Livin' My Best Life
Posted on Sun Apr 9th, 2023 @ 5:23am by Alden Loxley & Drake Loxley & Cooper O'Reilly & Danielle Loxley & Daiyu & Jonas Bailey & Kindra Graham & Spencer Wainwright & Jacy Wright & Whit
Edited on on Sun Apr 9th, 2023 @ 6:47am
Mission:
Oh, Give Me a Home on The Range
Location: Ezra - Rangelands
Timeline: 18 November 2517 - Early Afternoon
It might (well it was) be a roughty-toughty border planet under the iron fist of a villainous businessman and as such, somewhere most folks avoided with the widest of berths, but Ezra was home for the Loxley brothers. Nearest planet in the Georgia system to its namesake star, the world was warm, close in geography and climate to the big southern states on Earth-That-Was, and mostly devoid of the Core’s advanced technology. Small towns, large sweeping ranchlands and tough, no-compromising residents who weren’t afraid to bend a few laws close to breaking in order to make ends meet.
Above Ezra, floating moodily in high orbit, sat Adelai Niska’s space station. His 'working agreement' with the world’s governing body allowed him to operate as freely as he wished, and he exercised that right on a daily basis with zero remorse or fear of prosecution.
As the Fortune’s Echo and Drake’s smaller Bumblebee ship, affectionately dubbed ‘Havoc’, came in on final orbital approach, their paths diverged. From the little vessel to the big, a transmission that explained nothing beyond the obvious deviation in direction.
“My presence has been requested at the Skyplex,” Drake’s voice said, the tinny speaker on Echo’s bridge barely relaying any emotion around his statement.
“Okay,” said Alden, whose tone suggested this was anything but. Arguing was pointless, and he knew it, so he exhaled harshly, checked his sensors and opened up the shipwide comm so everyone on board could hear him. He watched Havoc slide off in Niska’s direction and tried to ignore that sense of vile foreboding in his gut. He wasn't sure which was worse, not knowing the details or finding them out and still being unable to change things.
“Alright, we’re headed in to land on Ezra. Everyone strap in,” Alden stated. “And I do mean everyone. Secure your harnesses and check each other's please. Confirm back to me,” he added. “Sometimes this can be a little rough.”
He waited for the voices to chime back in from around the Firefly transport, then looked to the wide-open skies of home laid out far below them.
"Whit here in the galley. We got Daiyu snug as a bug." By we, he also meant Coop who was seated with him, as the latter shepherd had seemed to assign himself as Daiyu's informal guardian.
Coop reached his arm gently and silently to the young woman beside him, offering his hand to be held in comfort for the manoeuvres ahead.
Jonas had been sitting at the galley's table and enjoying a nice, cold pint of water. When the announcement came, he grabbed the water and headed to the seats. He didn't have time to secure the mug and would rather not have had its contents all over the floor. Cleaning up a spill was probably not going to be high on the list when they landed. "Jonas here. All secure." He picked his mug up and took another sip.
In preparation for landing, Kindra had secured everything in her shuttle, packed her favorite tea set in its case, and taken particular care with her harp. After everything that happened on Three Hills, she wasn't sure how she'd be holding herself together without that musical touchstone, but somehow Alden had managed to get her harp back from her kidnappers. She had lingered in the Echo's cockpit door, intending to hurry back to her shuttle and buckle-in. But since the copilot's seat was empty, she strapped herself in there instead and nodded. "Ready."
Overtly aware of the Companion's safe presence just across the decking from him, Alden was grateful that for once, Jonas had opted to laze it up in the galley. The pilot was already stressed regarding Kindra's condition, recent experience and recovery time so being able to instantly see that she was safe, present and calm helped his mindset as they dropped from vacuum through atmo was a very welcome simplicity. He shot the young woman a cocky grin and hoped against hope that Ezra would, for once, be kind.
"Thanks folks!" Alden confirmed back. "Jacy? Spence? Quing? Sound off, please!" He added with a friendly urgency.
Spence had spent a fair amount of time in what seemed to be a poor excuse of the Echo's engine room. There was plenty of evidence that multiple hands had performed the devil's work, and little evidence that someone had tried to make heads or tails of it. Spence made no attempt to clean as he went, but he did start to mark repairs and adjustments that needed to be made.
When he heard Alden's voice over the speaker, Spence could only moan. He'd been caught lying on his back under the engine, making a small maintenance adjustment. Had he been motivated by anything other than not wanting to hear his name again, Spence would have crawled out faster. And, rather than stand and walk over to the speaker box, Spence threw a loose part at the microphone switch, hitting it on the first try. "This is Spence," he said, climbing into his seat, "All good down here."
"I seriously doubt that," noted Alden, knowing just exactly how much work was needed in Echo's engine room on a weekly basis. There had been a couple of good engineers in the mix, but neither of them had really had long enough (or sufficient funds and parts) to get it all figured out and up to what would once have been inspection standards. She made some odd, but now familiar noises this old Firefly and Alden was now trusting a third engineer in the position of sussing out which ones were supposed to be there and which weren't. "Long as you're all in one piece, Spence, s'all good," he told his newbie. "Get yourself secured." It wasn't a question or a polite request.
"All good." Jacy replied from her seat in the infirmary, though...as secure as her crash seat was, things were anything but all good.
High orbit to low orbit was trouble-free with no sign of those fast-burn rocket shuttles that could often be found running Niska’s errands, but as Fortune's Echo dropped into cloudless skies above red-brown mountains and sweeping rangelands her peaceful flight plan changed.
BANG! Tick-tick-tick… CLUUUUNK…
Weight shifted dramatically as Alden fought the controls and the Echo’s desire to fall portside. Then, as the roar of the VTOL engines reached its peak and the ground rose up to meet them, the starboard engine housing fell ahead, to eventually land somewhere behind them as the rest of the Firefly came to an uncomfortably and awkwardly tilted squat amongst the shrubland.
“Everyone okay?” Called Alden, undoing his own straps and moving to check. Calm blue eyes hit Kindra's own and, clearly seeing that she was no more harmed than she had been when they left Three Hills, he planted a kiss on her forehead, too concerned for everyone else to linger longer. "Stay here?" He requested, with a calm and respectful insistence. "Just wait here a moment."
Whit and Coop were quietly conducting a LACE (Liquid, Ammo, Casualty, and Equipment) check on themselves in the galley while they waited for Daiyu to calm down. The poor thing was pulling against her harness and shaking her head back in forth in a screaming fit that contained no few Mandarin curse words.
Jonas was finishing the last of his pint of water when the ship lurched to port. He was safe and secure, strapped into the seat. Unfortunately, the mug flew out of his hand and the water never made it to his mouth. He looked down at his lap after the landing. "Well, hell."
"You mean home," Alden quipped back to Jonas automatically, though his voice was a little strained as he moved about the cockpit aiming to head out into the rest of the ship. "Felt like we lost an engine some..." he added, slapping the consoles to no avail as the data was currently offline. "Spence? You alright?" He called down the comms link to engineering. "We still have any power on starboard?"
The engineering squawk box had been left on, allowing anyone with an ear to hear several seconds worth of Mandarin cursing from the ship's latest mechanic. Spence had to force his way out of his seat thanks to a jammed buckle, and then stumble over to a control panel. "I'm not getting anything from starboard VTOL. All circuits show... yī dà tuó dà biàn!"
Spence slammed a fist onto the control board, as if it were some futile attempt to beat any loose connection back into place. He knew it'd be no good. All circuits showing open could mean only one thing: the starboard VTOL's connection to his status board was gone. What the hell was Drake thinking, pinning him into this death trap. When Spence saw that man again...
He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. "Starboard's gone," Spence finally said over the comms link. "We ain't gonna be flying for a while."
In echo and in synchrony with Spencer's outburst of swearing, Alden picked up the solo and created a rambling duet. He'd known something had broken, but had really hoped the old girl had managed to grab onto enough that they weren't utterly screwed. Ezra had a lot fewer facilities than Three Hills, and they were already on the back foot informationally speaking. It would be spit, feathers and duct tape here to get them back up and flying and that was the last thing Alden needed to hear right now.
".... noted." He said, the single word taut and lonely in the aftermath of so many inventive cursewords. "So long as y'all are in one piece though, Spence?" Came the concerned question.
Kindra gave Alden a shaky smile. They'd lost an engine and yet Alden had managed the landing brilliantly. Trying to lighten the mood, Kindra said, "You always did know how to make a dramatic entrance, Alden. And you kept your clothes on... so far." She unstrapped herself and listened for the rest of the crew to sound off.
Standing in the doorway now, concerned for those he hadn't yet heard from, Alden offered up a wan smile at Kindra's joke. "Wait here a moment..." he started to say, but then his gaze caught motion out in the shrubland of the world beyond their wide, wraparound forward window and his mood lifted a little. "Company's coming," Alden said, that smile picking up a happier curve that told in his voice. He pointed to shift Kindra's attention from himself to beyond them both where a trio of horse riders was headed right for them. "You ready to meet my sister?" He asked, and offered up his hand to help her walk steady. "Let's go get the crew together..."
She did so like the sound of together. "Oh yes, I'm ready." Kindra was dying of curiosity to meet Alden's other sibling. Plus Ellle would likely give Alden an immediate update about the state of their mother's health.
Walking out along the corridor, Jonas was the first person they encountered and Alden planted a manly kiss on the back of the big fella's head. "Alive, well and wet, huh?" he asked with an impish grin. "Better sort yourself, brother, Elle's about to knock on our door. Help me check folks are okay and we'll get the door open?"
Jonas chuckled. "Yeah, well, never try to drink a mug of water while landing. But that's okay, Elle's seen me in worse situations. 'Sides, might make for a nice ice breaker since it's been a while." He nodded to the checkin' on folks.
"Multi-tasking never was our strong suit," returned Alden with a grin. "And you're right, she's seen ya way worse. C'mon, let's get this done." He was keen to see both his sister and hear her news so shifted them all forwards and downwards.
Cooper shot both pilot and First Mate a stern look as he stood before Daiyu now, unstrapped from his own seat and holding both her hands in his. "Nice landing," he said, not bothering to hide his tone. "We get shot down?"
"Shot down is worrisome for a whole different set of reasons than one engine up and abandoning ship," commented Kindra rhetorically. She regarded Daiyu with concern. Cooper really had a way with the young woman, he was far better at calming Daiyu than Kindra was herself.
"Don't think so. Hope not," Alden said, happiness fading. "But I was kinda focused on making sure we got down here safe. Why you guys hear something I didn't?"
"Oh, Daiyu is on about the monsters again," Whit replied. "But I got a sneakin' suspicion she might be on to something this time. That blowout didn't feel natural. Reckon we take a stroll, see what we see hereabouts?"
"Yup," came the ready agreement from Alden on the subject of monsters. "Reckon she just might. Ain't like folks down here to pick on ranchers, usually they focus their efforts on the towns...." His voice drifted some as he thought of his aunt, James' mother, and her untimely end. "This ain't boding good. I need to see Mum, and get Daiyu and Kindra here somewhere safe 'fore I even consider going out hunting, but I'm pretty sure Elle'll be riding out there right away if you're wanting to go with. Y'all can take the Mule," he added, looking to Whit and Jonas and adding. "I'd 'preciate Coop's support at the ranch if you're willing."
"Heh, a rancher, a Preacher, and a Merc ride into town...sounds like the start of a bad joke," said Jonas.
"Who can joke at a time like this?" Spence asked, emerging from around a corner. His waist now sported a tool belt, but he had the slightest feeling that what he carried was not going to do much good. He had every intention on going outside to figure out how bad they were actually hurt, but the gathering of people gave him pause. "Am I going to get to see how bad this is and where our engine went, or we expecting a shootout?"
"I reckon we'll be doing the Lord's work one way or another," Whit said with a dash of cryptic mirth. "You wanna' take an extended gander, I'm your huckleberry."
"What's at the ranch?" Daiyu asked with a deadpan tone. "Is it dead people?"
"Family," said Alden, curtly. He didn't want to think about anyone being dead, but either way he needed to know. "My family," he added, a little softer for Daiyu and Kindra's benefit. With firm, long strides, the pilot took the last few steps to punch the manual safety on the main hatch and opened the cargo bay to the warm, dry air of Ezra's savannah ranchland.
Boots clunked on the metal ramp as his younger sister launched from her horse to the ground and sprinted up to meet them. Elle hit Alden full force against his chest with her own and threw arms about his neck, leaning up to hug him closely. "She's alive," the blond rancher told him instantly, voice tickling his ear. "They shot her in the arm, she's alive and angry about it and she can't wait to see you." Then she dropped from brother to Jonas and repeated the slam-hug-drop move.
"You're wet," Elle noted, with considerable amusement, as her dark blue eyes regarded Jonas with a fierce impish smile.
Jonas made an 'oomph' sound as the familiar five foot, six inch frame slammed into his six foot, four inch frame. He returned her impish smile with a hug, a wink, and a laugh. "Yep. But not nearly as much as when we hit the swimmin' hole the last time I was here. Damn funny way to be washin' clothes...while they're still bein' worn. Maybe we'll do that again when this whole mess is sorted out."
"I reckon we just might," said Elle, standing up on her tiptoes in her cowboy boots and reaching up to gift Jonas her full attention. Her hands were rough as they cupped his bearded face, a sign of hard grafting for sure, and Elle took her own sweet time in telling the merc just how much she'd missed him with a lingering and definitely not familial kiss. Then she stepped back, booped him on the nose and turned to face the others with a curious intent furrowing her tanned brow.
"Ma'am." Whit tipped an invisible hat toward Elle. "Shepherd Whitaker, but friends call me Whit. If there is any information you could kindly share with those of us who are a might concerned over the unfortunate business of late, we'd be much obliged to know it."
"Whit, I'm Elle," returned Elle, bobbing her head and making the assumption that he wouldn't offer a short version of his own name if he didn't want her to utilise it. "Pleasure to meet ya, so long as there's no hard preaching coming close behind your greeting," she added, with a friendly tone, "I reckon me and God are on good nuff terms." Then Alden's sister looked from Shepherd to Companion. "Mighty nice to have folks concerned for us," Elle noted. "Y'all wanna know more, huh?"
"Indeed, we would," said Kindra, adding her own urging to Whit's request for information. Then she bowed her head to Elle in greeting as she would when welcoming a client. "I'm Kindra, a pleasure to meet you."
"Well ain't you mighty fine sight to be seen, Miss Kindra," Elle noted with an amicable enthusiasm. "We have some talking to do I reckon." She cast a quick look to Alden, who was quietly observing these interactions for the moment, then beamed a broad smile. So many questions, but... Elle skipped to practical matters first. "I spose we oughta go see who shot y'all down before we can get to that. Y'know, it's kinda weird," she added, taking up a stance between Alden and Jonas, but looking around the gathered folks in turn as she spoke. "We ain't had any trouble at all this season, then this... First Momma gets shot while she's just out riding, and then y'all take a hit too. Almost," she raised an eyebrow and looked to Alden. "Like they wanted you to stay here for a bit."
Alden sighed, a heavy weight of an exhale. A thought had been creeping since he'd caught back up with Drake, it had magnified some when his little brother had wandered off to Niska's station, and it had thumped still harder in his brain when they'd had engine trouble. "Any ideas who?" He asked, frown deepening on his face.
"Uh-uh," Elle said, with a shake of her head. "Swear we ain't upset a soul lately, and no one's been sniffing 'bout from up there," She nudged her chin upwards towards the Skyplex. "This is something random, or something to do with you boys," she added, accusatory tone making Alden's conscience grumble. Then her gaze locked with Jonas' own. "You gonna come take a look-see with me?" She asked. "I swear I'll protect ya."
Kindra glanced at Alden with raised eyebrows when his sister said they had some talking to do. Did Elle already know about the still-new relationship between her brother and Kindra? But then the rest of what Elle said sunk in. An unknown enemy shot them down, maybe someone who wanted Alden stranded here for a time. It took all Kindra's training to carve a smile into her worry. "Even with Elle protecting you, best be careful. All of you."
Alden smiled warmly in response to Kindra's unspoken question. First time bringing a fancy lady all the way back home, there were bound to be certain assumptions and plenty of questions, but Jonas was taking up considerably more of Elle's eye contact than Kindra was. He doubted their mother would be as distracted. "It'll be alright," Alden said, with the resonance of true, unfettered confidence in his tone and stance. "If they wanted to kill any of us, they'd have tried harder, and if our watchful overlord was involved we'd definitely be in deeper trouble than we are now. Fact they're not here picking our bones and making threats, I'll take as both a kindness and a confusing, but welcome, sign of their lack of murderous nature." But, he considered, seemed someone wanted their attention for sure.
Wrapping a muscular arm about his 'little' sister's shoulder and resting a worn hand on Jonas' own, Alden took a steeling breath and sanctioned the split.
"Like Kindra says," he began. "Y'all be watchful out there..." Alden grinned as Elle snorted with derision and countered.
"Managed to keep my own-self alive this long without your fearsome protection," Elle interrupted, hands on her hips and eyes filled with independence.
"I know," Alden agreed. "I trust ya." But his fingers still bit into Jonas' shoulder. "Just let me be a big brother for five minutes at least, make me look good in front of folks?"
"Go see Momma," said Elle, her tone all about the order. "I'll take care of your boys," she added, wicked gleam of a grin flashing in her gaze as she looked from Alden to Whit and Jonas. "Bring 'em back all in one piece too, promise."
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