Their new recruit seemed pretty cooperative, leading Maxi to be more or less indifferent to the conversation going on between him and Grayson and Stryker. Maxi himself didn’t stick out as a threat at all, so the odds of being addressed or harassed were minimal. He stayed quiet as Stryker gave the plans to their new friend (word used loosely), and Maxi just gave the dude a big smile when he commented on how nuts this whole thing was. “Yep, we’re blowin’ this place up. Well, technically, you’re in that department. Good luck, dude”. The fresh blood- er, new recruit didn’t exactly look totally chill at the idea, but that really wasn’t his problem. He gave the newbie a wave goodbye before turning his attention back to his group.

“Yep yep, Grayson, ready to go” he responded, giving a thumbs up with his free hand. He looked rather calm, though inside he was a little scared for what lay ahead. He was in capable hands, but juuuust for safety's sake he close to use his abilities to … ah, measure the odds. He closed his eyes for a second as his mind sensed the world and ran through possibilities and choices, of staying with the group of splitting up, to measure what chance of death he had. Just from what he could tell with his powers then, staying with the group meant a very, very low chance of death. Nice. Though, to assure those odds, Maxi would have to keep his powers active to tell what actions in the future would alter his chance of death. Got too keep those odds low, after all. His self check had him calm down from his prior worries; there was a pretty high chance he’d be not dead for the time being.

For Matija, Benny’s voice was thankfully not grating. Unfortunately, she could barely understand the guy because of his thick accent. ”Common for excited folks,” she thought to herself. By the looks of the guy, she seems right so far. This Benny fellow was talking about them taking the rear while using Jack and the robot as their meat shields. That was, until the Scotsman realized that there was no Jack to speak of and started getting restless, much like a child on a sugar rush. The Scotsman and Grayson were talking about Jack and the blind girl going missing. Matija looked around and realized that she never really saw them throughout the rest of the fight except for the first few couple minutes they were in here. She thinks she saw the two of them sneak somewhere, but she didn’t exactly pay attention to them until now.

”Maybe they snuck off somewhere to make out?” Matija asked with a shrug.

Anyway, Grayson was talking about them taking the filthy man with them and such. She grimaced, thankfully unseen from underneath her mask. She was also equally thankful that she can’t smell anything right now because she’s not sure if the guy’s only covered with oil or something else she wouldn’t even want to know about. "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." said the grime covered man. Honestly, this was the only time that Matija realized how crazy their plan was, and it excited her further. This was the real do or die part of their mission and it was great because she was going to see some fireworks later on. She may or may not have let out a giggle out of giddy and she found herself moving more bouncily in happiness. However, she can’t let the dirty guy die. Not when they need him at least. She surveyed the area where they fucked up the federation soldiers to find a mask or something for the guy to keep him from suffocating in the vacuum, considering the gaping hole that they made earlier. All the while Benny spoke to her and everyone else. Once she salvaged a mask, she immediately came back to the group and handed the device to the new guy.

"-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’… Plan clear enough? Good, now let's get to it before these Federation bastards figure out our crazy-arse idea," said Benny.

”Sir?” she asked, raising her hand for a query whilst following formation. ”I understood most of it but could you speak in English? Alliance broke my helmet’s translator before and it’s hard to understand without it.”

@Banana@Azereiah

"Ok this is it, readings are hitting their peak, first burst coming.... NOW!"

Stryker barely got the sentence out before the energy blast rocketed out from the exposed reactor core port, a wild rainbow of blue and purple light containing untapped destructive power. It arced out at awkward angles, uncontrollable as wildfire. Truth be told, the crew on board the Revenant were in the hands of lady luck now. An array of bolts shot off the main beam and collided with the floating hunk that used to be the Planet Cracker, blowing wide holes through the shaft and narrowly missing the ship's hull.
"Fuck!" Stryker shouted, the main cannon was too slow, it's laser too dense, to effectively counter the storm of energy. The side cannons were a marginally better option, he reminded the gun crew to keep their trigger fingers ready, to attempt to nullify incoming energy blasts.
"Ok, hiding won't work. If the beams blasted through the surface of the PC shaft, they'll blow craters into anything they touch. Tibulus, take us up to a 60% burn, just fast enough to stay ahead of any trailing beams and slow enough to dodge any sudden obstacle. Take her in wide arcs around the system, honestly, there's not much else we can do until the team plants those bombs and we can get the fuck out of here"

@Turbowraith@mackielars@Rultaos

SAL led the way down a set of stairs to the lower level of the station's main structure, shotgun at the ready. He had plotted a rebuke to Benny's offhand comment about using him as a shield, but in the interest of saving time, he let it go.
"My scan of the station's basic structure indicates a cargo elevator down to the lowest level should be located on the opposite end of this floor" He looked down at Joe "Is that correct?"
Matija... Sandra.... the Mecorian spoke of a broken translator, though perhaps it was sarcasm. He'd gotten used to Grayson's brand of sarcasm across the years, but due to a lack of data and social inputs with these new teammates, he was unable to measure the cadence of her voice.
"I believe Mr. Quincy means to say that when we arrive at the reactor level, we will have to locate the best location for the bombs to cause maximum damage effect. Then we will have make haste with our escape. And if any of us fall behind, he will not consider helping us. Though with his dialect, it does sound much more poetic. I concur with his plan, between our combined technical knowledge and your manueverability, I am confident the captain chose the team correctly, let's move"

@Tickout@BKburke@Xandrya@PlatinumSkink

Grayson led the way, letting the radar guide him through the halls. The group rounded a corner to witness a dozen or so Fed troopers running in the opposite direction, towards the gunfire of, presumably, the remaining drones. To his right, Saul looked uneasy, his fingers flexing on the trigger of his flamethrower.
"Fine ya bloody pyro, go get 'em" Grayson said with a dismissive wave. The hulking man strode off at a moderate pace, seeming eager to kill again. Grayson watched him wander off then carried on towards the lingering radar signature.
"Ok gang, the ping is leading me right around this next turn" Grayson said, taking point, he walked forward, gun at the ready. He peeked around the corner and breathed a sigh of relief. Amy was alive, standing tensely with a hand on the wall, her armor sprawled out on the floor a few feet away. He walked towards her.
"Amy, ya alright there lass? What happened?"

"Grayson?"

His distinct accent was easily recognizable, and Amy was finally able to relax after what seemed like an eternity. "I'm so glad you're here. I was attacked from behind, caught completely off guard..."

Amy wasn't completely lying, but rather, she was omitting a very important fact. She figured she would confront Arex later, when they were both alone. This was a personal issue, and she wanted to deal with it on her own, without anyone else's involvement. Amy then limped towards Grayson and she sensed there were additional bodies there with them. The idea didn't sit too well with her, not if they were going to start questioning why she'd gone off on her own exactly like Arex had done. "I'm sorry if I distracted you from your objective, I can make my own way back rather easily. This place isn't necessarily a maze."

@Crossfire
@Tickout
@BKburke
@PlatinumSkink

@Xandrya@Tickout@PlatinumSkink

"Ah, don't worry about that" Grayson said "Can't have ya wanderin' off again though, especially in this state. Drones won't be able to ID ye as a friendly and it'd be worse still if the Feddies got ahold of ya. So listen, we haven't much time, team's been split into two units, we're headin' to try and snatch whatever intel the Feds have gathered up, the others are gone down below to set charges, this whole place is going boom soon, can't afford to split the team anymore to have anyone help you back, so just stick close, we'll protect ya. Are you injured? Maxi could take a look at it if you are...... Here"

Grayson knelt to fetch Amy's laser pistol from the floor and pressed it into her hand "Just try not to blast any of us in the back ok?" He cast a glance back down at the heap of armor "Your gear's pretty mangled, but we can probably salvage it, just give me a minute"

He raised Stryker on the comms "Got a moment mate?"
"Not exactly, but if you make it quick... What is it?"
"Can you spare a drone? We found Amy, but her armor's taken some structural damage, fairly easy to repair given some time, just with our time limit, it's not like we can break off from the objective and drag it back to the shuttle. Arex still MIA"
"Give me a second... ok I've locked it in, I'll retask a drone to head over there and grab it, damn things are dropping like flies, we've only got 4 left"
"Ok, we'll move on then" He nodded to the squad and slowly began to push forward. He froze up as he heard the steady clank of bootfalls coming behind them.

"Hostiles spotted, Form a line, protect the Commander! Blast them!" A voice cried out, distorted from being filtered through the universal translator. Lasers filled the hallway, and the team had no cover.
"Amy, get down!" Grayson shouted as he threw himself in front of her and began to return fire.

---

---

Pinprick holes opened up in several points on the Revenant's outer hull, and wormlike cables poked through. The Machine had almost completed its infection of the Revenant, and now required external cameras, which it happily provided for itself. What it saw was, frankly, terrifying. More terrifying than anything it had experienced in decades, at least, and it felt a surge of synthetic adrenaline flood through itself. Beams of unfocused destructive power were blasting through the outer casings of Helsin's reactor core and flashing through the empty sky with brilliant fury -- the death cries of a crumbling station.

Rento felt the Tower's adrenaline dump. It was faint, but the initial feeling was a very powerful one, and she felt it happen to herself as well. Preserving the old fight-or-flight response had gone surprisingly well during construction, and she felt a strange sort of pride at how effective it was. Unlike in organics, however, it didn't shut down higher reasoning, but rather increased voltage to the brain.

The Tower's cameras sent an image -- a hot spot was building on the surface of the station's reactor casing, and every calculation suggested it would perfectly toast the Revenant faster than the ship could possibly move out of the way. Rento nearly snapped the joysticks clean off of the four gunnery controls to swivel the turrets toward it and simultaneously fired four heavy caliber flat-head slugs at a series of points on the side of the hot spot. Analysis showed that the energy was rapidly eating its way through the shell, and just as a tiny pinprick of light flashed through towards the ship, the four slugs slammed into the casing, heavily denting and warping it in time for the rest of the energy burst to erupt outwards. Even though heat doesn't transfer well through space, Rento almost felt the warmth of the light as it passed within mere meters of the top deck of the ship.

She focused on diverting subsequent beams by any method possible - warping their path by destabilizing them with the Revenant's beam guns, by warping the outer shell of the station, or by punching holes in the casing to strategically reduce heat and pressure buildup inside the reactor.

@Crossfire@Banana

@Crossfire@Xandrya@PlatinumSkink

Maxi tailed behind Grayson and the gang, his power shooting probabilities through his mind. What was safe, what wasn’t, and so on. After a while of it it was giving him a little bit of a headache, but it was nothing he couldn’t manage. He stopped when Grayson turned the corner to find Amy - something about this choice rose his fatality chance up. Was the girl a decoy? Was there a bomb? He was hesitant to enter the hallway after his senses told him something about making that choice was less safe than another choice, but going against a command for seemingly no reason would be suspicious. He followed into the hall only after a second of hesitation, unfortunately watching his chance of dying rise.

He inspected the hall as Grayson spoke with the injured crewmember, trying to see what about this choice was dangerous. A clear hall, didn’t look like there were any traps, and it didn’t look like the girl was a threat. He passively checked his helmet and chestplate, making sure they were fine and in working condition. “Yeah, I can check you over. Anything hurt?” he asked, though he seemed a little distracted trying to figure out what would, or could, happen in this hall. It was a relief to hear from Grayson that they were moving on from the hallway, but that relief was very short sighted. Footsteps. Not friendly footsteps, from behind them. Maxi was slightly relieved to learn the source of the danger in the hallway, and also terrified to be facing it.

A shout and command to open fire came from behind, and Maxi knew there wasn’t anywhere to hide in the hall. Not much he could do in a shootout of this caliber, either. With that in mind he got to the ground, holding his medical cube in front of his head in hopes that if a shot came his way his bot would take it for him. He felt a blast graze the air above him, and he tensed up in fear. His more armored areas could survive a blast or two, but a hit overall would end up horrible either way. Oh boy oh boy PLEASE luck favor him!

Amy heard Grayson's command before she felt his armored arm shoving her behind him. The poor woman nearly lost her balance, but she quickly recovered and managed to still hold on to her weapon. Shots buzzed past the both of them for what seemed like an eternity before she heard an all-too familiar voice, that which echoed through the walls as an unmistakable sign of power.

"Cease fire! NOW!"

Her breath caught in her throat, yet Amy wasn't sure whether it was out of relief or due to fear. She stood straight and peaked her head out from behind Grayson's figure.

"It is you..." she heard her father say, footsteps approaching not too far from where she was standing.

"Dad."

Amy walked forward to greet him, her weapon now at her side as she used her free hand to reach out for him. It wasn't long before he took her hand in his and pulled her in for a hug. "I've missed you," he whispered, making the moment last for as long as he could before the inevitable occurred. "Are you with them?" he continued, catching Amy off guard. She simply nodded, and then he slowly let her go. The next thing Amy felt was a backhand to her cheek which painfully knocked her off her feet. A few tears finally managed to escape the corners of her eyes, and in that moment it was just her and the mess of emotions going on in her head as she became oblivious to her surroundings.

@Crossfire
@Tickout
@PlatinumSkink

After having stabbed, used psionic energy to throw enemies into one another and thrown daggers into the unprotected gaps of the Federation troops soldiers and having finished those off with the rest of the combatants, there wasn’t all that much important for the psionic alien to do, so she simply tagged along, pretty silently. She had no particular insight into their plan, and just went ahead with it, keeping her balance in case of any explosions. If they wanted to blow things up, sure. Currently, Lataniva was simply following orders.

She headed with Grayson when the command was given, and apparently let Saul do his thing when they ended up on that route. Then they ran into Amy, helpless without her armor. Lataniva raised her eyebrows at this, because she wasn’t exactly impressing after having said she would pull her own weight. However, fine, it wasn’t as if the rest of the team were having any trouble just yet.

When then suddenly a group of Federation troops appeared to attack them. Grayson jumped in front of Amy to cover her. Lataniva had none of that compassion. Yet, these were enemies. Enemies that were not to be left alive, and suppose it would be bad for the mission if her companions were to be gunned down. At the very least, it would be troublesome if Grayson died. Not going to let that.

She threw a knife forward and let it be destroyed as it blocked a blast from an enemy trooper. She then threw her hand forward and the dust struck the guns of the enemies, as well as their visors, because Lataniva was intending on disorienting them, and then she intended to move forth to dispatch them… when a voice called out to cease fire. Lataniva stopped as well, staring forward with her halberd drawn. … Father, huh. Lataniva let Amy walk forward to hug. The Dalentian glared, and then watched with pity in her eyes as Amy got slapped. She then spoke, weapon at the ready, and made very certain to speak her name.

Lataniva said with a voice with zero sympathy. However, gazing upon the individual, she followed up on it.

Lataniva then followed up on her words, with a little shrug and a similarly non-caring tone. She was ready to do her thing, given the command.

@Crossfire@Xandrya@Tickout

@PlatinumSkink@Xandrya@Tickout

Grayson had lowered his gun slightly when the shout rang out to cease fire. He blinked in shock as Amy embraced the alien that had stepped forward, called him 'dad'. He barely had time to process this info before the alien slapped Amy and knocked her over, his gun shot back up to a ready stance, aimed dead-center between the alien commander's eyes. Even with the few they had downed, the troopers still outnumbered them 9 to 4, including the commander, and all of the troopers had responded to Grayson's threat quickly by bringing their guns around, ready to fire if ordered.

'Real powder-keg here' Grayson thought, not letting up on his aim 'Gotta stop gettin' meself into these situations'

Lataniva spoke, reminding Amy of their orders, and posing the option of taking the commander prisoner if need be.
"Way I'm seein' it, there's two ways this goes" Grayson addressed the commander "Either I pull this trigger, and blow your brains over this hallway, your boys fire back and probably kill us, unless my psionic friend and our backup gets there first. Or, and this is the more preferable option to me at least, given that I get to live, you back off, order your men to stand down and we discuss a compromise like civilized people. You're not gonna order them to fire, not when there's a chance your daughter gets caught in the crossfire. And I understand that, if you'll allow me to say, it'd be an awful waste of such beauty and skill. So that leaves us here at the crossroads don't it? Amy, it's your call, what path are we goin' down?"

Tibulus quickly got to work with the piloting, steadily moving the ship forward as he dodged and weaved through the beams and any hazards that he could dodge. The zipper on his jumpsuit lowered even more as another root shot out and started piloting even stronger, speeding a little bit more yet dodging just as fluently as he did before. The shields were raising and lowering at will, and the fan began to blow even harder.

The air around Tibulus gave off an energetic feeling as he spoke, his eyes still fixated on the controls and the task that was ahead of him. "I'm gonna call a nap or two after this mission, holy fuck." The ship was flowing through the vacuum of space as Tibulus continued mission, his... 'breathing' getting a bit harder as he worked.

"I don't want anyone to die," Amy finally said as she adjusted herself to be sitting up, "not because of this mission and most certainly not because of me." Her voice remained monotone, but it was incomparable to the amount of shame she felt at the moment, especially after how her father had reacted upon learning she was a part of the team that had raided his entire station. "I believe that reaching a compromise by talking it out is the best choice, but that's only if both parties are willing to refrain from blindsiding each other with a surprise attack."

Despite her words, there was a nagging voice in the back of Amy's head that kept telling her such peaceful meet was unattainable. And that much may be true, whether she actually believed it herself or not, but it didn't really matter as long as the rest of her crew mates (and her father's) kept their promise and behaved in a civilized fashion.

"So what do you say, do we have a deal?"

Amy's gaze fell on no one in particular. Rather, she was staring at a wall and the poor woman didn't even know it. Her father, after feeling some guilt because of what he had just done, nodded his head in approval.

"That's fine with me," he said, lowering his weapon before his subordinates behind him did the same. Amy felt some satisfaction hearing her father opting out of violence. Maybe she did save him after all.

@Crossfire@Tickout@PlatinumSkink

@Xandrya@Crossfire@PlatinumSkink

… What.

The gunfire stopped, and Maxi risked poking his head up to see what was going on. The crewmate he didn’t even meet properly (Amy, was it? Grayson had called her that when they found her) seemed to recognize the leader of the team trying to blow their innards out, and he looked shocked learning the connection. Father, huh. What a small universe. He didn’t dare get up yet, seeing there were still guns on the opposing side and plenty of reason for said side to start shooting. He tensed a little when Amy was smacked back, and his eyes narrowed a bit from behind his glasses. What a great father, having the first instinct to go to violence instead of try to ask his child what the hell was going on. Of course, he knew better than to voice his complaint when guns were aimed at him, but the thought was still there.

Grayson whipping his weapon back to attention led Maxi to hold his bot in front of his head again, staying on the ground in case Graysons threat caused another round to be shot. Lucky for him, the shots never came. Sure, the weapons were trained on them now, but mostly Grayson. The one doing the active threatening. There was a tense few moments of discussion on whether or not there should be a cease fire, and, much to his relief, the opposing commander was willing to hear them out. Smacking his child and then agreeing to talk things over with a bunch of criminals. Not the best combination, but he was glad that there wasn’t any game of “blow up the medic” going on. He sat up so that he was cross legged on the ground, his bot positioned on his lap. Just in case they did try firing on them again and he had to hit the deck before getting blasted. He’d let Grayson and Amy deal with talking; he wasn’t the best negotiator when people were shoving guns in his face.

@Banana@Azereiah@BKburke

"I'll give you this much Sepitan, we get out of this alive, you've definitely earned your pay" Stryker said, as he turned his attention over to the flashing on his datapad that signalled another drone had fallen. Including the one he'd retasked to Grayson's location, there were only 3 left. They were definitely living up to their reputation as glass cannons. A message came in from 772, area secured. He pushed back a command to have them fall back to the shuttles and re-secure the hangar for exfiltration.
"Energy readings are spiking again, and the system is just getting more crowded up here with every blast that strikes a moon or one of the planets!" Stryker noted, both to present company and into the comms channel "Bomb squad, status update?"

@Turbowraith@mackielars@Rultaos

"Arriving at reactor floor now" SAL replied as he stepped out of the freight elevator. He led the way down the short hallway and into a fairly tall, round room, some consoles lined the wall, and sections of the floor were thick glass, presumably to allow technicians to visually locate issues with the reactor before sending a drone into the lead-lined chamber below. It was strangely unguarded
"Curious" SAL noted aloud before engaging his optic scanners and doing a wide sweep of the room.

He turned to Benny and began to offer his gathered intel to the explosives expert.
"The reactor is in the room directly below us. This would appear to be an observation deck of sorts. My scans indicate that a rupture to this room's integrity would be enough to allow the reactor to backfire upwards through the station, as per our objective. A cluster of explosives set at the center point, as well as on the ceiling directly above would cause the main structural damage. A second pair of charges set 9 feet off-center at 45 degrees to the main blast point would damage the main ventilation shafts, and a final charge 7 feet from center at 70 degrees, above the largest glass panel, would allow for a secondary point of access for the energy backfire. Do you agree?

@Tickout@Xandrya@PlatinumSkink

"Alright then" Grayson said, lowering his rifle to waist-level "This station's gonna go kaboom soon, we've got a team down below setting charges on the reactor core as we speak. Between them, the squadron of drones currently engaged in combat on the other end of this floor, and a psychopathic arsonist wandering around here somewhere, I'd say chances are you all might be the last Feds standing, and the odds of all of you makin' it out alive are slim, would ya agree?"

The voices started scratching at the inside of his head, nagging at him.
'Keep your guard up!'
'No relax, everything's fine!'
'Give the order, kill them all now!'
'Dive on Amy to keep her safe!'
'Talk, use your words.'
One voice jumped out head and shoulders above the rest.
'Keep it cool Danny, you're a professional at this, twist their arms just right'

“That’s fair,” Commander Xeltos finally said after a brief pause, then turned around to address his small group of men.

“Keep an eye on them, and use deadly force if you must.” The commander stared at his men for a moment to reassure that his order was also to be carried out against Amy if it was necessary. She wasn’t under his command anymore, and therefore she was considered the enemy, regardless of the fact that she was blood. But that’s the way it was for him, duty over family.

“Now, let’s attempt to reach a compromise…”

Commander Xeltos slowly walked towards Grayson with his weapon down by his side, and then the both of them walked away from the rest of the group to talk in private

Grayson followed along with the Commander, holding his rifle loosely near his hip. Just out of earshot from the others, Grayson decided to break the ice.
"So here's the facts mate, ball's in your court as it were. We need intel, whatever the fuck reason you all have for bein' out this far, we wanna know why. We were on the way up to your command center at the time to try and find some of that out actually, so how 'bout it?"

“Hmm, yes...of course. Unfortunately, I am under very strict orders that prevent me from disclosing any information which pertain to our mission. You know how it goes, we’re on a ‘need to know’ basis and unfortunately, you don’t fall within that bubble.” The commander stopped, and then turned to face Grayson. “I’m just pointing out the obvious here, but we’re clearly outnumbered. Due to such disadvantage, we will refrain from attacking you if you and the rest of your crew agree to leave this station at once. If not, I cannot guarantee the safety of any of you, including Amy.”

There was a small hint of emotion on Commander Xelto’s otherwise expressionless face when he mentioned his daughter’s name. Despite his words, he wasn’t too sure whether he himself believed them.

"Ok fine, we'll leave then, there is one problem though. Now, I'm no expert, but leakin' reactor cores are bad yeah? You get that one little puncture and it becomes a time bomb, only a matter of time now before it melts down, our bombs are just there to hasten it. And based on the craft ye got down in your hanger, none of yas are escapin' the blast. Now you seem like a reasonable chap, you know, you're only gettin' out of here on our ship, And the only way on our ship is if you give us a little information. Time's ticking on this offer, and to be perfectly honest, if ya don't mind my sayin' that the only reason you're gettin' the offer is because I fancy Amy a bit"

It was the first true thing he'd told Xeltos, he thought she was quite attractive and had enjoyed their brief time chatting back on the ship. She had an aura about her that he hadn't encountered in a woman in several years. Grayson had been coming to this slow realization since they'd been ordered to come find her. That he was geniunely concerned for her safety was the first real sign of it.

Commander Xeltos couldn’t help but smirk, although there was an obvious streak of sadness in his eyes. “That’s the problem with you humans…you let your emotions override any stretch of common sense.”

With rather unpredictable quickness, the commander tightened his grip on his weapon and aimed it directly at the group. More precisely, the laser dot fell on the small space in between Amy’s eyes. He had crazy-good aim, that which was made better by his enhanced vision.

“Since it is apparent that my daughter is a weakness of yours, I’ll have to ask you yet again to consider my offer. I’m not giving up information, and you’re not inflicting further damage upon this station. Have I made myself clear enough now?”

"Yeah" Grayson said "Perfectly clear. Heh, it's funny really, I'm nowhere close to being in charge. Leadership never suit me, and I never had a desire for power anyway, but here I am, an assassin who's worked alone his entire life, arguing for the lives of teammates I never wanted. What do they call that again? Ahh, the word is right on the tip of my tongue, its uhhh"

He brought his left hand up into view, snapped his fingers repeatedly, while subtly letting his rifle slide out of his other hand, it slipped lazily on its sling, its weight dragged down by the artificial gravity until the barrel scraped along the pristine white floor. His free hand grasped at his holstered pistol.

"Oh yeah, I remember the word. It's ironic. Just like it's ironic that I'm apologizing about a kill. Sorry about this"

With lightning-quick reflexes, Grayson's left hand struck out, grabbing the commander's wrist and pulled it away from his dead-aim on Amy. At the same time, he brought his pistol up and jabbed it under Xeltos' chin.

I'm sorry Amy. His finger tightened on the trigger, and squeezed.

BANG

The bullet exploded out the top of Xeltos' head. Immediately, the troopers spun to face them, guns raised. Acting quick, Grayson spun Xeltos' falling corpse between himself and the troopers, who in their knee-jerk reaction to retaliate, had left their backs entirely exposed. Maverick fell behind Xeltos, the alien's lifeless eyes stared back at him as he realized that, in his instinctual drop for cover, he hadn't paid much mind to his rifle, which was now trapped under his leg. Grayson had no choice but to inch a hand up to his helmet to reestablish comms.

"Lataniva, little help?!"

A burst of automatic fire boomed over the sound of the trooper's laser rifles, echoing off the walls of the tight hallway. Stryker's drone had finally arrived, and upon flagging enemy IFFs, opened fire into the crowd, tagging 2 of the troopers. 6 on 5 was closer to a fair fight at least. With a jolt of sudden realization, Grayson scrambled for the comms again.
"Maxi, shield Amy! The drone might see her as a hostile!"

The shot that rang through the air caused Amy to nearly jump out of her skin.

"What's going on?!" Despite the pain, she got up on her feet, then warily attempted to find a wall. She was interrupted by an additional exchange of firepower which seemed to go on for longer than it should have. "Grayson!" She ducked, remaining low to the ground in order to prevent being hit. With the chaos that had suddenly erupted, she was sure that there were already some casualties. Even scarier, she couldn't hear her father barking orders like he would usually do in a situation like this, and that could only mean that at the very best, he was incapacitated to the point where he was unable to communicate with anyone.

Please don't be dead...

Lataniva stared at the soldiers as negotiation started, immobile. When it became clear there wouldn’t be any immediate action, she lifted her halberd and spun it a number of laps over her head before placing it horizontally over her shoulders behind her head while holding it with both arms, on the left and right. The motion likely unnerved some of the soldiers. In fact, Lataniva didn’t much like this, either.

… Lataniva could have pulled the man’s aim off Amy when he aimed at his daughter with a simple psionic whim. But, that family conflict mildly amused her, so she wanted to see where it was going. She could also tell how good his aim was with her senses. So, the father with the superior vision had a daughter who was blind. Interesting. She kept watching the soldiers with uninterested eyes, looking on with her senses…

And then, well, that happened. Simply shot. Disappointing, yet inevitable. She would have wanted some assistance. Oh, well. Lataniva sighed a little before pulling her hand forward as she dodged a laser. Forming a line, were they?

Six remained after the drones fired into them. Lataniva grabbed the leftmost and pulled him powerfully into the other five, causing all of them to stumble and be shaken by the impacts. Lataniva dashed at them, and threw her halberd forward, projecting it with psionics forward. The long halberd hit straight through the middle trooper by the throat, no doubt startling the troopers as Lataniva dashed.

She drew two of her daggers and caused them to shoot into the laser rifles of the two troopers fastest to recover, knocking them back. Before she arrived, she pulled forward with her arms twice. The first time caused the third fastest trooper to suddenly lose balance and collapse forward into the floor headfirst, while the second caused her halberd to exit the lethal wound of the first trooper so the halberd spun back into her hand, which she caught.

Lataniva jumped, high, over the first laser actually attempted to shoot at the new threat, and after a brief vault Lataniva sliced down with her halberd in a long arc to take down the trooper’s arm, causing blood to spill and screams to sound. And then she went to work, her halberd slicing through them while she dashed through the trooper lines, her two released knives occasionally flying like possessed into recovering enemies by her psionic powers in a battle where Lataniva controlled both her own movements and that of her enemies, who thanks to her psionics found it near impossible to aim for her on this close a range…

She’d be finished soon enough. It was only six of them, after all, and unless any of them were exceptional they wouldn’t be a match for this woman who had stricken fear through the galaxy and the deadzone… She was among the worst of the worst, after all, just a few troopers shouldn’t be expected to be able to handle her. Soon enough, she’d be standing on a bunch of bleeding troopers, the weapons lying discarded around while Lataniva looked back with a quizzical look and a bloody halberd while recollecting her knives with psionics.

Now, what would they tell Amy? … She left that humorous job to the others. Lataniva but watched with pity waiting for more orders.

@Crossfire@Xandrya@Tickout

Having donned the mask the rather considerate, and newfound, teammate had given him, the still on edge engineer began to follow the group along with the android to the reactor level. Hell, if the explosion didn't kill him, the radiation probably would. And the latter was far slower, and more painful. But hey, he apparently survived the upper level having a hole blown into it without even realizing it at first, so lady luck could still have a few pleasant surprises left for him. As they progressed further into the complex, and inching closer to their target, he was (almost) pleasantly surprised to see he wasn't needed much so far. The tin can on legs had already scanned and provided the team with routes. He had to admit, it was a certainly interesting piece of tech. Maybe he could eventually convince its' owner to open it up for a while, perhaps tweak it too.

But that had to wait. Having reached the rather imposing reactor room, the robot was currently in the process of informing what seemed to be the resident explosives guy where to plant the goodies to achieve maximum kaboom. All was good, so far. Soon enough, the deed would be done, he'd hopefully be out of there, and the posse of numbskulls would drop him off at the nearest civilized planet... Or so he hoped.

More pressing matters were at hand, however. The droid's calculation was pretty darn accurate, though Joe felt he had to at least give his two cents on the matter.

"Damn, droid. Whomever wired that noggin of yours did a damn good job. I gotta say something, though. I really don't give a bat's shit whether you blow this thing successfully or not, and frankly I't'd be better for my ass if you failed, but I feel sort of obliged to share this tidbit with ya. These kinds of worldcrackers have notoriously tough reactors. Sure, you could cause a full-on breach, or even a meltdown, but if you really wanna send this fucker to hell, drop some of them firecrackers down to the reactor stem as well. Shouldn't be too hard, I mean we're just above the damn thing."

---

---

Rento extended her remaining cables to cover for Renli's starboard gunnery position. A short 'jolt' dropped her body to the floor in the middle of the gunnery positions as all of her processing power was devoted to maintaining the ship's safety automatically, as in the past several minutes, she and the Tower had collected more than enough data on the chaos outside to form a defense routine. Renli stood up and exited his gunnery position and gave his other body a glance. Rento wasn't exactly in an attractive position, lying face-down on the floor with cables flailing about in the gunnery hall, but aesthetics weren't really that important.

Renli stepped over the body and made his way to the cockpit, where he figured he'd get the chance to meet at least a couple crew members. He wasn't entirely sure what he had said to them as Rento, but it'd be a good chance to figure out what was going on. Stryker was on the comms with what Renli assumed was the boarding party.

"Energy readings are spiking again, and the system is just getting more crowded up here with every blast that strikes a moon or one of the planets! Bomb squad, status update?"

Images from the Tower's camera network suggested that Stryker was perhaps being overly dramatic. While there was a lot more debris floating around, most of it wasn't anywhere near the Revenant. But then, Stryker wasn't a machine... Or a semi-fungoid humanoid corpse. Renli wandered over and leaned against Stryker's chair as he examined the readings on the consoles.

"I take it things are going fairly well in there."

As he spoke, a large piece of flying rock came into view from a sensor blind spot, hurtling towards the Revenant's nose. The Tower sent a jolt of energy to the port-forward and starboard-aft RCS thrusters, jerking the ship a few degrees to the right, and a beam of light sliced the rock perfectly in half, followed by an explosive ballistic round detonating between the two glowing chunks, sending them spinning out of the Revenant's flight path. Rento's automatic targeting was perfectly on-point.

@Crossfire@Banana

"I think I've earned a little more than just my pay at this point."

Tibulus kept up his dodging prowess with quite the agility, and it even got to the point where the ship was beginning to make maneuvers people only dreamed of, or things only able to be done in video games. He wasn't one for being cocky, but he couldn't help it at this point. "Y'sure you still want me being the one to pilot the transport shuttle, Stryker?" It felt so right to make that comment then for Tibulus, but he decided that it would be better suited to just be a quick joke and continue on the mission. As such, Tibulus did follow up on his previous comment. "We're just about there to the pick-up location, should I push or what?"

@Banana@Azereiah@Dark Light

"Hold back for a bit longer, they're not finished in there yet. I'm getting readings of another energy surge, could fire off any second, so be ready for more of your fancy flyin'. When the team's ready for pickup, the shuttles have a recall function that'll help us scoop them up"

Stryker became aware of one of the androids hanging out behind him.

"Well kiddo let me tell ya, it isn't going that smoothly, but fine enough I suppose, given the lack of intel going in. Why don't you hop back over to your station? I'm sure you just heard, but we'll have more incoming fire in a second, probably best not to be standing around if any of those beams sneak through the shields"

Stryker's attention was drawn back to the datapad. Drone 116 was surrounded by friendly signatures, as expected, but Drones 772 and 900 had just pinged a fresh friendly IFF signal, on their way back to the hanger, and it wasn't moving. He logged in to 900's visual interface to get a view inside the station.

"Oh fuck" Stryker said under his breath. Lying at 900's feet was the barely recognizable corpse of Hadrian Saul. The arsonist's face mask had been shattered, a wide bullet hole in his left cheek was the only feature Stryker could distinguish between the mess of blood and gore that sat where the rest of his face should've been. His chest had a wide hole blown right through the armor, and slash marks that didn't look like they were from any weapon Stryker had ever encountered. Looking around, he spied Saul's flamethrower and revolver lying a short distance away, along with the bodies of at least a dozen troopers. The lights in this hallway had been shot out, and even with the drone's headlamp active, it was tough to see everything. He pushed the drone forward, while ordering 772 to proceed on to the others to help 116 carry Amy's armor back. Inch by inch, 900 stomped down the dark hall, gun at the ready. It reached a bend and Stryker angled for it to peek around the corner tactically before walking into a potentially hostile environment. It was dark back here too, but there were some lights at the far end about 200 meters away. Lying in a pool of this light was Arex, who looked in bad shape, but according to the drone's sensors, was still showing faint signs of life.

A flash of alert drew Stryker's attention. The drone's motion tracker had detected something moving quickly behind it. He sent an order to turn, but it was too slow. The drone was knocked off it's feet, and Stryker's view flailed about wildly as it tried to re-orient itself. The image cleared up and focused just in time to see a human-shaped drone. Structurally, it was more heavily armored than the Alliance AP drones, yet slimmer, particularly in the arms and legs, which were little more than thin metal beams joined by a ball-joint. Its head was a blue orb with a holographic image of a skull on it, which gleamed menacingly in the dark. The hostile drone brought its right arm up and activated a large laser blade. It emitted a scream, like a banshee's wail before the blade crashed into the drone and Stryker's connection was severed.
"Fuck" Stryker said, as he wheeled the comms back around to the channel for Grayson's squad.

@PlatinumSkink@Xandrya@Tickout

"Ugh" Grayson moaned as he hauled himself to his feet. One errant laser blast had grazed off his right shoulder in the firefight. It hadn't gotten through, but it had singed his suit pretty badly. One trooper still stirred slightly, not quite willing to die yet. Grayson put an end to that notion with a quick bullet to the head from his pistol. The gunshot echoing through the tight corridor to put an exclamation point on the encounter.

"Grayson, report in. This is urgent" Stryker's voice made him jump slightly. He shook off the fog and responded as he retrieved his rifle from beneath Xeltos' body.
"Copy that mate. We hit a bit of a snag there, 9 Feds slowed our progress, getting back to the objective now"
"Fuck the intel. Fuck the Alliance. Get your squad together and get them the fuck back to the hanger, bunker up by the shuttles until the others get back from planting the bombs. We've got a big problem. The Federation has Hunter droids aboard. I don't know how many, but one just took out Saul and the other drone. It might've done in Arex too, I couldn't see before I lost the feed"
"Wait, back up Stryker, Arex might be still alive? Then we've got to get him. I'm not sayin' this from a 'no man left behind' standpoint or any of that shite, but if he's still breathin', then we're gonna need him. At least find out why he attacked Amy out of the blue"
Stryker sighed. The worry in his voice was very noticeable. For good reason too, Hunter droids were notorious in their efficiency. Their toughness and battle-prowess was only dwarfed by their savagery on the battlefield. Whoever wrote the programming for the things was a sadistic son of a bitch, outfitting them with psychological warfare protocols and even a strict order to destroy the remains of enemy combatents if given the chance. They were not to be fucked with, not without an army at your back at least.
"Fine" Stryker finally said "I'll send the coordinates for where I lost the drone. Check it out quickly, then get out"

"Alright folks, you heard the man" Grayson said. A second drone had arrived during the conversation and began to assist the other unit in carrying away Amy's armor "We gotta get the fuck back, but there's just one little pit stop left. Maxi, you go on ahead with Amy, guide her back to the shuttles. Lataniva, you're with me"
He walked past Amy on his way to the front of the group and paused to pat her on the shoulder. He'd tell her what had happened later, unless she demanded to know right this second.
"You alright?"

@Turbowraith@mackielars@Rultaos

"Acknowledged. Calculating. Confirmed" SAL said "You are correct, an extra catalyst embedded within the reactor will increase the chances of our primary desired outcome by 17.9%, upping it to a total of 87.4%. I'll stay behind once the primary explosives are planted and set the catalyst, to prevent you organics from being exposed to the mass amounts of radiation in the lower chamber. Just don't leave me behind, or I may interpret that as a hostile action and be forced to defend myself"

It sounded more threatening than SAL intended, but with no appropriate response in his database, he rolled back to the topic at hand. He looked to Benny again.
"Do we have anything with a manual trigger that we could use for this end? I'd prefer to not be obliterated in an early blast"