>>10595
Mast scowls, gesturing WILDLY in anger.
"Hey, that mess of an engine room is running off a SINGLE TREADMILL and a SERVICE DROID because of me! FUNCTIONALLY, even! Before I got it wired up and got rid of all those energy-leeching 'safety systems' this ship was consuming 100 energy cells a trip! By the time I was even a THIRD done it was using HALF that! And as for Al, he'd be PERFECTLY able to pilot this thing! Probably better than YOU could, you horrible little-"
>"MAST! Mast, calm down, just... let it go. She's right, I'm twenty-three years out of date and I haven't even interfaced with anything more complex than your wrist computer in half as long. Maybe we can find a vacuum cleaner for me to roll around in or something, just calm down."

Mast takes a deep breath, deflating visibly.

>"Sorry miss Mask. He doesn't mean any insult, he's just not fond of people criticising his work. And also me, I suppose. You have a good day. Mast?"

Mast remains silent, shuffling his feet for a bit.

"Sorry."

He stands there awkwardly for a few more moments, then slinks off to the bridge again.

Archivemode 2014/09/11(Thu)15:45 No. 10599 ID: 436cdc
File 141047555844.png - (1.26KB , 32x50 , pls.png )

Aight, the Bearzerker's sprite is done. Next up: I refine Jakk's to not look shit, and after that Varu and Mask. also Lnik, if I can get a description for 'em.

Archivemode 2014/09/11(Thu)15:49 No. 10600 ID: 436cdc
File 141047577597.png - (2.31KB , 320x500 , plsbig.png )

>>10599
big version

>>10578

Varu shifts nervously. A place where astranians hide their face and the servers wear body armour? He soon realises he's in a wretched hive of scum and villainy. Besides Kothama Eats of course. His smile slowly disappears.
Varu: "Do you get many... altercations here?" He looks around the bar with a worried look on his face.
Varu: "Is this a.. safe place, miss Eats?" His eyes fix on Eats, wide and innocent, wanting her to reassure him that he is in fact, safe.

Archmage 2014/09/16(Tue)06:55 No. 10605 ID: 9dd1ee
File 141087572573.png - (135.29KB , 826x420 , StrannerRPG5.png )

>>10589
Zolf- Cheif of security Assigned to keep an eye on Jakk by order of High-Command. currently his security force consists of two security bots.

one said minions reports to him
SB-01: "security breach cheif! sabotage recognised! records indicate we've suffered a 10$ loss in power efficiency loss! Prime suspect: Engineer Inconcinnus
Mast!"

* * *
the robot seems incredibly flustered
DSR-B24: "oh no! oh no! I failed to process an order again!"
DSR-B24: "Miss Eats is going to scrap me for sure! . . ."

>>10580
The battered Vishan responds with a snarl
Bitz"You think I care about the name of some smug faced green rookie who can't even show the intelligence of remembering someone else's name?"
Jakk is about to respond but is interrupted
Bitz"Don't answer that you dumb piece of shit, it was a rhetorical questions. I don't need to know your name, you'll be dead in a week probably with that dumb ass smile still plastered across your face. Now where the hell is my package it's twelve days late!."
The grizzled soldier snarls, he looks ready to kill at a moments notice.

LW 2014/09/16(Tue)07:31 No. 10606 ID: 9dd1ee
File 141087787668.png - (173.09KB , 826x420 , StrannerRPG6.png )

>>10596
The engineering bot from earlier rolls up to Mast again

CB-01: "Engineer Mast this is a warning report informing you of a ship wide arrest warrant filed against you by one of my security counterparts"
CB-01: "According to the report we are suffering a 10% power efficiency loss, you are accused of malicious intent."
CB:01: "Initial findings believed this report to be in error as power consumption gauged a 100% increase in power efficiency, but as this did not explain our current power loss I ran further tests"
CB:01: "Tests indicates our preliminary engine monitor is faulty and giving false data, utilising 'Gant's flawless method' I have discovered the security report to be correct, we are indeed suffering a 10% power efficiency loss, CB-02 is draining excessive amounts of our power stores to remain operating in constant movement and the treadmill is producing zero power in return."

* * *

>>10595
Mask gets back to lounging about on the bridge. as she turns back to the console she notices a blip on the radar, but when she blinks it is gone.

* * *

>>10601
Eats: "haha! don't worry, you'r safe as long as I'm around! just don't wander without security escort and you'll be fine! . . .well probably, I mean security will fold like paper if the assailant has any military tech."

Eats pauses and thinks
Eats: or if Guilders come in for a raid, then you're on your own . . ."

Eats then adds

Eats: or if one of the bulkheads corrodes enough to break open into space, without gravboots you'de be super dead!"

Eats seems ready to list off more horrid fates

>>10606
Mast sighs heavily, rubbing his temples.
"Augh, damn it all. I thought I had it working finally."
Mast trundles off for the engine room again, and upon arrival immediately starts thwacking the big box O' wires bolted above the treadmill.
"Come on you piece of shit, work!"
When that fails, he crouches down and prys off the panel, grumbling as he rearranges the internals, occasionally popping out to make sure the treadmill is hooked up right.
Finally, after about a half hour of cursing and one particularly noxious-looking puff of smoke, Mast closes it and gives it a final whack.
>Waits on roll results

"Sabotage? Dis vill not do at all. SB-01 come vith me, ve are to be detaining suspect Mast for de questioning. SB-02, be locating kapitan Jakk, keep eye on her, report any problems directly to me vith radio."

Zolf waits for SB-02 to head out, then begins to make his way to the engine room.

Mask shrugs, just waiting around on the bridge has been proving pretty boring so she decides to check on that blip. Using her considerable smarts and knowledge of ship systems, she attempts to get the ship's scanners to actively search in the direction from which the blip was coming.

>waiting for result

Lnik sees the alert, and leaves his room to see Zolf and his security bot walking towards the engine room.
"Zolf, what's this the reports say Mast engaging in sabotage? Is there something I can do to help keep the ship safe?"

Varu gets more and more worried as Eats lists off each and every potential incident, almost shivering at the idea of being attacked by Guilders. He tries his best to regain his composure.

Varu: "Ahem uhm.. Miss Eats. Where might the safest place be if any of these... things.. do happen? What would a knowledgeable and resourceful person such as yourself do?"

Varu smiles nervously, flicking his ears up and trying to keep things nice and positive.

Jakk BeakieHelmet 2014/09/20(Sat)13:12 No. 10614 ID: 6e85c8
File 141124396525.jpg - (208.17KB , 1102x1122 , Jakk meets dorito blitz 2.jpg )

>>10605
"Whoa whoa whoa!" the captain responds rather quickly, her voice a little higher pitched than before, "The package is in my ship's storage, I'll have one of my crew deliver it wherever you like! I'm, uh, sorry for the delay..."

>>10610
"I am in the going to investigate dee suspicions. Security Bot 01 and myself should be in the able to deal vith leetle engineer. I guess prep dee seek-bay in event of dee ugly happening, would not be vanting doktor to come to harm now vould ve?" Zolf shrugs before continuing on his way to the engine room.

LW 2014/09/21(Sun)15:33 No. 10617 ID: 9dd1ee
File 141133881892.png - (252.20KB , 826x420 , StrannerRPG7.png )

>>10608
"Right away sir!" SB-02 salutes and heads off in search of the Captain.

* * *

>>10607
Mast's Tech macgyvering is successful!

Some how despite breaking a dozen laws of Astranian science Mast manages to get his treadmill to actually generate usable energy, unfortunately the robot is still draining far more power by rolling on the treadmill then the treadmill itself is able to generate.

At this moment Zolf and one of his security cronies bust into engineering.
"Prime suspect: Engineer Inconcinnus Mast! you are under arrest for suspected sabotage!" SB-01 Recites.

* * *

>>10609
Mask successfully uses her smarts
Scanning the area, she finds minor energy residue
it could be anything, it could be nothing, it could just be a glitch

or it COULD be a Guilder Storm Galleon, that ship class has a stealth field which would explain a blip disappearing.
and the energy residue would be consistent with a guilder ship's typical run off.

* * *

>>10613
Eats considers the question. "I dunno about safe, but from what I've seen the best way to avoid getting shot, is to shoot them before they get a chance!"

* * *

>>10614
Bitz growls "Just bring the damn thing to pier 03" he then turns back to his drink gulping it in a final swig and starts to head off.

Jakk notices one of the security bots walking up to her.
SB-02:"Hello Captain, I am here to keep you safe!"

Archivemode 2014/09/21(Sun)16:49 No. 10618 ID: 436cdc
File 141134338305.png - (1.54KB , 64x64 , mastprofile.png )

>>10617
Mast glances over for a second, then returns to his work waving them away with a "Yes yes, good for you. Bit busy, arrest me after I fix it please."
Mast reaches for a spanner, tweaking yet another bit inside, then closes the hatch and screws it shut. After that, he flops the droid off the treadmill, taking it's place immediately and with far more gusto than the primitive droid would have ever managed. The droid, for its part, flounders helplessly on its side where it landed.

The lights, noticeably dim the last few hours, immediately brighten to normal capacity once Mast's jogging hits its flow.

"So, why am I under arrest? Gotta keep this thing moving. If it stops too long it leaks power."

Albert winks on soon after, his voice more quizzical and slightly-angry than a pre-rendered monotone has any right to be.
>What's going on? Mast, what did you do this time? Why is security officer Zolf here?

Lnik heads off to prepare the medical bay, hoping he would not need to use it. Considering Zolf's greatsword, though, he supposed that any violence which did occur might not leave much of the engineer to treat. Still, best to be prepared.

>>10617

'Oh dammit!'

Mask immediately begins prepping the ship for launch, if necessary decrypting any sort of ignition locks the captain put in place. There's no time to wait!

As she fires up the ship, Mast hops onto the ships comms to call the captain:

"Hey Jakk, you need to hurry back. Guilder Vessel approaching, and we don't want to wait around for them to get here!"

mask 2014/09/23(Tue)16:44 No. 10621 ID: 6438bf
File 141151588903.jpg - (0.96MB , 3264x1952 , IMAG0054.jpg )

>made a quick sketch of mask, sorry about the resolution

Can I get some colors for everything? That way I can get the Mask sprite done accurately

>>10617
>>10620
"Guilder vessel? Can you verify that? Like, you have a for-sure reading of a guilder vessel?"

The captain blinks as she furrows her brow in frustration, wincing as she looks from her comms to her client but doesn't say anything yet, the jackal-like astranian clearly intimidated by the big man.

She turns to Eats and Varu, pointing at Eats this time and saying "Hey... My pilot is showing a reading of a guilder vessel, can you verify that with like, Station Security or something..?" She swallows, considering her options, looking from the security droid to Bitz to the door, idly feeling for the claw-gauntlet hidden under her coat.

>>10623

'There was a reading on the radar that blinked out as it closed in, and active scans show the same energy runoff as a storm galleon. Any time you spend not believing me is time you're not spending getting back to the ship, and you won't want to be there still when they get here.'

Mask switches channels to the ship's internal PA.

'Hey mast, I hope you have the engine running because we're gonna need a lot of power really soon.'

As she talks, mask continues readying the ship for launch.

>>10624
The command flows tinnily out of the slapdash speaker made of repurposed ration tins, and Mast immediately breaks from his light jog into a full-on dash.
In response to this, the engine room's usual background noise sharpens into a borderline roar, Mast's shouting across at the security officer barely audible over the sounds of gears turning and engines revving.
"HEY! -puff- BE READY TO -whoof- TO SWITCH OFF WITH ME! I KEEP GOOD CARDIO BUT I CAN ONLY LAST SO LONG!"

LW 2014/09/29(Mon)09:53 No. 10635 ID: 9dd1ee
File 141200962663.png - (163.22KB , 826x420 , StrannerRPG8.png )

>>10619
the medical station is topped up and ready for action.

>>10623
Eats shrugs "You're the one with the fancy new starship, any sensors on the station would be inferior to yours"

Bitz turns around "You blasted naive fool! you've doomed us all with your glowing power beacon!"

>>10624
As Mask is preparing the ship for launch she makes a very unpleasant observation.

Though Mast has fixed the power expenditure problem enough damage has already been done. The ship is critically low on power, Mask recalls the captain making a point to refuel while at this station.

at current power levels it will be impossible to make an FTL jump to another system with out diverting power from life support, weapons, shields and communications. (note diverting power from these vital systems is completely not recommended by the ships user manual)

>>10625
Mast automatically succeeds his first run check

Unfortunately even at a full on run the amount of power that Mast is able to generate is minimal.

>>10635
"Power beacon my ass! Come on, Oh-Two!" Jakk shouts as she runs back towards her ship, grabbing her rifle on the way inside. "Status report!" she calls over the comms, "How close are we to flying?"

Varu glances towards Jakk, growing ever more worried at the mention of guilders. He bows before Eats.

Varu: "Apologies miss Eats, it seems that my crew might be getting themselves in quite a panic. I'm sure we'll see eachother quite soon, in the case that there are no problems of course."

The astranian turns and walks towards the ship, his tail curling against Eats as he trots towards it with confidence. He catches up to Jakk and whispers to her.

Varu: Jakk.. is there a problem? What's happening?

>>10625
"Svitch off? I am in the thinking of not. It is sounding like there is possible problems soon and I vill be needed elsevhere. I am going to fetch doktor, SB-02, keep Engineer Mast motivated until he is arriving. Use shock if have too, very motivating."

Zolf hurries to the med bay, leaving SB-01 to keep an eye on Mast. "Doktor! You were asking if you could be helping Zolf with suspect, well Zolf has idea how you can be helping!"

>>10644
Gears start turning in Mast's head as Zolf turns to leave, spurred on by the neccessity of the situation.
"Shock, shock.... SHOCK! THAT'S what I need! SB-02, go fetch me any energy weapons you can find! I need them ASAP!"

Lnik: "Yes? Does Engineer Mast need sedating or something?"
Lnik checks whether he has the supplies to do so if that is indeed what the security chief needs.

>>10646
"No, opposite! I am vanting you to doktor Engineer Mast vith things to keep him running, adrenaline, 'go-juice,' vhat-ever, at least until danger is gone."

Lnik: "So he isn't a traitor then. I'll see what I can come up with."
Lnik checks what stimulants are available in the medical bay.

>>10637

'Well, We can fly just fine. But we can't jump without turning the ship into a powerless coffin. Weren't you supposed to be out there refueling it?'

'If we can't get power into this ship, we aren't getting out of here. Unless we take some other ship. There are other ships docked here, right?'

Mask uses the external cameras to survey the docking bays, looking to see if there is anything else nearby that they might be able to pilfer or 'borrow' some power/fuel from in a pinch.

LW 2014/10/07(Tue)05:29 No. 10650 ID: 9dd1ee
File 141268495266.png - (172.79KB , 826x420 , StrannerRPG9.png )

>>10644
SB-02 who had just followed Captain Jakk back onto the ship, takes Zolfs new order and travels to engineering to accompany SB-01

Mast succeeds his second run check easily
>>10645

SB-02: "Negative, scuzzbag. I don't follow your orders."

SB-01: "Keep running criminal, or you'll get the shocks!"

* * *

>>10648
Lnik does have the stimulants required to keep Mast running, there are however some obvious health risks from the practice.

* * *

>>10649
there are four other docked ships at the stations, two small civilian shuttles, a small military robotics transport, and a civilian cargo freighter

>>10650
"Well hufh-fuck you too, buddy!"
Mast throws a very rude gesture towards the droid, followed by a short string of silence.
"So, out of -haff- curiosity, what -huff- date -hooo- were you manufactured?"

Lnik: "I can keep him going for a while, but only so long. Hopefully by then he can get the power issue fixed."
The doctor gathers his supplies and heads over to engineering, and stops in surprise on seeing Mast running on his ramshackle treadmill talking at an annoyed robot.
Lnik: "Why are you running on a treadmill instead of fixing... is that your plan to fix what you did to the power supply? Mast, the Astranian body isn't a perpetual motion machine; even if you could keep running like that without resting or collapsing any energy collected would come inefficiently from caloric intake. And if you are about to suggest that we buy a vast stockpile of food, we could also just buy power directly for less."

"No, this was only supposed to supplant power generation, -haff- not replace it! -ohgeez- I missed a patch somewhere while hooking it upand we lost energy! -whoof- I can MAYBE jumpstart a few cells to get us going again, but I need something capable of a violent-haaaagh- burst of energy. Was THINKING an energy weapon might do it, but -heeeesh- THESE HORRIBLE TIN CANS refuse to get me one!"

Mast is sweating profusely, but he hasn't stopped running.

Lnik: "Using the energy from an energy weapon sounds more plausible than this treadmill stuff. Zolf, do you find engineer Mast trustworthy enough to let him attempt this energy weapon plan?"

Mast shakes his head, waving him down.
"Would -huff- only get a few cells charged -hoo- at the cost of our only weapon. Screw that. We are at a station, get fuel there -hah-.
Bad idea, lightheaded."

"*I* was out trying to settle our deal and get paid!" Jakk shouts into the comms, "Can we get confirmation that it *is* a guilder vessel? Mask? Mast? Anyone?"

"Well you probably should have done a better job!"

"Also, It's either a guilder vessel or something with exactly the same energy wake, and I don't feel like taking my chances on it being a brand new ship."

Mask hurries out of the bridge, making her way out of the ship to try to find anything that isn't nailed down that they might hold enough power for an emergency jump.

>>10659
"Engineer Mast ees under suspect of sabotage, I vould not be trusting him with veapon anyvay. Eet vas my understanding zat ve vere needing to be going wery soon, othervise I vould have just made engineer fix zee engine back to vay it vas."

Zolf speaks into his helmet's com system, "Mask, Vhat is situation vith guilder wessel? Saboteur suspect has been detained for now."

>>10664

"The situation is that it cloaked itself and is almost certainly approaching the station as we speak. And the further situation is that we don't have enough power to make a jump without cutting basically every other system on the ship. So I'm trying to find a way to fix it."

"Now that I think of it, you should probably come too. Might need to get some heavy lifting done. I'm leaving the ship now."

Varu: "I don't like the sound of guilder's Jakk. What do we do?"

The fox starts to panic, keeping close to Jakk and looking for somewhere to hide.

Varu: "What about the station, Eats and the others on board? What do we do Jakk?"

"Just a -haff- thought, but if it-haaah- turns out that we can't get fuel -fff-, I can turn some of what we do have into bombs. If we can't -hagh- get out, there is no pissing way I'm getting taken by guilders without a good fight."

LW 2014/10/30(Thu)12:01 No. 10676 ID: 9dd1ee
File 141469569541.png - (197.65KB , 826x420 , StrannerRPG10.png )

>>10672
Mast manages to continue running, but it is getting more difficult

>>10662
Mask enters the station looking for a solution to the power problem.

She notices a nearby auto-console, she could use it to purchase charge power from the station's reactor.

She also notices two shifty looking Yerots carrying a huge power cell of some sort.

>>10671
Varu knows there are many places to hide aboard the ship, even a few small crawl spaces

Varu decides that he would just get in the way, and before Jakk has a chance to say anything, he slips away to the best hiding place he knows!

Lnik: "Alright, if you are really sure it will help I can administer some stimulants to help you run longer for a time. How long will you need?"
[Medical check on recieving response about how much damage that amount of stimulants would do.]

"Mask, give me your position, I em heading your vay." Zolf speaks into his comm as he begins heading out of the ship.

Mast pants a bit, eyeing the doc nervously.
"That's a very big needle."

His cookbook is a device that contains thousands upon thousands of recipes.

akk grew up in a family of politicians in the Kumatan (Jackal) capitol with a pampered, high-class life that she never much cared for, loathing the gridlock of politics and bureaucracy and having to play nicely with everyone she met. She is inherently a good person