Aboard The Revenant
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@Banana@Azereiah

"Ok, good first assault, time to back off a little.... bring us out and around for another rush" Stryker said as he monitored the control panel. Alot of the Revenant's weapons felt like patchwork jobs, whether that was from its years lost to the Deadzone or an intentional choice by the Alliance to sell it's persona as a pirate vessel, Stryker had no clue. Since he fired the opening salvo, he'd been running some basic program-subroutines on the weapons, and they'd just completed as he spoke.

"Main cannon's just about cooled off and the side cannons are finally online. I'm transferring my controls over to the co-pilot's seat and coming down there" He cut off the comms system in the forward battery and made his way down the ladder to join the pilot and gun crews towards the nose of the ship.
"Cycle out your heat sinks now while we have a chance" He said as he walked past the gunners and into the open door of the cockpit. With a sigh of relief, he collapsed into the co-pilot's chair.
"That's better" he said to no one in particular as he spun to run a control check on the cannons "Tibulus, carry her out a bit further, then hold for my signal... 2 more klicks or so, we'll throttle up to full burn and joust along their right side to maximize damage"
He tapped in to the squad comms for an update.
"Boarding party, status report"

-----------
Helsin Station Upper Cargo Bay/Crew Hangar
-----------
"Almost done with the welcome party" Grayson said into the comms as he slipped cover to return fire. He'd come down from his perch in the rafters for fear of being too exposed. Now he crouched at the base of a shipping container with SAL and a few of the combat drones.
"We've lost 3 of our bots" he said "Might wanna give em a little more in the way of self-preservation mate. Hold a minute"
He turned his attention to SAL.
"What say we give 'em the 'ol shadow striker?" He said as he reached to his wrist computer to engage his armor's camo function "Load in some explosive buckshot, what do ya think, silenced and using bloomer 7's?"
SAL responded quickly "Analysis is showing that would be effective, targets are susceptible to loss of mobility when targeting the torso base, loss of combat ability when targeting the left arm-shoulder joint, and loss of all functions when targeting the head"
"Yeah, I figured as much" Maverick shot back as he held a moment to let his rifle re-configure to a mid-range suppressed battle rifle. He loaded in a mag of 7.62 Shrapnel rounds, went invisible and snuck off to find appropriate cover and a good firing position. He heard SAL's shotgun blast out a steady thuwump of explosive rounds. Hell, if he didn't speed up, the robot might eradicate all the targets. He spotted the cluster of security bots, only 4 were still standing at this point, and though they'd all be scrap in a minute, they weren't giving up easy. Benny's virus must have worn off by now, as all 4 of them were concentrating fire on where he'd just left SAL and most of the crew. He posted up, froze for a second to allow the camo to smooth out, then took his first shot.

BLZZZRRRR The bullet had exploded upon contact into dozens of shards, shredding through the drone's head like a shotgun would a human's at point-blank. The bot flopped uselessly to the floor, sparking and spasming as it carried out it's last actions. A few seconds later and all the targets were down, either by Grayson's hand, or the others at the back end of the shooting gallery.
"Stryker? Grayson here. We just cleared the cargo bay. Everyone's still alive. Getting ready to move in deeper. What d'you reckon?"
"Split into two groups and work your way around the ring in opposite directions I guess" Stryker replied after a beat "Only way to ensure zero survivors. Keep an eye out for anything that looks Federation, or looks useful to us"
"Copy that" Grayson disengaged his camo and walked off to rejoin the others, he looked around at the group and posed a question.
"So how we gonna split this up?"
Belov, the Russian, seemed displeased "It does not matter how we divide ourselves. This is no fight, this is a massacre, there's nothing to be gained here" the large man turned and stomped off towards the doorway that led deeper into the station.
The sound of sudden laserfire shook Grayson, he turned to witness Belov go down, and beyond his prone form, a squad of Federation troopers, garbed in yellow full-body armor
"CONTACT!" Grayson shouted as he dived for cover. He fumbled with his comms "Stryker, we found the Federation, I repeat mate, we've got Federation troops up our arses!"

@Turbowraith@Tickout@BKburke@Dark Light@Xandrya@mackielars@Rultaos@PlatinumSkink

--------
On the Revenant
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The ship's sensors picked up movement from the station, something massive. Stryker pulled up a magnified view to see the Planet Cracker's main laser shaft beginning to tilt up in the general direction of the ship. A distinct red glow coming from it's end
"We've got problems of our own Grayson" Stryker said "We're mid-reload and the Planet Cracker is preparing to fire on us. Tibulus, fuck waiting for the reload, we're going in now, close that gap between us and the station now, before that laser turns us to dust!"

Joe Gore: Mechanic Extraordinaire

"God dammit Joe, you did it again." The man's voice echoed briefly across the holding cell. Not only had the rest of his, uh, potential allies suffered a case of hole through the skull, but he had found himself in a very familiar situation. Once again, some giant faceless conglomerate had managed to involve poor Joe in a mess that once again seemed inescapable. Smart bastards didn't even let him keep the toolbox. He could've gotten out in less than a jiffy if they hadn't taken the damn thing. Worst part, all of his gear was stored in a cargo unit no more than fifteen seconds away, probably in the very same corridor his impromptu cell was in. Pure torture.

Now, Joe had never seen a rig quite like this before, but by the looks of it, it had great similarities with the significally weaker FT-68 models. As for the guys that ran it? Well. They didn't like humans, judging from his dead co-slaves. And, being far enough from the command deck, he had no clue what to-

Combat sounds. Someone had broken into the cargo bay. Jack-fucking-pot. Without a second thought, not even to think about how obscenely lucky he got, Joe began to vigorously bang at the heavy steel door, and, sliding the small viewing slot open, screamed at the top of his lungs.

"Over here! Over here! The bastards have me locked up! Get me out goddamit!"

"On it! Hold on to something!"

After quickly tapping his cigar to rid it of the ash that was collecting on the tip, Tibulus grabbed the wheel with both of his hands and performed the ballsiest of maneuvers with the ship he was driving at the moment. He turned the ship around with some incredible prowess, making it take an almost complete 180, and aiming it directly at the mining rig. It was there that Tibulus noticed the mining laser was powering up, and preparing to unload a nasty shot at the Revenant. Was this going to happen? Not on his watch it wasn't!

Tibulus spoke back to Stryker as he aimed the ship, getting it into the optimal trajectory that would allow the crew manning the guns to barrage the rig and hopefully keep the laser from being able to fire at the ship. Key word there being "hopefully". "Gunning it now! Prepare to do the same!"

Once Tibulus finished his sentence, the ship lurched forward with sheer intensity, aiming at the side of the rig.

@Crossfire@Azereiah

So, the dagger Lataniva obviously thrust straight through the leg of the target. With the unnatural speed combined with a combat-knife’s sharpness cracked in and fell the target, prohibiting continued escape. Lataniva ran after, absent-mindedly pulling the dagger out again with psionic powers, making it fly out of the wound and back into her hand to be pocketed again, blood and all. Then, the miner having dropped forward from the movement, Lataniva jumped and drove her knees into his back, keeping him in place by placing her halberd at his neck.

She unhelpfully told the injured being as she placed a hand on his head and started doing her thing.

Now, a crash-course in how Dalentian mind-reading works. Memory is signals from very specific atoms in the mind, and Dalentians can turn that into a picture for their own viewing in their own head. However, they need somewhere to start from, or the mind is just a tangled mess. The keyword this time was pretty easy.

Helsin Station

Immediately upon imbuing the word, the memories associated with the station lighted up in the victim’s head. A mental picture of the station appeared, and Lataniva could sense the sparks of memory lighting up. Then… first things first, she cross-checked the memory of Helsin Station with Federation Outpost, and oversaw what came up. Memories associated with both would come up, and Lataniva would learn if there was a connection… if the miner knew, obviously. She couldn’t read a connection that the miner didn’t have.

She then went ahead and read for a cross-check between Helsin Station and Secrets, forcing the miner to recall any secrets they were trying to keep here. Also, she made him recall the people in charge, as well as the location of any control-rooms and otherwise the geography of the station as the miner knew it, and where those miners were currently fleeing. Perhaps also a little about what kind of security they had here, and if he had any passwords in his mind that she would have use of.

Of course, there was the possibility the miner didn’t know anything. Then this was a waste of time.

Then… she heard the call about Federation troops. Depending on what she might have leached out of the miner’s head, this may or may not have surprised her. Regardless, she smirked, for these definitely knew more than the miner did.

Not even bothering to finish off the miner bleeding out underneath her, Lataniva dashed at the doorway with halberd prepared. It didn’t even matter to her if they aimed for her. She could dodge their fire, shifting her weight back and forth in ways that would make one ask why she was wearing armor, her psionic awareness making her aware of where they were aiming. Even if she found that there were any blasts she couldn’t avoid, she’d simply use her psionic telekinesis to push their weapon-arms aside, making them aim at walls or even their allies.

If the full-body armor had any weak points in the slightest, some place that wasn’t entirely protected where limbs were to move, Lataniva would see it and slice or stab at it with her halberd. Close combat did not mean loss of awareness of surrounding enemies to her as it did to others, chaos and confusion would be her ally as she charged right in at them.

Maxi was very, very useless in all the fighting. His first instinct had been to take cover behind the first thing he could, which were a few boxes of something or another he didn’t plan on checking. It looked to him like the majority of the enemies were firing upon Grayson and co., or the ones actually doing the shooting. Lucky him. He kept his head low and his bot to his chest as all the fire whizzed around him, and he didn’t poke his head out until it was absolutely safe. Damn, these people knew how to clear a room.

He whistled as he sat back up from where he was hiding, carrying his cube over to the now gathered together group. “Geez, you guys demolished those bots. Nice” he said, though mostly to himself. It looked like no one was injured, which made his job about ten times easier. He listened when Stryker announced the plan through the comms, and Grayson asked how they’d split. Someone he hadn’t has the (mis)pleasure of meeting spoke before him, and headed off before anyone else put in input. Rude. He pouted a little bit and hoped to pipe up in suggestion, but he didn’t have the chance. The next thing he knew, men armed to the teeth and wearing a very unmistakable uniform came charging into the room. Grayson spelled it out verbally, but by that time he was already well aware of the danger he was in.

The second he saw the threat he kicked into motion, hiding back behind the boxes he was at before. These were troops, not just regular bots; push come to shove, he’d have to try fighting. He put his bot under one arm (the fact that it was broken and he had to carry it in such a dangerous situation made him twice as angry at the dense moron who broke it) and took out the laser gun Grayson had lent him. It would be impossible for him to reload the ballistic at all while he had to carry his bot, so the laser seemed the best choice. There was no way in hell he’d leave his cover to start firing, however; only if someone came to him and he had no choice. He’d die if he started firing like some of these people.

---

---

Tibulus had said to "hold on", but none of the Revenant's current occupants could feel even the slightest shift during the sudden burn. The Tower had gained access to artificial gravity control and compensated for the movements it was told to pass to the reaction control thrusters and mainsail engines. The Tower, in its only semi-conscious mind, understood the threat the ship was facing and didn't merely pass through the controls inputted, but pushed them beyond safe limits.

Tibulus's navigation computer showed the ship as pulling 10G in acceleration - more than enough to knock the human crew unconscious, and yet the pilot's seat was as comfortable as always. The computer also showed that the engines were receiving 115% of the maximum possible control input. The Revenant was not flying like it usually did. It was far too smooth.

---

"Heat sinks are still good, sir," Rento replied to Stryker as he passed. They were still running at full efficiency. "Lining up a spare set for immediate switch on command, though. Should be ready to nearly melt down the guns twice over in a few seconds."

Feathering and abusing the controls had given the joysticks at the gunnery stations something to bitch about, but lacking voices, their complaints went unheard. The rest of the system, however, was grateful for not being half-melted by constant fire. Rento waited patiently for the target to be within effective firing range and set the focal points of all of the turrets under her command to the distance the Revenant would be passing within at its closest point -- only a few hundred meters.

An idea struck her midway through adjusting the guns, a short while before the pass at the station's beam array. A very, very important idea. One that shouldn't have taken so long to pop into her head -- clearly having a mechanical brain hadn't made her a faster thinker. She shouted up toward the cockpit, "Uh, sir... Isn't there a communications array we should knock out or something? I mean, I love a good fight and all, but I don't want the fucking navy showing up without an invitation."

@Crossfire@Banana

Amy lowered her weapon, but didn't put it away as she left it dangling by her side.

"You scared the hell out of me, you know that?" she replied, trying to ease the tension between the two of them as she unconsciously took a step back. "I went after one of the workers who slipped through the door. He thought he could get away, and he obviously succeeded." She sighed, looking behind her. "If you want we can split up and go after him, or I can resume the hunt by myself."

She hoped that by giving him two options to choose from, Arex would either leave her alone or go off on his own to search for a ghost.

@Dark Light

"Bullshit!" He snapped back at her. It wasn't due to a lack in her performance, her act was convincing, even his assistive tech couldn't detect the tell-tale signs of someone lying. No his accusations were built on instinct, intuition and a gut feeling. Of course the intensive background search aided greatly.

Despite Amy's highly political activism, there was much information on her that was extremely difficult to find due to large periods of her life being inaccessible or non existent thanks to either her own extreme effort to remain off the grid or potentially some very powerful people deliberately erasing her past.
But Arex, or at least something they had installed in him, was very good at gathering information.

Arex had come to believe if Amy was sneaking off on her own then there were bigger things at hand. Things that he perhaps wanted to know about or be a part off. He nods in the direction she was previously going as he makes it clear he is ready to follow.

Amy was becoming more irritated by the second. Arex refused to leave her alone, and now she'd have to find a way to get him off her case. She didn't particularly like when people didn't mind their own business, but she should always expect to deal with nosy people given the nature of her job, and Arex was no different this case.

"Fine! You're more than welcomed to stick around," she then lowered her voice to a whisper so he didn't hear her as she turned around to keep walking, "it's not like I have a choice anyway..."

Amy scrambled to find a reason to get away from Arex, but she was coming up empty-handed. If they both happened to come across her father before she was able to get rid of him, then someone was more than likely going to be killed, and she didn't want that for any of them.

@Dark Light

@Banana@Azereiah@Turbowraith@Tickout@BKburke@Dark Light@Xandrya@mackielars@Rultaos@PlatinumSkink

Stryker looked on in awe as the ship bobbed and weaved around the crimson-red beam of the Planet Cracker, queuing his weapons to prepare for firing. Out of curiosity, he summoned up a feed from the ship's rear-mounted camera and witnessed the devastating power of the mining lasers. Chunks of a destroyed moon floated in the empty nothingness, spiraling with the residual inertia of the blast. Even as the ship cleared the main cannon, they were still subject to incoming fire from the smaller laser arrays. Stryker gulped down the shock of that sight, ordered the pilot to up their rear shield output, and turned his attention back to the task at hand.

"No need to worry about comms Rento, I forgot for a moment you weren't around to hear our planning. We had one of our team's specialists take care of that as soon as we launched the shuttles. Not that it was of any real concern. We're still technically in Alliance space, though I guess the borders between Human and Republic space have shifted a little in the last few years" Stryker stated matter-of-factly to the android "Used to be a couple of human colonies in this system, but it was evacuated during the Corvais War, and in the aftermath, designated a no-man's land out of respect for the billions of lives that were lost here. This fucking station has no business being here, so we're fragging it. Now, eyes on your controls, we're coming up on the target"

"OPEN FIRE" Stryker commanded "Tibulus, cut us across now, give me a clean shot on the rear of that connecting joint"
He went about establishing a tri-point weapons lock on the laser and waited for the ship to drift into just the right position
"Firing main cannons.... now" He pulled the trigger and once-more was blinded by the brilliant blue beams that rocketed forward from the top and side-mounted weapons. It blazed forward, heading directly for the acquired target, and with a flash, landed flush.

The Planet Cracker had been cracked.

The long tube splintered from it's connecting joint and fell away from the 'pivot dish' that had allowed it's manueverability, as well as the remainder of the station. A tragic flaw in an otherwise unstoppable weapon. Stryker couldn't help but let out a whoop of excitement.
"Alright, excellent job everybody, I guess now all we gotta do is keep peppering the station until the crew finishes up and signals for pick..... wait"
One of the ship's scanners had detected a sudden surge of energy, coming from the point they'd just severed the mining laser off of. Stryker brought up a holographic, zoomed-in view of the discrepancy, and his face shifted from joy to horror.
"Tibulus, get us away from here, now! Gun crew, disengage and buckle up! The station still has the laser's primary ignition source on there and if these scans are correct, the main regulator has been destroyed. Any second now, that little nub out there is gonna erupt with raw untapped energy. No way for anyone on the station to control it, even if they suddenly decided to stop trying to kill us. So as of now, we're subject to the whims of the universe"

Stryker sat back in his seat and buckled in, things were about to get pretty hectic out here. He looked across the cockpit to Tibulus.
"Hope you haven't used all your fancy pilot tricks yet. When that thing blows, we could have to dodge a different beam every couple seconds, might as well get some distance on it now"
He decided to inform the crew.

-----

Grayson's comms chirped to life just as the ground crew finished off the Federation squad. He tapped into the line to hear Stryker speak as he walked over to check on Belov.
"Squad, status report?"
Grayson turned Belov face up. He hadn't made it. A frag grenade must've blown a hole in his suit, and from there the Federation troops had lit him up with their lasers. His chest was a mess of congealed blood and cauterized holes. Grayson took Belov's gun and knife waved over Maxi, just to confirm it more than anything and to give the kid the Russian's medical supplies, then responded.
"Maverick here, we just encountered a few Federation troops, all targets eliminated, but we lost Belov. How you all holding up mate?"
"Well, good news and bad news out here" Stryker responded over the increasingly-crackly comms "The good news is we've taken out their main means of defense, the Planet Cracker. The bad news is, we're still under fire, they must've updated the design of these damn mining lasers. The firing array and the primary ignition source are still active inside the base-level of the station. Now this presents to us a unique opportunity to take care of this place in one-fell swoop. Benjamin, I want you to take SAL, Arex, and Holmström and proceed down to the base-level, secure the area, then plant the charges you brought. Reply with estimated detonator range and longest possible fuse time. We're gonna use your explosives to blast a hole above the ignition source. That'll disrupt the flow of energy and destroy the base from the inside-out. Grayson, you carry on with the others, proceed upwards to take out any remaining Federation forces and try to find some intel on what they're doing here. We have a tight deadline here so no pussyfooting around"

"Permission to pussyfoot for just a second boss man?" Grayson responded, his eye implant picking up a sign of life in a room just off the cargo bay, he walked towards it "Yup, we got a human here, prisoner. Looks a bit banged up, but otherwise intact. What do we do with him?"
He paused for Stryker's response, then nodded towards the grease-covered man.
"How're ya? Call me Maverick, listen uh, you know your way around here do ya? Clearly ye're in here for a reason, and yer not Federation, so the boss thinks we can cut a deal. We'll free ya, give ya a gun, all that. You help us out, we won't leave ya here when this station gets blasted to the heavens, how's that sound mate?"

After a good amount of vigorous, infuriated banging and screaming, a man donning a nifty ballistic suit approached the door of his cell and introduced himself. Thankfully he wasn't hostile, but his somewhat casual introduction served to further aggravate the already on edge Joe. Replying with an increasingly loud voice and occasional yelling, while dripping with white-hot rage and gallows sarcasm, he bought his face uncomfortably close to the door's open slot.

"Why hello there. Name's Joe, and I'm doing pretty well considering that I'M IMPRISONED IN A GODDAMN WAR ZONE. So how about you get me the EVERLOVING FUCK OUTTA HERE, and I'll greasemonkey all of your problems into nonexistance in a fucking jiffy."

"Also, I have my own goddamn guns."

The still fuming man stepped away from the door, in hopes of the friendly supertrooper having some sort of means to blast it open. Staring silently through the still-open slot, he crossed his arms and awaited, a constant scowl never leaving his face.

_@Crossfire

"I'm an ace pilot, Stryker. I always have tricks up my sleeve."

With that, Tibulus followed the orders given to him by his "captain", and he jettisoned out of the danger zone that he was in. Once he was in an optimal spot to turn around, he did, halting the ship as he turned. After everything was said and done, he had his ship facing towards the now-cracked Planet Cracker. With a partial unzip of his jumpsuit, a rather skinny root shot out of the opening freed by his jumpsuit and it took hold of the steering, while Tibulus' arms could focus on other controls of the ship. The lights in the eyes of the Funganoid glew brighter as he did these actions.

"Funganoids. We have our advantages. Don't question the root and we'll be a-okay." Once he said that, the skeletal pilot stared head-longingly into the vacuum of space, waiting for the order to move in after the rig's explosion. The only noise that could be heard in the meantime would be the sound of the fan constructed by Tibulus.

@Crossfire@Azereiah

Matija was peering from the kitchen when Jack shot the shit out of the medical bot which sent Stryker running down to scream at them. ”Cute,” she thought, though wholly unnecessary since that floating cube could have saved one of their lives in the near future. But before she could walk away, Stryker gave finally gave them the order. ”…Now, everybody breathin, pile into shuttle 1. They gotta purge the air in shuttle 2 so Grayson can get his shot, and we don't have that many airtanks, so sorry if some of you are uneasy with your shuttle-mates, but that's all we can do. Good hunting guys.“ It seems that the fun is about to start, so she headed towards her room when the commotion died down a bit and suited up.

The crew had assembled in the cargo bay by the time the alarm rang. It made Matija more excited. They were finally about to leave this boring-ass ship and actually do SOMETHING other than waste away in the coldness of space. While they were heading in their own respective shuttles, something caught Matija’s eye. Is… Is that. Is that the alliance ZR-98 Heavy Sniper Rifle??? She asked herself, face visibly showing disgust. ”Ugliest and most redundant rifle ever. What the hell is about that thing, anyway? Gravitation field emitter? Good on locations with gravity, maybe, if you’re an amateur. But god, that thing is so redundant in space. What would a field emitter do in the vacuum anyway? Remove the already absent air resistance? Remove the friction that isn’t there? Shield the bullet from the gods? WHAT?! DID NO ONE STUDY PHYSICS WHEN THEY PROPOSED THIS?!” If anyone were to look, the distress and annoyance was very obvious in Matija’s face as she continuously debated to herself how useless that thing is in her eyes.

---

”So much for a smooth entry.” She was commenting on the fact that the facility did not accept their bullshit. Their shuttle lurched towards the open cargo bay which she used as a good reason as any to put on her suit’s helmet, and off they went to bask in the carnage. Personally, she preferred being near the medic as one, his guard, and two, for her own safety. Still, they tried to push through the expanse of the robotic guards when she noticed that Lataniva was heading towards the direction that the miners went to. She briefly got reminded of the thought of children on board where she secretly hoped that there really were no children aboard regardless of how convoluted that possibility may be. Matija chose to remain in the cargo bay with the others to whittle down these annoying bots, however. It would be best to lessen the possibility of being flanked by the enemies, especially when they push forward later.

"Boomer here. I sent a virus to tha' two drones in the back o' their lines. Try not to shoot them for the next 48 seconds so they can kill some o' their friends until the virus wears off." She instinctively nodded at this as she riddles the nearest bot with bullets on its head, and so on.

---

"Almost done with the welcome party," affirmed Grayson before he cleared out the stragglers in the room. Matija was still a bit on edge. She got a little careless by the end of it and almost got hit on the face by a passing beam from the bots. She wished that person was here to keep her rooted, since that wouldn’t have happened if that person was around. Their two superiors talked about splitting up in opposite directions. She doesn’t mind that. It would make it easier for all of them. There was an odd noise somewhere, though. She wasn’t exactly sure where it was coming from and what it was saying. All she knew was that there something making noise. She ignored it for now, thinking that it may be some person asking Lataniva or something for mercy. Hell if she knew. Then, Grayson shouted about Federation troopers. Jumping back into cover, Matija saw the Russian guy’s body on the ground and grinned. He would be her excuse to get close and personal.

With caution thrown out of the window, Matija holstered one of her pistols and pulled out one of her tanto swords. She opted to sneak around a bit to try and get behind enemy lines. Get a few slashes and stabs as she tries to get behind enemy lines. She was able to down a few of them before she could get on a good angle for the most of them where she would shoot and take potshots every now and then on. This allowed her to become a little more useful to their mission, even if she did almost get hit so many times already. Thankfully, the rush of adrenaline in her veins made it easier for her to shrug off the shock that would otherwise affect her functions if she were someone else.

---

As the dead bodies increased, so did the calm in the room. She didn’t see who killed the last Fed guy, but a tense moment of silence filled the room before someone confirmed that all hostiles were eliminated. It was then that Grayson moved towards the source of the banging earlier and saw… a man or something? He seemed equally relieved as he was tense, and also very very pissed. That was disregarding the fact that he was filthy. Matija made a face under her helmet, not that anyone could see, about the man’s state.

Someone tried the door, but it was expectedly locked regardless of how much they tried to force it open. That’s reinforced steel and locks for you. She shrugged at it, thinking that it wasn’t her problem, and moved out to wait on orders from the bomb guy so she’ll know what to do. She wasn’t exactly an expert on explosives after all.

He was surprised and relieved that cowarding out of things yet again led to his safety. He was sure some straggler would find him and he’d have to try engaging in combat, but it looked like this team was really good at killing off enemies before they got anywhere. Probably enjoyed it. Good thing he wasn’t their enemy~. He popped his head out from behind the crate just in time to catch Grayson gesturing for him. Looked like someone had been shot. Oop, he had to do his job. Hoisting his medical bot back up and putting his gun back, he made his way over to the man. He rested a hand on a part of his chest and put his head down to try catching any breathing. Nope, nada. This was definitely a corpse.

“Yeah, hate to break it to ya Grayson, but I can’t bring back the dead. And this dudes’ very dead.” he frowned as he spoke before standing back up from his inspection. He felt kind of bad. He could have prevented this. If he wasn’t hiding and he knew how to fight, he could have gotten to him sooner. Hell, if he had put some focus into using his powers, he probably would have survived. Erm, probably. There were no such things as certainties. Maybe it’d be beneficial to focus his abilities and put them more to use. It’d give him a headache, but he wanted to up the safety of as many people as he could. But it could be dangerous to show his skills off to his crew so soon. Ahh, this was stressful; he’d deal with it later. Maybe. He cleared his thoughts and instead focused on the present. Present as in the maniac screaming at them from a jail cell.

He poked his head to the side to see past Grayson, watching the chaos unfold. It was pretty amusing watching the dude lose his temper, though Maxi kept a flat face to hide the fact that he was getting a good mental chuckle out of it. He didn’t want to, you know, anger an already angry person that had access to guns and was barely even on their side. Especially when the man probably had a lot more experience in the realm of fighting. Better to let Grayson, an equally tall and scary dude, deal with it instead of himself. He knew he was small enough to come off as a joke. The glasses really didn’t help with that image, either.

@Turbowraith@Crossfire

As the last security drone collapsed on the ground, Benny waited for a few moments to make sure that the laser-fire fully stopped before peeking out of cover. Sure enough, the security drones had been reduced to scrap. Grayson began communicating a status report to their boss, Stryker. All things considered, their first assault went well. The only casualties they took were some of the drones, but it was a fair trade in a fight.

Stryker's voice came through their comms as he responded to Grayson's report. "Split into two groups and work your way around the ring in opposite directions I guess. Only way to ensure zero survivors. Keep an eye out for anything that looks Federation, or looks useful to us" He said. Grayson acknowledged it and went down to join the others to decide how they were going to divide their team.

"I dinnae realy care much where ya send me. S'long as I'm bein' sent to where the fun's at." Benny said, with his voice slightly muffled by his sealed helmet. The Russian medic, Belov, seemed to disagree with the bomber's sentiments. "It does not matter how we divide ourselves. This is no fight, this is a massacre, there's nothing to be gained here" Belov said as he walked off on his own. A huge mistake considering what happened next.

More lasers suddenly erupted from the hallway that Belov was about to head down through, and the large man was shot down in the hail of fire, taking at least 1 grenade blast in the process.

"CONTACT!" Grayson shouted as he dived for cover. Benny did the same as he braced himself against a pillar. "Looks like the fun found us!" Benny exclaimed as he tightened his grip on his rifle. He peeked out the right side of the pillar slightly, firing a short blind burst from his gun. He ducked back into cover quickly, before firing another quick burst out of the right side, getting back behind the pillar as laser fire began hitting his cover. Then he grabbed a frag grenade from one of his front pockets, hit the timed detonator, and counted down.

"1 yellow yeti, 2 yellow yeti, 3 yellow yeti..." He mumbled to himself before quickly tossing the grenade through the left side of the pillar, the side they weren't suppressing. The explosive flew through the air and exploded right in front of the group of yellow-armored Federation soldiers, causing them to stagger, while the one at the very front collapsed backwards cushioned only by their tail. Pieces of shrapnel sticking out of the glass portions of their helmets where they began oozing alien blood showed that they weren't getting back up. Meanwhile, two of the ladies on their team (Lataniva and that Sandra lady) closed the distance to engage the Federation troopers at short range. With the rest of them pinning down the soldiers with gunfire as the two women began cutting them up from behind, it was safe to say that these soldiers were screwed.

---

At the end of their next firefight, Grayson and Maxi confirmed that they had taken their first real casualty, and it was one of the medics of all people. Benny knew this wasn't a good sign, but he also knew that the idiot deserved it for wandering off alone without thinking that there may have been another threat around the corner. Benny felt a slight rumble go across the station just as Grayson ent to contact Stryker again.

"Maverick here, we just encountered a few Federation troops, all targets eliminated, but we lost Belov. How you all holding up mate?" He said.

"Well, good news and bad news out here" Stryker said in between the crackling of their comm systems. "The good news is we've taken out their main means of defense, the Planet Cracker. The bad news is, we're still under fire, they must've updated the design of these damn mining lasers. The firing array and the primary ignition source are still active inside the base-level of the station. Now this presents to us a unique opportunity to take care of this place in one-fell swoop." He continued, thus explaining the rumble that Benny had felt earlier.

"Benjamin, I want you to take SAL, Arex, and Holmström and proceed down to the base-level, secure the area, then plant the charges you brought. Reply with estimated detonator range and longest possible fuse time. We're gonna use your explosives to blast a hole above the ignition source. That'll disrupt the flow of energy and destroy the base from the inside-out. Grayson, you carry on with the others, proceed upwards to take out any remaining Federation forces and try to find some intel on what they're doing here. We have a tight deadline here so no pussyfooting around" Stryker ordered.

Benny was about to reply when Grayson piped up again. "Permission to pussyfoot for just a second boss man?" He said as he scanned the area and walked about. "Yup, we got a human here, prisoner. Looks a bit banged up, but otherwise intact. What do we do with him?" He asked. Stryker told him to essentially get as much use out of the man as he could.

While Grayson and Maxi went to deal with this unexpected prisoner aboard a mining vessel, Benny turned to the others.

"Alright! We get ta' have the special honor of blastin' this hunk o' metal into oblivion so let's not screw it up. S'much as I like seein' things go kablooie, I dinnae like the thought of going up in flames with them." He said as he approached the people he had been assigned with. Benny wasn't too sure what to make of their skills, but Stryker was the one who held all the dossiers so he'd have to trust their judgment. The name Holmström was unfamiliar to him, but seeing as the Sandra woman approached their group he assumed that she was the one being referred to.

"Right! So since the robot and the cyborg have a better chance of takin' hits and living than most of us, I say they take point while me and Sandra cover the rear and watch fo-" Benny stopped abruptly as he looked around and realized that Arex was nowhere to be found. Now that he thought about it, the Amy woman disappeared as well.

"Oi! Where did that bloody cyborg scamper off to? We're short on time and these bombs aren't goin' ta' arm themselves!" Benny exclaimed in annoyance. He was finally given the chance to make some excitement happen and they were being delayed because someone decided to have some alone time. Benny paced around trying to look for signs of him but there was no such luck, tapping his foot impatiently the whole time.

"This is bloody stupid... Captain, your cyborg's gone missing. Can we blow this shithole apart without 'em?" Benny asked Stryker through the comms. Though it had barely been a couple minutes since he noticed that Arex was gone, the adrenaline and energy rushing through his veins from the previous firefight was making him restless. Staying still for too long in that state was torture, especially with the promise of seeing a whole station go up in flames being dangled in front of him.

Arex

As Amy turned her back to Arex a dark sinister smile took hold of the corner of his mouth. Orange lines began to infiltrate the irises of his eyes as something robotic activated behind them. Were she not so distracted by thoughts of her father maybe she would have noticed what was happening.
With an unnaturally smooth and precise silent motion, Arex delivered a large over head strike and his plasma blade punctured vertically down right through the spine of Amy's GRX Mach 2 powered armour severing its power core and potentially crippling its functions.

Three single bullets erupted from his gun almost simultaneously. At a near point blank they delivered a powerful whopping force to the flexible joint at the back of each knee and at the heaviest armoured part at the back of her head.
Painful but nothing fatal.

When the sudden surprise and echoing of the last bullet faded, Arex was gone and his comm piece lay on the floor. His final leaving words resonating with Amy
"It may not seem it but this is a courtesy. Go back! Don't try to save him."

@Banana@Azereiah@Turbowraith@Tickout@BKburke@Dark Light@Xandrya@mackielars@Rultaos@PlatinumSkink

SAL had tried manually unlocking the cell door, but his knowledge of Federation security systems was woefully out of date. Instead, he motioned for Grayson to step back from the door, loaded an explosive shell into his shotgun and blasted the lock into dust.

"Congratulations, you've been rescued" the robot said to Joe.
"Yeah, welcome to the family mate" Grayson said offhand as he surveyed the area, looking for any sign of their MIA squadmates. Stryker's voice broke through the comms.

"That's strange, I'm not picking up any signs from either of them, their IFF signals are just gone. We can salvage this though. I'm taking manual control of one of the drones to get a firsthand look"

Platform 116's faceplate flickered for a moment as it handed over control to Stryker's datapad. It rotated as Stryker took a look around, then twisted to look at Joe. His voice now came directly from a speaker on the drone.
"Joe is it? I'm Stryker, from what I'm hearing from my crew, seems like we can help each other out. You're a mechanic? That's good. Not sure if you heard the little exchange just now, or know what's going on, but anyway the short version is we're here to destroy this station, and we've just lost one of our more technically-aligned crewmembers, and I'm guessing you know your way around? That's the case, how about you lend our Scottish friend there, Benny, a hand? He's taking a team down to the reactor level to plant some explosives. You show him how to get there and we'll take you with us when we leave, simple. Grayson, I'm sending along the location for the last ping I got from Amy's suit, head that way before you move up, I'll send the drones we have left in the opposite direction, they won't be able to ID Amy as a friendly if her IFF tag is busted. Get a move on"

Grayson nodded at the drone, a radar ping appeared in his suit's HUD, leading the way.
"Maxi, Saul, Lataniva... shall we?" He headed off for the door.

SAL fell in behind Benny, and nodded down at the human.
"I am ready to assist"

----

Back on the ship, Stryker finished off assigning the drones' duty, then turned back to the task at hand.
"Turn the shields to full-forward" Stryker said "First burst will be coming any second, get ready"
Next he addressed the gun crew "There's not a whole lot you guys can do right now, but quick enough reflexes, you all might be able to help the ship absorb a bit of damage if you fire on the energy offshoots at the right angle. I've seen some vids on it a few years back. Keep your eyes up on it"

The scanners flashed red, the mangled nub at the base of the mining station had overloaded, and a beam of energy shot out, wild and unfocused, it swept widely across the system in erratic motions, small offshoots like lightning bolts blasted out at awkward angles.
"Drop us down behind the Planet Cracker, we can use that hunk of space junk as a barrier between us and the beams!"

The sudden pressure on her back a split second before total darkness engulfed her led Amy to realize that Arex had attacked her while she had her back turned to him. Almost simultaneously, three bullets hit her—one to the back of each knee, and the last one right above her neck. Such force took her down almost instantaneously, that and the fact that her armor had just become 10 times heavier.

"Arex!" Her voice echoed off the walls after he'd warned her to stay away from her father. But how could she? And why would she trust him now after he'd nearly killed her? Not too surprisingly, she was met with only silence.

Amy lay on the ground for a few minutes unable to move, the pain she felt on numerous parts of her body not helping any. But the one nagging thought about her father prevented her from doing nothing as she waited for help. With one shaky hand, Amy pressed a button on the side of her armor and was finally able to break free from its confinement. She struggled to get up, but eventually she was on her feet again, this time wearing a simple black tank top, matching below-the-knee leggings, and white socks. She took a few steps forward to find the wall when she heard some footsteps approaching. Amy couldn't help but tense up, thinking that maybe Arex was back to kill her for good.

Joe released a drawn-out sigh of relief as he saw the door being blasted open by what he assumed to be a shotgun shell, judging by the distinct sound before the breach. He had no time to rejoice, however, as it had been made clear beforehand that these folks, (even that one short four-eyed guy who was hiding behind his liberator) weren't exactly of the altruistic sort. After responding with a confused scoff to the android, since he wasn't particularly familiar with (or fond of) artificial intelligences, he turned towards the armored soldier of fortune or whatever the hell he was. "Yeah, yeah. My gear's two doors to the left, be a lamb and blow that open for me too." He motioned with his thumb. Before he could even begin moving towards said storage room, however, another yet unknown party's voice blared through some sort of intercom system.

And then, while the apparent commander of the bunch addressed Gore, it hit him. His release and the firefight's end had given him the time needed to actually process what was going on with a relatively clear head. And so, Joe's expression shifted from neutral to that of a profound 'what the flying fuck', and the grim realization took hold. "You numbskulled sons a'bitches are about to actually try and blow up a planet cracker bigger than an FT-68 variant. Hope your explosives are timed well, and your ship's fast, because if we're anywhere near that thing when it goes kablooey, I can guarantee that we'll all be turned into cosmic confetti." The mechanic rubbed the back of his neck, and slowly moved his head to the side, producing a series of audible cracks. A desperate smirk slowly creeped into his face.

"That being said, let's get rolling."

_{@Crossfire@Tickout}

"That's strange, I'm not picking up any signs from either of them, their IFF signals are just gone. We can salvage this though. I'm taking manual control of one of the drones to get a firsthand look" Stryker replied to Benny's update.

"Ach! Whatever gets us movin' faster, boss." Benny replied impatiently. Using one of the combat drones, Stryker spoke to the imprisoned mechanic and briefed them on the current situation, assigning him to be part of Benny's group as the man appeared to have knowledge on the layout of the station. The man asked to have his gear retrieved before he acknowledged the task presented before him.

"You numbskulled sons a'bitches are about to actually try and blow up a planet cracker bigger than an FT-68 variant. Hope your explosives are timed well, and your ship's fast, because if we're anywhere near that thing when it goes kablooey, I can guarantee that we'll all be turned into cosmic confetti... That being said, let's get rolling." The man said.

"S'long as no one sits on the detonator on the way out we should 'ave time to pull our asses out of the impendin' galactic fire" Benny replied, shrugging his arms while holding his BR7. He wasn't too worried, the timed fuses of the bomb would last for as long as 2 hours and 30 minutes, based on what he knew about standard Alliance-grade explosive charges. That was more than enough time to travel through the station and get the Revenant a safe distance away from the ensuing chain reaction of the Planet-Cracker's destruction. As long as the bombs didn't malfunction, or some brave soul manages to defuse them before they went off, the station was as good as gone. In either case, Benny sure as hell wasn't going to be a hero and come back to blow it up manually if something did go wrong.

Grayson's AI robot SAL came up to him, small shotgun in hand. "I am ready to assist" The construct said.

"Right then, let's get these bad boys tickin'. Mr. Prisoner o' War here can lead tha' way to the reactor level with our robot friend." Benny said to the main group, gesturing to Joe. "If it all goes to shite, ya' can use the robot for cover. The lass and I will follow closely behind ta' make sure none o' the bastards get the jump on us. When we get ta' the reactor level I should be able to find the best spots to pop these explosive cherries to tear the station's laser shaft a new one. Then we run like bats outta Hell back the way we came. And if any o' you get left behind for some stupid bloody reason I ain't comin' ta' fetch ya'" Benny said to the whole team in general.

"Plan clear enough? Good, now let's get to it before these Federation bastards figure out our crazy-arse idea" Benny asked without waiting for an answer as he had their group move forward. Leading a team was definitely not one of his strong points, but at least they were likely to listen to him about where they would have to be to make the bombs work, and how to get to a safe distance.

Tibulus raised the shields of the ship with haste while staring towards the rig. He had used his root and left hand to do these two things, and his other hand was busy fumbling around on a console to his side. If anyone was to notice what he was doing, it would be that he was trying to figure out the controls to one of the free guns on the ship, possibly to return some fire to rig because he felt kind of unused at the moment. Sure he was intent on dodging all the fire that would quickly be coming at the ship.

The ship flew behind the planet cracker with respectable agility as the free hand found control of one of the guns, aiming it towards the imminent explosion. "In position."