Board Thread:The Company/@comment-24930445-20140615054833/@comment-24866242-20140705011243

Sandra dropped out of hyperspace not far from where Travers had indicated his planned destination before Krita’s departure. Darwin had made good time, but it had meant disabling some of the safeties on the navicomp. Sandra had taken every risk she felt she could on the way and managed to trim roughly six hours off their transit time. It helped that this was the third time they had made nearly the same trip in the last two weeks.

Beside her, Jarrid started sensor scans of their surroundings immediately. “I’ve got Gypsy,” he announced. “Only three of the fighters are with her though, and she looks like she’s leaking engine plasma pretty badly. No one following them though.”

Behind them Ryax leaned forward in his seat. Another day and a half with Marissa working on his ribs had done him good, but she had cautioned him not to get to worked up. The damage to his heart wasn’t as easy to repair. “How far away?” he demanded.

“About forty million kilometers and heading this way.” Jarrid told him. “Not very quickly.”

''“Darwin, Krita here. Good to see you. Please tell me Vextis is right behind you.”''

Ryax hit the comm between Sandy and Jarrid and responded. “They had some work left to do, but they should be underway by now. What’s the situation? Gypsy have my girls?”

''“Have Aerli. Kat’s still inside. Crazy….. she stayed with Ben and some guy I didn’t recognize. They were following Axin deeper into the ship.”'' They could hear the anger and frustration in Jack’s voice.

Vee’s voice came over the com. ''“Ryax. Go get her! She stayed to talk to Joslynne. Something about cleaning up some shit the bitch got everyone in.”''

Ryax growled darkly, laying his hand on Sandy’s shoulder. “Can you get me in there?”

Sandy nodded. “Eleven minutes.” The Darwin jumped from a stop to maximum sublight speed. Inertial dampeners managed to keep up, but just barely.

''“Gypsy. You need assistance?”'' Those on Darwin could hear Krita break into the transmission, and Jack confirming his need.

''“We were hit on exit. Lost a one of the fighters and my girl got hit. Also, alert med we have at least one serious, few other minors. I won’t be able to get back to you, Darwin if you go in. Not in Gypsy. I’ll see what I can do about hijacking something when I dock on Krita.”'' Jack was determined.

''“The hell you will! Not one of my fighters! I’ve seen what you’ve done to Gypsy!”'' Travers came over the comm.

Jack could be heard chuckling. ''“See you soon, Krita. Keep an eye out for me, Darwin. Gypsy out.”''

The planet didn’t take long to grow from a point of light ahead of them to a sphere. The gas giant was a crescent in the sunlight hitting it. The planet’s moons came into view before long as well and Sandy adjusted her course to find their target.

“There’s the ship,” Jarrid said. “They don’t seem to be reacting to us. Scanning… Lots of little fields, but there’s no sign of the big field the device should be putting out. On the ship or on the moon.”

Sandy shook her head. “Find me a way aboard. Unprotected docking port, hangar bay, anything…”

“Here,” Jarrid pointed at the readout. “Small hangar bay. Doors are open. Like someone forgot to close them.”

Sandy didn’t slow down until they were almost on top of the larger ship. A few half hearted weapons blasts went off, targeting the Darwin but not the level of barrage that they were expecting. Darwin was still moving fast, but the computers still should have been able to get a fix on them.

Sandy circled around, lining up with the hangar bay and finally a shot did strike them. As predicted by Lenits, the gun turret on the larger ship exploded a moment later. Their defense field did its job.

The Darwin came in hot and they felt the deceleration as Sandra hit the retro thrusters to keep them from hitting the back wall of the hangar. Landing gear lowered and they felt the vibration as they settled down on hangar floor.

Sandra was out of her chair like a shot, heading down the ramp towards the gangway. Ryax and Jarrid followed her down and caught up to her as she pulled a rifle from the gun rack at the top of the ramp. Chaz met them from the rear, already armed. Jarrid pulled another gun down and hit the button to lower the ramp.

Sandra was the first down, rifle at the ready, but there was no one in the hangar. The open hangar door shimmered with the force field that held in the atmosphere. Jarrid and Chaz followed her down and Jarrid signaled the all clear to Ry who was clearly agitated. Doctor’s orders be damned, his wife was out there somewhere and he was going after her.

Marissa had met him as the other three exploded off the ship and walked down with him, keeping a hand on his arm in case he decided to take off. She could feel his tension.

“Two ways out,” Jarrid said. pointing to the doors on either side of the bay. “Which one do we take? Split up?”

Sandy shook her head. “It’s a big ship. We could all go different ways and never find them.”

Ry growled. “That way,” before shaking off Marissa and striding for one of the doors.

Jarrid and Sandra glanced at each other before dashing forward to flank him with their rifles. Marissa stalked after them and Chaz took up the rear.

The corridor was empty, except for them. It looked like it hadn’t seen a great deal of traffic. It was narrower than Sandra would have expected of a starship of this size. “Some sort of private passageway?” she wondered.

Ryax nodded. “I can smell her. She’s been this way at least once.”

“Good nose,” Jarrid said.

“It’s the same ash smell she came home with before the attack. Can still smell it all over Darwin too.” Ry seemed impatient to even take the time to explain even though he was still moving quickly.

“Gotta get those air cleaners checked when we get back,” Sandra muttered.

A few feet more and Ryax stopped. “Voices ahead… That’s her!” He burst into a run and the rest of them raced to catch up.

Ryax disappeared through a door ahead. Sandra and Jarrid, to their credit, took the time to drop to either side of the door before jumping through. What they found on the other side was a tense situation.

Kat had put herself between Ry and Axin the moment he had rushed in, her back against Ry’s chest, his arm wrapped tightly around her middle as if to move her from harm’s way. The two men glared at each other over her head.

Mack had moved at full speed even before Ry had entered. Kat had caught his movement and spun to face whatever attack was coming next. She gasped when she saw Ry, nearly throwing herself into his arms until she realized he was glaring darkly over her shoulder. It was at that moment, she remembered Axin was in the room and she turned, sensing the threat was behind her.

Mack had meant to step between Kat and the intruders, but found himself unsure as Kat turned away from them, using her body to stop the one who looked like Axin. The black one pressed himself tightly against her, wrapping his arm possessively around her waist and, as if needing the reassurance he was there, her hand came up and began stroking the fur of his arm. Seeing this, Mack suddenly understood. The black one was Ryax, her husband.

“Sandy!” Ben scooped her up after closing the distance to her and spun her around, barely giving her time to drop the rifle out of the way. She threw her arms around his neck and held on, pulling him down into a kiss the second he set her feet back on the ground.

“Don’t you ever do that to me again!” she scolded after coming up for air and looking him over. His face looked in better shape than it should have after what she’d seen. She gently touched his nose and moved her hands down to feel his side where she’d seen that bastard kick his ribs.

“Got a little time in the med bay,” he smiled. “Not as soon as I should have. Need to have a word with them about giving prisoners medical treatment.”

“Folks,” Jarrid said. “This is all very touching, but Darwin is waiting and we could have company at any moment. Why don’t we talk about this on the way back to Krita?”

“We’re nae goin’ back ta Krita,” Kat said. “Jos an the device are gone. We hae’ ta’ get it back.”

“Like hell,” Ryax growled. “Aerli is safe. We’re going home.” He had spun her and glared down into her face as he held her arms.

She lifted a hand to his face, smiling softly up at him. “I hae ta. Ifin I dinnae, there’s gonna be a worse hell comin’ down on us than’ she could ever think o’. Tha’ device, tis a doorway to a nightmare tha’ none o’ us will survive, love. I need ta git it back where it b’longs, which means trackin her down.”

“I don’t suppose you brought the pedestal with you,” Ben asked.

Sandra shook her head. “They were still working with it on the Vextis when we left.”

“We’ll have to get a signal to Vextis to meet us there then,” Ben told Kat.

She hadn’t turned from Ry, trying both to calm and convince him with just her touch and her gaze. Finally, he growled, then swept her up into a kiss that made most of the others in the room blush and turn away feeling the need to give them privacy.

“You’re gonna be the death of me, woman.” he muttered against her lips.

She smiled, her lips still touching his, “Fer lack o’ a better word.”

She heard Axin’s growl from behind and glanced over her shoulder, seeing him disappear into the bedroom. Frowning, she pulled herself reluctantly from Ry’s arms and followed, stopping dead just inside the doorway to what could only be described as the set of a bad bondage flick. Shaking her head, she glanced at Axin who had been standing at a desk, fiddling with his ring.

“Think he’ll give us his decorator?” Kat chuffed, trying not to laugh as she lightly elbowed Ry.

“She’s still in the system,” Axin said, ignoring Ry’s joke. “Probably far side of the star though.”

“Scott’s World,” Ben said from outside. “Same system. Why bring the device back there?”

Kat scowled. “Because tha’s where they want tae come through.”

Darwin remained unmolested by the time they made it back to the hangar. There was a brief argument about whether Axin would be allowed aboard but Kat put her foot down and it was settled.

Marissa had taken matters into her own hands and informed Kat of Ry’s current condition. Between the two of them, they bullied Ry back into the infirmary, wanting to make sure he hadn’t further injured his heart with all the activity. Ben and Sandra went to the cockpit with Jarrid and Axin following them while Chaz saw to his engines. Sandra had never really shut the ship down so as soon as the ramp was closed and the ship was pressurized the ship spun and shot out of the hangar.

In the last few minutes it seemed that the Angel’s crew, or someone, had gotten organized. The gunfire from the Midnight Angel was a lot more focused and Darwin took three shots before they realized they were burning out their turrets with every strike. The huge ship broke orbit to pursue the smaller, slowly turning away from the moon.

Darwin raced away at maximum sublight, keeping a speed it would be hard for the bigger ship to match, but it wouldn’t take them long to catch them at Scott’s World.

“Krita, Darwin here,” Ben yelled into the comm while Sandra expertly worked the controls. “Everyone is aboard but we can’t leave yet. We’ve got some business to take care of still. We need to you to signal Vextis to meet us at these coordinates and for gods’ sake, get these ass-holes off our back!”

Krita was moving towards them but it wasn’t Travers voice that answered.

“Darwin, we’re coming up behind you.” LaeAnne’s voice.

Ben switched to rear sensors and an image of Vextis swooping in behind the Angel dominated his screen. Without the large device to protect the Angel, Vextis’s weapons were brought to full effect, impacting the smaller ship’s shields. A wave of fighters from Krita darted in from the side and started stinging the Angel, and it wasn’t long before she was forced to break off her pursuit of the Darwin.

“Vextis, glad to see you!” Ben laughed. “We need that pedestal we brought back from the planet. How quickly can you get it loaded onto a shuttle?”

“A little busy here,” LaeAnne’s voice came back. “Lemme get back to you.”

“Kinda a matter of saving the universe,” Ben said.

“Ain’t it always?”

“Vextis,” Jack’s voice. ''“We have your back. Do whatcha gotta do.”''

A moment passed and then LaeAnne came back. ''“They’re moving it to the hangar now. They’ll catch up. Morghan, when that shuttle launches she’s gonna need some cover.”''

Darwin plunged down towards the system’s star, cutting the distance to Scott’s world as much as they could. Their shields started to flicker in the solar wind as the energy from the star lit up the Darwin’s skin.

The weapons fire faded into the distance behind them as they passed the star and shot back up towards the inner planets. Scott’s world began to grow ahead of them, brightly lit by the star behind them. Jarrid turned to work the console to his right, scanning the planet as they approached.

“Ship on the ground right next to the temple,” he announced. “They don’t seem to be hiding.”

“I’m taking us in,” Sandy said.

The trip through the atmosphere was much easier this time around. The big storms that had been ravaging the planet when they left had completely died down, as had the fires that were scorching away the planets forests. There were some scattered signs of plant life returning on the surface but it was far from the jungle paradise that it had once been.

Sandra set them down about a hundred meters from Jos’s shuttle, and the group gathered at the top of the ramp.

“Looks like things have settled down enough. We’ll only need dust masks this time around instead of breathers,” Jarrid said passing out the masks.

Everyone knew blasters and rifles would be useless but they had four crossbows that had been gathered during the escape. Ben split up a pair of crossbows taken from fallen guards, giving one to Sandy. Kat kept the massive one she had recovered from Tomlinson, a piece she intended to keep to commemorate their fight. A smaller hand crossbow she had snagged was handed to Jarrid. There were only a few bolts to go around so the most any of them would get would be two or three shots.

Mack nodded in approval as Kat slipped Tomlinson’s knife into the sheath at her hip and his daggers into her boots, though he accepted no weapons himself.

Marissa had her hands full with her medical kit. She wasn’t happy that Ryax insisted on leaving the infirmary once her scans showed his heart hadn’t gotten any worse, but there was no point in stopping him. That didn’t mean she wouldn’t be on hand when and if he collapsed, however, and she told him as much.

Chaz wasn’t happy there weren’t enough of the weapons to go around but he compensated by grabbing a big wrench that was almost as long as his arm from the tool kit. Ry and Axin both scoffed at his offer of similar tools and glared at each other when they spoke in unison to reject it.

Axin took the lead while Ry kept Kat back with him where he could keep an eye on his “evil twin”. She glanced down at Ry’s hand on her arm then up to his face, a frown creasing her brow. She felt she should be in first, but seeing the look on his face, she decided not to argue.

Ben and Sandra walked side by side, crossbows up and ready for anything. Jarrid and Chaz took the rear and Marissa kept a close eye on Ry.

The group approached the temple. Jarrid had scanned the other ship as they set down and they knew it was empty. The only life signs in the vicinity were ahead of them. As they reached the gaping doorway Ben and Sandra went to either side of Axin, wanting him out of their line of fire, but the man strode on, outpacing them. Ben scowled at Axin’s back before they followed him in.