Futuristic Burning Sails [OPEN]

[Viper Actual]

Barely managing to duck and cover in response to the incoming RPG, Nathalie was quick to get back into action. As the others engaged the incoming enemy onslaught so did she, following Aesha's example by firing multiple shorter bursts at whatever hostile she could see.
When Vance pushed Nathalie followed, forming up right behind him.

"I'm with you, Vance! Go!" Her suppressed SMG sent several projectiles whistling towards the enemies. "Just like old times, huh?"

 

[joshuadim]

"Just like old times, huh?"

Vance fired off a shot from his ray-gun which dropped another Blood Corps trooper before chuckling: "Exactly why I wanted to live quietly until these bastards strolled on through." he replied as he pressed forwards. "Blood Corps huh? Well whenever I find their ringleader I'm gonna kick their shit in hard enough to make them wish they never crawled out of whatever hole they slinked out of." He fired another shot before advancing to nearby cover, some felled rubble from the walls and roof and continued firing suppressing shots to allow Aesha, Olivia, and Shelby to move along.

 

[Infab]

Vixaya quickly leapt from the platform, jumping down onto the tracks and darting over to where Amy, Aesha, and the others were. Greater strength in numbers. As Vance and Nathalie took shots at the Blood Corps members they could pick out in the fighting coming down the stairs, Aesha was forced to look behind them as Olivia called out. She flipped her eye patch up, revealing a glowing red dot in her eye socket. The dot studied the figure in the darkness for only a moment, before Aesha flipped her patch back down. "Don't shoot, he's friendly!" she said, glancing to Olivia before looking back to Typhon. "Glad you're here, doc! We're making a run for the square to get the bosses!" she said.

She looked back to the stairs, as another RPG detonated across from them on the other set of tracks. "Alright! Everyone! We're going to go around! Head down that tunnel there! No way in hell we're making it through that shit!" she stated aloud, pointing towards the tunnel ahead of them. And she was right. There were just too many Blood Corps members involved in the fight above, and the friendly numbers were rapidly dwindling. "MOVE IT!" she spat, before quickly darting down the tracks towards the tunnel. Vixaya followed quickly behind, moving as fast as she could after Aesha.

Some of the Blood Corps members noticed them, and went to take shots down at them from the top of the stairs. Only to be shot down by Aesha as she ran, or by Vance and Nathalie as they provided a bit of covering fire. Aesha noticed something, however, as she darted along the side of the platform towards the tunnel opening. A red haired woman was leading the Blood Corps troopers. And it was someone rather familiar to her. Her eyes widened for a moment. Karina Thiel? What the hell is she doing out here? A bullet zipping by her knocked her out of that line of thought, forcing her to refocus on just getting everyone into the tunnel.

​

"[Everything is going as planned, sir. Our vessels outside are eliminating anyone escaping the colony, and our forces inside have eliminated as many as they can. Commander Cortus is currently engaging Valencia Blackwell.]"

Lieutenant Riquier Molitor glanced to the trooper, his arms folded with a hand tracing his jawline. "[...Alright. How far are we from atmospheric entry?]" he said after a moment, scratching his chin before lowering his hands to his sides. "[About two minutes, sir.]" responded the trooper. Riquier nodded, eventually running a hand through his slicked brown hair. "[Alright. Time to shut the doors. Seal the blast doors over the hangars on each side, and close the arms of the station.]" he ordered, "[Overload the reactors as well. When this colony hits the ground, the reactors will detonate and erase all trace of the colony...and likely destroy a large chunk of Vileas. It's what Commander Cortus would want.]"

In all honesty, Riquier had never supported this plan. Even from the first suggestion of it, he voiced his opposition. They could have simply taken the man out silently. Instead, Anora had grander plans. She always did. But as long as the Movement supported Anora, he would. He stepped over to a nearby counter, picking his helmet up. He breathed a sigh, before slipping the helmet on and looking around the large open room. The main control room for the colony was quite expansive, though rather outdated in design with its dull grey flooring and cream colored walls. Computers were scattered everywhere, along with makeshift decorations and potted plants. Adding to the grey tiles now was a scarlet red, as corpses of fallen administration personnel lay scattered about. Pools of blood forming beneath them, and blood staining computers and walls here and there.

Blood Corps troopers wandered about, either patrolling or doing their assigned tasks at each computer system. Working to execute Anora's grand scheme. He glanced back to the soldier near him, whom had just finished issuing out the orders he had given him, and spoke again. "[Make sure Noske gets the data he needs. All of it. That's one of the most important parts of this operation, understand?]" The trooper nodded, before looking up to a cluster of troopers up on the second floor of the room. One of them glanced down to them, and gave them a thumbs-up.

​

PING!

"You missed yet again, Valencia. I grow tired of your attempts to shoot me with that makeshift arm cannon of yours." remarked Anora, having casually stepped to the side to avoid Valkyrie's plasma shot. As Valk reached for another plasma cartridge, Anora closed the distance quickly, and delivered a trifecta of blows to Valkyrie's side. Valkyrie stumbled away, recoiling from the blows and coughing loudly as she almost doubled over in pain.

"Draw from your repertoire. I know you have more in you. You're Valencia Blackwell, leader of Blackwell's Reavers. Daughter of pirates, mother of pirates. You've served in every pirate band in the Renegade Quadrant, almost. But that's not all you are...you were a prodigy. You're intelligent, regardless of your personality quirks or occupation. You built drones when you were a teenager. You can strip down, repair, and rebuild any engine with ease. Even starships. And...you fought alongside the members of the Terrika-Belladonna Company. Namely Yanim Terrika, Taylor Caine, and Alex Koronov." stated Anora, standing motionless. Her piercing ice-blue eyes staring Valkyrie down as she slowly recovered from the hits.

Valkyrie looked up to Anora, coughing a bit more. Anora spoke again. "I know you, Valencia. I demand you show me everything you've got." Valkyrie gritted her teeth, reaching down and drawing a cylindrical object off her belt. And a moment later, she hit a button on the side. Suddenly, a green burst of plasma erupted from the end, forming a long crackling blade-like shaft. It was almost like an extended plasma torch. Anora eyed the beam. "...Ah, the plasma saber. It formerly belonged to Kyrskada Sidikan, correct? A Black Fleet sergeant. I see you've made extensive modifications...Human hands being larger than those of a Kanad."

Valkyrie gave Anora a bit of a look. How the fuck did she know so much? A moment later, Valkyrie rushed Anora. Swinging the plasma saber in angry arcs. It was quite a show, as the green torch flailed around. Anora, however, dodged it with relative ease. As if it was but a simple task to accomplish. "You're fighting angry. Using your emotions to fuel your swings and attacks. I've seen Divinity Creed remnants fight in a similar fashion." remarked Anora. But suddenly, mid swing, Anora grabbed Valkyrie by her cybernetic arm. "It's not smart." she then stated. Valkyrie's eyes went wide.

What came next was the most painful few moments of Valkyrie's life. Anora drove her fist into the arm's elbow, and the arm folded in half the wrong way. The gun inside snapped in half, coolant spurting out across the ground. Anora then gave it a twist, ripping the lower half of the arm clean away, before grabbing onto Valkyrie's shoulder. Valkyrie soon found herself being thrown down to the ground, her saber flying out of her hand and sliding across the ground. The stub of a cybernetic arm was pulled backwards, forcing it to creak and bend even more. And then, planted her boot in Valk's back before giving the stub a sharp jerk. The rest of the arm and part of Valk's shoulder came off, forcing Valkyrie to cry out in agony.

Anora slung the shredded arm aside, looking back down to Valkyrie. Writhing in pain and trying to grab at her destroyed arm. Tears and spit staining the ground beneath her face. "Pitiful." muttered Anora, her expression unchanging as she stepped off. "Now, you've been rendered with only one arm. What shall you do now, Valencia?"

Valkyrie struggled to get up, coolant and blood spurting from the wound left by Anora. But she did finally try to crawl towards her plasma saber. "Continuing the saber approach, I see." said Anora, standing nearby and folding her arms. Valkyrie eventually reached it, clasping it in her remaining hand before turning it off. She forced herself up carefully, first up to a knee then eventually to her feet. Tears continued to stream down her face, as she reactivated the plasma saber. Anora stared at Valkyrie, before slowly unfolding her arms and preparing yet again. Then, she motioned with her hand for Valk to approach.

And without hesitation, she did. Valkyrie rushed in, quicker this time. With her remaining arm, she slashed and stabbed at Anora. Forcing the Upyri to dodge and counter in kind. With each deflected or dodged swing, Anora delivered a brutal series of strikes against Valkyrie. Striking her head, chest, spine, sides, hips, and even her legs. Valk slowed over the course of the engagement, being worn down by Anora's strikes. Bruises and blood began to mark her form. Her nose was soon broken, and her left eye blackened. Her breathing became labored, as she forced breaths in and out. Anora eventually backed away, as Valkyrie stood there. Beaten senseless and barely standing.

The Upyri shook her head. "...I expected far more than this from you." she muttered. Then, she moved in again. And as Valkyrie swung a final time, Anora delivered a series of five hits to Valkyrie's chest, before grabbing Valk's remaining arm. And in a twirl of motions, she flipped Valk over flat onto her back on the ground. The saber once again hit the ground, but Anora quickly stepped over and stomped on the weapon. The impact of her boot shattered the saber instantly, the plasma cartridge inside launching out the end and rolling away from the destroyed device.

Valk didn't move. She was in far too much pain, and was forcing herself to keep breathing. Anora simply stepped over next to her, staring down at her. "...Would you like to know why I attacked this colony, Valencia?" she asked. Valkyrie's eyes shifted slowly to look up at her. "...I simply hate pirates and criminals. And this place is a haven for them. A breeding ground for them. It needed to be destroyed, along with everyone inside it. And killing Uric Corbett was just a bonus."

Valk stared up at Anora, just as the Upyri stared down at her. Anora then looked up, as she noticed the large arms of the colony starting to close in around the station to cover the glass portions. "In another life, I probably would have killed you...but I think I'll let you live. For now. Goodbye, Valencia." she finally stated, looking back down to Valkyrie one last time. And then, the Upyri simply walked away, disappearing from Valk's view.

Valkyrie laid there for several minutes, staring up towards the other sides inside the colony. She could hear Damien nearby, calling out to her, but she couldn't reply. She was just trying to keep breathing. But soon enough, she heard other voices. A maintenance hatch near the edge of the square popped open with a hiss, and out climbed Aesha along with several others. "Boss? BOSS!" Aesha spat out, quickly rushing over to where Valk was as soon as she saw her laying there.

 

[joshuadim]

The tunnel had proven to be a smart idea as it allowed Vance and the others to move quicker to their destination with less problems along the way, although the sounds of fighting pervaded throughout their trip until they finally appeared at the square from a hatch. Vance quickly followed Aesha up with his ray-gun raised to look for any hostiles but found none and lowered his guard as a result. He then noticed who Aesha was talking to and grimaced: "Jesus... whoever did this gave her hell of a beating." he muttered before looking around and seeing Damian, having crawled over to Lauren, frantically checking to see if his sister was still alright.

More casualties. Vance thought to himself as he holstered his weapon and rushed over to the two of them. "Shit, we need to get y'all out of here pronto." he said. He was going to ask if he could walk but upon seeing Damian's twisted leg, he refrained from asking such a thing. He turned around to the others: "Need help over here!"

 

[ANIMAL MOTHER]

The medical scanner built into Typhon's eye paints an awful picture of Valkyrie's current status: several broken ribs, cuts and bruises all over her head and torso, and the bleeding stump of what's left of her shoulder. Her heart rate is through the roof yet she's just barely still breathing. He needs to get to work right away if she's to survive. Kneeling beside her, he puts on a pair of blue gloves before rummaging through his bag to find what he'll need to treat her. Medical suction-wraps, small bottles of antiseptics and a bandage, a tube of pain-killers, and a plastic mask with a small blue cannister of oxygen installed into it are all placed beside her. He starts with putting the tube of pain-killers in the mask, then putting it on her face; helping her breathe better and less painfully. As for the residuum, it's sanitized with the iodine and the bandages are wrapped around it, and the suction-wrap is carefully placed on it as well to prevent any further bleeding; it tightly shrinks around it until the outline of the wound is visible. This'll have to do for now until he can get her to the med-bay so he can treat her shattered ribs as well.

"Breathe, Captain." he says, still holding the mask on her face. "You will feel the analgesics in just a moment."

 

[Breadman]

Amy followed after the Reavers through the tunnels. They were capable enough to take out any of the Blood corps that got in their way, so she didn't have to worry about any more serious engagements for now. Eventually they made it to where they leaders were and she felt a ball form in her stomach when she saw them. A quiet 'Oh no' escaped her lips. Valk was inches from death by the look of her. Her kids weren't in a better shape either.

She rushed after Vance to help get Damian up.

"I got him. Lean on me, kid." She moved Damian arm over her shoulders "Go check on his sister." The bounty hunter pointed to Lauren "Make sure she's breathing." There was a brief pause as she helped Damian get adequate footing "The hell happened?"

 

[joshuadim]

On Amy's behalf, Vance turned his attention to Lauren and checked her pulse. She was alive, that was certain, but she had also been brutalized in a similar manner to both her mother and brother and was unconscious due to the damage taken. "She's alive, but out cold." he replied to Amy before picking Lauren up with ease, "We're gonna have to get 'em all out to the hangars, fast."

 

[ANIMAL MOTHER]

With Valkyrie's condition gradually turning stable, Typhon looks over at her children whom also have serious injuries themselves. Damien's leg slides loosely as the knee's been shattered, and worse still is Lauren; a part of her skull had been fractured, giving her one hell of a concussion and blood is leaking from her nose. Though before he can even begin with her, some human lifts her up off the floor in spite of her skull being broken. He walks in front of him and halts him with his hand.

"Excuse me. Would you mind gently putting her back down?" he sternly demands, pointing at Lauren.

 

[joshuadim]

Vance looked at Typhon before looking back at Lauren and seeing blood drip out her nose which signaled something bad. "You got something to stop the bleeding on her, doc?" he asked as he gently lowered Lauren back down to the ground with care especially to her fractured head as to not try to cause any more harm, "No telling how much time we got here so we need to be quick."

 

[ANIMAL MOTHER]

"No telling how much time we got here so we need to be quick."

Typhon snaps his head over at the human. "Let me work."

Again he digs into his bag and produces more bandages which he very carefully wraps around Lauren's head, and stuffs a little cloth into both of her nostrils to prevent any further bleeding. Another mask is taken out, similar to the one he placed on Valkyrie, though this one has a second cannister of oxygen attached to it. It's gently placed on her face and he flicks a tiny switch on the mask, letting the air flow freely.

"Be easy with her now. Do not let her head shake." he says to the human.

It's Damien's turn to looked after now. Fortunately, Typhon had packed a few arm and leg braces in his bag. He takes one and fits it over his knee, and tightens the hell out of it until it can't be moved or especially bent.

"No pressure on this leg, you understand?" he says, offering a hand to help lift him up.

 

[joshuadim]

"Got it." Vance replied once the doctor had finished his work and moved to focus on Damien. He then carefully lifted Lauren up again, making sure her head is supported properly on his own arm so that it isn't left hanging or to shake as much.

 

[SniperComZero]

Olivia really wasn't having a good time of it. Her gaze met Aesha's, with an annoyed snarl had left her throat at yet another addition joining their party without announcing his presence before he made it to them. "I fucking swear, if this keeps happening I can't be blamed for putting a cap in one of our own guys." She shook her head, before the team sprinted down the tunnel towards, presumably, their destination.

The street they came out at, littered with bodies was... not what she was expecting, to say the least. Near everyone lying on the ground was bleeding out, or had some kind of missing body part. At least the others knew who their boss-- and, whoever her bodyguards were... Were they her bodyguards? She knew she talked to-- whatever. "...Fuck me, they took out this many terrorists and all of 'em are still breathing at all? Hardcore."

She was trying not to look at the swathes of other, non-armored bodies that were laying around them.

Olivia's head tipped upward, since it was looking like their lights were starting to get dimmer. The arms of the station closing round... and a whole mess of debris was lying right beside them, too. But, more worryingly, that looked like a whole fucking battlegroup above them. She couldn't quite count out the ships between her view being obfuscated by the cloud of wrecks that had accumulated, and her viewing experience getting cut short by the station closing in on itself. "Holy fuck-- they have an entire god damn fleet out there? Who the actual fuck are these guys?"

More worryingly, though. "...And how come they didn't just use those to blast this place to pieces?"

 

[ANIMAL MOTHER]

"Holy fuck-- they have an entire god damn fleet out there? Who the actual fuck are these guys?"

“Blood Corps.” Typhon says flatly. “Upyri specialized forces. Hostile, though that’s redundant.” He half-heartedly gestures to all the dead civilians all around them.

"...And how come they didn't just use those to blast this place to pieces?"

“Because they like to pull the legs off roaches before they crush them.” he also adds while going back to check on Valkyrie.

 

[Infab]

"The hell happened?"

Damien groaned in pain, shifting his weight onto his side as he waited for Typhon to make his way over to him. "F-Fuckin' Anora Cortus, that's what happened." he managed to get out through gritted teeth. Eventually, Typhon got to him, wrapping his leg in a brace as tightly as possible. The pain was excruciating, but he just had to deal with it for now. As Typhon helped him up, he caught Amy and leaned onto her so he kept the pressure off his busted leg. He looked to Lauren, whom was now being hoisted up and carried by a large man, and his mother, whom Aesha was carefully helping up. "We t-tried to fight her, but she was too fast. Shattered my knee, kicked Lauren across the s-side of the head, and beat the living hell out of m-mom...I don't k-know where she went."

Valkyrie, having breathed in some of the painkillers, managed to speak between less forced breaths. "We...We need...t-to get...off this station..." she got out, her eyes shifting between them. Her left eye had a horrific bruise setting in over it, and the white of her eye was now shifting in color to a deep red. "A-Anora...intends...to destroy it..." Eventually, far above them, the arms of the colony sealed shut. Cutting out most of the light for the colony, and giving it the appearance that night had set in. Lights across the colony on each side flickered on, lighting up each of the districts.

The shooting continued, but almost ceased entirely around thirty seconds after the lights flickered on. The roaring of fires and beeping of car alarms could be heard. And the occasional crack of gunfire here and there, but nothing like before. Damien looked about at the surrounding buildings, then up at the other sides above. "...They're pulling back. Whatever they're intending to do, its happening. We need to go. NOW." he said quickly, as his attention quickly shifted to the others standing in the square.

​

"[Attention all units. Commander Cortus has ordered a full retreat. Return to your boarding craft, and link up with the battlegroup outside. Our job is done here.]" crackled through the comms of all the Blood Corps members still alive on the colony. The gunfire collectively stopped, with only a few cracks of return fire occurring to cover their evacuations from hot spots. They disappeared as quickly as they came, vanishing into the dark corners of the colony. In the Administration sector of the colony, the troopers finished up their work. Plotting a crash course for the colony and destroying the controls so that they couldn't be altered. Down in the reactor core sector, controls were altered to shift the colony's three massive reactors into an overloaded state. They would put out extreme amounts of power, overloading some systems on the colony, and turning themselves into future thermonuclear weapons.

Slowly, some of the lights across the colony would burst, exploding violently and loudly. Sending shards of glass everywhere and shooting bursts of electricity out towards anything nearby. A low rumble could be heard, and felt, after a few moments. Metal creaked and groaned. VOC-1 was entering Vileas' atmosphere.

​

Down in the hangar area, those remaining and still trying to get off the station watched in horror as the blast doors closed over the individual hangar openings. Sealing them inside and preventing any remaining ships from leaving. The Mordred's hangar was no exception, as the Reavers there noticed along with the civilians that the doors were sealing. "FUCKING SHIT!" spat one, looking back into the cargo bay of the Mordred. "THEY'RE SEALING US IN!"

 

[joshuadim]

Back in the hangars, the blast doors closing the hangars was enough to stir practically everyone into a frenzied panic as people worried about what was going on. Many of the civilians taking shelter in one of the loading bays also were panicking which worried Dan and the other security officers as they tried to deliberate on what to do. "Those doors being closed means no-one's getting out at all now... the fuck do we do?" Katherine asked her peers but was only met with silence and heads shaking. Practically nobody had a clue as to what needed to be done in a situation like this and it seemed hopeless overall. Katherine simply went over to an abandoned crate and sat on it in a dejected manner, looking down at the ground as she too realized the situation. The rumbling didn't help either as lights overloaded and exploded everywhere which signaled power surges throughout the colony which made a few of the people scream in fear.

Dan himself was afraid, but he knew something needed to be done otherwise nobody would live to see the next day. Not even Vella. As the security personnel moped in their desperation, Dan instead was furiously thinking of ways on how to get out of this situation. A few moments passed before an idea struck him: the hangar's defense systems. Perhaps it was possible to blast their way through and escape but it would require someone to manually reroute power to those weapons... which he could do, but it also involved the risk of having to be there to man the guns. He turned to where Vella was, who was trying to comfort someone else as they were panicking and simply gulped. He would be risking his life to save everyone else's but it was a risk worth taking. He remembered what Vance said to the others back at the security offices and how he wasn't afraid to die. You can change destiny itself. he remembered those words.

"Alright, listen up." Dan spoke up to the security officers, "We can possibly blast our way out of those doors if I can get to the defense systems of the hangars at the far end. You all need to get everyone aboard a ship to get them the hell out of here."

"I dunno about that... those guns alone won't blast through those doors." one of the security officers chimed in, "Unless we can find a ship that has some guns of its own."

"Then we look for that, it might be our only shot."

"Are you sure about this though?" Katherine then spoke with concern, "It could mean you'll be left behind."

"Not if we're quick about this, now lets get a move on!"

"What about Vance?"

"...he'll make it."

Shortly after, the security officers did their best to corral the civilians under their watch to move with them as Dan led the way. As they moved towards where the defense systems were, everyone kept a lookout for any ships that might have any weapons of their own but most of the ships still docked were civilian or transports that had either none or were lightly armed. As they approached closer however, one of the ships that came into view that was still docked seemed to have larger guns than the rest and Dan pointed to it. "Over there! That ship! Get people on board if you can!" he said before sprinting over towards where the hangar's defense module was. Him breaking off however was not unnoticed by Vella as she herself cried out: "Dan! Come back!" she yelled out towards her partner in fear and panic as she was herded towards the Mordred.

Katherine waved towards the Reavers nearby: "Hey! We need help getting these civilians out of here! One of our guys thinks we can blast our way out of here and your guns can help with that. He's heading towards the defense module to get them online." In the meantime, Dan quickly entered the hangar's defense control module and saw a few bodies strewn inside. Likely victims from the bastards that had been slaughtering people up above. He then quickly went to the panels underneath the consoles and worked on rewiring and rerouting power as quickly as he could. Please let this work... please.

 

[Emperor Sagan]

This is crazy, Shelby thought, then after considering it, amended, this is really hecking crazy. The run through the tunnels, all of the violent shooting and intense explosions, where the heat watered his eyes and flushed his cheeks, reminded him somewhat of the undersea raves the Kosov hosted all the time, since they had the most habitations on the seafloor to further their mining monopoly. In most cases, you never really knew you were underwater, but in the rec-zones, there were glass walls and ceilings so you could party under the ocean gloom. Seeing the fleet above briefly before disappearing from sight reminded him of some whales he had seen, once, except these whales were really mean and trying to kill them all.

The adrenaline forced his energy down to his legs, causing him to bounce whenever they came to a stop, as if he was warming up for a dance, or vibing to a light beat. He felt strangely hyper-sensitive, yet simultaneously dull, his thoughts getting wrapped up in a variety of strange sensations that evoked memories of thumping music, pyrotechnics, strange alcohol, and rampant unregulated drug use. Seeing the boss and her kids all screwed up was... was difficult to register. He had never seen people hurt so badly up close, even when people had been shot or stabbed for crossing security lines at concerts. Blood always seemed so bright and vibrant, like really fun neon paint, but something about it here made it muddy, just ugly smears of pain and exhaustion. Was this shock? Or was he really screwed up in the head, unable to really understand what was going on? People screamed all the time when they saw bodies in movies, but he just felt... detached.

As the colony began to shudder, the lights going wild, Shelby felt a chill shake its way through his bones. Now that was especially uncool. It was a classic in the Castilian anime scene - space colonies dropping onto planets! It was a genre defining moment in the best space flicks. Except, now, it was real. "I-Is there like a tram we can, like, r-ride to the hanger?" he stammered, wondering how the hell they were going to run with the hurt members of the group. The big guy Vance looked like he could carry ten people if he wanted, but the strict doctor didn't seem pleased with moving the wounded around like that. For some reason, the peculiar anxiety made him bring his hand up to his face and rub it, trying to elicit the feeling of his old steady diet of super animal candy.

 

[Breadman]

"You'll get her next time." Amy told Damien "Let's get you kids and your mom to the ship first." Amy started to help him move when she noticed something was off. The lights came back on and the gunfire stopped at around the same time. Only sounds came from a distance and nothing else. A chill ran up her spine when she thought of what it could possibly mean. Then the blast doors started to shut them in one by one. Possible escape plans ran through her mind as the bounty hunter looked around the area in desperation.

"Fuck..." She mustered a single word, but another thought came from desperation "How strong are the cannons on your ships?"

 

[Viper Actual]

Once the group found the brass of the pirate outfit Nathalie frowned. Dead employers weren't exactly known to pay well. The scores of dead civilians were certainly not a pleasant view either but at this point they passed by so many around the different parts of the station that it wasn't really shocking or surprising to see. Nathalie did note the number of dead enemy combatants which itself was a telltale sign of the sheer amount of strength or skill possessed by the Reaver's leadership.

Nathalie assigned herself to watch for additional hostiles as others, possibly more qualified, people got underway to treat or outright carry the wounded. Judging by the sound made by the station itself and the sudden silence as far as gunfire goes something was going down. In this case it was the station quite literally falling down towards a nearby planet. Nathalie rolled her eyes. Great, how original of them.

As everyone moved towards the hangars Nat stayed close to Vance who currently was the sole person in this group of strangers that she knew and trusted. By the look of things the super-soldier hadn't lost his edge either since the last time she served with him. A good sign for sure, as she had never witnessed any other man or being be able to tear through a platoon of hired mercenaries and disable an armored infantry fighting vehicle using solely hand-to-hand combat techniques.

"I-Is there like a tram we can, like, r-ride to the hanger?"

"No, there isn't. So unless you want to spend the next ten minutes praying to a long-lost deity I suggest you start legging it." Replied Nathalie with a stern tone as the group made its way towards the hangar.

Upon seeing the closed blast doors Nathalie frowned. She turned briefly towards Amy as the mercenary spoke, nodding as she finished her question. "They better be strong. Otherwise we'll be FUBAR," she said out loud to no one in particular.

 

[ANIMAL MOTHER]

"...They're pulling back. Whatever they're intending to do, its happening. We need to go. NOW.

"I have already told the men to prepare the ship." Typhon reassures, somehow calm in the face of what's unfolding all around them. "The Mordred should be ready before we even arrive."

He leans in closer to Valkyrie however, eyeing the non-Reavers among them suspiciously. He whispers something to her.

“And what about them? We’re not taking them with us, are we?”

 

[K0mori]

Having met up with others, Vixaya focused on keeping up with the tall and fast aliens she was now following, clipping her gun through one of the loops on her coat (which had carpenter-style loops for just such a thing.) The pain from her wounds now felt more dull as she forced herself to ignore it, and soon the party had emerged from the tunnels to find themselves confronted with both the aftermath of a struggle, as well as the gradually-worsening condition of the station itself. "Shnka..." she hissed as the lights flickered all around. "...Metik aki yoht kuptat apar."

This place will come to an end, soon.

Calmly, Vixaya unhooked her backpack from her coat and set it on the ground. Opening one of the pockets, she pulled out a plasma cartridge. With her other hand, she undid the buttons on her red coat. Beneath, she was wearing an ordinary, striped dress in black and gray. She slipped the cartridge into her inner coat pocket and then grabbed another reload out of her bag. Without rebuttoning her jacket, she threw the pack back on and looked around, unaware that the Blood Corps were already leaving.

 

[Frankafurter]

2158, Former Republic of Finland

Katja places both hands on the edges of the bathroom sink and stares at herself in the mirror, her black eye has almost healed up by now and she has a pair of nice sharp canines where the old ones were, the one on the left was knocked out in the fight that got her the shiner and she opted to have the other replaced so it was a matching pair. They weren't elongated or anything, just sharp looking because of the fabricated nature and they hadn't had a chance to wear down yet. She clacks her teeth together to try and get some sensation out of them, but given that the roots were taken with the remains of the original teeth, they just kinda had that weird feeling of something foreign trying to mesh to your body. She checks the yellowing circle of skin around the left eye and shrugs before heading back out into the dive bar she was currently in with her friend Ari. She resumes her seat at the bar and picks up the beer she was drinking and looks over at her compatriot in hooliganism. Ari came from a different part of town, they encountered each other initially at a car show where a bunch of antiques people had restored were on display. They clicked pretty quickly and became fast friends and partners in crime in the local racing scene. They had a roughed up old junker from 2098 that they would do pro-am rally events in but when they were cruising the streets they had the real item of note, a genuine 20th century relic, cobbled together from an old hulk they found in a junkyard and carefully restored into a beast of spitting fire and fury. Conventional fossil fuels petered out in popularity in the last few decades by this point but there was some gearheads who still yearned for the roaring violence of internal combustion in a market now dominated by electric and fuel cell eco-cars. Fortunately, chemistry by that point had come to a peak where ethanol based fuels were just as effective if not better now than the gasoline it sought to replace in the 21st century.

Katja sat at the bar chatting away the night with her buddy until a couple jerkoffs she recognized from one of the local meets came in looking all smug as they sauntered up to where her and Ari were seated. Kat swallows the sip of beer she had and sets the bottle down, one of them was the one that gave her the shiner and missing tooth and she's expecting some sort of rematch. Instead, they hold up the keys to a vehicle, "So, pink slips? Our 'lectro banshee versus your junkheap of a wreck." Kat stares at them a moment, "You must really be jealous if you want to risk your four wheeled smartphone for that piece of history. That or you're trying to offload your plastic go kart on me because you found something better." The jerk just keeps grinning like a smug idiot, "That's not an answer though, are you scared of losing your pride and joy to the guy who knocked you silly last meet after you cut us off on the last turn?" Kat's expression darkens at this and she glances over at Ari who seems slightly amused by the situation, "You know, Kat, we've beaten that showbox before, so I think these guys are just too stupid to know when to quit while behind."

The jerk scowls, "That would have been our first place if you hadn't cut us off at the turn-" Ari holds his hand up, "And you quite literally sideswiped us into almost running headlong into a building at the second to last straight before that turn, so it's only fair we returned the favor. All's fair in love and war, pal." The jerk stews at being reminded that they more or less started that beef, now he's intent on finishing it, so he jangles the keys, "Let's settle it fair and square then, you already know the route, first one to the reservoir takes the loser's ride." Kat glances at Ari again then looks at the pair of jerks before standing up, "Alright, you really want to lose your wheels, so I'll be happy to oblige. C'mon, Ari, you can take the other car when we win, I don't think they'll mind walking home from the reservoir at this hour in the cold."

Outside, Kat and Ari get into what could be considered a 1980s Volvo 242 Turbo. Kat goes through the startup part given that the car has been rebuilt into a race car. Ari gets his map out and hell even pace notes like they were doing a rally. Part of why they won the usual street races after the meets is because they knew the route and ran it in off hours to figure out how far they could push the old Volvo. When Kat hits the ignition the car rumbles and snarls into life, flames belching out the side pipe exhaust unit, it always brought a smile to her face, the car was a noise ordnance violation on wheels but damn did it sound good. The idiots in the electric "banshee" pull out of the lot ahead of them, the car they drove was a mid 2070s model but had been rebuilt with the latest and greatest in electric motors and computer controlled performance. It was good in a straight line, but that's about all it was good for, they didn't build it for corners, they built it to beat everyone down the straight aways so they could take their time through the corners while everyone was still catching up. That was the weakness though, the Volvo didn't have the linear torque delivery and power output of the banshee but she could take corners at speeds that they wished they could. It was a shame they tuned it the way they did because the car could have been truly unmatched given the precision of electric motors. They were punks though, they didn't care about making a good car, they just wanted to act like they were hot shit when they more or less bought all the parts and labor from another shop. Kat, would love to take their car, but there is that slight lingering doubt that the Volvo will win. She can already feel a slight rocking in the engine as she accelerates gently to leave the parking lot, one of the mounts must be getting worn out by this point, it's been awhile since it's had a full workover.

As they approach the lights, they both line up next to each other and wait until the lights are red so they can wait for the green to start them off. Ari looks over at Kat and notices the slight concern on her face, "Relax, she's managed this long, what's one more, right?" Kat forces a smile and nods, "Yeah, what's one more." She turns and focuses on the light, keeping the engine revved into the right rpm for a good launch off the line. The electric banshee next to her is silent aside from the muffled talking and laughing of the idiots inside it. She knows these lights, the intersection isn't a perfect cross so you can partially catch an angle of the other lights in the dark, it makes it easier to predict the green light on their side, because you can see when the lights start turning red before theirs turn green. She waits, her stomach flipping a bit as she tries to reassure herself that the engine is fine and the mount is just a little out of whack. The last thing she needs is the car disassembling its engine bay mid-race. The opposite lights turn yellow, she doesn't rev higher so as to not tip off the idiots that the lights about to change, she's content to let them be distracted. As the opposite lights turn red, she knows there's about a half second bef- yep! GO!



The Volvo's high rev rises into a deafening roar as she lets off the line, the electric banshee taking a moment to realize the light was green and they just got left at the start. They quickly jump into motion and catch up to the Volvo with ease. As she expected, the Volvo could only hold them off just enough to reach the first turn where she'd lengthen her lead a bit. Sure enough the first turn is coming up, unfortunately for the idiots, they got tunnel vision after getting trounced at the starting line and thus wanted to speed past the volvo as much as they could. This paid off for Kat, she tapped the brakes to let them overshoot the turn and then she slings the Volvo around the tight bend deftly and roars off down the next street. She knows they probably won't bother turning around but would try to cut back into the route further down. As she's nearing the next bend, she sees the banshee dive out of the nearby alley and start coming up behind the Volvo. That's okay, she's still ahead and the turn is right here so with another little swing and sling, she rounds the next corner while the idiots slam on the brakes so they can get the turning radius to make the corner. This lengthens her lead again, but she knows they'll keep catching up as long as there's straight aways long enough to let them stretch their legs out.

The race continues at the expected pace, the banshee catches up in the short sprints but gets left behind in the corners, this repeats for the rest of the route until the second to last straight, the one where the assholes sidewiped her and Ari. She's ready this time, expecting a repeat performance. She gives them a wide berth and heads for the last turn of the route before the long stretch to access road for the reservoir, the finish line was the center point of the access road, the middle of the spillway. They don't try the sideswipe again, but they go past her to reach the turn first. Kat knows this isn't good, even though she can corner harder than them, if she enters the turn by the time they leave it, she'll never catch them and she'll lose the car. Ari looks over at her and goes, "You know, we did install that extra fuel system with the uh, rocket fuel, I remember having to spend many nights playing with ratios to make sure we didn't blow the engine up, but it should be good for just this one time, but know that we'll probably have to rebuild the engine throughly afterwards." Katja blinks, she almost completely forgot about the aux fuel system, it was sort of a joke modification so she never really considered using it, but hell, if she's gonna kill this car, she'll kill it in true blaze of glory.



As they leave the corner and see that the banshee already has a small lead on them that's growing, she looks over to the fuel panel and sees the big red switch marked ON/OFF. She flips it to on and shuts the main fuel system off a second after that one goes on. The car splutters a second as it works through the sudden shift in fuel flow but then the damndest thing happens. The car sounds like a rocket ship taking off, the roar is deafining and she can hear the engine being pushed to its limits. It wasn't actual rocket fuel, but it was a little remnant of the fossil fuel age, nitromethane blend, top fuel dragster fuel. The car lunges forwards violently and starts ripping down the roadway as the power dynamic of the engine changes completely, the new fuel system runs furiously, practically dumping gallons of fuel into the engine every second because of the power demand to maintain that speed. She can hear the engine already starting to get close to the breaking point, but she's only just reaching the banshee now. She keeps the gas pressed as multiple caution lights come on the diagnostic panel warning of overheating and overpressure in the oil system, the car maintains its monstrous roar as there's now a mechanical shrieking as the engine starts trying to weld itself into a inert block of metal. She's almost to the end, it just needs to hold out a little longer. she can see the middle point of the spillway in the lights coming up. Not a moment too soon either as the rocket engine noise starts cutting out and the engine just screeches into failure, one of the heads finally had enough and blows off to rip its way out of the hood and smash into the windshield where Ari is sitting, shattering the glass and punching him in the chest hard before it lands in his lap. The car is without power, the beast falls silent as it quietly glides across the middle point of the spillway, marking the end of the race. All that can be heard is the banshee wail of whatever high power electric motors the idiots car is rolling as they come to a stop.

Katja looks over at Ari who's clutching his chest and taking heaving gasps of air, "You still in one piece, Ari?" Ari nods and just holds a hand up to indicate that he'll life. He's lucky he didn't get impaled by the head coming through the glass but it wasn't at a good angle to maintain that sort of velocity when it hit the windshield. Kat climbs out of the car, feeling a shudder through her body as the adrenal dump hits her, she feels ill and holds the top of the roof for support. The two punks get out of their car and just stand there, flabbergasted at the display they just witnessed. From their view, the Volvo just suddenly split the heavens with thunder and shot past them before exploding into a glorious death at the finish line. They have no words for what just transpired and continue to stand there with their jaws slackened. Katja looks over at them and gives them a little thumbs up and cheeky wink, "I uh, believe I'll be taking your car now, mine is now a fancy wreckage and Ari needs to get to the hospital for his injury." The two punks look at each other then look at her and just kinda numbly hold out the keys to the banshee, Katja ungracefully staggers forwards and takes them, "I'd ask you to stay here and watch my car for the tow truck to arrive, but uh, maybe it's better if we all just let it rest where it is for now. I hope your car is a two plus two at least." The punks continue to stare and their mouths try to work something out but come out with nothing, they quietly and dumbly crawl into the back row of the banshee while Ari hobbles from the slain beast and climbs into the passenger seat while Katja gets in the driver's seat. The car makes no noise as it turns on and it takes Katja a moment for her to remind herself the car is electric and doesn't need to warm up, she pulls a tight three point on the access road and heads back into the town where the local hospital is to drop Ari off. After they she leaves the goons at their flat and heads back out to the spillway to wait for the tow truck to come pick up the wreck of the Volvo. There's no way her and Ari will be able to use this car again without finding an entirely new engine but given its performance tonight, she might consider just giving it a proper funeral and letting it enjoy it's warrior's death.

She sits on the hood of the car and lies back against the still intact part of the windshield to stare up at the sky while idly smoking a cigarette and letting the ringing in her ears die down a bit, it's a clear night and she can see the orbital shipyard coming into orbit over this part of the planet, the thing is big enough that it's visible from the ground without any telescope. She thinks it's called Procyon or something, apparently there is a huge project being built in it but the distance makes it a little hard to see anything other than the massive superstructure of the shipyard itself. She looks down at the car under her and seems to dwell on something, the car is dead and it will take an extremely long grueling process to breathe life back into it. She looks up at the stars, maybe she could let it rest in peace and find the next chariot to guide her into the future. Her musing is interrupted by the honk of the tow truck showing up to pick up the volvo to haul it off to the garage it normally dwells within. The driver gets out and stares at the relic of times past and scratches his head, "That is certainly not what I expected to be picking up at this hour, you been waiting out here long?" Katja shakes her head a bit, "Nah, just bring this one home, I got the other car to get me out of here." When she says the word "one" it oddly resonates in her head, like some ethereal string was attached to it and pulling at her mind.

ONE...

 

[Infab]

"And what about them? We’re not taking them with us, are we?”

Valkyrie slowly cut Typhon a look. She didn't need to say anything. The look in her eyes and on her face said it all. Everyone was coming. And soon enough, they started moving. Across the square they went, moving as quickly as they could muster with the injured members of the group. Six blocks they had to move. Several hundred meters. At least they wouldn't have anything shooting at them while they moved. Valkyrie and Damien hoped that Pearl had made her way back to the ship alright. They hadn't seen her since they left the ship.

Minutes passed, as the rumbling around them grew louder and louder. The colony was hitting the thicker parts of the upper atmosphere, picking up speed. It seemed to be getting hotter inside the colony as well. Beads of sweat rolled down their faces and exposed skin as they moved, eventually reaching the gunshop that most of them had first encountered one another at. There, they would find Roge and Belka, whom had held position to avoid large clashes with the Blood Corps troops. Aesha waved for them to follow as they passed. "IF YOU TWO INTEND TO LIVE, COME ON! OTHERWISE, YOU'RE GONNA BE SMEARED ACROSS THE GROUND LIKE THE REST OF THIS COLONY!" she shouted. Roge and Belka didn't hesitate to move, rushing over and linking up with the group as they continued on towards the tunnel leading down to the hangar bays.

More bodies. Blood. Burning wreckages and shops. The Blood Corps had left devastation in its wake, and was about to annihilate everything by slamming the whole colony into the ground. Valkyrie had remained quiet as they moved, trying to conserve her strength. Damien, on the other hand, continued to keep an eye out. Searching for any signs of activity among the wreckage. But there wasn't any. Hostile or friendly. Eventually, they arrived at the tunnel, and proceeded into it and through it. The large elevator awaited them, which they boarded quickly. Aesha slapped the down button, making sure to be careful with her boss hanging on her neck and shoulder. The elevator jerked, the metal creaking as it began to move. Surprisingly the power surges hadn't fried its electrical systems. Down it went, at a rapid pace. Descending into darkness and into the Hangar sector of Side 1.

At the bottom, the elevator almost slammed into the ground, forcing several of the group to stumble. Thankfully, no one was actually dropped or fell over. Off they moved, down another tunnel into a massive hallway that stretched from one end of Side 1 to the other. It was gonna be a short walk to get to the Mordred's hangar, as they had parked in a free hangar that was close to the elevator. For convenience's sake.

"I-Is there like a tram we can, like, r-ride to the hanger?"

"No, there isn't. So unless you want to spend the next ten minutes praying to a long-lost deity I suggest you start legging it."

"There is a tram, but we don't need it. It probably doesn't work anymore because of the surges." said Damien, before looking over to Olivia. "You're a mech pilot, right? If you brought a mech with you, go get it. Doubt you'll be seeing it again when this place hits the ground." he said, motioning to another large hall nearby which lead to shipping and receiving. "Storage is through there. I don't need to tell you to hurry. We're in Hangar #117."

Leaving Olivia to get her mech, the group proceeded on across the walkways towards the individual hangars. The hangars were rather wide, with room to accommodate sizable vessels ranging from personal craft to large gunships and freighters. Even a frigate in some cases. They quickly moved by each one, checking inside to see who all was still around. Panicking civilians and security, dead Blood Corps. They even noticed that the blast doors had shut over the hangar openings. "Fuck, the doors are shut. We'll have to shoot our way out." said Damien, glancing to his mother across from him as they moved.

"How strong are the cannons on your ships?"

"They better be strong. Otherwise we'll be FUBAR."

"They're strong enough. Might need a bit of help from the defense turrets in our hangar, but that shouldn't be too hard to rewire to shoot at the doors." responded Damien. And soon enough, they arrived at the hangar of the Mordred. Inside, the Reavers were attempting to keep civilians off the ship, while priming the cannons of the Mordred to fire on the doors. Someone was already nearby, working on the defense turrets in order to get them working again. "HEY! GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE WAY!" spat Damien, as the group rushed over to the ship. Neither he nor his mother saw Pearl anywhere. The Reavers forced some of the panicking civilians out of the way, as the group carried Valk, Damien, and Lauren inside. They were taken quickly to the Mordred's medical bay, where they soon discovered why they hadn't seen Pearl. She had been knocked unconscious somehow, likely by members of the Blood Corps. Gorg, the one that had been with her had been severely wounded.

And on a table in the back of the bay was a body. Uric's body, with a sheet draped over him. Valk's eyes locked onto it near immediately and her heart sank. Damien's eyes met it as well, his hard gaze softening as he looked upon his father. He soon looked to his mother, and tears were streaming down her face yet again. Running along the sides of her mask and dripping off her chin. As Aesha sat her down in a chair, she tried to stand back up. Tried to move to where her love was lying. Damien had to quickly stop her, grabbing onto her and pulling her back to her chair. "Mom. Mom, please. Just stay there. You're in no condition to move. We need to focus right now. We have to focus on getting out of here."

Valk looked up to Damien, her eyes full of tears. "...H-He's dead...Uric's dead..." she managed to stammer out. "...I know." he said, his voice far softer than before. He glanced over to see Vance laying Lauren carefully onto an empty table, making sure not to bump her head.

Aesha had already left the medical bay by then, rushing over and up the elevator into the central deck of the Mordred. From there, she darted down the hall towards the cockpit. She vaulted clear over the captain's chair, sailing over the short wall in front of it and landing next to her pilot's seat. A Reaver was already in it, having started the ship and going through the standard procedures. Without warning, Aesha shoved him out of the chair, and sat in it herself. "Get up to the roof gun. Target the blast door and open fire on it. Tell one of the others to get in the bottom gun and do the same. Shoot the same spot in unison. If we don't blow a hole in that door, we are all DEAD." she spat, looking to the Reaver as he scrambled back to his feet. Without hesitation, he darted back through the ship. Leaving Aesha to finish the startup procedures. Everything looked green, as she ran through her mental checklist. Controls, Engines, Fuel, Weapons, and so on.

Secretly, behind some crates at the rear of the Mordred's cargo bay, a lone cybernetic kanad managed to sneak in through a maintenance hatch. Sealing it behind her, she waited quietly as the Reavers attempted to get the ship running and make a way off the colony. Outside, Reavers continued to attempt to hold some of the civilians back. "Look, we can't take everyone! WE DON'T HAVE THE ROOM!" one of them spat. But they soon heard Damien's voice yell out from inside the cargo bay. "BOSS SAYS TO LET AS MANY AS WE CAN ABOARD." he shouted, pointing at the group from where he was at the medical bay's door.

The Reavers looked back to Damien, and he replied with a simple "FUCKING DO IT." And soon enough, they did. Civilians were lead carefully onto the Mordred, and placed in a large tight cluster. The Mordred was, of course, an old freighter. It had plenty of space. But a quarter of that space was now occupied by crates...and soon to be a mech whenever Olivia returned.

As Dan continued to work on rerouting power to the defense turrets, he paused and looked in time to see that Katherine was being herded onto the Mordred. And soon enough, he'd witness the main cannons on top and bottom of the Mordred opening fire on the blast door. Large green bolts of plasma pelted the door, bathing it in intense heat. But it wasn't melting through it fast enough. The defense cannons were needed. He quickly got back to work, sorting through wires and circuitry. And five minutes later, he would find success. The turrets came alive, loading ammunition and starting to rotate back and forth on their swivels. Good. He punched in a manual target into their control screen, and the turrets swiveled about to point at the door. And a moment later, he hit fire.

The turrets opened up, slinging a mix of kinetic rounds and plasma bursts towards the blast door in the same spot the Mordred's cannons were hitting. A large circular patch of the blast door was glowing bright orange now, as the plasma and kinetic rounds pummeled the door. It had to be big enough for the Mordred to get through, so soon enough they started to widen the circle with the plasma fire. Metal started to liquefy, dripping down the blast door in thick ropes and gobs.

​

A few systems away...


After spending several minutes wandering around the massive cargo hold of the decaying colony ship, Zadra finally sighed and looked to her holotablet to take a tally count. Most of the cargo was a wreck. Either damaged and destroyed by the colony ship getting hit by things, or by cosmic radiation. Only the building materials intended to be used by the colonists were usable now. The Reavers could certainly use those back on Sielia, where they had constructed a little secluded place of their own when they got sick of life on the Guillotine. There was also a large loader mech here, of absolutely ancient design. Seemed simple enough to figure out, as it was of human make. There was another mech, divided into pieces in a few other large crates. Those would have to be cracked open and inspected for damage.

She had gone through and tagged each of the crates they intended to keep, with the rest being scrapped or sold off in some manner. For whatever use the buyers had. She put her holotablet away, glancing over to where Loudmouth was nearby. The short robot was kicking the foot of the loading mech. Why, she didn't know. She didn't understand why he did a lot of things. Eventually, she decided to relay her plans through comms. "Zadra here. I've checked through the cargo bay. I've tagged all the stuff we could use. Building materials, and two large mechs. The rest is crap. Send a team over here to start transferring this shit to the Guillotine. I'm going to head to Engineering to see what I can find there."

"Hey, Drav. How's things going over there in the Armory?" finished Zadra, her voice crackling through the comms piece hanging around Drav's neck. "Found guns. Rifles for hunting. Grenade Launchers. Pistols. Half good, half shit. Salvage what Drav can." she responded, holding the comms piece to her mouth before letting it drop back to her chest. There were plenty of weapons here, but of course, it was all for colonial use. Hunting rifles, used to pick off game for food or to drive away hostile wildlife. The grenade launchers seemed to be the only actual offensive weapons here, but grenade launchers had a variety of uses. All depended on what ammo you had for them. The pistols were pretty typical. Old school smokeless powder based weapons. She could convert most of them to the newer kinetic platforms and such, as well as the hunting rifles and grenade launchers. Just needed a week or two to figure things out. She would go on to mark all the crates full of ammo they could use, as well as the good weapons she found. And soon enough, she spoke through comms as well. "Drav finished in Armory. Need team here. Take marked things to ship." she stated.

In the medical bay, back on the Guillotine, Easel moved rather quickly to set up proper monitoring equipment on the lone survivor of the colony ship. Her vitals would need to be scanned, as well as her brain. But that would have to wait. For now, she needed to be cleaned up and hooked up. And then, once everything was green...she'd wake her.

 

[Doomevil]

Roge and Belka ventured out of the chaotic killings around the entertainment sector. They sought out one of the Reavers and went through the tunnel system to evade the large amount of Blood Corps before they had to endure another intense firefight. Eventually they made it to Hangar #117, seeing a Reaver ship and hurried inside the ramp. Belka sighed as Roge shook his head, waiting for them to get the hell out of here.

 

[joshuadim]

"Hah! Yes!!" Dan shouted in excitement as the guns came to life at the defense module and began targeting the hangar doors, letting loose a constant salvo of projectiles in a bid to make an escape route for everyone at the Mordred. Everything seemed to be looking up as he quickly picked up an unsed comms unit and hailed the Mordred, looking for the vessel's name first to make sure he got it right: "Mordred this is Dan in the control tower, I got the guns back online! We should be out of here-" he began to say before spotting another issue. The automatic targeting systems of the defense guns stopped working, and thus required manual control for them to fire.

"Ah shit, automated systems are offline. I need to manually control them." he then spoke into his headset, relaying the information to the Mordred. He moved to quickly change the operational settings of the consoles in front of him from automatic to manual targeting before directing the turrets towards their target and releasing a continuous salvo once again, this time with his manual input. Slowly but surely they were starting to punch a hole through the blast doors, but he hoped for Vella's sake and everyone else's that it would be soon or otherwise none of them would get out alive. "Come on, come on!" he yelled aloud as he squeezed the triggers in front of him with as much force as he could muster which turned his knuckles white.

---

After making it safely back to the Mordred and laying Lauren onto a medical table in the ship's infirmary, Vance quickly moved to help people take refuge in the ship as the guns rang out in full force in their bid to blast through what was sealing off their escape. "C'mon people, let's go! Get inside quickly!" he shouted aloud and waved his hand towards the people outside and spotted Vella who had managed to make it aboard. He quickly went over to her to help her walk as her ankle was still sprained from earlier: "Hey, you alright?" he asked, "Let's get you to the docs aboard-"

"Vance! Dan's... he's outside still!" she sputtered in panic as she gripped onto Vance tightly.

"It's alright, we'll get him aboard too-"

"No! He's out there! The defense tower!"

Vance stilled for a moment before quickly looking out one of the viewing ports of the ship, seeing the defense turrets firing at the blast doors in tandem with the Mordred and felt dread pile up. If he hadn't returned by this point, then it meant the guns themselves couldn't be fired automatically which meant he was required to stay there... leaving him at great risk of missing his ride out of here. He walked back to Vella and placed his hands on her shoulders to try to comfort her as he helped lead her to the infirmary. He'll make it... he has to. Vance thought to himself.

 

[ANIMAL MOTHER]

The sound of mechanical humming and droning fills the med-bay as Typhon starts turning on monitors, units, and those blinding surgical lights shining over Lauren and Valkyrie. The masks they both wear are plugged into ventilators which beep every time a breath is taken, and little sensors connected to an EKG monitor are placed over their chest and on their arms. Syringes, scalpels, tweezers, needles, titanium plates, bottles of anesthetic and antiseptics, and other tools come out from the drawers and onto trolleys he wheels beside them. Finally, he takes off his jacket, his shirt and tie, and puts on his surgical gown hanging off one of his boxes nearby; a backpiece with several different mechanical arms attached is donned as well, and he activates it by plugging it into an outlet in the back of his head and flipping a switch.

All the tools are ready, all the monitors are blinking correctly, and both of his patients are currently stable and awaiting the final steps to undergo surgery. Yet, he does not begin. Instead he walks over to Valkyrie and takes a seat on a wheeled stool while closely monitoring her vitals. She's not doing well neither physically or mentally. The least he could do until they're finally clear is try to calm her a little before putting her to sleep, just to avoid any complications during surgery later. He also looks over at Uric briefly before looking back at her.

"I tried what I could to save him, but the power unit on his heart took the hit. There's... unfortunately not anything I could have done." He pauses for a second before leaning in a little closer. "But for now, rest. Once we are cleared of the station, and god willing the Blood Corps too, the anesthetic will pour in and I will begin operating. You would not want my hand to slip because of the ship being struck."