pombe Posted November 23, 2015 Location: I06 - Yetornius Tags: Exploration, Land Vehicle, Spaceship, Fleet Bonus Dramatis Personae: Octan Pombe Courageous, wise, and a gentleman extraordinaire, Pombe leads his intrepid team of explorers on adventurous adventures, in the name of profit for the Octan corporation and its shareholders. His list of achievements is long, from mentoring the now super undercover Octan explorer, Isabel Novak, to destroying all the cacti on New California, to rescuing Octan employees captured by aliens in Sinden's Run and recovering their pants from the dastardly "jeans stealers". He credits his success to his following in the footsteps of his explorer idols, Lu Caslaug-Hing and Wick Nole, even though Wick Nole is really an engineer. Despite Pombe's accomplishments, he still somehow gets reported to HR consistently by Dr. Danielle Long, whose ship, the O.C.S. Axle, Pombe and his team have taken residence aboard. His sister, Pombie, is a special forces agent for the rival M.A.N.T.I.S. corporation. Eshey Reeshia Kolai Pragmatic and logical, Eshey is Pombe's second apprentice, after Isabel Novak. Prior to joining Octan, she was a popular deejay and an absolute beast on the turntables. She applied to Octan, because she wanted a more stable income. She was taken on by Pombe as a temporary hire, despite not having any previous corporate industry experience, because she showed up at the job interview in Octan regulation approved attire. She initially showed promise as an explorer, but has since been disappointing to Pombe, having demonstrated paranoid and hostile behavior to all alien lifeforms, being labeled as "hard" during collaborative exploration missions with Ava Gato, a Kawashita inter-corporate relations officer, which Pombe interpreted as "being difficult", and just not understanding the situations as well as Eshey's new colleague, Normal Guy, who gives her the heebie jeebies. Despite these failings, Eshey has proven to be a remarkable sharpshooter. She has since become a permanent hire, as part of Octan's response to the alien fleet threat from Andromeda's core. She also has a huge crush on Octan engineer, Big Z. Ethel Alkylhal Originally from Mitgard, where she grew up on a farm and developed animal husbandry skills, she failed to find employment as an adventurer there and ended up wandering the spaceways looking for a job. She initially was turned down for the temporary hire position as Pombe's apprentice, which was given to Eshey, because Ethel showed up to the interview in her traditional Mitgardian attire and not something Octan regulation approved. Due to the alien fleet crisis, Pombe reached back out to her and offered her a permanent position on his exploration team. Her preferred armaments are her trusty battle axe and shield. Ethel tends to distrust technology and is extremely vulgar. She also loves to eat sausages. Hombre Sue Damoness Sue was an ace pilot with Galaxy Squad's red team, having tallied numerous combat kills against the invading buggoid aliens. She was discharged honorably after deciding to leave Galaxy Squad after a certain incident. Immediately, she was courted by potential employers who wanted her skills as a pilot, but she decided to take up Pombe's offer, due to her intuition regarding Pombe's personal agenda: she didn't think he had one. Astute, but laid back, she often just goes with the flow in daily situations, but her habits learned from the military crop up from time to time with regards to adherence to protocols. She does take piloting seriously and enjoys the freedom that Pombe gives her regarding piloting decisions for the team. Normal Guy The newest member of the Pombe's exploration team, Normal Guy just sort of showed up one day and started following the crew around the Axle. Pombe, with his keen sense of observation, noticed this, and realized that he needed to help find Normal Guy a girlfriend, so Pombe brought him onto the team. Since then, Normal Guy has been an indispensible member of the team, completely understanding the nature of the exploration situations and assisting Pombe better than anyone else. While the other team members seem unnerved by Normal Guy's presence, Pombe's high praise of Normal Guy have led them to keep their thoughts to themselves. Kawashita Ava Gato A Kawashita inter-corporate relations officer who shared Kawashita technology with Octan alongside Kawashita engineer Alexander Vandangant. Ava also stayed aboard the Axle and worked with Eshey on exploration assignments for a while when Pombe was busy debriefing a Kawashita marketing and sales team on Jurin II. Competent and honorable, Ava assisted and followed Eshey's instructions, highly praising Eshey to Pombe upon his return. She has since returned to Kawashita to continue her other assignments. M.A.N.T.I.S. Isabel Novak/Sammy Nelly Typhi Deceased. Sammy Nelly Typhi was a M.A.N.T.I.S. special operations agent who infiltrated Octan as apprentice explorer, Isabel Novak, to get close to the famous explorer Wick Nole, even though he's an engineer, to learn Octan corporate secrets. Instead, she was assigned to Pombe, where she languished for two years under his mentorship. Finally having had enough, she used a special Octan exploration assignment to fake the death of her alter ego and to head back to M.A.N.T.I.S. space to report of her failure. Unfortunately for her, her spaceship had a malfunction due to the engines being only attached by a single stud, and she was forced to crash land on the planet of Xerillian. Pombe found the remains of her wrecked spaceship and sent a report back regarding Isabel's status. Octan special forces agent, Jebediah O'Reilly, and his team were dispatched to take care of Sammy once and for all, ensuring Octan secrets would not make it back to M.A.N.T.I.S.. Pombie A natural leader with an eye for talent, Commander Pombie is the head of an elite crack special operations team for the M.A.N.T.I.S. corporation. She has gained a reputation for taking employees that would otherwise be considered misfits and outcasts, identifying their talents, and molding them into terrifyingly efficient operatives. Her leadership style is brutal and cold, but nevertheless, her team are completely loyal to her because she took the time to identify and acknowledge each of their individual aptitudes after they were dismissed by others. Her brother, Pombe, is an explorer for the rival Octan corporation. Cassandra A powerful psychic with the ability to take over and control the bodily actions of multiple minifigures at once. She acquired this ability as a test subject during one of Big Sal's "employee weaponization" projects for M.A.N.T.I.S., but was rejected and discarded because she did not develop the ability to shoot lasers out of her eyes, or mouth, or hands...or from anywhere really. Unwanted and suffering from depression, she dwelled in the basements of M.A.N.T.I.S. corporate buildings, subsisting on vending machine food, sleeping in conference rooms, and showering in gym locker rooms, until Pombie discovered her by chance and recognized her talent and brought Cassandra onto her team. Since then, Cassandra has been utterly and completely loyal to Pombie, referring to Pombie as "mistress" and obeying her commands without question. Neko-chan A girl who is half minifigure and half cat alien. She grew up with her mother, and never knew who her father was. Because of her beauty and lithe gracefulness, she was hired by Kawashita to be a spokesmodel for their products. She proved to be hugely popular with Kawashita's customer demographic, driving up Kawashita profits astronomically through her marketing efforts. Despite the success and fortune she earned as a spokesmodel, deep down, Neko-chan felt exploited by the Kawashita corporation, who she felt only wanted to use her for her looks. Really, all she wanted to do was to hit others with her huge and impossibly heavy hammer, which is she able to produce out of seemingly nowhere. One day, she ran away from home, and fled to the Andromeda Galaxy, where she felt no one could find her and she could hit anyone she wanted with her hammer. Unfortunately, she quickly used up her fortune dining on fish expensively exported to Andromeda and became destitute. Neko-chan was discovered in the slums of Torresta by Pombie, who recognized her talents, and offered her employment where she could hit people with her hammer. Neko-chan happily accepted and has been loyal to Pombie ever since. Simon...I mean, Mephistopheles, lord of the 1337 H4XX0Rs A geeky and awkward teenager who was recognized as a prodigy in computer programming early on. Unfortunately, his abrasive personality, combined with his social awkwardness, led him to being kicked out of one team to the next. Pombie took him onto her team realizing that she needed his talent, but was initially unsure of how her team would handle him. Being a hormone driven teenage boy, he, of course, was caught trying to peep on the attractive girls of the team, Cassandra and Neko-chan. However, instead of having to issue some sort of disciplinary action, Pombie realized that the ladies could handle themselves. Cassandra simply made him punch himself in the genitals repeatedly until he passed out and Neko-chan destroyed the harddrives with his porn collection with her hammer. Since then, he's behaved himself and so long as he's referred to by his proper name, he'll follow Pombie's commands. Oddly enough, he has shown no interest in either Commander Pombie nor the other woman on the team, Scooter. Scooter Scooter is the team's pilot, though she wasn't originally trained as a pilot. She started out as a low level M.A.N.T.I.S. administrator, dealing with employee training documents. Quiet and awkward, she mostly just kept to herself and did her job. An avid videogamer, anime and manga junkie, and dedicated cosplayer, she was just working to support her hobbies. She was reassigned to Andromeda and during her trip out, she was incidentally placed on the same shuttle as Pombie. During the journey, the pilot of the shuttle had a sudden heart attack and died. Because of her experience playing space simulators, Scooter recognized the controls of the shuttle and took over and safely navigated the shuttle through a freak asteroid storm. Pombie, amazed at what she saw, commented that Scooter piloted the shuttle "like a leaf on the wind" and promptly offered her a position on her team as a pilot. She has served proudly as the pilot of the team ever since. Merchant Confederacy Bruce Vayne A Merchant Confederate starfighter pilot whose personal fighter is the T.U.M.B.L.E.R., short for Takeoff Ultra Missile Ballistic Laser Emergency Roustabout, which Eshey mistakes for a missile tank. He operates out of the Betsy May, a light carrier class capital ship, and was out on patrol looking for Zoid slaver activity when he crashed into an asteroid in the Fascini Cluster. Fortunately for him, Eshey and Pombe managed to rescue him and his T.U.M.B.L.E.R. from alien space ducks armed with knives that are indigenous to the asteroid. His alter-ego is Tabman, since he always buys the drinks. Ishmael Haverly A Merchant Confederate starfighter pilot and leader of Cobra squadron aboard the Betsy May. Though she adheres strictly to combat protocols and utterly respects the chain of command, she prefers to be called by her first name whenever addressed personally. She was the one who spotted a space whale during a routine CAP and reported it to Pombe and Eshey. Previously: http://www.eurobrick...howtopic=116997 Currently, somewhere over Yetornius.... So, Ishmael, how's the new prototype starfighter handling? She handles well enough, sir. There are some minor kinks we can work out between test flights. Glad to hear it. Keep track of anything you'd like us to improve. Copy that, sir. So these starfighter prototypes were developed as collaborations between Octan and the Merchant Confederacy? Indeed. The Merchant Confederacy have specific needs for their starfighter designs. We figure other customers may have need of similar designs. So the Merchant Confederacy submits the designs, we develop the prototypes, they test them, and we get the rights to manufacture and sell them. They get to keep the first lot off the manufacturing line, which of course, helps us work out any last minute bugs before we open up the starfighters for military contract orders. I see. Betsy May, this is Tabman, do you copy? Reading you loud and clear, Tabman. My starfighter...she's not responding to my commands. The thrusters don't seem to be operational. Don't tell me...pull Tabman up on screen. That's not a starfighter! It's a tank! We let him of all people submit starfighter designs?! And how is it that no one mentioned anything during the production of the prototype? What are you talking about, Eshey? It's clearly a starfighter. In fact, based on the specifications, it's a special type of starfighter known as a Vic Viper. See the two frontal prongs, the two side wings, and the single dorsal fin? Classic Vic Viper. It has no thrusters and has tank treads! It's a tank! It seems I'm going to have to send you back to the vet for more psychiatric therapy. I can't believe you still can't tell the difference between a starfighter and a tank. Tabman, I'm looking at the exterior of your ship, I don't see anything that's out of place or damaged. What part of "it has no thrusters" is not out of place?!?! Betsy May, this is Tabman, it seems that an alien has pulled up alongside us in formation. It appears to be a two headed turkey with a body made out of tofu. It must be one of the legendary space tofurkeys I've heard rumors about! What? What in the finger? A turkey with a tofu body? And why does it have two heads? IT MAKES NO SENSE!!! Of course it does. It's both Thanksgiving and Novvember. Gobble gobble gobble. Gobble gobble gobble gobble gobble gobble! Gobble. Gobble gobble gobble. Gobble gobble gobble gobble. Well met, Sally and Gordon! I'm Bruce Vayne. I'm a pilot for the Merchant Confederacy. Gobble gobble. Gobble gobble gobble gobble gobble. Gobble gobble. Gobble gobble gobble gobble. Gobble gobble gobble gobble gobble. Sally's a dermatologist and Gordon's a fisherman? Interesting! Come aboard the Betsy May later. Drinks are on me! They both share one body!!! How do they even go to work?!?! And what genitals does that body even have, given that one head is a girl and one head is a boy?!?! Eshey, that's rude! I think I'll have to send you to sensitivity training, as well! Additional pics under the spoiler tag, and comments and criticisms are all welcome! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rodiziorobs Posted November 23, 2015 It took me a minute to realize the space tofurkey was also a Vic Viper. Well played, sir; well played. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bob De Quatre Posted November 23, 2015 I'm sure the judges started to suffer from dementia issues for having to grade your builds Pombe... Oh wait... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kodan Black Posted November 23, 2015 Triple Vipers! Love the yellow one, but I'm most impressed by the tofurkey and that you were able to make it a VV too. If variety is the spice of life, pombe is one spicy fellow! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andromedas Gates Posted November 25, 2015 The judges awarded you 6 points. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
