The Coda Conspiracy

[John]

Jeff awoke, and three things immediately flashed across his mind. One, His head was killing him, two, he was suspended off the ground, and three, he was still alive, a fact that puzzled him.

After puzzling over #3 for a while, his mind back-pedaled to #2, and he suddenly realized that a suit's hand was enclsed around his upper torso. He sighed, and reached for his Kabar. Then he remembered, there WAS no Kabar. So he reached for his Magnum.

After realizing he was weaponless, He struggled in the suit's grip, managing to slide around enough so that he was face-to-face with whoever was in the driver's seat. Jeff saw no trace of his earlier companions, and decided to just give up.

"hey! HEY! You! Yes, you. Mind putting me down? I was only trying to help those people you jerks were picking on, I wasn't trying to...to..."

Jeff saw out of the corner of his eye the slashed hydraulics, and looked at the pilot more closely.

"YOU! You're the one who sealed the pilot in the suit earlier today. You know, as soon as I'm...erm...out of this immediate dangerously scary situation, I'm going to give you a piece of my mind...or...at least...I might...You've made my job a living hell today, you know that?!"Jeff fumed, realizing that it didn't seem the pilot was paying ANY attention to him, at all.

[Jishdefish]

"For your information, I just saved your butt back there. As for that sorry guy in that out-of-date machine, it was his own fault, he attacked us." Emilya was feeling guilty about the deaths now. She had let anger and frustration get to her, and even killed on it's behalf. No, she thought, you protected those people! A detective and her... pet!? Her concious was struggling, and she didn't need any exterior input.

[Dragyness]

"She DID save your life, young man," Ally interjected as she helped Russell along. He was still a little whoozy from his most recent transformation. It had been surprisingly short, but since he had taken on so much during that time he seemed all-but drained. In the back of her mind Ally was cursed herself for not expecting this. She had seen him transform so many times, she should have seen the signs. As it was, all that she could do now was help him along as best as possible and keep them moving ahead of the mech suits. In her heart the Detective was sure that they were somehow connected to the Xerxes Coda Corporation, although she did have a natural distrust of the research company, so she was a little biased. They had caused problems in the past, and given their questionable track-rencord and research topics, she felt she had reason to be suspicious. But right now that was secondary to getting all of these people to the Nova Core where they could receive proper treatment and protection from whomever was sending these mech suits, for they certainly would not be allowed within the compound.

Russell, meanwhile, was slipping in and out of consciousness as he leaned on Ally's shoulder. His sophisticated senses were going wild when he did manage to come back to the waking world, and in truth he was worried about what they were telling him. Though he was doing his best to stay with Ally and walk along with her, he could hear that they weren't quite moving fast enough and he almost wished that he was transformed again. At least then he could have been the one carrying Ally and getting her out of danger. After all, the only reason why those mechs were after her was because she was with him. They had started off simply chasing him, and Ally being the stubborn and loyal friend that she was had come to his aid. From the grinding of gears that was reaching his ears and the smell of oil and rust that was reaching his nose, however, he could see that very soon, whether she was their target or not Ally would become intimately involved with the mechs. Thankfully as he opened his eyes fully he could see the Nova Core looming just up the street. With a sigh and slight groan he straightened himself so that he wasn't leaning on Ally quite so much. "We need to get moving," he managed. "They're closing in, and I'm a good shot, but I'm not sure how much more I can handle trying to get to this loony conference."

[Akira]

Emma looked around quite confused. So much was happening, and they seeemed to know something, especially this woman holding the werewolf man. She felt like a a little kid that was lost in the supermarket. She didnt know what to do or what was happeneing to her, she was so stressed but if she asked one of these people they probably wouldnt help her, they had enough trouble on there hands. But she didnt want to be left behind, her eyes were still yellow and she began to feel that aggression comign up again. sticking her hands in her jumper pocket she followed the people keeping her head down as she walked. If anyone saw her yellow eyes they would proably freak, it just didnt seem normal.

[Buhamat]

"Targets heading eastbound...Stolen unit...Ap-" Disgustedly, Jak killed his comm unit. It was truly pathetic how well they could make a mess of things. Was it that hard to simply monitor them? Now, due to these incompetent swine, Jak was now dealing with a group who where headed for Nova Core with a stolen suit. The can just be glad he knew what he was doing.

Activating his head piece with the flick of an eye, Jak began a sweep of the area for any signatures that resembled the antique scraps of metal. It took but a few milliseconds and he was reading a total of 16; 6 demobilized, 6 scattered, and a lone unit with 3 in pursuit. Adjusting his orientation, Jak rerouted his energy to movement and with a single bound, he easily cleared over half a mile. A few hops later, Jak could finally make out the makeshift gang. Gotcha.

With a final jump, Jak adjusted his suits power back to normal and landed several yards in front of the group. "By order of council, remain where you are until-" Jak gave up. Out of all his years, not once did that whole spiel about council orders work; if anything it only made things worse. "Listen, could you all just stay there for a minute? I really am not in the mood to fight and I'm sure you all are the same. We just need anyone here who is infected with the lycan virus to come with us."

(gah, crappy post.)

[Jishdefish]

"Lycan-what virus? Sorry never heard of it." Miss Songwrit had of course heard of it, it was all over the news, outbreaks, containment issues, ect. I guess I'm one of those issues now. She smirked, then realized she didn't know which switch activates the weapons. Emilya scanned through them and then relized it was probably the joystick. The only weapon left to it (one arm, the one with the trank in it's grasp was the only small arm this one had) were the missles, and without the visor (it was stuck, apparently the hydrolics had fixed themselves, but seized up several parts of the ship's mechanics) She only had to eyeball the aiming, and troubleshoot if she missed (no pun intended).

"Listen, I'm sure you have our best interests at heart, but we are in fact late for an appointment. Now if you could just follow us to the Nova Core, we could talk there." She couldn't help but add a flavor of sarcasm to the first part. "Otherwise, I am going to have to move you out of our way--by whatever means nessicary. Do you understand?" [/i]

[Heavyman]

Aranos's eyes stayed on the girl for a moment, until he looked behind her, to his ship. He began to stand, slowly. Every part of his body ached, but he still stood. He could see he had been propped against a tree. And they were in the middle of a forest, a lush one from what he could see. He put his helmet back onto his head, and re-activated the shield. "I need to get this thing running, and quickly. I need to contact my comrades" He said, and started off, this planet was so unlike where he grew up, the only forests were in greenhouses on his planet, since the entire planet was either one big city or desert. Of course the Haldrak homeworld though is a lush planet full of life, the Haldraks valued their planet and wouldn't mutilate it except for the high-tech cities that would dot the planet. He got to the door, and turned half way to look at the woman. "You can come with me if you wish." He said, and disapeared into the dimly lit ship. He made his way to the command chair, and sat down, this had given the woman enough time to decide, and believing she was onboard, Aranos tapped a few keys, and buttons on the command console. The engines roared back to life, the ship squeeled, and whirred as the engines began pulling it off the ground, the squeeling from the bent metal. All remaining weapons were in the green, and the ship hovered off the ground. He detected weapons fire somewhere not far away, and maneuvered the huge ship towards it, and took off, the ship accelerating to 300 MPH, the fastest it could go at the moment. He charged up the Ion Cannons, and soon they were ready to fire. When he finally did get to the battle, he saw something of a primitive powered suit, cornering a group of humans. Before he fired, he began using the exterior speakers. "Stand down, or be vaporized" He said to the suit, and to demonstrate, he aimed one of the two Ion Cannons at a nearby mail box, and fired the mail box exploded, partially, but then imploded on itself, leaving behind a scorched and ruined half a stump.

[Dragyness]

Ally turned round and glared at Jak, her Force badge clearly visible on her belt (a move she had made earlier to make her life easier). She glanced at Russell, who appeared very worried and said simply "You and the others keep going, I'll deal with these clowns." Something about her tone told the others not to argue, but Russell, looking out for his friend opened his mouth to protest before he was cut off. "Now, Russell. That's an order."

With that said, as the others continued on, Russell bringing up the rear very reluctantly, the Detective turned on the young man in the suit first. "Look, I don't know who you are, I don't know why they sent you, but you caught me on the wrong day," she said, her voice dangerously low, her glare as deadly. It was clear to Jak that this woman was NOT one to be messed with as she continued. "In case you couldn't tell, I OUTRANK YOU, and that story about the Council sending you is a load of bullshit and you know it, because there IS no council. Now, you have two options: you can turn around and head back to whomever it was that sent you or I can arrest you for attempted kidnapping and assault. I suggest you take the first." Jak could see in her tired, weary eyes that although she was exhausted she could still make good on her threats and despite being in the safety of the mech suit, he somehow got the feeling that that wouldn't do him much good in her current mood. Ally was not normally one to be so harsh, in fact she usually took the more sarcastic, easy going route when dealing with people, but too much had happened today and it was imperative that she keep Russell out of his hands. Whomever had told him that they were the "Council" had lied- the only council around was the city council which had no power over such technology and relied on the Force. The Terra Nova Union of Worlds could not be considered a council really as it was simply too large...

"And as for YOU," she said, whirling on the Haldrak in the ship. "I understand that you're trying to help, but blowing up things, not the way to go about it. If I know my ships right that's a Haldrak ship. This is not your homeworld, and I can understand that you are far from home, but you also can't just come in and override the proper authority. I appreciate your help, but unless you're heading for the Nova Core where the Terra Nova meets, I suggest you stand down and allow me to handle this." Her tone with Aranos was a little less terse. He could tell in the way that she addressed him that she was just stressed and trying to do her job in the midst of being between a rock and a hard place. Ally had heard of Haldraks and was concerned at having one HERE. They were supposed to live MANY lightyears away, so what was h doing here? With everything that had happened today, it set her on ehr toes wondering if he somehow had something to so with the suits or indeed anything that had happened. What was going on?

As it was, having addressed both, she stood, hands on her hips (one on her gun), between them and the group, awaiting a response. The detective breathed a mental sigh of relief as she watched the group closing in on the Nova Core.

Russell, meanwhile, was conflicted. On the one hand he realized the need to stay with the group and possibly protect them- his skills as a merc. would come in handy if they were attacked again. But on the other hand as he watched Ally shrink into the distance as they continued on he couldn't help but worry. She was his best friend, after all. He thought back to when they had first met and chuckled. They had been 6 and 4 in the sandbox at the local playground and he had stomped her sandcastle. Such fond memories played across his mind and he shook his head, his eyes wide as a ship came int view and blew up something very near her. He couldn't just leave her back there with that thing! "Keep going, I'm going back for Ally," he said to Emilya before turning to head back. but as he approached Emma his jog slowed to a walk and he stopped in front of her, stooping on one knee and looking up into her eyes.

"Oh damn..." he said, "You're infected too..." Quickly he looked around. Had Ally perchance dropped that uber-gun that she carried? Of course a quick scan of the ground told him that once again luck was not with him and he turned to the girl. "Ok," he said, "Take deep breaths, calm down. Whatever it is thats triggering it- I hope to God you know what triggers yours- just let it go. Ok?" He could feel his weary body suddenly alive with adrenaline as it prepared him for what may come next and the tired, drained feeling temporarily took a back burner in his mind. All that he weas concerned with now was keeping her from transforming, especially so near that mech suit and the Nova Core.

Of course with ym luck, it WOULD be this difficult to get to that damn Conference today! he thought as he scanned the street. Only one mech suit- good, and Ally seemed to have him occupied.

OOC: Check the OOC, please.

[John]

Jeff, grumbling and storming in the suit's hand, heard the "...infected too..."

He pushed on the sides of the suits hand, squeezing out of it, then jumped off, hitting the ground, and rolled. He got up, and ran over to Russell and the one...woman...(I REALLY have to learn names... he thought.)

He pulled up alongside Russel, then edged away slightly as a last-minute precaution. He looked between the two, then began to unsnap his med-bag.

"Anything I can help with then? Or are we discussing the Lycan...thingy virus?"

[Akira]

Emma stepped back from the man. Wh-what are you on about, whats happening, what triggers what, why are my eyes yellow, whats this infection, is it dangerous, am i gonna die, she stopped and looked down at the ground, she was having trouble holding abck her tears but did as the man had told her and took deep breaths. She was scared but this man seemed to know what was going on which put her mind at a bit of peace, for now at least.

[Jishdefish]

"You are not going back for her! She can handle herself, as you can't!" She attempted to turn the suit around quickly, but it was difficult due to the damages. When he came back into view he was bending over another girl, and heard him say that she had the same wolf-virus as him. "Arrh, can't we treat her or whatever on the way? Who knows how long the detective can hold that suit back with just her handgun!"

Her shoulder ached, for the first time she noticed that her prostetic one had cracked from that gunshot, it must have been armor piercing. Damn, if the innards of my prostetic crack, I could loose my arm! She slowly released her left-handed grip on the controls, still holding firmly with the right. Emilya relaxed it the best she could. Hoping dearly that the inner pipe would hold, her blood ran through the center of the prostetic shoulder, and if it were to spring a leak then it wouldn't be able to clot as it would on a real arm, not to mention the risk of infection. Ms. Songwrit turned her attention back to the three standing back. "Come on! We have to move now more than ever!"

[Buhamat]

As if things weren't crappy enough... Jak brought a hand to his forehead, massaging his temples in a desperate act to stay calm. Outrank him? No council? He had no time for this. "Listen lady, it's hard to outrank someone that's not on the payroll. And if there's no council, then why the fuck am I here?" Jak highly doubted the military would loan him out to a ghost government.

Fortunately, this woman wasn't his target. He was sent to capture lycan; no where did it say he had to deal with disgruntled lycan advocates. "I don't have time for this..." Bringing up his scanners with the intent of tracking the lone suit, Jak noticed something most peculiar. "Unknown aircraft inbound at 5 o'clock; contact in 2 seconds." In other words, Jak had just enough time to see a shuttle fly in.

"Stand down, or be vaporized"

And if these words, which seemed to come straight out of a classic sci-fi film, weren't enough, the ship proceeded to blast some poor saps mailbox. I'm putting in for a vacation when I get back. Slowly taking his eyes of the menacing doom that loomed overhead, Jak watched, amusingly I might add, as Ally pretty much told off the ship. Nothing like a woman with authority. Unfortunately, this still didn't solve his little problem. He was supposed to be with the lycan's, capturing them but instead he was with a ship and rather pissed detective. After giving it some thought, Jak began walking from under the shuttle so that he could resume the chase. He had little doubt that he was going to get shot, but given the alternative... Scratch the vacation, I'm retiring when I get back.

[Makla]

OCC: k, i making Arik dissappear for a bit. Dragyness, send me a note if you need him to come back in at a certain point.

IC: Arik went further and further downward into his hide out of tunnels. He had quite the little labrynth going on under the city. It used to be the home of a quite expounded mafia. Unfortunatly, they'd gotten trapped underground by some stupid fault in the doors and the majority of them had starved to death. Arik had found it, fixed the little blip in the locks' design and now had a nice safehouse.
Chuckling, he opened a thick door in one of the hallways and tossed his rifle in a corner. Flipping a switch on the wall, he sat in a beaten up swivvel chair as several screens turned on. Spinning around a couple times in the chair, he hooted like a little child. "What morons, traipsing about the streets like a buncha hooligans. I bets my blade that at least one of 'em gets killed."
*beep*
A small screen in the corner flipped on and it showed the face of a very stressed man. "Chear!"
Arik jumped and almost fell out of his seat. Trying to pull his composure back together, he smiled cheekily at the screen. "How ya doin', me bucko? How're the lads at dear ol' Xerxes fairing? Ain't been hearing good news on the corporation. Hear you been creating some beasties that've got rampant. Not good for buisness. I might just have to terminate my contract. Oh wait, silly me, I don't have one."
"Shut up you intolerable imbacile!" The man didn't move when he spoke except for the fluffing of his mustache as he spoke. "I am in no mood to put up with your stupid, twit comments! I need to hire you again."
"Oooooooh, so now ya needs me. Sorry gov, but after bein' so mean i gotta think about it for a minute or two." He puffed on his ciggarette a bit. "How much?"
"You know we talk about price later," the man snapped. "I need you to get into Nova Core and secure a few personages."
"Ah, well now that's neutral territory there, gov. Can't do that, you know."
"I can't but you can. You're a citizen. Now get going or i'll send some dogs down your little rat hole." The screen clicked off.
"I outta send some of my foot up YOUR rat hole!" Arik pulled out his knife and started tossing it into the air agitatedly.
He'd do it. It would be easy. His little tunnels led right by Nova Core. He'd slip in and out, easy as a cheap whore.
A little printer under the main console began pouring out papers. On them were names, a few pictures, and information.
Sighing, he stuck them in his back pocket, picked up his rifle again, and headed out.

[Ersska]

"Holy crap! It talks!" Erin jumped up from the thing. It started to introduce itself and ask her name. But before she could reply, the lizard man jumped into his spaceship and took off. Erin had barely gotten aboard before he was airborne. When he stopped in the city, Erin silently slipped out the back and onto a nearby rooftop. she watched the scene going on below her. The woman, the machine, the spaceship, the group running. . .What was going on. Erin quietly ran down the fire escape and hid in the shadows to geta better view. She couldn't help but to here one in the group say something about "infection" and "lycans". This perked her interest. She watched the group, listening for more, but her increased hearing was only temporary and was gone already. She neede to get closer. But she did not want to get caught in the middle of everything. So, Erin slinked through the shadows until she was a few yards away from the group. Wherever they were going, she was, too.

[Heavyman]

Aranos tapped a few buttons on a keypad, with each pressed button a 'beep' would be heard. The ship's engines became a low, but still loud rumble as the ship descended to the ground, landing in the street. "Get aboard, I'll take you all where you need to go" He said, to the woman, and her companions. He had landed in between the mechanized suit, and the group. He got up from his seat, and his hand went to his holstered laser SMG, the thing was more an automatic pistol than an SMG since it was handheld, leaving the other hand free to do whatever. He walked to the hatch, and exited the ship, his weapon pointed directly at the mech suit, his helmet was on, and his shield activated. He waited for the group to get on the ship, and if this mech suit caused any problems, he'd not hesitate to shoot it.

[Jishdefish]

Emilya took the alien's words to heart. She slid out of the mech, as best she could with her bad arm, keeping herself low, in case the other mech was going to shoot. She made her way to the ship, holding her mechanically enhanced arm close, and her wing even closer, enveloping herself as best she could in it.

As she reached the ship, however, a high pitched wailing sounded in her ears. She cursed and stopped looking around franticly for the source. Everyone seemed to preoccupied with getting to the ship or hesitation to notice. No one else heard it. Emilya fell to her knees, looking desperately for that horrible, grating noise. All her thoughts vanished, even her vision failed her, giving in to darkness. The sound chased her deep within her mind, back to a forgotten time:

"You bad bad wicked child! You run away from those who protect you!? Those who nourished and cared for you!? The Angel of Death comes for you now, and we will not shield our failure!"

Suddenly she was a child once more, reflecting on the scolding of her master, on her special ship. It was a ship just for her, made only to protect her from the horrible people down below. Her master was angry with her, but she did not know why. The answer eluded her as she drifted in the vehicle away from his sight, then the nightmare began...

Her eyes opened in shock, as if from a dark dream, but it wasn't a dream, it had felt so real... Emilya shot to her feet, and looked around, she had only been out for a split second it seemed, not one of them had seen her fall, it could have just been in her head... She ran into the depths of the beat up ship.

[Makla]

Arik sifted through the papers and photos as he walked, sneering at each one and puffing his ciggarette uninterestedly. For the most part it was the same deal; homeless people, orphans, old folks on their own. Hell, most of them had absolutely no association with Nova Core what-so-ever. Why did he need to get there then? It seemed rediculous.
He stopped on one and whistled, raising and eyebrow appreciatively. "Now that," he said, "is a babe." He stuck the other papers in his back pocket and read through this one. "Erin, huh? Cute. Kinda a boys name. Dresses like one too, more's the pity. She'd be hot in somethin'... leather. Yeah. Maybe a bit of make-up. Heard that girls like that don't shave their legs. Bit exotic i think." His eyes went down the faq paper.
"Suspected carrier? Of what, lime-disease? Way to be specific, Xerxes. You fellas are always on top. Huh, still no association with Terra though... Bloody goose chase." He rammed the picture and faq sheet in his pocket with the others and cursed as one fell out. Picking it up, he realized that he hadn't looked at this one before.
"Allyson Dawes, member of the Interstellar Force. Huh, issat so?" He read down the paper and he made a disgusted snort. "There's less info here than on the others. Just says 'suspect' and 'detain to question'. And why the hell would i care about some dude she might be running around with? This doesn't help at all! Geez, so this is the chick who i'm looking for in Nova?" Judging by the numbers at the top of the paper, this info was new, only required a few minutes before it was sent to him. The picture was blurry; she seemed to be running. Maybe it was taken by one of those moronic suit-freaks like-
Realization smacked him in the face.
"Like the ones i was shooting at today!" He pulled the picture close to his face and, sure enough, he could make out a big, fuzzy brown blob that could be that wolf-thing as well as that hideous purple street sign that was stuck on the corner of the area the fight had taken place.
"Damn..."