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Post by Marcus O'Terra on May 5, 2012 17:44:15 GMT -5
Bellforge
June 2, 2517 - Beaumonde
7:27 AM Local Time
4:05 AM A.S.T
<From Regrouping and Rewarding>
Marcus had seen the girl, Siri move suddenly. He’d seen her drop to the ground and could tell Rina was moving to cover. But there was no break of glass. Nothing to hint at an attacker.
Then there was blue and and Marcus fell back into the chair.
---
He awoke from what must have been the best sleep he’d ever had. However the fuzzy warmth of the nap snapped out. Military training and experience patched the gap and he remembered that he’d blacked out, not fallen asleep.
Dash was getting up, but he was the only one. In fact he was the only one in the room, besides Marcus.
Siri, Lior, Rina. All gone. Marcus took stock of the room. It was light outside. The next morning, or a cleaning crew or medic would be waking him up.
More likely the cold floor of a cell. One face scan and you’re someone’s meal ticket.
He looked for a clock and found one near a window. Picking it up, he saw the time and swore. Almost twelve hours since they got there…. but that would make sense. There was a date read out on the clock as well. ONLY twelve hours.
There was a flashing light that caught his eye and Marcus parted the shades.
Police. Lots of them.
Marcus blanched. But then immediately calmed himself. The officers were milling about. There wasn’t any media presence he could tell. They were coming and going and there wasn’t any real sign of tension…
They weren’t there for him.
No sense going out the front door yet. No sense going out at ALL yet.
“Dash keep your head down, and try not to drink yourself blind with whatever’s left.”
He didn’t hear the man respond, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to care right now.
Once again, people who’d trusted him. People who’d he sworn to stand beside had been swept up from under him by the torrents of fate.
Fickle Mistress… wait, weren’t there three fates? Bet mine’s the redhead….
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Post by Marcus O'Terra on May 5, 2012 17:44:54 GMT -5
Marcus made a decision, there. He had to move, and carefully. Calmly. He went over to his room and gathered his kit, and the bag he'd collected from the HardTack. He still hadn't gotten around to sorting out what he'd scavanged but that'd be for later.
He looked to Dash and tossed him the two hundred credits he was due for hte mission. He threw him a pouch of coin he knew to equal that amount. It was better if the man had the weighted bits. "Good luck, and feel free to fence the girls' kit. Consider it bonus." It was just baggage. He didn't need it. The girl's wouldn't need it. They needed help. Probably. Definitely. Still he hadn't been lifted. He tossed the room key onto the table and made for the door.
So were they after one of the women directly? Rina had the bounty, so that was the steady bet. But if it was bounties, he'd have popped up too, wouldn't he?
He moved out of the room and looked about, there was definitely some kind of hub-ub going. He closed the door behind him, the 'Do-Not-Disturb' sign dangling from the handle. He casually walked down the hall. He kept his head level and made for the rear staircase. Not the fire exit, of course, just a service exit that plenty of hotels had. Leading to parking lots and service alleys.
The door approached and he entered the stairwell and exhaled, leaning on a stair railing.
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Post by Bishop Morse on May 5, 2012 17:45:36 GMT -5
Carl
18 Minutes after Another Day
The truck continued rushing through the streets. Carl was a rather aggressive driver. He didn’t paid a great deal of attention towards what he was doing, however didn’t bother much with things that would get in the way. He’d swerve around them, and honk the deep horn that the truck was equipped with. There weren’t a great deal of vehicles on the road that early in the morning, at least not on the road he chose to take. The street itself was metallic and had two lanes. He kept the vehicle going as fast as he could without smashing into cars around him. He said nothing on the trip, he had his mind locked in on the destination, and his right ear open in case some words came through the communicator that was on it. But nothing happened. Just a trip of considerable length as they moved from the industrial zone to the living regions of the city. Bellforge was a very large city, and there was air traffic buzzing about all over. But Carl kept his mind locked in towards the objective of getting to where they were needed.
At last their destination came in view. A hotel that listed “Blue Ray” across the top in both English and in Chinese in a blue tint. In front of it there were people all about. A great cluster of them wearing normal clothes, and pajamas. However there were also a great deal of Federal Soldiers and police officers in there with them. Police and military vehicles were scattered around, though nothing very heavy duty. But there were a large number of them mixed in with this crowd. Some processed and questioned people, while others stayed in groups just chattering. A few secured the perimeter while the others just stayed where they were. The truck got off onto the street and pulled in towards the front, though the sheer number of people forced Carl to slow down, and eventually stop. Carrying weapons wasn’t illegal, so Carl was in no way worried. He just looked over the crowd and stopped the engine on the truck. He looked over everything, and opened the door. His wasn’t the only vehicle that wasn’t with the Federals, as there were a number of taxi’s and other vehicles pulling in and pulling out. He opened the door and stepped out. He tilted his head to the other two in the vehicle suggesting they should as well.
Carl looked over the crowd once more and tried to piece together what was happening, but he was just drawing a blank. Finally he found someone he recognized. A man with a very inexpensive jacket, a mustache, and an odd round hat was sitting on cement decorative bench in front of the hotel. ”Kaj!” Carl yelled. ”Kaj!” He yelled again.
He finally got the mans attention and he quickly got up and walked over. The man held his arms out at his sides as if to say ‘look at all this’. Carl just continued. ”Kaj what the hell happened!?” He demanded as the man came up to him.
Kaj looked at Carl and the two who were with him. He didn’t know them, but he knew Carl. ”The Fed’s had some kinda sting operation here in the early morning around 3 A.M” He announced. ”They got about 6 of our guys who were here having a party that had warrants out for themselves.” He looked back at the crowd and at all the Federals that were around. ”They picked up about 40 people total.” He looked back shaking his head. ”I don’t think any of our guys are of importance, just Harkan’s group is what I saw.” Kaj said. He looked like he’d been there for a while.
”Shit.” Carl said. ”Alright, get on outa here.” He said motioning for him to go. Carl turned back to the truck and put his finger up to his ear to start talking into the communicator. He looked at the two he’d brought with him. ”Stay here.” He told them as he waited for the call to go through.
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Post by Marcus O'Terra on May 5, 2012 17:45:55 GMT -5
Marcus made his way down the stairwell, calmly and each step in front of the other. He'd head down and find a bus on the same route he'd come from the day before. Talk to Longstreet. Be inforamative, not panicking. But he looked incompetent right now. Letting a girl he had no info on, into his room. Getting 'Blue blasted' or whatever.
He pushed the door to the service entrance open and walked out into the alley. He headed away, eyes forward and steps straight. His heart was pounding in his chest. In the corner of his eye he caught a familiar face.
Kayle? Caden? Carl! Longstreet's man! Might be able to get a ride out of here.
He walked up casually and from the front, so the man could see him coming. He threw one look back at the hotel before stopping next to the driver's seat.
He knocked once against the door to make sure the man's focus was on him. "Morning, Carl. Fan-Fragging-TASTIC weather you have on this planet. Bounty hunters AND Police."
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Post by Marcus O'Terra on May 5, 2012 17:46:26 GMT -5
Hawkeye
The truck roared into town, and the man parked it near the back of a crowd. Hawkeye dismounted, and surveyed the area, shit it was swarming with feds. Hawkeye was on edge he couldn't be caught by the feds, hopefully they would ignore him, after all he was just a spectator, he wasn't a part of this, at least he hoped he wasn't. Hawkeye had a bounty on his head, and sure if you searched for Hawkeye Hamlin on the cortex, you'd find a relatively clean rap sheet, but creative forgeries and six years in hiding, wouldn't be able to fool a face scanner, or a skilled cortex whiz to find the truth, to find the files on Theodore Aspen, files which made him worth quite some cash, and could easily have him court marshaled, or tried for treason. Hawkeye quickly removed his pin, the sole memento he'd kept from the war, and dropped it in his pocket, then Hawkeye fixed his hair so it would cover his missing ear, no need to make him stand out, he really didn't want to stand out.
Hawkeye looked over to where the man was talking to another man, who he had called Kaj, Hawkeye listened carefully as Kaj explained the situation, shit this was bad, with already 40 arrests, there would be a good chance the feds could be looking for more fugitives, and Hawkeye couldn't have that. As the man headed back to the truck, Hawkeye was hopeful that they'd be leaving soon, but more likely since Kaj had claimed that 6 of them men were their men, Hawkeye guessed that they'd have to stay around, until the company made a decision about what to do with their captured men.
Another man came up to the man and called him Carl, oh Carl was this man's name. Hawkeye had no clue who this man was, but based on the way that he'd seemed to single out Carl, Hawkeye assumed that he knew the man, and possibly wasn't a local, also based on the almost ridiculously nonchalantness of the man's walk Hawkeye was almost sure the man was trying not to attract attention, and trying to look out of place, but he was trying too hard. Hawkeye only glimpsed part of the man's conversation with Carl, but from what he'd heard he figured he could reasonably assume that the man was not happy with the influx of Feds. Hawkeye was with the man, he was ready to leave.
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Post by Ilana Logan on May 5, 2012 17:46:48 GMT -5
Ilana scanned the area as Kaj spoke with Carl. It was bad. Forty arrests this morning. More Fed's crawling the area than she'd ever seen in one place. She didn’t have a bounty that she knew of, but people from the Alliance always put her in a fighting mood. After losing her father and both sisters in the war for independence to these huen dahns, it was hard to find anything good about them. She tried to cover up her mood swing by looking around, but knew she probably didn’t succeed all the way. She swung the gun on the strap so it hung down her back, and buttoned her shirt. She glanced at Hawkeye just as he pulled something off of his coat. He rearranged his hair, and she wondered at that, but said nothing. Carl walked over to the truck and pressed his finger to his ear, apparently listening to his comm. She went back to scanning the crowd when something, or someone, tapped on the truck. She looked back and saw a man. He was talking to Carl. From what she could tell, the man didn’t sound too happy with the Feds being here either. She wanted to get out of here. This mood she was in wasn't going to go away as long as she was here, and she knew wouldn't survive a fight with this many Fed's no matter who backed her up on it, and she wasn't too keen on dying anytime soon.
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Post by Bishop Morse on May 5, 2012 17:47:16 GMT -5
Carl
Carl had finally gotten the call through on the communicator on his ear. The receptor ran on a small stick to his cheek and he held his finger down so that he could hear what was on the other end. Inside of his own ear he could hear what was being said, but to anyone else that wasn’t what was happening. Carl looked down at the ground, as he heard a voice through it.
”Yeah.” He said. ”There figurin’ that it was a big sting, Fed’s grabbin’ warrants all at once. At that moment he had to stop because he heard someone talking. He looked left and held his finger up. He was on the phone and wasn’t going to cut it in the middle. After listening a bit. ”Harkan’s group.” He continued. There was another pause. ”They aint sayin’ there’s a connection. Just warrants from before.” Carl said. He stopped again. ”We’re gonna be headin’ back, nothin’s tuh do.” Carl listened a bit more, then tapped the device and it shut the call off.
He looked left at the man standing there. He remembered who he was, not what his name was though. Carl remembered though that he wasn’t recently hired. He did recall that he had a group of people when he left, and he was now here alone. He presumed that the others had run off at the sign of the Federals. Either way it wasn’t his problem. ”We’re headin’ back towards the post. Where’s yer people?” Carl asked, his stern expression still visible on his and not moving.
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Post by Marcus O'Terra on May 5, 2012 17:47:33 GMT -5
Marcus sighed. "I don't know. The old man is too shell shocked to do anything, and he's got a clean record as far as I know. The girls, however, got nabbed by some bounty hunter bitch playing runaway farm girl." He nearly punched the truck but instead just brought his first to rest against it.
"So stupid... don't know what the hell she used but everything went blue and I just woke up damn less than an hour ago." He sighed and looked back at the mess at that hotel.
"It's just great... really. Great." He felt like he was going to hurl. "I'm taking the Colonel's offer. It's clear that sticking still is just gonna get me pinched sooner or later."
This was the truth of it. He couldn't lay roots down, not on any world. Sooner or later he'd piss someone off and they'd slip a wave, and then he'd come walking outside to a line of riflemen.
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Post by Ilana Logan on May 5, 2012 17:48:13 GMT -5
If Ilana hadn’t been so tense, she could have almost jumped for joy at the sound of Carl saying they were heading back. She heard the man who had just walked up tell Carl about what had happened to him, and where he presumed the girls to have gone. There were a few things in the man’s story that just didn't add up. For that matter there were things in this whole situation that didn't add up. For one thing, if the girls that were with him were taken by a bounty hunter, as the man said, why wasn’t he taken too? She’d never seen him before, didn't even know his name, but she could tell by his attitude that he had at least one warrant, possibly more. He was clearly avoiding the Feds, he was WAY too casual about this whole thing. That was just a gut feeling, but she’d learned to trust her gut after just a few years in this business. If something felt off, it probably felt that way for a reason.
Another thing that didn’t make sense was the way Carl had acted when he tore into the warehouse like the hounds of hell were on his ass, but now he was fine with leaving. She thought there was a robbery going on, maybe worse. This was bad, yes, but there was nothing at all that any of them could do here in this situation. Ilana wanted to know why it was so important they get here, if they were just going to be told they were leaving, only minutes after arrival, by the same man who brought them here. Something wasn’t right about this. Not right at all, she just couldn’t quite figure out what. She had a sinking feeling in her gut. She backed up against the truck, so she could see everything around her, and put her hand on her hip, near her gun, but not quite on it. Everything looked the same as it had when they arrived, nonetheless, she scanned the area waiting for it to go from bad to worse.
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Post by Marcus O'Terra on May 5, 2012 17:48:37 GMT -5
Hawkeye
They were heading back that was music to Hawkeye's ears, he was more than ready to leave, he'd was already on edge from being around the feds, he really needed to get out of town to where he'd feel safer. The more distance between Hawkeye and the Feds the better. Hawkeye couldn't risk being identified, and he couldn't risk someone triggering his prejudices, which could easily start a fight, after fighting a war against the people who'd changed his life Hawkeye'd never felt the same about them again. Two things were still nagging Hawkeye, why had Carl needed them in such a hurry for what turned out to be a complete waste of time, and would Hawkeye's ass be covered because he'd now be late to his next pickup?
Hawkeye listened carefully to the man's tale of drugging and avoiding capture. It was odd, why wouldn't the feds have captured him if he was passed out drugged, Hawkeye didn't think that would make a difference in whether he had been arrested or not. And it seemed to Hawkeye that the whole hotel had been evacuated and checked, because Hawkeye hardly doubted that the Feds had organized a sting operation to catch 40 specific people, that would have been almost impossible to accurately plan, which made Hawkeye think that maybe the group of people this guy had been part of were the main targets, and the rest were just casualties. Which kept the question of how this man had avoided capture, and gotten out of the Hotel safely without the police noticing? Inconstancy like those made Hawkeye wary of the man, it seemed to Hawkeye that most likely this guy turned his partners in exchange for immunity and some cash. "were not taking him with us, are we? Hawkeye sure as hell hoped the answer was no because, he didn't want to be near no man who'd betray his partners.
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Post by Bishop Morse on May 5, 2012 17:49:50 GMT -5
Carl
Carl thought about the concept of the man’s being there. He didn’t like the sound of the fact that of the four of them he was conveniently the only one still there. However he had mentioned a bounty hunter, and it wasn’t like the Alliance to employ them to grab a person or persons with a warrant just before a sting operation like this. He was somewhat relieved by the idea that this was a large scale Alliance bust, and not something that had called for the public display of violence that he’d originally anticipated. He wished someone could have mentioned sooner that it was an Alliance sting and that there was nothing that could be done about. But when the words ’Trouble at the Blue Ray Hotel, Big Big Big Trouble’ Came through the cortex, he wasn’t going to question it. He’d have to figure out a way to make sure mishaps like this didn’t happen in the future. He looked back at the man talking about the fate of his people. He wouldn’t be surprised if the man was hit by some woman pretending to be helpless, it was one of the easiest tricks for the ones that looked the part to play. But if the man was lying he’d get the full shot right in his mouth. However if this man had sold them out, the Alliance would probably be moving towards him at that moment, or he’d be in their custody. You could never trust the feds. But given the apparently large scale of this operation, it was unlikely they were targeting their operation.
Carl sat his shotgun next to him in the truck. The offer of employment would probably still be there, however when last Carl looked, this man was supposed to be leading three others. His value alone wasn’t much so far as Carl could tell. It also defeated the purpose of what he knew the job he was being called on for. ”Get up.” He said tilting his head back to signal him to move to the seat behind him. ”We gotta head out.” He said, his face seemed to be in a shade of disappointment and annoyance. It still had the over all seriousness that didn’t seem to shake off ever, however his eyes being opened a bit wider was the main showing.
Carl thought again as he got the vehicle ready to move off back to the road. ”What purpose you figure yer good fer pullin’ with just yerself?” He asked moving his shotgun down deeper between his seat and the seat beside him. He could still grab it extremely easily, however he wanted it out of the way since he didn’t think he’d be needing it. ”Not much good yuh are when it’s just you.” He still didn’t remember the mans name, he’d have to say it, because he wasn’t going to ask. He got the vehicle ready and the moment the man was on top he would pull back onto the metal road and head back to the outpost.
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Post by Marcus O'Terra on May 5, 2012 17:50:07 GMT -5
Marcus ignored the comment of the other man in the car and nodded as Carl told him to get in the truck. He stopped at his question and looked Carl square in the eye.
"Some piece of back stabbing hooker trash just stole two of mine underneath me. Luckily the man whose left wasn't really into this line of work anyway so him breaking off here doesn't hurt him none. For the record: I was going to kill Burts with or without them. They were serendipitous in their parts, and I shall return that favor."
Marcus took a step toward Carl. "Cause I'm willing to put down money that your boss has contacts and the like to figure out where my friends have gone, and one way or another I intend to work and earn that intel. If not for their rescue, then for their revenge." He kept his eyes square on Carl's.
"Even if I ain't got a lot, I've got something. I'll find a job I can do, and I'll do it." He'd get in the truck if Carl had nothing else to say.
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Post by Ilana Logan on May 5, 2012 17:50:26 GMT -5
Carl got in the truck and nodded to the man he had just spoken with to take the seat behind him. Ilana pulled her rifle back around in front of her and climbed into the seat beside Carl. The man nodded and started toward the truck when Carl spoke again. He stopped in his tracks and looked right at Carl. She listened intently to the back and forth between Carl and the other man. The other man didn't seem very happy about Carl's unspoken insinuation. She put her hand on her gun. She didn't know this guy, but he was definitely hot under the collar at Carl's question. Hawkeye's comment appeared to go unnoticed, but she knew he had to have heard it. He didn't even attempt discretion when he said it. She gave Hawkeye points for that. He didn't seem to care too much for the man, but at least he didn't try to pretend he did, that wasn't much better than lying. Of course, her thoughts on that could be why she'd been in so many fights in her young life.
The man stared up at Carl, clearly waiting for Carl to say something else. This did not appear to be going well at all. The man got points from her too. He wasn't backing down. She respected that even as she wondered whether or not he was telling the truth. There's a good chance either way, and she didn't know him well enough to make the judgement. His story sounded off, but he was full of conviction and anger as he stared Carl down. She leaned back in her seat, hand casually resting on her rifle, and waited to see how this would play out.
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Post by Bishop Morse on May 5, 2012 17:50:49 GMT -5
Carl
Carl put his foot down on the accelerator and the vehicle began to move forward. He turned the vehicle around back the way they had come and headed towards the road. He had to move around some people who had come to see what was going on. But Carl was still listening. He was good at that, actually listening to what people were saying, and not blocking it out with his own view. It was part of what made him useful as a person, and better then the average idiot that was employed for this sort of work. He didn’t think of himself too highly, and didn’t ever flaunt it. What he did was emphasize that he had a job that he had to do, and that job would be done no matter what. The idea of the man doing work for them so that he could get to what he was doing was probably a pointless effort, and Carl felt so inclined as to mention that. ”Aint gonna do yuh no real good.” Carl said about finding the people that were picked up. ”Big grab like this one, thems probably already handed em off to the Feds. If they’re lucky at’s all who wanted em.” That was all Carl really had to say. Once someone got caught by the Feds, they didn’t let them go until they wanted too. And so rescue was almost completely out of the question, if an Army of Independents couldn’t beat them, for the single man, it was hopeless. But Carl was used to this, they had people get arrested every now and then, like right there, so he knew what the score was with it.
However, Carl had to figure out a certain amount of what was to happen. He didn’t make the deals most of the time, he just made sure that they went as planned. And here was a problem of a deal being made and literally a quarter of the proposed prospect offered being brought in. Carl knew what the point was here for most things, and value was always in peoples heads. Not always just money, but sometimes what someone could do. Regardless of this mans stature alone, he’d somehow managed to get around to taking Burts down, and evaded capture from the Feds, and Carl knew about the warrants against him. Carl looked at the others in the vehicle a moment in the rear view, and beside him. He saw the weapons, and he knew that they had some fight in them. He put his finger up to the communicator at his ear and activated it. ”Damn waste a time.” Carl muttered to himself, though rather loudly so no one in the vehicle would probably have missed hearing it, as he waited for the call to go through.
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Post by Marcus O'Terra on May 5, 2012 17:51:22 GMT -5
Hawkeye
Hawkeye grimaced as he climbed into the truck. They were taking the man with them, why, Hawkeye couldn't see any benefit to taking this man with them, Carl couldn't call the man by, so obviously he barely knew the man so there was little chance that Carl owed him anything, so if there was no debt and no personal connection, why had Carl agreed to take the man with him? Hawkeye couldn't see any benefit in helping this man, and his story still seemed fishy. Hawkeye took his seat at the back of the truck, and carefully arranged his coat so that his pistols were prominently displayed Hawkeye didn't want any funny business from this stranger.
As the truck started to roll foreword Hawkeye breathed a sigh of relief, they were out of here, Hawkeye fetched his pin out of his pocket and clipped it to the shirt of his white button down, he was safe. Hawkeye listened to what Carl was saying, he was completely correct those damm Feds had nabbed the man's comrades, and that was that, if he was lucky he'd see them again, but that was a long shot, Hawkeye knew from experience.
Hawkeye sat back in his seat and let the scenery drift past, what a waste of his time, and to top it all off the signs of those Feds had really got his blood pumping, and that was odd since the war all he'd wanted was to lay low, why all this sudden need to fight the Feds again?
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Post by Ilana Logan on May 5, 2012 17:51:45 GMT -5
Ilana buckled her safety harness and relaxed a little in her seat as the truck started to move. She was hoping the ride back to post would be like the ride to the hotel. The way she figured it, the thrilling terror of riding shotgun with Carl might work out some of her anger. Her biggest concern right now was someone noticing they left with an extra person and getting stopped. The man was sitting in back with Hawkeye, which Hawkeye clearly wasn't happy with. Again, at least he didn't try to hide it. He made it very clear that he wasn't happy with this man tagging along. Ilana didn't really care one way or another so long as it didn't get her in trouble. She knew nothing about him, and wasn't particularly fond of going down with him. If forced to though, she would defend him against the Alliance, because defying them brought her a morbid sort of pleasure. She would wait for Carl's direction on that though. She wasn't sure how Carl would go on that. He didn't seem like the kind of person to leave someone behind, but he didn't seem like he knew the man very well either. Maybe he was just bad with names.
The ride back wasn't quite as rough, at least so far, because Carl wasn't in such a hurry, but it wasn't exactly smooth either. Regardless whether he was in a hurry or not, Carl seemed to be an aggressive driver. As far as the man in back with Hawkeye went, Ilana was getting a little tired of thinking of him as 'the man.' She turned in her seat a little, looked at him, and said, "If you don't mind my askin', what's your name?" She never claimed to be shy, she just didn't talk often. Now, she just waited to see how he would react.
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Post by Marcus O'Terra on May 5, 2012 17:52:10 GMT -5
Marcus could almost feel the man next to him flinch from him. He was right to be suspicious. Marcus wasn't reacting like a 'normal' person would after having his whole squad, his whole team, taken from him. However this wasn't the first time they'd been swept away from him.
He felt sick that he was almost becoming used to it. Maybe he should find a small ship and just work alone? Could be safer, or at least hurt less in the long run.
He almost didn't notice the young lady asking him for his name.
"Marcus." He said plainly. "And you?" He asked the girl. She seemed a bit more cordial than the man sitting next to Marcus. He needed to pull the stick out of his arse. If he was tense like that if they got pulled over, he was likely to get pulled out and all of them would be killed.
"Exhale, buddy." He said to the man. "Or did you use the can before you came here?"
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Post by Ilana Logan on May 5, 2012 17:52:39 GMT -5
The man appeared to be ignoring her for a moment and she almost turned to face the front when he spoke. “Marcus,” he said. “And you?”
“I’m Ilana,” she replied.
A strange look came over Marcus’s face and she was trying to decipher the look when he glanced at Hawkeye and said, “Exhale, buddy. Or did you use the can before you came here?”
Ilana fought with herself not to laugh. She succeeded at that, but was laughing wildly on the inside. Because of this she could not stop herself from grinning like an idiot, so she quickly turned back to face the front. She didn’t know if Hawkeye saw it, and for some strange reason she kinda hoped he didn’t, but she was pretty sure Marcus did. She didn’t want to make Hawkeye mad by laughing, and she sure hoped he could take a joke, but that was funny. In his current mood though, she doubted he would see the humor in what Marcus had just said. She sat next to Carl waiting for Hawkeye to spontaneously combust in the backseat. . . or shoot Marcus. He definitely didn’t like the man, and honestly she thought it could go either way.
"Oh boy," she said, tucking her chin to her chest to hide a snicker.
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Post by Marcus O'Terra on May 5, 2012 17:53:06 GMT -5
The man didn't respond to his statement, but he clearly got a reaction out of the lady. Carl was focused on driving and at the speed they were going, Marcus wasn't keen on drawing from that.
"Nice to know some of Longstreet's people have a sense of humor, Ilana."
He wasn't sure what to say, or what to do at this point. Carl was driving, still.
"That bitch Siri. I ever see her again I will kill her three times...." He grumbled more than growled. If I ever see Rina again I will have no end of 'I-told-you-so's'.
He watched the woman and noticed her hands seemed a bit greasy, oily even. "You work on machines, Ilana?"
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Post by Ilana Logan on May 5, 2012 17:53:22 GMT -5
"Nice to know some of Longstreet's people have a sense of humor, Ilana," Marcus said.
She took that to mean he had heard her, which meant Hawkeye had too. She waited an instant before responding, sure her face would start burning with embarassment any minute. When it didn't, she was quite pleased with herself.
"You kinda have to anymore, in this line of work. You don't laugh at things, you're bound to go mad sooner or later," she said.
He was quite for a minute, then she heard him grumbling to himself. All she caught of it was ". . .bitch Siri. . . " Everything else washed away in the wind.
The back of her neck was crawling. It felt like someone was watching her, though only about half the time was someone actually watching when those feelings show up. More often than not, its just a reaction to involuntary laughter and the like.
"You work on machines, Ilana?" Marcus asked.
"I do," she said, not sure what else to say about it. She had a tendency to open her mouth and insert both feet, rarely just one, and for once, blessedly, words evaded her. She'd answer questions if he had any more, assuming they weren't ridiculous, but she just couldn't think what else to add to that at the moment.
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