[IC] Born to Fight: Bounty Hunters

[Andre Valias]

Paradicial, 7:00 pm,
Arsodus, The Wild One Bar

"Beat it kid, I work alone."
"Wow, you really don't know how us bounty hunters work? Get lost."
"Oh for-- No, I'm not hunting the general, I got easier paydays than that, now fuck off!"

Ellie sighed hopelessly and twirled a lock of hair around her finger as the neon lights and wild techno rock emanated from the bar's jukebox. She leaned on the table and stared at her tablet, and General Vincent Roa's stern face stared back.
"But I don't even wanna a reward... I just want an adventure..." she said to nobody in particular. She'd come to the rougher part of town because she figured there were some cutthroat mercenaries and guns for hire who were probably going to tackle the fat bounty on the deserting general and his army. Maybe she had been a little too hopeful. Nobody wanted a starry-eyed girl to help them, even if she was good with a gun. Ellie gently touched her sidearm to make sure it was still there. That's when she caught someone's attention.

"So you're looking for someone to bring a general to justice, I hear it?" Ellie looked up and saw what looked like a space cowboy-- like there was any other way to describe it. A man who looked probably only ten years older than she was, dressed head to toe in dark combat armour with a black cape thrown over his shoulders, and a black but dandy brimmed hat on his head. He had short but messy brown hair, which he grew to his sideburns, and brown eyes glinting in the shade of his brimmed hat which he tipped toward the lady as he puffed his cigar. Ellie tilted her head as she judged the handsome rogue for herself.
"Depends, are you someone who doesn't mind a little lady such as myself tagging along for said justice?" she asked in return, gesturing to the man's get-up.

He chuckled as he in turn judged the "lil' lady". She was a blondie, but the kind with a little bit of fight in those pretty brown eyes of hers. Hair was platinum blonde and, more notably, long and past her shoulders-- would probably get in the way in a dangerous situation. And not even to start with her clothes: she was wearing a red university jersey jacket over a black tank top; at least she was wearing black cargo pants and black leather boots, but unfortunately she decided heels were a must. And the sidearm? Decent, but even the mercenary knew relying on just the one sidearm was dangerous. The little lady just screamed danger. Fortunately for both of them, the man appreciated a challenge.

"The name's Joshua McPhie, at your service m'am," he introduced himself, giving a courteous bow with hat pressed to his chest. "And who might you be?"
"Ellie Hart, a pleasure to meet you!" she replied. "So, when do we leave?" Joshua smirked at her eagerness, so he obliged her.

"Soon as you're ready."

Seraph VII, 11:30 am,
District 9, Solaire's Estate

"Now look, gentlemen... The reward to risk is immeasurable. I believe the boy is ready, and it will prove an excellent opportunity to test his psionics." Ace played outside with the butterflies and bees that flew around in the garden as the summer sun beamed down. He giggled as he conjured tiny but harmless bubbles around the insects mid-flight.
"Solaire, I'm aware I voiced my dissatisfaction with how much we were wasting his potential, but I by no means suggested sending him into a death trap. Surely there are easier options than going after this... General Roa?" Ace stopped playing with the insects for a moment and looked over to the estate, the butterflies still trapped in the bubbles and floating around him as he looked through the window curiously at the terran staring back.

"As the boy's caretaker, you better believe nobody else in this room knows how much I'm risking on this venture better than I," the dragon said to his colleagues, still staring at the blue salamander. "And that's why I believe Ace will be more than capable of accomplishing this by himself." One of the bubbles came dangerously close to hitting the boy's tail, but he swished it away in time for it to continue unimpeded, and he continued to laugh and play. Solaire then turned away to look at his colleagues. "Don't worry, by this time in a few days, we'll be richer than the High Council. That is when our doors will really start opening wide for us, gentlemen."

Terra, 2:47 pm,
Terranova, Skydock Plaza

"What? Yeah, I got the core as well, relax!" Xioxas hauled a small military crate topped with shopping that he couldn't fit in his backpack, as a voice spoke through his ear piece. "Look, when I say 'groceries' I do mean 'everything' we need, okay?" Xioxas jabbed back at a mocking remark. "The sooner we have everything we need, the sooner we can get this show on the road," he added, moving a little to the left to avoid an oncoming forklift. His face then screwed up in confusion as the response came through. "Slowpoke!? Why you-- Damnit, I regret teaching you any sort of conventional vocabulary, you asshole," Xioxas began to snap, but then reduced his voice to a hissing whisper as he passed a mother lioness and her cub child. "Honestly, you're the one who insisted all of a sudden that we have to get on this-- I know, I know it's better to get a headstart on a bounty, but this is ridiculous!" Xioxas looked up a flight of stairs before heading up. "The man's guarded by what is basically an entire army, surely nobody else is crazy enough to take that one, human OR terran. You need to learn how to chill." Listening to the response, Xioxas wished he could hang up without using his hands. "Stars, I regret..." he muttered.

[IronHeart]

Grecia, Orgon II Moon.
5:45pm
City Nine, Gamma Ray Bar

Leo took his first sip of whiskey for the evening without averting his gaze from the dull blue glow of a burner phone, sifting through unending information streams like a fisherman trawling in an endless and lifeless ocean.
“Work?” The barman inquired, briefly relieving Leo from his trance like state.
“Light,” Leo replied slowly. He finished his whiskey and shunted the glass back across the bar.

==ARSODIAN AUTHORITIES PLACE BOUNTY ON ROGUE GENERAL RO-==

Looking up mid-sentence to begin ordering another round, Leo paused.
“Another?” Asked the barman.
Wait a second…
Leo focused on the tablet again, soaking in every detail of the proceeding text. With eyes wide and jaw agape, he stuffed the tablet back into one of his pockets and shot up. He returned a polite nod, “No thanks. Actually Ray, I’ve got work to do.” After overpaying he spun on his heels, catching a half-grin from Ray and then vanished in the evening night air.

The doors to the bar clicked shut behind him, leaving Ray no time to protest. With a renewed vigor Leo briskly made a beeline for the outskirts of the city, his boots heavy footfalls making a muffled clopping sound on the wet sidewalk. He looked up at the dark cloud choked sky, then the neglected facades of shops, clubs and apartments through the helmet visor and recalled hunkering down in nicer neighborhoods once upon a time. But in this district most folks, including the authorities, paid him little mind and it was a decent place to lay low while work was scarce.
Now thumbing through contacts, only added for sheer convenience, on his touchscreen burner Leo selected a name and brought the touchscreen to his ear and waited.
“Hello again dear, this is…” Leo began, before the woman interrupted. “Of course,” he replied. A single water droplet landed on the visor. “No, no this purely a business call,” he added, chuckling. “Yeah, calling in a solid ya owe me,” Leo continued. Now picking up the pace further as more droplets began to accumulate.
“What’ve you got that’s fast…” Leo grinned, satisfying the woman’s eager reply.

7:15pm
City Nine Outskirts, Private Launch Strip

Sat securely in the pilot’s seat, Leo locked in the pre-flight checks and waited as instruments, lights and indicators throughout the cockpit came to life. Whilst only a matter of seconds, the excruciating wait was soon over and he felt an old yet familiar buzz wash over him as “Ignition Status” finally changed to -READY-. The term itself a holdover from the days of chemical thrusters.

Leo stabbed at the launch button with his index finger and pushed the throttle into HALF. The ships thrusters roared and screamed to life as the armed 2-seater craft rocketed down the runway before slamming the throttle forward into FULL. He pulled on the control stick and the ship arced up through the pouring rain, slicing effortlessly through the dense cloud cover into the upper atmosphere of Orgon II’s sole moon.

Outer Orgon System
9:00pm
Black Market Goods Station

“This gate is safe to use?” Leo enquired, eying the short old man suspiciously.
“Of course! Get you to your destination or your money back haha,” the man laughed and nudged Leo lightheartedly.
“I see. Well let me finish loading her up and then I’ll be on my way buddy,” Leo turned and strode alone back through the hanger airlock, picking up a small grey crate along the way. “And thank you.” He added, looking back briefly at the old mans crooked yet friendly smile. Stepping into a small and currently sealed room and setting the crate down, Leo opened up its lid. His eyes feasted on the array of specially made ammunition. Terran in origin, though redesigned for the kinds of Gauss weaponry he carried these days. Wholly illegal.
For a brief few moments, he remembered the fighting. He remembered General Roa. He remembered Cavella. Then quickly resealed the crate and pulled it up into the ship’s small cargo compartment and let the ramp retract. Suddenly the room turned red, pulsing intermittently in a harsh light.

-INTRUDER ALERT!-INTRUDER ALERT!-INTRUDER ALERT!-

“Oh fuc-“ Leo cursed aloud but was interrupted by the sound a large explosion behind the airlock he’d just entered through. The sound of fire and ripping metal filled the chamber and the airlock door tumbled through the air at high speed before finally slamming into ground with a grating clang.
The hanger rung out with the sound of gunfire and screaming coming from through the airlock, giving him barely enough time to duck and slide behind a pile of metal sheets near the door as a hail of bullets cut through the air just inches above his helmet.
Leo draw the GR-7 from his back, loaded it, and prepared to return fire.

[Xiga]

An angry beep at her side and the rest was over. Yet another crook needed to be captured for them sweet cash. She grabbed the small portable console and eyed the text written. Simple terms, intermediate level target, big bucks. With a few quick taps she sent the text back to her middle-hand, Mr.S. (reads as mistr-ess) a person which she hated but needed desperately to stay in business.

Since her earlier adventures had struck against some extra powerful people in the system, she'd gotten in trouble with the supposed laws. The branch which was responsible for pay-out had since refused to work with her so so she had found herself Mr.S who had been more than willing to help. On one condition, ofcourse. THere was always conditions.

The netixel smiled to herself when she thought about that first encounter as she prepped her ship for take off. Things needed to be done, and she knew that the race was on. Whomever got to this General character would be the victor and would get the hefty sum reward, perhaps even an extra credit in rep.
[Ready for take-off, my queen] the ship spoke to her, and Feraî smirked, then waved her hand in a sweeping motion over the control pannel, checked her safety and then took off.

---
Not too much later she arrived at the Outer Oregon system, more precisely at the black market.The black market was a plethora of people of all kinds and places. Evil faces eyed her as she walked up to the nearest man, and pointed at her ship, a fellow she'd hired before to watch over it. A coin toss and a deathreat later, he agreed to do the service once more, and off she went to stock up. Blasting gel for her rifles, some grenades perhaps, and she was curious what she could find at the market regarding tracking.

She headed down the corridors of the station eyeing the people around her. Aside from the usual evil faces, and sketchy deals she spotted from a mile away, something about this day felt off. An unusual amount of people turned their head to follow her path, something that was commonplace elsewhere due to her large wings and golden crested horns. But here in the heart of the misfits and crooks, the ammount was unnerving. Had someone placed a bounty on her? No.. The people looking for slightly too long to be bounty-hunters like herself.

As she continued to head towards the place for the gadget - the first item on the list - she started noticing more inconsistencies. Weapons that were commonplace by guards and authorities seemed to be unusually abundant. Groups that didn't naturally form seemed to be speckled around the -

A large explosion threw her to the ground. Without hesitation she grabbed her guns, and took cover for further potential threats. Leaning against the wall she saw that the suspicious figures now had uncloaked themselves and were in fact a part of a authority raid on the station.

Shit! not now, i needed my gear! Feraî thought in annoyance before moving swiftly to the side, evading the main streets, now in a state of being hyper alert.

[Andre Valias]

Paradicial, 7:30 pm,
Upper Atmosphere, 'Olympus' Spaceport

Ellie looked out down on the planet's surface, the home world's metropolitan cityscapes, although massive on foot and the scale somewhat made tangible by the view from an office building, altogether appeared like patches of metallic crop fields in a vast wilderness from the bird's eye view of the space elevator. It was magnificent to see, and Ellie appreciated any excuse to see it again.
"A real beauty, ain't she?" Ellie looked at Joshua and nodded.
"I ain't never seen anything like it. These orbital elevators truly are amazing," she replied.

Joshua smirked as he puffed his 2nd cigar since they left, which made Ellie's eyes narrow. "You sure you're allowed to be smoking that thing in here?" Joshua chuckled and gestured to the empty elevator seats, numbering enough to hold a capacity of about thirty sitting people at a time comfortably.
"Y'see anybody else in here complainin'?" Ellie rolled her eyes and looked back out the window, the elevator now reaching the final ascent as the spaceport above drew closer. She was more excited now than before, the very real prospect of joining a bounty hunter on his very own ship to hunt a bounty. Ellie giggled with excitement.

20 minutes later...

"What the bleedin' hell, McPhie!?" Ellie shouted over the gunfire. Joshua just smirked again puffing his 3rd cigar, and-- if she weren't so preoccupied with trying not to get shot-- Ellie swore she would have swiped that cigar away from him.
"Thought you wanted some adventure, lil' lady?"
"I expected a ship, not a shootout!" Joshua laughed and then listened to the gunfire reaching its peak.
"We have a ship, now run as soon as I say so and, whatever you do, don't look back." As he said this, Ellie looked down at his hand. He didn't have his gun now, but a grenade and Ellie's eyes widened. "Now!" Ellie got up after the grenade was tossed during the silent interlude of the gunfire's symphony, which was suddenly punctuated by a bang and a flash of light skirting past her arms. Ellie kept her eyes on the boarding ramp and nothing else, and soon everything went blank. Except for maybe one little thought.

This man is a bloody menace.

Outer Diamandis System, 1520 shiptime,
Aboard the 'Strax'

Xioxas tapped the edge of the panel in time with the music as he moved the ship close to the short queue of ships going through the gateway. Hardly peak hour, but it's only security verifying ship credentials and records and personnel id. Which reminded him...
"Hey, you said you have some sort of stealth shit. Might be a good time to turn it on so we get through this without any issues," he spoke on the headset. The music quieted down as a reply came through, one which made Xi's brow furrow. "Whaddya mean 'why'? he retorted. "I can't believe you sometimes-- Look, if they find you without identification, it'll take too long to try and explain or deal with it, so it'll be faster if you just-- you know-- didn't show up?" The music kept playing at standard volume for a few seconds before quieting again for a reply. Xi sighed with relief. "Thank you."

The next ship, a small-looking corvette, got the green light and passed on through the gate, shooting into hyperspace, and Xioxas edged the ship forward to get verified. Suddenly, the music changed to something Xioxas wasn't at all expecting and he was vexed when his stowaway added something about 'wanting to listen to something too'. What the fuck is this shit, and why is he hijacking the audio? Xioxas could only think, as a communication link was established between him and the security force on the gateway.

"Your ship registration looks in order, and we got your inventory. Can we verify your identification please?" the officer asked over voice. Xioxas clicked the channel over on his headset.
"Of course, opening live visual for you now." Xioxas looked up at the camera as it indicated live recording.
"Looks fine to me, mr Azalon. We're going to scan your ship now and check everything against your ship manifest; just to double-check, you indicated nobody else aboard your ship?"
"That's correct, officer," Xi replied as he nodded to the camera. He then waited a few seconds, then a minute for security to check everything off his list. A very nerve-wracking minute as since this was the first time he was going through the gateway and putting his faith in his stowaway's stealth capabilities.

"You're good to go. Have a safe trip," the officer finally commented.
"Thanks officer." Xioxas thrust the ship forward and through the gateway, feeling the familiar but weird sensation of being propelled into hyperspace. He put the headset down as he sat back and stretched out against his pilot seat, relieved that it all worked out fine. He then paused when he heard the same song he wanted to stop listening to was playing throughout the ship. "What the fuck-- you fixed the ship's speakers without telling me!?" Xioxas shouted over the wild techno.

Outer Orgon System, 8:50 pm,
Black Market Goods Station

Joshua and Ellie stepped off the boarding ramp of their newly acquired ship and aboard the station. Ellie had recovered from her disappointment-fuelled shock of becoming a wanted criminal in the Saint Silver system back when they passed through the official gateway, but only because she had to be at attention to feign being Joshua's newly wedded bride, off to the Orgon system for their honeymoon. She looked at Joshua as he clicked the ramp shut and flicked CredCoin to the dirty faced engineer nearby. Some honeymoon... She thought as the engineer shouted at her buddies to join her in fixing up and minding the ship. After all, their escape from the space station wasn't totally flawless. "But I lost them, didn't I?" Ellie faintly recalled Joshua crowing at her after making her nauseous from his flyboy ship-flying.

Then Joshua started to light up his 5th cigar. Ellie reached forward and snatched it from him before the flame even licked the wrapping.
"Hey, that's my last one! What's the big idea?" he complained. Ellie held it in her hand at ransom as she stared at him.
"You haven't even told me why the hell we're here. This isn't a research facility, but a glorified shithole of a station," she hissed, naming her price. Joshua sighed as he brought the palm of his gloved hand to his forehead.
"Look, I just gotta do a bit of light shopping here, and after that, we can just use one of their gateways here to leave. We can't really use the official ones now, after all. Sound fair?" He then held out the same hand to Ellie.

For a moment, she thought about returning it. Then she reflected on how it was a valuable commodity, now that she knew it was the last one he had.
"You can get it back when we leave." Joshua frowned as he watched her slip it in her pocket and fold her arms.
"Fine. This way." Ellie then followed Joshua into the rest of the station proper. None of what she saw changed at all what she said about the station. It was exactly as she put it: a glorified shithole of a station. What she was starting to recognise was why. Plenty of disreputable faces hawking their goods at little market stalls, which would have been okay and even adorable if the market stalls weren't loaded to the brim with weapons, chems, unregulated fusion-powered sex toys, and all other sorts of illegal merchandise. Plus the fact Terrans and Humans intermingled like there wasn't even an inter-galactic war to begin with. It was a kind of both dystopian and utopian paradise of sorts. "You want anything at all?" Ellie looked up to see Joshua speaking to her.
"I think I'm good for the moment. I'll let you know," she murmured back.

About a few minutes of darting from stall to stall passed, with Joshua picking up a few bits and bobs of the killing kind; more flashbangs, a bandolier of cheeky grenades of all sorts with emojis painted on them-- Ellie could only guess the emojis indicated what they did, and different types of bullets Joshua could load his custom revolver with. While he was bartering with the arms dealer over how little he could pay for the aforementioned bullets, Ellie came across an odd stall but the real item of her focus was a little fluffy creature in a cage.
"Oh, this looks kinda cute..." she cooed as she closed in on the beady eyed little... Owl? Reptile? It had both a tail and fluffy feathers, and a beak, and made little hissing noises as its eyes focused on Ellie. "But what in the world is illegal about-- ah, yep, illegally poached." She looked at the other exotic but probably endangered xeno lifeforms being sold in various confinements.

"Can I interest you in any-- ah?" Ellie looked up at the stall owner; a poacher and a stout little woman about two feet shorter than Ellie was, and had her right eye covered by an eye patch-- although that probably just concealed a mechanical eye since the cybernetics grafted into her cheek's skin where not as concealed. "Now you look a lil' familiar, innit?" she wondered in a daft accent. Ellie immediately disassociated with the rough-looking lady as Joshua came in at the right time.
"I get that a lot, must be how young I am." she replied as she grimaced nervously. "What's that, honey? Oh, let's go then!"
"What? I din't..." Joshua spluttered as Ellie grabbed him at the arm as though she were still feigning their marriage.
"Shut up and walk," she murmured through her fake smile, ignoring the lady calling out after her.

Suddenly the lights blared red as an intruder alert sounded off. Before they could wonder if it was them or one of the hundred criminals aboard starting the ruckus, there was an explosion that shook that part of the station which would have put Ellie on the ground if not for Joshua as a support. She then noticed, thankfully, the poacher wasn't focused on her anymore. Bad news was...
"It's the bleedin' fuzz!" she shouted out pulling out a shotgun, and immediately or even before the words left her lips, everyone aboard the station frenzied into action. Tables were overturned with goods spilling on the floor, either to act as barricades or simply out of sheer panic. Criminals left and right were either arming up, or just picking up as much product as possible to at least make fleeing for their lives a profitably dangerous venture. Ellie then looked at Joshua seriously.
"What!?" he exclaimed. "I didn't know 'this' was gonna happen!"

[IronHeart]

There was a brief interlude in the bullet storm just inches above and Leo listened closely to the sound of running boots on the metal floor of the hangar.

Okay. One right, two left.

In one swift and continuous motion he swung his upper body around the right side of his cover and squeezed the GR-7s trigger.

*Pvew!*

“Aaarrghh fucking hell!”, a voice screamed in agony as Leo’s round smashed its way through the man’s upper left leg, causing a splash of blood and bone as he toppled forwards. The sound of the rifle reverberated throughout the chamber. Leo shifted his momentum and pulled back behind cover, swinging his rifle around in the other direction just in time for the other two men to sprint into his view away from the smoke.

*Pvew-Pvew!*

Two more men from Grecia’s Interplanetary Authority fell to the ground, silent. Having each received one round to the heart.
“Lay down your fucking weapons and get down on the ground!” A voice roared from somewhere past the smoke. The station around him rumbled from the shock of another more distant explosion.

Leo looked over at two corpses, the letters G.I.A emblazoned on their body armor.
“Fuck me.” He muttered. “Guess that old man was right in one way when he said you always leave with more than you bargained for. Speaking of…” he stood up and aimed his rifle squarely at the freshly refurbished airlock. Waiting a moment for more threats to stream in as the thick smoke began to rapidly dissipate. An audible cacophony of chaos streamed into the hanger.

He crept slowly towards the origin of the smoke.

[Smike]

Callsign:Void
Adrift in Space

Four days. She had been cooped up in the cockpit of her ship for four days. Four days spent chewing on tasteless rations and tracing shapes with her claws in the dust that gathered on the craft's dashboard, alternating between napping and watching bootleg recordings of ancient movies and shows on her HUD. There was nothing else she could do. The ship's course had been locked in and she would only need to take the reins from the AI running things if someone pursued her. That was unlikely, no one was coming out this way. Void had skipped the gates needed for the jump to hyperspace because that's where they'd be looking for her. Lovos and their hired dogs, the bounty hunters and mercenaries they had on retainer. Fuck, there could even be elite Retrieval Teams waiting for her at every gate! The bioweapon had been assigned to work with them on occasion, enough to know that she never wanted to be on the opposite side of the field.
So the only way to go was through the emptiness of open space, the thrusts killed to save fuel. All the engine was doing was providing heat to the cockpit, the momentum from earlier travel gently pushing the Strfye along at a slow and steady pace. Nothing around her except the stars and long dead satellites that occasionally interrupted the upbeat, frenetic music piping through the high quality speakers she had replaced the stock ones with. It served as a wakeup call of sorts, energetic and lively enough to get her wanting to moving. The target was getting closer and closer and soon she would have to make a leap of faith, throw herself back into the life she had tried to escape after a brief hiatus. She would have to cover her comfortable wife-beater and sweatpants with ceramic and aramid armor that always left her fur drenched in sweat. For now she could lounge in her chair and sip at her coffee between bites of dehydrated paste claiming to be mashed potatoes, but in the near future she'd gulping down water provided to her by the survival system in her armor and choking down lumps of vascular flesh in order to stay alive after some bastard Black Legionary landed a snap shot on her.

Her life was just a series of gunfights, dodging bullets and forcing herself to consume the hearts of her enemies like some kind of space age barbarian. All because the greedy suits at Lovos wanted a monster they could lease out to any army

[Andre Valias]

Edge of Delaron System, 1545 shiptime,
Aboard the 'Strax'

A solid fifteen minutes of listening to music not necessarily to his taste, Xioxas almost sigh with relief when the Strax came out of hyperspace and through the gate on the edge of the Delaron System.
"Cool, can we put my music back on now, or are you still keen on listening to this techno-punk garbage?" Xioxas asked, to no avail when he heard the response: the next song playing. "Man, come on..."
He then noticed something on the radar as he engaged sub-light speed. A small blip. Within sight too. "Hold up... That's the corvette that was in front of us in line." His passenger made a little suggestion, to which Xi rolled his eyes. "Fuck off, unlike you, I understand a semblance of diplomacy." With that, he sent a request for communication to the corvette.

After a moment, the request was received and accepted as a commlink was established.
"Uhm... Hello?" Xioxas' brow furrowed at how-- firstly-- naive and young the pilot sounded.
"This is Xioxas Azalon aboard the Strax-- The custom military-grade destroyer behind you," Xioxas began by introducing himself. "I just wanted to open up communications to see if you're headed to the same place I am, and before we both get any ideas, that we have a truce until then." There was a pause on the line.

"O-okay," the pilot replied. "A-are you headed to the Terran research station too?" Xioxas didn't bring it up first just in case this kid, as he could tell so far, didn't turn around and make a mistake he'd regret. Again; naive as he thought.
"Yeah, but I'm not too cutthroat about it. Besides, it'd be nice to have a travel buddy, you know?" As his passenger made a snide comment, Xioxas switched communication lines. "You're the exception you fuckin' tin can!" he hissed.
"-- I think so too, I just... I wasn't expecting to run into anyone so... Nice?" the pilot was replying as Xioxas switched back his communication lines.

"Hey, if I don't have to kill anyone beside who I'm really after, you're doing me the real favour here. Keep your comm line open and stick by me, yeah?" Xioxas requested. "We'll at least get there in one piece. After that, friendly competition between us, sound fair?"
"Yeah! Sounds good!" Xioxas sighed off comm as the corvette slowed down until it was in line with the Strax.
"Kid's too young for this kind of thing. He shouldn't be here." Listening to his passenger, Xi's brow furrowed, only slightly this time with worry rather than annoyance. "You know, it's actually really sad that you think that's a solution. I hope I can change that."

Edge of Delaron System, 0930 synced time
Nearby Asteroid Cluster

Blip. Blip. Blip.

"Hey Roxa; you seeing this?" one voice asked.
"Mm... Breakfast."
Blip. Blip.
"Hell yeah, it's about time..." a different voice praised.
"Alright you three, that shit-heap ain't gonna salvage itself. To it then!" a voice with more authority ordered.
BLIP. BLIP. BLIP.

As the asteroid revolved, the four pilots geared their fighters into ignition and the hangar doors slid open. With the target propelling through space in view, they launched from their ship attached to the asteroid like stinging wasps from a hive. They hurtled toward the seemingly-helpless ship, propelled just by inertia alone.
"Looks like someone got lazy. Let's remind them to stay awake in the cockpit, yeah?"
"You got it, Bawss. Tino, Lex; you know what to do!" Roxa relayed. The fighters assembled formation as they flew at the oncoming ship. They then pulled up in opposite directions, arranged like a crosshair around the ship. Suddenly, pairs of reinforced cables with grappling hooks shot out from each fighter, lodging into the ship. With just one fighter, the cables might have snapped. But with four, the group dampened the ship's momentum as soon as the cables tensed with a flicking motion.

[Xiga]

In the chaos that ensued, the Netixel decided to see what she could snatch. Tables had been toppled and much of the ware was on the ground or in now unattended crates. She knew the direction to the vendor she was looking for, and specifically where the 'nades and wire she was after. So with almost a practiced waltz through the haze and chaos, she managed to make her way to the former stall. Once there' however, things became trickier.

"YOU THERE!" the scawny voice of the elderly that tended the stall. Looking straight at her, the man was small and gray, scaley and had a absurd looking toothy maw and glassess slightly too large for his face. "I know your face, Netixel SCUM. Get you'r filthy paws off my shit!"
The cock of a shotgun and Feraî immediately jerked to the side, quickly snapping out her hand, and jerked it from the grip of the man. Tossing it behind her she simultaneously pointed her gun at the mans head, and fired next to him - A warning shot.

She looked at him sternly, nodding to the loot, indicating that he had no choice in the matter. The man nodded in surrender and fell back. Feraî immediately got to the right box for the wire - a class AA wire of conduction, a illegal tool mostly sold to poachers to keep large beasts at bay with the electrisity that could go through these wires.

They also happened to be a great binding rope and an exellent tool of torture to get information off her bounties.

Next up was the crate of flash'nades she was looking for. The combination between a regular flash grenade and a pepper-spray bomb laced with a temporary neurotoxin that paralized the inhaler was genious. The effects: painful on the exposed but non-leathal. A great neutralizer for the un-masked. But where was the damned box?

More shooting could be heard from afar, but it was definitely coming closer. From the west end she could hear the shouts of the enraged salesmen picking up as well. They were being funneled... She would have to find the 'nade quickly or else she'd get stuck in it aswell. Having never pointed away her gun from the elderly salesman, she tapped quickly on her coms which then spoke mechanically for her;
["The K/ON 'nades. Which box."]
A crooked finger pointed to slightly behind of her, and as she opened, htere they were. The beauties that had helped her captured oh so many people, and neutralize so many situations.
She grabbed a couple and attatched them to her back pouch and two to the belt. As she was reaching for the fifth, a stray shot hit her wing joint and she silently shouted out in pain. Annoyed, but alerted none the less, she stood up and left, with swift steps torwards the bay, back to her ship.

Surprisingly there was little to no-one there and as she got in she looked admidst the chaos that she was about to leave behind and thought:

It was fun while it lasted, Orgon. But then again, shitholes like this arent meant to last.

[IronHeart]

-INTRUDER ALERT!-INTRUDER ALERT!-INTRUDER ALERT!-

Alarms blared as Leo focused. The sound of hissing pipes, screaming and shooting lulled and in that moment, he heard a single set of boots stride into the room. These ones heavier than the last.

“I said…”, the voice began, distorted by some kind of mask or respirator. The footfalls seemed to be moving off to one side.

Heavy armour…big gun likely…a few to head should do it…

“…lay down your FUCKING weapons…and-“
“Oi!”, Leo shot up from behind cover and leveled the GR-7 squarely and steadily at the source of the voice. A large individual covered head to-toe in heavy metal armoring with tough synthetic fabrics showing through the gaps. G.I.A emblazoned across the back plate. The figure had barely began to turn their head before a series of rapid trigger pulls reduced much of the their skull to a mushy red paste.

Well, took a few more to get through the helmet but…

Leo made a mental check of his ammo count.

Time to get the fuck out of here.

9:12pm

Making sure to set the hanger doors open in an adjoining control room, Leo made a dash for his ship in the seconds until the room began to depressurize. Now inside the ship, he hit a button in the cockpit of his ship and the cabin began to close up just as a fresh wave of yelling flared up from where was moments ago and a fresh alarm sounded.

-WARNING. ATMOSPHERIC LEAK DETECTED. BULKHEADS IN SECTOR 4 CLOSING IN 10 SECONDS-

He quickly ran through the critical checks and began rapidly preparing the ship for launch. The ships thrusters fired up, incinerating a fresh wave of G.I.A soldiers attempting to flee the room. Leo shoved the throttle forwards and his ship surged towards the blackness of space and out through the open hanger doors.

And straight into a small flotilla of G.I.A star ships in the process of boarding and surrounding the station...

[Andre Valias]

Outer Orgon System, 9:11 pm,
Black Market Goods Station

Gunfire from both sides punctuated the atmosphere as Ellie and Joshua crawled amongst cover. In light of the danger they were in of getting struck by the crossfire, Ellie decided against making any further jabs at McPhie. Instead, she focused on tracing their way back to the bay the landed in. For a moment she wished she had given McPhie his cigar back, because maybe the ashes would've been a sort of bread crumb trail for them to follow. Perhaps that was wishful thinking and most likely improbable, but anything seemed easier than navigating this mess of a situation.

Ellie then bumped into a equipment stall, or what was left of it. She then recalled their possible lack of space suits, and suddenly getting shot wasn't the worst thing that could happen to them. Quenching her anxiety, Ellie just sifted through the cases until she found what was the best of the stock. McPhie nudged her wondering what she was doing and she shoved the men's suit case at him. They continued crawling, the firefight still raging when, to her relief, they found their way back to their bay. She thanked whoever decided to sell the unregulated fusion-powered sex toys at their black market stall-- Very peculiar and unforgettable merchandise, to be sure.

The both of them skipped through during a second lull in the conflict, the door slamming shut behind them. McPhie then scowled and pulled his revolver.

BANG.

"Awright, playtime's over. Git away from the ship or get fried up, understand?" The mechanics who McPhie had tipped earlier to mind the ship were coddling it a little more than they should've been. Upon the gunshot and his assertion, they scattered and darted into the vents to get away from the bay but also avoid the raid in the main room. Ellie and McPhie both boarded their ship promptly and closed the boardwalk up behind them. Joshua took a handle of the controls while Ellie took her suit case to the side to get changed. The interface then beeped a god-awful noise.

"What in tarnation...?" And to McPhie's dismay, the urchin mechanics had most probably grifted him. "Oh, no... No, no, no..." He started going into the ship's computer system and thought about how best to tell the ship to compensate. After a few minutes of frustrated dead-end command lines and brain-wracking, the alert disappeared, and the ship whirred to life. "Aw hell yeah! We're good to go!" McPhie cheered triumphantly/
"Not dressed like that, you're not. Put the damn suit on, McPhie," Ellie chimed in as she entered the cockpit, all suited up in a red-white atmospheric combat suit. McPhie wolf whistled in appreciation, mostly at how well it hugged her curves.

"You did grab me a men's, right? Ah, but even then, it's not really my style..." Ellie didn't respond-- not at first as she pointed out the window.
"And you're gonna tell me that is your style?" McPhie turned to look at what she was seeing, and he had probably much the same expression she probably had under the glass of her visor.
"Uh, are you able to... Just take a hold of this here while I... Okay, back in a jiffy!" Ellie dashed forward as Joshua dashed out with the suit case, already feeling maybe a small percentage better being the pilot instead of McPhie. She took to the controls like second nature, upping the thrust and riding the flash of the ships thrusters outta the bay and into the frying pan of the oncoming G.I.A blockade.

[Landaus Five-One]

Edge of Delaron System

Aboard the ‘Claw Loa’

---

The Claw Loa, which Patricia is flying was docked at a Terran Republic Station called the Diamandis Refueling Station. Patricia had to go through the routine of contraband checks because of how strained the relationship is that the Terran Republic have with the Dread Claws. The Space Superiority Fighter had to go through three hours worth of contraband checks. She could handle the checks since this specific Claw Loa was equipped without any contraband weapon systems. One of the station operation’s officers, walked up to Patricia and smiled towards her, which it was pretty exhausting in looking over the entire starship without finding anything wrong. The officer was a female vulpine, which was worried about the Dread Claw’s movements. ”We’ve checked your Claw Loa for hours on hours, found nothing of important… Guess you can leave but on one condition, where is the Tiger Vol? Also my name is Ashley.” Ashley said, with a worried look on her face.

Patricia looked at Ashley with a bit of a smile back but couldn’t help but laugh a bit. ”You should know Grant more than me. The Tiger Vol, Raider Carrier is everywhere but nowhere. That’s what all agents of the Dread Claws say.” Patricia said, with a slight obvious look to her its obvious, no single person knows where the Tiger Vol is at one time. However, with that answer is obvious would make the Operations Officer worried or what not. Before, she waved towards Ashley and giving her a wink of her eyes. She was finished with her coffee, since she definitely needed it. The other thing she got up from where she was sitting and decided to go to the Space Superiority Fighter, the Claw Loa.

The Claw Loa, was allowed to leave the Diamandis Refueling Station. Grant gave her a flight plan to reach the Edge of Delaron System without being scanned by anymore ‘Terran Republic Starships’ or stations. It was a highly dangerous route to get to the Delaron System, it was called ’Suicidal Route of the Claws.’ She looked over the route plans and sighed at the whole thing. It would be suicide to go through with it, she’s not as reckless as Grant is. However, it was nice to learn that the Claw Loa Superiority Fighter came with an FTL, which probably requires to recharge after use. ”I’m not that suicidal like the other Dread Claws… but if it wasn’t for them… I wouldn’t have this Claw Loa. I wonder how Grant does it with his Tiger Vol?” Patricia thought to herself. She had an oddly confused look on her face, why did he specifically gave her this route unless he knew her better than anyone else. It probably is the reason why he approached her with a deal she couldn’t refuse. The Raider Carrier’s movements is beyond her since he keeps its location a secret from anyone who doesn’t need to know more.

Patricia had a smoother time in space than on the Diamandis Refueling Station, since she was given clearance to go through the Gate. The Claw Loa’s FTL system activated like all other ships going through a Gate into Hyperspace, however, it would take awhile for her to reach the Edge of Delaron System. It would take about five minutes longer than larger vessels, since the Claw Loa’s FTL system is built for safety over speed. Specifically for Patricia’s Claw Loa’s, which is a bit odd. She had sometime to think about her meeting with Grant and him giving her this vessel, which is a Prototype. It is testing the safety features on the Hyperdrive and weapon systems. She always wanted to fly any kind of space fighter or bomber so she definitely picked this Claw Loa, it was customized to her standards within it but outside of it, has the standard Dread Claw Colors, which are black, white and green.

Twenty minutes passed when the Claw Loa came out of hyperspace and through the gate on the edge of the Delaron System. However, the Hyperdrive System needed to be recharged, which gives Patricia a blinking light saying the FTL system is offline until it is fully recharged. She sighed, which caused her to wonder if this was the so called Safety feature on the Hyperdrive. ”God damn it… Guess it could be worse. I wonder if there’s any starships in the area?” Patricia asked to herself, with a sigh.