Onas James Knox [Character]

[Deleted]

Onas James Knox



^{(He always has this sword)}

"I am like any other man. All I do is supply a demand."
.Al Capone

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Full Name - Onas James Knox
Nicknames/Alias - Oj, Onkey
Age - 30
Date of Birth - Jan 9
Gender - Male
Sexual Orientation - Heterosexual
Affiliation - Neutral
Occupation - Criminal Crew Lead

Play-By - Myself. (My real name is protected under copyright until 93 years from now. )
Build - Shorter than average. A broad chest and lean arms. Perhaps, thirty pounds heavier than he ought to be, but his body fat is spread around. Onas has very large calves for his height, and also large thighs. He has a strong back, and a dark complexion for a caucasian.
Height & Weight - 5' 6'' & 200lbs average.
Hair - Very dark brown, almost black. Hair is perhaps an Inch long. It is styled as a controlled mess. Think, just got out of bed, but without all the cowlicks.
Eyes - Brown
Unique Features - Onas has three tattoo's. His family crest on his left pectoral, a biochemical waste tat wit a "T" in the middle on his right shoulder blade, and a cross with articulate designs around it on his left shoulder.
Dressing Style - Onas doesn't care much about clothes, and should you decide to spend days or weeks around him, you will quickly understand the full scope of my meaning. He prefers a tank top and jeans around his current (wherever he happens to be staying) home, and if he is not working, you will typically find him in black cotton house pants. When the fancy strikes him, Oj will don a button down, and on these days, you'll likely find him with his collar flipped up, shirt untucked, and sleeves rolled to his elbow. On the average day, he wears black shirts, shoes, belts, and toboggans to mask oil stains.

His Jeans are usually fitting around his thighs, and loose enough for breathing around his ankles. They never depict a logo, other than brand, and typically have at least one worn hole in them. He separates work and play clothes, and his work jeans are all stained from oil, grease and his own blood. His shirts are typically pocketless black T's that fit around his chest well. Sometimes this makes his love handles show, but hey, he's comfortable. His shoes are all rather expensive, though you may not know the brands. He buys steel toe and waterproof shoes in accordance with his general work, however, you wouldn't guess it, since the look like the most comfortable boots in the Universe. Onas' opinion is that since he wears them everyday, and they protect his feet, they should be spectacular.
Other -

Likes - Ah the tempest! Doing for others is a fantastic way to get you in the friend zone, if your reading this with any interest for usage, let me point you to bullet point three...

• Onas enjoys fixing things that are complicated to everyone else.
  
• He likes simple real dinners, potatoes, beef, cheese and corn.
  
• Onas loves coffee, irregardless of season, brand, flavor, or strength. If you want to show him a kindness, make him steamer!
  
• He draws to a witty, dark and confrontational sense of humor.
  
• Onas likes knives over firearms, and on the rare occasion you find him with nothing to do, he enjoys throwing his favorite knife against boards he sticks to the bulkheads.
  
• He enjoys music of all kinds, and this is a very wide range. While working next to him, your bound to hear everything from classical orchestra, to riffing electric guitars, and everything in-between.
  
• Most of all, Onas enjoys teamwork, he likes seeing a well rounded team that works as one unit to achieve a goal.

Dislikes - Oh the bad side of a career criminal. I'm not saying that you will be shot for any of this, but some of it is bound to get you punched.

• Onas can't stand being told that his smoking is bad for him, and will rant on this one issue if it doesn't affect his situation, IE; if he's not on a job.
  
• He dislikes consistent complaining, and will bring it to your attention if he feels you are doing just that.
  
• Onas despises having a good plan contested, if the group makes a plan, and it works exactly like it was supposed too, and you try to change it, he will fight you on that issue. If you want to make a change, do it at the beginning, don't wait until later, unless you enjoy arguing.
  
• Onas will not tolerate disloyalty. There is nothing Onas places above loyalty, and breaking that oath, even if you never physically swore it, is the one single act that will get you into a war with the man. If you go against the crew, or Onas' family, he will want your head. That is not a metaphor.
  
• Arguments and confrontations. This doesn't mean that he won't bicker with you, but if there is no solution or compromise to be reached, then he will dismiss it as a waste of time, and bringing whatever the issue is up further will only aggravate the sore between you.
  

Quirks/Habits - Well that's an odd thing to want to know about, but if you insist...

• Onas talks fast about things he is trying to explain, and can blow by things he expects everyone to know, even if it took him years to understand the concepts. He isn't showing off when he does this, just thinking out loud. Want to know what he's thinking, get him talking. Of course, you'll never see this personality trait if you don't befriend him first. With strangers, its usually just left to a shy smile.
  
• Onkey is sarcastic when he means to be funny. This has led to more problems than laughs for him over the years, as many people just didn't understand that he was joking. And people don't think it's funny when someone pokes fun at their shortcomings, screw-ups or losses.
  
• He has a soft spot for people who have bitten off more than they can chew, and seeks to help them. This is something he does without thinking, and it has generally served him well, not many of his friends or family will address this issue with him openly.
  
• Onas is a chain smoker, and he doesn't really care if you aren't. If you intend to be around him, don't mind the cloud that so often comes with him.
  

Fears - Although he might never openly admit this, Onas fears dying alone. He desires companionship, and is willing to fight to have it. If the war had entered Onas' life, he would have gone against the side that had takin something from him. As it is, he lived on a core planet at that time, and it did not effect him.
Also, heights, not like, ten thousand feet, although that certainly would command his attention, but standing on an opening with nothing stopping him from falling fifteen feet will make him stop, look around, evaluate the situation, and find an alternative root...
Secrets - I can't reveal this!!! What the hells the matter with you!?!
Strengths -Ahhh. You want to know what ol' Onkey can do huh? Well I'll tell ya, it is very focused. He did not live a broad life, but what he has done, he has become very adept at.

• This guy can throw a knife, I know, I know. That's not very awesome in 2520, and there are far more effective ways to cause damage. But let me ask you something, (Leans close to your face and asks sarcastically) can you do it?
  
• The entire operation of theft. Starships mainly, but other items of procurement as well. I know that probably sounds kind of broad and un-apologetically superior. But to say anything else would be an modest form of inaccuracy, because it would lack the truth. Onas spent a great deal of his childhood and adult life being groomed by an enterprising thief, to become his right hand. He learns quickly, and adapts to situations in front of him on the fly, and has a daring audacity to leap without looking. This makes him a dangerous criminal, and, also quite profitable. But more on this later.
  
• Engineering. Now, this is mainly in keeping with the last thing I mentioned, he loves his job. He remembers little things that most folks would forget not long after they used it. I could take the easy route here and just say that he's an excellent mechanic, but that wouldn't be accurate, and it would veil his true potential. Onas knows far more about starships, and land transports than their engines/reactors. He knows almost everything. From the proper diagnostic readings of the third inspection boot from an outside turbine warm-up of an Hornet class freighter, to the Cockpit Canopy Seal Density temperature checklist of the Indignation class assault fighter. His job requires a very acute memory combined with wide range of specs. Then, you need to tack on the ability to put your hands on the work, and actually fix the problem.
  On the opposite side, you have to be able take these things apart, for profit. You can't damage them either, which means that you need to know exactly what your doing. Then, when its all said and done, you have to know who to sell, what you've acquired, to. Otherwise, you just have a bunch of stuff that takes up a bunch of space. You can also tack on the cloak and dagger stuff. Coded messages, private meetings, which streets to use in which cities (keep in mind that there are several planets in the universe...), what the laws are and how to bend, break, or sidestep them. Loopholes are the most effective method of avoiding attraction, but that only works if the investigator is honest enough to keep the law himself. On that note, this is only complicated further by the independent governments that are allowed to make their own rules of the rim planets. In all fairness, Onas typically works on only a handful, but he has an expansive job.
  I can certainly keep going on this, but it would take a frightful amount of our time, and I only have 45557 characters remaining at this junction...
  Lets just keep it at this, Onas keeps a well trained, and time tested team with him for a reason. Each has a job that he could technically do without their help. But who the hell would want to tackle all this by themselves? Not Onas, though, I can say that at one short lived time in his life, he did just that, and even with all his ability, he failed. Don't let that stop you from hiring him, with his team to back him, he is just about the best there is. If he wasn't, then I wouldn't be telling his story, I'd be telling you about that other guy, who is better. But as it is, he is the best that I've heard of, which is why he remains our discussional topic today. Onas combined with his team, can handle any job you give him!
  

Weaknesses - Yikes, looking to test the wrong side of his abilities huh? Well aren't you rude! Ha!

• I'm gonna start with shooting. Their are fifteen ton's of names on papers, in stacks, on some poor fed's desk, detailing the full accounting of those in the universe that are aspiring Doc Holidays. People who can shoot the hair off a fly's ass at a thousand paces with a pistol, and Onas' name... is not on any of these lists...
  I'm just saying that if you give him a gun, don't expect much to come from it. I mean, he can make a bunch of noise, and it's sure to be scary, but at this time, he isn't gonna kill anything. Better to give him a blade. Now you could lend him a piece, if you were looking for a laugh originally...
  
• Next were gonna go with piloting. He can do it, sure. But that's like saying that your a Nascar potential simply because you learned how to drive a stick, and can make successful left turns. I mean, are we looking to get from point A to point B? Or did you want to evade something? If Onas is at the stick, your odds of getting caught just went up dramatically. He can give you the tools to use, but using them himself is another issue entirely.
  
• Your still in this section? Man, your kina' dueschy aren't cha? All right then..
  Onas doesn't handle pretty girls very well. Not on the job mind you, but for himself, personally. On the job, there's nothing to lose, so who cares about rejection? But when its real, well... that's another story. He tends to over-analyze what he would say and then tries too hard to say it. The last time he tried to pick up a gal, it was brutal, and he ended up sounding like a babbling idiot, heart beating in his chest so hard it felt like someone was thumping him, and his face felt like it had been lit on fire. This is just one of those things that he lost his touch with while working eighteen hour days all those years, and honestly.. He was never all that good at it in the first place. But it sure was funny!
  

Talents/Special Abilities - How is this different from strengths?

• Onas can fix things.
  
• Onas can throw a knife.
  
• Onas can steal stuff.
  There's really only so many ways I can say all this... If I had to list another thing about him that stands out, I would say that he has an unabashed will, and that in many situations, fights and jobs alike, his will power alone got him through it.
  
• And also, also... He can shoot Kamehameha waves and use the Kaioken attack. He never learned the Spirit Bomb though. And he's bulletproof. And he can move things with his mind. And... he can train Sea Otters to use toilets. And he once kicked Chuck Norris' ass. And he got people to speak Latin again. And he was the first person to mars, and killed all the indigenas life there. And he can cut through a hot knife with butter. And he can slam a revolving door! And he can set ants on fire with a magnifying glass... at night. And he can strangle people to death with a cordless phone. And he can start a fire by rubbing ice cubes together. And ... and.... come back! I'm not done yet...
  

Aspirations - To get his stolen life back. To rebuild what he lost, and make it stronger and more profitable.
Overall Personality - Onas is fiercely loyal, and that will show if anyone ever tries to turn him against his people. That'd be a brick wall of the likes of which you have never seen. He abhors long waits, and will find ways to speed up the process in question. He loves dry humor, and will say things you weren't expecting, when he feels that the time doesn't call for it. But he isn't a fool, when the moment is serious, and needs to stay that way, Oj can be counted on to hold his tongue, and stay focused. Onas can be short tempered, most notably when he loses the ability to smoke. Some folks can look past that, some can't. It's really just something your going to have to decide for yourself when the moment arrives.

This section is for you to tell us about the people in your life,
include whatever details you'd like - the more the better!
For example; full name, age(or age they died at), occupation, status(living or deceased), affiliation..ect

Father - Oliver Knox. He is alive, but I can't tell you much more, as Onas doesn't keep in contact with the man. They had a bitter falling out, and as a result, neither have attempted to contact each other since. Can you figure out where Onas got his stubbornness from?
Mother - Catherina Knox. A damn fine lady, but also a damn loyal lady. When it came time to choose between her son, and her husband, she chose Oliver. As such, she hasn't had a chance to change her mind, Onas is not forgiving on this issue. No other information is available.
Siblings - Justin Richard Knox. JR and Oj are vigilant friends to this day. Though, the relationship between the closely aged brothers is compounded by the fact that Justin is under the employ of Oliver. His brother took the career that Oliver nearly forced on Onas. Despite that, Onas never held JR accountable for his choice, and they remained better for it. The only reason is because Justin stood against their father the day that Onas and Oliver went head to head. Though, he stayed when Onas left. And though they talk throughout the year, and with surprising regularity, family matters are never broached. It is simply and unspoken taboo between them.
Other Significant People - Nickolas Smith, or Nico, as you will hear his friends call him. Nick and Onas worked together under Sidney all their adult lives, and continue to work together today. Nick is very similar to Onas, although he holds a slightly different set of skills, and his common dress code is much finer. They have the same sarcastic humor and often like to mess with people who are new to their crew that they are blood related, though the keep independent last names, and Nick is dark black, while Onas is a dark tanned caucasian. When his moustache and goatee are full grown, and Nick likes to convincingly tell this common joke, that Onas is actually Hispanic. This is usually blamed on their mother, and left to the questioning imagination of the person that they are messing with.
His morbid humor aside, Nick is steadfast in his career, and the most accomplished of Onas' crew. Without him, the full scale of Onas' future plans of operation would be severely limited.
Pets - Uhh... he had a dog once?
Your History - Here's how it is...

Onas' father is a well respected starship designer for the Alliance. His ties with both his family, and the Alliance, pretty much end there. When a young man in school, Onas befriended a classmate who would go on to shape his life in a very decisive way. This decision did not go over well with his parents, as this new friend was a very poor child, and it was socially unacceptable for such a wealthy family to have any ties such as this. It was only the beginning of Oliver's headaches with his eldest son, as Onas began to discover the complexities of the world and all it had to offer. Both the good, and the bad. It was during this time, that Onkey had his first cigarette, first woman, first high speed accident, first juvenile hearing, and many other "First Timer" experiences that one should honestly never have.

Arguments around the Knox home became more frequent, and increasingly hostile. Oliver was no pushover, and his son's ill path was beginning to damage his profile and status. Oliver was a contractor for many government jobs, and once his son started spiraling down this path, his love for him began to rapidly diminish. The last week that Oliver ever saw Onas, some life changing events took place, starting with Oliver's clients. A government representative came to Oliver with a proposal for a thirteen billion dollar bid, but on the condition that Oliver get his son in check. He was forced to make an ultimatum.

The day after his father laid out every move for Onas to make, for the next ten years of his life, in a final attempt to save his family from Onas' reckless lifestyle. It was then that the ignorant youth did something incredibly stupid. He dropped out of school to spite his father, (subsequently leading to an argument that would have him cut off from his families wealth and powers of persuasion) and began a simple life of honest work.

The problem he found was, honest work didn't pay very well, and taxes levied by the Alliance were somewhat substantial. Thus, our young delinquent turned back to his aforementioned 'friend' for some less-legal work. This was a pivotal moment in Oj's life for his path changed dramatically over the next three months. The duo found themselves doing a series of B&E's to generate cash, and they left a disastrous trail of evidence in their wake. As the two became more and more confident, they decided to try something very risky, and much more profitable. They were too inexperienced, and ultimately, tried something too brash. Oj courted a pretty gal with the intention of getting close to her fathers wealth, and when he got the opportunity, he snuck into her father's house, and stole a very expensive hover car. Stealing it was the easy part, fencing it turned out to be more difficult. Onas was turned away, and turned in to the authorities several times, and only the land vehicles speed kept the two boys out of handcuffs. However, if you knock on a door long enough, you will eventually get an answer. Onas was no exception.

The duo tried to fence the vehicle to a salvage yard eventually, and here the had a form of success. The owner would not buy the car, but he wasn't an honest man either. He didn't deal with the boys simply because he didn't know them at that time. What he did do, was turn their names over to a man named Sidney Tavares. The boys had been trying to work a deal on Sidney's turf, and the older, more experienced criminal was far from amused. However, once he caught up to them, he recognized Onas because of Oliver, and gave him a nice, long, dark, tied your tail to a chair, evening to explain what he was trying to do with his life. Onas was of course scared out of his mind, and bared every detail he could possibly remember. Sidney made an odd choice, and rather than kill the two, he allowed them to work there newly acquired debt off.

As a side note, Sidney did take the hover car, it did fetch a fantastic price, and Onas saw none of the profit. He did have a severe beating, and several scars that he would tote the rest of his life, to remind him that in this world of Sidney's you ask before you touch.

As it was, Onas knew very little about starship operations from his father, despite the fact that everyone thought he must have been the next in line. But his new colleges' found that he had a natural talent for it regardless, whether fueled by genes, or just plain old money lust, the talent for this new opportunity was inherently there.

His employer Sidney Tavares, began to shape Onas into a first rate ship-thief and ripper, as he had indeed, fallen in with a chop shop. This was both dangerous, and profitable. And as mentioned, Onas excelled at it. The next seven years of his life, till he was 22, was spent ripping ships apart and learning the difference between useful parts, and junk. When he was twenty two a shootout exploded between the folk he was with one night, and the Alliance. Onas' crew lead and his unnamed friend from youth were gunned down in a vicious firefight, and he was left as the lone survivor.

Apparently, the Alliance didn't appreciate thieves.

Sidney and Onas had a very long discussion in the aftermath of this cataclysm, and Sid revealed his true vision for Onas. He gave Oj his own crew, rather than his previous position, which was similar, something like a foreman, but not the man in charge. Onas didn't know it, but he had spent the last seven years of his life training to become what he would from then on be, a crew lead. Sidney gave Onas other unprecedented options that garnered no favor from the other leads under Sid's reins, for instance, the choice of who would be on his crew, regardless of who they currently worked for. He was only given two men to work without a choice. Nick, who he had worked with for years, and probably would have used regardless, and Jackson, who worked under another lead, but Onas had never met. Other notable markers of his crew would be Alice, who eventually became his greatest ripper, and Big T who, combined with Jax, made up the bulk of his strong arm. After all, what would a crime lord be without guys who could pulverize those they wanted... ah, pulverized....

Nico ended up taking his old position, and became Onas' lieutenant, and the two lead a well oiled crew. Thus, Oj became Sidney's right hand, and the sharp end of the stick for the racket. He began selecting his targets, rather than being given them. Sid no longer told him when or how to do his job, but only to do his job, and to get the cut right. As to profits, Oj's percentage went from around four percent, to twenty, which was another piece of information that other leads did not appreciate. Once Onas established himself, and the money started rolling in, both Sid and he became greedier with each job. In twenty five seventeen, Sid planned this "Big" take. An Alliance high profile home, with a fancy new starship none of them had ever seen before. In fact, no one had ever seen it before as it was a prototype, and ultimately, the racket's collective death warrant.

When the troops came after them, it wasn't with warrants, it was with bullets. There was luck in that the raid came while the ship was being fenced, and only the eight crew leads, Sidney, and the buyers were present. Sidney, the buyers and six of the leads were gunned down that night, Onas only escaped because of his proximity to an exit, and the fact that he didn't try to be a hero. His team scattered, as was their twisted protocol, and after that, Onas decided to lay as absolutely low as he could possibly manage. His alias of ten years was blown, and he was once again on his real passport and id, so he hitched to a random planet, and started over.

After arriving on Beaumonde, Onas set up shop as a starship thief, following the only life he'd ever known. His proficiency at his job earned him a quick reputation as a man who could capture any vessel. His lacking of proper piloting skills served him poorly however, and within two months, Onas had been tracked by bounty hunters after a job for a man named Baxter. It ended in disaster when he and Baxter were negotiating their terms and the bounty hunters stormed the building, killing Baxter and his crew. Onas fought his way out killing the hunters. Baxter's untimely death marked Onas professionally, so he retreated further into the planet to lick his wounds, this time settling in Beaumonde's capital city of New Dunsmir.

Onas learned from his mistakes and began to expand his knowledge in flight, though he still isn't much of a pilot. He learned enough to get a starship out of a port and hide if for delivery. Thus, his business began to grow again, this time through a contact named Rishi Vondanot. After several months, the Alliance caught up to him again, this time under the search of Marcus Lee. The security officer who was tying up loose ends from Sidney's ill fated heist. Marcus sent an Alliance assassin, Priya Gisselle Sanai, after Onas to arrest him, and bring him in. Her elaborate plan flushed Onas out, under the guise of a job, and ultimately, she did put him into cuffs.

Once in space, en route to rendezvous with Marcus Lee, Priya interrogated Onas only to find that he was mixed up in a conspiracy involving her superior. Marcus turned on Priya, and shortly after, she released Onas under terms that he would aid her. The flight took a turn for the worse as a Reaver scout ship engaged the small crew in space, and boarded them. Onas fought along side his would be hunters and helped them fend off the invasion.

Afterward, Priya moved on to assault those who had turned on her during Onas' capture, and the list turned out to be very long indeed. Onas was left on Persephone in charge of keeping the Athena, Priya's personal ship, under the radar while she exacted her revenge. Onas left his old life on Beaumonde behind him in mass, and set out to refit his savior's ship with weapons and armor, less they were ever attacked in space again.

At this time in his life, Onas had very little in the way of interruptions, so he focused himself entirely on the Athena, making it his personal goal to turn her into his finest possible creation. He called in his brother Justin, his old partner Nickolas Smith, and nine friends to complete the task he'd set for himself. His goal was to fit the Athena with hidden gunpods, and disguised torpedo tubes. Together they completed the process, and more. The twelve man crew stole specific ships for the parts they'd need and refitted nearly every aspect of the Athena, including a prototype reactor that was donated to him by Samuel Sakuluc, a government contractor who was the man that originally gave Sidney the job to steal the Mir.2.Prototype which got his old crew killed.

Perhaps it was guilt.

During this time, Onas came down with the universe wide unnamed sickness, and slipped into a coma. Nick took him to a facility on Ariel and left him with a coded message explaining where to find him should Onas recover. To Onas' good fortune, he was only under the coma for two weeks, and after he recovered, he went back to Persephone. Onas ran low on funding, so he and Nick went to see Jack Briggs through his second in command Cypher, and collected enough of a front to finish his work. Now the Athena is flight ready, though Priya has yet to come back, and Onas is unsure of how to proceed further in his life.

After the Athena project, codenamed; The Dutchess, was completed, The crew Onas had used, which was comprised mostly of his old crew, split up to go their own ways. The only ones who stuck around to seek their fortunes under Onas continued leadership, were Alice, and Nick. Alice's husband, Jackson Grimm (Who you may remember was on Onas' crew back in the day) also joined them, as Alice seemingly did not want to leave.

The last day that Justin was on Persephone, Onas and Nick took him to The Final Bout, a popular bar, where a lot of fun was to be had. Onas had two incredible fights that night, and they continued to be talked about for quite some time, even after the night was long since over. He met a young las that night who eventually gave him the lead on a job which had an ill fate. But I won't press those details now. But something else happened on that job that was important, Onas, Nick and Jax sat down to a long conversation about the future of their operations. The two convinced Onas that he should take up Sidney's mantle, and use the Athena as a launch point for a renewed Racket. Persephone already had a large crime lord, and it felt like two might be one too many, but Onas had enough experience with things like that, and opted to agree.

Which brings us to present day. Onas, Nick and Jax are in the market for a warehouse to begin their new Racket out of, and Nick means to find a way to improved Sidney's old business by keeping them more mobile. That hasn't been sussed out just yet, But the crew has decided to hold down the crime of the core worlds, and it would seem, that this is only the beginning for the three, as they have set their eyes on the heavens...

Roleplaying Experience - Two Years in forums, five in writing, and my whole life in loving creation of stories! Woot for the writers!!
Where did you find us? - It was a bitterly cold night when a voice came from the dark, and Whisper recruited me to her side for world domination... Or Google maybe. Let me think.
Prove Yourself -
Post Script - Onas loves pancakes.
Other characters - I will be making an Npc for Nick, as I use him far to often not too. If your asking yourself, "Who's Nick?" Then slap yourself for not reading!
How we should contact you - PM is fine.
Roleplay Example -

Onas pulled the letters out of his pocket, as he and Nick walked down the street towards the docking bay that housed the impotent Athena. The were thickly filled, and he was more than a little excited to open them. Looking to his Friend, he asked, "Shall we?"

"Fo' show." Nick answered and Onas took the thinner of the two envelopes sideways in his hand, and in a practiced style, tore the outermost right side of it off, revealing a letter, and cash. He removed the letter only and stopped just outside bay ninety two. The letter was a simple, old fashioned kind, it read;

Care of:
O.han
18 M. Dock Circle Road

Dear A. Deschain

I am pleased to announce that Mr. Grimm awaits your arrival at the same hospital you awoke in. I know he'll be very happy to receive your gift. Told you I'd come through, luv. In other news, I gave that little yellow pup with one eye to my sister. She was too much for me to handle. I'll be seeing you soon.

Condolences,
Jack

Onas smiled, Cypher was a very careful man. He handed the letter to Nick and began counting the money inside. Nick held the paper for a minute or two, as Onas opened the second letter and removed the cash from it and added it all up. Nick stopped him and asked,

"I don't follow all of this. Who's Mr. Grimm? As in, Jackson?"

"You don't see the bridges?"

"It's a 'Reverse Robin', a 'two-on-one', and a 'third eye' right?" Nick asked re-reading it, "O. Han is the pub, I got that, Deschain is the guy were meeting? And... we're the sister?"

Onas smiled, Nick spent all his time at the office, Onas made the pickups. He'd spent more time with the cloak and dagger stuff. "You're getting better. Yes, no and yes. Cyph could teach you a thing or two about hiding your tracks. It's a 'two on two', and a 'tickler' also after the 'third eye'. See," Onas took the letter and held it before them, then he instructed, "O' Han is the bar we just came from yes, 18 m means military time, so.."

"Six in the evening, gotcha." Nick completed it.

"Right, then Deschain, who is our contact, cause that's the 'Robin', is a woman. It's 'pup' for girl, 'mut' for guy. And the yellow is.."

Nick caught it again, and threw in, "Blond hair, okay." He looked on and added, "One eye? So she's missing an eye?"

"I guess, I don't know her. Also, little yellow pup, little means young, so she's probably our age or so. And yes, we are the sister, which is Jack or Cypher's way of saying this job was passed to us."

"So were ambassadors for them then, that's cool." Nick said.

"Right, and lastly, 'seeing you soon' means fairly simply to contact him when we're done." Onas finished, concluding his lesson and returning to his counting.

"I know what a third eye is," Nick said sarcastically, "What's the front?"

"Enough." Onas answered, ignoring Nicks jeer and handing him a bundle of cash, "Ok, lemme change, and we'll take a little ride. Call back J and Andre, tell 'em that we' gettin the magnetic coils an' fer' them to give us a hand. And let the rest of the crew know the changes, if they want her painted, we gotta do it now," He said turning towards the Athena to change his clothes, then he stopped and turned on his foot, and asked with one hand out at his waist level, "Who's got a better price, Andrew's or Rutger Inc?"

"Rutger would be better either way, they manufacture on Persephone Prime. And it's only about five hundred miles from here." Nick answered having taken the money from Onas and going to make the waves.

"I'm cool with that, you're drivin."



The next day, Onas stood in the engine room watching the Athena's readout screen with some anxiety. It was a big day, Athena's shakedown was in progress, and so far things were running smoothly. The new coils were working perfectly, and while some might consider that a blessing, it was not an easy process to heat up this particular reactor. Andre came walking in and cheerfully announced his greeting. Onas wasn't trying to be a prick, but he didn't turn to answer Dre regardless. Instead he continued to watch the screen. Holding up a wireless to his mouth, he spoke softly, as though even his very words might cause some dire complication. "Take it up a ten thousandth..." After a second he added, "Slowly this time."

Part of the data in the middle of the main screen read }2800 -F{. Andre stood for a moment wondering about that, as Onas was constantly looking at it. After a minute, he began to look around, whether he thought Onas was in a foul mood or not, he didn't really show it. Instead, he had a look around at what would pump the blood of the Dutchess. Andre hadn't spent a great deal of time in the engine room before, this simply wasn't a system he was familiar with, and no one was allowed to tinker with it but Onas or Alice. The reactor itself was a huge sphere twelve feet in diameter, and spanning through three catwalks. It had four dedicated coolant tanks, and another larger coolant system about seven feet away. Each of these large machines were heavily shielded and bolted into place in a way that Andre could only describe as paranoid.

The reactor also had four more tubes coming out, that lead to four large capacitors. Larger than any he'd yet seen. In between the reactor, and the lone coolant tank, was a small engine, maybe the size of a foot locker. It was some kind of engine he hadn't seen before. If he'd been around in the early 2000th century, he might have described it as a large Harley Davidson engine, but as it was, he didn't know how to adequately explain what he was looking at. It had armatures connecting to opposite ends of a pipe, that ran between the reactor and the stand alone coolant tank.

The small engine had a nine large disks on one one side, that connected to a drive shaft, which ran through the little engine. From the discs, large cables the width of Andre's forearm spanned to a bank of batteries. This one Andre knew, it was a common setup for storing electricity, and though the batteries were covered, the protective plate covering them was present on just about every commercial ship in the verse. Andre wasn't Onas, Nick or Alice, but he wasn't a simpleton either. He surmised that whatever the engine was, it somehow produced electricity for the ship.

An impressive feat for something so small. But that didn't answer the question of why they needed a massive steel-gray ball in the engine room. Needless to say, it was odd for such an imposing thing to sit like it did with it's compatriot components under it's shadow.

Andre cleared his throat and Onas turned only briefly, nodding a welcome to him, then he turned back to his work. "What's the word boss?" He said, sticking his paint stained hands in his pockets.

Onas typed on a holographic keyboard, pulled two levers slightly, and spoke into his handheld again. "Okay, hold it there Alice. What's your tempit'ur?" His true accent came out in wisps from time to time when he was anxious.

"Twenty eight hundred forty seven. Go again?" The little handheld squawked with Alice's voice sounding tiny.

"Yeah, go again, just a sliver." Onas watched his number like it was the only thing that mattered, his eyes fixated one minute, then darting between the number and several scrolling gages. At length, he finally spoke to Andre for the first time, "Wassup Dre... how's..." He pause and looked at something Andre didn't recognize, "the paint?"

Andre knelt beside him and looked over the gages, they were all about magnetic levels, and temperatures, and ratios. "It's goin fine, I finished the rear patches, and was gonna start the engine deck if you think its good an safe."

"Ye..." Onas started to say, he put his hand back on one of his levers, hesitated, and then pulled it, "Yeah bud, it's safe." He said, the left side of his mouth curving with amusement. "Alice, wha' is it now?"

"Twenty eight sixty three, that jump was too fast Onas, lemme have a minute here." the tiny voice said.

"Take your time." Onas replied to the handheld.

"So if you can think and work, what is this thing?" Andre asked Onas.

Onas wiped his mustache a second, and looked around the whole setup, then said proudly, "It's our drive core," He looked back to his screens and continued, "This is a Sterling engine design..." his eyebrows arched and his shoulders shrugged when he added, "basically."

"Oh yeah. A Sterling Engine of course." Andrea said with an air to his voice, "What is a sterling engine?"

Onas smiled and spoke straight ahead, "It's an old design from earth that was, back in the 1800's. It converts heat to raw mechanical movement."


(((OOC: This is a simplified version of the Sterling Engine, and this is an advanced version, more similar to what Onas is actually using here. His in-character explanation is being explained to someone with at least a limited knowledge of engineering. Out of character, it may be better to check out the wiki file. The second thing to note throughout this, is the Event Horizon and a second example of how it would look Externally, without and systems connected.. But for the life of me, I can't find a good visual representation of what I see in my head. So this is the best I can do. Sorry, hope the IC description paints the picture for you.)))

"How?"

"Heat travels down this tube from the reactor," he pointed to the large steel gray tube coming from the sphere, "And forces an internal piston into the cold side where it becomes hyper-cooled. Then the piston releases, allowing the cold air from coolant tank 'Echo' to pour into the shaft, which compresses the hydrogen, and forces the piston to back to the hot side, here." As he said this, he pointed along the large pipe to the stand alone coolant tank, Presumably 'Echo', and then back to the hot side, or the reactor, "Then the process starts over."

"And those arms?" Andre asked.

"Those arms are connected to the engine, which spins as the piston shifts back and forth rapidly. It turns the drive-shaft which rotates the copper spindles through the magnet base."

"Oh, and copper passing quickly through magnetism produces electricity." Andre said, he remembered that from school. "And it's fed into the batteries?"

"Some of it," Onas answered, "Most of it is direct feed to the Athena, the engine is always active and it produces more than we really need for auxiliary, so we only divert a portion to storage."

"So the big thing here, what's this, a burner?" Andre asked looking up at the monolith.

"In short, but were not burning gasses, that wouldn't be efficient enough for our purposes. The turbine has to spin fast, so we need the piston to fluctuate rapidly. That's determined by a high temperature variable. Very hot," Onas said holding his left hand open, "to very cold." He held out his right hand in a fist. Then he pointed at 'Coolant Tank Echo' and said, "The liquid nitrogen in Echo is at four hundred degrees below Fahrenheit, which is beyond cold." Then he pointed at the large grayish ball of metal, "This is a magnetic compression chamber, and were using hydrogen and helium."

Andre listened to Onas and it took a second to register what he'd just heard. "Wait Oj, helium and hydrogen... compressing? I'm no astronomer or scientist, but... isn't that the makeup of... a st... a star?" Dre concluded wincing. He suddenly wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer.

Onas smiled and held up a shushing finger as Alice radioed back and gave him the all clear, "Okay Alice, go again, a ten thousandth." He said into his handheld. He typed on his 'keyboard' again and said, "That's good, ok. Here we go, stand back." He turned a switch with a red key, and ran a black lever, that looked like a throttle control arm, up it's slider. It had hundreds of tiny marks, and it make a clicking noise as it slowly slid past each to almost the top of the slider. Now that Andre had a clearer understanding of what was in front of him, he leaned back as the noiseless machine somehow became more intimidating.

Onas smiled so big most of his front teeth could be seen, and his cheeks nearly touched his eyes. He nodded to the display, and was obviously very content with himself, as the temperature read steady at what Andre now understood to be three thousand degrees Fahrenheit. Onas spoke into his handheld with delight, "Look at that Alice."

"It's a thing a' beauty boss. Three on the money, Sam sure knows his la shi I'll give 'im that. Want me to lock it down and engage the safeties?" The tiny voice said.

"Absolutely Alice, then come on up, 'n we'll break out the champagne."

"On my way, 'm grabbin a bag of salt on my way up."

"Aight, see you soon. Not bad huh Dre," Onas asked as he locked the red key over and removed it from the board. As he did so, a bank of green lights pinged yellow, and several switches receded into the panel.

"So what is in there, that's three thousand degrees inside," Andre asked, touching the obviously cool metal ball.

"Yep," Onas replied somewhere between optimism and pride, "You pretty much had it right a minute ago, it's a miniature star. It's not exactly the same thing, I mean it won't produce nucleosynthesis, but for all intents and purposes, yes. It's plasmafied helium and hydrogen in a self sustaining nuclear fusion."

Onas was an odd fellow, Andre decided as his "boss" stated something so insane in such a 'point of fact' manner. But as Andre turned back to his hand on the room temperature metal, he wondered at what secrets this universe still had left to tell.

"Why aren't we, you know, on fire? How is something so hot being contained by metal?" Andre asked.

"It's the cage, it's the strongest element accessible. That's the outermost layer of pure tungsten your touching, one of five layers surrounding the event. The coolant tanks are fed in between the layers, and they provide a buffer between the heat of the reactor and us. But even if they failed, the system has redundancies built on top of redundancies, honestly, that's the safest thing on this ship. Tungsten has a melting point of six thousand degrees. Above it to be honest. The biggest problem is actually keeping it at that temperature.

"Natural stars are more than two simple gasses, and they have they're own gravity wells, a lot brings it to life, we are creating this artificially. If I left it alone it wouldn't burn out until long after our lives were no longer counted as a species. But we don't leave it alone do we? We're using the heat to run the sterling, which uses all three thousand degrees without waste, if we're not careful, we could suck the life right out of her." Onas talked away while typing on his keyboard without worry. It was like he was explaining how cotton candy was made or something.

"There's a star in here? If the ship lost all power and the coolant tanks failed, would we cook alive," Andre asked pressing his point.

"Hah! We'd run out of air long before that happened. Besides, the heat it produces is how our ship is run, you are listening to me right?"

"Yeah I am," Andre answered soulfully, "but what if we did what you said earlier, and killed the star, what would happen then?"

"First of all, if we bled all the heat from the event, and cooled the reaction until it stalled, it would simply return to it's comprised gasses, but that's avoided by reheating the reactor with sodium chloride." Onas finished, looking between what was on his screens and what he was typing.

"Salt? You're talking bout table salt?"

Onas turned to face him, "That's right, salt naturally retains heat."

"I've heard of liquefied salt before, but I didn't know it could retain three thousand degrees." Andre pondered aloud. Liquid salt was used in special atmospheric processors to instantly cook gasses for something, he didn't remember everything from school. Onas apparently enjoyed those classes far more than he had.

"That's because it can't, salt melts at fourteen hundred seventy four degrees, we use salt plasma. You have to take it straight from the solid to a gas state by pouring it into the reactor, where it 'plasmafies.' Which is what that process is called, then we shift it into these four neodymium-alloy capacitors, where we can keep it at twenty five hundred 'n seventy five degrees. It ain't three on the money, but its enough to boost the event, keep from killin it. The capacitors can be kept at a solid temperature more easily since we don't vent heat off of them. That's pretty much the whole bag bro, hand me that drink will ya?" Onas said, lighting a cigarette.

"All right well," Andre answered after taking it all in for a second, and handing Onas his drink, "It sounds like you got it locked down boss, I'm onna head back a get ta paintin."

Andre passed Alice on his way out, and she walked in to Onas' laughter, "Whattid I miss," she asked dropping the bag of salt to Onas and sitting against a mag-rail.

"Nothin," Onas answered, "I was jus goin over the basics of how all this works with Dre, he's a bit nervous bout it."

"Why," she asked taking Onas' cigarette and leaning back.

"Ah, same as nick, everyone thinks we're gonna burn alive." Onas laughed, "I swear, everyone who sees it thinks the whole thing would fall apart if a stiff breeze hit it."

"Yeah right," Alice laughed, "If the ship crashed into a planet at full speed, and the core ripped through th' ship an embedded its'lf into the planet, it'd still just sit there burnin."

Onas laughed agreeingly, "Yeah," he mused as he climbed the catwalk to the top of the reactor, two levels up, "And millions of years after the last ancestor of the witnesses of the crash died, no one would know it was there..." He opened a hatch at the top, and poured the bag of salt in. Then he took a small bit of it back out, and sealed the hatch shut. "Dump it," he called out, throwing the fistful of salt down on Alice through the grating.

"Ni Ta Niang De Ci Muqin!" She hollered up at him, shielding herself as the salt rained down on her. Alice hit three switches, and turned a large handle that seemed only to spin ninety degrees. A large jolt and bang resounded through the room as the salt turned to a gas and was presumably lining the rim between the bee-bee sized star, and the magnetic field holding it in place.

"Heh heh," Onas chuckled, "Okay, that should do her, lets purge it into the capacitor. Whatta ya think, an hour or so before we can go again?"

"At least, want me to fire her up?" Alice asked as she opened the magnetically charged 'tunnel' that bridged the capacitor to the core, starting the slow process of draining plasmafied salt out of the reactor, and into the capacitor.

"Go ahead," Onas said, leaning against the rails.

Alice leaned over the sterling engine and flipped the rings closed, then she walked to the main console, and flooded the tungsten pipe with both heat and cold valves open. The piston immediately began pumping furiously and the turbine hummed to life. In truth, it was rather ominous that such immense power could be so quiet, but its was the most impressive engine Onas could have imagined, and it was all Athena's. She would be tested soon, and then they would see if the turbines could pull off the boasting power that they were so well known for.

The turbines weren't turbines at all. Which of course was why this system of power was so useful on this ship. The 'turbines' on the side of the ship were actually type C. photonic laser propulsion beams. The laser beam is created in a circular patter around a cone inside of each of Athena's external turbine-like apparatus'. The interior of a normal fan based turbine is not much more than an fan which spins at high rpm's to ram air into a torch, I'm paraphrasing here, and then another fan behind it to create a vacuum. The fire is funneled out the end, producing thrust.

The Athena boasted photonic turbines. Instead of air-rammed fire for thrust, a laser coats a mirror laden cone, that has a lip on the end which forces the laser around on itself, colliding the heat of its meeting to sustain an explosion of heat, which is aimed out the small end of the cone. Thus, thrust is produced. This is a purely electronic sequence of events, which is why the Aces of Eights Type B.23, the Athena's exact model, is advertised as a 'clean ship'.

It doesn't use a fuel source outside of the reactor.

There are drawbacks, and the most prevalent one was until recently, the sheer amount of power it took to create a beam strong enough to lift a starship of commercial value. Obviously this problem has been overcome, but with the sterling engine, the theory is that they can produce unbelievable amounts of power and thus, unbelievable amounts of thrust.

In short, the Athena could now potentially be one of the fastest ships in the verse. That was the theory. Three more capacitors, and it might well be fact. Onas lit another cigarette and leaned back to wait.

Bring it on SYR INTEGRA of CAUTION 2.0, I defy you!

[Wisper]

Approved