---

---

"I've already got things covered back there. I'll be fine as long as nothing hits the storage rooms downstairs."

Renli pointed a thumb back out at the open door of the gunnery deck and, beyond, at the mass of cables thrashing about in control of five gunnery stations. Rento was limply flopping about on the floor as the cables jerked to and fro at the gun controls. Renli's own hardware was far too thick and bulky to work the turret controls in the same way, so he opted to stay out of the way of his other selves' less conscious AI subroutines.

He continued monitoring the situation on the Stryker's datapad silently. Lots of noise, lots of fun. It was a shame he couldn't talk his way onto the boarding party earlier, but the captain wouldn't have likely appreciated a wildcard on board -- though, Renli felt, he wasn't nearly as much of a wildcard as some of the others who were already there. Particularly the soon-to-be corpse named Arex, who had allegedly attacked another member of the boarding team. A Hunter Droid would've been the perfect opportunity to test out his Tower's defensive capabilities, assuming it didn't just ignore him.

"Beautiful piece of machinery the Feds have. If that thing gets knocked out somehow, could we try to get it on a shuttle back? Or, at least, its memory core," said Renli flatly. He very much lacked the enthusiastic tone of the other android, and even seemed a little disappointed, perhaps because he wasn't there to kill it himself.

@Crossfire@Banana

Amy was glad that their battle was over and she was physically unscathed, however, she was even more worried now than before.

"I'm fine," she replied to Grayson's question, taking the opportunity to get up on her own two feet, "but just tell me, is my father dead?" Amy was standing across Grayson, although being over half a foot shorter than him meant she was staring at the space just behind his right arm.

Even though she had posed the question to Grayson, she wasn't too sure that she wanted confirmation from him. Part of her felt that her father was indeed dead, and that feeling was backed up by the fact that she hadn't heard him run off, yell at his subordinates, or received any other form of confirmation as to his presence. Tears started to swell at the corner of her eyes and before Grayson got a chance to answer, she took away his chance to do so.

"You know what, I already know he is..."

Suddenly, Amy had an expression of shock and sadness when Grayson refrained from correcting her. She turned around, her face full of tears, and she called out to Maxi so that they could leave.

"Let's go."

@Crossfire
@Tickout
@PlatinumSkink

Arex

Arex sputtered a heavy spray of blood over himself as he chokes on a sudden sharp inhale. His eyes shoot open wide and dart around the dark room, awoken to some sense of frantic consciousness by the brief flash of light. Dazed and confused he desperately struggles to make sense of his current predicament. Moving hurt, breathing hurt, thinking hurt. The room slowly spun and a high pitched echo filled his ears. His full body armour was badly damaged and partially missing along with his guns. This wasn't good.

Lost and confused he looked around. His left arm lay sprawled out on some sort of large console beside him. A mangled mess of twisted metal and damage sparking circuits. There was now more cords and cables connecting it to the console then there was to his shoulder. Ever so slightly it jerkingly responded to his will, suffering from major malfunctions.
Laying in his lap his right arm was was in better condition and still bore most of its armour but was stained with more blood than he cared to see. The source was a wound in his stomach, visible through a clear large hole in his chest piece. It was no longer bleeding as the wound had already been cauterized and ached accordingly.

As Arex tried to twist further to look towards the muffled echoing sound of commotion, a sharp shooting pain told him that beneath his protective suit he had a broken rib or two. Ignoring it, with strenuous effort Arex arose to his feet. Drenched in sweat and teeth clenched in pain. With his recent beating focused around his torso his legs were mostly unscathed. Still he hadn't the strength or balance to stand straight.

And as he stood there gathering himself, leaning heavily on the bench with one arm dangling uselessly at his side, that's when he noticed the hostile drone approaching him. A sick grin on its projected face.

Arex grins back.

As he grew increasingly cornered and at a loss for options, as the odds grew against him and the natural fight or flight instincts resonated within him. He could feel his Delentian powers grow.

Bullets. So many bullets. Maxi had seen enough bloody bullets to last him a lifetime, that was for sure. He expected the job to include lots of them, but he really didn’t want to deal with the receiving end of them. He was the medic, not the… bullet man. He was luckily still on the ground when Grayson blew the brains out of Amys father, and he ducked down on first instinct. He heard Grayson say something about protecting Amy- hah, no. She would probably do better on her own, or, judging the probable gap in skills, SHE could protect HIM even without armor. Either way, the expected barrage fired, but then focused on a target that was not him and then stopped.

He poked his head back up to see that the alien that didn’t know how technology worked had completely decimated the enemy forces. Nice. His panicked mental sensors were going down- their rough unsafe patch was dulling down to normal for the time being. His chance of death (really needed an acronym for that) was dropping to a normal level of low, and he breathed a sigh of relief when he found himself safe. He tossed a look to Amy before getting back to his feet. Not the best with comfort words, he wasn’t sure what to say. It all happened so fast, and he was kind of on ‘don’t get killed’ mode the whole time. “Yeah, uh, let's keep moving.” He hugged his broken bot to his chest again and patted his holsters to make sure none of his weapons were lost in the scuffle. Both were there and intact. Perfect.

Tibulus simply nodded away at what Stryker said. It's hit the point where talking is no longer as effective as actually doing, so Tibulus prepared himself for any more fanciful flying. Well... "prepare" was a bit of an overstatement. In reality Tibulus started doing some fanciful weaves and stunts with the ship, nothing too crazy, and in just the right pattern to dodge what was coming at the ship. There was nothing else to say anymore. The only thing that mattered is getting these guys out of here when they need to get out, then Tibulus could take a break and have someone else drive.

Even though Amy followed closely behind Maxi, she didn't necessarily need his help to navigate back to the ship. The hallways were not structured like a maze, making it relatively easy for her to make her way back alone. But she did appreciate his presence as he provided an additional layer of protection in case they were caught off guard again, as was likely the case. For the most part, the walk back to the ship was quiet as Amy's head was a complete mess. First Are'x betrayal, now her father. Nothing had gone right for her so far, but she would definitely get her answers once everyone else made their way back as well.

Once they were back in the ship, Amy thanked Maxi and made her way to her room. She would take a shower, attempt to clear her head, and talk to Grayson the moment he returned with the others.

@Xandrya@Tickout

Lataniva complained somewhat as she wandered back to Grayson while cleaning off the blood from her halberds and daggers. Still, it wasn’t all that much she could do about it.

@Crossfire

She’d then simply say about the orders they had, and without sparing a look at Amy, Lataniva dashed off. She used her heightened awareness, and knowing she was looking for Arex… she simply tried to find a track of the unique way she could sense him. She’d search without eyes if needed.

She rounded a specific corner, and ended up looking at this scene. Arex, heavily wounded, arms in a mess and facing against this drone. Hunter droid, was it? How serious of their enemies. But, that didn’t matter. What did matter… Lataniva stared at Arex. There was a certain part of her that told her to save him… yet another, saw him getting ready to take on his foe. A hunter and his prey. Strong, perhaps deadly prey, but prey nonetheless. A hunter’s pride told to not take the joy of the kill from another hunter.

… That said, he was pathetic. Lataniva crossed her arms, glaring at him condescendingly from behind and lightly twirled with her halberd in one hand, as if telling him to hurry it up. In the back of his mind he most certainly felt her Sh’kwarr pushing him on behind, making him aware she was there, and that she had come to pick him up so he better not screw this up. Lataniva kept her distance, but if it was obvious he was going to be killed anywhere she’d just casually direct a psionic telekinetic hit at the foe to ensure Arex didn’t die, it’d be so troublesome if he did, but otherwise, she quite intended to see him get out of this on his own.

He had run off on his own, after all. This was HIS problem to get stuck in and get out of. Not hers. He had the tools to get out of this.

She stated, following up on her thoughts.

She followed up on that, with a clear edge in her voice, glaring at his back…

@Dark Light

@PlatinumSkink@Dark Light

Grayson struggled to keep up with Lataniva, she was much quicker than him and made it to their destination a minute or so before him. At the mention of Hunters, Grayson had lagged behind a little to recalibrate the MARS rifle into a mode he rarely used- the Heavy Rifle. In this function, the barrel lengthened and the bore size increased, to allow for the firing of .50 caliber F.M.A.P. rounds. They were extremely powerful, but the sheer recoil of firing a single shot of it was like being kicked by a mule. Despite hardly ever using it, Grayson always came prepared, and loaded in a box magazine of 5 rounds, that was all he had, and hoped it was all he'd need.

He came up on Arex and Lataniva's location and pushed his way to the front, taking a stand against the approaching Hunter Droid.
"Got ya covered gang, fall back to the hangar!" He sighted up on the droid, braced the rifle against his already injured shoulder, and grit his teeth, preparing for the kickback.

BANG*chik*BANG

The first round had blown a hole clear through the blue orb that made up it's head. When that hadn't slowed its approach, Grayson aimed lower, and blew out the ball joint connecting the upper and lower part of its left leg. The droid toppled over, but still it tried to attack them, crawling it's way across the floor to them.

"Let's go guys!" Grayson shouted as the team retreated. His comms chirped twice, incoming message on the general channel.
"-yson? Do you read?" SAL stated
"I hear ya rustbucket, what is it?"
"We are awaiting you in the hangar. We just deployed Shuttle 1 back to the ship, you must hurry. The fuse we set is much shorter than anticipated, we only have 5 minutes to get to a minimum safe distance before the station erupts"
"We'll be there, don't ya fuckin' dare take off on us!"

@Azereiah@Banana

"Not a bad idea android" Stryker said, he wheeled into the comms channel and issued an alert for the team still on the station.
"If it's within your power, incapacitate and capture one of the Federation droids. We can scuttle its memory core for any passwords or back channels into the Federation Central Database. Don't risk your lives for it though"
He closed the comms and turned back to his console, ready to assist Tibulus with any last minute adjustments.
"Shuttle 1 coming in now" he stated for no other reason than to settle his own nerves "Cargo bay clear, lowering the ramp"

@Xandrya@Tickout@Turbowraith@Rultaos@mackielars@BKburke

More Hunter Droids had arrived in the hangar, bringing their total number to 9. This was problematic, SAL thought as he returned fire. Most of the team had gone on ahead on the first shuttle. Like a simple organic, SAL had elected to remain behind and wait for his "friend". Sure he had an ulterior motive for survival at the forefront of his mind, but leaving Grayson behind would create a paradox that reduced his long-term percentage of survival to near zero.

The 2 surviving drones had fallen, 116 had shattered to bits by the superior firepower and melee capabilities of the Hunter Droids. 772 was similarly damaged, though it still had some power flowing, twitching at SAL's feet with half a head and very few limbs. The Hunter Droids were closing in, relentless in their quest to extinguish the remaining lives. SAL wheeled out of cover and returned fire, the explosive rounds of his shotgun were quite devastating at close range, but even with the damage he could inflict on any that closed the distance, they were still outnumbered and outgunned.

More gunshots joined the cacophony of the hangar bay. Grayson and the others had arrived. Between the combined firepower of the two groups, they were able to cut a path through the line of Hunter Droids. One droid had it's arm severed by one of Grayson's heavy rounds, and it was close enough for SAL to grab. With a few quick slashes from his wrist-mounted laser blade, the Droid fell in a manner that SAl felt to be sufficiently incapacitated. Grayson's team had made it over to them and the others were loading into the shuttle. SAL grabbed the Hunter, and, for no particular reason other than perhaps pity, also snatched up the remains of 772 and bolted for the shuttle. He saw Grayson looking at him strangely, his eyes going back and forth between SAL and 772.

"I believe we can salvage this drone" he stated simply as the shuttle took off.

Aboard the Revenant, Stryker got word that the other shuttle had arrived and gave the order to fall back to the edge of the system. The ship hung around until the timer hit zero, and the station went up in a brilliant blaze of red, blue, yellow and white. The explosion was instantaneous. One flash of light before it was swallowed up by the emptiness of space. As if on cue, a pair of ships came onto the radar, blinking into existence via hyperjump tech that the Revenant wasn't equipped with. Making sure they were spotted and (unsuccessfully) hailed. Stryker told Tibulus to flip the engines to full burn and set a course for Minos Station, way out in the Deadzone. The captain walked back through the upper deck to his quarters, stone faced and ignoring any cheers or hellos offered to him. They had done it, against all odds and at great cost of life, they had completed their first mission as a team. Back in the safety his room, Stryker breathed a sigh of relief and allowed himself a quick chuckle before letting the emotion of the moment overcome him. Apparently, Dawson had stashed a bottle of Stryker's favorite rum in the desk drawer, he had discovered it during their trip, now felt like a good time to break it out.

He gathered the crew down in the Common Area, and distributed glasses.
"Here I am again, giving a speech like some kind of goddamn leader, but I just felt I needed to say this. You all did a fine job out there. Never had much experience with teams, but you all just set a good standard going forward. It wasn't perfect, we lost a couple of our own but all in all I'd say this was a good start to our little squad" He raised his glass "A toast for the fallen, for the innocent lives wiped out by our actions, and to our future endeavors, cheers" He threw the drink back and slammed the glass down on the table.

He really didn’t have much to say to Amy. Being the emotional support guy wasn’t his strong point, and he kind of just wanted to get back to home base without any issues. He went onto the shuttle after Amy, and sat around until the others arrived. One of the robots elected to stay outside with the rest of the defense, but Maxi wasn’t exactly one to offer to wait outside as well. Not with the danger it would put him in. So, now safe in the shuttle, he waited and fiddled with his broken bot. Grayson and the others came in in time, luckily, and he simply offered a wave to the returning group before going back to his bot. He really hoped there was a repairman on ship for it… he wasn’t exactly skilled enough to fix a robot riddled with blasts.

When they arrived back at the ship, Maxi went to one of the windows as fast as he could to watch the explosion that was about to take place. He made it just in time- he caught a glimpse of the flash, and the collapse of the station onto itself in the explosion. He saw one ship, and was half tempted to stick his tongue out at it before the Revenant began to fly away from it. Aw. He frowned a bit, staring out the window a little longer to allow his powers to cool down now that he wasn’t in danger. Odds and probabilities flicked away from him, leaving him with a headache to deal with from straining himself so much in the heat of the moment. Perhaps if he actually used his powers more they’d grow to work better and less painfully. His ponderings on how to improve his now needed skills were interrupted by an announcement for the crew to gather in the common area- he really wanted to just ignore it and go to bed or something, but he did have to find someone to fix his bot and see what was going on. And plan some revenge against the guy who broke his bot, if he was still alive.

He came in just in time to see that the leader was distributing glasses. He turned down the drink, not wanting to turn his headache into a splitting migraine, and simply listened to the miniature speech about being a team and the toast. He literally met these people only a few hours ago, didn’t talk to any of them, and just got thrust into a life or death situation with them. Wasn’t exactly team-y in his eyes. He waited for everyone to finish their drinks before speaking. “Hey, so, didn’t get to introduce myself well. Names Maxi, Im a medic, and someone with the brain the size of a peanut decided that destroying my medical bot was a good idea. Y’know, the thing I use to save people? Well, I was wondering if anyone here knew how to fix it, since it isn’t my area of expertise”. Or reinforce it, now that he knew the people on his own ‘side’ weren’t concerned with not destroying important stuff.

@Crossfire@PlatinumSkink

Arex

"You are Dalentian, after all. Are you not?" Lataniva's words and presence went mostly unnoticed, registering in some fading part of Arex's active consciousness.
This was not the time for bravado, there was nothing to gain, he had nothing to prove to no one. The more he kept to himself the better. But it was already too late.
A genetically altered rush of endorphins slowly seeped through his system, triggered by a bio mechanical implant that had registered his stress.
It washed away any pain or discomfort, it also took with it much of the the complexities, fears anxieties, doubts and emotions of the human condition allowing room for the cold hyper efficient sensory diagnostic data processing functions of his cybernetic augmentations to flawlessly feed his heightened Dalentian reflexes and deadly proficient combat instinct without unnecessary interruption.

It was a came over him like a deep calming bliss, it was addictive and overwhelming. Free from the pressures of concern, decisiveness and consequences.
It was both the greatest rush and clearest calm. He felt elevated beyond words. His path was clear and simple as he receded to a powerful form of 'auto-pilot'.

His human side of Arex could not mentally or physically handle what had began. While it was subdued in a euphoric bliss the blood vessels in his eyes began to rapidly burst. New blood trickled from his nose, and inside his skull he was developing a headache that would last for days. But it was all worth it to feel the utter freedom and power of becoming a killing machine.

His Sh'kwarr was also changing, while it didn't grow in size it begin to grow extremely dense and 'bright'. There was now only pure excitement as he looked upon his prey with a malicious blight of vengeance. The fun was about to begin.

'BANG, BANG'

And just like that it was over. Arex looks to Grayson and Lataniva. His pupils so widely dilated they almost completely consume his iris, the whites of his eyes nearly filled with the spiderweb Bing of burst veins. He stares at them for a moment, a confused sense of non-recognition. He twitches as he struggles to tell himself they are friend not foe.

A complicated path of rationale tells him fighting them is not worth the joy it would bring and Arex comes back forth in complete control. Shaking himself free from the monster in his mind and his connections to the console he nods to his comrades and follows suit as they leave. He rides out his pain release for the short time it lasts.
Angry, disappointed and very very upset.

---

Amy had just gotten out of the shower, and she sat quietly in her corner of the common area listening to Stryker make his "victory" speech. She pushed back a strand of wet hair from her face, the bitterness she currently felt threatening to make her lash out against the rest of the team. But Amy kept her composure, never being one for dramatic outbursts unless she was sure she was alone.

Fighting back a couple of tears, Amy skipped the toast and instead, she downed her drink and momentarily cringed as the liquor left the all-too familiar burning sensation once it had traveled down her throat. She kept the empty shot glass in hand, and when it quieted down a bit, she asked Grayson to meet her in the kitchen. Despite her knowing the outcome of the mission, Amy wanted to get the details straight, at least for her own sake.

First order of business for Grayson upon getting back to the ship was to head to his room and change out of his armor. He lingered for a moment, checking out his shoulder, which felt fine apart from the usual muscle fatigue of a long gunfight and the lingering burn mark from the laser blast that had grazed him. It didn't seem serious enough to require medical attention, but perhaps he'd check in on the med bay later, see if he could grab some healing gel to lessen the sting. The t-shirt and shorts he'd worn under his armor were drenched in sweat, and since he had no interest in staring out a window at a 2 second long explosion, Grayson took the opportunity to grab a shower before the men's room got too crowded.

He emerged from the shower feeling refreshed and wearing the only other set of casual clothes he owned, a sleeveless tee and track pants. He sat around silently as Stryker gave a speech. He was never one to refuse a drink, so he downed his own, then slid Maxi's over with a quick "do ya mind?" and downed that one too. Amy called him over to speak in private.

'Here we go then' he thought as she led the way into the kitchen.
"So, what's this about lass?"

"I just want to clarify a few things," she said, leaning against the counter after she found it, the shot she'd taken just starting to make her feel a little bit light-headed. It didn't help that she hadn't eaten anything in a while. Amy then pulled the sleeves of her off-white sweater over her hands before crossing her arms. "What exactly happened to my father? I know he was killed, but I need to know the details."

"Right, I figured as much" Grayson said, leaning against the counter, facing the wall so he wouldn't have to look directly at her.
"We were talking... negotiatin' a deal. I thought it was fair: information in exchange for a ride off the ship, seemed like he thought so too, but then out of nowhere, the guy throws up his gun, said if we didn't walk away, he was gonna open fire. I tried to talk him down, but it didn't work... I had to act"

Amy stood still for a moment, riddle with shock. So it was him who had been responsible for her father's death.

"But you didn't have to kill him...you could have easily incapacitated him with whatever fancy weapon you had on you. Why--why did you take the first shot?" Obviously it was hard for Amy to swallow the truth. Since Arex had already betrayed her, it would easily make sense for Grayson to do the same. The thought alone filled her with rage, and this time she acted upon it.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" she yelled, reaching for the closest thing behind her--which happened to be an empty glass--and throwing it in the direction of Grayson's voice.

The glass shattered against the cupboard directly to the left of Grayson's head, shards of it flew all across the countertop. He jumped back at the noise and turned on his heels to face Amy. The anger in her voice was nothing compared to the look of disgust on her face. It broke his heart to see her in such pain. With one hand, he absent-mindedly brushed the glass fragments together in a neat little pile, mulling a response.

"I suppose if you go to the root of the problem, it's that I'm a killer. Since I was a kid, all I've known is death, I became so familiar, so desensitized to it, that I made a career of it. In nearly 20 years I've taken my jobs as they rolled in, made the kill and moved on, I could've been changing worlds for the better or worse, never known because it's not my place to deal with the fallout.... but here, now..... what just happened, it's the first time I've ever killed to save a life.. to save your life.

"I didn't need saving!" Amy cried, sinking to the floor in a mess of tears. At the moment, she just wanted someone to empathize with her, but such sentiment wasn't possible given the fact that her father had been leading the army of enemies.

"I've got no one left now..." she continued, whispering to herself as the sad truth sunk in for the young woman. Since she was on the ground, she hugged her legs for comfort and for a moment, she thought about what the rest of her life would be like from that point on.

Grayson crossed the room and knelt next to Amy. He spoke in a low voice.
"You won't want to hear this, I didn't wanna have to tell ya. Hell, ya might not even believe me, but your father was going to kill you"

He paused to let it set in, thought about reaching out to try and comfort her, but decided against it. He continued:
"His arm shot up, and I could see that his aim was locked dead center on your forehead. Any move I could have made to incapacitate 'im would've triggered a muscle response, and we wouldn't even be havin' this conversation. I'm sorry, but I had to do it"

As much as Amy didn't want to believe him, something about his voice made her realize that Grayson was in fact telling her the truth. She choked back whatever tears were left and turned to face him.

"I just don't understand why he would want to kill his own daughter," Amy said as she wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her sweater. "But thank you for telling me the truth despite its consequences, and I'm sorry for not beliving you sooner."

Amy spoke in a monotone voice, and she looked as if her own soul had been sucked out of her.

"I'll go back to my room now," she continued, getting herself up off of the ground. "How long until my armor is fully functional again?" she asked, changing the subject.

Grayson pushed himself back to his feet and did some quick calculations in his head.
"Give us a day or two. I haven't gotten a good look at it yet, but should be able to patch most of it with stuff we have here. If not, I'll pick it up when we dock"

He reached out and gently laid a hand on her shoulder, hoping to shake her out of her reverie.
"Hey, c'mon I'll walk ya back" he muttered.

"Thank you," she replied as sincerely as she could. Despite the fact that Grayson was a killer as he had described a few moments prior, he was trying to get on her good side, and she appreciated his efforts.

"Sorry about the glass..." she added, smirking for a moment before she followed him out of the kitchen.

"Ah, no worries lass... yer aim was off by a couple inches anyway" Grayson chuckled as he led the way back towards the quarters. Most of the crew had dispersed to go back about their day after Stryker had finished speaking. It was a short walk they made within a minute.

"Here ya are. Listen, I wanna say it again, if there was any other way that could've gone, it would've and just.... thanks for understandin I guess" He leaned down somewhat awkwardly to wrap one arm around her shoulder, before withdrawing it quickly.
"Uh, I better get goin', get a start on repairin' your armor. Talk later?"

"Yeah, sounds good," she replied with a smug smile, leaning against the door with her arms crossed in front of her. "See you later."

Amy heard him walk away before she turned around and walked inside her room. It was very easy to tell that Grayson had some feelings for her just by how nervous he'd acted around her, the opposite of how trained killers usually behaved.

Everyone does have their weakness, she thought.

---

---

The team of Hunter Droids was far too great for just the boarding party to handle - or so Renli thought. Damn it, I should've been down there, he thought to himself, and he braced for a view of the inevitable bloodbath on Stryker's datapad. He would never get over the sight of his allies getting gunned down and slaughtered no matter how long it had been.

The bloodbath never came. Behind him in the gunnery hall, Rento was dealing with all debris and beams approaching the ship with her five gun turrets. In a cleaner moment, Renli fired a firing coordinate to her, based on the location of the hangar and the position of communicators' signal origins.

SC^HP_LAM

A hole had appeared in the hangar door and where one Hunter Droid had been standing was a crater and a splattering of broken parts. The sparking and fizzling hole continued clean through to the next level down - an armor piercing antiship shell had sent the Droid on its merry way to hell. Automated breach repair protocols kicked in and a bubble of pink, gumlike adhesive floated down from a hole in the ceiling, where it was sucked to the breach in the hangar and splattered shut to seal the hole.

Within seconds, the combat was over, surprisingly with zero losses. Renli was satisfied with his handiwork and directed his other self to protect the shuttles at all costs as they returned to the Revenant.

---

Once out of danger, Renli had returned to the storage closet with the Tower entity. Cables were everywhere, crisscrossing over one another and burying themselves in the hull of the ship, but there was a clear walking path from the door to the Tower, and two free spaces for himself and Rento. He shut down all non-automated systems, and Rento found herself conscious once more on the floor of the gunnery hallway. She recognized that it had been necessary for efficiency, but holy shit was that an uncomfortable position to be in. With a series of zipping noises, her prehensile cables slinked back under her top and into their storage compartments, which sealed themselves up once more beneath an almost invisible seam of synthetic skin.

She made her way down to the Common Area as instructed over the ship's PA system, and took a seat. Alcohol was served - and though it wasn't exactly the kind of fuel she preferred, it was still possible to metabolize into energy, courtesy of her bioreactor. She quickly threw the contents of the shotglass down her throat to find that it was a lot harsher than she expected, and she sputtered and coughed for a few moments. Perhaps including comprehensive tastebuds and full sensation was a mistake, she thought to herself.

The victory speech was sorta inspiring. Sorta. It didn't give her much confidence in the crew's abilities, especially with the alleged betrayal of Arex, but they were mostly in one piece. Only a handful hadn't made it back, and as far as she was concerned, those folks weren't exactly necessary.

While Rento would have loved to have stayed and chatted with the rest of the crew, she still had the matter of her weaponry and her place on the Revenant to attend to, and she stood to approach Stryker.

"When you get a moment, you said you wanted to talk to me down in the storage room? I'd like to make my position here a bit more official. Not too keen on just being a stowaway."

Arex was not present for the congratulatory cheers. As much as he could use the drink, while everybody else celebrated a 'victory' he wallowed over his 'failings'.
His instinctive information had been wrong, he was driven to betray a team member already, and over nothing. He had almost lost control and in his pursuit for what wasn't there he had let his guard down and was badly injured for it.

He felt he was becoming 'sloppy'. It was strange to be feeling that way considering he couldn't remember a thing prior boarding the ship. Those thoughts only compiled a new layer of hell onto the pulsing pain echoing through his head.

'One problem at a time.' He thought to himself as he took to the first task of carefully cutting free his damaged arm. At this point it was a dead weight on his body and much of the repair could be done while disconnected. He didn't have the luxury that Benny and Skelly shared. Arex's arm was not meant to come off, living tissue and nerves ran down the centre of the cybernetic contraption. As he disassembled and cut it piece by piece and part by part, it put him into a pure agony which made the job very trying as he almost faded out of consciousness on more than one occasion.

His muffled growls and groans echoed and repeated sporadically from within his room as he took to the tedious painful task. As much as he wanted to rush it a fast repair required precise work.

His next task was equally daunting, Arex had to seek out the medic he had previously insulted while avoiding Amy. He was not ready to face her and his head was in no condition to be fabricating lies.

@Azereiah

"Yeah, I'll get in touch shortly. Have to report in to the boss" Stryker let the disdain drip from his words, not hiding the fact that he still sort of hated everything about this job, especially his position as the captain. He headed off on his way, stopping briefly to chat with SAL over a task he needed done. Up in his quarters, Stryker sat at the terminal and established a Long-Range Transmission Channel. He rattled off the facts of the mission as well as an update on their current location, as per the Alliance's mandate. He also included a pair of footnotes mentioning the extra hands that had been brought aboard. Satisfied with the message, Stryker hit send and waited around to monitor it. Long-Range Transmissions were notorious in their potential delivery fail rate. If that happened, Stryker would have to act quick to salvage his nearly 10 minute long message or risk having to record it again. As he waited, he checked in on the ship's trajectory from his datapad. They were about 4 hours out from Minos Station at current speed. As much as he didn't want to admit it, the pilot had some skills, and he deserved a rest after the hell he'd just led them through. He wouldn't bother with ordering Tibulus to increase their speed to reduce the travel time. They were in no rush for the moment.

@Tickout

"I can assist in this matter" SAL said, taking the small medical droid from Maxi "Scanning. Damage incremental. I estimate that repairs will take about 2.5 hours. Find me then"

The robot stomped off. Before the team meeting, SAL noted that Grayson had left the door to the armory open. Wasn't like him to be so absent minded. He filed that information away as a topic of discussion for later, and proceeded inside to secure a selection of tools for the repair. He paused for a moment, noticing Amy's damaged armor on the workbench. A quick ocular scan revealed a handful of issues that Grayson's (mostly) human eyes might miss. Again, he filed the information away for later and headed out, deciding to use the tech lab downstairs as his office for the repair. Stryker stopped him on the stairs and asked if he would deal with retrieving the memory core from the Federation droid. SAL agreed to it and went on his way. Both the Federation droid and the lone remaining Alliance drone had been brought to the tech lab ahead of time.

@BKburke

In the tech lab, SAL established a list of priority. The memory core had a direct tie to the mission, so that came first. He set Maxi's medi-bot aside and settled in by a workbench along the rear wall, where both mangled military droids sat. Retrieving the core was a simple enough task, locating it was a much more immediate concern. SAL was unfamiliar with the makeup of most Federation tech, and having no prior experience with these Hunter class weapons, had no idea where to start.

He started by plugging the droid into the Mainframe, a computer drive that was unconnected to the rest of the ship's systems, for interacting with AI elements and the like. The Droid has been (forcibly) placed in a low-power state, but within the Mainframe, it's mind was abuzz with activity. An idea hit SAL. He used the systems within the Mainframe to simply copy all the data contained within this droid's head to a blank data-disc. He'd sort through it later and flag anything listed within the directory as belonging to the memory core. Easy as Pi.

Though not directly related to the mission, SAL felt a strange sense of obligation to check in on the Alliance Drone. He felt a sense of kinship to the robot, despite it being technically just a tool of the Alliance. He plugged it into the Mainframe and attempted to communicate. Never one to get emotional, SAL was... surprised to say the least when he interpreted and translated the ultralight communication dialogue AP-772 was transmitting. In English, the drone would have been saying this simple sentence over and over:

"Please help me"

That was quite sad. SAL honestly felt (his closest approximation) to sadness. In that moment, he resolved to do something quite drastic. It was an uncommon practice, but many programmers felt that by combining a pair of corrupt AI programs with a base model, like what the Mainframe provided, the corruptions would cancel each other other out to form a new, cohesive AI unit. It was this very process he was about to attempt by taking what remained of 772 and merging it into the Federation Droid. He patched in some basic AI routines to help bridge the two, and began to repair Maxi's bot as he waited to see if the melding would take. In the back of his head, SAL began to run some calculations on the best possible result of this experiment, and devised a blueprint of a new body for this AI program, one that would use parts of both the Alliance and Federation robots. A fighting machine that would far surpass either entities pitiful military bots... if Stryker approved of it he supposed. The timer he'd been keeping reached zero, and SAL connected himself back to the Mainframe to attempt a contact with the merged AI.

"Hello?" He transmitted "Can you hear me?"

@Crossfire

What kind of response SAL was to be expecting, or atleast calculated would be most likely wasn't known. However, the response he would be given was a list of questions. "What is this? Why can't I see? Where am I?" ANot abnormal number of questions flooded the the mainframe SAL was connected to. The response would take a turn toward a more negative approach. Whether this was to be expected in this kind of practice was debatable. "What am I seeing? Why are they dieing? The others...where are they? Why didn't you save them? You didn't save them. You let them become canon fodder. Why?" It's tone began to turn somewhat aggressive. "You left them to be turned into scrap metal!" There was a pause in the feedback during the transmission. "Hunter droids. I'll slaughter them! No, 116? What happened to 116?"

Tibulus was sitting in the cockpit with the ship on auto-pilot. He was absolutely swamped from the driving, and he needed a bit of time to relax before he was ready to pilot again. What better way to relax then to light a special cigar of yours and maybe suck on a few batteries? The answer is none if you are Tibulus, and while he was in a drunken stupor he started to mess around with the robotics set he had before. Did he know what he was building? No. Is there a chance it can kill everything in the ship? Probably a very small chance. Was he getting wasted? Most definitely. Did ships have any sort of DUI calculations? Bah, a DUI is something he shouldn't have to worry about. He doesn't breathe and he's with a crew of criminals, cops have more important things on their hands than a guy driving a bit tipsy.

@BKburke

"Calm down" SAL stated, going explicitly by-the-book "You're in a Mainframe. The other Platforms were destroyed as a result of battle. I was able to salvage what remained of Platform 772. You will experience some residual memories as a result of core flashes during the merging, but I'd like you to remember that you are not 772. Take a moment to process this. When I am able to, you will be transferred into a new form, please stand by and allow the merging process to finish. I will return in a moment."

It was best to let a new AI figure itself out during this moment of infancy. Within the Mainframe, there would be no way for this new program to cause any harm, a few minutes to itself would do wonders for it. SAL had other matters to tend to in the meantime.

He plodded upstairs to the Armory, and after being allowed inside, he found Grayson hard at work, pouring over one of the legs of Amy's armor, parts and tools strewn about the workbench.

"You know you left the door open up here before"
"Hmm" Grayson grunted, not paying attention, absorbed in his work.
"It was an unwise move, given that we can't know for sure if we can trust anyone but each other"
"Mhmm"
"Are you listening to me? ..... Grayson!"
"I heard ya mate, now fuck off! This goddamn servo is mangled enough that if I'm not careful replacing the cog joint, the whole leg is gonna be thrown off rotation"
SAL leaned in to observe Grayson's actions.
"You noticed the right piston was firing irregularly right?"
"What? You're fuckin' kiddin'?"
"I never kid. According to my scan it was 0.321 seconds off of it's pair-mate during a previous scan. Right now it's 0.345. If not adressed it will cause future issues. I've also identified 14 other points that will require attention that you may have missed"
"Fuckin' hell. Throw 'em to the terminal would ya? And hold that pin there"
The duo worked together to finish the task at hand, and a few moments later, both sat back, satisfied with the job they'd done. SAL transferred his observations to the Armory terminal, and Grayson wheeled his chair over to check it out.

"Won't be able to finish all this off with what we have here, bit of extra scrap to weld over the holes too" Grayson muttered as he took notes for the requisition. He looked up to see SAL standing silently by.
"Any... particular reason for your visit SAL?"
"Just returning tools I used for this repair. Have you seen the medic recently?"
"Maxi? Nah, not since the meetin'. Did ya try med bay?"
"No, I'll check there now on my way back to the lab"
"Hold on mate, I need to pop over there anyway, see if I can kip some surgical tape"

@Dark Light@Tickout

Grayson and SAL exited the Armory and almost immediately ran into Arex. SAL proceeded inside the med bay to drop off Maxi's medical bot, Grayson lingered outside for a moment, sizing up Arex before speaking very carefully.
"You ok mate? Get yourself stitched up, when you're ready, you and I are gonna have to have a few words"

@Turbowraith@Banana

Stryker exited his cabin with a clear list of priorities. First up he headed up to the cockpit to check in on Tibulus. The Funganoid had the place fumigated pretty good, and after Stryker finished coughing, he tapped the pilot on the shoulder to grab his attention.
"Keep an eye on things for a little while longer? I've gotta talk to the newbies, then I'll come back up and relieve you for a bit, we should be arriving at Minos in just a few hours right? I'll be up before it's time to guide her in for docking"

He nodded a quick farewell to Tibulus and moved on about his way. He tracked down the man they'd picked up off the Helsin station for a quick introduction.
"Hey there Joe, we didn't get a chance to properly meet earlier, I'm Stryker, I guess I'm in command of this whole thing we've got going here. The long story short is that the Alliance has us all dead-to-rights for one reason or another. We don't do what they say, we're all gonna be put to death, or worse yet, sent to prison for a long time. And I guess you're wrapped up with us now, but I'll leave that choice to you- we're on our way out into the Deadzone, gonna be docking at Minos Station for a resupply. If you want out, say the word, we'll drop you off there or wherever the hell else it is that you've got to go. I can't guarantee the Alliance won't send someone after you if you leave, this being a top-secret operation and everything, but I can guarantee this, we definitely need someone with your skills to help keep our engines goin', if you decide to stay, maybe I can convince the Alliance to pay you for your time, twice the usual going rate for a mechanic, how's that sound?"

SAL approached to take his bot, and for a split second he hesitated before turning the busted thing over to him. “Oh, uh, thank you”. He verified Graysons request to take his shot with a wave of his hand, not too concerned on if he did, before he stretched his arm and relaxed. It was a relief to hear the damage wasn’t that bad; if he had to replace the whole thing, it would be a nightmare. Everyone was dispersing to do their own thing, his bot was in repairs, and there was nothing for him to worry about. With that in mind, it was time to unpack his belongings properly and check out the ship's lab. Best to set up equipment when nothing was going on.

He popped into his room, unloaded and tidied up his clothes, and grabbed the equipment he was allowed to bring. The samples and materials he was allowed were somewhat pitiful- nothing organic, with only a few vials of medical chemicals and a handful of beakers, syringes, and petri dishes. Pathetic. He’d have to see if he could get some less shoddy supplies somehow, or if the medical bay had anything good for him to mess with. Maybe there was something for his headache. He set aside all of his equipment to be put back into his bag when his unloading was done- he could just pack it into his bag and carry it out. He sorted a few more items into drawers, took a moment to observe his cleaning, and gave himself a mental pat on the back.

Bag slung over his shoulder, he slipped out of his room and headed down to the ship's laboratory. It looked like someone else had already set up shop, but there were a few areas that were left untouched. They could share, if whoever the other lab user was minded their own business and didn’t touch his shit. He unloaded his bag of experimental equipments, lining up glass vials and dishes across the counter and putting the chemicals he was allowed to bring beside them. It wasn’t a fancy setup, but it was enough to run some experiments on what medical chemicals of his worked best for what species. He’d need to see who would be willing to actually have any tests run, though.

He checked the time- SAL should be finished with his bot by now. He double checked all his setup equipment, and left the lab. The armory was on the top floor, right? Next to the medical bay. He could check what stuff was in the med bay while grabbing his bot. He headed up to the crew deck, then the upper command deck. When he reached his destination, he was a little surprised to see that a small crowd had formed. Grayson was there, along with… Oh. Him. Potato brain. An injured looking potato brain. An injured looking potato brain that would most likely need his help.

He approached with a grin that let off a mildly devilish air just as SAL left the med bay. He poked his head into the room, and, upon seeing his bot, entered and powered it up. It floated back into the air as normal, beeping and processing its surroundings. Maxi gave it a pat on the top before leaving the room to thank SAL and confront his… ah, patient. He wasn’t going to make this easy. “Thanks a bunch for the repairs, SAL. Man, I was devastated that such an important piece of equipment was destroyed before the mission even started, and by an ally no less. What if something happened and I needed it on the spot? Gods, it was absolutely awful and infuriating. What a dumb thing to do on the attackers part”. He kept his tone casual and calm, though he knew very well the person that destroyed the bot was standing right next to him. He turned to Arex next, the venom in his grin refusing to fade. “Oh, hey there! Didn’t see you. It looks like you could use some help”.

@Dark Light

Lataniva narrowed her eyes looking intently at what was taking place before her. There was a grim satisfaction in having driven Arex to leave behind common sense and go for his prey. In this state, it was improper to interfere. As a fellow Dalentian, Lataniva knew that, and in fact, she was taking enjoyment in watching this. Now, she had never felt anything like what she felt from Arex before, but she knew what was happening from a purely Dalentian stand-point. It was time to watch what was happening and take in as much information as she can…

@Crossfire

Lataniva’s eyes twitched as the shots echoed from beside her and took out Arex’s prey. Lataniva quickly threw an angry glare at Grayson, mildly backed with a slight psionic force giving her glare a physical presence intent on informing the man that what he did was wrong. She spun her halberd in her right hand and prepared her left for possible use of psionics just in case Arex lashed out at them for this action. … He did not. That was a mild relief. Certainly helped with their priorities of getting out of this station alive. Very well. Lataniva let go of all pressure and then simply kept an eye out on Arex as they headed back to the ship, throwing her psionic powers at any Hunters that stood in their way before they could take her or her companions out. If they were close-combat robots, they’d find trouble assaulting the party as long as Lataniva was there.

Lataniva was present for the celebration. Mostly to note that Arex was not there. She did drink a little, but not much at all. She knew the effect of alcohol on her alien frame was considerable, and they did not want to have a wasted Dalentian on board. The effects would be potentially disastrous. She had learned of this at an earlier time, and she wasn’t about to repeat that embarrassment. Essentially, she was a light-weight, and if there was any individual who made a more dangerous drunk she had yet to learn of them.

@Tickout

Afterwards, she searched with determination for that specific individual. It wasn’t hard. Just let her awareness search the ship ahead of her as she walked to cover a large amount of area, seeking his Sh’kwarr. Her halberd was on strapped onto her back and she had her daggers sheathed, but they were still on her body. She found Arex, and someone had spoken up to him…

Lataniva said in a commanding, lightly hostile voice to Grayson, sounding as if she believed she had more authority in the matter than him.

She said, turning and staring at Arex with an unreadable glare. She then turned to Maxi, who apparently was also here. Oh, that’s right. He was a medic. Lataniva revised her intention to make him leave.

After having said so to Maxi, Lataniva turned to Arex, glaring at him somewhat accusatory yet also quite clearly with something in mind.

Lataniva demanded, staring at him. The “Rite of Merger” was the act of two Dalentians mind-reading each other’s brains to one another, helping one another with slight mind-manipulation to know what information each of them didn’t know. After a good Rite of Merger, both parties shared the exact same knowledge. However, that was when someone performed the Rite of Merger WITH someone. Lataniva had demanded to use it ON Arex, meaning she wanted all his knowledge yet he’d get none of hers. That is, if he even knew anything about what the Rite of Merger was.

She continued to glare at him. She wasn’t intending on doing it without permission, actually. That was against Dalentian rules, engraved into Lataniva’s mind since birth. So, she waited. Glaring.

…

…

@Xandrya

Perhaps much later (splitting a time-line a bit perhaps because the earlier scene is DEFINITELY not finished), depending on how things goes, Lataniva anyways had the intention of sleeping inside Amy’s room, if she could. This assumes each room has more than one bed and that the door was open, if either of those are untrue, this did not happen. If, however, both those were true then Lataniva would seemingly randomly enter the room, exit the armor (blind girl wouldn’t see her anyway) and then take the unoccupied bed without a word. If Amy didn’t disturb her, then Lataniva would simply sleep there peacefully. If Amy questioned, well, that’ll do for a different post, then.

Arex wore heavy bags under his blood shot eyes that he could barely keep open under the pressure of his thudding headache. A heavy hooded jacket shadowed his sweat stricken face accentuating his frightful features.
The left sleeve of his coat dangled empty at his side except for the odd drip of an unidentified liquid falling from within. Against his chest he carried his heavy disconnected arm folded against himself, supported by his other.

Arex not paying attention almost staggered right into Greyson. The supposed leader of this crew.
"You ok mate? Get yourself stitched up, when you're ready, you and I are gonna have to have a few words." Greyson spoke.
So it seemed he was going to play his role seriously after all. Arex couldn't help but wonder what Amy had already told him, he would have to go question her right after this. Arex was in no mood to fake sincerity and simply replied with a dismissive grunt. It wasn't appropriate but right now he didn't give a fuck. Pissing off the boss was the least of his concerns and was something he was going to have to deal with later anyway.
He listened as the medic prattled on at his expense. It only made Arex smirk beneath the shadow of his hood. It would take more than some wise-crack words to make Arex regret his actions or learn the 'error of his ways.'
He had laid down his arm on a surgical table and began rolling his jacket off the static sparking, blood soaked bandaged cybernetic stub hanging from his shoulder.

It was then Lataniva appeared. It wasn't until she was staring at him intently that Arex realised she had spoken to him. ‘I intend to perform the Rite of Merger on you.’ The sudden statement caused him to nearly choke on his own breath. He almost chuckled as he looked to her with a smile, a bit startled and a bit confused.

"Well, I'm flattered doll, truly am. Are all of your species so upfront?" Arex asks as he looks over Lataniva before taking a seat on one of the nearby benches and slightly shaking his head with amused consideration. 'Why not.' he thinks to himself.
Coming to a decision he looks back up into her eyes and replies.
"Look, humans are usually less upfront with such things and, well, don't discuss it in front of others." he looks around the busy open room with a soft laugh.
"Plus" he adds as he gestures to his injuries "I'm not exactly in the best condition right now, maybe come see me later and we can go over the details of this merger." he says giving her a sly confident smirk and faint playful wink.

His mood now lifted, even if left him slightly perplexed and somewhat curious, Arex turns his attention to Maxi and gives very specific and detailed instructions to the process and aid he and his arm required. It was complicated, technological and quite interesting but nothing beyond the doctors capabilities or resources.