pombe Posted October 5, 2015 (edited) Location: E11 - The Fascini Cluster Tags: Exploration, Land Vehicle, Spaceship Dramatis Personae (because people forget stuff): 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. Previously: http://www.eurobrick...pic=115126/url] Currently, aboard the Axle.... I suppose this is farewell for now, sis. Thanks again for dropping by to clean up my mess and take care of me. What are sisters for? Besides, it was nice to see you again, if only briefly. And I'm glad my team was able to help your employee, Eshey, get over her issues. She still has to work on her ability to not interrupt others while they are watching their favorite animes. Yes, thanks for helping Eshey. Not a problem! Anyways, we'll be off then. Keep in touch, brother. Now then, Eshey, let's go meet with Andromeda CEO, John Hannibal. I believe he had an assignment for the two of us. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Moments later in a conference aboard the Axle.... Thanks Eshey, Pombe, for meeting with me. I have a new assignment for you. Recently, I've made contact with a group known as the Merchant Confederacy out here in Andromeda (http://www.eurobrick...howtopic=114305, http://www.eurobrick...howtopic=114599, http://www.eurobrick...howtopic=114876). They appear to be a potential ally and partner here, and they have asked us for help. Eshey and I would be glad to help. How do they dress, by the way? Who cares how they dress?! They dress...um...fine. They don't have a dress code like the corporations do. They are a loose organization of merchants with few formal regulations, if any, and are looking to Octan to provide them with resources and assistance with certain problems. What type of problems, sir? All sorts, actually. But your assignment is to locate a pilot who has gone missing in the Fascini Cluster. Wouldn't Sue have been a better person for this assignment, given her experience as a fighter pilot? We're already taking advantage of her combat experience. She's currently taking part in an assignment to deal with aliens known as the Zoid who are operating in the area. They attack Merchant Confederation ships to enslave their crews. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I hope you choke on your testicles and die, slaver scum!!! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I see. Where you and Pombe will be assigned should be far away from where the Zoid slavers are operating, given where his signal was last detected. Note that this is odd, considering he was flying on a mission to help deal with the Zoid, so something likely went wrong with his ship to send him so far away. They don't have any ships to spare at the moment to search for him. That is why I'm assigning you. No problems, sir, we'll find their missing pilot and bring him home. Excellent. I've already informed Big Z of the situation, and he should have something ready for you. Best of luck, Eshey, Pombe. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Later in an engineering bay aboard the Axle.... For you two, I've got the perfect thing for a search and rescue. Let's see it. Meet the C.L.A.W.. Nice. She's a rugged maintenance and repair starship. She's highly manuverable and has three very strong and dexterous claw arms to help you manipulate objects. Her huge twin engines are powerful, and should you need to, you can pull just about anything from any where with those claws. What does the C.L.A.W. stand for? I have no idea, actually. Our CEO commissioned the design and, apparently, he likes acronyms. Alright, let's head out, Eshey. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Later, in the Fascini Cluster.... We're arriving at the last known signal location of the missing Merchant Confederation ship. There's lots of asteroids here, sir. Is it possible that he crashed into one? Silly Eshey, what sort of pilot crashes a spaceship into an asteroid? Um...how about that one? And it looks like he's being attacked by alien duck creatures! Wait...I swear I've read reports about alien ducks operating here in Andromeda! We must kill them!!! KILL THEM!!! Those aliens are harmless. They're armed with knives!!! KILL THEM!!! Eshey, your silliness knows no bounds. Those are just knives. Besides, this ship isn't equipped with weapons. I knew I forgot to check for something! We'll just fly in close. That will scare the aliens away. There, see how they ran away? They're still out there somewhere! Now, prepare to use the claw arms to recover the starfighter. Phew. Thanks for that. I owe you a drink. Oh, you're alive! Thank goodness! I'm Eshey, and this is my supervisor, Pombe. We're from the Octan corporation and we've been sent to rescue you on behalf of the Merchant Confederation. It's nice to meet the both of you. I'm Vayne, Bruce Vayne. And this is my T.U.M.B.L.E.R., short for Takeoff Ultra Missile Ballistic Laser Emergency Roustabout. Wait. I thought we were here to rescue a pilot who flew his starfighter out on a mission against the Zoid slavers, but lost contact here in the Fascini Cluser. Those damn Zoid! I'll get them, yet! And yes, I am that pilot. Hmm...it seems the crash damaged my transponder signal. Um. How do I put this? Your T.U.M.B.L.E.R. is a missile tank. It's not a starfighter. Nonsense, Eshey. The T.U.M.B.L.E.R. is clearly a starfighter. It has tank treads and no visible means of thrust!!! Mr. Vayne, on behalf of the Octan corporation, I apologize for my colleague's behavior. One would think that we would have trained our employees to tell the difference between a starfighter and a missile tank. No apologies needed, Mr. Pombe. I appreciate the both of you and your rescue. How did you get into this predicament, Mr. Vayne? Maybe we can help you troubleshoot what happened. There's nothing to troubleshoot! It's a tank! I was on a mission to patrol against the Zoid slavers. I went over my preflight checklist. Everything was nominal. Then I flew the T.U.M.B.L.E.R. out of the hangar of the Betsy May, the carrier ship I'm currently staying aboard. You drove the tank out of the hangar of a capital ship?! And no one tried to stop you?!?! Then I noticed that I had difficulty with the thrusters, they weren't responding to my controls. And the navigation computer wouldn't set course for where the Zoid are currently operating. What sort of tank has thrusters and a nav computer?!?! So then I was adrift in space, until I crashed on this asteroid here. Apparently there are native duck like aliens who make these asteroids their home. It's a good thing you showed up when you did. Well, I think what happened was a fluke. Maybe if you restart your starfighter, everything will work as intended, and you can get back to your patrol That was exactly what I was thinking! Wait. You are both serious, aren't you? So if you angle the T.U.M.B.L.E.R. along this clearing, you should be able to take off and resume your mission. Makes sense to me. Engaging engines. He's going to drive his tank off the asteroid back into space?!?! Here I go! Increasing throttle for take off. You took off! Great! I'm glad we were able to help. Yes! Thanks again, both you! He drove his tank off an asteroid! And now he's heading for another one! Tell me this isn't happening! Alright, punching in the coordinates into the navigation computer. I'll see you both aboard the Betsy May. Drinks are always on me. For I am... Tabman. Next: More pics under the spoiler tag. Comments and criticisms are all welcome! Edited March 23, 2017 by pombe Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Garmadon Posted October 5, 2015 Ha, ha, excellent builds and story Pombe, but those little ducks! The orange T.U.M.B.L.E.R. tank starfighter is very cool too! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
A Gallifreyan Cat Posted October 5, 2015 Amazing, detailed story and great builds! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tembets Posted October 5, 2015 Funny as always. Great vehicles too, your building style really compliments the stories you tell. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LittleJohn Posted October 5, 2015 Excellent work, pombe! The micro T.U.M.B.L.E.R. is fantastic and I really like the asteroids too Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kodan Black Posted October 5, 2015 This turned out even better than how you described it! I love all the ships and the repair one especially. Great story as usual, too bad pombie had such a short stay. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mediumsnowman Posted October 6, 2015 Another great and humorous story pombe! Even though I was tipped off in the PM I still LOL'd at Tabman. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andromedas Gates Posted October 7, 2015 The judges awarded you 5 points. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
