Nights on the Maltese

[The Third Triumverate]

Charli wobbled over to her suitcase, limbs still weak from being shredded minutes prior. She had forgotten if she had brought any sort of medical pack to bandage herself up. All the exhilarating murder had her brain in a tizzy!

After dealing with any nearby supplies, Charli opened the closet doors. She had-- quite obnoxiously-- stolen all the closet space herself. Charli, however, only wore replicas of her gray thong leotard. Nonetheless, she grabbed one and slipped it on before Olivia had time to object.

"I'll take any comments about my tits as compliments. Anyway, Olivia, what do you think we should do next? I'd like to find the Boss, but maybe we should make sure our own asses are covered first."

Charli gazed around the room for ideas. Unsure of how to get any information out of VI, she asked tentatively

"VI, what is your purpose?"

[exalted]

Jenny grumbled to herself as she mulled over her plan not working. If the automatic overrides had themselves been overridden then this wasn't some simple hackjob, someone had put a lot of time and effort into getting this done. Who knew what other systems had been tampered with, helm, lift... hell even the elevators could kill them if the whoever was behind this was creative enough.

Tossing the burning rag, she turned to go again, staying in place too long could get dangerous here. If whoever had planned this had gone to these lengths a simple shootout in the main hall was not going to be it. She needed this ship down and now. The Bridge would be useless, it probably controlled the ship by remote through the computer which was confirmed to be suss. No she needed to go the source, the Engine room itself, then maybe she could manually force the ship down regardless of the screwy computers. Damnit, this was why she hadn't let those damn tech heads near her car, computers just made everything screwy.

She rolled her eyes as Lia continued to whine, but didn't break her stride.

"You want to go play chairborne ranger, feel free," she muttered, activating her jacket again to morph into a mechanic work-wear garment, "I'm getting out of here."

Pulling her ball cap out from the jacket as it shifted form, she tucked it over her head and pulled the brim down to shield her eyes as she looked for a crew access way to get into the inner part of the ship and out of the guest area. Worst case scenario, the engine room should be bunkered enough for her to wait out the crazy.

[Littlemankitten]

Well, at least the VI still worked in giving people directions. Aesha rubbed her temples and sighed. "Come on Raelia, let's go." She motioned for Raelia to follow her and left the rooms, walking the path the VI told her was the quickest. She continued to be on the lookout, but thankfully it seemed like everyone on the ship vanished once the fighting broke out. At least in the area's they were walking anyway. Once they reached the dining hall Aesha almost immediately noticed there was someone else in the room, and just as she was about to put her gun up, she recognized who it was. Of course it was Mattia, she didn't even have to see his face to know. Only he of all people would decide to take a break in a battlefield to dance to a tune of a song made in extra-old America. When he noticed them and invited them to dance, Aesha just shook her head and sighed, facepalming.


"Mattia, this is no time to dance, we are in the middle of a battle zone, and I'm on my way to the command center of the airship so I can land the damn thing so we can get some backup and win this fight. You're free to join us if you like." Having dealt with him doing this more than a few times before, Aesha didn't even bother humoring him anymore, at least, not during a battle.

[lilbooth]

"Last I checked the boss was in the ballroom. Killing anything that moved. I'm all for loyalty toward the family and all that but I'd rather save my own ass first. There should be lifeboats on the ship somewhere. I say we try to go secure one for ourselves and get to the ground. But if you want to go earn some brownie points with Granpa Al we could try to take him with us. " Said Olivia in response.

[Mark3000]

As Henrietta and her bodyguard follow Vi's directions to the closest staff room. Reaching it, they find the door to be jammed. Either the door was malfunctioning or some one had barricaded it. Either way, she need a way off this ship. Getting close to the door, Henrietta speaks in a soft, quiet voice. " Hello? Is anyone there?" she said pitching her voice up to sound like some vapid bimbo. "I was like walking the halls when all of a sudden I heard gunfire. Me and my BFF are looking for a place to hide. We''ll do anything if you help use out." She says putting extra emphasis on 'anything' to try and charm her way inside.

Henrietta would wait for an answer. But if she didn't receive one, she'd just signal Rosella to break the door open.

[CondorBoH]

It was probably for the best that Henrietta did her thing when she did, otherwise said 'BFF" was going to try to break down this door. Some doors COULD actually be broken down, unlike the one from before. Her fingers still hurt from doing that. Rosella stepped away from the door, so that if anyone opened it they would see Henrietta being... well, Henrietta.
Drop dead gorgeous and sexy as all hell.

That, and Rose wanted to watch the way they had come. This many people trapped with guns out were bound to have the same ideas. If Romano goons realised that they wouldn't be getting through the escape boats, they would go for the next best thing. Which was follow the inbuilt VI's directions. Either way, if this hallway got more crowded than just the two of them, there would be problems.

[RandomRoninKitten]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Well, at least the VI still worked in giving people directions. Aesha rubbed her temples and sighed. "Come on Raelia, let's go." She motioned for Raelia to follow her and left the rooms, walking the path the VI told her was the quickest. She continued to be on the lookout, but thankfully it seemed like everyone on the ship vanished once the fighting broke out. At least in the area's they were walking anyway. Once they reached the dining hall Aesha almost immediately noticed there was someone else in the room, and just as she was about to put her gun up, she recognized who it was. Of course it was Mattia, she didn't even have to see his face to know. Only he of all people would decide to take a break in a battlefield to dance to a tune of a song made in extra-old America. When he noticed them and invited them to dance, Aesha just shook her head and sighed, facepalming.


"Mattia, this is no time to dance, we are in the middle of a battle zone, and I'm on my way to the command center of the airship so I can land the damn thing so we can get some backup and win this fight. You're free to join us if you like." Having dealt with him doing this more than a few times before, Aesha didn't even bother humoring him anymore, at least, not during a battle.

Raelia stared at Mattia as he danced, lowering her weapon when Aesha seemed to recognize him, and coughing, hoping nobody saw her taking aim. "He dances nice" she commented, nodding to herself as if to reinforce her statement, "I think you should dance with him." she concluded, smiling at Aesha.

[mrblah]

Lia groaned, face palming at the inadequacy and small-mindedness of her partner. "You're impossible. Do you really think we're getting out of here without getting into another scrap? Do you think you can hold off with just your secondary? Plus, how the hell do you intend to get out of here anyway?" She sighed, crossing her arms and glaring with irritation as Jenny's clothes changed. "... Never mind, I think I might be getting where you're going with this, and this plan's just as bad as the first one. I'm gonna go get my gun. I'm gonna find more of our people to scope out the situation on our side. Then I'm gonna find a way to open those doors, get on an escape pod, and get the hell out of here. You can come with me and we'll both have a better chance of surviving, or you can continue with this... idiocy."

With that said, Lia turned around and got walking down the hall, pulling out her S&M for WHEN she'll need it.

[mrblah]

RandomRoninKitten and Littlemankitten

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The carefree man smiled at Aesha's words, his wide grin telling of his amusement. "My dearest Aesha, surely you'd know with myself on board, I'd've attempted the very same plan you're proposing. And if my being here dancing the night away is suggestive of anything; it should be that I failed. Then you must assume whatever stopped me... was an opponent truly fearsome; and this entire thought process would be totally correct."

He sat down in a chair, then gestured for them to take a seat as well. "Relax with me a moment. Have some coffee. We'll come up with a better plan, but yours as is... well, it's total suicide with the opposition in the way, y'see. The command center's been taken over." Instead of further elaborating, Mattia then clapped his hands to summon one of the many robotic waiters waiting patiently on standby nearby. The nearest one was deployed, and he ordered three Lattes.

exalted and NPC

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The two split off midway in the hall, with Lia turning down it and Jenny marching forward... and as she searched for any form of crew access that would lead to any safer areas away from the passengers, she had stumbled upon a door with 'STAFF' written on it in all red and bold letters. As she reached out to grab the metal doorknob and open the door, she found that it was stuck, and from there, she had to break it open. [Strength check; Easy. Jenny = 7.]

The door was proving itself more difficult than she'd expected to knock it down, like something was jamming it or it was stuck in its door frame...

Mark3000 and CondorBoH

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

On the other side of the door... was no response of any sort. If there was anyone inside, they weren't making any noise whatsoever. So with that, Rosella had to step up to force the door open. Putting her hands against it, the tough woman merely had to give a push... and it was pushed right out of the doorway, revealing to the both of them what lied within. [Strength check; Easy. Rosella = 12.]

It was no wonder Henrietta got no response. There were people within the STAFF room for sure... but they were all on the floor, lifeless. Red painted the walls and the floor, and if you were to take a closer look, their wounds weren't actually from bullets. Sharp cuts and other such holes were in the bodies, suggesting that a knife was used to kill them all, and considering the fact that their were exactly 5 bodies, all with wounds in vital spots... it's safe to assume their killer was good. This was just the initial findings the two Alfonsi women had, thanks to their time spent in the mafia. They'd have to get a closer look to find anything more.

The rest of the room looked like more of a security room than anything else... which would make some sense, considering the size of the Maltese. There was a wall of monitors showing different parts of the most popular parts of the ship, a microphone for the intercoms, a small hatch to the right, and a few posters and such around that the crew themselves probably set up, mostly of bodacious, scantily clad women. Oh look, there was a popular super model there too. Angellica Woods.

The Third Triumverate and lilbooth

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

"My purpose is simply to aid all passengers of the Maltese to the best of my abilities, User #240404. I am capable of being used as effectively as a normal assistant; which includes such tasks as scheduling, providing directions, offering any helpful information I can, making calls, and telling jokes." Responded the VI in a neutral tone of voice. "I am also capable of playing chess and many other games."

[CondorBoH]

As the door fell away, Rosella couldn't help but scoff.
"You'd think the security room would be better secured, that was ea- fuck."
Her boast was cut off by the sight on the inside of the room, of the bodies strewn all about the floor. This was more than just typical gang rivalry, someone had absolutely set this up. Probably the Romani, all things considered. With a sigh, the bodyguard set the broken door onto the side and stepped back to usher her charge inside, though the tone of her voice made it clear that she was none to pleased with the situation.

"Well this is a fucking mess. Get inside, a room without a door and piled high with bodies is better than us just standing in the hallway waiting to get shot."

[Mark3000]

I look of shook crossed Henrietta's face as she saw the bloodbath in the STAFF room. Following Rosella's advice, she entered the room. Who ever did this was a pro, that's for sure. Kneeling down, she began to examine the bodies. Henrietta examined the wounds of course. But she also rummaged through their uniforms for anything useful. Wallets, Keycards, anything that could help them out of this situation. ".. Not like they're gonna need these anymore." She said to herself.

Looking around at the posters, Henrietta smirked. What she wouldn't give to have some of these girls working for her. Someone like Angellica Woods would be quite the catch.

Bringing her mind back to her current predicament, the voluptuous woman turned to the security display. She was looking for two people in particular, Grandfather Alfonsi and K.K. She wanted to avoid both of them at all costs. Knowing the old man, he was probably gone loco on some poor Romani bastard. And K.K was one of the few people that put the fear of god into Henrietta.

She also kept an eye out for Olivia. They weren't so much friends, more business acquaintances. Back when Henrietta was just starting to turn tricks, she and a few other girls helped Olivia to fill out a few shitty bars around town. Henrietta was always up to lending Olivia some of her girls... if the payout was good.

Ignoring the Microphone, the last item of note in the room was the Hatch. Looking for access to the ship's VI Assistant to help them figure out where the hatch leads.

[The Third Triumverate]

"VI, I CHALLENGE YOU TO A GAME OF CHESS! STAKES: CONTROL OF THE MALTESE!"

Charli laughed maniacally.

[Littlemankitten]

Aesha sighed at Raelia's words, turning her attention to Raelia, she gave her a slightly humored look. "I would dance with him, but I'm sure all the other girls that have the hots for him wouldn't want anymore competition." She chuckled to herself then turned her attention back to Mattia and rubbed her head. "I must admit, the pressure of the situation has been clouding my thought process. I still have yet to learn how to keep your calm in these kinds of situations. Also, I suppose you're saying either a high ranking Alfonsi member is in there, or maybe even Crazy Al himself." She then nodded at his invitation and took a seat at a table, sighing. "I suppose we have a few other options. Damage to structural or system integrity tends to illicit a immediate docking procedure that can't be overwritten, if we can damage a system that isn't vital to the ship's health, we should be able to make it land on its own accord. We could also find a staff terminal, and hack it to gain access to the main computer system, essentially gaining us control of the ship without being in the control room. Since most ships have ways to gain control of the ship in multiple locations to help stop terrorists gaining control of the only way. Plus, I doubt many Alfonsi hackers are anywhere near as good as us. Or, I suppose we can take the easy, but quite obvious route and try for the escape pods, but almost everyone on board will have had the same idea, and so who's to say its not just as dangerous as going for the control room?" Aesha leaned back in her chair and sighed, closing her eyes. "Or I suppose we can make the ship suffer a core meltdown and blow everyone to oblivion." She chuckled, obviously intending it as a joke.

[lilbooth]

"Charli now is not the time for chess! The ship is on fire and flying to who knows where! Even if you win, which seems like a big if, considering that this virtual intelligence is operating a giant flying cruise ship. We either find Al and leave or we just fucking leave!" Shouted Olivia over Charli's maniacal laughter.

[RandomRoninKitten]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Aesha sighed at Raelia's words, turning her attention to Raelia, she gave her a slightly humored look. "I would dance with him, but I'm sure all the other girls that have the hots for him wouldn't want anymore competition." She chuckled to herself then turned her attention back to Mattia and rubbed her head. "I must admit, the pressure of the situation has been clouding my thought process. I still have yet to learn how to keep your calm in these kinds of situations. Also, I suppose you're saying either a high ranking Alfonsi member is in there, or maybe even Crazy Al himself." She then nodded at his invitation and took a seat at a table, sighing. "I suppose we have a few other options. Damage to structural or system integrity tends to illicit a immediate docking procedure that can't be overwritten, if we can damage a system that isn't vital to the ship's health, we should be able to make it land on its own accord. We could also find a staff terminal, and hack it to gain access to the main computer system, essentially gaining us control of the ship without being in the control room. Since most ships have ways to gain control of the ship in multiple locations to help stop terrorists gaining control of the only way. Plus, I doubt many Alfonsi hackers are anywhere near as good as us. Or, I suppose we can take the easy, but quite obvious route and try for the escape pods, but almost everyone on board will have had the same idea, and so who's to say its not just as dangerous as going for the control room?" Aesha leaned back in her chair and sighed, closing her eyes. "Or I suppose we can make the ship suffer a core meltdown and blow everyone to oblivion." She chuckled, obviously intending it as a joke.

Raelia gets lost while listening to Aesha talk and spaces out in the middle, then starts wandering around the room, checking under tables and chairs and feeling along the walls, trying to find something useful. After she finishes searching the room, she starts keeping watch closest to the entrances to the room, with Mr. Thunder at the ready. When Aesha mentions the joke of blowing the ship up, she replies "But that sounds dangerous." without taking her eyes off the doors.

[exalted]

(Sorry for delay, life got busy)

Jenny rolled her eyes as the little Romano princess went on her rant. If the girl wanted to go be all Rambo, then let her, that wasn't Jenny's scene. Jenny was driver, crashing head on into a wall wasn't her style, in a race you kept moving, probing, always looking for the angle to get around the guy in front or get him off balance to pass. You can't win a race if your wreck your car getting around.

She grinned slightly as she saw the staff door, hoping her luck was finally starting to turn, but grimaced as it seemed jammed instead of locked. Inspecting the door quickly, she looked if the hinges were exposed so she could try and remove the pin and pull the door out. If not she would give it one last final kick, hoping to free it up before continuing on in search of another way out of these damned corridors.

[mrblah]

RandomRoninKitten and Littlemankitten

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The waiterbot had returned with the requested drinks while Aesha spoke, and placed them down on the table. Mattia was quick to pick up the cup and sip it, unconcerned with the piping hotness of it characterized by its steam. His mouth must have burned from that... but he didn't look phased. "Interesting ideas... the first idea's flaws are that damaging the ship enough to make it dock most likely won't work. I believe whoever's hijacked us had planned for that very scenario and has dealt with it. And as you said, the closest escape pods probably would be flooded with many trying to make use of them, but even if they weren't it'd still not be a possible escape route for the same exact reason... unless of course, you somehow dealt with the issue in the control room." Another sip of his latte.

"Hacking into the ship from a terminal in one of the STAFF rooms would be our best bet. Then we could override the controls, and from there, we'd gain communication with the outside world. It'd be a simple matter of calling one of our own ships to extract us then." His suave smile never left his face, and after proposing his plan, he asked Aesha a simple question. "What do you think?"

Raelia's search seemed to only come up with one particular object - or rather, weapon. She had found Mattia's RPG, which was carelessly left out in the open under a table. "Ah, do be careful with that, dear! The recoil is a killer." Called Mattia.

exalted

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

[Strength check; Easy. Jenny = 11.]

The door had no exposed hinges, and so Jenny had to try again to break the door down. It proved easier than the first time (probably thanks to said first time) and the door fell to the ground with a loud noise. Someone down the hall could've heard it, but that wasn't necessarily up high on Jenny's list of concerns. At the very least, it probably shouldn't be, what with the many dead bodies in the STAFF room.

Six bodies laid lifeless in the room, with their blood apparently spilled out on the walls and the floor. Sharp cuts and stab wounds seemed to be the culprit of the late crew's demise, suggesting that a knife was used to kill them all... but six bodies? With all the wounds being in vital spots of the body? Their killer must have been a professional.

Putting the corpses aside for now; the rest of the room looked like more of a security room than anything else. There was a wall of monitors showing various places on the ship (usually with a high up view of these places), a microphone for the intercoms, a small hatch to the right, and blood on the walls. Some of the monitors appeared broken, though. Notably, the control room's monitor, all of the bathrooms' monitors, and a few other ones.

Mark3000 and CondorBoH

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Henrietta's search of the bodies only turned up with STAFF key cards, which seemed to have a clearance level of 3. The bodies seemed lacking in both ID badges and phones; something strange in this day and age. All crew members were assigned with an ID badge, and one's phone carried everything from their credit chit to their other identification. They must have been picked clean already if every body was missing those essentials.

Checking the monitors, Henrietta hadn't managed to spot any of her targets, which at the very least meant that neither K.K nor Crazy Al were nearby. On the flip-side; Olivia wasn't, as well. She was able to note the locations in which fights were happening, and if she thought carefully, odds were good she could map out a safe route through the ship to some areas nearby with the VI's help... wait, there was something else. One of the monitor's displayed the situation inside the dining hall, and on the other side of the dining hall's doors. It displayed two people (probably Romanos) sitting at a table, with one shorter girl holding a rocket launcher off to the side. But on the hall leading to the dining hall was a group of men led by a familiar face...

Oh well, not like it matters. VI answered the question by saying it was the crew's method of moving through the ship quickly, and no more. It seemed like the rest of the information was classified to passengers... but the hatch had a slot for a key card to be inserted into. Henrietta probably had just the necessary key card that she filched from that poor dead schmuck in one of the chairs.

The Third Triumverate and lilbooth

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

"Of course, User #240404. I will be happy to play such a game with you on those terms." A holographic chess board appeared in the center of the room, with the pieces all set and ready to be moved. "Let's begin."

[Intelligence check; Impossible. Charli = 12.]

Charli was checkmated in a single minute. VI performed as if it knew exactly what she'd do before she even tried it. "This was very fun, User #240404, but I believe I've won. If you wish, I'd be happy to play you again at any time." Its synthetic voice almost sounded mocking.

[The Third Triumverate]

Charli scowled. No, scowled wasn't the right word. Her shoulders shrugged up and her head sagged; hot, flushed, crimson washed over her face; and she muttered borderline insane murmurings under her shallow, ragged breath.

"Alright Olivia. Alright. Lets just... 'fucking leave' . . ."

As soon as they both had exited the room, Charli turned and glowed with sudden jubilance.

"AHAHAHAH! Take this, bitch!" Charli cackled as she hurled incendiary death at the room with her flamethrower.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

use one ammo lol

[Mark3000]

The more Henrietta looked at these bodies, the less she liked this situation. Who ever had taken out the staff had been precise. There was a good chance most of the crew had met the same fate. The chances of her finding a way off this ship were growing slimmer by the minute. She made note of the Romanos waiting in the Dining Hall. But what peeked her interest were the group of men just in the hall. If that was who she thought, those three were in for a hell of a time.

"Alright, lets see if we can make a quick detour to our rooms to retrieve the rest of our weapons. Something tells me we're gonna be here for the long haul." She said checking the VI to see if she could plan a route.

"Once we're better armed, we'll return hear and check on the situation in the Dining Room" She said pointing to the monitor. " If my friend over here seems to have the edge we'll join up with him. If not, we'll make our way to the bridge" In truth, Henrietta was starting to run out of ideas.

[lilbooth]

Olivia grimaced at Charli's remark. How fucking dare she mock me like that! She thought to herself, getting more impatient and angry with each passing moment. Luckily there were a few moments left before they were on their way. Just before Olivia had time to sigh with relief as the two of them exited the room Charli let out a torrent of flame and shouted. At first Olivia thought maybe the fire was coming for her so she quickly ducked out of the way, but soon she realized that Charli was simply stoking the flames on the already mangled Maltese. When her spray of fire had ended Olivia reached with one hand and held Charli's face, doing that annoying grab that holds your jaw still but presses your cheeks in at the same time. "Listen here bitch, I may not be made but I'm still family and your senior. We may be related but we're not friends so you don't get to take that tone with me! If I was in my right mind I would've walked away when you challenged the fucking computer to chess. But you're family too and I can't just leave ya' here. SO, stick close, don't light me on fire, and we'll get to the ground." She said, finally releasing Charli's face and turning back to hallway ready to proceed to the lifeboats.