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TrexelCat · (This post was last modified: 05-09-2022, 12:36 AM by TrexelCat.)

...Public Information Database...

》》》 Name: Ava Dark.

》》》 Age: 23(assumed).

》》》 Height: 5'6"(1.68m).

》》》 Weight: 155lbs(70.3kg).

》》》 Eye Color: Gray/Blue.

》》》 Hair Color: Blonde(naturally).

》》》 System of Birth: Okinawa(assumed aboard the freighter/transport Arisan Maru).

》》》 Current Job: Freelance cargo pilot.

》》》 Current Registered Ship: Arisan Maru(freighter/transport).

》》》 Current Registered Residence: Arisan Maru(freighter/transport).

...Augmentations Listed...

》》》 Hair Modification: Can change the color and length of her hair through the use of specially programmed nanobots. Communication method unknown.

》》》 Enhanced Reflexes: Ava's reflexes are higher than the average human, bordering on combat grade enhancements.

》》》 Dermal Armor: Ava's skin is much tougher than it looks. Capable of resisting(not stopping) small arms ballistic projectiles. And dispersing 45% of the energy from energy based projectiles.

》》》 Enhanced Optics: Ava's sight has been enhanced to include low light vision, which allows her to see in lighting conditions often too low for normal humans. And a back scatter system which allows her to see in the x-ray spectrum. It is assumed that her vision also contains combat targeting enhancements as well as a data-feed overlay. But this has not been confirmed.

》》》 Internal Communication Device: Allows her to directly communicate with her ship and issue commands without having to physically be present. This can also be used to discreetly receive vocal responses from the ship(or passengers). Includes a scrambled transponder so that the ship can home in on her location if needed. Any outside attempt to use this transponder to ascertain her location will result in a 5 mile(8km) error in a random direction(has shown her outside of a station when attempted).

》》》 Lung Enhancements: It has been observed that Ava is capable of breathing normally in low atmosphere environments. And resistant(not immune) to most airborne toxins. She can hold her breath for 24 minutes stationary.

No information exists of Ava before 826 AS. Either all information about her has been effectively scrubbed from the neural net, or she didn't exist before 826 AS.

Through encounters it has been recorded that several augmentations have been made to Ava. It is unknown as to who made these augmentations.

For two years, Ava has been a low profile freighter pilot. Running cargo from point to point in a freighter that always seem to be on the verge of falling apart. She's earned the reputation for getting cargo from point A to point B reliably, with only a few mishaps. She shows no allegiance to any of the factions. Cargo is cargo and as long as someone is paying, she will transport it. This attitude however has landed her on the wrong side of the law on a few occasions when she was scanned hauling items that were considered contraband in the area. She only recently payed off the lean against her ship from when she was strapped for cash.

To call her a capitalist would be incorrect. While she does work for money, that's because the maintenance of her ship isn't free, not to mention food and resources.

...OOC Information...

Ava is not even remotely human, and never was. Any basic scan of her(in person, starship scanners are too imprecise to gather that information. Those would just say there is no life aboard) would reveal this. While her augmentations may seem formidable at first glance, they are actually rather tame. Especially her dermal armor. 55% of deadly is still deadly. And with fully automatic weapons available, resistance to ballistic projectiles won't last long. Mainly just allows her to take a few grazing hits. The rest are just a result of being a machine. A bit stronger, a bit faster, able to see in the dark and detect hidden weapons on a person. She can hold her breath longer, but as breathing is her way of cooling, that will only last so long. Most airborne toxins will damage the fluids used in her body. It just takes time for that to happen. She was built to be disguised as human. As such, unless given reason(like seeing her perform something a normal human wouldn't be able to do) she should be regarded as just that, human. And even then, one might mistake some of what she can do as just cybernetic enhancements.

(Yes, I like playing artificial life forms)

╔══════════════════════════════╗
Glimesh | DeviantArt | Twitter | Steam | YouTube
╚══════════════════════════════╝

Humans say the Road to
Hell is paved with
good intentions.

Why? Do they think there's a
shortage of bad ones?

TrexelCat · (This post was last modified: 05-04-2022, 05:19 PM by TrexelCat.)

"Crap crap crap!" Ava was at a full run down the corridor of, someone's base. She didn't recognize the faction, though it wasn't like she had much time to stop and examine the symbols to find out, an energy discharge whizzing past her head and impacting a wall just ahead of her and causing little micro explosions. Whoever they were, they weren't playing around and seemed intent on killing her. A few more energy discharges whizzed past her, striking walls and other decorations. As she dodged a couple more of these energy bolts she brought her left hand up to just below her left ear and pressed lightly with her middle finger. "Ship! Warm up the engines!" "Unable." Was the response she received in a digitized male voice. "Why bloody not?!" Ava practically screamed as she almost slammed into a wall trying to take a corner. "Dampening field is in effect." Wonderful, even if she made it to her ship she may be grounded.

This wasn't a problem in her mind though, most dampening fields were local and short range. So all she had to do was find the controller once she made it to the landing bay. Another energy bolt impacted the wall right next to her head, causing chunks to splinter off and hit the side of her face. Out of reaction she ducked in the opposite direction and almost jammed her shoulder into the wall. Now it was time, that was too close. She reached down and pulled her own weapon free from the thigh holster. Between steps she twisted her upper body to the left and extended her arm behind her, taking aim with the weapon and pulling the trigger.

She was careful with her aim, deliberately aiming at the walls nearest her pursuers. Her intent was to cause them to have to duck and possibly slow. One shot to the left, a second to the right, and one placed in such a way to pass between the two figures. Her targeting assist helping her place the shots right where she wanted them. "Ship, locate the source of the dampening field!" "Unable." Oh for heaven's sake!

She was just about to ask why when two more shots whizzed past her. Turning once more she aimed her weapon, this time towards the floor. But as she pulled the trigger, nothing happened. She pulled the trigger a couple more times and still, nothing. "You have to be kidding me!" Ava cried out. Spinning back around she continued her sprint down the corridor. What little ground she may have gained with her first attack was lost due to her second failed one. She could tell they were gaining on her.

Another bolt zipped past her head, extremely close this time. So close she was certain some of her hair got tagged with the energy. This caused her to dodge in the opposite direction and dive through a door. Before she could figure out where she was she spun around and slammed the door shut, then jamming the barrel of her weapon into the locking panel to short it out. Mere moments later she hear the sound of the two figures start pounding on the door. Backing away from the door, Ava finally managed to take a few breaths before she turned to see where she had ended up.

The room appeared to be a rather straight forward office. A desk in front of a bay window, large leather chair and two smaller chairs on the other side of the desk for guests. Ava looked around to see if there was another way in or out. There was another door, but after checking it she found it was just a standard washroom. A badly kept up one if the tissues all over the floor and hair around the sink were any indication.

Stepping out of the wash room she resumed looking around. She was about to look out the window to find out where she was, or how far it was to the ground when she realized that the pounding on the door had stopped. Ava raised a brow as she looked at the door. Slowly she moved towards it, her weapon raised as though it was going to protect her in its non-functional state. Silence, did they just give up? She slipped closer, trying to keep her foot steps soft.

She was about two steps from the door when she heard the sound of shuffling booted feet. Then she heard a beeping sound. "Oh hel.." was all she got out before suddenly the door exploded inwards. Most of the door survived the explosion and was propelled right into Ava, knocking her backwards and to the floor. Somehow though, she managed to stay conscious. And as she heard booted feet moving into the room she shoved the remainder of the door off her and brought her weapon around to attempt to point at one of the figures that was moving to stand over her.

With little effort, the nearest figure kicked the weapon from her hand. With her other hand she started to reach for her belt knife, only to have one of the other figures move over and step on her wrist and pin her hand down. She winced from the pain, and looking up to the two figures that were standing over her, the first one that kicked her gun away brought their own weapon down to point directly at Ava's face. Her low light enhancement allowing her to see right up the barrel, right to the energy projector at the back.

Then the trigger was pulled. In an instant there was a flash of light. Time seemed to slow down as the energy built up in the projector, then released and traveled down the barrel towards Ava's face. Then everything went black...

╔══════════════════════════════╗
Glimesh | DeviantArt | Twitter | Steam | YouTube
╚══════════════════════════════╝

Humans say the Road to
Hell is paved with
good intentions.

Why? Do they think there's a
shortage of bad ones?

TrexelCat · 05-04-2022, 06:16 PM,

Ava awoke with a start in the cockpit of her ship. Her hands darting from being crossed under her breasts to a tight grip on the arm rests just behind the control sticks for controlling the ship. God she hated dreams like that. Dreams of failing. Imagine that, someone like her dreaming. Though it was always the same dream, she's trying to escape somewhere and fails. Slight variations as she makes slightly different choices each time. But they always seem to end the same. Someone shooting her. And then she wakes up.

Ava stretched in her seat, reaching up to press her fingers against the edge of the control panel above her. "Ship, how far to the jump gate?" She asked as she slowly started to pull herself out of the pilot chair to move into the rear area. "One hour and forty minutes." The mechanical male voice responded. Yawning a little she moved to open the footlocker near her bed, pulling out an MRE and looking it over. "Freeze dried chili." She then tossed it back into the footlocker and allowed the lid to close on its own. "Not sure why they bother naming them, they all taste like Styrofoam."

She then stood and moved over to another panel that showed the readout of her cargo and the condition of said cargo. Everything seemed to be in order. "Ship, maintain course. Avoid trade lanes." Why she had to avoid trade lanes for a shipment of Aluminum she may never know. But, the client was paying extra for the extra time it was going to take. So no use in complaining.

"Confirmed." Ava knew the ship was fully capable of handing jump gates on it's own. Not just her ship, but just about every ship around had an autopilot that was used to transit jump gates, trade lanes, automatic docking. Was nothing really for her to do at this point than sit and wait. In fact, most of her runs were like this. The ship did most of the flying, and she was just along for the ride. But, every so often, something happens and she's needed at the controls.

And so Ava did just that, sat down on her bed and reaching over to a shelf she grabbed a book. Moving to lay back on the bed, she opened the book and started reading.

╔══════════════════════════════╗
Glimesh | DeviantArt | Twitter | Steam | YouTube
╚══════════════════════════════╝

Humans say the Road to
Hell is paved with
good intentions.

Why? Do they think there's a
shortage of bad ones?

TrexelCat · (This post was last modified: 05-10-2022, 03:54 PM by TrexelCat.)

》》》 Arisan Maru Ship's Log

》》》 Audio Format

》》》 Subject: Bad nav computer

202205.08

LOG CONTENT

"Stupid defective navigational computer. Keeps getting lost and requiring reboot. I even had to do this mid trade lane, and once again right after exiting the trade lane. I've replaced the nav boards twice now. Which leads me to believe that there is something else wrong, possibly with the scanners. Or maybe the linkage. All I know is that I have to keep a constant eye on it or else it will drop all auto nav data and stall out. Leaving the ship sitting in space with nowhere to go.

I've spoken with techs on a few stations, and they can't offer any suggestions on what might be wrong. There is nothing wrong with the auto pilot. At least that's what they tell me. And after having pulled it appart during one of the outages I have to agree with them. The auto pilot was just not getting any destination information so it brought the ship to a halt. Which I suppose is a good thing. Imagine this happening while I was asleep and the ship drifted into a planet, or a star.

I'm headed to Planet Stuttgart to drop off some Beryllium. I'll see if I can talk to the techs there and see what they can do about this nav computer issue.

Could be this ship is just falling appart and I need a new one. But it's gotten me through many tough times, and I really don't think I'm ready to part with it.

At least the docking computer still works..."

End of log.

╔══════════════════════════════╗
Glimesh | DeviantArt | Twitter | Steam | YouTube
╚══════════════════════════════╝

Humans say the Road to
Hell is paved with
good intentions.

Why? Do they think there's a
shortage of bad ones?

TrexelCat · (This post was last modified: 05-10-2022, 03:54 PM by TrexelCat.)

》》》 Arisan Maru Ship's Log

》》》 Video Format

》》》 Subject: Odd encounter.

202205.08

LOG CONTENT

A woman with blond hair sits in view of the camera. Sitting at what appears to be a table with parts scattered about. She has in hand one of the parts and she appears to be working it with what appears to be a screwdriver. The lighting around her is dim. She doesn't even look at the camera as she speaks.

"Had an interesting encounter just a bit ago. Nav computer conked out on me during the last leg of a trip. Ended up fifty two point one kilometers off course. And then the nav computer completely conked out. And lucky me, when it did it took the entire power grid with it."

She continues to work with the piece of equipment, frowning a bit as she takes a closer look.

"Come to find out, someone jury-rigged a bypass to boost the nav scanner power by tying it into the main power grid. A good idea in theory, assuming the parts were new and in perfect working condition. But this, this is just a mess."

She pulls out a small piece from the equipment, then tosses the bulk of it over her shoulder. The casing clattering to the floor behind the 'couch' she was sitting on. She then takes up another equipment case and starts to work to fit the small piece inside.

"Luckily, encountered a suspiciously friendly pilot who helped me out and got me back on course. Spoke a little strange. At least, stranger than I'm used to. And what I saw of their ship was a little strange as well. I'll attach a record of the encounter to the end of this log. For postarity and all that."

She grunts as she fights with the piece of equipment.

"Looks like I'm stuck here 'till I can get the nav computer back online and reroute the power so that it doesn't run directly through the nav system. Honestly, I don't need that much power for a simple directional scanner."

She pauses her work for a moment and looks like she's thinking.

"I found the pilot suspicious because, in my line of work you don't hear many stories of 'friendly' pilots that far out. Especially not ones in unique looking ships such as theirs. Out here, unique usually spells trouble. If they can afford something unique, they probably got it off the backs of others."

She went back to work on the piece of equipment, trying to fit the smaller piece into a slot that it probably wasn't meant to go into.

"But, they seemed friendly enough. Didn't try to put holes in my ship."

She chuckled a bit.

"Probably felt sorry for the terrible state my ship was in. Didn't hurt that my cargo hold was empty at the time. Anywho, gonna instal this and see if it works. If it doesn't I'll probably short out the entire navigation system."

She stands from her seat and moves off to the left, out of the range of the camera's view. A couple of seconds later the video feed ends.

End of log.

Click to Expand

Encounter Record

╔══════════════════════════════╗
Glimesh | DeviantArt | Twitter | Steam | YouTube
╚══════════════════════════════╝

Humans say the Road to
Hell is paved with
good intentions.

Why? Do they think there's a
shortage of bad ones?

TrexelCat · (This post was last modified: 05-10-2022, 03:53 PM by TrexelCat.)

》》》 Arisan Maru Ship's Log

》》》 Audio Format

》》》 Subject: Freelance thoughts.

202205.09

LOG CONTENT

"With so many transports and freighters running the lanes, it's hard for a lone freelance cargo pilot to make any credits. I found a cushy little run between Stuttgart and Dounby Station. Nice, quiet. No one trying to shoot holes in me or my ship. Tech aren't bad on Dounby either. Helped get my nav computer back into a working state. But it just isn't paying the bills. Quite literally. Twenty million round trip, and I've already spent ninety percent of that on repairs for the Arisan Maru. Just launching the old thing seems to cause damage any more. Even more so when from a planet. Feels like it's going to shake itself apart. And by the time I get to the destination, something else has broken.

I've thought about contacting one of the large shipping corporations, but they all want you to fly their flag, wear their uniform, fly their ships. That's not the life for me. I enjoy being my own boss. For all its faults, I enjoy flying the Arisan Maru. Besides, I would be limited to flying only sanctioned cargo. And being freelance allows me to work for the little guy when needed.

But again, there are so many cargo runners flying the lanes that I doubt anyone would notice another. Keeping a low profile has its ups and downs. Keeps you off the radar of some of the more nastier people out there who only want to put holes in other people's ships for kicks. But at the same time, really limits your ability to get paying jobs as no one knows you, and it's too much work to ask around if that random unknown pilot is reliable.

I got lucky with the Stuttgart to Dounby run. Someone on Stuttgart recognized me and remembered me from a run I had done for them in the past. And offered me the job. I'm grateful for it. The Arisan Maru would be in a much sorrier state without it. Probably even grounded permanently.

Maybe I should expand into being a freelance combat pilot. I mean, it is what I was originally born for. Have that as a side gig to fund the maintenance of the Arisan Maru to keep it flying. Again though, keep running into the same problem. No reputation, and anyone who would want you wants you to fly their flag, wear their uniform, fly their ship. I mean, that last one is not so bad in this case. The Arisan Maru is my home, my livelihood, but it's no combat ship. But if I want to fly their ship, I gotta put on their uniform. And I just don't like that part.

Maybe I should try to put away a little bit here and there to get a little bomber. Nothing fancy, something that packs a little more of a punch than the Arisan Maru's turrets. I'm sure I can find a little civilian bomber. Maybe something used. I'm no stranger to fixing things up. Bet I could even get one for cheaper if I find one without weapons and get those myself later. Pretty sure I can live on emergency rations for a while to save money. Even if they all taste like Styrofoam to me.

Anywho, had a moment of downtime. Thought I would get my thoughts out for the record. Time to get back to things."

End of log.

╔══════════════════════════════╗
Glimesh | DeviantArt | Twitter | Steam | YouTube
╚══════════════════════════════╝

Humans say the Road to
Hell is paved with
good intentions.

Why? Do they think there's a
shortage of bad ones?

TrexelCat · 05-10-2022, 03:58 PM,

》》》 Arisan Maru Ship's Log

》》》 Audio Format

》》》 Subject: Kanawa Maru.

202205.10

LOG CONTENT

"So, a rather interesting thing happened. The Arisan Maru was in for repairs, I know, again. This is literally becoming an every day thing. But that's not the interesting thing. I was talking to one of the techs about maybe getting a little bomber to cruise around in. Maybe take some freelance combat contracts. And he got me in contact with a friend of his who just happened to be looking to offload her old bomber.

Now, I know better than to get excited about anything. It always goes bad right when you peak. But I decided to talk to the friend.

Turns out she really did have a bomber she was looking to offload. Though, not in the best condition. Looked like it had been through a few fights and had been battlefield patched. But I believe the humans say, 'beggars can't be choosers'. And all things considered it did still look space worthy.

Convinced her to let me take it out for a test flight around Dounby. And it handles decently enough. It's no small fighter, but it's far more nimble than the Arisan Maru.

Not that I would trade the Arisan Maru for anything.

Encountered that strange person from the other day again while I was out on the test flight. I don't have a record of it as it wasn't my ship to record with. But this time they brought a friend. Again, seemed friendly enough. The friend too. In fact, they both seemed concerned for my safety. Alluding that Orkney was a battlezone. I'm just a cargo runner, I don't care about things like that unless they want to put holes in my ship. Then they can go bugger off.

Honestly, I like it here in Orkney. The locals are friendly and show concern for others. So far, no one has simply started shooting, yet. They even ask before scanning cargo. Normally people just do it. At least, in liberty space that's how they do it. Maybe once this Stuttgart Dounby job is done, I'll see about getting work with the strange one and their friend so that I can stay in the area. I like it here.

But, I ended up buying the bomber. It's a nice little ship, and the price was right. Though I may have to skip a few meals for a while. Named it the Kanawa Maru. And for now, it's going to remain stationed at Dounby. Gonna need some new weapons for it, the ones it has are practically falling off from neglect. Needs a new shield system too. The onboard computer could do with an upgrade. Should also work on the hull to patch it up a bit better. When I'm done with it, it will be just like new."

End of log.

Click to Expand

Visual Record

╔══════════════════════════════╗
Glimesh | DeviantArt | Twitter | Steam | YouTube
╚══════════════════════════════╝

Humans say the Road to
Hell is paved with
good intentions.

Why? Do they think there's a
shortage of bad ones?

TrexelCat · 05-11-2022, 06:53 PM,

》》》 Arisan Maru Ship's Log

》》》 Audio Format

》》》 Subject: A sorry state, a sorry ship.. But with hope.

202205.11

LOG CONTENT

"Thinking I made a bad deal here. This bomber really is in worse shape than I originally assessed. The weapons are shot, the flight computer is also shot. The only thing that does work at one hundred percent are the engines. Which isn't saying much because the hull is in terrible shape and if I were to open up the engines to full it might rip itself apart.

I did find something of interest though. The weapons were rigged to chain fire in sequence rather than linked fire. I must admit, this is rather brilliant. While it does reduce the initial damage of the weapons and their overall effectiveness, it does smooth out the power drain. And allows the weapons system to fire longer. So a trade off. Reduced damage output for a longer firing sequence.

By my calculations, this does not change the damage per second, but because only one gun is firing at any given moment it allows the targeting system to place more of the shots on target. Instead of an all or miss with the traditional linked fire.

I tested this with the Arisan Maru's weapons array. And while effective, and quite an imposing sight to see chain blasts rather than bursts. The controller program has limitations. It will still try to fire guns outside of their weapon arc. This disrupts the chain sequence when fired in turret mode on the Arisan Maru and creates a break in the fire pattern. I also can't find a way to exclude certain guns from the controller. It fires all of them in sequence, or none.

But, as I've said before, the Arisan Maru is not a combat vessel. And this sequence controller was not meant for a freighter transport. But for the Kanawa Maru with primarily forward firing weapons, this definitely works.

Now I just need to get some guns for it. Think I'm going to pay the extra credits for good ones though. Don't need them falling apart on me the first time I have to use them. This will give me time to patch up the hull and replace the flight computer. Though, I could just fly it in manual mode. Not like it makes much difference to me, just means I have to take a more direct control over it and be more attentive should I find myself fighting in a debris field, or in a fleet battle with a mess of other ships. No anti-collision without the flight computer.

I may have been a bit hasty with my 'just like new' thoughts the other day."

End of log.

╔══════════════════════════════╗
Glimesh | DeviantArt | Twitter | Steam | YouTube
╚══════════════════════════════╝

Humans say the Road to
Hell is paved with
good intentions.

Why? Do they think there's a
shortage of bad ones?

TrexelCat · 05-12-2022, 10:13 PM,

》》》 Arisan Maru Ship's Log

》》》 Audio Format

》》》 Subject: Pretty sure I met a pirate.

202205.12

LOG CONTENT

"Encountered a strange person while out on a test run of the Kanawa Maru. Was in New York, heading for the planet Pittsburgh to set down and recalibrate one of the stabilizers and this pilot, out of nowhere started to follow me.

As I hit the trade lane that would take me to Pittsburgh, the pilot said that I shouldn't take that lane. Then followed me through it. I did get a look at the ship before the landing computer took me to the surface, and I did note that the ship was devoid of official markings. So they weren't an official police force. May have been a Rogue or a Xeno. If so, can't imagine what they would want from me. I only had a couple of bottles of Wine aboard, a present for one of the techs back at Dounby for helping with some of the repairs.

Needless to say that either way, I didn't stop for them. I learned long ago that when you are in Liberty space, you stop for no one unless their ship bears proper markings. Anyone else is just a pirate looking to make a quick buck. And always, always plan your meetings away from population centers. That way if someone unexpected shows up, you know it's a trap. Liberty space is just not safe.

Not really sure why I even came all the way out here for a test run. There are plenty of other, safer, systems I could have gone to."

End of log.

Click to Expand

Encounter Record

╔══════════════════════════════╗
Glimesh | DeviantArt | Twitter | Steam | YouTube
╚══════════════════════════════╝

Humans say the Road to
Hell is paved with
good intentions.

Why? Do they think there's a
shortage of bad ones?

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