Pulp Science Fiction

[Admiral Hart]

The Plunder hit orbit above the green clouds of Ganymede. Beneath the poison sky, pillars of rusted, overgrown architecture broke from the ground, where there was not a lush, dark green jungle.

"No space to put the Plunder down, Cap'n." Cook said. "Gonna have to take a shuttle."

"Probably thirteen men." Hart mused. "Dead man's chest and all. Alright. Me, T.K., Dane and his crew, Morgan's crew..."

"Jo, stop leading missions. It's my job." Morgan insisted.

"Shush, honey, grownups are talking." Jo said dismissively. Then she turned on her comm. "Alright, Dane, get your people suited up. T.K., you're in my crew for this mission, suit up with the rest of them. Allison, be gentle, it's his first away mission. And Doctor Reyes, I would appreciate it if you suited up and met us at the shuttle bay in half an hour. Judging by the amount of things that can go wrong, I suggest you bring a full surgical kit and get ready to reattach at least one of Dane's limbs. Hart, out."

Her husband was glaring at her. "Oh, stop it. I know what I'm doing. And I also have to be the one there when we hit this jackpot."

"If there is a jackpot." Morgan countered.

"There is." Jo said, affronted. "And don't give me that look. I've gotten Andi and I in a situation where neither of us can take our clothes off. I thought you'd be happy."

Morgan grumbled and turned away, Jo stood and chuckled, putting her arms around his neck and leaning up to kiss him.

"I'm not an old woman yet, Morg. I'm not going to stop leading missions until then."

"You're not gonna let that stop you either." Her first mate said, finally smiling a little.

"Not on your life, buddy." She said confidently. "Keep my seat warm for me."

Hart then left the bridge. Morgan then turned and glared at Cook, who had just finished making a whiplash motion. The Ensign froze in terror.

"Keep an eye on that hellpit, Cook. What the fuck do we pay you for?" Morgan snapped.

"Yes sir Mr. Halcyon sir!" The Ensign said in terror as he started to investigate readings like mad.

[Dr. Andromeda Reyes]

Cassi helped Andromeda put on an environmental suit a few minutes after the call had gone through.

"Don't get this line tangled," the blonde pronounced as she attached the oxygen tank with deft, sure gestures. "And if you should have a tear or rip for whatever reason, hit this switch. It's a full suit purge. It'll keep your airways as clean as possible until you can fix the breach."

Andromeda turned to stare down at her sister as best she could in the slightly bulky suit. "How do you know so much about these things?" Cassi just shrugged somewhat dismissively.

"I've helped T.K. clean 'em up and service 'em a few times. No big deal."

Andromeda tried reminding herself that several times as her younger sister finished getting her ready. She had more than enough backbone on most things, but the idea that a thin layer of material was all that separated one from instant death was a very, very unsettling one.

She did her best to take deep, calming breaths, not wanting her heart rate to increase any higher than it was. After Cassi had finished checking the seals on her boots, the teen straightened and then turned, grabbing up the large white suitcase that held her mobile surgical kit.

"Okay, here you go," Cassi pronounced as she handed it over. "If you get in a tight spot, run for Dane or the Captain. They'll keep you safe."

Andromeda just eyed her, expression dubious. "Why does this suddenly feel like role reversal?" she mused through the suit's comm. Cassi giggled at that, silver eyes dancing before she bent and scooped up Roger from the near-by exam bed.

"Good luck on the mission, Andi. Happy plundering."

And then the blonde skipped from the med-bay, leaving Andromeda groaning in her wake.

[T.K.]

T.K. fumed a little at the comments directed his way. Oh sure, getting into the suit had been easy. It was getting all the rest of the junk attached properly that he was having trouble with. One he was finally ready, most of the snickers died off. He had a feeling it was due to presence of Shinigami over his shoulder, though he couldn't be sure.

“Please, please, please let me go with you master.”

T.K. sighed as he spun around and laid Shinigami on a nearby bench, ignoring the new round of snickers.

“Shiyou, for the last time, no. There's not enough room in this suit for your PHD, and if I let you go outside the suit, you'll be so corroded I may never get you working again.”

He could swear he started to see her little lip quiver slightly, just before she spun around, and her PHD zoomed out of the room, nearly taking several people's heads off.

T.K. spun around, and glared at one of the boarders who had started whispering and talking with one of his friends behind T.K.'s back. He picked Shinigami back up, and casually lifted back to his shoulder one handed.

“Oh please Randal. Don't stop laughing on my account. I really don't need much of an excuse. Ask Ryan.”

[Admiral Hart]

The shuttle rocked a bit in turbulence as it broke through the atmosphere. Hart gave a pale Andromeda an amused look. "Careful, Andi. Not sure what we'll do if our doctor gets sick."

"Once again you are not funny." She said, obviously nervous.

"Once again I beg to differ." She countered as the shuttle touched down. "Okay people, suits on and stay within line of sight. We don't wanna lose contact with each other out here."

Everyone put their helmets on and made sure the suits were secure before stepping out of the airlock and into Ganymede.

A storm rocked the atmosphere above them, torrential acid rain falling to the pitted and scarred ground, somewhere under the dense foliage. There was green all around them green as far as the eye could see, save for places where part of a dome, a fragment of a house, pierced the jungle.

"Alright." Jo said into her comm. "What we need to find are landmarks. The cache should be somewhere in this generak area. Problem is, it was put here before the colony went over top of it. What you're looking for is this." She sent an image of a wide, x-shaped canyon to everyone's head's up display. "This is where the path to the cache is. Now, most likely, it's full of plants now, or maybe water or acid or whatever the fuck this burnt out planet has to offer. So stay sharp. We're all going to be together, but spread out. Andi, I want you and T.K. next to me. Dane, you cover the rear. Grunts, look lively. Because I don't think we're alone here."

As she said that, something rustled in the undergrowth, and then went silent. Without thinking about it, Jo shot into the undergrowth and something shrieked and toppled out of it.

The thing looked like someone had given a shrubbery fangs and feet. It was small, but its teeth were the length of fingers and made of tough wood.

"Like I said." Jo replied as the crew balked at the strange creature. "Look lively."

[Dr. Andromeda Reyes]

Andromeda gaped at the strange looking thing, torn between curiosity and horror. What on the Eight Planets could have spawned such an eerie, odd, vicious little creature?

"Andi."

Andromeda jumped at the sound of Josetta's half-amused drone coming through her comm. The doctor turned guiltily to see that the party had started to move away, while she was still standing there gaping. Cheeks coloring, Andromeda quickly moved back to the Captain's side and determined afterward not to leave it again unless under extreme emergency.

[Beau Altair]

Beau fanned out far enough from Butch and Allison to have a clear sight in all directions, but not too far away to be in danger of getting left behind. He operated best when he had room to maneuver, after all. The nineteen year old former soldier was outwardly steady and calm, despite the amount of nervous agitation in his gut. Talk about trial by fire.

To get a clear and apt picture of what Ganymede looked like, one had to picture the scariest, creepiest, most inhospitable place they could, and then amp that up by a hundred, and they'd start to get somewhre close to the truth. His second ever mission for this crew, and he was currently neck deep in it.

The group moved through the dense foliage at a decent click, when all of a sudden the Captain froze.

"Ho!" she yelled.

Almost before the sound left her mouth, Beau had the rifle that had been slung over his shoulder--a loaner from Dane until they hit the Cove and he could buy his own--pulled up, braced against his shoulder and was staring through the scope.

He caught the motion high in the trees an instant later. Three loud pops rang out in the thick air, the barrel igniting in bluish-violet fire as it reacted to the poisonous fog around them.

Moments after that, three forms were tumbling out of the trees, hitting the ground twenty yards ahead of them with sickening thumps.

Beau slowly lowered the rifle. "Nice work, Mr. Altair," came the Captain's pleased murmur through his comm., causing the teen to grin a little. "But you missed the big one." That made him blink.

"What big--," he didn't get to finish that sentence, as a huge plant creature the size of a hover car suddenly barreled out of the forest to his left, and swatted Butch aside like a paper doll.

[Dane]

Dane's head jerked when the largest walking plant he'd ever seen trampled its way to them--not that he's seen many walking plants mind you. The weapons expert grinned like a madman, lifting the flamethrower with both hands and aiming at the hulking plant, he pushed the tiny button near the trigger, a snap hiss was heard as the flame at barrel ignited.

"Beau, move your scrawny ass! Last thing Cassi wants is BBQ boyfriend!" That caught his attention, the teen moved quickly out of the range. The plant roared out, barbed vines whipping around the air and thrashing at anyone that got to close. "Fire in the hole!" was the only warning he gave before the weapon hissed like a snake and roared out a bright blue flame.

The plant tried to turn and move out of the way, but way to late, instead it howled out in agony as Dane proceeded torch the plant, it flailed around, trying to run away from the heat. He refused to back down, slowly moving forward and relentlessly scorch the plant until it fell to the ground, limbs, and tentacles finally stopped twitching. Moments later the rest of the giant plant was engulfed with the flame until all that was left was a pile of debris.

Dane grinned, petting his new toy.

"God I love this fuckin' thing."

[Admiral Hart]

"Nice work Dane." Hart commented. "Is everyone alright?"

Butch stood up, brushing himself off and spraying a claw mark on his suit with sealant. "Aye, Cap'n, just bruised me pride a bit."

"Gonna bruise more'n that if ya keep gettin' in harm's way, old timer." Allison, his daughter, teased.

"Yer not so old I can't take ye over me knee, brat." Butch growled back, Allison being at least a foot taller and a hundred pounds of muscle heavier than her father.

"Save the domestic violence for later, kids." Hart chided. "Cook says there's some sort of power source in that direction." She pointed north. "Could be the cache, could be a computer system. Which might have a map or geological survey or something. So keep sharp and stay close."

The troupe of pirates blazed a trail through the dense foliage. All around them, they sensed things watching. Waiting. But, perhaps the plant creatures had some form of intelligence after all because, for now, all they did was watch.

After trekking for an hour, the party broke into a less dense clearing, and saw the source of the power source. It was a generator dome, an ancient complex of metal and ceramic, meant to house a fusion generator large enough to power this entire planet. It was coated completely in vines, which also covered the ground and utterly covered the trees around the clearing.

"From the readings, it's, ironically enough, on emergency power." Hart said. "Which means the main generator is offline. But that should be enough for us to find and use a computer if we can find one. We might need to re-route the power to it, though."

"Jo." T.K. began. "I don't think emergency power should still be active. It's been way too long."

"The fusion core could have only recently shut down, but you're right." Hart glanced at the rusted, corroded, open door of the power station. "Dane, you and your crew guard the entrance. I don't want anything coming up behind us. T.K., Andi, and the rest, with me. If the emergency power is being maintained, something has to be maintaining it. That might mean we have an isolated colony of survivors in there. Or it could mean something...else."

----

The corridors of the power dome were eerily silent. Aside from the occasional vine, there was no sign of human or plant occupation. Occasionally, the floor creaked ominously beneath them, and more than one hand railing had crumbled to dust when touched, an obvious sign that corrosion had not left the place be, but was rather taking its time.

"The main computer core's this way. At least, the part still functioning." T.K. said. "Looks like it's probably in the core observation room."

"Right." Hart said. "Let's...wait, where's Andi?"

The group looked around. "I don't see her, Cap'n."

"Okay. I'll go find her. The rest of you go to that core and see what data you can dowload. T.K., you're ranking offcer in this group until I get back."

"Aye-aye." T.K. said, and the pirates split up yet again.

----

Andromeda snapped out of her trance unsure of, at first, where she was. Then she saw the crying child in front of her. The child was not in a suit, and was sitting and sobbing next to a woman who looked like she had been crushed recently by falling debris.

"M-mommy...." The child cried. "Please wake up, Mommy!" Andromeda, not realizing she was alone, or the fact that the ground the child was standing on was nearly dust, or the fact she could see rain falling through the child and her mother, rushed to help her.

----

As it looked over the fusion core, the computer area would have been a sight to see in the old days. Bright, pulsing hum of a contained mini-star behind shielded glass, workers walking too and fro keeping everything stable.

Now, it was a sight to see for a different reason.

Vines coated the room, all radiating from a central point, where the core had once been, behind glass that had long since eroded. And, where the fusion core had once been was a gigantic, glowing, plant pod, mouths full of fangs ringing the pod. And, as T.K. and the crew entered, the vines began to snake and slither and coil around the pirates.

----

Outside, Dane and his crew had noticed, a bit belatedly, that the monsters from the jungle were watching them from the forest's edge. He had just enough time to get suspicious and wonder why that was when the vines all around them began to attack.

[T.K.]

“Mattsu!”

T.K. started swinging Shinigami, slicing through the vines that were tying to snare him.

“Kuso... Chikusho chikusho chikusho!”

He hacked away as many vines as he could, freeing Allison and her crew, who quickly broke out their own blades.

Acting on impulse, he pulled out his kit, and began pulling out parts along with the Plasma Torch.

“Allison, use some of the grenades to keep that thing away from us. I need a couple of minutes. And don't hit that Reactor.”

“No offense Sir, but just what are you doing?”

“Making a flamethrower.”

No one had time to respond after that, as the vines came in for another strike. Shrugging, Allison and her group lobbed a few grenades, trying to aim were several of the vines were coming together. The vines jerked back reflexively as the small blasts blew quite a few into sticky green chunks.

It attacked three more times, before T.K. was finally satisfied with his work. A blast of fire from the modified torch, now mounted on Shinigami, sent the last wave of vines packing.

“Guess it works. Here. Keep those vines occupied while I get what we came for.”

He handed the rig off to Allison, then quickly grabbed the Datalink adapter and a Datapad from the kit. He left Allison and her crew tot heir job, while he did his.

It took a few minutes to sink the Datapad to the badly damaged mainframe, but eventually he managed to get a steady stream of data. He worked as quickly as he could, knowing there was only so much fuel for the Plasma Torch.

“Faster, faster.”

He shamelessly abused his power, forcing the archaic Mainframe to cough up the information they needed.

“Got it. Now, to do something about that Abomination.”

A few keystrokes later, and lightly injured plant began to shake and thrash around in agitation. Shutting down the Fusion Reactor had deprived it of it's main food supply, not to mention pissing it off.

He quickly grabbed three grenades off Allison's belt, she kept the vines away as they now frantically tried to catch them.

“Jigoku ni ike!”

He pulled the pins, and threw all three grenades, smirking inside his helmet as they each landed in a different 'mouth' of the plant.

A few seconds later, T.K. was the only one amused as the entire group was covered by green slime and bits of plant.

“That was fun. What say we go find the Captain, and get the Hell out of here?”





Translation:
Jigoku ni ike! - Go to Hell!
Mattsu! - Oh crap!
Chikusho - Damn/Damnit

[Dr. Andromeda Reyes]

Andromeda didn't stop to think about all the pieces of this puzzle that weren't adding up. She saw someone in need, and simply reacted. The slender doctor rushed forward, a hand outstretched to the child, which she couldn't quite tell the gender of just yet.

"Hey," she called, tone soft with sympathy. The child kept crying over it's obviously dead mother, however, not seeming to hear her. Andromeda took a few steps forward, and then gasped as the floor suddenly disappeared out from underneath her, crumbling to dust.

She only had time to let out a shrill yelp of surprise and fear before she started to plummet downward. Her front half hit the solid part of the floor hard, enough to make her ears ring. She was so dazed by the hit she almost didn't try to catch herself in time. Andromeda scrabbled furiously as she started slipping into the yawning hole in the floor, her weighted boots pulling her downward. Her gloved hands couldn't get a good enough purchase on the deteriorated grate to stop her momentum.

She had slid completely over the lip, and barely managed to grab the edge. The corroded metal started collapsing in her desperate grasp, her arms screaming in protest from trying to support her weight on top of the suit. Andromeda grimaced, straining, trying to lift herself back up, but one of her handholds gave way completely. She let out a sob of terror, swaying sickeningly. There was nothing but blackness below her, she couldn't see the bottom of what she was no doubt about to plummet into, having no idea how deep it was or what she would land on when she did.

Tears spiked in her eyes as she stared somewhat helplessly as the rusted metal she was clinging to began to bend, and then broke completely. Andromeda sucked in a breath to scream as she started to fall.

And then suddenly someone dove headfirst through the hole after her, and snatched her arm right out of mid-air, halting her downward plummet with a somewhat jarring stop. Andromeda could only stare up, dumbfounded, as Josetta Hart held her aloft. The Pirate Captain's face was hardened into a look of pure concentration as she grimaced slightly, and then Andromeda was suddenly moving upward instead of down.

A few harrowing moments later, Josetta had pulled her completely up and out. Andromeda could only kneel there, trembling from head to toe, as solid ground had never felt so marvelous before in her life. Panic and adrenaline caused her breath to come and leave in great, gasping, ragged sobs. Josetta knelt beside her, giving what comfort she could through their environmental suits, hands holding and rubbing slightly at Andromeda's shaking shoulders.

"Easy baby," she murmured, soft and soothing. "You're alright. You're safe now. Just breathe, Andi. Slow and steady."

Several minutes passed before Andromeda was able to draw in a somewhat steady breath without letting it out again in a dry sob. She mananged to sit up a little, finding Josetta staring at her with sympathetic worry in her eye.

"Better?" Andromeda shuddered again.

"I'll live," was her somewhat dry return, causing Jo to smirk a little. Then the Pirate sighed.

"Well now that that's over with, you mind explaining to me what in the hell you're doing way over here, alone? I thought I told you to stick next to me?"

Andromeda suddenly remembered the child and the woman and gasped. Her wide eyes flew to the spot where they'd been, but it was now bare. The doctor blinked, stunned. Not even a blood stain remained.

"I . . . I came over here because . . . ," her brow furrowed, suddenly realizing that she didn't have any good reason to be here. She had just felt . . . compelled to come. "Th-there was a girl," she pronounced then, turning back to Josetta, golden eyes wide and more than a little confused. "A little girl, a-and her mother, I think. She had heavy impact injuries, her torso was crushed, and the little girl was crying . . . ."

Josetta's expression tightened a little with a wince. "I didn't see any kid," she pronounced heavily. "Just you, falling through the floor."

"But I . . . I saw them," Andromeda protested desparately. "I know I did!" Josetta just nodded, rubbing her shoulders again.

"I'm sure you did, Andi. Probably ghosts of the settlers who died here."

Andromeda just stared for a minute, trying to detect the smirk or the twinkle in her eye. Yet Josetta looked dead serious. Andromeda scoffed. "That's impossible," she snapped. "There's no such thing as ghosts."

Josetta rolled her eyes, as if it were her being the unreasonable one. "Of course there're ghosts, Andi. I mean, magic is real. Science can't explain everything, sweetheart," she finished then, grinning. "Better get used to it, or you'll just end up giving yourself a headache."

[Dane]

Dane ran along the clearing, tossing incendinary grenades at the smaller plants while spraying the bigger plants with his flamethrower 'Solara'. The weapons expert tossed another grenade over his shoulder, the resulting explosion sent the tiny fanged/barbed plants burning into piles of smoking ash.

Most of the crew was spread out, trying to keep the plants from getting inside, Beau managed to climb up on a ledge and was snipping targets getting to close. Dane grumbled to himself.

This is why I hate plants...sure wish they'd hurry the hell up in there....

[Admiral Hart]

Luckily, the plants outside, without the central will to back them up, fell to the ground, motionless, shortly after ammo became scarce, and not long after, Hart and the rest of the crew exited the building.

"We got the info we need?" Hart asked. T.K. nodded.

"That way, three miles." He replied.

"Good. Let's get moving. It shouldn't be long now." Hart said, leading the crew. After a few moments of silence, Andromeda asked, "Captain, what exactly happened here?"

"What exactly happened, no one knows for sure. The best guess is, there was a one-in-a-million chance bug with the terraforming equipment. An incredibly minute amount of toxin was released into the recycled air. Not enough to cause concern. At first.

"Then people started to react. Respiratory illness. It hit the young first. Buildings lost some structural integrity. The first response was to sell breathing aparatuses, to coat the buildings in a corrosive-proof material, and to investigate the cause of the increase in toxins.

"That's about when things got worse. You see, as part of the terraforming process, the plants were dosed with high amounts of growth accelerant and fortification. When the toxins began to ravage them, they had their cells replaced and replenished faster than they lost them. Natural selection began to occur at a cellular level on still living organisms. The plants then adapted to be able to respire the toxin. To require it in their breathing. And produce more. And more. The problem snowballed. Towers collapsed, acid started to pour from the skies. And then more mutations showed up in the plants. They were growing more rapidly than they were supposed to be able to herbicides had stopped working.

"But without enough nutrients, and with as rapid mutation as they were facing, other options took root. Mobile plants designed to rip the nutrition from whatever they faced. Animal or plant." Hart said, now a bit distant in her voice. "The last transmission from Ganymede was, 'The Green. It's coming.' They sent a Mamba team down to try to find some survivors. They sent one of the best there. Queen Cobra, come out of retirement just for this mission. No response. No recovery of their shuttle. Like they were never there."

The crew was silent after that until they reached the X-canyon. Or, rather, the X-Lake, as it was now full of poisonous, acidic muck.

"Can the suits survive that?" Hart asked.

"Maybe? But the treasure definitely wouldn't, assuming it's sealed behind something secure." T.K. replied.

"The instructions say something about an aerantium vault. The cache should be safe." Hart called up to the ship. "Morg, this is Jo. I need you to grossly abuse the tractor beam and pull the water out of this location."

"Roger that."

Several minutes later, the Plunder was low over the lake, and the muck was lifted out in one giant bubble, which was then placed over the nearby jungle and dumped.

"Perfect. Keep my baby there, Morg, shields up to keep our paint job secure." Jo then walked to the edge of the canyon and looked down, thinking for a moment before starting to climb down the side of it. "Grab us if we fall, Morg."

The pirates made it to the bottom of the canyon without too much incedent, beyond Dane letting go on purpose to free fall and be caught. Slime and algae covered everything, and twitched feebly in various puddles, lazily trying, in vain, to reach for the tasty new things.

The crew advanced through the canyons and, finally, came to a large, aerantium vault, still largely intact despite advanced age and several decades under acid. Allison and Dane each grabbed the vault door and, straining, slowly turned it.

The vault door clicked, and slowly slid open.

The crew stepped inside, and everyone, even Andi, was breathless at the sights.

The floor was covered in a mixture of gold coins and credit chips, each for at least one hundred credits. Jeweled swords, custom built guns, and chests overflowing with bounty were littered throughout this pile. Six ancient vintage fighters, in pristine condition, flanked the main path of the room. And, at the very end of this path, dressed in pirate finery, sitting in a throne that looked coated in solid gold, was the skeleton of John Melrose, the first space pirate, a sword identical to the one the chip had been found in at its side.

Beyond that were three more vault doors, each sealed, with what looked to be some sort of holographic projector in front of it.

"We'll worry about the other doors later." Hart said, any more excited and her eyes would have turned into little dollar signs, "For now, contact the shuttle and the Plunder, tell them to get as many men down here as possible for extraction of the loot. It's time to make history."

[Dr. Andromeda Reyes]

Andromeda stood back and marveled at the sheer amount of bounty there was to be had inside this vault, her eyes bulging. It was astronomical. Mind-boggling. The doctor winced a little then, suddenly feeling guilty. She hadn't really put much faith in this mission from the start, believing it to be a fool's errand. And now here she stood in the presence of what was perhaps the greatest historical find in hundreds of years.

Her eyes flickered over to Josetta, biting her lip. She started to say somethng to the effect of a congradulations, but had to pause when she realized the redheaded Captain was looking especially distant. Her blue eye was staring steadily at the remains of John Melrose, looking lost in memories. Andromeda closed her mouth again with a sigh, lowering her eyes away as she thought better of saying anything.

Around them, several crews were moving through the vault, gathering up loot in whatever they had handy--boxes, chests, backpacks, pockets; anything that could carry it. Andromeda was silently trying to tally up what her cut might be of this massive find, and gleefully planning all the medical equipment she could buy with that sort of income, when all of a sudden she heard a soft moaning noise in the depths of the room.

She quickly turned in that direction, body tense. Her wide eyes searched frantically, but saw nothing but shadows. She had just started to write it off as nerves, when she heard it again. This time followed by a loud, jarring thump. The sound of which made her jerk in place, and a few of the other boarders to turn a little, confused.

"C-Captain," Andromeda suddenly called, tone a little weak with nervous apprehension. "Um . . . I-I don't think we're alone in here."

[Dane]

Dane was busy filling the loot into bags when the loud thump rang out, instantly Veronica was in his hands from his holster strapped to his leg, sharp eyes missing little--and finding just as much. Andi spoke up for a moment, just to add to the cryptic mood.

"Um . . . I-I don't think we're alone in here." The weapons expert kept staring at the walls, looking for some sign of the source of the sound when he mumbled out.

"I gonna have to agree with you Doc...Feels like where being watched...feels like somethings trying to undress me with there eyes...I feel so exposed." he said smirking faintly, his tone never changed as he continued to look, trying to lighten the mood. All the while knowing that Doc. Reyes hit the nail right on the head.

[T.K.]

T.K. absentmindedly shoved handfuls of loot into his bag. Even though the Captain had said not to worry about them, He found himself drawn to the doors.

Oh, he hadn't gone near them. Yet. No, he was busy studying the Holographic Projector from where he was working. Sure it was old-school compare to modern stuff, but who cared? Tech was Tech, no matter how old it was.

Besides, some sense of curiosity wanted to know what was behind those other doors. Why would you need Vaults inside of a a Vault, unless you had something REALLY special inside.

He didn't even acknowledge the others, and whatever was hiding at the back of the vault. He was sure Dane could handle it somehow.