Chapter 1 - Outbreak

"I do not doubt your judgment," he said. Emmerich knew Alastor spoke only the truth, but somehow he wondered if the only reason he made it in space was because of Nexus.

These thoughts didn't last long, as the kitchen girl had returned with another bottle of wine. She hesitated a second when she saw him, then poured a couple glasses.

On her way back, Alastor humored her with a wink, and she giggled. Emmerich had always found it funny that Alastor was able to keep calm. So he sat back in a chair and sipped his wine. All he had to do was wait.

Raiz kept an ear out for the sound of an engine but there were so many things making noise in the city it was hard to try and single out the engine he wanted to hear. After a while he changed into his more human form and plugged his ears, all the sounds getting to him and giving him a headache.

He looked around and was happy to see that everyone was here "...everyone but Nostrom" he thought. "Don't tell me he got lost..." he said as he closed his eyes and sat on the ledge. Raiz yawned and stretched "My body demands sleep~~~" he said "Hear me captain? Sleep you know i like to rest, where is Nostrom? he complained out of boredom. Even after all he said he was mainly kidding trying to see of he could get a small rise out of Alastor but Alastor knew he enjoyed the night and mainly slept during the day.

Claire stood away from the others, quietly waiting for Nostrom. She felt uncomfortable being around the group for too long. All these good lookign guys, and Siren. She really wanted to get back on the ship, to her precious computer. She ship's firewalls needed upgrading...

He saw the smile appear on Siren's face, for however brief it was, he took small pride in the fact that he was the one to do it. Turning away again, waltz around a bit, becoming impatient by just standing here. "Fucking Nostromo..."

((Nostromo -5 Affinity))
((Siren +3 Affinity))

(And I wrote this one like 30 mins ago...)

The overbearing sounds of wind and high currents over the city skyline seemed to slowly relieve. The second that Raiz began to make any complaints, the much more noisier engines of the Kāmao jumped to life as it de-cloaked right over his head, "Complaining already, puppy dog?" he joked, throwing the post hatch open as he hovered the vessel lower.

(Music: Star Ocean: The Last Hope - Cosmic Voyagers)

Watching the others hop inside, Nostromo grabbed the charts hewn on the co-pilot seat and threw them into the side hatch, "Someone care to keep me company?", wondering if someone was willing to give additional navigational assistance if needed, he would look back again, "..Anyone?"

As soon as things where ready, the vessel into could jump into overdrive, blasting off the roof of the building and towards and escape. As things zoomed past a maze of buildings, the inevitable run for orbit threw communications into a momentary pause, due to the extend of the planets whitened atmosphere. But when the white pearls of the stars returned to greed them, Nostromo could throw communication once more, "Kāma'o to Nexus, break out the good china! The fun party ETA's in 2 minutes!"

(You guys can continue on the landing and everything from here.)

Claire eagerly watched out the windows as they flew through space. All of existence was out there waiting for her. She planned to withdraw some cash today to add to her secret stash she's been working on since she was 15. She imagined all the possibilities out there. Once she had enough money, she could go out and do anything she wanted. She'd have to stay with this job for a while to make it happen, but this was certainly better than the alternative.

When they got to the Nexus, Claire was the first one off, sprinting straight toward the computer system room, leaving the responsibility of their catch up to one of the others.

He turned in time to see Claire sprint off and onto the ship. "bought ti..." he stopped, and looked down only to find the mark left behind. He was a bit annoyed, but figured it was too heavy for her and this was her way of avoiding the embarrassment of saying so. "Hey, Raiz, would you mind?" he motioned to the living lump of cash.

He walked up to SIren, motioning towards his rifle. "May I?" he asked, looking over her shoulder, and avoiding eye contact.

Emmerich stood as the crew entered the ship's main room, and he was relieved to see Raiz carrying the lump of a man. So knowing that everything was as it should be, he sat back down.

"Raiz!" called Alastor. "Throw him into an empty cell, and make him comfortable for the ride back o Nexus." With that, Alastor left his crew to relax, and he joined Nostromo in the head of the ship.

((What is he name of the ship?))

Raiz smiled and jumped up when Nostrom arrived, he picked up the mark and threw him in and then took a seat. Nostrom was asking for someone to be a co pilot, "ide like to but...i could get lost easy without my nose so I'm no good, sorry." he said and just sat back.

When we docked Don looked at the man on the floor and asked for help, he grabbed him by the foot and dragged him out of the little ship before changing and throwing him over his shoulder, "Lets go people." he looked up at Alastor and sighed "Alright but give me a little extra for all the carrying" he joked with a toothy grin before walking off.

He nodded as he took the gun from her and gave her a weird look. She seemed frantic and almost disturbed by the mere mention of the weapon. "Bye" was all he said however, avoiding any more conversation for the day. Frankly, he was tired and just wanted to sleep, but knew Alastor would want them all on the bridge for some after mission conversing or what not. He sighed and made his way on board, heading straight over to the armory to put away his rifle. He wiped it cleaned with a cloth and then placed it on its rightful spot amongst his few other possessions, all weapons of course.

Donovan dropped his coat off in his room on his way to the bridge. Beneath showed his tan muscle shirt. Then he took out his hair tie letting his hair drop. Putting on his glasses, he headed to the bridge, a bit more relaxed and overall a bit more friendly looking.

"Alastor" he said with a fear instilling grin, he held out his hand to greet the captain. "another success, but i wish you would have let me kill this..." he kicked the mark lightly, trying to wake him. "...pig" For being a murderer himself, he gave off this righteous attitude against those he targeted.

"I wish you would have let me kill this pig." Don had said. If there was anything to upset Emmerich, it was the people who killed and harmed others for a living. Yes they were a group of bounty hunters, but that was different. Some how.

"I was curious as to what these Mutated Geostigmas are?" Emmerich asked, knowing this was more important right now. He hoped Alastor had an idea to take them out, because if they ever run into one, these Geos would be a problem.

Nostromo was quite a character himself, so much so that he sometimes seemed to merely suprise those around him with yet another faced of his character. As soon as everyone had departed from the drop-ship, he would spend a good few minutes worth going over the ships data readings, and status in all areas of operation. It seemed that though he was often seen as nothing more than a goof ball, what really lay behind it was a character with a tremendously complicated past, someone who would take any chance at a distraction in order to keep himself from thinking too deeply.

Yet as he sat there, in the hangar bay, reading his favorite holo-book series, and in the presence of ambient star fields rushing past at light-speed (beyond the invisible magnetic field of the hangar gate), he couldn't help but remember how it all began..

Suddenly the small device on his wrist made itself known and he took the call to join the others before the captain, looking down for a moment at the small picture shining from the holo-book, a scene of a desert scene that slowly ended on the horizon into a lush and green forest.

He was on his way.

Claire listened carefully to what the captain had to say while working at her terminal. She felt much better now that she was at her computer, doing maitinance on the ships system. Since almost everything ran on computer networks nowadays, she normaly clocked in about 20 hours of work.

She heard the word mutated, she instantly perked up as she remembered antique video games she played as a child. Killing mutants....she started to like this job.

(Thought i took the mark, but whatever its all good)

Raiz stopped by his room to drop off his gun and bag that he always carried over his left back pocket, it carried his different type of rounds, food, his NTM card and a small canteen of water. After leaving his room he headed to the engine room to make sure everything was doing ok, Key was checking things when he e3ntered, Key was a serious type of person, but was a good assistant.

After a small chat with Key he started walking up to the bridge wondering why we were headed to Starnz and what was waiting for them there.

Listening to the words of Alastor, only saddened him. Looking up, he caught Alastor's glance and listened to the next few words carefully. Donovan had readily accepted the mission to help Alastor, but when it came to it, would he be able to? Alastor was the only friend Don really considered.

He shook his head clean of such thoughts. "Alastor" he said quickly. "Why don't we switch subjects to one of success? After all..." he grinned. "we just earned a shit load of cash."

Soon joined the scene of the bridge with a casual glance to the activity, everyone was busy plotting and tweaking all ends of the ship for the mission ahead, leaving the clear cut coordinates presently set upon the screen.

"Hey boss, ready to calibrate the sensor ranges to mark our expected entry at the destination point," he quickly saluted in as he took a seat at the empty console near Siren. Hearing Donovan's comment, he momentarily glanced back and grinned.

When Raiz finally made it to the bridge it seemed that everything was said and done, since Alastor wasn't around he assumed he missed the debriefing. "Anyone care to let me know whats up?" he said as he changed into his human for so he wont take up to much space. He looked around at everyone wondering who would speak first.

((ZOMG Amethysts are my favorite :DD))

"We're gonna go Resident Evil and kill some mutants," she said to Raiz.

After a few minutes Claire got up from her console and grabbed a small duffle bag from under it, along with a touch pad. She typed something really quick on her somputer, and said aloud, "Will someone press the enter key on my keypad when I call on the persacom?" and left without really waiting for an answer.

The persacom system was a network communications system set in place on the ship. There were buttons and speakers everywhere, so if someoen needed to meet with another crew member, all they had to do was press the button, and everyone would hear and one could report to that person. It was like a much more advanced PA system they used in earthican public schools in the 2000's.

She headed toward the hallway near the main motherboard. She took off a peice off the wall and crawled inside, tampering with the chips and wires inside. Hopefully this would work.

The pressed the persacom button, "All right guys, who ever's on the bridge needs to press the key at my station."

He watched Alastor leave, and sighed at his absence.

I didn't mean for him to leave. He thought grumpily. He watched Claire run off to do her thing, and when no one moved to help, he rolled his eyes. His mood was gone now and didn't really feel like dealing with anything at the moment. Waltzing over to the station, he pressed the button. "What?" he snapped.

"Resident Evil?" he thought. maybe its a fighting plan or something he thought and was curios as to what it was, but just then Claire up and left in a hurry not giving him a chance to ask a question.

Raiz saw Don walk over and try to figure out what what Claire wanted to be done and smiled. "This is what she means." he said and pressed the Enter key on her workstations keypad.