Episode 0: To Steal A Pirate Ship

[Izak Archer]

"Don't have to tell me twice,' Izak said as he stood from his seat. He slid his belonging out from under the table and in a single fluid motion, slung the large bag over his shoulder. The cantina was getting busier, as was the main street they were on. While a stick up in broad daylight gave them the confusion and cover of crowds, it also gave them a much higher chance of being spotted, and identified.

This whole thing could go sideways at least a dozen different ways, but then again, it was not worth his time to think about such things now, he was committed to the task ahead of him, there was no turning back. He was content with that.

But nevertheless, something felt off...really off.

This was too easy, and today, he felt like they were being watched in the cantina.

Gorram, Izak thought.

"Hey," he said to Jo. "Don't let your guard down yet, this may be my first time stealing a ship as a crime, but we better make sure no one follows us. My money says somebody was looking for you in that dive we just left."

[Harl Moses]

Harl took up the chase as his mark and accomplice began to move. He kept a safe distance using what foot traffic there was on the docks to shield himself, Harl used it to his advantage as best he could. Their direction of travel piqued his curiosity for they seemed to be headed toward a Federal vessel. Just how would he collect this nefarious bounty now in such close proximity to Alliance personnel just added to the trouble of the day. Harl slowed his forward progress, now he had to keep himself unseen from the Feds as well as Mister Soong and company. It was a fine line though to keep your target from noticing a tail and losing your target all together in a crowd...Not losing this one today... Harl muttered to himself and quickened his pace.

.

[Joakim Soong]

"Why would you tell me that?" Joakim shot a hurt look at Izak. The man was echoing what was going through his own head right now, but the last thing he needed was to have someone else stoke the flames of his paranoia. He remained tense throughout their walk through the docks, and it took up all his willpower to stop himself from glancing over his shoulder every five steps. Don't be suspicious, he repeated in his head. Don't be suspicious...

Finally, Joakim spotted a familiar red-haired giant across the crowd. Well, "familiar" was relative. He hadn't actually met Holger Heyerdahl before, but he recognized the man from pictures on the cortex, although he was a little taken aback by his size -- t was one thing to read a number on a computer screen and to actually see the man in person. Joakim had considered it his pregorative to run background checks on Melody's Merry Men (or Isa Romero's, to be more accurate); knowledge was power, after all, in his case pretty much the only power he had against the resources and combat experience of a bunch of military folks. Holger had fought for the Independents, which instinctively made him feel more trustworthy than the rest of the lot in Joakim's eyes. As for how a browncoat like Holger had woudn up with a group of Alliance defectors, that the cortex hadn't been able to tell him.

Next to Holger, Joakim could make out the considerably smaller but every bit as fierce figure of Melody -- and a third person, a man Jo did not recognize. His stomach lurched. He did not like being left out of the loop.

"I thought it was supposed to be just the two of you", he told Melody as she came within earshot, an edge of accusation in his voice. He stopped next to the trio and eyed the stranger up and down, warily.

[Teddy Williams]

Teddy continued to hold a pleasant disposition as the aforementioned unfortunate soul turned to face him. The individual in question was a tall man -red of beard and hair- and by the looks of it he wasn't too happy with whatever Teddy had said. To be fair, he had faced this type of person before so it was business as usual. He opened his mouth, his mind already filling in the gaps 'I just happened to hear the goose in the distance and thought it was nice to know about geese by the way I'm-', but was interrupted when the man pulled a knife out and closed the distance between the two of them.

Oh.

Maybe his assessment was correct and this man did not like geese.

However, neither knife nor attitude deterred his friendly manner and he answered with, "I'm Teddy! I don't know that I was spying on anything in particular since my mother said it's rude to put one's nose where people can see it. Geese are simply fascinating." Fortunately for the towering man Teddy was unable to start listing off more facts about geese (in fact he had already been planning on branching off into other bird types as well because Mr. Geese-Are-My-Mortal-Enemy might not have liked hearing all those facts after all) due to another individual approaching the situation.

Teddy figured out fairly quickly that said individual, a woman with a bag and a not-as-eager-but-not-as-mean-as-the-Goose-Man expression on her face, knew the red-headed man due to how she mostly spoke to him instead of Teddy. The Black? Did that mean...?

Oh, oh, these people had a ship!

It had been a while since he was on a ship so imagine his excitement that he was going to be on one again! He seemed to have forgotten the very obvious threat laid out before him, for the time being.

Two more individuals approached and one spoke, though he wasn't certain whether it was towards the red-headed Goose Man or the woman inviting him onto whatever ship they had. Either way, he smiled widely at the stranger. "Hello! I'm Teddy. I suppose since there's three of us -now more- we're a gaggle of folks hanging around. Well, we can't be a skein since we're not up in the air -without a ship or some sort of device to aid us it'd probably be really hard to flap our arms in order to take flight. Though maybe if you time everything right you could achieve some sort of version of flying, right?"

Poor Teddy didn't have the brains to realize that whatever version of 'flying' he was talking about would be very, very brief for the person who decided to test out his half-cooked theory.

He honestly just liked flying in general.

[Holger Heyerdahl]

Like a bull deciding the matador isn't worth it, Holger snorted through his nose and put his horns knife away. One could almost feel the hair on the back of his neck settle from their upright, bristled position. It would be a shame about the back of Teddy's neck, however, as Holger grabbed it stiffly and pushed the man away from their current location and towards their destination. "Don't bother running, spy, we don't have time to clean up the mess." The threat was clear. Run and something graphic and unpleasant would happen to Teddy. Holger hoped it would have the added effect of shutting the guy up.

Just as they started walking in the direction Melody told them to, a voice followed by a small man with dark hair and a slightly less small man with pale skin appeared before them. These two Melody had warned Holger would be meeting them, and besides, how else would they know them? It wasn't like they stood out in any way that the common passerby would notice them. Holger prided himself on his ability to blend in. Whether that same logic could apply to Teddy and the happenstance of their meeting, well, Holger wasn't a deep thinker. Non-lateral logic didn't interest him in the slightest. "This is Teddy. He's a spy and I think that he likes to rutt with geese. We will kill him later." He winked at Izak and smiled a devil's grin for Teddy's benefit. "Where there is no one to witness, eh?" The severity of the words and the joviality with which Holger said them wouldn't seem out of place to anyone who knew him. New acquaintances, however, might find it distressing.

Holger didn't much care one way or the other. "We are going to the ship now. I hope there is food there. And Alliance soldiers to kill." Not necessarily in that order.

[Melody]

"Don't bother running, spy, we don't have time to clean up the mess," Holger threatened honestly, his hand gripping the back of the man's neck as though he were hardly a kitten in strength and size. And perhaps disposition... Mel eyed the stranger with a dubious frown, her brows knit and the corners of her lips pulling downward almost thoughtfully.

"I thought it was supposed to be just the two of you," came a voice moving closer to to them, pulling Melody's attention toward the rest of her team as they approached. The pilot shrugged her bag's strap a bit higher onto her shoulder and took a breath to answer, although Holger did it for her and really, his explanation was far better than anything she could've thought up.

"This is Teddy. He's a spy and I think that he likes to rutt with geese. We will kill him later. Where there is no one to witness, eh?" he said, grinning as he did so.

"Hello! I'm Teddy. I suppose since there's three of us -now more- we're a gaggle of folks hanging around. Well, we can't be a skein since we're not up in the air -without a ship or some sort of device to aid us it'd probably be really hard to flap our arms in order to take flight. Though maybe if you time everything right you could achieve some sort of version of flying, right?" the stranger, Teddy informed them and Mel rolled her eyes, glowering between Izak and Jo as the man rambled on. Everything in her body demanded she shove her fist into his mouth to shut him up, but as Holger had said...'where there is no one to witness, eh?'

"We are going to the ship now. I hope there is food there. And Alliance soldiers to kill," the redhead informed them and Mel nodded curtly in affirmation. "Let's go. I don't want us hanging out in the open any longer than we need to. Between this," she hooked her thumb toward the bright mane of the redhead holding the goose lover in the palm of his hand, "and that," the pilot leveled her index finger toward Jo's ridiculous disguise and attempt blend in, "I'm sure we've drawn enough attention to ourselves. Status update? Anything new?" she asked, pushing past the two newcomers and walking, unintentionally, back in the direction of Jo's tail.

————

The ship in question was naught but three or so birthing stations down from where Melody and Holger had touched down a few moments before. An armored marine stood watch in front of the door control to the Cornwall, a ship Izak might have recognized from a previous run in with Melody (when Isa still Captained a ship). Two local deputies had been positioned at the front of the ship to watch the road and spaceport, and the other two local law stood near the Marine to watch their flank. All four deputies had sidearms strapped to their hips and seemed to be taking their duty seriously. *

Ducking behind a stack of shipping crates, Melody gestured for the rest of her team to join her, a frown on her lips. "Okay folks. Problem solving time," she murmured, looking first at Jo, then Izak, before eyeing Holger and his hostage. "I ain't too worried about the law, but that Marine is going to be a thorn in our collective asses. Any ideas on distractions? Ways to get it out of the way or...back in the ship so Holger can have his fun?" she asked the group, remembering another Martine that'd be a constant pain in her own ass..

Then, Melody pointed her finger at Jo, "Can you remotely get into the door controls? Or do you need us to get you closer?" she continued, looking only a little confused at the idea of how in the verse technology worked.

*Narrated with Axe's permission

[Rashy Pete]

The spinning lid finally settled, the rattle fading as Olo held his breath within the cabinet's tight confines and thought back to a time when his teammates stuffed him in the dirty laundry following a particularly disastrous meet. Until that moment he never realized just how much the rest of the roster despised him, always assuming the zings and burns hurled his way reflected a hidden appreciation and acceptance among his peers. Then again debating never shined as Olo's strong suit beyond matters of mass.

Blood hammering in his ears accompanied a stinging sensation in his face and a buzzing of the nerves not experienced since the last time he accidentally huffed a can of aerosol lubricant after mistaking it for his lunch. Of course, Olo's disorientation and confusion never held a luminescent stick to the confounded state experienced by the ship's engineer when she found the primary drive systems clogged with whipped cheese spread. Desperate for oxygen, Olo finally drew a deep breath through his nose and immediately regretted it.

Coughing as he pushed the cabinet doors open in an attempt to escape the overwhelming stench of onion, garlic, and incompetence, Olo attempted to leap to his feet. Immediately tripping on an errant pan, Pete landed in the floor and stared up, blinking. "This hasn't been a good day." Olo reflected in silence as he saw movement on the counter above. "Ras? There you are. C'mon boy! We gotta get goin' an - Hey. NO! You leave that salt cylinder alone! Ras! Rasputin! Don't you - AGH! My eyes!" The cylinder ricocheted off Olo's cranium, salt powder puffing into the air upon impact and settling in his sensitive ocular receivers with no shortage of discomfort. Rolling about coughing, wheezing, flailing, and praying for a bitter end which loomed much farther off than he cared to consider, the career loser finally made it to the sink to wash his eyes and went back about looking for Rasputin. "When we get home, I'm putting you in the bad boy bag for a week. Now I gotcha... C'mere!"

At this point in the tale, our brave and valorous hero completely forgot why the boarding ramp sat lowered - the obvious reason being someone besides himself opened it - and stomped after his feline companion and into the clear view of absolutely everyone with their eyes on the ship, including a particularly unenthusiastic looking Alliance Marine. "Uuuhhhhh hey. Hi. I, ah. I just forgot my... Sparkle... Conductor..." All purple armor, automatic rifle, and misplaced paternal hatred, the Marine seemed prepared to engage as Olo turned tail and ran back up the ramp emitting a high-pitched wail.

Meanwhile, Rasputin slunk off the ramp and casually strolled across the berthing bay toward a stack of crates before circling the legs of a hard-nosed bomber pilot with a chip on her shoulder and the feint scent of something tasty on her clothes.

[Izak Archer]

Ai ya, Izak thought as he pinched the bridge of his nose. This is going well so far. They had a hacker, a bear of a brown coat, an AWOL pilot, and now some kind of mad bird scientist in tow. They had about the subtlety of an avocado sitting atop a bin of onions.

"Anyroad, shall we get going?" He asked. "We kind of scream 'arrest us' and that would kind of put a damper on the plan. In all honesty, that bar seemed like a place for bounty hunters to hang out."

Izak followed the group as they proceeded along their way to the appropriate bay, knowing full well how conspicuous they still looked. Though perhaps not as odd as the rather fluffy cat that just strode over to them. Izak stole a quick look into station. Then he looked over to Melody.

"Well Turner, this is either a boon for us or we're all buggered." He looked over at Holger. "Also, I'd rather you knock them out than kill them. Those helmets won't stop much in the line of physical impacts. That and if you'd allow me to partake, I could go for punching a marine in the face."

[Melody]

Before Jo could answer, there was a commotion at the ship's boarding ramp. With a frown, Mel peeked around the crates, her eyes shooting upward at the sight of a man running into the ship and the sound of his feminine shriek of terror on his way in. Her featured contorted into confused surprise, Izak pulling her attention back to him and the rest of her merry band of misfits...plus the stranger Holger was containing.

"Well Turner, this is either a boon for us or we're all buggered," Izak wagered. Mel's lips parted to answer when she felt something warm brushing against her legs. Glancing down, a befuddled noise slipped past her lips while the cat coiled around her legs. "Wh-" she whispered, reaching down to slide one hand slowly over its back, the other moving to settle under its belly. In one swift and thoughtless motion, the pilot had picked up the cat and had it held idly against her chest, a thoughtful expression on her face. Slow fingers pet the creature while she listened to her team discuss the current situation.

"Also, I'd rather you knock them out than kill them. Those helmets won't stop much in the line of physical impacts. That and if you'd allow me to partake, I could go for punching a marine in the face," Izak continued and Mel couldn't help but snort a bit at that. Good luck keeping Holger from ripping the men in half. She doubted he'd be satisfied with a gentle punching but she could understand Izak's hesitance to kill soldiers. Still...

Baby blues glanced up at the redhead and she nudged him lightly with her shoulder. Melody paused petting the cat long enough to point at the group of officers before setting the creature down. "Whoever that moron was gave us a distraction. Looks like the law's heading inside," she murmured, glancing around the crates and watching the marine stomp in after the 'intruder', followed closely by the two nearest local law. The others were just out of sight enough not to be an issue at the present moment. "Holger, pop in and say hi first. Keep your witts about you. They may be focused on the weird idiot but that doesn't mean they won't have their guard up," the Pilot began curtly, setting her hand on her hip. "Izak, you next. Punch whoever you want, don't get shot. Secure the bridge first and see about making it safe for our tech,"

Melody turned to Jo, "The idiot opened the way for us, but local law is still an issue. I need you to get on your pad and send out some false calls for backup somewhere away from here. Bait the rest of the law away from this ship and away from any potential screaming," she instructed, biting her lower lip once or twice. Reaching out, she took hold of the 'Teddy' stranger with one hand, her free one on her holstered gun. "Once the interior of the ship is safe, I want you inside, Jo. I'll go in last and watch your back as you pop in as well as bring this goose lover with me. Don't want him messing things up. Once you're in, work on the security for the land lock. I doubt they'll have the ship unlocked."

Her grip on the man's arm tightened and her jaw clenched, "If there aren't any questions, let's get going while the distraction's still fresh. Get to it," she commanded, shoulders squared.

[Joakim Soong]

Jo was already feeling kind of unreal about the situation he was in, almost like he had exited his body at some point and was watching the operation unfold from a distance. The slapstick-esque scene unfolding before their eyes, followed by a scruffy cat suddenly joining their party, only added to that dreamlike sensation.

When the feline intruder stopped at Melody's feet, Jo expected her to give it one of her trademark scowls and nudge it away with the tip of her boot. Instead, she scooped the cat up in her arms, idly petting it as the discussion of their strategy resumed. The sight of the battle-hardened woman gently cradling a furry little creature was almost... cute. Melody was living up to her name, if only for a moment. Now there was a thought Jo would be taking to his grave, a grave he would be heading into sooner rather than later if the bad feeling in the pit of his stomach was anything to go by.

When Melody gave him his orders, the hacker did the best he could to shake himself out of his dazed state and immediately got to work on his pda. He'd already intercepeted the communications between the officers, so getting the message through to them wouldn't be a problem. The problem was that when he tried to think up a convincing lie to draw them away, his mind drew a blank. He wasn't good under pressure, not this kind of pressure anyway, the immediate kind, the kind where he was put on the spot and had to think on his feet. He worked better on his own, in peace and quiet, without a group of soldiers breathing down his neck.

But that wasn't possible now, and dwelling on it wouldn't do them any good. He wasn't going to unravel and let the team down. With a renewed sense of determination, Jo typed up a message about an incident unfolding on the outskirts of the docks, civilians threatened, requesting immediate backup. He left the details vague, figuring that an impression of general confusion would only create a greater sense of urgency, maybe keep the law enforcement occupied longer when they got to the scene of the supposed crime and tried to get to the bottom of what was happening.

[Holger Heyerdahl]

Holger didn't need to be told twice. A Purple uniform was a series of concentric circles the color of his fallen Browncoat compatriots' blood. Without hesitation, he dropped his duffel on the ground and took off at a run towards the opened ship. His long legs and purposeful stride quickly erased the distance across the tarmac. There was not the shout of joy or battle cry to frighten his victims. Holger was deadly serious in this endeavor. He had an axe (or rather a serrated knife the size of a man's forearm) to grind against the men inside this ship, and he intended to do it quickly, efficiently, and painfully.

Inside the ship, Holger crouched low and peaked around the entryway corner, attempting to discern the direction the weird man had led the Enforcers. He was pleased to find the Marine close to the entrance, his back turned in the direction the others had gone. Holger almost spoke aloud on this fortunate set of circumstances. About how easy this was and how the Marine, in his foolishness, had done most of the work for the behemoth browncoat. He might as well have painted a sign MORE PEOPLE TO KILL THIS WAY. Instead, Holger rose to his full height behind the Alliance asshole, grabbed him by the shoulder, and pinned him to the nearby wall, his arm choking off the ability to suck in oxygen and call for help.

"Hi." Holger said, running the knife in between the plates of cheap, standard issue armor in what he and his fellow commandos had referred to as "the sweet spot", the place just below the chest plate and above the abdominal ridges. The blade pierced through uniform and skin and bone and might have found a bit of lung, but with a slight twist, Holger cut a large hole in the man's heart. It was quick and deadly and Holger did it with an expertise that might frighten some more squeamish folks. He had certainly done it before. Many times. When the deed was done, Holger let the man fall to the ground, blood dripping down his knife and onto his hand. He gave the weapon a quick clean, flicking his wrist and splattering the nearby floor and wall with a bit of the gore.

A brief thought as to whether or not the lanky one was following to do some punching crossed Holger's mind, but he decided he didn't care. He turned in the direction he thought most likely to contain more fun, ready to party.

[Izak Archer]

"That bloody moron," Izak whispered as Holger took off. He was all for letting him have his way with the marines – he was a Navy Officer and there was a rivalry between those in the black and those on the ground. Most were, unfortunately, cannon fodder anyway.

But local law enforcement was something they needed. Well, eventually anyway. A friend with a badge and a gun to help you out of a tight spot was always of use to anyone on the edge of the black. Anywhere there was civilization really. There was only one problem – they would be useless if they were dead and those that were alive would be rather angry that their fellow officers were dead.

Pulling his shotgun out of his duffel bag with one smooth motion and then tossing it next to their new baggage handler, Izak dashed in after their bearded barbarian hoping to flush out the other deputies before they met a rather sharp end. Clearing the gangway and the body in the opening, he leveled the weapon and turned the safety off. He was not taking any chances today.

"Now I just have to find them."

[Melody]

A few things happened rather quickly, which pleased Melody to no end and left her feeling only a little confused. Holger sprinted toward the door, Izak rushed in after him, and Jo got to work on distracting the local law. Was this what it felt like when people did what you told them to? Her brows furrowed and her eyes bored into the side of Jo's head as she thought to herself, not necessarily looking at him but looking into space, and he just happened to be standing between her and it.

With a quick shake of her head, the woman pulled her thoughts back to the here and now and eyed Teddy, the potential spy and goose lover. "Right," she muttered to herself, picking up Holger's bag and draping it over one of the man's shoulders. Then, she grabbed Izak's and put that over the back of the man's neck, loading him up like a mule. While he was here, he might as well serve some kind of purpose and 'bell boy' seemed appropriate.

At the nose of the ship, it seemed that both of the local law enforcement officers had received the alert and after a glance toward the doors, hurried off in the direction of the emergency. It was likely that they had assumed the Marine had gone back into the ship and the other two lawmen had rushed off to attend to the very same alert they'd received. In any case, they were gone, and whatever the reasoning or the thinking, it was fortunate for them.

"Good job," she told Jo curtly, reaching out to pat his shoulder in two awkward thumps. "Alright, let's give them another couple of minutes, then we go in," she told him sternly, wanting to make sure the path to the bridge was safe for the tech. They might not be the best of friends, but he was part of her team now and that meant she had a duty and obligation to make sure he didn't get filled with bullets.

Melody watched the cat sniff around idly as she counted the minutes in her head, her grip on Teddy's arm firm and her expression inscrutable. "Alright, let's go. Stick close to me," she told Jo, nodding at him and peeking out from behind the containers. When the coast looked clear of bystanders or lookieloos, she moved toward the doors of the ship, dragging Teddy along with them. He had their bags after all. Upon reaching the entrance, Melody yanked the bags free and tossed them in, kicking the stranger with the flat of her foot away from the ship and gesturing for Jo to enter quickly.

When he was in, she slapped her hand on the door's button, closing it up and leaving the gooseman behind. Her hand lowered to her hip and she drew her pistol, standing in front of Jo and looking in toward the ship, "How close do you need to be to the bridge to start disabling a land lock? Can you do it from here?" she asked softly, listening for the sounds of fighting inside the ship.

[Rashy Pete]

The shrill screams of unabashed fear filled the corridors as Olo scrambled as far away from his pursuers as possible. Returning through the galley and thinking purely of his own preservation, high-step flailed his way through the pile of pots, pans, and spices he'd spilled earlier, throwing a pantry open as he slipped around the corner. In a disastrous display of the adage that low probability does not equal impossibility, a shelf in already poor upkeep collapsed at an angle, spilling containers of slippery condiments crashing to the floor behind him. A mess of ruptured tin cans and formerly secured glass containers in his wake, Olo continued with his anything-but-subtle egress as he attempted to make his way directly toward the only area of the ship he remembered how to get to: the engines.

Approaching with the poise and grace of a water-sprinting plumed basilisk, Olo somehow managed to run in the exact opposite direction as he rounded a corner in the galley and caught the sleeve of his dingy, ragged coveralls on a pressure released lever which set a spray of hot steam free at about eye level for a man of average height. Ill-fitting boots clomping down the steel flooring as he rounded a corner and found himself facing a supply closet, Olo also didn't seem to notice the jar of marmalade he left out for Rasputin as he kicked it over behind him.

Locking himself in the closet, Olo's mind finally caved from panic to desperation. Backing into a corner and crumbling with a sob, Olo looked around for a means of defending himself until his eyes fell on the only item of significance: not the fire extinguisher, or the myriad of kitchen utensils for cutting, chopping, and mixing, or the fire axe on the wall, but a marvel of technology represented the pinnacle of Earth-That-Was science with which he knew himself to be most proficient. Olo gripped the can of aerosol cheese spread and prepared to fight. Covering his eyes and holding the can before him, he would merely scream and unleash a steady stream of liquid gold upon whoever happened upon him.

[Lomari]

Inside the ship, unaware of the downfall of their Military associate, the two law enforcement officers attempted to pursue the screaming stranger through the ship. While their path was far less fantastic than Pete's, they were making quite a ruckus that anyone with ears would be able to follow. Work boots hit hard against the grated flooring and their cries of, "Freeze! Get on the ground! For the love of God, stop screaming!" echoed like homing beacons down the halls in the direction of the galley and onward.

The two deputies stopped cold at the entrance to the galley, their guns at their sides and looks of absolute horror and amazement crossing over their faces. One deputy, a man with a very impressive handlebar mustache, turned to his partner and gestured at the mess in their path with the muzzle of his rather old looking gun. "Didja ever think the Alliance kept their ships so..." he trailed off, not sure he knew a word that could describe the chaos he saw littered all over the place. The second deputy, a younger man with his hair combed to perfection as though imitating what he thought the law ought to look like shook his head in disbelief. "Naw, thought they were right proper. God, are they all so messy?" Hair asked Mustache.

They continued to gawk at the mess, Moustache going so far as to carefully step into the galley, putting away his gun to prevent slipping and accidentally shooting his partner. Hair laughed, holstering his own gun, fooled into being comfortable by the security that the Marine's presence provided. Besides, the idiot who ran into the ship seemed more Terrified Lost Boy and less Dangerous Terrorist.

[Holger Heyerdahl]

The sound of death and carnage led Holger directly to the galley and as he closed in on his target, the two deputies were right in his path. It didn't matter to Holger that these men were local law enforcement rather than enlisted Alliance soldiers. Holger had never been one to distinguish authority figures. They were all the same to him and the blade of his knife, still wet with the marine's blood, was still thirsty. He picked up speed down the long passageway, the bulkheads whipping by as his long legs carried him quickly to the door of the galley...

And right past it.

There was something all over the floor, Holger couldn't even hazard a guess as to what, but it caused his momentum to carry him past his target and and off his feet, slamming on his back on the deck. Quickly recovering, Holger flipped over onto his stomach and tried to get to his feet, but only succeeded in slipping from his hands and knees back to his face meeting metal floor. Whatever was all over the deck, and now all over Holver, was prohibiting him from getting any kind of traction whatsoever.

Using his natural gifts, long arms and legs and an overabundance of strength, Holger managed to swish and slide and pull and wedge himself to a standing position in time to see Izak coming down the passageway. The big red-headed galoot frowned, disappointed that he might lose the race to killing the other two men. His feet unsteady beneath him, Holger whispered as loud as he dared, so as not to raise suspicion of unwanted company to be found in the corridor. "They are mine. I got here first."

To punctuate his point, Holger punctured the paneling with his prodigious poniard, preserving his purchase in a perpendicular position. "No. Punching." He pronounced petulantly.

[Joakim Soong]

The sudden boost in confidence had not alleviated Jo's sense of detachment from the situation. Everything around him felt so crisp and sharp, his eyes catching every minute detail of his surroundings -- yet at the same time it felt like he was encased in a bubble; Melody's pat on his shoulder barely even registered with him. Later on, when the whole ordeal was over, he would realize it was because of the adrenaline rushing through his system. At this very moment, however, he was simply happy that Melody was there to make the difficult judgment calls for him and drag him along until it was his turn to do something he was good at.

Once they'd dived on board -- Jo not even noticing the fact that the potential spy he'd been so worried about was no longer with them -- she asked him if he could disable the land lock remotely, and he shook his head in response.

"I need to get to the bridge, take a look at what we're working with," he said, his voice as hushed as hers. "They'll probably have the whole system locked down just in case, so I'll have to gain access before I can start fiddling with the land lock. It'd go quicker if we had a key card from someone with authorization, but with the whole crew gone..."

Jo trailed off and bit the inside of his cheek. He wished he'd had more time to prepare, that everything wasn't happening so fast. There was a clean way and a messy way to approach the situation, and the messy way seemed to be all they had left.

"I can work around it. It'll just take more time."

Time wasn't something they had a lot of right now, but the fact was that getting through Alliance security wasn't a matter of typing some words and pressing a few buttons, even under the ideal circumstances. It took patience. He wasn't sure if someone like Turner understood what a complicated task he had; after all, her job description was all about blazing guns and instant gratification.

[Melody]

The assuredly now former Alliance pilot heard the commotion further inside the ship. Luckily for them, the bridge was up two sets of stairs and accessible from the cargo bay, which meant their path wasn't necessarily in the same direction as the fighting. Keeping her eyes forward and her body ready, Mel reached out to gently push Jo toward the stairs with her hand flat against his back.

"It'd go quicker if we had a key card from someone with authorization, but with the whole crew gone..." Jo informed her.

"You need a key card?" she asked him in a whisper, her expression stern but her question thoughtful. Looking up toward the stairwell, the pilot made a frustrated noise akin to a hum before nodding to herself. "There was a marine in here. They left him behind, maybe he'll have one for emergencies," she guessed, shrugging one shoulder. Turning, she unzipped her own bag, glancing over her shoulder every few seconds further into the ship to make sure no one was sneaking up on them. After some rummaging and mild (for Melody) cursing, she found what she'd been looking for. Her little ankle pistol. She held it out to him, putting it in his hand and wrapping his fingers around it.

Seeing his eyes going in and out of focus, she lowered her face a bit to put herself directly into his field of vision. "Hey. Jo. Listen to me. You're goin' to be fine. Breathe in and out slowly, focus on my voice. You have a job to do and you're the only one of us that can do it." The pilot reached out to squeeze his shoulders a bit, "We can do this. We're almost done. Yea?" she asked, raising her brows a little, her face still just as inscrutable as before, but surprisingly, those steely blue eyes seemed to soften just a bit. As she spoke, she nodded along, trying to pull him into the 'conversation' via her movements.

"Alright, up you go. Start figurin' things out, I'll be back with a key card. Or not. We'll see," she told him, clapping him on the arm in what was supposed to be a reassuring gesture. It might've just been painful. With a wink and a mischief filled grin, Mel pushed him gently toward the stairs once more and started walking away backward. A risky maneuver, yes, but she hoped it'd have two effects. One, she could make sure he went up before she left, and two, it might make him think the situation was less risky and potentially violent than it was.

[Izak Archer]

As Izak rounded his next corner, he heard a soft dull thud as if someone fell on the metallic floors. And if he heard it, someone else did.

He rounded the next corner and found himself confronted by the bearded bear, claiming his next target...but he was smeared in something and had a large red mark on his forehead. There was also a clearly visible streak down the corridor.

Izak dropped his weapon from its ready position and held onto it by the barrel. He cared little for what he said right then, but Izak pointed down to the floor with his opposite hand as he took a cautious step forward. He was about ask what happened but then...

He slipped, and swiftly pulled his shogun across his chest to avoid too much noise, and fell flat on his arse and shot by the kitchen, clipping Holger with the stock of his weapon as he sailed by, coming to a stop as his boots slammed into the edge of the doorframe at the end of the corridor.

The deputies probably knew they were here now.

"No Alliance cook would dump a grease trap out on the floor, what the bloody hell is going on?" Izak asked in a whisper. He rolled over into a prone position just beyond the Browncoat. "Sorry about the leg."

[Lomari]

Mustache managed to get a few feet closer to  the galley before he yelped in surprise and slipped on the floor, one foot settling atop an upturned can and rolling forward sharply. He grunted, landed on his back amidst jars, bottles, and cans and stared up at the ceiling for a moment, wondering if the pay was worth it... He grunted again and rolled over, pushing himself up and eyeing Hair, shaking his head and saying nothing despite the large grin plastered across his partner's face.

Having been so focused on the goop on the floor that he didn't notice the steam shooting out of the wall at eye-level from one of the walls and when he stood up, he began heading right toward the spray. "Woah, wai-" Hair began, extending his hands toward his partner to stop him.

"Gorramit!" Mustache exclaimed, ducking down underneath it and putting his hands over his face, having only barely touched it before he ducked. Luckily for him, that meant he'd likely only suffer superficial burns across the tip and bridge of his nose. The mustache was safe. Finally laughing, Hair crossed his arms over his chest, not bothering with his gun any more. They had their prey cornered somewhere in the galley and thought the Marine was still somewhere behind them to keep their flanks safe.

Thump....thump.

Hair turned a little, raising his brows curiously at the dull noises from somewhere behind him. Probably the Marine stomping around, he told himself, pursing his lips and taking another moment to listed, his partner's loud movements through the galley drowning out anything substantial. With a shrug, Hair turned back to the galley, staying in the corridor and watching his partner.