And in to the Fire (Sid+Hoff) }{ Site-wide/Oth...

[Sidney Bainbridge]

May 2nds 2523; Along the vally ridge, Uncharted moon

Sidney and hoffman had made their choice to move along the vally ridge to the west. It would lead them out of the woods and in to the open feilds. The open feilds wouldn't offer as much cover but the openness of the feilds would keep people from being able to sneak up on them as well.

When Sidney took some time to open the bag he had picked up earlier he found it had some good supplies in it. There was a forty foot rope in it and a revolver with only three round. It wasn't much but it would give them sonething to work with. Between them they had enough supplies to keep them going for a few days and with the water they were carrying they would be able to trek on for a few days with little worry.

The goal was to make it along the ridge over the next few days and they would swing down and refill their water if they needed to then. Sidney hadn't completely figured out what they would do when they got there but they had their time of moving to talk it out.

"So Hoffman, once we get to the feild I'm going to need you to pull out some great plan to get us off this planet. You always had a way of figuring things out back in the war I am hoping the years haven't changed that." He told him with a small laugh. He was only half serious about it, but they would need something to change their fate. If only there was some form of civilization they could find. If there were people on the planet there would be a way to get a ship here or something. Even a chance to get their hands on a few good weapons and they could fight their way through the guards and get off the planet.

[Friedrich Hoffman]

They'd been travelling for a good while now, just like a long recon trek back in the war. The only difference was that they were poorly equipped, ten years older, and a bit out of shape compared to those days. Friedrich never really was the reconnaissance type either. He could hike and fight fine but navigating and watching the horizon for signs of danger wasn't his forte. Luckily Sidney was taking charge of that. The machinist merely followed, carrying his share of the supplies and ready to fight should the need arise.

"I've built a ship before." Friedrich answered. Actually, he'd built many ships back when he was working at the shipyards but this was different a different thing, a ship he'd actually built himself. "Find me a scrapyard and give me enough time and I can do it." Given the required material and equipment he could probably build them anything they needed but their great benefactor who ran the game wasn't kind enough to drop a working machine shop on his lap.

A ship was the only real way out of there, assuming they indeed were on some moon completely controlled by the shadowy man. Friedrich pointed up toward the sky. "I sink I know vhere ve are." He looked over at Sidney to see how he took the news and then explained, "Das ist Blue Sun, Ja?" He indicated the distant star. It was the best solar landmark they could have hoped for. Not only was the blue star easier to differentiate between a white, yellow, red, or orange star, but there was only one blue star in the settled 'Verse of all twelve stars. The Blue Sun system also had the fewest orbiting planets out of any of the other major systems which narrowed the next step down considerably.

"Seven planets in Blue Sun." he stated and then pointed to the large heavenly body they were orbiting. "Zat is terrestrisch.... uh, rock planet. Only five of zem in Blue Sun." He then pointed back toward the distant star. "Too far to be inner planet." He then slightly adjusted his pointing to the side to the faint hint of asteroids. "Beyond ze belt too. Muir and New Canaan don't look like zat eisser." he was back pointing at the near planet.

"Zat leaves eisser Highgate or Deadwood. I sink Highgate only has one moon and it's not a human hunting preserve." he looked at Sidney. "Deadwood zen, and a moon zat is not Haven." It didn't really help them out all that much but there was comfort in having some idea where you were.

[Kept the accent to a minimum instead of completely butchering words. Use your imagination for most of his English sentences.
Das ist Blue Sun, Ja? - That's Blu Sun, yes?
Terrestrisch - Terrestrial]

[Sidney Bainbridge]

Sidney smiled at Hoffman's willingness to make a ship with anything they could work with. "Well when you can fashion a ship from rocks and wood we will be in business." As they made their way along the ridge he could see the feilds in the distance. It would still be another twenty-five or more miles till they were there but they would make it in a day or so.

Sidney looked up as Hoffman explained why he thought he knew where they were. They were on the uncharterd, or mostly uncharted moon around Deadwood. That meant they were close to Haven, Sidney's home world. Had they been one moon over he would have everything they need supplies to last a year, maybe longer and guns, tons of guns. More then enough to army his own private army.

He had landed on this moon once before to use it for making an illicite trade but that was just a landing an then right back up. The one thing he did know from this was that there had been a few colonies on it but they were little to nothing and many of them abandoned long long ago. "Almost home it seems. If only they could have dropped us on Haven, then we would be set."

Time continued to pass and the night came. They had been walking forever but it would still take much longer to get there and Sidney wasn't ready to stop moving. As the sun finally set Sidney noticed something he hadn't expected to see. There were lights moving through the woods. Three of them to be exact, it seem like someone had either gotten some flashlights or a torch somehow. Sidney raise his closed fits at his side. The standard military signal for everyone to stop moving. "Lets get a closer look." He wispered to Hoffman.

They only had a few rounds in their revolver and Sidney had no intentions of wasting them. What he did want to know is what these people were doing out here in the same area as him and just ahead of him already. Sidney waited for Hoffman to get up on line with him and see if he saw anything.

[Friedrich Hoffman]

Friedrich perked up a bit at Sidney's comment regarding Haven. Was the nearby moon his home? All that time serving together and Friedrich really didn't know much about him. It was probably mutual. They'd fought some hard battles together but the two were not what you'd call friends. Hell, Friedrich had ended the war at the lowly rank of corporal and Sidney had been at the lofty rank of Major when they first met. Other officers like James Clark knew Sidney on a more personal level. Friedrich knew him professionally and respected him as a commander. Surviving this thing would probably change that dynamic though.


They kept walking into the night and Freidrich began to zone out a bit. It was likely a combination of fatigue from the day and an aftereffect of whatever drugs they'd used to transport him there. Whatever the cause, he was a little caught off guard by Sidney's sudden halting and signal for him to do the same. Luckily his inattention didn't cause him to trip up or cause any further noise, but it took him a moment to realize what had caught Sidney's attention.

There were three lights ahead, moving too. That meant there were at least three people out there. They probably weren't too bright either, giving away their position so easily instead of blending into the darkness like he and Sidney were doing as they hiked.

Friedrich was of a mind to just ignore them but Sidney wanted to investigate so they carefully approached. Sidney was armed with their half loaded pistol while Friedrich carried a rough but firm staff he'd picked up from a pie of tree limbs earlier. As they crept forward, the machinist began to make out what they were up against. His vision of the entire party was obscured but his earlier allowance of more than three persons proved correct. He silently indicated to Sidney a fourth man walking without any light source. Now, even with excellent shooting, they wouldn't be able to fell the entire group without a melee of some sort if it came to violence.

[Sidney Bainbridge]

Sidney watched on as he debated what should be there plan of action, that was untill Hoffman pointed out the fourth man in the group. The olny one of them smart enough to not have a light on him. Sidney didn't want a fight and with the added person he had no intetions of starting one. Instead they would have to change course and move on.

Sidney stepped back slowly and waited for Hoffman to do the same "We'll change course and make a new path to the open feilds." Sidney told him. They waited a little longer till the group was gone then ventured on a bit further, going down the back side of the ridge.

After several more hours passed they were getting to the end of their ability to keep moving. It was well past half way through the night and morning wouldn't be much longer to arrive. It was then that they found something unexpected. There was a stand of younger trees in the middle of the old ones. The tops of many of the older trees had been shaved off. and at the end of this stand was an old ship about fourty-eight feet wide and a hundred and fifty-three feet long. It had been there a while. The ship looked to be pre-war era and like had been here for nearly twenty years.

This would be their ticket out of here. He had a ship and a mechanic, now to see what condition it was in. "Hoffman, it seems you are in luck, it may not be a shipyard but it is a ship." He told him, as he walked up to the thing pulling vines from it looking for a way enter the thing. After several minutes of looking at it he finally found a way in. He tugged on the door. It took several pulles before it finally flipped open. No power was running to it so it took him pulling it fully open.

As it opened they could see a wave of bugs come from inside of the thing. It was going to take some work to get this thing in working order again.

[Friedrich Hoffman]

The fourth man just about sealed the deal. This was to be recon only. The two men waited until the other group passed them by before continuing off on their own. Sidney altered their course slightly so as to avoid running into them again.

As cautious as Friedrich was, he was still unsure of Sidney's motivation. This was a grand arena with hundreds, like the group they passed, fighting for control. Although it wasn't a perfect scenario, more targets than bullets, it was still very likely that they could have successfully ambushed that group. Surprise and the cover of darkness was on their side. Three quick shots and then a surprise two-on-one melee would probably have felled the fourth rather quickly. That would leave four less people trying to kill them while also racking up their supplies from what their opponents had collected.

Thinking and acting like that is what this contest was all about. Maybe that's why Sidney passed up the opportunity, a refusal to play a sick game. Maybe that's why they were hiking as far away from the others as possible rather than fighting, searching for weapons, or laying traps. Was his goal to escape on his own two feet if he had to?

An alternative to the impossible task of hiking off a hostile moon soon presented itself in the form of a wrecked ship. She was small, normally a bad thing except for being in such poor shape as she was. A smaller ship meant it would be easier to fix such catastrophic damage... if it could be fixed. If nothing else it provided them some shelter and maybe a source for other supplies.

After Sidney pried the door open, Friedrich quickly slipped inside. It was probably a good thing that it was near pitch black inside, a combination of the ship's lifeless state and the time of day. The machinist nearly tripped on God knows what littered the floor a few times before managing to reach the cockpit. At least here there was some moonlight through the viewports to allow him to see what he was doing.

Not that he was expecting it, but just to be on the optimistic and thorough side of things, he tried to fire up main power... nope. Secondary? Nope. After some quick checks "under the hood" he did manage to get emergency power on: low level lighting, basic life-support (which was quickly turned off to save power), and directed power to select terminals. It was enough to work with at least.

"Toll!" he said, looking back at Sidney who'd been stuck in the dark until a few seconds ago. "It is a start." He turned back to the small screen he had working and shook his head as he read. "Es ist baufällig... kaput... uh, in disrepair." He was kind of stating the obvious but he didn't want Sidney to get his hopes up and think that magically the ship was working again because the twenty year old batteries still held some kind of charge.

"I can do a full diagnostic in... tain minutes." he said looking back at the Major. After that he'd know what he'd probably be able to fix and what he wouldn't be able to manage. "Maybe zhere is tventy year ald meelk in ze galley or anozher bullet for your pistol." he said both jokingly and hinting that maybe Sidney could make use of the time searching the ship now that they had some light to work with, dim as it was.


[Toll - Great in the sense of "Shiny" in Firefly.
Es ist baufälligh... kaput... - It's dilapidated... broken...
Tain - I was trying to show the accent come through here with an in-between pronunciation. This is supposed to be "ten" but the "e" is being pronounced in the German long/hard "a" style just like "zehn", the German word for ten is.
Maybe zhere is tventy year ald meelk in ze galley or anozher bullet for your pistol. - Maybe there is twenty year old milk in the galley or another bullet for your pistol. - Just sound it out and you/and Sidney IC should be able to figure it out.]

[Sidney Bainbridge]

(Note: The power can be enough to get lights going but not enough to send a signal off world.)

Sidney was extatic that they had managed to get a bit of power back to the ship. It wasn't much and it wouldn't last long but it was a start. They would need to find some other source of power going eventually to get the thing up and running. For now though it would be seeing what supplies they hand and what they needed to get the thing space worthy again. There had to be some other place to get supplies along the way. They would just have to go in search of it at some point.

Sidney gave Hoffman a nod to the fact that he would have the diagnostic done in ten minutes. That would give them the run down on what they needed to do. Sidney smiled at his comment about ten year old milk and a bullet. "Even if it is only one bullet it will be helpful. I'll go see what I can find."

Sidney first stopped and looked around the cockpit. there was usually an emergancy supply kit in the cockpit. It didn't usually hold much but chem lights were a standard thing in them. When he found it he pulled the kit open. most everything was taken but there was a pair of chem lights along with a few band-aids to work with not that they needed those.

Sidney popped a red chem light and walked out of the cockpit. "you coming or staying here?" He asked before he began to walk down the corridor. It didn't take long till he realized what they had tripped over. An old member of the crew. It seemed it was a war relic after all. The person on the floor, only bones now, was wearing a brown coat like Sidney used to wear.

After a short walk they were in the hall to the crew quarters where another person had taken their final breath at the door to their quarters. Sidneys first thought was to give them a final resting place. These men were his brothers in arms or were at one point. He assumedit must have been closer to the end of the war. For a ship to have crashed this far out in the rim it was likely it was shot down at the end of the war. That would put this crash at twelve to fifteen years ago. That would be the time fram of the war being out here.

"We'll deal with supplies first then I'll deal with givin them their proper rights." She told Hoffman, it would be up to Hoffman if he joined in helping with that but it would happen either way. "Once you get a full idea of what you will need we will figure out what we need to do to get those supplies."

[Friedrich Hoffman]

"Ein Moment." Friedrich replied as he continued with the small monitor. He was doing a quick check of all the systems that were still reporting in to the helm, a rather underwhelming number. After that he could get headed to check on the systems that were down, power and the engine itself being the big tickets on the long list of repairs likely needed before they were spaceworthy.

Friedrich powered down his console after sending a signal to have those same dim lights and limited controls put on in engineering. He then got up and followed out behind Sidney. The mechanic came to the first corpse about the time his companion reached the second. "Scheiße!" he cursed under his breath. He wasn't quite as observant as Sidney to immediately recognize them as Browncoats. "Asche zu Asche." he said quickly as he made his way back to engineering.

The scene back there was about the same as the rest of the ship. Everything was a bit dusty, rusted, and of course very dark save what little light was glowing off emergency power. He also had another former crew member back there to keep him company. This one had the misfortune of having his head smashed on a nearby panel, on impact apparently, and then being tossed and partially wedged in the engine luckily postmortem.

Friedrich initially ignored him and pressed onward checking the systems. From the bridge only about 20% of systems were reporting in. Back from engineering about 60% were functioning. That meant that either the connections to the helm were faulty or it just wasn't reading them properly, not great news but better than being completely offline. Unfortunately, the systems still down included avionics, life support, and the entire power grid save what he was currently working with which wouldn't even be enough to send a wave off world.

Therefore, power was the number one concern and that meant getting the central turbine turning again. Friedrich thus had the unpleasant task of pulling his predecessor's lower body out from inside it. It was only then, on the necessary close inspection of the corpse that he noted the uniform. It was a bit disturbing but at the same time encouraging at least on Sidney's end of the mission. An Independent ship was bound to have some kind of weapons aboard. Maybe medical supplies, food, and other equipment would be short but no soldier was ever sent out into battle without a weapon.

After a few minutes of preliminary work he made his way back out to find Sidney in the small ship and report the state of their wreck.


[Ein Moment - A moment.
Scheiße - (of course)
Asche zu Asche - Ashes to ashes.]

[Ezekiel Leviticus]

Ezekiel surveyed the area and the ship before he entered. He was sure there was no one in the surrounding area and he hoped there wasn't many in the ship.

It was obvious that the ship had been there for a while. just from the undergrowth in the area he would guess around fifteen years. his eyes where adjusted to the dark but it would be a completely different of darkness.

When he was surveying the outside of the ship and the surrounding area he noticed that some lights had been turned on and a few minutes later he noticed a dim read light. Which could have been a flashlight or one of the emergency chem lights that most vessel's carried standard.

He approached the door cautiously he searched the cockpit and some of the crew quarters. he then continued clearing rooms until he reached the Engine room. he noticed some light coming from the engine room. He crept up on it without making a sound he stilled his breath and moved slowly to get a peek.

He saw to figures standing there. It looked like they where going to try and fix this heap.

Ezekiel stepped into full view of the door making a little noise but not enough to startle the men. He wanted his presences to be known. before stepping into full view he put his knife away and only had his gun in his hand. He didn't raise it at them he was hoping to find some allies to help survive with.

Please don't be alarmed i come in peace.

He knew that saying that would unsettle the men but he didn't have any other way to communicate to them that he meant no harm and wanted to see if they would be willing to survive with him.

[Sidney Bainbridge]

Sidney continued through the ship looking for supplies. THe gun lockers were stripped of nearly every. There was a standard issue rifle but no rounds for it. It seemed some of the crew had survived and taken most everything they could with them. Back in the war had it been Sidney he would have done the same as well so it made sense to him.

There was are few small things in the ship of use but nothing major to mention. Finally Sidney made his way back down to the engine room to meet with Hoffman about how things were going. Hoffman, what the situation look like." He asked as he walked in.

Once Hoffman told him the condition of the ship and they decided they would need to go look for more supplies soon Sidney figured it time to get some rest. Before that could happen though another man enter the Engine room. A knife in hand and a pistol at the low ready as well. Sidney quickly drew his revolver out raising it half way as the man spoke.

"I'm not planning to cause any issue if you aren't." Sidney replied quickly. He paused a moment as he though the situation over. It would be better to add people to their numbers then fight with them in the end. If they were to get supplies for this ship it would take alot of man power and it could handle about ten passangers tightly packed in to it. "Let's put the weapons away and we can discuss our thoughts from here." He suggested as he waited for the man to put his weapons away.

[Friedrich Hoffman]

Friedrich ran into Sidney almost immediately. The search had apparently only turned up a few odds and ends. It was as if the ship had mostly been stripped of supplies when it crashed, good news for the rest of the Browncoat crew but bad news for them now. Hoffman took the rifle from Sidney and immediately went into a muscle-memory flashback to his service days with a quick inspection of the weapon. It was in pretty good condition save for the magazine being empty. Still worth keeping though at least as long as they weren't making any long treks where it would just weigh them down.

“I can probably get secondary power on, but ze primary turbine needs serious verk and parts zhat ve don’t haf.” Friedrich reported. “Zhat vill give us enough to verk doors, charge batteries, filter air, turn ze lights on, send broadwave, usw. Everything zhat von’t get us off ze ground.” He rubbed his eyes from fatigue before then delivering the even worse news. “Except zhat avionics is partially fried… Comms are completely down. Life support is also limited. If ve seal ourselves off in zhe bridge and engineering respectively and only pressurize zhose areas zhen it should be enough.” That conclusion was actually based both on the life support and also concerns that other sections of the ship had breaches, something that would be death for anyone stuck in those compartments even if their systems were working at 100%. The bottom line was that they would not be able to make a call for help, and if they managed to power up the engines they’d really only be limping back to society with a severely damaged ship.

Friedrich saw Sidney's reaction before he ever noticed their visitor. Regardless, his hand went to the shoulder slung rifle to combat any threat, empty chamber or not. Luckily it didn't come to that and the prop weapon remained in a half-slung position as they spoke with the new arrival. The man was armed but apparently willing to deal, him not attacking them when their backs were turned was evidence enough of that.

It was hard to tell how this would play out even with that initial sign of good faith in not murdering them and the hopeful continuation if the man put his weapons away. Frankly they couldn't trust anyone they didn't know, particularly not the strong deadly type like this one appeared to be. If they weren't going to come to blows then it would be best to send him on his way. However, a ship that potentially might work was one thing they had going for them, something which made Friedrich more valuable alive than dead and by extension this extended to Sidney. Any rational person, no matter how determined or willing to kill to survive, would be willing to contribute to secure a ticket on the vessel.


[There's a lot of th to z like in the, w to v like in we, v to f like in haf, etc. Should be easy enough to understand.
Verk - work. I almost always do this with him. It's the phonetic spelling of the German word for it. Since the w to v system making vork is halfway there, he always goes full German with it.
Usw. - etc., literally is an abbreviate of "und so weiter" which means "and so on".]

[Ezekiel Leviticus]

After hearing one of the men speak to him He put his weapons away slowly. He kept his right hand on his knife but they where both sheathed and his hand was only resting on the handle.

He took a step back and raised his left hand about shoulder height.Like i said i mean you no harm, i just want to find a nice dry place to sleep for the night.

He was hoping everything would calm down and that everyone would keep a level head but he knew that was a lot to ask of anyone in a situation like this. Survival instincts kick in and some go batty he was just hoping that these men where prepared and ready for this kind of survival.

As he stood there waiting for them to holster and lower there weapons he said.I know it was bad form sneaking in here on you like i did, but i have had some bad run In's with some of the contestants. I'm hoping we can work together to keep ourselves safe. You don't know me from Adam but i am an honest man when i tell you i mean you no harm. My name is Jordan McCall That had been one of many of his aliases as an operative. Most of those names came easier to him to say then his own.

[Sidney Bainbridge]

Sindey lowered his weapon to his side as they continued to talk. It seemed that this fellow was not here to cause trouble, at least not at this point. Sidney was careful about it all though as this could just be a way to get them to open up with him then the danger would come. Though he had a chance to finish it before it began if he had really wanted to.

"We could use an extra hand around here getting this ship in order again." Sidney told him as he pointed to the engine of the thing that was off line. "Look if we can get this thing up and running we will be able to get some sort of signal out. Tomorrow we will get the last of the supplies gathered here and find out all the things we will need then we are going to have to head out and look for replacement parts for the ship out there."

They would need several more parts to get the ship up and running but they would be able to do so. Over the next serval hours the group talked through the stand off and looked things over. Sidney eventually leaned against the door leading in to the ship that night to fall asleep. When the following morning came He began the process of burying the fallen Browncoats from the war before the other two had rose from their slumber.

When the group was finally all awake they began to do a full check of the ship to find all of what they would need to get her running again. There was still be added checks to be done later but for now the plan was to get the systems running. They could worry about the over all condition of the ship later. Sidney had taken the time to look over the map fragments they have and using a peace of paper in the ship he sketched out the region they were in. The map was still missing well over half of it and on the few chunks they very few of them went together, yet.

Once it hit the morning of the third day they were finally ready to begin their trip out to find supplies. The three men got up early that morning and preped their packs. It would be out to the open feilds a few miles away to see if they could find any signed of civilization to gain supplies from. The open feilds were much more likely to have some old remanance of life then the forest.

(after finishing up here we will move to Winners and Losers To join with Clair and Onas)

[Friedrich Hoffman]

Friedrich released his grasp on the rifle strap and let the empty weapon slide back to rest on his back. Just as Friedrich had strongly mixed thoughts about trusting this man, he also had mixed feelings on spreading the word of their repair job, but in the end Sidney was right to gt it out there immediately. The couldn't work in absolute secrecy, they needed all the help they could get, and it strengthened their bond of trust, something that without such a common mission was incredibly fragile.

Friedrich spent a little more time tinkering with the ship before finally powering the emergency systems down and getting some sleep himself. A few more minutes of work wasn't going to get them out of there and his fatigue from working through the night would only hurt them the next day.

After a few short hours of rest, the mechanic was up and ready to go, or as ready as one could be with just a few hours rest, starvation rations, and everyone trying to kill you in some kind of sick game. With the aid of day light finding its way into the ship here and there, Friedrich did one last look over the ship and her systems. In the process, he managed to find one lose round for his rifle. It was buried in the pocket of the ship's deceased engineer, a clump of fabric that had been pulled into the engine. It was a bit comical to have only one round. Friedrich even wondered if it even was better than nothing.

[Ezekiel Leviticus]

Ezekiel slept very softly that night. He heard Sydney wake up but his foot steps weren't heading in his direction so he kept his eyes closed just to get a few more winks.
when he woke up he saw the man burying some of the dead of the crew. Ezekiel didn't understand his compassion for these men but if it made him feel better digging a couple of holes for these bodies he wasn't going to stop them.

Ezekiel decided that he should try and gather some food he didn't know what kind of supplies they had but he would need to find some food and water before moving on. He let the other two know that he would be back in a few hours and then vanished into the woods. He came across a stream the water was moving at a good clip and it looked relatively clean. he started a small fire and filled his metal canteen with the water and let it boil while he made himself a fishing spear.

The water was at a good boil when he decided to try out his new spear. he placed it in the water and slowly wondered the small stream looking for fish. he saw a decent sized salmon in the stream and struck out catching the fish. Just to be sure it didn't escape he pinned it to the bottom of the stream and grabbed it with his other hand. He then walked back to shore. his water should be good and starle by now so he removed it from the fire to cool so he could put his cap back on. while waiting he cleaned the fish and wrapped it in some leaves to keep fly's and the like out of it.

After a few hours he returned to camp with his catch. he signaled to them before he was in view. made a little fire and started to cook the fish. It was decent size and although it probably wouldn't fill them up they wouldn't have to waste there rations for the day, and it was an excellent source of protein.

Your welcome to share some fish if you would like. He gestured to both of them. He knew that no one trusted each other but eating together and working together would hopefully help them trust each other enough not to kill one another.