THE EXPANSE | 5x04 - “Guagamela”

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THE EXPANSE | 5x04 - “Guagamela”
The Expanse 4x01 | 5x04
Welcome to the Churn
Naomi Nagata ↳ Singlet + Belter tattoos appreciation
Naomi & Amos You have to be alright. Please just say something. Amos. You changed your hair.
recklessresistance:
The Resistance was home to many races, alien species, whatever classification you wanted to call the clearly not-human but also clearly intelligent beings milling around. Though the First Order considered them terrorists, they preferred the term Freedom Fighter. Every side had a story, Poe just believed far too strongly in their side. At least the Resistance wasn’t trying to submit the galaxy to terror beneath a shiny leather clad thumb.
As he stood ready to receive the new-comers, he considered the appearance of the four with only a warm smile. Armed to the teeth, fitted in armor that would make a Mandalorian turn their head to consider, tall, but not so foreign looking.
Halting its back and forth tilt, the droid fixed its wide optical upon the incoming four, listing off a number of things for Poe to worry about. He hummed a thoughtful noise and nodded, his sidearm probably wouldn’t do a whole lot against the armor, and he did not think he’d be able to pull it fast enough to stop the big guy from loading him full of… whatever the shotgun was loaded with. Scatter rounds probably.
“Captain Holden.” Nodding, the pilot noted the lack of physical gesture of greeting and put that aside. Some species cultures were all about touch, even the human ones from different systems, some were as reserved as could be. He took no offense. “Pleasure’s all mine captain.” The pilot nodded once and let his own amber gaze study the blue hues that flitted around the base.
“Welcome to the Resistance–” What was left of it anyway. “You’re on Yavin.” Poe added, glancing down when the Droid chirped something that sounded almost offensive. “Hey, I was getting there, buddy. Calm down.” The pilot shook his head and motioned to the white and orange globe of binary sass. “This is BB8, he’s happy to meet you too. Thanks for the help up there, would have been a shame to punch a hole through your life support systems.” There continued to be an ease in his tone, but Poe looked as weary as he looked wary.
Lifting a hand, he waved at the three others that hadn’t been introduced, taking in their features one at a time and mentally noting where they could have come from.
“Speaking of holes, we have some pretty impressive mechanics ‘round here if you want help patching up.” He suspected they could handle themselves but the offer was made anyway.
“My General is sitting in on a council, but as soon as she’s through with that, I can take you to meet her. There’s a good chance she’ll want to thank you in person for what you did. Until then, I’m gonna have to stick by you, sorry not sorry. Hungry?”
While Holden seemed on edge, both Alex and Amos returned the greeting with a wave of their own. Amos with his usual, jovial altitude and Alex with a feeling of giddy excitement.
Aliens, droids, humans, all here in a system that should have been uninhabited! And no creepy, glowing stuff anywhere in sight.
"Your general?", Holden asked and the tension was clear in his voice, making Alex wonder what exactly his issue was. "You are a military force?"
While Alex still tried to fit all the information he had acquired into his picture of the universe and to place his captain's behavior, Amos seemed to have different priorities: "You got some actual food on this rock?", he asked, cutting off Holden's interrogation with what Alex had come to recognise as the big Earther's way of diffusing a situation and apparently, Bobbie had recognised it too.
"Please tell me you have some actual meat! Or at least something that isn't artificially textured protein and mushrooms.", she chimed in and quickly, Holden was overruled.
The mess hall was large and filled with beings of all shapes, sizes and colours and some of them turned and greeted their guide in a variety of languages on top of something that was to Alex's ears just plain English.
Aliens spoke English. Who knew?
It turned out that there was actual food with actual meat to be had, but curiously, nobody asked where that meat came from. At least Amos, Alex and Bobby didn't. They were the only ones who had opted for food.
Holden sat stiffly between Bobby and Alex, the tension vibrating off of him and making Alex nervous.
"What's going on here?", Holden asked finally, rolling his shoulders against the weight of his armoured suit. "Who was shooting at us, who are you and what is all of this about?"
While Alex would have probably liked a different tone and chosen some different questions (for example anything about the small, round, bleeping droid or Dameron's flying), he couldn't help but shrug and point the blunt end of his fork at Holden in a way that meant 'good question'.
Rocinante Crew :: The Expanse
Yasssssssss.
We’re getting ready to start the first readthrough of episode 1. (x)
recklessresistance:
“Pleasure, Captain.” Poe mused as he wove to avoid fire from the TYE fighters, and any potentially accidental shots from the Roci. They were communicating, that didn’t mean they wouldn’t potentially blow his ass out of the sky. Already he’d heard the beacon of target-lock and a tremolo of worried, low chirps from his droid. “Yeah yeah, buddy. It’s good, we’re good.” He hushed the droid with a little grin, greatful when the firing in his particular direction seemed to halt entirely.
“Hold on, Holden. My droid is going to send through the information my command sees–you should be able to tell the difference between Resistance ships and First Order. I don’t want to have to threaten your lives, but if you take down any of my men, I might have to–watch your eight.” He added before weaving away from his position once more to try to draw the fighters way from the Rocinante with his own light fighter.
“Transfer of information’s complete, Rocinante. Did you get it?”
As Poe asked, the stream of information BB-8 patched through became available, painting the fewer Resistance fighters as friendlies, and the First Order ships as quite the opposite. “That biiiiig gray triangular monstrosity is a Dreadnaught-” Not unlike some of the fleet-named ships of other systems, he assumed the newcomers would know what a designation like Dreadnaught meant. “-They’re liable to chew you up and spit you out–or you know, obliterate you from existence. Stay out of range of the long range canons, I already took out the surface canons so short range shouldn’t be an issue as long as-” He glanced back at the Roci’s hull before huffing a soft laugh. “Well, don’t let the little guys overwhelm you.” Didn’t seem like it would be an issue, but Poe warned them anyway.
“Anyway, I’ll see you planet side hopefully, let’s end this.”
After excusing himself, the pilot sealed up the S-foils on that X-shaped fighter and shot forward with a sharp bit of thrust, but he kept the comm-channel open as he zipped around that aerial battlefield, marking and demolishing marks–and never once letting his attention fully off of the Roci.
Minutes or maybe hours later, Poe’s X-Wing was landed and the rotund ball of a droid leaned lightly against his boot whilst the pilot waited near enough to the designated landing pad, awaiting the appearance of the Rocinante’s crew–or at the very least, it’s captain. Swiping a hand through his hair, the black glove was tucked into one of the rigging belts draped around his hips. Poe Dameron was human, as were a good many of the Resistance fighters jogging around him, but there were also a number of non-human beings running around too.
In the end, the Roci had caught one direct hit of a small Gauss round that had punched a clean hole through both hulls, but missed the reactor by two inches. It was quickly patched up by Amos, who sent some rather colourful curses towards their attackers and told Bobbie to 'shoot that fucker down'. A request she gladly and gleefully complied with.
Apart from that, they had gotten away unscathed physically, but rather confused otherwise. The ships around them were not even remotely close to anything they knew from the Sol system and, according to the Roci's systems, far more advanced than anything that Earth, Mars and the Belt could produce if they combined their efforts.
Holden immediately turned suspicious and insisted on weapons when they went planetside.
That in itself had turned into an argument, because Holden didn't want Naomi down there and frankly, she had no particular desire to step foot on a planet that had, according to the ship's systems, 1G, give or take a few points. But Holden was unwilling to pass on the sheer brute force that was Amos and Bobbie and there was 'no fuckin' way I'm gonna stay up here, Hoss.' from Alex. He would meet that pilot, annoyingly high gravity be damned.
And that way they had not taken the shuttle, but actually brought the Rocinante down to the surface. Naomi had excused herself to go and lie down for the duration of their stay or at least until she didn't feel like her joints were being ground together when standing up and the rest had suited up to leave the ship to a strange planet that held, surprisingly, a breathable atmosphere and, at least according to the Rocinante, nothing their immune systems couldn't handle.
So when they stepped out of the ship lying uselessly on her belly in the dust, Holden, Amos and Alex were dressed in the Tachi's armoured environmental suits and carrying weapons nobody even bothered to hide. Behind them, towering over them all by more than a head was Gunnery Sargent Roberta Draper in her heavy, restored and upgraded Mark III. That alone was probably enough to tip anyone off that they were not to be trifled with, even without Amos shamelessly keeping his modified shotgun at the ready.
All four of them exchanged open mouthed, baffled glances that were punctuated with a shrug from Amos that made it very clear what he thought of the situation.
'Not the weirdest shit we've seen.'
Alex himself was much more fascinated with the ball shaped droid, that wiggled back and forth by the legs of the man who must be Poe Dameron, giving off small clicks and beeps.
"Damn.", Bobbie muttered behind him and Alex nodded in agreement, even though he was pretty sure they were talking about two different things, while Holden stepped forward.
"Commander Dameron? I'm Captain James Holden. It's … good to meet you in person.", he said, but didn't hold out his hand in greeting, instead his blue eyes seemed to skip and skitter around, catching on the many non-humans walking around as if it was not the most mindblowing thing he had seen in a while.
Reblog if you're into outer space and rough sex
recklessresistance:
"Roci-what-now?“
Poe shook his head, unfamiliar with the name of the ship, but it hardly mattered–they hadn’t fired on him, which meant he did not have to systematically take them apart bit by impressive bit. "Pleasure to meet you Naomi.” He started a moment later, offering a little grunt as his ship sling-shot its way around the Roci to pick off a few of the TYE fighters trying to sneak up on her. He did not know the extent of their capabilities, hoped they weren’t technically civvies caught up in a warzone, and intended to protect them until he knew any better.
"Commander Poe Dameron, of the Resistance–I take it you aren’t from around here?“ He added flicking his gaze back over the hull of that warship before pausing to listen to the clip of beeps and chittering from his droid again. Humming thoughtfully, he murmured to BB-8 before continuing.
"Like I said, we’re in a bit of a squabble–that big ship over there is spewing out more First Order filth by the second, but they aren’t really difficult to take out. If you’re coming to join the fight, I’m going to have to suggest you don’t shoot me in the back unless you want to get dead. Not a threat, just a promise. You’re more than welcome to help out, we’re always lookin’ for volunteers. But if you’d prefer to stay neutral and out of it entirely, there’s space planet side for you to dust down safely until we can talk like civilized people, but those First Order scumbags are going to keep taking shots at you whether you raise a white flag or otherwise.”
"Well, that chap seems a great deal nicer than those guys.", Alex called over the coms, indicating the large black triangle of the big ship with it's armada of deadly balls coming at them in seemingly endless numbers. Then he whooped when the little X-shaped fighter picked off three enemy ships in one dizzying manoeuvre. "And he's one helluva pilot!"
"Who am I shooting at?", Bobbie called from her gunner seat.
"Nobody who isn't shooting at us.", Holden gave back. "Naomi, give me that Commander Dameron. Alex? Don't let them scratch our girl. She's just got a new paintjob and I promised Fred we wouldn't be taking up any bays at Tycho for a while. Amos?"
"Yeah, Cap?"
"How are things looking down there?"
"Tight and solid. I'm watching."
"Any ideas?"
"Beyond that they are shooting something I've never seen before? No fucking clue."
"Great.", Holden sighed and then he was talking to Commander Dameron: "This is Captain James Holden of the Rocinante. I'd really appreciate some information on who the bad guys here are. I really hate shooting at the wrong people."
Alex meanwhile was weaving the Roci through the waves of ships, letting Bobbie pick off whoever looked like a threat while the PDCs laid down a carpet of counter fire.
"Shit. Bobbie, keep an eye on that one.", he called over to her and marked Dameron's ship on the Roci's display that currently showed everyone in red. According to the ship everyone was a threat right now. "I really wanna have a chat with him when this is over."
"Will do!", she replied and half a second later, one of the ships following Dameron exploded as one of the Rocinante's missiles found its target. "Captain? I think it's safe to say the round things are bad and the pointy things are the good guys, shall we green them?"
"Commander? I'd appreciate if you could send me some identifying information for your people so my ship doesn't keep seeing you as a threat.", Holden called over the line while Naomi was already busy trying to tell friendly ships from those who seemed very keen on shooting them without provocation.
i have a PhD in getting myself into really bad situations
Joining The Resistance
recklessresistance
Antagonizing the First Order came nearly first on Poe’s list of Things To Do. Second only to protecting the galaxy from the indomitable machine trying to press everyone into submission under a black polished boot. Rebellion was in his blood, resistance his nature, and flying was one of his most freeing passions. Especially if it meant rattling a few First Order cages.
Buzzing the Star Destroyer and clipping the turrets that dotted its exterior, the light fighter wove and dipped expertly across it’s surface to ensure the close range protections were disabled before peeling away to make a dent in the swarm of TYE fighters.
He was known fairly far and wide for his tight maneuvers and foolhardy tactics, famous, or infamous–neither really mattered because his instincts and impulses kept him alive. Fortunately the computing power of perfect synchronization of his little Droid pal seemed only to improve his skill and talent.
A sharp whir and series of rapid chittering noises escaped BB-8, the Droid warning him about the sudden and rapid appearance of an unregistered variable slipping out of a hyperspace-like state of travel. “What?” Poe responded, whipping his helmeted head up as the thing entering contested airspace slid like a hot butter knife through space nearly on top of him. He gracefully twisted and arched the X-Wing along the belly of the broad, large ship, skipping his amber gaze over the model before huffing softly.
“BB-8 try to make contact, who is this guy?” Waiting a beat as the Droid responded to him, Poe shook his head and huffed another soft laugh. “Unbelievable, patch us through if you can.”
It took the Droid only a few moments to hail the strangers, and as soon as comms were open, he as speaking. “Hey pal, I don’t mean to tell you how to fly, but your asses are slipping into an active war zone. Those big guys and the flying balls with plates attached are gonna shoot without discrimination whether you’re one of them or not–can I get a little heads up on who you are? Who your working got?” By the look of the ship, they weren’t necessarily civilian, at least, something in his gut told him as much. Unfortunately that did not mean anything good or bad until he had an idea of what and who they were. And more importantly, who they were working for.
Whatever they had expected, the crew would later agree that they had not expected a human voice. Or a language they could understand.
But when Naomi opened the coms, that was exactly what they got.
“Ah’ll be damned.”, Alex huffed under his breath as he heard the voice and dove out of the way of another one of the small, round ships.
"This is Naomi Nagata, Commanding Officer of the Rocinante.", Naomi gave back and Alex could hear the hesitation in her voice. He probably be more concerned with the entire situation if he wasn't so busy dodging fire. "Who are you?"
Alex heard the ops deck airlock hiss open and a second later, Holden spoke: "Nice of you to join us, Gunny."
"Ya wanna shoot some bad guys?", Alex called back to Bobby, who stumble-crawled her way to the gunner seat.
"Looks like you got a lot of them. What are they? Earth? Mars? They don't look like Belter ships.", she replied and strapped herself in while Naomi continued her conversation with the stranger on the small ship that had hailed them.
"Dunno.", Alex gave back. "Holden thinks they are aliens."
The quick size comparison between the Rocinante and an X-Wing for @recklessresistance.
Joining The Resistance
@recklessresistance
“You’re going good and steady, Rocinante. Anything showing up on your end?”
“Negative, Medina. All our readings are completely normal. Well, as normal as it gets.”
Alex listened to Naomi’s conversation with Medina Station with one ear and to a soothing jazz song on the other as he carefully eased the Roci closer to the Ring. For the past three hours they had been in the process of sneaking up to the gate, inching their way forward while constantly monitoring the sensors.
Every single ship that had gone through this particular Ring had vanished. Not immediately, but close enough to their entry into the gate that it was clear that there was some kind of correlation. The funny thing was, nobody could tell what could have caused the sudden vanishing of twelve ships so far.
They would just go through, report back fine for sometimes up to a day afterwards and then suddenly go dead silent and vanish.
“We’re one and a half clicks away.”, Alex reported back and felt the shift in gravity as the Roci made another minute adjustment in course to keep them pointed at the middle of the gate.
“Keep us on course, Alex.”, Holden piped up from the command chair. “Naomi, keep an eye on the sensors. Medina?”
“Yes, Captain?”, Fred Johnson’s gruff voice replied and the tension in it was clear.
“We’re going in, keep your eyes on us.”
“Will do. Good luck, Rocinante.”
It took eight hours and seventeen minutes for the crew of the Roci to find out what had killed all those ships.
And Alex sure as all get out was glad he was currently riding a warship.
“Buckle up, boys.”, he called over the coms before he pushed the Rocinante out of the way of an incoming projectile with a quick and violent manoeuvre. The entire hull was vibrating the the sharp rapport of the PDCs as the ship plucked even more pieces of potentially deadly metal out of the vacuum.
“We found aliens.”, Holden said, not for the first time, sounding stunned.
“Yes, and at least some of them are shooting at us.”, Naomi gave back deadpan and adjusted something on her console. Alex knew her long enough to know that the bite in her tone was stress. Her way of coping with a situation almost impossible to comprehend.
It said something about their relationship and situation that he recognised that particular tone as well as he did, he thought.
And then thought nothing for a while as he weaved the Rocinante between other ships, around the immense, triangular warship that seemed the source of the entire conflict and who had wasted no time shooting at the Roci the second she showed up on its radar.
“We still have no long range communication. Someone is blocking us, but … oh.”, Naomi reported. “Uh… we’re being hailed. I think.”