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Futuristic Blacksun (Notorious x C.DEX)

Casar had gone into the telecommunications room, striding in as if nothing had been wrong. His entrance didn't gather much attention at first, though his presence had gotten a double-take from those at the controls. He looked around, counting the bodies. One, two, three, four, five ... That was easy enough. Maybe. They did have weapons. It was a requirement for outposts that had kept prisoners, and this was one of those places. Then, the man at the controls spun around in his chair to slightly face Casar, his eyes flipping between the display and the mage. "Can we help you?" he asked, a tinge of annoyance in his voice.


"You didn't get the order?" Casar questioned. "It would figure that you wouldn't. Our ship doesn't have the same telecommunications equipment as yours does. General Ramadan sent me to use the processing power in this telecommunication hub to download the data you've acquired here and install it in our ship's memory banks for transfer. I assume you got the payload last week? I'm here for that." he said, cocking his head toward the inquisitive guard, who seemed to get flustered.


"We're already behind schedule and I need to be at this post in order to intercept-"


"Intercept what? You're in a bloody nebula." Casar quipped. "Who is sending you messages important enough for you to defy an order from a General? Are you that important? Who is landing here that is essential enough to disrupt getting the once-a-year payload that's even remotely important enough for me to come down here to retrieve it?" he asked, only for the guard to be significantly less forgiving than the other one he had encountered.


"Unless I can physically see the order either in our databanks, you're out of luck, Mage ..."


"Sampson." Casar said.


"Mage Sampson. With all due respect, we're using our equipment at the moment. I don't see an order, and our towers are strong enough to retrieve one, unless it quite literally just got sent out. There's a delay, yes. But this wouldn't be a proper outpost - despite what our guests often seem to think - if we couldn't retrieve messages from the Imperial army and transmit them as well. Put in an order to your superior to resend that mess-"


Suddenly, the headset of the man speaking to Casar had jolted with electricity as Casar had raised his hand and set it to blow. It had shocked him, rolling his eyes back into his head, until he had fallen out of his seat and began seizing. One. Not able to spend much time on him specifically as the others had raised their weapons almost immediately, Casar ripped his pistol from its holster and aimed point-blank at the man directly adjacent to the one he'd electrocuted. One shot fired, its rounds quieted - thankfully - by the suppressor. Two.


He immediately fired off another toward an evacuating Exodlite, taking him to the floor. As he began to reach for his communicator, Casar slammed his hand down on the control panel. Within the next seconds, the doors slammed close. Then, the lines had gone out, stopping everyone on base from communicating with one another. Unfortunately for the Exodlite that he'd shot, the doors had come down on him, smashing his foot and trapping him underneath the door. He let out an ear-piercing scream, but that had been cut off from the rest of the base, along with the telecommunications room itself. Three.


In the next moment, the mage rerouted the power from the terminal to the hand of the Exodlite reaching under his terminal to procure his weapon, shocking him to the floor with such a swell of energy that he'd gone unconscious. Four. Then, as the last remaining Exodlite had shouted into his communicator for backup, the communicator itself had blown in his hands - next to his face - blowing a portion of it off and causing him to be the second incapacitated Exodlite to still be awake - and screaming.


Five.


"Jarah, Idris, continue orders." he said over the intercoms, signalling to Ajax that he could continue with whatever he had intended on doing without immediately raising the alarm. He had silenced the communications of those still trapped in the room with him, but had restored the others, leaving the rest of their communicators up and working seemingly as normal.


"Exodlite bitch." Tess scowled. Ajax had cracked her jaw, in the most literal of ways. The carapace on the outside - making up her skin - had literally cracked, seeping small amounts of alien fluid and beginning to repair itself slowly. "You can torture me all you want. Just know that that's the same thing I did to your brothers." she scowled. "We burned him like a witch. It's going to be the same thing that I personally do to you once my people come and get me." she said. "You want to know who your enemy in deep space is? It's me." she said, eyes darkening.


"Shut up, freak. Go ahead, Enactor Jarah." the guard said, her words causing him to grimace. "The quicker we get this one out of the base, the better. If your mage needs an escort out to your ship we'll be happy to supply it."
 
"An escort won't be required, thank you. Sampson isn't one for escorts... Those technomages like to handle their tasks in their own way. Praise Damaris." Ajax said, that same pit in his stomach growing each time he had to say those disgusting words. "As for you freak... We've already secured your people. You will be joining them that much is true, but what you will be doing will be under the thumb of our grand Exodus." Ajax then kicked Tess forward, startling her at just the amount of force a human could muster as they walked right out into the cold of the planet once more. Even with the heat dome all around them it was hard not to grimace at the extreme cold that plagued them as soon as they stepped out. "I hate this god damn snow." Ajax said in his normal accent as they stepped out into the cold. There were Exodlite guards all over the compound but due to the storm none of them were within ear shot.


"You're a badass." Ajax said to Tess, lowering his gun as they began to walk. "Took one on the chin from me and even cracked my helmet. My face is cold thanks to that but shit... Even I bought that performance back there!" With a quiet chuckle he eyed the interesting looking alien, "On the trip back let's spar a few rounds. That Exodlite bitch thing hurt my feelings and we need to get even if we're gonna make it back to Echora." He teased, only for him to put on a serious face once more when they were reaching the outskirts of the base. They were planning on exiting a different way, Arc wisely moving them towards the outskirts of the heat shield to loop around to back track to their original landing zone only for a squad of Exodlite troops to be waiting around the perimeter of the shield.


"HALT!" A familiar voice sounded out piercing through the storm. The guard that had led them in before had a hunch, one that made him gather several of the base's combatants to wait outside. "I had a hunch... One that I followed through on. You all are not who you say you are..."


"What is the meaning of this?" Ajax asked, stepping forward to meet the inquisitive guard. "You-"


"You are not an Exodlite." The guard said, his eyes narrowing in his goggles at Ajax. "I sent in a request to have your identities scanned without your knowledge. We have never had anyone enter from the wastes like that before and if you had been Exodlite you would have sent out an assist beacon. We have no knowledge of your 'orders' to come here and we certainly did not expect you to come with a Crusader who magically disappeared. There were too many inconsistencies-" The more the guard talked, the more the Exodlites circled around them. Ajax stood in front of the guard who was holding a set of mag cuffs, the others holding an array of ballistic weapons. "If you were to know anything about our people you would know we are always consistent. By the book. The arrogance you all displayed by coming here is even more than any Renegade we've ever seen. And killed."


"And what did the identities come back with?" Ajax asked, trying to salvage an already compromised situation.


"IDs with faces that none of you possess. In fact, the ship containing those brothers and sisters haven't checked in for over a week now." The guard smirked underneath his mask, holding the cuffs forward. "Place your hands in the restraint, heretic. You will not be rescuing your disgusting alien ally today."


"Who?" Ajax asked, his voice dropping to his traditional outer rim drawl. "Ahh, this fine lady right here? Disgusting? That's not very nice. Spiky yes, but not disgusting. Different strokes for different folks. Knowing you Exodlite jackasses you're probably stroking eachother instead though huh? Gotta keep it in the family and all that. Now that's disgusting!" Those on the Gaius listening to him gasped, Ajax had completely thrown their cover to the wind and was openly taunting the Exodlites. Lucy began to prep the ship to re-enter the atmosphere, knowing that they would have to make a quick drop to pick them up at a different landing point. There was no point in trying to salvage their cover now, there was nothing left and they had been had. "We killed your boys on that ship and wore their faces with a smile. Y'all are too fucking stupid to tell the difference. We strolled right in here... Told you to suck our dicks... you did it...then... you thanked us for it!"


The guard gritted his teeth under his mask, beyond annoyed by the arrogance of the hysterical cowboy in front of him. Ajax was laughing at him, taunting him into doing something on purpose. "Men, arrest these heretics. We will take them to the camps and-"


Ajax spun around and shot Tess' shackles off in one quick motion. He then thrust his assault rifle in her hands so she could fight as he spun back around and slammed his fist into the guard that had bested them. His fist broke through his chest plate and hit the soldier right in the chest knocking all of the wind out of him. Tess and Arc would have to cover Ajax as he moved to the next Exodlite, taking them on up close while Casar and Jagar were still located in the base. Ajax began his rampage, not giving the Exodlites a chance to breath as he smothered them with attacks.
 
Soon, transmissions had been dotting the base, attempting to alert each other that something was happening. Unfortunately for them, someone was at the head of the telecommunications panel, and that person was not their friend. He had acted as a middle man, allowing the appropriate communications to go through and then silencing the cries for help that had come from outside. It had been signal enough that they had been compromised, but that compromise wouldn't spread if Casar had anything to do about it.


Gunshots rang out outside. The fun was just beginning for Tess, Ajax, and Arc, all of which had been forced to draw their weapons. As Tess' Magcuffs clicked off, a wide smile had spread on her face, indicating that she hadn't been mad at all and in fact had enjoyed their ride there. She had been waiting for quite a while to get her hands on the Exodlites, and thats just what she had intended on doing. She raised the assault rifle, jabbing the butt of it against her shoulder and savoring the feeling of the kickback of the gun: it had meant that they were dying. Light flooded the area as they had begun their assault.


Within the first few seconds, several of the attacking force had gone down, though not without firing back at Ajax, Arc, and Tess. Tess' skin was like armor, cracking in places but for the most part deflecting shots and allowing her to fight on. Arc had wedged himself between Tess and Ajax, knowing well that they were more 'armored' than he had been. He, too, had fought against the other Exodlites, favoring his own safety over his allegiance to his previous people.


"Are you all okay?" Casar asked, using their own telecommunication station to prioritize his message to his team.


"No, we need an evac." Arc replied.


"Fuck you!" Tess roared, as she grabbed the helmets of two Exodlites and smashed them into one another. They fell limp to the ground, forcing a chuckle from her throat. "Not you, mage man. Yes, an evac would be nice." she said, and reached for her gun in the snow. "There will be more on the way. We're making a lot of noise."


"I'm not in control of that. Lucy?" he asked. "I'm cutting off their telecomms. The Epoch can repair it when they get to it. I need to make my way out, before -" he was abruptly cut off, as the doors to the telecommunication room had begun to open, someone on the other side working the controls or placing a hacking charge in order to halt his control on them. A gunshot fired through the crack in the door, affirming that they had, in fact, been compromised. His hand on the panel, it had begun to spark until it had blown itself out, the telecommunications for the base entirely cut off, now. Then, he ducked, not wanting to be shot again and once again end up in the hospital.


Without being linked to the telecommunications console, however, his power had been ebbing away due to the nebula. He waited until the Exodlite had forced his way into the room and rounded in order to draw his gun, sidle to the other side of the panel, and then shoot up and fire on him. It wasn't a particularly fancy way of going about it, but it had gotten the job done as he fell to the ground, clutching his chest and roaring out. Then, Casar had run. "I'm fine!" he affirmed, well aware that being cut off by the sound of gunshots would worry his team. "How close are you? How close are the Epoch?" he asked Lucy, unsure if his messages were getting through now that the panel was down.
 
"Epoch is too far out for us to be taking on a whole base on our own, we're coming in!" Sure enough, the Gaius broke through the atmosphere with a loud boom as Lucy ignored all stealth measures and instead came screeching down to the base in a blaze of glory. She began to open fire with the main guns on the guards surrounding them outside, littering them with bullets and causing a massive burst of blood to spray out into the sky. The mist itself fell down and coated the snow pink, some of it on the Gaius itself at how close Lucy had maneuvered it. "I can't land, the LZ is too hot!" She said into the communicator, reestablishing her link with everyone aside from Tess due to not having her channel link. "Clear them outside and I can make a hot drop, y'all gotta be there though! That means you Cas! Where is everyone?"


"Outside!" Ajax said, dodging an Exodlite who thought he could sneak in a blow with the butt of his gun. Ajax ripped the weapon out of the man's hands and pressed the trigger. He then kicked the Exodlite in the chest, sending the poor man tumbling back into a group of his own as the rifle detonated sending a confetti of flesh and bits of Exodlite all over the place. The detonation had set off a chain reaction, the grenades on the Exodlites person detonating along with the four others that stood by him. "Jagar is in there with Cas somewhere!"


"Jagar, make your way out of the base asap. They have a big fucking fleet in that loading bay and I might be the best but that doesn't mean I can take on a whole army!"


"Sweetheart, you gotta have some more confidence!" Ajax replied before Jagar could, grabbing an Exodlite and holding them in front of him as Tess shot a hole through the stationary target. He gave her a thumbs up before diving back into the action, keeping a close eye on Arc so he didn't get caught in the cross fire. It was a good thing he did too as shortly after he had to charge across the field and take a massive amount of fire from an Exodlite armed with a heavy weapon. "LUCY NOW!" Ajax shouted as he protected the scientist, his armor breaking and his coat ripping to pieces as he took the damage. The Gaius swung in just in the nick of time, Lucy blasting the Exodlites in another strafing run. "Thanks Luce!"


"Don't mention it." She replied, watching as Ajax got back into action after saving Arc from a certain death. The strafing runs she was performing was devastating to the Exodlites, it was as if they were fighting a ghost or the snow storm itself as the heat shield went down during the previous run. A massive blast of snow and wind hit them as the elements were now in the battle. "Jagar what's your status?"


"Helping Cazzer." The Vekht said, bursting out of the wall next to Casar as a group of Exodlites had cornered them. He grabbed the closest Exodlite he could see whilst releasing the holographic blade built into the top of his left wrist. The flat blade was then jabbed into the Exodlite's neck, a groan coming from the female as blood sprayed out onto Jagar's helmet. There was no time to acknowledge just how gruesome the kill was when he ripped his blade away, taking her esophagus with it causing it to spiral out onto her chest as she hit the ground. Those on the inside that were looking to reinforce those fighting outside were now focused on both Jagar and Casar. Even being only two the Exodlites were horrifically outmatched.


Jagar took the brunt of the attack, roaring as he extended his blade forward and began to carve and cleave his way through the opposition. They were closing in on the main exit and with one final obstacle in their way they had to make quick work of the Exodlites or suffer the cost of having to fight their entire fighter squadron with one ship.
 
Casar was relieved to see Jagar, but it was short-lived as smarter reinforcements had come to take them out. Unarmored, he thought fast and leapt toward Jagar as he'd turned around, jumping onto his back and using the Vekht as a shield, his hand clasping onto the collar of his armor. His ankle jabbed into the Vekht's armor, rooting himself against him and allowing him to pull his gun as long as Jagar had remained stationary. When he hadn't, he grabbed onto the collar of his armor, ducking low as they had moved through the base.


They had come to the main exit, only to be blocked off. The sound of the Gaius breaking through the atmosphere was a loud one, shaking the base itself and alerting everyone that someone had arrived. Casar and Jagar had known it was Lucy, while the sound itself had stirred the remaining Exodlites that hadn't known what was happening to put the pieces together. Their cover had been completely and totally blown. As they had been forced to come to a stop, Casar reared his gun over Jagar's shoulder, firing off at the remaining soldiers. Within a minute, they had cleared what little soldiers remained that had been blocking their way, streaming out of the building into the bitter cold only to see Ajax and Tess cleaning up what little had been left of their soldiers.


Casar had dropped from Jagar, the holographic weather barrier now in sight. As soon as he'd landed, he had regretted it, not realizing just how bitter the cold had been without his coat. His eyes tracked back to the building, considering going back in for it, but ...


"This way!" Tess shouted, running toward the Gaius, which had been directly opposite from the exit. As Lucy reared the ship down to cut down their opposition, the alien woman jumped up, a loud CLANG sounding as she hooked onto the ship with an expert ferocity. Taking advantage of the slow that looping down to them had given her, she banged on the airlock, only for Lucy to open it up and let her in at the last second. Arc and Ajax hadn't been quite as quick or acrobatic, and they would no doubt have to wait for the next time Lucy had swept down.


"We're out, Lucy!" Casar yelled, teeth gritted in response to the shocking cold. He had ran toward Ajax and Arc, who had in turn run toward the opposite direction of the base, knowing that if she had parked any closer they had risked losing the ship. The people fighting them had either been unconscious or dead, but a beam in their direction had indicated that they would be pursued after just a moment.


"Captain, pull us close and I can pull them up!" Tess shouted, unsure if Lucy could hear her but assuming just as much. She had braced herself on the airlock doors, ready to snatch her teammates up as Lucy passed.
 
"Everyone, move to the airlock! Tess will pull you up." Lucy said, keeping calm as she moved the Gaius around like a hornet hovering over something it was about to sting. Shots from the Exodlites racing outside after them were firing off, some nailing the Gaius directly only for the ship's shields to absorb them. Small arms fire did nothing to a ship, anything bigger however and that could mean trouble for them as they were no doubt about to send out their ships to fight them properly. "Coming in for another round!" She said, bringing the Gaius in dangerously close to the ground as she nearly nailed her own team with the front of the ship. Jagar looked to Casar and yanked him up against his will, using his strength to vault into the airlock with him in tow while Tess grabbed onto Arc right at the last second as the ship began to hover up to leave. Ajax went running straight for the airlock and grabbed onto Tess' hand just as she had made sure Arc was secure and over the edge. They both held on tight as Lucy began to maneuver the ship up, running out of time to stay on the ground.


A missile came hurling out of the base and struck the side of the Gaius, leaving a massive scorch mark on the side as an Exodlite ship did a fly by. The whole ship shuddered as it was flung off course, causing Ajax to violently thrash around in the air as the impact threw everything off balance. Another hit struck them, causing Lucy to pull up sharply not having enough time to wait there any longer. Unfortunately, this came at the worst time possible.


Tess' grip failed, Ajax fell.


They weren't high up in the air by any means but with ships swarming them it was Ajax's death sentence as Lucy had no choice but to pull away, ignorant of what just happened to Ajax. He slammed into the soft snow with a thud, the Exodlites far too busy with shooting the Gaius to notice that he had fallen from the ship and survived as he took in a deep breath. He watched as Lucy piloted the Gaius away, never before having to watch his own people leave him behind. He understood, he knew the risks. It was just bad luck was all, he hadn't been nimble enough to vault up and Tess hadn't be strong enough to hold him through a direct missile attack on the ship.


He was fucked.


"Lucy!" Nyx screamed as she watched from the co-pilot seat. While Lucy had been busy she couldn't keep an eye on the team, doing her best to maneuver away from strikes. "AJAX FELL!"


"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN HE FELL?!"


"HE'S ON THE GROUND!" Nyx cried, looking to Imille helplessly as they both knew what this meant for him. They couldn't stick around any longer as a swarm of Exodlite ships burst out of the loading bay. It was as if the entire base came alive in their attack now, sure their communications were down but that didn't mean word didn't travel at all. The whole base was scrambling, meaning that the Gaius would have its hands full with an entire fleet of ships. "WE HAVE TO GO BACK FOR HIM!"


"We can't..." Lucy said, gritting her teeth as she made the Gaius roll in the air, avoiding a sudden death from an Exodlite missile. "We get near the ground again they'll shoot us down faster than you'd believe. I'm not dying that easily... and he isn't either." She said, her heart hammering in her chest and her eyes wanting to well up at the idea that she had been forced to leave someone she held so dear but knew that the lives of the many outweighed that of Ajax unfortunately. "Everyone, there is turret stations on every corner of the Gaius. Man a gun and get ready for a fight... We can't hit an FTL jump and I sure as hell ain't leaving Ajax on this planet. Ajax, can you hear me?"


When all they heard was silence Lucy felt the wind in her chest leave her body and not return to her. Choking, she calmed herself and put all her focus on flying. "He's not dead." She said firmly. "Get to battle stations... We're going to kill all of these motherfuckers..."
 
As soon as Tess had pulled the last person up, she had balled a fist and made her way to the armory. Ignoring Lucy's commands to grab a turret, she tore through the Gaius' weapons and armor until she had found something that had fit her, slapping on pieces of armor until they had made a whole. She clipped the only two ballistic sidearms that had fit her hand inside of the armory onto her hips, and then tore an assault rifle from the wall. She had spent a few moments in the armory - enough time for Arc, Jagar, Imille, and Nyx to find themselves at the ship's turrets. Casar had another plan entirely.


As he had climbed to his feet, he was shaking, forced to leave his coat behind in order to evacuate in time. Instead of following Lucy's orders, he had climbed up to the cockpit once again, barging in while Lucy maneuvered to keep them flying and unharmed. Just as he had entered, a massive shot had hit the side of the Gaius, causing him to have to hold onto the arch of the door for a moment before following through to the co-pilot's seat. As soon as Lucy had noticed him, he spoke out. "Focus on driving. I'll take the system's weapons." he said, placing his hand down on the panel, not exactly giving her a choice.


Downstairs, the others had gone to take their spots, Imille appropriately taking the turret next to Nyx. Arc and Jagar had made their way toward the opposite end of the ship, Arc shedding his own coat to the floor on the way there; time was of the essence, and he hadn't wanted to see Ajax die, even if he didn't admit to it. They had taken up the turrets, looking through the small viewport to see the ships rising from the base. They pointed in the direction of the Gaius, the new Exodlite ships no doubt intending on honing down on them before they can escape.


Shots ricocheted through the air, ballistic in nature. Unlike energy, ballistic shots had the potential to completely tear apart the Gaius' hull, making for a particularly nasty way of murdering the heretics that had resided within. The Gaius' shield was flickering, and they wouldn't be able to take much more damage before the enemy fire would hit their side, the nebula only worsening their situation.


Then, as if things couldn't get worse, the airlock alarm began blaring once again. Tess had launched herself out of the airlock as soon as Lucy had gotten close enough to the ground, apparently not too happy with how her grip had been on Ajax. She, too, fell quite a while until hitting the soft snow, but unlike Ajax, now she had armor and proper weapons. "Where are you, kid?!" she yelled out, knowing that her voice would draw the ire of the Exodlite soldiers, but also knowing that there had been no other way.


"Lucy, Tess just jumped out of the airlock." Casar said. "Firing." he said, shaking the entire Gaius at once as it seemed he had diverted all power to their weapons. It wasn't something that Lucy herself would even be able to do with most manual controls, at least not so quickly. The Gaius' ballistic weapons fired off all at once, tearing violently through the ship that had only milliseconds ago passed into their field of view, sending them in a blazing inferno to the ground.
 
"God damn it Tess!" Lucy shouted once she seen the alien go crashing to the ground after Casar brought her attention to it. She had her full attention on piloting the ship now, Casar lifting a heavy burden of firing at the same time allowing them to dodge and do maneuvers that no one thought possible. The Gaius was bouncing and bounding about unnaturally, stopping and rolling in an unpredictable pattern that no Exodlite pilot would know how to approach. With Casar at the guns and everyone else firing the turrets the Gaius looked absolutely horrifying. Gun fire came from all angles of the ship covering nearly every conceivable angle the Exodlites could fire at them from. Most capital ships had a hard time performing such a defensive attack plan, a small ship like the Gaius it was unheard of.


As soon as Tess called out gun shots erupted from the Exodlite's position. Ajax was no where in sight and no Tess was out in the cold with no cover. She could see the Exodlites moving in quick to pursue her, only four remaining after the others retreated back into the base to man the ships. As she fired back one fell but the three others began to focus on her at once, no amount of armor could stop such an onslaught. That was until the guns stopped firing, a figure practically exploding out of the snow below them.


Ajax had crawled his way through a line of bodies left littered by the Gaius and waited for the opportune moment to strike. The Exodlites stopped firing while Tess continued, Ajax slamming them with his fists and breaking bones with each hit. He took one to the ground while Tess took on the others and reached his finger's up to the screaming Exodlite's goggles. He slammed his fist in the soldier's throat whilst ripping off the goggles with the other then brought both of his hands together and pressed his thumbs right into the screaming man's eye sockets. The other two had been granted rather quick deaths thanks to Tess and her rifle but Ajax made the final one suffer. He yelled as his eyes were gouged out and Ajax with his mutant strength ripped his fingers out of the man's skull out the sides, leaving him to die one of the most painful deaths imaginable.


He stood, turning to see Tess walk up armored and armed to the teeth, returning for a complete stranger. One who had rescued her sure, but it hadn't been forced upon her to do so.


"Lucy.... I'm alright." Ajax said into the communicator, watching the alien woman rush up to him. "I think I love Tess though for jumping out of a moving ship for me so don't get jealous."


"I would have wheeled myself out the airlock to help you but then the Gaius would have got shot down." She replied, her teeth gritted as she continued the erratic maneuvers. "And you know my baby will always come before you." Lucy managed to say as they did a ridiculous roll through the skies only for them to fly through the enemy lines taking out three Exodlite ships as they passed by. "The Epoch is too far out... You two... give them hell." It had long since passed the time of sparring the Exodlites and if any of them got away it would mean this post would be compromised. Their hand was forced and now things were about to get bloodier.


Ajax walked over to Tess, ripping off his Exodlite helmet and tossing it to the ground while he smiled at her brightly. Even with snow battering his face he couldn't stand wearing the thing anymore, "Thanks for coming back for me Tess, haven't had someone jump out of ship for me before. If my face wasn't getting blasted by snow I'd be blushing. We're even now." He said with a smirk, "Only took out four though, that ain't shit.. I was planning on going on a war path straight to the docking bay to escape but now... I feel like getting some true payback. I bet you got a score to settle especially since they captured you..." Ajax motioned over to the base with his head, "Wanna raise some hell?"
 
"Even? You think we're even?" Tess said, with a laugh. "Kid, you're not gonna learn what even even is until we get back to that ship." she said, grinning at him. The cold hadn't seemed to bother her really at all as she looked back to Ajax, and then to the base. "We'll take the loading bay, cutting off anyone left that intends on getting back to their ship. That's the only way off of the planet: that will leave the Epoch to scoop up anyone that was out in the wastelands when we seiged. That's their only way off the planet: there are no other bases here. Not that I know of, at least."


With that, she and Ajax had started toward the base itself, having found themselves a decent distance away with how the Gaius had dragged Ajax. They had attracted a wave of people, that of which had found themselves mowed down by the man who had burst out from the snow and Tess herself. The others were too far to hear them, and that was to their advantage. Just as well, the snow muffled their transit. After a while, it covered their forms, making them only perceptible to the overly observant eye. They had ran that way for a while, knowing that the more time passed, the more people were able to get to their ships. In turn, that left more work for Lucy, who even with the extensive training that she had along with the support of her team, could not take down every ship that left from the loading bay. A single escapee meant they had failed their mission: the Epoch wouldn't be able to take over to intercept Exodlite signals, and the purpose of infiltrating the base - apart from saving Tess herself - would be moot.


So they ran. Soon, a light had come up in the distance - one that was the base's. Tess raised her rifle as she ran, intending on shooting straight through any opposition that had intended on stopping them.


In the sky, it was fantastically hard to see the escaping Exodlites. Whether they had done so on foot didn't matter, though. Had they chosen not to return, they would die an inevitable death in the wasteleands, unable to broadcast a strong enough signal to gain help due to the nebula. In fact, the only transmitter that had been strong enough to call for reinforcements was inside the base itself, and Casar had disabled it and left. They didn't intend on leaving the Exodlites inside long enough to fix it, Epoch no doubt on their way after giving the Gaius team time to extract the prisoners. Only now, the situation had gone awry. It was one that they had intended on containing, but it had gone awry nonetheless.


In front of the Gaius, a ship had risen from the port. Unlike the Gaius, it had been completely intended for combat over stealth. Just as soon as the Leech ship had come into its sights, the pilot had laid down on their trigger, sending ballistic missiles point-blank at them. The Gaius lurched hard to the side thanks to Lucy's piloting, sending anyone who hadn't been nailed to their seats nearly to their backs - but luckily, everyone at the turrets had been prepared. That wasn't the last assault that would occur, however.


The ship they faced was long and black, the red target of the Exodlite symbol displayed proudly on the nose. It seemed that they had gotten the hint: the Gaius wouldn't let them leave, so they had to destroy the Gaius. Just as soon as Lucy had pointed the ship toward them, Casar laid down on their own ballistic guns, splaying the side of the other ship and jeering them mid-air, but not destroying them outright. It would take a bit more for that.


"How close is the Epoch?!" Casar nearly yelled, realizing that their situation had become urgent. Luckily for them, down on the ground, Ajax and Tess had gotten to the loading bay and started their assault. They would no longer have to deal with oncoming ships, and could now focus on the ones already in the air. "Lucy, they're getting away!" he said, looking to the ship rising behind the one that had been assaulting them, effectively guarding their teammate and giving them safe passage. The Gaius had to do something soon, or they would undoubtedly fail.
 
"I'm tired of being on the defense..." Lucy growled, glancing over to the Epoch's ETA and seeing they were only a few minutes out. "Fuck this, EVERYBODY HANG ON!" What Lucy did next would have given Dayle a heartattack. This was the very same girl who on her first breach scrapped the entire body of the Gaius on the Dredge. This was the same girl who was reduced to tears as she guided the Gaius to pick up her old team on the Sinai. This was the same girl who suffered a humiliating and brutal attack on Vee among countless other encounters. After learning all those lessons over the years she wasn't about to let all that be for nothing and she certainly wasn't going to let a single Exodlite get away.


The Exodlite piloting the other ship was good, but he wasn't as crazy as Lucy. She hovered the ship right in front of their sights, making it seem like she made a rookie mistake. The Exodlite grinned as he ordered his crew to fire, only for Lucy to fly so close to them that their arms went whizzing right past the Gaius. His eyes opened wide as Lucy literally used the back end of the Gaius as a batter ram, rearing the ship up and slamming the leech into the cockpit of the enemy ship. The act caused the Gaius to bounce up high into the air while the Exodlite ship that had been fighting them started crashing to the ground immediately. No one was there to control their ship, the entire front end had been smashed as Lucy brought the back of the leech directly into them at a high speed. The damage to the Gaius fortunately was minimal to major systems, the loading bay taking most of the hit as Lucy sent them flying straight toward the fleeing ships.


"Lucy!" Nyx asked, completely dazed and out of her seat as she hadn't strapped in properly. The Calivarian woman peeled herself off the floor and strapped herself in properly now, everyone on the ship completely dumbfounded at what she had just down. "Did you just smash that other ship with the Gaius or am I having a drug induced flashback? Am I concussed?" Even Jagar was confused as he continued to fire at the fleeing Exodlite ships, though he didn't voice just how confused he had been. No one there had seen someone use their own ship as a weapon before, it was a foolish maneuver but Lucy knew the Gaius better than anyone. She knew she could take it and it got their biggest problem out of the way.


"Just a flesh wound! Look alive people, shoot them down!" Lucy replied, speeding them up and through the atmosphere to find several Exodlite ships preparing to make their jump to light speed. "There! There!" She exclaimed as the silhouettes embedded in the nebula were appearing before them. "They'll take a minute to jump so we got time, FIRE!" Lucy brought in the Gaius close, having them aim right at the fleeing ships as well as getting an advantageous position to take out anymore.


Back on the planet Ajax and Tess were fighting for their lives. For whatever reason though both of them were having the time of their lives, both long forgetting the no kill order in order to take out as many as they could so none could escape. Ajax had taken one of Tess' pistols off her hip while she had continued to fire with her assault rifle, both of them bottle necking the hanger so none could enter. The hallway in front of them looked as if they were at a meat packing facility with nothing but an ocean of blood filling the entire walkway and slowly draining down into the floor.


"You'd think they'd learn running into the same hall is gonna get them killed!" Ajax said with a laugh, looking over to the Epoch woman next to him. "Almost out of ammo, probably getting near the last of them. You fight good Tess.... Maybe not as good as me but you were in prison for a long time." He grinned, "We'll get you a nice meal on the Gaius when we head back, I'm feeling a little whiskey too. I had to do all sorts of nasty shit as an Exodlite, praising that piece of shit Damaris, talking like an uppity motherfucker." He grinned, "Though roughing you up was kinda fun. And you came back for me even after I beat you up so it all worked out." He teased, only to pop out from cover again and shoot a charging Exodlite dead in the chest. "First I heard of a prisoner helping her prison breaker like that. Not sure if you're just loyal or fucking crazy."
 
"It was for show." Tess said. "Had I not let you, I would have been one 'handler' less, and for the record, I had those cuffs off before your mage thought it wasn't convincing enough. Had you all not told me you were friendly, well ... it wouldn't have worked out for you. But I'm glad it did." She said, with a laugh. "Though I might have had a better chance getting out unannounced without you. I've met a more commanding group of people on a Tep ship." She chided. "Once we get back to the Epoch - and my people - I'll show you all a time that makes whiskey look like peach water. For now ..."


As soon as they had rounded the corner, Tess' knee reared upwards, catching the Exodlite that had intended on surprising them by surprise, the alien woman's leg instantly rendering him unconscious and dropping him off to the side. Before he had fallen completely, she shoved him to the side, illustrating just how little she had cared for the Exodlites in the base. "No kill order, huh?" She said, watching as Ajax fired off a round into the head of an Exodlite down the hall, killing them instantly. "Rimworld drawl, bloodlust, affinity for the finer drugs in life ... you're not one of my people, are you?" Tess asked. "A Derelict, I mean." She said, surprising Ajax with her affiliation. Before he could even reply, they had made it out to the loading bay.


It was a surprisingly large sight, at least a dozen or two ships still docked within the base. Their eyes had settled on an Exodlite entering from the opposite direction, tearing straight for his ship after breaking from the wasteland. He was on the other side of the docking bay from them, and the only immediate that they had to stop now. Tess raised her gun, aiming for him, but found that her shots had only peppered the broad side of the ship instead. She cursed under her breath; they still had a moment before the Exodlite could take off, and they had had to make it count while Lucy was occupied with the ships in the sky. In fact, she had been completely out of sight, no doubt chasing the others into the high atmosphere.

Inside of the Gaius, Casar had lapsed into silence, letting Lucy belt out commands and then acting on them the moment they had left her mouth. Despite the fact that she hadn't been linked to the ship as Dayle had been, she flew nearly just as well, the two of them working like well-oiled clockwork, the mage practically becoming an extension of the ship itself. It was something Dayle would have never allowed, but the edge that it had given them was enough to be able to successfully stop one of the two FTL-bound Exodlite ships.


In front of them, they could barely make out the forms of the fleeing Exodlites being sucked into the vacuum of space. For a fraction of a second, Casar had frowned, and Arc had undoubtedly also felt a pang of sympathy for their fallen brethren. "One more." Casar had said, the Gaius turning toward the remaining cargo ship.


Suddenly, the engine lights on the cargo ship had shut off. They had stopped their jump engines. Casar had hesitated on his fire, realizing that the ship they had been aiming at possessed no weapons at all. Had they been surrendering?


"They turned their engines off." He said. "Do we... are they surrendering? Do we fire?" He asked.
 
"Yes." Lucy said, reaching down and hitting the fire button on the console not waiting for Casar. She didn't hesitate or asked questions, instead, she simply disabled the ship rather than destroying it. Rather than risking them flipping them back on and jumping to space she disabled them, ensuring that they wouldn't get away without some serious repairs and assistance from another ship. "This whole mission is fucked and it got a whole lot bloodier than we thought it would but... No Exodlites is going to escape on our watch." Lucy let out a long sigh, "We'll stay up here and make sure none escape from the planet. Ajax and Tess should be stopping them from down there but if any of them even try to breach at-mo then we'll shoot them down too." She frowned, she had really hoped they could spare more for Epoch's sake but it was hard feeling bad for the Exodlites. Many on the base hadn't been chipped and given the circumstances the Gaius crew could have been the ones killed or placed in shackles like Tess had been.


"Me and Fishbait are okay." Nyx said, looking over to Imille to ensure she was okay. "Being that hot and being such a crackshot should be a crime. It wasn't always like that but..." She grinned, "I think I rubbed off on her. How is my Jagar?"


"Jagar good. Arch good too." The Vekht grunted in reply over the communicator. "Kill many Ex-os. Sparred who we could. Save alien woman. E-poke be... satisfied. Big mission."


"That it was... They're almost jumping in now. Got a mess to clean up but we aren't exactly built for stealth or espionage. My old team was..." Lucy mused, looking down at the icy planet below, lost in her thoughts for a moment. She wondered how Axel and Dayle would have done on this mission, along with Vitor being the perfect cover being a Crusader. Her thoughts then drifted to him briefly, she hoped that he was too far gone to know what he was doing and not be forced to watch the things Knox was no doubt making him do. "They were more suited for this kind of work." She finally stammered out. "Wouldn't have left that big of an impact on the Exodlites though... We just took on a full base..." She said, looking a bit dazed at the control panel. "Whoops." Lucy said after a moment of silence, a grin appearing on her face. "Guess we don't know our full strength."


With a sigh, she began to summon the Exodlite cargo ship she had disabled. "Speak." She said, eyes glaring at the immobilized metal transport. "Do you surrender? Any movement of that ship that you can still muster without your engines will be met with deadly force."


Back on the ground the Exodlite soldier who was fleeing was in hot pursuit by a human and a Derelict, their gun fire missing as the Exodlite ran up the ramp to a cargo ship. Ajax hearing that Tess had been a derelict had nearly made him change his mind about her the instant he heard it, he had dealings with Derelicts before and they all ended badly on the best of terms. For now he put that thought away and raced up the ramp after the Exodlite. As soon as they did the ramp to the ship closed and a group of highly armed Exodlites all pointed their guns at Ajax and Tess.


"Caught them!" The Exodlite shouted, panting that he had nearly gotten shot. "It worked like a charm like you said, sir."


"Excellent." An Exodlite said, stepping forward. "I am Grand Admiral-"


"Shut the fuck up." Ajax said, lowering his pistol. The Admiral began to speak again, "Nope. Don't want to hear it." Ajax repeated.


"You insubordinate little swine I am Grand Admiral-" Ajax spat in the Admiral's face as he got closer, the Exodlite's guns traced on them. "YOU DISGUSTING VILE HERETIC! YOU ARE A DISGRACE TO OUR RACE, HELPING SUCH ALIEN FILTH AND THEN HAVING YOUR PEOPLE DESTROY OUR BASE!" The Admiral held out his hands, though standing a dangerous distance from Ajax and Tess who had lowered their weapons once surrounded. "Who are the real monsters here? You Renegades preach of peace and equality yet... Here you are in the middle of no where slaying people who have done nothing to you! You've... killed so many and would kill more if we had the population for it. You... animals..."


"Might have killed a few innocents...." Ajax said, some remorse in his voice. "But... y'all have done the same. I can name you about 30 planets of people you bastards killed off the top of my head. Some of them I watched you do it. You stand with your people so you deserve what you got here... I'm not good but I certainly ain't bad."


"No one speaks in that tone to Grand Admiral Saul. You will drop your weapons at your feet and place your hands in the air. We have locked you heretics in here and we plan on taking you directly to the Exodus. You will be tortured... for a very long time. You will be-"


"What makes you think we're locked in here?" Ajax asked, looking at Tess out of the corner of his eyes. "You're locked in here with us." Ajax then burst forward with such explosive speed that the Exodlites couldn't react in time, Ajax grabbing Saul by the neck and holding him out in front of him like a human shield. "Now then... Y'all put your weapons down or Saul here is gonna get his neck snapped. Go on." He looked over to Tess, "That is unless you wanna have a party here too." He said, suggesting that they could take them all out if she wanted. Ajax hated Exodlites, sparring them wasn't exactly high on his list.
 
Admiral Saul looked to his men with teeth gritted, his neck being viced by Ajax. He struggled to breathe, let alone give any commands, which had most likely been Ajax's intentions. He clawed at Ajax's arm, trying to get a glimpse of breath while the other Exodlites stood stunned. Then, he pulled hard himself, and with the last remaining amount of air in his throat, croaked, "Do it."


It had been bad news for Ajax and Tess.


Suddenly, their small area had been filled with gunfire. Blood covered the front of Ajax as his human shield had gone limp, making a surprising and unexpected move. But they weren't just being fired on. Instead, several of the ambushing Exodlites had broken off and rushed to the cockpit, sealing the doors behind them as Tess and Ajax had been distracted by the fire. Soon, the ship had burst to life, the Exodlites intending on breaking nebula before being killed, if the latter had to happen at all. They had seen their brethren slain, cut and killed mid-air, they had seen their brothers and sisters mowed down in a fraction of a second, they had seen complete innocents be murdered outright. And while they knew it could happen to them, they had intended on using their own version of a human shield. After all, they couldn't be shot down if they had hostages.


All of the doors leading to other rooms on the ship had sealed, leaving Tess and Ajax to dodge out of the way, dropping the dead Admiral and diving behind what very little cover they could muster. The closed frame of the loading ramp had been their only salvation, although both had their own respective armors. To their horror, a small concussive grenade had rolled their way, finding itself in the nook of the ramp itself, directly adjacent to where Tess and Ajax had taken cover. It had forced them out of hiding, but just as soon as Tess had tried to lurch forward and take their ambushers out, the ship reared upwards.


"Artificial gravity disengaged." A female voice came, over the speakers. "Reaching atmos in 5." She said. Then, as Ajax and Tess had fallen downwards while the ship had pointed up, the ramp had begun to open. Horrible winds wreaked the cabin, threatening to pull them out to their doom. The situation had turned from good to horrible in a fraction of a second, and a sinking pit in their stomach told them that the girl behind the announcements had everything to do with it.


Tess wasn't going to die by being emptied out of a ship in high atmosphere, though. She reached up, grabbing the frame of the ship with one hand and then tearing her rifle up with the other. She fired a shot, sending a wounded Exodlite tearing past them and out of the ship, screaming as he had lost his grip. Then, she reached out for Ajax.


"GRAB ON, WE'RE TAKING THE HELM!" She shouted, barely audible past the roar of the wind going through the open, flying ship.


"We're just cargo technicians! We were supplementing the base with rations. We're not combatants, and we don't possess weaponry on our ship." A voice hailed bam to Lucy. It had been sympathetic, and genuinely scared. "Just two of us made it on. Don't fire." He said, voice muffled as if he'd had gritted teeth from beyond the microphone.


"Tell them to hold still." Casar said, quickly. "They're ... They sound like civilians. It might be rare, but ... We could get an Epoch ship to take them in, or we could." He said.


"Could be a trap." Imille replied, from the turret bay. "Just because they're on a cargo ship doesn't mean they're passive. Everyone on that base was just taking the ship closest."


"It's ... worth seeing if they genuinely mean it." Casar replied.
 
"Then check we will." Lucy said, rubbing her chin as she looked at the ship. "Hold still." She said to the cargo ship as she brought in the Gaius close. Then, placing the breaching port on top of the cargo ship she got in position to breach the ship rather than destroying them outright or leaving them for the Epoch. "If it's a trap then they're going to have to deal with a pissed off Vekht. Jagar, you're up." Lucy said into the communicator, being cautious but also not being stupid. Sending in Jagar was the perfect way to equalize a potential trap, the Vekht more than proved himself already on this mission. Jagar stood up from his turret position and left Arc where he was and headed straight for the breaching port. "If they're armed incapacitate them. If they hurt you, kill them." Lucy added as she looked down to see Jagar at the ready. "Don't take risks on this. I'm hoping you're right Casar."


The Gaius began to carve into the cargo ship, a perfect circle being cut into the roof of the vehicle as the Leech ship bit into its victim. Jagar then kicked in the metal and dropped directly into the ship, the Gaius closing behind him so no others could jump in through the breach port. Sure enough he was in a cargo hold filled with supplies with no Exodlites in sight. "Clear." Jagar said quietly.


"Press on." Lucy said, ordering Jagar forward. "If what you say is true and there is only two people onboard with no weapons then you will be met with mercy." Lucy said to the Exodlites, "We have someone inside your ship now to retrieve you... someone very dangerous. Do not upset him and you will be sparred. Understood?" Lucy continued, putting her leadership abilities to the test as she wanted this to go peacefully. "If you have a plans of ways to escape there are none. The only way you two make it out of this is if you comply, we won't hurt you, we won't treat you badly." She paused, "We're not Renegades so don't expect that level of brutality either. Please, come peacefully."


Ajax had been fortunate enough to balance himself away from the door and wrapped his arm around a metal support, reaching out he helped Tess up the slanted ship and got her to safety.


"See... that's how you pull someone up!" He shouted over the overwhelming air pressure, the current trying to yank them back out of the ship. Suddenly the door shut, only for another to open. Miraculously all Exodlites had exited the room after the sudden release of air pressure and take off, after a few of them had been violently ejected the others had managed to retreat. They had been planning this, a back up plan for when they captured their attackers. "WHOEVER THAT BITCH IS UP FRONT IS CAUSING ALL OF THIS!" Ajax shouted, him and Tess pinned in an awkward spot. If they moved forward they could get yanked out, if they stayed they would most certainly be shot out of the ship and forced to die from a terrifying fall. "LET'S MOVE!'


Thankfully both Ajax and Tess were nimble enough to make a jump to a door way that was situated above them. Yanking themselves in they found that they were now in the crew's med bay, only for the doors behind them to seal on their own. There was no way they could be ripped out of the room now that they were away from the main room and loading bay but now they had an entirely different problem. Medical machines roared to life as the ship itself started to fight back at them, wired in medical tools flung at their faces as they frantically flailed their way through the room as medical instruments flung fire and indistinguishable liquids at them.


It was as if the ship had came alive and started to fight back at them, now they had to take it back to the ship. Ajax led the way into the next room and found four soldiers with their guns aimed at the door. Ajax rushed in first, absorbing the shots as he tore into the closest soldier and pressed the trigger on his gun for him. The Exodlite looked wide eyed at Ajax as the self destruction protocol began from Ajax trying to fire the weapon, the bio-metrics of the gun triggering the sequence. The Cowboy kicked the soldier in the chest as the gun detonated the soldier being torn apart by his own gun his body flung out all over the room painting the walls and the ground red with his blood.


It would be a rough uphill battle to the helm as the Exodlites fought back, with no artificial gravity the closer they got to breaching the atmosphere meant that soon they'd be floating helplessly through space. They only had a little more time left before this ship got away with them on board, or worse, the two of them forced out into the depths of space without space suits.
 
"Struggling will only make this worse for you, heretics." The voice had come again. "This is your tomb." she said, though her words seemed significantly less enthusiastic. Then, an alert near the medbay door had appeared. Air had begun to siphon out of themaking their situation more dire. Tess had grunted, realizing what was happening almost immediately.


"She's siphoning the air." Tess said, though it hadn't been an immediate danger. Instead, they had to focus on getting to the cockpit. Unfortunately for the woman at the helm, she was dealing with two extraordinarily strong people. While a shot had hit Tess' chest, the ballistic weaponry they had used had done little to pierce the armor she'd donned, not to mention her own natural armor. She pulled herself out of cover, raising her rifle and shrugging off shots as if they hadn't mattered at all. Then, when the last Exodlite that had cornered them had fell, the two had begun to make their way toward the cockpit once again, taking the back route. Their lungs were getting empty, the air around them getting thinner.


"Give up, lady. We've killed all your friends." Tess said. "Your Admiral is dead, and so are your soldiers. What are you going to do, stab us with a medical needle?" she asked. "Give up and we might have some mercy." she said.


"I'm afraid I can't do that." she replied, surprisingly. "Breaking atmosphere." she said, putting a certain amount of horror into both Tess and Ajax. The alien woman grabbed onto the wall, knowing well that the gravity would be lifted away from their feet in a moment. But she had used it to her advantage, throwing herself forward and flying through air toward the cockpit door. Her hands gripped the inner parts of it, attempting to pry it open. Unfortunately, anyone light of a completely augmented mutant wouldn't have been able to open it. But they hadn't had just one person: they had two. Realizing that she couldn't pull it open on her own, Tess took one end of the door.


"Take the other side." Tess said. "Lets put an end to this bitch before she takes us too far out."


"There's another ship rising out from atmos." Casar said, as he flipped between looking at the viewport and Jagar's own armor-cam. "They're going fast. Lucy!" he said, though before he could finish the thought, they had received a transmission from the fleeing ship.


"Fire on me and your friends will die as well." the pilot said, behind the ship that had risen from atmosphere. "You can kill me, but the prisoner and the human on-board will be killed as well. If you want to take that risk, then feel free, but all of your efforts to save the prisoner here will be for naught." she said, frowning. It was a risk that the pilot had to take: even if they had all died there, all she had needed was a glimpse outside of the nebula for the message for help to get out. For the message that their base had been taken, that they had failed. She would die anyway, so it hadn't particularly mattered to her, but she had known that it was just the opposite for the others. As long as the ship had made it outside of the nebula, it would be a worthy sacrifice.


"Tell your team that we got this!" Tess shouted, in frustration, hearing the woman talk through the small crack in the door that they had shimmied open.


Inside of the cargo ship, Jagar had dropped down. It seemed spectactularly quiet at first, but it would become apparent soon that that wasn't the case. Even without having touched the ship just yet, a trail of blood had lead to the cockpit. He had traversed the hall, arms at the ready, only to find that the cockpit door was splayed open. As soon as he had entered, the Exodlites inside had thrown their hands up. It had been a man and a woman, both seemingly cargo technicians, though the body of a fallen Exodlite soldier had been splayed across the floor, almost as if in a horror film. More than a little distressed, the surrendering technicians had shouted out, the visage of Jagar terrifying them quite a bit.


"He - he wanted to make it a trap, but ..." he stammered, showing just how divided the small group of people on the ship had been. "We didn't - we didn't mean to, he tried to kill us for suggesting surrender - please, we're hurt." he said. As soon as his eyes had laid on Jagar, he had begun to regret suggesting surrender in the first place, an alien of that size and horrifying stature no doubt sent to finish them off. The technician's counterpart's hand fell, though upon looking, it seemed as if she had been nursing a wound.
 
"Ajax!" Lucy called out, "Is this true? Are you two onboard that ship?" She asked, signaling to Casar to prime the weapons. As they begun to spin up they waited anxiously for Ajax's reply. It felt like it took him forever to respond, the nebula distorting the transmission. Lucy repeated herself, "Talk to me Jax! Come on! What is your status? NOW!" She roared not wanting to fire on the fleeing ship but it was almost too late for them to do anything.


"WE GOT THIS!" Ajax shouted, listening to what Tess had said and relaying it back to Lucy. "WE ALMOST GOT THE PILOT NOW! DON'T. FIRE." With that being said, Ajax and Tess started tearing at the doors even more. With both of their strength combined the massive steel doors were being moved slowly but surely. They didn't have to open them all the way but they did have to make a large enough gap for both Tess and Ajax. The air was growing so thin the longer they were out there and expelling a lot of energy, Ajax the first to get light headed being the weaker race.


Gritting his teeth he pushed forward, even on the brink of passing out he pulled and pulled. They could see the pilot through the crack. She was just a single woman alone, the Exodlites onboard the ship either dead or hiding now that she was putting Ajax and Tess through a maze of terror and making the ship do erratic things. They couldn't get a clear look at her as they both strained to open those damned doors, Ajax looking to Tess with bloodshot eyes as the oxygen was nearly completely sucked out of the room.


Back on the cargo ship, Jagar looked down to the two humans before him alongside the dead one. He was the most menacing figure to send onboard and it worked, neither Exodlite wanted to resist and they had in fact betrayed their own to show that they were submitting to whoever these invaders were. It was the smart thing to do regardless of what their stance was on their people. It meant they lived and it showed that they could be changed by the Epoch for the better, even if the Exodlites themselves didn't know that just yet. Jagar looked at them both, completely silent for far too long. Just as the tension in the room couldn't get any higher Jagar reached slowly to his belt and pulled out a pack of healing supplies and gently handed it to them.


"Patch self up. Have to put you in brig but..." Jagar nodded at them firmly, "You are safer with us than with that." He said, pointing a clawed finger down to the dead soldier. "We no hurt you. What are you carrying on this ship?" Jagar asked, interested in what they had to offer. "We take now. Bring you to our ship, get you far away from bad men." He said, still looking at the dead Exodlite soldier. He was stressing the point that they weren't going to hurt them and even want out of the way to show a kindness that Jagar almost never gave. However, if this had been an elaborate trap then Jagar was also ready to cut them down just as quickly.


"Come on Ajax..." Lucy whispered at the helm of the Gaius, watching as the Exodlite ship started flying quicker and quicker through the Nebula. "You can do it... Don't let that bitch win..."


Straining as hard as he could, Ajax began moving the door harder than Tess. He was on his last breath but the more they opened the door the more oxygen flowed out to them giving them just a few more moments before passing out. Ajax with the last remaining strength he had tore his half of the door open, "MOVE!" Ajax breathlessly shouted, "GET HER!" He said, practically sacrificing himself just to get Tess in there after the mystery pilot. He began to float away as he had finished his job, his life in Tess' hands now.
 
On the viewport, as Tess had forced herself into the room, a small timer had appeared on the viewport window. It wasn't anything the pilot had been intending on announcing - especially given that all of her teammates had been killed - but it was there nonetheless. 10. The numbers had represented how many seconds they had until they had hit faster-than-light, just a few seconds away from completely failing their mission. As she had entered, it had hit 9. She had 9 seconds to stop it all from happening, a brief glance to where Ajax had been indicating to her that if she had failed here, they would all die. So she tore toward the mage.


The mage herself had been sitting valiantly at the controls, not even sparing a glance toward Tess herself. She had been a spectacularly unassuming thing from behind, tangled black hair pulled into a ponytail and a standard Exodlite uniform donning her figure. From the back of her neck, a large, glowing cord had sprouted, connecting directly to a port in the ceiling of the cockpit. Her eyes flitted toward Tess for half a second, and the alien woman had realized that this was exactly who they had been looking for upon first seeing her: a techno-mage. Her lower jaw had been replaced, akin to Casar's, showing that at some point it had been completely destroyed.


5.


Tess tore forward, grabbing the mage by the neck and ripping the link from the port that had taken the back of her neck. She was met with a frustrated scream as the mage had reached for her weapon at the last moment, knowing that she had only been seconds away from completing her own personal mission. Before the raging alien woman had gotten to the mage, however, she had slammed her hand down on the inner door open controls, opening the doors to the cockpit and all of the rest that had been closed on the ship, apart from the outer doors. Suddenly, a gasp was heard from Ajax, as oxygen had finally returned to his lungs. Then, a shot rang through the cockpit. The mage had raised her gun point-blank to Tess while she had taken the controls, taking the alien woman by surprise.


1.


Just as the shot had tore through her, Tess had aborted the FTL launch sequence, causing the ship to shudder and then come to a complete stop. With just a second left, the mage screamed in frustration, only for the wounded alien woman to bear down on her, ripping the gun from her hands and throwing it across the room. Unlike Casar, she had been a mage that had been completely built for piloting, possessing no offensive capabilities other than the gun she had worn on her hip. This had made it easy for Tess to incapacitate her, cruelly slamming her fist into the side of the mage's jaw. The only reason she had been spared was ease of access: she had already stowed her weapons. The mage collapsed to the floor, looking hatefully up at Tess, her eyes lolling. Tess reached over, turning the artificial gravity back on once again, and to the mage's detestment, dragged her back to Ajax by the collar.


"Are you okay? Tell your teammates that they don't need to shoot us down. Figure by now they know simply for the fact we haven't jumped yet." she said. Her eyes shifted to the window, the technomage flailing haplessly in her grip. "Got cuffs?"


"I don't see any more ships coming from the planet." Casar said, tapping into the Gaius' scanning systems. "I wouldn't be surprised if the occupants were killed or incapacitated on-planet." he said. Then, one-by-one, Epoch backup ships began to phase into the space around them, sweeping in to secure the rest of the remaining Exodlites on base and in space. They had a lot to clean up.


On the cargo ship, the two remaining technicians had shared a look with each other, jumping in their skins as they had soon been surrounded by the Epoch. They were completely surrounded by the enemy, but ... everything in their training had told them they'd be completely mowed down even when surrendering. When Jagar hadn't, it had been a nervous surprise.


"Uh... Rations, mostly. Supplies for expanding the base and some telecommunication equipment." the male tech said. "Who ... you're not Renegades?"
 
"Luce... we stopped this last ship... We're on board... and we're alright." Ajax said as he stumbled to his feet, breathing heavily as he had quite literally nearly suffocated as he had floated through away from the bridge's door. "Don't shoot us, I'll spread the word to Epoch..." He said quietly, eyeing the Technomage that very well could have killed him. He sized her up, looking at the frail augmented woman. "Don't got cuffs for Jaws over here, we can make due though..." He said, his eyes filled with hatred as that woman had nearly taken his life from him. He couldn't die, he refused to die. Not with Ayla kidnapped he refused to stop breathing no matter the cost. "Surprised a little bitch like this has that much power. Reminds me of Casar." He looked over to Tess, "The mouthy little midget. We didn't get to properly meet back on the base, I'm Ajax. Ajax Winger." He said, holding out his hand and shaking her free one while her other kept the prisoner in place. "The other one you met is Arc, reformed Exodlite. The others will get a chance to introduce themselves in a few." He then began to search for something to tie the prisoner up with.


He looked around the ship for the armory, finding it and then scanned the walls for a set of mag cuffs. Ajax made sure that they were power dampening, the technomage would no doubt try anything in order to get out of this mess so he brought them over and smiled at her, "Hey Jaws. I'm gonna put these on you. Not because I'm suggesting we try out some bondage but because you nearly killed me. You're on a long list, not many get that close though." As he was talking he slapped the cuffs on her before she could speak, Ajax glared down at the girl then turned his gaze back to Tess. "I'll take this ship down to the planet, gonna pass word to the Epoch we're in here so find someplace comfy."


Ajax walked over to the seat the Technomage had been sitting in and took a seat, the ship was foreign but luckily for him it wasn't too hard to figure out. "This is Winger, I'm bringing in this Exodlite ship back to the planet. Don't shoot." He said, broadcasting to the Epoch via his card. "The Exodlites suffered several casualties, necessary evil though. Things went south here real quick."


"We can see that, Winger." A voice replied dryly. "The no kill order is to grow our numbers and to be decent people. We're... disappointed. Not at you but at the loss of life." The Epoch coordinator spoke, answering for the faction as the voice broadcast that the ship Ajax was in was friendly. "It's senseless but that's what happens during these missions. We'll rendezvous on the ground, your team will report to Scouter Ford for debriefing. We will handle the package drop back to Echora. We-"


"They won't be necessary." Ajax said, looking back to Tess. "We'll take the 'package' back ourselves. She's too interesting to pawn her off on y'all now. We got it." Without another word the Epoch went back to work, several ships flying in and beginning to land on the now former Exodlite base. Several small skirmishes broke out from survivors on the ground but unfortunately many had died in the assault. More than a few had died pursuing the Gaius and several more had died in the initial blitz. "Told you I owed you a drink." Ajax said back to Tess, "Ain't about to let you skip out, higher ups want you back for whatever reason. You royalty or something?" He teased, "This has been a lot for one person. Not that I'm saying you ain't worth it but... Look at all these ships coming in..."


"Not Renegade." Jagar spoke, nodding at them. "Epoch. What Renegade should have been. Come." Jagar motioned for them to walk back to the cargo hold to where they would board the Gaius. He made short work of the escort, not giving them a grand speech about freedom or telling them they were now going to truly experience life. No, they simple received a curt nod and a monster pushing them up and into the Gaius. "Exodlites on deck." Jagar said, escorting them directly to the brig.


"Good work Jagar... Good work everyone." Lucy said, slumping down in her chair. She was beyond relieved to see the Epoch come in to reinforce them, it had been a tense fire fight and an even tenser time with one of their own getting abandoned during a fire fight. "Damn... Ford is going to be pissed." She said quietly, patching directly into his channel. "Sir." She said firmly as soon as they connected. "The Package has been secured, the base is secure and... it came at a heavy cost. We were compromised and had no choice but to use lethal force. We sparred who we could but we almost didn't make it out alive. Our ship is damaged, we're going to return to Echora for repairs and to drop off the prisoner."
 
"You could say that." Tess said. "Tess'rah of the reformed Derelicts. We've got a few names floating around for our people. Voidriders, Reformers, 'fucking traitors' ... a few names. But we're an organized people. Sure, we enjoy our vices, still, but we fight for a cause that's not going to make the universe worse, and that's important." she said, eyeing Ajax now that they had the chance to talk. She seemed to glance him over for a moment, an amused look of surprise on her face. Surprise that he'd been able to hold himself this far, and almost ... amusement at how ragged he had looked. Through falling out of a moving spaceship and nearly being suffocated, he looked the part. "So unless they had wanted to lose a good portion of the people willing to do the dirty work that our friendly reformed Renegades won't ... then yes, you could consider me royalty."


"It would figure that heretics would worship an exoskeletal pig." the mage said, finally. Her voice was strangely metallic. She had been met with a swift whap to the back of the head, demeaning her as if she had been a child. It hadn't been enough to hurt her, but more than enough to send her into a relative rage, Tess displaying so much restraint that it was almost mocking.


"Shut up, Jaws." Tess said, laughing at the name that Ajax had chosen for her. "You're gonna ride with us on the way back. Bad idea for you to run your mouth off. Okay? Bad idea. I've been in your guys' company for longer than I care at all to admit, and as much blood as I spilled today, well... I'm a Derelict, sweetheart." Tess said, leaning down to look her straight in the eyes. "You're lucky I'm with the Epoch, because an earlier version of me would love to see what I could scavenge from your corpse."


Tess smirked in her face for a moment, while the mage had gone a shade paler. She looked to Tess defiantly still, keeping the signature Exodlite scowl on her face, until the alien woman had finally broken the stare. "That's what I thought." she said, turning to look at Ajax again. "Don't worry about their 'disappointment' shtick. We did what we had to do, and didn't kill a great deal more than I honestly thought we would." she said. "Lets get onto your ship, then. They took out my telecommunication chip, so this'll be the first time I meet your crew apart from the mouthy little midget and the stick, and I never seen your face around the Epoch before."


When the Exodlites had boarded the ship, Lucy began guiding the Gaius back to the ground to retrieve Tess and Ajax, and the supposed 'package' that they had captured on the Grand Admiral's ship. Casar had risen from his seat, giving a curt nod to Lucy after having worked together, and then swiftly guided himself to the exit of the cockpit, overseeing Jagar's guidance of the captured technicians. Soon, an Epoch ship had pulled up to the cargo ship, no doubt intending on securing the ship itself and the cargo inside.


Casar watched with interest as the technicians were guided to the brig, the technicians themselves glancing around at everyone that had watched their entrance into the Gaius, terror still rooted in their features. He had descended the stairs, following Jagar down to the brig. It wasn't due to his mistrust in him at all, though. Instead, he himself had wanted to talk with them.
 
"We're new, would explain why you ain't seen us.." Ajax said as he glided the Grand Admiral's ship down, breaching the atmosphere and swiftly being assaulted by the snow on the windshield. It was nothing he couldn't handle, being just a minor annoyance to a surprisingly smooth ride in an Exodlite ship. "We got a rowdy bunch. Maybe not Derelict Queen and her minions rowdy but... I think we'd give you a run for your money. We got a Cripple for a Captain, my ex. We got a lesbian fish and her human lover who happens to be the crew's doctor and augment expert. Been trying to wrangle up a three way for months now but you know how it is, especially when I met them by cracking one in the face and-" Ajax began to laugh, "Hey, that's how we met! I gotta stop doing that. I'm gonna get labeled as a woman beater and everything."


As he laughed he continued briefing Tess on the crew, "Other than them we got the midget and the twig, along with a big scary motherfucker who just joined. Some tribal alien who 'talk funny. Spike head. Kill many alien and creature.' And..." He paused, he had nearly forgotten that Psy was gone. He had been so use to having the android around that it was hard to admit that he was gone. "We had a pretty cool unshackled A.I. unit named Psy. He malfunctioned about a week ago and caused a scene back home and well... This mission to rescue you was a way to apologize for what happened with him and... Well... To get supplies to start our search for him."


The Exodlite ship landed in the docking bay, the Gaius hovering inside right behind them as they all began to dock in the bay. It made more sense to go in the heated room rather than face the storm outside, especially with the damage already done to the Gaius. "Glad we came and got you though. You're pretty fun to kick ass with, Tess. Just keep that whole Derelict Queen shit to a minimum and we'll get along great. I'm a simple guy, I can't be calling you m'lady or your grace all the time. Shit's cringey and it don't match my accent." Ajax then gestured outside to the loading ramp, "After you, your most gracefullishness. Your chariot awaits you back to your kingdom of cheap booze, bad tattoos and fast space whores." He paused, "The more I say it out loud the more I'm rethinking my life choices here... That sounds badass." He then looked down to their prisoner. "Move Jaws!" Ajax said, commanding the Exodlite to get up. "I got a nice technomage for you to dock with or whatever y'all do."


Jagar glanced back over his shoulder as he felt the Gaius landing, taking note of Casar following them. The technicians he had captured were minding quietly but all still rather terrified even with how quiet and kind Jagar had been to them. To them they were captured by the enemy led by a monster wearing a mask. Jagar thought to himself that Casar might actually make this situation better while he would only make the situation more tense and worse. He stopped as the Exodlites filled into the brig, Jagar turning back to face Casar.


"Did not put shackles on them, Cazzer." He said, taking note of their gentle treatment. "They... kill one of own. Soldier who wanted to make trap. Not sure if they tell truth but..." The Vekht let out a long sigh, his mask filtering the noise and making it sound far more sinister than it should. "You help Jagar? Not... good with aliens."


Upfront in the cockpit Nyx and Imille had joined Lucy as they awaited Ajax to return with Tess. "I can't believe he made it out..." Nyx remarked, watching as Ajax, Tess and the Technomage disembarked from the Grand Admiral's ship. "He fell far and hard. No one should have survived that fall without armor on." She frowned, "I thought we had lost him once Tess' hand slipped, I watched the whole thing..."


"His family doesn't die easily." Lucy replied, her eyes glazed over. She had heard an ear full from not only Ford but from the Epoch coordinator on how this was supposed to be a cut and dry stealth mission. They weren't happy, but they weren't exactly mad either. Their disappointment over anger was a lot more heart wrenching to Lucy as she and her team had tried very hard to make it all work. It just didn't come together like it was supposed to. "And neither do we. We're Gaius, ladies. We might get crippled, we might get lost... Hell, we might get separated on a dangerous ice hellhole. We always come back." Lucy turned in her seat, "I'd like to meet this person we worked so hard to get out of here. Hope she was worth the trouble and the casualties."
 
"I'm Casar." Casar said, introducing himself to the uncuffed prisoners. Jagar had taken a backseat to talking to the technicians, who had obviously still been more than a little unsure of their position within the holding cell of the Gaius. By all means, for everything that they had learned, this had to be some sort of cruel trick. There wasn't any way for a bunch of heretics capturing them to lead to anything good, even if a ton of evidence toward the contrary had been presented. Even Casar hadn't looked very reassuring, with paled skin and darkened bags under his eyes. But he had looked like them. In fact, hearing his accent, they could only assume that he was one of them.


"You're not going to be hurt. Not unless you try to hurt someone here or in the group of people we're bringing you to." He said, knowing that they would appreciate concrete details over sympathies and soft words. "It seems like you've given up trying to do that, so ... I'll tell you what happens now." He said, lending to a sinking feeling in the technicians' chests.


"Who are you bringing us to? All we know is that you're not Renegades." The woman said, speaking up. "Are you ... are you one of us?" She asked, more confused and scared than really understanding.


"I was in your position once. Except I did worse things than carry cargo. You're ... going to the Epoch." He said, unsure if he really should reveal it, but it wasn't as if anyone had intended on them escaping, anyways. "Yes, I'm Mage Casar Celil." He said. "Or, I was. But you're going to find yourselves letting go of the titles you've been assigned as well, and choosing where you end up. But you don't have to be afraid. The people on this ship don't mean you any harm, including Jagar, here." He said, looking back to the socially awkward Vekht warrior. "If he did, you would be dead. You'll soon learn that the 'heretics' you've been taught to fear simply want to live in peace or fight for it. But you're a part of that peace now."


"If we died easily we'd all be dead." Imille said, with a laugh. Then, as if Lucy's wish had been granted, the Gaius' loading bay had begun to open. The ramp had laid itself down, the familiar sound meaning that Ajax and Tess had arrived. Imille had poked her head out of the cockpit, eyes widening as she had seen the two of them escorting the prisoner in. The prisoner had looked more than a little displeased, and more than a little scary, with sunken eyes and half a face augmented. She poked her head back in after a moment.


"That's them! They're back. Ajax doesn't look like he has any broken bones, though I've seen him break bones and heal in front of our eyes, so..." She said, eyes falling to a camera view of the same shot pulled up on the viewport by Lucy. "Never seen another technomage before." She mused.


"They rank highly and are used rarely." Arc said, choosing not to descend from the cockpit and make the mage woman's descent into the brig more of an affair than it had needed to be. "Though I do wonder..."


"I'm a big girl." The mage said, practically hissing at Tess in the same mechanical voice as she had used beforehand. Tess had been guiding her asking, assuring that she hadn't tried to try anything. "I can walk in a straight line on my own."


"I don't care if you can say your alphabet backwards and balance a pencil on your nose, kid." Tess replied, then looking to Ajax. "Well, welcome. Nobody calls me your highness, but I'm not going to stop you. Let's put the mouthless midget in the brig so I can meet your Captain." She said, though it was simply a play on words, as the prisoner in her grip had been of average stature, despite being willowy. "Didn't get to properly introduce myself after having to jump out of the ship after you."
 
"Yeah, after you dropped me." Ajax replied to Tess without missing a beat. Although they were fairly even now he wasn't going to let her live that one down anytime soon. "Hey guys!" He said, waving to everyone in the cockpit looking at them. While Arc recoiled from sight Nyx and Imille gave them a warm welcome while Lucy struggled to get into her wheel chair from the Captain's seat. "Watch yourselves, we got royalty on deck. Be on your best behavior. We'll stash this technomage then be up to see y'all." As they passed underneath the threshold of the overhanging walkway from above and went down the ramp making their way to the brig they spotted Jagar in the distance with Casar in front of him. "Looks like we're late, already caught some Exodlites by the look of things."


Jagar turned, hearing them before they had turned the corner and nodded at Ajax firmly. "Cazzer. One more prisoner. She... look like you." He said, making an observation that he normally wouldn't have. "You have... family?" He asked, genuine curiosity in his voice as he saw the girl.


"Come on Jaws, you ain't missing your eyes. Are you?" Ajax asked, stopping for a moment to get in the Exodlite's face. In reality it had been a test, one that was harmless though the taunting nature of it all was as if a younger Axel himself had been doing it. "Brig is over there... Looks like we got a few of your cousins or whatever locked up. Got you a nice boyfriend right there too, his name is Casar and he has just about as much metal on his face as you do. You'll get along great!" He said, too cheerfully to someone who was literally being escorted into a cell. "Jagar, Cas. This is Tess. And our prisoner here is Jaws."


"Powerful Jaws." Jagar said, looking at her face closely. "Strong. Good for the hunt. Think very pretty."


"Ahh god damn it Jagar, you can't call the prisoner pretty!" Ajax groaned, "You just undid 15 minutes of ridiculing the bitch that nearly killed us both. Damn it." Ajax said, though feigning anger as he was actually having a rather good time. When he got to run his mouth and make an ass out of himself for fun after a mission it simply meant that it had been a good one. Especially after one of that magnitude it was a miracle he was in this good of a mood. "Well, here's your cell Jaws. It's small, cramped and it's probably gonna smell with three of you cooped up in there. I can't imagine you'll find this as what it is but... you're all going to a good place."


"Why.... why would you take people who tried to kill you to a good place?" One of the Exodlites in the cell asked, gaining some courage now that they had heard from Casar rather than just Jagar. "We are your enemy we... is this a trick?"


"No tricks." Ajax said, his facial features hardening as he put on a serious face. "I'm sure Cas here has given you the spiel but... just as long as y'all don't try and hurt us or do something stupid we won't lay a finger on you. In fact... I'm thinking it's about high time we have dinner." Ajax patted Cas on the back as he squeezed past him and Jagar again after leading the female Technomage into her cell only to turn to face them once more. "Good to see you two are alright." He said to both Jagar and Casar, he then turned his attention to Tess. "I'll go warm them all up to you outside, fall in when you're done here."


Ajax went on ahead to the loading bay to find Nyx, Imille and Lucy waiting for him. Before he knew it he had been wrapped up in a group hug thanks to the two girls while Lucy watched on, a smile on her weary face.


"WE SEEN YOU FALL!" Nyx cried, clasping onto Ajax tightly. "WE THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD! Are you okay Jax? We wanted nothing more than to go down and help you but..." Obviously the crew left behind on the ship had felt a massive amount of guilt, it was unavoidable but from the smile he was displaying it was reassuring to them that he didn't take it personally. "It was impossible to get close enough to land. Are you okay?" She repeated, showing a great concern for her friend.


"Takes a lot more than a little fall to kill me... I'm fine." He said, trying to keep his cool but the two showing so much worry for him had broken through to his core. "I'm... really fucking glad to see the both of you. You too Lucy if I could see you! We... Cut it close. Without Tess I'd have probably died. Or... at the very least I wouldn't have been able to complete the mission." They slowly broke off and Ajax turned to look back to the brig hallway, "She's... rough around the edges but I like her. Think y'all will get along. Might even be a little more crazy than me."
 
"My name is Mage Evelynn." The mage said, after Ajax had left, apparently tired enough of being called by a derogatory name. As soon as she had entered the cell, she looked accusingly to Casar, who she deduced after a moment was not part of her team. Especially as he had guided her to the bench, locking her Magcuffs in place. It was a strange feeling, doing something like that to another technomage. On the surface, she was a spitting image for how he once was, though that was simply due to the fact that the Exodlite army wouldn't allow it any other way. It had bred the bitter and weak for their mages, and the violent and strong for their soldiers. "I see that you're a traitor." She said finally, after Casar had managed to finish wrestling to get her restraints to lock in place.


"I am." He said. "You'll find out that that doesn't ... always carry a negative connotation."


"You'll find that I'm not as easy to break as you are." She replied quickly. "The only reason your team members aren't dead now is because I had to divert my attention to piloting due to the loss of mine, which yours murdered in cold blood. Cold blood is the mark of a traitor." She said, and once again she had reminded him of himself. It was a bitter thought in itself, and even more so when he'd realized he'd been reduced to it for another five years.


"I'm sorry that you're going through this, Mage Evelynn." He said. "There's honestly nothing I can say to you right now that's going to make you any happier about your situation. I know because I've been through it. The only difference is that you didn't kill anyone in the process, so it's going to go a lot smoother for you. If you want. But the bottom line is that you're not going back to the Exodlites. Ever again. You can protest and scream and kick and fight but it's not going to happen." He said, unsure if his words were true, but knowing that it'd transform from a horrible thought to a calming one later on. "The restraints are going to be temporary." He said, when he'd seen her pulling against them.


"Because I'd so prefer a cell than Magcuffs." She said, sarcastically. "You can think that our people aren't going to come back down on you and us but they will. And when they execute you for heresy, I will be the first one laughing."


"If that were to happen they'd either torture or execute you as well." Casar said. "Exodlites out of the company of the army for even a short amount of time - particularly, expendable Exodlites - are considered either dead or heretical. You would be lucky if they killed you. I did not get that luck. So don't wish that they'll come back for you - because even if you are a mage - you are a pilot. One that failed at doing the one simple thing you were trained to do. Don't wish it." He said, voice becoming sterner. She had gone quiet after that, an anger obviously taking her. One directed at the entire Gaius team. But that would change.


"You're not going to be hurt. You're going to talk with someone that'll help you. Unlike the Exodlites, they won't just flay you until you concede and join their side." Casar said. "Like I said ... You're not really going to understand what I'm saying until you get used to life ... not as a slave."


Seeing that they had delivered the mage successfully, Tess had made her way up from the brig, allowing Ajax to embrace his friends before interrupting their fun. Surprisingly, she had made her way past Ajax, Imille, and Nyx and straight to Lucy. She kneeled down out of necessity, offering a hand to the wheelchair-bound woman as greeting, though she didn't offer her any saddened or sympathetic looks. "Tess." She said. "You did some fine flying, if I do say so myself. Thank you, to you and your team. If you need anything from me or my people, you let me know. Given I still have a chair when I get back. My people have short attention spans."
 
"Jagar... not Exodlite." He said to the three of them, Evelynn in particular, without realizing how dumb it sounded with how obvious the statement was. "But been in prison before. This no cell compared to one you already be in." Jagar paused, trying to unscramble his words in order to explain what he was trying to say to them better. "Death is better than be capture by Exodlite. With Epoch... You have chance." With that he turned to leave as well, leaving them in the capable hands of Casar. He wasn't good with speaking and he was only terrifying the two technicians with his horrifying visage. Even with a mask obscuring his face Exodlites who were use to only humans were in for a rude awakening looking at the horned Vekht.


"Nice to meet you Tess, glad to have played in a role freeing you from that base. Thank you! I take pride in my piloting, glad someone appreciates it." Lucy grinned. "I'd ask you why you were captured on this base in particular but..." She smiled, "We just fought a long and tough battle. I think... Let's leave mission details and all that behind on our trip back. You've been imprisoned by Exodlites and now you're free. You saved Ajax and pulled more than your weight in your own escape." She paused, appreciating the fact that Tess didn't treat her with any sadness or sympathy. It gave the Captain a boost of confidence, a much needed one at that.


"After she dropped me." Ajax added, only to get nudged hard by Nyx. "Hey!"


"She still did work when it was supposed to be YOUR job, Jax. Quit harassing the lady. She isn't use to... all of this yet." Nyx said, waving her hands around Ajax. She smiled at him though, "I'm glad she saved you though. We've already lost too many of our own, the ship would be really quiet without you." Nyx then turned to Tess, "I'm Nyx Orivala and this is Dr. Sarai Imille. Thanks for saving our lovable jackass here, he got the jobs mixed up and thought you had to do the work instead. Sorry about that." Nyx said with a grin.


"I'm curious, Tess..." Lucy said, speaking before Ajax or Imille had a chance to respond. "What do you mean your people? A seat?" It was curious the way she was speaking, it didn't make sense to anyone aside from Ajax as he had already known the answer. "Is your race hold that much weight at the Epoch? You're the first of your kind that I've ever seen before."


To ease the shock, Ajax spoke up. It would sound better coming from one of their own. "Listen... This is going to sound crazy but... she's a Derelict." A few of them gasped at the Revelation, Jagar appearing in the background his eyes starring daggers into the back of Tess' head. "Or, was." He said before anyone got upset. "She ain't a savage or a monster but... Someone who took her people and put them to good use instead of being criminals all their lives." He was sugar coating it, not knowing the full story himself but inferring what she had said before. "Kind of like how Judas is doing with the Exodlites. Reformed Derelicts... It sounds fucking crazy but that's what she told me."


"Derelict?" Jagar growled, "Kill many bad Derelict. She... good one?" He grunted, "Never met good one."


"Yes." Ajax said, eyeballing everyone. "And... she did just offer us anything we needed from them so..." He smirked, "When's that party?" He said, trying to lighten the news of her being a Derelict to the crew.


"I have no problem with it." Lucy said, smiling. "I've already been traveling with someone who might as well be a Derelict for years now." She said, gesturing to Ajax. "The cage fighting, the drinking, the..." She paused, "Welcome to the Gaius, Tess. Derelict or not, you are always welcome with us. Not because we have to take you home or anything, but because you saved that dumbass over there and put your neck on the line for a stranger. That takes guts and I respect that."


"You hungry?" Nyx asked, cautious about dealing with a Derelict but being open minded enough to push it to the side. "I bet prison food was terrible!"
 
"I've killed many bad Derelicts too, so I can't in my right mind take offence to that, handsome." Tess said to Jagar, her eyes flitting backwards to him. Then, she looked forward to the others, raising to her feet and offering a hand to Imille and Nyx. Imille had taken it, looking up her arm at the ink that had trailed up it. Then, to Tess' surprise, Imille's other hand had reached up, grabbing her arm and giving it a firm squeeze in her hand. For once, the alien woman had gotten befuddled, surprised at the extended greeting.


"Strong. Guess you have to be to run Derelicts, huh?" She asked, almost flirtily. In reality, she had just been Imille, finding it hilarious to make others squirm. Tess hadn't squirmed, but she let out a surprised laugh. "Nice to meet you, Tess. And Tess' muscles." She said, finally releasing her hold on her and then wrapping an arm around Nyx's waist.


"Doctor." Tess said, responding to her 'greeting'. "Nice to meet you. Yes, I'm Derelict. There's a few other people like me; we don't all fall into the same ... ideologies, even under Epoch. But the offer still stands." She said. "And a party is the least of what we can do. You have a solid team. You've done some stuff today I didn't expect possible from a bunch of humans ... And the guy whose killed Derelicts. I'm sure you can handle yourself, but happen that you can't ... you know who to ask."


For a little while longer, Casar had talked to the technicians in the brig until their questions had turned cyclical. After a while of talking, they had grown silent, accepting their situation with a fear for the future. The mage woman had also gone silent, apparently finding that trying to convince Casar (or insult him) had gotten nowhere. All she had gotten was what she had felt was a condescending answer. Finding that he didn't exactly trust the technicians to not free the mage and answer to their superiors, he stopped before leaving, saying, "I can watch you over the cameras. That said, don't do anything stupid."


He climbed the stairs from the brig, finding himself in the midst of an introduction session to Tess. Tired beyond belief of talking and not favoring his own first introduction to the alien woman - along with there just being something he didn't like about her, he immediately turned to go up to the residential area. But he had been abruptly caught by Imille, who'd he'd had to walk by, who abruptly slung her own arm over his shoulder and pulled him in, practically nuzzling him. "I will bite you."


"Tess, this is Cas." Imille said. "Last introduction before we eat." she said, grinning as he manually removed her arm from his shoulders.


"Nice to meet you, Cas." Tess said, smiling at their dynamic. "Now that that's over, then, lets eat."
 
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