Junebug grabbed at her goggles as circuitry popped and sizzled. With a curse she tore the optics from her face smelling her hair burning as she clawed at her eyes. Unlike her helmet, the googles weren’t hard core millitary equipment and weren’t shielded, someone had just set off an emp that had cooked them. With a sick feeling she reached into her pocket and pulled out the smouldering radio transceiver Neil had given her, dropping the smouldering junk to the ground. Saxon hissed in fury as his own armor hissed and popped though it didn’t seem to impair his motion.

“Some idiot must have set of an EMP,” Sayeeda said as she pulled open a ventilaton panel and dropped into the shaft. In the close confines she could smell her singed hair even over the sharp scent of the roaring plasma thrusters. Grimly she crawled forward untill she came to a fan housing that looked down on the hanger.  Outside came the booming echo of heavy calibre gunfire. Had they been spotted? Or were the gangsters making a move. 

The interior of the hangar was a rolling hell of pale blue flame.  Taya had turned the thrusters to maximum appeture, a setting designed to test the thrusters rather than generate any lift. All six thrusters spewed fire in a continuous stream that licked and flickered around the vessel like flames at a log. If there had been any equipment within thirty meters it had been burned to ash by now. Several loading jacks smouldered on the edge of inferno. It was a smart move, but between the EMP and the radio hash kicked off by the engines themselves Junebug had no way to contact the aristocrat. Harsh chemical byproducts stung her nose and made her eyes water as she tried to figure out someway to get in contact with the Highlander. 

“I’ll have to go down..” she murmered. Behind her Saxon made a noise somewhere between a laugh and a sneer.

“You will be burned alive,” the alien said with calm certitude. Sayeeda didn’t disagree but it wasn’t as though staying here was a great option. The gunfire on the street intensified and a trio of holes suddenly punched in the wall below her. One of the slugs ricoched off the hull of the highlander in a spray of orange sparks.

“Well now or never I guess,” Junebug muttered and kicked the fan housing open with a blow of her boot. Before she could think better of it she dropped into the hangar falling the ten feet to the ventral hull of the ship. The heat rose up like a sheet as she hit the hull, grabbing at the housing of the foward turrent before her momentum carried her down into the flames. The hot metal burned her palms and her leather suit smouldered, her lungs burned from the hea to the air and hot plasma seared her throat and sinuses.  Pushing herself to her feet she ran to the forward emergency hatch and pounded on it with her feet in rythmic sequence. If this didn’t work…. The hatch sprang open the instant she finished tapping out the access code. Without waiting to question her good fortune she dropped into the open hatch. Cool air filled her lungs and she let out a gasping breath. Hopefully Saxon hadn’t followed her, though if he had there were no clangs against the hull to indicate he had.

Taya turned and let out a scream as Sayeeda reached the bridge. Sayeeda looked around in concern until she realised that she was the cause of the girls distress. Taya clearly hadn’t been expecting her captain to materialize behind her, which meant it was a good bet that Lonny had been the one to open the hatch.

“Stars Junebug you scared the crap out of me, are you ok?” she asked. Sayeed looked down at her scorched hair, and blistered palms, pieces of her coat were actively smouldering. She shrugged.

“I’ve had worse,” she said matter of factly and began stripping off the burning garments.

“I’m sorry I didn’t know what to do! A bunch of thugs with guns tried to force their way onto the ship and…” Taya’s words tumbled out in a panicked stream and her eyes were very wide. Junebug placed a hand on her shoulder as she pulled her way free of her leather body suit.

“You did great Taya, really great,” she said as she stripped to her underwear, tossing the ruined and burning leather into one of the trash receptacles.

“Any idea what the firing out there is…”

The front wall of the hangar exploded into rubble as something that looked like an agricultural mech mated with a suit of power armor smashed its way through the steel reinforced feroconcrete.

“Uhhhh…”