LOCK PLEASE

[bury the year]

Hanna drummed her thigh idly with the tips of her fingers as she sat, waiting at one of the cheap faux-wood table populating the Pointridge Saloon and Rooms. Like much of everything else on Vitex, and in the town of Blue Agave specifically, the saloon was tired. The deliberate Western aesthetic that once permeated it, from vaudeville piano music tinkling over tinny speakers to ropework detailing on walls, had worn away. Since Blue Agave was “minimally inhabited” at best for half the year, much of the establishment had gone to seed and disrepair - the only thing Hanna could tell for sure was still going strong was the A/C. Cool rooms and cold beer were all a passerby needed to stay here.

 

So it wasn’t a place where she’d want to be stuck. “Why now…” She looked down at her watch, counting each second in her head as it passed her by. Four of her crew were to be meeting her in the saloon 10 minutes ago, and none of them were on time. And if there was one thing Hanna Tam, an ex-military gal, didn’t like, it was tardiness. Hell, even the Tostensson twins, always averse to getting off the ship but usually on the line, were oddly quiet over her earpiece.

 

And she didn’t like the quiet.

 

There were few others in the Pointridge. No more than twelve, the majority of whom were the local drunks. The type who’d suffered the One Last Injury at the mines, the type of injury that would bury any future employment under a haze of booze. A few of the faces were new, though, and the commander was always careful of new folks. Hanna’s fingers twitched as her hand slipped down from the stein of now-flat beer she was nursing. She checked her thigh holster for her pistol, and tapped under the table for the shotgun she slid up against the table’s leg.

 

Good, just where they were.

 

“Miss, care for another?”

 

“Huh?” Hanna was snapped out of her reverie by the uncharacteristically-chipper barmaid. She was kinda cute, to be honest. Freckles, pug nose, carrot hair in a ponytail. Hanna made a mental note to see if she was busy later - fortune favored the bold, after all. “Uhhh, no. But a cold water may be nice.”

 

“Certainly.” The barmaid flashed her a smile and then flounced away, Hanna watching her retreating figure.

 

She turned her attention to her absent teammates. Eye roll, exasperated sigh. ‘Goddamnit, men, where are you?’ If the water came in time, she wouldn’t be drinking it: she’d be throwing it in their faces.

 

The hastily-sketched map in front of her seemed to rustle in agreement.

[Shradow]

AXLE pushed his way into the saloon past the swinging doors, perhaps a bit too hard, as when he did one of them fell from its hinges with an audible crack. The bartender looked in his direction and managed a quick exclamation of anger, but upon seeing AXLE's menacing appearance, with his rusty helmet and enormous weapon strapped to his back, he cut himself short as he hurriedly looked away to occupy himself with cleaning mugs. AXLE scanned the dimly lit dining area and saw Hanna sitting at a table. She noticed his entrance and unlike the bartender, didn't look away as she stared irritably at him. He walked over to the table.

 

"Have a seat." Hanna said with a noticeably harsh tone.

 

AXLE looked at the rickety chairs around the table and, remembering the doors, decided against it. "I think I'll stand, Commander." After an awkward beat of silence he spoke up again, "Terrible sorry 'bout the tardiness, Commander. Uh... ya know how movin' 'round can get sometimes, with these ol' bones o' mine." He chuckled unconvincingly at his poor joke, then stopped as quickly as he begun when he realized he was the only one laughing.

[Timeskipper]

"Let's see... I'm sure... this time that's it. Can't be wrong three times in a row, right?"

Aadil checked again if the name of the street he was in was the same as the one displayed on the map he had open on his NOMAD. After making sure that this time he was, indeed, at the right place, he closed his device and put it back in his pocket.

 

Thinking back, he felt like he recognized that place. The same smell of fresh dirt, the same rusty building in the middle of a round clearing that looked as if the saloon had been carried there by a flying saucer that burned all buildings in a perfectly circular radius around it to make room for it, and the name Pointridge Saloon felt familiar to him.

 

It was where he first met his current captain, Hanna Tam, and the crew of the Red Witch, who would become his trustiest companions. Admittedly, the first time he stepped in that old saloon, he had a very different idea in his mind of what he'd find. For sure, he expected a lot more boardings and pirating, and a lot less scavenging for scrap metal.

Still, it was not a time to dwell on the past, especially since he was already late, and he knew the captain didn't like when people showed up late.

 

He pushed the door and entered the saloon. It didn't take him long to find Hanna: the saloon was half empty and she was unmistakable anyway.

He coughed and announced his arrival: "Hello, Captain... sorry I'm late, I, uh, got lost..."

[a bad post]

It really wasn't hard to find the old saloon. It was the crew's usual meeting place during the short periods of time they scavenged on Vitex, however Nils had neglected to pay attention to the time while trying to find any sort of animal life on this god forsaken planet. As one might imagine Nils had had no such luck, and was now arriving late to the crew's scheduled meeting at the Pontridge.

 

Entering the old saloon Nils made a silent note of the distinct lack of doors, before scanning the area for their crewmates. It really didn't take long to locate them however, what with them being some of the only people in the place.  As they approached the table Nils flashed a bright smile noticing Hanna's sour look, however certainly after a 100 watt smile like the commander couldn't stay made for long.

 

"Commander, I hope you know I'm super mad at you!" Nils said with an exaggerated pout as they plopped themselves into a seat. "I hope we're out here for something good cause I just spent the last 2 hours trying to find a pet for the Red Witch, and I couldn't find a darn thing! Can you believe it! I couldn't even find a darn lizard, what they heck!"

 

Nils huffed crossing their arms in front of their chest closing both their eyes, however after a moment one opened hoping to see a brightening in the commander's mood. Nils could only hope their usual silly antics could take the edge of the Hanna's tense attitude. 

[a coffee]

Boy, this was turning out to be a long day.

First, she said hi to some people, then, she examined some bugs, and now she was late to meet with the commander! This was turning out to be a disaster!

Truth be told, being on Vitex was always a tough deal for Birdie. She knew what went down in those mines, and given that her entire life was altered by them, she wasn't particularly fond of the mines or any of the other things the planet had to offer. It was much too dangerous. These, among other, thoughts raced through her head as she ran full sprint towards the location in which she was supposed to meet the commander. She was pretty familiar with the saloon that she was eons late to be at; she had seen a picture of it once, and that was pretty much all she needed to know about it anyway. The doors were rusty, the ceiling looked like it could cave in any second, and the whole thing sounded like a giant health hazard. But, it was where they met, and for Red Dust, Birdie would meet inside of a meat grinder!

 

Birdie would giggle to herself slightly after thinking of that joke. "Hehe, "Meet" in a "Meat" grinder. Heh." After a moment of getting lost in her own terrible pun, she noticed a few others from the crew marching into the saloon, including her good buddy robot smashing the door against the wall. She came to a walk as she entered the now eternally open doors, fixing her hair and dusting off her pants. Before even approaching the table where they would meet, information blitzed Birdie's brain like a shot of electric straight to her senses. She examined everything in the room. One man's shoe was untied, the bartender had made three strokes on the glass; it must have been a nervous habit. He was clearly uneasy in the presence of good buddy robot. Hanna was holding her hand kind of strangely; was she armed? Last but not least, sheesh it was cold in here! Birdie closed her eyes for a second, giving herself a second to decipher all of the information she had just absorbed and shift into a second, hopefully less alert gear. She retrieved a deck of playing cards from her pack and approached the commander with the nicest, most innocent approach she could think of. The commander looked pretty angry, and that was never a good sign. It was kind of like when mom was angry with you except in this instance mom was sort of attractive and you drank a lot together... on second thought, abandon that comparison.

 

"Hey commander! I don't suppose you called us all in for a game of cards?" she looks over to the bartender, and motions him over to the table to drop off a drink. Boy was she thirsty, "I got a little sidetracked on my way here... you know how I can be. Did I miss anything good?" Birdie slowly sunk into a chair, upon noticing the tone of the table wasn't quite as chipper as she usually was... well at least she made it here, anyway.

[Makο]

Space is quiet. Mostly because space doesn't have a form of medium for sound to travel through; should space have been filled with water, or air, you could hear sound. Honestly, it makes one think; what if space had been filled with water? Space whales would make a lot more sense, had space whales actually existed. But then again, normal whales still need water, so-



Regardless of this, space was normally less quiet, as Kyy found himself thinking.
 Even in a low-escape orbit, one would expect to hear the low-humming of the engines or the chatter of other crew members. Though, it certainly didn't help that the rest of the was down on the planet doing... who knows what. What happens off the Red Witch typically isn't Kyy's concern; how it usually goes is that they arrive to somewhere, do something, then the boss-lady Hanna starts yelling at him until he shows up to pick her and the others up. In fact, he expected it her to go through the standard routine within the hour. And-

 

"..."

 

Ok, it actually is too quiet. Kyy proc'd his communicator whilst staring out the cockpit into the upper-most atmosphere, setting it to all channels; it runs the risk of the rest of the team hearing his conversation, but he never knows what specific channel his brother sets his communicator to every day, so it's just easier.

 

"Kokko, I don't think I hear the engine running. Are you letting it run cool, veli?"

 

A few moments passed in the silence, twiddling his thumbs in the meantime. Soon enough, Kyy could hear the sounds of banging metal and shuffling. Soon enough...

 

"Dah? Oh, yes. I cut the power at the moment so I could rejigger the un-jiggered coolant pipe that keeps coming loose. It's too cold down here otherwise."

 

"Fair, but pyydän, move quickly. If Hanna comes on and the engines aren't running hot, I'm blaming this all on you, you know."

 

"Dah, dah, dah..."

 

The shuffling noises came back as Kokko seemed to squeeze back into whatever cold, damp hole he crawled out of; it's just one of those engineer things, it would seem. Or at least, Kyy hoped he wasn't in uniform when doing that. It'd end up covered in grime and goop by then end, and they were running out of their specialty detergent that keeps them vibrate and beautiful.

 

The showman in you never dies, they say.

[bury the year]

Hanna grimaced as the cadre arrived. She had hoped the crew would filter in one by one to the saloon to avoid conspicuousness, but the fact that they had barged all in at once threw that desire out the window. AXLE nearly ripped the door off its hinge- correction, he did. (Another thing to throw on the crew’s tab.) Birdie came spinning in much like a tornado, brandishing a deck of cards and insisting while they play; while Nils was loudly complaining about the lack of lizards on the Red Witch. Only Aadil had any respect for the quiet she really needed.

 

Her only response was the sour gaze that told everyone to sit down and shut up. Normally Hanna would entertain the shenanigans, at least to a degree, but right now she just wanted to get in and out. Things had been going wrong all day and she didn’t want that to continue. “Yeah, sorry, not in the mood for theatrics.” Hanna’s voice lowered conspiratorially. “We’ve a new job.”

 

She smoothed out the scrap of paper sitting on the table and positioned it so that everyone else could see. “I don’t think y’all remember when we were last on Willow, but while everyone was out drinking” - and a pointed stare was shot at a few members of the team - “I hit up an old contact. Turns out there’s an wreck site at the bottom of Kite’s Crevasse about 500 kilos away that’s been surprisingly untouched. I suspect it’s just accessibility issues, and from what I’ve heard it’s blocked by a high ridge, so locals haven’t readily accessed it. Plus, there’s the fact that the crevasse is deep. Very deep.”

 

“It goes without stating that there’s danger inherent,” Hanna continued, “but I didn’t hire you because I didn’t think you weren’t capable. We leave as soon as we have a consensus, so I hope you took care of all the business you needed to.” This was followed with a disapproving glare at Nils.

 

She looked over her shoulder, and a few of the unfamiliar faces looked back. They were staring intently at her table, and a few hands were twitching towards what she intuited were hidden weapons.

 

Great. They had just finished repaying the owner for the bulletholes from the last shootout the crew was caught in. The last thing Hanna needed was to repeat that all.

 

She finished with “I suggest speak now or forever hold your peace.” They’d have to move fast.

[a coffee]

As was expected by the chipper scout, the table was not as eager to play cards as she was; she was pretty used to this kind of bummer. The crew tended to be kind of serious, especially when there's something going on. According to the commander, there was a new job! Birdie's body perked up a tad; he focus momentarily frozen on to Hanna's words; normally it would stay this way, except there wasn't something quite right about the room around her. The bartender was still stroking his glass awfully nervously, even though AXLE had clearly meant no harm; surely he wasn't this afraid of something that wasn't even approaching him? Birdie's attention started to wander, simply nodding her head every now and again to give the idea that she was still listening and fully wired into the specifics. As she scanned the room she happened to come upon a group in the back and, what would you know, they looked pretty nervous as well... only they looked a little different. One of them kept quickly reaching towards the table, and then tensing his hand; the motion was a little paranoid, as if he was ready to put that hand into action any second.

 

"Commander..." Birdie tried to interrupt the commander, but she seemed very intent on continuing the details of her mission.

 

" Turns out there’s an wreck site at the bottom of Kite’s Crevasse about 500 kilos away that’s been surprisingly untouched."

 

Birdie continued to analyze the group standing at the table that was clearly far too busy staring Hanna down to notice her eyeing them down. It was hard to tell whether or not they were armed, but even if they weren’t, they were acting strangely, and that gave Birdie the heebie jeebies. The raging paranoid inside of her was not happy with the clientele just staring down Hanna, as if someone couldn’t see them doing it.

 

“It goes without stating that there’s danger inherent,”  The commander continued, almost as if she had ignored Birdie entirely; this wasn’t normally surprising, but surely someone other than her had to notice the group in the back? The bartender appeared to...

 

“Right, but Commander I really think” Birdie kept trying to butt into the conversation to warn the table of the situation, but they hadn’t gotten aggressive yet, and she didn’t want to rudely interrupt.

 

“so I hope you took care of all the business you needed to.” The commander had finally finished saying whatever it was that she was saying, and began to look back to the group Birdie had been nervously focused on; she turned back around, and addressed the table one last time, now appearing to understand the situation.

 

“I suggest speak now or forever hold your peace.” Birdie didn’t have much of an issue with speaking now; she had waited what seemed like an eternity to do so:

 

“Sounds like a great idea Commander, but I think that perhaps we should deal with the group behind us staring you down?” Birdie whispered real quiet-like to the commander, trying to make sure the table to could hear her without drawing any real attention to the group… well more than she already had drawn with her request for card games. That reminded her! Couldn’t leave those behind... Birdie slowly slipped her deck of cards back into the side pocket of her pants, where she always kept them. She waited for the next move, hoping she would have time to react accordingly to any potential firefight; this was always her least favorite part of working for Red Dust, but it was a part of the job.

 

[Shradow]

"You can count on me, commander. These old' bones have still got some life left in 'em. I just got done with the repairs on my baby here, and I'm ready to go anytime." AXLE unstrapped Gáe Bolg from his back and brandished it in front of him, and the unsuspecting patron that he happened to harmlessly point it at spilled his drink in surprise and ducked under the table. AXLE let out a quick "Oops." and set his weapon on the ground facing downwards, resting his elbow on the handle. "And nothin' bad ever happens in deep, dark holes in the ground filled with loot, right?"

 

As the commander glanced over her shoulder again and Birdie's nervous chattering became more apparent, AXLE noticed the rather unsavory bunch of characters eyeing up their group from across the way. "Well, now. What have we here? What's the call, commander, fight or flight?" AXLE paused to crack his knuckles, and the sound was a bit creakier and metallic than when most people did it, making it an even more intimidating action. "You know which one I'm usually up for, and it looks these young'uns are just rarin' to go. And somethin' tells me they won't just up and let us walk outta here without so much as a peep. You say 'hold your peace' but I don't think we have that option here. We might soon be payin' for more damages than just the door! Hahahaha!" AXLE let out a hearty laugh loud enough to get the attention of everyone else in the room, and it spurred the suspicious patrons to further tense up.

[a bad post]

A strong rebuttal from the commander let Nils know that their attempt at lightening the mood was less than appreciated, in fact it seemed that the commander's mood had soured even more if that was even possible. 

 

Leaning in to view the paper better, as well as hear what Hanna had to say Nils listened intently to the details of their newest job, however her glare in Nils' direction what not lost on them. Ouch. Nils thought visibly flinching at the commander's vote of no confidence in them.

 

"You know," Nils said not meeting Hanna's intimidating gaze,"I basically keep all of my equipment on me. As long as we're not hauling anything too big I'm ready an raring to go." Picking at the hem of their tank top Nils leaned back in the old wooden chair, a visibly uncomfortable look on their face, however thankfully the tension of the moment was quickly relieved by AXLE.

 

"Easy there big guy," Nils said giggling while patting the massive android's thick arm. The tension soon returned to the room however as the group's attention was brought to the rather shady looking characters who seemed to be sending them shifty looks. "Didn't we just finish off paying for all the damages we did last time we were here..." Nils said quietly, the uncomfortable look returning again to their face.  

[Timeskipper]

Aadil was already shrinking behind the group, nervous at the prospect of a possible shootout.

 

"Guys...", he whispered, "Are you sure we can't just walk out of the bar, get back to the Witch and go to this crash site?"

 

He had been in similar situations before, and he knew it was likely his optimistic prediction would not come true. He too had noticed, after Birdie had pointed it out, that there was indeed a group eyeing them shadily.

And so, despite his words, he got ready for the inevitable shooting match to break out, extracting his gun as discreetly as possible and loading a smoke cartridge.

The gun made a loud clack as he released the loading mechanism...

[bury the year]

Hanna looked at the uneasy expressions on her crew members’ faces. Birdy was easy enough to read - her dial was always sent to “twitch,” after all - but even AXLE seemed to be nervous. And when a robot expressed unease, you knew something was off. He swung that big old axe of his around and almost lopped the nose off of one of the few sober townsfolk in the saloon, causing Hanna to groan in irritation. Aadil, however, was the twitchiest of them all, and as Hanna could see him (loudly) click a clip into place on his adapted medgun, that was all the provocation her hooligan friends needed.

 

The five outlaws behind the crew snapped to attention. One of them, a lanky man with five days’ stubble, swung out what looked like an antique revolver and fired a single warning shot over her head. All sound evaporated from the room. Hanna grinned.

 

“So that’s how ya wanna dance, string bean?” In a single practiced maneuver, she withdrew her pistol, aimed and fired a single shot right into his right kneecap. The thug’s face erupted in pain and he toppled, hitting the ground with a “crack!”

 

And then chaos.

 

Those without weapons in the bar dropped behind any cover they could find as bullets started to whizz through the air. Before they could, Hanna sprung and almost bodily knocked the carrot-haired waitress - who was just coming out with drinks - back behind the bar from whence she came. The two women went down in a rain of beer and glass shards.

 

The commander stopped her fall, her hands bracing either side of the obviously-spooked waitress. “So,” Hanna said calmly, looking down at her nametag. “Liese. These are the thugs I’ve heard y’all been talking ‘bout, yes? Well, since OEC won’t come clear them out, consider the Red Witch to having performed a civic duty. Just… try to stay low, okay?”

 

Liese was about to speak in protest, but Hanna coyly shushed her with a single finger brushing over her lips. “Not now, sweetheart. We can chat later if you’d like.”

 

Turning back towards the now-frenetic saloon floor, she undid the harness on her shotgun and leveled it over the bar, aiming for the largest of the hooligan group. The man was a known outlaw and bandit, one who the waitress had previously spoken of to Hanna in fearful tones. If she could take out a criminal and instill the fear of God into the hearts of bad men and drunkards… well, she’d call the fight a victory.

 

Hopefully the Tostensson twins were preparing extraction as she spoke.

[a coffee]

Birdie had gone largely ignored amongst the conversation, something she had been sort of used to by now. However, it appeared as if one thing was agreed upon: it was time to kick some bad guy booty!

The second Hanna unloaded a clip into the main thugs knee and bolted for that waitress, Birdie threw the table to the ground, grabbed Aadil by the scruff of his neck, and brought him down behind her makeshift cover with her.

"Boy, I thought we'd never start the action! Don't worry Doc, I'll keep you safe!" Birdie pecked Aadil on the cheek with a small kiss. Next was the unlocking of the safety of her gun and a giggle as she came up above cover and pressed down on the trigger 3 times in rapid succession. Her generally good marksmanship, combined with the power of her carbine from such a short range, plugged the shoulder of one of the opposing thugs and set him back hard against the wall, resulting in a sizeable crack in the wall itself, and certainly the falling of any paintings of decor that littered the wall behind him.

 

Wasting no time at all, Birdie sunk behind cover before the opposing forces would have had any real time to react, unless one of them was waiting for her to come up the first time, anyway. Birdie curled her bottom lip and blew the bangs in front of her nose up and to the top of her head, giggling again.

 

“This is fun an’ all Hanna, but I would have had a lot more fun with some 5 card!” Birdie shouted across the bar to wherever Hanna ended up. Birdie counted in her head, waiting for the next most opportune moment to go above the table and let it rip again. By their positioning, she figured only a few moments would do the trick; these guys hardly looked like they expected the crew to fire back.

[Makο]

"All I'm saying is, it should be one man and one woman when it comes to raising children. To be properly integrated into society, children need a father figure and a mother figure, and no same-sex couple can provide the sort of support a sexually dimorphic species like our own requires. That's how it's worked for hundreds of thousands of years!"

 

"That's no argument; there is no difference between children raised by gay or lesbian couples and one by straight couples! In fact, some folk say that couples raised by homosexual couples are better off than straight ones. That sort of repressive ideal you're spouting should've been stomped out several hundred years ago."

 

"Oh? If they're so well off, than why are the vast majority of couples nowadays straight? And when I say vast, I mean in the upper 98%! Even after hundreds of years of this, this ratio is STILL the case. So well off, huh? It's almost like, in a sexually dimorphic species, a single man and a single woman is the right way to go about this."

 

"All this talk about sexual dimorphism is a painfully obvious fallacy of nature. Is that all you have to go on?"

 

"Fallacy of nature? Houkka! What does that even-"

 

From the headsets they were both wearing, a loud shot rang out, causing the startled Kokko to fall off the pipe he had been hanging on to upside-down in the engine room, missing part of the engine block by inches as he fell to the floor. Kyy, who had been talking to him in the same room, similarly stumbled, before giving Kyy a look. During the course of their conversation, they hadn't really been paying any attention to any other radio chatter, with this giving them both quite the shock.

 

"Did... you...?"

 

"Was that...?"

 

Three other shots in rapid succession blasted through their headset again, one after the other. From the sound of it, all three were from the same gun. Birdie's.

 

"Paska."

 

Kyy ran to the engine room door, throwing the heavy steel door open as quickly as he could, bolting out into the hallway towards the bridge. Kokko scrambled to his feet, almost sprinting to the far side of the engine room and inserting the engine key he kept on his belt into the main console. Giant turbines began to spin, and valves began to open within the Red Witch as the engine began to fire up.

 

"I should've expected it, really. Really! Confrontational, the whole lot of them. Those lunatics are trigger happy, I'm telling you."

 

"No more than you, I might add. Last time you got into a 'scuffle', you ran through a weeks worth of ammunition in 8 minutes! We ration for a reason, you know."

 

Kyy ran into the bridge and hopped into the left-sidepilot's chair, flipping up an entire panel's worth of switches to the "on" position. Various screens, panels, and lights began to light and flash throughout the cockpit, with various holographic gauges and meters appearing on the windshield. With a grunt, he leaned over to the far most right panel on the right side of the bridge, turning a few select switches to on before leaning back and gripping the control stick.

 

"Any day now, really. I told you we should have been running hot for this."

 

"I'm working on it!"

 

"Also, you do know that the first to resort to insults in a debate loses, right?"

 

"Turpa kiini!"

 

Back inside the engine room, Kokko himself had been bouncing between various levers and gauges, trying to achieve the perfect fuel injection ratio, turbine speed, coolant levels, making sure nothing jams, and a number of other things a layman would struggle to understand. The turbine was running, but its speed was lacking at best. Kokko poured over the panels once again, trying to find any discrepancies from his standard startup routine. Unfortunately, there didn't appear to be any. With a turbine running at this speed, they wouldn't even be able to achieve minimum thrust, let alone go down to evacuate the rest of the crew in time. He-

 

"...Oh."

 

He yanked back a lever located right next to the engine block, labeled "parking brake." Within moments, the turbine increased speed by a factor of 10, and the normally bluish grey room began to glow a burning orange-ish red. With it came a temperature spike that left him with a drop of sweat almost immediately. Re-checking the coolant gauge one last time, he pushed open the engine room door before it got too hot and locked it behind him with a magnetic seal. Kyy, meanwhile, noticed he had regained engine pressure and set the throttle to full almost immediately. The large vessel shuddered violently initially, before smoothing out beginning the move forward. With it being space and all, with maximum engine pressure, it didn't take long before their low orbit location swiftly became atmospheric, as they headed down through the clouds to the rendezvous point. Kokko eventually joined Kyy in the bridge, taking a seat in the right seat and breathing a deep sigh of relief.

 

"I'll give you one thing; polygamy just seems absolutely unnecessary. It never works. Plus, it's gross."

 

"I don't know. It just seems unsanitary."

[Timeskipper]

The good doctor was cowering behind the table, clutching his gun, while all around, the air was getting far heavier - namely, full of lead.

 

Hanna was shooting from behind the cover of the counter, and Birdie was waiting for the right moment to fire. He had no idea what was of AXLE or Nils, but he had no time to ascertain their position. His heart was pounding fast: despite two years with the crew, he was still terrified around shootouts.

 

He had to help finish this, and fast.

Aadil backed down slightly and raised his head enough to take a look at the thugs' position, then immediately retreated it before they could shoot him.

They were five, and all at the same table. A single shell should be enough.

 

He muttered something to himself, then aimed the gun to make the smoke round end in the middle of the group.

Then, he pulled the trigger.

One of the thugs' surprised "What the funk?" told him his aim was right. The smoke was visibly starting to emerge from the direction he shot at. Now,it was only a matter of picking them off before they could react...

[Shradow]

AXLE was still standing as the shooting began. The commander had quickly fired back and ducked for cover, as did Birdie with the Doc in tow, leaving only Nils. "It's gonna be a bumpy ride, so buckle your seat belt!" Before Nils had a chance to protest, AXLE quickly grabbed him, hoisting him above his head before quickly launching him over the bar to safety. "Now you go ahead and take some pot shots from over there!"

 

The commander had nailed one of the thugs in the knee, and Birdie had taken another one in the shoulder, while the Doc had fired a smoke round into the enemy group, but that didn't stop any of the five from their attack. AXLE gave a quick look at Gáe Bolg before sighing. "Maybe next time. Looks like it's time for an ol' fashioned bar brawl!" There was enough lead flying through the air without AXLE adding more to the party and causing more damage, so instead he would cause damage another way and grabbed one of the tables no one was hiding behind and chucked it at the group of thugs, catching one of them square in the chest. Then he charged into the smoke, turning on his infrared sensors to clearly see through it. AXLE's metallic body combined with his heavy duty armor was more than enough to deflect any stray bullets from the third-rate guns these sort of backwater thugs carried. AXLE dove at the guy he had hit with the table, wrestling the gun from his hands before hurling him bodily into the thug the commander had shot in the knee. He had been hiding behind a table until his pal slammed into him, sending them both crashing into the lap of the thug against the wall Birdie had shot. "Ha! Two birds with one stone!"

[a bad post]

"Oh, here we go again..." Nils sighed unholstering their weapon taking cover behind the table Birdie had knocked over. Without bothering to check the position of the hooligans Nils fired 2 blind shots over the table, however the company's unruly friends returned fire, several bullets putting holes in the table. Before they could return fire though Nils felt themselves being lifted from ground.

 

"Wait! No! Put me down you big bucket- fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuckkkk!" Nils screamed as they were launched through the air crashing onto the bar before sliding off with a groan of pain. "I don't get paid enough for this sheet." 

 

Nils peeked up over the bar counter firing another two shots these hitting one of the thugs in the arm and the thigh. As this man went down a capsule was launched from the Doc's weapon, smoking pouring around the squad of thugs.

 

"Uh... boss, maybe now would be a good time to skip out of here while a few of them are down and out, and they can't see us. The twins will be here soon... hopefully... and as much fun as we're having here I'd rather not keep 'em waiting."

[bury the year]

From behind the raised wooden bar, Hanna could watch the chaos unfold from within the saloon with a perverted sense of pride. The fact that her crew was returning fire with such skill meant that they had been keeping up with her in the gunslinging department.

 

Lies was huddled on the floor, but she wasn’t cowering. It was abundantly clear that she’d been in this sort of circumstance before. She was at least smart enough to keep any extremities away from the bar’s lip, lest they catch a stray bullet. Hanna gave her a quick “We’ll be out of here soon,” and turned her attention back over the counter. Her shotgun was following the battle as closely as it can, but it was hard for her to lock on. This was made even more difficult by AXLE suddenly deciding that a better place for Nils was on the opposite side of the room, picking the now-panicking person up and throwing them right next to Hanna.

 

Hanna didn’t even bother to glance over at the new arrival. “Yeah, I think we might’ve overstayed our welcome.” She grinned. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t help pay the tab.”

 

With a good line of fire finally presenting itself on the largest of the bunch, Hanna inhaled, and as she breathed out pulled the trigger. The shotgun bucked and a bloody hole opened up on the man’s stomach, sending him flying back and crashing into the wall behind him, where he now laid prone. She smiled wryly. It always stunned her a bit just how much force Quicksilver could fit into a gun like this: her pistol could do enough damage, but a shotgun was when she needed to put down a dog or two.

 

“Ky, Kokko, please tell me you guys are en route!” Hanna stage-yelled into her mic, enough to be heard over the din.

 

Liese was now shaking a bit more. Shame. Looked like she wouldn’t be getting her number after all.

[Makο]

Christopher Lennertz - Fleet Battle

 

"We're... working on it!"

 

Through the noise of atmospheric interference, rumble of the engines, and various bridge monitors beeping, the consistent dull thudding of cannon fire sounded from the mid-point of the vessel. The rhythmic noise was Kokko, having abandoned his engineering duties and taken up the upper-most defense cannon, lobbing gauss rounds towards two enemy fighter craft that were in the midst of strafing the Red Witch. Cannon shots and incoming missiles impacted on the Witch's surface, though the impact was softened by the EMKD unit onboard. Regardless, the impacts caused Kyy to lurch forward in his bridge, with Kokko letting loose a stream of profanity as he attempted to return fire.

 

"P-paska! We have two bogies on us, and are trying to shake them off! Who the hell did you piss off?"

 

By the looks of it, the two aircraft were 3ME-223s, small interceptors typically used to scout out various salvaging or mining hotspots. However, when armed with cannons and missiles, they turn into a cheap and fairly effective form fighter craft, and despite their inherent clunky nature, they were soundly avoiding Kokko's attempted return fire. As they strafed the Witch again, with one shot breaking past the EMKD and into the hull, Kokko's frustration bubbled over again.

 

"Sillä helvetti! This is why I hate gunning! I can't seem to hit anything with this!"

 

"I told you to lead your target! If you aim at them, you'll just end up shooting past them!"

 

"Why is this so needlessly complicated?"

 

The situation as it stood had the Red Witch attempting to make an approach at the bar, though unable to start a safe landing approach due to the two interceptors following them. To prevent them from getting under the Witch's blindspot, Kyy had been pulling some... reckless maneuvers, in an attempt to give Kokko the shot he desperately needed. Despite his efforts, the interceptors proved to be more than tricky. A change in tactics was needed.

 

As the three vessels broke through the cloud layer, Kyy began to look over his console for anything that might give him the inspiration they needed to gain the upper hand on the quick dodging fighter craft, with Kokko being the terrible shot that he is. Scanning the left side, he noticed a small red button that had been there for ages, though rarely pressed. Inspiration dawned upon Kyy in that moment, getting back on comms.

 

"Kokko, you remember those flares we have but never used?"

 

"You mean the ones you installed, not knowing that they're useless against modern missiles? Should you really be distracting me like this?"

 

"Shut up. It's likely that one of them will break left, so aim that way first!"

 

"Wait, what do you-"

 

"Just do it!"

 

Sufficiently shut up, Kokko did what he was told and stopped firing, instead aiming left of the Red Witch, despite the absence of enemies there. The two interceptors noticed this, now acting cautious, pulling up behind the Red Witch into her blindspot. Having anticipated this, Kyy took this opportunity to pull up hard, causing the entire frame of the Witch to rattle against the wind and g-forces. The interceptors followed, and appeared to be lining up a shot against the vessel's engines to disable it. In their concentration, Kyy pressed that little run button on the dash, and out from the aft-end of the vessel shot an entire volley of angel flares, filling the sky with bright yellow lights. Noticeably startled, as indicated by the shaky maneuvering of the two interceptors, they both banked in the opposite direction of one another, with one going right, and the other...

 

Left.

 

"Die!"

 

Being noticeably faster than the Red Witch, the left interceptor had pulled directly into range of Kokko's cannon. Pulling the trigger, the 120mm gauss cannon rounds careened into the interceptor, with it lacking any sort of meaningful defense due to the size required for EMKDs. The rounds impacted with such a force that it took only three to cause the vessel to break apart into pieces, ripping the hull in half and causing it to tumble towards in earth in the form of a fireball. With an exuberant yelp, Kokko had just begun to line up his next shot against the surviving fighter until...

 

"Good shot, Kokko! Except... I'm losing engine power here. Can you see anything out there?"

 

From the view finder of the turret, Kokko looked around, and noticed two things. For one, there was a rage-filled second interceptor on a direct course towards them, with full intent to murder. And second, one of the engines seemed to be belching smoke, with the occasional metal piece flying off.

 

"Paska! Number 2's been hit, and it looks bad. I need to go tend to it, or else we're dropping out of the sky like a rock!"

 

"Wait, but- oh, for crying out loud."

 

So much for a safe approach. Kyy got into the comms with Hanna.

 

"We're making an approach now, and we're coming in hot. Engine 2's been hit, and we've only managed to get one of the interceptor's off us. You'd better have someone ready to start shooting once we get there!"

 

 

Streaking through the sky towards the bar, the Red Witch continued to smoke as Kyy attempted in vain to avoid incoming interceptor fire. However, the vessel was a tough old bird, and managed to hold under the pressure of the moment. Landing as close to the bar as it possibly could–though "landing" might be a bit generous–, the door closest to the bar slide open, with a small ramp lowering itself to the dirt. Kyy got back onto the comms.

 

"Bus is here! Pile in, kiddies!"

 

The interceptor made another run, lobbing cannon shells into the dirt around the bar.

[Shradow]

AXLE had picked up one of the thugs and was smacking him around a little, and as he did he heard a large amount of noise coming from outside the bar. Soon after, Kyy spoke up over the comms, "Bus is here! Pile in, kiddies!"

 

"Righty-o, ya don't have to tell me twice! I'm not really a fan o' this place's food, anyhow." AXLE dropped the now unconscious man onto a nearby table as he exited the bar, grabbing his precious Gáe Bolg as he went. In a bit of a hurry to leave, obviously, he accidentally broke the other door at the entrance upon leaving. Just as he did, nearby cannon fire sent him ducking for cover. "Seems we weren't the only ones havin' a bit o' fun on our end." As AXLE got up and dusted himself off on his way to the Red Witch, he spied the interceptor as it attacked. Unfortunately his mortar shot had no homing capabilities, so there wasn't much he'd be able to do on foot against such a speedy aircraft. Nonetheless, he worked his way to the ship's entrance ramp and began laying down covering fire at the interceptor with Gáe Bolg's machine gun fire. A couple shots aimed at the bar whizzed by, taking chunks out of the building next door. "The property value o' this place isn't lookin' too good. Ok, everyone, best hurry up and get to the ship, pronto!"

 

He turned his attention inside the ship. "Kyy, Kokko, how's she farin'? Looks like ya had a spot o' trouble!"

[Makο]

The sounds of a strafing interceptor and the sputter of a damaged engine filled the bridge of the Red Witch, with Kyy frantically trying to redirect power to protect vulnerable locations, especially where the EMKD lacks. At the same time, he was attempting to divert energy flow away from the damaged engine to make Kokko's life a bit easier. As his comm. unit sparked to life, he jumped in his chair, startled out of his pilot's trance.

"Kyy, Kokko, how's she farin'? Looks like ya had a spot o' trouble!"

With a sigh, being instinctively irritated with having his trance broken, he flipped on his own comms.

"Oh, peachy. Filled with holes, no turret gunner, some kusipää pilot's got it out for us, and–” He flipped Kokko's channel to send and receive, "How're YOU faring, Kokko?"

The heavy breathing of the respirator on his EvPr suit suddenly filled the comms, along with the high-pitched whirring of machinery and the clanking of metal. Without that suit, Kokko would be fried alive by the intense heat of the engine room. He coughed once, with some of the heat and exhaust still getting through.

"You're–cough–you're in luck! I've prevented a catastrophic engine detonation twice now. I'm still trying to–oh, wait, hold on.” The sounds of clanking and grunting filled the comms, along with a small assortment of unintelligible swears. ”Three. Make that three times. I've managed to bypass the penetration point in the engine block, so it should be stabilizing soon. But this engine was already in bad shape, and taking fire like this won't make anything better. One more good shot and you can kiss our asses goodbye.”

As Kokko's channel devolved into a coughing fit amongst swearing, Kyy flipped it off, readjusting his energy and fuel bypasses to fit his brother's new progress, and turned his input back on for AXLE.

"Like I said, just peachy." The sounds of cannon fire being deflected by the EMKD filled the cockpit, causing Kyy to shudder. "We'd be in even BETTER shape if SOMEONE could get on the TURRET, and SH- ahem, deal with this interloper of ours, if someone would.”

Losing ones cool never looked good.

[a coffee]

Birdie had sat there, content with how the impromptu battle had fared thus far, choosing to instead scan the room for any other potential danger instead of reengaging the enemy. It was then that she had noticed that a man was lurking slowly behind the bar towards where Hanna was. She had been quite obviously occupied by something else; she wasn't even firing in his direction! Closing her eyes for but a brief moment to once again picture every orifice of the room and what it was filled by, Birdie quickly designed a path for herself towards the bar where her loyal commander was stationed.

 

"1...2..3!" Birdie made a mad dash towards the bar counter, using the stool as a step up to the top of the bar, which she would launch off of, extracting her knife on the way towards the assailant. He was quite obviously caught off guard by the hurtling woman, as he did not even have a chance to pull his weapon towards her by the time Birdie had sunk her knife deep into the man's neck, sending a rather gruesome array of crimson along the back of the bar, and most certainly slightly on to the legs of the woman Hanna had been talking to. Birdie came crashing on to the ground with her newly crafted cadaver, and looked over towards the commander, "Don't worry Commander, I've got your ba-" It was about then that she had noticed that Hanna was protecting another woman! Birdie sat up straight, placing her hands on her hips, "Well, haven't you just picked a fine time for a rendezvous! I suppose this woman can plug a baddie from a few miles out too, hmm?" Birdie sucked her teeth indignantly and sheathed her knife before the bar started to shake ever so slightly from the vibrations of the engines from the Red Witch being so close.

 

"Sounds like our ride is here! Hope you guys can find a way to put this on our tab!" Birdie peaked her head above the counter quickly to examine the situation; it appeared the mixture of gas canisters and Axle's wrestling display had created more than enough of a diversion for her to get out and on to the ship on time. Birdie patted Nils on the shoulder and waved over to Aadil, "Hey gang the ride is here! It's time to G O GO!"

 

With that, Birdie scooted out of the saloon as quickly as she could, using the now completely open door created by her good buddy robot, not missing the sight of a large, presumably angry ship looming over their own, slightly more humble one.

 

"Boy, looks like you boys have been having more fun than I did! We're gonna have to change that when we get out of here!" Birdie quickly put her battle gear down and in a corner, in the event that she would have to quickly transition to something else, "Speaking of, you planning on getting us out of here?!" Birdie exclaimed as she braced herself against the wall in response to the massive shake created by being fired upon. Whoever these guys were, she did not like their attitude!

[Timeskipper]

The doctor crawled behind his cover as the whistle of bullets flying past him quickly eroded what self control he had still left since the shooting began. The thugs were disorganized and didn't know where they were, but hadn't stopped firing as he hoped, and with every second he was growing increasingly afraid that one bullet might actually end up piercing the table and hitting him.
 
He had heard some screams suggesting at least two of the gangsters were dead, but he didn't dare peek to check, until Kyy's voice resounded over the comm: "Bus is here! Pile in, kiddies!"

Finally, he thought. He was about to reply, when a loud crashing noise came from the door. His surprise and curiosity overwhelming his fear for a second, he peered over the table and saw that AXLE had just exited through the door. Literally. He was about to get up and make a run for it, when he noticed Birdie had preceded him. The captain was still behind the counter, and he couldn't see where Nils was.

 

While he felt kinda bad at running away before Nils and the captain, the order was to retreat, and both his better judgement and his common sense were quite concordantly shouting in his ears to get the f*** out of that bar.
He was just about to do that, when he noticed a last thug, having just regained his wits after a metallic left hook from AXLE and a lungful of chemical smoke, turning to the standing idiot just behind that table and reaching to point his gun at him.

 

Without even thinking, the doctor reloaded a nail gun and shot the thug somewhere in the arm, nailing him to the wall behind him. The thug was stunned for a second, then turned, saw his arm nailed to the wall, screamed and quickly passed out.

 

Yeah, not staying around to get shot. Get the hell out, doc, he told himself, and scrambled for the door.

Unfortunately, what he found outside wasn't much comforting.

An eardrum-busting noise assailed his ears as soon as he left the bar: a colonial interceptor was charging the Witch from above. What the hell had happened?
 

"Hey... gang... I'm here...", he uttered as soon as he had climbed the ramp, panting after the adrenalin-fueled sprint out of the bar.

 

"What happened? What's an interceptor doing up there?"

[bury the year]

The comm earpiece buzzed to life as Hanna was reloading, which startled her and almost made her drop a shell.

"Bus is here! Pile in, kiddies!"

“Thank God,” the commander muttered. Not planning on using the shotgun again in the fight, she swung it onto her back again and readied her pistol. Peeking up over the bar, Hanna saw that the only remaining member of the team still inside was Nils, who had been thrown over the bar by AXLE a minute ago and was currently calming down Liese.

“Sorry, loves!” She grabbed Nils’ wrist roughly, jolting them out of the cowering Liese’s way, “but our ride’s here. Liese, I’ll drop by with the tab later and money to cover the damages. But for now I bid you adieu!” Checking to see the coast was clear, and sniping the last remaining bandit in the shoulder when he made to draw a gun on them, the two remaining members of the crew ran-stumbled out of the saloon.

The Red Witch had rather bumpily landed, the welcome ramp extending out to meet them. AXLE looked up at the interceptor circling overhead, a detail that gave Nils pause. They pulled on Hanna’s hand, causing her to stop for a moment, then muttering under their breath pulled out the grappling gun and began to wrap something around it.

“What are you doing?” Hanna was puzzled, to say the least.

Nils smiled coyly in response. “Why don’t I just show you?” They raised the grappling gun and whip-fired it. With a resounding “bang!” the hook and duct-taped explosives arced up and landed on a support strut on the intercept, hooking firmly into place. Hanna understood now: if the propulsion mechanism could propel a human, some lightweight C4 could easily be guided by the device.

While it was loud outside, the only sound Hanna could now hear was a faint ticking. Gulping, she withdrew her combat knife and cut the rope on the gun, Nils protesting suddenly in surprise. “Clever. Now let’s not stick around!” Hanna was secretly incredibly impressed by her teammate's aim, but no time to dwell. She grabbed her crewmate’s wrist again and dashed to the hatch. They had only made it inside when an shattering “boom!” and a flash of heat filled the area.

Hanna slipped down against the wall, sweating badly from even the short time outside.

"What happened? What's an interceptor doing up there?"

“I… don’t know,” Hanna admitted, responding to Aadil’s question as the hatch closed. A bit exhausted and her facade of implacability slipping. “Didn’t think they’d want to trail someone like us.” As if there wasn’t enough bad new for her yet, though, a clacking whirr took her attention. She looked over Kokko’s shoulder at the main display screen, and her heart sank a bit more.

Against all odds, the interceptor was still airborne, albeit barely. “S***.” Hanna quickly eyeballed the rest of the assembled crew. “Someone get to the turret or something and take that thing down, so we can finally get out of here!”

[bury the year]

A number of hours (and one ship downed offscreen) later...

 

The interceptor was taken down in short form, but the time it took to land the final blow and send the ship spiraling to the ground was still too long for Hanna's taste. She was sure OEC wasn't going to get off their tail that easily, but right now they were going far enough off plotted space on Vitex that it wouldn't be easy for their pursuers to pick up the trail again. Which would make their current task just a mite easier.

 

Hanna looked over their pilot's shoulder as she pointed with her finger at the main viewscreen, jabbing back and forth between the landscape before her and the schematic map crudely drawn on the parchment. It was what she had wanted to show the team at the Blue Agave, but the impromptu gunfight had shelved those plans. Until now.

 

The Red Witch was about to land on a shelf elevated over a deep crevasse. It gouged into the baked clay of Vitexian earth like a knife scar, at the bottom of which laid the OSS Dos Santos. The massive transport ship had fallen during a battle in the La Platan War of Independence, shelled until she just couldn't remain airborne. Although many similar wrecks on Vitex had already succumbed to scavenging operations, Dos Santos had so far been left mostly untouched. Hanna knew of two reasons for this. One: it was so far out of the way from civilization that many didn't find it worth the effort. The fact that the crew had already made it to the crash site struck that reason off.

 

Two: it was haunted. Or at least supposedly. Hanna had heard tales of prospectors in the saloons and lodging houses who'd gone out to Dos Santos but were rebuffed by spectral fire, or bizarre static that overcame their comms systems and messed up navigation. It must've just been superstition regarding what was regarded as the most deadly crash in all of the La Platan conflict, but Hanna wasn't one to let superstition get in the way of profit.

 

"Kokko, bring 'er down." Hanna motioned to the twin to bring the Red Witch down as the other crewmembers emerged and gathered on the bridge. She eyed them all before speaking: it was circumstances like these in which Hanna truly felt in her element as a leader. "Welcome, y'all, to Kite's Crevasse. Birdie, Nils and AXLE, kindly go prep the transports with the heavy scrapping tools. Ky, prepare the extractor winch: we're not gonna be bringing this girl up in one piece if at all. Aadil, you can help me with arms and small supplies. And Kokko... keep doing what you're doing. We'll meet up outside to prepare descent in 45 minutes, but don't use that as an excuse to dally." The sun was starting to set over the horizon. They'd have to move fast to keep daylight on their side.

 

"You're dismissed. Now get going!" She watched the crew scatter before grabbing Aadil's arm and marching him towards the armory. "And I need your expertise, Aadil, before you ask."