward a few centimeters, closer to their captor. Ray thought he had found a weak point in the Venuxian. While he hadn't managed to get behind her, he was just barely in her peripheral vision now, and hoped he wouldn't get noticed. As he did so, he shot Kitcha a look. A "Kitcha no we can't sell the princess look." Also a "Kitcha try to get those zombies out of the way look I have an idea." He couldn't remember if she had mind reading in her portfolio of psychic powers or not, but he hoped for the best.

Bella glared at Kitcha-her acting was a little too convincing for her tastes.

"Freaks they may be, automaton." scoffed the Venuxian, "But I'm not controlling corpses, I'm controlling robots. Robots, last I checked, don't bite without my say so." It was like her entire being did a heel turn. She was so warm and welcoming just a second ago-well, as warm as you get when you're a space criminal sociopath as she gave a strained smile as Kitcha.

"These are enough bots to build an army of zombies.And if I haven't made it perfectly clear," With a flex of her fingers, a bullet was shot, aimed at Ray's leg, "I am a very impatient woman." Her smile looked more relax as she gave a big grin, "Now than, I'm still in a generous mood, so I'll only repeat this one more time. You can have the blueprints and a bottle of my contraptions for the Princess. Of course, if you don't take my offer, I can personally guarantee this will be the last time we do business."

Snakeye only gave it a nanosecond of thought.

"Yeah while we're at it how about a calzone and a large order of Go Fuck Yourself."

And within that instant the Biotron quick drew his .44 blaster and opened fire on the nearest zombie right in the head, reducing whatever it had for brains to paste.

He darted forward, gripped the zombie in a headlock and gripped onto its weapon opening fire on any other nearby zombies near his teammates. He had to admit, the weapon had quite the kick to it, no matter. He was built for war.

"Ray better execute that brilliant plan of yours!"

Ray had gotten close to Marigold. Very, very close. He was just rising to get her when he felt a searing pain in his leg as the bullet pierced flesh, then bone. His vision darkened, but he had been ready for this. He knew very well that this plan might kill him, but he had also known that if he didn't do it, everyone would die. So he made sure that as he fell, it was towards her. He looked like he was about to slump over the table and bleed out. And he would have, had it not been for a trick up his sleeve. Literally.

"Shut up." Ray said. He really hoped those weren't his last words. He'd always hoped he'd come up with something cooler, but blood was staining the leg of his pants, puddling on the floor. As the laser knife he had looted from the martian soldier appeared in his hand, he used the momentum from the fall to try to plunge it into Marigold's gauntlet.

"I told you Bella. We ain't gonna sell you." He said, grinning, even as he felt his body grow cold. He knew that he would probably bleed out if he didn't do something about it soon. "Jesus, my leg..." He doubted he'd walk on it again, but if it worked, it was a helluva lot better than everyone on the ship dying. His breathing grew ragged.

"You really think a coward like you who goes around murdering civilians is gonna take us down? You give Mercenaries a bad name."

edited 1st Mar '16 7:37:21 PM by HeroicSociopath