Chapter 0: The Waiting Room

OOC:For people champing at the bit to start postin, here is a thread you can use to establish your character a little before things begin.

Today’s the day that it all begins – your year with the UIG, that is. Arriving at your nearest teleport station to find it closed to the public, a team of UIG officers escorted you into the teleporter.  Apparently, you have arrived on what they tell you is your new base - the orbital station “Black Knight”. From the inside, it all seems very clean, with a smooth and high-tech aesthetic, lots of monitors and glowy lights in the walls, but you wouldn't know it was a fancy UIG satellite - all you’ve seen so far is the corridor from the teleport room… and this waiting room. It’s quite nice, lots of comfortable couches, a TV with a number of popular shows recorded on the hard drive (but no external signal, apparently), and a vending machine. You don’t know how many people to expect, but you’re not the only one who’s been brought here.

Lester was the first to arrive, followed by Zushe.

When in new situations, it was human nature to fall into old habits. Here in his old familiar tan trench coat from fourty seasons ago, Lester leaned in to the call of his own nature and walked over to the vending machine. He removed his phone to check the temperature and power outputs, as well as checking the labels on the back. Everything was perfect, as befitting a UIG base. With a nod he purchased a coffee, stared at the seating arrangements. Instead of pick one, he opted to shake his coffee in it's plastic container to give it that frothy cafe feeling. He waited, spare hand in his pocket, looking more awkward and out of place than comfortable.

After a good few moments of waiting, Zushe emerged through the door, looking around at his surroundings - and at Lester. He approached the other man and nodded his head, affably.

"Hey. You an Agent too?" His English was fluent, with a slight Asian accent and he smiled, easily.

Lester smiled at the newcomer; he seemed as out of place as Lester, even if he wasn't uncomfortable. "Oh yes. Did you get a welcoming entourage at the teleporter station, too?" The UIG had been a little overkill with closing down the porter hub, but who knew what the DLA were capable of? He extended a hand for shaking. "Lester Buttercream, Multymeat Health Inspector." He seemed proud of his title.

The other man took the hand with a slightly surprised expression. "Health inspector? Not what I expected, I'll admit." His grip was firm and he kept his gaze on Lester's face. "Huang Zushe, of Simha Shipping. And yeah, the full security escort. Seems like they're taking this seriously, at least."

Lester chuckled a little at the UIG. "About damn time someone paid attention." His grip was about as strong as Zushe's, but he was willing to give up on shaking hands after only a few moments. He took a sip of his coffee. "I have a background in medicine and science, as well. Nothing too impressive but I have a few talents. And Simha, huh? I've heard of you guys. A company to watch, apparently." Lester's wide blue eyes probably did a lot of watching.

Zushe dips his head in acknowledgement. "Glad you think so. So you're the science operative on this team, then? You know how to hack?" He maintained the eye contact, clearly assessing Lester's reactions.

The tall man chuckled again in an affable and professional sort of way. Controlled. "No, I'm pretty terrible with computers, to be honest. I do other things." He waved his hand a little to demonstrate in the air the myriad of activities he did do. "Forensic work. Food testing. Water purity. Basic nanite, toxin, and biochemical handling training." He didn't seem offended or too patronising, just interested as he watched Zushe's face. "And you? Lots of paperwork in your job?"

Zushe pulled a rueful face and turned towards the vending machine. "Rather more than I would like," he said, getting himself a cup of coffee. "I try to keep myself at the sharp end of things as much as I can, let others handle that kind of thing. But there's always stuff that needs doing that you want done right." He kept glancing towards Lester as he talked, only half-concentrating on his coffee. "I imagine I'm mostly here for the combat, though. Got plenty of experience there."

Just then, the dynamic (?) duo were joined by a third wheel. "-ot right now Prince, they can look after themselves for a few..." The woman trailed off and halted in her tracks as she saw the two men. A floating droid followed her in, just barely getting through the automatic door before it slammed shut. It looked like a Helpsalot but with less google in its eyes and more speakers.

The woman, short, dark haired, be-suited, snapped her fingers together as she pointed at, "Zushe, Huang Zushe, pleased to see you again." Amp dumped her mule-tech as she approached, arm outstretched for a handshake. "I can't tell you how glad I am to see someone else competent." Behind her Prince attempted to lift the mule-tech, failed and began dragging it along the floor towards its owner, undermining Amp even as she spoke.

"Amparo!" Zushe turned to shake her hand with a pleased expression. "It's good to see you too. Been too long. What are you doing here, then? Joining us against the DLA?" He broke the handshake to take his coffee from the machine and gestured vaguely towards Lester. "This is Lester, by the way - a scientist, from Multymeat. He's going to be part of the team."

The aforementioned Lester nodded, extending his own hand for a shake. "I am. I take it you and Mr. Huang are previously acquainted?" He was also holding a coffee, but his was mostly finished. "I hope I can live up to your standards of competency." That was said teasingly, as a joke.

At this point, phones and other devices lose comms signal, WDN access, and so on. There is a local network, but you don't know the password.

"What else?" Amp's reply was jovial but there was an undercurrent of exhaustion in her voice. She turned to face Lester, glanced at his hand, raised her eyebrows and then grinned to show it was a joke. "Ah, we are yes. We've worked alongside from opposite ends of the, well the deal but also, ahah, the ocean."

Prince whirred as it dragged the mule-tech closer and let out an alarming little beep but Amp merely waved a dismissive hand in its direction, "Of course you can't complete the search, we're not planetside anymore." Amp hadn't taken her eyes off Lester but now they narrowed.

"That makes two of us," The lawyer was willing to go along with the joke but wanted the scientist to know the bar was pretty high. Amp cupped her chin and put a finger to her lips. "Lester, Multymeat. Hmm, good to meet you," she sounded more thoughtful than anything else.

"And I you, Amparo. You have an interesting Helpsalot there." Lester wasn't one to toot his own horn, so he let the discussion about his competency fall. If course, he didn't know anything about robots, but he wasn't going to let that stop him from making polite conversation. He drained his coffee and gave it an appraising look. "...But I was able to get WDN signal a few minutes ago?"

"Presumably they're locking us off," Zushe said with a shrug. "Maybe that means they're going to be letting us at the good stuff soon." He smiled enthusiastically as he said it. "And I'm sure we're all going to be fine. After all, the UIG wouldn't have let us on this taskforce if we weren't good at what we do, right?" He sipped at his coffee, leaving the question hanging.

"Amp is fine. Prince is a King Helpsalot, one of the perks of a gig with Iyo." Prince chirrped happily, dropping the mule-tech behind Amp and extending a manipulator claw towards Lester. There weren't other perks, really but they didn't need to know that. "One would hope but who knows what they have in mind." Amp shook her head, the UIG were doing better about the DLA than the corps but she still resented them for not kicking the corps up the ass.

"It seems unlikely that the UIG wouldn't do research on us before selecting our skills. They do have access to a lot of information." Lester moved to the trash in the room, depositing his empty bottle into the bin. He moved both his hands into his pockets. "Stopping the DLA is obviously something they need help with."

"Ah, well" Amp made meaningful eye contact with Zushe and Prince, "I would never think to cast aspersions on the UIG or our AI benefactors." Here, the diplomat was displaying a lot of nerve for someone on a UIG taskforce, in their space station, probably being listened to right now. "Especially given the apparent mastermind behind the DLA's recent...." Amp pursued her lips as she searched for the appropriate expression.

"Coordinated en masse insurrection?" Suggested Prince, who seemed to be as verbose as its owner. "Quite," Amp replied, curtly.

As the door opened a new voice boomed out. "Aha! People!" Vojislav strode through the door, Jonnochka across one shoulder. He had a grin plastered on his face, here he was, in some top secret UIG facility, and now he got to meet his new team! "You are with the taskforce, yes?" As he got closer, he thrust one massive hand out towards the group "I am Vojislav, my friends call me Voja. I am here to provide a little muscle." At this he hefted Jonnochka and gave a little flex.

Lester took a moment to look at Amp and Zushe, before offering a normal human sized hand to the massive Russian. "Oh, hello there. We are indeed with the taskforce." The Multymeat agent braced for his hand to be crushed. He wasn't a weak man by any means, but Vojo was huge and he may as well take the bullet for this one. "I'm Lester, this is Amp and Mister Huang." He wasn't being intentionally deferential, but he only knew one of their last names.

Zushe looked up at the new guy with an impressed expression. "A little muscle? I think you might be selling yourself short. Huang Zushe, of Simha Shipping. Here to provide a little less muscle and a bit of business acumen."

Voja didn't disappoint Lester, crushing is hand as he shook it enthusiastically. "Heh. Nah, it's pretty hard to sell me short!" He allowed Jonnochka to slide off his shoulder and she hit the ground with a thud. "So, what do the rest of you do?"

"Law and order," Amp replied succinctly. Their new companion was such a huge presence, in more ways than one, that it was throwing her off. The lawyer looked Voja's hammer up and down, she wasn't particularly familiar with melee weapons but nevertheless, "I have to say, I've never seen a weapon like that before." Amp showed no fear, taking a step towards it and reaching out a hand to softly touch. "I'm not even sure I could lift this. Legal I should hope, especially given where we're standing." She gave Voja a pointed glance.

Vojislav was a little confused by the small woman's response, between that and Zuche's shipping, he was starting to wonder if he was in the right place. But as Amp moved on to Jonnochka, he seemed to recover, and he released his grip on Lester's hand. "Of coarse Jonnochka's legal! I wouldn't be here if she wasn't, or I guess she wouldn't be. She is a fine weapon! First of her kind!" He casually lifted the huge hammer in order to give the others a better look.