Location: F03 - Forring

Tags: Spaceship, Land Vehicle, Civil Building

Dramatis Personae:

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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. Commander of the O.C.S. Nut III.

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/Beautiful Man

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. Always caring for Eshey, he sacrificed himself to protect her from a hostile alien creature and was resurrected as Beautiful Man. Commander of the O.C.S. Head.

Ishmael Haverly

A former 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. As a Merchant Confederate pilot, she collaborated with Octan by submitting starfighter designs and test piloting the prototypes. She was hired by Pombe and is now an Octan employee and commander of the O.C.S. Nut I.

Bruce Vayne

A former 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. As a Merchant confederate pilot, he operated out of the Betsy May, a light carrier class capital ship. In one incident, he 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. Like Ishmael Haverly, he has collaborated with Octan by submitting starfighter designs and test piloting the prototypes. He is now an Octan employee and commander of the O.C.S. Sack. His alter-ego is Tabman, since he always buys the drinks.

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.

Balthazar von Habibi

Vice president of M.A.N.T.I.S. ultra-super-secret operations. He's in charge of running the secret M.A.N.T.I.S. drape factories.

Zoid Mafia

Joey Lucchese

Deceased. An enforcer for Don Maggiano who has a severe dislike for the Octan corporation due to Octan's aiding the Merchant Confederation, which the Zoid raided for slaves. Slain by Hombre on Forring during a battle at New Fredericksburg.

Mugsy

I'm Bugsy.

Bugsy

Um...I'm Mugsy.

Other

Normal Guy/Beautiful Man's Mother

Normal Guy/Beautiful Man's Father

Previously:

http://www.eurobrick...howtopic=121694

Currently, on Forring....

Sir, I just dropped off the last of the supplies we have to help the people of New Fredericksburg rebuild after the Zoid attack.

Note to judges: the ruined city is recycled and should not be judged.

How's the resupply going?

Eshey and I are on our way to a hardware supplier in New New York, the next Merchant Confederate settlement over. We should be able to purchase tools and building supplies from them to tie us over while we wait for the Octan resupply freighter.

Copy that, sir. I'll be heading back to the Shaft then.

How much further, sir?

It's just up ahead. There it is.

Alright, let's see what they've got.

Are you sure this is a hardware supplier?

Of course, I found them on the OcWeb. Besides, the sign says right there: "HARD WARES".

Stop wasting time, Eshey. Let's go.

Greetings, I'm Pombe and this is Eshey. We're looking to buy some supplies to help the people of New Fredericksburg rebuild.

Hi there! I'm Chastity. Welcome to my hard wares store. Terrible thing what happened to New Fredericksburg. By the way, I like the way you dress.

I like the way you dress, as well.

What exactly were you looking for?

Let me check my list here. Alright, first, I need to pick up some hose.

We have plenty of hose: in all shapes and sizes, in fact. Our hose are guaranteed to be the best you've ever had. If you aren't satisfied, we'll refund your money.

Excellent. We'll take all the hose you have. Next, I need some flexible tubes.

What length and stiffness did you have in mind?

They need to be very long and rigid. We'll be inserting them into some tight spaces.

Not a problem. We have several long and stiff tubes.

Let's see. I need bigger nuts. The nuts I have are too small.

Indeed, small nuts are a big problem, but no need to fear. We have nuts in all sizes. I'm sure you can find nuts large enough for your needs.

Great! I also need 350 lb screws with long shanks and socket heads.

Also not a problem. I can give you all the screws you want, however you want them.

Perfect. I also have a lot of cracks to fill with caulk, but my current caulk has dried up.

Yeah, I've had dried caulk before and it's not pretty. I can give you all the caulk you need. What else is on your list?

A really good stud finder.

Finding studs can be challenging, especially the ones that go deep. But I've got a few that will fit your needs.

And finally, I need a good stripper, preferably large jugs.

Sir! I think this conversation is inappropriate!

Eshey? What are you going on about?

Um...yeah...you can find the paint stripper on the top shelf of aisle 1.

Great. I think that covers it. Don't mind my colleague here. She's not very smart.

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Comments and criticisms are all welcome!

Note to judges: The above build is recycled and should not be judged.

Sir, there're too many buckets. They're overflowing.

If we got a big enough bucket to hold these buckets, would the chief accountant want my brother to kick that one, too?

That might be a wise thing to do, just to cover our bases.

Sometimes I get so enveloped in your stories I forget what an amazing builder you are!

Love the speeders but the trunk space seems minimal.

Great Hard Wares store, you have a well designed layout. Love the story as always! So many puns...

Great speeders!

I really love those speeders and the hardware store!! Your story is weird... as always!!

I can't believe you have time for all the great details within these builds. Great road, great speeders, great micro city, awesome hare wares store interior. I think we need to hire Chastity on as the Axle's Quartermaster and make Dr. Long go through him for any equipment needs.

Can't wait for Pombe to kick some buckets.

I've been lurking around your stories Pombe, but now I have to say it, that you are not just giving us top notch photographies of top notch builds, but your stories are hilarious. Keep up the great work!!!

The judges awarded you 5 points.