Redemption (Rated T) - A Pirate/Fleet RP

[Omni]

"Jaliv? Fesserfa? This is Professor Amneiger. What's going on down there?"

Jaliv reached for his communicator. However, Fesserfa was faster. She brought up Amneiger, leaving Brian on call waiting for awhile. "The bike is going crazy! It suddenly started causing space-time fluctuations for no apparent reason!"

----------

As Brian ran down the hall to the labs, he passed by a reptilian alien. This particular reptilian alien looked like he worked out just for the fun of it, and a bit like the kind of person you might find in a dark alley. He also was someone that Brian had passed by for the fourth time today, and he noticed.

"Hey, you!" He grabbed Brian by the lab coat. "Where are you goin'?"

"To the research labs."

"I don't think so." He now grabbed Brian's arm. "You've been running around quite a bit today. I think it's time you payed a travel fee."

"Hey," Brian tried not to sound like he was scared or anything, "you know that there are no charges for just walking around the base!"

"Not that it makes a difference. The only trip you'll be making is to the medical bay!

As he said this, the lizard-man twisted Brian's arm. However, instead of feeling, and hearing, something breaking, the bone simply twisted out of shape with little resistance, as well as the flesh surrounding it.

"What the…?"

[Huntress]

"So, would you like that tour now?"

Hunty turned to look at Fraze. After the initial reaction, she'd managed to regain most of her composure - at first sight, anyway. But if anyone had taken a more closer look, they'd have easily seen that the captain's nostrils and upper lip were twitching ever so slightly and her eyes, usually steel grey, were nearly black with rage. Bloody Mary, who was still sitting on her shoulder, could feel that she was trembling slightly, like an engine working on silent mode but under huge pressure.

"Yeah," she said rather dryly, breathed in and then gave an absent, apologetic smile. "Yes, please." Bloody Mary could feel the engine pressure loosen up a little, but it was clear that being in her immediate vicinity was a little unhealthy at that point, so the meepit took aim, rocketed through the air and landed on Fraze's shoulder instead. He wasn't too worried any more - with an angry Hunty you at least knew where you stood, even if that basically meant that wherever you stood, you were probably in the wrong place. And he was very interested to see how this whole show would end up and how much blood it'd result in this time.

"Well then, let's get moving, hup-hup-hup," he said cheerfully, shuffling around for a good position. "Lead the way and they'll catch up." The meepit paused. "And I just remembered, I think we got something to pick up froooooom... Justice?"

"The section IV library," the quiet voice came from floor level. "Fifth floor. If it's accessible and such."

"I hope it is," Hunty said, finally picking up the bag Speck had bought and shooting a casual glance inside, "because we sortof owe someone a favor."

[Speck]

Big block letters spelt out the word LIBRARY in an arch just above double doors. Speck paced outside of it, trying to wrack her brains for information. If only she had been paying attention at the spaceport. If only she hadn’t been reading that grossly addictive news article in that one magazine. She sighed, pulling out the clunky-looking communicator that Merpo had handed her planet-side.

“Black Fern to… er… Meepit Queen. Black Fern to Meepit Queen. Do you copy?” She leaned against the wall opposite the library doors. Every so often, she waved to a passerby, waiting for anyone’s response.

Every communicator in the bag now in Hunty's possession echoed with her voice. Speck paused a moment to wait for a reply, then spoke into the communicator once more, “Hello? Anyone there?”

She pulled out the letter from Joce Farlap again, reading it from start to finish. Her eyes began to glow with a faint purple, her head started to pound. Speck tried rubbing her forehead with the back of her hand, still holding the communicator. Suddenly, without will of her own, she walked forward into the library and to the nearest computer. A service robot scooted up to her to ask her if she needed any help, and she completely ignored it.

“Not this again,” She said as her fingers cruised over the keyboard at a surprisingly fast rate. It was as if she was an automaton, doing exactly what needed to be done. The letter she had been reading lay forgotten on the floor next to the communicator, just outside the library doors.

Firewall after firewall was disengaged from the computer as Speck continued to hack into the Spacefleet security system. She could only watch on in a mix of fear, amazement, and appreciation as the computer announced with a ping, “Exterior Spacefleet security and defense deactivated.”

Speck sighed with relief, hoping that was the end of it; it wasn’t. Her gloved fingers continued to cruise across the keyboard in one last effort to distract Spacefleet, “Life support systems offline. Engaging emergency protocal.”

There was another ping as the lights in the Library, and probably the rest of the base, went out, and the dim red emergency lights turned on. An automated voice rang over the intercom system, suggesting that all personnel and visitors should proceed to the landing dock as soon as possible.

“So that’s what she meant by ‘if,’” She said as she was released from the partial trance just as the doors to the library slid open. Three uniformed officers pointed some very intimidating guns in Speck’s direction. Two of them held what could only be described as laser cannons; the center officer held what looked like a stun gun.

“Freeze!” One of the assailants shouted.

Speck slowly raised her hands to her head… then bolted into the maze of bookshelves and computer databases.

---

Joce scowled, then turned around. She was knocked to the floor by John almost immediately. Noah, leaning against the frame to the front door, tensed, but remained where he was. Bennet got into a fighting stance, sans weapons.

“Well, this’ll be fun,” Joce said to John. Her eyes clouded over with dark purple, “You’re out of your league, boy.”

Her hands crackled with magic as she pushed herself up. She braced herself for the next attack, grinning like the mad woman she was.

[Jina]

"They try to include foods made by as many species and races as possible. For example, I have pizza, and then there's this alien food called "cible." I think it smells like a dessert, but they insist that it's a normal meal."

"Sounds... interesting," said Jina. "But I think I'll stick to pizza for now."

Wandering off to find some food, she saw something shine among the people in the queue. Some kind of coin, being taken from a pocket by a small, black, furry hand. She only saw it thanks to a reflection.

That hand... it wasn't, was it? That didn't make sense... unless the monkey had a cousin or something.

Jina went for a closer look, but by the time she got there whoever it had been was gone.

Then she looked up and saw a monkey walking away, and she decided to follow it. Unfortunately a few minutes later she heard the unmistakeable voice of the captain and decided it might be a good idea to try heading back.

She caught up with them just as they were leaving the table and a red light came on.

"This wouldn't happen to be a fancy light show, would it?" she asked before realising that she didn't exactly know who she was asking.

And I haven't even had any food yet.

[Kengplant]

Keng was about to explain her plan to Cyborg on how to get the information and all the dangers involved when the red lights outside the ship began flashing. Her priorities took a sudden turn.

"What the hell?" Keng asked amazed at the sudden emergency. "What. The. Hell?!" She continued as she slipped onto her computer and accessed the Spacefleet database. "WHAT THE HELL?!" she finished as she discovered that Life support had been taken down, then followed up with many different ways of saying 'dung'. "Ler-what's-it be darned. We've got a bigger problem here. Quick, I've got life support suites. They each have a good twenty four hours in them. My ship hasn't been compromised but the rest of Spacefleet just lost life support. Grab the suites will ya hun? It will be a while: hour or two I'm guessing, before the air actually- well let's not take any chances, they may have fixed it by then but- HOLY CRAB APPLES!" Keng's brain had gone into rapid processing and was feeding her steps, protocols and possibilities faster than she could explain them, and now something of even greater concern was showing up in the Fleet's system. She smashed down a few buttons and was soon speaking with defenses. "This is Comdo. Keng. We've got an unusually large group of un-scheduled ships heading to Spacefleet."

"We've noticed Comdo."

"Send out-"

"We know our jobs Comdo. You focus on evacuation."

The conversation didn't go any further. "Cyborg you got those suites out yet?" Keng called as her fingers continued to dance over buttons, pulling up info and scans on the ships. "Bloody hell! I take back what I said about forgetting about Le-what's-his-name-ray-guy. These scans indicate demonic!"

[Amneiger]

"Are you still in the control room? Find someplace safer before something - "

The alarms suddenly started going off.

"- happens. Okay, the computer network says that life support just went down. Go on ahead while I do final checks here." Amneiger shut off the communicator.

Life support failure protocol did say that most personnel were to leave as quickly as possible, but it also said that they were expected to move back in eventually and that the station was to be secured against invasion during such a vulnerable period. All Amneiger needed to do was to make sure that the security systems in the research labs were working and then he could leave. He typed out a command on his computer while reaching for the emergency vacsuit in his lab.

> Run diagnostic on research lab security systems.
>> Beginning diagnostic.

Amneiger pulled on the helmet, connected the arm units with the torso unit, and glanced back at the screen.

>> Running...
>> Running...
>> Running...
>> Running...

What was taking so long? Amneiger finished sealing the rest of the suit and took another look at the diagnostic.

>> Finished. All systems have been shut down.

What.

> Search the access logs for commands involving the lab security systems.
>> Searching...

Amneiger read over the results. All of them were standard maintenance related commands that had been issued by him from this computer...except for that one.

> Lock out all access to the research lab network except for access from the computer center and defense center.
>> Confirmed. All commands not originating from inside the lab network, the Spacefleet computer center, and defense center will now be flagged and rejected.
> Bring all security systems back online.
>> Confirmed. Restarting systems.

Amneiger opened up a communications channel to the computer center. "This is Professor Amneiger. Somebody hacked into the research lab network through the library and turned off the security systems. Can you check the rest of the traffic that's gone through the servers?"

"We've already detected them; security is dealing with it. What steps have you taken so far?"

"I've locked out all access except for the defense center and your sector and reactivated the systems."

"Good. Computer center out."

[Rider]

[glow=red,2,300]A demonic illusionist was filling the sky with false ships, cloaking the real ones. A fire mage was tricking the heat sensors at the best of his ability. Schzain could only clutch her dagger and wait helplessly while the cannons shot the skies around her. Outside the window, one ship burst into flames and crashed, sending up a cloud of smoking moondust.

Kyvr looked worried, but he was trying not to show it in front of the troops. "The High Warmaster has taken down their life support. Anything without supernatural abilities will be dead this time tomorrow. We prevent them from going to get help until we have freed Leraye. I want you all to stand strong with me."

Outside, another ship was hit. It careened through the sky, desperately trying to pull out of its dive. Demons in parachutes leaped from the failing ship.

"We can get through this, as we have gotten through a thousand hardships before this."

For the first time, Schzain was afraid. She wanted to free Leraye, but she wasn't sure she was willing to die for this want... but of course she was willing. Her mother would want her to. Kyvr would want her to.

"Brace for landing," Kyvr said. And the landing was none too gentle. It jolted Schzain almost out of her seatbelt.

"Are you okay?" Kyvr asked. Schzain could only nod in reply.

"Good. You're on my squadron, we'll be scouting for secret entrances. I need your senses in top shape."

Demons swarmed to every entrance, with one shielding-master to every five demons. Other squads attempted to disable the cannons and lasers with lightning, fire, grease, stones, whatever they could manipulate.

They were a people on the rampage, their already-chaotic and violent natures acting as thier fuel.

Somewhere inside Spacefleet commercial flight spaceport, a young man regarded the alarms and bells with a smile. He brushed a strand of long green hair behind his ear and closed his eyes. A delicate hand reached into his pocket and fingered a black stone within.

One would hardly recognize him. But he was an egotist to the end, and had to leave some clues, after all.[/glow]

[Cyborg]

Cyborg ran to Keng holding the required suites, " Got 'em right here. Okay what the hell's going on now? Invasion? Ticked off aliens? Wait this sounds like it's going to be all MIB like, you aren't going to have to use the flashy thing are you?" he paused before adding, " I guess our chat will have to wait huh?"

[Fraze]

"Lead the way and they'll catch up," Fraze was told by the meepit now residing on his shoulder.
"Ah, certainly." He paused for a moment to get the gist of the conversation. Something about getting something?...he decided it might be better not to ask.
He was about to turn and begin, when the lights and power went out--followed by life support.

Fraze believed that there are four things that are important to know in any language. The first three were the words "help," "doctor," and "bathroom." The fourth was what would get people offended. Fraze made good use of a string of words from this last category. The skinsuit, which had been hiding underneath his business attire, reacted to his heightened perspiration, pulse, and adrenaline level by immediately expanding to cover the rest of his body.
He knew he was in no danger from the life support failure, the protective silver suit acting as well as any spacesuit. But he was in the civilian area, and people were panicking.
He accessed Spacefleet's public database. Words and images showed up in his vision. They told him that in the civilian area, the safest place in case of an attack was...the mess hall?
As if to affirm this point, an automated message played over the intercom. "All civilians, please proceed to the mess hall in an orderly fashion."

A few listened, most didn't. Those that did, flooded into the mess hall with no regard for the people already there.
Mentally, Fraze sent a message to security. "This is Special Ops Fraze, currently in the mess hall, civilian section. What is happening?"
There was a slight pause. "Esso Fraze, there has been a breach in security. A large number of unidentified ships are headed toward Spacefleet. They appear to be magic-driven. You are to assist in the evacuation of civilians to the mess hall."
"Understood," he replied.
Fraze turned to Ethan. "We need to calm down the crowd, and get them in here. There's what may be a...magical invading fleet. Do you have any weapons on you?"
After a pause, he turned to the Pirates. "I hate to ask, but I need to...do you know what's happening?"

[Huntress]

Bloody Mary watched Fraze's silverification with a mixture of curiosity, distrust - as he could remember the last war well - and, considering the situation, a bit of jealousy.

"I don't suppose it could cover us both?" he asked, craning his neck to look around and, since the place had gone rather dark, sniffing the air in order to get as much new information as possible. It didn't give anything significant. "Yeah, nevermind me." The meepit climbed on top of Fraze's head instead and sat down there looking like a stoical Buddha statue on top of a hill.*

"Hunty?" he called out.

"Uhuh?" Hunty's voice no longer bore the note of suppressed anger. The powercut had introduced more pressing matters and throat-slitting could wait.

Bloody Mary waited until the intercom was done with its message. "Just checking if you were still there and not panicking."

There was a sharp, if rather amused 'hah!' followed by a very familiar sound of clack-clack-fzmp - Hunty loading and cocking her crossbow.

"I'm probably not authorized to do anything besides follow orders up here," she said, "but you should know that if there's going to be any trouble, I'm not about to sit on the sidelines."

"'Ear 'ear," said Bloody Mary, still making use of his high perch and analysing the stream of smells the mess hall now got as the crowd of civilians flooded the place. "I smell blood. Someone might be getting trampled back there." He paused. "Or maybe a nosebleed from the stress, s'kinda hard to make the difference. In any case."

Hunty was scanning the mess hall, as well as she could in the lack of light. Her ears caught a sentence. A magical invading fleet?

Her initial thought was 'ooh, good, distraction' followed by immediate concern. She'd seen panicking civilians on sinking ships and in burning towns. These people here were different. They were genuinely petrified, with not a single spark of hope in their eyes that's usually characteristic to people who, despite being in a hopeless situation, are still looking for a way out.

They were in space. The only way out would be to the airless, chilly void.

But hey, they weren't dead yet.

At that point, Fraze turned to them. "I hate to ask, but I need to...do you know what's happening?"

"Not a clue," Hunty said earnestly, feeling oddly relieved to be able to tell the full truth for a change. "Magical flying fleets aren't exactly what pirates do. I've a flying ship, you remember her, couldn't go two miles without having to stop to rest... dunno why she actually needed to rest, being a ship and all, but I'm no mage, I wouldn't know." She turned to look at the crowd with a scowl. Being in the HQ for the first time and mostly unaware of how things worked up there, she couldn't help but feel that she'd missed a memo.

"Okay, level with me. Why're they all so scared? How bad is it?"

*Carved by some artist with a very weird sense of humor, but then again, most artists have a weird sense of humor.

[Kat]

Kat screamed when the lights went out. Hey, she was taken by surprise after all.

But when she had calmed down, she pulled out her wand and felt it grow into its full form. Then it lit up with a bright purple light, illuminating almost everyone around her. She walked over to Huntress and Fraze.

"I have no clue as to what's going on too, but hey, I've got my weapon right here. And magic? I can't feel any auras right now, but...maybe if we knew where they were attacking and such..."

* * *

“You’re out of your league, boy.”

"We'll see who's out of their league!" John taunted, watching Joce's hands begin to glow. He sheathed his daggers and reached out, ready to grab her hands and keep her from casting any spells. "Jacob, how's Jing?"

Jingleheimer made a face as though trying to say, "Don't call me Jing." Or perhaps, "This isn't the time for stupid nicknames!" He was sitting on the floor, still largely immobile.

"Not good," Jacob answered, stopping in his tracks and crossing his daggers over his chest into a guarding position. "Are you three with the General?" he asked Bennet. "Don't make me hurt you."

[Omni]

"We need to calm down the crowd, and get them in here. There's what may be a...magical invading fleet. Do you have any weapons on you?"

"Always," Ethan replied. He hadn't brought his Ultrek rifle with him this time, but he did have a couple Infra pistols in the pack he had Siber carry. He quickly put the holsters on and drew them, making sure they were on 'stun.' "So, will I be guarding the mess hall? Patrolling the halls?"

[Fraze]

From his shoulder, Bloody Mary gave Fraze a funny look. It took him a moment to realize why--he had, after all, gone silvery once again. "I don't suppose it could cover us both?" the meepit asked.
"Em..." Fraze began, trying to figure out if, in fact, it could. By the time he was about to answer, Bloody Mary had lost interest and perched on his head.
Hunty said she didn't know anything, and seemed to mean it. This was a small relief--but given the situation, it was like taking an eyedropper's worth of water out of the ocean.

"Always," Ethan answered. Good. Looked like Hunty and Kat were both armed as well, leaving Fraze the only one without a weapon. Well, not technically true, but said weapon(s) would be rather difficult to get to. "So, will I be guarding the mess hall? Patrolling the halls?"
Technically, Ethan outranked him--so if anything, Fraze should have been following Ethan's instructions, not the other way around. But within their small group of 'Fleeters, it seemed that ranks usually didn't play much part in the decision process.
He looked around--there were several other 'Fleeters in the mess hall, who had already begun patrolling, desperately trying to restore order. There were 'Fleeters trying to do the same thing in the crowd, but far fewer. "I'd say try to herd people in here. If people are being trampled, we'll probably have to look out for injured ones. If you go on ahead, then I'll follow in a bit."

Fraze was about to do something, when he heard Hunty's voice again. "Okay, level with me. Why're they all so scared? How bad is it?"
That was one question he didn't want to think about, but also one he thought deserved an answer. With a sigh, he formulated his thoughts. "For a crowd of this size, we have about 12 hours' worth of breathable air without life support. But people are panicking--breathing more heavily--so probably less time than that. If, somehow, all the external defenses--both energy shields and physical armor plating--are breached, and the breach can't be closed off, all the air in this section will all be evacuated into space. Depending on the size of the hole this could take anywhere from a minute to half an hour--meaning everyone would either suffocate or get sucked into space in that same period of time."

Fraze realized now that he was getting rather hot. His heart rate was up, adrenaline was flowing. He removed the suit jacket he had been wearing, along with the tie. He could move more easily without those, anyway. He pulled his shirt down to one side, exposing his left shoulder. There was a large, diffuse reddish welt there, partially hidden by the contours of muscle but still noticeable. With one fingernail, he pressed against the center of this welt. As the nail broke the skin, the welt seemed to coalesce, and from it emerged a tiny box--which he was sure some of the Pirates would recognize. It hurt, quite a bit. "I need weapons," he said, pressing the thumblock of the box, which opened with a soft click. "Bloody Mary, coming?"
Setting the box on the floor, he put one leg in the box, then the other, and dropped down into a room the size of a warehouse.
It had occurred to Fraze that, if need be, some people could be kept safely in here. But that was a last resort--if for no other reason than the large stockpile of weaponry here. And, of course, there was...the other thing there. Near the entrance were a standard plasma rifle and the flechette gun he had used in the Guilds War. It had stopped vibrating after Leraye disappeared, and hadn't done so any more. He probably should have said something about this to the Spacefleet scientists, but didn't. He preferred to keep the gun rather than have them run experiments on it. He picked up both of these weapons, along with the extra plasma and flechette clips. He chose plasma BBs for the rifle--there wasn't a "stun" setting on it, but this was close enough. A short time later he hopped back out of the box and closed it. Rather than put it back in its proper resting place, he stuck it in a pocket. Better to have it readily accessible.

"If you'll excuse me, I have to do crowd control. I'll only say this once because I know it won't make any difference: please, don't go anywhere. It's safest to stay here until we know what's going on. Most 'Fleeters have had at least some amount of training for situations like these, but I'm guessing you haven't." With that, he set off after Ethan, doing his best to herd people into the mess hall.

[Amneiger]

Technicians in vacsuits were running final checks on the life support equipment in Engineering. "Find anything?"

"No, sir. It's all still in good shape; guess the shutdown command was the only thing that went wrong."

"Okay, let's get this started up again. 3...2...1..."

The lights dimmed for a moment, then came back full strength as the machinary began working again. "All right. Defense center, everything looks good down here."

"Okay. Cut off the engineering network from the rest of the station and lock all the entrances to your sector. We'll be sending some troops to door T36 with extra weaponry; we'll tell you when they get there so you can open the door."

"Understood. Engineering out."


---


The intercom crackled for a moment. "Life support systems online. Alert! Station is under attack. Repeat, station is under attack. All non-combat personnel are to proceed to nearest defensive sector."


---


"Sir, it looks like they're trying a ground assault. Seems like they can withstand vacuum conditions. They're splitting their attentions between the missile and laser emplacements and some of our side entrances."

"Have they gotten inside?"

"Not yet sir. We've locked all the entrances and are sending troops to hold them."

"Tell the people operating missile batteries 2, 4, 5, 7, and 9 to begin bombarding the troops assaulting the emplacements. Have all the other batteries begin bombarding the troops trying to get inside. The laser cannons are to keep firing at the ships. Tell me if any of them run out of targets."

"Yes sir."

Outside the stations, the missile batteries twitched and turn. They seemed to be aimed at random points in space now instead of at the incoming demon ships. The first volley of missiles shot upwards, then suddenly curved downwards onto the largest groups of demons. The batteries moved back and forth as the operators targeted one group, then another.

[Omni]

Fraze seemed to pause briefly when asked what to do. Admittedly, Ethan felt a bit odd asking someone who was technically lower rank for orders, but he heard that Fraze's 'Special Ops' title gave him authority in battle situations, and to Ethan, a fleet of non-'Fleet ships that showed up just as life support gave out sounded like a battle situation. Then again, maybe it was only meant to take effect in the middle of a battlefield, or when actively engaged in combat. Ethan made a note to look into that later.

"I'd say try to herd people in here. If people are being trampled, we'll probably have to look out for injured ones. If you go on ahead, then I'll follow in a bit."

"Alright. Siber! Heel!" The cyborg headed to the area of the mess hall that seemed to be in the most need of someone keeping the crowd calm. He proceeded to tell the crowd what they probably wanted to hear.

"Everyone, remain calm. We are taking the situation under control as we speak. What was that sir? No, I'm sure there's plenty of food to go around."

----------

The lizard guy continued trying to beat up on poor Brian. He was still puzzled as to why the scientist's body would bend and stretch, rather than breaking. However, he didn't seem to care and proceeded to abuse this strange attribute.

"You'll jus' have to tell your lab partners that you're a little tied up!"

"All civilians, please proceed to the mess hall in an orderly fashion."

There was a pause in the beating. "Well, I've had my share of fun. See ya! Wouldn't wanna be ya!"

As the lizard alien walked away, Brian wasn't sure if he felt better or worse. However, just sitting there wasn't going to help him. He somehow managed to reach his communicator. "Jaliv? Fesserfa? …I need a little help."