Week 31: Moon Party

Ace was waiting in the Shuttleport for everyone to arrive. He'd flown up last night with Cobra and spent most of yesterday evening, night and the early hours of the morning ensuring everything was ready for the trip into space. The shuttle was fuelled and ready, the flight manifest was prepared and the FarDrive calculations had been made ready for the trip to the moon. The only thing missing was the passengers.

Ace kept one eye on his GUI, looking at the time, while he waited in the small private section of the terminal that had been hired under the name EROZ. While he waited he was chatting with Cobra, mostly about technical things.

((OOC Note: Anyone is welcome for the trip. Also remember to keep a minor action open for the Moonlympics.))

Han's motorbike came skidding into the shuttle carpark, before neatly sliding into the space, the antigrav generators managing to compensate for the dramatic stunt. Han himself was in full armour, but not personally armed at the moment, not knowing the restrictions on shuttle transport particularly well, his weapons were stowed in a clearly marked weapon crate on the back of his bike.

He carried it and the muletech with his supplies over to the shuttle bay he had been instructed to arrive in. He also carried a sealed briefcase, black and non descript, but large enough to fit a tactical weapon in.

Seeing the distinctive figure approaching Ace broke off his conversation and came out to meet him.

"Han! Great to see you. Did you have a pleasant trip? Bring your stuff inside, there is a buffet laid out if you want anything to eat or drink, and you probably should drink some liquids before we leave. Have you been to space before?"

As he talked Ace lead Han towards their private part of the terminal and swiped them inside.

As Han came into sight and Ace broke off to talk to him, Cobra gave him a brief salute and a nod. She stood at a slight distance from Ace and Han to let them talk, sipping from a small black bottle and thinking about the journey ahead. She'd never been into space before, and had very little experience with spacecraft, so this was an exciting day. It was just the sort of thing she never could have had the opportunity to do before coming to Oracle, and hopefully it'd be a good opportunity to get to know the others better too.

Marge made less of an immediate impression than Han; for one, the taxi had dropped her off at the entrance, and she was walking. Walking, an unshockingly, talking to herself. "--trust him, yes. But I don't--A short trip, I mean, the moon is... Oh, WELL, as long as you're happy." It was a familiar sound of sarcasm, the low bickering of half a couple who was ready and prepared to do this all day. She waved with her hands full as she got closer to the Oracle group, stopping her relaxed squabbling.

She was dragging an anti-grav suitcase, wheels barely touching the ground. It appeared to be stuffed full of.. something, almost to capacity. It had a beat up look to it, like it was.. old.. and a decal of the Dubai Spire city. A small terrarium full of sludge was attached to the top of a bag with a strap. "Han, Ace." She took a step to Cobra, who was not engaged in conversation. Her voice was bouncing in her normal Nigerian accented English, some syllables raising, lyrical. "Hey up, honey. How're you?"

"I'm really excited!" Cobra replied enthusiastically. "I never thought I'd have the chance to go into space, and here I am... Well, here we are, and that's the thing isn't it? It's nice going on a journey with all these people." She smiled at Marjorie, especially glad to see that the one person she saw as a real equal, having joined at the same time as her, was going to be there too. "I'm surprised you're here, though. In a good way, that is. It's just, I thought you'd want to stay on the ground after 7 years in space."

Marj giggled bubbily, waving a full hand dismissively. She was holding a bag in it. "Hey, I've been on the ground almost three whole weeks! It's time for a trip." She smiled at Cobra, eyes bright. Her voice dropped a bit as she revealed something a bit more private, and her smile faded. "..But I miss endless night. I miss seeing the stars. It's.. been hard adjusting." She gave a conspiritorial look around for a moment, and then added in her usual giddy voice, "But that's to be expected! Besides, the moon's very nice, and I get to see how trilo-roaches do in space. Don't we, Caleb? Don't we?"

The last little bit was addressed in baby talk to the pile of sludge on her suitcase, which made a hissing scream in response, so quiet that Cobra might have imagined it.

Han looked up at the space shuttle. "So...space. Never been to space. I guess I never really thought I ever would to be honest. But time for a leap, I guess." Han sighed quietly, and moved toward the space shuttle. He looked...concerned.

"Han, no need to be so keen. The shuttle is locked at the moment, if you head over there" He pointed " there are refreshments. I'll just direct everyone back inside, we really shouldn't be standing on the Tarmac."

Ace left Han and headed over to the girls. He felt it was his duty as the host to greet everyone and direct them to the proper place and it looked like he'd messed it up already.

"Hello Dr. Enuma, it's good to see you again. If the two of you would like to come inside we have refreshments, food and drink to tide you over while you wait. I recommend drinking plenty of fluids before you get on the shuttle, but then again you already know more than me about FarDrive travel don’t you Ma'am."

Jorie blushed very slightly at being called 'doctor', smiling coyly. "No need for such formalities, Agent Nizky." Her smile grew at her joke. "But I can't say I'm that good at FarDrive. Most of my time on my--er, the shuttle was spent going on impulse speeds. Space, though, I'm good at space."

Still, she didn't need encouragement to eat and drink. Despite the fact she was pretty plump, the extra cybernetics were working their energy consuming magic, and she did seem a little thinner than before. The ex-AXE agent dropped her suitcase and bag while looking over what their was to eat with an eager smile.

Han leaned against a wall, looking rather...uncomfortable, mostly due to the lack of armour on him. His casual outfit seemed almost to fit him poorly, despite having been tailored to him.

"Okay, so. Anybody got some advice for a first time astronaut? Cause this stuff is...well, it's pretty much beyond me. I mean...it's space."

"It's not much different than being in an aircraft, to start with anyway. If anything it's smoother due to the anti-gravity propulsion system. There is some weightlessness in space so make sure you are strapped in. Apart from that it's not really a problem. There are no windows to look out of but you can see out the front if you like once we are going. The main issue is the FarDrive but that is totally unexplainable. The feeling is like nothing else. It's not bad just... different. And you'll be glad to have drunk a lot of water afterwards."

Ace checked the time. Mostly everyone was there but he was still waiting on a couple more. This could cause an issue. Ace sent a message to Darya.

"I don't mean to rush you but we have a limited takeoff window or we will have to spend quite a bit of time re-plotting the course and finding a new takeoff slot. What is your ETA?"

The Pit Viper barrelled it's way down the motorway, the signs for the space port coming up on the right. Getting Parvati to switch her PDA to talk-2-txt mode, Darya said "Ten minutes or so, depending on traffic. We've just got past an accident near junction 14, we're turning off at 17 and from there it isn't that far to the spaceport." She said, glancing at the other PDA strapped to the dashboard.

"See you soon."

His mind at rest Ace stopped worrying about his friends and instead started setting up the projector for the short safety briefing he had prepared.

Jorie nodded at Ace's little speech about space travel to Han. "And being weightless is fun! Really enjoyable. Weird, at first, because gravity is so comforting.. But nice." She gave a little wink and a smile behind her cosmetic glasses. "I'm very good at operating while weightless."

She turned and looked at the little plastic see-through box, tapping it with a finger. The slime moved as the bug inside the cage dug deeper in annoyance. "And you're gonna fly through the air and you're gonna love it, aren't you? Aren't you?"

The SUV pulled outside the spaceport and Darya and Parvati got out, Darya raising a hand in greeting to the others. After they pulled out what they packed for the trip (in Darya's case two muletechs), Darya headed over to the group. "Sorry we're late. Traffic problems...well, like I said earlier." She said to Ace, obviously fairly happy to see him. She waved to Han and Cobra, giving Marjorie a curt nod, waiting for Parvati to join them. She occasionally looked back at the other woman, looking slightly worried.

Ace greeted the new arrivals with a wave and a smile. Now everyone was finally gathered he could get moving he was only 12 minutes behind schedue, which was fine as he had left wiggle room in his timings. "Now we are all hear would everyone take their seats for a brief safety briefing." He announced and brought the title slide up.

Maggie gave Cobra a little grin and nodded to Han, and jumped eagerly on the ship. She seemed happy to be going back into space, but anyone paying close attention would have noticed the very slight hesitation before she actually took a step on the ship. She mumbled to herself, soft, nervously.. And then it was gone, and she was striding onto the shuttle like she owned it.

Parvati had not brought much, a single muletech contained everything she had brought with her. She smiled to those she recognised, and to those she didn't. She followed along after the group quiet for the moment.

She sat and watched the slides intently, her attention flicking between it and Ace. She had never left earth before... this was going to be interesting.