[h2]Prison Freighter, Designation: Knoxx
Holding Cell 4[/h2]

[hider=NPC bios]
Tarka Rukk.
32 year old Karthian.
-Leader of an independent pirate band.
-Karthians are highly intelligent natural predators who have retractable sharpened bone blades, detachable jaws and fangs that can secrete a numbing neurotoxin.

Darius Neymar 
-30 year old human male.
-Member of Tarka's pirate crew.
-High potential psionic. Informally trained so he has untapped energy reserves
-Stardust user. Currently in withdrawal

"Crusher"
-26 year old, Tech-savvy Endo (a cult-like tribe of human who believe the key to the next stage of evolution lies in physiological changes to genetics via injecting themselves with a cross-mixture of various alien DNA.
-Easily distinguishable by the near-white skin, shaved head, wide green eyes, and affinity for cybernetics.
-Arrested for hacking Federation Data Storage Reserves

Moon
-27 year old human woman. 5'4. Pale skin. Ginger hair, shoulder length, straight with some curls.
-Combat medic
-Mercenary, currently unaffiliated with any company.
-Not known for being a team player.
[/hider]

Tarka had sat patiently and listened as the human had crossed the cell and begun to explain that she and the newcomer were plotting an escape but would need assistance. His companion Darius had spoken on his behalf, given that his jaw was currently locked up in a harness. He had nodded along through the introductions and all that. The woman who called herself Taleste was in the middle of trying to free the Endo's cybernetic arm from its encasing when the other woman, Moon she called herself interjected the planning.

"Don't mean to interrupt, it's a great speech and all, but your man over there isn't looking too hot."

Grayson's eyes watered openly. He was trapped in a never ending loop of old memories, part of his implant's reset process was to playback old recordings to mask the loading procedure.
[i]".....such a dork sometimes, you know that?" Amy said, unable to suppress a giggle as she turned over in the bed to face him, scooting closer to lay her head against his chest and wrap an arm around him.
"I am serious though love" Grayson insisted as he absentmindedly stroked her back, his fingernails lightly scraping along her shirt "the parabolic of tha shot kin be recreated 78.9% of the time right now. Wit my work applied, even some'un like meself who've never played holo could do it with 86%"
"I don't doubt you, I just can't believe you're trying to get me interested in calculations at this hour when I'm trying to sleep" she leaned up long enough to kiss him "goodnight nerd..... love you"
"I love you too hon... don't know how I'd live witout ya" Grayson replied "I never wanna spend a day apart from you for the rest of our lives"
"Uh, yeah, I can tell" she giggled again as she played with the diamond ring on her finger.[/i]

[b][i]SLAP[/i][/b]
"Snap out of it hero, we need those eyes of yours to get out of here... apparently"
The voice cut through the memory, severing the train of thought like a hot knife through butter. Grayson grabbed his face with one hand and yelped in momentary pain as he wiped his eyes with the other and looked up from his seat to see the short ginger woman smirking down at him.
"C'mon, up and at em.... don't literally get up though. At first glance, it seems to me like you have at least 2 cracked ribs, so walking out of here is gonna suck, save your energy."

Slowly, the room came back into focus and the implant had fully reset, so he got to work with scanning their surroundings, trying to identify the proper security panel.
"Plan's simple folks" he said, just low enough for all of them to hear "First things first, we all need to appear as if we're still properly restrained. Once I find the right security panels, the Endo over there can hack them remotely. One to loop the security footage in this cell, and another to overload the automated response system. Once that's dead, the psionic can blast open that door, and we all fight our way to the security center for this section of the ship, blow open the doors to all the cells, and move up, arming ourselves every chance we get, until we wipe out these Feddy bastards and take the ship into the Deadzone before disappearing on our own ways"

"Ballsy" the redheaded woman said with a smirk "I like it"
The two pirates and the Endo nodded in cautious agreement, they didn't seem totally sold, but everyone in that cell knew that they had to try- anything was better than what would happen if the ship arrived at the Kyln.

Grayson pointed out the right security panel and Crusher got to work, subtly toying with hidden switches and triggers under the prosthetic skin of his arm, his eyes glimmered red all the while. No one moved, or even spoke for several minutes until finally Crusher's lips parted.
"I'm in" he said, barely more than a whisper "It's done"

"Taleste, mind helpin' me up?" Grayson said with an arm outstretched as he held his side, throbbing painfully after Moon's not-so-gentle poking-and-prodding excuse of a medical examination. While Tarka, Moon and Crsher busied themselves with tossing off already loosened restraints, Darius stood, scratching his nose as he sniffed audibly and started to weave his hands around in the air close to the door, which began to hum and glow with psionic energy.

"Everyone ready?" he asked as he pressed his hands against the door. The psionic glow vanished for a moment before Darius' hands started shining bright blue, the glow spread to the door itself and it shook violently on its hinges before being tossed clear of the frame with a loud clatter.

"GO!" Tarka hissed loudly as spikes erupted from his forearms and he and Darius charged out the door, soon followed by Crusher.

--------------------------------------------------

[h2]Revenant, Bridge
On Fast Approach Vector With Prison Freighter Knoxx[/h2]

Stryker, fully armored sans helmet, stood behind Tib's chair as they came up quickly on the prison transport ship. He was still and silent as he let her do her thing, no need to be barking orders when she already knew what she had to do. The more technically proficient members of the crew had really banded together to pull off a few minor miracles for the sake of the mission. Firstly, they had been able to equip the ship with a weaponized EMP to disable the defense measures on the Knoxx, secondly, reverse-engineering the proximity meter on the bomb in SAL's head to actively seek out Grayson's own proximity signal, and finally, digging around in the Revenant's weapons systems uncovered some pirate subroutines that the Alliance hadn't scrubbed completely. That was the key to their plan, options to safely board the ship and get their guy back. The last update had indicated that Sadaet's countermeasures to disable the Alliance surveillance and control tech were nearly complete as well.

Tib and a small team were staying behind to man the guns and protect the ship, everyone else was geared up and waiting down below. Stryker held the small sensor in his hand that was pinging Grayson's location, soon they'd be in range to get an exact location on him.

"Everyone hold on, here we go" Stryker broadcast over the comms as he took a seat in the co-pilot's chair while Tib increased their speed. The Revenant's drive core roared and echoed through the ship as she streaked forward. There was no hiding the fact that they were coming for the Knoxx, surely they'd have registered the approach on the sensors now and were attempting to hail them to no avail.

"Launching EMP.... now" Stryker said as the ship pulled up alongside the Knoxx and dropped to match their speed. The ship rocked and stuttered for a moment as the outer guns started to batter their shields, but he calmly flipped a switch and the angled EMP blast killed their defenses.
"Gun crew, sync up" Stryker announced as he held up the location device "Seems like Grayson is on the starboard side of the ship, we'll breach over here, mid-ship hallway of the port side and fight our way across."
"His signal is..... moving?" SAL said over comms "Curious"
"Should've figured he wouldn't give up without a fight" Stryker replied "Ok, shots synced, go"

The side-facing guns of the Revenant rotated into position and opened fire, peppering through the shields and eventually cracking the hull.
"Breach registered" Stryker said. Tib nodded and pulled the ship away, looping around swiftly and increasing the speed just enough to catch up to the Knoxx and line up the front of the ship with the hull breach.
"Boarding harpoons loaded up.... fire"
Every second gun along the right side of the ship fired a single time in unison. Electro-magnetic anchors that synced up to the ship's guns via laser-lines. An old piece of tech that pirates still used today to latch on to their prey and hold them captive. Though with the massive size difference between the Revenant and the Knoxx, it was more like they were a flea dug in tight to the bigger ship.

"Alright well..... good luck" Stryker said a little awkwardly as he ducked his head in close enough to kiss the side of Tib's head before getting up and heading down to group up with the others.

[i]'What the hell are you doing? She's gonna think you're a dork'[/i] a little voice in his head said as his face flushed red on the way downstairs. Outside, the ship angled itself slightly and deployed a docking tunnel at high enough speed to punch through the hull breach and initiate a gravity seal. Thanks again pirate tech. Stryker checked his weapons with one hand as he fumbled with his helmet in the other, marching to the front of the line of his assembled team members.

"No big speech this time guys, simple as can be. Expect heavy resistance, watch each others backs, and lets bring our boy home" Stryker said as his helmet snapped into place. The boarding seal was complete and the tunnel opened up. He led the charge with a subtle nod as a 'let's go' to everyone else.