It was a day like any other: The Guernica was careening through space, with a grace that could be described as 'technically still moving'. The great old rustbucket and its crew were on a relatively routine mission, delivering routine cargo of debatably legal nature from a routine client of debatably shady origins to a routine out of the way backwater port of the debatably black market variety. All in all, nothing was particularly out of the ordinary for them. The Guernica- along with its colorful crew, like so many other ship crews in the Outworlds regions, often took up the role of 'Freelancers': Delivering- or smuggling- cargo, messages, or people wherever they were supposed to be. In short, they ran errands, and occasionally performed dirty work for people with the means and the need for private, independent, and discreet contractors.

They were also being shot at.

A crew of overzealous and overambitious- or perhaps just starving for a payday- pirates had thrown a rather routine wrench into their plans and had decided that whatever the Guernica was carrying, they wanted. Or maybe they just wanted the Guernica itself, and didn't much care whether or not the ship was entirely whole by the time they got it. The pirates, consisting of a repurposed salvage frigate- the kind with and a pair of attack craft, jumped the Guernica as it exited the 'bubble' at a more discreet jump point- In a local asteroid/debris field, the type that was typically away from the prying eyes of law enforcement- and was in the middle of harrying the Guernica. The Guernica's communications logs were spammed with audio commands from the salvage ship to both power down their ship, and to 'die and surrender', all the while the attack craft, a pair of civilian single-seaters with guns crudely strapped to them, peppered the Guernica's shields with fire.

Further complicating matters was the fact that the pirate salvager had managed to land a tether line on the top of the Guernica's hull, which while not strong enough to bring the Guernica to a full stop, along with the field of debris- mostly asteroids, refuse and chunks of junked spacecraft- were reducing its speed and maneuverability, enough to allow the larger salvager to keep pace with it. Add to the mix that a half dozen pirates in EVA gear of varying quality following the tether down to the Guernica itself, meant that they were in a bit of a pickle.

All in all, same shit, different day.

"All I want, is to smuggle illicit goods in peace. Why does it always have to be so damn hard?" Kian grumbled as he pulled the glass oxygen mask of his EVA suit over his face. A slim fitting, mostly matte suit with minimal armor plating on its torso, arms and legs, with a built in power pack and booster on the back, it wasn't a dedicated combat suit, but it was all they really had. The Guernica rumbled and shook as something broke through the shield and impacted with the hull, sending unsecured objects and people to the ground. Kian caught himself against the railing as he stumbled towards the top mounted airlock.

"We need to ditch these guys, preferably before we come in range of Attica Station," Kian barked as he patched himself into the Guernica's communication systems, "The last thing we need is the Systems Security poking around in our business!"

With that, Kian pulled himself into the airlock and cycled the ship's environment, feeling a slight but sudden drop in his stomach as the atmosphere was vented out of the airlock. The slight hissing slowly muffled itself from his hearing as everything around him went silent, only his own breath within the EVA suit audible, and the simulated audio the suit played back to his ears. Taking a deep breath, Kian braced himself, before jumping up and out of the airlock, his cybernetic legs propelling him up and out of the hole with ease. Catching the airlock door with his fingertips, Kian flung himself over and around the door, bracing against it as a stray bolt from one of the pirate's weapons struck the open door.

Peaking out from the side of the airlock door, Kian surveyed the top of the Guernica- its battered orange hull already splintering in places as it took weapons fire. Slowly stomping their way across the hull were half a dozen pirate boarders, sporting a motley assortment of guns and melee weapons, behind them, a thick cable stretched from the Guernica to the much larger salvage ship behind them. The pirates wanted on, and the cable needed to be severed before they could get away.

"I need some help up out here with me- El', as soon as that cable's cut I need us away from here!"

---

<sup>Prompt
While undertaking a fairly typical delivery job, the Guernica is comes under attack. A large pirate ship is currently attached to the Guernica via a cable, and two smaller fighters are taking potshots at it. 6 Pirates are attempting to board the Guernica. The Guernica itself is armed with a turret mounted heavy plasma cannon on the front-top of its hull, with a smaller turret on each side of the ship. A moderately stocked armory means anyone that wants one can have an EVA suit and a weapon.

All in all, business as usual.

Players can start anywhere they want- already in the action, just waking up, or somewhere in between. For characters that are decidedly non-combatants, feel free to describe what they would normally be doing in what is by this point, not a common, but somewhat regular situation.</sup>

@vietmyke

---

"I am insisting that this is a terrible idea," an electronic voice spoke from a hulking, mechanical exo-suit as it stomped down the halls of the Guernica, following the man known as Kelan.

"It's a great idea!" Kelan insisted. It was so rare for things to get to this point. Normally they got away before anyone could begin boarding maneuvers. He proceeded to open a comm-channel to Kian. "Hey, boss. How much you reckon one o' these salvage ships would fetch on the used market?"

"Excuse me," Echo spoke, joining in on the call. "Whatever idea Kelan is about to propose, please reject it summarily." Echo then stepped in front of Kelan to halt him. "The enemy ships may have relatively weak weapons, but this suit is not rated for them."

"Sure it is!"

"Correction. This suit is no longer rated for them."

"Aw, relax. They'll never see us coming to begin with. 'Sides, their ships aren't rated for us either." Kelan once more opened the comms. "Just say the word and I'll bring us back a shiny, new toy. Well, less shiny when I'm through with it, but you get the idea."

With that, Kelan ignored Echo's continued protests and cracked open the exo-suit so he could climb in. Now assuming control of the suit, Echo could no longer stop Kelan from heading to the nearest exit. He waited by the exit for Kian's response. Kelan could instead just clear the enemy off the hull, but then they'd know he was there and those little attack ships might actually just bullseye him if he tried anything too foolhardy.

However, he wasn't the only warrior on board. He was confident the others could deal with the boarders while he went and... returned the favor.

"Up to you, boss-man. Tell me where you want me," he said, his hand hovering over the door-control.

Synthetic fingers carried a finely polished leaf spring, gently guiding it home amidst a beautifully oiled piece of machinery. It was the last part to replace for the restoration of an old but still reliable pistol - Old enough to be more of a collector piece than actually used for its original purpose, but it could still get the job done, obviously.

Until something rocked the ship, forcing Maxima's hand forward. The spring was bent from the force, and the finish marred by Maxima's armored nails. Her eyes narrowed in frustration. She gently set down the disassembled pistol, her expression the only thing betraying her anger. "Unforgivable."

Maxima only grabbed two things from her room: Her beloved machine gun and a recent acquisition as a sidearm. Truth be told, the sidearm had no place being used by any normal person: It was designed as an attempt to have the power of a shotgun in the small package of a pistol... With catastrophic results in regard to human wrists. Needless to say, Maxima had wanted an excuse to use it, and scattering little holes in spacesuits seemed like a good use case.

She wasted no time in directing herself to the nearest airlock. Maxima had a bit of a disdain for the vacuum of space - without sound, there was no music, and what was the point? She would simply have to captivate her audience through choreography, instead. Luckily for everyone else, she could still transmit her lovely voice through local communications channels.

"There's never a bad time for a guerilla live show, right? Luckily you've-" Maxima shouldered her automatic rifle. "Got." She depressurized the airlock. "Me~!" She vaulted into the fray as she delivered her last line, her entire body glowing as her shield emitters projected a bright yellow shield of hard light.

A textbook start to a performance: The arrival of the star. Perhaps literally, in this case, as Maxima was a glowing ball of yellow light peeking out from the hull of the ship - she could be mistaken for a sunrise, in her opinion. Maxima's eyes narrowed as she snapped her aim to the nearest pirate, her expression of cheer twisting somewhat with the sudden focus of aiming. Then, of course, the music started.

To Maxima, it was music - Her machine gun was intimately linked to her, as a purpose-designed peripheral. If anything, it was just as much a part of her as a limb. Each time it fired, she received information from her link - weapon temperature, remaining ammo, trajectory estimations... It all came to her as a sixth sense. It was the gun's music - there was no other way she could manage to describe it.

Perhaps the artistry was lost on the enemy she had in her sight: They of course could not hear the music, just feel the hail of bullets that rained upon them. After what they did to her most recent restoration project... That was the least they deserved. It was a simple fact that a star like Maxima would have pushy fans, but luckily she knew how to deal with them. She tracked to the next pirate, but kept aware of the others in case she needed to move. Her shields would likely hold against anything they had, but what was music without dance? She had an image to uphold.

"The performance for these pushy fans who ruined my pistol restoration project is on! Any aboard the Guernica who want to watch the lights are welcome~!" Maxima kept this comm chatter to the crew only.

Alexander, before all the commotion, started with pirates and cables. He was busy with what he did in his spare time. Working at his personal computer trying to put Eva back together. He has been making progress lately, but it is still a laborious procedure. Most would abandon it but not Alex. Not him. All he needs is time, or so he says. Either way, it is a careful procedure as he does not want the pieces of the difficult puzzle that is Eva to be even more fragmented or worse.

Then the sudden rocking of the ship messed with him and almost caused him to make a mistake that would have set him back considerably. Fear gripped him that he almost made a costly mistake, but that fear quickly turned to anger. "Those motherf#####s, why can't they just leave people alone?" Fricking pirates, he said bitterly. Next, Alexander paused what he was doing and locked down his computer. So no one, not even the crew, could access it. Then he got up and went to get his plasma pistol but felt the urge to stop. If he died, who would put Eva back together? But Alexander brushes that fear aside. He is not a coward, but the others may be able to handle it.

Either way, he still picked up his pistol and made sure it worked. Once he was satisfied, Alexander headed to the bridge and went to check the damage so far. Accessing a console and while the shields were down, the hull was still fine. Well, the best that a ship that ran on duck tape and hope could handle. Getting on his comms, "Captain, do you need more backup outside? I am going to try and get shields back otherwise." Only the crew could hear this.

---

Kian sighed with a mixture of dread and relief as Kelen and Maxima jumped to his aid. Maxima, in all of her usual showboatiness was practically a dancing lightbulb- that happened to be leveling a machinegun raking fire across the hull. Yellow-orange tracers flew across the hull, pinging off harmlessly off the ship's hull as the pirates scattered as best they could. One of the pirates was caught in the crossfire, as Kian 'heard' the automatic thump of Maxima's weapon. The sound itself was a dulled, artificial report, simulated sound by Kian's helmet to allow him some sort of spatial awareness in the otherwise silence of space. Kelan likewise was chomping at the bit to get them a new spaceship, while Echo, was as usual, the voice of reason- odd that an alien living in a space suit was the voice of reason, but now wasn't the time for philosophical discussions, Kian supposed. A few of the others chimed in through their communications network, and Kian could've sworn he heard the ever exasperated Sawyer bellowing at someone in the background.

"Someone please grab Sawyer, I swear I can hear the sonic waves through the comms, and I'd like to be able to hear myself think."

"Please, do not get shot in anything important or irreplaceable." Doctor Chima reminded them, her voice crackling through the communications network- seemingly more irritated than worried. Like a tired teacher trying to round up perpetually unruly children with a penchant for troublemaking.

It all felt like routine at this point. Kian shrugged- though no one could really see.

"Do you know how to fly a ship that big?" Kian asked Kelan quizzically as he vaulted over the airlock door he'd been using as cover. His cybernetic legs slammed onto the hull of the ship and connected him magnetically as he sprinted for a section of hull plating that had flared out a bit for cover. His eyes picked up a faint glow as he unhooked the chain from his side and propelled it forward using Aura. A pirate on a jetpack flew within range to try and nail him with a shot from his rifle, but only managed a few stray shots before Kian's chain wrapped around his legs and yanked him forward. Flailing as he lost grip of his rifle, the pirate tumbled through space until he arrived at Kian's feet, only managing a poorly attempted, disoriented punch before the weighted end of Kian's weapon cracked the pirate's faceplate. As the air leaked out of his helmet, the pirate was too busy trying to cover his face to notice Kian ripping his jetpack off and kicking him off over the side.

Kian tossed the now spare jetpack over to Kelan, "Fly it, scrap it- whatever you want. Just make sure the tether is gone. Try not to get left behind either. Again." he barked as leaped up again. The chain weapon flew forward again, a wide swinging arc of the thermal knife cutting through the weapon of one pirate, and the suit of another. "Maxima, lots of uninvited guests, please oblige them."

Several of the remaining pirates turned on Maxima, her glowing shields more or less a beacon for their fire as they began dumping ammunition towards her. The weapons were dangerous, but trained soldiers the pirates were not- while their short weapons might've been devastating had they managed to board the ship, out in the wide openness of space their weapons recoiled wildly. In a way, it might've been more dangerous, as the local space around Maxima filled with tracers, but at the very least she didn't have to worry about an accurate burst taking out her dome.

One of the pirate fightercraft whizzed across the top of the Guernica, a series of hits from its weapons blasting the hull, causing the ship to rumble and shake once again from the impacts. Chunks of the Guernica's armor plating splintered and broke apart, though its structural integrity still held. Splinters and shards of metal fly through the space around them, bouncing off of whatever cover they were using. "Shields would be nice," Kian called through the comms, "Sooner rather than later." The Gunerica was sturdy enough that it could probably take what the fighters were throwing at them, but that didn't mean they should test it.

"Lets wrap this up quick! Before we get out of the debris field." Kian ordered, "Don't want nosy sensors picking up a gunfight so close to the station."

@TGM@vietmyke@Crowvette

---

"Don't you worry, boss. I'm like a well armed homing pigeon. I always find my way back." A moment later, warning klaxons accompanied by flashing, yellow lights went off throughout the ship indicating a depressurization warning. Specifically, in the ship's cargo hold.

Kelan had opened the cargo door at the rear of the ship. As the doors slid open, the enemy ship came into view for Kelan.

"Just know that I still protest this course of action," Echo told him.

"We've done worse."

"I protested then as well."

"'Least you're consistent." With that "settled," Kelan hit the door control once more and then broke into a thundering jog. He leapt out the rear of the ship, the cargo door closing behind him. He wasn't planning on coming back that way.

As he careened silently through the void, he saw one of the enemy fighters streak past. Those needed to be dealt with or else he might not have a ship to come back to. With a quick burst of the suits maneuvering thrusters he spun around so he was flying backwards. He gauged the small ship's trajectory as he cycled the Belial's cannon to grenades.

With a subdued thump, the cannon fired, and a moment later he was rewarded with the sight of a fighter's feeble shields flaring up from the impact, the pilot immediately veering off in panic. A second later, sparks and smoke began to pour from a caved in armor panel on the side of the fighter. It was still flying, but its shields hadn't been able to stop the grenade's concussive force.

Hopefully it'd slow it down and the rest of the crew could take it out.

He couldn't worry about the fighters anymore anyway. He spun back around to see the pirate salvage ship looming ahead. With one more burst from his thrusters, he shot himself toward the bridge.

He slammed into the main viewport, the Belial's feet immediately magnetizing to the hull. He saw the pirate crew inside collectively flinch at the sight of him. They looked between each other, unsure of how to respond. Well, it was time to give them something else to worry about.

He cocked a fist back and slammed it against the viewport. Again, the pirate's flinched.

SLAM!

This time cracks began to form.

SLAM!

The pirate's began to panic as the cracks spiderwebbed outward.

SLAM!

Warning lights began to come on as the ship detected an air leak.

SLAM!

The viewport shattered, a blast of pressurized air hitting him, but he barely flinched. Warning alarms hit his ears and a moment later emergency shutters tried to block off the shattered window. He stepped forward and caught it, servos whining in protest as he held back the shutter. The pirates scrambled to grab onto anything they could as air continued to pour out of the ship.

Kelan stepped forward, jumping into the ship and finally letting the emergency shutters slam down behind him.

"Howdy there," Kelan greeted them. "Oh, don't all y'all look so surprised. You were attemptin' a similar boarding action yourself, weren't ya? Figured I'd return the favor."

Sparks flew off his armor as a pirate drew a pistol and immediately opened fire. The shots plinked off harmlessly, even as the pirate stormed forth, perhaps hoping at close range his shots would finally penetrate. Kelan turned and backhanded the pistol out of the man's hand, then ramming his fist into the pirate's chest, sending the man flying across the bridge to slam into a wall where he collapsed with a caved in chest cavity.

The roar alerted him to the attack of another pirate. He turned to see one charging at him with some sort of axe. Kelan reached out and grabbed the weapon, stopping it dead.

"Now, if the gun didn't work..." Kelan stomped down on the pirate's foot, crushing it flat before headbutting him and dropping him to the ground, skull shattered. Kelan whipped around, finding the next pirate daring to try something and hurled the axe with fatal accuracy, taking him down in kind.

The remaining bridge crew having seen the armored goliath that was Kelan burst into the bridge and casually slay three of their mates froze at their stations.

"Which one of you idjits is the pilot?" Kelan asked, slowly scanning the room. He saw a man at a station that looked like the ship's helm flinch as Kelan's gaze passed over him. Kelan stomped over, clamping his hand over the man's head. "I think you're a smart fella. I think you know what'll happen to ya if I decide to make a fist right now. So, smart fella, do me a solid and untether that ship over yonder and let my pals go."

Shakily and on the verge of hyperventilating, the pilot fumbled with the ship's controls until the tether retracted itself from the Guernica and began to reel itself back in, no doubt much to the dismay of whatever pirates were left behind that hadn't been turned to swiss cheese by Maxima.

"Good boy." Kelan then yanked the man out of his chair and tossed him aside. "OK, smart fella, you guys got a life raft on this boat?" The man nodded. "Good. Now gather up everyone and get yourselves off my new ship."

"Th-they won't just-"

Kelan stomped over to the man, leaning down, "Buddy, if y'all are still here in five minutes, I'm comin' after ya. So you best get to convincin', hear me?" The Belial's main cannon twitched to life and swiveled to point at the man, the suit's visor flashing red to indicate a target lock.

With a frantic whimper, the pirate scrambled to his feet, the surviving bridge crew flying from their chairs to follow him off the bridge. A few seconds later he could hear screaming echoing back as they no doubt began to try and convince the rest of the crew to abandon ship.

"I would have killed them," Echo chimed in.

"Yeah?"

"If they do resolve to abandon ship, they may try to overload the reactor on their way out," Echo said. "It's what I would do."

"Nah, they're too dumb and scared to try somethin' like that. If they weren't, they wouldn't be pirates," Kelan assured the alien. "But, you make a good point. How's about you go keep the reactor loaded the way it should be, while I steer the ship?"

"And if they shoot at me?"

"Step on 'em. They ain't got nothin' that can hurt ya." With that, Kelan exited the Belial and made his way to the helm.

"I still think this was an unnecessary risk."

"Well, you know what they say-"

"No."

"If it's stupid-"

"It was."

"-and it works, it ain't stupid."

The only response was Echo's stomping footsteps retreating deeper into the pirate ship.

"Now, let's see here..." Kelan muttered as he scanned the console. "Ah, old fashioned and analog. You love to see it. Now where's that dang tether gun..."

Anyone on the Geurnica would see the pirate salvager begin to move, reorienting itself to follow on of the fighter craft. Suddenly the tether launcher would fire, skewering the fighter. The salvager then accelerated while simultaneously reeling the ship in, splattering what was left of the craft against its hull... and likely disabling the tether launcher in the process.

A moment later, the radio on the Guernica's bridge would crackle with an incoming call, "Welp, that's probably gonna lower the resale value..." Kelan's voice would speak over the radio. "Howdy there cap'n. Would you be so kind as to relay to the boss man that we have commandeered this ship and are in the process of evicting its current tenants? Also, we have various item's of questionable legality to peruse, so feel free to pick up a souvenir when the battle is over. Err, over."

Maxima gracefully jumped to cover as the brunt of the fire from the pirate party filled the air around her. The feeling of a few errant slugs smashing into her overshield... It was not pleasant, but it was somewhat exhilirating: knowing that it was definitely better than being actually shot. Keeping mobile in near-zero gravity was tricky, but she needed to. Her shield wouldn't catch everyone shooting her at once, after all.

Of course, she wasn't going to let that ruin her performance. She gave an exaggerated salute to Kian and returned to a shooting position with a flourish. "Too bad, I was just getting warmed up!" she feigned an indignant tone as she quickly cut down a pirate who was scrambling for cover with a precise burst to the chest.

Her tone quickly flashed to actual indignance when an identified flying object (Kelan) jettisoned itself from the Guernica and crashed into the pirate craft. It surprised her enough to have a stray shot glance across her face. It was handily deflected by her shield, but the impact snapped Maxima back into the fight. "A backup dancer... Upstaging the main act..." She gripped her automatic rifle firmly, her overshield's glow streaking slightly red for a brief moment. "I would like to file a moral complaint against this!!" Maxima broadcasted to the crew in general. "If we board their ship, we're no better than they are!"

Moments after, the anchor untethered itself from the Guernica, sparking confusion amongst the boarders. Many of them turned, trying to see why they were so suddenly abandoned. That opening was all Maxima needed. She was certain, after taking the first few down, that their suits weren't sophisticated at all and would likely fail under any amount of damage. It was a simple matter, then, to compromise them all as quickly as possible. Space would take care of the rest.

Maxima closed her eyes and fluidly ducked down to a crouch, and in a measured bound, bounced herself upwards in a wonderful pirouette. Her eyes were closed, but she still saw - her weapon was a part of her, after all. As she turned, her mind raced, her focus pinpointing on a single concept: If the weapon's muzzle crosses a pirate spacesuit, fire.

In a sequence of muzzle flashes ringing out from her fast spin, the remaining boarders found their supply of air compromised in a catastrophic way. And before Maxima would spiral off into the great unknown, she turned to right her trajectory - firing her hefty shotgun sidearm into the void to push her back to the Guernica. The harsh recoil it was decried for didn't seem all that bad to Maxima. She considered using it more often.

"Sometimes simpler is better. You don't need to pull out all the stops for such a humdrum affair, you know..." Maxima grumbled as she touched back down onto the ship, irritated that she didn't have a good way to steal the show. She tried to distract herself by peering at the weapons the boarding party left, several of them floating around the remains of the fight, but it did little to console her. "...Oh. Also the surface is clear of our guests." She barely remembered to check back in.

"On it," Alex said in comms and quickly went about getting the shields back online. He does not know how much punishment the Geurnica could take, and he does not want to find out. Maintaining this ship currently is not that easy, but he always finds a way to make it work. So Alex tried fixing the problem from the engineering console on the bridge. "Come on, come on," he said hurriedly as he rapidly typed on the console. For the shield should be recharging after going down, but for some reason, they are not. Then, he found the problem, "really." Alex said in frustration, "the thing shorted out again? I just fixed them like four days ago." Alex was annoyed at first and then tried not to be annoyed and simply accepted that he had to fix it again.

So with his plasma pistol in its holster, he headed to the engineering room since he knew this had to be done manually. But why did it have to fail during a battle with pirates?

Either way, Alex quickly went to the engineering room, and it took a moment to find the right panel on the wall and pulled it out and went about enacting a quick fix. Well, it is not really a permanent fix. More like a temporary one until he can fix it properly when they are not under attack from pirates. So after spending some time crossing wires and circumventing some connections. As he finished, Alex could hear a hum coming from the shield core. "Yes," he proclaimed and, after, went over to a console and confirmed what he already knew. The shields were recharging, and after a moment, the shields were fully recharged and back online.

Alex did not waste time and got on comms, "Cap, the shields are back online." Saying it in a relaxed manner. Despite the fact, it will take some time to properly fix things, for now. The shields are up and they are not in danger of the hull erupting. For now, at least.