Corsair

[Kangaroo]

He'd managed to keep up with Drake, albeit with some difficulties. It seemed he was a man of many surprises but his Beronian physique still proved a decent match for his augmented biology. Lydia had stuck with them fairly well but all in all it had been a good challenge which had left Turok slightly short of breath when they reached the village. While Drake conversed with the guard on duty he analysed the walls, picturing their strengths and weaknesses and where they'd be best off defending. It was a fairly large force of mercenaries which would prove a challenge for even Drake's crew.

When his two companions broke off for the pub, Turok stayed at the walls keeping a gaze over the horizon to see if he could pick up on any sign of the mercenary force but there was nothing to be seen. He turned and followed them to the pub, opening the door to see a grisly scene of blood and corpses but perfect time to see Drake execute a local. He immediately stepped up behind him, one hand straying near his blades but when he saw Lydia becoming worked up he placed his hand on her shoulder and said quietly "Stay calm or this may get ugly. We need their help against that mercenary force"

[GreenGoat]

The second that even came close to her, flew out a window, as she simply dodged when that man rushed her. The next found himself clutching at his privates, where Sxle had swung that chairleg. After that, the patrons seemed to take the hint, and none approached her.

She backed up against a wall, still breathing hard.

All the stress that had accumulated and remained unacknowledged had suddenly came down on her all at the same time. She didn't want to go travelling anymore, she didn't want to meet anymore people, she wants to go back to the safety of tending to a machine, where she knows what to do. There was no machines here, there was none she truly knew, and people.... Sxle looked on with horror.

People were murderous.

One man had started swinging his sword. Like a demon, he tore and slashed at the patrons, some of whom were unwilling to fight him, or at least were unwilling to pull out a weapon. A barroom brawl was one thing, but this was wholesale slaughter. Wanton destruction. A murderous rampage for no reason other than itself. She couldn't understand anything now. Words that came out of the patrons mouths were simply gibberish to her, but she recognizes the screams of death, even in another language. Death is a language known to all, after all.

The Insect was speaking angrily now, at the murderer. But that was foolish, surely he would kill them both. Sxle took a deep breath to calm herself, as her arm started to power up the Heat Wave....

The door opened, as the Captain strode in. Spouting a few choice words at the murderer, he attacked with his own sword, as the madman tried to parry with his. The madman's sword broke, as the captain cleaved the man clean in two.

There was a few moments of silence.

"I'm here now. We all are. You're not alone anymore."

"Ah...I..." Sxle pulled herself together enough to put up a calm facade. "Grius de mi, Capilan, mi asti di ami secarte"

"I am sorry, Captain, but I did not think I could have been in this sort of situation."

The captain did not feel like a captain.

[Holeypaladin]

Drake noted the facade on the face of the Vanderran. She was acting strong... putting on an aura of confidence for him. She tried so hard... and yet her fear had been so apparent when he first entered the room.

He couldn't help but wrap his arms around the small feline, whispering into her feline ear, "It's ok... you don't have to fake calm... for just this moment, you can show me your true emotions. You've been through a lot... the fighting will start again, soon, but for now, you can be just Sxle rather than my engineer tech."

Lydia's awkward behavior also concerned him some, but Sxle was worse off, at the moment. Drake did, however, send a direct comm to Lydia, "You alright, Lydia? Ugly sight, I know, but I haven't forgotten about you. We can talk later, if you need, but Sxle is pretty traumatized at the moment and lacks your soldier training for dealing with combat situations."

---

As Anne reached the town, the guards halted her and informed her that the town was on high alert for the upcoming Orol raid. Raising her hands, she said, "We're not Orols. We come to assist your garrison in defending this town, or at least seek sanctuary from the approaching horde."

"Hmm..." said the Hume guard, looking her over. Apparently liking what he saw, he said, "Alright, pretty lady. You and your friends can come in, but we'd like your fighters to help defend the town in return."

"Of course," said Anne with a smile, and the group was allowed into the town. When she had gotten inside, she addressed the guard again, "I'd be happy to assist. We have some noncombatants, though. A doctor and a nurse. Perhaps they can assist with your triage, away from the front lines. In exchange for medical supplies."

She looked over Michi and Sarin to see if they approved of the idea.

[Legion X51]

"I should be used to slaughter, Cap... But I'm not. You can concentrate on her first... I'll hold up until we're back at the ship or something. It's a long story, Cap... A long story indeed."

Lydia sighed. "I'll be alright, Beronian. Don't worry, I'm not going to berserk and slaughter everyone like that guy did..." She pointed to the svartalf's corpse. The tavern... It brought back memories of Kiev Station. The horror of Kiev Station... The virus. The infected colonists. The slavering hordes, thirsting for blood, sometimes fighting each other... Those who weren't driven insane by the virus realised what they had become - they were the ones who jumped off bridges, who walked into rivers with pockets of stones. Then there was the pub that they had to clear out in melee... The blood... It looked like the tavern. The tavern was replaced with the visage of the pub in Lydia's mind - the corpses weren't those of the tavern customers, but instead those of the 'zombies'.

"Oh god..." Lydia breathed. She lifted a hand to her head, and tried to clear the vision from her head... Kayleth's words... Sergei's laughs as he gunned down scores of them... Ronahn's derision... "NO!"

Lydia came back to her senses. She wasn't in Kiev Station. She was in the tavern on the planet. There was Drake. There was the catgirl. "I-I'm sorry..."

[GreenGoat]

"Ah..." Sxle raised her arms, responding to the hug, but lowered them again, as she remembered other races seemed to be rather....flimsy. "Du canthi but I'm fi..I'm f.. fine.."

She stopped, and opened her mouth to say more, just as...

"NO!"

Sxle jumped at that, her tail fluffing up in surprise. She pushed Drake away carefully, afraid she'd tear off something. "I'm ok. Du canthi eremeus for your concern, and your timely rescue." She looked over to the other large girl. Sxle did not recognize her, but since Dea Turok was there, the girl might be one of their crew.

"I-I'm sorry..." The girl said.

"No, grius de mi, for all the trouble that I have caused. "

Was the Insect still alive? The captain would not be pleased if it died. She would not too. It still needs to gain more bulk before it can be eaten. As it is now, its barely a mouthful for all the crew. Where would they put it on the ship though? The only room big enough for it to grow huge would be the reactor room, and she wasn't keen on having an insect anywhere near the reactor. Sxle found the Insect looking....like itself. She could not tell if it was feeling anything at the moment, as she did not exactly have a chance to know any bugs enough to tell its feelings, nor did the bugs ever give her a chance.

"Hey, Insect. You ok?"

[Bainshie]

Scree stood there stock still as the monster was slain, gradually lowering the weapon in his hands to one side. He heard the words being spoken around him, the impending attack, the chance for more blood to be spilled, but he didn't really react to them. He just stared around him at the blood and bodies that remained, unable to come to terms with such a culture shock, such an event that would never happen back home.

He looked on, at the lives and minds that had been destroyed, the clean steel sword he held in his left hand, and then the parts of the drunken patron covering his front. Scree lightly tried to wipe it off with his right hand, his motions getting more furious and desperate as it didn't work, just wanting to get rid of all traces of what had happened here.

"Hey, Insect. You ok?"

He stopped, turning to look at his feline companion, still trembling from head to tow and quite unable to work out how to respond to that, how to respond to any of it. "I- didn't mean to... You... He.... why? W-Why?" Scree stared at her, emotions turning to anger, anger at Sxle as the combination of shock, guilt and anger demanded an outlet. "Why did you do that! The situation was defusing itself, the -" he paused for a moment, trying not to think too hard about the fact that whatever mistake he'd made, he'd been the first one to make it. Instead he continued to let the anger and emotions flow to the far easier target. "Whatever mistake I made was being dealt with. You didn't need to intervene, and you definitely didn't need to start the violence!"

The Anarti gave a deep break, trying to steel himself forwards for whatever task would need to be don, whatever monsters and beasts in this galaxy still needed dealing with, there was now only small tremor running through his hands, not so much dealing with what he'd seen as pushing it to the back of his mind. "You heard Drake. The barbarities of supposedly civilized races don't end here, so I guess I don't have time not to be ok."

[pyrak]

Antrana jogged over to the savages body and pulled out her daggers and bolt, the human managed to kill the man before she did but she didn't particularly care. "your sword is incredibly powerful for being able to to cut through a sword and a man however now is not the time for chat we have some raiders to deal with and hopefully some money can be made off of this at least it will boost my reputation, and I am Antrana who are you?" she said in a matter of fact way, as she cleaned her weapons and put them away in there proper places.

[Frettzo]

Abdamelek was about to order the klaxon guards to knock out the savage man, before a man entered the scene, saying a few things Abdamelek didn't really catch and lunged at the killer. It was interesting, to see a sword cut through another blade that easily... One would have expected the killers blade to offer at least some resistance, but it gave none, being cut like butter. He watched in fascination as the sword then cut the savage killer in half, then turned around to look at the two klaxon guards, who had been staring at the man. "Make sure our brother and sister have a proper burial. One of you shall make sure the ones that are preparing the bodies to be buried are safe."

Abdamelek then turned to look at the other guard, his antennae twitching a bit before he spoke "You're in charge of the 7 other guards, you refer to me, and I refer to the man that avenged the deaths of our kin." With that, Abdamelek turned and walked to the man with the special sword (Drake), kneeling down before him.

"You have avenged the murder of two of our brothers and sisters, so we have a debt to you. This humble ambassadorial caravan will lend lend you all the guards it has. You may tell me what you wish us to do, and we'll do it."

[Holeypaladin]

"Heh..." said Drake as Sxle seemed to be holding back. "You won't crush me. No matter... stay by my side, and you'll be alright. You might have to fight some, but you're stronger than these people, so you'll still be alright. Try not to use your energy weapon in front of locals, is all, and if you need help... we'll back you up."

He glanced to the insectoid. "Same applies to you, Scree. I never said these people were civilized... at least not by our standards... but we've got a job to do, and since you're with me... we'll get it done."

Lydia's freakout drew his attention. If it wasn't one ball of emotions acting up, it was the other. As he began moving over to see what was up, he was approached by a svartalf, and then a Klaxon freaking knelt in front of him.

"I'm James Drake," he said. "An adventurer. And I sharpen my sword a lot," he added lamely.

"My friends and I are going to defend this town from an upcoming Orol raid. If you want to help me, the best thing you can do for now is join in the town's defense. You probably don't want to get involved too closely in my activities, though... this raid is only the beginning. We're up against the Cult of the Ancients."

He then made his way over to Lydia. "Hey..." he said, putting a hand on her back. "Lydia... stay with us, ok?" It looked like post-traumatic stress disorder, or something of the sort. He recalled something about Anne's augments making the ASF imperturbable, but he wouldn't expect Kislev to have adopted an augment that Achenar had just recently adopted.

"Take a few moments to collect yourself," he said. "We have a few minutes until the raid. Join us when you can, or find Michi and protect her. They should be in town by now. If you're up to fight soon, we could use you."

[Paingodsson]

When Jaimie heard about the raid he started to hurry sarin and the doctor, "Come on doc we need to get you to someplace safe in the town!" he said as they all ran towards it, "Choose where you think is best doc Sarin and i will defend you with our lives!" Jaimie added, "Annie tell drake that we are finding a place that we can almost create a stronghold with." Jaimie said as he pushed his way easily to a nearby watchtower.

Jaimie climbed it and looked from the top. "I can see them coming!" he shouted to the doctor and sarin, "Let's get ready!"