Hip hop bomber jacket

I’m just now getting into more psychedelic type music like tame impala or kid cudi a bit. Yachtys album (I personally liked it) kinda pushed me towards it even more. Who else should I be looking at? Or any song’s specifically?

Najia made a snap decision. She'd already been made by Mellerd, there was no need to pretend she was a low-key criminal looking for a little action.
She leaned forward, resting her hands on Kriss Mellerd's desk, meeting her gaze. "You know who I am. What I don't know, is who you know. I'm getting fucking stonewalled by Ministry-Company interplay," she said. "I can't develop real contacts. I can't develop real contracts. My ships are moving three quarters of the goods in Grand Exchange and half through Eighteen B. I'm tired of being treated like some random schmuck who just floated in with a Frog to haul credit-ante freight. You have connections. I want you to make those connections for me."
Kris sat back, blinking, then laughing, smirking at her. "You're looking for long-term income, mmmh, rather than a quick buck? Well, I'm not in a position to offer you any... Negotiated contracts myself, however, however... Let me talk to a... Third party who might be interested in you. I'll try to arrange something; but don't get your hopes up."
Najia would actually be in even more trouble if Kriss did arrange something, she knew, but she was putting Kriss on the spot. Mellerd stood up, and turned around, plucking a datapad from her pocket and holding it up to her ear. Perfectly, she was looking down and away, and Najia took one soft step to her side, plugging a tiny hack-box into the console at the side of the station manager's office.
"Yes, hi, I need to call in a favor," Kriss said, distractedly. I have a shady character with deep pockets and large resources looking for... You know, alternative contracts. Eager to get into the deep end of the pool, maybe, but not much of a profile yet. New money... Mmhmm, sure, I'll wait." Najia smirked, glad to see that Kriss was getting the runaround. The woman, despite being attractive and stylish and well-spoken, somehow annoyed her. She couldn't put her finger on why, exactly. Kriss' time on hold seemed to drag on, and Najia started to worry it might drag on too long. Then, she spoke up. "All done? Wonderful. Mmmhmm. I'll call you later about that other case." The station manager sat back down, turning around with the comm still to her ear. "Brilliant. Bye."
She put the comm down, but Najia saw the screen of it. It was on its basic lock screen, and Najia barely avoided baring her teeth; Mellerd had pretended to make a call. If the approach had been sincere, she'd have been furious, but even though this fit Najia's plans perfectly, it still pissed her off that Kriss had quite literally simply pretended to place a call rather than to just be straight and say she had nothing for her. "I'm sorry, there's no interest in the market," Mellerd told her, and Najia kept a straight face, as she continued, "the groups work on a trust basis, and prefer to work with people they have a history with, or select for themselves. The fact that you're actively looking to develop contacts raises some red flags. Let's get you a proper reward for a job well done, and have you on your way," she added, smiling sweetly. "I expect you'll find your way out."
Najia snorted, not having to hide the disgust in her expression. Uninterested in whatever petty payment Mellerd planned to remit for abducting her passenger, she turned on her heel and strode out, having no difficulty projecting the air of someone fuming. After all, she was fuming, just not for that reason. She strode quickly to the lift, taking it back to the landing pad, joining Marta and company, and looking around. There were supposed to be fireworks, weren't there? This was when the Arcadian Endeavour and Ace were supposed to show up and start raising a row so she could get into the hangar with the Raven, right?
Silence. A total lack of blaring alarms (which Marta's hacking would have accounted for), and a total lack of incoming weapons fire. Awkwardly, Najia hissed, shaking her head; she nodded to the ship, and the sextuple strode quickly into the loading bay, taking the lift up. Marta ran a scan for bugs as they did, and once inside the bridge, she laughed. "Man, their security was a fucking joke. But, uh... What's going on? Where's the pirates?" "I don't know." Najia strode rapidly to an aux console, and checked the 'Wildcard' incoming data. Then she swore. "Either I misunderstood the plan, Maestro poorly communicated the plan, or the plan has changed; either way, I'm wanted back on the Endeavour."
She looked to Marta, who looked at her, spooked. "Najia, I just hacked the shit out of this place. Right?" She looked to the woman on the gunnery console (who also had the sensors), who looked back to her, nodding. "I'm getting a zero read on their turrets," the weapons officer confirmed. "This place is vulnerable as it's ever gonna be." Najia let out a guttural growl. "We're humped. They're not gonna be vulnerable to a hack like this again. Get us the fuck out of here," she said to the pilot, adding "please and with all swiftness." "Yes ma'am," the pilot answered, lifting the ship.
Najia huffed, and slapped both of her hands over her face. "And it gets better. She fucking made me the moment I walked in." "Made you made you? As in, made you as an Empyrean Cur?" "No, she greeted me by name. I had to think real fast to come up with why Najia Takio was slumming it doing credit-ante abductions for her corrupt ass. I made it out that I wasn't satisfied just taking barrels of Teladi money and was looking to develop real contracts through her contacts. But it gets better still. She insinuated she still has ears in the pirate crew she used to fly with, which as we know is -" "The Empyrean Curs. Well, fuckadoodle-doo," Marta said. "What the hell are we gonna do?"
"I don't know," Najia said, huffing and sighing. The Falx groaned as the pilot adjusted the course, and blasted into Travel speed with almost no noticeable lag. "If the Maestro wasn't so fixated, wasn't so bull-headed about 'live free or die,' I'd just buy the whole fucking lot out and pay them to go very, very far away, and get the hell out of here."
Marta snorts. "Maybe you still can. I mean, what's he gonna do if you out yourself on his bridge?" "Take me hostage?" "That'll go over well with Ace," Marta said, sarcastically. "And then I'll be calling in a fleet to bracket his tiny little pissant scrap-Destroyer with enough firepower to vaporize it in one salvo. Explain to him that the only way the Curs leave alive is when you and Ace are standing safe and sound on my command deck."
Najia blinked, and snorted. "Me and Ace?" She smirked at Marta. "She's growing on you." "Maybe. Fungally. But you'd be despondent, too. So yeah. Hell, he wants a payday out of it, we can do that. But yeah, maybe you should just out yourself to him - the other side knows you now - and offer him a huge sack of cash to just get the hell out of Dodge."
The Paramerion was already sitting on the landing pad on the Arcadian Endeavour when she arrived. Najia was moments from teleporting to it as a convenient reciever and simply walking off, when she realized that that tidbit probably would be noticed, so she had it shuffle with the Shiv. She hustled to the command deck, where Maestro was pacing.
The Maestro looked at her, eagerly. "You finished flipping switch?" "Yes, that's done," Najia answered, sucking in a breath to start asking questions of her own, starting with where the hell were you? "Good job," Maestro preempted her. "What petty crime Mellerd make you do?"
Najia huffed, and sighed. "I wouldn't say an abduction is petty crime." "Who you abduct," Maestro asked, curiously. "Some poor Split fellow in Avarice," Najia said, racking her brain for his name. He had told her, once. "Lu... Lu t'Cca," she said, wincing; "though I have probably mangled that. She took in a breath to ask her own questions, but Maestro suddenly showed more emotion than she had ever seen from him before; fury.
"You handed over my brother?!" Najia's eyes went wide, she took a half step back. The weight of the machine pistol she was still wearing on her hip was suddenly very familiar to her, and she swallowed down the urge to go for it. "B-Brother?! That was your brother?" She gawped. "Mellerd has my brother?!" Maestro raged; behind him, Ace slipped into the bridge, apparently having decided to don trousers. Najia wondered why that was what she had noticed. Ace apparently heard the outburst, and looked to her, startled, pushing her goggles up, then slipping around the central pillar.
"Curs! Report," Maestro thundered, though thankfully he didn't seem about to attack her. Axiom popped up in hologram on the bridge. "What happened?" "Mellerd! Vile traitor!" Maestro answered him. "One casualty not enough! He was out of game! Off limits!"
Ace scratched at her cap-covered crest. "Lu t'Cca?" "Imprisoned," Maestro vehemently responded. "We engage! Attack station!"
"No, wait - wait!" Ace hissed, holding her hand up. "We have a plan to get in. We will get him out." "Yeah," Axiom said firmly, in holo. "We'll get him out." His hologram was running, presumably he was coming to the bridge himself. "Let us finish up preparations, before we engage," Ace said. "I've got a better combat ship," she said. "I'm working on an improvement to the hacking attack," Axiom said.
"We're fucked," Najia said, holding her hands up. Ace, Maestro, and - walking onto the bridge - Axiom - looked to her. "Either we misunderstood the plan, or the plan changed on us. We already hacked the station," she said. "I sent one of my crew in to fiddle with a security junction while I walked into Mellerd's office. I thought the Arcadian Endeavour was going to be hitting the place the moment I walked out of her office; that I'd take the lift straight to the security hangar and lift struts then."
Ace let out a hiss and face-palmed. Maestro gawked at her for a moment. "Split did not communicate plan clearly enough for Terran," he finally said, anxiously. "This puts quite the wrench in our plans," Axiom said. "Even if I can complete a hack to end all hacks, it would still need to be uploaded. They will definitely have physical security in all applicable upload points this time." "And they will undoubtedly call in additional craft, at least for the next few days," Ace said, hissing. "As nice as the fighter Wildcard gave me is, it is still only a fighter." She nervously hopped from foot to foot, tail lashing.
Maestro was silent for a moment, and Najia swallowed. This was something far worse than she had thought it was - and it had been bad enough previously - now there was blood involved. This couldn't be rectified with a payday, even if she outed herself. She could try to overtly buy Lu t'Cca back, but there was no guarantee that would even work; or that Kriss Mellerd could even be trusted. She was, after all, a duplicitous traitor. "Need bigger combat ship," Maestro concluded. "Starfighter insufficient. A 'Ministry' Minotaur has been harassing ships in Windfall. It belongs to the Scale Plate Pact." He pointed at Najia. "Wildcard, you will capture it for the Ace. Axiom, with me; planning to do. Ace let out a trill, her tail lashing. "Do not worry; we will get him out!"
"Yes, we shall. Wildcard! Get that ship for Ace." Maestro turned and strode from the bridge, with Axiom in tow. Najia let out a sigh, running her hands through her hair. "His fucking brother! I wish you'd been with me," she said, huffing, picking Ace up and squeezing her tightly. She didn't care who saw her, and apparently neither did Ace, as she wrapped her arms, legs, and tail around Najia.
"It would have been easy to prevent this mistake, yes," Ace admitted, nuzzling the side of her head. "On the plus side, Sensors and I proved to be a good team, and the Paramerion you provided is a very nice craft." "Sensors? Oh." Najia grinned, smiling weakly; Ace had given Namiko a nickname, presumably on the spot, to refer to her in pirate company. "That's good, at least, and... Yeah. This is a mess." She set Ace down, huffing and leaning back on the railing behind her. "Maestro's fucking brother? Fuck... What do you know about him?"
"Maestro's brother?" Ace shook her head, pushing her goggles up all the way and rubbing the back of her neck. "He was with the crew even before I joined. But... They had a falling-out, and he left to seek new opportunities." "A falling-out?" Najia tilted her head, curiously. "Yessss," Ace said, awkwardly, unable to contain the susurrus hiss that slipped into her voice. She didn't want to keep details - that might be relevant, even - from Najia, but it would get back to Maestro if she spoke of it. She awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck. "I... Would rather not discuss their private matters."
Najia blinked, and nodded. "Okay," she said. "Okay. Private affairs, got it - not our business." Ace nodded at her, as she continued, "So... Now what?" "Now, we're going to attack an M-class ship in order to steal it," Ace said, turning and walking brusquely for the lift; Najia turned and followed her, trusting immediately that Ace knew what she was about. "I know well that you have combat-worthy craft and are up to this task," Ace commented, as they headed for the Shiv on the landing pad. "Yeah, we're up for it," Najia said. Fatimah looked back at them, and lifted struts at a gesture from Ace; the door sealed up, and Najia said, "but I could just... You know, give you a Falx."
Ace trilled, but it had an awkwardly vibrating character to it; Najia took it for a nervous chuckle's equavilent. "I would prefer that, but Maestro has given us a specific target. I have never seen him quite this angry, not even when Mellerd... Parted ways with us. Best, I think, to follow through. And I do not imagine you have any qualms about attacking the Scale Plate Pact."
"That's for sure," Najia said, huffing and rubbing her face. Fatimah quickly had them on the landing pad of Jackdaw and she slipped out of the fighter, Ace following her. They bypassed the lift down from the pad and went straight in through the auxiliary airlock. "What a clusterfuck," she said. "Mmmmhmmm," Marta said. "I took a page out of Boso Ta's book and was listening in. We are in deep shit now, sister," she said, then she looked at Ace; walked over to her, and patted her shoulder, firmly. "Deep shit." "The excrement in which we find ourselves is substantially closer to my nose than yours," Ace said, with a slight trill. "I hate to even consider pointing it out lest the idea has not occured to you yet, but... You could extricate yourselves from this mess."
"Yeah, not a chance in hell we're doin' that, scale-sister," Marta responded, before Najia could do more than nod. "We got Maestro's brother into this mess, it ain't our style to leave him to swing like that. We're gonna have to get him out. Somehow." Najia grinned. "Somehow. The ace in our hole - pun intended - is that I did complete the hack in Mellerd's office, and I don't think she knows. She was too busy giving me a smug runaround. The grit in our gears is that we jumped the gun by hacking the station preemptively. What happened, anyway? Did I misunderstand the plan?" "I am not sure," Ace admitted. "Namiko and I were heading to rendezvous in Eighteen Billion when we got a recall order from the Arcadian Endeavour, but it was routine, rather than an emergency. I think we both misunderstood the plan."
A long few moments of silence passed between them in companionable discontent, and then Marta snorted. "Hey, Ace, I've been meaning to ask you. How'd you like that 'game' on Najia's datapad?" Ace blinked, and looked up at her. "Odd time to bring it up. It was creatively challenging, the actual puzzle was good, but the gamification seems to be entirely left out. Is it a beta?"
Najia facepalmed as Marta chuckled. "That wasn't a game at all. You ordered the construction of a monumental facillity in Gaian Prophecy," she said, laughing wryly. Between her split fingers, she peered out and watched with gratification as Ace rocked back, alarmed, and wrapping her tail tightly around herself. "I... Er..."
"Relax," Marta said. "It was her dumb fault for just giving you her unlocked datapad." "Yeah. Also, it's... Actually, you designed a beauty of a station," Najia added. "An absolute gorgeous industrial monstrosity with a fantastic towering habitation center on top." She straightened up, smiling; beaming at Ace, who seemed to recieve the smile gladly. "So," Najia said. "We have a ship to get you. We can totally just have the Eighteen B shipyard put together a Falx, or I could have one called up from reserves..." Ace shook her head. "Maestro will not be happy a direct command was disobeyed. He might be mollified by the ship produced being manifestly superior, but it would jog his attention. He'd start to ask why we disobeyed; where we got the Falx."
"I could just give you Jackdaw," Najia noted, and Ace trilled lightly. "I appreciate it, and that might work, but he's probably going to want you in Jackdaw. We'll have to take the Minotaur."
"Right," Najia said, cracking her knuckles. "No offense, skipper, but I think we'll take the flight deck for this one." The woman with the piratical haircut and the severely 'business' outfit looked back, grinning at her. "Hell, it's about time for me to go off shift anyway."
"I should probably say something cautionary about how big this vessel is, but we are comparable in size and mass. I should warn you about how dangerous its guns are, but we are better-armed, and likely both better-shielded and more maneuverable," Ace noted from the gunnery console. "Yep. He's a big bad boy, or so he thinks," Marta noted, as Najia piloted Jackdaw towards the Minotaur up ahead. "But he's a lot bigger than the Raker Manticore he's heading for with what looks like unpleasant intentions." "Also, you brought friends," Namiko said from the cockpit of the Parmerion that Najia had given to Ace. "Damn right they did," Fatimah called from the cockpit of the Kallis-class starfighter named Shiv. "When the going gets tough, the tough call for close air support," chimed in Raeleen Baner, following Jackdaw from the flight deck of Snapping Tortoise.
"And we'll just, uh, stand by to pick up pods in case this goes completely to shit," added the pilot of the Ninja Taco, Katlin Noore. "I mean, we could make an attack run, but it seems pretty redundant at this point."
A chorus of chuckles from within and without the cockpit surrounded Najia, and she smirked, as she brought the nose of Jackdaw toward the offending disguised Scale Plate Minotaur, who was already firing upon the Raker; who was calling for help. "Break and run," she called to the Riptide scavenger. "We've got this hump."
"Mind your own ledgers," the Scale Plate pirate called back, then she heard a hiss of alarm as the pirate must have seen just how many ships were painting her with targeting sensors. Presumably in a burst of wisdom, she turned to run, but it was far too late. "Bail out or die," Najia ordered the pirate as Fatimah and Namiko roared past the Jackdaw wing by wing, rolling in and unloading with their near-identical starfighters' cannons, letting off a burst to stall the pirate from escaping into Travel Drive. A moment later, she triggered Jackdaw's mammoth rotary cannons, while the single-barreled accelerators that were Snapping Tortoise's forward armament put in their own word.
"Show me your nose and I chew it off," Najia snarled as the Minotaur raider, evidently realizing that escape was not in the cards, turned and tried to close. "She's got Shard cannons," Ace alerted. "Dangerous at close range, but not dangerous enough!"
Najia was more than willing to joust with the oncoming pirate; she had twice the weight of forward cannons, her side cannons and those of Snapping Tortoise kept up the fire as they spiraled towards one another. The Minotaur's shields collapsed totally and she took several salvoes of body blows; the two starfighters executed a wing-over roll and each strafed the Minotaur again as she tried to soar past Najia. Ace was quietly giving the gunners orders to cease fire-with-intent and only give the Minotaur an occasional bite to remind them the clock was ticking, as Najia hit the comms again. "Surrender the fucking ship or die for it. Your call." Her aft turret gave the Minotaur's aft a stitching of pulse fire, then her turrets started firing - intentionally widely, but they were making one hell of a light show.
"Fine, fine," the Scale Plate pirate called, as she saw escape pods appearing on her tactical screen. "You win, Cur! Take it and leave us in peace." Ace huffed at that. Marta chuckled. "Should we pop them sumbitches? Take 'em prisoner at least?" "Let 'em go," Najia said. "Maybe they'll turn over a new leaf, but we got what we came for." She thumbed the comms. "Everyone form up, let's inspect Ace's new prize... Woah!"
An explosion issued from the stricken ship; the starfighters peeled off get clear, just in case, and Najia and Snapping Tortoise backed off to give it room. "The fuck," Marta asked. "They may have sabotaged the ship on the way out," Ace said. "Let us wait, they may have successfully rigged it to blow entirely..."
They stood off and waited. Two more large detonations on the ship occured, but nothing further happened. After awhile, Ace and Najia suited up, approached the ship over the strenuous objections of Marta and the other captains - Najia and Ace were the only ones with real EV repair training. Carefully they checked the ship for outward signs of further destruction, and, with nothing found, proceeded in. The bailing pirate crew had sabotaged the weapons, and tried to sabotage everything, but, ironically, the damage that they had done had prevented the pirates from successfully rigging the whole ship to blow.
"This thing is a wreck. She can move... Barely," Ace noted. "But I don't much like it." "No problem," Najia said, grinning. "I have a plan," she said; they had reached the M-raider's flight deck, a narrow cockpit with no secondary seats, and were examining things. Engineers from both Jackdaw and Snapping Tortoise had teleported over to restore main power and were working on structural integrity, and Namiko had swapped with another pilot from the Tortoise, joining them on the pirate ship. "And what is that," Ace asked as Najia sat in the pilot's seat.
Najia found the Riptide Raker nearby; they had taken damage and were now restoring their own power. "Raker salvage ship, Raker salvage vessel, how are you? We have taken possession of the ship that attacked you, over." "This is the salvage tug Breem. We've had better days, but no permanent damage. You should have blown those pirates to the Tide though," the salvage tug pilot complained. "Yeah, well, they bailed out, so I wasn't gonna renege on my word. How would you like to get repairs and upgrades to your ship on my credit?"
"... I'm listening," the salvager answered. "What do I owe you for it?" "Take this vessel under tow and get us to the Takio Enterprises shipyard in Eighteen Billion. For my own reasons, I need this thing intact. Do that, and you get the works; Terran Mark Three engines and shields, top-of-the-line thrusters of your choice if you don't already have them, full hold of laser towers and countermeasures, and top-of-the-line software if needed. And of course, any hull repair. Just no questions."
After a long, tense moment, the Raker pilot commed them back. "Done deal." Najia smirked, looking back at Ace, who trilled at her.
"There we go," Najia said. She and Ace were standing under the prow of the repaired Minotaur, which Najia had caused to be painted in a shinny green-scale-and-brass scheme, and named La Tora. The vessel was now sporting a single forward pulse cannon, a launcher, and its turrets were bolts. The original thrusters had, surprisingly, been both Mark 3 Combats already, and were wholly intact, while the totally-shot crap engines had been replaced, as had the shields. "Think that will do?"
Ace trilled at her. "This is such a vessel," she said. "A jolly pirate indeed would captain this vessel." "Yeah, well... If you say so. I'm still worried it's a little... Undergunned... Undershielded... Flimsy. I'd rather put you in one of my Falx frigates, but, this will hopefully do." She huffed, and hugged Ace again. "You ready?"
"As likely I will be. Namiko is waiting for me in La Tora's bridge. I already told Maestro that the ship was badly damaged and you were paying for repair and retrofit, and had already bargained for it before I could ask the Curs for assistance. He accepted that," Ace said, pressing her head into Najia's chest. "Thank you. For not abandoning us." Najia grinned, and simply kissed the top of Ace's crest. She then let go, patting Ace's bicep. "Let's get to our ships and see what Maestro wants." She gestured to the Jackdaw; it, and all of 'Wildcard's' ships, had been repainted in a beautiful, eye-searing neon-yellow-and-stark-white set of colors, and had been given nondescript generic transponders. That would likely not fool anyone who was looking too closely, but... "Indeed. I may have to rename the ship, though... 'La Tora' means something very rude in Teladi." She trilled. "Let us be off," Ace said. She pulled out her datapad, and Najia stepped back as Ace activated the 'teleport-me-aboard' function. Moments later, Ace became visible in the high flight-deck window, leaning over Namiko and waving at her. Najia waved, and recalled herself to the Shiv.
Najia stopped by the bridge of the Arcadian Endeavour when first she landed, but though it was fully-staffed, Maestro wasn't there. One of the crewwomen informed her that the senior planners were meeting in the crew quarters. She headed for the lift; Marta had come along, wearing her 'piratical' outfit and projecting an aura of 'this woman is my sister, mess with her and you mess with me'.
They found the core members of the Empryean Curs in a lounge aboard the Arcadian Endeavour. Najia noted, with a slight twist of the lips, that it looked as if the room had undergone a recent makeover - with fixtures and sundries procured at her stations. She wondered if that was a subtle message.
The lights were low, and for a moment Najia was worried it might be an ambush. Clearly the same idea occurred to Marta, but Ace was relaxed, at ease, so Najia patted Marta's hand as they entered the room. There was no ambush. "Everyone attending now," Maestro declared. "Good. Split allowed all time Split could spare for Wildcard to prep." Ace let out a soft trill, looking over at Najia. "Yes, and my shiny new combat ship could come in very handy, once it is time to disengage!"
Najia grinned at Ace, nodding. She sucked in a breath to ask a question, but Maestro beat her to the punch. "Now, time for decisive action! No longer just plan of petty revenge, or even business! Mellerd looking to strike low blow, involving someone who no longer in game!" He huffed. "Curs can play game too, but better! Breaking out Split's brother now priority."
Najia nodded, and cracked her knuckles. "Got it. After all, we got him into this mess." Ace nodded, and looked from her to Maestro. "Are we still going after the Science Division prototype?" "Yes!" Maestro responded. "After prison break-out, Wildcard make way through internal ducts, connected to hangar. Then, proceed to make escape in prototype ship."
Axiom made a satisfied-sounding rumbling. "It's a sound plan. They'll not expect you to use their precious ship for the getaway." "Right. Because you'd expect a prison break to have an exit strategy arranged outside, so they'll probably pull security from the hangar to respond to the cells."
Maestro nodded. "As to how you gain access to station in first place, Axiom will tag along. Hack into their system. Serve as on-ground supervisor. No time to waste. Get to it!" He gestured to the door, vehemently, clearly unwilling to brook dissent or entertain questions. Najia started at that. "But..."
Ace grasped her hand. "We've got this. Trust Axiom to hold up his end of the plan," she said, preempting Najia's objection, as Maestro strode out. Najia sighed, huffed, and nodded. "Alright! So, back to the Shiv?" "No; we procured one of the Ministry's petty patrol vessels just for transport. Less recognizable vessels involved, the better. Besides, the ship that lands is probably not leaving again. Best it be one of theirs."
Najia let out a sigh. The plan sounded slapdash at best, but she nodded. "Right."
"The ground infiltration is not a three person task," Ace said, as she, Najia, Axiom and Marta arrived on the pad. "Wildcard, you will have to go alone with Axiom." Marta snorted, and sighed. "I don't like it. Be safe, sister," she said, punching Najia's bicep, enough to ache slightly. Najia smirked back at her, as Axiom hurried to climb into the Callisto procured for the infiltration. "Don't worry, I'll keep Axiom safe," Najia said, smirking back at Marta. "Ace, keep her safe." "I'll deliver her to Jackdaw once we've transferred to Carefree Whirlwind."
Najia grinned, and hastened to climb aboard the Callisto after Axiom. She looked around the cockpit of the small craft, and winced; it was small indeed. "Buckle up, Wildcard," Axiom said from the pilot's seat. Najia laughed incredulously. "Where," she demanded, and got a hearty, deep laugh for her troubles, as Axiom piloted the craft up and off the landing pad. Moments later, they were zooming ahead from where the Arcadian Endeavour was lurking, outside of Wormwood Scrubs' customary sensor perimeter.
"I have to admit, I am nervous!" Axiom declared. Najia stood behind him, clutching an upright chicken-stick and peering around his side. She winced at his declaration, as he continued, "Sure, I have been involved in large-scale operations before, but never quite like this." Wormwood Scrubs loomed in the distance, and Najia wondered why what was ostensibly a prison complex had large fabrications facillities built in. She didn't imagine it was ever a good idea to put prisoners to work building things they could sabotage that would be vital. "I just hope the Maestro can keep his cool throughout it all," Axiom added.
"Mmmhmm," Najia agreed nonverbally. "The fact that his brother is now involved is weighing heavily on him. Mellerd sure knew how to provoke a reaction!" Najia snorted. "Yeah, well... The smug bitch is gonna regret that, that's for damn sure. How much her ability to make us regret making her regret this day, well, that's an open question. There'll be recriminations to go around one way or another, I think."
Axiom made his own nonverbal sound of agreement, as he swept the ship in to a landing, over what looked like the prison module, and landing at the conventional small craft dock. "Okay, this is it. Initiating docking," he said, pointlessly, Najia thought. "You know what to do, right," Axiom asked, as he turned his chair aruond. Najia noted that the incredibly-tall Paranid piloted whilst standing; the standard-issue pilot's chair had actually extended into something like an amusement-park-ride standing back-rest for him. "I will spoof your credentials, so that you can gain entry into the prison complex again. Then locate Lucca. I'll talk you through the rest." As he said that, he departed, and Najia pressed into the tiny airlock to let him pass, then followed him down and out the aft ladder. "Good luck," Axiom said, as he headed for his left. Najia pulled the pistol from her hip, checked its magazine, chambered a round, and returned it to its holster.
"Hope I don't need this," she muttered to herself, heading for another lift. She slipped in, and pulled the bug-checker app that Marta had loaded onto her commlink up, checking it with her free hand. Unless the Ministry had access to way better spy gear than she did - and knowing what penny-pinchers they were, and Boso Ta's opinion of their cleverness, she doubted that very much - she was in the clear. She had a comms tap to the Curs - and her own crew - and it was unobstructed, unobserved. Neither were any security devices capturing her images; either Marta's previous hack was still in effect, Axiom's work was being done, or both.
Najia's heart raced as she exited the lift into the first level of the prison complex. This was, she thought, insanity; she wasn't a covert operative. Her martial arts skill was amatuer at best. If she ran into any prison guards, her only hope would be to shoot them. She had confidence that her Predator pistol's armor-penetrating, 10mm magnum rounds would do the job; but she'd never shot in anger at anyone else face-to-face before, and she really didn't want to start doing so on a Ministry prison station where her real identity was known. And she was going into a prison. If she could think of any one place where the Teladi would not pinch pennies on personnel, it would be a prison. Yet, instead of finding a security checkpoint outside the lift, she walked into an empty corridor.
Najia blinked, as Axiom placed a call to her. "According to our intel, Lucca should be somewhere on this floor." Najia huffed, and followed the line projected in her HUD. Every step down the corridor seemed to Najia as if it echoed like a cannon discharge, and she nervously checked each way at every intersection, pistol in her hands, selector switch set to two-round burst. Every heartbeat felt like an eternity, at every corner she expected to be jumped by a guard, yelled at, or simply shot. She made it to a cell block - three rooms off a guard room with a desk, seperated from the main room by bars. She swept side to side, thinking surely there must be a guard actually watching prisoners but after an anticlimactic moment, realized there was not. She was alone, save for that one cell was occupied, by Lu t'Cca - or Lucca? She was fuzzy on that.
"Hmm," Axiom's voice came over her earpiece. "That console's connection to the cell doors has been severed. Standard procedure." Najia wondered how in the hell that made sense - but then, the consoles were actually within arm's reach of a prisoner inside the cells. And if the cell blocks were going to go unsupervised...
The phrase 'criminally negligent' crossed Najia's mind, as Axiom continued, "This will slightly raise our profile, but I should be able to... Adjust it remotely." Najia nodded, took a deep breath, walking to the darkened cell door. Lu t'Cca was within. He did not look pleased to see her, as he pushed himself up from the too-narrow, Teladi-sized cot. "You! Creature! Worst taxi driver Split ever met! Creature blind or just stupid?!" His vehemence was understandable, and it still made Najia step back on her heel, as he thundered at her, rising to his feet, "Split kill you after escape! Beat first, then kill! Or pretend Split is Taxi driver, deliver creature to blood-traitor, then beat, then kill!"
Najia felt a tremble run down her back, stiffening her shoulders. She was mightily tired of being disrespected, belittled, or downplayed; by, it seemed, just about everyone in the sector, from Boso Ta calling her 'Assistant' to Maestro giving her names on a whim to Brantlee Northriver's dismissive and smug attitude as if he was the biggest big-shot humanity had ever produced to Kriss Mellerd's faking a call as if she were taking her seriously to, well, Lucca (a) calling her a taxi-driver and (b) threatening her a violent and graphic death. The urge to bellow 'shut up' and hold him at gunpoint welled up deeply inside her. Her hand twitched with her firearm in it... Then she huffed, and with a decisive motion, holstered it. "Calm the fuck down," she snapped at him. Not very diplomatic, but considering that her first notion had been to literally hold him at gunpoint, it was fairly moderate.
"Split not calm down!" he retorted, seething - though his eyes were drawn by the motion of her holstering her weapon. "Creature calm down first, or... Or...!" He inarticulated a sound of exasperation. "Split realize creature still here. Why come? What else creature want but gloat?" He did, in fact, sound calmer now; perhaps the fact that she could have shot him, or threatened to do so, and that many of his past life's associates would have done just that after the violent death he had promised them, and yet she had not, got through to him. Or perhaps he simply mastered his temper because she was armed.
"Look, The Curs -" "Split want nothing to do with filthy, dishonorable Curs!" Lu t'Cca ranted. "Except if making amends," he added, almost parenthetically, seemingly swinging wildly between reconciliatory and fury. "Split tried to make peace, leave past behind. Brothers, sisters, friend-foes, conflict, tangle, chaos! No honor! Only choice, was no choice!" He ranted, on a roll, and Najia decided to let him wind himself down. "Enough talk! Creature take responsibility, now! Help Split escape, then Split not kill. Maybe!"
Najia rolled her eyes; she wanted to point out that she could still just shoot him. Instead, she said, "Let's get the hell out of here." "What creature waiting for," Lucca thundered at her. "Open cell, or eat fist!" Najia restrained her ire to a low growl in the back of her throat. She was really tired of receiving physical threats from an imprisoned man, even if he had every reason to be pissed at her. She was about to point out again that she armed, when Axiom thankfully interrupted. "If the Triangularity wills it... There we go! The door controls should be enabled now. Try them."
Najia stepped over to the console next to the prison door, and started to look it up and down. Numbers scrolled on the screen rapidly, she flicked through menues, but though she started to search more and more frantically, it was just a bio of the prisoner with everything redacted, and a log of routine entries - prison mealtimes and stuff. She started to hiss, low in her throat, as she frantically flipped back to the root menu, but there was nothing useful there. Paranoidally, she glanced over her shoulder, but there was noone at the door. She took her hand off the hilt of her pistol, scrambling to the desk. There was no active console on it, but one beside it, on the wall; she hurried to it, but it was simply mirrors of the console on the wall, reflecting all three cells. Frantically, she dropped to a squat, looking under the desk, above it, feeling under it, but she couldn't find any hidden consoles.
Near to panic, she looked up, and saw there was a tiny, easily-overlooked button next to the cell door, trivially within reach of the prisoner. No, she thought. That couldn't possibly be it. It was too exposed. Any careless slip in forgetting to disconnect it, and a prisoner could be out anytime.
The words criminally negligent ran through her head as she reached out and tapped the button. Of course it opened.

Hi,
If anyone is interested I have set up a page for the sub genre of Industrial Hip Hop.
https://www.reddit.com/Industrial_HipHop/

Hi! I’m looking for a pair of headsets to use with PC gaming (and maybe PS5 in the future), I have been looking at the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro X Wireless for a while but realized like many of you that maybe a "real" headset is preferable and worth the money, so sacrificing wireless for good sound/value. I have searched in this reddit and elsewhere on reviews and thoughts but with every opinion is of course based on a price/value and in my case it differs to most other I have seen.
So I looking at:
HD 599 for $86 (900 Swedish kronor)
HD 560S for $128 (1327 SEK)
SHP9600 for $66 (686 SEK)
All are from Amazon btw,
I play a variate of different genres but mostly FPS probably, I also plan to listen to music with them but it’s not the priority(music genres differ a lot but focus with these would be EDM, Hip hop, Lo-Fi, classical, folk) I would also appreciate any tips on DAC/AMP if needed and any mic setups. Today I have a pair of Sennheiser PC 363D.
Thank you!

Hello everyone I’m about month in to producing mostly hip hop beats on Ableton. I’ve mostly just been learning the software and playing with some ideas I’ve come up with. I was wondering if any of you have any useful books on producing that you would recommend. Can be anything from theory to mixing/mastering. Any advice is greatly appreciated thank you!

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First come, first served! All titles are $5 cheaper than the lowest listed price on Discogs. Message me with any inquiries or leave a comment. Willing to hear offers. Shipping included to CONUS. PayPal G&S. Thanks for looking & happy collecting!

The best playlist to boost your upcoming summer ☀️☀️☀️