Davis thinks for a second. "Okay, I've got an idea. It's not exactly subtle, but at least we won't get blamed for starting a fight with the Imperium on someone else's turf."

Angel follows the group at a distance as they make their way back to the ship, keeping watch for anyone following them.

With Angel watching over them, Davis' group returns without any trouble. They close both airlock doors, denying any still-hidden pursuers the advantage of surprise. Hugh lays out the plan and the team gets to work.

Semo finds the hangar monotask controls sluggish, but he manages to manhandle the eight rancid protein containers into a wall that rings the loading zone and extends under the catwalk towards the bay doors. There's enough spacing for someone to get between the containers. The final container is left to One-Ton, who ratchets open the end and starts the repairs to the Morningstar.

The engineer enlists the help of Max and Luis. Soon after, Taylor gets pulled into the repairs for an extra set of hands. Time is of the essence, after all. Luis looks back on the life choices that have led him here, strapped into a safety line, halfway down a starship's flank trying to replace a thermal sensor. Taylor and One-Ton are passing components to the dorsal sensor array up to Max, who, with two functioning legs and a fairly good sense of Imperial engineering, has been nominated to fix the Morningstar's sensor boom. He dangles from his own safety line 20 feet off the ground, like a warrior in the Thunderdome.

Angel's reluctantly parted with his two Claymore mines, placing one under the stairs nearest the airlock and the other hidden in the shadows underneath the monotask booth. He takes up his perch on the staircase landing to the right of the airlock. He's got a one-and-a-half story height advantage on any intruders, as does Mellish, who checks his as-yet-unfired Mk. 48's ammo feed one last time from his own position 40 feet away on the catwalk.

The hiss of welders and hum of auto-tools continues to fill bay M3 as One-Ton, Max, Luis, and Taylor continue the repairs. Swims-the-Black is inside the ship now, assisting the repairs by toggling any needed systems off and on. He's also keeping the engines powered up and ready to disengage from the docking cradle at a moment's notice.

It's been 30 minutes. The feverish pace of the repair crew contrasts with everyone else's anxious waiting. As much progress as Max and his guys have made, the new airlock door still awaits installation. The outer door had to be cut off in its entirety, so the Morningstar sits with this open wound in its lower flank. The sensor boom's installed but needs to be interfaced with the CIC's holographics.

Semo and Hugh notice a shadow darken the hangar airlock's outer door. It cycles open, prompting a barrage of glyphs on the interior panel. Whoever is out there just scrambled the door with a gatecrasher. There'll be just a few seconds while they do the same to the interior door-

The shuntway door groans and begins to open, safety locks disengaging with a clang. A swirl of frigid air mixes with the hangar's atmosphere as the shadowport's poorly-designed system takes its toll on air pressure.

There's no loading zone monotask inbound. Somebody overrode that door - which is now halfway open - but neither Davis, Hugh, Semo, or even Max, dangling below the Morningstar's belly, can make out any hostiles in the shuntway yet.

The first airlock door slams closed. The interior hatch cycles open to reveal six armed humans in black undersuits with a variety of tunics, jumpsuits, and ponchos thrown over top. The pebbled black undersuits and their milspec beam rifles betray them as Turai.

As is so often the case, the waiting before a fight is murder. Almost worse than the fight itself. Fortunately, they're dug in pretty well, long before any attack arrives.

The techies seem to be making decent progress, so there's hope that they will be out of here before too long.

Then something happens out in the hall. Someone's coming in and they're crashing the airlock to do so. Semo readies his cannon, a high energy burst round ready for the instant the inner door opens.

Several more seconds tick by as the intruders monkey with the inner door of the airlock. Once it pops open, Semo can see the crowd of Turai inside. This is it. Game time.

Semo squeezes off a shot, looking to place his shot just above the heads of the Turai in the airlock.

Letting the beam rifle dance from its sling (and almost clang against the SCAR - Hugh doesn't trust the alien weapon that much), Hugh grabs a fragmentation grenade from his gear and pulls the pin. He waits for Semo to make the first move, then heaves the 'nade into the airlock.

"Fire in the hole!"

There's a split-second where everyone aims. The brains of the two lead Turai have obviously sent "Move NOW" to their legs, but a trigger finger only has to move a little bit.

Semo's XM-25 kicks him hard. The airburst round THOOMS out of the weapon, following up its initial report with a thunderclap as it detonates inside the airlock. The lead Turai throw themselves prone, one rolling right to the cover afforded by the north staircase, the other still prone but out of the airlock-shaped deathtrap. Arketta's shot skims the prone Turai mid-dive, searing open his lower leg.

Mellish pours automatic fire towards the airlock as he sidesteps down the catwalk, heading for a better position with a view of the shuntway. Brass rains down through the catwalk grating, rounds impact the airlock sending up clouds of debris, but it's hard to tell if the Hammer scores any hits through Semo's smoke.

Hugh's M67 arcs into the airlock while Mellish pounds the doorway. Another thunderclap, this one punctuated by ragged chunks that leave crimson splashes as they skitter across the hangar bay.

Angel can't help but smirk at the grim work as he squeezes the detonator three times. The stairwell Claymore blows, yet another deafening blast on top of the staccato. It turns out that the lucky Turai who escaped the initial attacks ended up hiding in front of a Claymore. He literally disappears - just a spray of hamburger thrown back into his comrades. That Imperial's prone comrade rolls over twice, forced into the wall by the blast. The Turai leaves a blood smear behind him as he rolls.

Luis swings his own beam rifle up, but doesn't have a clear shot at the mayhem across the hangar bay.

There's cursing from the airlock as at least one Turai attempts to cycle the inner door closed. No good - the grenades, airbursts, and rifle fire have slagged any chance of escape.

The remaining hostiles storm the bay! Two break left out of the airlock, one firing back at Mellish while the other one can't help but spot Angel at the top of the steps. The third, failing to cycle the outer door, crouches down in the catwalk supports and stairwell nearest the airlock. She realizes she's just taken cover in the messy remains of her friend too late.

The Turai's first shot blasts a six-inch section off the catwalk, missing Mellish by millimeters. The second shot slams into the Hebrew Hammer's right shoulder, spinning the Delta operator into the melted railing and off the catwalk! Mellish lands hard on top of a protein container and his weapon crashes to the deck near Arketta.

Luis, moving for a better shot, glimpses the two male Turai as they run for Angel's platform. Sergeant Stanhill snaps off a shot that lances between two protein containers and cuts Mellish's assailant off at the knees. The xenohuman slams to the ground, his severed knees, shins and feet tumbling along with him.

Angel's dance partner hits the stairs, firing up at Specialist Riviera. The quiet man throws himself supine as one beam flashes past him and a second blows through the catwalk right next to his foot.

Davis sees Angel being overrun and tries to tag the Turai on the stairs. His finger caresses the trigger, there's the still-unfamiliar whap, but his shot is a little wide.

Max can't help but feel... interrupted. His beam rifle passed off to Davis for the time being, the Action Scientist flicks the selector on his SCAR-H and trots low towards the containers, keeping an eye out for trickery.

Taylor heads towards the shuntway and the loading zone. He pauses as he gets to the gap between two containers. "I think I see- contact! Contact! He's cloaked!" Taylor's rifle barks, his three-round burst ricocheting off the massive shuntway doorframe.

Two beam-shots, fired in rapid succession from the corner of the open shuntway, strike Sergeant First Class Charles Taylor in the chest and blow him in half.

Max sees Taylor's torso rupture, sees that the fire came from the shuntway, but doesn't have a visual on Chuck's killer.

admiralducksauce wrote:

Two beam-shots, fired in rapid succession from the corner of the open shuntway, strike Sergeant First Class Charles Taylor in the chest and blow him in half.

Max sees Taylor's torso rupture, sees that the fire came from the shuntway, but doesn't have a visual on Chuck's killer.

Max has no time to think about Taylor's fate, the Action Scientist in him taking over as he ducks down from his work; putting himself and his rifle in readied stance.

Sonuvabitch must pay!

Angel curses as the Turai rush his position, rolling to one side and firing somewhat wildly down at the alien, trying to keep him from advancing any farther.

Max moves aft, skirting left across the container where Taylor smoulders. He leans his upper body around the corner, trying to get a view of the shuntway. He glimpses the chameleonic movement of someone with an active cloak and fires a burst towards the bastard, but gets no indication of whether he hit or not.

A split-second later, the answer's clear as two particle beams dart from the shuntway sniper, impacting Max's cover with spectacular effect! The first beam misses Max and ruptures the container, spraying putrid organic slop into the air just in time for the second beam to go through the spray instead of impacting Max directly. The high energy particles vaporize the near-aerosol with a flash. Luis and Semo, the nearest to the scientist, see Dr. Kilgore enveloped in a fireball. He hits the deck hard, charred clothing flaking from his chest, but he's still moving. In fact, he gets back to a crouch behind the leaking container. Max isn't all there, but he's still in the fight.

Davis is lining up another shot before his Turai can make it up the steps to Angel when someone slams a rifle butt into him from behind. Davis goes down, catching himself and rolling onto his back in time to avoid another buttstroke from a second shuntway attacker. Whoever this is, they're not wearing your standard Turai armor. The cloak is nigh-useless at this range, and Davis can tell it's a female in an up-armored version of the spacesuits he's seen around the station and on the Morningstar.

Semo's too late to save Taylor, but he can try for payback. He lopes a few steps to the corner of another container and sees the beam-flash as Max is hit. Semo engages the rangefinder and looses another 25mm shell. The round detonates past the shuntway corner with a roar that thunders through the massive shuntway, and Semo sees someone or something go tumbling down through the smoke.

On the other side of the hangar, the Turai greviously wounded by Arketta's rifle and Angel's claymore rolls into a firing position and finally returns fire at Arketta. The warrior-woman's fortunate - the blast impacts her prototype strike plate, leaving her vest smoking but otherwise intact.

The female Turai covering behind the catwalk supports cranes around to the right, looking for a shot. She sees Davis go down, realizes her comrades have things in hand, and then sees Hugh. Hugh sees her first, though, and ducks back as the whap-beam hits the container, spraying more rancid, greasy slop across the deck. Hugh retches as some of it sprays across his face and mouth.

Back on the catwalk steps, Angel's opponent aborts his "charge up the stairs into gunfire" plan and vaults over the side. He starts firing a fusillade of blasts up through the catwalk, hoping to score a lucky hit. Angel rolls to the edge as the Turai ducks under the catwalk, and holding his SCAR over the side, sprays down at the Turai. Molten metal geysers up inches from Angel! The Delta boy gets to his feet as two more beams punch ragged holes in the walkway. Angel stabs his rifle through one of the holes and holds the trigger down - his weapon runs dry but the Turai's bullet-riddled corpse sags to the floor.

As he moves after Max, Luis does the numbers in his head. Six to start, twelve total. The others are probably in the shuntway area. Priority: make it a one-front fight. Finish the buisiness in the airlock zone. His thoughts are cut-and-dry, but he's just lost a squadmate, a buddy, and that cuts hard. As the medic, its only worse, because one look tells him he can't do anything, but he feels like he should. Wait-- scratch that: there is something he can do. He sets his jaw and moves up next to Arketta to get a good position for his shots. All he can do is not let it happen again.

He mutters to Arketta as he sights on the heathier of the bastards between him and the airlock. He's aiming for a non-lethal shot, enough to put him out of the fight, but leave the guy alive for whatever Davis has planned. As he sights, he nods to the container next to them, "I've got this position. See if you can help Mellish down." He pulls the trigger.

Hugh lets the beamer go slack at his side and slides his SCAR up to his shoulder. He spins around the leaking container at a crouch and fires at the Turai behind the catwalk supports. Two of the rounds spang off the stairs but the third round hits home, spattering red across the hangar bay wall and forcing the Turai back around her own corner only to be met from the other side by Luis' blue-white pulse-beam. The shot hits her in her upper leg, and she slumps to the deck amidst gobbets of steaming flesh and trails of burning clothing.

Behind Luis, Arketta clambers up to Mellish, slides him off onto her back, and then eases him onto the ground. The Hammer groans as Arketta moves him, but he's far from cognizant right now. His shoulder looks like Luis' victim's leg, flash-fried on the outside and boiled and bleeding on the inside.

Angel's got a fresh magazine into his SCAR in a heartbeat and sights down the staircase at the wounded Turai still prone near the airlock doors. It's almost a mercy killing. A single shot paints the bloody deck with brain matter and the dead Turai gets to the business of twitching every few seconds.

Max gets back up and peeks around the corner of the damaged sludge container, ready to fire at any more hostiles who might come through the shuntway.

Davis is on his back with his attacker straddling him, ready to bring her rifle butt down onto his skull like a sledgehammer. He pulls his HK45 just as the armored woman brings her weapon down. It's in slow motion - Davis hears the faint tic as the pistol's muzzle contacts the woman's armored knee joint. He makes out the slight ratchet of the hammer. The .45 slug leaves the barrel just as the woman drives her buttstock into Davis's face. Everything goes white.

From the stairs, Angel sees Davis get clocked; soon after, the spook's opponent slumps to the side.

Arketta slides her weapon back into her hands and, leaving Mellish in Luis' care, heads for Max and Semo. Luis opens up both his Army-issue medical kit and the Imperial medkit he swiped off the Morningstar. Luis is getting used to treating beam rifle wounds, but it doesn't make it any simpler. Mellish's shoulder is both boiled, exploded, and fried. Praying it helps more than it hinders, Luis shoots the Hammer up with some Earth painkillers and sets the wound with the automedic from the Imperial kit.

Hugh and Semo move up in unison, sliding along the right side of their makeshift barricade until they're up against the shuntway door housing. Semo sweeps right as Hugh checks left. Semo sees Davis is still alive, but he's reeling. Blood rushes from a nasty cut across his face. His cheek might be fractured, his eye might be out, or it might just be a nasty cut on his head. Hard to tell. It's clear what's wrong with Davis' opponent, however. She's moaning weakly on her side beside Davis, clutching her knee with both hands, well on her way to unconsciousness. Davis' shot looks like it blew through her kneecap - she'll never dance again. Too bad she didn't stay cognizant long enough to reach the frisbee artifact strapped to her hip.

Meanwhile, Hugh confirms Semo's previous target was not pulverized by the XM-25's airburst. He's moved back under cover of a row of thick hull supports that flank the shuntway track. Hugh makes out the glint of a second frisbee as the man stows it and grabs his beamer.

Trading observations with the captain, Semo offers a suggestion. ""If you want t' grab this chick's healing thingie," he says, gesturing at the downed Turai and her frisbee, "and help the spook out, I can give the runner another AB round?"

*Keys Radio*

(In English)

"This is Max. I'm starboard-side, moving up to cover the shuntway entrance."

Max cautiously scoots down toward the shuntway, also hugging the makeshift barricade on his side of the ship.

(overwatch, shooting anything that pops its head out in the shuntway)

"It's a plan, Sarge!" Hugh shouts, quickly moving over to the downed turai. He gives her a kick in the chest for good measure, then grabs the frisbee and drags Davis behind cover.

Getting the nod from his superior officer, Semo shuffles along the wall until he has a view on the Turai's location in the shuntway. He will kneel down and maintain partial cover while he lines up his shot, attempting to place his AB right over the man's head. Once the shot's away, he'll pull back so that just the top half of his head is exposed allowing him to monitor the results. He'll follow up immediately with a second round, if the Turai appears to survive the first blast.

Max creeps up his barricade, staring into the dark shuntway for any sign of movement. He thinks he sees something and dives to the floor as his survival instincts kick in faster than his rudimentary weapons training. A blue-white beam sizzles over his head! The gunman's second beam snaps towards Arketta, keeping her suppressed behind her own container but only serving to spray more rotting protein across the deck.

The sniper gives himself away with his two shots, and now Semo sights in on the blurred, cloaked figure.

Thump-BOOM! The airburst round hits the bulkhead, briefly obscuring the gunman with the blast. Semo quickly follows up with a second round - this one flies true, exploding past the sniper's cover.

Semo notes that this time, there are chunks.

Hugh finds planting a rib-cracking boot into the wounded woman's torso just the catharsis he needs. He takes the frisbee artifact without any trouble, grabs Davis by his vest, and drags him behind the corner created by the catwalk supports and protein containers. Hugh smears the blood away from Davis' face, holds the G-man still, and figures his teammate's probably got a concussion and a fracture right above his left eye. Hugh calms down and focuses while two 25mm rounds explode in the shuntway. Stanhill figured out that the frisbees kind of needs to know what's wrong before they work their magic, so Hugh tries to visualize Davis' wounds. The frisbee hums, casting a soft golden light, and Davis comes to as the bleeding stops and his brow knits back together.

Backtracking the two beams down the shuntway, Semo finds a blurry wisp of a Turai. He lets the XM-25 thunder once, twice. Bits of bloody flesh can be seen flying this way and that.

"Gotcha, you sneaky bastard!"

Semo continues to watch down the shuntway. Any sign of movement will receive another airburst. He's not about to let that guy patch himself back together with one of those frisbee-things.

And there's still the possibility that there are more of them...

Davis' eyes snap open and he reflexively reaches for where his sidearm would be. Not finding it and seeing that he's not in immediate danger of having his skull bashed in, he looks around for his weapons. "Thanks for the assist," he tells Hugh. He sees the now only semi-conscious Turai woman a few feet away. "Anyone else still out there I need to worry about before I move her out of the line of fire?"