I think our game is fab.

I would still encourage those not posted yet to please consider posting (or send me an e-mail if you have any ideas you would like to run past me).

Actually, feel free to send any of the characters who have posted already an e-mail because they're all good people (some know bullet velocities better than me too :p )!

So more the merrier. Sirius is a big place with room for everyone!

ttfn

x

Ps: What does "ttfn" mean? I got that in an e-mail last night. It means "Ta Ta For Now"! Very british way of saying "see ya later!"

Occ: Let see if I still have the skill. I won't be able to post often unless some one is willing to relay my post to this tread as the only time I can access the net is every 2nd weekend and at school and my school has banned access to Lancers.

My E-mail is [email protected]

Also I was planing of getting Leion and Amy to meet up with Tanya and Rob as well, if that is not possable the tell me.

IC: A lone Legionaire shot out of the docking bay of Shiagowawa station with it's cruse engines all ready activated while it was in the the dockng bay.

It was then the area around the station became nothing short of a light show as deadly energy beams flew from the hundreds of ships now moving in for the 10 million credit bounty that was put on Amy.

"Amy head to Kyushu jumpgate" Leion's calm voice said "and then head to Planet Harris.

"What about you" Amy replied

"Don't worry about me I'll be giving you cover all the way. Now go."

Amy was about to tell Leion to grow a brain when a volloy of energy hit her ship, almost taking the sheilds out. Amy started to move ereraticly heading for the tradelane that would take her to New Tokyo and then to the tradelane that would go to the jumpgate to the Kyushu system. Provided th-

"Incoming missiles, warning 12 hornet cruse distruptors incoming" Came the Legionaires calm, bussness like voice. It was so calm that you would expect it to sign of with "have a nice day".

"Leion! Help me out here!" Amy yelled over the top of the buzzing in here ship.

Leion didn't reply, insted he flew right over the top of Amy's ship and cut his engines he then hit the afterburners while at the same time directing his ship downward and dropping chaff.

It worked like a charm.

Cruse disruptors use a mix of heat seeking and rader seeking to lock on to thier targets. Therefor the invsable coloum of heat from Leion's afterburner and the rader spoofing that the countermeasures were to irersitable target for the missiles and ten of the 12 missile went flying for the closely grouped CMs. Only one went for Amy which along with her erractic movements and her own chaff was easily consfused and blew up 500m away from Amy while the second one hit Leion's sheilds damaging the a little.

"Hurry up and get into the tradelane Amy"

"But arn't they going to folow?"

"Not if I can help it" came Leion's deadly voice.

Amy cut her engines and drifted quickly to the lane while she quickly spun her ship around and opened fire with her pairs of stunpulses and Pyros mk2 killing a ship and crippling two more before she reached the trade lane and entered and before she knew it she was speeding along the tradelane.

Amy looked behind her as one ship started to enter the tradelane, to see it then turn into a billowing fire ball as Leion's Pyro's mk1's shot thought the explosion. He then fired ten Slingshot missiles from the dual launchers on each wing. Then before the missile made impact with the tradelane he jumped into the lane and spead off.

The first four 2 missiles took the tradelane down while the while the rest of the salvo drilled into the heavy armor plating on the trade leaving a large gaping hole in the trade lane the last pair distroying it.

They escaped the the station.

They were home free.

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

Three days later Leion Xing and Amy Ferngate both went throught the docking ring at Planet Harris and landed at one of less known landing pads here they sold their ships and went to a hanger were Leion's Hawk Light Fighter with a pair of Sunblast A's and Catapult Missile Launchers, and Amy's Drake equiped with a pair of Suncannon B's and a pair Borroco's.

"So whats the plan babe" Amy call out while Leion was checking a pannel on the wing of the Hawk he called "Shadow".

Leion jumped of the wing of the sleek ship and held Amy in a embrace, before he replied.

"I was going to see if Justin would let us stay here until things cool down a bit."
Leion replied while holding Amy in a tight hug.

"That sound like a-Ahhhhh"

"What's up babe" Leion said hurrily as Amy doubled over hold her chest.

"It's i...it's nothing" she gasped

"Lemme look" Leion said helping Amy up, and Leion noticed for the first time that Amy had a gunshot wound to her breast.

"You got shot, you told me you were fine" Leion said slightly painkicy

"I didn't want to scare you babe" Amy replied "besides I put a pacth on it"

It was true, Amy had put a pacth on the wound but it still didn't make Leion feel better.

"Well we better go get that bullet out then....."

"Then what?" Amy asked

Leion smiled with a cheeky grin. "I'll kiss it better"

"While I'm around" a voice call out behind the young couple.

They turned around to see Justin Fraucruitz standing at the hangers personal entrace.

"You didn't did you" Leion begain

"I did. I shore did."

Leion never found the floor more intrestion then ever before.



Edited by - Leion Xing on 5/28/2005 4:51:06 PM

OOC: Sorry it took so long, guys.

IC:

Hahukum Konn spent the time in his Crusader on the way back to Harris digesting all the information that had been rather abruptly dropped on him. Alien races threatening humanity, and a power-mad self-styled "Governor Mason" allying with them for nefarious purposes of his own. Geez.

After landing on Planet Harris, Rob grabbed one of Konn's credit sticks and stuck it in his portable secure banking computer. Moments later, the credit stick was flush with several hundred thousand credits. He gave it back to Konn, half-jokingly saying, "Don't drop that damn thing."

Hahukum flew off in his Crusader, and then landed on the official landing pad. He quickly consummated the transfer of his old ship towards the purchase of the Humpback, and was surprised at the feeling of real regret that overcame him when he saw his trusty old Crusader disappear into the ship retailer’s storage yard. Nonetheless, he was excited about what lay ahead, and spoke with the equipment dealer about the necessary outfitting of the Humpback plus modifications.

It turned out that the best way to do the ship-containment modification without doing a whole lot of chopping and carving would be to just enlarge the cargo bay door, and this was done quickly. An internal communications system was easily installed, and the upgrades were duly paid for.

One thing Rob hadn’t thought of that Konn did think about was that pirates had scanners, and loved to use them to figure out just who to rip off and who to leave alone. Hiding a Cavalier wasn’t going to be possible if any idiot could register two ship power cores inside one ship, and neither was anyone going to be fooled about the presence of cargo if the scanner said there wasn’t any.

Hahukum got one of the equipment guys off to the side, and quietly explained his need. As it turned out, there were devices that were at best grey-market, which could fool anyone’s scanner into registering anything the ship captain desired. Perfect, thought Konn. He had the device installed and linked to his ship’s console. The thing ate up the rest of the credits Rob had let him have, and he thanked whatever providence was out there that the Crusader trade-in had given him just enough elbow room for the upgrades and scanner jammer.

The ship dealer in the meantime had gone through the necessary bureaucratic ennui with the Bretonian Armed Forces local representative in the area, and confirmed Konn’s legal right under the Terms of Dismissal to obtain a blanked rep card at no charge. When Hahukum got back from the equipment dealer, the ship dealer asked for his rep card, and ran it through his computer, which spat the card back out a second later. His neural net suddenly registered that all factions were precisely neutral when he stuck the card into his ship’s activator, which would otherwise not allow him to even power up the ship.

Time for takeoff. Hahukum noticed the layout of the controls wasn’t all that different from his Crusader, and spent some moments getting comfortable in the fresh newly-upholstered chair. He then signaled his departure, and carefully lifted off the landing pad. The Humpback’s relative lack of maneuverability compared to the Crusader’s would take some getting used to; Hahukum nearly overshot the meeting spot and had luckily been able to bring his new ship down without crashing into anyone. It was definitely like handling a gunboat rather than a nimble fighter.

After everybody piled into the Humpback, and all systems checked out, Konn launched the Humpback into space. It was a matter of simply setting the autopilot to the Tau-23 jump gate and watching out for asteroids which might throw the autopilot into a frenzy of overcorrection. He experimented with the thrusters, and began to get the feel of his new ship. 250 holds; who couldn’t get excited about that?

The scanner jammer was trivial to operate. One told it which cargo to register to any passing ship, and that was it. Let’s see, Water, Food Rations, Light Arms and Pharmaceuticals. Anything radioactive? Better not. MOX would be too tempting a target. The scanner jammer bleeped once, then fell silent.

-----

After the bar shootings, the lost BAF patrol and the oddly timed bartender ad, conversation had fallen to a minimum. Hahukum was lost in thought, wondering if Derek had met a bad end. Damnit, why did I give him that good-luck kiss, he thought. More like bad-luck curse, it seems.

The Gaians proved a worrisome distraction, and Konn made a few rude gestures at the ships attacking his brand-new Humpback. Stupid sods. If they scratch the paint, I’ll— . His thoughts damped down as Carshalton went through the pre-launch sequence and proceeded to surprise the unsuspecting attackers.

Carshalton handled most of the assault, meaning the Humpback only had to take one or two pot-shots at the Gaian attackers, both of which missed anyway. The weapons were going to take some getting used to as well, it seemed.

-----

Once in Tau-23, Hahukum Konn got to speak with Outcasts for the first time. Annoyingly, he found that in his nervousness he pretty well reverted to the stereotype of the tea-loving Bretonian foppish chap that circulated on some cheap vid-discs on Manhattan. Good grief, next I’ll be wearing a robe, smoking a pipe, and asking them if they want a spot of cream in their tea, the stupid buggers.

Once docked on Cali Base, Hahukum stuffed his special pocket blaster into his inside coat pocket, stuck the glasses onto his nose, set one of the lenses for medium magnification, and then jammed at least three credit sticks into his pockets in case a little bribery was called for. An honest trader for the most part, he wasn’t that skilled in the art of bribery, but being naturally friendly (although acting like a foppish Bretonian normally wasn’t the way he did it) and discreet when the occasion demanded helped a lot.

He faked a bravado he didn’t feel, and hopped out of his ship to be greeted with a blaster-wielding Outcast. Presumably this was the equivalent of the port authority officer in most Bretonian bases.

Konn got his oar in first. “Hello, old chap. I need to let my crew members out so they can begin unloading your precious cargo, so if you could give me a bit of room here?”

The port officer glared balefully and then took three measured steps backward. Hahukum quickly got back into the cockpit, and taking care not to make it too obvious that his ship had an internal comm system, quietly informed Travis, Rob and Tanya that he was opening the cargo door. At that point he hit the switch which opened the cargo bay, and hopped back out of the ship.

Just as the cargo bay door creaked open, one of the ships that had “escorted” the Humpback to Cali had docked, and a relatively young Outcast was walking towards the Humpback. He was distractingly good-looking, and Konn mentally reminded himself, Just because he’s good-looking doesn’t make him any less dangerous, mister.

As Tanya, Rob and Travis stepped out of the cargo bay, the young Outcast’s eyes fixed themselves on the woman. Even the port officer’s blaster dropped a fraction as he noticed who’d stepped out of the Humpback.

Konn, amused, started feeding the moonshine to the Outcasts. “These people are part of my crew. The gentleman closest to me is my cargo man, the woman my co-pilot, and the other gentleman my gunner. I trust you find no difficulties with having these people help unload my cargo?” He mentally crossed his fingers, hoping nobody would get the idea to actually look inside the Humpback.

The young Outcast stepped a bit closer to Tanya than might have been considered acceptable, and, in a voice equally mixed with arrogance and anticipation, said, “Well, well. Mister Trader, you have picked a fine co-pilot. Perhaps she would be more useful to me than to you for the time being.” And so saying, he put his hand around her waist, his palm landing a bit too far onto her rear end.

At that, Konn’s eyes widened. He wanted to whip out his palm blaster, but waited to see what Tanya would do. He cut his eyes over to Rob, whose fingers were twitching dangerously. Travis’s nostrils were flaring slightly. Hahukum thought, This is going to go bad, but can we turn it to our advantage?

Tanya smirked in a way any sensible person would recognize as a prelude to teaching someone a lesson, and in a blur, had the Outcast on the deckplates, an impressively huge pistol jammed into his nostril. At that moment, Konn whipped out his palm blaster, and aimed it at the port officer. He said, “Yes, old chap , this thing really does burn holes in people. Give me your blaster and I’ll avoid having to take it from you after you’re dead.”

The port officer’s arm twitched just a fraction, and Konn didn’t waste any time. He fired dead center at the man’s chest, and grabbed for the blaster as the surprised Outcast made his way to the next life, if there was one. This distraction was to prove unfortunate in a minute or two, though.

He bellowed at the other three: “Go, go, go! Our cover’s blown! Travis, back in the ship with me, now!”

Konn saw the Outcast Tanya had flattened staggering over to a communications panel. Rob yanked out a blaster and centerpunched the Outcast, but it was too late. A general alarm started to sound, and Konn swore, rushing to his ship’s console to close the cargo bay door. Outcasts began to rush into the docking area, and energy pulses began flying around. Good thing none of those will make a dent in the Humpback’s armor, he thought.

Rob bellowed, “Travis! Tanya! Konn! Get under the ship, cover your ears and open your mouths! Keep your heads down!”

The three did so, and a few seconds later, the world went *flash*THUMP! , and the docking area shook dangerously. Hahukum looked around, and saw who knew how many dead Outcasts and several more running around, apparently blind. He jumped up, dragging Travis with him, and hustled him into the ship’s cockpit. At that point, he activated the ship’s shields and began moving the ship’s weapons around menacingly. One or two sensible Outcasts had expressions of fear written on their faces and ran like the wind.

Rob, in the meantime, was barrelling across the hangar, guns blazing every which way. Several not-so-sensible Outcasts fell under the barrage, and Tanya’s own weapons added to the danger.

Tanya gestured to Rob, and they tore off into the maze of Cali’s corridors. Once Konn judged that they were safely into the bowels of Cali, he experimentally fired at the ship the arrogant Outcast had landed in, and was rewarded by the satisfying display of shattered glass and metal shrapnel flying every which way, threatening Outcasts with loss of life or limb.

Summary: A few interludes to fill in the blanks, and the Cali Base invasion has begun. Can our intrepid team make it out of there safely?


Edited by - Hahukum Konn on 6/4/2005 11:42:13 PM

The Humpback's door swung open and the filtered, but nevertheless refreshing, air of Cali flooded in. Rob, Tanya, and Travis walked down the ramp and found Konn waiting beside a particularly gruff-looking Outcast. Another, young and intense, stalked over from his Stiletto.

“These people are part of my crew. The gentleman closest to me is my cargo man, the woman my co-pilot, and the other gentleman my gunner. I trust you find no difficulties with having these people help unload my cargo?” Konn said.

Rob noticed the younger Outcast ogling Tanya and was about to warn the boy to close his mouth, lest he start drooling, but the young man took the brief pause to lay his paws on her. “Well, well. Mister Trader, you have picked a fine co-pilot. Perhaps she would be more useful to me than to you for the time being.”

Rob very nearly ripped the boy's head from his shoulders but, catching a predatory gleam in her eyes, saw that Tanya had an equally unpleasant plan for the arrogant pirate. She moved with the speed and grace Rob was used to seeing, and in a split second the Outcast found himself on the floor, inhaling the business-end of a wicked-looking pistol. Travis, Konn and Rob had their weapons out as well. Travis and Rob swept the area with their pistols, ready to take down any Outcast who came too close. Konn's energy-blaster was pointed at the port-official's chest.

“Yes, old chap, this thing really does burn holes in people. Give me your blaster and I’ll avoid having to take it from you after you’re dead.” Konn said with more menace than Rob would have thought possible.

Not a second later an almighty bang tore through the hangar and the port officer's chest disappeared in a puff of black smoke and red steam. The noise distracted Tanya for a second, long enough for the Outcast pinned underneath her to deliver a stunning blow to her temple and throw the woman off.

“Go, go, go!” Konn shouted, “Our cover’s blown! Travis, back in the ship with me, now!”

Rob tried to stop the young Outcast from reaching the alarm panel but his blow came just a moment too late and a klaxon began to blare. The four would-be infiltrators dove for cover behind the Humpback as Outcasts from throughout the base began to pour into the hangar. The hangar became a cacophony of whining energy blasts, barking slugthrowers, sizzling metal and screaming ricochets. Rob tried to get a shot or two in whenever the fire seemed to abate but was each time forced to take cover once more.

Time for a boom, I guess. Rob thought and began to furiously press buttons on his toolbelt. He removed a small hood from a pocket in his suit and pulled it over his head. Never tried this with all the strips active, but what the hell, I'm going to need it this time.

“Travis! Tanya! Konn! Get under the ship, cover your ears and open your mouths! Keep your heads down!” He shouted. Here goes!

Rob let loose an almighty roar and leapt out from behind the freighter. Bullets whizzed past his head and the air was hot with energy blasts. But not for long.

A few things happened almost simultaneously. Rob's glasses went from transparent to fully opaque, and small devices which had been surgically implanted into his ears shut off his auditory canal. In the span of less than one tenth of a millisecond, Rob was rendered entirely blind and deaf. This was meant as protection for what was to come. Groups of microLEDs stitched into strips running the length of his flightsuit flashed on. It was as if someone turned on a sun inside the hangar bay. Later reports from the IMG's Java Station would speak of a random, unexplained flash of light seen by miners relaxing in the bar. Also, a series of hypersonic soundwave generators embedded in Rob's gauntlets and toolbelt thrummed, instantly converting a stored multi-megawatt charge into sound energy. The energy radiated outwards in tight cones and, upon striking a solid surface, transformed into a 200 decibel WHOMP.

The unfortunate Outcasts, not having had the benefit of a warning, were completely unprepared for this sensory assault. The light itself was enough to send a devastating feedback loop through many of the pirates' nervous systems, killing some and rendering others permanently comatose. Those who somehow managed to survive the first wave found themselves felled by the incomprehensible noise that followed. Eardrums and surface blood vessels burst, causing many to fall to the floor screaming in agony.

The hangar was a big place though, and there were still Outcasts who survived. As his feet hit the deck, Rob's glasses returned to their regular brightness setting and the implants in his ears reopened. The freelancer squeezed off a few shots at the nearest Outcasts who still stood. He sprinted towards the nearest door and continued to shoot, crumpling those few pirates who survived as they tried to stand. The telltale sound of Tanya's pistol joined soon after and together they played a song of death and destruction.

Rob motioned to Tanya that they should split up and each head for a different source. Tanya pointed up, indicating that she'd go for the bridge. Rob acknowledged and tapped his shoulder twice; he'd look for the base commander.

The two dashed towards different doors and disappeared into the bowels of the station. For the time being it seemed the Outcasts were regrouping, so the hallway leading away from the hangar was empty. There was a door not 20 feet away and Rob rushed towards it as fast as he could. The freelancer unhooked two grenades from his vest and primed them. Coming to an abrupt halt just before the door, Rob smacked the panel to open it and tossed the two grenades in. A second later two great thumps echoed down the hall, followed by a series of smaller explosions. What the..?

Rob's brief bewilderment was interrupted by the sound of pounding feet and Spanish curses. Rob smacked the panel again and the door whooshed open once more. The smell of burnt flesh assailed Rob's nose but he pushed it aside. It seemed as though he had just bombed an armory of some sort just as another group of Outcasts were arming themselves to repel boarders.

Suddenly Rob realized that the group of Outcasts he had just heard were undoubtedly planning the same. As quickly as he could, the freelancer pulled another two grenades off his vest and wired them to the door so that his “guests” would find a warm welcome waiting.

Not two seconds later, after Rob hid himself in the corner, the door opened with a bang. Pistols at the ready, Rob spun out from his hiding place and blasted the few Outcasts who remained standing. Then an idea hit him.

It did not take long for Rob to find a service panel, half blasted away by his original assault. He kicked the remains of an Outcast out of the way and wrenched the panel off the wall. Cables and wires of all different colours spilled out. Rob pulled a small scanner from yet another of his seemingly endless supply of pockets and ran it up and along the wires. After a few seconds of computation the scanner gave Rob a list of the most probable uses for each wire. As he gathered together all of the primary power cables as well as the secondary cables for the station's lighting, communication and security systems with his right hand, Rob pulled out a combat knife out of its sheath with his left.

“Okay people.” He whispered over the comm to Konn, Tanya, and Travis, “Get ready. It's about to get very, very dark.”

A single swift stroke of the knife severed the wires and plunged the station into darkness.

Excellent.

Summary: KRT&T arrive on Cali. An Outcast makes an ill-advised pass at Tanya. Violence ensues. Rob makes boom. Tanya and Rob enter the bowels of Cali. Rob cuts the power cables and the lights go out. What dangers await our heroes in the dark labyrinthine passageways of Cali? Tune in next time...

Edited by - Codename on 6/5/2005 5:57:04 PM

Rats. So *I* blew our cover. Was hoping for a little sneaky sneaky before the shooty shooty haha

GREAT updates guys

Haha! you pulled a Dev!

Im gunna try wrestle with my next chap, it wasnt working before....

“Travis! Tanya! Konn! Get under the ship, cover your ears and open your mouths! Keep your heads down!” Rob shouted.

A moment later, the powerful impact of a flashbang and disorientation grenade resounded throughout the hangar. Tanya leapt out from under the ship and pulled free her second blaster, sending pulses of searing energy into the stunned, massed ranks of Outcast defenders now pouring through the vault doors ahead.

Both Tanya and Rob reached an intersection at the same time and after some brief hand-signals, went their separate ways. Tanya would look to infiltrate the bridge and access a terminal there. Rob would search for the Base Commander and glean the same information via a different route. One of them would be guaranteed success.

“Okay people.” He whispered over the comm to Konn, Tanya, and Travis, “Get ready. It's about to get very, very dark.”

Tanya smiled as the entire station went dark, only the faintest of light emanating from the various console's and starlight creeping in from port windows could be seen. She crept stealthily behind a bulkhead and crouched down straining her ears and closing her eyes to focus her senses.

When she next spoke it was barely audible.

"I thought you always liked the lights on, Rob," said Tanya over the comm. She reached into a pouch strapped to her side pulling out a pair of black shades and put them on. Her vision turned green and she began to adjust the settings using a series of deft flicks from her fingers. "I mean. When you're fumbling in the dark, it's harder to get what you want."

Travis swore and Konn spluttered something inaudible over the comm.

"Shush, girl. I'm busy," Rob replied in mock seriousness. Everyone heard something being cut into and what sounded like the gentle humming and whirring of a drill. "Anyway. Don't you prefer being in the dark?" he asked sarcastically, suddenly wishing he hadn't said that.

Tanya finished adjusting her shades, holstered her blasters and pulled out a kinetic handgun from behind her.

"No," she whispered withdrawing a silencer from a loop on her belt and screwing to the barrel of the handgun. "I just don't make a lot of noise."

She stepped out from behind the bulkhead and fired two shots into the chest of an Outcast feeling his way along the corridor. The puffs of the bullets were softer than the effort Tanya made to rush out and grab the Outcast's body before he hit the ground. She lowered to the floor and rolled him to one side, wincing as the dead man's bowel's opened.

"Ugh, what did you eat for lunch today?" she said screwing her nose up and moving past the corpse, kicking it as she walked by.

Tanya patched into Konn directly.

"Konn. You there?" she sub-vocalised.

"Yes. It's interesting. Rob disabled all of the access routes to the hangar giving me direct control. The vault door are closed and the only way in is to blast a hole in the hangar bay locks that lead to space. I doubt even the Outcasts would do that to their own station! How are you faring?" asked the trader.

"Good. Konn, when you upgraded the ship, did you buy any advanced scanning equipment?" Tanya asked. She moved silently and stealthily to another bulkhead and watched two Outcasts climb down a ladder and step out onto her floor by a lift.

"Yes! Of course, the best Rob's money could buy. I can scan a vessel's cargo at twice the range of a regular scanner and also identify.."

"Great," interrupted the young woman. "Can you configure the scanner to pick up warm bodies?"

"It would take some time but I can do it, hold on," came the reply.

Tanya waited a few agonising minutes but satisfied her position was well-hidden made no effort to leave her hiding place. Konn's voice echoed over the comm.

"It's done. I have your position on my screen. There are two targets ahead of you and three above you, all moving. I presume you are going up?" he asked.

"Yes. The bridge," said Tanya. "At least we know the scanner is working. Just give me a moment."

She slowly rose from her crouch behind the bulkhead and fired two shots again, hitting each of her targets standing by the lift shaft in the centre of the forehead. They both stood for a moment, before arching back and collapsing to the ground. She ducked back behind the bulkhead.

"Now?"

"Two of them aren't moving anymore," replied Konn dryly. Tanya grinned.

"Good. Tell me about the others above me."


***

Five minutes later, Tanya found herself outside the main bridge. She had killed as few people as possible, evading the attention of most Outcasts still struggling to see in the virtually pitch black darkness with relative ease. It was convenient that the hangar bay was at the centre of the station and only half a dozen decks separated Konn's ship to the bridge, with a lift shaft connecting the entire station.

"Ok, Konn. The big kahuna. Tell me about the bridge," asked Tanya. She had become accustomed to the very accurate descriptions of Outcasts and their positions from Konn and listened attentively to his advice, frowning when none came immediately. "Well?" she asked impatiently.

"Tanya. There's no-one inside," replied Konn as surprised as she was.

"How can that be? This is the bridge," hissed Tanya annoyed. "Check again."

"I did. Twice. There's no-one in there," confirmed Konn. "Perhaps they are all dead or were scared away."

"Doubt it."

"Me too. Be careful."

Tanya signed off and crept towards the door. She pushed the access button and the door hissed open. It was eerily quiet inside. What should have been a bustling nexus of activity was instead as quiet as graveyard. Starlight crept through a large window at the front of the bridge, vacated seats and dull console panels filled the rest of the room. Tanya glanced over at each one double-checking to see if anyone was hiding. The chairs were empty, apart from one, the commander's chair who's high back faced the back of the room where Tanya had entered.

She fired three quick shots into the centre of the chair hearing them thud satisfyingly, then slowly, very carefully stepped around to the side so she could get a better view.

Before she could take more than three steps the chair suddenly swivelled around and the occupant stared malevolently into Tanya's green eyes. The young woman's face registered shock before she could regain control and involuntarily took a step back.

"You!" Tanya whispered. "You're dead!"

Travis spoke over the comm.

"Babe? You ok?"

"Hey! What's going on?" asked Rob.

"Tanya? I still have no warm bodies on screen," said Konn.

Tanya lowered her pistol and began reaching for a blaster. Before she could react a bolt of energy sprang forth and seared her forearm, forcing her to grit her teeth in pain and allow the weapons to fall.

"I killed you," said Tanya in agony clutching her wrist.

The occupant stood up, reaching almost a full seven feet. A huge mechanical monstrosity as large in build as a vac-suit designed for space walks, but complete with menacing devices, jagged armour pieces and humanoid visage unmistakably designed to resemble someone from Tanya's past.

"Yes, you did," said the figure, a pincer snapped shut and opened repeatedly. Two glowing red eyes blinked terribly in the darkness and the full horror of the metal creature appeared as it stepped into a beam of starlight. "But they re-made me. He re-made me. I am far more powerful than before. Your little pin will not touch me now," said the horribly metallic voice. It screeched like a metal harridan.

Another blast of energy caught Tanya in the chest, buckling her knees and sending her collapsing onto a console. Tanya began to shudder then retched violently and spasmed as the high burst of energy caused her body to convulse uncontrollably.

"You like?" asked the cyborg. "I owe you one of these I think," it said raising a massive metal arm. A razor-sharp blade slowly slid out until it reached a full three-feet in length. It was smooth on one side and jagged on the other, tapering to a point.

Tanya barely managed to regain her senses and watched as the machine moved closer. Her comm no longer worked, fried by the high voltage blast. Even her nightvision goggles were cracked and unusable.

"Hideko. I'll make sure you die this time," she said, to the sound of laughter.


***

“I thought you always liked the lights on, Rob,” Tanya said, her impish spirit refusing to be quelled. “I mean. When you're fumbling in the dark, it's harder to get what you want.”

“Shush girl, I'm busy,” Rob shot back, voice overly heavy with seriousness. He didn't dare take the bait and further the innuendo. He focused on the task at hand, manually hacking one of the terminals on hand so he could at least get his hands on a plan of the station. Tanya, having spent a significant amount of time on Cali knew the place like the back of her hand. Rob didn't have that luxury. He removed the plate covering the computer's delicate internal workings.

“Anyway. Don't you prefer being in the dark?” He said, somewhat absentmindedly. Hey, what'd I just say?

“No.” Tanya answered in a whisper. “I just don't make a lot of noise.”

Rob fished a small chip out of a pouch on his toolbelt and slotted it into an unoccupied port on the computer's main processor board. The chip acted as a bypass, allowing Rob access to all the information of the computer's hard-drive. The location of the Bretonian fleet would be stored elsewhere and likely would be encrypted but less sensitive documents, like the floor plan, were almost certainly available. After a few seconds of searching, Rob found exactly what he was looking for. He downloaded the map into his neural net and traced a set of paths he could take to arrive that the commander's quarters.

Clutching a pistol in one hand - Rob had replaced his favored energy pistols with a single silenced slugthrower - and his combat knife in the other, Rob crept out of the room and down the hallway. His glasses amplified the little ambient light that remained as well as peering into the infra-red spectrum, allowing Rob to practically see through walls. A cluster of hot bodies lay just around the corner. It seemed as though the Outcasts had set up a blockade.

No worries though. Rob thought to himself and smiled. There was still one page left in his book of tricks. Once again, his hand dropped to the keypad in his belt and once again, Rob's fingers danced across its surface. A barely audible hum emanated from four devices spaced at regular intervals along the belt. Rob began to feel lighter and lighter. In a matter of seconds, the freelancer found himself floating six centimeters above the deck.

The Personal Artificial-Gravity Eliminator is a device of Kusari design and manufacture. It cancels out the graviton waves generated by small plates below the deck surface which are responsible for keeping its wearer on the ground. This allows the person to float, as if weightless, in any artificial gravity situation. Rob managed to “procure” a stolen one from the Hogosha while on a mission for the Blood Dragons.

Rob reached over to the nearest wall and, pushing ever so slightly with his fingers, began to waft upwards. He reached up and, as soon as it was in reach, latched onto the metal grille which served as a ceiling on the station. Having achieved a comfortable state of equilibrium, Rob turned the power of the Eliminator down and the hum subsided. Slowly and silently, Rob pulled himself along the ceiling and around the corner. He glanced down and saw five Outcasts armed with pulse rifles waiting for him. He let go of the ceiling and hovered silently a few feet above their heads as he prepared a lovely surprise for them. Removing his second to last grenade, rob twisted a small dial on the top, activating a timed electromagnet. He set the timer for 20 seconds and, carefully so as not to make any noise, stuck the magnet to the ceiling. He then set the timer for the grenade's explosive to 21 seconds and pulled the pin.

Rob pulled himself along the ceiling as fast as he dared to, counting off the seconds in his head. 20...19...18...17...16...15...14...13...12...11...10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...Goodbye.

The telltale explosion rang out once more, and then all was silent again. Rob pushed himself down, away from the ceiling, and, just before bouncing off the deck, switched off the anti-gravity device. Landing silently, Rob surveyed the area once more. There was much residual head from the explosion but, other than that, Rob saw no sign of anything that could be life. He increased the IR gain and saw only a few distant bodies here and there. Most remained more or less still but one raced around. That was Tanya. Rob watched as her glowing form rapidly approached a solitary, motionless form. The body crumpled and fell and Tanya raced past. It looked like she was nearing her objective.

Better get moving then. Rob thought.

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

Rob moved silently and purposefully through the black interior of Cali. Each and every Outcast who had the misfortune of crossing his path felt either hot lead or the cold steel of his knife, and then nothing. At this point anyone in his way was an obstacle that needed to be dealt with in the most direct way possible. Also, Rob knew that each Outcast taken out of commission would be one less to worry about for the exfil and one less to hop into a fighter and chase them. Besides, he thought as he withdrew his knife from the back of an unfortunate pirate's neck, who knows what the elders will do to the poor saps who survive? I'm doing these guys a favor.

According to the plans displayed on his glasses, Rob was little more than 500 meters away from the Commander's quarters when Rob's comm suddenly came alive.

“I think you might want to hear this.” Rob heard Konn say. “Tanya's on the bridge, but there's no sign of life there. I smell a trap.”

“Me too.” Rob said. “Thanks, I'll keep an ear out.”

Suddenly, disaster seemed to strike. Tanya's voice, shocked and breathless hissed over the comm. “You! You're dead!”

“Babe?” Travis' voice joined the chorus, “You okay?”

“Hey! What's going on?” Rob asked, not masking his concern.

“Tanya? I still have no warm bodies on screen.” Konn said.

Silence. Then the sound of an energy blast and Tanya's resulting hurt. Rob's heart began to race. He felt as though time had slowed to a crawl.

“I killed you.” Tanya's voice, strained and pain-ridden, resounded in Rob's ear. Another voice, robotic and poorly-modulated, spoke, though Rob could not make out what was being said. He began to sprint down the hall towards the Commander's quarters. He had to get the data and get Tanya the hell out.

Once more Rob heard a sizzling energy blast and Tanya cried out in agony. Then static and silence.

“Tanya? Tanya! TANYA!” Rob bellowed. He could hear Travis doing the same. “Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t!”

Rob poured every last ounce of strength into his run and closed the distance to the cabin in seconds flat. The display in his glasses showed one occupant, near the door. Rob readied his knife and burst through the door, an anguished war cry escaping his lips. The commander was ready for a guest and leveled a heavy duty shotgun at the black blur barreling though his doorway. The pirate was too slow in pulling the trigger though and, before he knew what hit him, was down, Rob's combat knife sunk to the hilt in his forehead.

Rob dragged the dead Outcast over to the computer and placed the man's hand on the ID pad. The computer whirred to life and Rob quickly downloaded all the information it contained into a datastick. He didn't have the time to look it over. Rob grabbed the Outcast's shotgun and pulled his knife from the man's head.

Hold on Tanya. I'm coming.

Summary: Rob uses a few more tricks to get to the Commander's quarters and wastes a bunch more Outcasts. He hears Tanya's distress and picks up the pace. He accesses the mainframe from the commander's quarters and downloads (hopefully) the desired info.

OOC: I wasn't sure what you (Athena) had in mind for this Hideko fight. Obviously Rob is now ready. If you want to use him, fine. Otherwise he could arrive just as Tanya is finishing her off again. Or whatever. Up to you.

Edited by - Codename on 6/10/2005 3:38:39 PM

Double post!

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

Rob moved through the inky hallways of Cali like a man possessed. He had but one goal: get to the bridge. Anything which seemed even the slightest bit out of place was an obstacle. For the time being, Rob had but one way to deal with obstacles. He shot them. If it moved, Rob shot it. If it made a sound, Rob shot it. If it flickered on and off, Rob shot it. If it just didn't look quite right, Rob shot it. The Outcasts who would later return to reclaim Cali would know Rob's path by the trail of destruction.

The dash to the bridge, when not possessed of violence, was full of “if only” and “what if”. If only I had told Tanya to hold her position ... What if I had gone to the bridge instead? What if we went together? If only I had insisted we go together ... What if Tanya had taken Travis as backup? What if no one had gone to the bridge? If only we had both gone to the commander's quarters ... If only...

As the numbers indicating Rob's distance from the bridge steadily decreased, the freelancer steeled himself for the coming battle. Anything capable of hurting Tanya Or worse Rob thought grimly, would be more than a match for his own combat abilities. He would surely need to use very trick he could muster.

Rob rounded the final corner at breakneck speed and flew towards the bridge door. He heard the clanking of metal feet and the same robotic voice that had been audible over the comm before the link was severed. A robot? Rob wondered.

Then Tanya screamed.

Oh god NO!

Rob burst through the bridge doors and, just for a moment froze at the sight before him. The half-machine, half-human monstrosity delivered a vicious backhand to Tanya's midsection, sending the young woman flying backwards. She hit the wall with bone-jarring force and slid to the floor. To her credit, Tanya did not give up. She valiantly tried to push her battered and bruised body up off the floor to face her fearsome enemy, but it was no use. Robbed of all strength, Tanya collapsed onto the unyielding, cold metal deck.

The reanimated abomination laughed, a horrible sound reminiscent of metal being torn, and began to stomp, slowly and deliberately, over to where Tanya lay prone.

Rob burst into action once more, raising the shotgun and squeezing off a double-barreled blast in direction of the cyborg, taking every precaution to not hit Tanya. The mechanical terror screeched and spun around and Rob saw its face. The malevolent red glow of the creature's eyes nearly made the freelancer's heart skip a beat.

“If you so much as touch her again, I will ruin you.” Rob said, not allowing fear to take hold.

“Is that so?” The cyborg sneered, her once delicate Kusari features twisting into a nightmarish caricature of life. “Tell me, which one are you, Travis or Rob? Which knight in shining armor has come to save the damsel in distress? It does not matter, of course. You are no match for me.”

“We will see soon enough, won't we? Hideko. ” Rob replied, circling slowly around the robot, trying to put himself between her and Tanya's prone form. The infra-red sensors in Rob's glasses registered the telltale heat bloom of an energy weapon charging and jumped out of the way, just in time to dodge an energy blast aimed at his chest.
“Good.” Hideko cackled. “I had hoped I would face you, Rob Schaefer. You are almost a worthy opponent. Nothing like that barbarian, Travis.”

“Shut up.” Rob spat and leaped to avoid another energy blast. He pulled the shotgun's trigger in midair, sending a deadly hail of shrapnel towards Hideko and blasting him backwards, throwing the cyborg's own aim off. To his horror, the shots bounced off Hideko's armor, barely leaving a mark. She laughed.

“Oh no, I am hit.” She said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “Is that the best you have to offer?”

Rob said nothing and squeezed off another shot.

“Fool.” Hideko spat and pointed her blade at Rob's chest. “I will enjoy killing you.” She raced towards the freelancer, the pistons in her legs working furiously.

At the last possible second Rob rolled out of the way. Hideko swung her sword arm downwards in an attempt to cleave Rob in half but the freelancer was already beside her, shotgun firmly lodged in her unarmored shoulder joint. Rob pulled the trigger twice in quick succession, blasting deep into the vulnerable machinery. The joint spasmed and slammed shut, trapping the shotgun in place and closing off its barrel. Black hydraulic fluid spurted from the damaged joint and Rob scrambled backwards.

Hideko shrieked in surprise and outrage. She spun to face Rob and tried, unsuccessfully, to raise her sword-arm once more. Her face was a mask of fury.

“Need a band-aid?” Rob asked, smirking slightly. He had drawn his energy pistols and began to blast away at Hideko's armor. Though each shot did little damage, Rob was able to slowly but surely melt the armor away, layer by layer. Confident that he had her full attention, Rob began to lead the reanimated Kusari woman away from Tanya. There was the risk that she would turn and kill the young woman, but Rob knew that if he tried to stand and hold Hideko off, it would only end in his and Tanya's death.

Eventually Rob and Hideko found themselves in a bit of a stalemate. Rob had managed to steer Hideko away from Tanya and once again position himself between the two. This time, however, he had cover. Hideko knew better than to rush Rob so the two of them simply traded shots from their respective positions.

Both fighters knew that the longer battle dragged on, the greater Hideko's chance of winning. Rob was good, no doubt about that, but he was also human. He did not have the same untiring mechanical parts as Hideko. Eventually he would just no longer have the strength. With this in mind, Rob desperately searched for another weakness in Hideko that could be exploited. He had managed to hurt her once, but that wasn't enough to win the fight.

Hideko also knew not to give Rob any more chances. The loss of use of her sword-arm taught her that much. She had been overconfident and made a mistake, now it was Rob's turn to slip up.

“She called for you, you know.” Hideko said, mechanical voice not hiding her sadistic glee. “Oh yes, she screamed your name when I hurt her.”

“Shut up.” Rob snarled.

“Oh, how I hurt her.” Hideko smiled, but there was no happiness in the expression, just a sleepless malice. “I hit her and cut her and shocked her. I made her scream and beg for mercy. But I never showed any.”

“Shut UP!” Rob shouted. His whole body shook with fury.

“And when I'm done with you, I will hurt her more. And I will tell her that you never came. That you ran like a coward. That you abandoned her here to die at my hands. And she will die. She will die hating you with every fiber of her being.” Hideko readied her energy blasters.

“NO!” Rob screamed and burst out from his cover, guns blazing. Hideko fired on the freelancer as he raced towards her. He dodged a few blasts but a pair caught him in the stomach, doubling him over in agony and sending him crashing into the floor.

Hideko laughed her tearing-metal laugh once more and plodded over to where Rob lay. She balled her good hand into a fist and brought it down, intent on smashing Rob's skull. In the nick of time, Rob managed to roll away. Hideko's plunging fist met the metal deck with an almighty clang and left a significant depression.

Rob clambered, somewhat unsteadily, to his feet. He had lost his energy pistols, leaving him with his silenced slugthrower, his knife, and a single grenade with which to defeat the hulking cyborg. Well, this is bad.

Suddenly, as Hideko barreled towards him, ready for the kill, and idea hit Rob. His vigor renewed, Rob again sidestepped the charging menace. His one hand flew across the keypad on his toolbelt, activating the Eliminator and setting it to a .3 G level. His other hand removed his last grenade from his vest and primed it. By this time Hideko had turned and was coming around for another pass, apparently intent on having the satisfaction of seeing Rob's brains smeared all over the deck.

Rob leaped into the air, legs rotating up and over his head. At the zenith of the jump Rob was practically hanging upside-down as Hideko passed beneath him. Rob slammed the grenade home into one of Hideko's armor's weak spots.

Hideko's arm flew up to where the grenade was lodged in her breastplate but that only served to wedge it in further. The oversized fingers of her cybernetic arm scraped uselessly at her armor for a second. Then the grenade went off.

The blast blew Rob, who had only just landed, backwards into the Commander's chair. The impact sent spikes of pain up and down Rob's spine, and forced the air from Rob's lungs. The freelancer was left gasping, barely able to move. Hideko was in better shape. Her breastplate was damaged, scorched, and blackened by the explosive, and her good arm twitched ever so slightly, but the Kusari woman was still standing. She slowly and steadily approached Rob, satisfied that he was finished. Rob made a desperate grab for his pistol. He felt his fingers close around its metal grip. As fast as he could, he pulled it from its holster and brought the barrel to bear on Hideko's exposed innards.

He pulled the trigger once, twice, three times. The sound of gunshots echoed through the cavernous bridge. Each and every bullet found its way home. They entered Hideko's chest cavity through the hole blasted by Rob's grenade, tore through wires, cables and vital systems, and ricocheted off her back armor. The cyborg's red eyes flickered once and went dark. Her legs collapsed beneath her and the half-human, half-machine fell to the floor with a resounding crash.

Finally able to breathe again, Rob looked down at his silenced pistol. Then it hit him. Gunshots? Why did I hear gunshots?

Rob rocketed out of his chair and spun around to find Tanya standing, if somewhat unsteadily. Her two pistols still pointed at Hideko's inert form.

“Nice shot.” He said and started to walk over to where the beautiful young woman stood.

“Thanks.” Tanya's replied, looking over at Rob. Her guns began to shake and Tanya swayed on her feet. Rob broke into a run, ignoring the lingering pain from the energy blast and his impact against the chair. Tanya kept her balance a few more seconds but, as her vision began to swim, could not hold it. Her legs buckled and Tanya fell into Rob's waiting arms.

Summary: Rob arrives on the bridge. Rob fights Hideko. Tanya and Rob defeat Hideko.

OOC: I didn't really want to describe Tanya's injuries in order to ensure that Athena will be able to describe the initial fight scene as she sees fit. Also, everything Hideko said about the fight can be treated as a lie. We know that she is willing to lie from what she said to Rob regarding what she would say to Tanya once he was dead. I also wanted to write more but wasn't really happy with anything I could come up with. I guess I sort of hamstrung myself by not describing the injuries. Oh well. I guess all this means is another update from someone else will have to deal with that stuff. I'm all broken up over it too, can't you tell?

Hahukum Konn realized some Outcasts might get the idea to start running their ships around in the docking bay once they realized their hand weapons wouldn’t penetrate the shields he’d been thoughtful enough to raise. He said, "Travis, take that gunnery seat there and start blowing up ships. Meanwhile, I need to find out what this ship has in the way of surveillance equipment. We may need to track Tanya and Rob."

A few minutes later, the docking bay rumbled and shook as ship after ship slowly disintegrated under the assault of the Humpback’s weapons. Travis was grinning as he watched the Outcasts stumble and try to regroup under the immense onslaught, as shrapnel and glass flew everywhere, killing or severely maiming several. Konn, for his part, was paging rapidly through the ship’s manual issued him by the ship dealer. He stopped when he saw "Infrared Scanner: Modes of Operation." Ah-HA . It turned out the scanner could be directionally focussed, or left on a 360-degree scan. It would also estimate distances reasonably well, and could be set to discard temperatures not within a specified range.

About midway through rendering the ships in the docking bay completely useless, Konn and Travis heard Rob’s voice. "Okay people. Get ready. It's about to get very, very dark."

The effect was immediate as the lights went dead in the docking bay. Hahukum hit the infrared scanner controls, and a HUD popped up overlaying the dark window with a panoramic view of infrared blobs and distance measurements next to each one. He excitedly said, "Travis! See if you can correlate the data this scanner is giving you with the target acquisition software. Let’s get rid of these guys while they’re blind!"

Konn tried, just for the sake of it, to activate the signal which would automatically launch his ship into space, and found to his surprise that nothing happened. Rob must have killed some of the control systems when he got the lights, he thought. Well, this means the only way to get out will be to blast the docking bay doors.

Meanwhile, Tanya said, "I thought you always liked the lights on, Rob. I mean, when you're fumbling in the dark, it's harder to get what you want."

Travis said something unprintable and Hahukum tried to repress a laugh, which came out sounding like a cross between a snort and a giggle. The whirring of a drill could be heard through the speakers, and they wondered what Rob was up to.

While that was happening, Rob said, "Shush girl, I'm busy."

Travis was making short work of the Outcasts remaining while Konn started fiddling around with the infrared scanner some more, and found he could tell where Rob and Tanya were by correlating their comm signals with their infrared blobs, since the comm could relay distances. Excellent. I see all, I hear all, thought Konn. He’d only peripherally heard the banter between Tanya and Rob, but Travis’s chuckling indicated it was probably slightly innuendo-filled.

"Konn. You there?" sounded in the speaker near Hahukum’s chair. It was Tanya.

He replied, "Yes. It's interesting. Rob disabled all of the access routes to the hangar giving me direct control. The vault doors are closed and the only way in is to blast a hole in the hangar bay locks that lead to space. I doubt even the Outcasts would do that to their own station! How are you faring?"

"Good. Konn, when you upgraded the ship, did you buy any advanced scanning equipment?"

Hahukum decided to tell a little white lie. He’d seen some other fun features in the manual for the ship. "Yes! Of course, the best Rob's money could buy. I can scan a vessel's cargo at twice the range of a regular scanner and also identify.."

"Great," interrupted Tanya. "Can you configure the scanner to pick up warm bodies?"

"It would take some time but I can do it. Hold on," Konn said. He then narrowed the directional focus of the infrared scanner and overlaid what the computer’s best guess was as to the layout of the base in her area. Scanners weren’t perfect, after all. When that was done, Konn could see Tanya’s comm signal correlated with her infrared blob, along with other unidentified blobs nearby, two on the same level and three above.

"It's done. I have your position on my screen. There are two targets ahead of you and three above you, all moving. I presume you are going up?" he asked.

"Yes. The bridge," said Tanya. "At least we know the scanner is working. Just give me a moment."

Konn heard a faint phut-phut as though a gun had been fired. He saw the two blobs near Tanya move suddenly, then change position and remain still.

"Now?"

"Two of them aren't moving anymore," replied Konn dryly.

"Good. Tell me about the others above me."

"Well, I think there’s a stairway or elevator approximately thirty meters away from where you are in the corridor you’re in. At least, there’s a kind of vertical shaft but the scanner can’t tell me much about it. Once you go up, from that shaft the three people you want to get are about.. let’s see here…"

Hahukum tried getting accurate distance measurements relative to Tanya’s position once she got up to the next level, and took his best guess.

"They will probably be about twenty-five meters away from you, down a corridor that bends sharply to the left as you’re walking down it, then bends right three meters down. It looks like it has to go around a room of some kind. Good luck."

Tanya made her way through Cali base without incident, encountering fairly few people. The nerve-wracking effort of following Tanya and the Outcasts through the scanner absorbed all of Travis’s and Hahukum’s attention. Luckily, the docking bay got very quiet, and Travis just had to fire a shot or two now and then to warn the Outcasts that someone would get hurt really quickly if anyone started something.

"Ok, Konn. The big kahuna. Tell me about the bridge," said Tanya.

Hahukum tried not to laugh as he hit the directional-focus controls and swept the bridge. How odd, he thought, There just wasn’t anyone in there. He did a quick check of the scanner parameters. Set for 37 degrees Centigrade plus or minus two, with the option to widen the band. He widened it out to plus or minus ten, just to be sure, and saw no change. He reset the error band back to plus or minus two.

Tanya’s voice broke in. "Well?"

"Tanya. There's no-one inside," replied Konn, still surprised.

"How can that be? This is the bridge. Check again."

"I did. Twice. There's no-one in there," confirmed Konn. "Perhaps they are all dead or were scared away." He wasn’t sure he sounded that convincing, even to himself. He smelled danger.

"Doubt it."

"Me too. Be careful."

Damn it, what the hell was going on in there? Better tell Rob, he thought. Hahukum switched comm channels. "I think you might want to hear this. Tanya's on the bridge, but there's no sign of life there. I smell a trap."

"Me too." Rob said. "Thanks, I'll keep an ear out."

"You!" Tanya whispered. "You're dead!"

Travis was startled and leaned over the microphone. "Babe? You ok?"

"Hey! What's going on?" barked Rob.

"Tanya? I still have no warm bodies on screen," said Konn. Oh, bugger. Of all the times for the scanner to malfunction.

Travis and Konn heard what sounded like energy discharges, and the atmosphere went from pensive to nervous.

"I killed you," they heard Tanya say.

Travis bellowed into the mike. "Tanya? Tanya!"

Damnit. All they could do was sit tight and listen to the battle play itself out.

-----

Summary: Travis's and Konn's point of view. They're stuck having to overhear the battles going on in Cali.

OOC: I've left the exact denouement unspecified since I don't know how Rob and Tanya plan to get back to the Humpback.

OOC: I WAS going to make this a very blood soaked chapter but the little man on my ceiling said that was a bad idea.... So as the new health food monster says “Cookie's are a one time thing” over here in Toronto we will miss the cookie monster..... I wonder if they ever make a new matrix they will bust the Oracle for smoking and serving cookies.... sheesh.

IC:
Dev swirled his ship into a nebula in his typical care-free manner. His current employer requested to meet him there. Considering that Dev had already been paid a fair sum of cash he figured the meeting was safe

“But if he is setting up something bad...” Dev mumbled to himself “Hey its me!”
He started to get deeper into the nebula a urgent COM message started flashing on his screen.

He reached to open the line and knocked a drink the floor, cursing he popped on the COM and snarked “What is it!”

His sisters voice came across “Dev you stupid jack-ass, you walking head into a trap!”

“A-buh?” Dev said sounding puzzled

“Pull your blue haired head from your ass and listen to me Dev, your employer. John F Wayne. Is going to kill you as a publicity stunt for his election. Why? Cus your classified as a terrorist in all house systems... Well if they knew your name.” She said rapidly over the channel.

“Ok ok ok, whats the trap and whats my plan of action?” Dev spat back

“No Dumb-ass thats our plan of actions. Cut your engines and wait for my goal, they have you covered completely but there waiting for your move. I'll my forces in with me and we'll get to you and pull you out.” She retorted

“No no no no no no no no.... NO! You are not getting your ass busted over my ****!” Dev yelled sounding worried and pissed off at the same time.

His sister sighed deeply “What kind of sister would i be if i didn't pull my brother out of ****. Me and my forces are coming in, sit tight and charge your weapons.”


“Jesus this is gunna be bloody boring” Dev mumbled grumpily.
* * *

John F Wayne grinned as he leaned back is his comfy chair on his luxury transport. The trap was set and soon the people would demand that he would be Chancellor of Rhienland. All he had to do is find a way to make it look like the young boy, Dev worked for mason.

“Sir” a Soldier said to him “The ships are in position but Dev isn't moving. Also we read Merc ships coming down fast on us. There here for Dev for one reason or other and there on us. Orders?”

“Move in on the kill, finish him....” Wayne spat.

* * *

Ricky Ner'til was a freelance pilot. Not a amazing one but he did his job. He currently was flying into a huge battle under the command of a 25 something girl named Sil'ia'ev. Around the freelance tables she was called Sil, she never was the front of the news but she did have a small crime empire running.

“Alright all pilots” Sil's voice boomed over the massive COM establishment. “Here we go, into the eye of the tiger. Stay strong stay tough. And pray to god now, because god doesn't listen to prayers from hell.”

Ricky watched as 20 Rhienlander elite crafts rushed at there small fleet of fighters, lasers blaring. Suddenly everything went red... Then nothing.


* * *

Dev sat waiting in his ship when he saw several fighters on the radar rushing at him. He jumped onto the controls and whirled his ship up and shot off right at the fighters.

There where 5 of them, fully armed with homing missiles and shield/armor piercing lasers.

Dev shot over them and swung down, his computer locked on one.

“Come to daddy” He said quietly as he watched the target fighter shoot up at him. He released a mine directly in the path of the fighter. It caused the shields to go down for a brief moment.

“Now or never” Dev said with a sigh and fired several missiles. The ship turned to see several missiles rushing at it and in a last ditch effort fired everything at Dev. Dev Pulled the ship in the sharpest turn possible and closed his eyes. His head smacked the controls as his ship was shook with part impact.

He realized the other ships had disappeared of the screen and the radar. Dev flew into the area he last saw him and yelped. His ship was hit with a barrage of mines and clutter. His engines flickered offline and he sighed. Cooly drawing the pistol from his holster he pointed it at the hatch of his ship and waited. A few minutes later he heard a clunk and the sound of two hatches locking on. He grinned and held his gun at the hatch.

The hatch opened and a young girl dropped down, Dev lowered his blaster.

“You bloody idiot...” The girl mumbled. “Fool of a brother”

“Sil!” Dev yelped “Thanks for saving my ass, but you got a lot of explaining to do!”

“Once we get outa here blue boy. Climb aboard my ship and lets go...” She said with a grin that seemed oddly enough a lot like Dev's.





_______________
i dont suffer fools gladly , in fact i dont suffer them at all

IC: "So what brings you to this neck of the nebula" Justin asked

"To get our ships and a place to hide but he might leave thanx to you." Leion repiled his cheaks glow under the blue rimmed sunnys that he constanly wore.

"You line that one up mate" Justin laughed "I just knocked it down"

Justin Fraucrutiz was once a small time ship make for the Corsairs. But he soon left them as he didn't realy like killing defencless trains. His father was a master ship maker but was killed by bounty hunters on a trade run when he needed to some Engine componates from a local base. The same fate almost befalled him as he went to avenge his fathers death. This happened 10 years ago.
Now 25 Justin, use his skills to make improvments to ships and weapons. Adding new componates and upgrading the orignal equipment. His Centuron was the pinacle of his performance.

"Yeah ok don't rub it in" Leion replied "So what did you do to "The Shadow" and "Angel"". Leion asked refering to Leion's Hawk and Amy's Drake.

Justin put his busniness voice on allthought still keeped his cheaky grin.

"Allright I both ships now have a computerize intelgence-'

"An A.I." Leion cut in.

"No let me finsh" Justin replied "The intelgence basicly contorls the ship for you. All you do is manage it. Now you still fly it in combat but this help for things like this." Justin pulled a microphone from one of his countless pockets.

"Angel, simulate fifty percent hull damage" Justin said into the mic.

Imeditly one of the small cargo hatchs opened and a contanter of nanobots opened reveling the tiny as they ran to varous parts of the small ship.

"Thats pritty cool Justin" Leion said imprested "but I know you. You still have more bags of tricks up you sleves".

"To right you are Leion ready for the finale you two" Justin said noticing Amy come out from the large living quraters.

"Yep" The lovers both repleid

"Angel, activate camoflarge". And just as smiple as turning off a light the ship vanshed.

"YOU INSTALLED A CLOKING DEVICE. Leion yelled in amazement "NOT EVEN LIBRITY COULD GET THEM TO WORK".

"I can still see it but" Amy said squenting

"It pratticly turns your ship into a carmelion" Justin said happly "There are millions of microscopeic lens in the ships skin. It then turns the ships sheilds into the colour that is most common in the area you are in and mimics it. The only problem is that your are extrlimy vunable whit this on as I had to take the power from the shields to make the whole ship camo up. Which means the sheilds don't stop projectiles."

"Justin this is amazing" Amy replied as Leion walked to were the ship "was".

"It's in the "Shadow" has well. I also change the rader to a 3D one all you do is 'touch' the ship and it will be highlighted in your HUD. Or even better tell the ship to do it for you. The ship will do most things for you just begain every command with you ships name."

"This is some of the best work yet Justin" Leion said in ore.

"Not really you should see what I did to my ship" said Justin "But first I want to here about you adventrges."

"Well have we got a lot to tell you" Amy said

Leion meets up with a friend and Justin describes the upgrades on the ships.

OOC: ok people, I have returned! sorry about being away...
_______________________________________________________
IC:

Exhausted and shaken, tired beyond belief, Rob couldn't believe what he was seeing. Behind the fallen form of Hideko, a pale glow was growing, as if someone with a candle walked along the corridor. The light was sickly, fragile. Haunting, dull footsteps marked its path.

"Tanya..." he whispered to the woman collapsed in his arms. She drew herself up, turning to look the way he pointed. The light grew ever stronger, though always sickly and pale. Worried, she put both hands on her concealed blasters...

Damien walked out of the hallway.

Tanya laughed in relief. "Damien! Is that really you? How did you--"

He placed a hand in the air, silencing her. Then she noticed he wasn't holding a candle, or any sort of light. The light was stemming from him ...

The hand that reached towards Tanya was covered in dripping blood.

Damien's black robes were drenched, soaked in a dark red liquid. Tanya looked up in horror at his face--bleached a pale white. Gashed wounds lay along his cheeks and forehead. Blood drenched his face and dripped from his mouth. A deep wound lay along his throat, and gore breached his neck and chest. His skin bore the same colourless tint as his face.

The phantom's eyes bled despair as he gazed at Tanya and Rob.

The communications link was full of the sounds of fighting, doubly echoed when Rob got into the thick of it. The last Konn and Travis heard was a strange burst of happiness as Tanya had said, “Damien!”, followed by some mumbled words, and then followed by a gasp of fear, which startled them out of their paralysis at listening to a battle they couldn’t interfere in.

Konn said, “Rob? Are you still alive?!”

“Yes. But Tanya’s severely injured. We need immediate rescue!”

“I have an idea, but you need to make absolutely sure the bridge doors are sealed, and that at least the doors on the level below you are also sealed. I plan to explosively decompress the docking bay by blasting my way out of the docking doors.”

Hahukum killed the communications link, not waiting for a reply, and said, “Travis, we need to get out of here ASAP. Strap in, I’ll handle this all myself so the responsibility will be mine if we’re stuck.”

Travis wordlessly buckled his acceleration-resistant strap, and sat motionless at the gunnery console while Hahukum prepared for an unorthodox exit from Cali. First, he powered on the ship’s running lights, whose strobing dimly lit the now-ruined docking bay. Then, he powered on a high-wattage searchlight, whose cold-white beam emanated from below the cockpit. He then turned the engines on, and carefully eased the ship around and towards the docking bay door.

Konn hesitated a moment, then fired a volley of blasts at the inner docking bay door. It collapsed under the assault, and then the Humpback went inside, almost touching the outer bay door. At this moment, he really hesitated. Explosive decompression, he thought. If I do this, a lot of people are going to die today. Grimly, he fired, and as the outer bay door weakened and cracked outwards, the ship was buffeted against the remains of the metal doors, and as Konn accelerated, crashing the ship through and seeing the door fragments spin off in all directions, he activated the rear display and saw ships and bodies flying out into space. No time to regret killing these people without a fight, I’m afraid.

The bridge was easy to locate, and Konn could just see two bodies and he could have sworn, just momentarily, that he saw a third, but it vanished so quickly he wasn’t sure it was for real. The other nonhuman individual he could see unmoving near Tanya and Rob. He reopened the comm link and said, “Breathe in, and cover your nose and mouth. It doesn’t matter how but you need to have enough oxygen for thirty seconds. I’m going to try and shoot out just one pane of glass, and bring you in with the tractor beam as soon as you’re in outer space.”

Hahukum maneuvered the Humpback as close as he could to the bridge of Cali so that the tractor beam would bring Rob and Tanya into the cargo hold with a minimum of exposure to the extreme cold of outer space. After doing so, he said “Are you ready?”

They could see a flashlight blinking twice, then falling dark again. Konn carefully aimed the closest turret, and fired as precisely as he could at just one of the panes. The targeted one shattered, followed by the immediately adjacent one. At that point, Rob and Tanya were at the open window, and boosted themselves out with the outrush of air. Hahukum hit the tractor beam controls, and fifteen seconds later, the infrared scanner reported two barely-warm bodies in the cargo bay, and the air pressure indicator had barely budged.

Travis unbuckled himself, and rushed out to see to Rob and Tanya as Konn made all speed for the BMM base in the system for emergency medical assistance.

----

Summary: Creative measures have to be taken to get the ship out of the docking bay, and then Tanya and Rob off the bridge of Cali. By now, the base is a cold, dead hulk, and the Outcast forward presence in the Tau-23 system has been destroyed for at least some time to come.

In the long run, this kind of destruction would seriously alter the balance of power in the Tau systems, since the Outcast presence has been broken in their forward base. At least this is my opinion.

As for the cold of outer space and so on, it is possible to live in vacuum for about a minute before your lungs will inevitably lose the air as your body automatically overrides your holding in your breath. The cold of outer space is 2.7 Kelvin, the human body temperature is 310 Kelvin. While this temperature difference is very high, there's still a finite time for the heat transfer to take place and the shorter the exposure the less likely it is that death will occur due to halting of the body's functions due to cold exposure.

Edited by - Hahukum Konn on 6/20/2005 7:27:09 PM