MA: Legion Act 1, Whispers of a Dark Brother

[eunhathes]

(Do I Have Many Questions?)

The Grand Magnum felt cool in George's hand, reflecting the intensity of the situation her squad found themselves in. Sophi's question had merit, though. The songstress couldn't think of any legitimately deep questions, so she settled for overstating the obvious. If one thing was clear to George, it was that these people were no mere terrorists. They were paramilitary, if not a regular army. The last time, proper rank and protocol hadn't been met very well. Without removing her eyes or weapon from Aoi, she uttered to Kletch, "With respect, ma'am, this talk may just be a tactic to keep us on the ship longer. I don't believe we need to interrogating every papa-oscar-whiskey we find. Reduces our survivability."

---

OOC: Edited for accuracy, per Big Bro.

[artemi]

Hannelore cast a critical eye around the room, eyes pausing on the recently slain enemy soldiers. It's like... these people WANT to die. They just keep throwing themselves at us...

Hesitatingly retrieving her pistol, she slid it into it's holster on the side of her leg. Shuddering as she took it from the man's cold hands, she tried to avoid looking at his face. More for the List...

Taking a moment to locate and find her shock stick, she couldn't help but wonder about the effects of the attack. She remembered fumbling the weapon, and her hand had slapped it aside in her haste to recover it. She shocked herself, for a brief half second, but the weapon was sent hurtling away, where it tripped up the last attacker long enough for him to be executed. She couldn't say for sure if she had done it on purpose or not...

Finally coming out of her reverie, she turned to look at Sophi, somewhat confused as to the calm demeanor of the woman. Turning to Summer, she sighed, questioning aloud her thoughts. “She... let herself get ca-captured. She... sur-surren-gave up. What... do we do with her, n-now?”

Turning back to the woman in question, Hannelore cocked her head to the side, a little frown on her face. “Who, who are you guys, an-anyway? H-how did you get on b-board? What's this Le-Legion your leader was talking a-about, anyway?”

[antaeus]

Xi'ku released the now quite limp Ted from his grip. The broken fool fell simply laid still at an odd angle and smoldered a bit, but otherwise did not move. Breathing heavily, the big keshian paused for a moment to take in the intensely brief situation of battle's aftermath. There had been simply too much going on for Xi'ku to follow in such a short time and he needed to process just what his next move would be. He had been aware of Pvt Ureon's battle and had assumed it had gone well as his former instructor had not barked out a call for the medic. Instructor Klecht had begun to speak in much calmer tones then in the past couple of minutes which began to put The Guardian at ease as he began to cool down from extra medication administered by Hannalore. Hells, the drugs were probably the reason why he was even capable of that last manuv...

"The medic!!! Is she...!?!" thought Xi'ku as he spun quickly to view the much smaller human woman looking confused and posing a question to the apparently captured Vanguard operative.

Holding then shaking his head clear, Xi'ku felt he looked the most undignified he had ever in his life. Thinking that this had simply been the longest 48 hours of his life (it had felt like years instead of days), Xi'ku could not help but chime in at Hannalore's inquisition.

"Yes! Just flew the hells are you people? If what you said is true, then why are you drill here!?" almost shouted Xi'ku, his frustration apparent as he made his way, rather imposingly, towards Sophi.

"This is a civilian fleet! You're killing women and children cry the thousands for what? FOR WHAT!?! shouted Xi'ku finally upon his arrival at the center of the observation deck indicating the battle still raging outside the observation dome, his anger finally getting the better of him.

Xi'ku had finally reached his limit.

[celest]

Summer was going to need a long hot bath after this with a nice cup or herbal tea, followed by at least a week in the garage. She shook her head as she held her forehead in her palm. Then she looked up and very sternly spoke three words.
“Calm. Down. Now.”
She waited a moment for every to give her their attention. Taking a deep breath she started again. “Xi'ku sit down and take a breather. You’re fumbling your English. I can handle questioning. Hannelore please give Xi’ku the once over.” She walked over to face George and the captive. “You’re absolutely right, Private, we don’t have time for this. However the woman has surrendered and military law states that we must treat her fairly and keep captive until she can stand trial.” Summer went over and picked up the woman rifle. “Please secure this woman using the restraints we used on Ted, only perhaps make them a bit tighter.”

Summer stood there of a moment looking over the weapon. She would hate to see Xi’ku destroy this one too. She might keep it for herself at the moment. She then pointed it directly at the woman. “Thank you for your cooperation. Continue this way and you may live. Or you can try and pull something stupid and end up like your comrade Ted over there.” Summer gestured to the mangled body. “Now while we gather ourselves to continue moving forward I’m going to ask you a few simple questions. First, what is your name? Second, what organization do you serve? Third, what is your rank in said organization?”

[antaeus]

It hurt Aoi to laugh. Hell, it hurt her to think. Inspite of those facts, Aoi found herself chuckling. The obsurdity of this whole last two days was finally enough to push her over the edge, though a violent coughing fit was enough to bring her back to reality.

Aoi addressed the dark-haired keshian woman that had just offered to put her out of her misery with genuine confusion.

"You...you...want to put me out of my misery. Heh. You...would show...compassion...to someone you just tried to kill...UMP...mongrel..." spat Aoi, taking slow deliberate breaths.

"My misery is YOU you sci...sci...scicophant!" yelled Aoi, trying to hold back tears

"We...the..cadre..we could have just...just..." said Aoi as she began to sob.

"...left...lived. After this...was done...Sophi...Frost...Blazer......LACY[/b]..." stressed Aoi looking as if rage itself would bring her back from the brink of oblivion.

"Look...you filthy woman...You give...that bitch a warrior's death..." spat Aoi as she ripped off her necklace, throwing the object at keshian female, allowing herself one last bitter laugh.

"Ha! Maybe that'll... do you... more good ...then me..." Aoi coughed.

"Now leave! Before...I...get...I......get......"

"...What's your name?"

[artemi]

BB Note: Yes, this is long, though hopefully a good read. I'd recommend not skipping past it. This is the flashback scene, so I apologize for it being a little confusing. I'm going to color it in an attempt to make things more legible.

Shawn Mayhem, Incident Negotiator and leader of Cadre Astra-Delphi, once again sat back and watched his family die.

He hated it. He wanted more then anything to wade into combat, leading his people from the front. He wanted to stop those PGC pawns, and wipe their ignorant smirks into the knowledge that they didn't have any idea of the true stakes at play. He couldn't, though.

He knew better.

His Cadre had questioned him, of course. They wondered why he was holding back, allowing the PGC the tactical edge. Their usual combat groups had been broken into easily handled units, and thus had been destroyed piecemeal. They thought that perhaps Lacy had been badly miscalling unit assignments, attempting to cover for Shawn in his absence. Rumors had spread that Shawn had been critically wounded in the attack on the lab, and was using his Pursuit Vector as a sort of mobile body cast. He let the rumors spread, though it sickened him that they were making him to be some valiant leader, fighting on even while hurt.

No, the truth was much harder to admit, even to himself. Using the PGC as his weapon, Shawn was attempting to murder his Cadre.

- - -
Sophi smiled disarmingly, running a hand through her red hair. Spreading her arms wide to show she wasn't holding anything, she took two, deliberately placed steps away from her weapon. Clearing her throat, she spoke with a calm, deliberate voice. “Very well. I will tell you what you need. Please, just don't kill me.”
“I am Sophi Marseux, Forth Sword of the Vanguard Cadre Astra-Delphi. That means I'm not very high up ranks, sadly. I'm nothing more then a soldier, and don't know much about our high ups plans. I can give you some information, though, about the events at Xualla. You seem to know little yourself.”

Folding her hands, she was careful not to present any motion that could be constructed as hostile. “Our objective on Xualla was to secure a laboratory facility on Xualla. I don't know what they were researching or why we needed to secure it, but they didn't even seem to see us coming...

- - -
Thinking back to the events that brought them here, Shawn couldn't help but wonder about the botched lab attack back at Xualla. They had moved in, under cover of darkness, and had easily penetrated the outer security checkpoints. All had been going well, until they had turned the final corner, entering the forest glade that held the laboratory itself...

“Brother, wait.”

Shawn stopped his vector, glancing down at his communications screen. His birth brother, Robert Mayhem, had a small frown on his normally calm face. “There is something strange going on, Blaze. It's too late at night to have this many lights on.”

Looking out across the clearing, Shawn could tell his brother was right, as usual. The place should have been in shutdown, but instead looked like it was on high alert. Shawn grinned, a plan quickly forming. “Ok, then. Looks like they expect us already. Lets spearhead in and let the rest of the Cadre try to keep up!”

Robert shook his head, and Shawn could see that he was opening the seals to dismount from his Vector. “No, let's not be hasty. I'll slip in with some men and take out the outer guards first. Once that's done, you come in behind us and hammer blow the site.”

Shrugging, Shawn let him go. They had done this a hundred times before in practice, and he knew his calmer, more rational brother knew what he was doing. “If you want to go in and try to net some kills first, be my guest, Frost. You know you wouldn't be able to keep up with me in my Vector, anyway.”

Hearing a resulting chuckle, Shawn watched his brother melt into the night...

- - -

Sophi stretched carefully, telegraphing it as much as she could. “I stayed back, providing ranged support with the second team. Blaze, the man you know as Shawn, went in with the first wave, keeping the rest of us back. He was always headstrong, leading from the front. Moving quickly, they met resistance, though they were able to quickly blow through them and gain entrance to the lab itself. It didn't take long before we received the signal to move up, where we took little return fire. For such a simple massacre, things were going surprisingly well..”

Smiling calmly, Sophi hoped she was giving them everything they wanted. It felt... oddly liberating, spilling the truth like this.

- - -

Something had gone wrong in the attack, Shawn was sure. The lab had been alerted to their presence, somehow. In retrospect, he couldn't shake the idea that it was actually HE they had spotted, picking up on his Vector's heat signature. Robert had warned him about taking it, but Shawn had been adamant, sure he would find SOMETHING worth fighting in the war machine. But, there was more to it then that. In the ten minutes since the first team moved out, he had failed to hear even a single shot fired thus far, even with the advanced sensors on his Vector.

Frost was good, especially on tactical, stealth based missions, but he just knew this silence was... different.

Signaling to the second team left behind under his care, he gave the 'move out' gesture. Slowly powering up his Vector to combat status, he lead onward, sure that if this was a trap, he would be able to hold off the attackers, providing cover as the rest of his Cadre got away.

- - -

Sighing, Sophi paused a moment, lost in her thoughts. She didn't like this part of the story, but these brave PGC soldiers deserved to know what they were heading into. It wouldn't do to get blown up, here, after all...

“It wasn't until we got inside that things started... going wrong. My team was going in with Frost, Blaze's brother, leading. Most of us Vanguard aren't actually related by blood, you know. We're all... adopted, if you will. Shawn and Robert were actual brothers though, and shared Cadre leadership between the two of them.”

“Once we got inside, we quickly progressed to the inner labs, where they conducted the actual experiments. I don't know what they were working on, though I thought it was some sort of bio-weapon, perhaps. Stolen Enclave tech; the PGC must have been attempting to weaponize it. Either way, Blaze released it, and while we fought he killed his brother. I... I don't know what got into him; it's like he's gone crazy, with blood lust or something.”

Sofi paused a moment, a look of sadness on her face. “Afterwards, we had no choice but to follow him. Running wasn't an option, as he had turned some of us, and I'm certain they wouldn't let us go. He... forced us, the ones who had come in with Frost and had fought the bioweapon, to set off the planet's bio-hazard warnings. I think the PGC reacted, and called for an full scale evacuation.”

She looked up at the party, a curious look of resolve on her eyes. “Shawn, he... has to be stopped. He's going to kill everyone in this fleet, in his madness.”

- - -

Heading into the lab, Shawn could immediately tell something had gone wrong. There were bodies... everywhere. And they weren't the clean, quick kills that Frost's training would have produced.

No, it looked like the lab workers had attacked each other. They were riddled with bullet wounds, or locked in pairs, strangling each other in death grips. One person appeared to have been bludgeoned to death with a table leg, even while they had their jaws gripped to another's throat.

Passing quickly through uncontested hallways, Shawn kept buzzing the other team, but continuously encountering radio silence. “Blaze, to Frost, pick up. Come on, bro, where are you?”

It wasn't until they had reached the laboratory mess hall that they found the first Vanguard body. This was a particularly gruesome room, as it looked like the personnel had been eating dinner at the time when they turned on each other. He had almost missed the body; it had been Ted that had pointed it out. “Hey, boss, look. Is that Charles?”

Shawn spun, training his machine's scanners over the young man's body. Ted was right; Charles had been shot in the back of the skull, and from the surprise locked on his face he hadn't expected the attack. “Ok, people, heads up. It looks like there was an ambush. Spread out, and keep an eye out...”

In the next room, the attack came. It was a darkened room, in the back of the lab, and Shawn had just passed by the entrance, leading the team. A hail of gun fire erupted from the room, perforating the wall around him, shots ringing off his machine. He spun on his heel, just as something pounced out of the dark hall onto his machine.

Whatever it was, it was fast, strong, and fought like a demon. Crashing backward, Shawn quickly attempted to pry the creature off his Vector, but finding little purchase. He was a master with his machine, trained since he was a child in it's use, but every trick he tried, the attacked seemed to anticipate. Nose slamming into the inside of his armored helmet, Shawn could hear the yells as the rest of his team was being swept up into an assault.

Fighting the heavily overbalanced machine to it's feet, he threw it backwards, slamming into the wall. Sensing his attack whipping around to grab the front of his helmet, Shawn slammed his hand on the jump jet panel, crashing into the ceiling above before dropping like a stone to the floor below. Drywall falling in large chunks around him, he felt the unfamiliar weight of the creature on his left arm. Bringing his hand up, he just barely was able to grab the leg his attacker; tightening his grip to make sure the slippery opponent didn't get away, he swung hard them at the wall above, then against the hard floor, then back against the now ruined wall.

Holding his stunned prize up to examine what had given him such a hard fought fight, Shawn was horrified to see the broken body of his brother, Robert.

- - -

Lost in his thoughts, Shawn perked up when he heard the by now familiar sound of a Cadre heart sensor switch to flat-line. Glancing at his unit screen, he sighed, shaking his head. Lars Epstien had just flashed yellow, then moments later switched to red.

The left half of Shawn's face was bathed in red from the panel, almost every indicator now flashing KIA.

Soon...

[antaeus]

Xi'ku moved towards the center of the room with purpose. He had looked over the rubble while listening to the soon-to-be-prisoner's explanation and had found a two foot long (and roughly four inches wide) jagged and warped support beam that had knocked its way loose during the last attack by those strange red armors. He found it...wordy, but cooperative. It was simply a shame he would have to cave in the skull of the much smaller human female with the aforementioned support beam.

Which is when he heard the familiar stern voice of his former instructor, telling him to cool down. This is a particularly bitter pill for the big keshian to swallow and it took most of his remaining willpower to resist his first reaction to lash out again. Reason (or fatigue) won out in the end, but did nothing to stay Xi'ku from his current course.

Xi'ku had enough cognitive faculties left to process the stern tone Summer was taking, Summer's directive of 'secure', the woman known as Sophi 'singing' like a caught picro. He was damn sure that unlike Ted, this one was going to get no chance at harming someone he trusted with his life again.

Almost tripping over it, Xi'ku got a good grip on object to save himself from falling yet was able to remove it without much force. Satisfied with the unfamiliar metal's flexibility, Xi'ku took Sophi's freely offered hands and began wrapping the support beam into a tight makeshift constraint just as the woman began giving up more information then Summer had originally requested. By the time Sophi was done with her recollection of their mission back in Xualla, Xi'ku had her firmly secured to a steel handrail on the starboard wall.

Remaining silent, Xi'ku allowed himself a 'wandering patrol' over to the starboard side exit just a dozen feet away from where he secured Sophi. He leaned against the exit and almost laughed bitterly at the possition he currently occupied. Xi'ku had returned to the exact same spot as was almost five hours ago, just before he had engaged his former instructor in conversation. All he could manage was a sharp sigh and a shake of his head. Feeling the last 48 hours about finally claim his consciousness, Xi'ku tried to keep himself awake with a quick trip down memory lane. He remembered being summoned by the captain and being addressed by Marshall Prost. He remembered the engine room situation and loosing Ensign Pace. He remembered the armory and Za'che falling on him...

Xi'ku snapped to awareness on that thought.

"Has anyone seen Za'che? I have not bird from her since she attacked the one known as Aoi."

[eunhathes]

[Drab is the Color of Victory]

George listened intently to the story, but only with the part of her brain that would categorize it and abridge it later when she slept. Truthfully, her attention never left the wandering Sophi's form. Likewise, her finger never left the trigger. Once the prisoner was finished with her tale, George uttered, "It's a nice sob story, really. Sounds like something you'd hear in one of those old hokey action holos. Deal with it." She looked to the Keshian, "Bind her up, Sir. Before she has an accident." A glare shot out from behind Ureon's eyes, a ferocity she was not accustomed to, "Because if we're going to make it off the ship alive, we need to move. If you want this thing," she gestured with the Magnum, "to be live, too, we need to move double time."

[artemi]

Binding Sophi proved surprisingly simple, as the woman appeared, for every intent, to be willing to get into her bonds. She even made sure to note that her legs were still free; it took a twisted support beam, two pairs of handcuffs, sixteen feet of nylon rope, and a potted plant, but eventually she was deemed 'secure'. As the party pushed to the next room, the captured enemy soldier even wiggled her fingers in a sort of gesture of goodbye.

Pushing past a series of wrecked, dangling conduit, Hannelore couldn't help but notice that they had been here before. This was the room that they had all met in originally, in what felt like years ago but couldn't have been more then a handful of hours. She had been scared, tired, but ultimatly a little hopeful of what sort of place this new planet would prove to be. She had heard one of the crew mention the city they were transferring to; a Victoria Heights, a bustling old shipping and mining town, named for the range it was built beside. It was a nice name, and one she was hoping to call her new home.

Now, though, she would settle for just getting there in one piece.

Coming into the darkened room, with lights hanging from fixtures in crazed angles, Hannelore bumped into something, near foot level. Leaning down to check on the what the soft obstacle could be, she leapt backward and let out a little shriek as she realized it was the body of that Aoi woman they had been chasing.

Snapping to attention with the sudden sound, the ragtag group grew suddenly wary, their nerves already ratcheted high.

Za'che stepping out of the shadows directly next to Summer didn't help, either. She smiled darkly, pleased she had gotten the jump on the group for the second time today.

Hannelore frowned, looking over Aoi. It looked like she had be wounded by... some sort of cutter. Looking up at Za'che, she cocked her head to the side in question. "What... what happened here?"

- - -

Ok, onto the endgame, here.

Check the OOC thread if you haven't.

[celest]

Summer had asked Private Ureon to take point when they left their prisoner. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Xi’ku, she was fairly certain that no matter what state of exhaustion he was in he would stop any threats and protect the group. The only thing she questioned was if he would be able to do so without losing his own life. Summer took second after Georgina feeling fairly confident that her basic training skills would carry her though the situation, people had gone through tougher times without training after all. She held the new rifle in her hands trying to keep a keen eye for anything that might be coming their way.

However her mind kept drifting to the prisoner’s story. She racked her mind trying to remember any rumors she may had over heard of such an experiment. She highly doubted she was even close to having the level of clearance required to know what had been going on in that lab, however rumors happened and things leaked out. How else would the Vanguard have known? Science was not Summer’s specialty, she had been told many times she had the mind for it, but she preferred numbers. She liked “a+b=c”, not” we think a+b=c but really we have no idea what the answer is so we are going to run this experiment to find out”. She had only managed to come up with one thing. The lab had been experimenting on something that drove people into battle madness, be it a germ or a chemical gas. It had got out and infected the lab workers, causing them to kill each other. She guessed this Shawn person may have gotten infected as well. The planet wide evacuation was a good thing. If this substance was air borne, which again Summer guessed it was, it could possibly infect the masses. The results would be horrifying.

Hannelore’s sudden shriek brought Summer back to full attention. She turned quickly to find out what had caused the healer to make such a sound. She took a step closer as she recognized the basic shape of a body at Hannelore’s feet. It was at that moment that Za’che stepped out of her hiding spot.

So the kitten returns

Summer took a deep breath to cool her nerves. Za’che was lucky she hadn’t immediately opened fire on her, startling them like that. She ignored Za’che obvious pleasure in spooking the group and leaned down to investigate Aoi’s body. “This doesn’t appear to be your work Miss Za’che,” She said coolly. Unfortunate, I wanted to take this woman out. Standing straight she addressed her team. “We need to keep moving, Miss Za’che,” she turned to face the female Keshian, “I assume you saw the event play out, please relay to us as we move forward. Do we have an unknown ally, or has the enemy turned on its self yet again?”

[antaeus]

(Presented in raw Nano-vision!)

Idlely fingering the small item that the Vanguard girl had tossed to her, the UMP agent stood stunned by what, ostensibly, was the enemy's dying plea. Aoi's wish for Za'che and her draftees to continue their present course of action had so surprised the keshian woman that she had not noticed her defeated adversary pass on, being lost in silent contemplation of the tasks at hand. The dark haired keshian felt the strength leave her knees and used a dimmly lit storage partition for cleanding supplies as a back rest. Za'che hadn't even had a chance to reply to the smaller girl's last request.

Za'che had seen her share of death before, though it was almost always completely accidental. Never like this. Never this...close. Slow. Deliberate. This was starting to be too much. Who ever was behind this was cold -and more importantly- close by meaning that they would be clashing very shortly. Za'che shook her head awake and regarded Aoi one last time finding in spite of herself that she even pitied the human girl who somehow appeared even more diminuitive then in their previous encounters now that the strength had literally bled out of her. Za'che took two steps towards the fallen girl and closed her eyes in accordance with the human tradition.

"It is Za'che. And for what it's worth...I'm sorry."

The sound of approaching footsteps activated Za'che's instincts and she once again returned to her corner, intent on ambushing her would be attackers.

'By my ancestors! They're louder then a herd of Akabs...'

A shril girlish scream strangely blew the tension out of the air for the UMP agent, who sighed heavily then stepped out into the light with a slightly amused smile, taking humerous note that Summer hadn't had time to pull her sidearms. As Summer attempted maintain her composure after being obviously startled at the appearance of Za'che.

“This doesn’t appear to be your work Miss Za’che,” She said cooly with a slightly shaky authorative tone. Like correcting a student who answered with just a little bit more gusto then was nessissary.

“I assume you saw the event play out, please relay to us as we move forward. Do we have an unknown ally, or has the enemy turned on it's self yet again?” Za'che wasn't fooled.

"I don't remember having to report to you, Instructor. " Za'che put as much venom as she could muster in the word 'instructor', enjoying the irked reaction that she had intended to occur.

"Look sir...uh...ma'am...we all wanted to see that woman taken down hard, but if someone here is doing our work for us sir uh...ma'am...I'll hop the first lifepod off of this boat and get started working on my next album." flatly stated the almost over-eager private Ureon seeking to divert another argument. Za'che responded by shooting a glance towards the songstress, then continuing her conversation with the Instructor.

"I did not witness the kill, though Aoi was...talkative in her final moments. She wished for me to make one other of her commerades die an honorable death. I believe this...Lacy is the one responsible." Za'che had begun to move further towards their objective as she spoke. She pulled her cloak up around her shoulders, ready to activate the hood in a moment's notice as she turned onto the access hallway that led to the engine room's ready area. Xi'ku took up watch down the hall, but said nothing readying himself for a tough fight.

"Recon. There is viewing room for engines down this hallway. I believe this is where our objective lies." Za'che made a motion for the others to follow her. Xi'ku was the first in step behind.

"So. It has finally come to this. The rest of the fleet goes if the Ulysees engine's go red-line critical. Failure at this point would be catatonic." answered Xi'ku to Za'che's unasked question. It was the medic that was in step after him.

"A final b-battle. O-one way or the o-other." Private Ureon patted the slighter woman on the shoulder, eliciting a jump at first then a smile.

"Cheer up Hana! I figure we're just too pretty to die." said Ureon illiciting a slight blush from her fan, hefting the Grand Magnum to flip her scarf over her right shoulder. Instructor Klecht rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"I feel a headache comming on." groaned summer as she fell in last.
-----

They had made far too much noise.

Lacy Rodgers had been standing in the doorway of the second access hallway to the Ulysess' engine ready area watching one of the warning lights above the primary bulkhead turn from its normal color to that of a caution yellow. The tall, pink haired woman had been there since her quick egress from what could have been a bad situation with one of those PGC goons potentially getting the drop on her. Arriving slightly winded, Lacy had rested her fully six foot three inch frame against the doorway and propped leg up on the opposite side. She had been using the partruding sliding door lock as an impromptu back scratcher as something in her armor had been poking her in the back for some time now and with her hasty deployment from the room behind her, she had not been able to check what was causing it.

Lacy stretched while reflecting on this last mission, hitting her hand on the top of the doorframe. While given no offical details, Lacy had figured that there was a damn good reason for them to have broken mission protocol and forced the evacuation of an entire system. Logically, the only thing she could come up with was that their key target's were the research staff on Xualla and that they had (in full or in part) escaped into the general population of Xualla which had caused Shawn to take drastic action. The mission had failed. They had failed. Yet somehow, like always, Shawn managed to snach victory from whatever mess the cadre shoved on him. That tenacity is what Lacy loved so much about him.

Lacy brushed an errant loch of her pink hair out of face and smiled in spite of herself when it fell back into place almost imidately. Being the cadre 'tactician' had its perks and flaws. Being one of the smartest in the cadre meant that noone questioned her actions or choices. However, if she was stumped there were few to turn to. Lacy understood the boarding action and the subsequent slaughter of the rest of the fleets' larger transports as they possesed large enought FTL drives to emergency jump away from the fusion cascade. What she couldn't understand was the almost 'thin red-line' nature of engagement once they had identified organized resistance. They should have struck like an Exile and finished off any resistance the moment they made themselves known. Throwing their number against superior numbers was just getting the cadre butchered to the point that it almost looked intentional.

It was all a moot point though, soon the engines of this large trading vessel would go fusion-cascade critical and Lacy would be down a good half dozen annoyances in her life. Of course Shawn would have arranged for their timely escape at the last moment, proving that Astra Delphi wasn't a cadre for washouts and loosers by taking down an entire PGC fleet to get at the few researchers who had escaped Xualla. Hell, there were hardly any of them left by this point mission complete or not. They may just have to lay low for awhile before the contact HQ. Just the two of them of course.

[antaeus]

(Fight scenes are >count bait<)


The sound of impending destiny came from down the hallway that Lacy currently blocked, ripping her out of her daydream and back to the grisly reality. Lacy's smile turned into a wicked grin when she noticed the first of the lapdogs round a corner directly into her line of sight. Sloppy. With a flick of her right wrist and a wave of her arm, she activated her principle weapon, a colapsable and slightly oversized round bonesaw whose activation sound was half of her callsign namesake. With "The Nurse" activated, Lacy's strategist persona bled away leaving the bloodthirsty killer Buzzkill in charge for the time being.

"Heheh. Welcome lackeys! I congradulate you on making it this far but..." said Lacy making a show of stepping back into the ready area. The room was ostensibly for the priliminary observation and maintainence for the engines themselves. A place for the engineers to suit up and rest, as well as talk without the noise of the aformentioned cold-fusion drives interfeering with important information exchanges. It would also serve as a fitting monument of payback for Lars and the others, atleast untill the ship blew up.
----

Georgiana Ureon was the first in the room, flanked closely by Summer. The Instructor took in the room as best she could under the warning lights all while locked on the eyes of her group's next opponent. She didn't break stride when she walked through the door and pulled her slightly tweaked Hayes pistol and emptied said weapon while addressing her would be assailant.

"Judging from the looks of that weapon, you must have been the one to do up our girl Aoi back there. That makes you a butcher, a backstabber and not to be negotiated with." said Summer calmly through gunshots before reloading and continuing with visible consternation at the constant accompaning richoche of bullets off of the taller woman's body armor to her pulls of the trigger.

"Those types of attacks won't work on me. I'm in a whole different league then the rest of those weaklings. Vanguard defensive alloys are a little ahead of yo-" Lacy's sentence, as well as a strand of her bangs were cut off by an attempted head shot by Summer narrowly avoided by a last instant twist. Ammusement left Lacy's features, to be replaced by abject ire.

"Yes yes. The thing is--," interupted the Instructor.

"Cute. You're first." Lacy almost growled in retort, lunging at Summer with suprising speed for a woman of her size. Not so surprising as Summer reloaded for the second time and simply folded her arms. She even took the time to straighten her glasses.

"No defense!? Your funeral!" shouted Lacy spinning and lashing out with The Nurse, intending for complete decapitation.
--

Private Ureon had entered the room and dove left behind a comfortable looking couch, making way for the others. She noted with no small amount of ammusement that Summer provided an excellent distraction and could really ham it up when need be. The Songstress flipped the release of the Grand Magnum to confirm that there were still projectiles left in the chamber. Two to be exact. Snapping the grenade launcher closed, Ureon watched Summer work her magic with a bit of curiosity. What exactly had this woman seen that allowed her to stare down an enemy that she knew nothing about, taunting them? It took guts to do what she was doing right now, and if Xi'ku was just a second late...

A loud clang followed by no small number of sparks flying off a Loredo shield signaled Xi'ku's arrival and the simultaneous dismissal and answer of Ureon's privately posed question.

"Mine's bigger than yours." spoke the Instructor taking a few steps away from a fight for which she was surely out weighed and motioned into the hallway with her left hand and a quick nod signaling Hannalore Hartzel into the waiting room with a very quick ingress to where Pvt. Ureon was under cover.

Already running, the smaller pink haired girl was practically pulled off her feet when she arrived behind the couch and into cover, instinctively reaching up to cover her ears from the sound of metal grating on metal rapidly and repeatedly sparks lighting the entire room in an eerie red and yellow. In that time, the medic watched almost unable to turn away as the smaller by a foot woman held of the biggest keshian Hannalore had ever had the pleasure of patching up. Her killing blow blocked, the woman who could only be called Lacy balled her off hand into a fist and gave the Xi'ku a straight punch that actually managed to remove him from their current clash by a good 3 feet. Hannalore couldn't help but call out his name in concern.

This came as surprise to Xi'ku as well, the surprise evident on his face as he dug into the metal floor to keep his balance, but kept silent a small smile showing on his features. It was Lacy that broke the stalemate.

"Is that all? Honestly. I expected more from the people that systematically wiped the floor wi--" the rest of her taunt was cut short by local half dozen of explosions that flared bright enought for everyone to see a cloaked outline rolling towards the back of the room, towards the exit. The sharpness of Za'che's movements threw her hood off as she turned to observe her work.

"Did I get her?" Only silenced answered Za'che who was more then happy with her work untill she saw the larger woman rise in the smoke. Za'che's features visibly darkend when she saw movement unconsiously signaled Summer and Xiku to be on their guard.

"...my entire Cadre." Finished Lacy, slightly scorched but seemingly ok. She brushed off some soot from her shoulder's and made a show of examining The Nurse.

"Though, in a way I should be thanking you. You've given me exactly what I wanted, a chance at a life with Shawn without these little outside distractions. Petty really." a murderous flash in her eyes followed by the activation sound of her weapon was all the warning the messengers recieved before Lacy sprung at Za'che, who even prepared gave ground to the apparently enraged Vanguard combatant. Two wide swipes with the saw were easily evaded, but that put the smaller keshian into a definative defensive posture which a low kick and a spinning backhand made short work of. Za'che's eyes shot wide open when she was knocked back into the far wall almost eleven feet into the steel bulkhead that lead to the engine room.

Xi'ku responded in kind with a low dash catching one of Lacy's legs and lifting her clear off of the ground and slamming her back down as hard as he could. Lacy recovered in short order taking a haphazard straight slash with the saw forcing Xi'ku to break the hold. A follow up low kick threw the larger keshian off balance and a rising spin kick finshished the job sending Xi'ku reeling backwards.

"Watch it! Shes's stronger then she cooks!" he said through gritted teeth and narrowed eyes positioning himself between the couch and Lacy just as a series of shots rang out. Summer had reloaded and was taking aim using her off hand as a steadying device clearly aiming for the head. Two shots missed and another rang out with a metalic clang clearly hitting her forehead. Lacy simply smiled.

"Subdermal plating. Painful as hell." said lacy as she slowly turned to lunge at Summer who parried a downward strike by crossing her Hayes handguns in front of her head. She could feel the speed of the saw blowing her bangs around her head she was so close. Too close, but if she should just hold on long enough for Xi'ku to recover then they'd have the upper hand. Instructor Kletcht threw all her weight forwards and trhew her hands to the side forcing the now quite ammused larger woman into a downward parry and putting the two combatants face to face albiet with considerable physical exertion from the Lainview instructor.

"Hmmm. I seem to remember you saying something about yours being bigger..." Lacy said putting her free hand to her face in a mock thinking gesture, eleciting a gasp from Summer as she realized her mistake. Summer rarely paniced, but desperation was apparent in her next move a determined but weak attempt at a headbut that didn't cause the larger combatant to even flinch.

"Please." Spat Lacy attempting to hold in her obvious enjoyment at the current state of the battle. A freehand straight punch knocked Summer off her feet and clear into the air to hit a rack of tools and fall uncerimounously to the ground. Ureon waited maybe a half instant longer to confirm Xi'ku's possition before firing the Grand Magnum at Lacys feet.

The resulting explosion set off the automatic sprinklers in the room and sent Lacy a good 4 feet into the air, landing heavily on her feet but appearing to have only minor injuries. Hannalore gasped and looked terrified as the larger combatant bore down on their possition behind the couch. Xi'ku intervened just as panic was about to set in with a feigened right cross. When the counter attack came from the saw Xi'ku withdrew slightly and threw his shielded shoulder into a mounting tackle deigned to overpower his opponent. Lacy rolled with the blow and kicked the larger keshian over her head in response. Both combatants landed on their feet with their backs to each other and immidiately attacked each other again. Xi'ku, aggressively showing agility for his size attemped a low takedown dodging a slow swipe with the saw. Showing her own agility, the pink haired woman flung herself twisting into an ariel downward kick narrowly avoided by a one-handed push away roll. Ureon noted that Xi'ku had, intentionally or not coccupied Lacy's attention. She turned towards the smaller girl cowering next to her and took to the opportunity to reload.



"Hana. I know you're scared, but we'll get through this like I said and it won't be without them. We're all part of this now even if we don't want to be." Hannalore opened her mouth to protest but could only stare back at the wayward songstress. She could feel the green haired woman's hand trembling, no doubt with fear, yet suddenly found strength in its warmth. Against her very being, tears began to form at the corners of her eyes when Xi'ku shouted out snapping her back to reality.

"This one is going to be a bit mulch..." Xi'ku said breathing hard backpeddling clutching a ragged gash in his armor. Hannalore observed that that blow could have potentially been fatal had it been just a bit closer. A testament to the big guys defenses, but he won't last long. Hannalore broke cover in a flat run towards the bulkhead where Za'che was lying unconcious firing off her sidearm in Lacy's general direction. She paid it little attention, apparently trying to figure out how she was in anyway related to mulch. She in turn was brought back to combat by Xi'ku adding in his own fire from both of his sidearms forcing the large woman into a defensive stance.

"And I thought we'd broken all the Coalition code words in use. I noticed the UMP uniform over there, no wonder Shawn wanted you confirmed de--" a switch in envirmental temperature interrupted Lacy as the chemical / electrical /fire retardants deployed having been inadvertantly triggered by a shot from hannalore who had unknowingly sealed the fate of everyone in the room.

The ships computer recognized a series of threats to that particular compartment and was in the process of extingishing a fire as well as several electrical shorts caused by errant gunfire. The response protocols recogized Hannalore Hartzel, currently bolting for an exit, as a potential victim of the accidents and therefor had targeted her specifically in case she was on fire. She never made it to the other side of the room, having been knocked sideways by a fairly potent blast of the rooms remaining redardant. Surprised and stumbling, Hannalore braced herself against a nearby console accidentally starting a local diagnostic cycle in the power system which ran extra power through the rooms damaged wiring, venting raw electrical power throughout the room, with the bodies of the combatants all acting as psudo wet conductors. Hannalore wiped the retardant from her eyes and almost paniced when she noticed what had happend. Desperate to avoid killing her friends her hands flew across the console looking for some way to turn off the cycle that she inadvertantly started. Subconsiously, numbers began to run through her head about electrocution, time limits and brain death. The retardants would help a bit but not for long. After what seemed like an eternity, Hannalore lept back and emptied her Hayes into the console, a look of terror crossed the medic's features the like mass of metal and wires itself had grown teeth and attempted to kill her. Hannalores efforts did bear fruit though and eventually the torrent of man made lightning ceased and all was still. Hannalore was unaffected still, though almost comically covered in bluish foam.

"Guys...? GUYS?" there were several groans in reply.

[antaeus]

Lacy couldn't feel her other anymore, though her entire body felt like it was on fire. Possibly partial cognative shutdown, maybe the electrical discharge had an adverse effect on her dual psyche now was not the time to figure it out. She was technically still in combat and that meant that she was in trouble. Buzzkill was down, however temporarilly, and that left Lacy Rodgers---strategist. Retreat was the only option in the face of a potential 5v1 realistically, but the bulkhead had been sealed to prevent coalition access. There was little dout in either of their minds, shawn or herself, that she would need to retreat.....and then it hit Lacy like a semi truck.

She was never supposed to leave here. None of them were.

THe entire battle. All of the reasources that Cadre Astra Delphi could call to bear were tied up in a delaying action. The fusion cascade MUST occur and there must be no survivors. But why? To kill all of those researchers? No. To remove this entire ramshackle fleet? No. Not worth the lives of everyone in the Cadre. To avenge Frost? No. Close, though. If Shawn blamed the cadre, he would have said something though.

Lacy thought through the report as she struggled to get to her feet. Lines like "he wasn't himsself" and "attacked me like aferal animal" stuck in her head and it was only a short draw from there. Something had gotten lose and Shawn couldn't be sure that it was dead without leveling serious major level distruction on the populace of Xualla. The attack already triggered a planet wide evac that they were strangely ready for, so whatever they were working on in that lab was dangerous enough to have a evacuation plan for the entire colony in place to be put into effect with surprising speed for the level of sucess it had achieved which would explain the foundation for the plan of compltele anhiliation of the refugee fleet. They would be on guard leaving Xualla but definatley off it this close to Carter they would be out of range for any help and would be helpless agains the cadre fleet. But what was it that had gotten loose!? What was the answer???

"..." Lacy strained to get off of the ground only to fall back down again with a dull thud. When her heart stopped she bore Shawn no malice and indeed only had thoughts of their life after the war.

-----

Georgian Ureon helped Instructor Klecht to her feet. She was frankly amazed that none of them was seriously injured by the power cycle. Hannalore had run her rounds what seems to be a practiced serenity when dealing with injuries. THe green haired girl had been the first to recover from major electrocution and immidately set about gathering up the others. She assisted Hannalore with Xi'ku who genuinely seemed more unhappy when he was revived, then set about on the Instructor while Hana delt with Za'che. She must've taken a bad hit because Hanna had her kit laid out around her and was busy working. Compared to Xi'ku who just required another adreniline shot, Hana said Za'che had maybe slipped a disk or something when she hit the wall. She may be down for this one. Summer groaned when the songstress took her pulse. A good sign. As the older woman began to regain full contiusness at a slow pace, but she seemed ok. COnfused, but ok.

"Where am fly? What? Attack. ENGINES! Others?" babbled Summer shaking her head free of a few lingering extra volts.

"Easy teach, everyones fine. You're starting to sound like the El-Tee." Ureon said hefting the woman up and checking her for cuts or other damage.

"Right. Well, we need to get moving. Xi'ku! Are you good to go?" Xi'ku's ears perked up at the mention of this name from his former instructor. The ragged gash in his chest armor only looking bad and not much else.

"Ready Instructor. I..." trailed the black and red haired keshian as he surveyed the room around him.
"Speak your mind leutenant."

"...I hope for the best. I work towards the best, but we may not win this. If that is to pass, then I would like to say, for whatever its worth, that I am glad to have served with all of you and I will draw my last breath before I let whatever is in that engine room harm any of y... " A loud crack drew everyones attention to a very surprised Xi'ku, even a recently recovered Za'che. Summer landed, having had to hop slightly to reach the big keshian when he was standing his full hieght for an impromptu slap.

"I never taught you to give up Xi'ku and I sure as hell didn't teach this fatalist nonsense! How many people are in this fleet!?! How many have and / or >will< die when this engine blows?" Silence met the empassioned outburst.

"All of them will. This is beyond me or you or the people in this room now. We can't lose. Theres too much at stake here to belive in anything but victory." Summer stared unapologetically into the much larger keshians eyes. Surprised at the reprimand, Xiku's training and conditioning came to the fore and he simply stood in silence. Za'che waved off some medical concotion that Hannalore was about to adminishter and slowly rose to her feet with a dismissive chuckle.

"Heh. You speak like one of my people."

"If you are refering to the UMP, I'll not take that as a compliment."

"I didn't specify. This bulkhead is locked and will take me a second to get through. Soptolome, final preperations." Za'che finshed with a pat on Xikus back noting with a small amount of satisfaction Klecht's annoyance. Xiku simply nodded and complyed.

"Ammo check. Everyone." Xi'ku pulled out his matched Hayes pistols. Summer followed suit and Za'che made a show of searching the fallen Lacy before moving to the consoles. Ureon sounded off in short order.

"Two rounds left here El-Tee. Maybe we should've kept that Jackhammer after all."

"Or Sophi's rifle." Said Summer with a knowing smirk. Za'che responded.

"Theres a quick anti-boarding cache in that wall over there, next to the door. I think I can unlock it from here." Za'che input a few commands into a sparking console before it died and with an electronic hiss a covered compartment in the near wall extedned and unfolded into 6 seperate shelfs. It held 4 Gu-8 submachine guns, two sets of Dobson armor and a variety of Zorbidovs shock sticks and an Exile breeching hammer. Summer and Georgiana both began moving towards the arms cache. One couldn't resist a comment.

"You may be good for something afterall." jabbed Summer verbally. Ureon slowed as she was passing Xi'ku and spoke slightly under her breath as she passed him.

"If thats what the officers get, I'd hate to see one of us act noble." she said with a smile noting with satisfaction that Xiku returned the notion in kind.

"What was that Private?" barked the commander.

"Nothing ma'am. Just pointing out that the El-Tee may need to use that Exile on the door ma'am." This seemed to sooth the commander's wounded pride enough for her to toss a Gu-8 in Ureon's direction. Georgiana caught and activated the weapon, it registering her as its new user automatically as its saftey was triggered. She pulled back on the lever setting a round in the chamber and stowing her Grand Magnum on her side. Hannalore had remained silent and had made her way mysteriously to the fallen Lacy, checking her lack of vitals inently, this finally drew attention from Xi'ku when he realized that she hand't checked in.

"Speciallst? What are you doing?"

"I'm confirming time of death sir."

"Is that necissary?"

"YES." Shot back a visibly upset Hannalore.

"This is my foul up sir. I need to take responsibility for this life I took." Hannalore stared at Xi'ku for maybe one second too long before she went back to her work. Xi'ku simply nodded in understanding letting whatever was going through his head remain unsaid. A warning klaxton began to go off, signaling the blukhead to the engine room opening.

"I have it." spoke Za'che after she exhaled a sigh of relief. She threw her cloak around herself and assumed a breeching position.

"Good luck everyone. What I believe Xi'ku was trying to say was that no matter what happens, we all have done our best and should not be ashamed of the result." Za'che let a grin grace her features.

"Or are you going to hit me as well? I think I'd like that." Za'che pulled a GU-8 out of the weapons cache letting the threat linger. Summer wasn't impressed.

"You're injured and we need everyone at full."

"Always need the last word don't you?"

"Yes." said Summer with out skipping a beat, checking her avaialable rounds.

The other messengers fell in behind Za'che and assumed breaching possitions for their last battle for the fleet.

[antaeus]

Shawn Mayhem sat in the modified Storm Raider ride-type vector as he had since the operation on Xualla, which is to say he has not left his vector since that operation. It had been less then 72 hours since he had been forced to kill his Frost, his brother and the Astra Delphi leader and Shawn had spent the time orchastrating what was surely an act of mass murder to rival those in the history books. Worst of all, Blaze couldn't tell if he cared or not.

More acurately, he was not sure if he could feel anymore of his own volition.

Shawn had, in a moment of true clarity, channeled the cold-fusion engine of his vector to output most of its power into a modulating EM field. Utterly useless save it seemed to keep Legion at bay. Whatever it was it was capable of turning his own brother into a raving lunatic and Shawn just could not be sure if it had gotten to the rest of them. He was sure Lacy was unaffected up until he sent her surely to her death, the rest...no so sure and therfor they needed to die.

Burn. The only way to be sure.

There! Was that him, or 'It'? Did this need to happen or was it forcing him to agree with an insane stance? Good lord what if this thing got into the general public? What if in a years time all of humanity was just a large macro marionette for this thing that he had unleashed?

No. If he could still think of consequences like that, then Shawn was still in control for now. A robotic voice from his vector snapped him back to reality. The sounds of combat just outside the sealed bulkhead had died down, meaning the last of the only people he had ever known personally were gone without a doubt. Lacy's indicator suddenly went red, then dark.

"4 minutes till critical mass." he responded with his own voice commands.

"Pyrestorm power up. Arm FA-33. Arm Red Hail. Check drive axels and continue power modulation. Maximum variance." spoke Shawn with a grim etch to his voice. It was strange to him to hear it after sitting in silent reflection. The hum of electronics filled his ears -- the sounds of Pyrestorm's systems coming to life after being in sleep mode. Shawn kept his eyes closed though he himself was unsure why, perhaps he had actually been sleeping and hadn't realized it.

When the bulkhead door started to open, Shawn Mayhem turned on his external speakers ready to meet destiny.


---
Command Protocol Update:

Status and directive redicsion.

Current Runtimes: 47

WARNING: Probability flag at 848127xAB837 and 801871x222FIG!

Flag 1 reads as follows: 72% chance of engineered deliberate catastrophic engine failure.

Flag 2 reads as follows: Should flag 1 succeed, total runtime termination prediction is 100%.

Intervention posiblities: None. No runtimes in position to influcence probability to any significant degree.

Solution: Observe and collect further data. Prepare for termination.

Future Possibities: Discover cause of high probable destruction numbers. Terminate with extreme prejudice.

----

The flashing red and yellow warning lights around the engine room bathed the room. Shawn dispensed with any sort of plesantries. Instead allowing only his head, fvisible by glow of his cosle and the warning lights alternating between yellow and blue.

Start up sequence completed.

Reactor online.

Weapons online.

Electronic Suite 1 and 2 nominal.

All systems go.

"Erupt... Pyrestorm."

From its 4-wheeled ATV style assault vehicle form, the legs set down from the dises creating a balance for the back wheels to approach the 'knee' area. The arms came from the front and the front wheels became the back of the 'shoulders'. The 'cockpit' became the front of the machine as it stood to its full 9 foot height. As this was occuring Shawn spoke.

"...they were right. They said that when it came down to the wire, there would be zelots and mayters all suicidally desperate to stop you, whatever your objective was. They said that those people wouldn't even understand what truely was going on, or the reprocussions of any of their actions while they vigirously persued us and tried to kill us." spoke shawn gravely as he drw his weapon from its hoslter and spraying at the doorway, spent brass flying in all directions. The FA-33 is an anti infantry minigun.

"You won't get past me. I owe it to too many of them to fall here!"

Xiku charged taking several hits from the weapon, but arriving with enough momentum to knock the weapon off target saving Ureon, Hartzel and Klecht from a deadly rain of lead. Grunting when he struck the weapon with his full weight, Xi'ku attempted to wedge his Loredo shield under weapon and tried to disarm Shawn. He barely suceeded in staying on his feet as Shawn brought Pyrestorm's full weight down on Xiku.

"Quickly!" Xi'ku called back.

"Xiku you idiot! I told you about this! If he doesn't kill you I will!"

Summer yelled ran to the first flight of service stairs intending to get to override / venting controls on the third level up with Ureon and Hannalore in tow. Shawn noticed with a sneer.

"Not so fast!" he yelled knocking xiku into the wall under the upper platform and taking aim, spinning up the 3 barrels of the FA-33. Xiku impacted hard but landed on his feet. Later, when asked if he knew what was going on at this point, he would mention no he did not, but still ran and hard checked the gun off target, shells impacting around the three accending women but missing thanks to the intervention.

"INSECT!" yelled shawn glaring down at the black and red haire dkeshian pivot spinning on one heel and attempting to back handing the smaller keshian who ducked.

"Too slow!" shawn caught xiku with an off hand uppercut that actually seemed to float the big combatant in the air for a moment before being knocked away by Shawn's follow up attack.

"Red Hail!" shawn called out. Several plates on Pyrestorm exploaded outward in all directions claymore style. Xiku took one of these in full and was flung backwards almost to the same spot as before. He did not move. Above where they were, several ricochets struck around the Ureon and the other two girls. Hannalore yelped as one shot behind her through her flowing pink hair.

"GET DOWN!" yelled summer tackling the two girls, projectiles richoeting around them.

"You can't run from me!" called shawn activing the Pyrestorm's lift capability (lol jetpack) prefire spinning up his weapon.

"Comon! Move it girls!" Called Ureon as she scrambled to her feet to get a headstart on getting hannalore going before the rest of them. Summer was not so futuenate. Shawn arrived at their altitude and sprayed their area, barely missing the girls heading up to the third level, though summer did get caught in the leg. Shouting out she motioned for the other two to continue.

"Get to that console! NOW!" Summer hit her head on a step as she fell backwards spinning to put fire several shots of her Jackhammer on their aggressor. She felt almost too small hands on her shoulders at that point pulling her upwards. It was Hannalore, pulling with noticable strain.

"You said that this....was....for all of us right!" Ureon smiled at hannahs statement bolting past the veranda and shoulder checking into the control room with jackhammer blasts echoing behind her.

"Hannah! Hurry! Bring her in here!" Hannalore complied as quickly as she could under fire. Georgiana removed the drum from the Grand Magnum after loading her last round. She took a running slide over to an observation window and threw the spent magazine at said window as she slid splintering it. When she reached the wall the knocked out the rest of the window with the but of her weapon and didn't bother aiming. If she missed, this was all over anyway. Shawn was having visible control issues over his weapon and maintinaing stability in mid flight or else they would all be dead by now. If his concetration was anything like hers, hed not actually be paying attention to his targets letting the rate of fire do the job while he stabalized himself and that would be her chance.

"First show jitters." Ureon said exhaling slowly as she brought the Magnum up to her shoulder and pulled the trigger. The effect was immidiate and shawn barely had time to react. The flash was bright and shrapnel pepered the three women through the room's thing walls, summer took a chunk in the arm with a shout. Hannalore yiped and threw her hands over her head while crutching.

"I'm hit! Again!" Called out summer, snapping Hannalore back to her job. Shawn took the round about mid-shoulder area completely throwing off his flight envelope and spiraaling back down to the first level in front of the entrace. Hitting his thrusters in an attempt to get under flight power again, shawn regained control in time to save himself from faceplanting into the hard deck by riding his thrust back to his original position. Sneering in anger he yelled...

"All of this isn't just random destruction! You have no idea what you're..." allowing Zache to manuver hand over hand along the underside of the catwalk, kicking up and onto the back of Pyrestorm.

A proximity warning sounded in shawns helmet.

"From behind!?" shawn bellowed as the whirled around on one armored heel attempting to engage his aggressor. Seeing nothing, shawn quickly re-checked his sensors seeing the alert not extinguished, shawn began a series of violent twisting manuvers designed to throw off any unwanted riders. Holding on for dear life, zache ran her hand along her banolier of timed charges activating them all though fumbling with the release, using all the strength of her off hand to stay on the back of the vector.

"Another day, another..." Zache lost her hand hold and took a heated barrel under the chin. A very impromptu upswing and a spin kick finished the adhoc air combo sending Za'che flying through the air. Tumbling and landing skidding to a stop before leaping to the side rolling into a flat out low run for a standing tool crate, bullets flying all around her before letting loose with two type 6 grenades behind her. Shawn ceased firing just long enought to boost backwards towards the rapidly heating centeral engine column, letting his spent drum fall to the ground before slamming in a fresh one, his heads up dsiplay tracking and zeoring in on Zache.

"That is the extent of your resolve? Weak." the reticle zeroing in on za'che turned red and diplayed the word 'fire' which shawn confirmed. 6 small missiles blew out from the sides of Pyrestorm and shot off towards their target who barely had had time to catch her breath. Kicking the moblile standing toolbox towards Shawn, Zache dove low behind it knowing full well that that was a last ditch, desperate messure and covered her head with her arms. She felt the concusive force of the blasts with the accompanying heat wash over her, shrapnel licking at the exposed parts of her body causing blinding flashes of pain. Through it all, Zache knew she wouldn't be feeling anything if the missles had hit her directly and was somewhat thankful for that fact before she blacked out.