Commander Nathaniel Cook ran to the front on the Pathfinder, watching as an enemy ship engaged theirs. They were fired upon first as they pushed to get to a planet to refuel. The Pathfinder was low on fuel and getting shot at wasn't helping much either. Nathaniel stood next to the pilot, Sera Kennithson, and looked at the warning messages. Shot after shot, the Pathfinder was getting hit. Hard. And Nathan heard the constant beeping of the A.I. that gave the warnings.

"Do you think you can pull her together?" Nathan asked, trying to remain calm. He gave the orders to fire back and some crew members manned the guns to do so. The ship was racked with another direct hit, tearing metal armor plates off the side of the cockpit. Nathan's balance was interrupted and he stumbled around.

The enemy firing at the Pathfinder crew was a notoriously hostile group of extraterrestrials known as the Esper. They were a violent race, wanting nothing but to dominate their area. Nathan knew what they were attempting to do; they wanted to board the ship.

Sera had been holed up in the cockpit for too long, she was about to go on a break when the damned Espers attacked. The Pathfinder was taking heavy damage, and systems were failing one by one. A prompt came up on the systems analysis terminal to her right, she didn't even get a chance to read it before the AI blared out the issue.



Sera swore under her breath, as the captain asked if she could pull the old girl together. She really didn't need him staring over her right now. "Uh. one second sir," she said pulling up a full analysis of the damage, "Main thrusters are down, we're running on Retro's and the RCS until engineering gets them back... oh fuck these guys" she cut her sentence as she swung the ship around to give the guns a better view of the attackers - all she could do now was slight course adjustments and pivot her around if she didn't want to be a sitting duck, she hammered a few buttons under the dashboard. A terminal or two lit up, but flickered. "RADAR and LADAR systems are on the fritz but they stay up long enough for what we're using 'em. If you want my opinion, we're all kinds of fucked until we get mobility again. Maybe we should prepare to be boarded, give these guys a run for their money".

Another thud hit the hull of the ship - if Sera wasn't strapped in she would have been thrown from her seat. Even the commander seemed to be struggling with his balance. Another terminal died.

For the most part, Sukaina was caught in a different state, a working state, if you will. Sitting in the armory, one filled with (what else), weapons and armor along shelves, lockers and benches. Sitting at a bench by herself, she was using a small welding tool to fuse a few circuits together on a gun's targeting HUD, wearing her tank top, dog tags, combat boots and military issue fatigue trousers. She was listening to some smooth electronica as she focused and concentrated on welding the two circuits together.

And then an alarm sounded, snapping her out of her trance. She looked up, watching as the alarms made the lighting in the room fade in and out of red. She looked confused as all hell.

"You can't be fucking serious!" She shouted, starting to get angry. "This better be importa-" She was cut off by an explosion that shook the ship, causing her to nearly lose her balance. "Oh shit!" She then looked to see what the warning was on her armband computer, now knowing that they were under attack from a hostile alien vessel. "Dammit!" She shouted as she saw crew members running around in the other rooms, some carrying wounded to the medical bay while others ran into her armory and grabbed some weapons. It seemed obvious that they were preparing to repell boarders.

Immediately, Sukaina snapped on a set of her standard issue armor, putting it on as fast as she could, putting on her helmet and pressurizing her suit for space combat. After a few more explosions, she immediately grabbed her assault rifle and handgun, putting them on herself before handing out rifles to some of the crew members who are part of the fireteam onboard the Pathfinder. Once all the weapons in the locker were handed out, she got her own rifle ready and ran out into the main hall. "Commander! Status report!" Sukaina called out into the comms.

Jack felt the ship lurch forward and immediately began to curse under his breath. Ships didn't lurch naturally and it always meant a headache for him. Soon after, the A.I. began to go off announcing engine failure. Jack had already been running to the engine rooms, and with the A.I. going off he picked up the pace a little more.

He was yelling at some of the other engineers that had been on duty asking for a status of the engines and what they could do for power. As soon as he knew a bit of the situation, he began barking orders to divert power to the working systems. It seemed the main thrusters were beyond a quick repair, but there was still power, for now.

They had diverted power to shields, but the onslaught was still continuing. "Stop getting shot!" He shouted into a commlink to the bridge. Not a moment after he finished a different kind of impact hit the ship. "I wonder if that pilot knows to dodge the projectiles," He grumbled to himself. He figured that may have been a boarding crew since it seemed the main fire stopped. With the ship in barely stable conditions and the shields holding fine, he moved on to help the crew repair the far left thruster. It seemed to take the least amount of damage and may be able to work in the next several minutes. He kept a few other crews keeping the other systems like RADAR and LADAR functioning as well. If they were being borded Sukaina would have to take care of it primarily with her crew.

Nathan ran to get his own weapon from the armory, only to get knocked off his feet from a boarding pod hitting the side of the ship. "Fuck!" Nathan yelled, getting up from the floor. He ran to the main intercom to alert the whole ship. He looked at the pod, knowing for a fact they were about to be boarded soon. "Everyone! We are being boarded! Proceed to the main deck for a counter attack! Sukaina! Keep them out of the armory!" The Commander ordered before the door to the pod opened. Nathan was only a few yards away and he scrambled to the cockpit. He locked the door for Sera, knowing that the Esper would try and hijack them. After this, he sprinted to the armory.

As he approached the armory, he could hear some of his lower-class crew engaging the enemy. They were in good shape, at least for now. Nathan banged on the door to be let in, the ship still being fired upon as he awaited entry. He then heard another boarding pod hit the ship, luckily only grazing the side from the erratic movements from being fired upon.

"Stop getting shot!" a voice yelled over the ships com-link - Sera recognised the voice as being Reagen, the ships chief engineer. Smarmy Bastard. The ship shook as a pod hit it, boarders were here. The commander had already ran to get a gun and locked the bridge so Sera wasn't instantly jumped.

She shook her head, putting her hand under the console again, making sure her pistol was in it's place - one of the only weapons on the ship that didn't get locked up in the armoury just for situations like this. Can't have an unarmed pilot if the bridge gets breached. She hit a button on her comm system straight to the engine room, "If you want me to stop getting shot then get me some damned thrust, I can't do anything without shooting her into reverse and leaving us a sitting duck!" she yelled, hoping Reagen caught on that it was for him, the thought came to mind, Wait that might work she thought.

Her radar registered two more blips, those engineering lads knew how to keep things running at least. Two more landing pods on a direct course for them. She clicked another button, the whole ship was going to get this one. She put on her best calm and collected voice, "Ladies, gentlemen and boarders this is your pilot speaking. Please find something to hold onto, we'll be running into a small amount of disturbance in our acceleration pattern,". She waited until the blips on the radar we're fairly close. And then she whacked the ship into reverse - or well, retrograde if you wanted to get technical. The ship responded perfectly, coming to a stop fast enough that the boarding pods sailed straight past them. Hopefully the retro thrusters kept themselves up and running for any other evasive maneuvers.

Sukaina, who was already ready for battle at this point, was just about to leave the armory. However, hearing her commander bark orders through the comms, she nodded, speaking back to him. "Aye aye!" She replied, activating crew-only locks on the doors so they can have access to the weapons, but would keep the boarders from getting access to all of their weapons, armor and ordnance. As of now, she was the only one in the armory, until she heard knocks on the door. Checking the lock interface on the door, she saw it was a human on the other side, and immediately opened the door, revealing Commander Nathaniel Cook.

"Commander!" Sukaina exclaimed, a little surprised to see him here, of all places. Almost immediately, she gestured him to come inside, drawing out her custom handgun and covering his entrance. Once he entered, she would shut the door behind him and activate the crew-only lock protocol. "Your weapons are still in your locker, some of the heavy ordnance is still in their respective units if you're looking to blow the bastards back out into space!" Sukaina said, checking each of the entrances to the armory, to make sure that the boarders aren't close. "Who the hell are we dealing with? What the fuck do they want?" She asked.

(( @jaybreezy ))

The commander quickly went to his locker, wasting no time to get armed properly. He grabbed his helmet, strapping it on. It was a well known fact that when he put his helmet on, he was ready to get serious. He slid his helmet on, the airlocks snapping into place to provide a tight seal to protect him as well as keep oxygen from leaking out.

"Espers. They've boarded already and they're trying to hijack." Nathan said, his voice altered and almost robotic from the inside of the helmet. He reloaded his rifle and then turned his head to Sukaina, his back facing her. "If they get anywhere near here, do not hesitate to engage. Nathan added. He knew that he didn't need to say it, but he was in combat mode.

Nathan then ran off, firing with his crew of grunts. The Espers seemed to be overwhelmed by the Pathfinder's forces. They were droppong like flies left and right, Nathan and the crew handling themselves quite well. However, another blast rocked the ship. The preexisting boarding pods were rigged to explode. Nathan realized this and darted to the intercom. The Pathfinder was going to blow soon.

"Everyone launch escape pods! I repeat! Board launch pods!" Nathan yelled on the intercom. The Espers didn't understand English, thankfully, so they didn't know what was going on. And this order had never been ordered by Nathan. He had a plan. "All crew! Stay aboard. We're kicking them out." Nathan added. Launching empty escape pods would fool the Espers and divert their focus.

Jack kept working through the turmoil and quakes of the ship. The left thruster was almost working again. Although working would be a loose term for the status of the thruster. The crew was working hard and doing well to keep things barely functional, but the impacts and resulting explosions were not helpful at all. Then he heard a confusing message from the captain.

"Everyone launch escape pods! I repeat! Board launch pods!" "All crew! Stay aboard. We're kicking them out."

Jack wasn't sure what was going on, but after pausing for a moment he realized what the captain might be trying to do. He noticed the rest of the crew was a little confused, so he fixed that real quick. "What are you all standing around for!? You heard him, get back to work. If this ship doesn't look brand new before the meat heads eject all of the escape pods we'll eject you as a diversion." Everyone began to scurry and work harder than ever before he could even finish his statement. They all knew he was to gentle to do anything near that nature, but his words expressed the direness of the situation.

A minute later the left thruster was back online. Propulsion was still at only about 1/3 of full capability, but Sera should still be able to outmaneuver them, she was a pretty great pilo... Jack had gone to a terminal to restore power to the thruster, where he also noticed a new problem. "HAAJAABRAGABRAG. SERA YOU BURNT OUT HALF THE RETRO THRUSTERS, AGAIN!!" Jack restored the thruster power and split up his crew, before running down the ship to the retro thrusters. This should be an easier fix, but hopefully none of them ran into the Espers.

He is going to kill me. No doubt about it. I'm dead. Sera thought to herself as several new error messages popped up on her damage assessment terminal. All to do with retro-thrusters. Now she thought about it, maybe Reagen had told her to hold off on using them like that last time she tried it. But there was one bright side to this, she now had a thruster online. It wasn't a lot, and the RCS thrusters would probably be working overtime to fight the torque but, again it would do.

A blip sounded on the Radar, incoming vessels. Sera hovered over the acceleration for a moment, almost hesitant before going full thrust. She should be able to prevent any more boarding parties from sticking themselves to the ship while the thruster remained online.

Now she could only hope that Sukaina and her unit could keep the boarders at bay - especially with the captains strategy. If there were any disasters on the ship no one would be able to eject. Just trust them. Keep flying and do what you do best. They'll give the men hell, you give their ship hell.

Sukaina watched as her commander suited up for battle. "Espers? Why them? Do they represent their government or are they a separate faction?" She asked before hearing his orders to stay behind and defend the armory. "Aye aye!" She nodded, stacking up at a door and allowing him through. Once he got outside, she looked around, seeing an injured crew member. She ran outside, and dragged him inside. "C'mon buddy, I gotcha!" She said, dragging him with her left arm and covering him with her handgun. She fired off a few shots of suppressive fire, dragging him inside the armory, locking it down after he was safely inside.

"There's a first aid kit over there." She said, pointing to the first aid kit on the wall. Once she heard the orders to jettison the escape pods, she gulped. "Well shit... that assface better hope they don't take over the ship..." Sukaina sighed to herself, making sure that the crew member's alright.

Nathan fought with his crew, obviously dominating the foreigners. He pushed the last few to the hole in the ship, managing to get some to jump out and others to die by his hands. After their victory, they still had the enemy ship to deal with. He jogged to Sera and unlocked the door to get in. "Can you shake them? Weapons might be down!" Nathan stated with an urge to hurry in his voice. He didn't want to lose the ship and he definitely didn't want to die with it. The last of the pods were launched and the Esper ship couldn't decide what to chase. The Espers slowly drifted more towards following the pods, Nathan watching as their ship turned.

Jack reached one of retro-thrusters unscathed. It seemed the security team had done a good job pushing them back or down. Fortunately overheated retro-thrusters were a pretty easy fix. A quick release of a safety valve, should open them back up to the void and cool them. With the valve reset they should be working again. They would definitely need new primary coolers and some of the rings would be partially melted, but nothing that prevents them from creating superheated propulsion. Sera's maneuverability should be increasing as his team restarted the thrusters.

Another problem that existed was the lack of guns. It seemed most of the primary weapon systems were down. There were two anti-missle gatling guns still oprational, but they would need to be re-programmed if they were to be used as weapons. They might not be that effective as weapons either. The lack of thrusters was a serious enough problem as well. Fixing the next two was going to be a serious problem, but that was probably next in priority. He sent a few men to work of the primary weapon system while he returned to begin work on the primary thrusters.

"Shake them? Maybe, with what I've got now, definitely if engineering gets me another thruster running," Sera said poking around on a console. Hoping for an Asteroid field, no dice. At least none close enough for her current predicament. She looked over the systems analysis again, Retro's were completely out - manual cooling by opening them to the void? Just another bit of genius from Reagen. Ah, maybe they taught him all that in Engineer School, but it was genius to a pilot like her. She knew how to use the systems in the optimal ways, he kept the machine purring at her finger tips.

The enemy ship was definitely going for the pods from what she could see, if there was a time to act now was it. "Ok, I'm going for it Cap," she said as she fed the boat thrust - away from the enemy ship. So long as the stayed away they'd be fine even with only one thruster.

After the boarders were killed or fended off, Sukaina locked up the armory and went out to go help the wounded, bringing them to the infirmary and making sure that most of the crew was alright.

The crew cheered as the Espers disappeared from view, their ship tricked into chasing the escape pods. Nathan took a look at the damaged ship. Taking a deep breath, he sat next to Sera. "Sera, fly to the nearest safe planet. We need repairs." Nathan ordered, taking his rifle and setting it down.

Sera didn't acknowledge the captain's orders. She was well and truly done. She knocked in some coordinates, pointed them in the right direction and made use of the steering to point them in the right direction. "Done, we'll be there in two hours, I'll be back in one and a half. I need a god damn walk," she said swinging her chair to leave the cockpit, LADAR was working still and she was shooting it in front of them so that even if there was any asteroids there would be some form of warning. Knowing this ship it'd be an automated message calling her back to the bridge.

Sera didn't have a particular destination in mind, but she was happy enough to stretch her legs.

As the fighting had obviously slowed and the crew began to cheer with the disappearance of the Espers, Jack figured now would be a good time to take a break. He was supposed to be off anyways, but then this happened. He dismissed the team of engineers that were supposed to be off at the time and left the others to continue slowly working on what could be done to keep the ship working as best it would.

It had been several hours since he ate, so the cafeteria was definitely his next stop. The cooks rolled their eyes as he entered the cafeteria. They all knew his ability to clear the line and today he was looking to build up a very nice food coma. He was looking forward to getting a few hours of sleep after eating.

“This is ridiculous.” A muffled voice said. Then more banging resonated through the hallways of the ship. “Anyone?!” Helena yelled hoping anyone would hear her. She figured by now that the ship was attacked. Everything had been silent for a while now, which meant either that the crew fought the invaders off, or they had taken over the ship. Her lab was in a rather secluded area of the ship, for the most part due the experiments that might be performed in there. A source of high-energy radiation or magnetic field generators were not something one would want near the crew quarters. For Helena, the thought of getting irradiated or having her Personal Data-pad rendered useless were equally terrifying. 'Always keep personal belongings away from your experiments' was Helena's most important rule of thumb.

She smacked the bottom of her gun a few more times on the door and then pointed at it. Trying to multitask the best she could, she reached her hand into the open door console. “There has to be at least one damn circuit that isn’t fired.” She told herself with a sigh.

Two more bangs against the door. By this point she was considering just shooting the door open.

Some crew members ran to the door, struggling to open it. The door's release system was fried and it was near impossible to open manually. Nathan was alerted of this and ran to the door. He quickly typed password after password into the system's computer, unable to get through. "Damn it!" Nathan yelled, eventually shooting the door until it swung open. The ship was in bad shape now. Nathan looked at Helena, smirking a bit. "You missed the party."