Out here among the open stars it is silent. Save for the occasional star blinking out of existence, there is not much worth noting in the empty space betwixt the star sectors. Now the excitement, the excitement is in the bustling sectors where war, trade, and piracy are abundant. Maybe excitement isn't such a good thing. But regardless of where you are in the galaxy, it's probably at peace right about now. The only "wars" currently are being waged by small, insignificant empires. The battles are small and so spread out that it'd be surprising to find yourself in one. They can hardly even be called wars. Sure there's a few of the larger empires that are uneasy, but they haven't broken out in a war quite yet. Perhaps someone is trying to cause one out there, right about now. The economy is doing fine, everyone is receiving a steady flow of income, everything's pretty cheap too. But a few industries may be on the brink of finding that one big find that ruins the economy for everyone. But that's probably not the case for awhile, at least. Tyktz has been quiet, as usual. It's also vacation time for many species, so The Longest Day is buzzing with activity, again like usual. The Market is receiving the same amount of business that it always does, and the merchants there are making loads of credits. Really, the only place that can be described as acting unusual would be The Ghost's Cradle, seeing as how lately a few psychologists have been trying to study the effects of "Cradle Crazies", as some of the more humorous races have taken to calling it. But really it's just a general state of peace in the galaxy right now, maybe that will change soon.

The Silence. It was often so deafening just before a job. All the systems off, relying on a second-hand tracking system to get them to their target. In reality they could talk as loud as they wanted, they could shout at each other. No, it wasn't the need for stealth that kept the eight man crew silent, it was the tension. They were closing on a cruiser, drifting straight past its radar. Then a sound, like a hiss, the LIG (Light Impact Grapple) that would drag along the other ships surface to slowly line them up for the bigger Impact. Then CRASH, impact. The sounds of the other ship could be heard now, since they were combined. Words, what language the crew did not know but words indeed. They would have to be fast and, therefor, loud. The Crew were all poised at the airlock as it opened to raw metal, Tillion moved ahead, set up a directional charge and went back. BOOM. Everything seemed to slow down as they ran through the breach. Anyone they saw in the first corridor was gunned down, soldiers, workers, even children. They did not enjoy it but, if they didn't they would almost certainly be dead. The Captain, she enters behind her troops, sets up a weak energy field around them to protect them from explosives and most non energy based weapons. Now they just have to breach one more wall and the plunder will be there's for the taking. Then it goes off the siren, seconds later the sound of heavy footfalls. "Hold them off, Tillion, get us in there now!" Shouts the Captain, almost without thought. The ambient sounds of the ship changed as power was re routed from less vital systems such as additional engines and poured into the primitive weapons system. ((Ok, Rabiez, if you want to RP as teh crew up to you, if now I am getting out of here with ALL my crew, K?))

"Auto, where are we?"

It was a good question, and Desha wanted a good answer. The Emplaeur had been cruising around the stars, following the trail of a dreadnaught-turned-merchant ship. So far, there was no sign of any ships out in the shadowy darkness.

Then the ambush happened.

There were two dreadnaughts, large, ugly ships, but with strong firepower. Along with them was a cruiser, three frigates, and a multitude of starfighters. All had weapons blazing, and all were deadly.....But they had met their end trying to fight the Empaleur. The shields on her were incredibly, more than top of the line, and big ships like dreadnaughts were prime targets. "Auto, turn us toward that big one with the ion cannon below." Ion cannons were something to worry about. They were Massive guns designed to wipe out whole cities, and even the Empaleur's shields would only last two or so hits.

"Target found and locked. Proceed with usual course of action?" It was the lovely voice of Selas. Desha found it relaxing in a time like this. "Yes..Prepare to open fire with the cannons." Everything was going fine. Most captains would be worried about the Ion cannon, but Desha was confident. Seconds later, the Empaleur shot forward to the Dreadnaught.

It went through like a sharpened sword through butter. The dreadnaught was there, then there was a gaping hole in their main control room, spilling out personnel like blood. "Such a beautiful sight.." Desha said, to no one in particular. This ship was dead. He had no use terrorizing the crew, or stopping their escape. With the control room destroyed, and their captain and high ranking officers probably dead, the ship was as good as stuck.

"Turn toward the other Dreadnaught, and order the cannons to open fire on those starfighters."

It was time to finish this battle and move along.

"Well then, I don't see what the problem with this certain trade is" Said Kashikoi in his deep, calm voice. "We will offer you one hypher engine for 500 credits. We know you need one for your ship, and this may be the best deal you will find with any other traders in The Market. But if you want to decline this offer, you are welcome to. We cannot pressure or blackmail you into taking any trades that you do not want to accept.". The grumpy looking human, said "Yes, okay.". And Kashikoi stuck out a hand to shake. "Thank you good sir, we will have it to you very soon, so you can get your ship up and running again.". Then Kashikoi stood up, bowed, and walked out to get a hypher engine from The Gojirius storage room.

Ukukhuluma heard a deep shout saying "I need a hypher engine". "Ah," He said in a quiet voice. "Kashikoi has made a successful trade". Ukukhuluma accessed the communication systems for the ship to try and find the closest person to the storage room. On a camera he saw Kangpae wandering the ship near to the storage room. "Kangpae?" Said Ukukhuluma over the speakers. "Can you grab a hypher engine from the storage room?".

Kangpae made a grunt, then went into the storage room and picked up a hypher engine. He was the strongest one on The Gojirius. Kangpae could easily pick up a heavy engine as if it was a light bulb. He walked out over to the bridge separating the vessel from the trading area, and carried it down to the room where the human and Kashikoi were waiting. "Thank you Kangpae." Said Kashikoi. Kangpae left without a word.

Brod and Tapfere sat in the pilot room. The only sound they could hear was the quiet wind whipping against the window. The Gojirius had never been in a war, even thought that was what it was originally built for. Most people on the vessel couldn't get jobs anywhere else. Tapfere was nice enough to take people who no other people would take. Reformed criminals for example.

The creature let out a low hum. Everything was normal.

"I present to you, my latest venture!" Mkkt Bkkt announced ripping a tarp from a mound, It revealed a small computer and various clubs, "A golf simulator! A real bargain, only 350 credits at that so it won't break the bank!" He continued to great length. The reminder of the crew were skeptical, apart from Dorris who had already picked up a club to try her hands, who even programmed a sports module into her anyway? Mkkt Bkkt claims to never have done it, maybe Melvin the Shoe Shiner was already a remodelled unit?
"So why do we need a golf simulator?" Maak'r asked, "It's not as if were short of activities for Dorris to beat us at on this ship," he would never forget day where he lost I his honor in that pillow fight. Mkkt Bkkt had a ruptured tentacle after the event.
"Well, you see, it'll encourage physical activity among the crew members?"
"We only have five people left, everyone got eaten by the space squid which drilled itself into deck six."
"Still, we can't be getting obese can we?"
This time Kaila piped up, "Mkkt, have you spent all of our budget on a GOLF SIMULATOR?"
"I may have, slightly spent a little bit of our money I must admit. But it was a bargain! We can sell it for 500 credits I'm sure of it!"
A spark leapt from the console of the new simulator, knocking the golf club from Dorris's grip mid swing.

The Aryana as it happened was floating in the middle of deep space, the space squid on deck six had damaged a few systems and Kaila was trying to fix them, it would take a few hours at least. As soon as the basic systems were fixed the crew could start flight to the market centre until the warpframe was calibrated.

Vayes grumbled as he watched the dreadnaught split to pieces. "Why do you accept bounties like these?" "They bring in more money, Exasado. You know that." "I'm sure 8 doesn't like being torn apart by what looks like a monkey cannon." The sound of a robotic moaning came from the HUD. Vayes sighed and looked out the window. The pirate off in the distance was taking the ambush fleet apart piece by piece. Somehow, its shields hadn't flustered even the tiniest bit; he hadn't seen shields like those on more than a few Imperial flagships before. 8 grumbled and moaned in an odd tone a few more times, letting Vayes know this mission was far above their normal par. "We'll do just fine. It's just a pirate ship, nothing more. A collection of scavengers who have yet to find a purpose for their inner souls to live." Casting a hologram for extra effect, 8 rolled a pair of 3D electronic eyes. "8, work into that wreckage and drift. We'll turn into a shard of a wing. Set power to drift, and we'll lock onto them once we get to their rear." 8 did as told and morphed into an unrecognizable piece of trash, to anyone looking at him from the outside.

The dreadnaught churned past, stirring up the wreckage after laying waste to the remainder of the fleet attacking him. "Switch." With a few pivotal movements, 8 formed two legs and grapples, and latched onto the side of the pirate cruiser quietly. After a quick audio scan of the ship, 8 declared their attachment unnoticed. "Wonderful. Now to think how the rest of this is going to work out. Tell me if they prepare a jump to lightspeed, and detach the moment they do."

Tillion had, meanwhile, hacked into the ships systems and had discovered its real reason for the additional troop movements and energy placement was not them, but a hulking great dreadnaught of some description, at-least that's what sensors and shortwave chatter indicated. "Dario, captain. We might just get out of this without being noticed, but it looks like this ship is a gonna!" Tillion said over their closed communication system. "Get the kit, get the crew and then lets get out!" Tillion advised.
"Agreed, get the ship ready, turn her back on and I will meet you aboard with the rest of the crew." Dario replied before she blasted a whole in a cargo container with her energy stick. "Ok, get the weapons, get the uniforms and grab the id-badges. It may be that our employer caused this attack. I dont care. He has money, money I want and he will part with it for some uniforms and ID from this crew." She barked out her orders before heading back to the GGS:MINE, Crew in tow.

Desha was in the process of turning the Empaleur toward the cruiser when the crew started shuffling in. There were about fifty of them in all, and Desha had no clue on why they were here. Trouble was brewing, though, he could tell that from their faces. Some were angry, some were stonefaced, and most were sweating profusely.

"Captain, we've taken a vote." That was from one of the men in the front. He was a monkey gunner by the name of Hock, and considered a popular man in the crew.

"A vote, you say?" This would have been humorous for Desha, had it not been in the middle of a battle. "Do you notice our surroundings, Hock? We can discuss this after the battle. Back to your stations."

But the men weren't moving. Now he noticed some of them were heavily armed, and most, if not all, carried light weaponry.

"We won't harm you, cap..Just take your stuff, go to an escape pod, and leave us." That was from another person in the crowd.

"Well.." Desha considered the idea, then dismissed it. "You know, I've never liked mutineers anyway."

The crew seemed to realize something was off, but before they could react, Desha had exploded the floor. It was a safety mechanism built into his seat, and when activated, would explode a grenade under the safety layer. He managed to press his comlink and send a quick message to Seras, then the mutineers were attacking. It wasn't very fair, he considered, but they were angry about loosing half of their comrades in arms. All Desha had time to do was pull out his sword before he was shot down. He wasn't dead, that was true, but he was quickly drifting to sleep. Stun guns, which meant they were going to do something with him later..

8 twiddled his electronic fingers. Vayes usually had a plan, after all, he was the captain, but he didn't seem to be coming up with ideas this time around. Exasado was trying to drawing in her small chair behind Vayes on a tablet she had brought along with her; it usually was there when she had nothing to do, or whenever she wanted to express a little artistic talent. 8 took a look at the screen; she was drawing a Nunexian dragon; they hadn't seen one of those for years. Suddenly, the sound of an explosion and the ship shaking snapped them all back into reality. Vayes quickly looked out at the dreadnaught; no exterior debris. The explosion should have come from inside. "8, detach and convert to the drill. We're going in." 8 responded quickly, turning the nose of the ship into a cylindrical drill. "Use the melters this time around. You remember the last time we came in through solid steel with a buzzsaw, ahah." Vayes said. With a hiss and a few pops of molten steel bubbles, the heat came through the hull of the cruiser. Opening up the inside of the drill, Vayes and Exasado walked through. There were no pirates around, as far as they could tell. "Nice choice on the entrance location" Exasado quipped. Vayes grumbled and swatted away the charred clothing. The closet door, fortunately, opened from both sides. 8 managed an audible chuckle from the HUD before closing the hatch. He would stay, of course, but any possibilities of the wrong bounty hunter climbing in was not a risk he wanted to take.

Vayes sighed happily. None of the pirates seemed to have noticed their entrance. Unsheathing his laser pistols, he stood in the bedroom for a moment. Some voices could be heard down the hall; "Tomas said he had disabled the bomb, the dumb f***. I'd like to stab him in the heart, but he's already dead, ahahaha." the other pirate moaned. "You know what, just shut up. Shut up! Your ass got us here in the first place, grabbing the mops to clean up the blood. Shut your face, shut it, shut it, shut it!" "Hey man, no need to be like that. At least you don't have to interrogate the captain. I heard he's a crude bastard." "I'd much rather be in the cafeteria with the captain than here, talking s***, with you!" The two voices stalked off a short while later, apparently having grabbed all the cleaning utensils they needed. Vayes smiled. Perhaps this bounty would be easier than he thought.

Desha groggily opened his eyes. He was in his bedroom. It was more of a secure command chamber, though. The one extremely safe place in the ship. Infront of him sat Seras and two figures he couldn't make out..

"The battle is going well, Lieutenant. Outside the ship, nothing should be able to do considerable damage. The problem is we cannot move the ship while they hold the navigation chambers." The voice was oddly mechanic. It sounded human enough, but there was a strange ring to it.

"And the battle inside the ship?"

"It'z. . . Difficult to say. The shock troopz have decimated any enemies they see, but the mutineers have holed up into command roomz. We cannotz rush in without potentially crippling the rooms." This voice was very reptilian. There was a hiss after each word, and Desha realized it must be Kesk and Auto speaking. "One top of that. . .Enemy have boarded the ship."

Now Desha was alert, and fully awake. "What?" He asked, hardly hiding the outrage. "How?"

No one bothered to ask about how he felt. There was a time for that later. "They disguised their ship, then boarded when you were unconscious. There was nothing we could do, the battle was raging over your body." Seras didn't seem ashamed at all at their actions. "We lost two troopers rescuing you in the cafeteria. They were brave men."

Desha straightened up, his muscles aching and his mouth dry. "Kesk and Seras, take a strike team of the finest troopers and take care of the intruders. Auto, continue monitoring the situation. I will accompany the troopers as we capture the navigation room. Captains secrets, you know."

(( derp double post. ))

While the other two were inside the ship, 8 scanned the nearby rooms and hallways for any signs of movement. The two pirates had passed by earlier, and since, there had been no activity. From what he could tell, there were two warring parties on board; a mutiny might've taken place, but the reason for why they had split up to two separate ends of the cruiser was beyond his calculatory ability. However, a party of about 8 had started moving towards the bedrooms. "Eight hostiles in-bound, via the hallway outside the door." 8 relayed to Vayes. Exasado sighed and unhooked her railgun. The pirates had probably figured out where they were because of the break in the shield pattern. "Remind me to put shield imitators on you the next time we hit a repair station, 8." Exasado said. 8 groaned back in confirmation and then hooked into the security system overlooking the hallway. Broadcasting the image to Vayes' helmet, all three recognized them as shocktroopers, or essentially, the mercenaries to end all mercenaries. Looking around the room, Vayes noted the rather high ceiling, at least 3 feet above the door. Motioning at Exasado to climb up and hold on with their swords and knives, Vayes asked 8 to bring his cannon to bear inside of the breaching cylinder. With only a few seconds left to spare, 8 extended the cannon into the room, pointed straight at the door. The first shocktrooper came around the door.

The beam of light made the room turn blank white for a few seconds. The shock trooper had disintegrated into pieces, and as for the rest of the ship, there was a hole about 3 feet across reaching through the entirety of the ship, all the way to the hull on the other side. 8 opened up another video camera into Vayes' helmet, showing the shock troopers crouched carefully outside the door, not entirely sure what weapon had managed to get inside the ship of that size.