NationStates Jolt Archive

13:00 GTT (General Torontonian Time), Nubia Station

How much would you like to withdraw today? [For only 30I a month, you can upgrade to plantium credit!]

1000I

Denied. Insufficient Funds. How much would you like to withdraw today [Ask our representative about how you can get a job paying as much as 10,000I a day!]

500I

Denied. Insufficient Funds. [Would you like one of our High-Interest, High-Payment Loans?]

Request: Account Balances

Account Totals: Personal: 1.24I, Business: 0I, Stock: 0I, Net Personal Value [Excluding Assets]: 110.5302I [The Bank of Torontonias is now exercising its rights to close all accounts under name: Brent Causby. Reason: Insufficient Personal Value]

[I]Logging out of Brent Causby [See a BoT Representative for advice for Extremely Low Income situations]

“What the!” Brent Exclaimed, in the middle of the plaza “For all the time for the bank to forclose! And on everything for that matter!” Attempting to log back into his file (After collecting the small amount that had been ejected from the Machine) he was met with the standard BoT Holo-Avatar, looking slightly like the Monopoly Man, he was dressed in a sharp suit with combed back hair as well as a monocle.

“Hello, Is there a personal issue that needs to be addressed?” Stated the Bank Machine

“Yes, You just closed all my Damn accounts, I need them to do business!” Declared Brent

“I’m sorry, but our records indicate that you cannot hold on to a sum of more than 1000I at one time without spending in on impulse items or accommodations, we only provide services for more Affluent members of society” Replied the Monotone Voice of the Avatar

“Affluent! I’ve banked with you for over five years, doesn’t that mean anything? I’m having a tough stretch right now, does that mean you’re going to bail on me?” Shouted Brent, drawing the attention of the passerby’s

“I’m sorry Client #1092193782302-AIFN2, but without a minimum standard balance of 10,000I, we cannot maintain your account, that is why is was closed. Perhaps I can direct you to the nearest Torontonian Credit Union?” Replied the Avatar

“Credit Union!?! Is that what I’m reduced to now, the safety net bank, well I’ll tell you, I’m not going to crawl into their clutches to never escape, we both now that organization was set up to force out all in independent loan sharks or small-time money lenders by the Government. Now are you going to reinstate me or what?” Yelled Brent, his face turning red with anger

“I’m sorry, we do not have the time to deal with your ilk, please leave this machine and open a vacancy for the next client” Dryly stated the Avatar

“I’ll show you what this “Ilk” can do” Brent Muttered, withdrawing his pistol and levelling it at the machine”

“What are you doing? You are aware that personal firearms are strictly prohibited on Nubia Station, or any Torontonian Regulated Territory” Waivered the Avatar

“Never stopped me any” Brent Stated, pulling the trigger.

A loud squeal issued from the pistol as a column of compressed sound escaped the barrel and smashed into the machine, punching through the plastic exterior and laying waste to the internal circuitry, he issued two more bursts into the machine, sending into tiny fragments of plastic and material, as the Avatar quickly sputtered and died out, and near by spectators ran for cover.

Brent quickly felt the embrace of a Stun Baton, one he had felt many times before, one across the ribs and two more from the back, at full charge. His vision became spotty but before he blacked out he managed to utter “Fucking TPC”

The Next Cycle

After spending the night in a holding cell, and having a long chat with the Administrator about the virtue of the Small Arms Acts of 2150 and 2210, Brent was released on bail of 1000I, out of the pocket of his newest crewmen John Marstein. He had taken quite a shine to the young mechanic, having only signed on with him a few months ago, he had already shown his capacity as a repair man, often making something out of nothing. However, he also had a fiery temper and a flair for the explosive

“So you had to go blow up the bank machine didn’t you?” John Exclaimed as they left the detention centre

“Yeah, well, you don’t know what it was like.” Replied Brent bluntly

“What happened? It refuse to give you more money?” John Sarcastically remarked
“It closed all my accounts. Citing “Lack of Funds” as a reason”

The two argued as they got into the Station Transport, and felt the shuttle lurch into motion as it ferried them to the docking section.

“Well, you did have the freighter refit, which it desperately needed if I might add. But you probably could have saved on the extra reactor and third engine to get that boost of speed, as well as the 100,000I you blew on personal travel and living expenses recently” John critically jabbed

“I like living richly, if your not going to live in excess, don’t do it at all” Brent Stated Defensively “Besides, you don’t know what its like Bigfoot, you grew up in the Binary system, where its all Patriotism and Consumerism. Me? I grew up in the Wild Earth Sector, where there was a conflict a minute and government decisions were lightyears away. The Corporations have less hold there, there is more freedom to do with as you please”

“Wait, wouldn’t that mean you would spend your money more responsibly and not blow it on everything the Corporations tell you to?” John inquired

“Well, I can’t say I kept those values after I left home” Brent chuckled “Besides, they want my money, I want to spend it, its win-win. Its not like we’re going to be broke for long, I got us a new contract the other day, from the TSDC of all people, its paying so much, I could afford to hire some new crewman. They should be arriving at the ship any hour now.”

“The TSDC? I thought you hated those guys for flunking you? Besides, what could they get you to do that they wouldn’t do, they’re the friggin’ military!” John Said cautiously

“Well, you know that ship that came back from the Dead Zone?” Brent Said “And how the Captain kept talking about how he found the point of interference?”

“Yeah, but ships that go into the Dead Zone don’t come back, that’s what gives it its name, things die in there.” John returned

“Well, that’s where we’re going, they’re paying quite handsomely for it and we could use the money” Brent Grinned

The Shuttle came to a stop and a voice informed them about their arrival and the 8.20I it was going to cost them, after depositing the money, Brent and John left the shuttle and made their way through the rows of common and exotic ships alike

“You always were the one to take on the crazy missions, C’mon, lets get back to the ship before you keep the new recruits waiting and they decide to change their minds when they see the rust bucket.” John Jabbed

“Hey… That’s My ship remember, I care more about it that life itself. If anything were to happen to the Savage Avenger I don’t know what I’d do.” Brent said.

John Chuckled “I still can’t believe you called a freighter the Savage Avenger, the Newbies are going to think they’re on some sort of adventuring craft.”

“Yeah, well. It beats placing an ad saying “Join up for some Mundane Transporting Action, sure the pay sucks and the accommodations aren’t great, but it beats trying to make something of yourself!” Brent shot back

“Remind me never to let you do any PR work for yourself, you’d shoot yourself in the foot.” John said, noticing Brents face darken as he watched a TSDC Captain walk by all decked out in full dress, a woman on both arms. “Face it Brent, you’ll never get into the Commission, you’ve failed the entrance exam six times! They’ll never let you through”

“Yeah, well. If I was in the TSDC, I’d be Admiral by now, and I’d have a lot more respect that I do running the Earth-Prime route. Even after surviving the Sskissian shipping raids I’m nothing more than a lowly freighter-jockey, those TSDC types look down on me in scorn.”

They arrived at the Freighter entrance, though the clear station windows they could see the Avenger docked to the station by its umbilical cord, he watched as freight and equipment was being boarded into the ship, in preparations for his next mission. Beside the freighter sat a Centurion Heavy Destroyer, which dwarfed the Freighter by several factors, bristling with weaponry, it was an intimidating site to any civilian. Only serving to anger Brent further, he glanced at the crudely written sign he had erected outside his terminal entrance stating “TTC Savage Avenger Entrance here, all those who applied may enter” and sauntered into his home territory, his love and joy. His Ship.

OOC: Alright, all those who have already signed up may post their characters making an entrance, for all those who are interested, TG me or go to the OOC Thread in the Nationstates Forum. For Rping information, the Nubia Station is a crowded, state-of-the-art trading station, although a military presence is around at all times. There are hundreds of shopping “Plaza’s” as well as many opportunities for shady operations on the darker side of the station.

The Savage Avenger is a second hand freighter, dating back to the days before the government standardized trading vessel designs. Showing signs of scorching and wear on the outer hull, the interior is characterized by its mismatched components as well as interior decorating. (Crewmates can put whatever they want in the ship, but it rarely leaves when they do).

The station was crowded, bright, and full of humans... The scent filled his nostrils, familiar to him and yet alien at the same time. With his higher-than-usual height, navigation was pretty simple. His helmet was tucked firmly under his left arm, under the large projectile weapon bearing the letters 'AWAS' on the right side, ten inches from the muzzle. The weapon attatched to a hardpoint on his shoulder, situated for ease of carrying and quick access if need be. Of course, an anti-armor weapon on a space-station was more of a hazard, but he'd had the weight on his shoulder for so long he felt naked without it.

His clothing, or battlearmor, as it seemed, was black with white armor plating at vital areas on the body. A rifle of some sort was slung over his right shoulder, with a sidearm situated on his right thigh in a holster mounted on the thigh plate, and a pair of magazines clung to the outside of the rig. Four magazines for the rifle sat on his belt, two on each side. The final weapon he carried was an Argonian standard-issue knife. The blade was around six inches in length, with a drop-point and a serrated back edge. Affixed to his armor on the left shoulder upside down, it was accessible whenever he might need it.

Every facet of Avis Terrik radiated soldier, but that was obvious from the amount of firepower he was carrying. That, or he was a criminal. Terrik's armor bore his last name across the right side of his chest plate, with a trio of chevrons and a single rocker on the shoulder. The letters 'ARC' were painted above it...

"Savage Avenger... who the hell names their ship that? Apparently my new captain..."

He blinked his slit-pupiled eyes, looking for some sort of directing sign or another variety of handy navigational tool. The fin ears arching across the back of his head gave him an aquatic look, the smooth scales that covered his powerful frame enhanced that assumption. The rucksack grasped in his armored right fist was growing heavy. Unlike most armors of the day, Argonian ARC suits didn't provide any sort of strength augmentation...

"Hangars, hangars, hangars... Hangars! Hell yes. Now I can finally sit the fuck down..."

The massive black-scaled Argonian resumed his movement towards the hangar bays, where he might find a directory to the ship he'd signed on with...

The Skandi closed his dataplate and leaned back in his chair, fatigues gently changing colour to fit his surroundings. He placed the plasteel item down on the table and picked up knife and fork, watching the meal before him carefully.

What some people choose to serve as specials....thank the Casket I'm not the kind of person who regularly eats this sort of thing.

He had decided that he might as well have a luxurious meal prior to setting off, and was now beginning to regret attending a restaurant as upper class as this one. For a start, the richly dressed patrons kept giving the soldier strange looks, in his colourshifting fatigues, with his sky-blue hair and the Star-and-Beam tattoo on each hand. Their eyes also lingered on the barcode tattoo that all Ventuusi wore under Senate Order 1022-p. Admittedly, it was not in the most discreet of places - over the left eyebrow - but the Senate was not the only governing body to require such things.

He stabbed one of the things on his plate with the fork, examining it closely before carefully placing it in his mouth. He was certainly not squeamish, but he had always thought that the upper echelons of society ate things less resembling claw-worms.

Actually, it was rather good. He took a bit more time with the next few.

Very good indeed...

He finished the course and moved on to dessert, carefully ensuring that he did not spill anything or act in any particularly oafish way. The Skandi were a fastidious people, always carefully confident that they were clean and polite among others, although amonst themselves they could duel at the drop of a button.

Eventually, after taking more time than necessary over the meal - all the Senate's soldiers quickly learned to appreciate high-class food, and with their pay they could certainly afford it when on leave - he finished and left an impressive tip in the mint-notes issued by a currency exchange more than happy to trade the local money for crisp, military-issue Venan Disk. The currency of soldiers, the Disk was accepted anywhere in the star-cluster named Ventuus and, generally, warmly received by other nations.

Scout-Sergeant rho-Massai checked his wrist-chrono.

Plenty of time.

The sergeant stopped at one point to light a tox-stick (QS-A), one of several in a packet that he had managed to obtain from the marble TS corporate headquarters emporium in Ventuus. The QS-A sticks were one of the highest quality available - a luxury that, amongst the Legions, few could afford. The Skyhounds got extra pay - both as dedicated Drop-Troops and as one of the Five Servants of the Casket. As a Scout, and as a Sergeant, rho'Massai got even more. As far as the Legions were concerned, for a field operative he was rich. In all fairness, most Legionaires were wealthy by the common standard, being in the field often for years at a time their accumulated pay was often impressive.

He breathed deep, letting the QS drug run into his system, waking him up with a delicious feeling of contentment. The Skandi took a moment to re-orientate himself, forming a mental buffer against the QuickSpark that was often found in Legio-issue tox-sticks, but normally of a far lower quality that those he smoked. He had a pack of those in his fatigues, as well as the box of the proper stuff.

He browsed the station a bit more, buying a few bits and pieces - a flashy pair of shades, a couple of trinkets for memory, a pack of the local booze. Nothing significant. He also bought a few pieces of music, which he could jack onto his micro-bead. Most Legionaries worked out how to jack a personal music player into the vox units for the Astral Paths in a matter of days after signing up.

A little while later the sergeant had headed over to the ship bays, took one look at the "Savage Avenger" and, after a moment to concentrate and prevent laughing out loud, headed over to chat to a couple of the military personell from the Centurion-class destroyer to have a quick chat about previous missions, military life and the pleasures of authorised freelance missions.

As he headed over, he gave a nod to the two waiting by the Savage Avenger, mouthed "two minutes", and indicated that his little dropship was being moved into the area.

“Angie, why won’t you come and work with me at the university” pleaded the man on the other end of the Vid screen

Angie Greyson moved quickly about the room, quickly gathering her things. “Professor, you asked me to help with your research at least hundred time now” She closed up the current beg that she was working on, and moved to filling another “What makes you think that this time will be any different?”

“You were my best student Angie” quickly answered the professor “You should be working with me on the top research projects, not running around the galaxy taking odd jobs here and there on this prospecting crews.”

“Maybe I like this line of work.” Shot Angie as she turned her attention to the Vid display for the first time in the entire conversation. For a moment there was a awkward silence between the two “Besides you know as well as I do, that I have no place in lab.”

The Professor demeanour changed “It wasn’t your fault, you had no way of knowing” he let out a brief a sigh “I can see that there is no changing our mind, but please contact me when you get back.”

“Sure” answered Angie impatiently. With that she cut the connection.

Packing the last of her things she hurried of the ship, she hoped that she wasn’t running too late

Dedalus Fic gazed around at the bustling crowds of Nubia Station and mulled over what he was doing. Why do I always let boredom get me to make rash decisions? Tired of life on the farm, join the military. Making maps getting dull, apply for an expeditionary force. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Feeling uneasy in the strange crowds he spotted a directory and quickly made his way toward it. Individuals came and went as he studdied the directory, Dedalus noted one soldier in black and white armor with a vast array of immense weapons. He whistled softly to himself; suddenly the small, gas powered, assault rifle slung across his shoulder seemed quite insufficient. He quickly figured out where the Savage Avenger --Avenging what?, he thought -- was docked and how to get there.
Along the way to the hangar he picked up a couple of magazines and a pack of Black and Milds. After all, who knew? It could end up being a mundane venture.

Upon reaching the hangar the discrepancy between the two ships was lost on him. It was the sign that read "TTC Savage Avenger Entrance here, all those who applied may enter," which held all his attention. He felt the old involuntary grin creep to his lips. He shrugged himself more comfortably into the well worn, olive green jumpsuit and the back pack, which contained his old military equipment as well as the newly added magazines. He readjusted the beaten in, beige cowboy hat on his head. Dedalus' grin deepened as he walked hesitantly through the terminal entrance.

Brent glanced at the live camera feed he had patched into the ship from the walkway, he felt his heart surge as he saw the first crewmen wander into the opening and move down the Connector to the base of the ship. He had always wondered who had designed the ship with the main hatch on the top of the ship instead of either side. It was this design that always brought trouble as “Specialized” connectors had to be utilized. This is how his freighter had gotten lumped in the military section.

He had had a brief encounter with someone who had mouthed to him the number “Two” and making gestures as he spoke with one of the military personnel, but still wasn’t quite sure what he had been going on about. When his ship was hailed by the Station Authority for permission to drop a small craft into the cargo hold, he connected with what the stranger had meant. He was yet another crewmember that had yet to come on board.

Turning, Brent casually asked “John, how many people did you exactly sign up for this mission?”

“Um, Six I believe, unless we have a unannounced arrival. I don’t have the names with me but I believe they are mostly humanoid, so there shouldn’t be a problem with living quarters” John Responded

“Excellent, six is an even number, I’ll be asking them to partner up, since this baby only has four sleeping quarters, we’re all going to have to get very close in this ship.” Brent Gleefully returned, relishing the idea of breaking in the crew in such cramped conditions. As normally, he would have some orientation, but today, as soon as the crew showed up, they were leaving.

The clanking of footsteps on the metal crisscrossing floors announced that one of the crewmen had actually ventured inside.

“John, stay here, I’m going to greet the newbie” Brent Winked

“Alright, just don’t give them a Coronary” John distracted responded as he delved into the latest news report on the terminal.

Brent left from the multipurpose room and quickly moved towards the main corridor, which was basically a long, straight hallway, which connected to the rest of the ship. Flattening his Jumpsuit and running a hand through his hair, he continued moving until he came face-to-face with the new crewmember, extending a friendly hand with a grin on his face to match the new crewman’s, he introduced himself

“Welcome aboard Crewman! This is my ship, I’m Captain Brent Causby, I can personally tell you that I look forward to working with you, along with your fellow new crewmates. That said, what is your name and do you have any questions?”

---

Shelly saw the Reptilian Humanoid wandering about the hangars with a large load on his hands and looking mildly irritated. Knowing that most people around these parts were military, which carried military grade equipment. She decided it was best for one not to be disgruntled as they ran around the station.

Flashing the “Ask me!” pin as she approached the Thing, which her Infopad informed her was an “Argonian” she put on a warm grin and began conversing

“Excuse me? Sir? It looks to me that you look rather lost, would I be able to direct you anywhere today? My Name is Shelly McTavish and I’m one of the Hangar Coordinators on this Station, and I know that sometimes ships aren’t that well advertised.”

Dedalus walked slowly down the hallway with an unease that evaporated when he saw the friendly man with the extended hand who introduced himself as Captain Brent Causby. Shifting the rifle in order to shake the man's hand Dedalus responded: "Pleasure, to meet you Captain. I'm Dedalus, Dedalus Fic, friends call me Ded. Um, as for questions, where should I put my things," he patted the rifle and backpack, "and do you have any star charts of the area we'll be going to?"

As Angie rounded the corner the weight of gear proved to be to be a little much even for her, as she clumsily collided against the wall. “Damn it!” she cursed dropping a few of her things.

It took her a few moments to collect everything that she had dropped. Tossing the last item over her shoulder she realized that it wasn’t that far to the ship. Closing the distance the remaining distance to the ship she could see people talking, she believed at least one of them to be the Captain of the ship.

“Hello” she said as she got closer “I take it that one of you must be the Captain if this ship?”

Daenar rho'Massai said farewell to the two men from the Centurion, and strolled over toward the Avenger, shiversabre sheathed on one hip, cigar-like tox-stick in the corner of his mouth that gave off a strangely pleasant and refreshing odour quite unlike tobacco.

Appearance-wise, with his fatigues, cigar and military haircut he looked the very image of any drill sergeant. Maybe they stamp them out of presses somewhere. He appeared to be carrying very little in the way of equipment, but that is one of the benefits of having your own ship.

Sarge Massai strolled confidently over to woman and man standing by the Savage Avenger, gave a casual wink, a wide grin and spoke.

"Good day, lad and lady. I'm Scout-Sergeant Daenar rho'Massai of the fourth Skyhounds, out of Skand."

The tox-stick rolled from one corner of his mouth to the other.

"You can call me Sarge, Daenar or Massai if it takes your fancy. Who might you fine people be, and who's the See-Oh?"

The tox-stick made another pass before ending up caught in teeth that would make one think that "Sarge" had a personal dentist attend to him each morning. His confidence and generally cheerful demeanor would spread out from him, almost as if his body is too small to contain his personality.

A second later, as if remembering his manners, a carefully carved wooden box slid out of a pocket and was offered in one, rather large, hand.

"T-Stick? They're Queue-Ess-Ays."

Another wink, as if letting them in on a secret.

Lousy, that's what it is. Just lousy. Esdras Duperard thought to himself. Rummaging through his pockets, searching for his out-dated Personal Data Device, he had accidently fumbled the thing and dropped it into a drainage well. He stared in futility for several seconds, then continued walking.

A greedy partner and a desperate financial situation had left him stranded on the station, life on which he found to be rather crowded, and was glad to finally be able to leave. If only he could remember where the lousy ship he had signed on to was parked.

He sped his pace, sure that he would be left behind, as he had never been on time for anything important. Still, the thought of staying on the station another 2 months propelled his legs faster. He was in good physical condition, though not a man of great stature, and his face was in dire need of a shave. His thoughts wandered as he walked and soon he collided straight into someone. The large humaniod was obviously not a local, and very displeased about the scruffy-looking human that had just plowed into him. Esdras didn't need a conflict. Not now. He was just about to leave. Freedom was just around the corner. And that's exactly where he ran.

His brown overcoat flowed behind him and the rugged back slung from his shoulder jostled and bounced as he made tracks into an alley. A left turn, a right turn, two more lefts, and a right later, he turned to examine the situation behind him as he caught his breath. Nothing. He looked left and right. No one seemed to be after him. He turned back around, and swore his eyes betrayed him.

Savage Avenger...this is the ship!, he thought. He allowed his face to betray a modest smile. There were four already there. Must be the other crew members He looked them over as he approached, one female, with a warm smile and bright eyes. Very attractive. Another, large, man with great stature, a pugnacious smile, and an overconfident air about him. Esdras was not one to foster preconceptions of people, but there was just something about him he didn't like. He made a quick mental note to watch himself around that man, then pushed the thought aside. Another still was clad in what looked to be military attire, not all that different from the careworn and tattered BDUs that Esdras wore, except that they were a shade of olive. The last was a man, but something about him was just...different. He had an air of authority about him, something that commanded great respect. Esdras approached that man.

"Good day to you, sir. Might you be the captain of this fine vessel?" Esdras gestured to the ship, then offered his hand.

The Captain glanced at the supplies that that Fic was carrying on with him, including the rifle. He had hoped that his ad would not have drawn out the military types, but there was no way to be sure without asking, and he didn’t want to pressure the new crewmember with overbearing personal questions.

“For your things, you go straight down that hallway until you reach the big room which has cooking equipment as well as a display screen, a meeting table and several couched, and then take a right to the small elevator, it will take you up about ten feet into the living section, it is modeled as a large “U” shape and for getting here earliest, you get the pick of the three rooms! Just a word of warning, you will be bunking with a roommate, so don’t get too comfortable just yet.” Brent Paused, as if Contemplating how to handle the “Starmap” question

“You’ll find out about the starmaps when we have the first briefing after everyone arrives, there is a certain …uniqueness about this endeavor that is hard to explain, and I don’t want to do it more than once. Now, you can be on your way, and get familiar with the ship. No area is off-limits, if you want to go check out all the equipment in the storage compartments on the lower level, or ever store some of your own stuff in there, be my guest.”

Brent turned as he watched the new crewman wonder off, only to be assaulted by two more who happened to get there at roughly the same time. First was the Guy who was associating with the TSDC types, now the a cigarette sticking out of his mouth, he discovered he may not get along too well with this one. Another was an attractive woman (When your in a ship full of men, any Woman becomes attractive, who appeared to be in quite a huff about something.

“So, I take it you know one of those TSDC types?” He said rather coldly, grin slacking, declining the offer of cigarettes “Also, I don’t know who you worked for before, but I run a smoke-free vessel, so you’ll have to put it out or keep it outside, it’s a filthy habit anyway. I’m Captain Brent Causby, you can head into the ship if you want to stake a claim on a room, but you will be bunking with someone, see if you can get acquainted with one of the new crewmembers.”

Turning his attention to the new female crewmember, his grin returned as he preformed an elaborate bow/flourish for her. “Greetings Darling! Welcome to the TTC Savage Avenger I’m her Captain, Brent Causby. It’s a bit cluttered on the inside so you’ll have to make due with what space you can clear out, but there should be a few unclaimed rooms on the inside you can open shop in, although you will be sharing it with a roommate, if you don’t mind that is. Any Questions?”

As he was preparing to field questions from the two new crewmembers, another came flying up the hangar. Looking to be quite rushed and unkempt, Brent grinned to himself as he saw a little bit of himself in his more desperate days in the Young Man. “You would assume correct! I am Brent Causby, Captain of this fine vessel, and would it be too much of a stretch to assume that you are one of the new Crewmen?” Brent returned, shooting out his hand in greeting “I was about to answer some questions if you’d like to stick around, or you can head right in an claim a room before anyone else gets here, as things seem to be picking up around here.

"Esdras Duperard. I'm not too picky about where I sleep these days. I've been stuck in this place for weeks, but that's another story for another time." Esdras' eyes swam with thought, but he soon shook himself back to reality.

"Hello there, Miss. Esdras Duperard." He said as he offered his hand to the lady. "Never thought I'd see someone like you on a mission like this."

"By the way Cap'n, what kind of misson is this? And more importantly, what's on the menu for dinner?"

((Edited to put a little more in there))

Daenar rho'Massai raised an eyebrow in a long-rehearsed motion, removed his T-stick with his left hand and drew his shiversabre.

Snick

The remaining length of the QS-A was carefully stored back into its wooden box - they were a bit too expensive to waste.

"Filthy habit? Not at all, these ain't exactly some low-grade Gees or Effs. An A grade is purifying to within an inch of the flavouring, is designed to smell light and pleasant, and has zero negative effect on a body. Personally, I won't have anything below a See-grade in Scout quarters...foul things.
"'Sides, Queue-Esses ain't addictive, just give the system a boost. Regulation rations in the Skyhounds."

A glance over to the TSDC men standing near their ship.

"Never seen them or their ship before in my life. Just thought I'd get a quick once-over the status around this place. Besides, they're nice guys, Toy Soldiers, but still nice."

Daenar ignored the cold-shoulder attitude he seemed to be getting - mentally noting that he'd been sneered at by men who could buy a hundred ships better than this, and send a hundred times as many soldiers to their deaths in them - it was amazing who you got to meet as a Skyhound Scout-Sergeant. A rather sobering thought, but things are like that sometimes.

"Cheerio then, captain, Miss."

Despite the words used, he somehow managed to put a great deal more respect into the "miss" than the "captain". The Skandi might tend to carefully use correct formalities, but they often stretched them to the limit with someone they started to dislike.

The Shiversabre slid neatly back into its scabbard and the soldier strolled toward the ship entrance.

__________________________

About thirty seconds exploring the living space had decided him.

Daenar rho'Massai carefully laid his scabbarded shiversabre and fatigue coat on one of the two beds in the garishly decorated room in a universal sign that this bed was his - he had heard voices a second ago but was more than willling to let the others talk happily while he claimed a bed.

Although generally friendly, a life that had so far consisted of the cramped Downside of a Skycity, and a series of military campaigns, had taught him the pleasures of space to relax in. He could live with people disliking him - and had done with repeated groups of Skyhounds sent to the scouting division - although he would prefer not to. Expansive quarters were a luxury not to be sneered at.

He strolled off to find either another crewmember or his Silence, the two-person dropcraft on loan from the Skyhound quartermaster.

Dedalus followed Cpatain Causby's directions to the living quarters. While on the rising platform he pondered over what the Captain had hinted at. What did I get myself into that even starmaps of the surrounding area are a hesitant topic. The stars are the best way to orientate one's self when in an unkown location. Magnetic fields, solar times, flaura and fauna, are all relative. The stars are the old reliable. He grinned, he couldn't help it. Well I guess this going to be really interesting.

Upon reaching the large orange room, his first instinct was to take the nearest bed for simplicity's sake. Instead he headed down the hallway and checked out what was through the conduit. As a small man, he figured the smaller rooms were more suiting and placed his belongings on a top bunk. He sighed and affixed his boot knife. Next went on a belt with several pouches and sheath for his EN. He rolled up one of the magazines and tucked into the belt as well.

Dedalus then began to head back to the Multipurpose Room. He noted the appearance of belongings in the orange room, Ah, looks like some of the others are here, best make my self cordial.

He was dissapointed to discover no one in the MP room yet, but took a seat in a comfortable chair, willing to wait and see who else would be on their way to claim their rooms. He began to read the magazine, but put it down when he realized it was mostly advertisements for expensive luxury items. Even articles that seemed like interesting stories at first turned out to just be more elaborate sales pitches.

Dedalus leaned back and tipped his hat over his eyes, wondering who he would meet and where this venture would take him.

Angie could not help but blush at all the attention that she was getting, she really like to be the centre of attention. She couldn’t help but chuckle when the newest member of the crew asked right away about dinner, it was so typical of men, food was one of two things that were always on their minds.

As a sign of respect he reached and took Esrdas’ hand “A pleasure to meet you” her words were soft and gentle. “If you’ll excuse me I should really drop my things off in my room” she made a subtle motion towards all her gear “It really starting to get heavy” Angie hoped that perhaps one of the two men would at least offer to help carry her things

Avis rotated his torso towards the woman, nearly knocking someone over with the weapon attatched to the shoulder. He was beginning to regret bringing the thing along. Being able to blow holes in armor plating without having to A.) run up to the target and B.) plant a charge on it was quite appealing, it was A.) Heavy and B.) Big and C.) Would probably be useless on an extended space voyage except as a physical training device or an oversized paperweight...

"Ah, yes ma'am... I'm looking for the Savage Avenger, a cargo vessel... I'm signing on as a crewmember...."

That was probably a far stretch, even for the truth. Terrik was hauling enough firepower to rip a fair-sized hole in a spacecraft, much less knock out a tank or two. As low-profile as he was trying to be, the body armor and weapons had foiled his best intentions...

Shelly thought for a second, then realized the ship that the soldier was talking about. “Ah Yes, the Savage Avenger quite the scrappy ship, hasn’t been the first time I’ve seen it docked here and probably won’t be the last. Captain is a bit quirky too, but he’s a great guy. Anyway, enough of my rambling, You’ll find it docked in section 2-Zb, its not far from here actually, just go straight down, then take a left, then a right then straight down that hall and it should be near the end. I hope this has been helpful and have a nice day.”

Having done her part in helping a station guest, she began to depart but then turned and smiled coyly “And you might want to watch where you’re going with all that equipment, you might knock someone down.”

_________________________________________________________________

Brent thought for a moment, but then realized there was only two crewmen missing and he could probably afford to be away from the entrance for more than a minute, plus he could never say no to a lady.

“Let me help you with those bags Ma’am, mind you, I’m no butler or doorman, and this is probably the only time you’ll see me doing this for anyone, but those bags sure look awfully heavy. So why don’t you let me help out” He gestured, holding out an arm to hold some of the equipment.

“Rooms are right this way…”

"Tha's all right, Cap'n. I need ta' look for a room anyhow." Esdras offered his hand to take some of the baggage as well. "You can answer ma' questions anotha' time."

((once again, sorry for the short post. can't be on long))

“Thank you very much” replied Angie with a bit of a smile on her face, she was truly grateful for the all the offers of assistance, her things were starting to become a bit on the heavy side. “Please be careful though, there is some delicate equipment” She was lying of course, all her gear was field test and could take a lot of punishment. Truth was Angie was currently playing the damsel in distress act; it was not a role that she too often got to play.

“So how long have you all been doing this type work” she asked casually as they made their way into the ship.

Esdras eagerly accepted the luggage that Angie handed him. He answered her question as they continued to the ship.

"Myself, I've never really done any kind o' work like this. I usta be a bounty hunter back durin' the war. Got pretty good at it, too. Then the 'fficials started gettin' real serious 'bout takin' care o' the criminals theirselves. Damn near killed me for it. Whoops! 'Scuse my language there, uh, I don't believe I caught your name?" Esdras apologized.

“Angie” she quickly answered when finally realized that she had neglected to actually mention her name. “Angie Greyson” her face turned a little red with embarrassment.

She quickly tried to change the subject. “Bounty hunting, that must have been a rather interesting line of work, I sure that meet some…” she struggled to find the right word “interesting individuals. However, bounty hunting is something that I myself would like to do.”

Terrik ambled his way through the crowd, taking care of the oversized device on his shoulder. After a few moments of negotiation through the crowd, he'd arrived at the designated hangar, complete with two, what he thought, were crewmen...

"Savage Avenger?"

Avis was finally able to drop the rucksack in his right hand and readjust the helmet under his arm, placing it on top of the pack. The armored hands gripped the AWAS weapon and rotated it a few degrees to the left, unhooking it from his shoulder and allowing it to be set in front of the other gear. The rucksack contained four demolition charges, six rounds for the AWAS, and a set of off-duty BDU's complete with boots...

"Where's the cap'n at?"

"That it did, that it did." Esdras answered. "After I left the hunt behind, I was involved in a professional sport for a time, but I never could find my niche there. I left Megas with a friend of mine to form a partnership in bounty hunting here in Torontonias, but unfortunately his greed got the best of him. One morning I woke and he was gone, along with all our funds. He was gracious enough to leave me my personal belongings, though. And now, a few weeks later, here I am." Esdas paused.

"So, what brings you on this mission?" He paused once again as they got to the elevator that would take them to the living quarters, opened it, and stepped in.

Brent Wheeled around as he was about to answer Esdras’s question about food, but by that time, he had already grabbed Angie’s bags and started off. He was about to follow when his ears heard his designation called. He turned around and he didn’t like what he saw.

Sizing up what was probably another crewman, he let his prejudices get the best of him. Letting his hand fall to his pistol on his side, he look a step back and cautiously responded.

“I’m the Captain of this ship, what brings you to this side of the Hangars? Looks like you’ve got quite the bag there. If you don’t mind me asking, what race are you, I get around to many places but I don’t believe I’ve seen anyone like you.” He paused, realizing what he was saying “I apologize, I’ve had very bad experiences with the scaled folk. My name is Brent Causby, I’m the Captian of this ship, the Savage Avenger if you don’t feel like replying to that rather callous interrogation feel free, the living quarters are down the hall and up the elevator, there are a few others about on this ship so you might want to make yourself acquainted.

-------

John looked up from the news display, and to his shock realized that some of the crewmembers were pouring in, chatting amongst themselves. Seeing one of them huddled up in a corner, he decided to make the best of the situation. Approaching the young man, he extended a hand in greeting.

“Welcome aboard, The name is John, I’m the first officer of this ship and I’m afraid I’ve been letting everyone just walk on by and ignore them. I also double as the chef when we’ve got proper supplies and the cooking equipment works. Is there anything I can do for you? Questions? The Like?”

Dedalus watched quietly as a Redheaded lady and a scruffy looking gent walked in, chatting amiably, and went to the elevator. He had been temtped to stand up and introduce himself, but they seemed invovled in their conversation and he didn't want to interrupt. He'd wait till after they'd picked out their rooms and come back down. Dedalus realized he was being addressed and turned to see a well built, bald man who introduced himself as John.

He stood to shake John's hand, and chuckled when he realized the guy stood a little more than head and shoulders over him. Craning his head he looked up to say, "Names Dedalus Fic, you can call me Ded. Just waiting here for everyone to get together and hear the specifics of the mission from the Cap."

He paused looking thoughtful. He looked back up to John, eyes quirked in curiousity, "So, what can I expect serving on the Savage Avenger?"

Terrik threw a smart saulte to Causby...

"Staff Sergeant Avis Terrik reporting for assignment, Cap'n Causby..."

He lowered the salute before gathering up his equipment and entering the ship, speaking as he did so...

"I'm an Argonian, from the planet Argonia oddly enough..."

Terrik dropped his rather excessive armaments, minus the sidearm and knife, next to a bunk he figured would be a bit too small, he ambled off into the rest of the ship to schmooze with the rest of the crew...

Yrrrrth.... bubbled, his form constantly morphing, into a humanoid, a feline, a canine, many different forms. At last he settled on a large, purple cat, about the size of a human, and walked up to the ship.

He/she/it oozed along, simply morphing constantly down low, making it look like a cat on wheels, although rather bumpy ones. It looked around, the strange focused eyes of the cat dissolving, and hundreds more black objects appearing out of his 'skin'. Ah, there it was. The Savage Avenger.

It spun itself round, into a skein, and flew, in a strange, amorphic state, onto the ship, quickly rearranging its innards to be able to form Torontian sounds, something that was not exceptionally difficult. It 'spoke', the sounds emitting from different places in its body. "Greetings. I am Yrrrrth Kz'o'ar, a M'toark. I am a... membercrew.. crewmember of this ship, and wish to board." The voice sounded feminine, then masculine, then childlike, then angry. The millions of subletities in human voice was incredible, it knew. Without the stablizer it wore, it would not be able to control its voice at all. Hopefully, the other creatures would not think it was angered. It waited for a moment, then boarded the ship, looking for the captain."

“Most excellent, so long as you don’t have any relation to the Sskiss I’m perfectly happy, move along then soldier, get yourself acquainted with the rest of the crew, you’ll need to come to rely on them.”

As the Argonian left, the Captain checked his chronometer, it was getting later in the afternoon, although there was no sun pattern to signify this. He was finally getting rather anxious about the last crewmember; they should all have been there by now. He was about to start with takeoff procedures without him, when he/she/it oozed up against him.

“Wha? Oh My God what the hell is that?!?. Ah, its you, I didn’t know you were so, amorphous. Anyway, I’ll have to dispatch with the pleasantries, you’re needed on board, we’re about to depart and you’ll need to find a bunkmate as well as get into the multipurpose room for the briefing.”

With the last crewmember arrived, Brent moved into the interior of the ship, and prepared to set up the briefing area with the holoprojector.

--------------

John Chuckled “What to expect? That’s Rich. Oh, don’t mind me, but when you’ve flown with Brent as long as I have you come to expect that you don’t know what’s going on half the time. He still thinks he can make the Torontonian Spatial Defense Commission with his lack of discipline, always picks up on crazy assignments you’d need to have half a brain missing to take. But it keeps you young, and on your toes.”

“I don’t mean to scare you son. I’ve been on just as many missions where we go, we unload and we get paid. Its just that Brent …I mean Captain Brent has a tendency to look at the Payment before the mission criteria. Don’t worry, you’ll know soon enough, by the looks of the Camera.” He pointed at the live feed of the Camera showing the Captain and the “Blob” moving towards the interior of the ship, accompanied by the clanking of the metal signified that things were going to get moving soon

“Come along, I’m sure the Captain will be needing us to get the old bucket of a projector out of storage for the briefing, Time for us to earn our pay stubs!”

Listening to John didn't make Ded nervous, in fact when he heard the first mate call the cap Brent he got the feeling he was going to like it onboard, but it didnt stop him from thinking. Where exactly are we going. I wonder if I should ask what happaned to other crewmembers over the years, and then upon seeing the changling in the camera, What the frak . . .

After a moment of staring in interest at the fluid motions of the sentient, he shook his head in wonder and followed John to help with the projector. Dedalus talked while he worked, telling a funny tale or two of life back home and asking about previous adventures on the Savage Avenger.

Ar lyu Zatar walked along the corriders of the station and was listening to music. Anyone looking would think that the oddish looking 'twelve' year old was simply following a fashion trend and listening to the latest music. The fact that she had a blade that was over half her height in length didn't help the image. They couldn't be more wrong. Ar was a full eighteen and the music had a very useful role in helping her block out the constant mental background chatter.

As she walked down the crowded corridor, dressed in tight black clothes that sharply contrasted her very pale skin and hair the colour of freshly spilled blood, a path seemed to open on it's own as people naturally and unconsiously open a path for her. This was nothing new, and with the music left her lost in her own world.

As she meandered, she happened to walk by a sign saying TTC Savage Avenger Entrance here, all those who applied may enter thought she didn't notice it as she walked onto the ship.

Avis scooted towards the briefing room, doing his best to follow the very basic sketch he'd drawn from a computer terminal in the room he would undoubtedly share with who/whatever decided to room with him. Terrik wasn't too particular about the company he kept.

His left shoulder was beginning to ache again, the heavy weapon that was usually attatched there had irritated an old battle-wound, a plasma bolt had blow through his shoulder, frying tissue and melting bone like butter. While his skin tissue had regrown, the shoulder joint and a portion of his upper ribcage had been replaced with some basic cybernetics the military had been testing at the time. Better models had become avaliable, but he really hadn't had time to go in for the replacement surgery and the subsequent recovery time. The metal components sat somewhat heavily on the organic portion of his anatomy, and caused muscular fatigue from time to time, especially after extended periods of shoulder-carrying the weapon that defined his mission operational specialty.

His hand-drawn map suggested a turn ahead, which he took, and found himself in what his sketch told him was the multipurpose room, which would be the most likely place for a briefing. Terrik stood off to the side of the doorway and leaned on the bulkhead, waiting for some of the others to arrive...

John grinned as they entered the elevator, (listening to the stories Dedalus had to tell, and punctuating the conversation with some of his own), which would take them down to the cargo space, waiting for Ded to enter the elevator with him, he thought on how to best respond to the question.

“Previous Adventures? Well, I wouldn’t call them that, but still, Its hard to say, Brent takes high-paying, high-risk jobs and I can tell you it won’t be a time of your life you’ll soon forget. However, it could just as well be a mundane route from one planet to another. Although we could do that with just the two of us, Brent usually likes the extra hands in case something comes up.”

As the new Crewman entered the elevator, John punched in the code to descend into the bowels of the ship. “Our last job was pretty exciting, very dangerous too, we ran freighter runs during the Sskissian raids, the TTC lost a good 74% of the Nationally owned fleet and started paying private freighters standard pay and a 300% danger bonus, risked life and limb, but we made a tidy profit. Nasty things those Sskiss are, but I’ve never really been close to one, I’ve only seen the videos and heard the messages of their ferocity, I suppose I shouldn’t judge things without ever meeting them…”

As the elevator lurched to a halt, John realized he was rambling to himself, redirecting his attention to Ded, he started again “Sorry about that, I tend to get lost in my own conversations some times. Where was I? Oh right, previous jobs.” Gesturing for Ded to follow him he continued, he hoped Ded didn’t notice the lavish two quarters that seemed like Palace Rooms compared to the paltry crew quarters, these large, luxurious rooms where John and Brent’s “Present’s to themselves” after spending months running the Raidlines. “The missions back in peace time were pretty straight forward, take cargo A to planet B and pick up cargo C from planet D, and sometimes fight off a couple of raider E and F’s, but not too often.”

Walking into one of the large storage chambers, John aptly moved about the mountains of containers, equipment and supplies until he found what he wanted: The old Holoprojector. “Come over here will you?” He asked Ded, as he attempted to heft the projector “This things heavy”

After Ded came over and took the other end, John continued back down the hallway “So I suppose, like I’ve been saying, you really don’t know what to expect on this ship.” As they got to the elevator, John stepped in and squeezed in the holo-projector, but there was clearly not enough room for the two of them. Looking over the projector, he said:

“Ded, looks like you’re going to have to stay down here for a second. You won’t be able to call the elevator down until I’m off it with the projector, you should hear a little beep from the terminal on the wall. Feel free to wander around, the meeting shouldn’t be for another ten minutes or so while I set this up.” John then pressed in the code and caused the elevator to begin moving upwards, out of sight of Ded

_________________________________________________________________

The Captain was making his way to the multipurpose room when he heard the footsteps from the entryway Funny, I don’t recall any other crewmen on the roster, its probably just a drifter looking for work, I’ll kick them out and lock the airlock, that should prevent anymore “Intrusions” Brent thought to himself as he turned, however, he was shocked by what he saw. What looked to be no more than a child was standing before him, with some sort of Recreational Equipment strapped to her head. However, there was something different about this one, she had an air of maturity …or danger, he couldn’t tell which, but definitely not something a child would have.

He decided to probe more into this interesting situation rather than dismiss it outright

“Um, Miss? Are you aware where you are? This is a Cargo Vessel and we’re bound to leave within the hour. If you’re lost and took a wrong turn somewhere I can help you back out. Or are you looking to fill a position on my crew, its pretty full but I’m sure I could make some space, I could always use some new hands.” He paused, attempting to guage her reaction

“Whatever your decision, I must urge you to make it quickly, I’m still making preparations to leave, and I can’t stand around making sure I don’t leave with a unidentified minor. This may be a space station but it still doesn’t make me look good having to return because I left with a child onboard. Wait, can you even hear me?” Brent stopped in midsentance after noticing the girl still had her headphones on, waving his hands to get her attention; he braced himself for any response.

Ar heard someone speaking, as well as a drop of the white noise that could be found in any large gathering of peoples. Removing her headphones, she looked at the man throught long lashed eyes, "Hello, may I help you?" She asked, her soft child-like voice carrying a hint of an edge to it. As she heard the commented about leaving with a child, a faint smile touched her lips.

As she looked at the man, she wondered if she'd wandered into either sensitive or private space as she had a habit of doing. "You wish to hire me as crew for your ship?" She asked as she picked out the thought from his mind.

"So long as your over Sixteen and can are legally responisble for yourself in the eyes of Torontonian Law, be my guest, we can always use some more crewmen. Pay is decent, and there is ample accomodations, although you might weird out some of the crew, although that is doubtfull, we seem to have a hogepodge of people here."

Motioning her to delve deeper into the ship, he started walking. "If you want to join up, then follow me, briefing starts within the half hour.

"Yes I'm elder than sixteen." Ar replied as she followed the captain into the bowls of the ship. She wondered what the other crew were. She was also surprised that he didn't ask her name. "What is the mission Brent Causby?" She ask, using his name as she knew he hadn't given her it.

Now that they had reached the crew quarters Angie would use the moment to get some what settled in, “Thank you for all your help boys” she said thankfully, even though the captain had gotten held up and was still holding some of her things. “It’s really appreciated.

Angie was use too working on top of the line research vessels, the ones that had lots of money but more importantly lots of space. She was finding this particular ship a bit small for her liking. However, none the less she was more then able to get by with the space that she had.

Trying to make herself a bit more comfortable she took of her jacket, throwing it on the bunk that she had claimed as hers. As her jacket came off it revealed a grey tank top underneath, she was sure that some of the other members of the crew were now paying more attention then normal to her, but then she had never been the modest type either. Quickly Angie pulled an elastic band out her pocket, and in a smooth and quick motion tied her back. Letting out a brief sigh she already found that she felt more comfortable.

“So does anybody now what the job exactly is?” she asked looking around the room.

Esdras dropped his pack on the other bunk in the room. With a slight blush and a smile he turned and faced Angie.

"That is, if ya don' mind." He said. "I've got no idea what this mission is goin ta be about. All I know is its good ta be gettin' off a that station."

“It’s good be going anywhere right now.” answered Angie, as she returned Esdras smile “the further away that we get the happier that I’ll be”.

Angie quickly caught her self; she was saying too much, and the last thing that she wanted to was too bring back the memories of her past. She hoped that Esdras wouldn’t try to dive deeper into her past. Nervously she went back to unpacking the rest of her things.

Esdras let a breath of relief, and was too caught up with thinking about his own past months to notice Angie's anxiousness. Removing his coat he sorted his things on the bunk, bed linens, personal effects, clothing, and such, and stored them in a nearby locker. He kept only his blaster pistol, which slid conveniently into a pocket on his BDU pants leg.

"I suppose I'll head down ta that room we passed on'a way up here and see if I can't find some answers to what seems ta be the question o' the day. I hope the rest o' the crew ain't like us, though, signin' up for a mission and don' even know what it's about!" Esdras joked and nodded to Angie, then turned and exited the room, headed in the direction of the multipurpose room.

“Ah! There you are John! I was wondering when you were going to get that out” Brent exclaimed as he entered the Multipurpose Room.

“Yeah, well, I figured you’d be wanting it, give me a moment, I need to go back into the Cargo Hold and retrieve Ded” John replied, setting down the projector and returning down the elevator to retrieve the crewman.

Moving towards the bridge, Brent turned to the Girl who was following him “I need you to stay here for now, we’re going to have the briefing soon, I’m about to call all the crewmen here and I’ll go over the mission.” He paused, contemplating his question “How did you know my name, I don’t believe I ever gave it?”

Keeping an ear out for the response, he moved into the cramped bridge area and jammed his thumb down on the red intercom button. A loud alarm klaxon going off to alert everyone onboard, he lifted up the Communications Device and had some fun.

“Everyone, this is your Captain speaking, I would just like to take this moment to welcome you to your new temporary job working for Causby Freight Lines. Please ignore any smoke or sparks on the ship, it just helps build character, if there is ever a large blast followed by a power failure, then I would advice you to say a quick word and prepare for your last moments of life. Fire exits didn’t come standard with this tub so if you wish to leave you’ll have to do it through the main hatch, which is the first to go if we get hit. I thank you for your decision to work for me and I’ll try to make your hours of back breaking labour as strenuous and endless as possible.” Brent chuckled, wondering if the crew thought he was going off the deep end

“Now that that is said and done, I would request that all members of the crew make their way to the Multi-Purpose room where we will commence mission briefing ASAP, that is all.”

Placing the Communications Unit down, Brent moved back into the room and set up the Holo-Projector, motioning for crewmembers to take a seat anywhere as they trickled into the room

Ar grinned, "You didn't." She replied, "But you thought it." She listened to his speech over the intercom and wondered what the mission would be. Taking a seat in a out of the way corner so she could see who the others were, she inserted her head-phones again to help cope with the mass of mental static that was sure to arrive with the other crew members.

Avis seated himself on a supply crate, patiently awaiting the briefing to begin...

"This a safety brief cap'n?"

Never the chatty one, Terrik preferred to keep his communications short and to the point...

As Esdras walked away to look into things Angie used the laid across her bunk and began to drift off, she was more tried then she thought.

However, it would seem that fate wouldn’t give her time to rest, as the captains voice came over the intercom. Angie couldn’t help but chuckle at the captain’s comments about the event of an emergency, if that was the case then her pain would soon come to an end and she could rest in peace. She jumped to her feet and started to make her way to the briefing room.

As made her way into the room she could see that some of the other members of the crew had already arrived, she couldn’t see Esdras, perhaps he had gotten lost.

Ar wondered who would be the first person to comment about the child with the long blood red hair, large sword and nightblack clothing. She was confident that someone would, as they frequently did when she travelled on a commercial craft.

So far there was the captain, another female going by the name of Angie Greyson and a large black scaled lizard. She full well intended to avoid the lizard as much as possible as non-humans provided the most problems. It was also just plain weird.

As she switched tracks on her earpieces, she wondered whether there'd be more aliens.

The cool invidisteel weapon had manifested itself into Esdras' hand before he realized that the captain was merely playing a joke on the crew. Nervously holstering the pistol, he slid into the multipurpose room, hoping that no one had witnessed his little moment. He noticed that many more had gathered, a scaly looking fellow, another woman, Causby, and somehow Angie as well. That puzzled Esdras, but he didn't spend too much time thinking about it. He made his way over to his two new crewmates.

"Good day, I'm Esdras Duperard." He smiled and extended his hand first to Ar, the to Avis. "You both seemed well equipped enough to take on an army!" He joked, gesturing to his own attire, which consisted only of age-worn BDU's that at one time may have been black, but now shown a dark gray.

The cool invidisteel weapon had manifested itself into Esdras' hand before he realized that the captain was merely playing a joke on the crew. Nervously holstering the pistol, he slid into the multipurpose room, hoping that no one had witnessed his little moment. He noticed that many more had gathered, a scaly looking fellow, another woman, Causby, and somehow Angie as well. That puzzled Esdras, but he didn't spend too much time thinking about it. He made his way over to his two new crewmates.

"Good day, I'm Esdras Duperard." He smiled and extended his hand first to Ar, the to Avis. "You both seemed well equipped enough to take on an army!" He joked, gesturing to his own attire, which consisted only of age-worn BDU's that at one time may have been black, but now shown a dark gray.

Avis made a gruff noise in his throat, what might have been the Argonian equivalent of a laugh...

"Nope, just a tank... That's a nice little weapon you've got there... Custom job or standard back where you're from?"

Ar looked at the hand of the man who'd introduced himself as Esdras Duperard as if he'd offered her a live snake. While the gloves would prevent the human contact she didn't like, it was an ingrained habit to avoid touching others.

Gingerly, almost as if she was sticking her hand in fire, Ar took his very large hand in her tiny(Proportionally) hand. "Ar lyu Zatar." She said by way of introduction. "Don't get to0 fidgety with that pistol." She added in her soft voice as she took her hand back.

Avis made a gruff noise in his throat, what might have been the Argonian equivalent of a laugh...

"Nope, just a tank... That's a nice little weapon you've got there... Custom job or standard back where you're from?"
"It's a standud military issue with a few o' my own mods to make it compatible with my HUD." Esdras answered.

Ar looked at the hand of the man who'd introduced himself as Esdras Duperard as if he'd offered her a live snake. While the gloves would prevent the human contact she didn't like, it was an ingrained habit to avoid touching others.

Gingerly, almost as if she was sticking her hand in fire, Ar took his very large hand in her tiny(Proportionally) hand. "Ar lyu Zatar." She said by way of introduction. "Don't get to0 fidgety with that pistol." She added in her soft voice as she took her hand back.
"Uh, yeah, I'll try ta be more careful." Esdras replied, his face burning.

Dedalus Fic had was admiring a small dropship in the cargo hold when he heard Brent's anouncement. He walked swiftly back to the elevator where he had help John load the projector. He saw that firt mate had already sent the elevator back down and started back up to the level with the MPR.

Entering the MPR, Fic tapped his hat with a "Hey all, names Dedalus Fic, pleasure to be working with all of you." He sat down and surveyed the other crewmembers who were present. Noting the extremely young, almost to young to be working on a freighter, women he grinned, Well maybe I won't be getting a stiff neck working here after all.

Daenar rho'Massai strolled casually into the multi-purpose room, seating himself and nodded politely at all those assembled, showing no surprise at nonhumans or those of unorthodox appearance.

"Good day folks."

The sergeant was smiling, seemingly in a rather good mood despite the relatively cramped areas and the clashing colours of the room in which he had claimed a bunk - his dropship had not been damaged in transit, and the equipment inside it had not been tampered with, equipment that now rested on his bunk.

"Pleased to meet and see you all, my name's Daenar rho'Massai, out of the Skandi drop-regiments of the Ventuusi Republic, and I'm generally called Daenar, Sarge, or Glory Boy."

He nodded again to everyone present, relaxing into the chair he had appropriated.

Once Brent was satisfied that everyone on staff had arrived, and that the Holo-projector wasn’t going to blow up in his face when he turned it on, he began:

“Fellow Crewmen, I am honoured to have you all serving as my crew, As you already know, I am Captain Brent Causby, and this is my First Officer: John Marstein. This may very well be the first time you’ve all seen each other in one area, as you’ve all been trickling aboard these last few hours, but I want you to know, that I will tolerate no less than the utmost respect for your fellow crewmates, regardless of race, colour or any other discriminating factor. If I find out that you’re acting otherwise, you’ll spend the rest of the trip in a storage container with 50% docked salary. However, I don’t think that will be a problem, as I’ve seen several of you get quite acquainted already” Brent paused, hoping his next suggestions would lighten the mood before he moved on

“As you all probably know, the elevator over there” Gesturing in the direction of the Living Quarters Elevator “Leads to the Sleeping quarters, I think you’ve all picked out spots, and if you haven’t, we’ll find you one. Also, normally this isn’t a problem, but since this mission we seem to have landed with a Crew of both Genders, I would request that any “Hard” romance be done out of my sight. I don’t mind any sweet-talk or outright kissing, but the minute things start getting heated up, I want it out of my sight. I like my personal space, and I don’t need to see crewmates making out in my presence.”

“Now, down to the good stuff. The info you’ve all been waiting for: The Mission Briefing” Pausing to flick the switch engaging the projector, Brent stepped back as the ancient machine sputtered to life, displaying a floating image of a starmap. Using a remote, Brent dimmed the lights in the room, so that the stars and grid-lines of the map showed up clearly. A large planet with a smaller, irregular shaped object outlined in red flashed on the map.

“This is Nubia Station, you were just on it before you came aboard, and we’re still docked with it. Using this a reference point, one can reasonably deduce that this is a map of the Nubia System.” Pressing a button, the map zoomed out to show the whole system, including the sun. However, there was something off about the map, once you hit Nubia V, there seemed to be some sort of information holes, as patched of the map showed up black, and most of the inner system was nowhere to be seen other than the sun.

“As you can see, a fair bit of the inner system is uncharted, this is because of a “Bermuda Triangle” Effect. Ships and vessels that enter it never return. At least, that’s what the Government and the TSDC thought.” Brent paused for dramatic effect “This is because of an anomaly which disrupts most high-end electronics, ship communications, weapons, you name it, chances are its affected. So ships that go in tend to get lost and never come back.”

“A few days ago, a lone Science Vessel that had been despatched months ago returned from the void, claiming to have groundbreaking information. Using the info, as well as interviews with the crewmembers and Scientists, they determined that the anomaly is actually being emitted from one of the planets, Nubia III, however, they couldn’t get close enough without having wide scale systems failures. More disturbingly, they had shadow readings of possible life forms on the planet. Possibly on a lower tech scale than Torontonias. However, since the entire system is claimed by the Corporate Autocracy, it would make them Torontonian Citizens, whether they like it or not.”

“The Torontonian Space Program is willing to risk equipment, as it can be replaced, but they are not willing to risk trained scientists by sending them into this deathtrap. So they’re sending us. It is our job to get close enough to the planet, get readings using specially outfitted scanning systems already jury-rigged onto the ship, and return to the station. They do not advise landing, as they don’t know how intense the disruptions would be on the planet, and if there are life forms, they could be hostile.” Brent scanned the faces in the room, attempting to read expressions

“In a nutshell, that is our mission, are there any questions? If not, I would suggest you all sit back and relax, as it’s a trip of five standard hour to even get to the anomaly border.”

Once Brent was satisfied that everyone on staff had arrived, and that the Holo-projector wasn’t going to blow up in his face when he turned it on, he began:

“Fellow Crewmen, I am honoured to have you all serving as my crew, As you already know, I am Captain Brent Causby, and this is my First Officer: John Marstein. This may very well be the first time you’ve all seen each other in one area, as you’ve all been trickling aboard these last few hours, but I want you to know, that I will tolerate no less than the utmost respect for your fellow crewmates, regardless of race, colour or any other discriminating factor. If I find out that you’re acting otherwise, you’ll spend the rest of the trip in a storage container with 50% docked salary. However, I don’t think that will be a problem, as I’ve seen several of you get quite acquainted already” Brent paused, hoping his next suggestions would lighten the mood before he moved on
Esdras nodded at this, agreeing with Brent.


“As you all probably know, the elevator over there” Gesturing in the direction of the Living Quarters Elevator “Leads to the Sleeping quarters, I think you’ve all picked out spots, and if you haven’t, we’ll find you one. Also, normally this isn’t a problem, but since this mission we seem to have landed with a Crew of both Genders, I would request that any “Hard” romance be done out of my sight. I don’t mind any sweet-talk or outright kissing, but the minute things start getting heated up, I want it out of my sight. I like my personal space, and I don’t need to see crewmates making out in my presence.”

Esdras chuckled a little, the captain was making pretty broad assumptions. Regardless, his thoughts still traveled toward Angie and Ar.


“Now, down to the good stuff. The info you’ve all been waiting for: The Mission Briefing” Pausing to flick the switch engaging the projector, Brent stepped back as the ancient machine sputtered to life, displaying a floating image of a starmap. Using a remote, Brent dimmed the lights in the room, so that the stars and grid-lines of the map showed up clearly. A large planet with a smaller, irregular shaped object outlined in red flashed on the map.


The projection was somewhat, outdated, compared to what Esdras was used to, but that didn't bother him too much. His attention was nevertheless perked.


“This is Nubia Station, you were just on it before you came aboard, and we’re still docked with it. Using this a reference point, one can reasonably deduce that this is a map of the Nubia System.” Pressing a button, the map zoomed out to show the whole system, including the sun. However, there was something off about the map, once you hit Nubia V, there seemed to be some sort of information holes, as patched of the map showed up black, and most of the inner system was nowhere to be seen other than the sun.


Interesting, he thought.


“As you can see, a fair bit of the inner system is uncharted, this is because of a “Bermuda Triangle” Effect. Ships and vessels that enter it never return. At least, that’s what the Government and the TSDC thought.” Brent paused for dramatic effect “This is because of an anomaly which disrupts most high-end electronics, ship communications, weapons, you name it, chances are its affected. So ships that go in tend to get lost and never come back.”


Esdras had never heard of a "Bermuda Triangle Effect", but thought he understood the situation fairly well.


“A few days ago, a lone Science Vessel that had been despatched months ago returned from the void, claiming to have groundbreaking information. Using the info, as well as interviews with the crewmembers and Scientists, they determined that the anomaly is actually being emitted from one of the planets, Nubia III, however, they couldn’t get close enough without having wide scale systems failures. More disturbingly, they had shadow readings of possible life forms on the planet. Possibly on a lower tech scale than Torontonias. However, since the entire system is claimed by the Corporate Autocracy, it would make them Torontonian Citizens, whether they like it or not.”


So the Torontonian Military is too scared, and we get to do the job for them. Well, at least the pay's good.


“The Torontonian Space Program is willing to risk equipment, as it can be replaced, but they are not willing to risk trained scientists by sending them into this deathtrap. So they’re sending us. It is our job to get close enough to the planet, get readings using specially outfitted scanning systems already jury-rigged onto the ship, and return to the station. They do not advise landing, as they don’t know how intense the disruptions would be on the planet, and if there are life forms, they could be hostile.” Brent scanned the faces in the room, attempting to read expressions

“In a nutshell, that is our mission, are there any questions? If not, I would suggest you all sit back and relax, as it’s a trip of five standard hour to even get to the anomaly border.”
"No questions here, but I'll tell ya what I think." Esdras began. "Easiest money I've ever made." He smiled.

Ar listened to the briefing with detached interest, thought she seemed to be paying more attention to her music. As she picked up hints of certain thoughts from Esdras, her faint habitual frown deepened into a scowl and she gave him a look that said don't even think about it if you want to ever have a chance to think about it again.

Dedalus watched the projection intently, working on committing the stars surrounding the effected area to memory. If electronics could give out it would be best to not have to depend on them. As he listened to Brent the excitement mounted. The unkown and being the first to map it out greatly appealed him. Fic looked over the crew: the scaled warrior and the tall man with blue hair who had sat next to him looked as if they could handle themselves in a hostile situation; the redhead and the bearded man in BUDS had gone to the rooms discussing scientific equipment and bounty hunting; and Causby and Brent knew the Savage Avenger well and how to handle it. But where did that odd changling creatur go? And who's the girl listening to headphones and scowling durring the briefing? Did someone bring their angsty teenage daughter on a mission like this?

Fic refocused his attention on the Captain. "So Cap, is there any specific equipment we should become acquainted with on this mission, and any duties to be assigned?"

Wonder which one of them ended up being my room mate.

When the Captain made the announcement about relationship Angie suddenly felt that she was the centre of attention, even if that attention way have only been in her mind. She could feel her cheeks heat up with a touch of embarrassment. It wasn’t in her personality just to hook up with any person, it wasn’t who she was, but for the first time she did feel a bit awkward.

Daenar rho'Massai listened attentively to the captain, nodded slightly to certain comments, frowning at other parts.

When questions started up, once again he paid attention - Legion Scouts are generally very good at paying attention, the ones who aren't tend to end up with an enemy bullet through their vital organs.

"I catch you about the social relations, Sir, but I do have a few questions concerning the mission that I'm in a bit of freefall about.
"Firstly, I understand that we're here to take research from orbit, but if the electronic problems prove dangerous and force us to make planetfall do we have any reliable method of getting help?
"Second, as our friend here"

The Scout Sergeant nodded toward Dedalus

"Asks, what equipment should we be ready to use, and which will need specialist training? I'd rather know so we can get started rather than break some expensive kit...
"And finally, what can we expect to go crashing in the disruption field, Sir?"

His questions expressed in a simple military style, a soldier asking about possible problems in the field.

“Any equipment we have here is Manual, as AI’s tend to get fried in the field, so normally we would have to set up some sort of training session. However, That won’t be necessary here because we’ve got John here” Pointing to his First officer, sitting on one of the couches “And an instruction manual. John’s got all the technical training, so when your shift comes up you’ll just have some on the spot training and away you go. Operation isn’t terribly difficult, just a bit tedious at times. It mostly consists of tracking dataflow for errors or interruptions, and aligning the sensors properly.”

“Aside from the Equipment operation, most duties will basically consist of routine maintenance (Which should be minimal due to the shortened time of this trip) and issues needing attention on a case to case basis. So essentially this is a low-class cruise, all you Humanoids have to do is sit back and occasionally do some work and get paid.”

Turning to face Daenar “When we go romping into the disruption field I’ll tell you what will happen. The Screens will flicker, any incoming/outgoing transmissions will die, the lights will dim and the engines will sputter a bit while the systems adjust to using the new equipment which will keep all our systems from being disrupted. Aside from that, we’ll see a whole lot of nothing. Nubia III is pretty close to edge of the disruption field on a solar perspective, so the first thing we’ll see aside from Cosmic dust should be that.”

“As for what happens if we crash?” He Paused, his voice darkening “Well, hope to whatever Deity motivates you that we don’t, because this ship would never make it out of orbit, and we’d probably get stuck there ‘till the end of our days, with who knows what going on that planet” His voice lightening again, he continued “However, that shouldn’t happen.”

Looking to his entire crew again, he closed “That about does it for the briefing, you can feel free to explore the ship, or return to your quarters, or mingle! Get to know each other. I’ll be in the bridge making preparations for launch, which should happen momentarily”

Swivelling on his heels towards the bridge, he quickly made his way in that direction

Terrik listened with obvious interest. This sort of operation was familar to him, a sort of information-gathering recon mission in unknown and possibly hostile territory with no sure-fire means of recieveing back-up or any other sort of support. The 473rd had been designed with this sort of assignment in mind, training a high sense of brotherhood and self-reliance into its troops. Staff Sergeant Terrik was no exception.

He saw the crew as nothing less than his extended family, a rather motley collection of brothers and sisters whom would need to survive the mission in order to accomplish it to standard. While they lacked the leadership and tactical genius of his usual CO, Commander Jarri, Captain Causby seemed more than confident in the abilities of himself and his newly-hired crew.

The crewmen, no, crewpeoples (there were females present), seemed to be in reasonably good physical and mental condition, with the exception of Causby. Either he was mildly crazy or extremely excentric, to not only be flying, but also living in a ship like this. They had what looked to be a tech specialist, a human female who had already caught the attentions of the male members of the crew. She didn't seem armed, but looked confident enough to remain cool-headed under fire. Unlike some members of his species, Avis didn't procreate with different races, and while the only adult female on board was attractive by humanity's standards, his principles would not be changing any time soon.

The only other female looked to be barely out of childhood, but still exhibiting the rebellious qualities of human youth through her perpetual frown and her general disinterest in what the others, including the captain, had to say. Despite her personality quirks, she seemed to be fit and familiar with the interesting blade she had slung across her back. She seemed to reguard his reptillian looks with the most obvious apprehension he'd encountered amongst the crew.

The man calling himself Daenar, or however his people pronounced his name, seemed well-versed in military teachings, and judging from his other-than-typical choice of clothing, appeared to come from a technologically advanced civilization. His mannerisums led Terrik to believe him to be some sort of advanced paratrooper. Avis knew he would not have to pay undue attention to him in a combat situation, which was a large plus.

Esdras he believed to have been some sort of bounty hunter, going off of the quick draw and general paranoia that seemed to surround him. There might have been some military service in his past, but he appeared to have been out for too long for any obvious signs to surface. Even still, his familiarity with the weapon at his side demonstrated that Avis would have a solid ally in a firefight.

Dedalus remained something of a mystery, an enigma Avis would need to observe further before he really had any thoughts on the man. Of course, this also nullified any reliance Terrik might have placed on him during an altercation.

The First Mate was someone Terrik hadn't seen much of, but by the look of him he deemed the man to be a solid individual, and no doubt a brave one for staying on Causby's craft for any longer than he had to. Terrik didn't particularly hate space travel, but he wasn't fond of the thought of suffocating in cold vaccum when the hull ruptured, either...

"That it, cap'n? If so, I'd like to ask permission to grab some shut-eye until we get close to the AO, unless you've got a task for me."

The powerfully-built Argonian slid to his feet from the packing container, rotating his replaced shoulder out of habit, the faint whine of servomotors ignored by his fin-ears, so familiar were their noises of operation. In the back of his mind he wondered how this electronic interference would affect the mechanical portion of his anatomy. It wasn't particularly complex, but it was still electronic, powered by the faint electrical field generated by living things, in this case, his central nervous system...

Brent didn't even look back, but with a wave of his arm, granted the crewmember's request "Granted, Granted. I suppose you may return to your quarters as to restore energy you'll obviously need for the trials ahead..." Chuckling to himself an amount.

Ar looked up at as the captain finished his briefing. While it had looked like she was ignoring, or not paying attention to him speaking, she'd caught every word. Looking over at the 'lizard' she growled at herself for not being able to deal with the oddities of an alien's mind.

Considering the problem of rooms, she decided to take a nap in the briefing room until it was settled.

As Mihkael rushed through the bustling starport, he became aware of the dirty nature of the whole affair. Sadly, he didn't look too out of place, his suit wrinkled and hair disheveled. He was still getting used to the genmods and bionics that had been installed, and as a result hadn't slept much.

"Docking Bay 179... Docking Bay 179, where the hell is it?" He finally broke down and asked a local if they knew. The man pointed down a dark shadowy side passage. "Christ.." Mikhael swore under his breath.

He noticed he was getting close when he began hearing the sound of primary system run ups beginning up ahead. I knew I was late, but not that late, he thought to himself. He arrived at the door and swiped his entry card that the local Regenian Consulate had provided for him and stepped inside, and a look of complete fear came across his face. That's the Savage Avenger? How are we supposed to make it to the anomaly in that piece of scrap? Disheartened, he walked up to the ship's main gantry and attempted to board, but was stopped by the lock on the door.

He pressed the intercom button that accompanied the locking mechanism, "Hello?...I'm Mihkael Gasparovich, I'm supposed to be accompanying you on this expedition." With a small clicking sound the lock releasd and the door slid open with screech suggesting it was in high need of an oiling.

Mihkael walded inside and the first thing he noticed other than the cramped nature of the entry passage, was the man standing in front of him. The man stuck out his hand and said "Brent Causby, pleased to meet you." Mihkael loosened up when he noticed that Brent was not upset at his lateness.

"Mihkael Gasparovich, good to meet you too..." he said while looking around a little bit. "The consulate said that they told you I was coming, and I hear the system diagnostics running, are we really that closed to departure?"

"Indeed, we we WOY, waitin' on you."

"Oh good, then I guess I should go get settled in."

"That would probably be a good idea," Causby said with a smile.

With that, Mihkael began to delve deeper into the ship, looking for the living quarters that he hoped were more spacious that the rest of the ship.

Terrik nodded...

"Thank ya, Cap'n. Call if ya need something..."

The Argonian ambled off, prepared to sleep the majority of the long journey to keep stir-craziness at bay, lest he break down and field-strip every piece of equipment in his small arsenal. He'd cleaned everything prior to even arriving on the space-station, and it wouldn't need anything besides reloading done to it for at least another five extended engagements. That would probably even outlast his ammunition supply...

During his wanderings, Mihkael stumbled into the briefing room. He noticed a young looking girl dozing in one of the chairs, and though she seemed a little out of place on this mission he thought nothing of it, he'd seen much stranger things on this ship. Like that enormous lizard he'd met in one of the side passages. That had left him slightly shaken. He was still trying to find the living quarters when he stumbled across the captain again.

"Oh Brent, good to see you. It appears I was inappropriately confident in my knowledge of your ship. Could you show me where I'll be sleeping? Also, did I miss anything?"

Brent looked slightly puzzled as the seemingly unknown crewman bumped into him, after a moment of realization, he remembered who he was:

"Ah! Mihkael, glad to see you`ve finally arrived, as I`m placing most of the scientific duties on you for this trip. As for rooms, I believe there should still be a few open, though you will definately have to share. Lets see, we`ve got Terrik, Daenar, Dedalus, Esdras and Angie all having rooms. There are six spots avaliable for residence, and those five already laid claim to some, so there should still be a spot left, and I`ll have to pull up the Hoverpad for one of you to sleep on in the big room."

Turning to Ar, he waved his hand in front her, never quite sure if she was paying attention

"You`ve got a room? We you'll have a choice between a bunk and sharing a large room with two other people, you can negotiate with our late arriving crewman here for who gets what"

Before returning to the bridge to continue launch procedure, he pointed over at Esdras "Esdras! Here is your first assignment. I need you to go down into storage, go into the third container on your right and pull out the Hoverpad we have as a bed from down there, as we're short one bed, you'll put it up in the large orange room. If you need help, just get one of the able bodies lying around here to join you."

With that he returned to his launch duties, always keeping an ear out for crew concerns.

She grinned at his waved hand, before turning to the newly arrived personage. Looking him over, she asked, "Which do you want?" She didn't have an objection or concern about where she slept either way as she was perfectly able to curl up in small ball and sleep comfortably.

"Well," said Mihkael "I would like the bunk, but I also believe in some sort of chivalry, so it's up to you." He smiled awkwardly and sat down in one of the several chairs at the table.

"By the way, my name is Mihkael. It's nice to meet you."

"Ar." She replied, "And if you want the bunk, you can have it." She then pulled her headphones back over her ears and returned to her nap now that it was settled at least in her opinion.

"Okay, well...I'll see you around I guess," Mihkael said with another awkward smile. Before she looked back down, he managed to catch her eyes with his own and realized she wasn't nearly as young as he'd thought.

And I thought college was hardship...she's seen worse things than I'm likely ever going to.

With that Mihkael stood and picked up his bag and briefcase off the ground and headed to the elevator that Captain Causby had indicated earlier as the one which would take him to the personnel quarters.

I hope I don't have to bunk with that lizard guy, he thought to himself.

Esdras' attention peaked as Causby announced he had a task to assign him. Upon recieving the entirety of his assignment, Esdras was left little more than dissappointment. Lousy..., he thought, but trudged down to the storage area regardless. Finally out of the presence of the others he felt a bit more relaxed, and was able to think more clearly. Contemplating the crew as it stood now, there was Angie, whom he was rooming with; she seemed nice enough, although he wasn't sure what sort of role she would fill on this mission. Avis, the large reptilian creature reminded him somewhat of the Spheresians of the Megan Empire, and Esdras thought he would be invaluble if they somehow became involved in a firefight. Esdras harbored the latter presumption for Daenar.

The elevator lurched to a halt, opened, and Esdras fumbled for a light switch. Upon discovering the elusive button, the bay was instantly flooded with illumination. Before Esdras were several large storage containers. He proceeded to the third one. Once again he searched for the button that would open the container, and found it. The container's door slid open and the hoverbed, stood on one end, fell out. Esdras wasn't quite fast enough moving, and it landed on his toes.

"Gah!! Lousy!!!' He cursed as the offending hulk of metal clanked to the floor. He quickly activated it and pulled in along behind him returning to the elevator.

Resuming his all but lost train of thought, Esdras continued listing his crewmates mentally one by one. Next was Ar, whom he assumed he was retrieving the hoverbed for, and whom he was scared to death of. He had never encountered anyone like her before, telepathics in Megas were scarce and nearly always employed by the military. Though as long as she didn't get carried away with her abilities, he'd be alright. Then there was the guy who they nearly left without, Mikhael. Esdras had drawn any conclusions about him, although he seemed well enough. Dedalous Fic presented another mystery to Esdras, as well as John, but Causby trusted them, and that was good enough for him.

Esdras entered the multipurpose room, and walked over to Ar, the bunk trailing behind. She seemed to napping, although Esdras really couldn't tell whether she was asleep or not. At any rate, he had retrieved the bunk for her, and he hoped she would at least be appreciative, maybe even lift the indefinite scowl she carried. Esdras cleared his throat.

"I believe this is yours." He said, rotating the hoverbed around him and towards Ar.

The elevator came to a stop at the crew quarters level and Mihkael stepped out. He looked around but didn't see anyone in the large common area, so he set off down the attach hall where he presumed that the rooms lay. He poked his head in the first one and saw that the giant lizard Avis, that's what Causby said his name was... was sleeping soundly on the top bunk, yet he also noticed someone's things on the bottom bunk, so he continued down the passage. He stopped at the next room and poked his head in and saw a very woman reading on the bed.

"Hi," he said. "I'm Mihkael Gasparovich. I was the guy that Causby was waiting for, sorry about that. Anyway..." his eyes drifted over to the other bunk and noticed someone's bag. Damn he swore to himself. "I guess I'll see you around."

He reached the last room and looked inside and saw that here was his empty bunk, he set his bags down and took off and hung up his suit. He crawled into the bed amazed at how comfortable it seemed, and fell asleep almost immediately.

Avis Terrik slept soundly, the dreamless sleep of those who had little better to do. He'd changed from his battlesuit to a more comfortable set of gray-colored off-duty BDU's. The off-duty uniform also granted him an immunity (at least in his native military) from excessive harassment from higher-ups. The 473rd enjoyed a rather relaxed command structure, the only respect required during a passing in the halls was a quick greeting and a short salute if the individual in question was an officer.

The uniform doubled as PT gear, sleeping gear, and basically whatever non-combat duty a soldier might need to perform. The only protection it offered was a liquid-armor impregnation that made it nearly immune to punctures and slashes, but not the jarring impact that usually accompanied the aforementioned actions. This had been done more from a matinence perspective rather than from a combat one: clothing that didn't rip or tear didn't need to be repaired and therefore lasted that much longer.

The staff sergeant thought nothing of this information, they where more comfortable than the rigid battle armor and that was all he cared about. His rank had been stitched to the upper arms, much like the rank on his armor. The weaponry had been carefully stashed in the corner, on top of his rucksack. His armor was neatly stored in the locker he'd been issued along with the bunk, to keep it from sliding everywhere if the ship somehow encountered some difficulties and required him to suit up for action. The top shelf also held the four explosive charges he'd brought along out of habit. People tended to get nervous when they saw the football-like objects rolling around...

Ar looked up as Esdras brought the hoverbed over. "Thank you." She said, and while a smile didn't touch her face, the scowl that usually graced her face disappeared.

Brent worked the control panel as the ship’s systems all flashed green upon the completion of the system diagnostic. Reaching for the Comm. Unit, he flicked the switch and signalled the Control Point on Nubia Station.

“Attention Nubia Station this is Captian Brent Causby of the TTC Savage Avenger requesting clearance for launch from bay 179.”

The response crackled back over the speakers, which spilt back out into the common room. “That is a Negative Request Captain Causby, there is currently a Centurion departing from docking bay 178, and its requested no other ships launch while it manoeuvres into position to depart. Besides, we can’t let you leave now, our systems tell us you don’t have a Bank Account anymore, so how are you going to be paying your docking fees?”

“Docking Fees!?! I paid them when I came in here” Brent said irritably

“Correct, but we have recently have had a new law placed on the station, and all across the Autocracy, Non Trade Commission ships must be charged to dock as well as leave.” The voice responded

“What? I’m already a registered Trade Commission vessel, I even paid the dues last week” Brent responded

“According to our systems Causby, the Commission dumped your licence recently, citing poor return on investment and decaying quality of service among other things” The voice responded, a slight amount of glee could be detected

“What!?!” Brent exploded, quite livid at the fact of this unannounced cancellation of licensing, without a Trade Commission Licence, he would never stay in business for long, no matter what he was getting paid. “We’ll I don’t care what you think, I’m leaving, and I’m going to cut off that warship while I’m at it, those Damn Soldiers think that they own the space lanes!”

Slamming down the speaker, in he decided he’d rather enjoy hearing the stations authority whine on about regulations and procedure instead of abruptly cutting them off

“Captain, you know you can’t leave the station until that Warship departs and you pay your fee’s, as you can see, we’ve already locked down the hangar, you’ll never get out, and the clamps holding your ship in place and keeping it from drifting away are still in place as well.”

As if in response to the complaint, Brent activated the “Moderately-Illegal” engine modifications as well as the military grade armour he had mounted on the front of the ship, the squeal of the extra-unstable compounds being injected into the engine core put some strain on the coolant and shielding systems, but it held, as he knew he would. Pushing the engine power lever in to full thrust resulted in a boost and then a jerk back as the station clamp held onto them. After disengaging the engines, and then pushing them into thrust again, the ship made another jerk on the clamps holding them, although with obvious more strain, after the second attempt, a frantic voice came over the radio

“Causby! You are causing significant damage to station facilities as well as endangering the surrounding docking bays, if you break off the clamps and the docking tubes, you’ll open the ship into space, we have the airlock doors engaged, but there is still maintenance personnel trying to get out! You’ll kill them!”

Brent picked up the Comm. Unit one more time, with a grim look of determination on his face. “You should have thought of that before crossing paths with me and your damn fee’s. I’ve had it with the Torontonian System, its all about the money, its all I ever hear about it. Once I’m done with this mission, I’ll be moving on to different sovereign territory”

Pushing the engines a third time resulted in the grinding squeal of plastics, metal and glass breaking and rending as the docking tube was ripped away from the station a left dangling off the ship. The clamps attached to the tube quickly gave way as they were found without the support of the docking tube and the station, combined with the momentum of the ship, snapped the support lines in two. There was a quick decompression alarm, but the automated system quickly sealed the airtight seals …for once

Now that he was free from the station, he had a new problem to contend with, the Warship which was still manoeuvring around the docking area to get into a good position to leave. As the Savage Avenger approached dangerously close to the warship, he could see some of the larger turrets train their sights on the ship, Cauby was then confronted with a much more rigid, disciplined voice than the one he had encountered previously.

“Unidentified Civilian Vessel. You are dangerously close to this TSDC vessel; please move your ship back to avoid… What is that?” The voice died off for a second, as hushed whispers could be heard as if the officer was being briefed on something. “Well, it would appear you picked the wrong day to skip system civvies, your under arrest for causing damage to Torontonian Territory, as well as failing to pay licensing and docking fees. Please disengage engines while we send a boarding team over”

“Like hell I will” Brent muttered under his breath. Pushing the engines to their maximum, the Cargo Ship banked steeply upward as the small ship attempted to clear the massive bulk of the Heavy Destroyer, hearing the bottom scrape against what was most likely the numerous stationed gun emplacements on the ship, Brent steeled his nerve against what he knew was coming next, having practically memorized the TSDC Handbook

“Savage Avenger You are evading legal arrest, you have thirty seconds to disengage engines before we open fire on you, for the time being we will fire warning shots, this is your final warning”
As the communication ended, Brent saw the first laser shots skim past the top of the ship on video feed, as he cleared the warship and saw it quickly diminishing behind him. With the precious few seconds he had before it got rough, he punched the intercom button to communicate with the rest of the ship.

“Attention Crew, Things might be getting a little rough for a few moments, a few things have come up, and I seem to have managed to irritate the local authority, just hang on tight and we’ll be on our way.”

Just as the communication finished, the ship rocked as it was slammed with a live, targeted shot, and the space around them lit up in laser fire as the Heavy Destroyer attempted to blow them out of space, knowing they had no chance to catch up. Injecting the Compound into the engine again, the ship boosted into the peak sub-light speeds for Torontonian ships, a look out the window would see the stars whizzing by at an uncomfortable rate. Systems blared in alarm as the Environmental Control System struggled to maintain comfortable living conditions, and Brent watched as the engine status fell from green to yellow, to red in engine two as the compound ate away at the insides of them. There was also a uncomfortably large crack forming in the outer glass of the bridge window, Brent knew if he didn’t slow down soon, he was going to be taking a trip into the void through an uncomfortably small, jagged hole.

With a loud explosion and a shower of sparks in bridge, Engine two blew out, Brent slammed down the “Eject” button, and there was a sound of metal on metal grading as the engine slid out of its socket and was abandoned in space. Brent cooled down the one remaining engine as the fire around them died down. After a few more minutes, the screens began to flicker and the communications lines fell silent, indicated they were now within the field, safe, for now.

Brent walked grinning, back into the multipurpose room and flopped down on the couch

“That wasn’t so bad now was it? Now all we have to do it relax until we get to Nubia III, ah! I see you’ve managed to get the Hoverpad, if you could just send that up to the large room in the living quarters that would be grand.” Brent said jollily, as if nothing had happened

There was a tremendous bump as the ship was buffeted by laser fire and Mihkael fell out of his beed onto the cold metallic floor.

"Jesus, what's going on out there?" He shouted as he began to feel the pain from his encounter with the floor. Then the pain was gone, the genmods repairing the minor damage that the fall had wrought. Wow, that's going to take some getting used to... he thought as he saw the bruises disappear.

Clad in his boxers he went out into the common area to see what happened, he was joined by several others.

"Anyone know what that was?" he questioned.

Ar knew, and while she was highly tempted to gut the captain over the incident, she knew that would be impractical and foolish while telling on Brent would be just as stupid. "Just some disagreements our captain had over certain rights." She commented

"Oh," said Mihkael not quite understanding the reasoning behind Ar's withholding of the information. "Well, I'm gonna go back to sleep for a while, when do we eat though, so I can set my alarm?"

"No idea." She replied drowsily.

"Well, good night then..." Mihkael said as he returned to his bunk.

As the briefing had ended Angie had snuck back to her room, it wasn’t that she was being antisocial, it was just that she wanted to take this time to catch up on some reading.

Quietly she made her way back to her bunk, thinking about the mission. There was something that was right about all this. It had been her experience that in matter such as this, it was the government or the military that handled such matter, not civilians. At that how it was in Tappee anyways, she had to keep an open mind, not every government did things the way that Tappee did. As she entered her room she quickly put the thought out her mind, there were other things at the moment that needed her attention.

It took her a few moments to find the data pad that she was looking for among her things, she had packed more hastily then she had realized. Triumphant in her quest she took a seat on her bunk finding a comfortable position. Slowly she stretched her back, feeling the muscles stretch out to their limit she released as a feeling of relaxation came over her. However, she did have long to enjoy the sensation.

Suddenly the ground beneath her began to sway, Angie could feel the ship start taking evasive manoeuvres. No sooner had the manoeuvre began when there was a violent explosion of some sort that threw Angie off the bunk and on the floor. It was over just as quickly as it had begun.

“Soon of a…” said Angie swearing under her breath as she rose to her feet. This had not done much to settle her already troubled mind. She took a moment to listen for any alarms, hearing none she sat back on her bunk. Rattled, she knew that she wouldn’t be able to get any of that reading done, instead she would try to get some sleep, they would call her if they needed her.

Daenar rho'Massai sat in the cockpit of the Silence of Skand, a ship named with the typical excesses one found in Skandi culture, and was running a system diagnostics.

...autosavant test 98...99...100%, fully functional....
...weaponslave test 1...2....3....4...

He let the diagnostic run while he sorted through his equipment, storing small pieces of machinery here and there, checking that those grenades not in his room were stored safely, and pressing machine-oil into those mechanical parts that tended to scrape the stuff away.

He felt the familiar sensation of lift - one of the reasons he was in the dropship was that he did not entirely trust the amusingly named ship whose cargo bay he was in - and paused for a second before returning to work.

A few jolts later, and the Skandi soldier was out of the dropship and walking up into the all-purpose room.

"Uhh...Brent, what was that?"

Esdras had nodded to Ar and was nearly back to his quarters when the blast had shook the ship. His feet left the corridor floor and inertia slammed his body into the bulkhead.

"Arrgh!" He collected himself and braced against the bulkhead as a few more subtle tremors passed. He could feel the ship gain tremendous amounts of speed, then it settled, and everything was calm. "Lousy..." he cursed.

Dusting himself off, he entered the room and lay on his bunk, still a bit flustered. He looked over at Angie, who seemed absorbed in some sort of reading. He decided he would disturb her anyway.

"Have any idea what that was all about?"

The sudden burst of speed threw Avis end-over-end out of his bunk and into the opposite bulkhead wall, slamming heavily into his mechanical shoulder. Snarling like a common beast, Avis heaved himself to his feet, grabbing for the holstered sidearm hanging off the foot of the bed. Finally finding the grip on the pistol, Avis practically tore the rig from the bed and buckled it around his waist, fastening the lower portion of the holster around his thigh for the same quick-draw style his armor offered.

Firey pain in his shoulder mixed with the adrenaline surging through his system, in much the same way the engine compounds had done in Causby's engines, but fueling Avis towards the central room. He skidded to a hault in front of the doorway...

"Are we being boarded?"

His voice echoed with concern, his right hand hovering around the grip of his sidearm. It was obvious from the gathered crewman that this wasn't the case... One was still clad in his skivvies...

"Never mind..."

Slightly embarrased at his over-reaction, Avis returned to his bunk, buckling the holster back around the footbar, the heavy weapons specialist lay back on his bunk with his arms crossed across his wide chest. This voyage was already spiraling into the cluster-fuck galaxy at an alarming rate. It would be best to remain awake and alert for the rest of the trip. He had signed on in a guardian role, after all...

As the rising concern for his crew mounted, Brent’s grin faltered as he rose from the couch and returned to the “Bridge”, dusting off the Internal Communications Hardware, the made his little announcement.

“For all those aboard who were wondering what was going on back there a few moments ago, it turns out the Torontonian Government decided to try to shut me down, and unfortunately, they had some of their TSDC muscle to try to bully me from leaving. However, I did indeed show them that independent business is not to be messed with and now we’re out here”

“To alleviate some confusion, yes it is the TSDC that is paying our services here, but they are also the Military Branch of the government, and are bound to follow their requests, although the TSDC operates as an autonomous organization, the entire reason they don’t have hundreds independent mercenary corporations popping up is that the Government suppresses them, so essentially, the TSDC is a monopoly on Military Defense. So they won’t be concerned with that little escapade. This is your Captain, Brent Causby, out”

Switching the Unit back on because he forgot to add something, he finished

“Also, for any crewman interested, Meals will be served at 0700 GTT, 1300 GTT and 1800 GTT, the current time is 1545 GTT, so I’ll leave it to you folks to figure out when the next meal is, I’m assuming I didn’t hire anyone who lacks basic math skills? First officer Marstein, assuming we don’t have any other ‘interruptions’ we should get to the planet right after the last meal, around 1900 GTT.”

Satisfied that the crew could interact and fend for themselves for a few hours, Brent retired to his Cargo hold room to rest.

"Well, thank you Brent for involving us in that little dispute, but next time just tell me, Regenius can foot the bill. I would much rather spend government money than blow up," Mihkael said as he left for his bunk.

When it was time for dinner, Ar headed into the galley and set the food processor to create something that would smell like boiled cabbage, turnips and anchovies.

“Most likely the start of a wonderful trip.” shot Angie sarcastically to Esdras’s question. Before she had a chance to continue the Brent’s voice came over the intercom explaining the situation. Angie shot Esdras that ‘I told you so’ look.

“Well Esras, do you want to go get something to eat, before we have yet a another run in?”

"Yeah, I do. It seems that it might be our last." Esdras joked. He accompanied Angie to the MPR. Ar was already there, and as soon as she walked away carrying something that smelled very strongly, he gestured to the food processor. "Ladies first."

Terrik heaved himself out of the bunk, roused by Causby's announcement, and headed for the what he figured would be a chow hall. Judging by the size of the craft, there was probably no such thing. As he headed down the corridor, his assumptions where confirmed, especially after passing the rather odd-looking teenage female.

The chance encounter left a stinging sensation in his sensetive nostrils, reminding fleetingly of rotting flesh. The scent sent a shudder through his powerful frame, and an unsettling feeling in the pit of his stomach...

'It is a wonder she hasn't expired from eating that crap, whatever it is...'

Approaching Esdarus & his sarcastic female companion, he posed a curious question...

"Is that foul-smelling shit the only thing that comes out of this thing? I'd rather not have to forage in Causby's cargo for edible chow..."

Ar took her dinner back to her cot. Sitting on the bed, she began eating the goo that was to be her dinner. She chuckled to herself as she heard Terrik comment and wondered how he'd react to properly made Gui Fafark which had a much stronger, and to foreigners, much more offensive oder than the stuff she managed to coax out of the food processor.

After dinner had been dealt with, Brent announced to the crew that they were only a few minutes out of orbit from Nubia III, and that they should be prepared to put in a hand for any operations that were deemed necessary while they conducted their scans.

Meanwhile, in a dark, humid room

“Rikish!” a low, reptilian voice growled, “We have reports from intelligence claiming there is another ship in orbit, although not of similar design as the last group of ships detected.”

“Is the Missile ready?” A louder, more commanding voice replied

“Yes, Exalted One, the schematics we acquired from one of the downed vessels confirm that the missile will operate, however crudely it is designed.”

“And the ‘Warhead?’ it has been prepared with the by-product found in one of the crashed ships engines, yes?”

“Yes, the missile is highly volatile, but it will create large destruction upon whatever it touches.”

“So Long as it works, prepare to fire it, then have a party to meet with these outsiders, take the prisoner, and if they resist… Kill them”

“Yes Rikish, we do as you will”

Back in Space

Brent had summoned Angie onto the bridge and was now pestering her for information

“Angie, do you have any experience with these kinds of sensors, I’m picking up readings already, but I don’t know what to make heads or tails of them. I think its saying that the Planet is a Humid Tropic world with many rivers and water sources but few actual ocean like areas, but then again, I could be saying it’s a torrid desert”

“Perhaps if you could…” Brent was cut off by a proximity alarm going off, it was a local alarm, so anyone not in close proximity wouldn’t hear it, checking the screen, Brent looked puzzled

“That’s odd, there is a small object heading towards us …from the planet. It’s arcing like a missle, but that’s impossible, older reports confirmed the lack of intelligent life on that planet, must just be an asteroid, or some other stellar body”

Brent had little time to think before the ship rocked violently as the missile hit, alarms all aboard the ship went off. Running into the MP room, he saw the elevator to the Storage bay being sealed off, as well as the blast doors to the hallway which connected to the escape hatch being closed, which was indicative of one thing, a hit from something meant to harm them, most likely a missile

Moving back to the bridge, he checked one thing, the ships condition, and it turned out to be worse than he feared, the back end of the ship, including engines had been completely blown off, and they had just entered orbit. Without the controlled burst of the engines, the ship was slowly being pulled into the planet’s higher than average gravity.

Pressing the intercom button, Brent informed the crew of their situation, a slight bit of edge appearing in his voice

“Attention Crew, this is your Captain speaking, we’ve just been attacked, the engines, escape hatch, and a section of the cargo bay has been destroyed, and most of the bays contents will most likely have emptied into space by now. Currently we’re being dragged onto the planet, and we will reach planet fall in less than one hour, I’ll give you updates as they come, but without engines I can guarantee it will be a hard, unpleasant la

Ar had just finished her food when the ship rocked from the blast. Hearing about the fact that they'd been hit and were bound to crash, she proceeded to her cot to use it to help brace herself against the comming impact.

Avis moved quickly, running from the food-prepper back to his quarters to suit-up for the inevitable conflict that was to come. Thoughts raced through his mind, running what little he knew through his previous expeirences and tactical knowledge on the pirate groups around the system. He came up blank, although most preceded their boarding parties and/or salvage teams with missile strikes.

As he locked the anti-tank weapon into place, something occoured to him: Pirates didn't use surface-launched ballistics. Even when the ships they favored where docked, they where incapable of deploying such offensive systems. The helmet was the last piece of gear to get on, it would allow him to survive for a few minutes in cold vaccum, if only on the air in his lungs if it came to that. That was still a minute or two to figure out something to save his scaly ass.

Avis picked up his MBREV before heading towards the bridge, fully outfitted for his role as a heavy-weapons specialist. His helmeted visage turned in Causby's direction...

"What the Hell just hit us? I thought this thing had shields..."

Esdras had returned to his quarters and had stretched out on his bunk to relax. No sooner had his eyes become heavy than the ship rocked violently and he was thrown to the floor.

"Lousy! I thought Cap'n had gotten rid o' those military types!" He mumbled as he collected himself. Upon hearing Causby's report, he collected his gear as well. Assembling his rifle in seconds, he slung over his shoulder, then headed to the bridge.

"Cap'n! There any guarantee we're gonna be alive still when we hit the surface?" He managed to stammer.

For the second time that day, MIhkael had fallen asleep, then for the second time he was rudely awoken by a jolt through the ship. The upheaval slammed him against the bulkhead. "Fuck!!" he screamed as the pain shot through his body, "Dear sweet Jesus Christ, I do not want to die like this!" After that temporary pani attack, he decided to focus some on his survival. After hearing the captains message he stood up and put on the body armor vest that had been provided for him by the Regenian Advanced Weapon Research Agency. They had assured him that it would protect him from just about any material projectile that a foe could throw his way, they had warnd him though that sharpened instruments could still relatively easily puncture the woven kevlar and durasteel vest.

He put that thought out his mind though, he knew that no one in there right mind would use a knife in combat. Next, he strapped on his holster with his Mosin 20mm Laser Sidearm. It was the top of the Mosin line in laser weaponry, and he had had it modified to difuse even more heat from its barrel making it last longer before needig to be retooled. The familiar feel of it was a comfort to him as he pulled it out and checked the battery and capacitor connections, and made sure that he had enough spare charges in his vest. Then, he reached into his bad and pulled out a box. From the box he removed a fedora, it served no practical purpose other than to shade his eyes, but it looked really good on him thus he couldn't lose it in the crash. Finally, he emptied his briefcase of the paperwork he had intended to fill out during the trip Let it be scattered to the stars he thought, it'll be more useful as cosmic waste, than as beaurocratic BS. He put all of his scanners in the briefcase, and attached the shoulder strap. Then he picked it all up and walked down to the briefing room.

"Some trip we're having ain't it?" he asked as he entered the room.

Looking around, Mihkael was suprised by the general calm that the others were displaying. He was trying to wrestle down the fear gripping at his mind, combatin it mainly with sarcastic humor, while the others seemed perfectly sedate to go down with the ship. He sat bown in one of the crash benches that had lowered from the wall when the captain had sounded the alarm, they were designed to protect the body from the harsh inertial forces of a crash, but were definitely not rated to save him from this situation. He sighed as he realized that this was probably it, the end. He wasn't disappointed with his life, he had had a good run, but he would have liked for it to last a little bit longer. Still, it was out of his hands now. He closed his eyes as he felt a slight jolt and the familiar feeling of gravity returning to him. They had hit atmosphere...

Brent picked up the intercom one more time before it shorted out and became useless due to the rising stress on the ships outer hull and by association systems located near the outer hull due to the violent reentry into the alien atmosphere.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, if all those who have not already managed to get into the Multipurpose room could manage to get in there now, this being an order, because the MP room is in fact the safest room in the ship right now. In about one minute I will lock down the rest of the ship to prevent massive depressurizations from hull ruptures, and although I don’t want to kill anyone, the blast doors will completely prevent any access to the MP room once engaged, and I don’t think anyone wants to be on the outside.”

Letting the Comm. Unit slip out of his hand carelessly he rushed back into the MP room, dragging Angie with him, and engaging the lockdown on the bridge. He initiated a countdown on the elevator to the Residences for one minute, after which massive plates would seal off that section from the MP room, trapping any stragglers.

The ship shuddered and rocked as the comparatively miniscule object careened through the massive planets atmosphere. After about six minutes of free fall, with the uncontrolled restoration of Gravity, the ship began to slide and screech as it clipped the tips of several trees and rock formations cropping up out of the jungle, before finally ripping a scar in the canopy and crashing into the dirt below, compacting the entire forward section, including the bridge and part of the multipurpose room, before rolling over onto its side, and again so that it was upsidedown.

Somewhere in all of that, Captain Brent Causby was knocked unconscious, and everything went black.

Ar was rattled about, thought the fact that she was already in the MP room helped a great deal. As she ship crashed, she smacked her head against something and passed out. When she awoke, she have a beastly headache and a large bump on her head as souveniers.

When the dust had settled and everything was still, Mihkael opened his eyes. It was dark, but he sensed he was upside down. He unhooked and lowered himself to the ceiling. He quickly checked on the welfare of the other crew members, Brent was bleeding lightly from his forehead, but was otherwise well, and the rest were either unconscious or dazed. Then, he rushed over to the computer panel and checked the life support systems. As he had feared, they weren't functioning properly and if they didn't get some oxygen soon, all of them were going to die. He considered his options; manually open the air tanks, but that was a temporary solution to a permanent problem; or open the doors and hope that the atmosphere was breathable. He had never been much of a risk taker, but all of the orbital scans that he had been performed indicated an oxygen rich atmosphere.
The soft hiss of the pressure seal breaking was the point of no return, he pushed the hatch out and took a deep breath, and then another, and then sighed, a long full sigh of relief. The air was clearer than any he had ever breathed before. He left the door open and went back inside to wait for his comrades to regain consciousness.

Angie had been surprise that the captain had requested her presence on the bridge, since she didn’t really know her way around a bridge all that well. However, when she finally arrived things were made much more clear, when the captain asked her to take a look planet sensors reading. He was correct in assessment, but there was something about this planet that drew her attention. As geologist he was more interested in what lay beneath the surface then on top of it, and some didn’t seem right. Looking at the geological sensor, there was not the randomness that usually was associated a normal planet, this particular planet seemed more structured then what one normally see. It almost seemed as if certain part of the planet simply repeated itself. Before she could say anything alarms started sounding.

There was violent explosion which threw Angie hard against a nearby bulk head, her head bounced off before she collapsed one ground, things around her seemed to be moving slower, all the sound around her became muffled, and her mind drifted away to another place, another time.

Working feverously at her terminal Angie punched in a series of commands, alarms were going off all around her “Don’t worry, about the reaction, we can control it.” She quickly blurted out.

“No stop, I want to play this safe.” Barked another man in the room

“It will be fine” snapped Angie back in response. This was her life’s work and she was not about to let anything stop her “I’ll simply add more power to the containment field.”

For a moment things were going fine, everything was going as Angie had planned. Suddenly there was a power surge, and the lights in the room flicked, before the back systems came back on.

“What the hell was that” asked Angie.

“There was a sudden power feedback that over loaded the system.” Answered one of her aids. “Containment fields are offline.”

Angie could feel her heart drop as the ramifications of what all this actually meant hit her. She wanted to move but found herself frozen. Above all the noise she could her a voice calling her. “Angie…Angie we’ve got to go!”

As Brent pulled her to her feet Angie snapped back to reality. Still somewhat dazed Brent helped to guide her back the MP room. Though she still wasn’t fully aware as to what had happened, or what was going on, she knew that they were abandoning ship. As soon as Brent her reached the MP room, the section was jettison down towards the surface.

Though the decent to the planet was just over six minutes, it might as well have been an eternity for those trapped inside the escape pod. During the freefall, and the weightlessness that was accompanied it all Angie could do was think. She couldn’t help but see the irony in the situation; she had placed her fate in another person’s hands, and now was trapped waiting to see if she would live or die. Surprisingly she didn’t feel any fear, only acceptance. Then all hell broke loose.

Ar groaned as he regain consiousness. She sat up and immediately regreted it as she was hit by a wave of vertigo. Reaching up to her skull she felt sticky wetness and when she pulled her fingers away, they were red. Relaxing as she tried to re-orient herself, as well as dealing with the negative side effects of the crash, she asked of the empty air, "Where are we?"

"Lay down there I'll get some bandages," Mihkael said as he saw Ar sit up and wince. "As to your question though, we're planetside, we survived the crash. From what I can tell though we probably would have been better off if we had died." He walked back over and began performing the first aid he remembered from his Regenian Scouts days. "The ship is pretty thoroughly wrecked, not to mention buried about 6 feet into the ground. Looks like a rain forest out there though." By the time he finished talking, he was done bandaging the laceration on Ar's forehead. "There you go, good as new," he smiled "I wish I had a Aspirin I could give you for the headach though, you might just want to lay back for a while and relax until the pain goes away." Mihkael looked around and saw that the others were starting to move some. Good, looks like we all made it. He lay back down and closed his eyes, what the hell are we gonna do now though?

As soon as Mihkael touched her, Ar let out a shriek as if she'd been burnt and pulled back from his hand. "Don't touch me." She said in a voice wavering between terror, anger and pain.

"Jesus!" shouted Mihkael, "Okay, next time I just won't help you." He sat down farther away from Ar. "You try to help people and you end up with someone really angry at you," he mumbled to himself, "so much for trying to befriend her..."

Seeing she'd offended Mihkael, she decided to do something somewhat out of character and both apologise and explain why she reacted in the way she did.
"I'm sorry about that, but the last person to touch me for an extended length of time ended up dead, and with me in a coma. It also causes me quite a bit of agony."

"How can you coexist with other people with a condition like that?" Mihkael questioned with a mix between fear and incredulity in his voice. "Wow though, that's pretty crazy, thanks for telling me, and sorry for the pain..."

She gestured to the fact that she was almost completely covered in clothing. "I can be touched, just not skin to skin contact." She replied, "Also a class of psychics from Llornu, the psychic academy, can touch me, Incidentally they were the ones who brought me out of the coma last time."

By some miraculous act of an unseen force, Esdras had remained concious during the few minutes of the freefall into the atmoshpere. Although to him, it had seemed like an eternity. He was sure his stomach was still somewhere in orbit, and every time he tried to move his left arm, a pain shot through him that only seemed to verify his presence in hell. He reached for his med-kit with his right arm, producing from his left pant pocket a small, invidisteel case. From it he retrieved an even smaller vial of a localized anisthetic(sp?), and quickly numbed his arm.

"That's better." He mumbled as he surveyed the room. Several crewmembers were rising, and he was glad to see that everyone had servived. "Hey Cap'n!" He called out to Brent, smiling weakly. "Looks like we're in a mess, here."

Pain throbbed in his temples as light slowly flickered back into view, he was overturned in a room, presumably his ship. He wasn’t quite sure of how he got that way, or what had happened. As the picture became clearer, he noticed something hanging limply over a couch, it was a person, they also appeared to be in some state of unconsciousness, slowly, his memory cleared.

This was his ship, he was the Captian, there had been an explosion, and they had crashed into an alien planet…

Then his memory kicked into high gear, the classified mission, the true reason he had been directed to the planet, now he didn’t need an excuse to land on the planet, they were already stuck here. The tricky part would be getting back off the planet, but that problem could be dealt with later.

He heard some shuffling about, squinting, he could make out a man bending down to help a woman of some sort, no, more of a girl, then she screamed as the man recoiled, the following conversation was short, but apparently informative for both. Soon another crewmember was making some sort of comment towards him. Grunting, he opened his eyes fully and surveyed the surroundings.

The room was a mess, there was a large tree sticking up through the floor, dirt was trickling in from the bridge, which was buried in the ground, along with all the equipment.

“It looks like we’re in quite a mess crewmen” Brent commented back, touching his forehead, which revealed blood running down from an open wound., shaking his hand so the blood wouldn’t run down it, he took a overview of the situation. Most of the crew was still out of it, and all of the cargo was probably irrecoverable, except for the stuff at the very front of the bay

“Alright, it looks like we’re going to have to find alternate transportation off the planet if we ever want to see our respective homes again. If you have anything that you can take with you that isn’t already on you, go get it. I believe the Living quarters are stable for now, and a very small section of the cargo bay should have made it through as well. We should get moving quickly, there is no telling what this alien world holds for us.”

Halfway Across the planet

“Exalted one, one of our scouts has returned with a report of the alien vessel crashing on the far side of the Southern Continent” A Reptilian voice barked

“Southern Continent! That’s where the Temple is! How far are they!” The commanding voice shouted back

“A few days journey at least, the scout believes the Temples power blinds these aliens as it did the others, taking them prisoner should not be a problem”

“Then do so! We cannot have them defiling the presence of his Grandness, if nothing, think of the devices protected in the temple, if they were to be stolen, or worse, sabotoaged, there is no telling what may happen!” The Commanding voice ordered

“I will do as you command Rikish, I shall send the scout back with a hunting party, there will be no aliens wandering free by this time tomorrow.”

"Whoa, whoa, whoa Brent. I know you're the captain and all, but shoukdn't we really take a moment to assess our situation? I mean, we just survived a crash, and we have no clue where we are, although if you give me some time to work, I can calculate our entrance trajectory from flight data and tell you where we should be." Mihkael took out his laptop that he had put in his briefcase and began inputing data. After several minutes, he said, "Ok, looks like we should should be on the southernmost of two large land masses that we saw from orbit."

After looking at the rest of the crew once more Mihkael added, "Besides some of these guys are in no shape to move, I think Esdras dislocated his shoulder, not to mention the prevailing state of unconsciousness the rest are experiencing. We should send a couple of people out to see what our surroundings are like, maybe find some high ground to scout from. I just really don't think these guys should be hiking right now."

Ar reached back to make sure her sword was still secured, as well as glancing over to see her bag. Seeing that both were good, she replied to Brent's question. "I'm good."

As Angie rose to her feet, her body moaned in protest, she could feel the pain coursing. There was also the taste of salt in her mouth, spitting in onto the ground quickly erased any doubt she had in her mind as to the origins of taste as the blood spattered on the floor. Normally she would have been a bit more reserved a bit spitting like that, but given the situation she doubted that anyone else really cared.

When she heard Ar say that she was good, her hand immediately shot to her hip, Angie kept a old model of the Tappee avenger pistol on her, on flights like this she had found that it came in handy when should got unwanted attention from the opposite sex. Feeling pistol at her side caused her to relax, even if it was ever so slightly.

“I’ve been better” she sarcastically shot “but I’m sure that we can survive. Brent, if I can I would like to see if any my equipment might be salvageable, it might come in handy”

Brent looked at the two women, "Well, I can't compete with that, but I think Esdras does need some medical attention for his arm. I was a Boy Scout once, but does anyone have any real medical experience?"

Esdras stood up, balancing himself with his right arm, the left hanging limply at a wierd angle by his side. The anesthetic had reduced the pain to a faint murmur, and he could no longer feel the arm's prescence as a functioning appendage. He took a moment to gather his things into his sack, noting that most of his equipment was smashed or malfunction. He could make out bits and pieces of the conversations around him, and he heard both his name and his arm mentioned more than once.

"Ya needn' worry 'bout me. Really...It doesn' hurt at all." He brandished another week smile as he began to examine his arm. The shoulder was definitely dislocated, his little finger smashed, his ring finger bent and twisted backwards, and his was very stiff. Swelling had already commenced from his elbow down. Other than his arm, the rest of his body seemed intact, save a few bruises and scrapes. "Good thing I'm right handed, eh?"

"Oh god Esdras, Hold on a second," Mihkael took Esdras' left upper arm in his hands and twisted it up and back into the socket. He then took Esdras' ring finger and pulled it straight. Mihkael took the bandage that he had tried to use for Ar and a small, straight piece of wreckage and wrapped his two broken fingers and his functioning middle finger along with the small splint with the bandage. "Sorry if that hurt, but that should hold you until we can find a doctor."

Avis regained conciousness slowly, servomotors in his shoulder whining somewhat louder than before. The usual weight that bore down on it was gone, owing to the shattered anti-armor weapon that was formerly mounted there. It was of little consequence, it would only have slowed him down. The non-organic construction of his shoulder had saved it from the bone-crushing impact on the crash. His rifle, however, still seemed to be fine. His knife, sidearm, and charges where still intact as well. While his once-pristine armor was now scratched, dented, and in some cases cracked along his left shoulder where the cannon had been ripped from its mounting.

Still somewhat dizzy, the large Argonian staggered outside of the wrecked craft...

"Oh god Esdras, Hold on a second," Mihkael took Esdras' left upper arm in his hands and twisted it up and back into the socket. He then took Esdras' ring finger and pulled it straight. Mihkael took the bandage that he had tried to use for Ar and a small, straight piece of wreckage and wrapped his two broken fingers and his functioning middle finger along with the small splint with the bandage. "Sorry if that hurt, but that should hold you until we can find a doctor."
"Um, thanks." Esdras glanced at his arm. "No it didn' hurt. Unfortunately, though, the anesthetic won' wear off for anotha' half an hour, so I'm afraid I still won' be able to use it."

With his medical situation under control, Esdras followed Mikhael back to where Brent and the others were standing.

"Cap'n, with your permission, I'd like to lead or at least accompany a team to scout out the surrounding area. Whad'ya say, Cap'n?"

"I'll go, they gave me a bionic eye that has a magnification function, so I can use it like binoculars." Mihkael walked over and strapped on his ammo belt. "It would be nice to do something productive for a while."

Brent had ambled outside to take a look at the surroundings as well as to think about his next move. He was still under orders to find the missing TSDC ship as well as to find out what happened to it. All the time he was also thinking Where the hell has John made off to?, then he saw it.

Near the jagged metal where the end of the ship used to be, there was a portion of floor the was blown away, (which would actually now be the ceiling, as the ship is upside-down) he could see into what was the cargo bay, and near the end there was an object just hanging there.

Grabbing onto the ceiling, he hoisted himself up to investigate what it was, when he got up close, he cupped his hand over his mouth and stifled back a scream, but it came out, muffled into more of a moan. He realized that the object hanging there was an Arm, and the darkened edge near where the arm would connect to the shoulder, there was a fragment of the tattoo that John had warn so proudly.

Damn it John! Why did you have to go die! I need you now, you’re the only one I really know here, and the crew are going to be looking to me for support, or at least leadership, and you were going to be there for me to lean on, but now you’re dead! Brent ranted on in his thoughts as he wiped away tears in his private moment.

In any case, a death of a crewmember would bother anyone, but for Brent it reinforced a curse that he had suffered his whole life. Anyone, whom he ever became attached to or brought into his confidence, ended up dead. It had happened to his first and second wife, his parents and the last seven of his first officers. Sometimes it was inconspicuous, like a heart attack, and other times it was outright murder, like when his careless command got the ship in trouble. Brent had always remained aloof from people he didn’t want hurt, which was where is quirky bravado had developed from.

After realizing his crew would probably be forming a plan, he decided he’d better get in on it, kicking the arm off the ship, he hopped back down the hole and ventured to Esdras and Mihkael were formulating some kind of plan, which involved scouting out the area. The very plan he was about to propose, as after they had the lay of the immediate land, he would have an easier time convincing his crew to pick up and leave.

“Actually, I think we should get the entire crew in on this, because if we all know our immediate surroundings, We could all pool our collective thoughts and ideas on what to do next. We all have sufficient firepower to take on the local wildlife if there is any, and the fact we haven’t all suffocated is testament that the local atmosphere is breathable.” Brent paused, and glanced at the two crewmen who were still unconscious

“As for them, we can lock up the ship nice and tight so that nothing can get in, there should be sufficient oxygen left in the tanks to leave them there for a few hours, which would be about the duration of our escapade.” Turning to the crew, who were all standing outside by now, he gestured

“So? Are we at an agreement, or does anyone else have a better idea. I think if we stay as a group, we have less a chance of getting split up and lost, and we have more power and safety by working together and pooling our resources.”

Most of Angie senor equipment had been destroyed in the landing, if landing was the correct word. However, her field equipment had made it through the ordeal unscathed, after all it had been designed to punishment. By the time she had joined the others they were talking about searching the area. Honestly the though of getting out and about was actually appealing to her at this point, the last thing she wanted to do as hang out here just waiting for something to happen. Angie had often felt that she was a master of her own fate.

“Well whatever you have planned, you can count me in.” for the first time since they had landed she allowed herself a bit of smile “Someone has to make sure that you men don’t get yourself lost.”

"I'll have you know that I have an impecable sense of direction," Mihkael laughed. He stopped himself, "I'm sorry, now really isn't the time for laughing, but I do have a good sense of direction. Thanks for lightening the mood." He smiled at Angie, admiring how she managed to bring levity to their situation.

He turned to Brent, "I'm with you, I think everyone's good to go, and I agree, Mr. Fic and his companion should be fine while we're gone. Besides, we wouldn't want anyone getting cabin fever."

He took his pistol out of the holster and checked the charge level. Still full, finally something's going right. He holstered it again, and went to stand by the door.

"Are we ready?" he asked.

Esdras had taken a backseat in the conversation and was mearly listening. He had smiled, this time it wasn't weak, at Angie's crack, chuckled as Mikhael acted the part of the offended, prideful man. These people didn't seem too bad. If your going to get yourself stranded on a planet, you might as well be with these kind of people, he decided. Even in the midst of a seemingly hopeless situation, these two had the humanity of humor. Who knows if there is even a why to get off this planet? Esdras thought.

Esdras allowed a second thought to drift to the two who remained unconcious on the floor. Brent and the others were right, they'd be just fine during the rest of the crew's absence. His thoughts then drifted to Ar, who, as he had observed earlier when Mikhael attempted to give her medical assistence, seemed to have a soft side after all. Then there were Brent and John. John...he hadn't seen John anywhere. Had he stayed in the cockpit to pilot the ship during the crash? Brent had said that that section was partially submerged, could he have even survived? Another look at Brent's face gave Esdras his answer, but certainly not the one he was looking for. He had noticed an uncharacteristic frown on Brent's face, but only now saw the tell-tale red, irritated eyes. They must have been close, Esdras concluded, best to not mention it now. He'll talk about it when he's ready.

Esdras looked on at Mikhael as he posed the question to the group, "Are we ready?"

"As ready as I'm goin' ta get right now, I s'pose." Esdras answered.

Ar nodded that she was ready. "Thought the air may be higher or lower in oxygen than we may be use to." She commented as she'd been on worlds like that. She picked up her pack and looked at the others. She could feel that Brent was depressed, and found the humour between Mihkael and Angie was enought to bring a faint smile to her lips.

Stepping outside of the wrecked vessel, Mihkael drew a deep breath and regarded the afternoon sun. It would be getting dark in a couple of hours and it was best that they move out soon. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed dark shapes flitting through the trees. Turning, he saw several scaled birds fly out of the canopy then swoop down and catch some small rodents of a nearby branch. This truly is a wild landscape... nothing like the national parks I've visited. There were very few wild regions left on Regenius Prime (the planet the Mihkael had grown up on). I might end up liking it here, the scenery is beautiful he turned to see Angie emerging from the wreckage, not to mention the company.

Making her way out of the ship Angie could feel the moist jungle air hit her skin, and suddenly a calm sensation came over her. Letting the air slowly fill her lungs it seemed as if the air almost had a sweet taste to it.

Looking around all she could see was green, the jungles canopy extended high jump into the sky, and thin beams of light could be seen cutting through its blanket. However, Angie’s work had taken many worlds such as this, these types of planet often proved to be ideal for harvesting much needed materials. On any other mission she would have been looking to see how to strip the planet dry.

“Any idea where we should start?”

Looking east, Mihkael saw a large hill rising up out of the jungle. "That's where we should start," he proclaimed, a new sense of purpose flowing into him. "From there we might be able to see a nearby river, or maybe some smoke from a settlement. Eitherway, the general rule is head downstream and you'll eventually find civilization, and if not, we'll atleast be at the coast."

Avis chuckled softly, aiming down the barrel of his rifle to check the optics...

"I'm not so sure we want to find civilization, seeing as how a missle took us down..."

The magazine readout was at its maximum, like the three other magazines on his belt. He also had three spares for his sidearm, and his knife if it came to that. If that broke, he'd have to rely on brute force and dirty tactics while getting up close and personal. That was a worst-case scenario, however, and he hoped that wouldn't come to pass...

"I do, however, agree that we need to take to the mountaintop and get the lay of the land. Anyone got some paper? We might be able to plot a course on a make-shift map..."

Brent looked through the canopy, he could see the sunlight peaking through the trees but that still didn’t replace the feeling of dread he had in his stomach. The crew was leaning heavily towards the hill, which would be a logical choice, get to the highest point in the area and take the lay of the land. However, his orders called for him to go in the opposite direction, according to the readings, the crash site was said to be located to the southern part of the planet, and as far as he could tell from the glances he got from the spiral downward to the planet, they were pretty far south.

Then the simplicity hit him, if he went to the highest point in the area, he would be able to see where the other ship had crashed. It would all work out, they would trek to the top of the hill in a few hours, then they would see the other crash site and he would encourage them to go check it out, there wouldn’t be any suspicion, and he would be able to move onto his next objective.

Slapping his hand on the shoulder of Mihkael, Brent said “That’s an excellent idea, I believe we should make our way there right away. Does anyone have any problems with a little hike up to the top of that hill? I wouldn’t think it would take more than a few hours.” Flashing his characteristic grin he reached into his pocket and pulled out a ragged piece of napkin from a restaurant he was eating at on Nubia Station. “Here you go …Avis? Was it, I’m afraid I haven’t seen you as much as the rest of them, just when I greeted you. I’m afraid I don’t have anything to write with though, maybe someone else has something” As he handed towards the Scaled Humanoid

Boldly stepping forward, Brent began on his journey away from the ship, keeping an ear out for the foot falls of the his crew being (Hopefully) behind him.

"Good idea, I've got a pen in my satchel case. Speaking of that missile though, I thought there wasn't supposed to be an advanced civilization on this planet, how could they have existed this long without being discover, distortion or not?" Mihkael question. He walked down the scar the ship had made as it skidded through the underbrush. "Anyway, I think we should walk as far down our entry path as possible before cutting north to the mountain. It shouldn't take too long to get there."

As Mihkael finished saying this he heard a rustle and a low growl in a nearby bush. As he turned and drew his pistol a large tiger-like creature leapt from amid the vegetation and pounced towards him. He could smell its breath by the time the first beam from his laser pistol burned a small hole directly through the base of its skull and into its brain and out the other side. The weight of the beast crashing into him knocked him to the ground and forced the air out of his lungs.

"Get this thing off of me!," he breathed still trying to regain his breath. He attempted to lift the beast off of himself but failed. Luckily Avis was there to help. After standing he examined the beast. It had looked like a cat as it jumped at him, but now that he looked at it more closely, the resemblances were fewer. It had a dense scaled hide that reminded him of the armor of an armadillo. Mihkael was glad that he was using a an energy weapon, as conventional firearms just wouldn't have done the trick. Sighing, he holstered his weapon.

"We should stay on guard for more of those guys," he said grimacing at the idea of what the other creatures on this planet were like.

As they travelled into the forest, Ar began acting skitish and unconfortable. She had a phobia that had normally had a chance to bother her, but this enforcement on a planet was triggering it. The more time they spent on the planet, the more irrational she'd get.

Looking at the others, she asked of the others, "Do you think they have spacecraft, or some form of space travel?"

The creature that had leapt out at Mikhael had unnerved Esdras ever so slightly, so that his hand now rested on the holster of his blaster pistol instead of hanging loosly beside it. Since he was bringing up the rear, he was unable to help fight the beast, and caught up just in time to see Avis heave it off of Mikhael.

Looking at the others, she asked of the others, "Do you think they have spacecraft, or some form of space travel?"

"Well, we haven' spotted any form o' recon aircraft, so right now I'd say no. Whether or not I'm right remains ta be seen."

Avis quickened his pace, striding to the front of the formation...

"Form a wedge, I'll take point... Keep your eyes open for moving brush and tracks of any kind..."

The familiar feel of combat was beginning to take control of his mind, instinct replacing logic and emotion. He would have to be on his A-game here, more so than usual. Lack of a ship and communications meant a lack of support services and more importantly, back-up...

Quickening his pace, Mihkael caught up and got back into his spot int the formation. "If we're lucky," he said, "those things are territorial, and thus we won't see anymore of them." He still kept his hand on his holster, just in case.

After 2 hours of brisk marching, they reached the base of the hill. Whistling, Mihkael sighed "That's some hill... it's gonna be a bitch to get up. All starts with one step though." Shrugging at his own though, Mihkael started off up the steep slope.

As they climbed, Mihkael noticed the other group members laboring for breath, while he wasn't even tired yet. Wow, he thought, those bionic muscle augmentations were really worth it. Still, by the time they reached the top, he too was struggling for breath.

As he stood and regarded the vista of the surrounding landscape, he was overjoyed to see both a large river to the south, and a small wisp of smoke rising from the same area. "Look!," he shouted. "There must be a village down there, and that's where we need to go anyway Brent. I say we see what's over there."

Ar was getting more and more nervous and edgy. "I wonder what they'll be like." Ar said as her hand strayed to the hilt of her sword. She looked around and was pleased that they were out of, nominally, the jungle, but was still distraught at the fact that they remained planet bound.

Avis raised his weapon, peering down the 2.5x optic built into the frame. While it did little for details, he could still make out something moving down below...

"It's inhabited as well. I think our best bet would be to skirt around the east side and take a peek, see what they're up to. We see a missile laucher, I'm chucking a charge at it..."

He had three of the football-size explosives with him, and one would rip quite a hole in whatever he threw it at. Designed to destroy Argonian tanks, they had a disintegration-like effect on organic materials like wood...

"Ok, but let's not be too gung-ho about this. We wouldn't want to make unneccessary enemies," Mihkael advised.

“I kind of agree” quickly shot Angie. “lets look at this logically here for a moment, do you think that they will simply take kindly to a bunch of aliens walking into their town.” Whether the others had realized it or not, but they were the aliens on this world not the other way around. This was a fact that they should all keep in mind before rushing in.

"Unless they have a space ship, my vote is to avoid contact as long as possible." The child-like Ar said, even thought her size gave lie to her true age and maturity. She also knew if it came to it, she'd be able to master, or at least get a handle on her phobia.

Brent was pleased that there was at least some division towards the Scientists proposal to go and introduce themselves to the locals. For all they knew it could be much more than a village, it could be a military encampment, or a prisoner detainment centre, or simply more than a harmless village. However, that was not the Captains main concern; when they had gotten to the top of the hill Brent, along with the rest of the crew had noticed the smoke rising from the grouping of supposed locals, but after a few moments of scanning the horizon he noticed what he was really looking for.

If he squinted he could just see the scar in the canopy, which could only have been made by a large airborne object to the east. Brent’s heart skipped a beat when he saw this, because not only did it mean they had crashed in the right area, it also meant he could get out of this Jungle sooner than expected. Although his own ship was out of commission, if his briefing was right, they scar was created by a TSDC ship, which had made a near-perfect landing in a far-from-perfect area. The ship would still be in good condition on the condition that whatever was making that fire over there didn’t bash up the ship too badly. Unfortunately there was no way of knowing, as official intelligence on the life forms of the planet were patchy at best. Brent turned to the rest of the party and attempted to sway the majority favour away from Mihkael’s suggestion of visiting the locals, to his plan of salvaging the downed ship.

“I personally agree with Ar in this situation, I don’t believe it would be the best measure to go down running into the village with no previous experience with these peoples, if they are even humanoid. We have to think, he have no knowledge of their culture, their language or their species for that matter, we know virtually nothing about them aside from the fact that they can make fire. Also, this would be a first contact situation, and I don’t know about all of you, but I don’t think I’m cut out for introducing our Interstellar Nations towards a group of planet-bound individuals, for all we know when we walk down there and start rambling on about us being space travellers, we’ll be burned at the stake for being heretics against their religion which states that this planet is the only one in the Universe!”

Brent paused, in order to his crew think about this

“However, if we all look to the east, clearly away from the village, there is a small, but visible scar in the canopy that would be created by another ship. Now, to the best of my knowledge, we’re the only one’s that have ever been on the surface of this planet” Hopefully they won’t catch on to my lie Brent thought “But there may have been unauthorized entries into the disruption field, and there may be other derelict ships on this planet that just need a few rudimentary replacements. Then, all we would need to do was jury-rig a solution and we could all be out of here, leaving this encounter like a bad dream.”

“Now, I don’t know about the rest of you, and I won’t stop you from interacting with the locals, but I’m going to go check out that site and hope that whatever made that hole is able to get us back into space.”

Brent watched for a moment as he let his crew realize he was serious, and then he started to turn and head in the direction of the landed ship.

Meanwhile, back at the ship

Kheseer had been assigned, along with six other soldiers to go and observe the downed ship, along with any inhabitants that had been in them. He was shocked when he discovered that the majority of the aliens aboard had survived the crash. He was forced to split up his unit when the aliens decided to leave the ship and go further out into the area. Afraid they would discover something they shouldn’t, or leave the crash area indefinitely, he assigned three of his brethren to shadow them, ordering not to make a sound, or be discovered, and if that did happen, they were the eliminate them.

That had been three hours ago, since the soldiers had not sent a runner with a message back to him, he was reasonable sure that they weren’t going to be back for at least another three, and took the opportunity to explore the ship. Moving aboard the wrecked heap of alien materials, he took careful, measured steps in an effort not to disturb anything.

When he encountered the door, he almost turned around and left, but curiosity got the best of him. After attempting to force open the door, he noticed a small pad beside it, with a series of coloured squares on them containing symbols and wording which was completely alien to him. After trying random combinations of symbols, Kheseer took out his small hand-club and smashed it against the panel. After it has finished expelling smokes and sparks, the door groaned as the lock mechanisms were released. This time, Khesser was able to force the door open, granting him access to the interior of the ship.

He gasped at first when he noticed there were still two aliens left aboard, levelling his rifle towards them, but after careful determination he discovered they were unconscious or dead, which would mean there would be no problem from the two of them. However, it did puzzle him that several of the aliens did not look alike. However, his current mission was to investigate the ship and see if there was anything aboard, after several minutes of searching, he turned up nothing but some odd looking food and some alien material, obviously the aliens had taken everything.

Khesser was about to leave when he noticed the hole in the ceiling, with a shaft directly below it. Putting down his equipment he leaped up and grabbed onto the edges of the opening. Pulling himself up he was no disappointed in his effort, there were a few bags which no doubt belonged to some of the crew of the ship, as well as two weapons which looked like very advanced versions of the rifle he was carrying, although they were of dissimilar design, he took them both as prizes of his duty. He did not know a clue about how they operated, and when he pressed down on the trigger, he found that it did not budge.

He also found several round objects with small plastic devices poking out of them, on the interior top of the box they were in, he found instructions that if he removed the plastic device, and then threw it, it would issue a large blast of fire. This “Fire-in-a-Rock” intrigued him, and he also tossed them down through the hole, Hopefully I may be able to use these later he thought to himself like a child thinking when they would be able to play with their newest toy.

Aside from that, he found some packaged foodstuffs, which looked very unsatisfying, as well as some other unmarked crates he would return to the camp. When he was finished, he slid back down to the main part of the ship, and gathered up his acquisitions, as well as his rifle and close-combat weapons, and left the ship, becoming increasing wary of the violent groans, which seemed to be rocking the ship.

When he returned to his group he showed his brethren as they watched with amazement his newest acquisitions, then he ordered the youngest of the three to run back to the encampment and requisition a transport sled to come and take these all back to the main camp where they could be further researched and investigated. He then laid back and continued to recall his short-lived adventure inside the alien ship to his comrades, as they listed with rapt attention

Close to the main party

Juntalax could not believe his luck, not only had the group of aliens moved quite noisily through the jungle and up the Hill of Racalish, making it easier for him and his brethren to follow in stealth, they also stopped at the top of it, overlooking the entire valley which the detachment of his unit was stationed. He moved ahead a few hundred metres away from the group, while still concealed in the brush, and used a mirror to signal the unit that they had the aliens under observation, and that they may be moving towards the crash site of the other ship, and to send reinforcements there to meet them, after they had entered the ship to make sure they did not escape.

Although his Commander back at the alien ship had ordered him to simply follow the aliens through the jungle, he thought that the Commander was letting his curiosity get the better of him, and the capturing the whole group of them alive with grant him enough prestige as to get promoted over the Commander, where he would not have to worry about reprimands for disobeying orders.

However, if the aliens did not go to the ship, he would have to forget about all that for the time being and continue shadowing them, making sure not to be discovered, until he was in position to pounce…

Ar was pleased that Brent was endorsing her suggestion as she didn't enjoy being stranded on a planet. She turned to look in the direction he indicated and thought she saw what he was indicating. As Brent spoke for the second time, she looked at him funny. In the privacy of her own mind she thought, "You know something and as soon as I can get you alone, or at least a bit away from the others, I'm going to find out what. I don't like the implications of what I think you're thinking."

"Do you want to have some of us stay here, or all to come back with you?" She asked

Avis snorted at the suggestion of him being somewhat too 'gung-ho'...

"I'm as affable as the next guy, until someone starts shooting missiles at my scaly ass. If it tries to kill me, I make a point to kill it first... Forgive me if I lack the tact and understanding of a planetary diplomat..."

His outburst concluded, Avis fell silent, withdrawn within his armored shell. Natives with spears or primitive firearms didn't worry him...

"Aye, but I highly doubt these guys launched that missile at us. From the looks of things, they haven't even discovered agriculture yet."

Confident in his point, Mihkael turned to Brent. "Anyway, if that's what you think is best, I'm fine with that. I would have prefered to spend some time at least trying to meet the natives on this 'exploratory' mission of ours." Mihkael accented the exploratory with a quotation gesture. "Just because we crashed, doesn't mean we have to abandon our mission objectives. We're supposed to find out as much about this place as possible, including what's causing the anomaly. The locals might be able to steer us in the right direction."

"Sarge" rho'Massai blinked, eyes opening in the shady darkness of the broken ship. A quick glance confirmed that there were no hostile aliens in the same room as him, and he gently probed the back of his head with one hand, wincing at the size of the lump that had started to recede.

The Skandi droptrooper slowly pulled himself to his feet, looking around him to check for changes to the room - apart from damage caused by the missile hit and the crash.

His Scout-trained eyes caught the faint smudgemarks of a footprint in the doorway, alien feet. His left hand slid his laspistol from its holster while his right kept him on his feet. He retrieved those bits of his kit that were up here - armour, cloak, a few grenades - and checked that his shiversabre was strapped into its sheath. Then he began checking the ship.

A short exploration of the hold confirmed that his dropship was ruined beyond repair, one of the grenades aparently having been by a short circuit in the crash and detonating in the cockpit - never leave your 'nades in a metal box.

More importantly, his carbine was missing.

A minute and some effort later and he was back out of the hold, looking through a crack in the hull at seven alien creatures holding palaver - and one clutching his carbine. He nodded to himself and slipped out into the jungle, approaching the group by cutting around - chameleoline cloak serving to protect him from prying eyes, and years of training keeping the wind in his favour, and his footfalls silent as he prepared to regain his weapons.

Once again, Esdras had taken the veritable 'back seat' in the conversation. He had listened intently to the others' opinions and considered each carefully. Now, he had finally made his decision.

"There's really no tellin' how the natives will react if we head in their direction. Before risking that, I'd rather know that we have a way off this planet if we get into a lot of trouble. In any case, its up to the Cap'n what we do, and I believe he's already made himself clear. I've no objections to headiing east."

Brent grinned as he saw support slide away from the Scientist and into his favour from the crew. Waving them on, he turned and headed towards the tear in the Canopy. Keeping an eye out for Predators or locals

Near the Savage Avenger

Juntalax stopped his recollection of the story for a moment, and turned towards the ship, his keen senses told him that something may be stirring within it. However, he dismissed it as the ship groaning to find balance, which it had been doing with more and more frequency. He decided after he was finished recalling his fine tale, he would move the group to a safer distance from the alien vessel, lest it roll onto them.

As he turned back, he got an uneasy feeling in his stomach, and since his intuition was almost never wrong, he kept an eye out for trouble, reaching towards in rifle with painstaking slowness.

Ar walked right up so she was beside Brent. Sotto voiced, she asked "What are you not telling us?"

Submitting to the will of the majority, Mihkael trudged off in the direction of the downed ship.

Brent glanced suspiciously at Ar, he remembered her telling him that she had a talent for interpreting gestures and whatnot, and could therefore gain a gauge on to whether he was hiding something. However, he decided that he was going to play is safe for now, and not reveal anything just yet. Not until he got to the ship and found what he was looking for.

“I haven’t withheld any information Ar, As I said, there was a tear in the Canopy to the east, so at the very least a very large object has crashed or landed in the jungle nearby, so at any rate I believe we should go check it out. Hopefully there may be some salvageable equipment, and in the worst case, we will at least know what is down there.”

“This is still largely an exploratory mission, but I would very much like to ensure that we had an escape plan in case something went awry. But as I said in the beginning, there isn’t anything I’m not telling you.”

Glancing to ensure the rest of the crew was following him; he quickened his pace and stalked off into the Jungle.

A few hours later

The sun was falling, but there were still a few hours of daylight left at any rate, and Brent was pushing ahead with his endeavor, which also happened to be his secret mission, if he could find out what went wrong with the first exploration team, and then he could get back home.

As they entered the clearing where the ship was sitting, Brent bore witness to the most gruesome sight he had seen in his entire life…

…Bodies, they were everywhere. At least twenty of them, several of them pinned to trees with massive shafts holding them in place, their faces stretched in the most gruesome way possible. These men and women were still alive when this occurred, and their tortured expressions laid testament to that.

There were also pieces of the crew strewn about the clearing, at least several of them had been brutally executed and cut up into parts and thrown about the clearing in a malicious fashion. Further investigation proved that the cut up pieces were all from Female crewmembers and that the male crewmembers were pilled up and castrated. However, the worst of it was the smell, if this had happened when the crewmember who testified what had happened said it did, that would have made it at least one week ago, and most of the bodies had been picked clean, the most likely cause of the strewn body pieces.

Brent was shaking with rage; this wasn’t just any site of bodies. These were Torontonian people; proud members of the TSDC, who had been sent, despite the warnings of several scientists said of this planet, the government simply ignored the warnings in a rush to gain control of the inner system. For a moment, all of his “Secret” objectives were lost in his uncontrolled raging in his mind. This hadn't just been a murder, it was a massacre

However, this rage soon ended when the same tiger like creature that attacked Mihkael burst out from behind the tree line. The rage transferred from his mind to his hand when he broke out his pistol and definitely over did it, firing off three shots, the air around it squealing as the sound waves were disrupted by the highly concentrated bursts of sonic energy, all aiming at the Tigers head. One missed, the other grazed the shoulder of the beast, but one hit square on the head, exploding it quite messily, since the gun was set into overcharge mode.

Brent screamed and threw the gun out of his hand as the handle seared his flesh from overheating. The gun was only designed to fire one overcharged shot before shutting down, but this one was illegally modified, having foresight, Brent probably wouldn’t have fired all three shots, because now his hand was going to be permanently scarred. The Tigers body, still full of Kinetic energy, slammed into Brent’s body, knocking the air out of him and sending him flying towards the ground.

He hit the ground with the Tiger landing on top of him, hearing something snap, he knew was in for some trouble. As his head started to swim, his mind started to wander to all the men and women who had died on this mission so far, and inadvertently led him back to the thoughts of his promising first officer, John, who’s death still troubled him greatly. Turning his head to the side he was face to face with of the disembodied heads, partially mauled and torn, stared at him with cold, dead eyes. Stifling a scream, Brent began to cry, before blacking out.

Ar glared at Brent, but made the decision not to reveal the fact that he was hiding something to the others just yet. After they'd arrived in the clearing, and saw the mangled bodies, Ar retched a bit at the grotesque scent. She then left into the forest slightly to both settle her stomach and vacate her stomach.

Upon seeing the carnage strewn about the clearing, Mihkael crossed himself and muttered, "Holy Mary Mother of God..."

The sights and smells overcame him, and he had to turn away for fear of emptying the contents of his empty stomach.

"What the hell happened here?" He asked.

As a scientist Angie had not choice but to look at the fact that were sitting right in front of her. Looking over the canopy they could see were another ship, just like theirs had crushed, or even shot down. Given their ‘accident’ the appearance of another downed ship in such close proximity to each was startling, after all it was a big planet the mathematically probability that two ship would crash so close to each other was rare.

“Who knows” quickly said Angie trying to answer Mihkael’s question “However, then sooner that we are off this planet the better I know I will feel.”

By the Finders, Esdras thought, but said nothing. He closed his eyes and recited a prayer his mother had once taught him silently for the people and their families.

Almost immediately after he looked up, the strange mammalian creature leapt for Brent. Although he succeeded in destroying the creature's head, it's inertia slammed into Brent, crashing him to the earth. Esdras thought he heard a low wimper before Brent's body became still.

"That can' be good!" Esdras exclaimed as he rushed to help Brent. He desperately tried to move the animal, and eventually succeeded in rolling it off of Brent. Esdras shook Brent as he called, "Cap'n, Cap'n. You guys, he's not respondin'!"

Avis lowered his weapon, moving up towards Brent's body...

"You got a pulse?"

He didn't know how much medical expeirence Esdras had, probably about as much as himself, which extended to binding wounds and applying quick-clot to bleeding areas...

"It can't be that bad, the thing just landed on him, minus a head..."

Brent awoke to several crewmembers leaning over him, dazed, he struggled to remember what had transpired. Again, it all returned to him in a flash…

The Mission, The Crash, the Tiger-Animal, The Natives

All these thoughts ran through his mind as he made a self-assessment, his head was still on his body, he could feel his arms and legs, and he couldn’t feel any major organs missing from his body. He could feel the sharp pain in his chest however, than signified that at least one of his ribs were broken. However, seeing that a ship full of supplies stood right in front of them allowed him to temporarily block out the uncomfortable stabbing sensation he was feeling in his chest and look around.

The scene of horror still remained. The flies were buzzing, the body parts were still strewn about, the only difference was that now his crew was a differing locations, some were by him, some were looking around and some were just looking sick. Outstretching a hand, he motioned for one of them to help him up. Once one did so, he checked to ensure that everyone was alright, and after kicking the corpse of the Tiger thing, he hobbled over to the ship.

He walked near one of the airlock entrances which still had the walkway extended out onto the ground, ascending the walkway he was confronted with two things: A locked door, and a keypad. Glancing at the keypad, he discovered that the system was in lockdown, and that he had only one chance to get the combination right, before bad things started to happen.

Gripping his memory, he tried to remember what the TSDC had told him the combination was, he searched and focused but he couldn’t sort it out, the two times he was knocked out had obviously dealt some brain damage and he had lost the combination. Unfortunately, this was his mission, and he had to complete it. He still remembered most of the combination, it was JX9?2?AP?4, he just had to figure out what it was. After about three minutes he made up his mind. Punching in the code and verifying he was a crewmember with the chip had had implanted in his hand by the TSDC before the mission, he waited as the system processed the information.

However, he was disappointed with the low “Beep-Bop” tone that issued from the keypad telling him the password was incorrect, and that it was locking him out of the system. Pulling from his reserve of technical knowledge, he opened up the section of plating below the keypad and dropped it to the ground below, revealing the external power supply that kept the keypad online if the power was deactivated. After crossing some wires, he heard a sharp pitch that signalled the system was reset. Trying again, he was again locked out, and he reset it again.

The third time however, things went terribly wrong, after he input the password; the system froze and then blinked out. After sparking quickly, the keypad came alive again reading in bold letters and sounding alarm klaxons outside [b]Intruder Alert, System bypass attempt discovered, activating local external defences. The stationary laser turret pointing out over the opening swivelled down to target Brent, and two smaller machine-gun turrets flipping out from the opposite side of the plating came alive, and as the platform started to retract, Brent jumped from it and landed hard onto the ground, sending trails of pain up his body.

With its target lost and the platform retracted, the system scanned for additional targets, and found them straddling the clearing, retargeting the enemies, it began to move the barrels away from Brent and towards his crew, noticing this, Brent shouted out to his crew

“Take cover, those turrets are live!”

Then the turrets opened fire, raining bullets as well as energy bursts throughout the clearing.

Ar heard Brent call out to take cover as she wiped her mouth of vomit residue. She took cover behind a large tree with her hand going to the hilt of her sword. Looking around the corner of the tree, she was shocked to see the weapons fire lash the clearing.

Brent was awake, and still alive. That was good. Esdras helped his captain off the ground and observed with subtle curiosity as Brent hobbled to the ship and attempted to hack into the main hatch controls. A grin and a faint chuckle emerged from Esdras as Brent failed the first, then second time to open the hatch. The grin soon turned to a frown, however, as the autoturrets sprang to life upon the third failure.

Esdras broke into a run to hide behind a piece of debris as one of the turrets adjusted and made him the target. Bullets ricocheted from the metal in front of him, making him flinch. Finally, a break came in the fire. Esdras peered over the large hulk of metal and fired three shots from his pistol at the chaingun that persecuted him, hoping at least one would hit.

As Mihkael turned to find where the bells were coming from, he heard the noise of a chain gun unleashing its fury on the clearing behind him. Looking, he saw his crew mates rushing for cover as the autocannon above the ship's hatch peppering the ground with so many rounds it looked like a dust storm. Suddenly, he saw the the auto-cannon realign its sights towards him. His heart froze as time slowed down. He could here his heart pumping in his ears, as he began to dash to the right towards the cover of a stand of trees. He wasn't fast enough, as he felt fire shoot through his left arm as blood sprayed into the air in a fine mist. He was lucky though as the cannon hadn't yet gained a lock on him. Diving he made it to the cover of the trees. He immediately grabbed for his Mosin, and unholstered it. Activating the targeting function of his bionic eye, he saw a crosshair appear in his field of vission as his range of vision narrowed and turned a pale green. Prioritizing the autocannons his pistol swung upwards and unleashed two deadly bolts of focused light energy. Immediately one of the autocannons went down, but the other one and its laser companion refocused on his position.

"Shit," he yelled as he dove to the ground as the two weapons combined with deadly effect. Looking up away from the clearing, he saw two lizardlike creatures go down in the concentrated fire. Their presence didn't quite register with him as he rolled over to take aim again. The targeting function still had the second auto-cannon targeted and he allowed the pistol to drft to the indicated position and squeezed the trigger. Another concentrated burst of energy ripped through the tree coverage and annihilated the second auto cannon. Before he could target the laser cannon, it went down by someone elses hand.

Falling back in exhaustion, he took a deep breath and looked at his arm. There was a lot of blood, but it appeared to have stopped flowing by now. He thanked God for the genetic modificatipons that allowed his arm to begin healing. Still, he called out for Esdras, his heart set on one of the compression bandages he had.

Angie just sat there and watched as Brent fiddled with the keypad, given Brent current state of mind she could not help but think that this would be ending well. After fighting with the mechanism for some time her fears came true.

She could hear the servos lowering the guns into place, and taken cover well before Brent had issued his rather hastily warning. For a moment it seemed like time itself had slowed down as others in the group tried to deal with the problem, Angie on the other hand remained hidden behind her cover, frozen with fear. Her brave bravado that she had put forth up until now was nothing more the façade. Suck there, her mind drifted to another place to another time.

”Angie shut the reaction down, you need to bring this under control, your station is still up.” Said a voice somewhere in the room.

She had heard them, but there was simply too much going on, she felt lost, confused, helpless, and alone. Off in the distance she could hear voices but they were all blurred together. In an act of desperation she tried to will her limbs into action, make them do anything, only find that they had become nothing more then just dead weight.

Suddenly she could feel herself be thrown to ground as someone else forced their way to her consol. Angie just let her self float to the ground, she landed on the ground with a hard thud.

As red mist hit her face she snapped back, to find Mihkael tending some his wounds. She wasn’t a soldier, but she could help in other way. In a move that even surprised her Angie pulled her pistol out and fired blindly in the general direction that everyone else was firing and rolled over to Mihkaels position “Here let me take a look at that.”

Gritting his teeth in pain, he hissed a deep breath through them. "Thank you, so much." Mihkael said smiling before the darkness that had been creeping in at the edges of his vision overcame him, as he passed into unconsciousness.

****************************

When he came to, he was lying in the shade of a palm-like tree and his arm had been bandaged. He sat up, and his eyes started to go dark again, bought he fought it off this time, and then stood up more slowly. Looking around, he saw the other crew members in various states of repose, but Angie was standing in the middle of the clearing where Brent was once again trying to surreptitiously gain entrance to the ship.

Mihkael shouted to Brent, "Damnit Brent, just blast your way in, or let someone else give it a try!" For some reason then, his thoughts turned back to the fire fight and the two lizard creatures who had been caught in the crossfire. Walking over to the stand of trees where he had sought cover in the "battle" he walked slightly father into the forest only to find two patches of blood on the ground. Confused, Mihkael looked around for a trail of blood where the animals might have crawled away, but there was none. Then he looked back at the ground, and saw something glinting in the underbrush. Bending down, he turned it over to see the least expected words blazed across it, lazer etched in the surface. "TTC Savage Avenger", Mihkael was stunned. He carried the plaque that had once been secured fimly to the entry way of the ship back to the clearing and showed Brent, explaining the circumstances under which it had been found.

Mihkael asked, "What do you make of it Brent?"

At the TTC Savage Avenger

Khesser was getting worried, his men still weren’t back yet, and he had the sneaking suspicion that he was being watched. Assured to himself that the two Aliens were still unconscious, and would remain so for long while, he motioned his guards to follow him in the direction the majority of the Alien crew had gone off in…

At the TSDC Plutocracy

Juntalax was surprised when his Commander appeared behind him, along with his entourage. He was supposed to be back at the Alien ship, in case the other two woke up, using hand signals he communicated with the Khesser.

You were guarding the ship were you not? Jutalax signalled

I was, but the Aliens were far from wakening, and there was no risk, so I decided to reinforce your position, which you seem to have adeptly developed Khesser responded

Indeed, we are waiting for them to enter the other Alien ship, then we will block all means of escape and move in, with your additional men onto our unit is whole again, we should be able to overcome any firepower they can muster

Yes, we must simply wait, revealing ourselves too soon would be disastrous, but wait, did I not send you with three, I only see yourself here, where are the others

Juntalax looked to the ground Dead. I worry about the leader of this group, he seems to be of the race that first came to this world, he was able to awaken the metal beast and it killed Ralagor and Krencha, cut them to pieces. I have signalled for reinforcements from the main unit, they are sending an additional twenty souls to take this group for ourselves.

Khesser grinned While it is regretful that those two would have to die, it was for the greater gain, we shall have this group to drain more secrets out of, perhaps even access to the alien ship this time! The amount of honour is dizzying! We may never have to work a day in our lives again, it would be all consumption and mating! he signalled.

Juntalax snubbed his Commander, as he was getting too excited, then showed him where he should move his troops in order to greatly cover the area. It was there where they waited.

On the outside of the jungle wall, in the clearing

After his crew had survived the assault of the auto turrets and subsequently destroyed them, Brent had returned to opening the door. However, this time he returned to his removed panel and ripped out all the cords, important ones, dull ones, everything, then he threw in a plasma grenade for good measure.
The subsequent explosion melted a hole about a half a metre into the ship, but more importantly, the mechanism holding the door in place released as it stopped functioning, and he was able to wrench the door over to the side without the electronic assistance from the ship, opening the way into the dark corridors.

It was at this time that Mihkael came up the ramp holding the plaque that had adorned the entrance to the back of the ship before that half had been ripped off on re-entry to the planet. Slightly surprised, he took it from him and examined it.

“And you just found it on the ground? That’s interesting, those sorts of things don’t just get up and walk away either, something obviously brought it out here, and you found blood by it? Seems like something we’ll have to look into later, but first, as you can see, we have more important things to investigate” Brent said, as he handed the plate back to Mihkael and pointed towards the interior of the ship, motioning for his crew to follow him

“Come on! Its safer in here, the only automated defences are on the outside, all the inner defences have to be manned, which as we can clearly see by the gore around us, isn’t an issue”

Moving into the ship, he was confronted by a three-way intersection. Remembering the layout of the ship he was shown, he proceeded to one of the main computer interfaces on this level, which shouldn’t have been very far. Moving deeper through the dark corridors, with light streaming in from the windows in crew quarters whose doors had been left in varying degrees of open.

After a few minutes of walking, he found what he was looking for: A main computer terminal still in operation. Its screen flickered to life as he imputed the password he had memorized, different from the automated defences. Glancing to make sure no one was watching him, he accessed the Captains logbook, and scrolled through the latest entries:

2672, Day three of Nubian Expedition

We made our way through the void, and the disruption field, blind and unable to communicate with Command, some crew have been getting edgy, saying they don’t like the isolation, as well as the suspicious topographical readings we’ve been getting from the planet. I sent a shuttle team to go investigate when we arrived, seven hours ago, with a mandate of three hours. They still haven’t come back, or reported. Another team was dispatched moments ago.

2672, Day four of Nubian Expedition

The second shuttle came back, with only one crewman. He was barely conscious and was raving about “Aliens” and “Lizardmen” who had killed the last crew and strewn their bodies everywhere. He was clearly delusional from lack of blood, we were unable to operate in time and he died. Crew have asked what could have done it, I officially said it must have been the fauna, but personally I have my doubts. In his autopsy, his body appeared to have gaping holes in it, aside from the cuts and bruises, as if from a gun, but no gun has a calibre that large… A Third, armed shuttle team was sent out.

2672, Day four of the Nubian Expedition

The third team has disappeared, along with the heavy weapons they had been equip with. A fourth team was dispatched with a beacon so we can monitor their progress. They have also been ordered to terminate all non-Torontonian life on sight. As of now we have lost a full quarter of the crew from whatever is down there.

2672, Day five of the Nubian Expedition

The fourth team came back, in similar condition to the second, claimed that whatever was down there had destroyed the shuttle of the third team, and were using captured weapons against them. They reported the natives were building some sort of weapons platform near the clearing they were using as a landing zone. The one crewmember died soon after, the other one suffered mental trauma and was confined to quarters. The Engineers have reported engine trouble, along with random computer systems failures.

2672, Day six of the Nubian Expedition

The Failures have gotten worse, entire decks are loosing systems left and right; the engines are becoming corroded for no explained reasons. The engineers report that we have to land or else the engines could become so degraded as to be useless. The crewmember confined to quarters escaped and left in an escape pod, no effort has been made to recapture him, as resources are stretched then already.

2672, Day six of the Nubian Expedition

We have landed on the surface. I’d station guards at all entrances to the ship, and have set up a perimeter around the clearing. The engineers are working on fixing the engines, and are making progress. I have sent out a team of six to go scout out the area…

2672, Day eight of the Nubian Expedition

The perimeter has been loosing about a crewmember an hour to the natives. We now have proof they exist, they are some sort of Reptilian creature that has jurisdiction over this portion of the planet, if not all of it. They are drastically less advanced than us, but they have the numbers and the experience that we don’t have. People are starting to question our escape. The Engineers tell me they have almost completed repairs, so far they haven’t gotten to the ship

2672, Day eleven of the Nubian Expedition

Plenty has happened since my last entry. They boarded the ship, a massive wave wiped out the perimeter guards and they entered the ship, the crew tried to fight back but they were killed, savagely and without warning. They slaughtered the engineers when they raided the engine section. A post-raid analysis showed they had taken key engine components as well as a large portion of heavy and medium power weapons from the armoury.

The scouting party returned in pieces, one crewman remained and explained that there was some sort of massive temple ten kilometres from this location, north. However, they have an entire unit of soldiers stationed between here and there. He claimed that the Temple was the object generating the disruption field over the system, desperate, I sent a team of ten out of the fifteen remaining crew with the last of our heavy weapons to destroy that generator at all costs.

Unfortunately, they were waiting outside the ship; the team got hacked to pieces, especially since they were mostly crewmen with the most basic of training in weaponry combat. All of our combat ready troops were killed early on.

2672, Day twelve of Nubian Expedition

Got word from our Crazy crewmember in space, claimed she was going to make a run back to the Nubia Station to get reinforcements. I wished her good luck but don’t hold out much hope, we’ve sealed the ship up tight, but I’m afraid some of the Lizards may have been sealed in with us, we’ve all grouped in the mess hall, but Larry left to go check on the computer core and never came back, so everyone is a bit on edge.

2672, Day twelve of Nubian Expedition

They’re all dead. Murdered in their sleep. I went to check my quarters for my memorables and weapons, as well as make sure all the computer files were secure, the watchman fell asleep I can only guess and they were all killed. I think they were still in the mess hall, but I didn’t stay long enough there to find out, I’ve locked myself in my quarters, but I don’t know how long I can last without supplies like food and water.

2672, Day Fifteen of Nubian Expedition

So Hungry, I’ve managed to find some liquid by converting all the liquor in my desk into water using what little power the ship’s nutrition systems have left. I’ve yet to find any food though.

2672, Day Twenty-five of Nubian Expedition

Can barely type. Wonder where reinforcements are, can’t hold out much longer. Heard them outside my door, pounding on it. I’m afraid I don’t have much time left… They’re still at it, the door is giving way… End of Entry.

Brent stepped away from the Terminal, paranoid. He knew what he must do now, his mission required it, but now he could no longer keep his crew in the dark. But even worse, whatever killed the crew may still be on the ship, or worse, surrounding them as he thought about it. He realized that he had inadvertently lured the crew to their steel coffin.

He rushed back towards the entryway, where the crew had gathered, hoping he wasn’t too late…

While Brent and the others entered the ship to explore, Ar climbed a tree, using a modicum of telekinesis to help deal with her lack of height. Something just didn't feel right about the situation, almost as if there were others in the jungle. She wondered what was making her edgy as she'd rarely felt on edge.

The look of distress on Brent's face worried Mihkael. It could mean a few things. None of which were good. They ranged from death to dismemberment. Again, not good. As such, Mihkael first looked behind Brent to see if he was running from anything. See that he wasn't, he turned and looked behind himself. Again, he saw nothing, at first, then he noticed shapes flitting amongst the trees. Now, he too was distressed.

Looking back at Brent, he questioned, "What the hell are those things Brent?"

As Angie moved through the ship, Angie could not help but notice the signs of struggle that where displayed through out the ship, in some of the passage ways there were scorch long the walls. “This seems more like a tomb then a ship” she said to one but herself.

There was an ominous feel to the surrounding, as Angie walked though the hallway she had to fight the urge to duck under a beam of sunlight that had found its way into the ship, for a moment she thought the light would almost hurt. However, she quickly put the thought out her mind as she walked through the light, the light provided a warm sensation on the side of her head a stark contrast to the rest of the inside of the ship.

Suddenly off in the distance she heard a commotion, grabbing her pistol she turned on heel and made a made dash she came around the corner to mind Brent and Mihkael both standing there, and from the look on Brent’s face there was something that was seriously wrong. Mihkael turned to looking out the window.

“What the hell are those things Brent?” Mihkael quickly inquired

Angie turned to look out the window, in the shrubs she thought she saw something move. “I’m not sure, but given how this trip has been going to far, it can not be good.”

They had succeeded in destroying the ship's autodefenses, and had even gained entry to the doom-stricken vessel. Things looked hopeful, at least in Esdras' perspective. Of course, he had been through much worse, and survived. This was nothing compared to his imprisonment on the mining colony of Haydon II. The thought sent a chill down his spine that made him shudder.

A flicker of shadow in the brush wrenched Esdras back to reality. Unsettled, he walked his way back to the entrance of the ship, slowly. Everyone was congregated there, staring in the same direction as he. Everyone except Ar. Lousy! Where is she? By the Finders' I hope she knows that we're being watched!

"I take it you guys have seen them too, then? As for what they are...they're pretty big, I can tell ya that!" Esdras proclaimed. His right hand rested on his pistol, as he began to unling his rifle from his left shoulder. Pain shot through his arm, he winced as his body gave him a tell-tale reminder of his injuries.

Brent cautiously reached into his jumpsuit and removed a cigarette. Although he had sworn off the vice years ago, he had always kept one on him to remind him of what good he was doing for his body. Ever since he contracted and beat lung cancer he had made a promise never to light up again.

However, the following minutes were going to be so stressful if they didn’t go over well with the crew, he needed something to calm him down. Lighting the cigarette with a lighter he kept in the same pocket, he inhaled deeply and then blew out the smoke, away from where his crew had gathered, as relaxation flooded over him.

“It’s a dirty habit, I know. Managed to break it years ago, but there is something I must share with you all.” Brent said, withdrawing the cigarette from his mouth and tapping the ashes onto the ground

“You see, I haven’t been entirely honest with you up until now. Although the Torontonian Spatial Defence Commission funded this mission, it was for entirely different reasons than ‘Exploration.’ Although some of the brass may be pretty spineless, the men and women who operate the ship aren’t. Before us, the TSDC sent out their own team, on a military vessel, they reached the planet alright, and they sent teams down to the surface. They didn’t come back. They sent another team to find the first, it comes back, only one person alive, and he’s pretty beat up, says the that team along with the first were slaughtered by something on the planet, then he dies before they can save him. They send another team, it disappears. They send a fourth team, this time, two come back, one dies, but the other survives, but was reported to have mental trauma, and was confined to quarters.”

“Then the ship starts having mechanical and electrical failures, and they have to land on the surface, but not before the ‘Crazy” one escapes on a ‘pod. They land, and they are killed just like the teams, by something on the planet. The crewman in the ‘pod manages to get back to Nubia station and report what had transpired.”

“You see, although he was under mental trauma, he recovered soon after and then faked it so he wouldn’t be monitored very often. He then build a video feed from his quarters connected to the ‘pod he escaped on, he got the whole thing. There is life on this planet; they are some sort of Reptilian species with moderate technological advancement. They’ve got guns, but not the sort we’re used to, they fire slugs so big they’ll tear a hole as big as my fist through your chest, although they can’t be fired again for a while, so they fall back on brute melee weapons and move in.”

“When the ship was down here, the Captain sent teams to scout out the area, and they barely survived, but came back to say that there was a massive temple structure about ten kilometres North from here, and they think that is the source of the disruption field. So when the TSDC higher ups find out, they think that if they can destroy it, they can move in and colonize the more habitable planets of the system, since we claimed the whole system, but can only really settle on the barren outer worlds of the system due to the disruption field. That’s when the contract me”
“I’ve discovered that this ship is largely intact, but there are critical engine components missing, I think the Lizards stole them for the device in the Temple. If we can steal back these components and then hurl a few grenades into whatever the device is, we can get out of here, mission accomplished, alive, and with a fatter wallet than ever before. I’m sorry I never told you all this before, but the information was classified, and the military didn’t want the galaxy to know that one of its own was taken out by primitive locals, although they seem to appear smarter than they look. I’m sure I’ll be court marshalled when they find out I’ve told you all this now, but I figure that you deserve to know…”

Brent flicked the spent cigarette onto the floor, crushing it with his foot, and upholstered his pistol, gripping it with his burnt flesh on his hand, sending mild arcs of pain up his arms.

“I’ve got the Captains logs if you want to read them yourselves, I believe it would work on Angies PDA, or was it Mihkael’s? Either way, it should work on a portable electronic if you can get it working out here…”

He was just about to hand the disc over to the two when a loud burst of sound was heard from the jungle, and a bullet slammed through the window and through the wall, embedding itself in the next room’s wall. Loud screeching was heard as the Reptilian creatures, communicating in their own language moved in.

Outside the TSDC Plutocracy

Juntalax watched as all but one of the aliens moved into the ship he had come to know so well. He was one of the first ones here when the ship’s original contents had arrived on the planet. That had been an exhilarating hunt, and it was about to start all over again…

Khesser motioned for Juntalax and his men to move forward out of the bush in order to cut off the entrance and trap them inside. Although they were evenly numbered after a patrol had found them and joined the operation, reinforcements were due from the main camp any moment, then they would outnumber them completely and would wipe them off the face of the planet, just like their predecessors.

Issuing a battle cry, Khesser fired off the first shot from his rifle, then dropped in as it cooled down and pulled out his warclub, which still had a pale shade of brown from the dried blood of his last victim, and charged forward, along with his eight brethren. Together, they stormed the clearing.

As Brent told them the true reasons for their current presence here, he almost chuckled. He thought it would be very funny when the Regenian Supreme Magistracy got wind of this. Still, this was no time for humor, and no one else would appreciate the joke. So, he kept quiet, and in the mean time released the spen battery cell from his Mosin. Getting a fresh one and noticing that there were only 6 more left, he reloaded and armed it. Hearing the gas chamber power up with a soft buzz reassured him that it was working.

That's when the 5cm slug ripped past his head and impacted the side of the ship. Mihkael dove to the ground, and looked in the direction of the shooter to see 8 large lizard creature running out of the forest with clubs. Oh shit, he thought. Then, he raised his Mosin and started firing. He hit one as the rest of the crew joined in. He continued to fire at the group as they charged forward shrieking battlecries. He prayed that everything would be all right, and then got up and ran into the cover of the ship.

One of Mihkael's rounds nearly hit her, and partially sliced the branch that she was standing on, causing her to almost fall. As the others fell back into the ship, she drew her proportionally huge sword, and dropped silently to the ground behind the charging aliens, even thought she was alien to this planet, the term was still apt.

Great thought Angie to herself as Brent told his story, we are here due the fact that his government was to proud to admit that it had been beaten by a much more primitive race. She went to say something but was interrupted as a singe round came flying through the window.

Immediately everyone went diving for cover, and it was not long until retaliatory fire was sent back. As a scientist she quickly went over the situation logically in her head. She remembered seeing the signs of a battle in the ship. “If the last crew was all killed, then it is safe to assume that holding up in the this ship would not be a good idea.”

Mihkael threw himself through the hatch just as Angie was saying this. He agreed, saying "You're probably right, but I don't think we really have much of a choice right now." He then continued firing at the alien enemy.

Ar growled as someone inside the vessel fired out randomly. She knew she could likely devestate the natives, but not if she had to worry about random bullets at the same time. She was excellent with her sword, but not that good after all.

“Well, lets look at it this way” snapped Angie back in response “I very much doubt, that the first time those aliens came in that they came the same way that we did, that auto turret would have cut them to pieces. There must be another way in.” Angie ducked as more rounds came in “With that being said if there is another way then it might be our only means of escape, or the creatures outside are merely distracting us while the others come in from other entrance and sneak up on us. Either way staying here is not going to us any good.”

"Well, that explains alo- uh..oh...that can' be good..."

Esdras' shoulder suddenly felt worlds better. His rifle was leveled and firing almost before he was finished commenting on the alien advance. After a few shots, he thought he had taken at least two out of commission, possibly a third, but that one might have been Mikhael's.

"I agree with Angie..."

Then he saw Ar, who, for some odd reason, was engaging the aliens in close quarters combat. At least she was adept at using that humongous sword. Although she did seem a bit agitated at the rounds that strayed near her.

"Mikhael! Be careful of Ar!" he turned to Brent. "Cap'n, maybe we should split up, leave one or two hear to cover Ar, and the rest of us look for another way out like Angie said!"

"Ok, Ok, Jesus...", A preprogrammed thought process brought the targeting reticle up in his field of vision, and he began to let the bionics do the work for him. He ejected the spent cartridge and replaced it with a new one, and then let his hands flost calmly up to the indicated postion in his field of vision. He squezzed of two rounds hitting an alien in the chest, and then the head, dropping him instantly. He turnedslightly and targeted the next attacker. This one was slightly smarter, and was zig zaging towards the ship. The small computer chip implanted in Mihkael's brain projected his likely path onto Mihkael's field of vision. Squeezing the trigger, Mihkael hit the target in the neck, bringing it down. "Better?" he asked sarcastically.

“Actually, your right. It seems highly unlikely under normal circumstances, but these are far from Normal times. You could escape from the ship in two other areas, either through the chute where they launch probes from, or through the garbage processor, which dumps unprocessible garbage into space.”

Brent paused as he provided some suppression fire with his pistol, so that ones more skilled could actually hit their captors

“The probe chute seems unlikely unless they already launched the probe, unless you all think you can move a object the size of a car from resting position into a closed hatch. So I guess we can go through the garbage, unless someone objects? From what I’ve gathered from the reports and the journals, the locals don’t give up at six deaths, and seeing that large encampment was saw a while back, they probably have reinforcements on the way.”

Meanwhile, Outside the ship

Khesser and Juntalax both shouted orders to the four other soldiers as they rushed the ship. The inhabitants were better prepared however and cut down their charge before they even hit the ramp. Attempting to salvage what they had, they hastily ordered a retreat and fled back into the woods, waiting for superior numbers to arrive. One thing was for sure, they would not be attempting to go toe-for-toe with the aliens again. All but one of their brethren were killed, and the survivor was wounded. The group retreated back into the jungle as they awaited reinforcements.

As the aliens/natives retreated, Ar let a truely vicious and sadistic smile grace her lips for an instant as she ran her tounge along the edge of her sword. As one of the aliens who'd taken a bullet wound moaned in agony, she let the tip of her saber cut a narrow slit in it's throat so that it could drown in it's own blood.

As the aliens retreated, Brent finally noticed Ar along the corpses of human and alien alike, he frowned for a moment, as his crewmember seemed to take pleasure is causing the alien, which was still alive, pain. However, he had no time to be concerned with Her mental issues and turned to his crew, who were all at various stages of armament.

“Alright, the garbage chute should be this way, if I remember the ships schematics right…”

Brent started to walk down the corridor he had just run from to find his crew, now that they were all together, he had them come follow him down the hallway, in hopes that his directions were right…

A few minutes later

…Turns out they were. As Brent and his crew stood in front of the Garbage Disposal Chute, he noticed that it was, indeed open, left ajar by the Alien invaders when they stormed the ship. However, something caught Brent’s eye. As they were passing the Garbage Chute, he noticed that in one of the drop bays, an APC was still there. Most ships came with some sort of landing force, and this one hadn’t been deployed for some reason. He couldn’t believe his luck. Dashing into the room he looked the vehicle over, it seemed in good condition, and the activation codes were resting on the table beside it.

He punched the release in and he watched in pleasure as the vehicle dropped to the ground under the ship. He then returned to his crew triumphantly

“Looks like we won’t be going through the garbage chute today, I found us a ride to the Alien temple, and we’ll be going there in style!”

Whistling Ar over from her standing point, he opened the back hatch and climbed towards the front of the egg-shaped vehicle. He punched in the activation code and grinned as the reactor roared to life. The GM Hoverdrive flashed green and the whole contraption jolted up off the ground as it, along with the secondary air drive pushed and kept it up. Picking up the communication equipment, he stated “All aboard, next stop, Alien religious centre!”

Ar pulled out a cloth to wipe the blade clean as she headed over to the APC at Brent's call. "So what's this center, and how do you know it's used religiously?"

Mihkael frowned, "He was making a joke..." He wondered about Ar for a little while, no sense of humor on that one. He climbed into the vehicle and seated himself next to Brent at the navigator's station. He activated the comm and set their target and course. He smiled, everything was working. Maybe today wouldn't be so bad after all.

Looking over at Brent he flashed a big grin and said, "Everything's workin' boss, let's roll out!"

With some sense of relief, Angie took a vacant seat within the APC. Truth be told she felt a bit out of place inside the military vehicle, she was a civilian, and never had much use for military hardware such as this.

She had to catch herself as the APC lurched forward, “I really hope that you know where you are going, cause I’m not getting out to ask the natives for direction.”

The creatures were retreating. That was good. They would have some time before the creatures regrouped for an inevitable, second attack. Esdras followed behind everyone else as they made their way through the ship, covering their rear lest any creature attempt to follow them.

As soon as they had found the APC, Esdras was already familiarizing himself with one of the mounted guns. The controls were simple enough, handles to change the vertical and horizontal axes, and a trigger to make it fire. It would definitely come in handy when they ran into the creatures again.

"All set here, Cap'n, let's get this crate movin'!"

Khesser looked with relief as he and Juntalax attempted to administer care to their wounded brethren. He had never been particularly efficient at First Aid and field surgery, and when the division of seventy-five troops arrived, all in full battle gear and touting a mounted squad, he could not have thought of anything more fortunate. As he met up with the division commander, a surprisingly young officer by the name of Numaka, and a female at that, he was even more surprised. The females were more than willing to serve their race by joining the armed forces, but it wasn’t often that one showed enough competence to be put it charge. They always scared him however, because they always seemed the coldest, most tactical ones.

“Prompla Khesser” Numaka gestured, as he was still her superior officer

“Junmpla Numaka, what is the status of your troops?” Khesser responded

“They’re armed and ready to go, we were informed by your messenger that the aliens have entered the ship, how did they manage to get past its fire glare?” Numaka asked

“They possess firepower and technology that we cannot even fathom. When they encountered the ship, they moved in and destroyed its most powerful defence with ease. With the aid of their implements, they make most powerful warriors. I attempted a charge on the group, but they were aware of our precenese and all but Juntalax and I, as well as one other were killed…”

Numaka stared “All six of your squad were killed? And you sacrificed our surprise? All for a failed attempt at glory?”

Khesser faltered under her gaze “…Yes Junmpla, I thought they were unaware, but they anticipated everything, I do not know how they did it”

“No Matter” Numaka said “We have the numbers to overwhelm them now, and if some how they manage to repulse us, we have another five hundred soldiers stationed at and around the Temple, as well as another two hundred dispersed around this region. There are few villages and non-warriors on this continent, we will have unrestricted access to our weapons, including the ones confiscated off the ship.”

Khessers eyes glistened “So you did manage to operate the alien weapons, this is most excellent news, one we have dealt with this incursion, we will be able to make war against the Bluescales without fault, we will roll over their lands and enslave them all!”

“Don’t get too far ahead of yourself Prompla, the Blackscales only support us so long as we continue our treaty with the Bluescales, and without the Blackscales, our influence is reduced to that of the smoothskins.” Numaka chided

“Indeed. Alright, Junmpla, move your troops to the rear of the ship, it is where the last aliens attempted to escape when we ransacked the ship, it is logical they will try to use that exit again.”
“As you command Prompla Khesser” Numaka responded, gestured and then hollered out to her troops to move into position, along with the mounted troops to encircle a perimeter around the ship.

Juntalax moved up beside Khesser, as he had been eavesdropping on the entire conversation

“So, you seem fairly relieved that help came just in time…”

“Enough, we will move into victory and after this day, no one will speak of my failure again. We will be known as the Division that saved the World from the Aliens” Khesser responded

“So long as the Holy One does not brand it as Blasphemy against the cause, and we’re all executed for taint” Juntalax responded

Khesser just muttered as he joined rank at the front of the troops filing towards the rear of the alien vessel

A Few Moments later

The Division got there just in time to see the APC detaching from its holding station on the ship. As the Hoverdrive roared to life the entire division took a collective step backward. Some chanting the last rites, some praying for divine intervention, but all of them grasped their weapons in their clawed hands.

“I’ve never seen anything like it” Khesser muttered “It would seem that today is going to be the most bewildering day of my life”

“It is as if the Metal beast is giving birth, and the aliens are no where in sight. What are we to do Prompla?” Numaka questioned

“If it came out of that Metal beast, we’re going to kill it like it killed our brethren” Juntalax responed

“Don’t jump to conclusions Numaka” Khesser added “When the Metal beast first arrived, there were no aliens, they all came from the belly of it, perhaps the new aliens are traveling in the belly of the newborn beast. When I give the order, we are all going to fire and hope that is enough to stop it, we cannot engage in melee with a monstrosity of that size. If we fail to slow it down on the first volley, we will break rank as our weapons cool off, and we will work from there”

“You are most wise Prompla Khesser, I will do as you command”

As the troops just stared, Numaka motioned for her troops to ready their weapons. She also signalled to the riders that they should be prepared to run for help if things went badly. Then she stared intently a Khesser, waiting for his command

“Fire!” Khesser roared

At that point, the division opened up their firepower, peppering the ship with heavy slugs that could penatrate most armour, at least of the planets manufacture anyway.

In the APC

Brent checked the systems as the APC was taken through its final checklist before operation. A quick glance at the motion detection system revealed a large blob of the enemy/unidentified unit red. Taking a double-check, he verified that it was indeed there, he looked to Mihkael and told him to take the controls for a moment, then he got up and moved to the back of the ship

Slowly opening the entrance to the vehicle, he was shocked to see what he saw. A whole mess of the Reptilian enemies, all-staring directly in awe of the APC, He wouldn’t have been so concerned if they hadn’t all had their rifles levelled directly at the APC along with their stares. He saw what those things could do, and the APC armour wasn’t all that thick.

Turning around, he yelled up the Mihkael “Get this thing moving! I don’t want to turn into a pincushion for bullets, all those hostiles have been visually verified! And Esdras, I hope your not sitting in that turret because it makes you feel special, get that gun blazing! Its not much, but it should scare away the locals!”

Brent barely got the orders out before the sounds of the guns boomed over the ship, and the pinging sounds of bullets ricocheting off the armour flooded the interior. Brent clutched his rib as it flared up again, he was trying to keep his weakness minimized from the crew, but it really was getting harder to move around and take deep breaths. Clutching his chest, he made his way back to the control area, barely avoiding getting shot by bullets which were punching holes in the hull.

I certainly hope the crew can pull through this delima, with this APC we’ll be almost through. Just go to the Temple, kill the defenders, destroy the generator to whatever is causing the disruption field, get the component, and we’ll be on our way. Brent thought to himself.

Esdras peered into the monitor that gave him a live feed from the viewpoint of his machine gun's barrel, awestruck. There must be a hundred of them..., he thought. Then they opened fire. The slugs they fired clanked against the hull, reminding him of a vicious hailstorm he had once experienced growing up on Tirol. Except some of the slugs were slamming straight through the armor of the APC and ricocheting inside. They had to do something, quickly.

Esdras opened fire with the machine gun, not necessarily aiming for anything in particular, just in the general direction of the enemy, hoping that it would at least suppress the creatures long enough so that they could get away in the APC.

Ar ducked down as the APC was getting slammed with bullets. She intended to have a few words with, and preform a service of a type she really would have prefered not to for Brent.

As Brent's yell registered, the hull of the APC was peppered with enormous slugs as the natives unleashed the full fury of their arsenal on the vehicle. Mihkael shoved the accelerator forward to full power. Reaching over, he increased the output of the generators to maximum safe levels, then pushed them a little further. The ship roared forward gaining speed incredibly quickly. Slammed back into his seat by the massive force of the acceleration, Mihkael brought the craft up to maximun hover height, which luckily was slightly above tree level. Peering out the plexiglass windshield, he could barely see the Temple in the distance. Then, one of the generators overloaded and the speed dropped noticably. Mihkael thanked his lucky stars as he dialled back reactor output, and eased the craft down to a more reasonable speed. Sighing, he chuckled a little bit. Sure beats the sport hovers back home. He smiled and yelled down, "Next stop, Alien Worship Central!"

Brent hobbled back towards the Command platform; Mikhael was doing an excellent job for someone who had appeared to have never flown any sort of hovercraft before. He had managed to boost the anti-grav generators over the tree line for a short period and was now moving the APC in the general direction of the Temple. After checking in on Mikhael, he turned back to his crew and made sure he had their attention.

“Alright everyone, this is it. This place is likely to have some guardians, so expect at the very least, some moderate resistance. This place is genuinely important to these aliens for some religious region, and we are about to get as close to desecrating it as we can get, so they’re clearly not going to be too happy.”

“What we need to do, is move it quickly. Hopefully find where they stashed some of the weapons they took from the ship, but more importantly, find the capacitor for the engine so that we can get off this planet. I think they have the capacitor in the same room that they keep the generator that produces the anomaly in the system, so before we go, we’ll probably huck a few grenades in to ensure that the job is done.”

“I apologize again for all of you who signed on to this as a Civilian mission, but some heads have to roll to get this done, and since we don’t possibly have enough firepower to take out the whole temple, we’ll have to move it, strike fast and get out. Anyone have any suggestions to accomplish this? Go all out here guys, no idea is too outrageous”

Brent then eased himself down onto one of the seats as he waited for his crew to come up with some suggestions as they approached the Temple.

"Go in, kill those who get in the way." Ar suggested, which when compared to her size and appearent age, was an exceptionally savage suggestion.

Mihkael had to yell to be heard over the sound of the engines. "I think it would be smart to circle around a few times and take out as many as we can with onboard weapons. Seems like a pretty logical course of action considering thepoor accuracy and low rate of fire of their weapons."

"I'm up for it, I think I've finally gotten the hang of the controls for this baby!" Esdras yelled from the gunner's seat. "Whad'ya think, Cap'n? Should we give it another go?"

Brent sighed, obviously there was only one direction his crew wanted to go in, a bee-line towards the temple and storming it. Keeping the locals completely on surprise and blasting in and out as fast as they possibly could. He started formulated a plan based on these ideals as they sped towards the Temple with surprising speed. Mikhael managing to get the most of the reactors as he could.

Thank God for this machine, on foot it would have taken hours, and who knows how many of those creatures lie in wait in the jungle. Just waiting for us to slip us and end our journey. We will not fail, we are far too close, we must push forward. Brent thought to himself. Then, turning, he looked to his crew and began to detail his plan:

“Alright, this is how we’re going to do this. We’re going to fly directly over the Temple until we find what looks like a back entrance. Then we’re going to clear out any defenders with the turret mount. Once they are all dead, we’re going to storm the building. My briefing indicated that if it the component would be anywhere, it would be in the centre of it. So we just have to go for the dead centre of the building, taking out what we can.”

“Then, once we grab the component, which is going to look like a big corkscrew with diamond shaped metal plating at either end, we’re going to grab it, (It will probably have to be a joint effort, its very heavy) and we’re going to high tail it out of the temple. We’re then going to run back to the APC and fly back to the ship, install the component and get the hell out of here, and get paid!”

Brent glanced back at the cockpit, they were nearing the Temple, he could see its spires rising up into the distance, it truly was a massive building, Brent imagined how such a primitive race could have built such an amazing structure.

Meanwhile, under the Temple

“Rikish! The Aliens are dangerously close to the Temple, they are riding in the belly of the metal monster, we will never penetrate its hide”

“Silence! Are the Temple defenders equipped with the stolen heavy weapons from the Alien vessel?” The Commanding voice replied

“Yes Exalted one, they have rudimentary knowledge on how to use it as well”

“Excellent, prepare the trap, alert the Temple defenders, we will have the Aliens blood today once and for all!”

“Indeed Exalted one, I will do as you command”

Outside the Temple

The nine Aliens waited as the ship approached. Weapons active, they saw the Alien wording scrawl across the screens mounted on the weapons. When it turned red, it would indicate the missiles would fire off with minds of their own, seeking the signature of the ship and not ceasing until it was destroyed.

As the ship neared, they fired off their volley of Scorpion Missle Launchers, and then watched as their prey was engulfed in flame, and watched the battered ship lose flight and height, barreling down into the ground. But something unexpected happened, instead of crashing, the ship started barreling down towards them! And the Temple! Scrambling out of the way, the ship screamed past them and crashed right into the centre of the temple, demolishing three spires and making a massive hole in the side of the main structure in the process.

Back on the ship

“Incoming Targets!” Brent yelped as the proximity censors came to life

“Shit! When did they ever have anti-vehicle technology! Brace yourselves, this is going to get ugly”

The ship rocked violently and air rushed in through the large holes sheared into the side of the ship. They started barreling towards the ground to their demise. However, due to the quick thinking of Mikheal, they veered towards the temple and crashed right into the main control center, demolishing the massive tower stretching towards the ceiling of the gargantuan chamber. Sparks flew everywhere as the tower collapsed in on itself and the APC came to a violent rest on the far side of the area.

“Is everyone alright?” Brent inquired

“Alright, this ship is officially dead, somehow they got anti-ship technology, probably from our armory. They most likely have other weapons stored in this area, maybe Autorifles if we’re lucky. But the good news is, we’ve completed the main objective of this mission. We have successfully destroyed the object creating the interference in the Nubian System. Now we just need to grab that component and hoof it towards the ship.”

“Any suggestions?” Brent added, as he collected himself.

Under the Temple

“Exalted one! They have breached the temple walls! Defenders are scrambling, but the Aliens are likely to find the hidden stock of weapons. Not to mention they destroyed the Hallow Tower of protection, it lies in ruin!”

“Enough of this! I will deal with these pagans myself!” Rikish bellowed. He pushed his massive form out of the shadows to reveal a giant of a specimen. Standing a full head and shoulder above the average, he also had one of the Alien weapons seized from the ship, the words AR-1 Grinder etched on the sides. He moved out of the Command Area, and towards the Tower Room.

Mihkael blinked as he regained conciousness. He could taste blood, Must have bitten my tongue, he thought. He groaned and slid out of the security belt that had kept him from liquifying during the impact. He fell on the control panel with a nasty thud that sent pain rocketing through his leg. Fuck, he thought, must be broken. He now noticed the odd angle at which his ankle was in relation to the rest of his leg. He scooted back angainst the bulkhead, gritting his teeth at the pain. Slumping against it, he sighed and took his Mosin from its holster and ran its SysChk function and indeed it was working. He smiled and gave silent thanks to the Mosin Laser and Fire Arms Corporation of Regenius.

When he heard Brent's call, he turned his head and yelled back. "I think my leg is broken... but if some one can set it for me, I think my genmods might be able to fix it; in which case I'll be back in business."

Ar felt a bump on her head and bit back a curse. It seemed like that was the only part of her that was getting hurt, but she new there were bruises on other parts of her body. "I'm fine, and I'd suggest just hack in, hack out."

Reaching over Angie felt right shoulder, for a moment she winched in pain before placing her hand over the shoulder. As the lights flickered back on she could she the full extent of the damage, from what she could she shoulder had been burned in the explosion, second and third degree from the amount of tissue damage. However, she still had a limited control of the shoulder, she heard some call out asking if they could have their leg set back into place.

“Give me a moment” she yelled out, still not sure who had asked the question. In a smooth motion she pulled the field dressing from her pocket and covered the burn, it was a bit of a challenge given the fact that she was only using one hand, but in the end was still able to get it done. “alright who needs help?”

Groaning from the pain as he shifted around, Mihkael called out, "That would be me."

If it weren't for the specialized foam that erupted from the butt of the turret, Esdras would have become a permanent fixture attached to it. Luck had prevailed once again. With a deep breath and a sigh, Esdras struggled to his feet. New and old pains screamed at him from all over and inside his body; he did his best to shrug it off. He surveyed the chamber around him, it looked like everyone was okay, Mikhael seemed to have a serious foot problem, but Esdras knew from the amazing amount of resiliance Mikhael had displayed that he'd be alright. Esdras gathered what equipment of his wasn't broken, and was startled and pleased to see that the targeting system in his rifle had started to function once, again. He lamented at having discarded his malfunctioning HUD earlier in the trip.

"Whatever we Cap'n, I suggest we do it quick, 'cause those creatures will mos' definitely show up soon."

Brent looked over his crew, the seemed to be in relatively good condition based on what they’ve gone through. Doing a self-check over however revealed much more pressing issues. His ribs were now completely broken, in several places as well (From the recent crash) and breathing was becoming laborious. He knew there was a first aid kit with some Pain suppressants on board, but not being able to feel the pain wouldn’t help when his ribs started to puncture his heart and lungs. He hoped it would have to come to that.

After a quick search he found the First aid kit, marked in a deep red box with the Torontonian medical insignia on it. Opening it up, he grabbed the suppressants and jammed the syringe into his leg. Breathing a sigh of relief as the pain immediately subsided; he ran a brief medical examination of himself. Along with his ribs, he probably twisted one ankle and possibly suffered a spinal injury, but it was too early to tell.

Closing the medical kit, he motioned his crew to move toward him. “Alright, we’ve got some medical supplies here so if you need to use them now would be the time. I have a feeling we’re going to be on a constant move after this. As well, this is what we’re going to do, the Capacitor is probably in this room somewhere, so we should fan out and search for it before the guards arrive. Also, they have to have the captured weapons around here somewhere so we should check for them too, since it would make things a little easier.”

“Once we get all of that, we’re going to boot it out of this Temple and run as fast as we can back to the ship, it shouldn’t take us that long, but there is likely to be fierce resistance, so be prepared. Especially you Ar, we could use those sword skills of yours. On my singnal, we’re all going to burst out of this ship and immediately look for the Capacitor, then we’ll follow through with what I just said”

After allowing his crew to get adjusted, he moved towards the back entrance of the ship, after motioning his crew into position, he pressed down on the emergency release switch and the tanks of pressurized gas blew the entire rear section off, allowing them clear access to the main room.

The main room was enormous, with the ceiling stretching off to an indeterminate height, the only thing revealing that it was a ceiling at all was a small hole in it where the ship had crashed through. In the middle of the room, dwarfing the small crew was the device which had generated the disturbance in the system to begin with. There was a large hole in the device and all the sections above it was listing dangerously.

We should get out of here before that thing brings down the whole temple Brent thought to himself

As well, he also located lines running down into the ground from the device, figuring it to be the power supply, he reminded himself to plant a explosive there before they left to ensure they never got the device working again. Also, he was distraught to discover seven large refuse piles of scrap, weapons and used supplies seized from the ship, in which the Capacitor could be in any of.

“Alright crew, just like I said, fan out, lets all take a pile and find that Capaticitor.

"Find this Capacitor and any weapons, then hack and slash our way back to the ship?" She asked as she loosened the blade in it's scabbard, "Sounds fun."

She exited the vessel and awaited the others to come out. She wasn't exactly sure what a Capacitor might look like and would prefere not to break things that might be useful later.

Hobling around on his nearly useless leg, Mihkael sifted through the pile of materials that had been left to him. There were several pulse rifles mixed in, but nothing of real interest until he was almost done. Wait a minute, that looks like...a capacitor! He picked up the trashcan sized object and hefted it before hobling back over to the rest of the crew.

"I'm willing to bet my life on the fact that this is the piece we need," he said to the rest of the crew. "And I found these rifles as well." He said, dropping them in front of himself.

He sat down on the floor and stretch his injured leg out in front of his body. "Can someone please take care of this for me? Before it heals this way..."

"I could amputate it for you, but not sure what else to do with it." Ar commented as she noticed Mihkael's leg for the first time.

Her talents did not lead themselves to fixing things, rather unfixing things.

"You found the Capacitor! Excellent, now we can get off this rock. Good find on the Rifles too, you may have just saved our lives." Brent said ecstatically

“As for your bum leg, I can’t do much for it, aside from give you the last of the painkillers and set up a simple splint, and it wouldn’t be very pleasant. But if you want me too, I can go right ahead”

With a nod from Mihkael Brent took what was left of the first aid kit and used it. Jamming the hypodermic needle of pain suppressants into his bloodstream, it would ease the pain, without making him dopey. He then moved to apply a splint with a small piece of stiff material in the First aid kit, then, braking it into several pieces to immobilize each section of the break, he applied it. He finished off by applying some Spray and Set padding, and stood back.

“That should hold for the hike back to the ship. Can’t guarantee it’ll hold all the way back to your homeworld, but I’m sure some of the grant money you have could pay for some Emergency treatment on a Torontonian station.” Brent commented “Alright, now lets get out of here.”

As Brent ordered his crew to get moving, the main entrance became blocked with the Lizard creatures they had come to recognize. All of them had their stocky, oversized weapons pointed in their general area. However, there was something wrong, in the midst of the congregation of ten or twenty, there was a massive specimen, who seemed to be decked out in some sort of ornamental armour. As well, he also had one of the captured Torontonian weapons and was holding it as if he knew how to use it.

Around the massive Lizard, there was a few others who had black armour set out from the rest, they were also using captured munitions. Something wasn’t right, and Brent whispered to his crew:

“I think that tall one is important. He seems to have a guard around him and all the others seem to be waiting on him, watch out…”

Meanwhile, on the opposite site of the room

Rikish stood there, in slight awe of the destructing the invaders had wrought, with his small army under his direct command. His guardians brushed up against him, unsure how much of a threat the aliens posed to their leader. He observed the situation at hand:

The aliens had destroyed the Great Machine which had protected the world since the beginning of time. Their metal beast seemed to have been slain on impact, and the Aliens were spilt around it like some sort of discarded cargo, some appeared to be injured. It had looked like they had just found something in one of the refuse piles when they arrived, now, as soon as it had begun, he was going to end this hellish event that had already claimed over fifty lives.

“Aliens!” Rikish snarled “You have invaded my realm and you have defiled my land. You have desecrated a most holy site not only with your presence in it, but also by physically damaging the most holy object in our faith. It has shaken us to the very foundation. You have come and slaughtered our families, simply because we had repelled alien arrival.”

“There is no punishment suitable for your crimes, however, I am a merciful ruler and I deem that you shall have a quick death, for then from the upper powers may you be judged to an eternity of torment at the ends of our creators. I only hope that your sacrifice will be able to restore balance in our world.”

“And so, with your time spent on this world, you are truly blessed, for lasting this long should have only been possible if you were of our race, and yet, here you are. Once we have killed you, we will cut out your innards and hang you from the highest summit of the temple with them!”

Gesturing for his Soldiers to engage, he leveled his weapon and prepared to open fire, while the rest of his entourage would simply pepper the area with their slugs.

Back by the APC

Brent stood there as the tallest of the Lizards gestured madly, snarling and growling at them. As he was “Ranting” Brent turned to his crew and said:

“Well, I don’t have a first clue as to what he is saying, but I don’t believe he sounds too happy. I have a feeling that once he finished, all of those things he’s got there will rush and engage us. We need a plan, I think we should use Brute force to solve this one, I’ve got a few wall charges, but with my broken ribs I don’t think I’d have much speed to run. I need someone to prime the charge and place it on any wall close by, and then run for it. The subsequent hole and debris should be enough to cover our escape and hopefully avoid that party.”

As Brent finished, so did the Lizardman, and he watched him make one final gesture before completing. Eyes opening wide, Brent realized they were in trouble when all the troupe level their weapons on them. Fishing out the charge, he pressed one of the pre-sets on it, the number 00:30 flashed on. Throwing it to the ground, he yelled to his crew as he scrambled for cover

“All you have to do is press the yellow button to activate it! Pulling a slide of the left of it releases a powerful adhesive along the back that will stick to any surface! Quickly, I don’t think we’ll last very long under concentrated fire like this!”

Diving behind a refuse pile, Brent could only hope that one of his crew rose to the challenge before the Aliens advanced…

Panic filled Angie’s mind as Brent through the charge, for a brief moment she froze, then out of pure instinct shoe dove for cover closing her eyes and hoping for the best.

Ar smiled as she saw the aliens. This was what she liked. Whipping her blade out, she dashed forward, 'kinetically picking up the bomb and sending it toward a wall as she pulled the slip as it passed by her.

The blade flashing in a wicked pattern she lept at the natives as the bomb stuck to a wall and continued ticking down from 00:12.

Esdras watched as Ar planted the wall charge with movements that seemed to be almost methodical, as if a dance. Shaking himself from a daze, he dove behind cover and landed next to Angie.

"You all right?" he asked, as he began firing his rifle at the aliens rapidly closing on Ar, hoping to help her with some cover fire.

00:05

Panic filled Brents mind as he watched the charge count down to zero. He wasn’t sure if his team was going to make it out alive, and Ar had just charged into the oncoming Alien horde. The whole thing was going to hell in a handbasket and there was nothing he was capable of doing about it. His ribs screamed in fire, he was gasping for air, Brent wasn’t sure if he could even hobble himself out of the temple, much less all the way back to the ship, which was a few clicks from here.

00:04

Although Brent wasn’t an overly Religious man, read at all, but in a situation like the one he found himself in, he was sure any man, woman or alien would turn to whatever deity was prevalent in their society as a way to as for forgiveness…

00:03

“Oh might Lord of Torontonias, although I know you are a creation of the Corporations, back when they figured out they could make money off of monopolizing religion, please lend me your ear in this time of crisis…” Brent muttered as he shielded his face from rubbish being kicked up from the cross-fire

00:02

“Please watch over Ar, who is currently distracting these bloodthirsty aliens to cover our run out of this god-forsaken temple. Please help what crew have survived this far, that is: Esdras, Angie and Mihkeal, who are stranded because I was too proud to admit I was in fact a TSDC lackey. And if I should survive, I will give them 150% of their paycheck, which can be covered by all the crew that didn’t make it” Brent paused as he realized he still had one grenade left from the ship, yelling for Ar to get out of the way, he primed it and lobbed it into the crowd of aliens…

00:01

“Finally, if we should escape, let us escape quietly, and let me not be arrested for almost damaging that TSDC ship…” That was the last Brent was able to get off before he heard the whining alarm sound of the clock reaching zero, pulling back, he braced himself on the ground for the twin explosions.

On the other side of the room

As his horde pushed forwards against the fire that was being returned to them, he noticed that there was a sliver of a blade running through his brethren, they were falling wherever the wave went, and it was approaching. Realizing that they were making their escape, he pulled out of the room after emptying the cartridges in his rifle, moving away just as a rock-like thing sailed into the midst of his Warriors. He would get them another way…
Seconds Later

Brent watched through his fingers what appeared to be the leader slipping away from the battle, just as the room was rocked by the explosion on the wall, raining the entire area with debris and dust. While the dust was settling, another explosion, this one more grotesque, as instead of the sounds of rocks and dust flying away, there was the sound of an explosion being impeded by flesh, the soft, squishing, squelching noises of dozens of aliens having their flesh blown apart by concussion force, and countless others screaming from the fragmented bits of metal now lodged in their skins.

Judging the attack force was largely immobilized, he moved towards the gap that was now in the wall, picking up Esdras, Angie and Michkael on the way (And by picking up, I mean, grabbing them by whatever is grabbible and attempting the drag them in the direction he was going, which would eventually click in that he wanted them to follow, and quickly.) However, there was no sign of Ar, he hoped she had managed to get out alright and was simply ahead of them.

As they moved through the hole in the wall the explosive had made, he was surprised to see that the force of the blast, as well as the debris had blown through the neighboring wall, clearing it away and revealing the outdoors, where it was oddly peaceful, there was sun outside, beaming down onto the ground below, and there was not an alien in sight.

Wheezing from the exertion of walking, Brent motioned his crew forward.

“Quickly, there isn’t much time, they’ll find us soon, it shouldn’t be too hard to locate a large hole in the wall. We must leave now, although I’m not sure how well we can…”

Brent’s commands trailed off as his wandering eyes locked on to something that could be the salvation of his crew, an All-Terrain Vehicle. Although they were not officially endorsed by the Torontonian Military, some captains kept their own personal one just incase they could find some Rec time on an alien world. The Aliens must have confiscated it from one of the scout groups the captain of the downed ship had sent out.

“If that thing has any power left… Come on people! We may be off this planet before we know it!” Brent exclaimed

Rushing towards the ATV, he quickly jumped into the drivers seat and checked all the equipment, it did indicate that there was fuel left. He motioned to the rest of the crew to come over, with one of them hauling the capacitor. Brent decided he would wait no more than three minutes for Ar to arrive, and then he would leave. He could not risk the lives of what was left of his crew for the sake of one…

Lugging the weight of the capacitor, Mihkael slid onto the small vehicle that Brent had started up. The pain in his leg was almost unbearable, but somehow, he managed to remain conscious.

He looked at the others still running over and said, "Come on you slow bastards! I want to get off this rock."

As she sliced throught the natives, her blade dealing horrible, and bloody death. As the sword cut through muscle and bone, she heard Brent call out, but failed to hear his words. As she removed the arm of an offending native, she glimpsed a picture of the grenade from his mind, and dropped to the ground, slicing the ankles as she went. With an alien almost falling upon her, the grenade blew, scattering her with blood, bone and gore.

Slightly preceeding it, the wall charge had blown, sending fragments of stone flying, one of which had opened a shallow gash along her forehead. With a shake of her head, and a heaving of an corpse, she noticed the others were pulling out.

The gore soaked and blood drenched Ar stood, numerous bits of alien in her hair, a dripping sword at her side, looking for all the world like a living avatar of War and Death.

Picking a large peice of entrail off her shoulder, she followed after the others, and headed down to the ATV, generally pleased, thought slightly annoyed that she was blood-soaked.

Amidst the chaos taking place all around, somehow, as if helped by an unknown intelligence, they had found the capacitor. Esdras hopes soared from their previously plummeted state. He surveyed the damage done by the grenade and charge, Ar seemed alright, Brent and Mikhael had both loaded themselves into a conveniently located ATV, but Angie was still huddling to herself a few feet away. He slid over next to her and placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Angie, we gotta go..." he said. He helped her to her feet and ran with her to the ATV, helping her into a seat, then taking one for himself.

"Luck's just on our side today, eh, cap'n?" Esdras let the rhetoric slip with a small sigh. "If, we're all ready, let's get this thing movin'. I don' wanna spend another minute here."

Brent nodded in agreement with his crewmans statement, they had spent enough time on this hellhole, now was the time to leave.

With all of his crew aboard, Brent slammed ignition switch on, with the engine roaring to life, Brent was filled with a sense of relief, he was finally getting off of this damned planet. Making one brief check to see that his small crew was in position, as well as the capacitor being securely strapped in, Brent mustered all of his strength and grappled with the steering, ribs burning the entire way through.

Grunting, he managed to move his feet over to the accelerator and slammed it down for all it was worth. Peeling away from the towering structure, they gained momentum just in time to see a renewed force of Lizard guardians pouring out of the Temple from all exits, including the hole in the wall. The world lit up as the Lizardpeople who had managed to grab some of the Scorpion Missile Launchers fired their ordinance, hitting the ground around them with dull whumps, as well as making driving all the more difficult.

Swerving around the grounds of the Temple, making no regard for ornate carving or intricate garden, the ATV chewed its own trail towards the exit. No doubt desecrating the hallowed ground with every metre they covered. His ribs fiercely protesting the exuberant motion of his arms as they fought against the steering for control of the vehicle, Brent was filled with a sense of relief as he watched the horde of Alien defenders vanish behind them, they were almost to what appeared to be an exit, or at least gap in the absurdly high walls that surrounded the Temple.

However, something wasn’t right. The forest that surrounded the Temple on their way in had mysteriously vanished. In its place was the morass of an Alien city, with low rising structures dominating the immediate view. Brent could see the narrow streets clogged with alien life and product, it was obviously either a very ancient city, or these aliens had not yet developed vehicles. Either way, they were heading straight for it, and it was going to get messy. Turning to the occupants of the vehicle he shouted:

“Hold on! Whatever we did to that Temple, I don’t know. But what I do know is that where there used to be a forest, there is now a city, I can’t explain why its there, but right now I can tell you that its filled with things that want to kill us”

As the ATV dove down into the city, which was apparently situated on lower ground than the Temple, they missed the ramps up to the Temple completely. Soaring in midair for a few moments, they had time to glimpse the Aliens all ducking for cover from the horrible metallic beast, with the exception of a few who were calling up arms to help take down the monster and its riders. When the ATV landed hard, all Brent could hear was the muffled screams of the aliens and the horrible crushing sounds of bone and gore splattering along the ground. Although the ATV didn’t have that much mass to it, overfilled with occupants and a Starship component gave it some stopping power. However, they were now temporarily stuck in a disgusting mass of injured and dying and the wheels struggled to gain traction, with the city guards closing in. Brent raised his good hand to his vest where his gun usually was, only to realize it had melted back at the Bandit. Cursing to himself, he could only fear what would become of them.

Torontonian Research Area Gamma Six
This can’t be right Assistant Krong thought to himself These relays can’t possibly be operating properly. All of a sudden there are Five other planets including a sun that we didn’t even know about? Just appearing out of thin air? Preposterous.

And yet, its all being confirmed, I wonder if I should Krong was stopped in mid thought by another Research Assistant running by, stacks of paper and cards heaped in his arms

“You there! Stop! Why are you running?” He inquired

“Didn’t you hear?!” The Assistant asked, stunned

“About what?”

“The disturbance, the interference, the unexplained phenomenon that we’ve been studying since Nubia Station was built! Its just vanished! Poof! Right into space, all of a sudden its passable now without our ships flying blind! They’re dispatching an armada to the center of the former disturbance as we speak!” The Assistant paused, as if judging to see if Krong was trust worthy, and leaned closer “In fact, there is rumor that it was the work of TSDC Special Agents!” He whispered “You know, top of the elite, the best of the best, apparently went into the anomaly and stopped it at its source, they should be back when the armada returns!”

Krong was stopped cold. Ever since he had arrived at the station, he had always wondered what lay beyond that ripple of disturbance no scan could penetrate, now they would know, and there was no turning back. Whatever lay beyond that void was truly, the dawn of a new age for Torontonias.

Nubia III, Unidentified Alien City

As the guards closed in, Brent could only wonder what lay in the future. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Esdras ready his weapon. Out of all the crew, he had taken a liking to that man, steadfastly loyal, he always seemed to have a glimmer of hope about him, and was always trying to help out. Out of the short time they had been together as a crew, he knew that this man was special. But what happened next could not have surprised him more.

Bellowing out a scream, Mikhael threw out his arms and lunged out of the vehicle, apparently intending to take on the Aliens one on one. It was also unexpected for the guard as well, who broke off from their ensnaring position to go after the newly aggressive alien who was now moving towards the closest Lizard. As well, his absence from the ATV gave it the push it needed to get going.

There was one final, fleeting glance from Mikhael, and in that moment, Brent knew that he had no choice. Slamming down on the accelerator the sped off, yet another life to be claimed by the unforgiving Nubia III, he could not bear to look as the Alien guard swarmed in on him, taking revenge on his for their loss of the bigger prize. Brent hoped that the scientists augmented strength would do him well, but for now, he had bigger concerns.

About one hour later

The Terrain had proven much more difficult than he expected. Ravines and hidden crevasses had blocked their every move, forcing wild and drastic course corrections. Just when it seemed that they wouldn’t ever get to the ship, it appeared to them, as if it were their final salvation, which it in a way it was. As they raced towards the ship there was one last obstacle, it was still ringed with a line of defenders left to guard the ship.

After all that they had gone through, after all that had happened, after all they had …lost, Brent was not going to allow a few alien sentries to block their way. Cutting the engine near the bottom of the clearing, he sagged back, his entire chest afire now. Labouring to breathe, he informed the crew of their predicament, which they were already aware of.

“We have come to far… to be… stopped here…” The Captain stated labouriously “Do… what…you must. We must secure that ship…do you understand?”

With that, he shed one tear for the Scientist, and all the other crew who had perished or gone missing on this horrific expedition. Inside the ship was the medical supplies he needed. Safety from the Aliens and most importantly, escape. Motioning the crew forward, he stealthily made his way to the guard line.

Ar had been scrapping dried flakes of alien blood off her skin, and working it out of her hair as the ATV bumped and rattled with Brent driving to avoid the missiles, potholes and various other road hazards. As the vehicle drove, a large section of 'reality' simply vanished, causing her to blink in surprise and not a wee bit of confusion.

With the ATV hitting the jump, Ar was thankful for the seatbelt as otherwise she'd have likely gone flying out of her and thunked her head against something painful. When it came down with a squish, she bit her tounge badly enought that her mouth began to fill with blood which began drooling out of the side of her mouth and she'd gotten rattled sufficiantly to leave her out of it until a while after the ATV had gotten started again.

**********

Ar had woken and spit out the blood onto the floor of the ATV before getting out and joined Brent in creeping forward. "What's the plan?" She projected to Brent, "And you can think the answer."

Well, I slightly ashamed to admit it, but there really isn't much to it Brent thought

Simply, those Aliens are surrounding our ship, and we need to get in it. Whether through stealthy, tactical kills or outright slaughter of the whole group, I don't care. Whatever it takes to get it done...

I'll go distract them. Get the others to the ship. As soon as you're on, mentally shout as loud as you can. If I respond, please give me half an hour, otherwise take off, alright? She thought at Brent as her hand moved to the hilt of her blade.

Mihkael fought for his life, finally putting the muscle augmentations to the test. They were performing well beyond specifications.

Alien flesh yielded like tinfoil to the strength of his arms. As soon as he could, he grabbed a pole axe from one of the dead, and began wielding it with a skill not often seen in a physicist. Time slowed down as the cerebral implants began releasing neurostimulants. The programmed killing machine that was Regen Corp. Marine Special Forces Specialist Mihkael Gasparovich unleashed all its fury on the surrounding hoarde of aliens.

After thirty seconds, there no longer was a hoarde. Looking in the direction the ATV had departed, Mihkael set off at a sprint.

It was so close that Esdras felt like he could reach out and touch it. Almost. Aside from a short distance, the only thing that seperated him and his ticket home...was a defensive perimeter of yet more lizards. There seemed to be no end to them. Esdras noticed Brent and Ar stare and each other for a few seconds. Ar's eyes shown an eager gleam as she gripped her sword, while Brent's face displayed a regretful yet acknowledging look. Realization struck Esdras with a jolt.

"Oh, no you don'. There's no way your gonna take 'em all on by yourself! I won' allow it!" He turned to Brent. "You and Angie get back to the ship, I'm gonna help Ar." He turned back to Ar. "Besides, who said you get to have all the fun?" A feint smile crept across Esdras' lips as they waited for Brent's final say.

Brent waited silently, or as silent as he could be with his broken ribs, he crouched in much discomfort in the small ditch that lay in front of the ship. Although it did not allow him much view, it did shield them from watching eyes. As he sat there he pondered whether this mission was worth it. He was pretty sure he’d get off easy when they got back to Nubia station; after all, it was a complete success. The entire system was now open for colonization and exploitation. The days of the self-autonomy that these Aliens had here were numbered, but he wasn’t upset in the least. The barbaric lizard’s deserved to be forced into the great Corporate Autocracy.

After a moment, he heard what he was waiting for. Ar sprang up and attacked the closest Sentry, drawing it away from the entrance and alerting the others. With the grotesque sound of organs and gore splashing to the ground as he remembered Ar flying into a frenzy the last time they were cornered. As he looked up, he also saw Esdras moving forward. He had technically asked if he could assist Ar after coming up with the idea that he should be moving to the protective area of the ship, and all he could muster was a brief nod. He was on the verge of collapse, but somehow he managed to push on.

In the general confusion, Brent, with the help of Angie managed to shamble up the blown out hatch they had entered in the last time, carrying the capacitor with them. It had been forcefully removed by the Aliens, but the emergency pressure seal would kick in when they got high enough in the air. The ship was deserted, the Aliens didn’t seem to be very fond of it, with the only detection of them even being there was the general vandalism of the ship and the pitched sounds of gunfire and melee combat going on outside.

Making his way to the Engine room, he passed by several crew quarters and had flashbacks to all the dead they had found on that field when they first got there. Although it was only a few hours ago, it felt like days. In that time he had gotten shot down, broken his ribs, almost blown up, shot at, chased down and generally terrorized more so than he ever had been in his life. At least the authorities had some sort of code of conduct. All the reflection ended abruptly when he found himself at the Engine Room, or Engine Control Center. He easily saw where the Capacitor was taken from, and again, with the help of Angie, managed to slide it back into place, and secure it. After testing to ensure it was operational, he made a dead run to the bridge, adrenaline at the prospect of getting off this planet surging through him.

Once on the bridge, he unlocked the command controls with yet another password he had melded into his mind in preparation for this mission. When the system let him in, he wasn’t cursing the hours he spent pouring over the dozens of code needed to operate an entire ship. Activating the Communications System, he projected a message to the fighters outside, letting some of his humour leak back though his withered exterior.

Warning, I am about to awaken this Metal Beast! If you do not want to be harmed then I would suggest you leave you filthy bastards. If you don’t, then I suppose you can just die. On a side note: All Crew of the Savage Avenger please report to the bridge immediately for takeoff and exit of this planets atmosphere, and everything else to do with it. Thank you, that is all.
“Well, lets see if this ship has anything left in it…” Brent muttered as he scanned through the statistics of the ships readiness.

“No weapons, I suppose we can do without. Complement of mines lost. Don’t need that. Power reserves at 54% and failing, I’m sure we can make it out with that. Lifesupport minimal, well I can be uncomfortable…Multiple hull breaches, we’ll just have to seal those sections off when we launch, but no matter, everyone will be on the bridge…”

Satisfied, Brent leaned back in the Captains chair, momentarily basking in the glory of his life’s vision, if it was only for a moment and as an impostor. No, after this incident, he doubted that he would ever be allowed in the TSDC ever again....

In High Orbit over Nubia III

Admiral Cuthbert sat on the deck on the Epsilon Guardian. The Pride of Torontonias, the flagship of the TSDC. Along with a flotilla of other vessels, they had secured the closest planet from the void after the disturbance was shut down. He had been informed that there was a privateer sent to go take care of the problem and no one had heard whether he had survived, along with the rag-tag crew he took with him.

No matter, if he dies, then we don’t have to pay him his outrageous contract, just reward the crew with some pittance of a paycheck. If he does survive, just as well. We have him on so many Criminal investigations that the one charge of damaging TSDC property would give them the access they needed to Captain Brent Causby’s personal files, then they would put him away for a good long time.

What Causby didn’t even know himself is that the TSDC was on to him from the beginning. They had found out his long, long record with the law, accompanied with no official charges because he always flew off to more remote, distant and some times extra-national places where they couldn’t persecute him. But today was his last adventure. If he was alive he was going to be in for a rude surprise…

“Sir!” A young Ensign reported

“What is it?” Cuthbert replied

“We’ve got a ship powering up on the surface. Scans indicate there is a pitched battle directly under it, and it doesn’t look like the locals are having a good time. We’ve picked up Causby’s crashed vessel a few clicks away from the location of this ship, so there is a good chance its him. If he doesn’t get out of there soon though, he’s going to get swamped by the legion of reinforcements heading their way…”

“Well, we’ll just see who comes out on top then!” The Admiral chuckled

“Sir! The ship, it’s a Bandit, the TSDC Plutocracy” The Ensign added

“What? Government property? We can’t have that falling into those alien hands! Target that legion with the Laser Bolt batteries! In fact, wipe that section of forest off the face of the map!” The Admiral ordered, with a commanding edge to ensure he was serious”

“Charging up batteries sir…” The Ensign replied, shocked

Back on Nubia III

The Lizardfolk General ran his troops double time though the familiar forest that surrounded the holy city. Most of his brethren had trained here since they were hatchlings, and knew the area well. However, that was not important, what was important was that the Invaders were rushing back to awaken the Metal beast and escape, most likely bringing more invaders back now that the mystic energies of the Temple had been disrupted. Their Clerics reporting that they could do nothing to replace it, that the technology was simply too ancient.

As they ran across dense underbrush following the messy tracks left by the ATV, several of his subordinates starting jabbering excitedly, pointing to the sky. Looking up, he saw angry red shafts of light barreling down on his troop. His last awe filled thoughts were

The Creator intervenes on our behalf! Taking us away and relieving us of our solemn duty. He will finish the invaders, he will protect us and preserve our freedom.

Little did he know that this was far from the Creator, and was most likely to be the Last free day of all the Lizardfolk’s lives.

To his great surprise, Esdras' hud system had suddenly decided to function properly. As quickly as he could, he donned the electronic headpiece and smiled as it linked to his rifle, a familiar "beep" rung in his ear. It was a comforting sound. He took off after Ar, barely managing to keep up with her.

Once they reached the clearing, Esdras fired his rifle as quickly as he could, while still managing some degree of accuracy, pausing only to reload. A few moments later, he counted twelve kills, maybe thirteen. It took everything he had to keep up with Ar, and then some. He was sure she had slain easily three times as many lizards as he had, but that wasn't important. Twice he picked off a lizard about to strike a fatal blow on her, or so he figured. He really wasn't sure what she was capable of. Once a lizard nearly decapitated him, luckily, at the time, Ar was close enough to decapitate the lizard first.

He crept along behind Ar, keeping enough distance so as not to be inadvertantly struck by her blade. Her flowing movements formed a poetic song of battle, and he was awestruck by her prowess.

Returning his attention to battle, he racked up several more kills before hearing the ship roar to life and Brent's voice over the loudspeaker. It was time to go. Finally.

With a few more shots he downed every lizard in Ar's immediate vacinity.

"Ar! Come on! We gotta go, now!" Esdras yelled over the combined sounds of the ship and the battle.

After getting 'permission' from Brent, Ar had drawn her saber and sped forward into the unsuspecting sentries. As she danced her deadly dance amongst the natives Ar heard the crack of a rifle. She made a mental note to thank him, if they both survived and all that as he saved her life by blowing apart a couple natives that had come close to striking blows that would have killed her indirectly.

She partially returned the favour when she noticed an alien who was about to strike him down and sent the alien onto it's eternal reward. As she continued her grisely poetry, her macabre melody, she heard Esdras call out it was time to leave as he slew the aliens remaining in her vicinity.

Wiping her face which simply smeared the blood, she followed after him and toward the ship.

Esdras beat Ar to the ship by a few seconds and turned to cover her as she caught up. Still linked with his rifle, he downed several more lizards, pausing as Ar crossed his line of fire to board the ship.

"Some fun, eh?" He remarked to Ar, breathing heavily. He made his way haphazardly to the bridge, quite unsure where he was headed, but arriving there nonetheless.

"Cap'n, let's get off this damned planet." He said to Brent, a faint smile stretching across his dirty, worn and tired face.

Ar simply stretched and commented, "Messy thought."

Wiping down her sword, she sheathed it and headed down to the bridge as well, picking off little bits of flesh, bone and gore as she walked as well as leaving bloody footprints.

Taking a seat she replied, "So what know?"

Without looking over his shoulder to see who had arrived, he continued to run though the system preparations while answering the question posed by the “Young” telepath. Although it wouldn’t normally take this long start the small, agile Bandit class, with no bridge crew and the system in lockdown, it was taking longer than anticipated.

“Well Ar, for one thing, we’re getting off the damned planet, unless you’d like to linger a few days longer on this vacation resort of a planet?” Brent responded sarcastically, he was rather surprised that someone of Ar’s intelligence would ask them what they were going to do once they had a functioning space ship… “After we get back into space, I’ll be taking us all on an extended trip back to an international space station, most likely in the Sol region. We can’t go back to Nubia station; they’ll probably be waiting for me there. If you have something at Nubia station, I’m sure you can arrange for a trip back, as I assure you, with the lost crewmembers the rest of you are getting a substantial “Danger” bonus for this misadventure…”

Brent found it weird how he didn’t turn around out of reflex as he always did, he had been paranoid of anyone marching in behind his back since he was very young, never entirely trusting anyone. However, this crew was different; they had all proven that they were willing to lay down their lives for him, or at least each other, which had created a sort of “Bond of Brotherhood” between them. It was like a reassuring presence when they were there. It made him seriously considering hiring these people as more than “Contract Workers”

“There is a pile of Emergency Medical Kits in the corner over there” Brent muttered absently, pointing vaguely to the southern corner of the bridge “Used them to fix my ribs up real good for now, which is why I’m not struggling to breathe or moving and such. Take a seat somewhere, we’ll be lifting off soon, Can’t say I’m going to miss this place…”

Deep in the Jungle

Mihkael panted as he fought his way though the brush of the undergrowth, constantly vigilant not to trip up. The fight with most of the cities immediate guard had left him drained, Although his augmentations had served him well, it had still left him physically drained, and the thought and visions of the grisly incident flashing through his mind as he ran was readily depleting his mental strength. He knew that the Captain wasn’t going to be waiting, not even for him…

What kept him running was the though of being trapped on this planet for the rest of his days. There was no guarantee that anyone would ever return here, and he wasn’t going to just give up and die, the thought of existing in constant fear and returning a Hunter-Gathering mindset was not something he fancied doing. Besides, after all this violence, there had also been great discovery to report back to the Commission, which he was only vaguely aware he was still part of. The disruption field, the way these primitives had advanced, and the obvious flora and fauna of the planet, it was all to invaluable to waste by being abandoned on this planet.

As he neared the clearing, he began to smell the gore and rot of dozens of freshly killed corpses, no doubt killed by the brazen crew seizing control back of the ship. However, there was one sound that overlapped that, and filled him with fear, which the undeniable sound of the engines powering up and the ship readying itself for lift-off. Damn, I’m not going to make it he thought bitterly, but, not wanting to give up, made one final sprint tapping the rest of his energy for the ship, and his salvation…

Back on the Plutocrat

“…One thing you will have to know however” Brent continued “Is that I had to disable a number of systems in order to muster enough power to escape this planets gravity. They included The Sensor systems, weapons, the detachable armour network and lighting. So we’ll be flying blind, defenseless and completely in the dark during this one, if your claustrophobic, I apologize in advance”

As a lighted flashed, followed by the console chirping, informing its new Captain that it was ready to depart, Brent motioned for his crew to “Fasten their seatbelts” so to say. As Brent turned and started moving his hands professionally over the console, he was hit by a flashback…

Twenty Years Ago

In his mid-teen years, Brent had been enrolled in a TSDC Academy, he subsequently dropped out of course, but during those years he had seen a dream to serve aboard one of the many TSDC ships in defense of the Autocracy rise, peak and falter, leaving him terribly disillusioned as well as his kooky sense of humour. As Brent was starting up the ship, he remembered his first day of actual basic training, rather than theory, math and tactics.

“Now Students, the first thing you have to learn when you serve aboard a ship is discipline, to follow orders, to do what your told is paramount to all other things you will learn in your time here.” A retired Admiral lectured, Brent couldn’t remember his name “If you fail that you will be kicked out of the force, or worse, you will get yourself, along with countless others killed someday because you couldn’t react quickly enough.”

The Retired Admiral had taken a shine to picking on Brent, one of the many reasons he dropped out

“Young Causby here is a prime example of someone who lacks discipline. He is going to either drop out of this program, or get himself killed trying to finish it. Either way, I can guarantee to all of you here, that Causby will never set foot aboard a TSDC ship, unless as a prisoner…”

Back to Reality…

Brent had certainly shown him. Not only was he Commanding a TSDC vessel, he had also gone on to Captain an independent line of ships. However, he was still right from his deathbed, Brent realized. He Had dropped out of the Academy and he Had caused the deaths or disappearances of several of his crewmates, including John. In his blind lust to play “Secret Agent” he had forfeited the lives of many close to him, and now he knew, the TSDC was simply using him, he was sure of it now.

They had sent him on this suicide mission to solve a problem, him. If he didn’t come back, “Oh well, don’t have to worry about the antics of Captain Causby anymore” and if he did come back, they just acquired several new planets for exploitation, with a bonus! One of them came with a sentient species! Then they could just arrest him for any number of crimes. Brent resigned his fate, but vowed that they would have to catch him first, and he would first get his own crew to safety…

He was lost in thought when the jarring motion of the ship knocked him back. It was lifting free of the ground it had long resigned to calling home, and moving back into the air, they would soon be free of this retched planet. He could hear the pressurized bulkheads falling into place to seal the hull breaches, but not before a shadow flicked across into the room, followed by audible gasps, Brent slowly turned and saw…

On the Clearing, Seconds before

…Mihkael entered the clearing only to be encountered by two remaining sentries who were jabbering and motioning between him and the ship. As they raise their weapons against him, Mihkael muttered “Aw hell no” and proceeded to bludgeon one’s skull to cave-in with one swift strike, and breaking the neck of the other. As the two dropped to the ground, he bolted for the rising ship.

He lunged from the clearing over an impossible distance to grab into the ascending loading ramp that was pulling up into the ship. Using the momentum from his jump, he launched himself into the holding bay and clattered against several empty crates. Sitting up, he shook off the remaining adrenaline clouding his thoughts, it was then he heard the alarms.

He could see the doorways being sealed up as he felt the whooshing of air being sucked out of the room. Looking to his side, he noticed a large gash in the armour that air was escaping through, this would be a death-sentence when they got to space. Rolling under the closing bulkhead, he managed to jog, jump, hurdle and limbo under several closing hatchways and junctions, only to arrive to a barely occupied bridge. Ar, Angie and Esdras were all securely in their seats, and they all gasped to see him alive, apparently he had been written off for dead. Meeting The Captains surprised look, he simply stated, while he was buckling in

“You didn’t think I’d miss you after all the fun we’ve had did you?” Chuckling, he allowed his good nature to break the glum mood settling on the bridge. As he looked down, he realized that he was covered in a thick coat of blood and pieces of alien, much like Ar was now that he though if it. It was going to make for one interesting story when they got out of this…

On the Bridge

Brent stood in Mild Shock as, along with Ar, Mihkael seemed to embody the very essence of slaughter. However, he was more concerned that he was loosing it, as the bloody incarnation of the man seemed the sort of thing to hallucinate. But the fact that the rest of his small crew had noticed him seemed to make it the real deal.

Giving Mihkael a hug, he was reminded what he was covered with when the contacted and there was a loud squelching noise. Recoiling, he compromised with a pat on the back.

“Welcome back Crewman, I thought we had lost you for a while there, now lets get out of here shall we?” Flashing a grin, his hope restored now that he had his original crew back. There were others still out there, but they were written off, they had been lost not directly because of his fault, but for outside reasons.

As the ship lifted into space, Brent gazed outside into the outside world, readily vanishing into darkness as they escaped the atmosphere. Normally the bridge would be shielded by a strong layer of armour, their outside image being projected in by sensors from the outside. But most of the battle systems were disabled in order to keep the engines and the life-support running. The fact that there was only a small layer of plastic protecting them from the outside world was reminiscent of the pioneering days of space travel.

As they soared into space, Brent could feels his hopes go along with it. This was it, they were finally going to escape after what had felt like years. Realistically it was only a few days, a week at most. But it was the fact that they had spent all that time walking, fighting, unceasingly and without rest. Beyond lay a new life filled with comfort and luxury. The Contract the TSDC provided was more than enough to adequately reimburse the almost dozen people he had hired, and now with only four left, there was much more to spread around evenly.

However, there was one final snag in his plan. It was a rather large snag, and it had to do with the fact that there was a TSDC flotilla surrounding the planet. It didn’t appear that they were going to let them out. He was about to open up a Communications channel when one was opened for him …by the Command Ship. It was a beast, bigger than he had ever seen. Then it hit him, it was the Epsilon Guardian! It was the flagship of the entire TSDC fleet! Whatever they wanted with him, they were serious

Aboard the TSDC Epsilon Guardian

“Sir, we’ve got the Plutocrat lifting off the planet, we’re in position to intercept and they’ll be in range in a few minutes.” The Ensign reported

“Excellent!” Cuthbert exclaimed “Open a Channel”

“But why Sir? We have enough evidence to take this Captain into custody, he stole TSDC property for goodness sake!” The Ensign bemoaned

“Because, I want to know what make this one tick. He’s evaded us before, and I want him to realized how utterly hopeless his situation is before we take him in…” He replied

“Aye Aye Sir, opening Channel now”

Although there was no video feed, there was confirmation that the hail had been successful by the grainy signal they received back. It was most likely due to lack of power in the Communications system, but it was still enough to be coherent

“Captain Brent Causby, what is the meaning of this? How did you get out this far into the disruption field! And for gods sake, what are you doing on a TSDC Vessel? What have you gotten yourself into?!” Cuthbert toyed, playing the fool

A Garbled voice responded: “I could say the same thing myself Sir. But we both know that the disruption field is down, and we both know that it was because I went and disabled it. And we surely both know that I did it in TSDC employ, so don’t try to act like an idiot when your Commanding the most powerful vessel in the entire fleet! I mean, I know the TSDC employs fools, but even they aren’t that stupid to leave you so bitterly uninformed” Brent blasted back

“You still haven’t answered my question, How did you get a TSDC Bandit Class Gunship?” Cuthbert pressed, surprised by such a blatant response, especially when surrounding by overwhelming force

“Oh, you know. Found it on the surface, killed everyone on board and flew away, terrorizing the landscapes and instilling self-rule” Brent replied sarcastically “Of course! You’re the almighty TSDC! You should know what happened! You sent that crew into the void, and when they never came back you sent us some Hapless civilians with possible Para-Military training! All those people you sent are dead! Slaughtered by the natives who live there, looked like they didn’t take too kindly to outsiders, sir. We just happened to aquire this ship as a means to escape, as your scans undoubtedly found my crashed ship…”

“You Insolent little…” Cuthbert caught himself, although he wasn’t used to such rebellion against his authority, he was commanding the most powerful ship in the fleet, he was a respected man, and he had to uphold that respect and power placed under his authority. “You do realize that we could blast you out of space right now…?” He stated, as bureaucratically as he could

“You wouldn’t though” Was the terse response that he got

“And preys tell, why not?” Cuthbert inquired

“Because only I know exactly was caused the field to fail, only I have first hand experience with the natives and their tactics, and my crew are all resilient and capable of defending this ship. You may have the power, but we have the determination and the agility to avoid such a blatant abuse of force” Brent responded matter-of-factly

“Very well Captain, you’ve called my bluff. I can’t blow you and your rag-tag crew out of space no matter how much I want to. What I can do, however, is this: Captain Brent Causby, you are under arrest, please power down your weapons and surrender yourself to the authorities, which out here, is me.” The Admiral grinned, although his opposing number couldn’t see it. In the mental game of chess, he had just checked the good Captain.

“On What Charges?” Brent inquired, deftly moving out of the way

“Oh, a number of them, but most seriously being: Theft of a TSDC Vessel, Actions causing Damage to a TSDC, Unauthorized first contact with an alien species, Murder, Theft, Conspiracy to Overthrow a Corporation and Grand Fraud. As well as, what is it we have here? …Treason against the State.” Cuthbert said firmly, burying the final dagger into his enemy

After a stunned silence, Cuthbert could only imagine what it was like for this man who had just faught his way out from a hellish existence, only to be thrown back into another one. However, a response did come.

“What of my Crew?” Brent said, more subdued than his speeches before

“They’ll be free to go once you surrender your ship and yourself. We’ve got a Civilian Transport on route from Nubia station to come take any injured away and resupply the flotilla here, they’ll be more than happy to take them away. Assume you haven’t told them of your past, they wouldn’t know they were aiding an active Criminal”

“I can’t believe you kept up with me after all these years Admiral; I thought I had dodged you for sure when I took this assignment. After this I was expecting more along the lines of an Official Pardon rather than an Arrest Warrant, but very well, have it your way. You’ll have be in irons before this day is out…” Brent finished, ending the communication

The Admiral sat back in his chair. It was less of a physical victory than a mental one, he had been chasing this man for a large portion of his career, and he had finally triumphed over him, there was absolutely no escape now.

Back on the TSDC Plutocrat

Brent slumped back into the broken Command chair. He barely even noticed when the supports finally broke from the strain and collapsed back behind him, sending him plummeting backwards on to the floor. He didn’t even bother to get back up. His morale was so utterly crushed there was no end to the despair he was feeling at the moment. His past had finally caught up with him, not only had he endangered his crew with his unrevealed past, but he was no forced to relive his past mistakes.

Weakly pushing himself back up, he reached into his back pocket absently and pulled out a number of cards. After taking the biggest one he tapped a few combinations in and the lights of four of the other cards glowed to life. There was a bar with a declining balance on the main one, and he watched it grow smaller and smaller until there was nothing left, he was going to jail, most likely for his lifetime, and he wouldn’t need the money.

Tossing them all out onto the floor, he weakly said “There is approximately Nine point six Million Torontonian Inkits on each card. I don’t know much about exchange rates, but I know that is still a hell of a lot in Torontonias right now, and its probably worth a lot more in your respective economies, if you don’t mind me gloating” Brent offered a forced smile “The original contract only implied I had to pay you upwards of One hundred thousand, and that I could keep the rest for myself. But this appears that this is the end of the line for me, so I divvied up my share and gave it to the rest of you, so you could use it for your own betterment, or waste it, I don’t really care.

You men and women have been the finest crew I have ever dealt with. We’ve only been working for a few short days, but there is enough bonding here to last me a lifetime. I wish nothing but the best for you, and wish you never have to return here in the future. Now, I would suggest you collect what things you have and get them in order, we’ll be docking with the Epsilon Guardian Soon…

And here Esdras was thinking that there couldn't possibly any more revelations like that since Brent had informed them of the true nature of the mission. Now, he was only able to stare wide-eyed at Brent with a mixture of surprise and then disgust. The surprise was rooted in the vast amount knowledge he had just gained about Brent's past from Brent's conversation with the TSDC admiral. Apparently, Brent was a very...infamous person. And now, after surviving hell, Brent had given up. That certainly wouldn't do. Esdras stood, his eyes burning with a passion not often seen in him.

"So tha's it? You're just going to give in? After what we've been through; all that we've sacrificed...what's wrong with you Cap'n? From what I heard from that TSDC guy, you seemed to have eluded them a few times before. I think you can manage to do it again. After all, you've got me with you." Esdras' already stern expression tightened even more. "And aren't you being a bit selfish anyway?" Esdras gestured to the rest of the crew. "I'm pretty sure that I'm speaking for all of us when I say that there's no way we'll let them have you. We're in this until the end...Cap'n."

Satisfied with his speech, Esdras looked to the rest of the crew for their approval, silently praying that it would come soon.

Mihkael looked at Esdras and then at Brent, and then down at his own blood soaked clothing. Defiance entering his eyes, he stood up with Esdras; "He's right. I say we run from these guys. We can make for the Regen Corporation's homeworld Regenius II (see my soon to be posted FT Factbook). They'll offer us sanctuary if I vouch for us. Meanwhile though, let me see if I can squeeze a little more power out of these generators." Returning to his seat, he accessed the ships power control systems and set to work.

Angie kneeled down beside Brent, placing the med kit on the ground she did the best she could to try and heel some of Brent’s wounds, but some of his wounds were more then just physical. At first her attention was directed to his ribs, but as she listened to both Esdras and Mihkael she knew that they were both right.

As she finished she took a moment to look deeply into Brents eye’s “A long time ago when there was an accident, I was afraid and did nothing, and a number of people close to me died. As I result I have not been able to live with myself that is until now. This experience has taught me that I want to live.” She glanced over at Esdras and Mihkael giving the two them a brief smile. “We will stay with you until the end, no mater how soon that maybe be, we’ve been through too much to do anything else.” For a moment her thoughts drifted “If we can get out this I have friends that maybe able to help us”

She just gave Brent a look as getting off the planet had been obvious and his condsension was annoying. Taking a seat, she wondered if the ship had decent sanitary facilities or if she was stuck picking flesh out of her hair and flaking the blood off as it dried.

As the ship began it's countdown, Mihkael popped up on the bridge, dressed in the blood of the planet's natives in much the same way she was. Once the ship took off and the interaction between Brent and someone with a wee bit more arrogence than was likely good for him.

While the others protested and urged for them to escape, she stretched out her mind across the void looking for the mind that belonged to the arrogent flag-officer. As she looked through his brain, with a touch an experianced telepaths would likely miss, for certain information concerning his expectations of Brent's actions and what he knew of the other members of the crew. As she found the information that reassured her that he was at least oblivious of her, she spoke, "I say if you can manage it, we depart Aldousa forthwith."

Brent glanced at his crew, they were right, they had gotten too far together to just give up, take the money and run so to speak. Brent felt the fool, for a split second he actually believed he was going to give himself up. What was he thinking? He was Brent Causby Supposed Torontonian “Criminal Mastermind” he had evaded the authorities before, just because they came in a bigger ship meant that they were going to have him now. They might hold all the cards about his past, but they could never control his future. No one could do that, he was free, he wasn’t a Corporate Slave, and he certainly wasn’t a Terrorist like the TSDC would have people believe.

Brent steeled himself, and with resolve, he turned to face his crew, which he wasn’t sure wouldn’t pull a gun on him for finding out about the crimes leveled against him. However, he found empathetic gestures, mainly with Esdras, but the rest of the crew certainly wasn’t condemning him with their looks. With resolve, he spoke:

“Alright, let’s get out of here then. I’ve still got a trick or two up my sleeve. Call it the ‘Causby Cruiser’ However, if this doesn’t work, we might as well kiss our collective asses behind. Take the money and buckle in because this is going to get bumpy…”

Moving over to the Console Mihkael was stationed at, he motioned for him to get out of the way. Once Mihkael had moved, he went about doing his adjustments. Taking out failsafe and deactivating the safety overrides in case something went wrong with the ships fusion reactors. Satisfied, he essentially parked the ship in neutral and cranked up the power output to maximum capacity in Reactor one, and fifty percent in reactor two. With alarms warning Brent about the danger, he turned to his crew, he had kept them in the dark long enough.

“I’ll tell you about my past once we get on the road, but right now I’m doing a little trick. Torontonian FTL systems are folddrives at their very basics. However, they utilize all power that is administered to, to more power it gets the faster and further it goes. However, giving it more than twenty percent reactor power gets dangerous as you risk overloading the FTL drives, rendering them useless until you replace them, and it risks a feedback loop that would overload the reactor and destroy the ship! As well, even ignoring all that, the Folddrives could fail in transit and strand you in the space between spaces. The ship would be crushed rather quickly when the fold collapsed on itself, but it still wouldn’t be pleasant.” Brent paused, letting it all sink in

“Now, if you haven’t been listening to the alarms, I just turned off all the programs and mechanisms that would stop me from doing something like that, and I’ve diverted all the Reactor power from Reactor One to the Folddrives, which are currently warming up. Now, if this doesn’t make the ship horribly explode, it should fold us so fast, it won’t even look like we did anything, it will simply look like the ship disappeared. We will vanish from all sensors, other than a residual wrinkle in space. They won’t be able to shoot us, override us or anything. But it all depends on if we don’t die horrible flaming deaths. Now, Mihkael, what are the coordinates to Regenious II?”

Once he had the coordinates, he punched them in and activated the FTL drives. Shuttering, the console exploded in from of him, showering Brent in sparks and setting him ablaze. After flailing wildly and rolling around on the ground, he got back up. The ship was shaking violently, and he didn’t like that. Moving to the Emergency Command Console, he diverted all of Reactor Two to the FTL drives. Out the window, he could see pieces of the ship coming apart and flying off into space as Mini-explosions scarred the outside, as Coolant and Power systems overloaded and failed, setting off chain reactions throughout the ship.

“C’mon… C’mon! Work damn you! We’re getting out of here whether you like it or not!” Brent cursed to the ship, kicking the burnt out console. Other panels in the bridge were also burning out, exploding brightly and then dying out to become a blackened husk.

There was a brief feeling of Timelessness as the ship folded through an unfathomable distance to the Capital World of the Regen Corporation. However, as soon as they arrived they were sent flying forward as both the Reactors went critical at the same time, since there was very little fuel left the Explosion didn’t destroy the ship, but it did shear off the engines, and the entire back section of it. The only part left was the Crescent shaped front section, spewing gasses and fuel out into space. Since the bridge had already locked down they were safe from the vacuum for the time being, however, they would have to hope that someone located the burnt out husk soon and towed them to a starport.

“Now, I think we have some time so I’m going to do a little explaining about all those charges laid against me by the good Admiral. It all began when…”

Aboard the TSDC Epsilon Guardian

“Why would they be powering up Faster-than-Light Capacities of the ship. They wouldn’t possibly have enough fuel in those tanks to jump them very far. What’s going on down there? Why does it appear to be ripping itself apart? And for godsakes! Why isn’t Brent flying over here! Lieutenant! Send a Legionnaire over to “Escort” the Captain back” The Admiral Demanded

“Well, they would be powering up FTL to escape us presumably, but yes, the minute they try to escape, we’ll just lock on a tractor beam or put tracking on the ship, so we’d be where they were headed as well. The ship is having a hard time making out whats going on in there because of all the EM emissions coming off that ship, but it would appear that the Reactors are going critical…” The Lieutenant said

“What the devil is going…”

“Sir!” The Lieutenant yelped, not wanting to be the one blamed “The ship, it’s, disappeared!”

“What do you mean, Disappeared” The Admiral bellowed, furious to be evaded again.

“It’s vanished quite simply. It was there, and then it was gone, and our ships don’t have cloaking technology, you know that.” The Lieutenant responded

“What? But…how?” The Admiral whimpered, his rage turned to deep depression on having been foiled again

“I don’t know sir, but they’re gone, and we have no way on knowing where they went. With the speed that they folded sir, they could be anywhere in the Universe right now…” The Lieutenant empathized

“Very well… Let’s continue with our original mission then. Send a Communications Drone down to the planet, have it relay this message: Aliens of Nubia III, We are the Torontonians, we wish you no harm, but it is my regret to inform you that you are inhabiting Torontonian Territory…”

Back on the TSDC Plutocrat

“It all started when I was kicked out the TSDC Academy, I had wanted to be a Starship Captain for all my life, and for me, and there would have been no greater honour to defend the Capital System from enemy invaders. However, at the time I lacked the Discipline, Intelligence and Respect that was required to be in the TSDC. The intelligence I made up for over time, but I never did pick up the other two.”

“After my family, a proud group of people, found out that I had lost my Scholarship to the TSDC Academy, they kicked me out. I was only seventeen, but my parents were brutally impoverished, and they couldn’t possibly dream to send me to a “Public” School. I was forced to live on the street for several years before I got a job working for a small Corporation just starting out. That was when I got my first charge laid on me. You see, in the Government of Torontonias, they don’t just call it an Autocracy for nothing, it really is controlled by the Most powerful Corporation. There is a People’s Chamber, but they have no real power to change anything. I thought that if I could infiltrate the higher echelons of government, I could make things better for people like my family.

So after working for four years, I managed to rise to the rank as Vice-President of the Corporation. Then, after getting quite friendly with the Senior staff, I orchestrated my grand scheme. I set up a series of Bank Accounts and Siphoned Money away into them, now, stealing Company money isn’t enough to get the President and CEO fired, but that wasn’t the case. If followed, the money trail would reveal that the money was being funneled into the corporate rival. Now, there aren’t many things that aren’t tolerated but Antitrust isn’t one of them. However, it had turned out that a very Powerful Corporation, HiWired Incorporated, was planning to buy out the firm, and when they discovered the corruption, the traced it back to me. I was implicated in planning to throw out the Old CEO, for whatever reason I would have had. Not only did it sour the merger, it also got the entire Senior staff arrested and sent to Prison, I was the only one who escaped, through a combination of luck and connections.

The Murder, Theft and Grand Fraud came soon after, and it one case to be exact. Finding myself out of a job and avoiding arrest, I left Torontonias for a brief vacation. While I was staying in Kanuckistan, I set up a small business that I took back with me when the situation had cooled down. However, It turned out that what was left of Corporate Regulation didn’t like me very much, they declined by request to open a small, non-Corporate Entity in Torontonias, when I pressed the Officer for a reason, he pulled a gun on me and told me to leave. Well, I’ve always been the faster draw, so I splattered him all over his office.

Looking over his office, I discovered that he was quite a part-time Racketeer, he had the power to revoke the Corporate Licensing, the most sacred, hollow pillars of the Torontonian Corporation. Without its license, a Corporation would cease to exist, and it would be eaten up overnight by the Competition. He was selling them even though the actual government gave them out like candy and made quite a profit from it. So I stole his identification and certification, and went for my scheme. For two years I told Corporations they were up for relicencing, and for a minimal fee, I’d cover the paperwork for them (Of where there was none), and if they gave me trouble, I threatened to revoke their license. However, turns out the guy I killed had a family, and after a long investigation, they traced it back to me. Now, I had enough money to pay off the authorities and reimburse the family, but it didn’t leave me with much. With what I had left I bought the Savage Avenger and made a living as a Courier, taking dangerous missions as a side job.

When the TSDC Approached me about the Autocracies inability to penetrate deeper into a system which was rightfully theirs, I leapt at the opportunity. I had been delivering objects for over fifteen years by then, and frankly, I wanted the excitement of my youth back, although I’d never thought it would be like this. In exchange they would set up an account with an unlimited number of funds in order to go and disable the Disruption Field. As well, they were planning to give me something I would have done anything for, A full pardon for my crimes. I could go back to living as a citizen, never having to look over my shoulder or do that extra scan before I go to bed. So I took the job and brought you all out here with me. I feel sorrow for the ones we lost, but I’m no less of a person for it. You all have full payment and we’re all free to go now. The other crimes you were with me for so you don’t need an explanation for, who knows if we’ll meet up in the future, but for now I know I could use a good vacation. With the money I’ve got now, I can go anywhere! Even if the Torontonians don’t want me back.!”

Letting that all sink in, Brent turned to Mihkael “When whoever is coming to rescue us comes, I’ll let you do the talking, and I would imagine you know the locals best!” Brent said, flashing his big grin he was known for, he then turned his gaze to the stars, wondering where they would take him next.

Epilogue
Although Admiral Cuthbert didn’t get his man, he still completed his objectives. He managed to convince the Nubians to join the Torontonian Autocracy. They were resistant at first, but they were persuaded to join after a few of their major cities were glassed. Defeated and dishonoured Rikish, The leader of the Lizardfolk, killed himself. In his place a much more Manipulating leader rose up, one who saw the advantages of allying with a Technologically Advanced Nation.

By allowing some Prospectors to set up small outposts on the planet, his brethren were armed with advanced weaponry and armour, and he used them to subjugate the rest of the planet. Soon All Nubians were under his control, and he united the planet where all other leaders had failed. All it had cost him was his Freedom, which he didn’t really care about anyway. However, in doing so, he condemned his entire race to Centuries of Oppression and Abuse as Second class citizens of the Autocracy. Later one would rise to challenge their Torontonian overlords, but for the time being, many reveled in the elimination of disease, the mass shift in cultural lifestyle, and the joys of having the responsibilities of self-rule and reliance removed from them.

OOC: I really enjoyed this RP guys, it was a fun way to implement major changes into my Nation. Although it took a little more time that I thought it would take (By a Matter of months :P) It still got done. Megas once to make a second RP with the same characters as a continuation of these characters, but I need to get into detailed discussions with them about it, and its not slated for the near future, so none of you have to worry. This *Should* be the last post I make in this RP, so the rest of you can tie up current loose ends with your characters (Regenious I’d hope you get us towed away or something of the sort) and if need be, I will post again!

OOC: I'd be interested in being a part of a continuation...

IC: The ship had come out of fold space in the middle of the shipping lanes between Regenius II and its asteroid halo called the Ring. It was only a matter of hours before the remnants of the ship were picked up by a Raven Class Cruiser patrolling the area for pirates. Mihkael and the others were carried back to Hadrin Station, the main hub for all goods in the Ring, and were dropped off with little to no questioning about why they'd ended up in Regenian space in a derelict Torontonian Warship. This was in large part due to the official memo from the CEO, Thomas Alexander II, that Mihkael presented on their arrival on the ship.

Standing in the bustling center of the starport, Mihkael looked around at the rest of the crew, and their captain. Indicating a long passage to their left, he said "The Regen Corp. shipyards are down that way if you want to replace the Savage Avenger Brent. With the amount of money you have, you could probably do that several times over actually. Anyway, I have to go route a message to the CEO. It was... an interesting experience to say the least. See you in the stars."

Ar looked at the others once they'd reached the station and said simply, "Farewell," Before heading off into the station and as she headed into the crowd, disappeared on her way to her next stop.