Unbeknownst to the pirates, the pilot of the Schwalbe responded over the Gjallarhorn line.

"Major! My suit is entangled in a line, but I don't think it's been damaged badly. One hostile has had the sensor array knocked out, but four are still active. I haven't seen the ship they launched from, but I believe it's close."

As if on que, a larger Ahab reaction began to rapidly increase. It had been on the sensors before, but blended in with all the junk out in the debris zone.

~~~

Meanwhile, Holly was exploring the controls and displays in her new mobile suit. Her Stolas. Martin had called it a Gundam, what did he know about it? And how? Or was he lying? It seemed farfetched, what he had told the Gjallarhorn officer. And now Holly realized. Only the Gjallarhorn officer and the two "Gundams" had heard that. They had a channel that the Witch couldn't hear.

~~~

As the Mercurial Witch approached through a corridor in the debris, the captain floated above her chair on the bridge.

"I'm not interested in Gjallarhorn interference. All weapons open fire."

Mick hesitated before relaying the command, "And... Familiar Squad?"

"Let them scurry. Rats are cheap."

The forward facing guns swiveled into position, and began to fill the void with shells.

Immediately, the ship that Holly and Martin had entered rocked with impact. Inside, Holly instinctively lifted Stolas's legs, so that the mobile suit floated independently of the wildly shaking ship. She didn't know what Martin was playing at, but she thought quickly and keyed the comm frequency that Familiar Squad used, relaying odd of the Big Boi's LCS.

"Thom, Kurt, Fox," in her haste and confusion, she forgot to use their callsigns, "Take shelter in this ship, bring the hostage in too. If the enemy tries to follow, they'll have to take the same entrance. So we'll be sheltered from friendly fire, and have the advantage in close quarters."

She had to make it reasonable, but what she really wanted was for them to enter the ship with the rest of the gundams.

She swapped channel to the one only Stolas and Ipos were using.

"I don't wanna work for Old Hilde either," the last space rat who had used that nickname for the Captain was given to the Bosun, Holly never saw them again, "But what the hell are you thinking? We can't fight the Witch with five mobile suits, no matter how fancy. If we turn them over we might get to pilot them though..." There was a note of panicked pleading in her voice. Things were going sideways fast, and she was looking for a way out.

Perhaps he had been too quiet or Holly simply too entranced to acknowledge his presence but before long, he found himself seated in the infernal-looking mobile suit. Thom studied the controls, they looked by design to be more complicated but felt familiar too. It wasn't until he had dared to hook his "Whiskers" up did he know the difference. Never had the AV interface been so intense. It seized his muscles and mind with such violence that it froze him before he fought off the assault on his senses.

The red Gundam's optics flashed emerald with new life.

Thom placed a clammy finger on the name on his broad-screened console. "...Gundam Beleth, what a monster you are," he smirked. Then a set of voices came through his speakers, a bland pop-up that said "SOUND ONLY" appeared on screen. A dignified voice first, requesting surrender. It was unfamiliar yet possessed an undeniable confidence. He wondered how Holly would respond but should have known better than that. Course, it was Martyn who spoke up first.

Thom couldn't explain how but he knew how to operate the Gundam Beleth. He closed his cockpit and the hatch hissed closed soon afterwards. He spared the idea that this Major was Martyn's "Uncle Charles". He shook his head, attempting to really pound in the placement of the Gundam's controls. Sure and my Grandpa is on the ship he flew here on, he morbidly joked.

Suddenly the ship rocked violently, Thom moved the red mobile suit to catch itself before falling face first, a red palm keeping him steady. Debris was shaken loose from above. "Crap... is it us or Gjallarhorn?" he murmured. Finally after a time, Holly's voice registered. He spoke through the comms the Gundam's were using, "No way, I'm not going back," Thom replied harshly. "Normally I'd agree but I get the feeling now's our only chance for freedom."

Now he had something to say to Martyn, whose impulsiveness again was throwing them further into chaos. "Martyn ease up and think before blathering. Throw too much out there and you might give him a reason to capture us. I'm tired of being a prisoner because of others... We should wait for Kurt."

It was exactly after that declaration that Thom had begun to check his fuel and weaponry seriously.

Calmly, quietly, Holly muted her microphone. Then, a good deal less calmly, she beat her fist against the side of the cockpit, screaming shrilly into her helmet.

She flipped the switch to open her comms back up and spoke, her voice only a little more hoarse than a moment ago.

"Alright, I have your back. Both of you. I reckon Fox will go along too, but if Kurt won't play, I'm not gonna fight him. And if we do this, there's no turning back. Break free or die trying."

There was a long pause from Fox as no orders were forthcoming from The Mercurial Witch, nor did he bother verbally responding to the arrival of the Gjallarhorn Major, instead merely adjusting the orientation of his Hugo so that Schwalbe was between him and the newcomer. It was only when the Hugo's alert system sounded from The Mercurial Witch's incoming fire that the quiet young man took action. With a slight grunt over the open pirate comms, Fox opened the the throttle on the Hugo's thrusters, launching both him and his hostage towards the safety of the ruined ship even as Holly gave her orders.

Thanks to the ungainly added mass of Schwalbe Graze and Fox's haste, the young man did not make the smoothest of entries. Clipping the Hugo's shoulder on the edge of hole in the ship, the two mobile suits spun, slamming hard into an empty section of ruined hanger. The two interlocked mobile suits drifted slightly from the impact. Several agonizingly long seconds past before the Hugo briefly fired it's thrusters again, minimalizing their movement.

Groaning as he shook his head to clear the stars from his vision, Fox took in the series of blinking orange and red lights from the Hugo's display. Actuators wrenched, Auxiliary powerlines and control circuits damaged, a severed fuel line, the list went on. Fox understood maybe a third of it, but thanks to the Alaya Vijnana System, he could "feel" all of it. And the young man knew his machine well enough to know that it wouldn't be able to pull any of his usual stunts without proper repairs. It was only then that he looked up to see the row of powerful looking mobile suits lining the interior of the dilapidated hanger.

Charles had raised an eyebrow to the sudden and quick reply over the comms, he had certainly expected some form of reaction, but that one of the unknowns ahead would have acted so quickly upon it was taking him offguard.

"Oh?" He said in a surprising tone to himself as he heard a young man speaking. 'Martin? Uncle Charles? Since when have I ever been someones uncle? Seven years ago? Where were I back then? I was serving as-' It was in that moment that Charles remembered, he had been serving as a guard to one of the most influencial families of Gjallarhorn. The child of that very family had refered to him as an uncle, now he remembered...

While he had momentary doubts about this Martin person, whose name he couldn't remember. He however remembered being refered to as an uncle, because of how it irked him. He was so young back then. This was most certainly not a bluff, this were definitely that very person. There was no way for anyone to have pinpointed these exact details.

'The heir to that family is still alive, what a fortunate turn of events.' Charles smiled as he was about to reply, when he was shocked by what the young man said next.

'Gundam...? Five... Five gundam frames? Unbelievable...' Charles eyes had widened, his very hands were shaking and he could feel the sweat starting to fall down his face. Not only had this boy seemingly come back from the dead, but he and whomever was with his had aqquired five gundam frames? The very idea was absurd, but the more the Major thought about it, the more the likely it seemed that Martin was indeed telling the truth.

"The ultimate foe is before me, not only one... but five of them. Gullinkambe... can you feel them? This is the kind of battle I have longed for, this is the battlefield worth dying upon. But..." The blonde began to collect himself, there were more on the line here than the battle of his dreams. The existance of that boy was surely to be a problem for the current leadership of Gjallarhorn. A symbol of the past for those which looked for one. His family's destruction could indeed land upon the shoulders of Gjallarhorn. That very boy could possibly raise a banner of his own and gather enough followers to challenge the order of Rustal Elion.

It was true that Rustal Elion had brought relative peace to the world alongside his supporters, however it was because of that peace that warriors such as himself were finding themselves without a purpose. Where would warriors go when there would be no battles left to be had? No great foe to fight? Would that still be called life?

Charles knew that if he were to try take the pilots and their machines in, he would receive orders to deliver them to the very top of Gjallarhorn and then those machines would likely be locked away. Weapons were meant to be used, that's what they were made for. Much like himself, what would he be if he could no longer fight? Whilst Martin no doubt could claim ownership of all the machines, the was little chance Rustal Elion would allow so much power for a single person which could threaten his order. It was also that very man which had used the despicable Dainsleif weapons on the Tekkadan and the revolutionary fleet. 'That dishonorable cur won't have his wish come true.' It was with a serious gaze that Charles flicked on the communications again, first towards Ortega.

"Affirmative, Ortega. You are to surrender to these pilots and do as they say, I shall see about providing you with an extraction point. Can you confirm the presence of gundam frames? Over." The major asked before flicking over towards the other channel to call Martin's frequency.

"This is Le Greif. I read you loud and clear, Martin En-Issue. I shall rendezvous with you. Proceed towards Debris Zone Delta-066 with your allies, your hostage and your equipment, that will be your extraction point. I shall cripple your pursuers in the meantime. Upon reaching the zone, use frequency 07-6741149 to contact my allies there. They will provide you with the repairs and supplies you need. Over." Charles spoke in a manner that conveyed that he indeed planned to provide them with support.

'To resist this immense temptation is a strength too. I wouldn't want to fight something unless it is in the best shape it could be in. It would make victory such a cheap thing. I am not Rustal Elion. I don't hide behind a dishonorable weapon. Nor am I that arrogant fool Fareed who believed he could betray the world without being betrayed himself. True strength lies not fully in a machine, but the pilot and keeping his principles. No matter what ending it will be...' The major thought to himself as the enemy ship began to bombard the old ship which the gundam frames no doubt were within. Charles decided to quickly fly his machine behind the old ship for cover.

"To think they would open fire on their own warriors, a king without his army is no king at all, just a despot ready for the gulliotine. I shall cripple you, then I will let Martin and his associates capture you. Then I will pry you open like the very treasure chests you've been looking for all this time. See just what kind of things you know. No doubt the former space rats would want some vengeance aswell. Though feelings like those can be blinding..." Charles mused to himself as he was about to engage his thrusters again to make his move against the enemy ship, however something caught his eye. Floating in the middle of space attached to some wires close to the ship was a machine, it's core had been impaled by long metallic looking spears. The major looked it over in a baffled expression.

"Dainsleif." He said as he looked over the pale-yellow machine, it looked unlike anything else he had ever laid his eyes on. What manner of thing was that? That's when he noticed it's head. A cold shiver went up his spine as he realized what it were, it was floating close to the old bridge of the ship. Had it tried to protect the ship? Or bring it down? He couldn't tell. But what he could tell was what it was.

"Gundam..." Charles said in disbelief as the large ship was taking hits from the approaching enemy ship.

"Tch. A wolf chasing a hart cannot chase too well after it's leg is hurt, nor can it escape..." The blonde major said to himself as he pushed his thrusters at full and dashed out from behind the ship, darting from debris to debris in his pathway to approach the enemy ship.

'I'll cripple your thrusters and then you can neither pursue nor escape. A fitting mission for the En-Issue heir, to see his resolve and how a gundam would fare in battle.' Charles thought as he felt the force of the thrusters pushing him back in his seat, his highly modified Geirail was such a fierce and angry thing.

Martyn/Martin

Martin knew that unless his plan succeeded, he would be nuking the human connections he had made over the years in the Mercurial Witch. What he had not counted on was the plain and simple chance that his plan would actually fail. He would have panicked more, if not for the fact that Thom had unexpectedly taken his side.

Then 'Uncle Charles' agreed. He actually agreed! Martin's next words were, "Thank you, Uncle Charles - I owe you!" Then to Holly, he said, "Holly, I'm sorry for taking command without your permission - Can I have it now? Also, once I get that DNA test and access to what my family once had, I'll get you something good to eat!"

He then pushed his Gundam to the rendezvous point, his Ahab Thrusters moving comparatively slowly. It didn't matter, especially when he picked up his Man Rodi's Hammer-Chopper and Submachine gun so that his new machine didn't have to fight unarmed; he also picked up a few grenades, just in case.

"All right, people!" he said, "Our objectives are simple, go to a designated zone, where I'll use a frequency to get us the help and repairs we need! Hopefully, we'll be drinking coffee better than what our former Captain has by tonight!"

Assuming that Uncle Charles is going to keep his word. Assuming that he's not sincerely serving those who disinherited my parents and me. And assuming that the Mercurial Witch's pilots don't get through Uncle Charles - Okay, that's ridiculous; Uncle Charles is a badass!

"Fox," Martin said to the pilot in question, "If we do win this, want to learn how to read? Trust me, it's pretty fun with the right books!" Then to Thom and Kurt, "Thom, Kurt, let's be friends for real once we get to safety! I can't come back to Earth after being forcibly implanted with the AV - They'll treat me as not worth anything - So want to start a farm on Mars or a Colony Ship together?"

Assuming Fox has made a decision to side with us. Assuming Thom and Kurt don't hate your guts. Assuming you'd get the family money when Rustal's new regime would have siezed it by now. 'Assume makes an ass of u and me'.

He couldn't help it; for once in his life, he felt unalloyed joy!

Fox careened into the hold in typical Fox fashion. Thom chuckled at the emergency landing. He flipped on the comms and risked a loosing of his lips. "Nice to see you alive, Fox. I owe you for earlier, don't know how'd I pay you back if you were space dust... Martyn's playing leader again and Holly's letting him, better buckle up."

He flipped off the comm before finishing his pre-diagnostic on Gundam Beleth. The red Gundam more-or-less was in good shape. There was room for improvement, a lot of room but he chucked that up to the complexity of the machine. It was like a whole other entity compared to his Graze-Z. Another smirk, even amongst the hail of cannon-fire. Another shutter too, a ear-wracking shriek of metal as ammunition grazed the decrepit ship.



Soon the group had made it to the rendezvous point, a sense of red fear followed Thom the entire time. There was fear blooming over the consequences of their betrayal, anger coiling in his chest because it all went to sh*t in the first place, and hope too. But also something else, a step towards change perhaps. And reluctantly Thom had to admit that it was Martyn's outburst, impulsive and lucky as it was, that caused it. So he simmered down a tad and continued to fixate on their predicament. Still he always believed that there was something crooked and upside-down in Martyn. Something he hid far below his actions.

Thom sat tense in his cockpit, his hands firmly on his controls. He had been ruminating on a certain assumption floating around since arriving. In a moment of sudden decision Thom felt his expression grow cold. Just one more risky gamble. Just one. He opened comms, Gundam Beleth finding cover in a cluster of drifting space rocks. " I'm not your friend, Martyn. Your selfishness perverts your goodwill... I have my own goals. The Mercurial Witch's Familiar Squad is dead if this works out. That's all over now... Holly, Martyn, Fox, Kurt... once we're free from the Jolly Rogs, I'm not taking orders from anyone else. I'm gonna do what I want to do. Let's make that very clear," he finished stonily.

He exhaled calmly over the comms. "Now let's survive, one final time as a team."

"Letting him my ass..." Holly muttered darkly, not bothering you mute her comm. She wondered dismally if they would all die out here. Martin wouldn't let that happen if he could avoided it. Nor would Holly, for that matter, but the question was whether it would be left up to them.

She urged Stolas toward the rent in the hull, where the Big Boi was still floating, latched to the side. The manipulator arms on Stolas reached out, Holly was blown away by how intuitive it felt, even compared to her Rodi. On hand grabbed the sub-machine gun from its hands, the other grasped the empty mobile suit by the edge of its chest armor, at the gap on the neck. She pushed it out into space, moving Stolas out of the ship, and holding the Rodi above her as cover for the ongoing fire.

~~~

"Cap'n!" Mick called from his console, "Those unknown Ahab frequencies, they're mobile suits, coming out of that ship!"

"Where did they come from?" Brun shouted, leaning forward in her seat(her bottom starting to float off in the microgravity). "How the hell did you miss them, Mick?!" The end had a note of accusation, the likes of which she usually saved for the Human Debris.

"They blinked onto the scanners all at once!" He defended himself with an edge of fear in his voice. "No matches on reactor frequencies," Mick was scanning over a long list on one console, then glancing at a zoomed-in image of the mobile suits moving through the debris field. "Armor pattern is weird too. They look like damned antiques…" he trailed off as he watched the screen. One of the new suits was carrying Holly… or, rather, Familiar One's Rodi. It wasn't fighting back, even though the only damage to it was the sensor array.

"Captain," he began again slowly, "I think they were there the whole time. Familiar Squad's comms have gone silent, I think that's them!"

The captain of the Mercurial Witch pushed away from her chair, a little more violently than might be warranted, and stopped herself at Mick's shoulder, by grasping it tightly. She looked over his screens, and watched as one of them in the middle of the pack pushed against the hull of the ship, throwing a Man Rodi into the incoming fire from the Witch. A direct hit caused an explosion, silent in the vacuum, but brighter than the sun.

When their optics had readjusted, the mystery mobile suits had disappeared into the debris.

"Cease fire immediately!" Brun barked(Mick jerked his head away as she yelled in his ear). She pushed roughly off Mick again, and floated to the middle of the bridge. "I want Chain Squad sortied now! If those rats aren't back in their cages, you'll be sleeping chained to the Witch's hull tonight!"

~~~

After Holly's smoke screen, they traveled through the debris; a ludicrous risk that they were too ignorant to avoid. Their propellant tanks were dry, so they traveled by pushing off larger pieces of space garbage, so that they were "jumping" back and forth amongst the detritus, aided by the weaker propulsion from their Ahab thrusters.

They came, finally, to an edge of the Debris Zone, where they had been directed by their new benefactor. Apparently Martin knew him from the before times, and Holly was trusting him on the (rather weak) theory that he must be better than Brunhilde.

Holly hunkered down, her new mobile suit settling on an old, jettisoned armor plate from some large war ship. A small smile touched her face as Martin went on a fairly typical tirade of unearned positivity, but it vanished suddenly when Thom cut in to disabuse him of his delusions of friendship.

Holly sank dejectedly into her seat, but said nothing. This was what happened when you changed things. You always risked losing what you already had. But… it must be worth it, right? Hell, if Thom really wasn't their friend, they were only being kept together against their will anyway, right?

"There's no use getting ahead of ourselves," she finally answered, quite dully, "We dunno what we're walking into. I just hope…"

Before she could finish, the debris under her mobile suit's very feet shook, and she saw a gouge in the metal, mere meters from her position. Moments later, Stolas alerted her to an incoming Ahab wave.

Already, Holly recognized who was attacking her, and she pushed off the ancient armor plate, jumping up and away, so that she was obscured amongst smaller pieces of debris again.

Attacking with a long range weapon, before her reactor's presence could be read? That was Carrot's opening gambit. And if she was here, that meant the rest of Chain Squad, the free pirates who still piloted mobile suits for the Witch.

"Okay, rats," the hated voice of the Bosun cut in on an open LCS frequency, "I'm supposed to put you back in your cages… but I'm not sure I want to bother. Are you gonna make it easy, or do ya wanna just die?"

Holly peeked out from her cover, and saw two mobile suits. Carrot's Graze was still hanging back, and would likely harass them from a distance for as long as she could. She saw the Bosun's mongrel machine, cobbled together out of the most menacing parts he could find. It was painted(at great expense) mostly dark gray and black, but had a white skull-and-crossbones across the chest. It wielded a machine gun from a graze, and a large sickle like blade that Holly had never seen on another suit before.

The second suit that was plainly visible was Mack. Mick's older brother, and former Debris, like Carrot. He piloted a Graze that was more or less complete, hardware wise, but was painted in a patchwork, depending on what colors of nanolaminate were on hand when it needed patching up. It carried a longsword and a simple, round shield.

Martyn/Martin

"Understood," Martin said in response to Thom's words, "I'll miss you, then."

Yes, just like that. Martin had crossed a line when he had played his hand, and it was best to - ugh! - cut his emotional losses. Besides, it's not as if he didn't 'get' Thom's bitterness, because he did. Either way, as his new Gundam zoomed towards the rendezvous point, he found himself being intercepted by Carrot and two other folks, including the Bosun. The young man sighed and said, "Carrot. You know, I was planning to go through the hard work of trying to get a date with you, acting all like a casanova in order to try and get you to join my plans. But now I see that it would have been disrespectful to you; you're smarter than that and I should have been more direct. So here's a counter-offer."

Martin followed up with, "You and Mick shoot the Bosun and join us, and in return, you two won't have to fight Gundams and Gjallarhorn at the same time. I don't want a situation where I kill you or Mick and the other survives to swear misguided vengeance on us. And make no mistake, I can kill either three of you, even in an ordinary Man Rodi; all I need is enough 'push' to do so. So will you try it? Do you two feel lucky?"

Then to the Bosun, "I and the others have endured a lot of petty indignities from you - If I don't kill you first, maybe I'll put you in a cage. My counter-offer does not extend to you; you have only one chance to surrender and I'm not repeating myself. In fact, I hope you try and get yourself killed..."

Thom moved Gundam Beleth near Holly's new mobile suit in the smaller debris field. His red suit managing to shield away behind a cluster of floating gray rocks. He moved a claw hand onto Stolas' shoulder, speaking through the private line established. "Holly, you know letting Martyn control the situation is crazy dont'cha. Just listen to him. Don't he know that the Gundam Frames are rare treasures, a person's greed overcomes their fear. Specially if they think a bunch of useless space-rats is all that stands in the way. The Jolly Rogs are all about possessing trinkets." He spat the word trinkets out with venom.

"Its too late after all his talk but I'm suggesting we attack anyway... Bosun, especially Bosun, that bastard." A touch of fear was laced in the anger of his words. "I won't give him a chance to head-hunt us. He dies today."

For some reason the lamentations of the others were stark in his head for a quiet moment. His heart slowed and he grew somber but he forced it away with zealous effort. Come on, they were just there... like you were just there. Your bonds are forced circumstances urged on by survival. Focus on the fight in front of you.

Gently, Thom pushed Beleth away from Stolas careful of Carrot's deadly aim. "Damn, we need a way to get close to her or at least draw her in. For all my big talk, I'm the only one who didn't grab any weapons." He gripped his controls with frustration. There was so much frustration and uncertainty in him that it felt suffocating. "DAMMIT!" he cursed to himself.

He would have to wait for the others to give him an opening.

The last unoccupied mobile suit in the dilapidated hanger was a hulking brute of machine, bestial in experience thanks to it's forward swept horns and digitigrade legs. ...It's no Hugo, that's for sure... Fox thought to himself as he floated across the open space between the two mobile suits. Quickly climbing into the cockpit of beige and red machine, Fox idly noted a much more posh interior, the soft padding of the seat itself and what looked like wood paneling on the armrests matched colors of mobile suit's armor. ...Little excessive, but ok... The back of his mind mused as he strapped himself in and connected the Alaya Vijinana System. A few moments later, all hell broke loose.

An unheard scream tore it's way free from Fox's lips as he spasmed in the mobile suit's cockpit, the sheer force of the man-machine interface's connection threating to drive him into the black. With a pained grunt, he clenched his teeth and shook his to clear it, the action spattering droplets of blood from his nose across the inside of his helmet. A groping fist reached out through the bloody haze and slammed down on the center control panel. Working though the UI on instinct alone, Fox closed the cockpit's hatch and took a deep breath to center himself as the mental strain slowly imbedded itself into him and faded away. "Gundam Morax, start retinal projection." Fox growled out through gritted teeth and the Gundam's eyes became his own.

Opening his comms up, the young man twitched in irritation as he caught the tail end of his squadmate's conversations. Well, rebellion it was. Not that it wasn't always an inkling at the back of Fox's mind, but such things aught to carefully thought through, not haphazardly launched into. That said, with the power in his hands there was a little more room for error; Fox thought to himself with a feral smile. As the Gundam took it's first steps in centuries, Fox could feel the strength in it's powerful limbs, the weight of it's heavy armor... and the emptiness of it's fuel tanks. "Shit." Fox commented idly. That was going to complicate things. Noting a battered round shield and spear on either side of where the Morax had been docked, Fox retrieved both and silently followed the rest of Familiar Squad.

Once they had made their way to the rendezvous, Fox settled Morax onto a particularly large chunk of debris, the Gundam settling down onto it's haunches, spear resting over one shoulder. Taking a moment to relax into the almost criminally comfortable seat, he tuned out the rest of the squad's bickering, only to snap back to attention as the Bosun's voice joined them. Rolling his eyes at Martin's speech, Morax rose back to it's full height and hefted it's spear. "You all talk too much." Fox spoke with dry irritation and pointed his spear at the Bosun. "Let's play, old man." He added tauntingly as he stomped one of the Morax's feet down behind him, the action causing the hulk of scrap metal to slowly twist away from their attackers.