Futuristic Unlit IC

[Epiphany]

While Silas coordinated with Adira, Kestrel led the way into the ship's interior. Locating the bridge was usually a straightforward matter on most vessels. Ship's architecture favored a central design, and one that allowed crewmembers to rapidly reach the command center in case of emergencies. It made it a security vulnerability, of course, but the average spacer found the day-to-day convenience of an easily accessed nerve center to far outweigh the unlikely inconvenience of an invasion. Like this one. Not that there was a lot of resistance, of course. Not yet.

There had been, though. As she led Silas down the central corridor, she paused several times to inspect stress fractures in the wall plating as well as scorch marks here and there. When they found the first bodies, it wasn't remotely a surprise. Kestrel didn't make a thorough inspection; they were on a timetable and all she needed was to confirm the bodies really were bodies at this point. But a professionally trained, experienced eye made notes as she went anyway. "Concussive blasts, sir," she said in Silas' direction. "Looks like the crew so far. Whoever their attackers were, either they didn't take casualties or they took them with them. I'm not sure if we'll find what you're looking for after all, if they managed to get off the ship."
Ahead, the central lift to the bridge loomed ominously in the intermittent lighting of the ship's failing power systems. Still sealed in her environmental suit, Kestrel constantly surveilled her surroundings and checked the feed from the several miniature drones she'd deployed. Arriving at the lift, she used the connector ports in her suit to once again synch up with the ship's internal systems and toggle the door code. Thankfully, the freighter hadn't bothered with heavy encryption, another sign of how often convenience outweighed security concerns in the insufficiently paranoid.

Once inside the car, Kestrel inspected the operating panel and queried a readout on the ship's internal power distribution system. She sighed, then flipped a display around for Silas to see. "The way I see it, sir, we can try the lift or open the access panel above us and make the climb ourselves. I think we'll be fine with the lift. And if we get stuck, we can always try the access panel anyway. Given the size of the vessel, minimal risk if the lift falls for that matter. What do you say, sir?"

Kestrel prepares to act on the engineer's order.

 

[Solar Daddy]

Silas had stayed behind Kestrel, but kept checking any corners they passed to make sure they wouldn't be attacked from behind. He was naturally a calm person, and didn't stress much in difficult situations, but he did have a steady set of anxiety about anything and everything. He hid it well though, usually, but he always ran a "What if" filter in his mind, like a tab that never closed playing obnoxious audio while he tried to think. When Kestrel brought up the lift problem, he examined the diagram she sent him and looked over it thoroughly. "Well, let's see what we're working with." He politely took Kestrel's place and examined the electrical panel. With a bit of fumbling, he said, "It looks like everything's in tact. Let's start it up and see how it works."

Silas replaced the panel before activating the lift. It shuttered, and the cage they were in rattled as it slowly ascended the two levels that it took to get to the bridge. It left Silas feeling vulnerable, and constantly checked the floors they passed with his rifle aimed at one of the two entrances on either side of the lift. "So far, everything seems fine on the other end, no reported serious problems. When we're on the bridge, after we've made sure it's clear, I want you to cover me while I check for what we need." When the bridge's level was visible just a little ways above them, Silas noted the dark blue haze that glimmered along the perimeter of a few controlled bullet holes in the door guard, and gripped his rifle tighter. He motioned to Kestrel silently that the shots were recent, meaning someone on the bridge had fired into the lift recently. He got up against the covered corner of the elevator, and hoped Kestrel would do the same, lest she be riddled with energy bullets like the last people who tried entering the bridge.

 

[Dragongal]

Adira was busy trying to destroy this ship before they destroyed her, but she still noticed Richmond slinking in. This was inconvenient, as Richmond was utterly useless for the moment. She glanced back at Richmond and yelled, "Get in a fucking seat and strap in you idiot!"

This was immediately followed by the ship rockiny after the shields were hit by a solid shot. Distracted flying was never a good idea, so Adira refocused. It was a game of cat and mouse, with the roles changing constantly. Finally, Adira got behind the other ship and fired a barrage of shots, only one of which hit, but it was enough to throw them off their course and slow them down, which allowed Adira to fire another barrage, which destroyed the ship's shield, and the ship by extension, ending their game with a silent burst of light and quickly-extinguished flames. Adira messaged the group, "Scavenger ship one down, but my radar is already picking up another."

 

[Vudukudu]

Kepler raised his pistol as Matthias dove into the fray, a blur of split flesh and murderous metal. He was content to let the man do his work, to get a feeling for his fellow in augmentation. Late in the confrontation, Kepler's weapon hovered over Matthias' torso, for a fleeting instant, hardly perceptible. This one was dangerous, and dangerous things ought to be put down. The Spark commanded him not to take pride in his occasionally grisly work, to approach the taking of life in the same manner in which he tapped a keyboard or examined a computer's holy conduits - with solemn reverence and ritualistic care. This.. half-man, he decided, was to be watched carefully. His finger only left the trigger when he decided not to risk angering the new masters.

Kepler swept the surrounding room with his weapon as Matthias returned, seeking out new targets. When none emerged, he finished his rotation and faced Matthias. "Indeed." He replied simply, lowering his weapon to a resting stance. Once it neared his hip, he let the mag-holster do its work and released it. The pistol snapped to his side, freeing up his hands, and he went to examine the corpses Matthias had left in his wake. "Kepler to All-Masters. No casualties incurred, and we are renewing forward momentum. Enemies appear to be.." He eyed the first body he approached, looking for any insignia. Finding it lacking, he managed an awkward raising of one eyebrow. "Neither Icarus nor Waning Stars." He concluded, then squatted down and rifled through the man's pockets. "Lacking identification, insignia, and standard issue equipment. Pirates, perhaps? Mercenary? Special ops? Inconclusive."

Heaving the corpse onto its side, Kepler stripped off the ruined helmet of the deceased and prodded at the nape of his neck. "Evidence of surgical incision to the rear of the skull." He continued, then shifted to look for similar markings on the other body. When he found the same scar, he frowned. "Similar incision found on second body. Likely to be housing cybernetics of some sort, possibly of investigatory interest. Permission to perform field extraction or return samples to the ship?"

 

[Epiphany]

Kestrel rode the lift up to the bridge in silence. While it would have been nice to get to know her companion a bit better, they were on an unknown ship with unknown dangers. Every sense she had needed to be carefully tuned to watching and listening for danger. This was what she'd been bred for, after all. Reflexive inspection of each level as they passed it and tracking each noise the lift made was second nature to her.

The blonde woman nodded along when Silas gave her instructions upon reaching the top. Then she lifted her rifle to her shoulder and shifted to cover the other side of the doorway. Judging by where the initial shots were, and the light scoring on the inside of the lift, evidence suggested that someone in there had fired in here. No body, so either they'd missed or the invaders had taken their dead with them. No sign of return fire either, which meant that either they hacked their way into the bridge without shooting anything or they never made it that far.

Her hand went to her waist and she pulled out a thumb-sized drone that she promptly tossed into the air beside her. With its signal synched to her suit, and to her own implant, Kestrel gave it mental direction to drift across the bridge door opening and feed what it saw back to her suit's HUD. Chances were very good that anyone still up there knew they had company, given the lift's sudden arrival. What she needed to know is if there was evidence of a gunfight on the bridge. If there were anyone left alive in there. And how likely it was that anyone there was genuinely hostile rather than defensive.

 

[Solar Daddy]

Silas watched Kestrel deploy her drone, which was an added surprise, but only impressed him. It was a good idea to get eyes on whoever was in the bridge, especially if they could do it without risking themselves. Silas remained behind cover, with his weapon aimed at the opposite corner of the entrance to the lift, just in case they'd be rushed at. Inside, there was a set of armed men pointed at the lift, obviously prepared for anyone to come in. They were already alerted, since they had seen the lift come up to their floor. 8 men in total, with two stationary, unmanned turrets set up in sloppy barricades. The inside of the room was a shaggy interior with a poorly set up defense, although it was better than nothing. Eventually, Silas noted a large container to the right of the lift, which was knocked over onto its side. He peeked in just a bit, enough that he could see the clear cover it would provide them. He then spoke, "I've got an idea to advance on them." Luckily, the lift was far enough away from the barricade wall that their enemies wouldn't be able to hear them.
Although Silas couldn't see what was in there, he could tell by how Kestrel was studying her HUD that there was at least a small complication. He held his hand up, and counted down from three, before surging forward to the locker. The automated turrets kicked in and fired into the lift, missing Silas by a millisecond. The blue haze of the energy rounds hit the back end of the lift, just like the bullet holes they had noticed before. However, when they hit the locker, it wasn't enough to punch through and hit Silas, at least not yet. "Help me push this up to flank!" Silas told Kestrel, hoping they could get an upper hand. He started to push the locker to the side, which protected the entrance of the lift to let Kestrel move up to him safely.

 

[Gradous13]

Matthias stood from his crouched position, continuing on wards down the hallway illuminated by the spastic lighting. The corridor turned to the right at ninety degrees and continued down about fifty meters. Matthias slowed his pace as the flicker of the lights became patterned, "Two doors, left side, ten meter spread" Matthias reported as he came up to the first doorway which was labeled as a storage unit. He slid up next to the door and pushed the dim red button on the side of the wall opening the small room, "Supply closet, room clear" Matthias looked down to his left arm and brought up the ship schematics, "Next area should be....fuckin UI, I'm getting interference but the next area is a handful of personnel rooms and a common area followed by the Armory with the Med bay a deck right below the Armory..." Looking down towards the other end of the hallway Matthias noted that it mirrored the one they just came down from "...Kep and Ci I want you two to stack on the door, I'm gonna make sure no one is hiding down the rest of this hallway, breech at your own discretion or you can wait, I don't suggest waiting for mission sake." Matthias was confident in Kepler's abilities seeing as he too was heavily augmented but wasn't a hundred percent on Ci's, He also didn't like to split off but Matthias was not gonna take the chance of a two front fight even if the enemy didn't stand a chance against him, but his senses told him to do so and he always trusted them."Best to stay proactive, keep the tempo high, I hope Kep breeches the next area cause there might be more assholes down this way..." Matthias thought as he pushed off down the corridor.

 

[Vudukudu]

Kepler rose from his kneeling position among the bodies and shrugged, then continued onward with Ci keeping their rear covered. He was reluctant to separate, but Matthias seemed eager to move on. He did not like seeing cyborgs venture off into the dark, on their own. It did not bode well.

"Master Martinez, please maintain overwatch over the hall while I make entry. This one prefers to fight on one front." Kepler said, nodding towards the alien. She gave a relaxed nod and dropped to a crouch behind an overturned table, rifle pointed down the hall. "Whatever you say, Kep." She said, then nodded towards the door.

Kepler drew closer to the door Matthias had indicated and squinted. His optical implants flickered first through IR, and then UV, and came up blank. They'd used metal for this bulkhead, not plastics, and that meant he was going in blind. Auditory sensors picked up nothing of note. Still, he removed his suit's left gauntlet in case his blade might see use. The gauntlet, for now, would rest on a mag-clip on his hip. The door had an access panel on it, and he managed something akin to a frown before blinking. His retinas shifted to refocus, activating his 2x magnification, and he peered at the individual buttons. Some had been worn away by consistent use, while others remained pristine. The code took five buttons, and four keys had been used repeatedly. With a tired grunt, he started tapping away possible passwords, and after four tries one clicked. "The Spark protects." He murmured, then stepped into the open doorway.

A pistol jumped to level with his head, and before the gunman could finish pulling the trigger Kepler seized his arm at the elbow and pushed up, sending the salvo of shots into the ceiling. Further into the dark room Kepler heard voices and slides racking, and jerked his foe in front of him. He was too slow to block the first round, and his shield flared brightly in the dimly lit room and triggered his Juggernaut Implants. The next rounds caught his grappled victim in the chest, overloading his shields and riddling him with holes. Kepler reached to the man's hip, pulled the first object he found there, and came away holding a pin. Spark bless. 1, 2, 3.

Kepler hurled his human shield forward, then dove for the nearest cover - an island situated a few feet to his right. Expecting an explosive, he covered his ears, only for the loud pop afterward to be followed by a blinding flash of light. Fortunately, with his eyes averted, he avoided the worst of the effects. The three men deeper in the room, however, weren't so lucky.

Kepler rose with his needle pistol in his right hand, his arm-blade ready at the left, and opened fire. The first hail of needles caught the nearest target in the chest and shattered against his armor. Kepler didn't release the trigger, and the recoil brought one needle to the man's exposed neck. The flesh turned green and within moments the target was on the ground, foaming at the mouth as the poison overwhelmed him. The other two men, still reeling from the flashbang, opened fire blindly and Kepler dashed to the next available piece of cover, a pillar too thin to fully protect him. He remained in cover, careful not to catch one of the bullets being blindly sprayed around the room, and waited for the first gun to click empty before opening fire. Given his positioning, most missed, but given by the scream that followed he assumed one of the last needles in the magazine must have found its target.

The final target was beginning to recover his sight, and with his gun empty he drew his knife instead. Kepler stowed his pistol away as he approached, then whipped his arm upward as the man swung. With a sickening squelch, bone splintered and flesh came cleanly off, sending the man's knife arm falling to the floor. Before the man could scream, Kepler jabbed, punching his blade through the man's throat. His right arm dipped behind the falling man, lowering him gently to the floor while his blade retracted.

"Kepler to Master Drakovich. Opposition has been neutralized. This one is marking supplies with signal beacons and will catch up shortly."

 

[Gradous13]

As He walked the corridor Matthias stopped at the corner which had no illumination, in fact the last ten feat he had moved through was just as dark. No thermal, no night vision, nothing. Matthias had long refused those visual upgrades for reasons unimportant at the moment. The darkness engulfed him. Just as it had consumed him it to did the hallway except for two red emergency lights. These lights were dim and barely touched the floor beneath them. But that was all he could see around the corner before pulling back. Matthias waited, listened for anything. There it was, evidence of a life form. Someone had adjusted themselves down the hardly lit corridor. Matthias drew his secondary and slowly brought it up around the corner, hugging the edge to keep most of himself in cover. Nothing had returned fire, meaning they couldn't see him nor could Matthias see them. Again, a rustle of equipment, so quiet yet just audible to him. He aimed a little lower. BANG! His handgun flashed a split moment after he squeezed the trigger. For a second, the blast illuminated the hallway. Matthias withdrew into cover as the enemy returned fire. Matthias crouched down. Slowly, once more he turned the corner, extending his pistol down the dark walkway. "Did we get him?" "SHHH!" "Arkus, Arkus?" "I said shut up!" BANG! Once more Matthias squeezed a round off, the muzzle illuminating the hallway. The whispers gave away their positions, clearly one was a rookie. But which did he kill? A voice came down the corridor, shaken and afraid "I-I give up! I surrender! I-I-I'm steeping into the light! D-don't shoot!" he said, It was the rookie, good. Sure enough Matthias could see a figure under the far emergency light. Weapon drawn on the enemy Matthias walked carefully up to the light closest to him. "He's unarmed, take him prisoner, perhaps he could be of use to Silas." He could begin to hear his heart beat in his mind. Louder, louder and louder! "He's the enemy, he could kill one of ours!" "For fucks sake, he's just a kid! SPARE HIM!" Matthias gritted his teeth and shoved his humanity once more down into the reassesses of his mind, ignoring his thoughts. "No." He said with a cold and rasp voice, pulling the trigger once more. The young man dropped dead to the floor. Matthias stepped over him to collect the weapons before returning to Ci and Kepler who had reported that they were good to go on their end.

Matthias returned to Ci and Kepler. Upon entering the room Matthias could feel Ci's gaze but shook it off as he looked around "Damn! Great job! Now we can move on, the armory should be right up ahead." He said. "Ran into three others, once more two had pistols and the third a rifle, must have been apart of the others we wasted" Matthias mentioned before moving past Ci and Kepler.

 

[Epiphany]

Kestrel shook her head in dismay. Eight? Plus turrets? With front-line technology, she might be able to take them on but she lacked the armament that had been standard issue on the Mutter's Spiral. There wasn't much good intel on their arms either. At least, not much she recognized. That made heroics decidedly deadly.

Of course, the engineer's actions changed the situation in short order. While Kestrel wanted to warn him off from advancing, he was in command here. At least his rush gave her good sight to the rough capabilities of the turrets. The men, on the other hand...

"I'll push, you cover," she said and the tall blonde postioned herself behind the locker. With bent knees and a flex of her arms, she started scooting the whole metal assembly forward on her own. Those aliens had ruined her life but their experiment had left her with something useful, at least. Kestrel's implant had turned her bones and some of her muscle mass into iron-carbon composite and it gave her a strength and resiliency only machines could match. Which it could very well turn her into some day.

Assuming it didn't kill her first.

Once the locker was in position, Kestrel sighed and called into the bridge. "You've made two mistakes," she said, addressing the eight men inside. "One's reversible. First, you seized the bridge. It's a good strategic position, but it's not a good tactical position. You're boxed in and your only way out is through us. Second, you decided to say nothing when we turned up just now and instead let your turrets do the shooting while you probably plan to shoot us yourselves as soon as you can see us."

A low velvety chuckle followed. "Yes, that is your second mistake. Because it won't be enough. I'm a Cavanaugh from a Crusader-class Generation Ship, engineered from birth to fight. As soon as my CO turns me loose, I'm going to leap in there and shoot every last one of you and your turrets too by the time you even lay eyes on me. Just like I've done dozens of times before. There's nothing you can do to stop me. Except to not make this second mistake."

"All you have to do is speak up. Introduce yourselves, politely. Then toss your weapons down and come out with your arms up so I can secure you. That's not a mistake. That's the only thing that can save you from me, right now."

Another chuckle. "And if you wonder why I won't just shoot you all anyway if you do surrender, well, I would. Cheerfully. Except I'm under standing orders from my CO not to shoot people surrendering. He doesn't even take slaves. He considers it rude. You'll likely enjoy a brief stay as his guests on his ship before being turned over to either a judicial party or to your employer, depending on who makes the best offer."

"So, make my day by letting me kill you all or do the smart thing and disarm. Take your time," Kestrel adds with a final chuckle. "It's all you have left."

Then she glanced at Silas, lifted an eyebrow and shrugged as if to say 'It's worth a try'.

 

[Solar Daddy]

Silas wasn't expecting their highly-trained super soldier to try and talk to the enemy - much less with so many good points. It was clear they thought so too, since there was a definite pause in their shouting and firing. Silas looked over at Kestrel, a look of both shock and amaze. "I thought I hired someone to shoot at people." It was clear the remark was sarcastic - Silas was someone who didn't believe in killing people who could be helped. He appreciated Kestrel's work, and was glad someone could put their words together much better than he could. He even stopped pushing the locker forward. He awaited a response, but due to the silence, he added in, "We're not here for anything other than information. If you don't mind us rummaging through the files, we'll be out of your hair and back on our own ship to leave you all in peace." They still weren't sure who it was holding the bridge - whether it be the surviving crew, or scavengers.

After a bit more silence, Silas heard their turret spin up to fire again, and braced against the locker once the shots started to drum against their cover again. He sighed heavily, both out of relief that their locker was still protecting them, but also out of grief that they didn't surrender. Silas noted how the locker began to heat up, and noticed the blue hue slowly making a warm glow on their side. Silas' eyes widened, knowing they were seconds from punching through their cover. Silas began hastily pressing forward again, praying they could find something a bit more sturdy to get behind. Luckily, they passed a door into a small office, with a large open window that looked further into the bridge - Silas saw it both as better cover for them, and a way into the enemy defenses. They pushed the locker just far enough to slip in, and once inside, Silas crouched behind the waist high cover given by the built-in desk. The enemies must've known how advantageous this spot was, since they began shuffling around to protect their new front.

It was clear this was some sort of room for controlling communication, and Silas looked at the controls a bit. After a moment, Silas exclaimed, "Oh! This might help." He reached forward, pulled a lever, followed by fidgeting his fingers across a few keypads. After a moment, he turned on his radio for a crew-wide message. "This is your captain speaking - I've disabled their on-board jammer. All communication should be free now." He wondered if he had missed any important information - he hoped something bad hadn't happened in the mean time, and that the rest of his team was dead. "Sound off, let me know who's still breathing." The second he finished his message, a barrage of blue hued bullets rang out against the desks and along the back wall, signaling that their enemy maneuvered at least one turret to their new spot.

 

[Epiphany]

Kestrel grinned at her employer's sarcastic remark and shrugged. "If you want to give me the go-head to take them all out, I'll get to it, sir." She winked, and the slight smirk on her face suggested she said that playfully rather than seriously.

The resumption of the turret was disappointing. And invigorating. The odds were not in their favor but it'd been too long since Kestrel had been in battle. Proper battle. Outnumbered as they were, the prospect of some clean, uncomplicated violence sounded very appealing to a woman displaced in time, stranded from her generation ship, doomed to be adrift the rest of her life. When Silas pushed the locker forward, Kestrel once more bent to do most of the moving. She saw Silas take the initiative to claim control of the communication room. As he switched off the jammer and spoke to the crew, she pivoted back out to the locker. One of her drones peeped out from beside it and, as she suspected, noted they'd redeployed expecting the pair of them to make their stand from the better protected hard structure of the bridge adjunct room. Perfect.

As the turret opened fire, Kestrel noted two of the men who'd left themselves partially exposed as they'd taken cover against the communications room. She linked her senses to the thumbnail-sized drone, 'seeing' its optic feed through her built-in HUD like a third eye. So when she leaned out from behind the locker, her rifle already pointed directly at where the men were. The moment the barrel cleared the obstruction of the locker, her finger pulled the trigger on the kinetic rifle and slivers of ammunition accelerated by magnetic coils spat out. With the computer assistance, her first three rounds neatly bisected the first man's bracing leg, toppling him backwards and putting him cleanly in her line of fire. Kestrel would finish him off if he made her but, for the moment, her priority had shifted to the second target. Braced behind a bridge control console, she saw only the side of his head as he peeked up to look in Silas' direction.

Kestrel grimaced but there was no help for it. Her kinetic rifle repositioned, her drone recalculated the angle and dropped a crosshair across her field of vision. One squeeze of the trigger and another round spat out from the barrel of her rifle, just as the man shifted to look in her direction. The bullet took him right through the right side of his forehead.

And then she'd rolled right past the locker and onto the other side of the lift. It'd happened fast enough, it was possible the men still holding the bridge wouldn't backtrack the fire to the lift, thinking instead they'd been sniped from the communications room they knew the pair should be in.

Under cover once more, Kestrel sent her thumb-drone up to perch off of a ceiling brace. Stationary, it still had a good field of vision of the bridge interior and it had the added benefit of camouflage, mostly from not moving. Now to figure out what to do about that turret...

 

[Dragongal]

Suddenly, Adira could hear her group again. So, all of her messages had been jammed? That explained the radio silence at the worst time. They couldn't hear her The second scavenger ship came into view and she prepared herself for evasive maneuvers yet again. "SIlas, group, there's scavenger ships coming here like flies to a corpse. I'm pulling every evasive maneuver in the book, and I'm managing just fine, but if more keep showing up, I could get overwhelmed. Right now, it's one at a time, but that will not be the case for long. Get as much as you can, and stay cautious and safe, but do not dilly dally."

Already, she was firing at the scavenger ship. "If we had more time, I would say scavenge these ones too, if I end up leaving anything in tact, but I don't think they're alone, they could be a group. I may not be able to pick you up immediately." She again tried to draw the fight away from the ship her crew was on, toward the emptiness of open space, so that if the other ship missed her, it wouldn't hit the ship her crew was scavenging. And besides, if she was going to die in an explosion, she didn't want the debris of that explosion killing her new friends. If they were even really her friends, more like allies. Except Silas, he was actually her friend. The others? That could be puzzled out later.

The ship rocked from another round hitting her shields. Damn.

 

[Vudukudu]

Kepler swept the room with his gaze in a flash, noting anything worth looting and deciding they were short on time for much of the material here. Sustained internal resistance, coupled with the continuing arrival of hostile ships, had him rapidly reevaluating the value of this mission. Tilting his pistol to the side, he squinted at the ammo counter before leaving the room, discarding the half-empty magazine and slapping in a new one. "Scavenger team has encountered numerous hostiles. As of yet, no casualties have been sustained." He calls over the comms, then waves for Ci to follow. The alien gives him a curious look, and Kepler returns it.

"Lots'a blood you got there, Kep." She says, gesturing vaguely to his torso. From about shoulder to waist, his void suit is covered on the left side in crimson. Furrowing his brow, Kepler looks down, then nods.

"Indeed."

The pair set off after Matthias, intending to catch up and continue with their business. From the earlier sounds of gunfire, its not difficult to tell an approximate location, never mind infra-red being wonderful for such things. United with their third gun-hand, Kepler strikes out down a corridor headed to the starboard side of the vessel. "Optimal layout would centralize medical suites and armaments. Master Martinez, please keep the hallway secure." He asks politely, then checks his pistol before giving the nearest door-pad a quick whack. It slides open, revealing a sparsely furnished med-bay, currently occupied by four wounded, unconscious crewmen and a doctor laboring over them with bloody gloves and sweat dripping down his brow.

"You can't be in he--!"

Pfft pfft pfft.

The doctor drops to the floor, clutching weakly at the needle-spikes buried in his torso, gurgling before beginning to drip green and red liquid from the corners of his lips. Keying his comms, Kepler clears his throat. "Med bay secure. Commencing pillaging." Kepler calls in, then pops his arm blade again. Eyes scanning the room, he starts wandering about, pulling drawers out, swinging open cabinets, and rifling through crates. Each time he passes a bed, he murmurs a prayer and dips the first four inches of his blade into a patient, pushing through just above their collarbone and puncturing their heart. He'd read it was one of the more humane ways to arrange an execution. Some ancient Urthen empire had performed it regularly on captive enemies, or so the stories claimed. He found it pleasing to know that, even in the ancient era of humanity's barbarism, a powerful culture had embraced some measure of mercy. Somehow, sharing that made him feel more human.

 

[Solar Daddy]

Silas was more than happy to hear the buzz of his radio again. The silence was killing him, and it made it clear that his updates from earlier weren't received. He hated the thought that a simple device could completely cut him off from his team, but luckily it seemed their assault on the Halcyon cruiser was going well. The ship was massive, especially compared to theirs, but they knew where their destinations would be (roughly,) and could complete their jobs with relative ease.He watched Kestrel go over to their original position before, and showed a slight grin. He definitely found the right squad members. Kepler, Otto and Ci were making strides on their mission, and it seemed everyone had reached their destination. He made sure to draw attention to himself just for the added pressure on their enemies, who, by now, started to sound like Icarus personnel with their lingo and attack patterns. He had a hunch just from them having two automated turrets, but the uniforms were unmistakable. He wasn't sure if his team knew Icarus was still on the ship and just hoped they wouldn't be more of a problem then they already were. He addressed as many people as he could in one moment, all while bringing his rifle up just over the barrier of the communication room's window and firing off shots over the heads of crouched Icarus members.

"Keep up the pressure Kestrel, good job on the flank. I don't think they have the ability to hide from both places at once." After this, he took a quick moment to press the button on the side of his rifle, the attachment's designed purpose of letting him control his communication without removing his hand from the rifle. "Try and make the pillaging quick, Kepler and friends. Adira can't hold off a small army on her own, as much as she wishes she could. Get as much medical supplies as you can from the med bay, but if you don't have time to grab weapons from the armory, don't sweat it. We can always pick them up on another run."

Silas watched the ammunition counter on his weapon drop steadily from his semi auto fire, dwindling lower and lower as he both took out personnel, and fired suppressing shots. He had taken a very modest amount of ammo from the ship's low supplies, and had only brought two magazines for his primary rifle. The second his counter went to zero, he instantly ejected it to replace it with his second. By the time they realized he had stopped firing, and poked their heads out to press their side, he had already refilled his ammo counter and began lobbing bullets downrange, spiking one unlucky man through the neck. His shot made them all quickly drop their heads again, unable to do much against the constant pressure from both Silas and Kestrel. Switching back to then private channel with Kestrel, he said, "I've got three dead on my side, how's yours looking?" He asked. It was clear from the lack of communication and gunshots from the enemies side that their numbers were dwindling fast.

 

[Gradous13]

Matthias ran up to the door leading to the med bay with Kep and Ci close behind and set himself up to breech, his weapon at the low and ready. Kep told Ci to cover the halway has he hit the door's panel causing it to open. Kepler was first to enter followed by Matthias then Ci. "You cant be in he-" a man said before getting shot down by Kepler who proceeded to kill the four patients who had been watched over by the now deceased doctor. "A respectable gesture Kep, good on ya, no sense on letting the dying suffer" Matthias commented just before Silas came over their comms and ordered their team to quickly pillage the place and extract, suggesting to leave behind the armory objective. "Kepler and Ci will loot the med bay, I'll move up and get what I can from the armory" Matthais replied back and moved out before anything else could be said. This was not the wisest decision but time was quickly running out and they needed these supplies. From the opposite side of the med bay was another hallway which was short and led into the armory area. Matthais opened to find an area which was dimly lit. Cautiously he stepped in and moved along the walls as he cleared the seemingly empty room. He took note of the three entrances to the room as he approached the armory door which had been sealed shut. "Beginning to think that this was a bad Idea....Ehh, whatever" he muttered to himself as he placed the explosive charges on the door. As he finished placing the last piece of C4 onto the door, Matthias carefully inserted the wireless blast caps and moved back into the hallway from which he came, "Fire-Det, fire-det!" He exclaimed through the comms before he squeezed the detonator's trigger twice.

As expected, the breaching charges went off with a loud bang that shook the surrounding area. Upon re-entry Matthais was pleased that the armory's door was now gone and to his surprise there was more supplies and weapons within the vault than he had imagined. "Breach successful" To expedite the removal of what was inside, He looked for anything that would allow him to transport the equipment easily. Two large carryall bags sat in the corner, Matthais moved quickly, opening both bags after setting them on top of the island in the center of the armory. Matthais started with the ammunition, grabbing a little of each type at a time and neatly putting them into the first bag to maximize variety and quantity though he mainly took the more common types from the start. Next he stuffed what weapons he could into the duffel he had already semi-filled up on their way to the med bay before putting what else he could into the second carryall. The first bag closed shut after a little fuss but with the few rifles, a support weapon and a couple smgs cause the second bag to remain a third of the way open. Matthais snapped his head around when he heard a bulkhead open "Fuuck iiit" casually came to mind when he quickly began inserting the rest of the blasting caps to the last of his explosives.

With two bags over his shoulders, one in his left hand and his satchel in his right Matthias ran out of the room when he saw a figure in the doorway. A good shoulder threw the Icarus crewman off guard as Matthias exited the armory. Before the guy could react he found himself catching Matthais's satchel, your's truly disappearing down through med bay hallway as fast as he could. Upon entering the med bay, Matthais grabbed his weapon that was dangling by his side and shot the door's control panel in turn sealing it shut after which He swiftly let go of his primary and pulled his detonator of his vest and squeezed the trigger twice more, another intense boom rattled the cabinets within the med bay "So, I got some good stuff, seem like you two did as well, ready when you guys are" Matthias said upon seeing Kepler's and Ci's progress as he moved to the other doorway to provide security.

 

[Vudukudu]

Kepler left Ci to maintain overwatch on the hallway while he rifled through medical supplies. He ignored Matthias' compliment about the mercy killings. They were not something to feel good about. Things were not good because the Spark willed them, but the Spark still willed them. Otherwise, Kepler would not have crossed their path. These men had outlived their usefulness to the Machine God, and as any faulty part must be disposed of and replaced, they too needed to be disposed of.

It did not mean he felt good about it, but service to the Spark made such weak, fleshy concerns more petty than substantive.

While Matthias spoke of plans to raid the armory, he made an inventory of the medical materials present. Saline, Xylene substitutes, paracetamol, frozen blood packs, hydrocodone, azithromycin, surgical tubing, anesthetics local and complete, hypodermic needles, toxin identifier plates, stim-injectors, a defibrillator, oxygen masks, an oxygen canister, chest tubes, blood glucose lancets, casting wraps, scalpels, sterilization fluids, a portable x-ray scanner, and suction equipment. He squinted as he unfolded the bag he'd brought with, revealing its inner compartments.

The bag had about two cubic feet of space to work with, and he was going to have to be careful with it. While Matthias was away, he ran the math using estimates of each item's volume. Weight wasn't an issue. His body, though not sufficiently blessed by the Spark with the strength of steel, could bear the load. With that in mind, he carefully tucked away valuable supplies, compartmentalizing with machine-like efficiency until the bag was packed to bursting. He repeated the same process with a second bag, filling it about halfway before offering it to Ci, and then waited for Matthias' return.

Keying his comms, Kepler clicked his tongue twice. "Kepler to Adira-Captain. Team two is prepared for extraction and is awaiting your anticipated landing zone's coordinates."

 

[Solar Daddy]

Silas pressed his back against the desk and ducked, fearing that maybe just the tip of his head was sticking out from cover. There were still a few more men to get rid of, and he was running dangerously low on ammunition. He quickly checked how much he had left for his kinetic rifle - five. He sighed heavily as he loaded the gun again, and after hearing Kestrel fire off a few more shots, stood up quickly and fired off the last of his primary into the enemy. He hit a few targets, but wasn't sure if they were killed in the process or not. Silas quickly got behind the turrets and disarmed them now that it was clear and knocked over a few of their barricades to let her through. Once Kestrel seemed to stop shooting, he moved forward with his secondary out, making sure to check every crevasse he could. He had spotted one man still breathing, and, out of mercy, promptly put a bullet in his head. Silas looked over at Kestrel, seeing as they had cleared the bridge. With a huff, he said, "Nice work, hopefully the others got along just as well." As he scavenged some rounds from the dead, he turned on his comms to Adira. "How's it looking on your end? Have you found a place to dock yet?"

Adira heard him, but didn't respond for a bit. She was rather preoccupied with the scavenger ship trying to kill her. She had led him almost out of comm range, just so she could be sure they wouldn't hit the ship her crew was on. The ship had sustained minor damage, nothing life threatening at all, though. It took her some more measured, steady breathing before she finished off the opposing ship, and sighed heavily with relief. Approaching the ship they were on, she said, "I have found a docking point. Hurry, though, we don't have long before another scavenger ship finds us." With precise movements, she pulled their ship up alongside the ship the crew was on.

Silas smiled when he heard Adira's voice, glad to hear her - and his ship - hadn't exploded since their last exchange. "I hope you didn't break my ship too much, or it'll come out of your paycheck." He joked, finishing up refilling his magazine before clicking it back on his rifle. He let it hang on his chest from the harness and went over to the computers near the center of the bridge. Tapping away at the console, Silas made quick work of the sensitive information, uploading it remotely to his rig attached to his hip. Once he was done taking the majority of the files (and putting a few into a separate cache), Silas purged the terminal and started going for the elevator to get back to the ship with Kestrel.

 

[Gradous13]

After joining Kepler and Ci in the medbay, he found himself looking standing in the center of the med bay looking upon at the deceased. It was the same, no matter the place or time, those that served, to him they were "... Always young..." Matthias muttered. Matthias took his gaze from the dead and shifted his attention to Ci and Kepler when Adira's voice went through the comms about a docking area for extract "Roger, on our way." Matthias replied. He moved quickly across the bay and opened the door they had initially came through and checked the hallway. Unsurprisingly there was no resistance. "C'mon, let's move." He said to his two companions as he walked past the bulk head and towards the docking area.

Matthias's strides were swift and fluid on his way back to the ship. Every so often he'd look over his shoulder to make sure He wasn't leaving Kepler and Ci to far behind. Approaching the air lock Matthias key his mic to report in "Captain, this Otto, we're at your location, Silas and Kestrel are still on their way." Matthias launched himself from the frigate's breached airlock and back into their own ship. Once inside he rushed to the armory and dropped the bags inside before bolting back to the airlock facing the frigate, weapon in hand in case any one where to follow.

 

[Solar Daddy]

Silas and Kestrel got back on the elevator and started progressing through the levels of the ship. Halfway down, Silas checked his list of things to get. It sounded like they had hit the jackpot with weapons, ammo, and medicine - those could all be checked off. Kestrel and him had gotten the information needed for their big payoff from Waning Stars, which was a weight off his shoulders. The entire lift down, Silas had thought about sending the data to Adira and the ship in the event that either the hard drive got damaged in a firefight, or in case he'd become separated from the group and perished. He decided not to, though, since anyone could potentially intercept the transmission at any point, leaking the confidentiality of the documents. At least everyone would want him to live so they could get paid.

The lift stopped two floors down, and Kestrel and Silas went off to the designated jumping point closest to the ship. On their way, they passed a corridor of dead bodies, sending them both into alert. They checked corners carefully as they went, soon winding their way through the halls of the ship towards the meetup point. Once there, Silas sighed in relief. "Good to see you two again. I'm guessing Otto's already on board?" He asked Kepler and Ci, who were already at the breached airlock by the time Silas and Kestrel got there. "Go ahead and hop on, I'll watch our backs." Silas told them. He turned and put himself up against the bulkhead to cover himself from fire in case anyone decided to try stopping them from leaving. He aimed his rifle down the corridor, waiting for any kind of movement.

After only a moment, though, Silas's threat indicator flashed red at the top of his helmet with the jarring beeps associated with it. He looked at every possible angle he could into the ship, but still didn't see anything. "Adira, are you getting a heads up on your-" As he turned, he saw the three, bright green bolts hurtling towards their ship from a high class vessel just coming out of FTLT. The radiation burst from exiting travel that fast is what set off his alarm - which also explains why Adira wasn't able to pick up on the threat instantly with the ship's censors. "Watch out!" Silas said through the comms with barely enough time before impact.The first two shots hit with quick succession on their ship - Major strikes against the shields and the hull, but not enough to disable it - hopefully. The third missile missed the ship and went right for Silas's location. Of course, he had no time to react from how fast the bolts came in, and, miraculously, it missed everyone and traveled into the corridor their group had come from. It still detonated about fifteen meters from them, though, and with the blast having nowhere's else to go, all of the force pushed the entire crew backwards, out into blank space in every direction. The two people closest to the blast - Ci and himself - got the most abrupt force from the blast.

Luckily, thanks to him being up against the bulkhead, he took minimum damage and was barely hit by any debris at all. Still though, he as well as the rest of the crew were hurtling off into space, spinning rapidly. For a moment, all Silas could hear was his own breathing as he watched the stars and ships enter and exit his vision from how fast he was spinning. He started to use his micro jets to slow his spin and help get a bearing of how far he was from Adira - the waypoint on his visor putting it at 100 meters, growing in distance the further he traveled. Silas routed all of his power to stopping himself from going further, and eventually pushing himself towards the ship. As he regained his sense of direction, he looked around as much as he could without adjusting the direction of the jets. "Adira, you okay? Kepler, Ci? Kestrel? Sound off!" Silas was trying his best to keep from going haywire, his plans completely thrown off from this mysterious attack. He had only gotten a glimpse at the ship, but not only was it able to exit FTLT extremely close to them, but also target them instantly, gave Silas the feeling that they were contending with a much better equipped crew than their own - definitely not scavengers. On his heads up display, he noted the bars in the top corner indicating the well being of his companions. Most looked okay - Otto, Adira, and Richmond - some were worse off, like himself and a few of the others - Ci's bar was nonexistent, and he feared the worst. "Does anyone have eyes on Ci? Where is she?"

 

[Vudukudu]

There are rarely times where Kepler is grateful for having had his facial nerves seared and much of his skull invasively reconstructed. Because his skull was made denser, adjustments had to be made to his cerebral spinal fluid to avoid concussing himself by turning his head quickly. The denser jelly now filling his head provided a suitable defense against most things that ought to stun or cause outright head trauma to the unblessed, and while the intent of the modification had certainly not been intended to ever save his life, it more than likely did this time.

The explosion kicks Kepler out the airlock like a ragdoll, hurling him end over end into space. Something had punctured his suit through the back of his left thigh, and he felt a skull-splitting pain before the trauma-foam activated and sealed the tear. His oxygen supply pumped freely into his suit, rapidly correcting the pressure and leaving him with a bout of violent nausea and a blinding migraine. Jerking his head as far right as possible, he sucked down on the pipe waiting there and puked, curling up as he discharged a day's worth of protein slurry. His vitals were probably a mess between this and the implant, but he'd live.

"This one's suit is punctured. Trauma-foam has been deployed. 4% oxygen remaining. Ceasing comms to conserve air." Kepler said, his voice only mildly strained given the pain he was in. Slowing his breathing as much as possible, he let the micro-jets correct his spin and slow his drift, then began contemplating his options as quickly as possible.

 

[Dragongal]

Adira was almost jolted out of her chair by the completely unexpected missiles. She hadn't expected that at all and hadn't seen the ship until the last moment. Her first order of business was restabilizing their own ship, then checking everyone's locations before sending a barrage of medium-to-light fire at the vessel, just enough so that it would have to temporarily keep at bay. "I'm fine, Silas. How're you? And everyone else? I see everyone as on board except Ci..." She checked the vitals, then went silent for a few seconds. Poor Ci's vitals didn't even show up; there was no time to mourn. If she was dead, there probably wasn't even a body left after that explosion. If she wasn't.... surely she soon would be. But the death of Ci didn't mean they could wait around and get killed.

The moment that everyone was onboard, she angled the ship down, under the wreck, and away as quickly as possible, hoping to outrun the other vessel - maybe they would assume them to be mere scavengers, chased away by the missiles. "We're escaping as quickly as possible, stay on alert, everyone," Adira said, now using the ship's intercoms to be heard across the ship.

 

[Gradous13]

Once Mattias had entered their airlock he pulled a carabiner and connecting wire off the right wall and hooked himself into the ship. As he did so the ship shook violently which threw him into the opposite side. His helmet cracked but seemed to still be solid enough. He looked across towards the crippled frigate to see the rest of the scavange team had disappeared from sight. Immediately Matthias pushed out of the airlock to look around for the others and was pleased to see that Silas and Kepler were making there way back from what he assumed an unintentional jettison caused by who ever attacked them. Though he continued to look around for Ci in case she to was thrown into space. Only Kepler and Silas. No sign of their last member. A stiff tug on the wire caused a mechanism within to real Matthias back into their ship, once inside he promptly sealed the airlock, unhooked himself and made his way to the bridge, "All present.... minus one" Matthias reported before making his way to the common area.

 

[Vudukudu]

I don't want to die cold.

Kepler's brain screamed as his oxygen supply began to tick down, at this point recycling stale air he'd already breathed out. The edges of his vision blurred, and it was impossible to see the ship like this. He flipped his optics to IR and gave the view another look, and the vessel burned bright red between its engines and the heat it emanated in the cold blackness of the void. A patch of blue space indicated the airlock, and he kicked his micro-jets into gear. On-board systems calculated trajectory for him while flashing a bright red 0% signal at him. At this point, it was up to holding his breath. His internal rebreather scrubbed meaningless particles of oxygen in an attempt to preserve him and his eyes drifted shut to focus on reciting every hymn to the Spark he could recall.

With a dull thump, he careened into the airlock, unceremoniously slamming into the far door at a few meters per second and knocking the last of his wind out of him. The airlock slammed shut and vented oxygen in behind him, and he ripped his helmet off to suck in a breath of fresh air, lying on his side. No longer exposed to the vacuum, the brittle trauma-foam melts into a blue-ish puddle on the floor followed by a three inch metal shard that had embedded itself in the back of his thigh when it ruptured his suit. The flood of coagulants from the foam and his implants had already staunched the bleeding, but he was still sporting an inch-deep flesh wound he'd have to tend to. "This one is aboard." He said over comms, then began stripping off as much of his suit as possible while they made their escape.

 

[Solar Daddy]

Silas had been ejected the furthest from the blast, and therefore was the last one in. Luckily, he didn't sustain any major damage that he could tell, maybe a few shards of shrapnel piercing his limbs, but not enough to outright kill him. His suit had automatically injected medical foam into the suit's ruptures to keep him from dying, so he wasn't too bad off. Behind him, after doing a quick head count (minus one,) Silas closed the airlock behind him. With a pull of the final locking lever, they were ready to travel out of that hellhole. Silas breathed heavily for a moment, resting against the door. He eventually cycled the oxygen back in and fixed the pressure to appropriate levels, then stepped inside the ship. Once in, he took off his helmet, still breathing heavy. "Adira, get us out of here!" He shouted, hoping there wasn't enough time for that ship to make another pass at them. He noticed the condition Kepler was in, as well as Kestrel, and sighed heavily. "Otto, help get Kestrel down to the med bay, I'll assist Kepler." He said, offering his crew mate a hand if he needed it. "How bad is it?" He asked, guiding Kepler down to their med bay.

Hearing Adira ring out that they were on their way, and feeling the lurch of the ship entering FTLT put his heart to rest. They were out of danger for now, and were able to focus on providing first aid to their wounded - namely, Kestrel and Kepler, who sustained some damaged from the blast. Kestrel seemed to be in a pretty dire state, though, enough that she was clearly trying her best just to stay upright. Silas hoped everyone could recover soon, and prayed Richmond wasn't feeling too hemophobic right then, because the two of them needed assistance badly. Silas would do his best to help where he could, even though he wasn't trained in the practice. Over his comms, he said, "Richmond, prepare yourself, we're bringing in a batch of people who need help."