[M:0]
Post by Onas Knox on Dec 6, 2012 21:03:21 GMT -5
There was a tighness in his throat, but he wasn't short of breath. Nor was he thirsty. His back ached only a bit from stiffness, but it was too early. Onas didn't want to roll over, much less wake up. His window blinds were up, the room was so bright. He could ignore it. A tickle, trikled down his lip. But he was so comfortable, to exausated to move, to tired to scratch the itch.
He had been busy since the captain left, working on the ship. The Athena was a first class beauty, no doubt about it. She had every last bell and wistle that the showroom floor could grant. A factory marvel. But so had the courtuose, and look what the reavers had done to her with a dumpsters worth of spare parts and magnets. The Athena was of better stock to be sure, but she had no onboard weapons, her hard points were dorsal and belly. She was too vunerable from the stern and Onas knew it far too well. The captain Had ordered the ship left in storage, but Onas had it brought back out. Priya was long gone, Jeff and Roxie too. Now all he had was the Dutchess.
It had started as a simple weapons upgrade packet. That was going to be it. Onas called in a few favors and had a friend of his, Nickolas Exum, to meet him with a crew. The first problem they ran into was that the stabilisers couldn't support the wings wieght with the payload mounted, turns out the supports were solid welded in place, rather than the more costly, but infinantly stronger, solid cast frame. Onas and Nick sat and worked out what they needed to gather to have the proper supplies on hand, There were so many defferent senarios that could potientialy go wrong, the two of them decided to strip her down to her netheregions, and reinforce the ships infrastruction.
Damn that itch in his throat, and his mouth felt itchy, wet even. Was he slobbering on himself?
Onas thought on about the Dutchess, or Athena as the world called her, After nine ships had been handpicked, recovered and flown in, the duo had all the spare parts they would ever need, and the Athena's so called storage facility began to look more like a junkyard. Once the main supports were reinforced, the main reactor seats wear removed, and replaced with larger ones from a more powerful ship. Here, Onas added sixty percent more power output capabilitys to the reactor than the original core alone was capible of. Perhaps not as modern, it did required more cooling, but it was worth it. After that, Nick recomended adding two more stabilisers to the main chaisse on the stern of the ship, and again on the aft. So the Athena originally had four thrusters, and now with far more power than they would need, she had four more, making a total of eight thruster Turbines, and a heavaly improved main engine. In short, she was small and nimble before, but now she was strong enough, and tough enough, to run the original Athena down, and then run her over.
His shoulder was tight so he leaned against it and tried to pop it.
When that failed Onas thought about all the new systems they installed. Onas knew man who once told him that the reason honest people never get ahead was because they lived right at their means. The Athena was at her limits from the factory, but with sixty percent more energy coming from the beast now powering her, he wouldn't have thought he'd ever see that problem again.
But... if would appear there was still only a finite amount to go around after all. What with the extra systems they snatched off the other ships brought in originally for their fusalage. Once Nick and Onas got going on a project, they poetically forgot about the outside world. Thinking back on it now, it showed then. Because three of the starships brought in for steel, were nothing more now than piles of wire and large plates stacked against the walls with paper signs taped over their resting places like headstones in a graveyard.
Betweeen the twelve men working, they replaced or upgraded nearly every system on the ship from navigation, to comunication, to improved living quarters, to weapon systems, even new subsystems like added running lights... Every time they did this, Onas whatched the power required to run the ship climb just a little bit more. Now, the Dutchess was back to living at her max poteintial again. That's forgeting of course that her peak power output would have 'everything' in the vessel running wide open, and that they could still make 8.2 at the mast. Even inside an atmoshpere. Even inside an atmoshpere in combat. Even inside an atmoshpere in combat, with a turbine down! Thus, Onas' original goal was satisfied, by safely putting all but the fastest of attack craft in her reactor wake.
The job always seemed to hit another snag though, the mix and match systems had bad relays and misfires galore. It seemed everytime they fixed one circut, another would blow. In fact the last thing Onas clearly remembered, was stripping wires in the ducts of the ship, he must have sleepwalked to bed.
His chin tickled. It was definantly wet, and dripping down. This time Onas made contact with his face, and he felt something over his mouth...
His first reaction was panic, something was covering his mouth and nose. Despite the fact that he could breath just fine, it induced a paniced responce, and Onas snatched the airmask off his face! As he quickly yanked it off, the tube running down his throat came slidding out. Every centimeter of it was felt and made him involentarily dry heave. The tube must have been there for a while, because it felt, whats the word? Attached? No, glued, or otherwise embeded to the inside of his throat, it might have felt the way a scab would feel when your tearing it off. Painful? Perhaps a bit, but also a relief. Oddly enough, it was now harder to breath.
He had another tube in his arm, which he promptly removed, and another in his... Well, lets just say that it was the worst possible place for a man to have a needle sized tube. We can leave it at that. Onas got to his feet shakily, and tested his legs. He had a headache, and he wanted a ciggerette almost imediantly. Ba shoi hospitals. This is why he never saw doctors. Had he had an accident? Where was he? Why was it so hard to breath? God he wanted a cigger... oh yeah, thats why.
He walked to the door and opened it, his hand twitching as it clasped the cold brass knob. He must have been out for a while, how could he be so weak? The door opened easy enough, it had a silent, power assisted armeture attached that did most of the work for him, just like a big hospital, spending more money on the building than the damn patients.
He hadn't yet tried to speak, but hear his voice came out so weak, he couldn't hear it. Onas attempter to clear his troat, but he had no saliva, so it did little good. He tried again, this time a harsh, crakled voice that resembled his was feeblely produced.
"heeii..... Hello?"
He had been busy since the captain left, working on the ship. The Athena was a first class beauty, no doubt about it. She had every last bell and wistle that the showroom floor could grant. A factory marvel. But so had the courtuose, and look what the reavers had done to her with a dumpsters worth of spare parts and magnets. The Athena was of better stock to be sure, but she had no onboard weapons, her hard points were dorsal and belly. She was too vunerable from the stern and Onas knew it far too well. The captain Had ordered the ship left in storage, but Onas had it brought back out. Priya was long gone, Jeff and Roxie too. Now all he had was the Dutchess.
It had started as a simple weapons upgrade packet. That was going to be it. Onas called in a few favors and had a friend of his, Nickolas Exum, to meet him with a crew. The first problem they ran into was that the stabilisers couldn't support the wings wieght with the payload mounted, turns out the supports were solid welded in place, rather than the more costly, but infinantly stronger, solid cast frame. Onas and Nick sat and worked out what they needed to gather to have the proper supplies on hand, There were so many defferent senarios that could potientialy go wrong, the two of them decided to strip her down to her netheregions, and reinforce the ships infrastruction.
Damn that itch in his throat, and his mouth felt itchy, wet even. Was he slobbering on himself?
Onas thought on about the Dutchess, or Athena as the world called her, After nine ships had been handpicked, recovered and flown in, the duo had all the spare parts they would ever need, and the Athena's so called storage facility began to look more like a junkyard. Once the main supports were reinforced, the main reactor seats wear removed, and replaced with larger ones from a more powerful ship. Here, Onas added sixty percent more power output capabilitys to the reactor than the original core alone was capible of. Perhaps not as modern, it did required more cooling, but it was worth it. After that, Nick recomended adding two more stabilisers to the main chaisse on the stern of the ship, and again on the aft. So the Athena originally had four thrusters, and now with far more power than they would need, she had four more, making a total of eight thruster Turbines, and a heavaly improved main engine. In short, she was small and nimble before, but now she was strong enough, and tough enough, to run the original Athena down, and then run her over.
His shoulder was tight so he leaned against it and tried to pop it.
When that failed Onas thought about all the new systems they installed. Onas knew man who once told him that the reason honest people never get ahead was because they lived right at their means. The Athena was at her limits from the factory, but with sixty percent more energy coming from the beast now powering her, he wouldn't have thought he'd ever see that problem again.
But... if would appear there was still only a finite amount to go around after all. What with the extra systems they snatched off the other ships brought in originally for their fusalage. Once Nick and Onas got going on a project, they poetically forgot about the outside world. Thinking back on it now, it showed then. Because three of the starships brought in for steel, were nothing more now than piles of wire and large plates stacked against the walls with paper signs taped over their resting places like headstones in a graveyard.
Betweeen the twelve men working, they replaced or upgraded nearly every system on the ship from navigation, to comunication, to improved living quarters, to weapon systems, even new subsystems like added running lights... Every time they did this, Onas whatched the power required to run the ship climb just a little bit more. Now, the Dutchess was back to living at her max poteintial again. That's forgeting of course that her peak power output would have 'everything' in the vessel running wide open, and that they could still make 8.2 at the mast. Even inside an atmoshpere. Even inside an atmoshpere in combat. Even inside an atmoshpere in combat, with a turbine down! Thus, Onas' original goal was satisfied, by safely putting all but the fastest of attack craft in her reactor wake.
The job always seemed to hit another snag though, the mix and match systems had bad relays and misfires galore. It seemed everytime they fixed one circut, another would blow. In fact the last thing Onas clearly remembered, was stripping wires in the ducts of the ship, he must have sleepwalked to bed.
His chin tickled. It was definantly wet, and dripping down. This time Onas made contact with his face, and he felt something over his mouth...
His first reaction was panic, something was covering his mouth and nose. Despite the fact that he could breath just fine, it induced a paniced responce, and Onas snatched the airmask off his face! As he quickly yanked it off, the tube running down his throat came slidding out. Every centimeter of it was felt and made him involentarily dry heave. The tube must have been there for a while, because it felt, whats the word? Attached? No, glued, or otherwise embeded to the inside of his throat, it might have felt the way a scab would feel when your tearing it off. Painful? Perhaps a bit, but also a relief. Oddly enough, it was now harder to breath.
He had another tube in his arm, which he promptly removed, and another in his... Well, lets just say that it was the worst possible place for a man to have a needle sized tube. We can leave it at that. Onas got to his feet shakily, and tested his legs. He had a headache, and he wanted a ciggerette almost imediantly. Ba shoi hospitals. This is why he never saw doctors. Had he had an accident? Where was he? Why was it so hard to breath? God he wanted a cigger... oh yeah, thats why.
He walked to the door and opened it, his hand twitching as it clasped the cold brass knob. He must have been out for a while, how could he be so weak? The door opened easy enough, it had a silent, power assisted armeture attached that did most of the work for him, just like a big hospital, spending more money on the building than the damn patients.
He hadn't yet tried to speak, but hear his voice came out so weak, he couldn't hear it. Onas attempter to clear his troat, but he had no saliva, so it did little good. He tried again, this time a harsh, crakled voice that resembled his was feeblely produced.
"heeii..... Hello?"
