Julie guides the Revolution away from the mansion, and starts flying back and forth along traffic lines. After a couple passes, she turns to Marcus. "You wanna try flying? Now's as good a time as any, 'cause I'm here and I can take over if things go wrong or if you wanna stop."

(Is David hanging around the bridge?)

David is hanging out around the comms system/radio. which I guess is on the bridge. he's scanning all comms for chatter possibly useful to the team.

also, David is back in his nervous habit: fiddling with his PDA, linking it to the comms, then removing it again. it should be pretty annoying for anyone who observes it.

Julie glances over her shoulder at David, watching him fidget. She smiles, then breaks the ice. "So, how'd the NFA make your enemy list? If you don't mind me asking," she adds, trying not to make David any more uncomfortable than he already appears.

David Glances at Julie, and blushes, regretting it instantly. Julie can make him lose his demeanour, and he doesn't want to. yet he feels incredibly compelled to let her in on all his secrets.

"In order to explain that I would need to tell you a story,"David starts.
"If a child does something not allowed, a proper parent will chastise the child. whether through a good spanking, or by sending him or her to his or her room without dinner.
this is normal behaviour. if the parent steals from a shop, or commits a crime that is severe enough, the police will come and fine the parent, or send that parent to prison.
this allows our society to function normally."

pocketing his PDA David continues "Children that have no parents or custodians are quicker to become criminals, have more trouble to find jobs in later life, or to make friends. parenting allows children to become proper members of society and removing that, they fail, more often than not."

David sees Marcus frown at this

"I assure you young Marcus, there are always exceptions, especially for those lucky to find someone to play the role of parent. but to continue my analogy, if all the people live in a place where there is no police, then injustice more often than not will run rife. this is why people often group together and create something of a police force themselves, whether it is the Mafia or the police that provides this service makes no matter."

David listens to the radio for a second thinking he might have picked something up, before continuing.
"I remember a story of Earth, Earth had many different governments: some strong, some not. and these governments allowed each other embassies. anyone in an embassy was not subject to the laws of the country they were in, not the same anyway. in many of these embassies, they found practices of slavery. simply because there was no police force, or parent equivalent, people had allowed a place for injustice to exist.

now imagine earth, earth had many governments, and while some where stronger than others, no government was powerful enough to impose their will on every other one. this meant that a government could not suddenly decide that they wanted to kill all people with green eyes on the fly. if they did so, they stood at risk of being confronted for their deeds by all the other ones. so in effect they were policing each other."

"Since we have come to this other, and rather larger solar system, the NFA has been the major source of power. and they have had no other government near to balance them out, to police them, as it were. to counter the excesses that have arisen. Slavery, Corruption, over-Policing of the citizens, impressment, discrimination, these terms are only the tip of the iceberg of the crimes and atrocities committed by the Nova Federal Alliance because no-one exists to stop or moderate them."

David smiles at some forgotten memory
"This is what we Millers have tried to orchestrate for seven generations now, and finally we're beginning to see the fruits of our labour. what I say is construed as treason by the NFA, should they hear me say it. we seek to have not one, but several counterparts to the NFA. some with more power, some with less. but all to counterbalance each other government. it is true that for this reason we have allowed smaller evils, and the line gets blurry at times. I resent the missions I have at times, but the current one I love because it is clear cut, our target a deserving victim. In time, Ceres, along with several other planets, will be able to form an alliance of their own."

Looking at Julie at Marcus, David finishes:"things have moved faster these last few years, with great luck we might be able to see it happen before we die!"

Julie listens to David's story. When he's finished, she looks suitably impressed. "Wow, seven generations? You're really serious about this! I can't say I really have any, you know, grand ambitions of upsetting the NFA, but you can be sure I'm not gonna rat you out to them anytime soon. I've got my own reasons for not liking the NFA, so hey, I appreciate the chance to get back at them." She pauses for a moment, then laughs, and over-dramatically adds, "besides, if you pull this off, my name can go down in history as helping to overthrow the oppressive Alliance!"

David grins and blushes like an idiot at that comment.

Though he didn't fully understand the analogy, Marcus listened well, curious over all that David had in his mind. He scowled only briefly when he spoke about the likes of him becoming mostly criminals, but quickly eased up. The more he talked about all the bad things the NFA had done, so did the boy think back a bit to about a year before. At this point, he figure everyone saw him mostly as just some boy from the streets, stealing to survive day by day. He was almost tempted to tell just where he had spent his last few years.

He even forgot about the chance he was given at flying. Though he was excited about trying it out, he was too nervous to do so. After all, if he failed then B-Gev definitely wouldn't like the result. Thus he just remained gazing before himself, deep within his thoughts and memories.

Julie, not one to let silence stay unfilled, turns back to Marcus. "So, how 'bout it? You don't have to try if you don't want to, but if you wanna learn, you gotta start sometime."

The boy flinched, glancing at Julie, the controls, and at her again. He heaved a sigh, slumping back into the seat.

"Alright...let's give it a shot..." he muttered, hoping to everything that his first experience with piloting wouldn't be the last.

"Hey, don't worry! I've got my controls here, and I can take over as soon as I need to. You just let me know when you wanna stop."

(Give me 1d20 when Marcus takes the controls.)

The boy took another deep breath before taking the controls. He grew quite nervous only after a minute, seeming to be much more like experimenting so far, than truly steering the ship.

( Result: 2 He's a natural. :lol: )

(Ha, quite!)

The controls feel fine at first, but they prove to be touchier than Marcus expected, and the ship lurches to the left. In a flash, Julie's on the controls. "Whoops!" she says, as she straightens the ship out. Noticing Marcus' nervousness, she leans over and pats him on the shoulder. "Hey, no worries! Nobody's an ace on their first try! These Stanwick engines have some serious kick, so you just gotta have a lighter touch. And I've got your back, see? Give it another shot!"

(another 1d20 if Marcus tries again)

Marcus swallowed a bit, his face posing in bright red from the mishap. He was tempted to stop, but knew it'd certainly benefit him if he could learn it eventually. Calming down a bit, he reached for the controls again.

"Alright...maybe this time..." he muttered.

( Result: 5 Wooo! He's getting better! :lol: )

"You alright there?" Julie asks David before Marcus takes the controls again, ensuring that David is strapped in.

Not being completely unfamiliar with the controls this time, Marcus is able to keep the ship going in the same direction, although not without some weaving around. Julie lets Marcus go for a while, and then takes over again. "Okay, we're coming up on some traffic, so I'd better take over for a moment. That was a lot better than last time! You're doing great!" she says, smiling.

After navigating the traffic and turning around, she says rather than asks, "Okay, now this time if you start heading off to one side, correct your course slooowwwwly. Unless someone's chasing you, slower's always smoother." She's clearly enjoying this.

(You know the drill)

"Thanks."

He was smiling again now, red from the compliment. He found it quite exciting to pilot a ship, despite his slight mishaps. He nodded to her instructions, and reached for the controls again, determined to do as good as possible.

( Result: 14 )

Marcus does pretty well this time. The Revolution carries on more-or-less smoothly, following the flow of traffic.

"There! Now you're getting it! Okay, we need to turn around soon, so duck out of traffic, and bring her around. If you're up for it, we can head over to an open spot and try a few basic maneuvers. Or we can just keep on like this. Up to you!"

David asks of Julie "Perhaps you could pass the mansion along the other side this time, we wouldn't want them to recognise the same vehicle passing by several times"

"You think they can mark us from this high? Probably a good idea, anyway... can't be too careful! Hey... uh..." she says to Marcus, "we need to come up with something for me to call you. Runt's just no good... and I'm not old enough to be calling anyone "Sonny!", she adds with a laugh. "Anyway, yeah, like he said, we should head around the other side of the mansion this pass. If you want, there's clear areas on the far side too."

She looks around outside. "Man, I'm glad to be off the ground again! I live to fly, and lemme tell ya, being stuck with no ship is the worst thing for me. You might as well cut off my legs."

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqW6yvH1ua0 ) 0:)

(I swear I had shivers, when listening to this, you devil.)

The more he got into the steering, the more Marcus found himself smiling. After so long, he finally found something that was both a chance to learn and pretty exciting on its own too. He glanced back at Julie for a moment, before he decided he could very well share his name.

"Marcus. My name's Marcus...Tanyc." he said finally.

He still felt nervous about his adopted name, but decided to honor his late friend by using his gift. He gazed off again, his expression clearly showing he was more than ready to try out a few more maneuvers.

(Julie is a leaf on the wind...)

"Marcus, hey? Well, nice to officially meet you, Marcus! Alright, you've got the basic flying part down, but to finish up your essential skills, you gotta learn to land. Taking off's easy after that. See that switch there? It'll put the ship in VTOL* mode. Bring us a few shiplengths from the ground, slow right down, then flip that switch. Then you just gotta slowly ease off the thrust and set us down gently. Try putting us down in that open spot over there."

( *Vertical Take-Off & Landing. 1d20 to try. )

"I'll try..." he sighed, finding the maneuvre a bit hard, but not impossible.

He reached for the controls once again, already nervous about whether he'd be able to perform a landing. Even though he seemed to learn fast, he didn't yet hold much hope in his abilities.

( Result: 20 ....really! :lol: )

Julie applauds as the ship softly touches down. "Ha! Awesome! You sure you weren't just messing with me earlier? If this is really your first time, you're gonna make a pretty awesome pilot! You see that, David? Right on!" She reaches to high-five Marcus. "Okay, now taking off is way easier than that. Kick in the thrusters, then when we get off the ground, switch out of VTOL mode." She's ecstatic, loving the chance to share the 'gift of flight', as she sees it.

(Taking off is easier than landing, so no roll needed here.)

She turns to David. "Howbout you? You interested in flying at all?"

"I'm a decent pilot, I own several ships of various classes, comes with being rich I suppose. I have hired the captains' services because the ship I came with is out of reach, permanently: known to the Senators men. I must say, so far this ship and it's crew have managed to impress me."

looking at Marcus, David adds
"I have never landed a ship so smoothly as you did, however. I don't like looking at the ground from up high, but in space things are different."

the radio crackles and everyone hears Denden say "Mission accomplished".

"Not quite" he Radios back. "the mission is a success only if you get out unnoticed."
"Julie, if you would proceed to the extraction zone?"

"Whoops, looks like we gotta cut this short, Marcus. We'll pick up later." She fires up the ship and speeds back to the extraction point.

"Sure, alright." he quickly muttered, leaning back from the controls altogether.

He didn't mind the shortage though. Just experiencing flying was more than enough for the boy.

(Head over to "Epilogue")