5201/Exit Velocity

Exit Velocity
Date of Scene:	15 February 2021
Location:	RMV Gambler's Lore
Synopsis:	The Bunnies depart Sol.
Cast of Characters:	Blackjack O'Hare, Carrie Kelley

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Blackjack O'Hare has posed:
    The lore had spent most of the last twenty four hours drawing itself delicately from Earth's orbit, before executing a slingshot past the sun and heading rimward. She hadn't even fired up her drives until she passed Mars and only actually thrusted when she slipped behind it's shadow. Not that such stealth was likely called for in Sol, but nobody ever accused Blackjack of being lazy when it came to opsec never the less. Klaxons sound throughout the ship, lights begin to dim to a dull red glow.

    <<FTL spooling, jumping in one minute. Either get to the bridge or brace wherever you are, this will be a bit of a hop to give us some breathing room. You're about to be the furthest one from home Miss Kelley.>>Blackjack swirled his tea quietly as he lifted a finger off the intercom butttom, immediately aware it was the first time he'd ever used it even after all this time. Hmming as navigational data flooded directly into his brainbox. Reaching up finally to throw the levers to shunt power from the weapons and scrubbers over to the FTL drive.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
Carrie Kelley has unpacked her belongings -- a couple of sets of clothes and underwear, two Bat costumes that she kept in her closet at the Roost, two utility belts fully stocked, and a couple of pairs of boots, and a nice pair of running shoes -- and so when the call comes to head to the bridge, she does so. She's not dressed 'in uniform' as it were, instead she's in hoodie and jeans. She's in space, no need to like dress up, or worry about being sucked into the frozen void.

She slides into a seat easily, and then buckles in, "How far are we going?" she asks, as she fiddles with the straps to make them work for her how she wants -- mostly to fit her body comfortably.

Blackjack O'Hare has posed:
    "Little short of eighty light years, little nowhere I found on the way in. Should be a good place to relax, and it's a clear shot to a little trading outpost I know. Figure we'll spend a little time getting you squared up and comfortable, swing by and snag any gear I can't make onboard. Then we'll see about cracking a colony, and getting you to work."Blackjack reaches up to flip a few more switches, before idling the main drives.

    The whole vessel begins to thrum, as it's hull begins to torque up under the immense gravitational load. Then comes an audible -CHACK- and the screens fuzz a touch, before dissolving into a briliant tunnel of seemingly every color imaginable. The G-load isn't terrific but a solid four G's is enough to potentially injure somebody just floating about in one of the low gravity areas,and after ten seconds it's over. The screen erupts with brilliant reds and browns of an alien solar system. Unfamiliar moons and brilliant pale blue viridescent rings shimmer, as Blackjack reaches back up to switch from the FTL back to the main drives. Main sensors sweeping just once, before the ship rolls over onto her back and dives rapidly into a steady entry vector for orbit before cutting those drives oncemore.

    "Power signature, reading elevated levels of cobalt and meta material fragments. Looks like we missed a fight here, we'll have them up on scanner in a minute here."Interior lights flipping from dull red to nothing at all, as the interior bulkheads begin sealing. "Lets see what's going on, I'm not reading any comms signals or anything in the R-band so I think whatever happened here is already over. Lets just make sure we're ready if somebody tries to jump us..."

Carrie Kelley has posed:
The woman for her part is blown away by the jump. It's her first after all. Her eyes go wide, she gets pushed back into her seat, and well, that's amazing, "Woooooaaaaaaahhhhhoooooowwwww," she says through the entirety of the jump. Once the ship is back in normal space she blinks a few times and asks, "We just went eighty light YEARS in ten seconds? Oh man...that's amazing."

She then looks over at the many screens, and sits back in her seat a bit. She worked with Batman enough over the years to know she shouldn't go pointing and asking questions about screens and gadgets in the middle of their use, lest she distract the user.

Blackjack O'Hare has posed:
    "Cooling drives, we're in the black again."He offers casually, swinging the Lore into an insertion trajectory around a ringed mass of brilliant blues and purples. Watching silently for long moments, the sensor screens begin to resolve with gradually greater clarity. The ship had once been painted brilliant yellow, but now large sections of the hull were peeled away from numerous black welts along her hull. Debris scattered into her shadow stretching towards the planet. She was tumbling according to the sensor feed, spinning slowly end over end without any discernable hotspots inside the hull save for a few whisps along where her drives had been.

    "Yeah she's dead, not getting any distress beacons. So whatever happened here we missed it, zero life signs, no coms chatter."He humms softly for a moment, peering amongst the screens. "Dao Armed freighter, registered as the Ingracious. Few warrants, no letter of marque. So pirates, basically."He nudges a screen out of the way, before pulling down another with higher res views of the freighter's hull. "Yeah we'll stay and play it cool, When we leave a system we leave a signature of our trajectory. You can use some intuition and figure out a destination sometimes, but if their friends show up I don't want them finding out exit trajectory. So we're going to find someplace quiet and hunker down for awhile, yeah? Ever been on a moon before?"

Carrie Kelley has posed:
"Uh...should...we go look and see if there's anything useful there? Like, do we loot ships or whatever?" Carrie asks, perhaps a little weirded out at the thought of being a scavenger in real life, but she's played enough video games where apparently that is an option in her mind. "I dunno what I'm doing out there though so...like don't expect me to cut something huge out of the ship."

At the mention of a moon she perks up a bit, before she asks, "Won't I need to get into a big bulky space suit? I'd rather stay here where it's warm, and relatively comfy."

Blackjack O'Hare has posed:
    "Well we're a very small Frigate, so we're designed to scout around. More specifically the Lore is set up to do this stealthily, comparatively we're lightly armed, lightly armored, a little awkward agility wise and a little slow. We have about the best sensors you're liable to find, and we're maybe the stealthiest thing larger than a fighter out there. We park next to that thing, everyone sees us and we'll be in the debris cloud so our ability to see out will be compromised."Blackjack summarizes casually, reclining in his captain's chair.

    "Sure there's a few hundred thousand credits worth of salvage, but we don't have the sort've tools to even cut through the hull like that nevermind no place to store them. We're set up to slip into places on the down low, observe without being seen and to travel great distances."Rubbing absently at an ear "Well if we get out of the ship sure, but I'm going to park us someplace and give things time. I don't want their buddies popping into the system and thinking we're the ones who spaced them, I mean sure maybe I talk our way out of it but why not just not be detected in the first place right? Besides, we still need to raid the armory and get you the basics and give you a comprehensive tour of what is now -our- ship. Right?"

Carrie Kelley has posed:
"Oh." Carrie says at the explanation, before she nods, "Sure, we can go land on a moon. I've seen plenty of Earth's but...never another one." She looks over at the scanner watching the tumbling ship, and then goes back to leaning back in her chair. "You said you were a commander, and I've joined a group...the Black Bunny Brigade. Are there more of us? Is there like a fleet out there somewhere we join up with occasionally?" she asks, tilting her head a little.

Blackjack O'Hare has posed:
    "The Black Bunny Brigade, They're stood down for now right now though."Fiddling absently with the controls. "We made enough money to buy our own independent solar system some years back, and then we built a colony there. See we're all clones, designed to be ideal prison guards at this vast planetary psych ward called Half-world. We asked questions we weren't supposed to, so they tried to wipe us out. We escaped to become Mercenaries, because it was the only marketable skill twelve thousand broke rabbits had."

    And slowly the drives begin thrumming to life as he adjusts course ever so slightly. "Well we got all this work done by all these different genetic guys, reverse engineering a viable gene pool. Only like that means a big vulnerable, expensive cloning facility and all that. Take us about fifty years to get a whole generation of us going that are happy and healthy, and we needed someplace very safe for that. So we took on any contract with a big price tag, some I'm not very proud of. In anycase there is a system defense fleet, and a militia and everything. We go to great lengths to keep our heads down though, don't want to be noticed. All the same they needed somebody out in the big Galaxy to keep an eye on things, and theres the matter of this escaped halfworlder we haven't been able to get ahold of called Rocket? Plenty of art teachers and librarians back in the Warren, but not too many who can handle themselves solo out here."

Carrie Kelley has posed:
"That raccoon guy you asked me about? He's from your jail planet?" Carrie asks. She's following, mostly. It's a bit of a mind bender the story that Blackjack is telling her. "So, you're looking for him to bring him back to that...Half-world?"

"I mean, I dunno, I think he was pretty funny...and from the comments he and his friends posted, there are a lot more of them then there are us. Might not be the best idea to track him down right this instant," she advises.

Blackjack O'Hare has posed:
    "He was staff, and my friend. He vanished before our big defection, and I thought for years they'd just killed him outright. Only I find out he's still around, and doesn't seem to remember me."Theres a shrug there. "I just want to make sure he's ok, and he knows we didn't intentionally just abandon him. If he needs a hand, I'll lend it but I'm certainly never going to try and force him to back. So much mind control nonsense going on down there, It took us years to finally shake all the cobwebs free and realize exactly how controlled we'd been despite us bailing."

    "I don't even remember any of the inmates, just strange little bits and pieces of it all. If I hadn't been around several thousand others, I don't know if I'd have remembered -anything-. Suspect it's for the best anyway, pretty sure I'm better off not knowing."He offers a shrug, before sipping after his tea and finally retaking the control yoke.

    The Lore rolls aft silently, slicing her way into the thin atmosphere of a grey rocky moon. It sweeps low, circling a mountain top finally before making it's landing in the mountain's shadow amongst a low valley. "Bunnies don't leave their comrades behind, we don't lie and we don't die cheaply. We may not be all powerful, but we're a tenacious lot. You understand me, Miss Kelley?"

Carrie Kelley has posed:
"Sounds like a group I'm very familiar with. We didn't leave anyone behind either. And punched well above our weight. If you'd like to put me through my paces when we get to wherever we're going, I will happily prove I'll be an asset and not a liability in a fight," Carrie replies to the Hare, before she hmmms, "I think I'm gonna go back to my bunk for a bit, I have a bit more organizing of my stuff to do," and then she stands up, and walks towards the back of the ship.