Rivalries

[Dr. Andromeda Reyes]

Andromeda could only stare somewhat helplessly after Jo, as she ducked out into the corridor and out of sight, mouth still burning somewhat from the fierce, hurried kiss the tall redhead had planted on her mouth. Everything inside of the slender doctor wanted to call out, call her back. It was too dangerous. The possibility of Josetta getting hurt was far too good for Andromeda's peace of mind. Despite all of that, however, she held her silence.

This excitement, the challenge, the thrill of the unknown and threat of danger, was Josetta's world. It was what she lived for. Somehow Andromeda had to reconcile herself to that, even if she never would understand it.

She blinked a little, coming somewhat out of her trance and turning back to the others. And caught T.K. eying her with a faintly smiling expression. Which immediately made her color guiltily, as it was only then that she realized Jo had just kissed her in full view of the half-asian Engineer. Flustered, Andromeda snatched up her surgical kit and then turned to Katy. The pretty android eyed her sullenly and fearfully.

"Come on, Katy," she called soothingly, reaching out to wrap an arm around her shoulders. "Let's get back onto the ship, while the Captain settles things here."

"She's going to get hurt," Katy protested sadly. "We need to leave now." Andromeda just rubbed her shoulder as she started leading them back to the airlock, doing her best not to let Katy's fear--or her own--damage her confidence in Josetta's ability, or any of the rest of the crew. Doubting someone in a crucial time could be as deadly as a bullet.

"The Captain is a great woman," Andromeda tried to reassure, "and so are all the men and women who follow her. We have to keep the faith," the doctor finished softly, "and pray for their safe return." Katy blinked at her, expression faintly dubious.

"Does that really help?" Andromeda sighed a little at that bluntly innocent question, then muttered her response half-under her breath, thoughts once more on the redheaded pirate captain she loved.

"Two years of prayer haven't let me down yet, God willing they'll hold out for a little bit longer."

[T.K.]

T.K. allowed himself to smirk of the smooch between the Captain and Andi, before he took off for the ship. He continued muttering to himself, as he ran through the ship, grabbing certain crew members, and either telling them to go wait for him at the Hatch, or to go off and find someone else for him, or brag various pieces of equipment that was stored around the ship. He also sent Shiyounin to go find Dagger to explain what was going on, and what they needed of her and Anne.

He made a bee-line for Engineering, where he quickly rounded up Gabriell's and Cassie's crew who were currently on shift. He left Eric and Brutis on board, just in case something were to happen. He had Ryan and George grab the Anti-grav lifter so they could carry the heavier machinery he'd need for this insane plan to work. While everyone scrambled to do what he'd said, he grabbed three spare power cells, and hastily made several minute adjustments to them, adding a set of clamps to make it easier to juice the doors.

Satisfied that they would do what he needed, he ran for the hatch, frighteningly aware of how excited he was with this plan all of a sudden. Was it a good thing, or a bad thing that the Captain was rubbing off on him?

[Eve Crossbones]

If it were possible, Eve looked even less threatening physically than Katy. Eve was a couple inches shorter and a bit curvier than Katy, looking more like a model than a death machine. Her skin was light, and both her hair and eyes were a dark grey. Other than that, she bore a very slight resemblance to her sister.

Except for the smirk on her face and the wild look in her eyes. The android turned on a nearby comm and said, "At the tone, the time will be murder-o-clock. Beep!"

Then she ripped open the blast door. A red-headed woman shot her in the chest with a laser bolt, which burned through the synthetic flesh and the sweatshirt she was wearing, but only harmlessly reflected off her starmetal chassis. Eve lunged forward and the woman dodged back, very agile and very well trained. For a human.

Eve kept lunging forward, leaping and charging, letting the laser blasts hit her in the chest. The one-eyed redhead made a valiant effort to keep away from her, but it was all in vane, as Eve was both faster and more agile.

Before she could pounce for the kill, however, a grenade pegged her in the chest and sent her stumbling back.

A small group of heavily armed people with a very heavily armed leader appeared from around a bend, firing rapidly but accurately at the android. Eve was startled at first, but fell back around a bend, at the same time calling up her map of this side of the station.

"You alright, Cap'n?" The heavily armed man asked. The redhead replied with a, "Yeah. Damn she's fast."

Eve studied the map for a second, neither realizing or caring the state her shirt and synthetic flesh were in--both were torn ragged, especially on her chest. Then her smirk widened, and she darted across the hallway and then bolted straight towards the group of heavily armed men. Most of the bullets just bounced off, but one or two smashed into her hard enough to stagger her--most likely aerantium or starmetal. She could feel dents and minor nicks form, but Eve barely registered this as she plowed through the group like a bowling ball, knocking pirates to either side, those who were not fast enough to duck out of the way.

She wrenched open a door and wrenched it closed. The door buckled under a grenade, but held steady. Eve was fairly certain it would hold steady for just long enough.

*****

Outside, over the comms, a song began to play. "Why do birds, suddenly appear? Every time, you are near? Just like me, they want to be, close to yoooou."

It was at that point that Hart and noticed the sign on the door Eve had run into.

South Armory.

"Defensive positions, now!" Hart and Dane called out simultaneously as the door was wrenched open again.

Eve stepped out, her knicks and dents having smoothed over thanks to her self-repair system. Strapped to her right arm was a machine gun typically fired from a tripod, on strapped to her left was a snub bazooka. Across her back were a pair of assault rifles, and at her side were two pairs of submachine guns. There was also a pistol strapped to each leg, and a sawed-off scattergun in a holster behind her.

"Sorry for the wait, had to freshen up." She said with a smirk, and then unleashed her artillery on the entrenched pirates, who quickly began to more strategic retreat.

"Oh goody, this group looks like it'll be ever so much fun." She cackled as she followed them, never letting up her barrage for a moment.

[T.K.]

As soon as T.K. made sure that the Decoy group had Eve's attention, he took off with his crew, racing for the first Blast Door leading toward the Reactor Core. It only took a moment to get the door open, then the hard part started.

He hadn't taken the warning from the Journal lightly, and was very actively scanning for the traps Eve had left behind. While he didn't have Shiyounin to scan ahead for him, he did have eyes. And an Obsessive Compulsive disorder when it came to keeping a ship in neat order.

All that Mamba training in the Android's head had been pretty good at hiding all the traps. But they still left little tells. And besides, he had an Ace up his sleeve. Sort of.

“Pressure plate boys. Worked into the seams of the flooring. Looks like an incendiary. Probably Oxygen Canisters hidden in the walls.”

T.K. followed Queen Cobra's hunch, and found the hidden pressure plate. It took a moment, but he got it disarmed. Heb was glad when Queen had taken him up on the offer to get off the ship for a little fun and excitement of the deadly kind. The bit about seeing if a Flesh-and-blood Mamba was better than a Mamba trained Android hadn't hurt either.

It was slow going through the halls, but between Queen Cobra and T.K., most of the traps were safely disarmed. The only casualty, had been Ryan's pants, and one of the sleeves on his uniform.

Somehow, both of them had missed a Pit trap, and Ryan had set it off. Only Queen Cobra's reflexes had saved him.

Honestly, it had been the Motion Sensors that had been the trickiest of the lot. The ones tied to the spike traps in the ceiling hadn't been so bad. But then, they found the few that were tied to shrapnel bombs. Those wouldn't have been pretty.

AT the end, getting a little careless, T.K. ended up loosing his eyebrows, when he accidentally set off a pressure plate. The attached Plasma torches had literally gone up in his face, and taken the brows with them. As soon as he could see again, he opened the last door into the Core.

“Well kiddies, time's a wasting. We needed this Core up and running hours ago. Hop to it.”

[Beau Altair]

Beau stuck near the back of the group as Morgan had ordered him as the First Mate and his crew came up behind the psychotic android, somewhat scissoring her in. The former bounty-hunter Dagger took point, raising that snub gun of hers and firing expertly nearly off her hip. A wire-thin roped electronet shot out, entangling around Eve and slowing her down somewhat. All of the pirates lifted up at that--Beau included--and let loose with a barrage of firepower that would have downed a robotic elephant.

Unfortunately for them, this robot was self-repairing and largely made of starmetal.

When Eve busted out of her restraints with a faint snarl, Dagger twisted nimbly out of the way of the machine-gun fire that came spraying in their direction. Morgan flattened himself against a near-by wall, a heavy rifle in his hands and wincing at the sparks that were flying around wildly. While Dagger reholstered the snub gun with a grimace on the other side of the doorway and reached for her grenade launcher and assault rifle instead. The two deadly fighters ducked out of their hiding spot at the same, working in eerily silent synch, both shooting with deadly precision. One of Dagger's shots managed to blow the machine gun from the android's hands, which made the creature scowl petulantly.

A moment later they were all forced to dive and duck for cover when the crazy android launched a bazooka at them in retaliation. The whole station rocked and groaned in protest, and the enormous fireball that erupted caught more than one pirate unawares, eliciting several yells and screams of pain.

Which made Eve giggle in glee.

Morgan suddenly barked, coughing a little through the haze of smoke from the explosion. "Altair! Get rid of that god-damned launcher!"

Beau didn't hesitate, diving forward onto his stomach into the doorway, his Barret already thrown down onto it's mini tripod. He wrenched the bullet into the chamber and then took aim in nearly the next breath.

For a split instant he locked eyes with the android, who gaped at him a little in stunned surprise. The Barret went off in the next instant with a roar. The powerful rifle kicked back against his shoulder with a lunge, probably leaving a bruise, but Beau's aim was dead-on. The massive bullet tore through the bazooka launcher in her hands, also tearing through her stomach as well, though the latter didn't have nearly as much of an impact as the former.

The android threw the ruined weapon from her with a snarl, and then reached back and pulled both of her assault rifles. Someone helpfully grabbed Beau by the ankles and yanked him back behind the wall an instant before the spot he was laying was lit up with bullet holes.

Morgan tugged the younger man back to his feet one-handed, reaching for his comm. with the other. "This isn't working, Jo!" he barked. "She's repairing herself faster than we can hurt her!"

"Tell me something I don't know, honeybunch," came the Captain's faintly annoyed growl in their earpieces. "Just keep taking out her weapons. If we can't hurt her, we'll hurt her firepower. We gotta buy T.K. enough time to do his thing."

A moment later everyone heard Dane's loud voice yell out, "hey crazy-bitch! Over here, you psychotic bag of bolts!" Beau and the others peaked out of their hiding spots to see the Weapon's Specialist running out in the open. Apparently trying to draw the android's fire.

Beau snorted in disbelief. "Who in the hell is he callin' crazy?"

Eve ignored the cover fire that the other pirates tried to give their fellow man, bits of her synthetic flesh and clothing tearing off in the wild rush of bullets scouring her body as she aimed both barrels of her rifles on Dane and then let loose. One of them was suddenly shot out of her hands by a grenade shot from Dagger.

The other clipped Dane four times, twice in the chest and twice in the gut.

The Weapon's Expert went down with a crash, and didn't get back up afterward.

[Eve Crossbones]

Oh, this was fun. This was more fun than Eve had had in her entire short life.

"But all good things must come to an end." She said aloud, pointing her guns at the downed soldier. "And now, so does he."

Then the lights flickered on, and a hum could be heard from deeper in the ship. The air began to warm up and circulate, less stale and cold than before.

"You tricked me." She said with a little respect, before she turned and started to run for engineering. A volley of fire followed her, grenades smashing her in the back and sending her lurching--but forward this time.

As she ran through the halls, she purposefully tripped several of her traps, leaving a wake of fire and pits and spiked floors in her wake, hull torches permanentely set to burn in a circle in a bit of the corridor, making following her nearly impossible without extensive trap removal.

Eve tossed her assault rifles aside, pulling her submachine guns and smirking darkly. Whatever these pirates were trying to pull, she was determined to put a stop to it.

Permanently.

[T.K.]

As soon as Morgan relayed recent events, T.K. let out a string of graphic expletives so violent he wasn't even sure what half of them had been afterward. He should have know Dane would blow the plan.

He knew they only had a few minutes to get ready for Eve. The repeatative vibrations approaching them through the Station was proof of that.

The Cannon was pretty much complete. The only problem, was that he hadn't had time to program it yet, or program the power control systems for it. To use it now, everything would have to be done on the spot by whoever was firing it. He cursed again,wishing that Shiyounin was with him, but the bashful A.I. Was exactly where she was needed most.

“Alright, everyone out of here. Get to the Reactor Room. Ryan, you're on Power Control. As soon as the bitch is blow through the hull, and vaporizes, cut the power. Cassie and Gabriell, you two are on the Blast Doors. Slam them closed as needed. Soon as the Power to the Launcher is cut, close the door to the Forge. I don't feel like being spaced today.”

Not daring to stop, and question him, the others all piled out of the room, and raced for the Reactor. Only Ryan stayed behind.

Before T.K. could start yelling at him, Ryan waved his hands in surrender.

“Easy boss. Just staying long enough to help you into the suit. Not even you can do everything by yourself.”

T.K. stared at him for a moment, before he reluctantly agreed, and let him help him into the Hazard Suit. It was originally intended for work inside the Reactor Core itself, but it should last long enough for the Plasma Launcher to do it's job. The suit ha been meant for Dane, which made it a little large on T.K.

“All set Boss. Good luck.”

T.K. gave him a thumbs up, before he tottered over to the cannon, and quickly began powering it up, and starting the torturous process of manually adjusting it's power levels, and maintaining the complicated calculations necessary for determining how much damage he was actually going to be doing to Eve, timed precisely so that she would blow outside the Station safely, and not inside of it, taking most of it with her.

A muffled explosion down the hall, and the screech of the last Blast Door being ripped open were his only warnings. He braced himself against the Launcher, and prepared o adjust the aim of the cannon as soon as he saw Eve round the bend.

He might not have been very religious, but at the moment, he was fervently praying to any Gods who would listen, that this thing would at least work long enough to do the job. And not explode. That would be bad too.

[Eve Crossbones]

When Eve came around the corner, she was already firing. But it was a bit too little too late.

White, burning hot plasma struck her square in the chest and overwhelmed her, she tried to take a step forward against the force of the blast, but it was not just melting her. It was also metling what was behind her.

An wall of the space station, an exterior wall.

In a flash, the plasma stream and the sudden vacuum ripped Eve out of the station. The heat was overwhelming, and she could feel containment on the main part of her core start to breach...

***

Outside the station, there was a spectacular explosion, one that rocked the entirty of both ships and showered them both with a healthy does of powerful electromagnetic radiation.

And then, when the glare faded, there was silence. Except for the "HULL BREACH, HULL BREACH" alarm wailing in the space station, and the howl of oxygen being ripped out into space as the blast door slowly sealed, the howl becoming a moan, and then a whisper, and then nothing.

[Dr. Andromeda Reyes]

Andromeda turned when the doors to the med-bay slid open, revealing the first of her casualties. The fact that Dane Marek was among them was not surprising in the slightest.

But the fact that the man was not dragging himself in under his own power, was instead being carried by three others and hanging completely slack in their grasp, very much was. Blood covered his front, and was dripping a copious trail behind him.

"Onto exam one!" she barked, already reaching for her shears. For the moment Andromeda completely forgot about Katy--whom she had been trying to comfort beforehand--slipping completely into doctor-mode. The slender female shoved the pirate aside who stood in her way and didn't get out of it quickly enough to suit her. She ignored his faintly wounded look, reaching up to start tearing through Dane's tunic instead.

She breathed a small sigh of relief when she revealed a skin-tight black body-armor vest strapped to his chest. Which had stopped the bullet that would have pierced his heart and killed him instantly. Unfortunately another one of them had punctured through the vest on an angle, low on his right side. Probably puncturing his lung. And both of the others had hit him low enough that they'd torn completely through his stomach.

Andromeda started to reach for the DSI controls, but blinked in surprise when she found Katy standing across from her, her fingers already flying over the controls.

"He's gone tachy, doctor," the lavender-haired android murmured worriedly. A holographic image of Dane suddenly appeared two feet above him, and seconds later it was stripped down to an organ level. Revealing all the damage they were dealing with. "His right lung is collapsed, and the other two bullets have torn through his liver, kidney and a good portion of his bowel." She glanced up, eyes wide, just as the DSI began beeping in alarm. "He's going into arrest."

"I haven't patched this crazy bastard up so many times just for him to die on me now," she snarled. Andromeda reached for the controls. "Give him a full dose of adrenaline, and get me a chest intubation kit!"

Katy quickly did as she was told. Andromeda placed her fingers over the screen of the DSI, bringing the defibulator function online. With a slide of her fingers, Dane's whole body heaved up off the bed from the shock into his system. He loosened again, however, showing no change. Andromeda was forced to shock him three more times before she got his heart-rate back stable enough to focus on his other injuries.

She had just started to make the incision between his ribs in order to insert a breathing tube into his chest when the whole ship was suddenly rocked with a massive explosion. Andromeda yanked the scalpel back to keep from stabbing Dane and ended up slicing into her own hand instead with a yelp. The lights and the DSI flickered ominously, but remained functioning. Andromeda sat back with a wince, then handed Katy the scalpel instead.

"Can you intubate him?" The android blinked a little, but nodded somewhat shakily. "Then do it," the doctor ordered, "while I get this cut temporarily sealed. And then we'll need to start removing the bullets."

[T.K.]

A smirk of victory crept over T.K.'s face, even as the all the chaotic forces swirling around him began to take their toll.

The incredible heat from the Launcher, more intense than the sun by several times, had melted some of the suit to him. Other patches had been melted away completely, leaving his skin to pay the price, as it began to blister. There was also the incredible suction from the vacuum created as the Plasma burned though the Hull as intended. A split second later, the power feed to the Plasma Launcher died, and it automatically shut down. Another fraction later, and the Blast door in front of him slammed closed, sealing him away from the Hull Breach.

He didn't quite have time to celebrate the success of his plan, as his vision began to grow blurry. His body suddenly decided all at once to report his numerous injuries. He hissed as he suddenly felt pain in his right shoulder, and leg. Glancing down, he could see the small hole in the suit, and the blood pouring out, just before he collapsed to his knees. He didn't quite have time to catch himself, before the pain finally overwhelmed him, and he collapsed onto the deck.

~*~

It had taken long than they had wanted, but Ryan and the rest of T.K.'s crew had managed to work around from the Reactor Core, and through the back entrance of the Fusion Forge. It had only taken hi a moment to spot T.K.'s body sprawled out on the deck near the cannon.

Ryan and Gabriell rushed over. It was weak, but they could see T.K.'s breath condensing inside the helmet. Most of he crew ran over, and they ll managed to get as much of the bulky suit of T.K. as they dared, before they rushed him through the bowels of the Station, and back to the Plunder.

[Dr. Andromeda Reyes]

Andromeda had barely gotten Dane stabalized when Ryan and some other members of the engineering crew suddenly entered the med-bay, carrying the somewhat charred remains of their Chief Engineer between them. The doctor let out a soft groan, but wiped determindly at the sweat already beading her brow and shoved her own fatigue and pain aside.

"Set him up on Exam 2," she called, stripping off her surgical gloves and washing up hurriedly. "Katy, finish patching up Mr. Marek," she murmured, suddenly very glad for the assistance, "while I get started on Mr. Nakamura."

The android nodded obediently. Ryan and the others hovered near-by as Andromeda came to stand beside the unconscious engineer. A quick cursory inspection revealed a good deal of second-degree burns and a few gun-shot wounds. Somewhat superficial compared to Dane's near flat-lining injuries, but extremely painful and needing direct attention nonetheless.

"Is he . . . is he gonna be okay, doc?" Ryan questioned worriedly. Andromeda lifted up to pin them with an annoyed stare.

"If you four clear out of here and get out of my way and let me do my job," she pronounced sternly. "I'm sure you all have duties that need attending. Any slacking of which Mr. Nakamura will be happy to take you to task for once he wakes up."

All four of them blanched and then nearly fell over themselves trying to get out of the med-bay then. Only Ryan paused, throwing one last look over his shoulder, and Andromeda sighed, taking pity on him.

"Mr. Nakamura will be extremely sore and cranky for a good while, Mr. Cortez, but he should make a full, spitting-mad and blustery recovery. He'll be cracking you upside the head with that wrench of his in no time."

Ryan smiled a little shakily and nodded at that, then finally ducked out again to go see to those myriad of duties that Andromeda had mentioned a moment ago.

[Dane]

Dane slept for sometime, his body remained motionless, only movement from the weapons expert was his chest slowly rising and falling. His body was hooked up to a variety of machines to keep track of his vitals, Doctor Andromeda stood near by check his vitals. The young doctor nodded to herself as she moved on to other tasks.

In his mind, Dane dreamed, away from violence, away from the battles. A place where he found peace.

Hours later he cracked his eyes open, his vision focused after a moment, staring down at him was Doctor Reyes, a faint smile on her face. He gave the best smirk he could muster.

"Never get tired of waking up and seeing you Doc." this caused her smile to spread a little farther.

"I'd watch yourself Mr. Marek. Keep talking like that and Ms. Corvus would come and rearrange my teeth. I like them where they are thank you." she lifted her chin at the last remark. He chuckled weakly, then sighed.

"Yea." he said weakly, near a whisper. "She's hawt like that." he coughed, not noticing it Andromeda reached over and pumped another round of pain killers into his system. The drugs had a instant affect on his already weakened system. "Think I'm gonna take a nap now." his eyes drifted shut. "Oh. By the way. Least we know your christmas gift fits and works. Thanks again Andi." he smiled again. She smiled down at him and patted him in the shoulder.

"Your more than welcome Mr. Marek. Sleep now." he gave a nod, resting his head against the pillow. Minutes later he was asleep, drifting back to his happy place.

This time, Lyra was waiting for him.