[IC] Grim Galaxy: Shots and Chances

[Penny]

Junebug moved off at a brisk walk. While she wasn’t an infantryman, she had worked on enough jungles to have some idea of how to move. Rainwater runoff had carved what were now dry streams through the vegetation and she used one as a footpath to work her way inland towards the rendezvous point. The light amplification function on her helmet was the best choice for the conditions, gathering up starlight and applying a computer enhancement to the result that rendered the jungle in a black and white approximation of daylight. Without active sensor inputs the result didn’t give her great depth perception, but was far better than staggering around in the dark would have been.

Despite using the dry creekbed she was frequently obliged to climb over fallen trees or work her way through networks of vines. As the slope grew steeper she was also forced to climb several small rock faces, rarely more than ten feet or so but enough to slow her down and ensure that she was sweating by the time she closed in on the Rendevous. As she reached the top of the last rockface she spotted Neil crouching behind a three bhole some thirty meters ahead of her. Beyond him the motion detector carroted a bored looking soldier in green on black battle dress meandering along a game trail, a cigarette between his lips highlighted by her infrared sensors.

Where Saxon was she had no idea, though given she had seen him come down, he couldn’t be two far away. The night was suddenly split by a monstrous bellow that seemed to combine elements of a Terran elephant and some sort of vast serpent. The guard froze for a moment, his hand going to his rifle before he hurriedly checked something on his wrist before seeming to relax. Junebug frowned, uncertain as to what was going on, and uncertainty was something with which no veteran was comfortable. Crouching down behind a large rock she waited for the guard to past by or, if it was necessary, for Neil to take him out.

[POOHEAD189]

Neil stayed mercifully still as he peered into the perimeter. The guard seemed alone, though he knew patrol as much as most soldiers himself. There would be another one in a few scant minutes likely. He needed to make a split second decision. He either eschewed from killing the guard here, and left them thinking everything was alright for awhile longer. He he took him down and made it so they had to deal with one less guard. Truth be told, he wanted to take him out, but the other two hadn't shown up to his position yet.

That is until he heard the vast roar that he swore shook the leaves of the exotic foliage, widening Neil's eyes. "What in the goddamn fuck was that?" he whispered, and saw the guard's strange reaction. There was no way this island was big enough to have a large native beast that could roar like that. It either had to be mostly aquatic, or needed to be here on purpose within the bunker. Judging by the lack of concern from the guard, it wasn't an aquatic wildcard.

He decided to wait again, just a few moments more. He still didn't know if he should fire, but-

Another bellow erupted from within, and Neil took the shot on instinct. Three rounds entered the soldier's subclavien artery and right upper lobe, dropping him with a stagger. He fell noiselessly, and Neil realized he needed to go and move the body before someone else came around. A second later, he willed himself to move. He shouldered the carbine and took out his knife just in case he ran into something or someone, and crept through the brush toward the body, eyes on the moist, leaf colored forest floor to keep himself from stepping on any well laid traps.

If he tripped any sensors, they were silent ones. He felt intensely exposed stepping out onto the clear path. The right led to a curve that fed into a walkway. To the left went into a small jungle path. At his feet, the man groaned, clearly bleeding out and nearly out of consciousness. Neil knelt down. "Sorry, bud." He said, and stuck his knife into the man's throat. The soldier's eyes widened, and he slumped, his life fading into oblivion as Neil dragged him off the path before he bled too much to cover up.

He got what an insurgent deserved, but still. The bestial roar and his reaction to it still gave Neil pause. The pilot checked the man's pockets, wondering what he could find in there. A short range radio, some flares, a strange beacon, and a shock stick along with his primary weapon. The Plasma XE Assault Rifle.

"They really decked you guys out with these weapons didn't they?" He whispered to himself.
@Penny

[Penny]

Sayeeda moved quickly towards Neil pleased and impressed that he had taken the insurgent down quietly. She was only thirty meters away when suddenly a rock leaped at her, carroted rather belated on her motion detector. She swung her weapon to bear instinctively but the thing was almost the size of a battle tank. Its body temperature was within a few degrees of ambient, close enough that her AI had assumed it was a boulder holding a little residual heat from sunlight but now that it was in motion the mistake was obvious. It was ten meters in length and three meters to the top of its horned head. Bony protrusions served as natural armor and three long tusks protruded in a delta pattern from the center of its face. It stank of rotting vegetation and some sort of organic decay, bad enough that the nose filters in Junebug’s helmet clamped shut in case it was harmful. Sayeeda managed to squeeze off a shot before the tusk hit her like a medicine ball, slamming her chestplate against her and pitching her into the air. She tumbled for a moment before another toss of the things head smashed into her ribs, this time the point of the tusk tangled in her webbing and she dangled, stunned from the point of the things upper right tusk. She regained her senses enough to fire her rifle. It was impossible to miss at this range but the displacer round merely pulped a dinner plate sized portion of armor, lacking the penetration to reach the things vitals. She squeezed the trigger to use a burst but the thing went berserk stomping its feet and tossing its head so that she tossed like a rag doll. She had the confused impression of Neil shouting as the world whirled around her in a dizzying disorienting blur. Desperately she dropped her rifle, allowing the sling to catch it and pulled a cutting bar from her belt. Aware that the cutting bar was as dangerous to her as the creature she pressed it against the tusk and powered it on. Counterturning diamond teeth whired and bit, and there was a spray of bone and what might have been blood. The maddened creature bellowed in pain and tossed its head violently. The tusk gave way with a crack and Junebug flew free, arcing through the air and crashing into Neil, knocking him flat with the combined weight of her body and the bony lump still tangled in her webbing. For a moment she lay atop the pilot dazed before she felt the thunder of the thing charging towards them. Letting out a sulphurous oath she rolled onto her back, dizzy and pained to the point that the world momentarily rendered itself in shade of gray and red.

The thing was bellowing mad as it charged, great gobets of foam dripping from its mouth and dark blood running from the stump of its severed tusk. It barreled towards them like a freight car and Junebug swung her rifle to bear. Suddenly the thing screamed and flinched backwards, churning up the earth as it attempted to reverse its progress. It wheeled away as though repelled by some shield, turned and tried to press home again only to scream and vere off once more. Junebug came up in to a kneeling stance and aimed at the thing, but it bellowed in frustration once more and then bounded off into the trees, shattering saplings as it fled. For a moment the jungle was silent before the usual cacophony of birds and small creatures resumed. Junebug touched the retraction button that lifted her face shield and wiped blood from a split lit, spitting into the dirt.

“What the fuck was that?” she wheezed, falling back onto her butt and trying to catch her breath.

[POOHEAD189]

Sayeeda falling back on her butt unceremoniously had her butt land on a prone Neil, and he let out a 'woosh' of air as she did so. Before she could apologize, he waved it away and sat up with her on his lap in the jungle, holding himself up by his hands behind his back, his hair disheveled. "I have no..." He placed two of his knuckles against his nostrils and blew gently to pop his ears. He felt dizzy after the immense bellow next to his head. "-idea."

He looked around, but saw no trace of the thing other than trampled foliage and a broken sapling. The power of that beast was ridiculous. In his experience, monsters like that were born on harsh worlds or were made via a genetic experiment and-...well that made sense. He didn't want to start talking like he knew anything, but he kept the idea in the back of his head. "That guard definitely knew something about this thing, and I don't think he was waiting to take it for a walk."

He placed a hand behind Junebug's head to turn her face toward him. She resisted slightly at first, but he said. "Let me look at you," making sure a split lip was the worst thing that happened to her. Once he was satisfied, he sighed in obvious relief. "You know, the answer to your question was yes." He remarked, reaching down to take out a small flask of water to drink, before handing it to her to take a swig. "Once this is done, I'm coming with you."

"Neil, don-"

He pulled her head to him and he kissed her thoroughly, drowning out the noises of the jungle and their own thoughts for the moment. Until something approached. Junebug was suddenly on alert, her weapon drawn. Neil knew the sound of that gait anywhere, and Saxon stepped into view, seeing naught but the damage and the two of them on the ground. "Hey, you made it. Here I thought you fell into the ocean."

"Silence, worm. I'm listening." The Hex said, head up and mouth open, his tongue flickering through his mandibles. Nothing seemed to happen save for the small chirps that surrounded them.

"I think we're safe for now." Neil said.

Saxon, clearly not listening, said. "I think we are safe for now. Did you see what caused those strange roars?"

Neil gave him a look.
@Penny

[Penny]

Junebug grinned at Neil for a moment, relieved beyond words that he wanted to continue with her and the Highlander, though exactly what that meant for their relationship with their current employers was yet to be determined. Well, one thing at a time. Saxon took a step towards them and then hissed with displeasure. Sayeeda spat blood onto the grass and wiped at her split lip.

“What?” she asked, perplexed. Saxon glared at the body of the guard. Sayeeda followed his eyes to the device on the man’s wrist. Reaching down she found a switch on the wristband and flipped it off. The Hex took a step towards them, apparently untroubled.

“Some kind of sonic repellent,” Junebug speculated. Hex could hear sounds at much higher frequencies than humans could, the bracelet must be transmitting some sort of signal, probably to repel the kind of animal that had just attacked her.

“I don’t know exactly what is going on here,” Junebug confessed. From the briefing she hadn’t gotten the impression that Pradec was involved in any kind of genetic engineering, but the creature that had attacked her wasn’t anything she had seen in the biota of this world.

“Well given your unprofessional gunfire, I suggest we strike while we still have some sort of element of surprise,” Saxon hissed with flat displeasure. Sayeeda didn’t bother to argue, just brushed her lip again and pulled her helmet visor down.

“Right, lets move.”
It took about another half hour to reach the coordinates the satellite surveillance had provided to enter the building. Rather than a doorway, all of which were guarded, they found themselves at a large grated vent that spewed hot exhaust into the tropical air. Several fungi of unhealthy hues hung from the slatted cover plates. There were as yet no audible alarms.

“Alright,” Sayeeda said, unslinging her duffle bag.

“Lets get his over with.”

[POOHEAD189]

The lack of alarms was certainly odd, but perhaps this facility wasn't as well run and equipped as Gredorius had them believe. Neil didn't doubt he'd be the overly cautious type. Taking out his high powered revolver, he volunteered to enter the breach first. He recalled some poem from ancient Terra with a similar line, but he couldn't be bothered trying to remember. He dropped down, and found himself in what he believed was a restricted access hall, even for the paramilitary members of the facility.

On the top end of the walls, pipes as thick as his torso ran along it and various warnings symbols were plastered along the wall every so often. It was dim, and the few hanging lamps there were shaking and flickering on and off gave Neil a very foreboding feeling. He hadn't felt this crept out since the Xenonids, and the very thought of one of them crawling along his body had him shuddering a bit. He steeled himself and held up his gun, at the ready.

"Coast is clear." He told them, and Junebug followed as lithely as he would have expected. Saxon grabbed a hold of the bent steel, and lowered himself in with barely a creak. The corridor was far too small for the Hex to be comfortable, and he slouched even more than he usually did. The Hex shifted, bumping Junebug none too gently. He didn't seem to notice, gazing about. Neil had noticed the Hexa giving her less respect recently, and he wondered if the Alien realized Neil and Junebug were (at least hopefully and if they survived their current social problems) together. He mused if this would be a problem in the future, and he really hoped not.

"Move," Junebug said, and all three of them headed down the corridor, knowing one was as good as the other. Right now their best bet was getting into a lower floor and trying to reach any type of central command they could. Unfortunately, Saxon's awkward height had him stomping a bit more than he intended, and two mercenaries reached the corner before them and lifted their weapons, aiming down their sights even as they yelled "Freeze!"

Even before Neil could truly appreciate their black armor and impressive armaments, a knife flew past his head and struck the front one in the neck. The merc with the knife in him fell into the one behind him, sending him to the floor before he could fire. Neil knew they needed to kill him fast, and he didn't want to risk a bullet. Suddenly, Junebug would see Neil's face warp in confusion as he was lifted up by the scruff of his collar and thrown down the corridor by Saxon.

He flew four meters, keeping his wits about him enough to kick the merc just as he was lifting his gun to shoot him out of the air. His foot connected with the man's head, knocking him out cold before Neil placed his hands against the wall to stop his momentum. Of course stopping all of it was futile, and he crumpled to the floor like a sack of defused flashbangs. Saxon chortled, or at least it sounded like it as he stepped forward.

"Good work. You're useful for something." He said, and Neil sat up, dazed, thinking if they were anywhere else he would have shot him.

"One of these days, you fucking Lizard." the Pilot groaned, and sat up, making sure his back and neck were fine. As stood up shakily, he managed to get a look down the next hall. There were doors lined up along the hall, with small windows allowing them to peer into each chamber.
@Penny

[Penny]

“Something isn’t right about this,” Junebug declared as she moved along the corridor opening one door after another with the barrel of her rifle. It appeared they were in a barracks of some sort, which might have been expected, but the rooms were cleaner than Junebug would have imagined from soldiers, hired or otherwise.

“What tipped you off? The literal monster?” Neil asked sardonically. Junebug chuckled as she opened the final door in the hallway. Inside was another room with a bed, refresher and computer console. Unlike the others they had passed this one was still live. Junebug gestured the others inside and closed the door before crossing to the computer. The screen appeared to be some kind of statistical data, though it didn’t make any sense at all to Junebug. Reaching into one of her pouches she withdrew a small memory cube and slotted it into the machine. As Taya had predicted the input was of a standard type of Cyloneika and she wasn’t forced to fiddle with the package of adaptors she had bought just in case it had been of more esoteric manufacture. The machine bought up a warning about the cubes contents which Junebug ignored with a click. The cube hummed for a moment and then a tell tale flicked green, informing her that Taya’s malware had been successfully uploaded. While she waited Junebug looked around the room. There were several dataslates, each apparently hooked to xenobiology databases of various kinds. Neil pulled open one of the drawers to reveal several neatly folded lab coats. He arched an eyebrow.

“Junebug?” Taya’s voice sounded in Sayeeda’s ear. The virus she had created was designed to give her access to the buildings communications suite so that she could link to them in real time from the orbiting Highlander. That part of the plan appeared to be on track.

“I’ve got some access but it's going to take time for me to crack all the systems,” the girl admitted.

“No problem,” Junebug told her, gesturing the others towards the door. It might be smarter to wait for intel rather than move, but Sayeeda didn’t like defensive positions and this hallway would be a bad place to get pinned down.

“I think this might be some kind of research facility,” Sayeeda said. That wasn’t what Gregorious had told them, which meant his intel was either dangerously bad, or more likely, deliberately false. That didn’t change the mission though. Taya could be depended upon to deal with Pradec’s files if they could be remotely reached, but that still left the man himself.

They pressed forward through the door at the end of the corridor, it opened onto the walkway above a two story room. Below them white coated men were working around holographic displays. On the screens Sayeeda could see footage of the jungle in which large alien looking creatures roamed. They were not of a piece, save that each one was large and none were native to Cyloneika. A large map with red tracking dots was on one of the walls.

“I don’t think we can get through this way,” Junebug said as she eased the door closed. As she spoke the doorway at the other end opened and two men carrying shot guns and wearing body armor stepped into the opposite end of the corridor. One opened his mouth to shout though probably more in confusion than alarm at this stage. Junebug lifted her rifle and fired twice, the discharge deafening in the confined hallway. Both men spun to the floor in a spray of blood, the displacer rounds pulping armor and tissue with equal disinterest. In the same motion she unhooked a flash grenade from her belt, pushed open the door and tossed it through the door, over the railing and down to the floor below. It went off with an actinic flash and a shattering boom they could feel even through the door.

“Here we go,” Junebug said and kicked the door open, rushing onto the walkway. The scientists below were clutching at their eyes and screaming. Several of the computers had been shattered by the concussion and a haze of smoke disrupted the holograms. Her helmet quickly scanned each figure, returning no matches for Pradec. There didn’t appear to be any armed opposition here so she rushed across the walkway towards another door deeper into the facility.

[POOHEAD189]

Delving deeper into the facility, they found themselves lost quickly and entering a large and strange storage room. Retracing their steps was possible, but most shouting they heard was from behind them and within minutes, an extremely loud and annoying alarm was sounded accompanied by red lights streaming across the walls and themselves in a revolving pattern. Saxon enlarged himself by puffing up his chest and shoulders to appear more menacing, and growled as if that would halt the alarm.

"Uh oh" was all Neil really had to say on the subject, but it proved apt when the sliding door to the storage bay area they found themselves in opened up and four armed paramilitary soldiers hustled in, rifles leading. Neil let off a few potshots, but even someone as accurate as him didn't have time to get a good bead on them before they opened fire in an orderly line. Standard formation had the front two kneeling and aiming down their sights while the back two hipfired to suppress anyone who remained firing back.

Saxon raised his armored arm and kept his face protected, but the small arms fire punctured his rough skin through the gaps in his armor. It would take far more to bring him down, but it was clearly painful. With his offhand, he hefted his fletchlette ripper and sent two cases at the direction of the doorway. At this range it had almost no accuracy to speak of, but one of the men was hit in their chest armor by a piece of shrapnel, and a man in the back was struck in his visor, making him cry out and halt firing.

Undaunted, Junebug stood in a central walkway and fired her submachine gun as the rest continued their volley, clipping one of the men in the leg and sending him down in pain, just before Neil grabbed her and yanked her into cover with him. "Hey," he snapped. "I'm supposed to be the suicidal one!"

"Then be the suicidal one and cause a distraction so I can take them down," She said. He opened his mouth to answer, then realized he had no real retort. "You see, this is why we work well together." He said. There was that maniacal grin of his as he raised his revolver. In short order, Neil left cover and rained down a hailstorm of bullets on the men, knocking one in the chest and killing the one fixing his visor.

It was Junebug's turn to take out the others, but behind them another door opened. Heavy footfalls accompanied the noise, and they knew they were about to be surrounded. It looked like it was time for Neil to take out his battle carbine. He didn't go back into hiding with Junebug though, instead continuing his course behind another stack of equipment crates, reloading his revolver just in case.

Neil looked at the symbols on the crates, and noticed they were either radioactive or carbonite cooled as if there was a huge amount of food in them to preserve. It was probably for the beasts.

[Penny]

Junebug slapped another clip into her submachine gun, ignoring the heat that radiated from the barrel shroud from the continuous firing. She dropped the weapon and let her patrol sling take the weight then unslung the disruptor rifle. It was increasingly clear to her that the information they had been given was wrong, and maybe not accidentally so. In mercenary service there was always the possibility your employer was keeping you in the dark for their own reasons. Things like that tended to get people killed and were rarely appreciated.

"Junebug?" her comm sounded in her ear and she realized it wasn't the first time Taya had tried to get her attention. She stood up from behind her cover and fired six rounds into the wall, in paired shouts. The first round punched a whole in the wall allowing the second to pass through and she was rewarded with the scream and thump of a fallen man.

"Go ahead Taya," she replied, ducking back into cover as bullets spewed from the freshly punched holes, a predictable if futile reaction.

"I think I have a fix on the target, he is heading for a panic room two flights below you," she said, a map overlay appearing in a 25 percent transparency in the lower right quadrant of Junebug's visor.

"Roger. Break. Neil we..."

"I got it," Neil replied guesturing with his weapon to a small elevator at the rear of the room. Junebug ran to it and pulled open the control panel as Neil joined her. Saxon howled in rage and lifted one of the heavy metal supply crates and hurled it at a door that sprung open. There was a rending crash of metal and a crunch of bone and the the lizard was in the elevator and Junebug slammed the simple gearbox into drive, lobbing a grenade underhand into the room they had just vacated. The elevator dropped them fast. They sank two levels as their evidently wasn't a stop on the intervening floor. The cage sank into a large open area perhaps thirty meters square. The roof was festooned with banks of glow lights and the floor was covered with vegetation similar to the jungle outside. A vast beast, fully ten meters long rounded on the elevator.

"Well," Junebug said a little abashedly.

"I guess that explains the rations." The creature let out a terrifying roar, so loud that the sound filters in Junebug's helmet notched it out to save her hearing. Then it lowered its head and charged towards the descending elevator cage.

[POOHEAD189]

If he hadn't run across any other monstrosities today, Neil would have said this was the strangest beast he had ever seen. Longer than a terran Orca, it was an ungulate based on the three hooves they could see along each flexible, powerful leg. It had a sloping, broad head that was framed by two huge, twisted horns and ended with a beak-like mouth that looked like it could pierce thick armor. Judging by it's scaled skin, it was cold blooded.

As it galloped toward them at terrifying speed, the thing opened its mouth to reveal its thick, mucous covered tongue that wriggled like a serpent. Neil was having none of this, and he drew his new battle carbine, aiming down its Entech Holographic sight. He fired five shots at the beast as it neared. With satisfaction, he saw he drew blood and harmed the thing. But it didn't die or even slow considerably.

It didn't seem to know who had shot it, as it swung its huge head toward Sayeeda rather than Neil, seeing her as the slimmest morsel. Gaping maw widening, Neil saw its tongue rearing back to strike. With no time to consider, he leaped in the way of Junebug as a tongue the length of this thing's body struck out and latched itself onto Neil rather than the Captain.

"Neil!" Junebug screamed as her pilot was suddenly yanked toward the beast to be devoured. Saxon, more seeing this as an opportunity to attack the monster when it was distracted rather than for any worry of Neil, roared and charged the thing. Meanwhile, with precision and a cool head only she could muster, Junebug drew her rifle and fired a burst of three rounds, effectively cutting the thing's tongue at the halfway point. Neil skidded to a halt on the ground.

The monster buckled in pain, unable to keep Saxon from grabbing its horns and grappling with the wounded beast. Corded muscles bulged as the enraged Hexa planted its own strangely hoofed feet into the ground, trying to keep the thing from tearing out of his grip. For once Saxon was the lightweight. Whatever that thing was, it likely weighed five tons while Saxon probably weighed half a ton with his armor on. Even wounded and pained, every swing of its head threatened to toss Saxon meters away.

Neil's roll had brought him dangerous close to the grappling titans, but he continued with another roll and drew his high caliber sidearm. With a smooth slide across the rough ground, he nearly crashed into the monster's head. Saxon had barely kept himself stable from another thrash, just in time for Neil to press the barrel of his gun at the thing's earhole and unload his weapon into it.

All six rounds punched into the beast's head, tearing through the inside of its skull. After a tense moment, it let out a pitiful groan and toppled into the dirt, dust billowing into the air. They had almost no time for a breather as a growl reverberated across the dense landscape.

"Hey, is Taya able to help get us out of here because I've got a bone to pick with my fake future father-in-law." He told the Captain as she tossed him his fallen carbine, having just reloaded his revolver.
@Penny

[Penny]

"There is an exit on the south eastern wall," Taya replied, her tone apologetic.

"Sorry there is no video I can get into down here," she added as though she had something to appologize for in not being able to obtain real time imagery from a base in which the strike team was moving through at a run.

"Any one you walk away from," Junebug replied and headed towards the carrot that appeared on her helmet visor, pushing through the thick foliage to reach an armored doorway that formed part of the wall. It slid sideways at her touch and cool filtered air rushed into the tropical enclosure. The trio stepped hastily through into a hallway.

"Turn right the panic room is just around the corner," Taya instructed but Junebug was already moving towards the sound of rushing feet she turned the corner to see a man matching the description from the mission holo rushing towards her, eyes wide with panic. He tried to stop, tripped and pitched onto his face with a painful sounding crack. Junebug leveled her rifle at him as he scrambled to his feet raising his hands. She wondered what sort of filter Gregorious had used to make the man look dangerous. In the flesh he appeared to be a timid academic.

"Please," he begged, "this isn't what you think!" Junebug sighed.

"Yes, that is patently fucking obvious," she observed, then gave the fellow a regretful look.

"However, a deal is a deal."

"Wait! N.." Junebug shot Pradec through the breast bone, droping him to the floor. She said something in the strange hissing tongue of the hex then stepped forward and looked down at the body so that her helmet sensors had a good view of the scientist before putting a second round into his head.

"Well I guess that takes care of that," Neil said, his voice betraying no emotion.

"Neil watch your..." Junebug started to shout and then Neil's world exploded in a flash of white fire.

__________________________

"He should be waking up," a voice sounded on the edge of Neil's consciousness. His eyes cracked open to find himself locked into the medical computer on the Highlander. Sayeeda breathed a sigh of relief to see him coming to. She wasn't wearing her armor, but was instead in her usual combination of a t-shirt and cam pants.

"Was I hit?" Neil asked, noticing that his head was covered in some sort of sticky gel like substance. Junebug looked embarassed.

"Ummm... in a manner of speaking," she admitted. Neil gave her a strange look before the world seemed to go monochrome for a second and Junebug flinched in the familiar discomfort of RIP entry.

"Wait what? Are we running?" Neil asked, struggling against the restraints of the machine. Junebug laid a comforting hand on his head.

"Give it a minute, the machine has to finish re-oxygenating your blood," she said apologetically. Neil glared at her.

"Ok, explain what the fuck is going on," he demanded. Junebug cleared her throat.

"Well it was technically part of the contract that you marry Indra," she explained. Contracts were very important to mercenaries and Junebug had never gone back on one.

"So I had Saxon hit you over the head while your back was turned," she explained, as though this cleared everything up.

"Right..." Neil prompted.

"I had my sensors pointed at Pradec so I didn't record but when I turned around it looked like, from the video feed, like you had been shot," she explained.

"Saxon carried you out of there and we set off a couple of charges to level the place so there was no chance of anyone finding a body. Taya doctored the feed from my helmet so you had no life signs when we turned it over to Gregorious," she went on.

"So why is my blood being reoxygentated?" he pressed.

"Ummm... well I couldn't risk them searching or scanning the Highlander and finding you so, I put you in one of the stasis pods and shot you into space," she admitted. Neil could only stare.

"We picked you up right after your funeral," she added as though that made it all better.

[POOHEAD189]

Neil felt vaguely uncomfortable as he was being revitalized in the enclosed chamber. Certainly it was needed, and he felt "better" in a certain sense every moment. But it still felt odd being pumped full of Gods know what while his blood was being reoxygenated after being out cold for...days? Weeks? If he had been out for any longer than two months he would throw a temper tantrum like he was 12. Not only that, but he was surprised he didn't need to pee badly. If they put a tube in there...

"I hope the funeral was lovely," He said, dripping with sarcasm. Junebug likely could hear it in his voice but she answered anyway with a "It had all the trappings of a state funeral. In a way I'm jealous."

There was a hiss of air as the automated needles in his arms and body slid out of him and were 'sheathed', and the glass case lifted up to allow him to rise out of the position. As soon as he attempted to, he nearly fell straight onto the floor. Junebug caught him in her impressively toned arms. "Whoa, there. You need to slow down." She said.

"You slow down!" He retorted, but it came out tired and almost drunkenly. "You jus-...you could have warned me about the whole...dying thing." His breathing sounded labored, and she picked him up and carried him through the hall. Taya popped out of one of the rooms with a broad smile on her face. "Neil! Are you ok? How do you- oh!" She tried to whisper the last part, thinking him asleep. She slipped back into her quarters.

Junebug carried him into the next room which was the Captain's quarters, placing him on her bed carefully. It was larger than his own, and his room was far more cramped. Neil tried to sit up again, and this time he managed to stay up on his elbows at least. "Neil if you knew, it wouldn't have worked." She said, sitting next to him.

"I guess I should feel good knowing I'm out of the marriage..." He admitted, clearing his throat. Before he knew it she had a glass of water she was pouring down his throat, letting him up for air only when it was fully consumed. He hacked and coughed, but the cotton mouth was going away at least. "Thanks." He said, and continued his previous thought. "and I'd rather be taking out by my...girl...friend?" He blinked, trying to wrap his head around it. "Wait...are you my girlfriend?
@Penny

[Penny]

Junebug smirked at Neil taking the cup from his hands and setting it down on the table that was bolted to the deck beside the bed. It glowed for a moment as the integral magnets inlaid into the surface fastened the cup down so it wouldn't become a missile if the ship maneuvered hard enough to beat the artificial gravity.

"Well," she said, stretching out a heel to push the door shut with a click. Reaching down she unzipped her flight suit and pulled it down baring her shoulders and breasts. The owl tattoo on her shoulder stood out in the overhead light. The slight difference in tone where her skin had grown back after her diesel burns, the puckered flesh where bullet wounds had healed. She was acutely aware of the contrast she made to Indra with her perfect skin and holostar body. It made her feel like an ugly duckling. She climbed on top of Neil pinning him to the bed with her hips.

It had been a strain, acting calm throughout the elaborate public funeral, dealing with Indra's grief and quietly negotiating her way out of government service, all the while knowing that he was floating up there in the dark. Sure, in theory he was perfectly safe, but machines and people fucked up, and she had fucked up plenty of times. Other people had died for it after-all, why not Neil. She shoved him roughly down onto the bed ignoring his wince of discomfort before leaning in and kissing him passionately.

"Let's talk about that..."

[POOHEAD189]

To say that Neil was enjoying her response was an understatement. Truth be told he felt as if he had woken up in a nightmare earlier, but now he was a-ok at being hit on the head by that bastard lizard if this was what it led to. Despite the huge contrast between Junebug and Indra, with Indra all-too perfect form and genetically engineered looks, he never felt more at home around Junebug, not to mention he found her hot as fuck.

Her hips pressing to him woke him up in more than one way and it caused him to give an audible intake of breath before she kissed him. It made him lose the strength in his arms that had barely held him up and his head hit the pillow as she gripped his shirt and pulled back to speak.

"We can do whatever you want," He replied, enthralled by her touch and shifting beneath her. Gods it was just like her to get him in this position when he had no real strength to speak of. Damn her! This was one of the many reason he was endeared to her. She drove him crazy in the best way. His hands grabbed her legs and pulled her into him more firmly, and he grinned as devilishly as he could through the fatigue. "With your permission Captain, I'd very much like to be your boyfriend."

He tried to sit up again to better get at her, but she rode his lower waist expertly to keep him from gaining any advantage. It was frustrating, and yet, he wasn't going to complain.
@Penny

[Penny]

+Events of Resurrection+

Junebug awoke to the tone of an automated alarm. She had fallen asleep beside Neil who was also stirring as the sharp tone repeated rhythmically. With the practiced ease of a veteran, she rolled out of bed and pulled on a pair of cargo shorts and a loose white tshirt. She was buckling her gun belt around her waist by the time Neil was awake enough to manage speech.

"What is happening?" he asked sleepily, familiar enough with the ships alarms to know this was an wake up call rather than an emergency. Junebug clicked her belt into place and pulled on her boots before glancing back at Neil, remembering that he had still been frozen in the cryo-pod when she had set this up. She grimaced slightly and touched the activation stud that slid her door open before looking over her shoulder.

"We are Junctioning," she told him, "I told Lonny to wake me when it was time." Neil sat up with a startled look but Junebug was already striding toward the bridge by the time she heard his startled:

"We are what?!"

Junctioning was a rarely used technique of astronavigation. The RIP was filled with swirling currents which starships used to navigate the gulfs between stars. All ships gathered navigational data about current conditions to keep an accurate picture of what was going on. Ordinarily pilots tried to avoid areas where currents intersected and created swirling eddies that even computers struggled to predict the outcome of. There were however, exceptions. If you could time it correctly it was possible to move from one current to another as their tips brushed, though the stresses on the ship could be severe. The advantage of this was that, if you survived, you could cover great distances quickly as the violent energetic shift had logarithmic rather than linear relations to distance in real space. The other advantage was that such conjunctions, from which the term junctioning was derived, did not reoccur in any predictable fashion. This meant that once a junction was crossed, other ships would find themselves separated by vast distances if they could predict the route of their quarry in the first place. Pirates and other criminals sometimes used the trick to escape pursuers, but only exploration vessels did it regularly.

"Why are we risking the ship we just got back together?" Neil asked pulling on his shirt as he raced to catch up with her. Junebug stepped onto the bridge and Taya turned to grin at her. Taya let out a low whistle and Junebug high fived the younger woman with a smirk. Junebug slipped into her captains chair and checked the readouts on the holo, all was going well.

"The Cyloneikians," she began, frowning over the awkward word.

"Cylos? Cyclops?" Taya suggested helpfully.

"The Cycylops," Junebug agreed, "Cant have failed to see we stopped in orbit and picked something up." Few ships had any real stealth capability, the technology did exist but it was enormously cost prohibitive as it had to be a nearly complete thermal containment as well as hull that scattered radar and microwave. Gregorious might well have noticed them deviating from their predicted plan to retrieve Neil's cryo-pod and might be suspicious. He might not imagine it was Neil, perhaps assuming it was research material stolen from Pradec's facility or even Pradec himself his death elaborately staged, but there was no point in taking risks with a powerful man's paranoia. Junebug was punctilious about fulfilling contracts, it had been the Cyclops themselves who had declared Neil dead and thus voided the marriage arrangements, all she had done was show them the footage and act sad, but they might not see her technical defense as legitimate and it wasn't like a court on Cylonieka was going to find in her favor against their masters.

"Right," Neil said sitting down in the pilots couch and bringing his holo live.

"Well if we are going to do this we might as well do it right," he said his old confidence returning as he settled in behind the controls. Taya was grinning like an idiot, evidently enjoying the fact that Junebug and Neil had finally gotten together. It was also likely that she didn't fully appreciate just how dangerous this stunt was, essentially a controlled version of jumping out of the Terran cruiser into the open RIP, a maneuver that had all but destroyed the Highlander.

"Thirty seconds," Neil said and Junebug pulled her restraint harness on, buckling it down over her shoulders and hips. Taya followed suit a moment later, a slight worry beginning to show on her face.

"Lonny, where is Saxon?" Junebug asked.

"Maintenance bay 2," Lonny replied. The Hex didn't have sleeping quaters, the Highlander being originally desiged for six crewmen who shared bunks when between shifts, this meant that Neil Junebug and Taya filled the available quaters. Fortunately the Hex seemed more comfortable in the hotter areas of the ship back beside the fusion reactors and so had moved his few possessions into a kind of nest he had built in the secondary maintainence bay. According to Neil Hex did not attach the same amount of emotion to living quarters as humans did, and in any case everyone was happy to have the lizard well aft.

"Well he heard the alarms, if he isn't strapped in that is his own look out," Junebug replied, glancing down at the chronometer.

"Ten seconds," Neil reported, adjusting the flight controls slightly to compensate for the increasing turbulence. Outside the viewpoint the golden swirl of the RIP began to shimmer and twist as though they were approaching the bottom of a vast waterfall. There was a sudden flash and a huge jolt that slammed Junebug into the side of her chair despite the efforts of her harness. Sparks flew from several control panels and a half dozen displays went dark. Smoke coiled from one of the air vents and there was a persistent hammering noise of machinery warped and still attempting to function.

"Extracting," Junebug gasped and pulled the toggle that cut the RIP engines. The golden light winked out of existence and for a second Junebug felt the panic of having been struck blind. The panic faded as all reactions to transition did and her brain caught up to the fact that she was seeing a star field. Given that one didn't know conditions on the other side of the Junction it was imperative to drop out at once until the sensor logs could be reviewed and navigation updated.

"Lonny do we have an astronav position?" Junebug asked. There was a noticable pause which told her the answer before the computer replied.

"Charting in progress." That meant the computer had no idea where they were and was now attempting to chart the brightness of stars to fix their position. Exact positioning relied on recognizable stellar phenomenon, but at worst the computer would give them a rough location in relation to the center of the milky way.

"Radio signals at about 20 light years," Taya reported as she worked over the sensor console. Junebug nodded and felt relief. A twenty year old radio signal was a pretty good sign of human habitation in the vicinity, hopefully someone who could sell them some updated navigational charts.

"Ok, lets make sure that we haven't broken anything to badly and then plot a second jump."

[POOHEAD189]

The snapping of buttons and the crank of the throttle was audible over the thrum of the engines. It did Neil well to hear the Highlander purring as if it was brand new and straight off the hangar. He didn't necessarily like duping someone as innocent as Indra, but he had to admit conning paid off. Hell, the alternative would be worse. You could have told her you didn't love her. "Yeah yeah, and then where would you be?" He breathed, setting up the RIP jump.

"Progress calculated. Course set-" Lonney began, but Neil cut him off. "I see it."

The display was framed by 2 red lines reaching a horizon point at the center, indicating how far they needed to travel before they reached the first R.I.P. jump. Taya looked satisfied, but the moment she looked away from the monitor to view Neil, she took a double take. He hadn't been wearing those when he came in. "Neil, where were you hiding those glasses?"

Neil adjusted the sunglasses on his face. "Don't worry about it." He told her, before his voice grew overly loud. "Everyone strapped in!?"

Taya checked her waist, but Junebug had already made certain both women were buckled up and ready. One look was all Neil needed, and he punched it. "Good enough for me!" He said, and the ship lurched. The artificial gravity withing having a difficult time keeping up with the vessel's speed for a split second, before it adjusted and settled once again. On the monitor, the red lining was increasingly narrowing until they reached the horizon line, and rather than lurching, there was an intense feeling that was somewhere between nauseating, having an eardrum rupturing, and having your heart fly out of your mouth.

It only lasted for but a moment, and for those used to it like Neil and Junebug, it wasn't nearly as bad as someone who had not experienced RIP nearly as muck like Taya, or for those who were not fully expecting it at the moment like Saxon likely. Soon the monitor was all silver streaks and black lines, in a maelstrom of various light dull colors as they traversed the alternate dimension. Every now and then, something would wash over the screen like a wave at sea.

"Any idea where this might take us?" Taya asked through closed eyes, her small body shaking from the exertion of the jump. Neil unbuckled and handed her some water from the side compartment.

"Wherever it is, it's close to the outer galaxy. We're already pretty far out, which is a double edged sword. Less law but more dangerous, generally."
@Penny

[Penny]

"Extracting," Junebug stated/thought, her consciousness merging with the computer her thoughts surging down the circuits in a stream of electrons. Reality stuttered into existence around them and Junebug felt a wrenching sense of loss which passes almost instantly. The sensor boards lit up as data from the material universe flooded in. Before them hung a greenish blue world with a single large continent dominating the lower half. There were several other worlds in the system but they seemed to be either gas giants or unremarkable rocks.

"Looks like... one spaceport with a lit beacon, sporadic radio traffic, fairly sparce settlement, or fairly low tech," Taya reported looking gray and shaky. Junebug had never found that the wrenching psychic shocks got any better, but with time you learned to deal with them. The junction had obviously been tough on her and she hadn't yet fully recovered from the strain. Junebug hoped they could take some time to rest and recuperate wherever this was.

"Any local net?" Junebug asked, tuning the sensors on the spaceport beacon Taya had mentioned.

"Doesn't look like they are that organised," Taya said a little disapprovingly.

"Beacon lists the world as Tiosinte, a protectorate of The Caliphate of Tarsaros, whatever that is," she commented. Spaceport beacons were not uncommon on more out of the way worlds that lacked centralized orbital nets. They usually provided basic information about the world as well as docking procedures and fees. Few worlds had several of them unless there was a political situation that made competing spaceports necessary.

"Docking fee five hundred credits and a further hundred in departure duties, tankage and gases, blah blah blah," Junebug continued reaching the end of the the meager data stream. No information on trade, no employment listings, no data on local conditions.

"Well, they will have charts if they have a spaceport," Junebug said, "and we might as well look over the damage from the junction with gravity under us. Take us in Neil."

"You got it babe," Neil said and shaped their course for reentry.

The Highlander settled onto the cracked concrete pad, the plasma thrusters starting brief fires fueled by weeds that grew up through the fissures on the landing surface. The spaceport was an space of perhaps forty acres enclosed by a curtain wall of synthetic stone. Presumably this was meant to protect the settlement they had overflown on the way in should one of the freighters under go a reactor failure rather than to defend the spaceport, manning such a fortification would take at half a battalion. Several hangers, apparently used for storage rather than to shelter ships, leaned haphazard and rusted, roofed in a combination of corrugated iron and structural plastic sheeting. A control tower of sorts stood roughly in the center of the space, a sun faded flag blowing lazily from its peak. Well it was a tower at least, they hadn't responded to any hails Sayeeda had attempted either by radio or with laser communicator. A battered looking freighter, several times the size of the Highlander sat on the other side of the port looking battered and ugly. It had power readings but no crew were immediately evident.

Junebug, Neil and Taya walked down the ramp and onto the cooling concrete. A shabby looking man was walking from the terminal with a clip board in his hand. He was unshaven and wore a grease spotted shirt in a garish red printed with white flowers and a pair of cargo shorts that contrasted to the steel toed boots that completed the ensemble. He reached the group and paused pulling a cigarette from his mouth and extending a hand. Junebug reached and and took it, shaking it formally.

"Welcome to Tiosinte captain...?" he asked.

"Cykali," Junebug supplied, "Junebug Cykali." If the name struck the man as odd he didn't show it, eyeing both her and Taya with appreciation, his eyes sliding over Neil.

"I'm Warner, Tobin Warner, I run the spaceport for the Tars," he intorduced himself before chuckling good naturedly.

"Not that they give a fuck what happens here of course, so long as they get their port duties, speaking of which..." he extended a hand.

"Six hundred credits please," he said with a smile. Junebug couldn't help but smile, graft on such a minor scale was almost charming and she passed over six of the platinum inlaid credit chips. Warner made them vanish with a skillful flick of his wrist.

"This is our first time on Tiosinte Mr Warner," Junebug told him, "Can you fill us in on conditions here?" Warner smiled tiredly.

"Its a fucking shit show, that is how conditions are," Warner told her, waving for them to walk with him. Obidently the followed him into the base of the tower. The interior was pleasantly cool compared to the tropical heat outside. A single ceiling fan turned slowly and music of some kind of acoustic harp blared from a music projector unit.

"There are a couple of gangs here that supply danac to the cartels on Easterling, they are at each others throats," Warner explained picking up a large pitcher of iced tea and pouring four glasses without bothering to ask them if they wanted any. He made a magnanimous gesture to the table of battered wood and Junebug took a seat.

"Danac?" Junebug asked and Warner arched his eyebrow.

"Gods where are you from? Danac is a narcotic that grows here, only grows here really, though it grows like a weed, freighters from the cartel come in every couple days and pick up the raw stuff." He made a gesture with his cup towards the other freighter on the pad, accidentally splashing tea onto his shirt and squaring colorfully.

"The gangs supply the cartel, and make everyone else miserable," Warner complained.

"They don't bother the spaceport though?" Junebug queried. Warner shook his head.

"Nah, the Tars could fucking gut them in a hot second if they managed to piss them off enough to notice, though that aint easy to do, no point in risking it when they already got everything else. If you want my advice, do whatever you need to do as quickly as you can and get the fuck out of here."

[POOHEAD189]

The spaceport was both rustic but industrialized. High tech towers and beacons beamed into the sky, nearly as slim as poles whilst the buildings around them were usually one, maybe two stories tall and made of clay or local sandstone. The climate wasn't nearly as arid as Hahn, but the planet wasn't necessarily bountiful in water or foliage either, giving the air a distinct smell of dust and dry heat and the air shimmered from the local sun's rays.

The crew found refuge in a large cantina a few miles away from the landing area, a small ball of neon light emitting multiple colors out into the sun drenched streets.

"No better place to find info." Neil said, and Taya and Junebug followed his lead. Of course, Junebug was savvy in a number of subject and she was no slouch when it came to criminal activities. It was something Neil used to do as a business, however, and at the moment they needed underhanded money. Well, anytime would be great but it seemed most money here was made through means that was illegal in the wider Imperium.

The music inside was bouncing and catchy, and four Xenos with horned heads and mouths split horizontally rather than vertically played on strange instruments on a small stage in the back. The three of them got a small table near the center of the sitting area, calling for drinks and making a guessing game of what alcoholic beverage constituted as bearable in this backwater nowhere of a planet. Meanwhile, Neil spend the majority of his time looking around to see if there were any signs of someone who might have information. A telling look, a gang sigil, or someone with a surly disposition who glanced at just the correct times.

It was to his surprise when a small group of settlers in the back waved him over when his eyes met one of them. They were maybe slightly older than him, around Junebug's age in brown coats and caps to keep the elements out of their hair, along with goggles on their foreheads. Neil looked to Junebug, then got to his feet and made his way over to them.

"Hey buddy, looks like you could use some money." One of them said, slurping up a noodled dish into his mouth, and the others watched Neil expectantly.

"Yeah I can. Looks like you fellas have a job if I'm not mistaken." He grinned.

"You are mistaken. We're not wanting your skills, we want something else."

"What's that?"

"Your women" he said, and Neil's grin disappeared. He lowered his brow, not entirely certain if they were making a joke. He placed his thumbs in his pockets, leaning nonchalantly on his back leg. "You want me to sell you my little sister and my girlfriend? Is that something that happens here often?" The former might not be by blood and the latter might be a new development, but he wasn't lying either.

"No, doesn't happen here more than much anywhere else. We'd treat 'em right, though if that's what you're worried on." A second said, and suddenly an idea popped into Neil's head. One he didn't need to convince himself much on. After a brief pause where he smiled, the pilot suddenly placed his hands under their table and threw it end over end atop one of them men, spilling their food and drinks in a myriad of cries.

One of them regained his feet, sputtering soup out of his mouth. "What the fuck did you do that for!?" He screamed, and the other two suddenly placed their hands on their holsters. All the cantina was silent, and the men suddenly realized Neil was also armed. Soup and beer dripping from their hair and coats, their pause was short lived when they decided three against one was good odds. Neil felt the same.

Before their guns cleared their holsters, Neil gunned all three of them down in display of impressive gunmanship. Junebug and Taya would have seen a bouncer approaching him from behind, only to suddenly walk away after he killed the three settlers. The fourth crawled out from under the table, and upon seeing his dead friends, he ran out of the cantina with flailing hands. Neil blew the smoke out of his gun, and made his way back to the table.

"Neil what the heck was that for!?" Taya whispered, worried.

"Well, if we can't get contacts, let's have the contacts notice us instead." He replied, and took a big sip from his mug. "Hey, this shit aint bad."
@Penny

[Penny]

"He is right Taya," Junebug said quietly taking a sip of her own drink. It was a locally brewed ale, heady and with a slightly oily aftertaste that she suspected might be an unpleasant companion after a night of heavy drinking but all Neil had the right of it. The drink had the virtue of being cold and refreshing, which she could appreciate even if this world lacked the oven like temperatures of Hahn.

"Do we even need to work I mean we have..." Junebug stomped on Taya's boot cutting her off with a yelp. When interest in the outburst waned she spoke quietly to her friend.

"Taya if people though they had a thousand credits we wouldn't get thirty feet from here before the gunned us down," she explained taking another judicious sip of her beer. The place certainly had a down on its luck feel. Tables of shaped stone that were set into the ground so they could be hosed off rather than wiped, cheap electrical wiring taped to the wall with cargo tape where it didn't just hang from the ceilings. A large high bar that would be difficult for a drunk patron to lunge over. Now and again a serving girl came out carrying plates of fried foods to various tables, setting them down quickly and retreating deftly to avoid gropes and pats on the rump. This was evidently a service you had to order at the bar because there were no menus and the serving girl didn't stop to ask.

"Rough place," Junebug observed as a pair of men dragged Neil's victims out the narrow back door and into an alley. This clearly wasn't a humanitarian gesture but just the desire to pillage the dead in private.

"You have been in rougher I suspect," Taya said trying to sound confident. Junebug grinned wolfishly.

"Yes but those times I had a dozen troopers with me and we weren't likely to run into anything half as bad as us," she said with a smirk. The Armored like most mercenary units tended to drink in packs, and the cohesion of a military unit was as devastating in bar fights as it was on the battle field, usually the only thing to worry about were other groups of mercenaries.

The sipped beer and watched the crowd for a few minutes as the interest in the shootings died away. They were a mixed bunch, farmers of a rough sort, a few spacers, evidently from the freighter at the space port and townspeople, mechanics, and small trades people. Everyone Junebug looked at was either openly armed, or more frequently seemed to be concealing a weapon in a pocket or tucked into a waistband. They were nervous also, not just about what had just happened, but in general. They ordered some food and more drinks as the afternoon wore on and Junebug began to think that Warner's dire warnings were just the line of nonsense a crooked spaceport operator might spin to keep the credits in his own hands, but as sundown approached there was a marked change in behavior. People began paying their tabs and leaving and the streets seemed to empty almost as though by magic. Junebug turned her head suddenly.

"What," Neil and Taya both asked at once.

"Engines, diesel maybe light trucks," Junebug stated her practiced ear picking out the sound a few moments before the rumble was evident to the others. The locals who hand't vacated the bar hunched their shoulders as though in anticipation of a rainstorm. Ten minutes later the reason why became evident. A parade of light trucks pulled onto the main street each one loaded with hooting gunmen. The were dressed much like the farmers save that everyone of these was obviously armed. They were festooned with weapons knives and bandoleers and each of them wore gold fabric prominently, some had bandannas, others sashes or coats, but every single one of them was marked. Warner's gangs she supposed. A moment later a second such convoy pulled into the street from the other side of town and disgorged an equally disreputable looking group, these were indistinguishable from the first save they wore green. The two groups began to shout insults at each other and hurl bottles and other bits of debris at their opponents. Some men, not directly involved in the shouting and cat calling, swarmed into the bars, swaggering and shouting.

"What is going on here," Junebug asked catching the wrist of the serving girl as she hurried past.

"Mistress," she hissed, gaging her chances of breaking Sayeeda's wire snare grip and judging against it.

"The gangs, they spend the days forcing the farmers to labor in the fields and they come back to town at night," she said, casting increasingly nervous glances at the gold clad thugs. Sayeeda let her go and the woman turned and fled.

"Well I guess that explains that," Junebug observed. Outside a hurled brick brained a man outside the tavern sending him tumbling to the dirt in the door way, blood pouring from his nose.

"I can see this getting interesting once they all get drunk," Junebug observed a moment before a knot of gold clad gunmen shoved their way into the bar and began shouting for drinks.

[POOHEAD189]

Taya might have grown considerably, but she still clung to Neil when the twitching man's body fell heavily upon the entryway. Neil cloaked her eyes with his hand, turning her away. He was glad she didn't see the ruffians trampling over the body, surely ending the man's life by the way they callously stepped on his head and neck if he was not already slain. The pilot looked to Junebug, and his free hand went to the hilt of his revolver while he raised his brows questioningly.

She shook her head, and he followed his captain's lead. He wasn't intimidated himself, but it could still get messy if they remained. He almost wished he'd brought Saxon or the modified Hauler.

"You know the drill, fill 'em up!" a thug cried, waving his mug in the air as if he was rallying troops to battle. The others cheered and prattled on to one another in a blur of uproarious noise. In a minute, they had spread around the tavern and perched where they liked, which seemed very much to Neil as if the three of them were being surrounded. A quick look told him many eyes were on them, now that they all had drinks in their cups.

Out of the crowd stepped a lean man, sporting a close cropped goatee and hair of dark curls. He had on a predatory, vengeful look to him even as he smiled. His eyes measured Neil for a moment, and then traveled down Taya to climb up Sayeeda, and he drained the last of his mug with one last swig. "I have never seen you before." The simple statement seemed to heighten the tension, not lower it, and the other men had quieted down.

"We just flew in." Neil said nonchalantly.

"Why would you come here?" He asked abruptly, trying to throw them off by cutting straight to the point. His eyes snapped to the Captain when she answered with. "Not that it's your business, but we heard there was work to be had. Mercenary, smuggler...anything that pays. Name a job and we've likely done it before." Their gazes clashed, and the fellow soon realized she wouldn't back down from a staring match.

"Well, in order to work here you need to prove your worth." He said, receiving another mug full of beer without even having to ask. There was an accent to him Neil couldn't pinpoint. He had a sun darkened complexion, but it looked suitably uglier than Sayeeda's caramel color, at least to Neil's sensibilities. Around them, the men easily had their hands on their weapons, or free in case anything broke out. "What have you to offer, hmmm?"

Neil chuckled. "No offense, but we'd like to speak to someone with authority if we're going to talk business." The man clearly didn't like Neil's wide smile, and he suddenly reached for his knife. His hand was halfway up to present it before Neil's gun was out of its holster, aimed just at his heart. All around them men had drawn their guns, and most impressively, Junebug hadn't moved an inch. She just stood there, arms crossed and unamused.

"You've got spirit, I'll give you that." The menacing ruffian said, putting his knife back in place.
@Penny