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Dorothy set herself to work again, preemptively getting the chair in the middle of the room prepped. With no one having come to alert her of any injuries, she figured that she would have to operate on someone by the time the day had ended. The resources of the Vengeance were nothing compared to the Alliance, but she had learned to be skillful and resourceful in her methods. It was a fact of life.

As the ship started to move, Dorothy smiled softly to herself. Her baby sister was one of the best damn pilots there was. Gideon must have managed to make the most of the repairs, at least enough for her mei-mei to start running. From Dorothy's perspective, things seemed to be looking up, with the ship on the move. All they needed to do was get rid of the huen dahns following them, and they'd be good to go. Slowly unclenching her fingers, Dorothy listened for a moment, seeing if there was anything for her to do next.

Nothing.

But she reassured herself this was the better scenario. If she didn't have anything to do, it meant everyone was alive and kicking. The best thing for the Vengeance, she thought with a wry smile, would be if no one needed her at all. But she figured that odds were, someone would need her eventually. They were never that lucky.

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Listening to Anisa's voice over the intercom, Jackson sighed and turned in his seat back toward the console, beginning to prepare for the exact maneuver she described. It was a dangerous job, heading up and over the Reavers, he could understand why Anisa would put him on the job, but with Gene, he wasn't sure, he could have half expected her to get cold feet and screw it up somehow. For once, he didn't blame her, it was certainly not her job to deal with reavers, he expected just about any rational person to cut and run at any point rather than dealing with them.

As he heard Anisa's order, Jackson took a deep breath and broke the shuttle away from the ship, immediately pulling upward. He figured the reaver ship would fly into the canyon after the Vengeance, and so he flew up and over the canyons itself, with another room to look down into it for when he tried to get over the reavers. Glancing back at his payload again, he sighed and looked back to the controls, it certainly wasn't a suicide mission, but he didn't exactly want to know his odds.

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Quinn paced the bridge as he looked out the viewport, strategy on his mind, although it scarcely did an immense amount of good in situations like this. Reavers were hard to deal with, and any strategy to engage them never exactly fell under traditional tactics. For now he was content to go along with Moreau's tactics, he seemed to have a plan, and if it didn't work, he was sure the sergeant would have enough time to open up on the Reavers, all they needed to do was at least disable an engine or two in his mind, anyway.

Turning his gaze to Harper after Moreau spoke over the comm, he gave the pilot a nod, for once appreciating the lack of formality in Harper's response to Moreau. It was good to see the officer knew who was his superior, and who was not. As they continued to draw closer to their target, Quinn took a hold of the railing at the end of the landing he stood on, leaning forward as he stared intently out of the viewport. "Get us in position, lieutenant, let's be done with this."

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Well it looked like Carla got all dressed up for nothing. At the current rate things were going, the Reaver ship would get destroyed by the Retribution's admittedly powerful array of armaments. After that threat is destroyed, the Firefly crew would either comply with Quinn's demands, or more likely do something incredibly stupid in defiance and get themselves all killed. Quite the shame, getting blue walled by the Reavers. Regardless, Carla made sure to grab ahold of a fixture firmly attached to the ship so as to avoid flying halfway across the vessel during a particularly daring maneuver.


Lionel did the best to help Gideon out under the current circumstances. He'd grab some tool for Gideon that had slid to the other side of the room, adjust specific valves when directed to and most anything else that didn't require great amounts on Engineering knowledge or finesse. At the same time, there was only so much he could do while keeping his bearings, and the whole situation pissed him.

"If this attempt doesn't pan out, we might as well save everyone some time and effort and just use the 嘎吱嘎嘎的花生酱 engine as a bomb."

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"Omelette, you say?" began Foy in response to Jahosafat's metaphor about breaking eggs. Nonetheless, he took it and ran with it. Reavers be damned, his joviality was not to be threatened by something as trite as mortality. "Indubitably, my dear Sir. After all of this unpleasantness, we should most assuredly take brunch. Break out the champagne, some hickoried fish, and a lovely, light omelette, just as you suggested. Perhaps we may be able to scare up some nice molasses bacon and a citrus beverage, eh old boy?" He clicked his tongue twice, playfully jabbing his elbow in the direction of Jahosafat's ribs.

But brunch, indeed! Foy had not had a proper brunch in almost two weeks. It seemed a pity. While years training with some of the most ruthless organizations in the 'Verse had certainly given him the proper roughening necessary to do without things that many folk considered basics for survival, Mr. Coiffeur would, with absolute certainty, much prefer to have as many tiny luxuries as he could acquire, given any setting in which he found himself. Of course, no proper Farradayan Brunch would be complete without a slice of cantaloupe or two, but the chances of finding fresh melons on an Alliance Black Ship seemed about as likely as the good Captain Quinn spontaneously farting the Londinium Planetary Anthem, complete with cowbell solo.

These were the things that Foy Coiffeur thought about, whilst standing in a ship involved in an atmospheric chase with Reavers and Outlaws. Nothing he could do about the situation, nothing at all. Rather than wring his hands and stutter about their possible impending doom, he would much rather promise himself creature comforts of dignity and refinement, and let the Pilot and Gunner see to their part in the madness.

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"I am a leaf on the... nooooo, we're not doing that." thought Lieutenant Harper, changing the elevation of the Retribution gradually. He didn't want to seem like he was initiating a maneuver on the Reaver vessel, but he did want to get their attention (ok, he really didn't, but there was a bigger issue at play). Putting a piece of flourish to the added height, William fluttered one of the engines every couple of seconds. It was not enough to alter their arc or vector, but enough to draw the attention of the skybourne predators, as a fish with an injured fin might alert a shark in the area. And if their attention was focused on the Firefly vessel, all the better for him, in his estimation.

Though he had to give credit to the Firefly's pilot, whomever they might be. That kind of maneuvering on an older vessel, apparently in a state of disrepair, in atmo no less, was worth noting. Provided they could meet in a less hostile setting, he would love to trade notes.

When he figured that he was high enough, he scanned visuals for that "tower" that Moreau was discussing. He pulled up the individual overrides for the escape pods, punched in the corresponding alphanumerical combination, and hovered one hand above the Execute command. All the while, his other hand roamed the console, punching up the next string of preset commands for optimal engine output in preparation for the moment he needed to "Gun It". Everything was set to go with two simple hand movements. Two fingertips making connection with a pilot's console, and they would find out if Moreau's plan held value. Then of course, he would have to immediately switch it back to manual and try like hell to either stop or pull them out of a suicide dive.

Oddly, and in a very terrified way, it made Harper a little homesick.

"Go on your mark."

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Daphne would have been enjoying herself, if it weren't for the Reaver ship behind them. She was doing the best that she could to keep ahead of them, but she didn't know just how much more Vengeance could take of it. The ship was handling alright, but figured that was because Gideon was pulling off some crazy stunts down in the Engine Room.

She heard the Captain's voice, and heard the instructions she gave to everyone else. The bombs might allow them enough time to escape, but that didn't mean anything. They would then have to deal with the Alliance ship that could quite easily catch up with them, no matter how fast they were going.

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Gene And Jackson - Gene has radioed back but Jackson has not. "Good Gene, hold your position as long as you can. Jackson, are you in fucking position yet?" she yelled through the coms between the ship and the shuttles, grunting slightly as the ship made a hard turn down the canyons, trying to stay in standing position. "We're waiting on you!" If she had to she would give the order to drop the load if she had to but she wanted to hold until Jackson let her know what was up. He could get caught in the middle with no time or warning to pull out. He needed to radio in like she had instructed him to do but the clock was ticking by quickly.

Engine Room Vengeance - "Ain't that the Gorham truth," Gideon muttered as he tried to keep working but was hissing from the pain. Stumbling over to the bench as the ship made the hard turn he pressed the button to the com. "Dorothy, engine room, med kit," was all he was able to get out before he was flung against the engine as the shpt banked in the other direction. He had to give Daphne this, they were still alive but for how long he didn't know. At this rate he wasn't sure if it was going to be the Reavers that got them or their own damn engine. "Hold on girl, just a little longer," he pleaded with the Vengeance.

Bridge Retribution - As Harper pulled the Retribution into position Jahosafat looked at the screen. The Reaver ship was gaining on the Vengeance but the Vengeance wasn't done yet it seemed. It banked this way and that through the canyons, dodging the fires of gun towards them. It hitting bed rock and trees instead of steel and iron. "Well I dare say that they are putting on one hell of a good chase for a Firefly Vessel, commendable. Alright, time to release the Kraken if you would be so kind," he said towards Harper before looking over towards Foy. "From the looks of smoke coming from that Firefly they may indeed need to force a landing soon, that is if those blood thirty cut throats don't shoot them out of the sky first," he said as he stood there. "Oh my you do paint a pretty picture for my taste buds to salivate to old man. Would be a most welcome respite of a meal after todays adventure but it isn't time to hit the kitchen just yet," he chuckled.

Dorothy? Why would he need to call Dorothy? And that's when Lionel looked down and noticed the burned pants and presumably charred flesh underneath. He recoiled empathetically. Jímǔ de tián hé là fàguó zhá jī, how did he not see that earlier? The noise of the dying engine must have stopped him from hearing any mentions of that particular injury.

"Well if the whole thing decides to keel over right here, at least we'll probably die before any pain can set in, and without the Reavers getting to us." A morbid thought? Yeah, but there wasn't much else he could do right now except help try to keep said explosion from occurring and hoping for the best.

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As the ship tossed her back and forth, Dorothy couldn't help but feel slightly like a piñata. With the Alliance, and probably even Patience with their luck, nothing seemed to be going their way that day. Everything was punching at them, and as Dorothy almost fell on the operating table, she heard the crackle of the comm. At the same time that her heart sank--someone on the ship was in trouble--she felt more alert. She had work to do. Needless to say, Dorothy felt a mix of emotions.

Grabbing a medical kit, Dorothy took off running to the engine room, moving closely to walls as to catch herself when the ship rocked. Her little sister was doing a kickass job at navigating them through the Tian Fuhn Di Fu they'd found themselves in. Dorothy smiled slightly from sisterly pride, but once she managed to make it to the engine room, that smile was gone entirely. Lionel seemed to be fine--angry and unhelpful as normal.

Gideon, though, he didn't look that good. Dorothy hurried over to him, kneeling next to him with a medical kit. "What happened?" Dorothy asked, rummaging through her kit as she started to gather up the needed supplies. Anisa was not going to like this. They needed their mechanic working--not in need of medical treatment. "Gideon, I need you to tell me what happened."

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Jackson's mind was clouded, the thoughts of Gregory, of the Reavers, even of Anisa's words to him earlier, all of them were paying a toll on his mind and his concentration was suffering for it. He realized as Anisa called that he had missed part of her order. Mentally scolding himself for the error, he quickly adjusted his shuttle better into position and reached out for the radio, keying it into the Vengeance's bridge. "I'm in position." He kept it simple, there was no time or need to waste with an apology for his own error.

He leaned forward somewhat in his seat, now keeping a firm grasp on the controls as he focused intently on the action at hand, at staying in the mindset of his job. He couldn't let himself be distracted again, this was life or death, and Jackson didn't particularly fancy being killed, raped, skinned and devoured (preferably in that order, though not necessarily) just at that point in his life.

He glanced to the Vengeance, saw the smoke, but he forced himself not to linger on it, he knew Gideon would have the ship well-in-hand, and as much of a monster as Jackson believed Gregory to be, he figured push come to shove the Alliance officer would likely fire on the Reavers, rather than let them devour his old love. That is, if he felt love, but that was something to be considered another time.

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Gregory was agitated. His finger tapped repeatedly against the back of his other hand as they rested behind his back, the officer pacing back and forth as he moved along the landing he stood upon. His instincts were telling him to just order a barrage on the Reavers, to blow them out of the sky before they might have lost their chance, or they might have reached the Vengeance, reached Camilla... But he held his tongue on that order, refusing to give it, there were times at least when the officer knew his instincts were, not just logically, but tactically wrong.

However, he did not shy away from barking an order once Jahosafat made it clear that his plan was ready. "Eject the pod, lieutenant Harper, Gunnery, fire batteries at the tower the good doctor was referring to." Despite his agitation, he spoke calmly, smoothly. While doubt or uncertainty bit at his mind, his nerves remained steely for the time being, his gaze cold of ice as he never once took it off their target, he would not fail.

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Gene was happy she wasn't being chewed out by Anisa for once in her life and took the acknowledgment as a sign of affection. She knew the danger she has now just placed herself in, being so close to a Reaver ship with a bomb on board. She wondered why Jackson hadn't signaled back, but she chalked it up to thoughts on other things.

So she sat there and waited for the order. Events seemed to be going at a snail's crawl and she just wanted to get out of there and to safety, preferably with the Alliance ship as far as possible (though also away from the Reaver ship. Enemies at the moment or not, there were still people on board that didn't deserve a Reaper demise, though the imagined the others didn't share her view.)

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"Aye aye, Captain." monotoned Harper and he subtly maneuvered the Retribution into position. While he could not help the odd gnawing sensation of growing anxiety, viewing the Reaver vessel on his screens, he could play his role in the hastily assembled but potentially successful gambit in destroying and/or escaping them. That last bit wasn't entirely clear, but either eventuality was preferable to their current situation. Although their situation was by far not ideal, the Lieutenant could comfort himself ever so slightly in the fact that they were not in the position of the Firefly vessel nearby. They were in an obviously weakened state without tactical position. Or shipboard weaponry.

Come to think of it, why in xiǎobiàn chángzi₁ didn't they just launch a fusillade into the side of the Reavers and be done with it? Problem solved, move on to the next issue. It seemed to the internally anxious pilot that there was something more going on. Granted, he wasn't in the mood to investigate the matter at that moment. His motivations were more pure: saving his own ass. So long as he was piloting a ship with others onboard, he might as well save their collective posteriors as well.

The escape module cleft from the main craft with a sudden, mechanical exhalation. Harper made sure to maintain a mirroring vector with the tiny craft, giving their gunner a clear shot at it while keeping speed fast and constant. "Pod away, Captain." he informed in his standard, order-acknowledging monotone.

Now he set his controls to the secondary task of, as the mahogany skinned dandy put the next course of action, Gunning It.

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Over the next few minutes the world would seem to go into close motion as several things happened both on the Vengeance and the Retribution nearly simultaneously; like domino's falling into or actually more out of place. The Vengeance weaved in and out of the terrain, the ship being pushed as hard as it could. Once everyone was in place, Anisa gave the order to those awaiting. "Drop the loads and pull out and away from here fast! Break out of the canyons!" she called through the comms to Gene and Jackson. "Launch the load from Cargo," she quickly added to Atticus and Camilla. God she hoped this worked, she wasn't sure if it would but she was placing hope in her resident bomb makers. Right then it was the only chance they thought they had to get through this.

"Everyone hold on tight, Daphne, bank hard out of the Canyon and get us out of here. Gideon, Lionel, now!" Anisa gripped tight to the console before her, bending her knees and making herself ready for the very bank and jolt she was warning the rest of the crew of. Hopefully between the three dropped "packages" and the Crazy Ivan burst cutting through the atmo would damage the Reaver ship enough for them to break away further and get the hell out of dodge, even if it meant they had to limp off the field.

The Reaver ship was gaining, this had to go off. It was their only hope, or at least they thought it was their only hope. The Retribution cut through the air towards the tower and Harper let go of the little load that Jahosafat and Foy had prepared. Their resident gunner was waiting, waiting for the signal from anyone at that point. Jahosafat leaned over the display, watching the the camera's on the exterior of the ship until just the right moment. He saw the crate hit the side of the tower and burst open. "Now would be a most advantageous time to fire on that tower," he said to their gunner.

Henry wasted no time before firing, shot after shot. He hit the tower and the shots seems to mow through the tower setting sparks flying and whatever had been in the box atomizing in the air to flame. Reds, and blues, and greens - flames coming from the air around the tower creating quiet the display of color. "Well done. I suggest that we make with the exiting to stage left post haste my good people and get the hell away from here. Try to get into a blind spot for those blasted Reavers if you would. We need to keep their attention towards those wondrous lights and off of us if we could."

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Daphne heard the Captain’s orders, and was getting ready for the opportunity. She focused in on her task at hand. She banked the ship out of the canyon, paying close attention to where the Reaver ship was, and the location of the Alliance vessel. Daphne kept her head down, and was seriously hoping that Gideon could hold the ship together for her. Though she was started to doubt it since she thought she had heard him calling for Dorothy, which couldn’t be good.

She flew the ship away from the canyon, and hoped that the old ship would be quick enough. She only vaguely knew what was in the packages, but only enough that made her certain that the ship didn’t want to be anywhere near where they were dropped off. Daphne started hoping that they wouldn’t have a repeat of the incident that caused them to get stuck on Whitefall in the first place. Or a repeat of their landing on the planet.

"The engine has been having a hissyfit and spitting sparks, take a wild guess what happened." Lionel yelled over the aforementioned engine on the verge of breakdown. The whole thing might have well have been held together with scotch tape, Elmer's glue and good intentions and now Captain Crowe was demanding that they were to push it even further. Well, with the engine on the brink of failure and the engineer in a similar situation he chalked this up to all else failing.

He didn't have the knowledge of how the engine worked, but his old brain still retained the ability to remember instructions from way back, and considering there wasn't time to ask for further instruction, he followed up on the only course of action that came to his mind. He rushed across the engine room, doing his best to avoid sparks, blow ups and irritating ship personnel to make his way over to a specific drive Gideon had told him about before the Reavers showed up. With a running start he pulled his leg back and gave it the best, high-powered soccer kick he could give it. Hopefully this would produce the desired result. At worst... best not to think too hard about that scenario.

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Had Dorothy not been able to keep her cool under pressure, she likely would have had a few choice words for Lionel. With their mechanic injured, it wasn't the appropriate time for sarcasm. It was the very least she could do to remain in an upright position and attentive to her patient, what with the shaky maneuvers the ship struggled to remain intact to perform. With one hand, Dorothy gripped the wall, and with the other, she tended to her patient, her medical kit gripped between her knees.

"You're going to be right as rain, Gideon," Dorothy promised, her voice even, and a slight smile on her face. She worked as efficiently and painlessly as she could, removing the burned and tattered clothing from Gideon's leg, and then applying a hydrogel dressing. Until they were out of danger and she'd be able to move him to the medical bay, there wasn't much else that she could do.

Taking the gauze out next, Dorothy lightly wrapped Gideon's leg, in order to keep the dressing in place. "Keep your leg still, please," Dorothy advised. She wasn't quite certain how bad the damage was to Gideon's leg--if luck decided to go against him, he might need tissue removal, in order to get proper healing. And Dorothy knew quite well that they couldn't afford to have their mechanic out of commission for that long.

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The second that the display of light burst across their visual, Harper set himself to the necessary and honorable task of saving his own ass. This particular technique of personal ass saving led him to reduce power on one of the Retribution's engines, simultaneously increasing power on the other. Maneuvering thrusters served only to maintain a generally upright position. Generally. Considering that Harper has using the main engines for steering, they did their jobs quite well - that is to say that the ship only bucked and jumped twice in the repositioning, but the damned thing had just turned in a capacity unrealized in its manufacturing specs. Lieutenant Harper really hoped no one was shaving just then. Even snuck a peek back to confirm that Foy was still on the bridge and not tending to a client, just in case.

Considering the distraction in play, he probably didn't need to hook a turn that urgently. He did so for two reasons, primarily: 1) His own nervousness at being chased down by Reavers, while it didn't show in the form of sweating bullets and trembling with anxiety, was causing him to make drastic decisions, and 2) Just because he wanted to. It had been a while since he'd piloted a craft like this, and he really wanted to remind himself of both his and the boat's capabilities.

At mention of finding the Reaver vessel's "blind spot", Harper began scanning the vessel. If it had a place that its visuals and sensors couldn't get at, at least in atmo, he was gunning for the best vector.

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At the command, Genevieve rushed to her bathroom, fiddled with turning the damn thing on, and put the package in and flushed it as quickly as she could. She returned to her controls and, once she felt the bomb was safely on its way towards the Reaver ship, she broke away and followed the Vengeance. She was unsure if she should quickly dock back or just follow them. It would take less time for her to dock back, so instead she flew back to the ship and maintained as much speed as she could. She didn't want to be left behind.

She wondered what was going on inside the Vengeance itself. Were the others ok? She knew Daphne was a good pilot and would get them out of this. Gideon could maintain repairs. Dorothy could help the injured. All was fine, wasn't it? Everything would be ok. She had to mentally tell herself that, over and over.

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Luck was with both the Retribution and the Vengeance it seemed. As the loads were dropped, Anisa gave the call over the coms. "Now!" Gideon reached over and pulled a leaver, the engine whirled into over drive, kicking the Vengeance into a jump that cut into the atmo, sending a rippled effect of blast through the atmosphere. It caused a wall of flames in front of the Reaver ship. Thing was, the little light show being put off by what the Retribution had done had the Reavers attention and it was too late by the time everything happened for them to get away as the loads that Gene, Jackson, Atticus, and Camilla had dropped flew right through the wall of flames and exploded.

The Reaver ship spun out of control and careened right into the canyon walls, bursting into flames and debris on impact. The tower that Jahosafat had had the crew of the Retribution target was falling to the pieces because of everything else and was now toppling to the ground. Jahosafat had a rather satisfied look on his features. "I do believe that should buy us the time frame we need ladies and gentlemen."

"Indeed. Lieutenant, pursue the Vengeance at this point," Quinn ordered.

The jump and the explosion had gotten the crew of the Vengeance out of immediate harms way but the thing is, pushing an engine that wasn't quite right to begin with has it's consequences. The engine started to sputter and flame, cutting in and out. "Shit! Grab the extinguishers and get that out!" Gideon yelled before grabbing the com. "Gotta cut engine, good luck landing Daphne!," Gideon yelled through the com.

"Put this gorham ship down now!" Anisa yelled at Daphne.

"Attention, this is the captain speaking. Hold on to something, this landing isn't going to be exactly subtle!" she warned the crew. "Gene, Jackie, stay close and come pick us up if we don't explode on landing!"

"祖先请," Lionel exclaimed at the not unexpected but still surprising sudden burst of flames from the engine. As the only able-bodied person not busy with some other bullshit, it was up to him to take up the task of firefighting. Lionel ran to the fire extinguisher and fumbled around with it as he made his way back to the open fire. He was lucky enough that the knowledge of how to operate the tool was never forgotten, always tucked away in some dark recess of his mind, but at the same time, it was hard to get a proper handle of the pin and trigger when you were on a crashing ship and stakes were high. Silently, as he sprayed the fire extinguisher into the flaming engine, Lionel resolved that next time he found himself without a place to stay, he would not pick a Firefly ship.

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Well Carla certainly hadn't expected this turn of events to occur. They actually managed to stop the Reaver attack. But from the looks of things, they had sacrificed their ship's functionality, effective leaving them sitting ducks for the crew to pick up their target. Carla found her hand resting over her heart, which was accelerating in its rate of beating as her body felt like it was growing hotter and hotter. Oh anticipation was only going to sweeten the release to come.

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"You better hold onto to something!" she said as the ship started going down. Well, at least we don't have to deal with the Reavers. Unfortunately that means we go down and deal with the Alliance if we survive, she thought as she tried to steady the ship. That was kind of hard when you didn't have an engine anymore. The ship kept trying to go into a nosedive, and it required a lot of effort in order to keep the ship somewhat straight. The ship kept shifting, and she was hoping that no one would get seriously injured from this crash, or worse, end up dead.

She hated the thought of someone dying from a crash on a vessel she was steering. Though they all could die, so her own personal feelings about crashing were put aside. Her fear of the ship exploding when she hit the ground was more of a concern for her. Sounded like the engine was on fire or seriously falling apart. The odds were not in their favor for surviving the crash, however she had to admit that dying in a crash was better than being killed by Reavers.