Pippa's Shed

[Pippa]

This space is mostly to catalogue things that come up in Pippa and the crews of the Yoania and Double Entendre's, Ark-sector Conveyance Experts (A.C.E), stories as they progress and is mostly designed for generic tech and NPCs but may include templates for character and tech submissions. If you are curious about anything in here please feel free to send me a pm rather than posting here.

It should also be noted that nothing that winds up in here is remotely designed for interacting with PvP or story outside of indie threads unless specified. (A mantra I will probably repeat for any NPCs designed to act as "Campaign Antagonists" to the crews).

 

[Pippa]

Roster and inventory.

The Yoania:
Captain Quint Hart: The gruff but savvy Hapan Captain of the Yoania.

The Double Entendre:
Kyllan Braemar: The suave and chill for a Mandalorian Captain of the Double Entendre.
Kyllan's Droids T3 (Tee-three) and R1 (Arr-One).

Mixed crew:
Alisha Dawnstar: A young bright mechanically-minded human woman.
Alisha's Pit Droid Tippy.
Kaylon Neroka: An older Pantoran ex bounty hunter and expert sniper.
Pippa Rhute: A Chadra-fan inventor and research and development specialist.
MU1 (Moo-one): An emergency medical droid with built in recovery bed.

Spoiler: MU1

Illyt Katu: a rescued ex-slave Twi'lek looking for revenge.
Dlizz,ser,fiassa: A sarcastic and capable Chiss ex bartender and drug-dealer.
"Ren" :A mysterious and discreet traveller who is definitely not a Jedi.

 

[Pippa]

NPC.

NAME: Dlizz,ser,fiassa (Normally Dliserfia or Lizz to her friends)
FACTION: Independent
RANK: N/A
SPECIES: Chiss
AGE: 33
GENDER: Female

FORCE SENSITIVE: No.

APPEARANCE:

Spoiler: Lizz

Height: 174cm. Weight:66kg. Hair: Near black. Eyes: Pale Red. Skin: Fair. Of a toned but not quite athletic build she is of reasonable size for her race gender and age. She carries a few scars on one side of her head that she got when she was very young, they stop her hair growing through evenly so she shaves that side of her head.

ATTRIBUTES:

Strength 4/10, Never having really trained and not possessing of inherent natural strength she is still healthy and occasionally had to lift the odd keg as a Bartender.

Dexterity 8/10, While not something she shares she is extremely flexible almost to the point of contortionism (but not quite). As part of her job she learnt a great deal of juggling and serving tricks that required finesse and acuity to perform.

Constitution 3/10, Living in a city all her life she never saw too much rugged activity, the polluted air was also detrimental to he development as a child and she struggles to throw off an illness when she is infected.

Intelligence 7/10, Accomplished blender of drinks, drugs and all manner of chemicals to get you exactly where you need to be in a given evening, she also sports a breadth of culinary and minor medical knowledge. She is also a quick study with a sharp memory and head for numbers.

Wisdom 7/10, Fairly savvy and street smart in particular. Doesn't always have the best foresight but normally sees an opportunity when it presents itself. Prides herself on her judge of people and their behavioural patterns, something she has ample practice performing.

Charisma 8/10, Charming, distracting and manipulative. She is a sporting conversationalist and able to talk many people around to her way of thinking if she so needs. While not a skilled orator she has the verbal wit and performance ability to rival most a hustlers or conmen.

PERSONALITY:

Glib, sarcastic, practical and selfish. It's rare that anything she says is entirely true. She has spent a majority of her life stealing and cheating for the goal of a comfort only to have her plans consistently thwarted at the last second. This has forged her into an absolute opportunist and ultimately a survivor. She often presents a front of being willing to do anything for her own advancement though it is nearly impossible to actually gauge the true level of her ruthlessness or if it is entirely an act.

She does to an extent live her life to the creed of “survival of the fittest”. Whomsoever is the more dominant or talented of an altercation will and should be the more triumphant. She does not feel remorse at ripping off a rube or empathy for those who have been wronged by a practitioner of the craft. However she also has no sympathy for those who are caught attempting such scams. She heartily believes that you get what you deserve in life however she also believes that that is an active prophecy. The inactive deserve nothing because they have done nothing, only those who take action receive their cosmic rewards.

Never one to suffer a fool gladly, she also dislikes spending too much time in the company of those that are incapable of thinking for themselves or are wilfully ignorant about the world around them. However she does like to play with people to test and find the quirks and boundaries that make people tick. Nothing pleases her more than watching a series of carefully planned social devices culminating in exactly the right emotional response. People are the best instruments to play.

BIOGRAPHY:

She spent much of her late teens and adult life on Nar Shaddaa working for Kiba the Hutt. For the last 5 she was working as a bartender/drug-dealer/chemist in Kiba's largest club Purgatory. Dlizz,ser,fiassa had been quietly skimming for a breakaway fund over those years but bumped into an unusual club patron and wound up robbing the club's vault and leaving Nar Shaddaa for good. While there was a decent haul from the job she managed to implicate herself to the Kiba the Hutt and is now no-longer able to return to Nar Shaddaa and has a reasonable bounty on her head from the cartels. A fact that forced her to throw in with the rag-tag crews of the odd patron she heisted with, and she wound up as a passenger aboard the Yoania and Double Entendre.

Spoiler: Other Backstory

More detailed backstory TBD, though it'll cover between Home world and Nar Shaddaa and her first 5 years in Kiba's employ.

ABILITIES:

Cook Extrodinare: On top of being able to craft a massive variety of specifically balanced and complex drinks (with added flourish if so desired) she can cook and prepare a wise variety of delicious and nutritious meals and a whole gamete of legal and illegal designer drugs.

A Minor in Medicine: A by product of learning about drugs and nutrition she actually knows a fair amount about chemical medication. If it can be cured with pharmaceuticals and you've got a synthesising lab She can probably get you better. Though a first-aider or doctor she is not.

Performer: Be it dance, juggling or acting she is a skilled performer. She has the grace and poise of a gymnast and can make you believe almost any story she tells. However she has no musical talent what so ever.

Magnetic: If she needs to she can turn on her charms like a light-bulb. While she can't compete with the greatest honey pots and gold diggers she's a close second and can command the attentions of the room with a few well placed hip sways.

Under the Table: Despite her looks, build and general constitution, there isn't a human or near human alive she's met that can out-drink her. She's been in a three drop tie with a Hutt and a Wookie after a 14hr competition in which other near humans died from alcohol poisoning. Does she cheat? If she does no-one has managed to catch her doing it.


STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES:

Chiss senses: She has sharper than human hearing and her eyesight extends into the infrared spectrum.

Customer Services Smile: Years of dealing with customers of all creeds has given her something of a plastic smile (when she's not trying) and as a result seems quite disaffected and aloof when not fully paying attention. Conversely she can maintain a calm and pleasant exterior in the face of Armageddon, if she wants to. This can double as a Pazaak-face.

Burnt Bridges: While she once had a series of contacts and dealers on Nar Shaddaa she is effectively dead to them since the job she pulled when leaving the employ of Kiba the Hutt.

Frozen Assets: Similarly she is almost destitute. Were it not for the good will of the crews of the Yoania and the Double Entendre she wouldn't have much more than a handful of creds and her clothes.

It's a good threat: At her hip she wears a heavy blaster pistol. It fires a single heavy plasma round per trigger pull and has been modified to be both louder and brighter than usual. She cannot shoot accurately to save her life but has found that her DL-08 BlasTech blaster pistol is an effective deterrent, even(if no especially) when it's firing wildly.

GEAR:

Tight fitting bantha leather and plastiweave spacer outfit.
Slightly modified (amplified sound and light produced by shots) DL-08 BlastTech Heavy Blaster Pistol.
Comm-Pact, comms unit and vanity kit.
3 concealed hip flasks containing different exotic drinks.
A basic drug testing kit.
A concealed durasteel boot knife.

ROLE-PLAYS:

Fist full of creds : How Lizz wound up leaving Nar Shaddaa.

Scientific materials, the invoice said "SCIENTIFIC MATERIALS"

You know your friends when the chips are down :The story of how A.C.E rescued hart from the clutches of Zosma the Jablonian slaver.

A tale of two freighters :A story covering some of the details of the 5 year time skip for the members of A.C.E.

 

[Pippa]

The Yoania:
A mostly standard YG-300 Light freighter.
It has been modified with advanced wiring throughout the ship. This has lead to an increase in the performance speed of electrical instruments in the ship.
Its reactor has been modified to produce a higher energy yield. This means that more of the essential systems can operate under stress before surge failures are likely.
The hyperdrive generator has been modified to allow for reduced friction of plasma flow through out the manifold, increasing its efficiency. This has shaved 0.5 from it's hyperdrive rating lowering it to 3.5.
Additional smuggler's holes have been built into the ship as well as a maintenance crawl-way. This allows for a increase in the concealable cargo the ship can carry and for small individuals easy access to electrical and internal components for repair and replacement.

 

[Pippa]

The Double Entendre:
A YG-300 Light freighter refitted to act as a Light escort-freighter hybrid with reduced cargo and passenger capacity.

It differs from a regular YG-300 in the following ways:

It has a third fixed heavy cannon on the prow and a second turreted twin light laser cannon on the undercarriage. (Both turreted cannons need separate gunners to fire).

It has banks of small thrusters on both flanks. The thrusters allow for faster turning and increased manoeuvrability.

Two of the passenger rooms have been entirely removed to make way for these alterations and an amount of the cargo bay has also been filled in. This has reduced the comfortable passenger capacity to 1-2 and reduced the cargo capacity to 35 metric tons. One of the two remaining passenger rooms has been converted into a cramped bunk room. It can fit in four people but the conditions are uncomfortable and militaristic, few commercial passengers would be content with such quarters.

The increased weight and systems have also reduced the top speed of the ship to 45-50 MGLT, though the increased firepower and manoeuvrability makes it more than a significant threat in a star-fight.

 

[Kaylon Neroka]

This is a story with no discernible direction. But one which hopefully will carry on with the influence and contribution of those featured.

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"Well that's inconvenient..." Kyllan was scratching his helmetless head, looking around where they'd arranged to meet with their smuggling contact. Instead they saw only the festering corpses of the city's lowest denizens. While MU1 stood about analyzing the corpses at his shoulder, Kaylon waited in silence at his other shoulder. The Pantoran's sniper rifle was held at the ready despite its bulk, having for a long time relied on its scope which was now welded to the gun's frame. Pippa's handiwork. A small wisp of smoke still rose from the barrel tip. The only motion within the den they'd come to visit was the one twitching leg of a reptilian rodent where it lay, perforated by a single shot of Kaylon's sniper rifle as it had attempted to enjoy the feast of exotic carcasses it had found. MU1 didn't acknowledge the deed, surveying the area under its given instructions.
"I knew this job smelt bad. But not like this" At a glance, Kyllan could see his nose was lined with wrinkles at the repulsive smell. "They can't be more than a few days old"
"Two days, seven hours and forty three minutes to be precise." The monotonous tone of the towering medical droid responded, its long spindly limbs dragging a corpse onto its stretcher appendage with computer-precise care.
"Someone knew we were meeting our contact here"
"Apparently they didn't know which of them we were meeting" He could feel Neroka's eyes on him.
"Did we?"


Back at the ship, Hart was rythmnically shuffling and reshuffling the cards, occupying the silence that hung about the ship. Pippa was about, somewhere inside it, and Alisha and Lizz were no doubt back at the Entendre by now. That left him to guard their cargo. Again.
The light of the orbitting star wouldn't reach this far down into the city's depths, reminding him of the abyssal darkness that enveloped ships in the deep holes of asteroids. Only out there, there were more than enough criminals, monsters and unspeakable vermin to tend to.
This wasn't a backwater world any of them had heard of before, but the reason for it was becoming increasingly clear every hour they stayed there, the ships landed at its darkest, lowest depths, so that they could shift their cargo as soon as possible once contact had been made.
That'd been Kyllan and Neroka's jobs, an ex-bounty hunter and a mandolorian to step out and look for who they would be meeting, leaving Hart to watch the cargo supposedly with Pippa's company.
The unmanned suit waited silently, staring in his general direction. Hart's emotionless face matched its own before he dealt two cards into the middle.
"Call it"
"A three and two"
Somewhere the voice came. She was in the ship somewhere and given how easily she navigated its insides she'd be somewhere else entirely in moments. She'd been right about the dealt cards though.
"How?" He simply called out to her. The tone in his voice giving way to at least some sign of perplexed emotion.
"Balance of probability, the ratio between each card and its duplicates against the overall deck size. There are also several probablistic algorithms which reduced the likelihood as any same draw as your last hand, and counting the speed of your shuffling and the average number of cards in each hand as you split and re-split gave me a high likelihood of the right values" There was a pause and like an afterthought "And I am in the vent above the table"
Hart's attention shot up to the ceiling. Even more confusion mounting as he looked at cable bundles, smooth plating and a mix of discreet pipes carrying Pip-knew-what all over the ship.
"There isn't a vent there"
"...is there not?"
Still looking, his eyes at last fell on the intercom speaker at the corner of the room, glimpsing sight of the Chadra-fan's eyes through the slits in the speaker. He didn't answer, and simply sighed. Re-dealing the hand more extensively this time, and this time keeping the two cards face down. He glimpsed at them and called her input again.
"A four and three, but as much as ten percent probability one or the other is actually a two"
"Wrong to both"
Silence followed.
"Show me" Pippa's voice was blunt as she re-worked the mathematics in her head.
A five and a three-and-six card revealed themselves to her observing eye.
"That is statistically impossible. The double was separated and we were only playing single numbers. I did not take them into account"
"You were right, I did separate them. Though you also asked for a challenge under my assumption you weren't going to watch" Hart reasoned, scooping up the cards without any change in expression, as if he could.
"When did you change the cards?"
"During the last shuffle"
"But I watched the cards"
"But not the hands"
Silence followed. Playing straight it was as Pippa would say, statistically impossible, to beat her. It was only by guile, and wit that one could beat her at a game she'd analysed so perfectly to predict every logical outcome. The fact Hart's face betrayed no tell after the incident that left him permanently expressionless was an advantage in this case as well. Returning the cards to his hands, he watched as they flashed and rapidly danced between his fingers. In a game at the tables there were always other ways to play without such underhanded tactics. But being good at it also made it easier to catch out.
He was going to draw again when the sound of heavy impacts and the groaning of the fuselage interrupted. Both he and Pippa froze. Her eyes through the speaker disappeared as she scampered about the insides of the ship, while Hart jumped to his feet. Cards on the table and his hand at his sidearm in an instant.
The sound continued, like more than a single pair of footsteps on the outer hull.


"Thirty six shots were fired indiscriminately amongst the gathering of people. Fourteen individuals were hit non-lethally, but were executed with secondary fire." MU1 perused the corpses with almost jerky motions of its limbs, checking for life signs for each individually, though no preliminary scans had returned anything, there was a lot to be done in terms of running autopsy sub-routines once the keyword of "how" was acknowledged in Kyllan and Kaylon's discussion.
"They were good, indiscriminate or not, they knew how to kill on sight, even if it wasn't a perfect execution" Kaylon's nose was still wrinkled. The whole ordeal smelt wrong and he was long overdue a good drink. He had been a bounty hunter a long time ago, in another life, but even then he could never have achieved so high a kill ratio without remarkable reflexes so close. With a sniper rifle he could attempt it at longer ranges, but the clip would only allow for a fraction the number of shots. So up close, there would surely be too much pandemonium going on after the first shot was fired.
But then, he was presuming that the assailant was one person. A team on the other hand was another matter altogether, and could get any hired job done quicker. The pairing of the Yoania and the Entendre were clear examples of that much.

It wasn't the first time they had been followed on a contract. Paranoid traders, sceptical bounty hunters and any organization of the criminal underworld, all had an understandable interest in controlling the trafficking of goods, both illegal and authorized.
But it was unusual, at least to Neroka, to think that one would go so far as to kill their contact well in advance of their arrival. The premise of them getting hold of information like the meeting point compromised the whole job.
Perhaps Hart could dump the cargo and they could all leave without any trouble. Any hired goon would be told to stop any transactions or arrival of goods, whether that meant they killed the people making the delivery, or just ensured the cargo never reached its destination. For this kind of dirty, underhanded work, it wasn't as though killing and stealing would be beyond them.

"We should get back to the ship. The plan's changed"
"I'll contact the Yoania"


Hart's pistol was firmly grasped in his hand. His back planted against the hull of the ship by a recess beside the door. Footsteps could be heard, and somewhere, Pippa was still inside the ship. He daren't make a sound in case the sounds outside escalated, though he was sure they were coming closer. Muttering could be heard between them, but it wasn't galactic basic. It felt wrong to be here, a manifest feeling of that which he felt coming to this planet was weighing heavy in the pit of his stomach, not through any fear, but rather a sheer sense of unease.
There must have been two of them at least out there, maybe three, or four. Though it was hard to distinguish one set of footsteps from the other as they paused and started in their trek across the ship. His ship.
There was a clicking sound in their language, alongside tones and syllables he had never heard before. Almost as though they were muffled. Perhaps by masks? It didn't do any good to assume they were well armed.
"Hart" Pippa's voice was a whisper but carried across the cargo hold through the silence "I require a distraction outside"
"What?" He wasn't sure he'd heard right, as the clamour of sound outside became more pronounced and openly indiscreet.
"I am beside the turret ladder, and would appreciate all intruders to be within one firing arc. For that, I need a distraction to draw them off the ship" Nope, clearly he didn't mishear her. He looked to the doorway, though he couldn't see anyone outside. No words came to mind with a retort the little Chadra Fan would expect.
Slowly, he drew to a crouch, scouring the floor around him for a small object he might throw. Anything, a nut or bolt maybe? Even his own shoe crossed his mind, but if they shot it reflexively it'd be another trip to a more civilized society before he could get another pair. His eyes continued to wander in search of something to serve as a distraction until at last he caught sight of a wrench that had seemingly come astray from the toolkit beside Pippa's walker.
It'd do for now. Picking it up and with a held breath, he lobbed it forcefully down the ramp, clanging loudly as it rebounded off the sloped surface and was sent rolling into the grey clay-like ground below.
At once the sounds outside stopped. The sound of gun chambers being checked was the first noise to return, marked by the slow creaking as they traversed the surface of the ship above. They must have been directly above where he was standing, and the idea almost made his finger twitch.
After a few moments longer, the sound of feet landing on the ground suggested some had at last come off of the hull, though whether Pippa was going to start opening fire or not, Hart had no idea. It came to his mind, that they could just as easily close the ramp and take off. But without knowing the place any better than their passing visit, it would be difficult to coordinate with Kyllan and Kaylon to meet at another drop point. Besides, their current landing area was the closest they could get to their contact.
The thought was no more comfort, than the sound as footsteps came closer to the ramp and the sight of a pair of blasters came into view.


The Entendre was still hanging in the void, just above the planet's outer atmosphere. Under orders to keep a close watch, it was better equipped to deal with the dirty work the Yoania had been chosen for, but didn't have anywhere near the cargo capacity to carry it all down in one go.
There'd been thoughts about the Entendre running two or even three trips down to the planet, leaving the Yoania in orbit. But what would that leave if the Entendre was ambushed? Ultimately it was decided that it would be all the better to keep their best cards close to their chest. Ready to play without showing their hand from the start. Their last run-in with pirates had taught them that much.
It didn't make the atmosphere any less tense aboard. Half their total number were down on that planet surface somewhere and they had yet to call in whether the exchange was underway, a success, or a failure. There was only silence.
Waiting in the cockpit, Alisha's expression did little to hide her unease. Tippy was watching with its big unblinking mechanical eye, looking at her curiously as though trying to read her mood.
"It's alright Tippy, where are the others?"
The series of sounds uttered by the droid as it gestured a shrug of its static shoulders was all the answer she needed.
"I asked you to let me know when Tycho was awake" The Jedi had, in truth, acted differently ever since the revelations of his discovery. An understandable change in attitude as only a mystery bestowing both answers and questions could. Since then, Alisha couldn't be sure she had seen him without a look of thoughtfulness in his eyes, as though he wasn't truly focusing on the here and now. And as for their resident bar-tender, there as little magic in waiting in orbit for a transmission. That was, after all, why Alisha was passing the time alone.
"No response?" Alisha almost jumped from her skin. No sooner had the thought left her mind than the Dlizz appeared with a smile and a drink in hand.
"Uh, no" Alisha answered distractedly, sitting up and turning as the Chiss offered her the glass. The aroma itself was inviting, though she couldn't think about getting intoxicated if the others would need help at a moment's notice.
"Relax, its just something to keep you awake." She'd apparently seen Alisha's predicament, letting her take the drink and sip at it sparingly.
With her hands free, Dlizz moved to the opposing co-pilot seat, much to the chagrin of Tippy who was ushered out of her way. It shouldn't have been too long for the others to have landed and make contact with their associate. Even in the confines of the dark underbelly of the planet's society, Kyllan had asked Neroka with him, in spite of the confines proving counter-productive to the sniper's strengths. That much, he'd suggested, was his trust in leaving Alisha at the helm of the Entendre. Followed by a quip about her coming to his rescue.
"Strange for them to be taking so long, and not a call to explain the situation" Dlizz mused aloud, turning after a moment to look at Alisha "You don't suppose they met trouble do you?"



Kyllan and Neroka were at a run, bustling through the tumultuous streets back to where they'd landed. Already they could hear the discharge of laserfire, knowing through familiarity it was the Yoania's own guns. But they were still too far to see either the ship or its targets.
They'd both tried to contact the ship, which suggested something was very wrong, giving them all the more haste in their return journey. The first sounds of a fight had spurred them on further, and even now the medical droid lumbered some distance behind them, trying almost desperately to keep up.
Kyllan's anti-material rifle was in his hand in a flash, with a mind to contact the Entendre he set about opening a channel.
Both he and Neroka stopped at an elevated point where they could see the Yoania. Its rudimentary guns were nothing like that of the Entendre, though from where they were, with its ramp down and a few wide shots firing from the main compartment Hart and they could only assume Pippa, had the intent to kill something.
"I see them" Looking to the sniper, his gun was braced in his hands, an elbow resting on his knee as he knelt. Eye fixed to the scope, he resembled in that moment every bit the bounty hunter he'd mentioned once being. "Dark figures, using the lack of light to their advantage. They're visible but a clear shot's going to be hard with all the flashes of laser fire the turret's letting out"
"Do what you can, I'll contact the Entendre" Kaylon nodded as Kyllan opened the alternative channel.
"Entendre, we're in need of assistance, can you hear me?"

Both Alisha and Dlizz sat forward as contact was made over the channels, their attention now fixed on the transmission. It was Kyllan, and he didn't sound all too happy.
"We hear you Kyllan, where are you?"
"Lock onto the Yoania's signal if you can, and follow it down. Looks like she's got some pests, and the door's open" Alisha and Dlizz simply looked at one another in silence for a few seconds at that. Surely it wasn't that hard to close a door, right?
"We'll be right down"

"They're on their way" Kyllan readied his anti-material rifle again.
Neroka grunted in acknowledgement. He still hadn't taken a shot, but seemed intently focused on the goings on around the Yoania. From what both of them could see, at least one of the intruders was down, with a smouldering crater in their chest from Pippa's turret-fire, and with Hart keeping any courageous individuals from storming the ramp with his own contributions to the fight. It was hard to see the exact number of them, and the prospect of simply spectating was an unpleasant notion to contemplate. Kyllan was commited to the team's protection, as was Neroka, and with a light pat on the sniper's back, he advanced further forward.