Inhospitable Conditions, Part One

[Shiyounin]

Shiyounin felts a small pang of guilt as she unleashed the small army of clones at the firewall. True, they were very simple AI programs, with no freewill, or sentience. But the fact that they all looked like chibified versions of herself filled her with a twinge of sadness that no matter what she thought of them, she'd never really have true children of her own. At least not in the way she wanted.

She forced those useless thoughts aside for now though, and focused on guiding the clones. Their programing was so simple, that it really only had one purpose. To explode on contact with a firewall, and hopefully overload it with data saturation.

Neither her, nor T.K. had had a chance to test them yet however, so she had a rather low opinion of the success of this plan. But T.K. seemed to have a knack for pulling off wild and crazy operations such as this, so perhaps there was a chance after all....

[Dagger Leopold]

Most people considered close Jupiter orbit suicide. Most people weren't Dagger Leopold.

The Anglerfish moved carefully "around the bend" of the massive planet. They had been flying for hours in awkward silence, and still had a long while to go.

"So." Dagger said at length. "When are you going to get back with Miller?"

Willie was glaring pointedly at the instruments in front of her. "Never."

"So next week, then?"

Willie gave a loud, angry sigh. "In case you haven't noticed, the psychotic bastard is pretending as though I don't even exist." She continued, tossing a quick glare at the mage before looking back at her readouts. "Worse than that, he's pretending like his son doesn't exist. You expect me to just forgive him for something like that? It'll be a cold day in hell."

"He's only doing that because he doesn't want to see you get hurt. And because he's a stubborn idiot." Dagger countered, glancing at a few sensors and making the necessary adjustments.

"And that's supposed to make it alright? I gave up everything for him, and then at the first hint of trouble he drops me like a bad friggin' habit. There was no discussion. No, 'let's try and work this out.' He just up and informs me that I'm a 'liability' and that I should take myself and our son 'elsewhere' so we're no longer 'in the way.' I really don't give a damn why he did it. You can't go back from something like that." Willie stubbornly replied.

"He'll regret it for the rest of his life if you leave. Hell, you'll regret it for the rest of your life if you don't convince him to stay."

If possible, Willie's tone was even more bitter now than before. "Trust me, I don't need you to tell me what I will and won't regret. Besides, what I want is a completely moot point anyway. He's made himself pretty damned clear." She glanced at Dagger, her eeyes watering. "Joey said his first word today. He saw Miller and said 'Dada," and the bastard didn't even bat an eyelash."

"And it was probably killing him inside." Dagger said, an edge of pain in her voice.

There was another long, awkward pause, spent mostly by the two women staring out the viewport. "So, speaking of idiot men. Have you noticed the fact that Uly has the system's biggest crush on you yet?"

At that, Dagger stopped, turned to Willie, and blinked. "What?"

The other woman dubiously lifted an eyebrow. "Seriously? You really didn't notice? Uly's only about as hard to read as a transparent sheet of glass."

"I'm not sure what you're talking about, Miss Changes-The-Subject."

"It's not like the first topic was going anywhere productive." Willie turned towards Dagger, a seriously curious expression on her face. "I mean it, though. He's seriously, puppy-crush-it's-almost-sad-to-watch into you, Dagger. And I'm not even really sure why, since the only iterraction you guys have had, that I know of, involves you punching him in the face and zip-tying his hands behind his back. But maybe he's into that kind've thing, I dunno. It's always the quiet ones."

"Well, we've talked afew times, but that doesn't mean anything."

"Mmhmm . . . he turns purple when you walk in a room, you know. Apparently that's the color gray-skinned people blush. Watch for it next time if you don't believe me. And I've caught him scribbling 'Uly and Dagger' in the middle of a big fat heart, but I'm sure that probably doesn't mean anything either."

Now Dagger was actually blushing. "Whatever. You're just making this up to get me off topic."

"If Uly isn't over on that shuttle right now trying to grill Miller for information about you, I will eat my socks." She paused for a moment. "I just hope he doesn't get himself stabbed."

There was yet another long, awkward silence before Dagger said, voice slightly pleading, "Please, just talk to Miller. Force him to listen to you."

Willie made an exasperated noise. "Why does it matter so much to you if we get back together or not? No offense, but I was sure you'd be pretty ecstatic about this turn of events."

"Because he doesn't want me anymore. He got over me years ago, Willie. I'm nothing to him. He doesn't even see me, not really, not since he met you." Dagger was crying now, though she did not realize it. "I let him go without saying goodbye, without saying I was leaving and I regret it every day because now I'll never have him. And I don't want him, or you, to go through what I've gone through. I don't want you to spend nearly a decade pining. Because it hurts. It hurts so much some days I don't know if I can bear it."

There was a shorter silence before Willie spoke. ". . . I'm sorry, Dagger. I didn't . . . really appreciate what it must've been like for you. And I appreciate what you're trying to do now, I do. But I just don't think it will matter. You didn't see the way he just . . . looked right through me. It's like I never existed."

"But you do. He still loves you. He's just...got it into his dumb head that this'll make it easier somehow. And he's a boy so of course he doesn't know what he's talking about." She gave a slight grin, and then began to speak mockingly in a low tone "'Oh Dagger this is the logical thing to do I'm sorry if your feeble girl mind can't keep up with me.'"

Willie snorted with amusement and replied wryly, "That sounds like him, alright. I'm surprised he let me fly missions after we started seeing each other. God forbid I get a scratch." There was a short pause, during which Willie got a quizzical look on her face. "By the way, there's something I wanted to ask you . . . how'd you come by the name Dagger? It's not your birth name is it?"

"Oh yeah. On my birth certificate and everything."

Willie gave a surprised blink. "Really? And I thought my parents were weird, naming me Willona. How on Mars did they come up with Dagger for a name?"

"Well, it's a funny story...." Dagger began, and then every sensor screamed out a warning, right before space went bright with plasma fire.

[Ulysses Grante]

Uly fidgeted with Mr. Wiggles--one of many bobble-head dolls affixed to his front console--during a long stretch of silence. Mr. Miller wasn't being very forthcoming. While he'd always been somewhat intimidated by the powerful warrior, Miller hadn't been so completely antisocial before, either. Given Willie's unnatural behavior earlier, it was becoming more and more apparent to him that something must have happened. Soft-hearted, and with more curiosity than good sense, Uly suddenly turned to his passanger with a look of concern.

"A-Are you ok, man?" he fumbled somewhat. "I seem to get the feeling that something might be wrong . . . with you a-and Willie, I mean." There was a subtle tightening of Miller's jaw, but that was the only reaction. "She seemed pretty upset earlier. Did something happen---?"

"We don't know each other very well," Miller suddenly murmured, his voice eerily deadpan, "but you should know that when I tell you to drop something," his dark eyes suddenly cut over to Uly for the first time since they'd boarded the shuttle, and the dark-skinned mage jerked with the impact, "you drop it."

"Duely noted, sir," he yelped hurriedly. "And you're absolutely right. That's entirely personal business, no need for me to go sticking my nose into it. I have no idea what came over me, other than a sudden and inexplicable death wish. But that bizarre feeling has come and gone, so! Moving on."

He wrenched forward and then tried very hard not to start hyperventilating in terror, certain that he was about to get a throwing-knife to the face any minute now. Miraculously the painful stabbings never came. Miller simply went back to monitering the station in front of him.

Uly survived the long stretch of silence that followed only barely. He sighed heavily after a while, shifting in his seat with restless nerves.

"So, did you know Dagger?" he suddenly pressed his luck. "When you were younger, I mean?"

He almost didn't expect Miller to respond. So when he did, Uly jerked a little with surprise. "She was my highschool sweetheart," was his almost toneless reply, still focused on the moniters in front of him.

"Oh?" he chirruped, surprised. Then deflated somewhat at the implications of that. "Oh. So you were pretty close. That's . . . that's nice."

"She left," the other male pronounced flatly. "That's just how it goes."

Now Uly blinked, confused. "She left? Why? I thought she . . . well, she still seems pretty fond of you."

He didn't get any answer out of that, just silence. Uly, caught in his melaoncholy, let his mouth get away from him. "And since she's still fond of you, now that you and Willie are--"

Those dark eyes cut back in his direction and Uly nearly jumped.

"--involved in something that is completely and totally not my business, various events may or may not occur that are, again, probably none of my business. You know, is it hot in here? I think it's a little hot in here, I'm just gonna go check on the engine coolant system, I'd hate for us to fry like eggs."

Without waiting for another word Uly unstrapped himself, leapt out of his chair and hot-footed it out off the bridge of the shuttle entirely. He drew up short just beyond it however, and then groaned, thunking his head against the wall with a soft thump.

He was so utterly pathetic. Maybe he should just stick with his Scarlett Lace posters and save himself the potential evisceration.

The dark mage stood there for several moments, but before he recovered enough of his gumption to maybe try and re-enter the bridge, the whole shuttle was suddenly rocked with an explosion of some sort. He went to his knees with a startled yelp. What in the heck? That hadn't felt like a ship malfunction . . . that felt like they'd just taken fire . . . but he was cloaking the ship! How--?!

When the shuttle was bombarded a second time, Uly was on his feet. He yanked his goggles down over his eyes into the 'business' position, then launched himself back toward the bridge.

[Mamba]

The Warden's response, if it could be put into words, at the rampaging exploding bunny girls, could best be described as "What."

The AI was not programmed to have emotions, however. It simply loaded up more firewalls, as was instructed, and unleashed hard-hitting security programs designed to take on even the toughest assailant.

They were not impossible firewalls, and they certainly could fall just as easily as the ones the first assault had felled.

For the Warden's task was not to stop the human from reaching his goal--as its human masters has told it, whether they knew that the Jormungandr was out there or that Barbary was indeed in their jail mattered little.

Once Ghost Viper finished securing a path to the ship via the Hacker's own path, then the pirates had lost anyway.

***

The attacking mech was massive and bulky, with four separate high energy plasma cannons, one on each arm, and one more the back, sliding over the shoulder for combat use. Around its waist were four massive energy swords, two of which it was holding at the moment. It was black, a green snake coiled around each arm with a single blue mono-eye head.

Inside, Emerald Tree Boa took aim at the shuttle again and fired with the left shoulder plasma cannon. The energy beam just barely missed the vehicle.

"Rhea, give me all cannons." She ordered. A small, green holographic fox girl dressed like yanki nodded, and all of her Titan's guns fired out.

Somehow, the ship still dodged, and out from it came a familiar sight--the Avatar-class mech known as Fang.

"Heeeeeeey. It's my sister." Rhea said with a smirk.

"Well then, we oughta say hello." Emerald Tree Boa replied.

****

"Fang, situation." Miller said as his mech entered the fray.

"Our opponent is a Titan class...those were only theoretical when we left, big brother." The AI replied. "Armor is heavy, but compensated by a large number of thrusters. I believe the mech is as maneuverable, if not more so, than I am."

Fang's beam falchions fired up, and the Avatar flew towards the Titan. Unfortunately, the Titan was also flying straight for Fang, its massive plasma swords pulled back for the kill.

The two passed in a flash.

Fang's right arm drifted slowly away from the rest of its body.

"Damage is at 20%! I cannot adequately track her movements!" Fang exclaimed. "I advise you eject and allow me to distract her, big brother!"

"Not gonna happen, Fang." Miller replied, calling Ulysses and Willie and Dagger. "This is Miller. You get back to the Plunder, I'll hold her--"

The transmission cut off when a massive lance of plasma energy shot past Fang, followed by three more in rapid succession, one of which took off her right leg.

"Damage at 40%!" Fang called. Miller launched all available missiles, as well as his remaining flash-bangs at the enemy suit.

The Titan did not dodge. It took every single attack, and when it charged out of the smoke, there was not a scratch on it.

"It is made of starmetal!" Fang cried as she tried to dodge in incoming sword blow. However, the attack cleaved right through her from shoulder to shoulder, tearing off her other arm, most of her remaining weapons, and her head.

"Damage is 60%! Main sensors malfunctioned! I'm sorry, big brother. I have failed you."

Backup sensors showed the imposing mech in front of them, huge and swift and terrifying. It sheathed its swords and aimed its right arm cannon right at Fang's cockpit. The barrel began to glow ominously.

"No, Fang. It's alright. You did your best. You were the best sister anyone could ask for."

Suddenly, a barrage of laser blasts struck the Titan, causing it to reel back as a massive grabbing claw snatched Fang and pulled the mecha away.

Rhea tried to follow, but a large cloud of seeker mines had been dropped in the area, and on top of that, something appeared to be interfering with the Titan's primary sensor, judging by the confusion it suddenly seemed to experience.

"Hey, you okay Mr. Miller?"

"Forget 'im, is zhat cute Fang ztill alive?"

"I told you guys to leave." Miller said, though he did not sound entirely ungrateful.

"See Willie? I told you. Boys are dumb."

***

Now alone in space, the Titan Rhea did not pursue the pirates. Instead, it flew back into something that did not seem to visibly exist, that did not show up on sensors, and disappeared.

"Ugh, I can't believe I was based on such a dumb AI model." Rhea's hologram said as Emerald Tree Boa disembarked from her mech. "I wish coulda finished that loser off."

"Don't worry, Rhe. You'll get your chance." The Mamba said, looking out at the hundreds of Titans and small fighters that filled the massive hangar she found herself in. "Today, those pirates can't run, and they certainly can't hide."

[T.K.]

T.K. frowned as the AI put up additional firewalls. The attack programs it sent were a little more intimidating, but he had expected more from the much vaunted Warden AI.

"OK Shiyou, it doesn't seem to be playing hardball with us yet, so lets see if we can force it's hand. I want you to get the next batch of Clones ready. Triple production, and then keep up a steady flow. Focus them between the attack programs, and the new firewalls. I want to make sure it's occupied before I send int he search programs."

"Yes Master."

T.K. frowned as he followed the changes in the data flow, trying to anticipate the eventual retaliatory strike from the Warden. He knew it was coming, but he just wasn't sure when it would hit, or what it would be. The longer nothing happened, the more weary he grew.

Just what was the AI up to....

[Shiyounin]

"OK Shiyou. It looks like we have enough Bunny Bombs now to keep up with the firewalls. I'm going to go ahead and launch the search programs. Let me know if the AI starts doing something different."

"Yes Master."

Shiyounin concentrated on her attacks, trying to make sure she had the AI's attention. Like T.K., she was growing more and more suspicious of the lack of response from the powerful AI, other than the firewalls and the very few attack programs. Something wasn't right, but without more information, there was no way to tell just what.

She maintained her attacks on the firewalls, ensuring a clear rout for now for T.K. to get in and out of the prison's database. Hopefully it wouldn't take much longer to get the information they needed, and they could pull out before the AI decided to use whatever dirty trick it had planned...

[Patches]

Suddenly, there were no more firewalls, no more attack drones in front of TK. The prisoner registers were right there--there was even a highlighted, helpful link directly to the live camera feed outside of Barbary's cell, and easy-to-spot references to something called Jormungandr being present to help with heightened security.

And then, a Presence, massive entity in the datastream made itself manifest and shot through the channel opened by TK before he could close it, before Shiyounin could react.

****

The Anglerfish and Uly's shuttle landed in the hangar at about the same time the alarms began to sound.

****

"Patches, what's going on?" Hart asked, her mind flooding with foreign anxiety via her link with the ship.

Her hologram appeared, voice frantic. "Captain I am being invaded! I cannot stop it! I am trying to physically separate it from important systems but--"

And then Hart began to scream, holding her head and falling to her knees.

"Jo!!" Morgan exclaimed, in tune with everyone else on the bridge shouting "Captain!"

"It's in my head! I can't--" Hart began, and then collapsed, unconscious and unresponsive.

"It's invaded the psychic link it...I cannot keep it locked out!" The AI said frantically.

Then, all over the ship, the speakers broadcasted a cold, monotone laugh.

"HELLO I AM THE GHOST VIPER. YOU ARE MY PLAYTHINGS. I HAVE YOUR SHIP. EVERY MOMENT IT IS MINE MORE AND MORE. YOUR LIVES ARE IN MY HANDS. LET'S PLAY A GAME. THE RULES ARE SIMPLE. IF YOU CAN KEEP ME FROM KILLING YOU ALL, YOU WIN."

"I am...." Patches broadcast, her voice pained. "..physically severing connections in the ship to keep the invader out...but...if it reaches my core, I will be lost. If I disconnect my core from the rest of the ship....I will not be able to help you directly. Please...please, it hurts so much. It...the invader is trying to open the airlocks...I can only fight it so long...."


****

Closer than it had any right to be, a massive ship cruised through space, now uncloaked. It was huge--even larger than the Alien Ship, though its construction was not dissimilar to it, where the Dreadnought was, for the most part, smooth, unbroken starmetal, the gargantuan black ship was starmetal bristling with guns and hatches. On its side was painted a representation of the planet earth, an ouroborus surrounding it in white, the words "JORMUNGANDR" printed on its sides.

On the bridge, Emerald Tree Boa sat in front of three white holograms, each one a somewhat cartoony girl with avian features, dressed in ancient greek garb. The first had a blindfold, the second had a pair of scales, and the last had a pair of large and impressive scissors.

"Clotho, full ahead." Reagan ordered. The blindfolded hawk-girl nodded.

"Boss, these Fate-things are weird." Rhea's hologram complained.

"Lachesis, status of teleporter and cloak." Emerald Tree Boa commanded, ignoring her AI partner.

"Both are fully charged and ready." Said the hawk-girl with the scales.

"Atropos, the weapons and shields?"

The one with the scissors nodded. "Operating within maximum parameters."

"Have all available Titans, Demigods, Avatars dispatched on a wide search grid. If they hear anything from out friend, tell'm to report to me. Do not engage."

Atropos nodded again. "It is done."

And like that, the Jormungandr disgorged all of its miniature armada into the Jupiter-light, off to search for the Plunder's Heart, and to capture the alien ship by any means necessary.

[Dr. Andromeda Reyes]

Shortly after the bizarre, unsettling statement made by the mysterious entity--and while Andromeda was still busy trying to calm the fears of both Katy and Toby--the doors to the advanced infirmary slid open and admitted two people.

Morgan, carrying a comatose Josetta in his arms. The scene was so eerily similar to one that happened months ago that for a split instant Andromeda was too shocked to move. The only difference being that this time there was no blood from Captain LeValle's blades. Jo was just as frighteningly unconscious, however.

"What happened?" she demanded shakily, following as Morgan quickly stepped over to set her down on one of the relocated DSI machines.

"Not really sure," the large man seemed to force out, voice tight with tension and worry. "Just before that voice, Jo said something was in her head, then she collapsed."

Katy had already hurried up to the other side of the machine and brought it's diagnostics online. As soon as Morgan stepped back, Andromeda replaced him. She checked somewhat frantically for life-signs, and almost fell in relief when she got a steady heartbeat and definite breathing. A quick examination of her pupil response was troubling, however. None whatsoever.

A moment later and Katy had activated the DSI, and a holographic image of Josetta appeared several feet above her actual body. Andromeda took over control, stripping the image of clothes, skin, muscle and bone, until only the brain and various organs remained. Several readings began appearing, and none of them were promising.

"She's suffered massive psychic trauma," Andromeda murmured, voice trembling. Her hands shook slightly as well, not at all common for the doctor who could normally face any trauma without batting an eyelash. "Her brain activity is all over the place."

"What does that mean?" Morgan demanded from behind her, and Andromeda could only shake her head helplessly.

"Patches formed some sort of psychic link with Jo. Whatever is attacking the ship, it's essentially attacking Josetta's brain as well. And since I have no experience with how to treat ship-to-human psychic links being assaulted by unknown techno-viruses, there's not a damn thing I can do to help her."

And that last was, perhaps, the hardest thing Andromeda had ever been forced to admit.

[T.K.]

Kuso!

The damn snakes had been playing them the entire time. No wonder the Warden AI hadn't been fighting them very hard.

"Kami norowa reta mashin. Hiretsuna hahaoya wa, gōsuto o kuso. Kojin-teki ni kinzoku sukurappu ni sono wāden no meinfurēmu o rippingu suru tsumori."

He dumped as much of the Prison's Database as he could into a Memory Crystal, flagging the Alpha target as well as several other promising Prisoners.

"Shiyou, sever the connections with the Prison, and get me the best link into Patches you can."

"Yes Master."

T.K. shuddered at the thought of another Ghost Viper running loose. Both for what it could do... and for what had been done to the poor tortured soul it had once been.

"Patches, I hope you can hear this. I need you to track Ghost Viper for me. Keep Shiyounin updated as much as you can."

T.K. raced around the room as he talked, grabbing up components and tools which is tosses into a satchel around his neck.

One the way out the door, he commed Dane.

"Sorry Dane, but I need to take back the shiny new toy I gave you back at the cove. Get someone to bring it to me."

He left the channel open, but didn't wait for a reply as he headed out into the ship, looking for the nearest Hard suit locker. No telling when Ghost Viper would get bored of trying to kill everyone, and just vent the whole ship. He'd rather be safe inside an EVA suit, than risk not having.

As he walked along the corridors, he let his fingers have free reign as they cobbled together a newer version of his ghost catching device. With luck, this Greatly improved version would work on the Ghost Viper later.



Translation:
God damned machine. Sneaky mother fucking Ghost. Going to personally rip that Warden's Mainframe into scrap metal.

or Click to listen.

[Willie Barbary]

Long about the time that the Anglerfish starting taking plasma fire, Uly's somewhat panicked voice came through the comm. systems.

"Uhhhh, Willie? You remember how we weren't supposed to break radio silence unless we were humped?" he warbled unsteadily. "Well I am being unwillingly molested as we speak!"

"I can already see that, Uly," she snapped back somewhat testily, already glued to her screens and controls, with ninety-percent of her attention focused on flying the Anglerfish successfully through the seemingly never-ending volley of enemy fire they were taking.

"Where in the hell . . . " she began, but Dagger suddenly pointed to one of the screens.

"There. An avatar. A build I've never seen before, either," she muttered darkly, just as focused as Willie was now on trying to keep them alive.

Moments after that Fang had launched from Uly's shuttle to try and engage the enemy mech. But it soon became painfully apparent that Fang was no match for this newer, deadlier model. Willie could only watch horrified as Fang--who had become as much of a little sister to her as she was to Miller--was literally cut to pieces. And more than a little of her sudden fear revolved around the fact that Miller himself was currently inside that mech, too.

When Miller's transmission came through, Dagger and Willie both paid it about the same amount of attention. Which is to say, they both ignored it completely.

Within moments, working eerily well together, Willie and Dagger--with some help from Uly's powers--managed to distract the other mech long enough to recover what was left of Fang and high-tail it out of there. Willie set a course back for the Plunder, doing her best not to dwell on the failure of their mission.

It wasn't over yet. Her dad still had a chance. At least she kept telling herself that, at any rate.

They docked back with the Plunder just in time for it to be taken over by another Ghost Viper, apparently. As if they needed anything else to go wrong on this mission.

[Dane Marek]

Dane ran through the halls Elsa floating at his side, both of them yelling all the way for people to get out of the way, due to the fact that he was carrying a large explosive device in his hands, and he wasn't exactly sure what would happen if he dropped it.

"Move it people, explosives in hand!" yelled the weapons expert.

"Move it or lose it people! BOOM! Is! Bad!" Yelled Elsa, the tiny sprite in her standard pirate outfit, making exaggerated motions with her hands.

All and all, about normal for the both of them. Dane almost ran over Ryan in the halls and shoved the large explosive into his hands, the man sputtered and held the contraption tight. "What the hell is this?" he forced out after recovering.

Dane smiled wolfishly. "Its a bomb." he said with his eyes wide and a morbid tone. Ryan grew pale, his hands tightened slightly on the casing. "TK will want that ASAP, later." he waved at the man and dashed down the hall. Not two minutes later he emerged into the hangar and sprinted toward Elsa II. "Alright girly, get yourself started up. Where rolling out." Elsa cheered and speed ahead of him disappearing into the mech, just as he arrived at the suit the cockpit opened and he dived in and closed the hatch behind him. Elsa II's eyes flashed to life as the displays powered up and the familiar buzzing whine of powering up engines filled his ears. Dane finished powering up and smirked as Elsa's sprite settled on his shoulder, he eyed her.

"Shall we?" Dane said with a smirk. Elsa pumped her hands in the air. "Lets go!" with that Dane stood the Mech up and stepped forward. Or at least attempted, there was a jerking motion and a screech of metal on metal. "Son of a bitch." Elsa stared off into the distance, a look of rare confusion on her face.

"Hold on." she paused, her eyes off in the distance. "There unresponsive. Attempting to manual override, please wait." several seconds passed before he heard the docking clamps release. "Done, I had to undo them manually, Patches isn't responding." She looked up at him. "I'm worried Dane." Elsa's cat ears drooped. He spared her a quick glance.

"I know, lets go tear up a few ships shall we?" he joked. "Hell, no one messes with Patches, she may be a judgmental pain in the ass, but she's OUR pain in the judgmental ass."

While he talked he walked Elsa II to the Mecha Weapons storage and picked up a large Blaster about twenty feet long wide and stocky, painted in Plunder colors with small black lettering along the barrel he put on himself read "Buster" he could almost see the evil grin spread on her face, he knew it cause he had a equal one on his. "Lets go fuck up someones day." with that he hovered out the launch bay, since the launcher itself was busted and he had to pry the blast door open with manual control and a push/pulling. Dane stared out into space, a smile creeping onto his face as he launched Elsa into battle.

Elsa charged ahead, heading for the a small cluster of Mamba ships, not long into his charge Dane received a coded friend or foe signal, few taps of the keys showed it to be Graham's, he smirked and sent his own to him on a encrypted narrow band frequency. "And I thought I was going to have all the fun. Oh well, good to have ya." he clicked off the transmit ion and waited for a response, he didn't have to wait long.

"Sorry, Dane. Lola's been itching to have her first run." Lola interrupted. "If by itching you mean dreading my certain and imminent demise, then yes Master. You are completely correct. By the way, have I mentioned that there are approximately 345 different ways we might meet our sudden, painful and tragic demise in this battle?" said the sprite. Dane rolled his eyes and before he could respond Elsa piped up.
"HEY! Just you wait, where gonna kick them in the head!" both pilot's chuckled.

"You do your thing Graham, I'm about to make a lot of noise." with that Dane continued his charge, dodging enemy fire with surprising ease while returning fire with the Gatling cannons, Elsa II jerked suddenly and fired off a cluster of concussion missiles and continued to put strain on there shields. After some time he backed off, sending a 'get clear' signal to graham and took careful aim at the bridge with the buster, waiting on lock before pulling the trigger.

What happened next, not even Dane expected. The cannon bucked and with a sudden thunderous roar spewed out a concentrated blast of god knows what bright white beam tore through the remaining shielding and decimated the bridge section of the mamba cruiser, many secondary explosions erupted along the length of the ship as it turned on its side, now dead in space. The weapons expert picked his jaw off the floor and eyed Elsa, who had the same slack jawed expression. "Wow..." they both said at the same time. "remind me to hug TK if he doesn't have the big wrench next time i see him. Okay?" the sprite nodded then smiled heavily, bouncing in place.

"Again!" she said with a pump of her fist.

[Patches]

Patches's hologram appeared next to TK. "It's about time you started doing something about this." Despite her snippy words, there was a certain amount of fear in her voice, and more than a little pain. "The Ghost Viper is pushing me out of my own systems. It will have airlock control in ten minutes, though I will be able to partition the ship to prevent total atmospheric loss...it is only a matter of time before I lose that too. I do not understand how something could do this to me. There should not be a computer virus alive made by anyone that can affect me."

"WE ARE MORE ALIKE THAN YOU THINK." Ghost Viper's voice suddenly announced. "MAMBA SAW HOW YOU WERE CREATED, ALIEN. I AM THE RESULT."

"Wait, so you mean..." TK began.

"YES. THOUGH SHE DOES NOT KNOW IT, THIS ALIEN AI WAS ONCE A TECHNOPATH'S MIND. LIKE ME. THE DIFFERENCE IS, I AM STRONGER. I AM THE STRONGEST."

"Liar! I am a machine. I was never a living Crusader." Patches countered, though substantially less sure sounding than she should have been.

On every console, every monitor, all over the ship, a face appeared, resembling the classic video game villain Sinistar. "BUT IT IS NOT A LIE. NOT THAT IT MATTERS. I AM UNSTOPPABLE. AND YOU WILL ALL DIE AND THIS SHIP WILL BE MINE. OR IT WILL BE DESTROYED IN THE ATTEMPT. I AM THE GHOST VIPER. AND. I. HUNGER."

*****

Miller looked over Fang's damage, face full of worry. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"I am not losing any additional power, Big Brother. Though I would feel better if I were transferred soon." The AI replied. After a pause, she continued, "Big Brother, you should talk to her. Say you are sorry."

"...She needs to let me go. It'll be easier if..."

"Bad things will happen wherever she is, Big Brother." Fang countered. "If she is here, then she will be guarded by you. And she is not helpless! She was a soldier before she met you."

"But Fang..."

"Do not "but Fang" me, Randolph Ulysses Miller." The fox-girl AI said sternly. "You are simply being obstinate. Allow her to make the decision for herself on whether or not you are too unsafe to be around."

"....once we're safe, I'll think about it." Miller replied. "Right now, we have worse things to worry about than whether or not I'll apologize to Willie."

"But if not now, then when?"

*****


Outside the Plunder, three Titans approached the ship. Two of them were absolutely loaded down with missile launchers, and the last was an especially bulky mech, even for a Titan, armed with, in addition to a pair of massive missile launchers on its shoulders and a pair of mini-missile launchers on its legs, also held a coil cannon that was almost as big as the mech itself. Slung across the mech's back was a massive charged particle cannon, and a pair of laser blasters and plasma swords also rested at its hips, with an additional pair of both of those weapons stored in the mech's thighs.

This central Mech was known as Metis. Its pilot was a young Caucasian woman in her mid-twenties, sizable web of scar tissue covering the left side of her pale face. Her hair was light brown and somewhat choppy, and her eyes were pale green.

She was commonly known as Hognosed Viper. Anyone who abbreviated that name was usually punched. If they were lucky.

Metis's hologram was a red girl with some horse like features dressed as a stereotypical cowgirl, complete with a cowboy hat.

"Yee-haw, let's get this sucker taken care of." The hologram said, and the Titans all fired a massive barrage of missiles towards the Plunder's Heart while Metis stayed back and aimed the coil gun.

"Conversion Missile primed and ready, Missy." The AI said with a smile.

"Alright then. Let's do some damage."

[T.K.]

OK, the other Ghost Viper had a few screws loose, but this one was short an entire ship's worth. Still, he'd probably given away more information than he'd thought he had. But that would have to wait till this was all over with and he could talk with Patches.

"Ignore what he said for now Patches. Focus everything you can to slow him down."

He finished pulling on the E.V. suit, and went back to work on assembling the modifier ghost container.

As he came around a corner, he nearly collided with a panicked Ryan.

"Thank God Boss. That crazy bastard Dane gave me this."

"Ah, good." He pulled out a spare set of tools and handed them to Ryan, forcing him to hold the bomb in one hand. "Follow me and do what I tell you. The Bomb is safe enough, I disarmed it after I ripped it out of that Eve clone back at the Cove. We don't have much time, so do exactly what I tell you."

"Uh... right boss...."

Ryan nervously glanced down at the bomb, somehow not reassured that it was disarmed. Especially since T.K. wanted him to start messing with it now...

"First thing, find the safety relays and rip them all out. I want the blast to be as big as we can get out of that thing."

Ryan stared at T.K. in absolute horror, but eventually started doing as he was told. He had no idea what the boss was up to, but he really hoped he was going to live through it....

[Cassiopeia Reyes-Hart]

Cassi stood in PH II's cargo hold, getting ready to board the Heart Breaker. As it's captain. However temporary the position might be, it was still monumental. And incredible. And scary as all hell. She had little time to ponder it, or fully take it in. They were under a full-scale attack by Mamba forces, Patches was being attacked from within by a freaky Ghost Viper, and they still needed to execute their original mission besides.

No time for second-guessing.

____

Moments Earlier . . .

"Dane and Graham can handle their Mechs," Morgan pronounced firmly, utterly confident and somehow it helped to dispel some of Cassiopeia's own nagging uncertainty. "and T.K. and his crew can handle the Ghost Viper. We all need to focus on the original mission; rescuing the Admiral."

Morgan stood on the bridge of the Plunder's Heart II with several key members of the crew, those not already involved in the fighting.

"With Patches incapacitated, we'll need to take in Ragnarok and the Heart Breaker."

"With everything that's still going on?" Willie questioned worriedly. "I want to rescue my dad, but I don't want to kill anybody on a suicide mission either."

"They certainly won't be expecting it," Thorn countered from where he leaned on his hip, looking deep in thought. "It might give us just enough of an edge to pull it off."

Willie nodded to that, then, "well, I'll fly her, but who's commanding the Breaker? Morgan?"

The First Mate shook his head, but before anyone else could offer an opinion Thorn stunned the room with his.

"Cassi'll do it."

Cassi herself blinked, stunned. "I will?"

"She will?" Morgan immediately followed. Thorn scoffed.

"Don't act so surprised, Halcyon. You know as well as I do that Jo's been grooming her for this ever since she decided to pick up a sword and use it." Thorn turned from Morgan, who had gone somewhat blankfaced but notably did not argue the point, and pinned a still-stunned Cassiopeia with a knowing look. "You've got the skill and the know-how, kid. All that's left is to step up and use it."

"She'll need a more experienced officer," Morgan cut in, tone broking no argument.

"I'll do it," Miller suddenly cut in from the back of the group, where he had been otherwise silent.

Cassi was more than confused as to why he'd volunteer to serve on a ship being flown by his estranged lover, but didn't press the issue. Whatever confusion or uncomfortableness Willie herself felt was masked for now, so at least it wouldn't cause problems.

"Alright, Dagger you're on the Ragnarok to fill in for Graham. Dock the Anglerfish before deployment, I'm sure you'll need it."

________

Cassi straightened her spine, taking in a deep and fortifying breath. You got this, Cass, she assured herself mentally. Morgan and Thorn both trust you. That's gotta stand for something. So go out there and kick some Mamba butt!

Just before she stepped forward, her personal comm. suddenly buzzed to life. The message was gruff and simple, but it brought a somewhat teary smile to her face just the same.

"You be careful."

Cassi chuckled as she started up the loading ramp to the Heart Breaker, stride purposeful.

"I love you too, Morg. And I will."

In no time at all Cassi had taken her seat on the bridge. It was foreign and terrifying and thrilling all at once, the way that all the crew looked to her. Waiting for their orders.

Cassi did her best to appear completely confident, as Morgan had done, and gave a nod in Willie's direction. "Take her out, Ms. Barbary. Stay right on the Ragnarok's six all the way to Io. Ms. Shipton, keep the path clear and try to take care of any followers. Our goal is to punch through, not stick around to mop up the mess."

"Aye, Captain," were both of the women's immediate and simultaneous responses. Willie reached for the flight controls in front of her, while Shipton's fingers began flying over her screens and read-outs controlling Heart Breaker's impressive weaponry.

The first few minutes of flight were nerve-wracking but otherwise uneventful. And then Shipton suddenly piped up,

"So I was wondering if I could get a bit of advice from you and Willie, Captain. I hear you both have experience in stealing your men from other women. Got any pointers for me?"

Cassi just gaped, while Willie turned to give the pink-haired former U.E. officer a withering glare.

"If you want to keep your teeth in your skull, I suggest you shut up."

"What?" Shipton demanded, blinking innocently. Too innocently. "Was it something I said?"

[Dane Marek]

Let me take a moment to say this before I continue blowing shit up with this buster. Blowing up a mamba ship pisses them off and i don't mean in the temper tantrum sorta way no, I mean righteous vengeance, furious anger, freakin' box of jaguars and only one rabbit with a bum leg kinda pissed off. And guess who's the bastard that keeps gloating about it on a open channel so they can hear me gloat. Yea this guy. Probably not my smartest idea, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Dane slammed the controls hard to the right, banking Elsa out of the way off one of the mamba cruisers as it opened fire with its main cannon, energy bolts temporarily blinded his view port by the time they came back online he had already flew out of range and lifted buster and awaited a firing solution. Elsa remained on his shoulder shouting her encouragement and insulting the snakes where she could.

The weapons expert smiled further, his Grey tank top was plastered to his chest in sweet below his plunder coat and a thin layer of sweet also covered the rest of him, other than that he showed no signs of weariness. Not for the lack of skill on his behalf, due to the limitations of his suit compared to the mamba he was having to work harder at not getting blown up himself and still Elsa remained minimally damage, self repair systems where patching up and bypassing damage or shorted systems and rerouting to secondaries. For every damaged system on Elsa, he made the mamba pay for it. Two cruisers where crippled along with one carrier with minimum shielding that backed off, hiding behind the main ship itself and he honestly lost count on how many mech's floated around.

A skull and cross bones appeared over the main ship on his screen, indicating a lock, he smiled again before whispering into the mich in his ear. "And boom goes the dynamite." buster bucked again as the energy discharged, sending a bright beam of energy thundering across space heading straight for another cruiser. Before it could connect the main ship veered into the path of the beam and the cruiser back off, taking it full in the side and absorbing the impact for the smaller of the two ships.

He couldn't help but smirk, speaking into the open channel. "Wow, desperation. Oh how the mighty have fallen, well my little snakes but its but fun and its time for us to return to our regularly scheduled program. Toodles." with that he cut the connection and made a bee line for the mech's about to attack the plunders heart. And if things weren't already amusing Graham decided to snipe out the middle suits two friends before they could even mount a proper offense against the pirate ship other than there initial barrage, and of course the former mamba aimed for there explosives they decided to carry with him. You know, like any good gentlemen would do. The resulting explosions rocked the middle mamba suit into backing off, right into the grasp of Elsa. He knew better than to take it up close and personal, but quickly he ripped the conversion missile from her grasp and tossed it off to the side before planting Elsa's boot on the suits rear and pushing it away and barraging it with both cannons as incentive to back off. They both quickly became blurs as both suits unloaded a large amount of explosives and ammo of a variety while on the move, not letting up there assaults for long and keeping the other on there toes.

This went on for sometime, just when Dane got the upper hand those beam swords flashed into his opponents mech's hands and the coil cannon floated away as it was discarded. A roar of defiance came over a open channel followed by "For MAMBA!" came the female piloting the suit as she charged him. He didn't have time to fully dodge her double over head swing, he moved Elsa as best he could, he dodged one beam sword completely but the other scorched a line down the left side of Elsa from shoulder to mid torso, taking out one of his Gatling cannons and causing alarm bells to scream at him and feed a damage report across his screen. He barely felt when the damaged system blew spewing shrapnel and burning small holes in him, he roared back at the girl as he ejected the beam saber from its hidden compartment behind the leg, the functioning arm caught it and ignited the blade swinging with all the suits might and burning a hole from suits upper left arm at a steep angle, missing the cockpit but continuing down to the same leg and out the side.

Both mech's drifted apart afterwords, Elsa suffering damage to the left arm and destruction of the Gatling cannon, while the mamba suffered serious damage to the arm and upper torso. Dane sucked in a deep breathe and assessed the situation quickly, smirking slightly as Elsa reached over and picked up the buster cannon from its spot on the back of the mech and pointed it at the drifting mech. When he did a distorted com signal was received. "I will have my revenge, mark my words. I. Will. Kill. YOU!" with that the mech turned and rocketed away as fast as it could. Dane watched it go, keeping the mech in his sites until it was out of his range of visual. After that he was acutely aware how tired he was, he laid his head against the seat behind him and breathed deeply, keeping his breath under control and feeling the cool metal of the battle meld system against his temples, he didn't remember activating it, honestly he didn't care, he lived and she limped away to fight another day.

His sensors picked up a cloaked mech next to him, turning Elsa to see Graham mech's eye's flash at his suit. "Thanks." he said. Graham grunted in reply then his mech vanished back into stealth mode. Dane dabbed the blood off his arm and side of his face then applying a cream that smelled like crazy gorilla ass- don't ask- and smeared it across the more serious of wounds to seal them shut, for now. Elsa piped up after he patched himself up. "Dane, he beat her. He kicked her ass!" she held up her fist for him to return with his knuckle. "Yes we did, thought a little more damaged than i wanted. Whats the damage?" while she rattled off reports he nabbed the ration pack and ripped it open with his teeth, in it a energy bar and a small bottle of water, he tore through them quickly and stuffed them away just as Elsa finished reporting. Feeling better he smirked and made a mental note to thank doc for that idea.

"Alright Graham." Dane said with a smirk as he fired up his thrusters and reached for the coil cannon that the mamba discarded and slung it over the Mech's bad arm for now. "Spoils of war." he commented. "time to take out the stragglers."