A Pirate's Life For Me

[Krad Zephyros]

Pirates have been known to sail the vast oceans of worlds, but what was stopping them from setting sail across the star ocean? Nothing. Space Pirates ruled the Free Zone. The only big threat they faced was the Alliance’s strained military, which rarely crossed the border of the two Zones. This particular pirate ship was known for its reign across the border. They targeted mostly cargo ships that supplied the Alliance Military. For them it was a two-for-one deal: they get to pillage and plunder Alliance-level equipment as well as weaken the only threat to their reign.

Krad was now among this band of thieving pirates. He was picked up by them a week ago stranded on some arid rock of a moon that had no name. Recently, the pirates chased down and raided a cargo ship that fled into the Alliance Zone, but as they were heading back into their own space, the bridge picked up something on the monitor. It was a stray escape pod floating deeper into the quiet void.

An antique-old escape pod that revolutionized the escape pod industry. “That baby could launch an entire room!” One of the pirates exclaimed. “Even if we can’t fetch a good price, it’ll still come in handy!”

”Well then let’s grab it.” Krad spoke with a small grin as he stood beside the captain of the ship. The massive pirate ship pulled aside the capsule and, with a cyan blue tractor beam, reeled in the room-sized pod like a fisherman’s line.

The pirates made their way down to the cargo bay aside from the captain and his first two shipmates. The bay wasn’t too far from the bridge. The scruffy, dark-bearded and muscle-bound pirates paraded through the metallic halls of the ship; the worn leather of their boots plopping through as they went.

Their ship was not in the best of condition on the inside. Pipes that lined the ceiling whistled steam through rusted holes and lights flickered on and off as the massive hunk of metal moaned with every turn and wave of gravity that brushed against it. The cargo bay was just big enough to contain the large escape pod. The air lock shut tight and pumped oxygen into the room before the doors to the bay slid open, spilling the light from the hallway into the room.

There sat the massive pod, surrounded by discarded junk piles of old robots and machines the pirates found no use for. “Damn…” One of the pirates whistled, but the other two didn’t look very impressed.

“It’s a hunka junk!” One shouted. “The damn thing’s got three different shades a rust.”

“I say we dump ‘er back in da garbage. Let some trash world eat what’s lefta‘er.” The other scoffed as he walked from the room.

Krad stayed with the pod though, along with the only pirate who could appreciate its value. “This has to be at least fifty years old. It’s a one-of-a kind.”

“I say chuck it.” The other pirate replied as he walked from the bay with a disappointed look.

“You see the beauty in it, doncha, Krad?”

”Eh…” the young man spoke with carelessness. ”It just looks like a rusty piece of crap to me.”

“Bah, whadda you know, eh? Yer far too young to appreciate the innovativeness o’ dis here vessel. Now if only I could get it open…!” The old pirate struggled with a crowbar to try and pry the capsule open from the bottom up. “D-damn… thing’s rusted shut… I just can’t-”

He froze when he heard the reinforced glass groan as it was slowly pried open. Looking to his side he saw the young Krad fit his fingers into a dent just between the glass capsule and the rest of the pod. It must have taken a literal ton of force to accomplish what this blue-haired adventurer was doing bare-handed. The rust began to crack and the inside of the capsule flashed with blue light as it came online. Freezing cold mist poured from the cracks in the structure and Krad, with one final heave, separated the glass from its barings.

The plate broke from the rusty pod and slowly began to open. “Ha! You’re a friggen monster, son!” The old pirate cheered as the two watched the capsule slowly open. A bright blue light from inside the pod poured into the room, shining down on the two like a spotlight.

Krad and the old pirate watched on as the capsule fully lifted, but when the blue mist cleared, they were rattled at what they saw sleeping inside.

[Meiling]

It was unsure how long Meiling had been asleep. Her long black hair scattered across the pillows, ears lightly folded back against her head. Her skin was almost white compared to her hair and black eyelashes, which gently caressed her slightly tinted cheeks. And her ruby lips where slightly apart as if puckered for first loves kiss. As she slept her tail was wrapped loosely around on of her legs. It must have been a mix of a cute and arousing imagine. She laid still, as if the futuristic sleeping beauty, but after the pod had been opened the little protective tube slid away and into the wall. With herself now exposed to the new fresh cool air, it brushed against her skin and her body shivered.
Her eyes slowly flickered open, bright, icy blue orbs glancing around. There was blue smoke like stuff in the air. She was still half asleep and didn't realise what was going on. She sat up slowly- grabbing onto a handle on the wall to hold herself up. Was there shapes there in the misty blue smoke?? Maybe it was her parents. Maybe she was back on her planet.

Her ears twitched forwards to listen, her noise wrinkled only slightly. They didn’t smell like her parents. Or anyone she knew for that matter. And that’s when the mist disappeared and she saw, what she thought, was two Myrthra.

At first she was confused, she didn’t know what was going on. The she realised something. She moved quickly to stand on the bed. Maybe she thought having higher ground would save her? She made sure her back was into the corner and she glanced around somewhat frantically, as if wanting to escape from these weird things.

At last she looked at them, and in a shaky but somewhat musical tone of voice called out in her native tongue. “W-What happened to your ears??! A-And your tails??!” As she shouted, clearly distressed and scared, her pearly white fangs where on show. Her hands search the wall behind her and she grabbed something white and round.

It was one of the first things she found on the ship she was shot out from. A skull. She threw it hard at the men, and then tried to pull a pipe from the wall for a weapon. It wouldn’t budge but she still tugged fiercely. She was still half asleep, and probably somewhat deprived of oxygen. The pod was not brand new and probably didn’t keep her well sustained.

(OOC:||: This is gunna be fun~)
(WC |: 421)

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[Krad Zephyros]

The two man looked at the sleeping Myrthra woman. Krad was very familiar with their species. They were the first race who introduced him into this side of the galaxy. The old pirate next to him, however, seemed to be overly-enthralled by her appearance. Against her near white skin, her bright lips and dark hair vibrated. She almost glowed with the alien light from the pod.

"A Myrthra...?" The pirate stammered. Krad remained silent; stunned to see one of the beast-people in this part of the galaxy. All the colonies he knew about were much deeper in Alliance territory. Krad watched the girl sleep, that is, until her ear twitched to life. The pirate gasped and stepped back, but Krad stood there with his arms partially relaxed. The Myrthra stirred slightly, then moved in to an upward sitting position. Though fearful, the pirate thought this a beautiful slight, that is, until her eyes met with them.

She jumped like a startled mouse and shot up in a higher position, startling the pirate. She spoke in a language alien to his own and, with fear static in her tone, the pirate thought it a hostile message. Claws and fangs were the only thing he was paying attention to.

Krad understood the young girl's fear and held his arms out in a non-threatening way, but before he could say anything, a skull came flying at them. "Shit! What the hell is that?!" The pirate went to reach for his blaster, but Krad called out to him.

"Hang on!" Krad exclaimed and gestured at the pirate to lower his weapon. The man looked at him for reassurance, and Krad gave it. The pirate lowered his pistol and Krad turned towards the frightened girl who looked like she was trying to rip the pipe off the wall.

She spoke Hirokan, the language of the Myrthra, and Krad switched his dialect to match hers. He learned it from the ones who rescued him, but not in great detail. The more complicated, extended sentences he knew he learned from performing songs with a rock group on the planet, which is why, when speaking in this language, it sounded almost like he was singing it.

"It's okay... you're safe." It was obvious this was not his first language, but he was still able to communicate effectively. "You can come down from there. I doubt you will be able to rip that pipe off the wall."

The pirate was staring at Krad with a bit of amazing. They didn't know a lot about Krad, but nobody would see this coming.

"And we do not have ears, or tails for that matter. We're human." Krad then gave a curious head-tilt before asking the girl, "Do you know what Humans are?"

Krad was not the nicest person in the world. He felt a lot of contempt for almost all life forms, but after escaping his captors and being saved, he developed a soft-spot for the Myrthra people. They've given him a lot and taught him much more. Out of all races, he minded them the least.

[Meiling]

"It's okay... you're safe. You can come down from there. I doubt you will be able to rip that pipe off the wall."

She paused on the spot- and slowly looked over at him- her ears folding back to lay flat against her hair. She let go of the pipe and turned her body to face them fully.

"And we do not have ears, or tails for that matter. We're human. Do you know what Humans are?"

As she shook her head a little her hair swayed around her shoulders and down her back. This 'human' seemed to speak her language. Maybe he was trustworthy? Her eyes darted to the other human though. She moved to climb off the bed and stand next to it. She didn’t know where she was, or how she got here. She didn’t understand the way the pod worked, or anything else on the old crashed spaceship for that matter. She didn’t even realise how far away from home she must have been.

She opened her mouth to speak but there was so many question in her head, which one was the best to start with? Who, where, what, when or how? Best to start with Where. “Where am I?” Her tail swayed behind her a bit frantically, showing her that her mood was somewhat unsettled. Her ears suddenly plucked forwards and her eyes grew with curiosity, making them even sparkly a little in the light. What was those sounds she heard? It was the sounds of the ship, ones humans would either hardly hear or not hear at all. But of course she didn’t know what the sounds where. All she knew it was new.

She loved new things. That was why she travelled into the forbidden forest. She wasn’t to explore, discover new things! Her blue orbs turn back to look at them questioningly. “What kind of place is this?”

(OOC:||: Sorry its short x.x didnt know what else to put to beef it up DX)
(WC:||: 319)

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[Krad Zephyros]

As she spoke, the pirate grew wary of her foreign tongue. He didn't like things he didn't understand, but to see how Krad interacted with it made him a bit more at ease. He was more interested in the escape pod than the girl who came from it.

Krad continued to speak with the Myrthra. He offered a helping hand to assist her from the pod and on to the metal floor of the room. "You're on the Grimmere: A dinky little pirate ship, but it gets the job done." The only thing the old pirate understood was the name of his ship, but he didn't like the cocky tone in Krad's voice.

"How do you know dat there language o'hers?" He asked once he reholstered his blaster.

Krad switched his dialect to Common to answer the man. "I guess you could say the Myrthra helped me out a few years back. I know a lot about them." His attention then went back to the girl. "I'm guessing you've never been on a space ship, or in space for that matter." He smirked and his head tilted playfully to the side to mimic gestures he learned on the Myrthra planet.

"Here, come on out. I'll show you around. You must have been on some type of ship to be launched out inside an escape pod." The pod was, indeed, huge. He could see why they might have discontinued making them that size. They would be extremely difficult to pick up by normal-sized ships. She was lucky this particular craft was the size of a large-scale gunship.

"Be careful with that there thing. I hear they can transform into animals that'll rip yer throat out before you could holler fo help." Not many humans spend much time with Myrthra, so many are somewhat wary of them; especially humans from the Free Zone since there is a scarce number of Myrthra colonies in that territory. People tend to naturally fear what they don't understand.

[Meiling]

"You're on the Grimmere: A dinky little pirate ship, but it gets the job done."

Pirate Ship? What on earth is that? She new what a ship was. Her town back home had a small one to sail on the waters. But nothing like this. She watched as the two humans talked. She didn’t understand anything they said but the word Myrthra of course. When he tilted his head and asked if she'd been on a spaceship or in space, she couldn’t help but copy his action. Her ears twitched around a lot as if to try and pick up all the sounds around them.

“..No... I've been on a boat before.” She remembered the days she would go out on the little boat to fish- normally end up in the water scaring all the fish away. She loved to swim so much.

"Here, come on out. I'll show you around. You must have been on some type of ship to be launched out inside an escape pod."

She looked at his hand. She didn’t have much choice but to believe him, as so far she had no reason to think he meant her any harm. She placed her delicate hand in his and climbed out the pod. The metal felt weird but familiar against her bare feet. The crashed ship on her planet was at an angle so it was more like a climbing frame then corridors and what not.

She heard the tone of the other man and felt on edge. She felt as if he seemed to not like her very much. But what could she do about that? “I wasn’t on a ship...I was in the old ruins in the forest...It was made out of this shiny stuff.” She pointed with her hand, now taking it out of his as she was out of the pod, and pointed at the pod. She noticed all her stuff in the pod and looks at the humans. “Your not going to steal my stuff are you?Its Mine- I found it fair and square!”

(WC:||: 345)

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[Krad Zephyros]

"Well? Come now?" The old pirate grunted. "What's she goin' on about? What's she sayin'?"

Krad looked back towards him after helping the girl from her pod. "She doesn't want you takin' any of her things. She said she found them fair and square." He snickered a bit. Even though she looked like a full adult that struck him as a childish statement. Of course, where Krad came from, ownership wasn't dictated by who found what first, but who could kill the most to maintain it. This side of the galaxy was so tender about the way they did things, especially the Alliance. It isn't that Krad is a bad guy, but it's just that he needs more than a life full of tippy-toeing around rules and regulations.

"Aww what's she gonna do with it?"

Krad ignored the old man and continued to listen to the girl. What she described must have been an old ship that crashed on her planet. He spoke to her again, a bit more relaxed this time. It seemed he'd gained her trust for the moment. "If you've never been in space you might be a little shocked." He took advantage of this chance to take hold of her hand and he gave an almost flirtatious smirk. "Follow me. I'll show you." There was something oddly attractive about the Myrthra. It didn't matter though. Women were women, and my his standards, she was a bombshell.

Soft, luminous skin. Voluptuous curves. Yeah, this one was a keeper. "Remember," he called out in Common. "Don'ttouch her stuff."

Yeah, yeah... squawked the old space dog as he watched the two of them exit the room.

When Krad lead the Myrthra girl out in to the hallway, he started a small conversation with her as head made his way towards the bridge, which wasn't that far off. "The name's Krad, by the way." The steam from the metal pipes spat through the rusty spots periodically. It probably would have startled the inexperienced young girl, but it wasn't anything dangerous.

"There are a few things you should know about space." He started with a friendly smirk. "Lesson number one: you should learn how to speak Common. Like the name says; its the common language here in space."

[Meiling]

Some may call Meiling childish, but what do you expect from the youngest child of 9? She didn't HAVE to grow up because there was not very much for her to take responsibilities for. She was lucky that she has so many people around her that loved her. They probably didn't notice her missing until dinner time came around.

"If you've never been in space you might be a little shocked. Follow me. I'll show you."

Meiling couldn't stop the rosy tint to her cheeks as he took her hand again and smirked at her. Again because of her young age she had not much experience of boys, let alone men. She was half to blame for that though, because she kept herself away from the boys in her town. She didn't mean to be mean but she found them rather dull and tiresome.

Just before leaving the room she glanced over her shoulder at the man. He didn't need to know her mother tongue to understand the look in her eyes. 'I'm watching you!' It threatened. Then she looked forwards again and let Krad lead her.

"The name's Krad, by the way."

She flinched a little when the steam from the metal pipes hissed, her body bumping into his and she replied with a hiss of her own. Her tail had fluffed up a little and her ears laid back, it was a natural reaction after being startled but when she realized it was just steam she let down her guard. “My name is Meiling.” She perked her ears forwards again and looked at him, when she noticed they where walking a bit close she felt her cheeks redden again and moved away a little.

"There are a few things you should know about space. Lesson number one: you should learn how to speak Common. Like the name says; its the common language here in space."

She looked at him confused. What was he on about? He kept talking about Space and you see, Meilings people didn't know about space. They thought the stars in the sky where their dead keeping watch over them. So even the idea of space never existed on her planet.

“You speak of Space but you have such small corridors.” She questioned as her eyes glanced at him and then away again.

(WC:||: 390)

[Krad Zephyros]

“You speak of Space but you have such small corridors.” When she spoke Krad stopped his stride just short of the ship's bridge and looked back at her with a small smirk. Nobody could say she wasn't cute. It seemed like she knew absolutely nothing about space or the galaxy. It reminded the blue-haired human of when he was first introduced to the idea of a vast galaxy by the aliens who kidnapped him. He remembered, at first awe and amazement, then a feeling of being nothing more than a tiny spec in the universe. He felt a mixed range of many different things, but overall he felt excitement. A new challenge to overcome.

Krad reached back with a gloved hand towards the middle of the large metal doors. A red screen popped up, met with his hands, and then flashed a bright green before disappearing again. The metal doors steamed from the corners before sliding apart, revealing the wide bridge of the ship, the bright red and gold captain's platform, the empty crewman's desks arranged in a semi-circle in the front of the room, and the glass panel with a view.

"That, Meiling, is space." The world beyond the clear glass was absolutely endless. There was nothing out there, but at the same time, there was so much to be seen. Stars of endless sizes and colors illuminated the black background. In the distance ships and comets flashed through across the endless horizon. An asteroid or two could be seen drifting past the windows every now and then, but the large planets composed of blues, greens, grays and all types of colors swelled in size as the pirate ship neared them.

The captain sat at his desk at the top of the platform, then whirled around when he heard the doors slide open. He looked down at the two of them in shock. Not only was he not expecting Krad, but he most certainly wasn't expecting a Myrthra as well. "Krad, what are you..."

What first started as a confident expression soon found itself melting into a blank state of confusion. Sure the scenery was nice and all, but it wasn't the scenery he was expecting. The beautiful vista of bright worlds and bustling space traffic was the picture of the Alliance Zone, but they were supposed to be leaving now before Alliance Troops swarmed them. What in the world was the captain doing?

[Meiling]

"That, Meiling, is space."

Meiling watched the door open and looked first at the contents of the room, but when he eyes fell on the glass panel, her mouth hung open slightly. She almost instantly moved away from Krad and over , past the captain and to the glass panel. It was beautiful, no! Beautiful didn’t even scratch the surface. She felt something in her stomach lurch, just like the day she found the crashed space ship, but ten times more. She felt the excitement flutter in her chest and she could hardly take her eyes off it, but then looks back at Krad. She was grinning widely and pointing, the tip of her fingertip pressed against the glass.

“Krad Its gorgeous!! I like Space a lot~!” her voice clearly showed her excitement and amazement. She turned her eyes again at the world outside the space craft. Her breath was taken from her, so she was panting a little. Her pupils had grown large in exhilaration. She was almost pressed against the glass, tail swaying behind her.

She couldn’t help but giggle a little and moves around the glass to get a better look. She didn’t want to miss anything!. She looks around again and noticed the tense atmosphere around Krad and the captain. “Krad?” She tilted her head, still a smile on her face but a questionable look in her eyes. “What is Wrong? You don’t like Space?” She didn’t realise that Krads probably Seen it, Done it and got the freaking T-Shirt! She didn’t understand how anyone could get bored or use to something as magnificent as this anyway! The her ears twitched as she glanced at the captain, and she seemed to realise how far she was from Krad now.

She might of only just met him but he didn’t seem mean towards her, where as the other humans she wasn’t too sure of. But she didn’t move. Where she came from, if you didn’t want to be noticed, you don’t move. [/color]

(WC:||:338)