☺ F I V E

[rixatus]

[ There’s a grating crackle, a sharp burst of static, and voices abruptly begin to rasp across the feed. They’re indistinguishable at first, but eventually separate themselves from the fuzzy base white noise, which quickly fades into a bizarrely clear transmission. Every sound is amplified. ]

—ink will happen? To us.

[ Hayes’ voice is still strident as ever, but there’s a new undertone of fear to it. She’s close to the feed, almost a little too loud. ]

Nothing. They have nothing. They bring this ship into the wrong area, they’ll be hauled in too—they’re wanted just as much as we are.

[ Laurens sounds as unfazed as before, tone still light but words firm as he speaks with his crew. Noam just scoffs in response, voice fainter than the others; wherever the transmission is coming from, he’s not close to the mic. ] Yeah, but—

[ Juliana cuts him off, her voice strained and weak from crying, clearly not wanting to hear any possible objections on the matter. ]

It’ll be fine. We’ll be fine.

[ It’s enough to quiet any further discussion, and no one argues with her. Clothes rustle, boots squeak on the smooth floor. A noise of quiet irritation and discomfort. Then: ]

—fuck!

[ A pair of footsteps—too close to the feed to have walked through the door—echoes quietly, walking a few short strides before stopping. A quiet metallic click can be heard, reminiscent of a weapon’s safety being thumbed off—almost exactly like a safety being thumbed off, as a matter of fact. ]

How did you get in here?

[ For the first time, Laurens sounds alarmed, fear threading sharply through his voice. The rest of his crews erupts in panicked, angry protest, overlapping into an unintelligible cacophony until one manages to cut through. ]

Hang on a fucking second! You’re legally obligated to take us to the nearest station so we can stand trial.

This isn’t a punishment. There won’t be a trial. You were never supposed to find this ship.

Yeah, well, we did, and you can’t just—you have to take us to the nearest station.

No, I don’t. [ A pause, and Ward’s voice gains a faint, resigned note of condolence—but not enough to indicate true compassion. He’s just doing his job. ] I can’t let you leave. I’m sorry it has to be like this.

It has to be like what? [ Hayes is shrill now, even louder in her terror. ] Why are you sorr—don’t do this!

[ A thunderous staccato breaks the air, shattering the transmission quality, violently cutting the angry pleas short. The sound of bodies slumping quietly to the floor is the last discernable sound before the transmission cuts to static—and then nothing. ]



[ ooc: there will be no npc response to this post. an ooc post detailing the end of this event can be found here!

NPC font colors:
      red → hayes
      orange → laurens
      green → noam
      indigo → juliana
      blue → ward ]

Comments

voice;

[coffeeking]

What the fuck...!

voice;

[cargojet]

We put them in there, you know. We put them in chains and were good little boys and girls and marched them right into the brig like we were supposed to. Marched them right to their deaths.

[ Cold and angry and bitter. They'd have been safer under guard in the shuttle bay, but then would Ward have just shot all the flight crew to keep them quiet too? ]

voice.

[foolproofed]

Are you fuckin' serious--

[picked off, just like that

shit]

Who the fuck is the guy shooting 'em??

[Because like hell he knows much about Ward to even begin with.]

voice;

[coffeeking]

Ward. The ship's "captain."

[voice / i hate you guys]

[throwsdown]

[Whelp. Takeshi is just gonna go hide in the corner of his bed with all the sheets pulled up now, thanks. He hoped for something better, but--that never really happens here, does it? Does it. He doesn't accept the finality of the way their bodies crumple with such boneless sound. Even though he's heard it--seen it--so many times, he doesn't like to put two and two together the way all the other adults tend to.]

Someone--can't someone check?? Someone see if anybody's breathing! I-if they're breathing that means somebody can fix them!!

[ voice oh my god why kid why ]

[ringbearer]

Takeshi -- it's best to leave this alone.

[northerner]

[ in westeros, robb had seen executions time and again. his father had told him not to look away, and robb never had. but not all were reared in such a fashion. ]

Look away, Takeshi. You needn't see this.

[blunted]

Well, shit.

[became]

Now all we need is Stark to tell us that winter is coming, and we're set.

[cargojet]

Thank you.

[ Nothing else from Nathan. No plea to Ward not to take his head off too. This isn't Ward's work. Son of a bitch--if Nathan sees either one of them, he intends to shoot first and not give them a chance. This has gone on long enough. ]

[withlace]

Nathan.

[ That's it. But in sentiment, there's a hundred other things it means as well. ]

audio »

[widowing]

...Bozhe moi.

audio » locked » 95% encrypted

[recalibration]

That's one way of putting it. [ a pause. ] That actually the captain?

[ you better believe clint is watching this whole goddamn post. ]

NOT HERE.

[sufferances]

[ let's just add this to stefan's guilt spiral, shall we? ]

[voice]

[uncodlyawwesome]

Are you fuckin' kiddin' me.

[said with the tone of someone who is probably around 1000x done with these ship related shenanigans.]

text;

[recalibration]

[ ...first pirates, now this. apparently he picked the wrong month to get sucked into space. ]

this place just keeps getting better.

voice;

[sugarpills]

Holy shit!

[ On one hand, be happy the pirates are gone.

On the other hand, be concerned that the captain doesn't mind killing the shit out of people. That is the captain, right? ]

...There's no way to get off of this ship, right?

[makedo]

[ he doesn't allow himself much of a reaction, but that doesn't mean he missed this or that it leaves him unaffected. there's anger, mostly. this is not how you deal with POWs. us laws don't apply here and neither does the geneva convention, but for all that brad knows that those who can't kill will always be subject to those who can — the pirates could and shouldn't have been executed like this.

it's a fucking disgrace and it's spitting in the face of everything that brad likes about war. ]

Fucking officers. [ that's all he'll say. ward is the captain, isn't he? brad's beginning to think that the sheer incompetence of officers is universal. ]

[chromosomes]

[ Reaper's pissed. He's pissed enough that he's not turning the video on, because if he can actually see someone, if someone tries something with him right now, he might just try to kill them. ]

We need to find out how the fuck he got in there. We had guards, you were one of them, and all of you are fucking good.

video.

[sundroplet]

Why would you do this?

[ Rapunzel's voice is soft, hushed, closer to crying than to shouting an anger. ]

Why would you do such a thing?! Where's your humanity? They haven't -

[ and ok fine, there is some anger there. ]

You are much worse than all of them, captain, and that would be the last time I ever call you that!

video.

[mansuetus]

[ Lucrezia speaks words that are only ever spoken by men but there is no one to speak them beside her. She looks tired, something hard behind her eyes instead of the usual softness but when she speaks, she does so more gently: ]

Requiem Aeternam dona eis, Domine
et lux perpetua luceat eis:
Requiescant in pace. Amen.

off-comm contributions from robb stark.

[northerner]

[ robb reaches for her with his good arm. he's seen worse than this, dealt out worse deaths than this, but there had been no justice there. ]

Lucrezia, you needn't bear witness to it.

[endeavors]

That's -- [No. No no, he doesn't like where this is going -- Oh my goodness no] No! Why - was that necessary?!

[not here]

[goldshirt]

[there are too many things going on here that set off all of Jim's internal alarms. he swivels over to his communicator when it beeps to life, leaning over it as he listens to the feed. he can count off the voices, people they personally marched down to that brig. they were pirates, yes, but they were still sentient. they had as much right to live as the wraith had.

there are few things worse than listening to someone die over audio.

even worse was hearing who was responsible for the murder. Ward, of all goddamn people. and it isn't that Kirk had trusted him to begin with, but he'd tried— really tried— to give them the benefit of the doubt. two people trapped on a a ship lost in space? of course they might not be firing on all pistons. but it didn't mean they were a lost cause.

or so he'd thought.

listening to those rounds fire off, the bodies hitting the floor— Kirk clenches his jaw, feels sick to his stomach. his hand balls into a fist and he hits the console he's standing over hard enough that the desk shakes and it beeps angrily at him.]

Damnit!

[he straightens as he paces away from the device. they had to reevaluate the situation. feasibly, they were still safe; You were never supposed to find this ship wasn't the same as the passengers being ported on board. they were the crew, the pirates had been invaders.

but this gave weight to the theory that Southey had been murdered for knowing something he shouldn't. it meant that Ward and Resnik were a lot more volatile than they put forward.

he had to find his crew.]

[NOT HERE]

[yardbird]

["There won't be a trial."

[Given the circumstances, those words would have been more of a blessing. In a perfect world, it's easier to play Judge, Jury, and Executioner rather than just going through the motions of the government. That takes years.

[But no one can leave. Not like you'd think.

[Fuck.]