-=Legion’s End - Horizon Asteroid field - Poseidon's Belt System, UGA Claimed Territory=-

Three months ago The SSA Heavy Cruiser "Balrog" sent on a classified mission for the SSA vanished ceasing all communications. After the Balrog's disappearance both the SSA and KOT launched massive searches for the craft desperate to claim the secret information held within the ship. Two standard weeks ago an "Acquaintance" of Sven's contacted the Crimson Legion with exclusive information regarding the lost ship's general location. This acquaintance offered the location of the Balrog to the Crimson Legion, with a promise of a one weeks head start before he would leak the info to other interested parties. Knowing just how valuable the information would be to either the SSA or KOT Silas agreed to the deal knowing that the payout could well eclipse the cost and after hefty price ans Sven calling in a lot of favors the coordinates were sent.

The Legion quickly made their way to the dead System of Poseidon's Belt the trip eating two days from their precious time The next Eight days the Legion combed the system looking for any signs of the Balrog and their bounty. Then Four days ago other factions started to enter the system. All types of Mercenaries, Pirates, Raiders, and anyone who could gain from this find started to flood the system in search for the Ship. But these groups did not mix and what could be accounted to a full war broke out as factions fought to take the ship, luckily enough with their lead the Legion was able to avoid the "war" although they could pick the signals and communications from the ongoing battle while continuing their search. Another two days later Small detachments of both the SSA and KOT arrived stationing themselves on opposite sides of the system. Instead of joining the battle the Admirals decided to play at the greed of those looking for the Ship declaring a bounty for whichever crew would bring them the lost ship, as well as a smaller part of the bounty for any crew willing to pledge the find to their side before the ship was found.

This declaration fulled the war as ships choose a side turning the ongoing battle into a real two sided war from a free-for-all brawl. And still the Crimson Legion avoided the conflict focusing on the larger prize. Now 12 standard hours ago the Legion finally caught a ping from the Balrog and was able to pinpoint the ship's location. Still a bit ahead of any of their competition the Sven opted for a stealthy approach not wanting to draw any attention, but two hours ago the Balrog came into view. The ship was heavily damaged, outer reading showed destroyed engines, no power within the ship, and heavy damage to the outer hull. Taking a bit of a precaution Sven decided to hide the Legion's End in case others were to stumble upon the ship as they searched it. Now with the Legion's End "safely" hiding inside the Horizon Asteroid Field only a short shuttle ride from the disabled ship, the boarding team prepares to retrieve the data that could make the Legion's end rich beyond belief.

@Arthanus

The past few days in-system had been rough on Gerad; apart from helping fix things if they got shot at, he was just a passengers during transit, and he was running out of projects to keep himself occupied. Now however, their target was in sight and they were making ready to board the SAA derelict.

Standing with the rest of the boarding party, he watched out of the corner of his eye while a readout in his armour HUD did a status update of his systems. ”Boss,” He said, peering up at Silas. ”Practical question dat should ‘a asked before, but…” Gerad punctuated his words with a shrug. ”We able ta’ do a bit a ‘self-serve’ on the odd an’ ends, or we gotta leave the prize like a maiden?”

After being cooped up for two weeks and running surveillance during that time, Cyne was pleased to finally leave the dull yet sturdy confines of the Legion's End. Their initial tour of the system was unremarkable to say the least. Travelling to the system was an understandable given and Cyne certainly wouldn't complain about that fact. Finding the Balrog however was a different matter entirely. An average solar system held an unfathomably proportioned emptiness between stellar bodies where practically anything, easily dwarfed by even the smallest of moons, could traverse the blackness of space undetected, unbeknownst to all but the most efficient of sensory arrays and spectrum analysis equipment. Unfortunately, their quarry was a sly object and annoyingly avoided detection for more than a week. Cyne at one point nearly convinced himself that the ship they sought was intentionally hiding away and leading them astray.

Their run was then made more difficult, if not however interesting when the additional ships belonging to different factions began pouring into the system, their goals quite similar to that of the crew of the Legion's End. Days passed and Cyne swore his ears could have very well given out as he attuned them to the constant transmissions skipping about the Poseidon's Belt. Most were standard reports; nothing interesting however he held some thin sliver of hope that any one of the interlopers in-system could have, just maybe, found some sort of lead to go by. However, that was not to be as the latter half of the transmissions covered mostly of combat and in-fighting records. In a sense, it was somewhat amusing to Cyne, considering that with everyone killing each other, no one truly bothered to ask what exactly they were dying for. The simple answer would've been for secret and classified information; encrypted details that could genuinely tip the balance of power in the sector.

But was that truly it? No one however knew for sure and only time would tell once the accolade was in their grasps.

Sure enough, they eventually stumbled across their prize, having found the Balrog as a derelict once it's short-range sensor pings wer picked up. Initial imagery revealed a vessel that once looked like the Balrog but was now reduced to a battered and gutted hulk of metal. The question that everyone was asking couldn't be answered; what happened? The mere thought was eerie at best and indulged only in mysterious vagueness.

Within the shuttle destined towards the beaten husk of the Balrog, Cyne checked the HUD readout from his visor as it compiled the necessary booting data, having just powered up the life-support systems of his compact extravehicular mobility suit. The suit's OS normally would have taken ten or so minutes to ensure the life-support gear was reliable enough for safe usage. But with his trusty drone, Pathfinder docked to a modified assembly at the rear of the suit and procedurally interacting with the suit's main systems, the process only took seconds to complete.

After a small green ping illuminated on his HUD, Cyne directed his attention to his rifle. While a powerful marksman firearm, its Cartridge based design forbade it from participating within unsuitable environments. At least not in its usual state. Cyne systematically broke the frame down, having removed the elongated barrel and upper receiver assembly before storing them away. He eventually produced a newer and bulkier frame that would replace the uninstalled sections. The newer assembly was blocky and rectangular in appearance however maintaining a smooth and sleek design, boasting an ergonomic build where the horizontal handle would be. The new framework bore a complex lineup of internal mag rails, purposed for functioning in vacuum-like domains. The installation was relatively simple, simply requiring him to set the upper assembly in place atop the rifle itself, there it would then make a satisfying snap and then a low whine of its electronics synchronizing with the rest of the weapon's systems.

They were close now and it certainly wouldn't be much longer until they were live.

To Macklyn, the time between systems flew by. He was fascinated at the internal mechanisms of the ship. He hadn't spent much time off-world and when he did it was in his very own ship. Aboard the Legions End he spent a lot of time studying how the ship worked and he loved every second it. It was almost over too soon when the first signals of the Balrog were read but then again, he thought, he's been itching for a little action. Even if it was aboard another boat.

He equipped his overly polished revolvers, checked their action and tested his re-loaders for the umteenth time and met with the others, ready to board the shuttle craft. He noted Cyne and his adoration for his own equipment. It became apparent to him that Ebony and Ivory had a distinct weakness. His beloved weapons wouldn't function in the vacuum of space. "S'pose a void rune of some sort might do the trick?" he wondered to himself. He'd likely inquire about Cyne's weaponry if they all survive the chaos with the loot and perhaps learn a thing or two in the process.

He approached and then stood beside Gerand, and hit his back in a familiar gesture while regarding Silas. "Grumpy here's got the right idea! Suppose we find a few solitary trinkets in need of liberatin'? Ain't no use for um' on a rusty bucket eh Cap'm?".

Silas had gathered the crew in the briefing room to go over the last bits and details of the mission before they went away. And of course before the briefing could even start Gerad posed his question. Silas gave a sigh and grinned. "Now if things actually go our way and by some miracle we don't end up having to shoot our way out of that ship, I have zero qualms on snagging some of that fine military grade equipment. But that's probably not how its going to go." he continued while pulling up a holo of the derelict Balrog. "So as everyone can see the ship has no power and probably no life support. That means no oxygen or gravity once we get inside. That being said our first job will be to head to the generators and start up auxiliary power." Silas said while pointing at the holo and it spun zooming in and highlighting a path from the hanger to the generators. "After that's done hopefully life support will kick back in and we can make our way to the command bridge, because there has to be some sort of log on what the secret project the Balrog was working on there. But that is where things will probably go bad. Once we turn on the Aux Power the ship will start showing up on sensors around the sector drawing this nice little war strait to us." He continued as the holo projected the route to the bridge. "Gerad, you and me will work on combing through the ships logs for a clue while Cyne, Macklyn, and Gaz give us cover whoever decides to board the ship. Once we find out what the ship is hiding we then move to secure it. After that depending on the resistance we might stop by the armory and pick up some be goodies, then we get off the ship make our way back here and hopefully jump out of the system before getting blown to bits." Silas wrapped up his plan. Knowing the last bit was probably going to fall to improvisation once they got in the field but it was nice having a little baseline of a plan to go off of. "Now saying as we are expecting to head into an environment where normal weapons won't work I'll open up the armory for a bit. If you need something that will work in Zero-G pick up something before we leave. Now if there aren't any questions you are all dismissed everyone be ready to leave in ten minutes, we are already working against the clock." he said ending the briefing and as the others filed out to prepare Sven came up beside Silas, "Noticed you didn't have me doing anything in your plans there. You know I could probably find those files faster than you and the monkey." Sven said in a kinda hurt tone. "Yeah, but someone has got to stay on the transport keeping it ready to leave at a moments notice, also I trust the ships targeting computer more than yours at least I was able to program us all as friendlies into the ship's system." Silas shot back while he made his way to the armory getting himself his Carbine and a pair of plasma pistols leaving Death's Grasp in its holster for this run. After grabbing his weapons Silas would make his way back to his quarters to change into his combat suit and ready himself for the mission.

The ten minutes would go by and the team would ready themselves before it was time to head out. Sven would lead the way piloting the Fang with Macklyn and his Lancer close behind. "Watch yourself kid, asteroid fields are kinda tricky you can't just follow my trail if you do you might end up flat against a rock." the old pilot said over the comms, he hadn't had very much of a chance to fly with Macklyn before this and was kinda worried about the rookie going threw the belt. Meanwhile Silas sat in the back of the Fang with the rest. "Alright so bets on what the secret on the ship is?" Silas asked trying to make the journey pass a little faster. "I'm going to say that the SSA stole alien tech and it pissed them off, they came crippled the ship and left it for dead. Hell probably even took the tech back. But our bounty is for the ship itself anything it is caring is a bonus." he speculated not having any idea what happened to the ship.

The mission wasn’t ideal for Gaz, he was a veritable tank of a creature and he loved to don his brightly coloured armour. Unfortunately for him it would all be hidden beneath the required enviro-suit, however he thought it looked quite snazzy once he had put it all on. Clearly Fungai by design, his helmet looked like a wooden box with a pane of glass awkwardly fitted to it. From that, what could only be described as black bags held together with duct tape, covered the rest of his body. Over his shoulders were straps to hold a large metal crate to his back, several flashing lights and various doodads, with a hose connected to his finely crafted helmet.

"I lookz da biz!"

With two car battery looking devices strapped to his thick metal boots, Gaz headed to meet up with the others aboard the Fang. His rough face had a toothy grin to it, almost drowned by the smugness he felt for how he looked. The shimmer of the lights reflecting from the glossy exterior of his enviro-suit made him smile.

"None of da 'umies on 'ere look dis good!"

As he approached the Fang he ducked down underneath the top of bulkhead door, stepping through and greeting the others with his usual charm. He gave a slack salute and reached out to fist bump everyone, even though his hands were multiple times bigger than the others.

"'Ello der boyz! 'Owz it 'angin?"

Gaz settled into his seat, which just happened to be two close together, and soon enough the crew had launched and were heading towards their destination. It wasn't long before Silas tried to break the silence with a question about their targets cargo. He proposed some sort of retaliation for stealing tech, Gaz let out a bellowing laugh that echoed wildly throughout the vessel.

"Silly 'umie! Dis is all about da money." Gaz gestured with his free hand, rubbing his index finger and thumb together. "Deez idiots were shippin' stolen credz an' da ownerz wanted it back." Gaz attempted to scratch his chin but only found the glass pane. A look of confusion spread across Gaz's face and for a moment he tried to scratch his chin again before remembering the pane of glass was there. He let out a grunt before continuing on. "It don' matter though...as long as der is fightin' and brawlin' Gaz is gonna be 'appy!"

Macklyn hadn't much use for words as the team assembled for the plan. It sounded good and he was ready to prove his worth to the team. On their way out he opted to take a pair of Plasma Pistols but brought Ebony and Ivory along anyway just in case there was still an atmosphere on the derelict ship.

He boarded The Lancer and begun the powerup sequence. He laid his head back and appreciated the hum of his creation as his annunciation lights flickered to life section by section. Primary flight display, check, navigation computer, check, quick ELAC inspection. Check check and check.

"That's my girl." he said quietly to his ship. For a split second after he worried he has been heard talking to his ship but confirmed comms were off and shot his glare toward Sven through the windshield. Sven looked busy and Macklyn suddenly felt very solitary.  It wasn't a problem but realized if the Fang were to crash, he'd be out of a job. Everyone was boarding it. "Better keep that boat sailing". he said to himself.

Macklyn powered up his vertical stabilizers and lifted off the hangar floor before the Fang took to flight. He throttled out of the docking bay doors and performed a few fancy maneuvers before hovering his ship within eyesight of Sven as if to suggest "what's the hold up?".

Finally after the proper checks were presumably accomplished he saw Sven take to flight and the Fang accelerate by and up towards the dense part of the asteroid field. The Lancer followed suit.

As the density of rocks and chunks of ice began to increase the Lancers comms chirped loudly. "Watch yourself kid, asteroid fields are kinda tricky you can't just follow my trail if you do you might end up flat against a rock." Macklyn scoffed as his reached to press the open comms channel "Okay Sven thanks for the warning" He said in a dry voice, almost as of you can hear him rolling his eyes. "But I think I can handle a few AHHHHHHH!!!" Narrowly dodging a rock, Macklyn spins and pulls up. "I'm okay I'm okay just a clo AaHhhhh!" Another near miss from above the Lancer jolts to the left and slightly rolls to move it's right wing just barely out of the way. Macklyn accelerated to catch up to the Fang.

"Sven I need a little OH SHI..." Sven can see in his positional radar The Lancer spinning to a fro wildly all over. Intermittently the comms open within the Fang with Macklyns panicked knee jerk reactions resounding through the flight deck.

Macklyns heart was racing. It took all he had to remain focused enough to effectively dodge everything. "Sven how the hell are you flyin' so casually? Oh my god...  no no no no n....."

The Lancer disappeared from the radar adjacent to the largest asteroid in the immediate area. The radio was silent until a large flash of light illuminated the debris in the area.  Out of a none descript side of that large asteroid was an explosion of blue and red. The Fangs radio chirped "YAAHOOOO!". Out of the explosion The Lancer rocketed as the massive asteroid began to crumble behind it.

Macklyn got caught up in the moment and forgot what he's best at... shooting things! Suddenly he flew with a renewed confidence. Instead of dodging and weaving, he was rolling his ship around and blasting the rocks that got near into particulates too small to damage the Lancers armor. He found his rhythm and before long he was able to catch up to the Fang and maintain a steady course near it.

Gerad’s lips pulled back in what, charitably, passed for a Garundin’s smile. Bossman got da rite think’n, tho if he say’n der be no time…hes no seen a Milita scavver on th’ bounce. He thought as Silas gave the go ahead for a little personal ‘salvage’ work.

”Right Boss, get in git ‘er all warmed up. Looks like she be a bit bricked though” He added indicating to the damaged sections of the ship. “IF, and dat a big ‘un, she still got leg, maybe we jus’ jump ‘er back to Solly space; dat said if she as cliff-fallen as she seem, I jus’ yank ‘puter core an’ give it to da Solly…mebe make copies an’ sell ‘em to Gal-Con an’ Tallos…” The last bit petered of as if he might have been phrasing it as a question.
-
Ten minutes later, he was aboard the ’Fang’, standing in the isle as he couldn’t really use biped-style seats; mind you it wasn’t too great a hassle, he simply activated his armour’s mag-locks in his boot to ‘stick’ him to the decking, locked his armour in place, and then just let himself go limp inside the hardened shell…it was actually rather comfortable.

Still, even as he relaxed for the flight over, he was a bit keyed up. Out of the corner of one eye he watched Gaz and that ridiculous trash pile the green skin called a ‘Spacesuit’. Sure he’ a big ‘un, an’ prob’ly right nasty in a fight; but ye can’t trust a Fungi as far as ye can shit… Any further pondering were interrupted by Silas taking bets. ”Got a split bet,” Gerad pipped up. ”Fifty say de was work’n on some new type a fast-light, Hunne’d say stealth tech. Either way she be right busted.”

Having finished the final modification checks of his weapons and his suit, Cyne locked his gear in-place against wall-mounted locks, next to his claimed seat. With the moment to himself, he turned his gaze toward his squad mates assembled right outside the Crimson Fang's ramp. If one were to look upon Cyne in full gear, they would see the spider-like arrangement of several faintly-glowing neon green sensor scopes assorted horizontally across the upper portion of his helmet that now covered half od his face. This left only his mouth exposed for the moment before the lower jaw guard assembly would eventually lock securely once the operation started.

One of the scopes zeroed-in on the both literal and metaphorical elephant-sized entity entering the hanger and brought up a zoomed in image on his HUD. Dwarfing everyone else, Gaz stomped toward their shuttle wearing what Fungai would call, with a straight face, a space suit. Cyne wouldn't have been surprised if the same was declared with an amusing toothy grin. The suit itself appeared as if it was crudely assembled with whatever was made available at the time. The 'suit' seemed nothing more than a wooden box for a helmet connected to a few interwoven bags to make up a vaguely humanoid-shaped form with a clucky-looking contraption harnessed to the back, presumably acting as the power and oxygen supply that ran back to the helmet. Cyne honestly couldn't decide if he should be impressed or insulted with how Gaz's enviro-suit could even work. By all accounts, it shouldn't, and yet, it did. Though Cyne certainly couldn't physically see Gaz's full expression, he could already imagine it being a proud and happy one.

His sensors would also pick up on Silias and Gerad as well, showing them in more proper suits, fit to navigate the void outside the confines of the Legion's End. And then Macklyn came into his sights as well, however appearing somewhat naked in comparison to the rest of the team. Perhaps better worded as ill-equipped to search through an externally compromised vessel. Despite the magically-fueled destructive potency of Macklyn's revolvers, it was conclusive by Cyne's analyzing sensor array that they would do little good where they would be going. But Cyne wasn't one to judge such a circumstance harshly. He knew Macklyn would have a work around or some other method to ensure he could keep up. He was flying his own ship after all.

Just as Silas began the briefing, it was clear that most of the team were exercising their greed-fueled curiosity, expressing notions of stripping the derelict Balrog of any remaining leftover trinkets and arms. Even Cyne could not pass up the attractive thought of raiding any untouched coffers that might be aboard the lost SSA vessel. It only made sense that as a mercenary company, they had to find someway to ensure they kept themselves well funded and well armed. And although he willing fell in with the group's business-related equilibrium, Cyne however ensured that his focus was trained on what ever was on that ship. He mentally created a list of scenarios of what could happen once they board the Balrog, ranging from traps, to unlikely pirates, or even some unknown technological force that was responsible in the vessel's demise. Either circumstance was unwelcomed but at in the long run, at least he was prepared for trouble the moment it reared it's ugly head.

Having reviewed the telemetry of the Balrog's state beforehand, much of the details of the briefing were as what he had expected it to be. The plan was simple and straightforward though how it would actually by once they set foot on the derelict couldn't been anyone's guess. After ten or so minutes, everyone had boarded the Crimson Fang while Macklyn commanded his Lancer and immediately departed toward their fated destination. It was then Silas opened up with an intriguing forum of what could have happened to the Balrog and what they could possibly find once they boarded her. Silas, unsurprisingly, opted his idea that the crew of the now-doomed SSA vessel acquired some kind of technology that was then violently reclaimed by its owners. Certainly plausible. Gaz claimed that the Balrog had sailed off with a hill of credits before the same scenario occurred. Unlikely, however it would make sense in the SSA vessel had stumbled upon valuable alien artifacts, prompting the same response. Finally, Gerad offered his option and produced the idea of newer and highly experimental stealth technologies being developed and ultimately leading to the totaling of the vessel. Maybe, he thought but the thought of refined stealth tech did sound appealing to him.

"Should be worth mentioning that the Balrog could have encountered a catastrophic, and fatal, accident, as well. A mishandled anti-matter surge is not an impossible event that could occur," Cyne offered in what sounded like more like an advisory than a fun declaration. He knew his opinion was probably going to be the unpopular, or perhaps boring statment offered; however it was quite common for him to speak more towards the point of the topic rather than building it up, "probably messed with something they shouldn't have fiddled around with."

The trip to the Balrog was going fine, Silas started to open his mouth to comment on the other's thought but then the fang shook as there seemed to be some sort of explosion outside. "Status Report!" Silas immediately opened up a comm line "Nothing to worry about.... Your "Crack Pilot" apparently doesn't know how to navigate an asteroid field. That and he doesn't understand the idea of stealth...." Sven answered back while steadying the ship. "Well dammit... Alright change of plans then... Since it probably won't be long before someone comes to check out an exploding asteroid field, I need you three to head strait to the bridge. Your job is to hold off whoever tries to take the bridge while me and our rookie will make our way to turn power back on." Silas decided after a moment of thought. Luckily the rest of the trip was uneventful and the Fang made its way to the Balrog. As the ships approached the Balrog Sven decided to open up comms again. "Alright try to land in the aft end of the hanger, it looks like a bunch of the military transports are still docked there. We should be able to hide ourselves with them so when company arrives our ships don't stick out like a sore thumb and get dusted by whoever follows us. Or at the very least try not to blow anything up..." he relayed to Macklyn while pulling the Fang into the hanger of the downed ship.

As the ship set down and its magnetic locks engaged Sven gave another report. "As suspected the levels of oxygen on the ship is not suitable for life, also it seems that the artificial gravity is deactivated." Silas put on his helmet and activated its seal "Alright then lets get this party started." he said as he got up and exited the Fang moving over to Macklyn's ship. Silas didn't bother to activate his grav boots and decided to get around using light boosts from his suits built in propulsion pack. Once reaching the ship he waited for Macklyn to exit the ship. "Thanks to your stunt plans have changed, me and you are going to restore power now hurry up and follow me." He said to the rookie before pushing off the ship sending himself on his way heading toward the Main Generator room.

The interior of the ship was similar for both teams it was clear something happened as the walls and floors of the abandoned ship were covered in blood splatter, scorch marks, bullet holes, slashes through metal and various other damages, but there were no bodies, remains, or even discarded weapons and ammo. Worse off the ship was dead silent save the creaking of the hull as the derelict drifted through space. The sight nearly shot a chill down Silas' spine. "Any thoughts at what caused this?" he asked Macklyn trying to get a feel for how the rookie was holding up. But before the rookie could answer the silence was broken. "Bad news Boss, looks like you were right I just got a chirp from MACK, looks like we got a few ships coming on radar. A Cruiser Class and two Light Cruisers. Seems they have found the Balrog and are making their way here. Probably came this way seeing what all the commotion was...." Sven's voice came over comms with the last sentence being directly pointed at Macklyn. "Right we are almost to the Generator Room, how is everything going on your end Spyglass you make it to the Bridge yet?" Silas answered back after checking his progress on a small holo map being projected off of his wrist.

What seemed like a reasonable timetable for an in-and-out operation quickly became narrower.

Cyne reactively and quickly reoriented himself into an alerted stance the moment the frame of the Crimson Fang rocked under the explosion of a nearby destroyed asteroid, courtesy of Macklyn's shooting. Once that fact was made clear by Sven over the comm channel, Cyne took the moment to ease off some the sudden tension that had naturally came over him. But now that live firing had been conducted, they now were running the risk of some unwanted individual nearby, maybe hundreds of thousands of kilometers away, taking notice of the unnatural and artificial activity. Planning upon the now greater chance of undesired attention of passerbys, Silas established an order for Cyne, Gaz, and Gerad to split off the moment the ’Fang landed and make their way towards the Balrog's bridge while he himself and Macklyn vector to the heavy cruiser's generator to restore power. Divide and conquer. Given the most recent developments, the original idea of paving forward as a single group was no longer a feasible or timely sound method.

It wasn't long until Sven located the Balrog’s starboard hanger and moved their craft in to approach with Macklyn’s Lancer coming up from the rear. Typically, most larger ships possessing this kind of hanger bay configuration utilized specialized environmental force-fields, ensuring oxygen and other gases would remain in the ship while space craft could freely pass through without triggering a decompression event. Of course, if such a catastrophic event did occur, resulting in the force field suddenly deactivating, thick sliding bulkheads built into the walls around the hanger’s entrance would immediately seal off the large portal into space, preventing personnel and other important assets from being claimed by the void.

What Cyne found odd however was that the bulkhead seals were disengaged, still folded behind the Balrog’s armored hull. It was evident now that large vessel had suffered a completely total power failure; an extraordinary rare scenario thought to be impossible due to required safety measures and an abundance of preventive and redundant mechanical and electronic systems. He tried to restrain the sudden thought of what those unfortunate crewmembers still within the supposedly protected hanger were thinking the moment the force field dropped without the bulkheads engaging to save them.

Miraculously, several of the Balrog’s auxiliary craft still resided within the hanger, managing to remain in place during the likely decompression event. It would’ve been reasonable to assume that the transports were either tethered down or magnetically clamped to the hanger floor under their own power. Cyne couldn’t tell as the ‘Fang and the Lancer strolled on in though it wouldn’t matter to him for long. Sven eventually reported in and verified that oxygen levels were obliviously non-existent but also artificial gravity was offline too, ultimately confirming Cyne’s earlier predictions. On Silas’ order, Cyne lifted and closed the lower assembly of his helmet over his mouth, finally removing any exposed fleshiness of himself from the outside and now behind two inches of personnel armor. His HUD came to life with a plethora of diagnostic charts pinpointing the current environmental suitability readings within his lightly armored, yet secured outfit. A green-lighted ping popped into the HUD, concluding that life support was active and providing him with sustaining oxygen. He was ready to go.

Once everyone else was prepared, the Crimson Fang’s rear cabin hatch unlocked and opened wide, prompting the sealing ramp to unfold and deploy. Silas was the first to exit and made his way to the Lancer to group up with Macklyn. Cyne then moved forward and gestured to Gerad and Gaz to rally with him, “On me! Let’s go get our payday.”

Like Silas, Cyne pushed himself out of the ‘Fang and into zero gravity, using his momentum to push himself forward while moderately using his suit’s boosters to correct his vector to a preferred course. Using their intel on the Balrog’s deck layout Cyne lead both of his teammates toward the bridge via one of the more straightforward paths that didn’t lead them deeper into the ship; they didn’t have the time as a luxury for going through a maze of crew quarters and other casual facilities. As Cyne forged ahead, he made limited but precise use of his gravity boots. Had they a fairer timetable, the boots probably would have been ideal for walking through complex inner confines of the Balrog where flying through the Zero G in such narrow turning corridors would've been a painstaking chore. Instead, he used the boots to help him briefly stick to either the floor or one of the adjacent walls just long enough to propel himself forward.

Eventually, the path they took brought them to a section of the heavy cruiser designed as a long expressway destined for the bow or stern of the vessel, depending on which direction someone were coming from. The large and lengthy corridor hosted multiple moving walkways which were ideal for many of the crew in operations or logistics to quickly reach those sections they were needed in. But without proper power, the passageway platforms were still and the corridor itself was claimed by darkness. However only partially. As it turned out, some power persisted to cycle through the deck but only enough to just barely keep the red emergency lights active. Unfortunately, the slow pulsating red glow emitting from the corridor trenches occasionally shut off and then flickered back on erratically.

But when a full glow cycle was achieved, the lights revealed grim outcomes of what had happened to the crew of the Balrog. Once discovered, Cyne’s HUD was quick to point them out and mark their exact position in the darkness but by now, Cyne and company were already using the lamps built into their suits to light up the space ahead of them. Streaks of blood were smeared all over the floor and the walls, following instances of deep tears into the inner hull as if something thickly blunt, yet sharp, cleaved into the sturdy surfaces. Cyne continued to scan his surroundings. He eventually spotted small blackened holes in the walls and ceiling; evidence of more than one energy-based weapon discharging. Clearly, a savage struggle had took place, but it was too bloody for a firefight. There was also one key element that was missing. The bodies.

They were all gone.

It didn’t take long for Cyne to take notice of a series of large red trails leading out into smaller hallways, going deeper into the ship, “What the hell happened here?” he finally voiced up. He would hear the others’ opinions, but it was unlikely they would get an answer soon until they reached the bridge.

“Let’s get going,” he eventually said before increasing the thrust output of his suit’s directional boosters to propel him faster. The fate of the Balrog and her crew had just become far more mysterious but for all the wrong reasons; nothing was right about what they saw.

As it so happened, there were more surprises awaiting them. Only a minute later after they left the expressway, they arrived at another corridor where the exterior hull was evidently compromised, leaving much of the deck they were travelling through exposed to space. The large gash in the hull however was particularly unusual. The wound in the ship seemed to lack any notable features of an explosion or that of a torpedo impact. No blacked surfaces or sheers of hull plating pushing inward or outward, just stripped; torn away. Cyne knew they didn’t have time gander at the large hole showcasing the stars out the other side but based on the signs on display, this particular hull breach as well as many others were not created by any weapon he knew of.

Two minutes later, they had arrived at the bridge. The large space hosted a number of elevated levels where command and communications crews would be stationed at and ensured the Balrog maintained operational efficiency. Those crewmembers however were also gone as Cyne, along with Gaz and Gerad, came to the same grisly and shady scene as witnessed in the expressway; tons of blood stains and yet no corpses. This didn’t sit well with him at all.

Of course, it was about to become worse. Sven then reported in on the comms that a group of three cruisers were on their way. Fantastic, he sarcastically thought. Silas’ voice then filled the comms, querying Cyne’s status.

“We’ve reached the bridge, boss. Though we came across quite a bit of carnage on the way here. I’m sure you may have seen it to,” he replied just as he was tapping away at an interface underneath his left arm, “I’d rather we not linger here any longer than we have to. I’m prepping Pathfinder to get life-support online and to pull the ship’s database once power is online. On your mark, sir”

After getting Silas’ confirmation, he deployed his partner-in-crime, Pathfinder. The drone was no longer than two feet in diameter and about a foot and a half in height. It propelled itself through the zero gravity via two rear multi-directional thrusters in addition to the top and under belly jets were a duo of machine guns were fixed to. Pathfinder hopped off from the docking mechanism located on the back of Cyne’s suit and issued a quizzical chirp.

“Yes, the place is awfully bloody looking but you’re not the one having to walk through it are you?” Cyne replied. Apparently the drone’s question held some sarcastic tone to it, “now, lets find the main command console. Likely it’s on the top platform.”

Pathfinder complied with a series of honks and flew the top open floor. Cyne in turn, directed his attention to Gerad and Gaz. “Did you hear that? We’re gonna be getting some unwelcomed company soon. Assuming that this takes longer than I'd like, be ready to repeal boarders.”

Minutes later, after Pathfinder had located the console they were looking for, Silas and Macklyn had managed to restore the Balrog’s main generator, prompting power to flow through the crippled vessel once more. A slight rumbling could be felt as the generator charged up from the bowels of the ship. Eventually the ship’s lights flashed back on, followed shortly by life-support and then artificial gravity. Cyne’s HUD quickly alerted him the improving climate around them as oxygen levels began to rise while any miniscule debris or toxic particles that had managed to remain were sorted out and by the filtration system. Once the weightless dissipated, confirming the full restoration, Cyne unlocked his mouth guard and lifted his visor up and took a deep breath. Despite the Balrog’s terrible condition, some of its main systems at least were working fine.

Cyne then quickly turned his head to the loud beeping coming from Pathfinder, alerting the group to a change in their operation. Cyne climbed up to the top platform where the ship’s captain would've been stationed at and glanced over the console. The screen it displayed showed a map of the entire vessel, a much more detailed one than the one they relied on when getting to the bridge. Pathfinder pinpointed a number of changes occurring in the decks closest to the outer hull.

“Heads up fellas,” Cyne said through the comms, “now that life-support is up and running, the ship’s bulkheads are engaging and sealing off those decks that are exposed to hull breaches. We’ll likely need to find an alternative path back to... Wait.”

Cyne’s sentence ran off as he noticed a change on the console’s map. There was movement occurring in one of the central decks; no where close to bridge and not even in the remote vicinity where Silas and Macklyn were located. In fact, the deck was marked as sealed off a minute ago until power was restored. Sven reported no activity from the hanger they deployed from and the sensors from the portside hanger reported the same thing. Obviously, the cruisers had not yet come but now it was clear that someone, or something, was still on the ship.

Their misfortune soon peaked again as one of the most ghoulish, inhuman of screams Cyne had ever heard echoed throughout the still active corridors of the entire ship. Pathfinder drawled a worried tone while Cyne slowly turned his head toward the main hallway leading to the bridge; the only hallway available that they took getting here, “Please tell me I’m the only one that heard that.” Cyne spoke with apparent worry and concern in his voice. He honestly was hoping that he was just hearing things as the result of inhaling something in the air, but given their luck, he anticipated getting a confirmation instead.

Pathfinder again brought attention back to the console screen, this time having made a few modifications which now allowed the console to display real-time movement picked up from the thousands of hallway sensors installed on the heavy cruiser. What Cyne was now seeing instilled dread within him. The sensors were picking up hundreds of individual contacts spreading throughout the Balrog's inner decks. The drone eventually uplinked the daunting and terrifying data to everyone who had a HUD of sorts, now keeping everyone on in the loop.

It was then that Silas' distressed voice suddenly filled the comms, "Be on guard, everyone! Looks like we have a Hi- Get Down!" Cyne couldn’t catch the last part of Silas’ transmission before the communication link roared with gunfire and more inhuman screaming. Cyne tried to re-establish contact but the line couldn’t connect. Either it was being refused or Silas was...

Cyne’s drone then yelped a high-pitched honk, alerting him and Gaz and Gerad that whatever was attacking Silas and Macklyn was on their way and were only several yards out via their mini-maps. Cyne could already feel the floor trembling as if a stampede was approaching them. The feeling wasn’t far off until he eventually saw what was making its way towards them.

The Hive. That’s what Silas was trying to warn them about. The damnable Hive; a massive swarm of beast-like creatures known to eradicate entire planets by killing everything on the surface before stripping the planet of its resources. What they were doing on the Balrog however Cyne didn’t know but at the very moment, he couldn’t care. All that mattered now was fighting off a large wave of Swarmers recklessly charging right for them.

“Weapons free!” Cyne called out as he brought his rifle to bear, “light ‘em up!”

Cyne took quick aim and zeroed-in on the lead Swarmer being its pack to bear on their three meaty-looking victims. Without hesitation, he squeezed the trigger and the rifle resonated a loud bang as a magnetically-accelerated slug shot forth from the barrel and sped towards it's intended target like lightning. The round caught the ugly creature right in it's head, entering from under the jaw and straight through the brain and finally out the top of its skull. The Swarmer died instantaneously and the creature stumbled and crumpled into the ground catching at least three other of the creatures and bringing them down with it. Cyne's round however wasn't done however. After exiting the skull of the first Swarmer, the needle-shaped slug continued down it's path and struck the upper spine of another Swarmer in mid-pounce. The creature's back exploded in green-blooded gore and fragmented bone. It howled in agony as it when down, taking an additional two other Swarmers down in clumsy fashion. Amazingly, the creature still lived and angrily hissed to bring itself back up but it's now paralyzed-body failed its killer desires.

Cyne then noted that the pack was now breaking off into two groups.

@Athol
A group of about five of the Swarmers settled their sights on Gerad, thinking the Garundin to be easy prey due to his height. One of the lead Swarmers, far ahead of its packlings, was the first to reach Gerad, although only just a few meters away, and leaped for him. It's gave bore murderous intent and opened his maw of razor-sharp teeth in an attempt to bite down on its prey.

@CaptainSully
The other group appeared more organized and concluded the Fungai to be the more threatening, or maybe the more juiciest when compared to their other two meals. The pack assembled eight Swarmers and maneuvered around Gaz in attempt to overwhelm him. Two of the Swarmers then lunged right toward the Fungai, seeking to pin down their large prey before disemboweling it.

The feeling of victory of having survived the massive asteroid quickly wained when Macklyn realized how close he was to certain death. His instincts took over and he managed to keep himself alive but suddenly he felt as if he'd had stared deeply into the void and it changed him in some way. He felt a tickle in this throat and his hands hurt. He was probably gripping the yolk harder than he knew he could. The Lancer was in a calm vector following the Fang as they approached the derelict ship and Macklyn allowed himself to relax his grip just enough to notice his hands were shaking.

"Alright try to land in the aft end of the hanger, it looks like a bunch of the military transports are still docked there. We should be able to hide ourselves with them so when company arrives our ships don't stick out like a sore thumb and get dusted by whoever follows us. Or at the very least try not to blow anything up... " Sven's voice sounded stern over the Lancers comm.

"Oh... ya you got it' partn... ner" Macklyn's adrenaline was coursing and interrupted his own speech patterns. He cleared his throat. "Copy, back of the hanger an' quiet like."

Slowly gliding through the hangar of the Balrog and looking for a place to touch down, Macklyn was deep in thought. Life back home in his war torn unnamed home planet, life was easy for him, all things considering. But out here, the stakes are high and people were relying on him. There were more lives in his hands than just his own when operating on a team such as a Crimson Legion and he'd have to take a step back and consider his choices a little carefully going forward. "Can't always shoot from the hip, boy. Sometimes you gotta line your irons b'fore to take the shot." Macklyn repeated to himself quietly these words he had once heard from an old Gunslinger back home.

The Lancer landed and Macklyn took notice of Silas floating near by. "...shit" He took a deep breath, attached his portable source of air and opened the Lancers canopy.

"Thanks to your stunt plans have changed, me and you are going to restore power now hurry up and follow me."

Macklyn had nothing to say, he activated his grav boots, armed each hand with the Plasma Pistols and attempted to focus. He followed Silas after an affirming nod. The ship was a disaster and traversing the corridors of the Balrog was making Macklyn extremely anxious.

"Blood 'n no guts, Boss" mumbled Macklyn. No reply from Silas but Macklyn was too overwhelmed to wonder about his silence, besides silence of the derelict was too loud to recognize any other silence as it were.

Finally Silas spoke "Any thoughts at what caused this?".

Macklyn was about to name a folklore monster he knew of as a kid to break the tension when Sven's voice chirped over suit comms informing them that there were ships on the way and made it a point to emphasis in such a way to point is voice at Macklyn. There was no deny it. It was his fault the mission just got a lot more difficult.

"...shit" Macklyn whispered to himself again. Silas just confirmed they were almost to the Generator room and Macklyn decided he'd face what's due him when the time comes. Right now was the time to focus up and keep the boss covered so they could get out of this horrible place before it's too late. For a moment he considered what he feared most: The bloody derelict, the fleet of people want'n to kill them... or facing Silas should they survive the first two horrors.

The trip over to what was left on the Balrog was uneventful…right up until the new boy started playing target practice with the rocks. ”Flat-brain’d, o’er stimm’d young blood,” Gerad chuffed. ”Lucky hes not Militia. Be on shit buckets ‘til he be a silver back.”
-
Once the shuttle had touched down, he followed Cyne outside and down the corridor. Unlike either of the human’s suits, Gerad’s armour lacked any thrusters as ‘flight packs’ were only issued to Militia troops that were expecting to be operating in low/null gee environments. Gerad followed along by de-activating the mag-locks on his hind legs and reducing the ‘grab’ on his fore legs; this allowed him to ‘bound’ along at a similar pace to Cyne, using his stronger upper arms to help turn by grabbing bits of bulkhead for turning, while his legs provided propulsion and breaking when needed.

Moving deeper into the ship, they began to find signs of fighting, though strangely no bodies. ”Best I got is ‘Somethin’ Bad’,” Gerad replied, his eyes trailing over the burns and blood. ”Th’ went down swingin’ tho…”

Passing a large hull breach he let out a low growl. ”Like somthin’ took a taste…” The only thing he could think of that might do damage like this was a grav-lance on a salvage station, but those were huge, and rather immobile, and from what he’d seen the Balrog had taken far too much damage to have moved much after she got hit. Getting to the bridge there was more signs of combat.

”Gonna need ta punch de new meat if we gettin’ out.” Gerad muttered, surveying the darkened consoles. He shot Pathfinder a short glare as Cyne sent it off to restore power, it wasn’t that he didn’t like the drone, it was just that he had a hard time trusting tech that he hadn’t laid eyes on how it worked…and for some reason Cyne was unwilling to let him open up Pathfinder and have a look at its internals.

As soon as power came on, Gerad began to interface with the console before him. Using his smaller lower arms and their more dexterous fingers, he flashed across the console, while at the same time using the tools built into the gauntlets to tap directly into what was left of the ships systems. He was at a tactical console, but very little of the Balrog’s weapons survived, and what was left was more likely to cause more harm than good if he’d attempted to use them on the approaching ships. Built in protocols were ripping as much raw data as they could from any system he could access, though with the amount of damage, much like the weapons, there were few of those intact.

He was currently patched into Environmental, and had been about to inform Cyne that he could override the blast doors, when he saw the same readouts. ”Shadow an’ Pit, what do-” Anything further the Gerad may have been thinking was cut short by a sound he’d hoped to go to his grave never hearing again. ”Oh I be hearin’…an’ I wish I wasn’t.”

The thundering deck plates and Cyne’s shouting snapped him out of it as the first Swarmer burst into sight, moments before it exploded in a pile of gore. Separating from the console, his VLA was in his hand in a flash, while the PRP unfolded from the mount on his shoulder.

To most species, the VVD 45-30/R Plasma Rail Projector would have qualified as a ‘Heavy Weapon’ and mounted either in fixed positions or on armoured attack craft; to the Militia it is simply the standard issue anti-armour weapon. He cursed himself for being too slow to stop the initial break in, but he could at least slow down whatever was behind it.

Even as he saw the Swarmers rush him, he sent a mass of super-heated plasma through the way they’d come in, filling the opening with a momentary tiny star as the plasma packet struck something solid. There was no time for follow up shots however as the ones that’d headed his way were upon him.

He met the leaper with his raised left upper arm, letting the creature jam its mouth onto his forearm…then he simply deployed his Defensive Barrier. The shield was meant to deploy as fast as was possible, no matter the condition; so when it opened up inside the Swarmer’s mouth, the beast’s head simply exploded, showering Gerad’s armour and the console with blood and bone.

At the same time, he’d brought his TXZ-11/A Variable Laser Armament to bear on the remaining four. Like his PRP, the VLA would probably been classified as a vehicle grade weapon, so when his sight aligned on the next Swarmer, and he fired, the blast flashed right through its chest, the head of the one behind it and the front leg of the last one in the pack, before boring into the light internal bulkhead of the ship.

Unfazed by its companions demise the fourth one slammed into Gerad. Taking the hit on his barrier, he pushed back, launching the creature back, but only for a moment. Realizing this was to be a point blank fight, he bared his teeth and with one fluid motion swapped his VLA for his Hammer. Meeting the Swarmer’s second charge, he lifted it into the air as it clawed at the Barrier, before collapsing it while simultaneously swinging the hammer to meet it. There was a dull thud as the head connected, followed by a much louder bang as he drove the being to the floor. It let out a surprised squeal and tried to attack once more but the impact had stunned it enough that Gerad has able to recover from the swing and bring the hammer back for a vicious, spike first, blow to the top of its head which was followed by an extremely satisfying crunch.

Prying the weapon free, he looked to where he’d last seen the wounded Swarmer, only to find it missing; that said he didn’t need to look for it. While he’d been distracted, it had circled around behind him, and pounced as soon as it had seen a clear chance. The Swarmer’s intention had been to drive the annoying little morsel to the ground and then bite its head off; instead when it hit, Gerad’s armour automatically triggered the grav-locks in his boots to prevent such a thing.

Due to their physiology one of the Garundin’s biggest weaknesses was their near inability to twist their torso to any meaningful degree, or rotate either set of arms enough to reach their own backs. It had landed in the near perfect place to attack without Gerad being able to respond…assuming he’d been without his armour. As it was, he deployed his combi-torch and used the plasma jet to gut it from end to end.

Gaz left the Crimson Fang looking around the deserted hangar, wondering where the crew of the shuttle could have gotten to. Cyne motioned for the three of them to move out, to which Gaz agreed with a gutteral grunt. In a manner that was graceful like the finest of dancers, Cyne left the ship and floated out from the ship.

"Dat zero g' ain't for dis fungai!"

Gaz leant down and tapped at the two batteries that were seemingly held to his boots with tape. With a satisfying buzz they kicked into action and Gaz found himself firmly planted on the floor. He had no idea how they worked, in truth nobody did, but they did and that was what really mattered. He began to run along the deck of the hangar, his heavy footsteps echoing throughout the hanger. As the others looked back to see where he was he called out over the comms.

"I wasn' built to fly! I ain't got wings!"

Continuing to run along, there were the occassional obstacles that required him to disengage his boots. In one instance he found himself spinning around aimlessly in the same position, unable to move in any direction. He attempted to move by firing a quick burst of his flame thrower but only proceeded to increase the speed in which his spun like a wheel. With the lack of oxygen he simply shot the combustible fuel into the air. His outstretched arms and legs made him look like a machines assistant on the spinning wheel. Through blind luck he caught a break and his power klaw caught hold of a nearby pipe. Eventually the trio found themselves in a main corridor with blood trails staining the floors and walls, heading off into the smaller corridors that sprouted from the one they were in. Excitement began to grow within Gaz as he realised that maybe he would get the fight he was looking for.

"Yeeees boyz! You may get to see 'ow dis guy 'andles 'imself in a fight!"

As Gaz continued to marvel at the prospect of a fight, the others shot off down the corridor once more. Gaz once again disengaged his ramshackle gravity boots and turned his back to the others.

"I ain't bein' da last one!"

Gaz carefully balanced himself and unleashed his flamethrower once more, this time his more stable position meant that he began to barrel down the corridor like a crude missile. He had only unleashed it for a brief moment but the fuel propelled him at a blistering speed, catching up to the others quickly. He let out an almost childlike cry of joy as he passed them both before uncermoniously slamming back first into a wall. He let out a loud grunt before engaging his boots once more. He shook his arms out and began to strut as if nothing happened. He caught sight of some signs.

"Buh-ruh-ih-duh-guh-eh...bridiguh?! What the hell is a bridiguh?" He scratched at his rather fancy helmet before the reality set in. "Ah! Da' bridge! Boyz I 'as found da' bridge! Dis way!" He pointed in the direction with his giant power klaw and the trio continued on. The journey continued on, with only a couple more instances of Gaz having to prove his truly impressive skills in zero g before they eventually arrived at the bridge.

Within moments of arriving Pathfinder had already begun to do everything it needed to do. Meanwhile Gaz took in all the gore around him, he was very much hopeful of a fight. As time passed by life support and the gravity returned allowing Gaz to get his beautiful, battlescarred face out for everyone to see clearly. Pathfinder mentioned hearing some noises, but Gaz couldn't hear a thing as he was too busy stretching out his limbs in preparation for a fight. Soon enough, incoming enemies were confirmed.

"Yes boyz! Dis is it! Time to show you 'ow Gaz deals wiv deez gits!"

The swarmers moved around Gaz biding their time to attack. Gaz looked unconcerned as a big toothy grin stretched across his face. He cocked his left wrist and his chain choppa whirred into life. The roar of the blades echoed throughout the corridor "Let's 'av it!" Within moments two of the swarmers broke from the circle and charged towards the Fungai. The first came at his front with the other trying to surprise him from behind. Gaz wasn't the smartest but what he lacked in intelligence was more than made up for by his sheet ferocity and skill in battle. With an instinctive spin the giant brute turned to the swarmer charging at his back. The sound of his weapons chains whirring faster and faster was followed by the satifying splat of gore splashing onto the floor. The swarmer had been split in two leaving Gaz coated in it's blood. As quickly as he had killed the first swarmer, Gaz dropped low and spun around with his arm outstretched. The other charging swarmer tried to dodge the incoming attack but its flesh was torn and shredded by the metallic teeth of Gaz's chain choppa.

"Is dat all you dogs got?" The creatures snarled and in unison all barreled towards Gaz. Gaz dropped his chain choppa and brought his other weapons to bear. A small flame on the underside of his left arm seemed innocent enough, that was until a gout of thick, skin melting fire raged forth and consumed two of the swarmers. Before he could unleash the flame on the others, two of the swarmers had leapt onto his back. "Stupid dogs." Gaz kicked his feet up into the air and dropped onto his back. Two high pitched squeals tore at Gaz's ears as his entire weight crushed the two swarmers. Before he could right himself the other two were atop his chest snapping at his face. Gaz thrust his arms forward and took hold of the the two swarmers.

"Whoops..." Gaz's right arm was tipped with his monstrous power klaw and unfortunaltely for the one swarmer, this meant that it was cleaved into two with complete ease. The gore that coated Gaz and the area around him was verging on ridiculous but that is what happens when a Fungai fights. Ruthless weapons designed to cause maximum carnage so that if a blow doesn't outright kill you, the wound will get you eventually.

With the final swarmer held firmly by the neck, Gaz stood up. The two creatures he had crushed under his weight slowly peeled from his armour as he looked the last creature in the eye. It wildly swung its claws at Gaz's armour but struggled to even scratch the paint. It's jaw crunched hard as it continued to try and bite the Fungai even though he had it firmly by the throat. "Night night dog." Gaz closed his massive hand tightly, a satisfying snap followed and the swarmers body fell limp. Gaz let his grip go and the creature fell lifeless to the floor. For such a short amount of time, Gaz had effectively managed to redecorate the corridor in blood green. "Dat was a nice warm up! I'm still itchin' for a propa' ruck though!"

With the notice of approaching company Silas increased his pace to the generator room. something here was still nagging at him, something was off but now was not the time to worry about that. The rest of the trip to the generator room was spent mostly in silence, Silas could tell just by his movements that Macklyn was uneasy probably a bit shook up thinking that this whole situation was his fault. Which might have been partly true, but in reality the derelict was sure to be found sooner or later anyway. When the two reached the generator room Silas stopped for a bit. "Hey Rookie, hold up for a second" He started while turning to him, "I know you come from a backwater, and you were pretty hot shit there. and hell the real world out here isn't much different, but remember out here there will always be a bigger fish. You can't just trust on your guns to pull you through every situation. You have a team out here and each of us have our own talents, skills, and weaknesses. If you haven't done something or feel you can't pull something off don't hesitate to speak up, we are here to help and we will gladly cover your weak points and expect you to do the same. Also don't worry so much, another group was bound to find this place. Who knows if your little stunt actually brought them here Sven is just pulling your chain. Everyone makes mistakes, but as long as we learn from them and don't make it a habit I won't fault you for them." Silas said giving Macklyn a little speech, and probably not the one the rookie expected. After giving him a bit of time to respond Silas would then turn back around. "Alright now lets get the power back on, lets split up and see what we can do." he said before jumping off to check out one of the generators.

Silas made his way to the Auxiliary Generator first trying to see why the secondary generator hadn't kept life support up and running. Upon inspecting the generator for a bit it was clear that the culprit was sabotage the main power panel had been torn off and lots of the wires inside had been cut or torn out. He could of easily spent over the next hour reattaching wires and trying to fix the damned thing but instead decided to move on and see if the primary generator was in any better shape. But before Silas could make his way there the generator began to spin up and whirl, apparently Macklyn had figured it out and got the generator up and running.

As the power came on soon the Life support systems did as well, artificial gravity slowly came back and Silas' HUD started to show O² levels rising to breathable levels. Making his way over to the main generator. "Good Job Macklyn, but now the real fun will start." Silas said as he approached, "Lets see if we can learn anything," He added as he made his way to one of the terminals attached to the generator. After a bit of searching Silas stumbled across a file labeled "Lead Engineer Final Log" and decided that was as good as any place to start.

"Damned Lab couldn't keep the Queen in check. Its been a week since she broke free of her restraints and things went to hell. Most of the crew is dead, but we came up with a way to stop these beasts. The Captain is going to lure the queen and most of her brood into the lab, when he does we are going to seal the doors and cut the power to the ship. Only problem is as soon as we cut power the barriers that are keeping us from being sucked out through the various holes in the ship will deactivate. We are going to go through mass depressurization and anyone left on the ship will die... Luckily we will take the remaining beasties with us. I have already sent my team to the hanger to try and get on one of the shuttles, I hope they make it there... If anyone is reading this I'm sorry for what you are about to go through.... Damn the SSA for thinking they could control the Hive..."

Silas stopped reading the message as soon as he saw the word instantly opening a comm line and turning around "Be on guard, everyone! Looks like we have a Hi- Get Down!" He cut himself off as he dived at Macklyn tackling him to the ground as a Swarmer leaped at the rookie. Luckily Silas had reacted in time and when he landed quickly got back up drawing a plasma pistol and opened up on the Swarmer. After taking a volley of shots the Swarmer went down, but 8 more appeared around the two men "Remember what I said earlier, forget it, trust your guns and start shooting!" Silas yelled as he drew his knife in his offhand. Silas tried to stay back to back with Macklyn each covering the others blind spots while opening fire on the Swarmers. The first two fell easily as they were in close proximity to each other and Silas was able pelt them both with a few shots from his pistol. While he was "distracted" shooting to his left side one of the Sawrmers on the right leaped at Silas who had to roll away to avoid being pounced on breaking the back to back formation. Again after recovering from his roll he took another shot taking down the third Swarmer. And the Fourth Swarmer tried the same but as Silas was already in a crouched position he braced himself catching the Swarmer just underneath the neck with his arm before smashing his plasma knife into the side of its head. As the Swarmer fell Silas quickly stood up and turned to Macklyn who had finished off his four Swarmers.

Silas then pulled up his Comms again "Hive, we've got hive on the ship." he continued his original message. "How are you holding up out there?" He asked before Sven chimed in. "I'm doing good, Two transports just landed in the Hanger. Looks like Reapers Raiders, Damned third tier Pirates. They found the Hive too lost a few of their grunts but that's it so far. Looks like there is about 25 of them left here and another two transports landed in the forward hanger. So there should be over 50 of their men on board. Luckily the Hive distracted them enough they didn't even bother looking at the ships. They seem to be splitting up into teams to search the ship expect some company soon." He said with a bit of a smug attitude. Silas sighed as he could just see it now as Sven was probably sitting in the cockpit of the Fang just watching with his feet up on the console. "Spyglass how are things on your end? Find anything useful? I got a log here suggesting that the SSA was experimenting with a Hive Queen. That research data is probably what everyone is so worked up about. We need to find out where the research lab is. Ohh also that will probably be where the most Hive activity is. Alternatively we could fight our way to the munitions bay set some charges and blow this place to hell. I don't think giving this Data to either side is really a smart idea. Thoughts everyone?" Silas asked his team wondering where everyone stood on the matter. "I want the money. This damned body isn't cheap to upkeep you know," Sven instantly chimed in.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

Cyne squeezed the trigger of his rifle again and another Swarmer vanished in a surging, chunky spray of green. By now, the main floor of the bridge was practically painted with a pooling layer of blood still oozing from the many butchered Swarmer bodies littered around the bridge and its entrance. With the last of the creatures down, along with a good number of them having been torched by Gerad's PRP now as heaps of ash scattered in the hallway, silence soon returned the command deck. Cyne took the opportunity to survey the battlefield and found that Gaz and Gerad had made it out unscathed. The same however could not be said for their green-drenched outfits in which Cyne briefly mistaken them as a part of the gory scenery. He figured Gerad probably didn't appreciate being soaked in the ichor of another species however he concluded that Gaz however would've had a far different opinion in that regard. Given the circumstance, he was glad that he took position atop one of the upper platforms, away from the gruesome repainting of main floor.

Just as he thought they were in the clear, another scream echoed from the hallway entrance. More of the Hive spawn were approaching. After feeling the rumbling of many stampeding creatures again, Cyne found himself peering through the scope of his rifle once more, "Another wave coming at us, boys. Get ready!" he said has he braced for the next assault.

But before he could catch a glimpse of another savage creature barreling down the hallway, Silas' voice finally returned to the comms, "Hive, we've got hive on the ship."

Eyes widening as the connection with their boss quickly restoring, Cyne jerked his head to Pathfiner whom was till dissecting the Captain's main console for information, "Pathfinder! Blast doors, now!"

The drone hummed in compliance and interfaced with the control systems networked within the bridge's primary hub. The moment the next wave of Swarmers vaulted into view, a trio of thickly armored slabs slowly slid out from hidden compartments within the hallway walls. Each moving wall of metal moved seconds apart from each other and closed from different angles.

The first and the furthest barrier protruded from the right wall if Cyne's group were to be looking down the hallway from their end. The second barrier would then reveal itself from the opposite wall while the final door actually rose from the floor. Cyne could see that the Swarmers were adapting to the situation and were forcing their tightly packed horde through the narrowing entrance.

Only a few Swarmers managed to bypass the first barrier but only one of the creatures overcame the second door. Just as the third door was about to close, the Swarmer made a desperate leap and miraculously succeeded in getting over the apex of the final barrier. Unfortunately, it recklessly miscalculated. Before the scrambling Swarmer could get the rest of its form over the blast door, the door had then reached the ceiling and locked into place. The Swarmer never had a chance as its torso collapsed in a wet snap. The creature shrieked in pain for only a second before it was, quietly literally, cut off as it died in that instant. Whatever managed to get over the barrier before it closed slid down the armored frame, spewing a trail of green downward.

Cyne cringed at the sight of the messy scene before he got back to the comms. In retrospect, he could have ordered Pathfinder to have erected the blast doors sooner. But given their predicament, they had very little in the way of planning for a Hive attack and were likely not to have gotten the barriers up in time before the first wave flooded the bridge. But for now, they achieved a breather although Cyne knew that the blast doors wouldn't hold for long. Having scene the damage to the external hull, the barriers separating them from the Hive wouldn't last.

"We've also got acquainted with the Hive too." Cyne began and continued with his report, "we managed to fend off their scouting packs but there is another horde of the buggers right outside the blast doors...we'll likely be dealing with them in a moment."

Sven chimed in too and reported that cruisers from before had arrived and transports filled with unfriendly mercs had already boarded. Fortunately, their unintended rowdiness had gotten the attention of the Hive and the majority of the murderous creatures were converging on the two occupied hanger bays. While this meant that they didn't need to deal with the entire Hive swarm, the presence of the unwanted interlopers meant that they would now need to deal with any mercenaries that got in their way. Fantastic.

It was then Silas had asked if they discovered anything on their end. Cyne glanced at the sealed door and redirected his attention to Pathfinder. The drone, also listening into the comms as well, started producing numerous logs recorded to the captain's personal database. It was evident that Pathfinder had since cracked the security measures that protected the private files, probably while they were fighting earlier. Cyne mused over entries made by the captain and the command staff. Even a few mission and operational briefings were dug up as well.









Cyne shifted through the files and glanced over the details, noting anything of relevance that came into his sight. As he helped himself to the private files, a faint sound that could be described as a drowned-out thud resonated from the sealed hallway. He broke his concentration and turned to the entrance blast door. No changes were evident but it was obvious the Hive on the other end were trying something but it was nothing they could do about it now. Cyne returned to the database and made his report.

"I'm getting similar records here too. Even a few testimonies from the good captain as well. Even got a mission package here going over the Balrog's operational capacity, equipment as well as mission statements and briefings too. Quite a bit of tactical data, that's for sure."

Silas had then concluded that their overall target was in fact the research data linked to Project Dominion. Cyne concurred with the notion too though he couldn't really make anything else of it anyway. But they now had a new problem. Silas' intuition spoke true as Pathfinder confirmed that the data they were looking for was confined to the central lab of the ship; where the Hive had most likely nested. Cyne quickly remembered the trails of blood from the expressway leading deeper into the ship and suddenly wasn't feel so confident about assaulting a Hive nest.

Another sound emanated from the hallway, this time it was louder and more violent, again drawing Cyne's attention away. The Hive must have gotten through the first blast door and were now compromising the second. It wouldn't be long now until they were at the final barrier. Cyne lifted his rifle and held it firmly, sensing that another fight was ever looming.

"I don't fancy the idea of picking a fight with Hive, sir." he replied, "however I don't like the thought of the SSA getting their hands on this data either. If we're going to try and nab that data, we'll be having to deal with a whole lot more of those things than what's at our front door."

Cyne then turned to Gerad and Gaz, already attempting to anticipate what their replies would be.

"I suppose if nothing else, blowing this whole joint would work just as well though that might lead us to those trigger happy mercenaries."

As Gaz readied himself for the charging hoard, the smile on his face faded as the blast doors began to close. Visible tears began to stream down his face as the chance of a fight was stolen from him, culminating in the uncermonious cutting in half of the only swarmer to make it through to the bridge. Gaz dropped to his knees let out a loud wail.

"NOOOOOOO!"

As he moped around for a few minutes the sound of the first door buckling under the weight of the Hive reinforcements gave him a new lease of life. He leapt into the air raising his fist as he did so in an ode to the cheesey endings that plagued movies from the eighties. With the impending Hive reinforcements Gaz began to bounce from foot to foot like an excited child. He laughed gleefully at the prospect of a fight, even if the stupid human had shut the blast doors. He then began to talk openly to Silas with a concern in his voice that Gaz scoffed at.

"Oi 'umey! Stop bein' chickin' an' lets get to da' lab! Da biggest and bestest bugs will be der! I ain't even got to show you my dakka gun yet!" Gaz pushed out his chest and pounded on it with his hand. "Wiv' me 'ere we'll stomp some 'eads and be 'ome in time for Learnin’ to read wordz wiv Gaz!" As the sound of the second blast door starting to give way filled the room Gaz turned to Gerad. "I seen da way you bin looking at me an' I know you dunt like me...but 'ow about we go unleash mega dakka on some bugs four legs?!"

@CaptainSully

With the blast doors finally closed and the remaining swarmers dead, Gerad returned to the console he’d been at and continued his own expolrationof the Balrog’s computers. As he flash copied chunks of data and loaded them into his armour’s data storage, he kept an ear on the comm traffic between the rest of the Legion members.

When the question of how to proceed came up, he let out a chuff and first turned his attention to Gaz. ”Ye right Fungi I don’ trust ya; fact is I’d gut ya in a tick if I fig’rd letting Hive chew on yer green arse mite nick us sum time t’ leg it, but I seen ‘em mulch bigger piles o’ meat inna snap.” Disconnecting from Enviro, he looked up at Cyne and shook his head.

”Smart move says we bounce. Contract said no ‘bout clearin’ a Hive nest, that be an extra expense, an’ credits can’ be spent by dead men. We scarper back to the Fang, I can rig some of t’ Balog’s light stuff t’ blow at m’ say. Send the Rog, the bugs an’ th’ sorry ass scavvers screamin’ t’ th’ Void inna flash.”

In fact he’d already been trying to do that pretty much from the moment he’d gotten back to the Environmental console, the data mining was all done via automated subroutines, but several security inter-locks and the catastrophic damage to the ship had stopped him from backdoor-ing his way into the ship’s power systems.

He stood and glared at his companions for another moment or two before letting out a deep sigh. ”Tha’ said…if ‘n ye’ be keen on goin’ the stupe way, I got atmo control right here. Mayb’ give us a leg up tha’ way.”

Macklyn spent much of his time following Silas through the Belrog preoccupied with over analysing his every move up to this point until the tension was broken "Hey Rookie, hold up for a second" SIlas spoke, and delivered a speech Macklyn wasn't expecting.



Macklyn was taken back but his boss's words. Considered them for a moment and spoke "Ya know... Here I thought you'd be hangin' me to dry with some cold, how to do... That's sayin' I expected what I deserve. So I s'pose I owe you a thanks for not bitin' my head off. But I did make a mistake back there and I'm not one to go lettin' myself off my own hook. But thank you boss man, none the less. I ain't used to thinkin' as a part of a whole. Been fending for myself for so long now my wirin' is stubborn I guess. But I'll consider your words and again I thank you for them."

"Alright now lets get the power back on, lets split up and see what we can do."

Silas headed off to check the Aux Power Generators so Macklyn made for the Primary. He had to hunt for a little while before he found the right room because, frankly, he's never been in a ship quite this size. The layout was logical to Macklyn but it took working out. It wasn't long until he found himself in the primary generator room and oddly enough, it was simply powered down. He hit the big red button and it powered up!

"Well that was easy!"

Silas, shortly after, entered the room "Good Job Macklyn, but now the real fun will start." Silas said as he approached, "Lets see if we can learn anything," and headed to the main computer to begin digging for information. It wasn't long until Silas's expression turned from inquisitiveness to concern. Macklyn thought he had heard something faint but chocked it up to a derelict creeking ship. He watched as Silas began to read quicker and quicker and with a certain sense of discomfort. Macklyn stammered a foot back and Silas shot his gaze up from the screen "Be on guard, everyone! Looks like we have a Hi- Get Down!"

Silas tackled Macklyn to the ground and there before them Macklyn laid eyes on a hideous creature that actually managed to get the jump on him. Silas quickly dispatched the creature as Macklyn jumped to his feet.

They were surrounded by more. Macklyn calmed his nerves and Silas chimmed in "Remember what I said earlier, forget it, trust your guns and start shooting!"

Macklyn had never seen Hive before and he was certainly startled but he had seen a lot of weirdness on the raggedy edge of civilized space. As the swarmers approached he took a quick and detailed study of their movements and like clockwork a plan for a next few moments materialized as if every instant forthcoming was decided by anticipated muscle memory. Two swarmers charged the hall upon the floor, one scattered the ceiling and one seemed to prepare to leap. His momentary study didn't distract from his instinct to draw his custom weapons. Runes aglow, Macklyn swung Ebony wide and low and upward with his left arm as he fired it. The oversized bullet beautifully arched down towards the floor but curved upwards, up through the head of a swarmer on the ground, killing it instantly, clean through, and slamming the backside of the swarmer clawing across the ceiling ausing it to fall from its position.

Continuing his spinning motion and before the falling swarmer hit the ground, Macklyn lined Ivory down the room and fired. The precision shot cut the falling Swarmer right through and slammed down the throat of another charging from behind it when Macklyn noticed the leaping Swarmer was airborn. With an unnecessary twirl of Ebony, Macklyn closed one eye, tilted his head and took his final shot out of his black firearm. The leaping swarmers momentum was dead stopped by the impact of Ebony's projectile and it fell straight down from the peak of its leap.

Four dead creatures with three bullets fired. Macklyn was proud and gestured to Silas a thumbs up when he noticed Silas has dispatched the others.

Silas unceremoniously reestablished contact with the rest of the crew and informed them of what he learned from the records. Macklyn stood by and listened as Sven explained the situation in the hanger. Silas asked how his crew thought they should proceed and Macklyn didn't disagree with the majority vote to blow the place and the hive with it, even though the promise of a big profit was hard to ignore, Macklyn was trying to grow past what once made him weak.

Steeling his resolve, he elected to act as back up for Silas for the time being, following his lead and providing well placed bullets if the situation called for it.

Silas listened to Cyne's report and his team's opinions and was glad the majority of them agreed with him. "Alright then, we are blowing this place to hell. Spyglass we are regrouping and making our way to the munitions depot to plant some charges." He started while bringing up a holo projection of the ship plotting a route. "Looks like there is a secondary armory along the path that will be easy enough for both of us to reach so lets plan to meet up there. As a compilation prize Gaz can take anything he can carry from the armory. That should make up for not getting to blast whatever this Queen is." he continued while looking through the rest of the map seeing possible paths to take, and what paths the Pirates could take. "Remember there is more than just hive out there, Reapers Raiders aren't exactly known to play nice so shoot first and move through them." Silas added after confirming that their were paths that may intersect with the pirates. "Stay safe and give them hell boys." he finished before turning to Macklyn swapping his knife and pistol for his rifle. "I'll take point stay behind me and keep your guns up and your voice down. I'd like to hope we can get a jump on some of these things." Silas ordered while starting to make his way forward. "Ohh and good work back there but don't get to cocky with these things... Those are the small ones."

Traversing the ship was a little slower with gravity, but also the lights were now on after entering the hallways of the ship again it was now clear that for the most part it had been a one sided slaughter against the SSA crew of the ship and things weren't sounding much better for the pirates on board. Echos of bursts of gunfire could be heard throughout the halls. And to make matters worse parts of the projected path were locked up sealed by the power coming back to prevent depressurization. Luckily for the most part it seemed the pirates were drawing the Hive's attention but that didn't mean they had all of it. Silas and Macklyn ran into a few more small groups of Swarmers that were easily dealt with now knowing what they were up against. And then it happened, forced to take a detour through one of the cafeterias the two found themselves face to face with a group from the Reapers Raiders. Caught somewhat by surprise Silas had Macklyn hold his fire for a moment as they didn't really have the cover to start a firefight. "Well well if it isn't Silas you old dog." A female voice came from the other side as one of the Raiders stepped forward followed immediately with Silas muttering a curse. "Myra, it has been quite a while, What its been about 5 years hasn't it?" Silas responded pressing a button on the side of his helmet that opened up the visor showing his face. "Myra? Didn't we leave her abandoned on that rock after stealing the Fang from her? Do you really think she forgot that?" Sven chimed in over the comms as Myra did the same on her helmet showing her face, she then snapped her fingers and the Raiders raised their guns. "Yes it has been five years, and I was waiting for my chance to find you again." Silas made a motion for Macklyn to find cover as he inched himself towards cover as well. "Hey we don't have to do this here. I mean Hive are everywhere you know." He said trying to buy himself a little time to get into cover. "Well it is currently 10 vs 2 so yes we do have to do this now." Myra replied before dropping her arm and the Reapers opened fire.

Luckily Silas had been able to make it close enough to dive into cover using a burst from his jetpack and was able to avoid the first barrage of fire coming at him. Silas reached down to grab a grenade but before he threw it a screeching sound was heard one of the doors opened and a wave of 15 Swarmers rushed into the room followed by a Slasher. The Raiders instantly turned their attention the the Hive taking out three of the Swarmers before the buggers reached them knocking down and killing two of them. Silas thought for a moment then popped out from cover opening fire on the hive. "Open Fire Macklyn. Try to keep Myra alive I don't care about the rest." he said while opening up on the Swarmers taking another two out with his first burst of fire from his rifle.