[ I'm going to be using these first two threads as a sort of 'testing' grounds. We can get a feel for this, and also get all the pre-game stuff out of the way while in character.

Voyager, Denden, Zay-el, and Lightweight, this is your thread. Ziolek, Reaper and sjaak, you're in Dropship 72. ]

The four of you are riding along in a slow-moving drop ship. It's a pretty nice ship; everything's in order, not a speck of dust anywhere, and it's quite roomy. Oddly, it's only got four passenger seats - most Class C drop ships have eight.

The pilot looks like a drill sergeant straight out of a '90s army movie, with his short hair, thick neck, and gruff demeanor. After about an hour of flying, he puts the ship on auto-pilot and swivels around in his chair.

"Well, nobody in their right mind would actually WANT to go to the Crystal Wastelands, so there has GOT to be some damn good reason for you punks to be heading there," he says loudly.

He sits silent for several seconds, looking you over before adding "and from the looks of ya, you wouldn't last ten seconds there. Well, no changing that now. How did you all get roped into this anyway? You all part of a big gang, or what?"

(I'll give it a shot, just let me know if this is how it's supposed to be)

Denden looks at the pilot and then looks at the others with a face that gives away how reluctant he is to reply first. He looks back at the pilot, and finally answers him.

"My reasons for being here are mine and mine alone. I don't know these people, all I want is to finish the mission, get paid and then I'm gone."

He looks at the others again, waiting for what they have to say.

[ yup, that's perfect ]

"Hmh, fair enough. That's the same reason I'm here," the pilot grunts, and then continues to sit silently, facing you four.

(Is this good?)

Matthew was deep in his toughts when the pilots voice made him snap out of it. He looks around, then speaks up.
"Guess I'm next...I joined for of two things: The money and the chance to leave Earth behind."

Matthew looks at the others,waiting for them to speak up.

[ I edited your post to put " " around what your character was saying, just for consistency. ]

The pilot nods, and then a couple moments later, asks "What have you got against Earth?"

(Okay,thanks)

Matthew looks back at the pilot,sighs,then answers him.
"I've experienced many things there...and not all of them were good. "

"You know someone who's only had good experiences?" the pilot says with a smirk, and then he looks out the window, and quietly says "yeah, sometimes you need to leave it behind..."

"There are things that can never be left behind, scars you carry with you for the rest of your life."

Denden continues to stare at the floor, regretting that he spoke again.

"Then I will carry them until my time comes....but not on Earth.....not anymore."
Matthew touches his amulet and whispers
"Not anymore..."

For just a moment, Denden looks up and sees Matthew touching the amulet he's carrying. But immediately he looks down to the floor again.

A light on the control panel starts flashing. The pilot, who seems to have lost himself looking out the window, snaps out of it and looks over.

"Ah hell. I've gotta go take an important call. We're in clear space for the next while, so there shouldn't be an issue. I'd rather you didn't, but if you absolutely have to get my attention, just come pound on the door." He walks into another room, grumbling something like "can't just leave me alone, can they..." and closes the door behind him.

Ninkobra follows the captain with his eyes until he is out of sight. He then looka around at the other three people around him. They haven't attempted to make contact with him, and he felt no need to make contact with them, either. All he wanted to do was to get away...

Get away... and start life anew...

Matthew realizes that he still haven't let go of the amulet,and slowly puts his hands down.

*spaceship "bravo king" sending distress singal*

*mayday mayday mayday, this is bravo king, needing inmediate pick up! mayday mayday mayday!*

The distress message comes loudly over a speaker in the ship's control panel.

"dropship 43, requesting permission to dock!"
*loud background noise*
"never mind that! i´m ejecting! please pick me up"
*ejects in an escape pod, as the spaceship implodes behind him, into a green/purple glow*

The pilot opens the door and runs over to the console. He punches a few buttons, and the entire message is replayed. "S***. We're going to be making a detour, men. Someone needs our help."

He punches the throttle. The ship shudders a bit, but doesn't seem to speed up. "Dammit! What the hell is wrong with this thing? Bah. Is any one of you punks a mechanic?"

After asking the question, he turns to his radio. "Better make a call. Whoever sent that might not last till we get there at this speed." He punches a few buttons and puts on a headset.

"This is MP Dropship 43... yes, we've received an urgent distress call... don't have the speed to make it there in time. Transmitting the message and coordinates to you now. Good."

(JFSOCC join thread Dropship 72)

Then he turns back to you four. "As I was saying... have we got any mechanics in here?"

Denden was beginning to worry about his safety on the piece of junk he seemed to be on. He hoped there would be someone on board that could help the pilot out with the ship's engine. He dared not to speak out loud about his concerns, because he wasn't planning on showing the others just how much courage he really has. He knew he had to play this cool, and live up to his reputation. Luckily, no one seemed to know about him, but he didn't know for sure. He had to be careful. The thought of whom the distress call was coming from, didn't even occur to him.

B-Gev, aloof from the others, was examining the various equipment on board, making sure the captain didn't see him swipe a few nautical tools, when this whole commotion suddenly swooped in on him like an Atherian sea wind. Hearing the word "mechanic" B-Gev spoke out loud:

"I have experience in ship mechanics. Give me a lay out of the situation, and i'll show you how it's done."

B-Gev smurked.

"Well, come take a look at this."

(If you go take a look, roll 2 10-sided dice and tell me the result of each roll)

Both rolls: 7

It's immediately obvious to you that the engine's not actually doing anything. It's running, but it's effectively stuck in neutral. If nothing is done, your ship will keep drifting along in a straight line, until something moves it off-course.

On further inspection, you can tell that at least one of the cables connected to the engine has been cut. Whoever did it tried to make it look like a break, but they didn't do a good enough job to prevent you from being able to tell.

Denden couldn't just sit there trying to be invisible and shut up for the entire trip. There was somebody who didn't want them to even start their mission. There was no way to find out now who it was. He immediately didn't trust that kid who was willing to help out the captain. But since Denden was a bad judge of people's character, he didn't show his suspision.

"Could you please get this piece of crap going where it's supposed to go?"

B-Gev turned around to look at Denden. He had seen suspiscious types in his looting career, but this guy was different, there was something to him that gave B-Gev a sense of curiosity and even...caution. He enjoyed this feeling.

"Well with somebody trying to do us in things are gonna get a bit more complicated, but this guy ain't no expert. Cant wait till I meet him so I can show him how this is really done....uhhh...the fixing that is heheh."

B-Gev still had that smurk.

Denden may not trust the kid, but he knows the kid might be the only one who could get them back on course. He seems self-assured and it looks like he knows what he's talking about. Denden hopes it would not turn out to be mere arrogance. He decides to give him the benefit of the doubt, for now.

"You seem to be confident of yourself. I believe you haven't told us your name yet. So who are we speaking to?"

Denden stands up to shake hands with the kid.

Matthew looks at his other companion. He likes the kid's style although he hasn't talked to him yet. Seeing one of them stand up to shake hands with him,makes Matthew smile.
He stands up and goes near them.
"You found the problem quickly,I'm impressed. Where did you learn this?"

"Nice patch job you did there"

Ninkobra opened his mouth for the first time in this trip, earning a bit of a surprised, yet mildly annoyed looks.

"Of course, this isn't really a complicated procedure. Just a few nuts and bolts, and it's as good as new."

The sharp-as-knives looks only grew stiffer.

"What?"

'Great. What a way to begin this journey. Bravo, Rob.' He scolded himself.

The captain speaks up. "Yeah, I figured as much. I haven't done much repair, but I can tell a cut from a break. Any of you punks think you can get this thing running?" He looks at the passengers, and grumbles "One of you little ****s has some of my tools anyway, so you might as well use them."

(Anyone who wants to try to repair the engine, roll 3d10 (for those unfamiliar with the term, that means roll 3 10-sided dice) and give me the result of each roll)

The arrogancy of his last companion startles Matthew a bit,but nonetheless,he raises his hand to shake hands with him,but after the pilot's word,decides to finish the move later.
"I think I'll have a go on it"


(My rolls were: 7 1 6)

You notice that the engine is very hot. Peeking around to figure out why, you notice three more cables cut, two of which are the cooling system. You manage to bypass the breaks and restore cooling to the engine, preventing it from overheating and causing irreversible damage.

You're at a bit of a loss as to what the two remaining cables do, though, and don't make any more progress in repairing it to full functionality.

(any other mechanics are welcome to take a shot, too)

Matthew curses himself for not spending enough time with repairing for the past few months. He turns back to the others.
"I made a little progress,but I think I'll need some help here. Any of you interested?"

"Might as well give it a shot, too. It's not exactly a road vehicle, but I can manage."

Ninkobra puts on some strange gloves and joins Matthew in the engine.

(Roll of the dice: 1, 1, 9)

When the other unknown teammate spoke, Denden frowned at what he had to say. Other than the kid, this guy was almost certainly arrogant. Denden decided to make proper introductions later and sat down again, so he wouldn't be in the way of the people who could get the ship back on track. Matthew asks for help.

"I'm sorry, I'm not here for the mechanical stuff. I won't be of much help here."

Then the unknown teammate offers to help, Denden goes back at staring at the floor, waiting for what unexpected event would occur next.

Ninkobra: your gloves protect you from the heat, and since you can actually get up and close to the engine itself you can try working from a different angle. The construction of the engine is a little foreign to you, but by tracing out the pieces you recognize you're able to get an idea of what the two remaining cables do.

One of them regulates thrust, and the other one controls what's basically the spaceship equivalent of a differential. You won't be fixing those without some tools.

Denden: You notice some scratch marks on the floor that stand out from the rest of the scuffs.

"Found anything?"
His companion tells him that they're going to need tools,so Matthew goes back to the others:
"Any of you have tools?"

Denden doesn't notice Matthew's question, because his attention has been drawn to strange scratch marks on the floor. They don't appear to be from anyone on board of the vehicle. He wonders if he should tell the others.

"Damn, I wish I hadn't sold all my stuff in my rush of leaving Earth!" Ninkobra cursed while moving apart from the engine and going to look for tools.

'Then again, Where those tools came from, I wouldn't want to have enythiong to do with it anymore.' He thought as he left the room.

"Now, if I were a toolbox... where would I be?" Ninkobra mused while looking around the different doors. "Hmm... prehaps in the galley."

(Denden, are you going to take a closer look or say something?)

The captain overhears Ninkobra's musings. "What tools do you need? I've got some in the back."

He disappears in the back, and returns with whatever you asked for, as long as they're all simple tools.

Denden is getting really curious. He knows that if he takes a closer look, people will notice it anyway. He might as well tell the others, perhaps it's not even anything important.

"Those strange scratches on the floor look like fresh marks, it's easy to see in such a piece of junk as this ship. Could they be from the one who got us into trouble?"

Matthew hears the captain say something about tools so he leaves the others and goes to him. He sees his companion there too,with some tools.
"Ready to go back?"
Hears someone asking a question about some scrathes. Matthew shouts back:
"They're not from me,that's for sure!"