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[Lyon]

Reed had dropped his 'link before the captain was finished talking, and slid down the ladder from the maintenance deck to the main reactor with the 'link swinging from its chord at his side. He grimaced upon making contact with the deck: even through his boots, it was uncomfortably hot. He looked towards the main reactor, with pipes reaching out in all directions to hold the power chords. Several were glowing red-hot.

"Not good..." muttered the engineer. He lowered his goggles to protect his eyes as a shower of sparks came from one of them. "What to do..." His eyes alighted on the control valve, and he suddenly smiled. "Sea World..."

Reed picked up his 'link and began shouting into it. "Captain, I need you to prepare to airlock the lower decks and vent the atmosphere. With luck, I'll be out by then."

The captain's voice came back, barely audible over the roaring of the engine. "I don't know what crazy bullshit you have planned," Alex said, sounding concerned and not entirely confident, "but consider it... done. Will commence to venting on your order."

"Make sure you're prompt," said Reed. "Otherwise we'll have a lower deck full of boiling radioactive soup." He shut off the 'link and stood facing the reactor for a moment. All right. I can make out of this. Taking a deep breath and making sure his gloves were securely in place, he stepped towards the primary coolant valve and wrenched the wheel off.

A torrent of coolant immediately began flooding the deck, and Reed turned and ran for the exit as fast as he could. He was up to his knees by the time that he reached the ladder, and he pulled himself up with as much alacrity as he could muster. He paused only to snatch his coat and toolkit from where they lay before diving through the airlock, slamming the door behind him, and spinning the wheel to seal it. He picked up his 'link and shouted into it.

"All right, Captain, vent it!"

[Chef]

James felt a little unnerved when all the lights went out on the Wyrmslayer, but continued to fire at the ship that they were now behind. Honestly, he felt kind of like a badass at the moment. Before he was just a poor writer, his main goal to gather enough cash to eat for a week. Now he was sitting in a ship with a bunch of pirates, firing an enormous gun at a spaceship.

"This is almost like a one of those crazy action novels," James said to himself, aiming and firing at random points of the ship. "At first I regretted joining these guys, but now I'm honestly enjoying myself! Christ... what the fuck is wrong with me?"

When you're a murderer everything gets a bit easier. Easier to steal. Easier to cheat. Easier to kill. You do realize what you are doing right now, don't you? You're practically in a turf war. One gang fighting another. Those people with the bounty may be pirates, but they are also human beings.

Are you really prepared to kill another human being?

Was Herman Steel not enough for you?

Come on, James. Just admit that you're starting to lose yourself.

"Shut up," James said to himself. "I'm not like that. I'm just trying to get by. Just shut up and let me fire the gigantic space gun!"

Before James' conscience could fight back, he heard the captain, Alex, call out to him. The captain needed his help, apparently. James was running the frontal coilgun, and it would serve as the most effective weapon against a turret that was giving the ship hell.

In other words, the entire crew was relying on James for this one.

"Oh no," James said. "I really can't do this, Alex! I'm not a fighter, I'm just a writer! I'm a pathetic creature with no helpful skills whatsoever! I don't know, I'm just really nervous right now. I don't think I can do this. I really don't."

James stopped speaking for a bit to slap himself in the face in order to gain some reason. He had to have a working head on his shoulders before he could accomplish anything. James knew what he had to do. He had to destroy a god-damned turret.

"I can do this. I just have to point gun at it and fire, right?" James said, frantically pushing the joystick towards the turret. "I just have to click the button and it will all be over. Just have to click..."

His aim shaking, James held his breath as he attempted to get a good shot on the turret. Sweat poured down his forehead. He was a writer, but this was cake. He had to do this. If he couldn't, everyone would die. He would die. He had to prove that he wasn't worthless.

James fired. And fired again. And fired once more. He kept firing.

The coilgun shot magnetic slugs at inhuman speeds, several of them smashing into the unprotected turret, tearing it to pieces. The debris of the former turret flew off after a small explosion. James couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"I just did that!" James shouted, laughing his ass off in disbelief. "Alex, can you believe it? I just did that! That bitch is out of here! FUCK YEAH!"

Edited by Chef, 25 March 2012 - 08:51 PM.

[Durandal]

Wolfram was anxious to trust the first man that walked in. Sadistic and merciless in even expression, he no doubt had countless charges of murder on his hands. Hell, he was probably worth a personal fortune dead.

"I guess we should get these people out of here, then..."

Wolfram silently sighed with relief, expelling a breath he didn't realize he was holding. Maybe he wasn't as bad as he looked. He'd have to find out.

Exiting the cell he occupied, Wolfram was confronted by a man in a full suit of armor. Although the suit made reading the man impossible, a measured voice and a VanSec symbol assured Wolfram that he was in good hands. I'll have to comment on the VanSec symbol later. Either these pirates mean business, or I'm in the presence of an actual VanSec officer...

"Follow me, if you will. We will find you some gear, then get to my ship."

Wolfram spoke up almost immediately, making sure to speak with as much confidence as his rugged self could allow. "That will not be necessary. I was stripped of my armaments before being locked up. They were placed in that damage locker," he explained, pointing towards the locker on the other side of the hall, "over there. I'm sure my cellmate faced similar circumstances."

[Redcoat]

Everything was happening at once. James had fired at, and apparently exploded, the turret. Now he was going crazy over the intercom. Fucker was weird, but at least he was useful.

"And a confirmed kill on the aft turret!" Alex said with sincere enthusiasm. "Excellent shooting! Tally-ho!"

The turret on the surface of the Royal Pain had stopped firing, mostly because it had burst into flames. The place it once occupied was now a crater. And with that aft turret destroyed, Leopold's ship would be utterly defenceless in the face of Wyrmslayer's fire. They could win this. They could defend Therog, save all those people, knock a brutal pirate lord down a few dozen notches, and make a shitload of money in the process.

But only as long as Reed succeeded.

If Reed didn't succeed, their reactor would burn up; their ship would be consumed in a nuclear fire. They would probably die. And even if they survived, they'd probably die of radiation poisoning. The worst way to go. The captain swallowed. Everything depended on the next ten seconds. Everything in the world. Everything in his life. Everything--

"All right, Captain, vent it!"

He went to the appropriate keys involuntarily. Within moments, the lower decks had been sealed; another second, and the emergency vents opened, and all of their radioactive boiling coolant rushed across the reactor and cooled it down. Alex couldn't see it, but he could hear it; the sound of steam hissing, water flowing, far below. And then it exploded.

It wasn't a bad explosion, like what would have happened if the reactor had been left to its own devices. It was a steam explosion. Behind the Wyrmslayer--which Alex could see, through one of the onboard cameras--an ocean of glowing-blue coolant dispersed into space, carrying heat and deadly radiation with it. They were safe, for now. Once the stream stopped, Alex closed the emergency vents and relaxed the airlocks.

"Reed!" he called into the link. "You've got twenty seconds to seal it up! You are a go for atmosphere!"

He said a few private words of hope, but did not pray.

"All gunners! Expect system control within thirty seconds! Once your turrets move again, prepare for broadside against Royal Pain!" Alex said, grinning like a maniac. They could win this.

[Luchiaros]

Olivia slowly followed Wolfram out of the cell with Mary, not sure whether she should trust her rescuers or not, but she didn't have much of a choice the moment. She wasn't to sure about the first man, something about him reminded her of one her past targets. As for the other, well, she didn't trust anyone in full armour, and he was no exception.

'Follow me, if you will. We will find you some gear, then get to my ship.'

Olivia quickly reminded herself where the pirates had stashed her weapons, but before she could say anything, Wolfram spoke. As he was speaking, she felt Mary tugging on her sleeve, so Vi turned around and bent over to see what her dear sister wanted. Mary mumbled something to Olivia, who whispered a reply back, smiled, and then stood up again, feeling a little happier.

'… They were placed in that damage locker over there. I'm sure my cellmate faced similar circumstances.' Wolfram finished.

Olivia nodded in agreement, still smiling from what her sister had said. 'Aye, the bastards put my possessions in that locker as well, and it would damn nice to get them back.' She said, then giggled slightly and gestured to Jericho, 'Oh and Mary would like the funny man to carry her, since she's getting tired.'

[Lyon]

"Main coolant tank is empty," reported Reed, checking the diagnostics. "No need to seal it. Reactor's still hot, though. I'm activating secondary coolant system now." And praying that it still works after the tinkering I did... Reed slid down the ladder again, turning towards the reactor, and spun the valve to open the secondary coolant valve. He rotated the wheel one quarter to the side, hoping for the best.

He heaved a sigh of relief as coolant began flowing normally, and reached for his 'link. "Captain, situation has stabilized. Rerouting power to turrets now."

[Vithar Megilaglar]

Michael chuckled. "Looks like you're fine with the ladies, Jericho." Michael walked over to the locker, smashing the lock with his rifle.

"Grab your stuff and--" Michael stumbled slightly as the whole ship seemed to shake. The shaking was followed by a series of creaks. "That's not good. This ship's taken some hits...and I think the integrity fields just went down."

Michael scanned the area quickly. "Get your stuff, we're heading to the hangar bay post-haste. And Jericho, stow the bombs. I don't think you'll need to use them."

The ship shuddered again, followed by the creaking. "Hurry. I figure we've got...well, minutes to go before leaving isn't possible."

[Kamikaze_X]

Jericho was visibly a bit disappointed by Michael's order. No blowing anything up? It was likely the highlight of that entire mission of theirs. Sighing, he looked to the two women in the cellblock. The child asked if he could carry her. Jericho never really felt at ease around children - there was something about them that seemed unsettling to him. Perhaps it's because they were blank slates to him - they were completely innocent, however completely corruptible.

For some bizarre reason, Jericho didn't like it one bit. Another reason he tended to steer clear of them in dicey situations. He had made a vow long ago that he would never harm a woman or child - he now was in the company of both.

"Carry? I don't think so." Jericho denied her sister, Olivia. "You have arms, right? And you're her sister, carry her yourself."

Jericho grumbled something about not being able to see things blast to pieces before stowing his grenades back into his rucksack. He went over to the cellblock door to keep watch while the others got their things together. Maybe there would at least be some more enemies to tussle with before they escaped this rotting husk of a spaceship.

Speaking of which, the vibrations and shuddering started to get worse. The ship that they still stood within was currently breaking to pieces in space - the threat of the ether reaching them was oh so near. Such a fact didn't entice Jericho much - it was like a bitter taste in his mouth. The noise of churning metal and a constant rumbling didn't help the mood either.

"We'd better leave soon...." Jericho said.

[Just Joe]

Douglas was short of extra ammunition that he kept in his greatcoat, which was now burning somewhere down the hall. He had a few mags left, but at the rate this firefight was going he probably couldn't make them last long. He couldn't even warm up the Starstrider because only Michael had the proper codes. He fired round after round into the oncoming wave, dropping the guards one by one and taking cover when they returned fire. The situation was dire, no doubt, and he didn't even know if the others were still alive.

Finally, he brought himself to try the commlink once more.

"Michael, if you can hear me, get the hostages and any supplies from the armory you can and get here as soon as possible, we need to get off of here, I'm pinned."

Douglas wasn't wearing any armor at this point - He only had a black t-shirt, black jeans and two bandoliers on him. His pistol was very powerful but it was running low on ammunition. He did have a grenade on one of his bandoliers, though, and he concluded that now was the time to use it. He pressed down on the large circular button at the top of it, which engaged a light at the top that signalled it was armed. He tossed it into the corridor they were coming from and took cover, waiting for the boom.

Right on time, the grenade exploded and set the entrance aflame as well as most the pirates coming out of it. The sound was deafening, and gave Douglas some slight shellshock, causing him to take cover right behind the Starstrider hold his ears instinctively. As soon as he did this, he let out a very hurried mutter.

"They better pull through, I swear to god..."

Edited by Just Joe, 26 March 2012 - 10:02 AM.

[Redcoat]

OOC: Duri, please post next and feel free to mod a pirate into doing what we discussed; CMOA authorization granted. Next poster may evacuate you lot from the ship. Gunners, feel free to post, well, gunning.

---

Royal Pain was in terrible shape. Alex's cameras revealed a welcome picture, and listening in on Michael's commlink only confirmed that their boarding action had been a success. With no aft turret, no shields, and about five minutes before a significant part of their vessel went up in flames, Alex concluded that they couldn't lose--particularly after Reed assured him that a nuclear fire was not in Wyrmslayer's immediate future.

"Michael, suggest immediate evacuation," Alex said calmly. "I'm not sure that Royal Pain will hold together much longer. Have you taken casualties?"

[Durandal]

OOC: Red has given me permission to momentarily godmod a few characters to allow for Wolfram's moment.

---

Wolfram stumbled to his knees from the sudden rumbling, Olivia almost doing so herself. As she picked up her sister, who had fallen onto the floor, Wolfram made for his belongings. After both Wolfram and Olivia were armed, Micheal hastily rushed them towards the door. Jericho following in short order, the party made their way to the Starstrider.

Micheal and Jericho naturally went to the front, clearing the way so that the prisoners could follow close behind. Wolfram was careful not to follow behind too closely, else he become a target. Olivia seemed to be doing the same, the child barely keeping pace.

This did not last for long. Olivia was yanked back, some unknown force ripping the child from her grasp. The child let out a scream in protest. Wolfram reacted quickly, swiftly turning back as he unsheathed his sparkblade, its brilliant purple turning Wolfram's uniform into a grayish violet. "You lot ain't gettin' out of here so easily! Don't even thi-" The pirate began to rant, although he was cut short.

Wolfram reacted quickly, tearing the child away from the pirate's grasp. He didn't quite care what the man had to say at the moment. Driving his sparkblade into the man without second thought, he listened as the man gasped with surprise. He hadn't expected such a quick reaction.

"Look on the bright side, pirate. At least you won't die in a glorious inferno." Wrenching his blade from the man's body at a downward's angle, he spun back around, sheathing his sword in one smooth motion. Pulling out his blaster, he nodded towards the front. "There will be more, I'm sure. Lets go."

[Vithar Megilaglar]

"Get the hell out of there!" Alex said into Michael's communicator. "I think they just lost integrity fields."

Michael laughed slightly. "You're right on that..er..." Michael studied the officers intact, albeit beaten, uniform. "Lieutenant."

As if on cue, the ship shuddered more violently than before. "That's our cue. Let's move!"

The run towards the hangar bay was fairly uneventful. Uneventful, aside from the small groups of pirates that quickly burned under the party's skillful fire.

A dark shape flew towards Michael, landing on his shoulder. "Vita! You little scoundrel dragon. Get the Starstrider up, posthaste!"

The small dragon flew ahead of the group. They reached the hangar bay, and Michael kept moving. The roar of the Starstrider's engines added to the cachophony of noise in the hangar bay.

Douglas entered the Starstrider first, and started firing from the boarding ramp. It didn't take long for pirates to choke up the distance between Michael's group and the Starstrider.

"Ok...follow me closely. Your lives depend on it." Michael rolled his arms, and he went into more of a crouch. "Make way, idiots, or I'll run you down!"

The pirates chuckled as Michael ignited his sparkblade. Without warning, Michael charged forward, knocking pirates back with decided ease. Anyone unfortunate to fall under Michael's blade fell to a single accurate slash. Several pirates attempted to put Michael down, the shots leaving little more than burn marks on the armor. The path to the Starstrider was decidedly clear, and the rest of the party took advantage of this fact.

A pirate came up to Michael, intending to kill the VanSec soldier. Michael turned, and the pirate attempted to attack. Michael dodged the poorly aimed slash, shaking his head.

"Let me return the favor." Michael pulled his head back. The pirate just stared. Michael brought his head forward right into the pirate's. "Proper headgear is a must when you do anything dangerous."

Michael spun and entered the Starstrider. "Vita, close the ramp. Get the turrets ready. We're making tracks."

The dragon flitted around, doing as bid. "Douglas, Jericho, man those guns. Everyone else to the cockpit."

Michael entered the cockpit, folding out a chair hidden in the wall. "Get your seats, people."

As soon as everyone was seated, Michael powered up weapons. "Exit, stage out."

Michael turned the Starstrider around, firing the twin coilguns at the emergency doors, blowing them open.

The pirates, deafened by the coilguns' reports, now glanced around wildly for a few seconds. After which, they were sucked out of the hangar bay, almost as if racing the Starstrider.

Michael pulled up in a tight loop away from the Royal Pain. He studied it for a second. Parts of the hull seemed to be splitting, but it looked like it was mostly holding together.

"We're clear! Finish her, Alex!"

[Kamikaze_X]

Jericho watched as Michael paved their way clear to the Starstrider. Even so, he wasn't going to allow himself to leave that ship without so much as firing his weapon a few more times. Aiming to the straggler pirates, he burned through two more until he jumped onto their ship and prepared to leave the Royal Pain.

It was breaking apart at an accelerated rate, chunks of debris and siding from the ship were breaking apart and floating off into space, amongst the loud din of the ship exploding around them. Soon, however, they were off. Jericho manned the same turret he had before touching down onboard the Royal Pain. Firing off a few bursts into the poor enemies that still remained within the hellfire below.

Their mission was done, as far as he could tell. Sighing lightly, Jericho leaned back in his turret seat and watched pieces of scrap metal pass them by as they shot back toward the Wyrmslayer.

[Redcoat]

Alex smiled. Their systems were go, their party was off the Royal Pain, and their opponent was in shambles. Before he gave the order to fire, he opened his communicator, dialing the Royal Pain.

"This is Alex Ribault, captain of the Wyrmslayer, holder of a letter of marque issued in the name of the Magistrate of Therog. It looks like you're in a bit of a pickle. Let's make a deal," Alex said. "You surrender, and I don't give the order to scrag your ship and everyone on it."

"I have prisoners aboard," Leopold responded. His tone became sarcastic. "You wouldn't be so heartless!"

"You have no prisoners aboard. The party that recently departed included their number. I know your ship class; you have no other brigs. Don't play smart with me," Alex replied. "I've been around the sun a few times."

"And what happens to me if I surrender my ship and crew?" Leopold asked. "Melt here or hang there, no difference. I ought to punish you for your--"

"Enough. I have you. Therog wants you gone; Magistrate said he didn't care how it was done. I'll detain you and your crew and drop you off somewhere else. You don't get roasted, you don't get hanged, I get paid and you walk free. I think I'm being far too reasonable."

There was an uncomfortable silence, but Leopold soon replied in the affirmative. Alex called off the guns.

"Michael, dock with Wyrmslayer. We've negotiated a surrender with Leopold and will require a shuttle over the next few hours."

[Chef]

The magnificent space battle was finally over. James let go of the joystick and leaned back in his seat, chuckling to himself. His shirt was wet with sweat, beads of it pouring down his forehead. Nothing had ever caused so much adrenaline to flow through his body. It was intense. It was crazy. It was awesome.

"Holy shit, I actually enjoyed that," James said to himself in surprise, wiping sweat off his head. "God damn, one minute I'm writing a book that'll never get published, the next minute I'm blowing up a fucking spaceship."

Surprisingly, his conscience had shut up finally, as well. All day it had been bothering, reminding him of what he did to Herman Steel. James had not gotten over it, of course, but for the moment the awful subject of villainy was off of his mind.

Seeing no reason to stay any longer at the turret, James headed back down to the main quarters of the ship. From what he overheard, the others would be returning back to the ship momentarily. They were victorious, of course, though Alex seemed to be showing a bit of mercy to the pirate they were after. It was a bit surprising to James, but he supposed that it would be a fault of his to judge Alex's character like that. No one was simple. James definitely understood that.

James took a seat and waited patiently for the others to dock back in the ship. Even he felt the need to congratulate them for their efforts. Strangely enough, James was starting to feel a bit at home here. He was still nervous and afraid of the more violent characters aboard the vessel, but he assumed he'd get used to it. For all he knew, this was the start of a grand adventure. Taking out his journal, James started to take down some notes. This would turn out to be a fantastic story on paper.

[Redcoat]

OOC: And to wrap up this chapter. You guys are all amazing.

---

Alex breathed a sigh of relief as Royal Pain powered down. He directed Francesco to monitor it and keep them in his sights. Despite the lack of trust that the captain felt for Leopold or his ilk, it turned out that they did not backstab them. Whether that was because of some genuine sense of honour or because they hadn't given them a chance to double-cross them, Alex couldn't say. Something about Leopold's demeanour haunted him, though. "We'll meet again" were not good words to hear from a pirate. Ych.

Regardless, after a somewhat complicated process of transferring Leopold and his crew to a nearby planet, salvaging what they could from the Royal Pain, and collecting their reward from the Magistrate, they found themselves around the mess table of the Wyrmslayer. The table had three new faces present. From earlier conversation, he'd found that their names were Wolfram, Olivia, and Mary. He didn't much mind having them for dinner; in fact, they seemed to make interesting enough conversation partners, though he found it hard to judge anything negatively in his present mood. He'd bought some pizza--the good kind, this time, from an actual pizza place--and even some tres leches cake because it sounded sophisticated. So far, his culinary choices hadn't led them astray.

"I hate to dampen the mood with business," Alex began, looking at the formal-looking older man who'd joined them, "but I must ask--Wolfram, that's your name, isn't it?"

Wolfram quickly turned to face Alex, paying attention to what he was saying carefully. "Yes, my name is Wolfram. Most just call me Wulf. Your choice. You said something about business...?" Wolfram questioned, his accent giving some flair to his otherwise monotone voice.

"Nice to meet you," Alex said, whilst shaking Wolfram's hand. "I'm Alexander, captain of the Wyrmslayer and professional adventurer. Anyway--business. My friend Michael tells me that you did pretty damn good back there. Meanwhile, I've always room on this ship for someone with a head on their shoulders and a good sword-arm. What do you say?"

Wolfram gave the idea little thought. "Sounds good. What's the catch?" Wolfram questioned, expecting some sort of requirement. Wolfram was a wanted man. By all means he should have been dead, and to some degree, he'd be better off that way. After such a predicament, he wouldn't be surprised if half the system would notice the fact a 'dead' commander was in fact alive. It was best to at least have some protection.

Alex found the man's question somewhat off-putting, but continued nonetheless. "You follow orders, don't screw with the ship, get along with everyone, and in exchange, you get paid and we protect you. I pride myself on avoiding a 'catch'," Alex explained.

"Ah," Wolfram acknowledged. "Simple enough. Yes, I'll join." Wolfram wasn't quite sure Alex was being honest. By all means, Alex was a pirate. His attitude, his posture, his dress, even his ship; all pointed to the fairly obvious conclusion that he was a pirate. In Wolfram's mind, pirates were fairly simple - they wanted more from everything. Being a Lieutenant, he was a valuable asset, and Alex knew it. Albeit, he likely was not aware of just why he was on Leopold's ship, but Wolfram choose to withhold that information. He'd rather not change a potential bodyguard's mind.

"Excellent," Alex said, satisfied. "Now, eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we'll do it again!"

The crew cheered, and there was much rejoicing.

OOC: Will start Ch3 tomorrow.