The Officer's Club Bar #6

Ah, the first Bar thread actually posted by me since I started the dang thing.

The lights flicker back on and the floor, tables, chairs and bar all shine with glow-polish. Cicion finishes cleaning the final glass, and places the clean glasses in neat stacks behind the bar. The drinks and dispensers are all fully re-stocked. The doors open and patrons enter again. Somewhere, in the distance, the Cheers theme can be heard playing...

Ah, the bar.

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-Traek Cicion, barkeep extraordinaire
"PS: If nothing's working around here, it's because I'm laughing so hard."
-Durandal

Walking in an undisclosed manner, a young female pilot enters the bar. With a dark hood shrouded over her face she quietly asks for a 'Dragons Breath' drink. Watching the few people that begin to enter the bar, distant and favorable memories enter Athena's head of friends she once new. She continues to sip her drink and wait to see what will happen next.

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Falling inlove is when he lays in your arms and wakes up in your dreams...

There is a low moaning from one of the service bays in the wall of the bar. suddenly the door opens with a hiss, and 9024 rolles out battered and brused. obviously 9024 did not make it out of the bar in time to avoid the cleaning robots!
9024 tips his hat to the other people, and precedes to fall unconscious

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" it's not an angry mob,' he anounced.
'Ook'
'It's an orang-utan carrying a stunned dwarf followed by a troll. but hes quite angry, if thats any help.' - Men At Arms Terry Pratchett

Shrout1 saunters on in for good-time's sake, hoping that he might be able to post more than once this week.

"I'll have a jhynantawnix"

P.S. - wish me luck! I test for my driver's liscence tomorrow - hey, all drinks on me if I get it :D.

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"You will find that your device is highly non-functional...." - Bad Guy
(url="http://"http://www.evula.com")Your Cursor is getting heavy.... You feel it coming to this link.(/url)(url="http://"http://janus.ambrosiasw.com/~mburch/").(/url)(url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/webcam/").(/url)(url="http://"http://janus.ambrosiasw.com/~andrew/").(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.shrout1.freewebsites.com")My Webpage!(/url)

Serves up the drinks, and nods to Athena. Welcome back, pilot. What's up around space these days?

------------------
-Traek Cicion, barkeep extraordinaire
"PS: If nothing's working around here, it's because I'm laughing so hard."
-Durandal

A group of robots from Beeblebrox Enterprises teleport into an unfashionable corner of the new bar. (Funny how there is always an unfashionable corner...)
They deftly activate the HagrabiscuitŽŠ™ 🆒 🆒 🆒 🆒 🆒 Vending Machine that was always there and quietly empty its cash box of Altarian One Dollar Coins.

The robots teleport out, another job well done
and normality restored...

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Oh, so it is another bug hunt then...

Looking at the queer amount of different aliens in the queer bar itself, Athena begins to tell Cicion about all her long and strange journeys. Giggling about several missions she had done, Athena finishes telling her story to Cicion by saying, "But after I 'accidently' made a supernova destroy a couple of inhabited planets, I kinda of thought that it would be best to, umm..., refrain from being a pilot for a few months. The supernova really wasn't my fault though,... I don't think." After only taking a few more sips from her drink, two very tall and dark looking men enter the room with solemn looks on the cruel looking faces. The second Athena takes notice of them, her head sinks, and her eyes search all over the place trying to think of something. Athena quietly asks Cicion for a quiet booth, and thereafter keeps her hood low over her face.

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Her hair was long, her limbs were white,
And fair she was and free;
And in the wind she went as light,
As leaf of linden-tree.

The various Darkks enter the bar. Alacina soon follows.
"Hey, the bar's much better now."
"Aww. They buffed out the dents from when I kicked ass in those bar fights.
I miss my dents."
"You still have the ones in your head"
"Hey!"
"They also removed the soaked-in Salrilian blood."
"Aww. That had some great patterns in it."
"Look, they have a mural of it on the celing."

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"In literature as in love we are astounded by what is chosen by others." Andre Maurois

A banged up 88 volvo clangs into an airlock outside - a few modificatios made on its body, but nothing significant enough to make it look new, except possibly a couple ion drives.

Shrout1 waltzes in again.
"Never could quite get that parallel park down"

"Stay off the roads, and all drinks on me! I am now a fully - well, not fully, but mostly fully - liscened driver! Yippee!"
A champaigne bottle uncorks in the background somewhere and all the binge drinkers creep out from their comfortably pitch black corners.

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"You will find that your device is highly non-functional...." - Bad Guy
(url="http://"http://www.evula.com")Your Cursor is getting heavy.... You feel it coming to this link.(/url)(url="http://"http://janus.ambrosiasw.com/~mburch/").(/url)(url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/webcam/").(/url)(url="http://"http://janus.ambrosiasw.com/~andrew/").(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.shrout1.freewebsites.com")My Webpage!(/url)

Congrats, Shrout. Does that clunker you docked with the bar pass the intergalactic emissions standard? It doesn't look like it.

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-Traek Cicion, barkeep extraordinaire
"PS: If nothing's working around here, it's because I'm laughing so hard."
-Durandal

Gaseous clouds leak from the vessel into space...

Eh, who's looking anyway...

Well, I figure as much - it has wheels, dries forward, drives backwards, has a radio and can carry five people. Don't ask for anything else. It is in getting brake work done, the engine has problems accelerating, the tape player eats tapes, the passeneger side window is not in its track and instead slides up and down inside the frame of the window the locks are iffy when it's cold and the air conditioner doesn't work.

It is, however, paid for by my parents along with my insurance, therefore I have no right to complain. Heck, if it's free, it's good.

------------------
"You will find that your device is highly non-functional...." - Bad Guy
(url="http://"http://www.evula.com")Your Cursor is getting heavy.... You feel it coming to this link.(/url)(url="http://"http://janus.ambrosiasw.com/~mburch/").(/url)(url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/webcam/").(/url)(url="http://"http://janus.ambrosiasw.com/~andrew/").(/url)

(This message has been edited by Shrout1 (edited 10-20-2002).)

Amen. An organ is heard playing in the background. A single note is held, and a second note a minor third higher plays, goes up a whole step, then comes down a half step. The two notes are held for another second or two before releasing.

Well, good luck with the ship.

------------------
-Traek Cicion, barkeep extraordinaire
"PS: If nothing's working around here, it's because I'm laughing so hard."
-Durandal

As usual, the battered and beaten mess of the SS Barbarrossa slides into the dock and engages its clamps. The docking collar tries to make a seal, but the ship's interior is depressureized, perhaps due to the massive holes peppered through her hull. The crew climb out, all pressure suited and float into the station's airlock, where they wait their turn to move through. They remove their helmets as they get inside, tasting outside air for the first time in their three hour shift. Outside the station, four massive freighters set their thrusters to station holding and then together use their tractor beams to haul a crippled Salrillian carrier to one of the docking hardpoints on the station.

Captain Pharris rips off his pressure suit and watches the proceedings. The crew watch eagerly, waiting for the prize crews to finish their work. Finally, the carrier is secure, and shuttles launch from the freighters and carry the rest of the Barbarrossa's crew to the station.

Once every last man is standing in front of him in the landing bay, he takes out a cigar from somewhere on his person, opening the tube and sliding it out, cutting the end off with his pocketknife. His crew all do the same.

"Gentlemen, that was a fine cruise. You've each got a share of those freighters and that carrier. I reccomend that you go to the bar and begin spending it, because in seventy two hours, we're going to start refitting the Barbarrossa to fly again. Dismissed."

They all go, except for the XO and the chief engineer. Pharris looks at each of them, then at the Barbarrossa's ravaged form.

The engineer takes a swig from his flask.

"Sir, might I suggest that we leave considerations of our ships condition until after we celebrate our plunder?"

The engineer passes the flask to his captain, who takes a swig.

"A sound plan, Mr. Franklin, lets get to the bar."

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NEW NAME FOR THE DREADNOUGHT
The Hard-Boiled Egg
Why?
Because she cant be beaten!

Welcome, ye crewmen of the good ship Barbarrossa. Have a seat at the ol' bar and tell me of your adventures.

------------------
-Traek Cicion, barkeep extraordinaire
"PS: If nothing's working around here, it's because I'm laughing so hard."
-Durandal

Darkk1 walks up to Pharris.
"Hey! Haven't seen you in awhile. Care for a game of darts?"
"As long as you don't use psychic powers."
"Fine."

In the meantime, Alacina enters the bar and sits beside Athena.
"Something bad happened, and you know it isn't your fault, but you
can't shake that feeling."
"How did you know?"
"Hialee are natural empaths. We can sense the emotions of others with
great precision and detail. Besides, I experienced that state of mind
for far too long."
"What did you do?"
"I saved the universe in the only way I could. But when you kill that
many innocent people, you can't justify it to yourself. You can justify
it to <she pauses, and looks behind her> others, but never to yourself."
"Care to tell me more?"
"No, no thank you. It's a very painful memory. My entire species was
nearly wiped out, too."
"Sounds horrible."
"Every bad coincidence at once. Like somebody had it out for me."
"Fate? I don't believe in fate."
"You'd believe in it if you were a Hialee at Miro. Of course, the only
Hialee survivor of Miro was my sister."
"I don't know about that."
"Most people would blame it on an intelligence failure, but there was no way to know. It was all in his head until it was too late."
"Hmmph."
"Read something by Machiavelli - not just The Prince, other things too."

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"In literature as in love we are astounded by what is chosen by others." Andre Maurois

comes in, than thinks... "what ever did happen to my budget bar that i opened a while ago?"

give me a beer

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ramble on..
--Jimmy Page
(list)
(*)(Leader of TĹG -

You got it, Page. Good to see you back around again.

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-Traek Cicion, barkeep extraordinaire
"PS: If nothing's working around here, it's because I'm laughing so hard."
-Durandal

Mike returns to the NEW bar and exclaims, "Wow, congrats Cicion you finally got a bar in your name. Good job. Man it's been a while. I come back, there is a Bar 6. Where did that come from. Oh well. And Athena, I haven't seen you in forever. I was MikeMTL but my file got screwed up. Remember me. Ahhh...remembering old times. That's what the bar is for." Mike breaks out his guitar and starts singing a song about old times. Shrout1 pulls out a gun and shoots Mike dead.

BTW: Should I do another count of the number of posts in all the officers bar like I did in the last 2 bars?

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This space left blank due to and error of type -3

Pharris walks into the bar, looking around. The Crew have taken their usual corner, and have proceeded to order up a storm, swamping the server droid with orders. It will only be a few more rounds before the drunken brawl. Pharris walks to the bar, and pulls a stool across from Cicion.

"Scotch on the rocks, one of the single malts please."

"Sure"

Cicion pulls out a twelve year aged single malt wiskey and pours three fingers over two ice cubes.

"So how was the cruise? looks successful, mind if I ask what was in those freighters?"

"Not at all. They contain three Salrillian arms factories, everything you need to make salrillian missile systems from scratch, minus some labor and expertise. One is a computer guidance manufacturing center, one is a warhead manufacturing plant, and one makes the bodies and completes the final assembly. There's no fuel refinery in there, but I digress.

As I was saying, we heard that the slugs were changeing their manufacturing nfastructure, and a client from the guild is paying us to slow things down. This was the first convoy that we knew was moving, so we dropped on it and went to work. The escort was surprisingly light, cruisers and the carrier. We dropped in on the carrier and were actually able to knock it out before it could launch more than half its fighters. The key, you see is to use penetrating weapons. Explosives are dandy for breaking systems, but if you want salvage, the way to go is to vent as much of the interior to space as possible, espescially if you manage to catch them before they go to battle stations; we managed to vent a large portion of the ship just because they hadn't sealed bulkheads yet.

Of course, Salrillians are not too vulnerable to vacuum, but explosive decompression can still kill them, so the carrier was down to about 50% crew in the first few minutes, which put a crimp on their ability to go to action stations. We then disengaged to drop marines on the frieghters and secure them. The cruisers were on us, but the Barbarrossa carries much more powerful point defence weaponry than the standard human gunship, so we managed to catch them unawares as well. Then we went back and took out the carrier. Of course, that was a much harder fight. We lost pressure early on, but my men are all wearing pressure suits when we go to action stations, and the Barbarrossa's pressure hull isn't a significant structural element the way it is on most ships. We took them down with good old fasioned hard fighting, and a boarding team through one of the missile holes. That's the key. Get marines aboard, then its just a matter of keeping alive until they get the job done, espescially with slugs; slugs see suicide as a dishonorable waste, even if it hurts the enemy. The sals like to see others do their dying for them, so even nowadays, since the cultural revolution, if the captain and bridge crew have no easy way off the ship, they'll surrender. More importantly, the oracular net still gives surrender the best odds of survival. I like to keep it that way, so the crew were in their escape pods, and we were gone. Not bad for a few weeks hunting, if you ask me.

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NEW NAME FOR THE DREADNOUGHT
The Hard-Boiled Egg
Why?
Because she cant be beaten!

Congratulations Cicion on finally being able to make an Officers Club bar. Sorry about the last one still. OV orders Dr Pepper for the memories

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All hell that ends well -Me
Some people are so full of themsleves that they could fill the oceans with their blood -Me
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