Futuristic The Relentless: Journey to Old Earth (Chapter Three)

[Shannon Trevor]

John raised his arms slowly as he took the woman in. She was calm and collected, her aiming posture was perfect and she enough of an expert to keep well away from his fighting arc. "I suppose it's too much to hope that you're just a stowaway," John said.

The woman's cool smile didn't warm. "it is. Sorry about the theatrics but my options were fast becoming limited between the brawl at the bar and your unfortunate encounter on the docks."

"Friends of yours?"

The woman shook her head. "Amateur hour. I had something much simpler planned although I saw you fell for the ruse all the same." She waited to see if her jab hit home but John remained silent. "I had planned to intercept you once they moved your body off the docks but your crew were too quick."

"So you tracked us to Helios?"

She nodded. "Again, I had a plan in place but you were gone quicker than I expected. I thought I might-"

"-What's this about?" John asked, tiring of the game she was playing. "What do you people want with me?"

The woman shrugged. "There's a rather generous price to bring you in alive. Seems like someone wants the info you have stored away in that handsome head." She paused again but John offered nothing. "You must have known that your trip to Old Earth would turn more than a few heads."

"We're half a days travel from the nearest port. What's your plan here?" Slowly, he lowered his arms.

"Well, I assume you've already figured I've docked my craft to yours. So, I'll ask you to walk to the topside airlock. Once there, I'll sedate you and get you comfortable for the trip back to my employers. After that, my main concern will be counting my money."

"You think I'll walk out of here? Be complicit in my own kidnapping?"

"You either walk or I knock you out and carry you." She nodded to his bare chest, "And yes, I can see you're a rather muscular specimen so no doubt the effort of carrying you will make me rather irritable and liable to take it out on someone. I already had to put one of your crew down. The tall man in his quarters."

"Dead?" John asked.

The woman shook her head. "Sleeping it off. Anyway, you're much too precious so maybe I'll pay a visit to the young pilot on the bridge or the other young lady working away in the med lab." The cool aloofness from before had vanished, replaced with a hard edge that left John in little doubt she was capable of following through on her threats.

She had noticed how John had tensed and raised her pistol a fraction. "Don't test me Colonel Haverson. I won't enjoy it but I promise they will suffer hard for your bravado. Now, move."

Equusheart BreeDav Foster Epiphany RayPurchase

 

[BreeDav]

It was a very neat med bay. Every cabinet was labeled clearly, every jar and vial carefully lined up and organized. As is standard in most military craft, the med bay had it's own dedicated anti-grav system. It corrected for any bumps or sways. From the perspective of a doctor or a patient, the room would be as still as it would be on Terra Una. She spent quite a bit of time rearranging the bay so that it was organized a bit more like her university medical room. If anything went wrong, she wouldn't want to have to think twice about where too find supplies.

Once she was done, the pockets of her flight suit were stuffed with medical supplies, pencils, and note pads. Everything she could ever need. The ship wasn't to big, but it was big enough that if there was an emergency, she'd want to have the basics on her person.

With everything set up, all she needed was patients. She walked over to the door, touching a few buttons on the wall console. She pressed the speaker button on the screen and cleared her throat "Id love it if everyone could check in with me in med bay. I need to clear everyone before we get into deep space" Her voice echoed down the hallway outside, broadcasted to every room of the ship.

While the crew was tough, she needed to make sure none of the fighters had something serious that they were shaking off as "minor bumps and scratches". Even then, she thought. Minor bumps and scratches could be open doors to dangerous infections or insects.

The amount of things that she didn't know about the earth were terrifying. There could be super bacteria, flesh eating creatures, viruses running rampant, unknown gasses in the air. She shook her head, centering her mind once again. She was still in the safety of the ship.

Aline couldn't help but smile at the thought of a ship feeling safe to her. Just that morning she had been hurling out the condense of her stomach in the grimy trashcan of a charter ship. Oh how far she'd come already.

Equusheart Foster Epiphany RayPurchase Shannon Trevor

 

[Equusheart]

Kyra tilted her head to the side as Aline's voice came over the coms. The pilot smiled and chuckled lightly under her breath. She liked the new medic, she liked most of their new crew in fact, though Talia could ruffle her feathers a bit. Finished running system checks and making sure everything was as it should be, Kyra set aside her tablet and rose from her seat.

The wound from their last fire fight where the bullet had grazed her arm had been hurting since they left for Helios and the barfight hadn't helped. Kyra had patched up the wound as best as she could, but she was no medic. She figured she might as well get it looked at.

Kyra sighed as she made her way down to the med bay. She could almost hear her brother Charles griping at her for not getting her arm looked at sooner.

"Hey, Aline," Kyra said in greeting as she stepped into the bay. She glanced around before looking back at the other woman. "Getting all settled in?" Kyra gave her a sheepish smile as she lifted her arm and rolled up her sleeve to show Aline the wound. "Think you can do something about this?"

 

[BreeDav]

Equusheart

Aline tapped busied herself as she waited for the crew. By the time Kyra walked through the door, everything was ready. Her supplies had been laid out evenly on a rolling tray, and she'd taken some preliminary notes on each crew member from the ship's records. "Kyra," A smile bloomed over her lips. Though the crew seemed to like her, she hadn't been sure that the surly group would be willing to check in with their not-quite-a-doctor. She patted the paper covered chair and went to wash her hands. "Yep! Its a really wonderful facility." As she dried her hands, she waved towards the cabinets she'd reorganized and her pages of notes that were laid out across the counters "I've done a bit of nesting."

"Think you can do something about this?" Aline expected a rash, maybe some synth-grav swelling. She was not ready for the bloody mess that was carved into Kyra's arm. She pulled on gloves and hurried over to her crew mate. "How long ago was this?" She pressed gently around the wound, checking for any swelling. This thing was more than a day old so it had been exposed to the Helios air. She could only imagine what was floating around in that place. She pulled her hands back quickly remembering her medic classes. "What happened and what did you do to it?"

To be fair, it wasn't that bad. It had obviously been dressed, minimally, but better than nothing. "I'm sorry. I'm probably being rude. I just... I don't want to screw anything up." She took a breath "It looks like a bullet wound. I need to check it for splinters. But to do that, I need to know that I'm not making anything worse. Does it have stitches?" She glanced up at the clock, 15 minutes since she'd called over the loudspeaker. Where was everyone else?

 

[Equusheart]

Kyra winced slightly, but tried to remain still as Aline set to inspecting the wound.

"We were in a bit of a fire fight at the last port," Kyra said. She gave Aline a bit of a sheepish smile as she explained. "A bullet grazed my arm. I tried bandaging it up as best as I could, but I'm no medic. So, no stitches."

She winced again before tilted her head slightly to watch as Aline worked.

 

[Epiphany]

With the crew settled in, and the pilot squared away, Talia took her bottle of beer and finished it on her way out of the cockpit. Clad in a comfortable sweater, she had a nice evening planned involving her and a good book. But first thing's first.

The Harappaian woman moved decisively towards her quarters and sealed the door behind her upon arrival. She checked in case someone had added a bug since the last time she'd been in there, and then she checked and confirmed any logging sensors in the Relentless wouldn't pick her up. At which point Talia pulled out a slim case ostensibly intended to hold a knife. Indeed it did, one a bit worn and presumably of sentimental value, but the real value was the false bottom to the velvet lining which when pulled away revealed a keypad and screen. Talia promptly filled out a report on their activities so far, hit 'File' and tucked the case away. Her employers had given her the Satalize 9 black op recorder/transmitter to get regular updates from her, presumably as a form of insurance on the Colonel. It was supposed to connect to the ship's comm traffic periodically and append an update file to routine transmissions.

All part of the job. Nothing personal. Neither was taking the next step. The short time Talia had been on board had given her a chance to demonstrate some of her skills, settle in, and allow the crew (and the Colonel) to form an impression of her. It was about time she got on with the business of earning her other paycheck for those backing this trip to Old Earth. Starting with setting up some effective surveillance of Haverson.

Talia slipped out of her quarters, padded silently along the ship's corridor until she reached the Colonel's cabin. With practiced skill, she accessed an interface panel next to the door, pried open its casing and began examining the interior circuitry. It wouldn't take much work to find the door's control mechanism and setup a bypass monitor that would log his coming and goings while allowing her override access if she had the chance to search the room...

...only there was already a bypass monitor. Right there. Talia stared incredulously. Then a chill went down her spine.

Equusheart BreeDav Foster RayPurchase

Talia toggled on the interface panel's screen, searched for the location of the other crew and switched on their personal comm frequencies as well as set up an audio connection to the rooms they were in, in case they hadn't kept their comms with them. "Listen up people," Talia hissed quietly despite the probability that the Colonel's quarters were soundproofed enough to not hear her. "I think the Colonel's in trouble. I'm going to breech his quarters so get your butts over here to back me up."

She didn't listen for a reply. She just drew her pistol in one smooth motion with one hand while reaching into the open panel to lightly depress the trigger for the bypass monitor.

Shannon Trevor
And the doors slid open, revealing a woman holding the ship's commanding officer at bay with a pistol of her own just inside, evidently intending to get Haverson on the move. Instantly her pistol reangled, putting a line of sight on the woman's forehead. "Drop it or I'll drop you right now," Talia said and for a moment she sounded like a cop, cool and calm in a potential hostage situation. Until she smirked and added "Don't think the Colonel's an effective hostage with me, lady. You take him out, everyone moves up a rank."

 

[RayPurchase]

Steve had heard the tannoy announcement from Medical, but had decided to willfully ignore it. Fair enough he had taken a bit of a beating back at the bar, but he knew his body well enough, he was going to be bruised like a peach but nothing worse than that, nothing that was going to leave any permanent marks anyway. Besides he was in his element here. He hadn’t even taken his meagre belongings to his quarters, instead resting the bag and shotgun against a set of water cooling pipes, he had eyes only for the engines in front of him. He walked along the gantry, his hand resting against the beating heart of the ship, feeling the vibrations running along his arm, the rhythm of life. Each ship had its own foibles and personality traits, you wouldn’t know it just by pacing the corridors and in the cabins. Pilots tended to get a bit of a feel for it, but they were only guiding the ship, no down here in the belly of the beast you got a feel for it. He closed his eyes and came to a stop, his hand still firmly pressed against metal, it would be interesting to see what she was like…


His eyes snapped open as his communicator buzzed. Only just arrived and it was kicking off. Talia wasn’t exactly being clear as to what ‘trouble’ meant, someone followed them perhaps? Colonel slipped in the shower and cracked his head? Probably more the former. He jogged down the corridor, snatching up the Mokatash Shotgun, feeling the notches and grooves along the pump as he pulled the stock into his shoulder. It wasn’t a pretty looking thing, still the same unpainted gunmetal grey as when it had first rolled off the assembly line, numerous notches and grooves littered its surface, to his trained eye each one told a story, a campaign here, a boarding action there, most of his naval services could be traced along the weapon, or at least all the times that things had gone wrong, Engineers generally only got involved with first hand combat when things had gone tits up. Bit like now he thought to himself as he rounded the corridor, his jacket sweeping behind him. He cocked the shotgun, the round sliding into place, flechette in this case, perfect for ship combat, each cartridge held 20 19mm steel tipped flechettes, capable of tearing apart near enough anyone or anything at close range. He appeared behind Talia, the shotgun raised, and his cold grey eyes looking down the sights, but at this range they were hardly necessary. Unfortunately the choice of ammunition meant that both the Colonel and the assailant would be ripped to shreds, but then again that was a good threat in itself.


“I’d recommend putting the gun down ma’am, if I pull the trigger then all that’s going to be left of the pair of you is a red stain on the wall, you get to decide whether you want to walk away from this now with your life,”

(Interaction: Epiphany Talia, Shannon Trevor John + Assailant)

 

[Shannon Trevor]

John had no idea how Talia knew he was in trouble but she certainly had a talent for arriving just at the right time. His assailants response was immediate as she switched her stance to come behind him, wrapping an arm around his bare chest as she pressed her pistol to his temple.

"Don't think the Colonel's an effective hostage with me, lady. You take him out, everyone moves up a rank."

"Thanks, Talia," John said lightly. He was playing it cool but their situation had not gotten any less deadly. The woman's initial plan had been foiled before it could even start. If they had been discovered in the corridor she may have had a chance to fight her way out but now her only escape route was blocked. Her gun switched from John's head to the corridor outside as a second weapon cocked. A moment later, Steve appeared, shotgun pointed directly at them.

“I’d recommend putting the gun down ma’am, if I pull the trigger then all that’s going to be left of the pair of you is a red stain on the wall, you get to decide whether you want to walk away from this now with your life."

John was thankful his crew was so quick to jump to his aid would have to consider a friendly conversation about the value they seemed to place on his personal safety. Steve was bluffing, John knew. Bravado intended to talk the woman down. The engineer sounded convincing enough but it was clear his attacker was a stone cold professional and would not be swayed.

"You know," the woman said. "There's a hell of a price on his head. I'm sure there could be an arrangement made...."


"Thought so," Myn said as he rounded the corner and took in the sight before him. John noticed the strange weapon he held in his hands. Like Talia and Steve, Myn raised the weapon and aimed it in his direction.

"Seems like we're in a stand-off," the woman said. Despite his situation, John couldn't help but feel a grudging admiration for how she was handling herself. "Loyalty is important but in a few seconds you're all going to have bigger problems to deal with than the old man here. "I'd start thinking-"

Myn fired his weapon. The sonic rifle was commonly used on core worlds by law enforcement as a non lethal means of incapacitating people. The wave was invisible but it hard. John took the brunt of it but there was enough force to throw both him and the woman off their feet.

Myn watched as John hit the ground hard. The woman's pistol flew from her hand and landed on the other side of the room. The former Marine jumped over John, ignoring his friend for the time being. The intruder was trying to find her feet when the butt of the sonic rifle slammed into her temple. She slumped to the ground with a groan.

 

[Equusheart]

With the wound on her arm properly tended to and bandaged, Kyra gave Aline her thanks before leaving the med bay and heading back towards the cockpit. Kyra wanted to go through the systems again and get more use to the ship before they took off again. She still couldn't believe that she'd been hired to fly such an elite ship. Every once and a while Kyra would give herself a pinch on the arm to be sure that she wasn't dreaming.

Just as she had reached the bridge the personal comm device buzzed on Kyra's hip, signaling an incoming call. When she glanced down at it and saw Talia's name Kyra frowned. Now what in the hell did she want? But the message that came over the voice call had Kyra bolting towards her quarters.

Damn it all. How the hell did they fall into this string of bad luck? First the ambush back on Fortitude, the bar fight, and now this? Kyra ground her teeth together in growing anger and annoyance as she reached the cabin she'd taken as hers. Reaching into the top drawer of the dresser, Kyra retrieved her pistol and made sure that it was loaded before heading for the Colonel's quarters. Kyra arrived in time to find John and some strange woman sprawled on the floor with Myn, Taila, and Steve standing over them.

Kyra pushed passed Steve and Taila to kneel down beside John. Putting a hand gently to his neck, Kyra gave a sigh of relief when she found his pulse. He was alive at least.

"Nice shootin, Ace" she said with a slight growl as she glanced up at Myn. Her eyes then fell on the woman. "Who the hell is she?"

 

[BreeDav]

Aline quickly treated Kyra’s wound, pulling the skin closed with some medical tape before sealing it with a strip of bio-skin. “That should heal pretty quickly. Just make sure to leave the faux skin on the wound. It should protect the new skin and keep you from getting a scar.”

While treating the bullet hole, Aline had been able to get the readings that she’d needed. Just a few simple numbers. “And I can clear you for earth. Let me know if you have any trouble breathing, tightness in your chest, itching, rashes, or pain while on the planet. But you seem fit for service.”

She began cleaning, checking her watch as Kyra left the room. Where was everyone? “Oh Kyra, I forgot to mention...” she turned around to continue but saw the pilot had already left. “Shoot”. She’d have to talk to Kyra about old earth later.

Tools were dropped into the sterilization chamber, the med-bed was wiped down, tape was put away, bio-skin put back into its place in the refrigeration unit. Just as she was about to tap the communicator and ask for the crew to get their check done, a whispered voice came over the system.

This was no place for someone with no gun training. None the less, the training Aline did have kicked into gear. Her left hand patted one of the many pockets in her new flight suit, checking that she had her knife. Her right hand grabbed the medical bag she’d put together a few hours ago. She’d had no idea she would be using it this often.

Aline’s feet pounded against the metallic flooring of the ship’s hallway. She had no clue how bad this was all she could do was get to living quarters as fast as possible.

She spotted the crew. No blood, no yelling or screaming. There was a bang and a groan. Aline flinches, listening in the moments of silence after the shot for a clue of who had been on the receiving end.

“Nice shooting, Ace”. Aline let out a breath and peaked her head in. Eyes scanned the crew, looking for blood and bruises. Everyone looked fine... except for her.

“Every single one of you is due in med bay ASAP. “ Aline didn’t take her eyes off the woman “especially after this.”

 

[Foster]

After everyone had their fill of drinks Asher decided to slink away back to his room and leave the others in peace, he needed to wash the remains of that wine bottle of his chassis anyway. Navigating the twisting corridors of the Relentless he leisurely made his way back to his room and was happy to find it just as he left it, that was to say barely broken in. His meagre belongings had done little to fill the room but at least it looked a little less spartan now. Ignoring the bed he instead made for the on-suite bathroom, tentatively prodding at the wine stain with a metal digit as he waited for the pneumatic doors to slide open. The lights flickered on automatically as he stepped into the shower. Waving a hand over the shower interface the mechanical human was soon drenched in a pleasant spray of warm water. Pleasant sure, but the shower was set to provide for bodies of flesh, not a machine. Dialling up both the heat and pressure to maximum soon the hum of the ships engines was drowned out completely by the torrent of water battering Asher's armoured frame. It was a relaxing sensation, like rain falling on a tin roof. Plucking a sponge from the rack stuck to the inside of the shower he went about removing the red goop that had congealed all over him, taking his time to make sure that he got the bits that had fallen into the many nooks and crannies of his armour. Realising that this would be no easy process Asher accessed his internal systems and shuffled through the songs he had on his hard drive, landing randomly on some ancient relic that he was surprised to find he remembered the words to (Bonnie Tyler's total eclipse of the heart). As the song began playing loudly from his speakers he subconsciously found himself humming along to it. A flush of embarrassment ran through him. He wasn't home anymore, he'd forgotten that there might be people within earshot. Tentatively peering through the open bathroom door (Yes he left it open, what is there to see? A naked robot?) he was relived to see that the door to his cabin was still firmly shut. The others had probably all gone back to their own quarters by now anyway, he had nothing to worry about. So that was why whilst the rest of the crew found themselves dealing with the intruder threatening their captain Asher was singing along to a long lost pop hit, blissfully unaware of the situation unfolding.

It was only after the wine had long since washed away and several more songs had passed that Asher finally exited the steamy bathroom. During his deep clean he'd been unable to ignore the state of his paintjob, what had once been a slick coating of olive green was now chipped and faded. As he set about drying himself with one of the towels that had been set out for him he found his mind wandering to the ships storage hold. There had to be some paint in there somewhere... John probably wouldn't mind if he helped himself to it. Expecting everybody to be asleep it came as a surprise to Asher to hear raised voices on his travels and although it wasn't in his nature to pry he figured that there was no harm in checking in on the disturbance. Maybe the party was still going?

“Every single one of you is due in med bay ASAP. Especially after this.”

Peering in over the heads of the crowd gathered in the doorway Asher was greeted by the bizarre sight of the crew gathered around John and a mystery woman sprawled on the ground. Apparently the party had kept going after he left.

"Bloody hell, did you guys move on to shots or something?"

 

[Shannon Trevor]

"Nice shootin, Ace" Kyra said as she shot a look at Myn, crouched beside the unconscious woman. "Who the hell is she?"

"It was a good shot," John agreed, wincing. The blast had put him down for the count, at least temporarily. Slowly, the Colonel raised himself to a sitting position, one muscular arm gingerly wrapped across his chest.

Myn's smile was apologetic as he looked up from the woman to John. "Had to give it a full shot. Needed to be sure it took her down as well." He looked around the assembled crew. "Anyone have any restraints?"

"Get her secure, Myn" John said, using Kyra's help to get to his feet. "And get her talking. It seems our little trip is an open secret and someone is taking an interest in us. Tali, I'm sure you'll be able -"

John was cut off as the ship seemed to buckle hard enough to throw anyone who wasn't expecting it off-balance. The frigate seemed to reverberate as warning klaxons sounded almost instantly. From the bowels of the ship an explosion could be heard as the ship shook again.

If the Colonel was fazed, he didn't show it. "Kyra, to the bridge. I need a report on what's out there and if anything is following us. Steve, unless I'm mistaken that second blast sounded like it came from the engine room. Get down there and tell me the damage and if it can be fixed. Talia, get this woman secure in one of the cabins for now. Asher, get down to Keller, check he's alright."

 

[Epiphany]

Shannon Trevor
Talia smiled in obvious approval of Myn's shooting of both hostage and intruder. If she'd had a stun weapon of her own, she might have done the very same thing. The former Marine's ignoring of his unconscious commander in favor of making sure the target stayed down also aligned with her tactical instincts. The only thing left to do was follow him in and kick the woman's pistol clear before retrieving it, just in case the intruder had some means for shrugging off a stun.

Equusheart
She was already clear when the pilot moved in to check on John's pulse. While it was unlikely the Colonel was in need of urgent medical attention, those were good instincts and Talia nodded approvingly.

BreeDav Foster
The medic's rushed arrival was timely enough. When the other woman peeked in, Talia smiled enthusiastically and waved an arm towards the two unconscious people on the ground like she was a presenter unveiling a prize Aline had just won or something. When the robot turned up, she just smirked at his remark.

"I wonder how she got on ship," she murmured as Foster made a reference to too much alcohol and Aline demanded they all report to the med bay. "I think we should prioritize the Colonel f-ah, he's up."

Shannon Trevor
When asked about restraints, Talia put her pistol away and promptly turned her back to the group. She then discreetly thumbed open a clasp on a wrist braclet, pulled out a length of garrote wire and 'clipped' it, turning it into a length of spun wire. Turning back around, she smiled brightly and said, "I've got restraints covered."

As she bent to tie up the woman, though, the ship rocked and then rocked again. Stabilizing herself, Talia looked to Colonel Haverson and nodded at his instructions. With a look to Asher and Aline, she said "We don't need three people for one unconscious, about-to-be-tied-up woman. I've got this."

At which point Talia finished tying the woman with the expert practice of someone who has in fact tied and bound people a few dozen times. She then lifted the woman in a fireman's carry and headed for empty quarters she can secure. Assuming she found an appropriate room, Talia wasted no time in tying the woman to something as sturdy as possible. She then left the quarters, opened up the door panel and did a little rewiring to ensure no one on either side could get in or out unless they (A) pried open the very same panel from out in the corridor and (B) figured out what she'd done and undid it.

 

[BreeDav]

In a frantic attempt to keep herself upright, Aline clutched at some shelving along the wall as the ship pitched forward. The deep, metallic moaning seemed to leave everyone on edge. Whatever had just happened didn’t bode well for the the crew’s fate.

Aline nodded to Talia “I’ll patch up the Colonel.” She’d done a quick visual inspection of the woman before the explosion had gone off. “She should be fine till I finish. If she wakes up or starts looking bad before I find you, come get me.” Her attention quickly focused back on John. “Stay sitting. I need to clear you before you do anything rash.” In a few quick motions she pulled a small kanteen of water from her med kit and handed it to the ship’s captain. With the other hand she waved a scanner over him.

Once the others had gone and taken the stow away with them Aline spoke to her newest patient, “I’ll handle her later. It’s more important to get you on your feet” a small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, disrupting Aline’s seemingly permanent nervous expression. “And uh,” the scanner beeped in her hand, processing John’s vitals and analyzing any other information it could find. “Feel free to come up with a plan while I work.”

 

[Epiphany]

With the prisoner secure, Talia headed for the bridge.

No guarantee she'd be able to meaningfully help but, again, there was no way to know what other trouble might have found the ship. If it were outside, she could man a gun port or something. And if it was inside...

The dark-haired woman brightened at the thought.

 

[Equusheart]

Kyra was barely able to keep her feet as the ship heaved beneath her. Unconsciously, Kyra reached out to grab onto John's arm to study herself. Once she had her balance back Kyra inwardly grumbled. Could this trip get any worse?

By the time John had finished giving out orders, Kyra was already running to the bridge. Once she got there she was greeted by the alarms that sounded from the control panel, alerting her that something was wrong with the ship. Kyra slid into the pilot's seat only to find the controls stiff in her hands.

"Damn it," Kyra bit out as she pressed a couple buttons on the pannel, running a quick diagnostics of the engine. Red and orange lights flashed at her, confirming what she was afraid of. The engine still had some power, but it was draining fast. She could already feel the ship begin to slow and it was all Kyra could do to keep the ship from listing to one side. Kyra doubted they'd have enough to make it back to port.

"Damn it!" Kyra bit out again. She reached forward and flipped on the coms. "Captain to bridge..." Kyra trailed off as she lifted her gaze to see an asteroid just off to the port side, though how far she couldn't say for sure. She didn't like the idea of landing on a desolate rock, but it was better than the alternative.

"...we might need to make an emergency landing."

 

[Shannon Trevor]

With the prisoner secured, Myn followed their new mechanic to the engine room. He had never been particularly handy when it came to machines but assumed an extra pair of hands could be of some use. As it turned out, it didn't take an engineer to figure out just what the problem was. A blown out compartment attracted his attention instantly. Wrestling the destroyed cover away, Myn found the remnants of a very small pulse bomb attached to the engine.

"Give me an update for the Captain," Myn said to Steve as he turned the remains of the device over in his hand. It was good work, strong enough to damage the engine but not to destroy it completely. Clearly the woman didn't want to be followed when she took John but at least wasn't cold blooded enough to blow the rest of the crew to smithereens. He turned as Steve spoke, giving him the good news before opening a channel to John.

"Go ahead, Myn." John's voice was muffled, battling against the alarms in the cockpit.

"As far as Steve can tell, the ship has some exterior damage from a second bomb. It's holding up for now but needs looked at sooner rather than later. The engine is our bigger problem. Steve says he can fix it but it'd be a damn sight easier if we could land the ship so he can work on it."

"He's getting his wish," John replied. "Kyra's fighting with the ship as we speak. She thinks we have enough power left to make an emergency landing on a nearby asteroid. It's going to be a bumpy landing. Get yourselves secure down there."

 

[Epiphany]

"Bumpy landing?"

Talia sighed, looked for a chair or a bulkhead to brace herself against and settled down against it. This didn't promise to be pleasant, or possibly even survivable. If there was a way to walk out of this, though, she'd sure as hell try. Talia had been a survivor all her life. She wasn't going to let an asteroid, a crashing ship or the vacuum of space get in the way of all she planned to do with her life.

 

[Equusheart]

Kyra struggled with yoke, fighting to keep the Relentless on course as she managed to angle it towards the asteroid. Landing there was a risky move, but it was better than if they were to lose and be stuck drifting through space. Kyra could feel that the engines had not much left to give, so she carefully urged them to give just enough power to put the ship into a glide, but coasting in order to use that little bit of power to the advantage.

Kyra tensed as they neared the asteroid. So far things were going well, but they hadn't landed yet. Smaller rocks that drifted around the asteroid on its gravitational pull would be a tricky obstacle. The smaller rocks were of no concern to Kyra, but she kept an eye on the larger ones. Those could possibly do more damage to the ship and they already had enough problems to fix.

Though Kyra flinched as one rock the size of a motorcycle drifted their way, slamming into them with enough force to make the ship shudder. Kyra swore under her breath as the pushed the Relentless' nose downward, trying to fly below the rock field.

"Come on, Pops," Kyra said out loud almost to herself. "Give us some help here. Just a bit." For a moment, it seemed like fate was on their side as the Relentless glided closer and closer towards the asteroid. Just as it seemed that they might be able to make a smooth landing, a low whine sounded as suddenly all the power seemed to flicker out.

"Fuck!" Kyra snapped as she tried the ignition, trying to bring the ship back online. But it didn't respond. "Hold on! This is going to get really rough!" Kyra pulled back on the the nearly dead stick, trying to angle the ship so when they crashed it wouldn't be head on.

 

[Shannon Trevor]

"It's probably better than we had any right to hope it would be," John announced to the crew arrayed around the conference room. "It's a testament to Kyra's piloting skill that we got down at all, nevermind in one piece." He nodded to the young woman with a small smile. "The engine is down but repairable. Steve is working on it now but isn't hopeful he can do it with the parts he has available."

The landing had been rough on the Relentless but not fatal. The ship had remained intact and no one in the crew had any injuries. The pressing issue was the engine. Whatever the woman had used to knock it offline had been powerful enough to cripple most of the ship systems.

"Aline, how's Keller?"

"Out of it," the young woman answered. "Our intruder hit him pretty hard. He's under observation in the med bay but he'll be ok."

"What are our options?" Myn asked.

John grimaced. "I've already sent word to Belmore. He tells me a relief party is already on the way."

"A relief party?"

"Apparently. A ship and small crew with spare parts, a medic for Keller and an extra engineer. Enough to get us back up and running."

"And we can trust them?" Myn posed the question the rest of the crew was no doubt thinking.

John could only give a humourless laugh. "The way this expedition has been going so far we'd be fools to trust anyone. Between my near-kidnapping, the brawl on Helios and our stowaway, I'm beginning to feel the mission is cursed."

Belmore had echoed similar sentiments when John had made the call, an attitude that had annoyed John no end. "It's your end that is not holding up their end of the bargain," John had said, his finger flashing toward Belmore's face in his viewscreen. "Earth was meant to be the dangerous part of this mission, not the journey to it."

"You knew well enough the dangers when you signed on," Belmore said, his always neutral tone betraying the slightest hint of annoyance. "We kept everything under wraps as best we could but some sort of leakage was inevitable."

"Leakage?" John almost spluttered. "We're a crack away from the entire dam bursting."

He pushed the conversation from his mind as he felt his anger rising. He looked over the crew waiting on him for an answer. "For now, we wait," he said. "From what Belmore tells me, the relief is approximately six hours out." John tapped the face of his Rolex. "Get comfortable."

 

[Folly-Derrezzed]

"Approximate time until destination is reached...35 minutes. As by Belmores orders, we are to repair, rescue, or restrain." Spoke a voice, low and calculative. It sat at the front of the ship, viewing multiple tabs on personnel. A small screen beeped, the silhouette tapping on it to reveal a three dimensional map with holograms of asteroids as well as its own ship marked by a green label. Within the field, another label rose with a sonar twing. "Special relief party is ready to assist. Send out wireless message beacon." It said, tacking on multiple consoles and pressing a button. It accessed the comms to the rest of the crew, the speakers releasing a faint static before a buzzing voice came through.

"We are en rout. Are you all comfortable? It will get rough as we enter asteroid fields." It was prepping status, typing on a console as the ship cruised throughout dangerous space. The sound of spacial debris pelting the hull only loudened. "Prepare your tools and suits accordingly." In the back of the ship, where two separate rooms held a small armory as well as cargo, repairing parts and tools. This is where the rest of the crew is held. Two interesting individuals. Its eyes moved along its visor in multiple directions, keeping track of sonar pings to dodge spatial obstructions as well as keeping the ship steady. Suddenly, the ship rocked, hard, as something large pelted the underbelly.

 

[Bronco]

Enter Baxter, through the cockpit's narrow sliding door. He ducked a bit, ensuring to not bump his head on the metal frame. He'd made it halfway to their robotic pilot when an unusually large bump jostled the entire space. Catching himself on one of the cockpits bulkheads, littered with gauges and switches of varying purpose, he righted himself into a leaning position before throwing a gibe at his crew mate. "You do intend on Getting us there first, right?" he feigned alarm as he wobbled through the turbulence till he reached the forward monitors. Bending over panels next to the left of the pilot he reached into the droid's view. " 'Scuuuuuse me," he sang as he planted a finger on the Relentless's blip and dragged his finger all the way to the left border of the screen. Immediately, a more detailed image of the craft appeared on the left screen in front of Baxter. It seemed to refresh itself a few times as the craft was continually hit with radar waves. Each time it would gain a more enhanced appearance, until on the fifth refresh its finer details had begun to take some kind of form.

Baxter grabbed the sides of his monitor, pulling it as close as he could to his face and scrunching a brow. "Well that's definitely our Agincourt...." he peered even closer. "Damn, Belmore said modified but those adjustments look-" there was another violent jolt from below. "...expensive," the man continued with an obvious grimace on his face. He turned to the bot at the helm, "Hey, Belmore didn't say anything about taking damages out of our pay did he?"

 

[_gallifrog_]

To say that the past few hours of Lindwood's life had been weird would have been the understatement of the millennium. A couple of hours ago she'd still been in prison, lying on her back on the rough synth-fabric lump that was masquerading as a bed, chucking a bit of old rubber against the ceiling of her cell. The girl in the bunk below her wasn't in, so Lin had been left with her own thoughts. A rattling at the cell door had distracted her, causing her to miss the catch. The rubber lump bounced off her head and she swore quietly. "M. Linwood, prisoner 8332?" Lin nodded, sitting up on her bunk to look at the guard- a bored looking male with a face that could only have been achieved by running into a wall at high speed. "You got mail, come with me." The guard's delivery of the words was dull, tired he'd done it thousands of times before and was more interested in the end of his shift than anything else.

Lin had raised a single eyebrow in surprise. Mail? Who the hell could that be from? Her parents were dead, as was Chris and the gang clearly couldn't be arsed to break her out, and her only friends were in this prison. She swung herself off the bed and followed the guard along the dingy corridors to the mail room. A parcel was handed to her, or more precisely a glorified envelope, the inside covered with protective foam. Cracking it open revealed a comm device and matching earpiece. 'One message received' were the words blinking on the screen. She put in the earpiece, pressed play and listened, her eyes widening, narrowing and blinking in disbelief as she listened to the pre-recorded briefing. She ran a hand through her short black hair, then typed the words 'I'm in, now get me out of here' into the device, her fingers shaking ever so slightly as she did so.

From there things had gone a little crazy. Linwood had been cuffed, shuttled onto a prison transport, transfered to another vehicle (still cuffed) and then taken to the agreed spaceport to acquire what she needed. All this was being done at breakneck speed with a sense of panic and urgency in every action. The details were sketchy at best, but since she was the only engineer on this 'rescue crew' she was tasked with acquiring whatever could be neccesary to make The Relentless ship space worthy. She'd been told it was engine problems, but chances were there was far more wrong with it than just that. (And if there wasn't no ship crew in their right mind should say no to extra supplies). She also acquired some stuff for herself, replacement toolbelt, specialised tools, a sturdy pair of boots and some regular clothes.

And now here she was, on a spaceship, hurtling towards an asteroid to do vital repairs. Story of her life really. She'd made herself comfortable in the hold perched on a toolbox, chewing at a protein bar. She hadn't had time to properly change and was still dressed in the grey-green prison issue trousers and loose black t-shirt. Putting on her new boots and toolbelt was all the changing she'd had time for. When the announcement came over the internal comms system Linwood stood up and made her way to the cockpit. When the large jolt came, Lin was thrown sideways into a wall. She righted herself quickly and entered the cockpit where her two coworkers? Teammates? People she had to put up with in order to get paid? were located.

She placed one tattooed arm on the console and leaned over to get a better look at the monitor, she whistled at what she saw. The image wasn't the greatest quality, but was improving as they got closer. "Damn straight they're expensive. Top of the line too. Clearly we got that short straw with this lump." She commented, her accent rough, not recognisable as coming from anywhere in particular. She tapped the metal ceiling pannel of the craft to demonstrate her point. It wasn't a bad ship, but compared to what they were heading to it looked like a hunk of junk. "He'd better not, if he can afford this ship, that ship and getting us here, then surely he can pay for the bloody damages himself, Belmore is clearly loaded." She replied in response to Baxter, then took another bite out of the protein-bar.

 

[Folly-Derrezzed]

Tin-Tin looked to Baxter, the set of bright red dots on its visor rolled around before displaying a bright red triangle. "Safety and stability has been maximized. I cannot account for smaller high velocity debris as if they appeared on the scan, we wouldnt be able to see the objective. Literally, the map would be covered in spots." The triangle blinked and back is its usual set of eyes, its head tilting towards Baxter. "The sound of debris against the ship reminds me of rain. Soothing white noise."

The ship rocked again as its pelted and battered with rocks. The void around them destests their very presence. A slight creak in the cull and came a dull silence. A deep breath was necessary and a relief. The machine began making musical wirrs, similar to humming. Except its more like warbling. Low, throaty warbling. The three dimensional map refreshed and showed that they were ever so closer to their destination. "ETA 20 minutes." It chimed. "Ms. Linwood, as expensive as the equipment is expensive, it is highly inefficient. I dont believe something like this was meant to travel this far, or in these conditions no less." It never seemed to look outside the window, with its eyes parted in all corners of its visor, circling around in clicks. Makinh electronic buzzing. "Windows are a structural weakness...not only that but drives are slow amd we have no means of defense aside of personal firearms.

 

[Bronco]

"Well then that makes Belmore both loaded and insane," Baxter concluded putting Tin-Tin's craft assessment and Lindwood's comments together. He heard the latter munching on her protein bar as he continued to examine the screen in front of him. Another three refreshes later and the form of an emergency hatch on the top of the Agincourt came into rough focus. He tapped the screen absentmindedly and relayed this discovery to their pilot. "Convenient hatch is convenient. Alright Ts, looks like we've got a coupling hatch on top of 'er. See if you can't hitch us up when we get there," he advised the droid with his nickname. He was about to move to the rear and sort out some gear, moving away from the council and putting one hand on the cockpits door frame as he passed through before picking up the sound of plastic packaging. Turning his eyes darted to the protein bar Lindwood was snacking on. "Bring enough to share with the class?' he asked in hopes of getting a chunk of the treat. The man hardly ate breakfast under normal conditions, but when on the move he hardly sat down for any regular meals. That's how it was in the 11th, that's how he kept it now.