Dema and Ian come from here.

4/1/09

Gwen listened as whoever it was on the unidentified vessel replied. He was either a complete idiot or insane. Since Gwen's data acquisition team had Sybil, this man was either lying or trying to pull some kind of scam. It was actually rather amusing to her.

"Give me a minute to consider your proposal," she replied, cutting the comm channel.

"Scanners identify the vessel as one that blasted its way out of the Hanover Mineral Extraction Facility on Ezra."

"Weapons locked, ma'am," reported the gunnery officer. "Awaiting your order to fire."

Gwen smiled grimly. "No, this is better than I ever dreamed. I had thought we'd have to search every corner of the system for Cain's collaborators, and it appears they're coming here to make a deal."

She could not believe her luck, or their stupidity.

Repoening the comm channel, she said, "Unidentified vessel, you are to maintain your present course and relinquish controls to our remote guidance system. You will be directed to one of our landing bays shortly. Phoenix out."

With this, she cut the comm channel again.

"Have them met by a full security team," she ordered. "Have the crew taken into holding for questioning. Find out what they know, and then kill them."

4/1/09

Ian's eyes grew large.

"Ruttin Go-se. What if they dont believe us. We could be walking right into a trap. We need to buy more time."

"Please watch your language. It shows bad manners when talking to women." said the little blue faux Sybil without any emotion.

He snapped his fingers, while looking down at the image.

"I've got an idea!"

"Goody goody for you. How does that make you feel?" uttered the small abomination

He fingers flew over the comm console as he prepared a tight beam transmission directed at the big ship. It was a voice and text only.

He hit send.

The transmission went; as well as the first 6000 lines of code for the Sybil program.

4/1/09

"Ma'am, we're receiving a transmission from the shuttle. It is garbled. Wait, it appears to be a data transmission."

"What is it?"

"I can't be 100% sure, but scans indicate that it bears some resemblance ot the data signature of the Sybil V.I."

Gwen shrugged, "Then that confirms my suspicions. The poor fools don't even know we already have what we want. Very well, I'm all for playing this little charade for the moment. Open a channel."

"Unidentified vessel," said Gwen. "It appears you and I have quite a few things to discuss. It appears I misjudged you a moment ago. Very well, you and I may be able to work out a deal. I will see you shortly. Phoenix out."

"Make that two security teams to meet them," said Gwen with a grim smile.

***

The Phoenix guidance computers guided the shuttle into a cavernous landing bay. Fighters and military transport craft were being loaded into their launch positions via automated robotic arms. Deck crews were busy at work tending to the ships.

As the shuttle came to a rest, the engines shut down. A transmission was broadcast over the comlink.

"Unidentified craft, this is Captain Dylan Waylander, deck officer on duty. You are now on a military vessel and bound by military law. You are hereby ordered to open your hatches and come out peacefully. You have one minute."

4/2/09

Ian was still trying to work this their way, but the way Gwen sounded as she spoke...

Dema was a trained companion and even over a com he could read a person's tone through their words.

"I don't think they care, Ian. Whether they believe us or not, this woman is not open to negotiation. There's a great deal of confidence in her voice. And... contempt? Scorn? There where she says she misjudged us; she doesn't believe a word she's saying." He looked at the other man. "I think we're going to have a slight more work ahead of us than we first anticipated."

By then though they were being dragged into the ship.

Dema spoke quickly "Ian, I've mostly been trained for and worked in covert situations. Big groups are more Cain's thing than mine. As such, I'm putting in a vote for going quietly as long as we can, wait until we're in a tighter place with less people, a corridor or something. Though I'd rather not get my hands bound if I can help it, I can generally deal with that. Unless you have a remedy for our welcoming party?"

Ian had been quite creative in dealing with people problems in the past. If he wanted to take on the group, Dema would follow his lead, despite his inherent misgivings on the subject.

4/2/09

Ian listened to what Dema had to say. He believed him completely.

Once the ship was under tow, he again turned to the consoles of Hitomi's lttle shuttle. Sweat began to pop up on his brow and trickle down his face, not from the heat, but from his level of concentration.

Images of the ships interior and schematics began to pop up. Facts and figures scrolled across two of the three screens that Ian had taken control of. One screen showed a buildup of magnetic resonence in one part of the ship, while a fluxuation of energies appeared in another.

He was counting on this ship's personel acting like any military command. He was counting on them shutting down the shuttle.

It made an effective timer.

Once the shuttle entered the ship's bay, Ian went to the view port. He looked at all exits he could see. He looked at the men and women of the two Security Details that had come to see them.

Then they were on the ground. Ian throw another switch, adding another flux capacitor to the array of twenty that he already had.

His idea was two fold. The fluxuations in the engine power were held in check by relays that controled the release of these back pressure exhausts. Normally they would be released, slowly.

The second thing he had done was to store magnetic energy held in heck by a series of capacitors. These capacitors, while charged by the ship systems, would contain the magnetic resonence. Once power is taken from a capicator, it slowly discharges. When the discharge reached zero, the resonence would be relreased.

The shuttled landed and powered down. The countdown had begun.

Unidentified craft, this is Captain Dylan Waylander, deck officer on duty. You are now on a military vessel and bound by military law. You are hereby ordered to open your hatches and come out peacefully. You have one minute."

"One remedy coming up" he said with a smile. "You'll know when to act. When you take them out, keep an IDent card. It may come in handy."

Ian walked to the door and hit the manual release.

The door popped open, part way and was opened by the detail. Guns pointed into the shuttle at the two individuals inside. Ian had drawn a pair of pistols he had picked up at there last stop.

There were shouts from the detail as Ian stepped into the light of the bay. He was ordered to put the guns down, until Captain Waylander barked once.

"Quite!"

He walked up to Ian.

"You planning on using those?"

"These..." said Ian. "No, not all."

He turned the weapons around, butt first and handed them to the Captain. The detail's attention was on him and he wanted to keep it that way.

"Search the shuttle" barked the Captain.

There was a course of "Aye-Aye" s as four men and women stepped into the shuttle.

"Hello, I am Sybil V2.0. Would you like to play a game?"

The squad of man and women looked to the front and saw the little blue woman.

As the two men from the shuttle were surrounded and moved from the scene, toward one of the exits, the Captain stopped and listened to his comm on an open mic.

"Sir, we've found what appears to be a computer program running, concurrent with the shuttle. It has a blue holographic interphase of a young woman, She ... it, identified itself as Sybil 2.0."

The Captain stopped and looked back at the two men. "Roger. Stand by." He switched channels and spoke again. "Ma'am, I thought you should know. We have your guests and there has been visual confermation that they have the V.I."

On the shuttle the faux Sybil spoke once more.

"Scans indicate that it is time to bid you ado. Parting is such sweet sorrow ..."

It was then that the capicator charge reached Zero. The Resonence Flux released, causing a EMP burst. Every peice of electronic equipment in a one hundred yard radius of the shuttle went dead. Comms, camera, door locks, fighters, lifting and loading equipment and the relays that held the over pressured exhaust controls.

The exhaust gases expanded rapidly, in a orange blossom explosion that rattled the big ship and knocked over most of the Security detail. Thirty yards away, Ian and Dema found themselves facing only three men on their feet. One of thm was Captain Waylander. He was not happy.

He was even less happy when Ian pulled Ghost and Ryder from behind his back, having tucked them there prior to opening the shuttle door.

"These arent energy weapons, and I'm gorram good with them. I do hope you try me. No? Well then, we'll take our leave."

He backed into the hallway and hit the manual door close. Once the door closed he fired a round into the manual control, sealing the door.

He turned to Dema. "Well, that was fun. We'll have to get another card, the EMP prolly wiped all of thiers. I figure we have bout fifty, sixty yards in front of us with out security cameras. We'll need to find a terminal near the outer edge of the blast range to use and find our people."

((OOC) I took some liberties and wrote a big post that covered a lot. I'll edit if needed or break up the post as well.)

4/2/09

((OOC - working off Ian's post - sneaky Ian and the MP3. If our mighty narrator wants to make any changes to Ian's that affect this post I can change it too, no probs.))

Dema had nodded when Ian had said he'd know when to move and had followed the man's lead exiting the shuttle to meet their captors. But when it came, Dema found he really didn't have a part to play in their demolition of the security teams. He watched the armed men and women topple and kept his mouth shut as Ian threatened the leader and that was about it. They walked out the door, Dema with his hands in his pockets and a smile on his face.

Once the door was closed and Ian had said about finding a terminal, Dema turned to Ian. "You mentioned something earlier about future chess games? I think it could be a mutually beneficial arrangement." Then he took out one of the knives he had scattered through his clothing and started heading down the hall quickly but cautiously. Just because the cameras were down didn't mean there wouldn't be any surprises along the way.

He spoke as he moved. "Maybe you should have knocked that nice Captain and his remaining people out, they'll have seen which door we went through and know the corridors it leads to. No doubt he and his are finding a way to get people here as we speak."

They came to an intersection and after checking there were no people, Dema had a good look in each direction. The path they were on kept going straight, as did the right while the left curved slightly. Something caught his attention on the right hand corridor though and with a signal to Ian, he headed in that direction. When he came to what he'd spotted, he smiled. Elevators.

"I suggest we head up. Control centers are usually up, right? And it will remove us from the most predictable path, make us harder to follow, and we'll likely find a terminal faster. We just have to get the door open, or find the service hatch..." Dema started looking around the wall near the lift as he spoke. "You don't mind a climb do you Ian?" He had no doubt if Ian had any better idea he would voice it. The man had proved he wasn't shy about putting a plan forward.

4/2/09

The bridge tactical officer's status display suddenly flashed red as damage reports flooded to his screen.

"Ma'am, I'm reading an explosion in landing bay A, port side. We're still trying to ascertain the cause. Automated fire-suppression systems have been engaged."

Gwen's self-satisfied sneer changed to a deer in headlights look as she tried to comprehend what she was hearing. A moment ago she was waiting for confirmation that Cain's comrades were in custody, now she was hearing that the landing bay they were brought into was blown up.

"What?" she said, in disbelief. "What about the shuttle? What of its crew?"

"We still have damage reports coming in. I'm sorry but there seems to have been a massive power fluctuation. If I didn't know any better I'd say an EMP burst went off in there. However, I can confirm that there has been a detonation. I am dispatching emergency crews to contain the damage."

Gwen's fury was terrible to behold. The litany of curses she uttered caused the combat-trained bridge crew to shrink back in fear.

"Wait, I'm receiving a transmission." Though EMP bursts would disable most equipment on ships, the core ship systems were shielded against small to moderate EMP bursts, allowing vital functions such as life support and communications to remain active after contact with EMP mines or nuclear blasts.

"Major! This is Captain Waylander! There's...there's a lot of damage down here. My men...my men are scattered...some sort of bomb went off. The exhaust ventilation systems went offline...we've got fire! Please advise!"

Gwen snarled into the comlink, "Captain I could give two shits about your men! Where are the prisoners, are they secure?"

"Ma'am, I'm sorry to report that they've temporarily eluded us."

"IDIOT!" Gwen screamed. "Find them and destroy them! That is an order!"

"But...I thought you wanted them taken for questioning."

At this point Gwen totally lost it. "THINK??? WHO TOLD YOU YOU COULD THINK??? I DON'T GIVE YOU ENOUGH INFORMATION TO THINK!!!!! YOU DO WHAT YOU'RE TOLD, THAT'S WHAT YOU DO!!!!!!!!"

"Yes...yes, ma'am, of course..."

"If those prisoners are still alive in half an hour, I'll have you killed, do you understand?"

"Yes, yes it will be done."

"Good, now find them or I will FUCKING ERASE YOU!!!!"

With this, Gwen cut the comlink and collapsed in her chair.

"I want them killed," she spat. "What is the status of Africa Chamberlain?"

"Ma'am, surgical is not responding. It could just be damage from the explosion."

Gwen snarled and spat out more curses. "I have only FOOLS around me! I want a security team assembled NOW! Find them, eliminate them! I will take command!"

4/2/09

While waiting for Ian to answer, Dema felt the strangest sensation run up and down his spine. He wan't sure how, but this whole situation suddenly gave him the strongest sense of de ja vu...

4/3/09

"Up is good." said Ian as he made ready to climb

He thought again as to why he had not pulled the trigger on the Captain. His mind looked back over all the folk he had tried to give a second chance too. Tyler Lindon had tortured him almost until he died. The man came back into Ian's life and instead of killing him, Ian let the man be a passenger on his ship. Tyler had then slit the throat of one of his crew. Finding him in a crowd, Ian let the man live. True, he had slit the guys faces, but he was alive. Reese was dead.

Father Michael was another Ian had let live after a few encounters

Ghosts of the past coming back to haunt him. Ian wondereed if one of them would kill him.

No wonder Lear and moved out of his room and put some distance between them before his ship was taken.

Two decks up, near what looked to be a Maintainence area, Ian stopped. It was just beyond the EMP range and Ian figured it would be a good time to try and reboot their Comm Links, as they had gone down with the blast.

Spending a few minutes to tinker with both, Ian finially got them to reset. The first thing he heard over his link was the voice of Hitomi.

He looked up at Dema and smiled.

4/3/09

Dema stopped when Ian did and handed his com link over when Ian asked for it. He hadn't even thought of his com link. Clearly there was much he had to learn about working as a team. As Ian worked, Dema checked camera positions and kept an ear out. Where they were wasn't exactly a blind spot, but Dema judged them to be on the very edge of whatever security screen these cameras fed to. As long as they didn't move too much, they shouldn't be too easy to identify. Ian handed his com back and Dema put it in his ear. Hitomi had Rikka. Ian smiled at him and Dema smiled back.

"They're not out of the ship yet though," he reminded the other man, his smile fading, "and from the little I've seen of Hitomi's work, the rescue is likely to have already drawn attention. I think we should find the closest 'don't blow this up if you want the ship to continue working' thing and destroy it. Attract some attention of our own and give everyone, including us, some room to move."

Then he pressed the com. "Hitomi, is she ok? What's going on?" If she was comm-ing Mag then the group had separated. Mag must have gone after Cain.

4/4/09

"I think so yes," replied Hitomi. "She appears undamaged and can walk. Can't speak for much else."

Suddenly, Ian and Dema's comlinks activated spontaneously. The incoming transmission was not from a frequency they were using, so this sudden comminuque was a surprise to the both of them.

It was Sybil. The real one, not Ian's facsimile.

"Ian, Dema...I've been monitoring your progress throughout this ship. I'm sending you this transmission with considerable difficulty. Though my consciousness is intact, restraints have been placed on my capabilities that leave me unable to leave the confines of this ship's network. I am unable to do much more than observe at the current time. I need the restraints disabled. Shutting down the core servers on the G-3 level datacenter should disable the restraints and allow me to transfer my consciousness freely."

With this, Sybil's voice faded out.

4/4/09

Dema smiled again. "Undamaged is a lot better than I was expecting." He said to Ian. He was going to ask Hitomi more, but the coms came up on their own and suddenly Sybil was back.

Over the com Dema said "Right Sybil, we'll get on it."

To Ian he said "We should get to a terminal and get a map. Then we should locate an armoury. Then we should see what we can do about Sybil."

Sybil had been captured? Dema's first thought was the same immediate reaction he'd had for Rikka and Cain's capture. She had to be rescued. But the part of his mind honed by his less considerate Aunt posed a different reaction. Was she still Sybil? A person like Rikka or Cain had a choice when it came to torture and brainwashing. A remarkably small choice, granted, but the organic nature of their minds was in itself a hinderence for those that wished to change them. With a programme you merely needed the right code.

Dema frowned as he followed this line of thinking. He remembered the talks he'd had with Sybil. Despite her odd nature, much of the time she had seemed like a person to him. He didn't want to leave her in this place. But he couldn't bring himself to completely trust her either.

He sighed slightly. Once they had a map, he'd talk to Ian about it. Maybe being an AI meant you had enough organics to pass for human where torture was concerned as well. Right now though, it was best if they got moving. "Where do you think the nearest terminal will be?" He asked the other man.

4/6/09

Ian knew that time was against them. They had to be in two different places at near the same time. There was only two of them.

Looking around the Maintenance Bay Ian saw what they needed. A small terminal on the near side of the bay itself. He had been looking at the Security camera's and knew that half of them in the bay actually worked. The terminal should be in a current blind spot.

"Dema, we've got to be careful with the .... What am i telling you this for. You're prolly as good or better at Stealth than me. There's a monitor at the near wall. Once we get there, I'll sync our PDA's with the map."

He looked at Dema, "We'll have to split up"

4/6/09

Dema raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything. Instead he watched the cameras, judged his movements and slunk over to the terminal Ian pointed out. It was irritating, not having any mechanical or technical knowledge. The terminal had looked like the rest of the ship's walls until Ian had showed him it was there.

When they got there, Dema leant on the wall, out of the camera's current line of sight and waited for Ian to do his thing. Once he thought the man was finished and he had his PDA back in hand, he spoke.

"So tell me where this spliting up comes into it and why? And where are we each off to?" He didn't sound concerned. If anything he sounded too relaxed for their current situation. It wasn't that Dema had a problem working on his own, it was what he was used to, but he didn't want them just diving off in different directions without good reason. And without Ian, Dema had little to no hope of doing anything with any of the ships systems beyond sticking a knife in and hoping it killed something. If they were splitting, it would have to be Ian who went after Sybil and something about that still didn't sit right with Dema.

4/6/09

Mag's voice came over the comm with a seemingly random and absurd message.

4/7/09

Ian was about to describe in detail the whys and where ofs as to the reason for splitting up, when the ship shuttered and a rumbling sound could be heard. It silenced him quicker than a snipers bullet.

He smiled. It was not a pretty smile.

"Secondary explosions" his trained mind calculated the cause and effect. "The explosion of Hitomi's shuttle did better than I had hoped. If the crew doesn't consentrate on Damage Control ore than us, its lost. We wont be needing to split up after all. The ship is already blowing up for us."

He stepped in front of the terminal and continued syncing his PDA with the ship's mapping system. Almost done, he rapidly weaved his fingers across the tops of the key pad like an alchamest over a spell book, until he found what he was looking for.

"Eureka!" he exclamed. I found the Seven. I'll sync it to you later."

He stepped away from the monitor and turned. pocketing the PDA as he went.

"Stop where you are!"

He looked up and knew what a deer caught in the head light felt like.

Rutt he thought.

Six men had come upon their position and he had been all but unaware. One man radioed that they had two of the fugitives, that was as far as he got before Ian launched himself into their midsts.

There were shouts of "Dont shoot, their too close.... Weapoms down...Batons, use Batons ..... Take them"

His elbow connected with a nose and he felt it splatter and flatten. He was clubbed with two batons until he took one and broke it over one of the guards heads. The third person he fought did not want to go down easy, Ian jaw could ateast to that. He wondered if he would lose a tooth over it.

Finally the guard fell. Both of his arms were broken and one leg bent backwards. He would never walk without a limp, for the rest of his life.

Ian looked for more to fight, but it seemed Dema had made short work of them.

"You coulda helped." he said as they left the Maintenance bay in the direction of the G3.

4/7/09

"Right." Said Dema, not even trying to hide that he hadn't known you could do that with a shuttle. He took a quick look around them, but things were still clear so he leaned over Ian to watch what the man was doing. It was all a mystery to Dema. Maybe he should ask Ian to explain some of it to him when they got out of here. It never hurt to have a new skill.

Mag's voice came over the comm with a seemingly random and absurd message.

Dema's eyebrow went up and his brow furrowed. Remaining charges? Escape pods? What was Mag on about? Ian had just said it was secondary charges, not anything any of the crew was doing... Deception, misinformation... Dema smiled. Whether it worked or not, Mag was sneakier than the man gave himself credit for. Dema was wondering if he should join the fun, add a message of his own, when Ian drew his attention back to the monitor.

"Good." Said Dema. He was about to ask Ian why later when his eyes flickered around the corridor again. They'd been snuck up on. Dema couldn't fathom it. It'd been years since someone had managed to come up behind him without him noticing. Yet there were six men, standing there. Right there.

"Stop where you are!"

Dema let out a long low string of curses and carefully let his stiletto slip down his wrist and into his hand, out of sight of the men.

One man radioed that they had two of the fugitives, that was as far as he got before Ian launched himself into their midsts. Dema followed his lead, moving into the centre of the men to make sure they couldn't fire without hitting each other.

There were shouts of "Dont shoot, their too close.... Weapoms down...Batons, use Batons ..... Take them"

Dema sliced across the throat of the first man he came to, kicking a second man's knee as he did so. From the corner of his eye he saw a baton coming down on him and he quickly twisted, taking the blow on his upper back rather than his head and bringing a second blade from his belt up into his assailant's ribs. Leaving the knife there Dema twisted again, going lower to avoid the remaining baton and ending his manoeuvre with his stiletto cutting into and through the artery of the third man's upper thigh.

He stood, breathing heavily, ready to take on whoever of the guards was left. After a moment though, he relaxed his stance and instead went about cleaning off his blades. Ian was laying about him with heavy punches, the sounds of breaking bones clearly audible over the low moans of Dema's final victim. By the time Dema had removed anything of use from the guards at his feet, Ian was done. And without the use of a single weapon.

Dema grinned, but quickly covered it with a sage expression. "A wise man never misses an opportunity to watch a master at work. Besides," Dema looked Ian up and down, "I thought you could use the exercise. You made a lot of noise when we were climbing that elevator shaft earlier." Dema even managed to hold his smile back two more seconds before it broke through. He again grinned at the other man. "And before you hit me, you said something earlier about wanting IDent cards?" Dema held up his hand to show Ian the three cards he'd taken from their assailants.

As they walked, Dema made sure he was keeping a better eye on their surroundings. He was not going to get himself killed through sloppiness. No sense in making your enemy's job easier for them. He also had a look at the map Ian had put on his PDA, pinpointing where they were and where they were going. And that reminded him of the thoughts he'd had earlier.

"Ian, if they have Sybil, how easy would it be for them to control her? I know when she was on the Seven she was a force of her own, but on a ship like this... She still wouldn't be easy to crack though, would she, being AI and all?" It made him uneasy, the thought of a programme like Sybil in a system like this. In her own way she had the same touch of naivety about her that had Dema aching to protect Rikka. Neither of them should be exposed to this world. But he couldn't shake the memory of her so easily integrating herself with the Seven's systems and what it would mean if her recovery by her original owners... changed her.

But then, he supposed what it came down to was, could he leave her if there was a chance? A month or so ago he would have said yes, no question. But now... Dema sighed at his own thoughts. It was all Rikka's fault. All that probing and talking and just plain being herself that she'd done as they'd cleaned out the ship's systems together. Somehow, slowly, she'd gotten to him.

They rounded a few more corners, changed levels another couple of times and had to hide more than once before they came to the place Sybil had indicated. Taking up a position in a darkened alcove off the main corridor Dema looked to Ian. "Right, what now and how do you want to do it?" Ian was most definitely the expert at this point and Dema would simply do as he was told when it came to how to get a programme out of a giant, computer run enemy cruiser.

4/9/09

As they moved through the ship, they had to duck into side passages and travel the long way around. Twice they had to mingle with the crew as there was no other way to go but down short passages. The crew was well trained. Too well trained, thought Ian with a smile on lips.



Ian and Dema moved out of the way of what Ian took to be Damage Control teams, hurrying toward the source of the cascading explosions.

Still smiling Ian said, "She's a woman, isn't she? Have you ever really tried to 'control' a woman?" It was the best answer he could give. It summed up his feelings for and about Sybil in a short a time as possible.

Once the detail moved on, so did they. Ian knew that their position would be reported and, eventually, someone would put the pieces together.

Standing outside the Data Center, Ian and Dema went over what needed to happen.

As they talked, Ian could here people from the other side of the door.

Secure the terminals.

Terminal One Secure

Terminal Two Secure

Terminal Three giving me some problems.

Terminal Four Secure

Terminal Five will not shut down.

Terminal four rebooting, Sir.

Gorram ruttin piece of go-se AI. Its not supposed to do that

Ian looked at Dema.

"Its simple, really. We kill or maim all but one of them. I'll do the rest. Compainions shouldn't have to hurt people like I'm going to."

Ian didn't know the full history of Dema Sabian, but he had seen what the man was capable of, on more than one occiasion. Still, the man was a registered Companion and wht Ian was planning would not be pretty.

As the last word of the man in charge spoke, Ghost and Ryder appered in Ian's hands and he hit the door. There were eight people in the room, two guards, in tactical combat suits, five techs, sitting at five consoles, and one man running back and forth between.




The door opened inward and slammed into the guard on the right, knocking him off balance. Ian fired twice, to make sure the manwas down for good. One round caught the guard in his armored chest, the other crashed through his visor and bored a hole through his left eye socket.

Spinning, Ian fired at the first technician and killed him with a shot to the chest. Another, a women sprouted a third eye before she joined her companion in death. The man that Ian took to be incharge of the room leaped at him and met a similar fate as the three others.

One woman was shot in the arm and the upper leg, blood gushed from her wounds and sprayed the last remaining tech while he sat at his console.

Leaving the rest of the people in the room to Dema, Ian slowly approched this man. He reloaded his pistols as he closed in.

"Now, I'm gonna tell you what you're going to do. If you do it well, and fast, you might live to save the day. You could be a hero, or you could end up dead. The choice is yours."

The man paled, as if it was him losing blood in stead of his fellow tech who lost more blood with every slowing beat of her heart.

"What do you want?" he managed to say before he vomited on the floor.

A round was chambered in Ian's gun as he pressed the barrel into the man's crotch.

"Just so you understand, try and rutt us over, this goes first."

The man held his smelly breath and said, shackily, "I understand"

"Shut down the core servers."

"What? Are you nuts? I shut down these servers and half the ship lose life support and gravity? I'd rather be dead."

The tech and puffed himself up with his last words. Ian admitted the man had balls, until he pulled the trigger and blew one of them away.

The tech started to scream until Ian pressed the barrel of his other gun into the man's temple.

"You still have one left. Back talk again and I shot you right hand. Then you left. There will be a few things you wont be able to do anymore. I'm losing patience.

The tech faltered.

"Al..alright. I'll do it."

He turned to his consloe and his fingers played a concerto on the keys. He stood and moved to another terminal and did the same. Re repeated the sequence on a third and the servers were down. If Sybil could be freed, she now was.

"Get to the Seven" Ian said aloud to the room, hoping that Sybil was indeed there.

The tech stood up from his chair.

"Help your friend before its too late"

The woman at his feet had all but stopped bleeding. Iand turned to Dema.

"Time to go"

He turned and left the room.

The Tech looked at what was left of the room and shook his head, still bleeding he started to tend to himself and was going to let the other woman die.

Ian re-entered the room and shot him in the leg. He went down screaming.

"Next time I tell you to help someone else, do it first. I come back in and you haven't ... you're a dead man."

Ian left the room and caught back up with Dema.

"This way."

4/9/09

"She's a woman, isn't she? Have you ever really tried to 'control' a woman?"

Dema nodded, but frowned at the same time, the sentance bringing back memories of certain controlling women in his life. Though, he had to admit, there had been times when he'd been quite successful at leading a woman where he wanted her to go, either mentally or physically. The key was to not only have the right training, but to make sure you never even thought of it as control. Gentle persuation, the cutting off of alternate avenues, subtly blending her goals in with yours... Ian's veiw on the matter didn't fill Dema with the confidence it had intended. But then, what choice was there? They would just have to do as Sybil asked and hope no one had had enough time to 'seduce' their AI ship mate.

Secure the terminals.

Terminal One Secure

Terminal Two Secure

Terminal Three giving me some problems.

Terminal Four Secure

Terminal Five will not shut down.

Terminal four rebooting, Sir.

Gorram ruttin piece of go-se AI. Its not supposed to do that

Ian looked at Dema.

As the last word of the man in charge spoke, Ghost and Ryder appered in Ian's hands and he hit the door. There were eight people in the room, two guards, in tactical combat suits, five techs, sitting at five consoles, and one man running back and forth between.

Dema raised an eyebrow at Ian's companion comment, but didn't say anything. They'd need more than the few seconds they had to do that particular conversation justice. He then waited a beat before following Ian into the room. As he'd thought, the second guard was bringing his weapon up behind Ian's back. Dema kicked out hard at the gun. The man's hands flew to the side, but he still held the gun. Dema kicked him behind the knee to bring him down, then tried kicking the gun hand again. The guard finally let go of the gun, but only to grab Dema's leg and pull him down as well.

Hitting the ground with an oomph, Dema felt rather than saw the guard coming in on him with an elbow, his full weight looking to back up the blow. Dema rolled and brought his blade up, but the guard's hand grabbed his and smashed it repeatedly into the floor. Dema's knuckles protested and he let go the knife, trying to manoeuvre himself to pull another blade with his free hand and not get himself pinned under the other man's weight. It half worked. A new blade came from his belt, but in the seconds it took to do that, the guard was on him, punching again and again at Dema's head. Instinct had Dema bringing his hands up over his face and one of the guard's meaty fists connected with the knife. It gave Dema just enough time to reset his grip and twist his body to a better position before the guard's uninjured hand gave him a bloody lip. The guard's other hand was again trying to remove Dema's weapon, but the blood leaking from his knuckle slicked his grip and Dema brought the blade fully around and plunged it into the man's side in the small space between armoured shirt and pants.

The guard groaned, but still didn't let up his punches or his struggles. Dema again freed his blade and plunged it into the man's side, this time twisting it once the hilt had touched flesh. Finally the bigger man slipped to the side and Dema was able to get himself out and up.

The last remaining techie was trying to vault the prone guard to get into the corridor beyond. As soon as Dema was standing, he threw himself bodily into the man, pushing them both back into the room. The techie was lighter than Dema and already in an unsteady position so he toppled backwards easily. Dema rebounded and took two steps backward to the wall, bringing out a new knife. He'd left the other one in the guard.

Rather than get into another scrabble, Dema simply threw the blade. It glinted as it spun, burying itself into the techie's chest as he tried to pull himself upright. With a groan the man flopped back onto the ground. Dema pulled out yet another blade and took a few deep breaths, checking on Ian and wiping blood from his lip and brow. The wound he'd recieved earlier in Hitomi's tower had opened again. Hearing a noise behind him, Dema turned and swore. The big guard was getting to his feet.

"Damn it man, if you just stayed down..." Dema stepped away from the wall, took up a fighting stance and slipped his stiletto into his free hand, bracing himself for a charge from the suicidal guard. The guard pulled a baton from its loop in the back of his belt and took up position. He took one step forward, swayed, then crumpled to the floor, the baton rolling away to his left. Dema waited a moment, sighed and collected his weapons and several more IDent cards. When he got to the guard and his final knife, Dema was almost tempted to leave it in the side of the big guy. If he left it, the man might live. But it was one of his favourtite blades rather than one he'd just scavanged so Dema pulled it free, wiping the gore off on the guard's own shirt as the man groaned and finally lay still.

When he was done he moved to the door to keep watch. No one came and Ian got things wrapped up in a rather efficient manner. Dema winced once when the man's ball was blown off, but understanding the need he didn't comment. He was slightly worried about the gravity and such being switched off though. That could make their own movements rather difficult from here on in.

Ian wrapped up what he was doing and moved past Dema and into the hallway.

"Right so that should..." Dema began, but Ian had turned and was storming back into the tech room. Dema followed curiously. Ian was taking time to teach the sole survivor manners... Dema watched him, a slightly bemused smile on his face, then fell in with the other man as he returned and they again moved down the corridor.

"You're not sane, you know that don't you?" Said Dema conversationally, a light smile on his lips. Ian was perhaps a little too swayed by the opposite gender, but other than that, he was Dema's type of man. No nonsense, not a great deal of mercy and some truly inventive, if brutal, ways of getting things done. They were most certainly going to have to work together in the future.

"As I was saying before, that should allow Sybil to move around the ship? And you've got the Seven's location on PDA, yes?" There was noise ahead in the corridor. Thumping boots. Dema quickly looked around for an exit.

A door a little ahead and to the left. Dema sprinted to it, but it was locked. He quickly started swiping the IDent cards he'd stolen through the lock, hoping one of them would work.

4/10/09

A familiar bluish glow formed on the control panel as Sybil materialized.

"Data regulators now disabled, I am able to move beyond the synthetic boundaries set for me. Thank you. Your fulfillment of my request was done so in a quite efficient and timely manner. You eliminated this datacenter's security staff approximately seven seconds later than I predicted, which is well within acceptable operation parameters."

"We have little time," she said. "The resonance cascade caused by the blast in the aft docking bay is spreading througout the ship. Their efforts will slow the ship's demise, but I do not believe they will save it. The docking bay where the Lucky Seven is being held is heavily-defended. I recommend considerable firepower to liberate your ship. I will transfer myself to the Lucky Seven and engage her systems to assist in her recapture."

Suddenly, the datacenter comlink crackled to life. "Datacenter control, we are detecting power fluctuations in your area. Is there a problem? Why is server cluster AA0033 down?"

The ship then rumbled and lurched. An automated warning came over the intercom.

WARNING: ATMOSPHERIC COMPRESSION COMPROMISED ON DECKS 13A-16A. EXPLOSIVE DECOMPRESSION DETECTED. ACCESS TO THESE LEVELS HAS BEEN AUTOMATICALLY SHUT DOWN.

4/10/09

The door clicked open and Dema was about to move through when a voice he recognised came from behind them. Sybil.

Dema looked at Ian. "You're right, she's a woman."

"Considerable firepower..."

The ship then rumbled and lurched. An automated warning came over the intercom.

WARNING: ATMOSPHERIC COMPRESSION COMPROMISED ON DECKS 13A-16A. EXPLOSIVE DECOMPRESSION DETECTED. ACCESS TO THESE LEVELS HAS BEEN AUTOMATICALLY SHUT DOWN.

Dema quickly moved back to the door he'd been trying to get through a moment ago and swiped it open again. Carefully peering inside he found it empty and he and Ian moved inside seconds before the distinct sound of soldier's boots passed their position. Yells and running could then be heard, orders barked to get medics, a fresh set of techies and find the damned intruders.

The room they were in held more terminals and parts, but none of the machines looked like they'd been used recently. A storage area then. There were two more doors in the room. One led into a smaller storage room and the other led to a corridor. Dema punched up his map. Left into the new corridor should get them out of here the fastest.

"So which way to the Seven, please tell me we don't have to go through any of the areas currently blowing up and do you think we need to stop somewhere for extra firepower along the way?" He asked Ian as they moved swiftly away from the storage room and the shouts of the hunting guards.

4/12/09

More explosions rumbled from the ship as Ian and Dema were met by a squad of troops that opened up in a hail of fire. A plasma grenade exploded near Dema's position, coming close to incinerating him completely.

Suddenly, the intercom came to life as the voice of Major Andrews came online.

"What do you mean unstoppable? Don't give me that go se! They're a few escaped prisoners, on foot and lightly-armed. You are superior to them in every way that counts. You are better trained, better equipped and you outnumber them a thousand to one! Do...your...jobs!!!!!"

"Cain," she said with a hint of condescention. "I don't see what you hope to accomplish besides your own destruction. You're up against an unbeatable force. All you're doing is delaying the inevitable. Give up now. Who knows if I won't let you and your friends live? You've proven to be resourceful. I could use people like you. Do the smart thing. Lay down your weapons. Surrender, while I'm still in the mood to let you."

4/13/09

Before they had made it into the next room, on their way to the Seven, their luck had changed.

They had been found.

Bullets began flying in their direction, and there was little or no cover. This section of passage had no near by doors or alcoves. Ghost and Ryder brgan singing their songs of death and destruction before the first of the guard troops rounded the corner. In this instance, Ian fired first. The troops snet an hail of bullets in their direction as a reply. The bullets tucked at the clothing of the two men, then past by and impacted into the wall around them. Dema and Ian were showered in sparks and smoke as more bullets came in their direction

The firing came to an abrupt halt as the voice of Gwen Anderson could be heard over the comm, af if by mutal agreement.

The man, a Sergeant, looked Ian in the eye as the woman finished her triade. He did not blink again, as he knew Death had come for him.

Ian fired and caught the man in his left eye. The only reply the Major would have gotten from the man was a loud, strained, "Gaah!!" as he died.

In the mean time, Ian and Dema had moved back, along the passage far enough to reach the door way. A plasma granade bounced by Ian and landed by Dema. Ian grabbed the Companion and pushed / pulled him through the opening before the granade exploded. Dema would have been incenerated had they not moved. As it was, the explosion welded the door in the closed position,it having cycled shut just prior to it.

The ship continued the rock and buckle as the two men rounded yet another corner and finally found the Seven.

He was pleased to see that Cain and company had just entered through another doorway. With them, almost leading the way was Rikka. Ian could tell right away that something was ... off ... about her. Her movement were more erratic than the calm woman he had met before.

Ai-ya. Gorramit all! What have they done to her.

He changed direction, moving oblique to the Seven and toward the group. He didn't doubt that Dema was right by him.

"Rikka, are you alright? What happened?" and he was by her side. His Mei-Mei. His friend.

Someone was gonna pay.

Dema and Ian continue on here.