Heist

[Admiral Hart]

The bulky transport glided through the blackness of space, only a few asteroids nearby seemingly its company. Then, a flash of fire in the silent vaccuum rained down upon the large, hefty military vessel. Though it was heavily armored, a barrage of laser fire, expertly targeted and rapidly fired, knocked out the ship's engines. With no ability to maneuver and their weapons quickly being targeted and disabled by small, more agile red and gold ship, the the military salvage transport was quickly reduced from a well armored, well armed hulk to a well armored lump drifting in space.

On the bridge of the smaller, more agile ship, the Plunder's Heart, Captain Hart said, "Excellent job everyone, fabulous flying as usual Miss Doherty." He complimented the pilot, who smiled back. "Alright, shuttle crews--Dane, take your shuttle to the aft and "liberate" the machinery as you see fit. Morgan, your crew is going to the bridge to make sure now one tries anything funny. Everyone else, sit tight."

The two boarding shuttles, each loaded with pirates, were then launched, and got about halfway there before Hart suddenly said over the communicator. "Back to the ship, now! Something's wrong. I think this is a..."

No sooner had he said that that a blue and white ship, identical to Plunder's Heart, crested from behind an asteroid. Rather than open fire, a shimmering beam of energy hit the first shuttle and held it still. The second shuttle, not immediately noticed, immediately swerved behind a smaller nearby asteroid.

Then, on the main screen, a familiar, at least to that crew which had been here for a while, face appeared. Black hair, dull blue eyes, Captain Annabelle LeValle.

"This is Captain LeValle of the Heart Breaker. Have your weapons stand down immediately and surrender, or I destroy this shuttle. I believe, Captain," She said coldly, "That your dear First Mate is on this one. Any signs of hostility, any signs of trickery, and I destroy this shuttle. Answer now."

Captain Hart refused to break his poker face. While he spoke to LeValle, he quickly and subtly typed out several messages to his crew.

"LeValle. I should have known you would know where I'd hit next. But how certain are you that Morgan's on that shuttle? How do you know anyone at all was on it?" Hart said calmly as he typed, to Dane, 'Dane, pilot your shuttle to the transport. Take it over and liberate your girl as subtly as possible. Don't let them get word to LeValle. When everything's all well and good, make a distraction. I'll leave how to your discretion.'

"Scans indicate that..."

"Oh, come now, LeValle. You think I don't have scanner interference on my shuttles? Your bargaining chip may be completely invalid." He continued casually. Then he typed to Jane, 'Jane, when Dane makes a distraction, I want you to fly as close to the shuttle as possible.'

"What do you mean? This is a trick. I know we have..."

"You knew I was coming here. What makes you think I didn't prepare for this eventuality, or any sort of hostage situation? There were two shuttles. One was unmanned and being remotely piloted. The other had both crews on it." Hart lied expertly as he typed to T.K. 'T.K., send me any and all the data on any exploitable flaws in our tractor beam system.'

"You're bluffing." LeValle replied over the screen.

"Am I? If you destroy that ship, and it wasn't anyone important, we have all kinds of clear shots at you while you retarget. Check and see for yourself if you don't believe me. We'll wait." Hart said calmly, typing his last message to Dr. Reyes. 'Andi. I have a feeling Dane's going to be more busted up than normal this time.'

Levalle growled, but did not get overly upset. "Fine. You have until we confirm our hostages to surrender. Don't try anything. Heart Breaker out."

The screen went dead, and Hart's face fell to grim, but not pessimistic, determination. A gambling man, he could only hope the gamble of placing so much faith in his men paid off this time.

[Dr. Andromeda Reyes]

Andromeda paced the infirmary, restless and full of nervous energy. That message from the Captain hadn't been promising. All of her equipment was set out and at the ready, prepared for any wound, injury or eventuality. And the deadly-sharp scalpal she always kept hidden in an inner pocket of her coat was in place should things ever go south.

But for now, she had to wait. Wait and wonder. This was perhaps the hardest part of her job.

Cassi sat near by, expression faintly worried. Should there be need, Cassiopeia was actually a very good assistant and acting "nurse," if absolutely necessary. For now she sat on one of the examination beds and watched her older sister pace silently, meanwhile doing her best not to give into the urge to let herself scry on Morgan and make sure that he was ok.

[Jane Doherty]

Jane sat at the controls, face calm, but heart pounding a mile a minute. She had every faith in the crew and her captain, but this situation had the potential to turn ugly real quick, and she was ready at the helm to get the hell out of here on a moments notice.

[T.K.]

Intimately familiar the systems of both ships by now, T.K. quickly typed up a response for the Captain. Hopefully, the Heart Breaker's systems hadn't been tweaked too far off the specs.

He quickly typed up the data the Captain would need, as well as the quick modifications his teams would have to make to the weapon's systems. As soon as he finished sending the data to the Captain, he spun around, and handed Sanchez the new Weapon Modifications, and sent his crew out to take care of it.

If this was going to work, it would depend on both the hurried modifications, as well as Jane's piloting.

He shuddered, just thinking about the repairs the ship would need after this. Morgan had damn well better live through this. He needed someone to take his future anger out on.

[Dane]

Dane was humming 'A pirates life for me' when there simple plan was interrupted by Captain psycho bitch. He cursed under his breath.

God that woman needs a new hobby....

The pilot called him over to the counsel, there across the screen came the captains instructions, he grinned like a fool then sighed.

"I love it when he talks dirty, gets me all tingly inside." he spoke a loud causing concerned stares to meet him, his sly grin melted into a blank face as he turned to his men. "Listen up you scaly wags! Change in plans, we get to liberate my baby sooner. But, we gotta do it quiet, cause Capt. LeValle will sure as shit take out Morgan. Much of a pain in the ass he is he is our first mate." he smiled evilly. "So lets do this quickly and quietly. Understood!?" he near barked out, a affirmative 'yarr' came from the crew causing him to grin.

With that the pilot brought there shuttle around, skipping from asteroid to asteroid till they successfully docked on the dark side of this ship, hidden from 'The Heart Breaker'. His men took positions behind him, guns at ready as he popped the hatch. He put up 3 fingers and motioned to the hatch, three men filled out the door to secure ahead of them, moments later the rest followed.

It didn't take long to find the bridge, it was the door surrounded by guards looking ready to shit themselves. They really didn't put up much of a fight, it was quite pathetic really, single targets each had them all lying in a heap. The same could be said for the bridge crew when they entered, dispatching anyone that dared pick up a weapon. The remainder of the bridge crew consisted of the captain and pilot, they were 'detained' by his boys while he stared at the ships read out, He grinned and cursed under his breath.

Son's of bitches where involved in the trap...the engines only took minor damage, there still...functioning....

A evil smirk crossed his face, one of the crew mates stared at him in faint horror.

"Oh god what are you planning?" he eyed her carefully and smirked further.

"If I told ya, it wouldn't be a surprise would it?" he gathered his crew around him while he typed, fingers moving fast to calculate the trajectory just right. "Ight, heres the plan." he went over his plan quickly, enjoying the looks of faint horror as he finished his briefing.

"Your kidding me right?" he gave his crew man a drool look.

"You got any better ideas?" the man shrugged and mumbled something under his breathe and crossed his arms across his chest, looking defeated. "What I thought, Okay." he clapped his hands together. "Let go wake up my baby."

****

Dane and half his crew ran down the halls, using all there maneuvers to avoid being seen by wandering crew and guards, after a few minutes they arrived at the hanger, he zeroed in on his prize in the corner and smiled from ear to ear, a faint tear pooled in his eye.

"Elsa...damn I missed you girl." Elsa sat secured in the corner on its makeshift platform, she loomed there frozen in place, eyes dead looking and staring into infinity, armor looking well taken care of despite her ill use, half its face from where a human nose to chin was covered in what looked like a mouth guard of a helmet, shinning silver in the faint light. Dane continued forward, almost in a dream state as he approached his baby, he stood in front of it for a moment, he put his hand on the leg joint and rubbed the edge of it lightly.

"Uh...Dane?" he looked over at the crewmen that spoke, a smarmy look on his face. "Should we leave you two alone?" he smirked back.

"Well it has been awhile...." he reached for the front of his pants and pretended to unzip, the man blanched and turned away. Before much else could be said a all to familiar voice rang out from inside Elsa.

"DANE!" a four inch tall speck jumped out from the inside of Elsa's chest plate, having jumped from inside it and landing in his outstretched hand. Elsa's sprite came over and gave him a mock hug. "Oh my god I missed you, I missed you, I missed you!" the little sprite looked up at him with sad eyes, she was wearing a black and gold uniform skirt and top, standard UE dress code for his squad. He rolled his eyes and stared down at Elsa, her cat ears drooping slightly as she stared up at him.

"Where did you go? I was so lonely." he smiled down at her and patted the top of her head as best he could.

"Don't worry girlie, were getting out of here. No more being alone, hows that sound?" she immediately cheered up, dancing around while throwing her hands in the air. He chuckled lightly. "Ight, open the hatch and well get outta here." Elsa's sprite gave him a mock salute and launched herself at the Battle Suit, disappearing into it. Dane turned to his flabbergasted crew. "Get back to the shuttle and 'carefully' take off, make it back to the ship quietly, we don't want psycho lady to lose her damn mind." he reached for his communicator when his crew nodded and filled out of the storage hanger, leaving him alone with Elsa." And the rest of you on the bridge, transfer the ships controls to Elsa's on board computer." Dane climbed into the hatch when it swung open, still talking to the crew on the bridge. "After thats done smash the counsels, I'll deal with the rest. Get me?"

There was affirmatives on the other end causing him to smirk as he climbed inside Elsa, he plopped down on the seat and took a few moments to let the memory's of the past to flood him, he rubbed the arms of his seat and smirked. Good memory's here. He pushed those away for now and stared the launch sequence, getting his baby girl warmed up while he typed furiously on the keyboard. The hatch closed and Elsa's AI sprite climbed on his shoulder, she looked down at the data that scrolled across the screen, she gasped out suddenly, eyes going wide.

"Your can't plot that course! It'll send this ship right into...." he cut her off with a smile.

"I know, thats exactly what I'm trying to do." a few key strokes later the ship around him stared moving again, having been brought to life with his command. It turned slowly and sluggishly till it was aiming at 'The Heart Breaker", its engines roared to life as it went barreling at the sleeker ship. He grinned like a fool at Elsa's sprite. "Lets get the hell outta here girlie." she pumped her arms in the air and pointed ahead.

"Wooot, lets go!" with that the battle frame jerked to life, its eyes glowed bright gold as power flooded through it once again, at the same time his instruments blinked to life. He reached over and grabbed the controls, it felt like home all over again. Dane smiled again, sending a prayer to Becca. Before releasing the restraints on Elsa, the Suit stood up, taking confident steps forward as it reached for its riffle close by. A simple looking laser rifle that kicked like a mule, he aimed it at air lock and blasted out the side, sucking whatever wasn't tied down into space's vacuum.

Elsa glided out and trailed along the side of the transport, following his crew out and trying to remain out of site of Heart Breaker.