[that seemed a little over the top Whytee, I think Serco still need their head attached to the rest of their body to be uh alive]

"Alright guys, we got what we came for. Let's get going."

Samwise motioned for the others to follow him, grabbing Okada's severed head by the hair and swinging it around nonchalantly. Eventually they all got back to their shiny new Corvus Marauder, courtesy of Rin. Everyone began to pile in, save for Sam, who said he needed a minute first to take care of something. Asteroth seemed suspicious. "You better give me Okada's head first...remember our deal?" "Yeah, sure, one sec." He began to hand it to Asteroth, only to at the last second yank it away and fling it into the air, followed with a perfect bicycle kick through the open cargo hold door of the Marauder. Asteroth didn't look happy, but couldn't help but laugh a bit.

Afterwards, Sam joined everyone else on board, getting back in the copilot's seat for the second time that day. As Asteroth guided them out of the hangar, Sam started typing a message to Rin: "We got Okada. Well...part of him, anyway. The part that matters. No, not his dingus. Whatever. Meet us at Latos N15, if you still care and want a cut of the bounty. If not, that's fine too. More for the rest of us."

As they made their way down through Azek and back to Latos, an idea popped into Sam's head. "Hey, wait a minute...this Okada guy is obviously pretty high-ranking, right? Loaded down with completely concealed Tier 1 augs and sent on covert missions to capture supposedly high value targets.... They'd probably miss him a lot, if they knew he was missing. Think about it. Whatever bounty people would pay for this drunken jerk in the back there? Probably peanuts compared to what the Dominion would pay for this other asshole. Especially to keep his infiltration of Epsilon Hold under wraps. So...new plan. We forget about Leebs for now, ransom off Okada's head for 200 million, and then split that evenly. Who's with me?"

[Actually, not really. A pump, a gas exchanger, and some valves and clotting agents to minimize blood-loss, and you could survive for a while. Duration could be increased with filtration and a system for dispensing small amounts of nutrients and hormones. And genetic tinkering could reduce the amount of mechanical bits needed.]

Asteroth grimaced at samwise's handling of the head, but decided to play along to ensure his and Okadas escape. Once he had the head, he walked briskly to his own ship, leaving the three itani to their own fate. Albeit, one that would be slightly unpleasant.

Once inside his 'Taur, he undocked and engaged the turbo on auto, flying into nothing for as long as he wanted. He opened the guise storage locker and decapitated one of the clone bodies with a clean strike from his vibroblade. He just hoped that the technology that Skycommand put in their operatives, was roughly what he had once possessed. He installed the head on the neck stump and stepped back. Surely enough, the tendrils of nerves and blood supply started snaking towards each other, and within a minute, colour and life returned to the lips and eyes of Okada.

"You are restrained, cause if you are what I think, then you would be really pissed off at the first thing you'd see," Asteroth said. Okadas eyes locked on his, and the slim lips of the mouth pressed hard together in anger.

"My bet is that the special operatives of today are vastly better than what I ever had access to, so I am assuming that you can take control of my ship in less than five minutes, even in the state you are in now. So, I beg you, for the sake of Our Lady, hear me out."

Okada sent a signal to the ship mainframe and found full access. He used the ship speakers to reply.

"Speak, and it had better be good."

Asteroth opened his left hand and showed a small mem-crystal.

"I have a complete readout of samwise's power thing. As I see it, the dominion needs this information, and since I am no longer allowed to enter, I need you to deliver it."

"And the itani scum?" the loudspeaker rasped.

The chuckle that came from Asteroth was enough to strike fear into several schools in itani space, causing instant rumors of yet more serco invader-bodysnatchers targeting children.

"They will find that their ship will jump to L-2 and have the engines self-destruct. I bet the bots will have a fun time. That bunch of smurfs were so fascinated by the stealth suit, that they ignored me hacking their system to crap. Even if they try to access the computer, they will get and image of a smurf that blows balloons with a caption that tells them to feed him sarsaparilla."

Okada thought about it for a second, running hundreds of simulations at the same time. Finally, he nodded. He thought that he had what his boss had sent him for anyway as well, so this was a handy bonus. He nodded and said, "And you?"

Asteroth nodded as well before answering.

"I'll take a pod home. When you are ready for the ship, I'll eject."

(Okada, I figured that the serco spec ops had almost invulnerable survivability. So, this was the plan :) )

(Oh, so we're playing hardball now? Alright, I can deal.)

"Asteroth, what do you think o...wait. Where'd he go? Where's Okada?"

Sam frantically tried to access the Marauder's center console, if just to get a hint of what the hell happened, only to be denied access with an insulting anti-smurf .gif image. A course was plotting itself to Latos L2, and a self destruct timer began counting down. "Aw fuck.... Any ideas, anyone?"

Lysander was the first to respond, running full speed into the cockpit and unceremoniously ripping all manner of paneling from the dashboard, until he found a rather thickly insulated red and black wire. With their combined muscle, he and Sam were able to rip that out as well. It produced the intended effect...the ship powered down, keeping it intact and out of Hive space. They were safe...for the moment. The old saying "out of the frying pan and into the freezer" came to mind.

"Okay then...that's solved, but...now we're adrift and running out of oxygen. I...have an idea, but...it's a long shot.... FAMY has a few high-end ships stashed at I8, but.... The only way I can see us getting there is...well.... If I can remotely hack into our jump drive with my PDA, I should be able to get us there...but there's also the chance that it'll misfire and either throw us into the deepest reaches of uncharted space, or...kill us. From what I see, it's the only shot we have...." Leebs curled up in the fetal position in the corner, but Lysander gave a determined nod. "Alright. Let's do this."

He began picking through the now-ruined dashboard, narrating the process to himself as he usually did while working on complex electronics. "Okay then...now...some sorta input...is that the wireless transmitter?...yep...here we go...if I can isolate this by itself, I should be able to get power to it without reactivating the whole thing and dooming us...okay, that should stop the rest from powering back up...let's see if that worked...." He retrieved his PDA and scanned for available devices. The Marauder appeared, causing him to pump his fist and high-five Lysander. "Okay...the jump drive should still be powered up, since all we did was remove its controller.... Alright. Course plotted...executing...got it. See you all on the other side."

The rift opened, sucking the crippled Marauder through, and then...silence. Sam couldn't tell if something had seriously gone wrong or if it was just the suspense dragging it out. The moments ticked by, and then.... They emerged, outside of a small station guarded by turrets. "Phew.... I wasn't worried. Were you worried? I wasn't worried," Sam joked. He then nudged the Marauder towards the docking bay, using psychic shields.

Once he "landed" inside the docking bay, they all piled out. And then they were greeted with an almost blinding flash of shiny white...three or four Valkyries sat parked in a line. Perfect, Sam thought to himself. Due to their design, they were almost completely hack proof, at least by Serco; instead of conventional electronics, it utilized a complex array of etched crystal sheets, fed by a sort of energy converter that altered the feed from the power cell into something more akin to bioelectricity. As such, it was very difficult for non-Itani to pilot them, although some UIT and even Serco had managed. It also allowed Itani pilots to use the network to amplify their spiritual abilities almost thirty fold. Next to them sat an array of Corvus ships; another Marauder, a Vulturius, a Greyhound, and a Centurion Superlight. "Alright, so...Leebs, you stay here. I'm guessing you won't mind relaxing in a guarded station for a while. Lysander, I'm gonna wire Savet and let him know our friend here is safe. Once that's done, you're free to negotiate with him about your bounty. Knowing him, I don't see how he could turn down whatever millions of credits you're after. At this point, I don't really care if you follow me or just leave, but I'm going after those assholes."

And with that, he jumped into one of the Valkyries and set off, after typing a quick message to Savet: "Leber is safe, aboard Latos I8. Lysander is with him; wants to pick up the price on Leber's head but has agreed to cooperate to ensure his safety. At least for now. Several other parties are interested. I highly suggest you revoke all access keys, even mine, until he is in a more secure location. I repeat, revoke all access keys." Moments later, he brought up his access code list, only to find that he no longer had access to the station. Which was a bad thing, as he was still in the sector. Capital Gauss bolts flew past his ship, forcing him to bob and weave his way out of the sector. He eventually got far enough away to jump safely, unscathed.

That solved, he returned to his search for Okada and Asteroth. Okay...let's see if he took the bait, he thought to himself. Linking his mind to his ship's computer, he expanded his awareness throughout the system...yep, he took it. A crystal he left behind, supposedly containing data regarding whatever electronics gave him his psychic powers. Those Serco were way too easy sometimes...didn't they know everything the Itani accomplished was with their minds? Did they forget that this very war was started over the dispute of bodily modifications? Whatever, he had to focus. The Centaur was almost through Ukari, and he had to act fast.

He began pounding the turbos, making jump after jump, until he reached Ukari A10, and finally.... There it was. Asteroth's Centaur. As much as he would've loved to gloat, he didn't have time to waste. He ruthlessly pounded the other ship with everything he had. It tried to turn about and engage, but a few Sunflare hits sent it spiraling back off course. Within minutes, it was a flaming wreck. One more Sunflare to the engines ensured it wasn't getting away. He almost sent a message stating "Give me one reason why I shouldn't destroy you right now," but thought better of it. After three more salvos from his Gauss cannons, the Centaur broke apart. He detected no signs of life remaining aboard the wreckage, but stayed on station just to be sure.

((OOC: hehe, well played samwise. Except for a couple of things: 1. How'd you find the Cent? What bait? I mean, only you itani people were at the base surely? And I'd wager that Okada was more clever than just flying stupidly along the path of most likeliness... 2. no hardball, just an extrication of the two Serco game-killers. Plus, I needed to explain why I had killed off Okada, well, shot him to bits:) ... I was kinda waiting for Leebs to chip in by now!))

((OOC 2 Ach, so. Very well.))

(Oh, the memcrystal. I'll fix it so it's clearer.)

In the last 4 hours, LeberMac had been the leader of a misguided and unruly mob, had knocked himself unconscious, been kidnapped, nearly blown up, been chased through a station and through space by hostile XangXi tactical units, kidnapped again, almost interrogated by Serco covert ops agents, kidnapped a third time, almost frozen to death in an abandoned ship, and finally had ended up in a pirate-controlled station floating above the wisps of Ka-Tet’s hazy atmosphere.

Even worse, this is all he remembered about his life. The blow to the head he’d suffered had given him at least short-term amnesia, so he wasn’t even sure who these people who kept coming in and out of the story were. He was in a lobby of sorts in this smallish station in the middle of Latos, clean and nearly abandoned save for the few visitors, maintenance crew and various robotic guardian droids who could always be seen keeping a sensor or two on him. Only one of his new companions stood with him now, a blue-gray haze of smoke from the man’s pipe lingered in the air and tickled LeberMac’s nose.

He sneezed violently, and blew out a large bloody snotball that landed near Lysander’s boot.

“Uh, sorry,” LeberMac apologized, “Hey, I’m dying for a shower and something to eat.”

Lysander barely acknowledged the communication, “Get to it, then. Showers are over there,” he pointed to the common area, “… and no funny stuff. Remember you’re just as valuable as a mangled corpse to me, the bounty doesn’t specify ‘alive’ or ‘dead.”

LeberMac slinked off to the showers while Lysander moved to block the only entrance/exit, and continued puffing, deep in thought as to the best way to better his take in this crazy scheme.

LeberMac stunk, he knew it – he passed through the full-body bioscanners in the shower, which briefly registered a complaint, then silently dialed up the shower’s steam level, sent in an electronic order for a great deal more soap, and puffed more lemon-scented air freshener into the room. The shower selection station suggested the “Ultimate Wax & Shine” for LeberMac, while at the same time politely demanding that he disrobe completely and his current wardrobe be disintegrated. He shrugged, stripped, donned the protective goggles and hit the “Accept” button.

The automated shower system went to work, first using a micro-UV strobe pulse to flash-abrade the outer layer of skin off, which was followed by the high-pressure antibiotic sterile rinse before a gentler soapy bubble spray covered him in foamy mint-scented lather. To end up, he walked through the successive sheets of water walls which drenched him completely and washed him completely squeaky clean.

“Please proceed to dry sauna.” An electronic voice chimed. He stepped into the drying tunnel, where airblades thoroughly dried every last millimeter of skin and hair, leaving him dry as bone before he stepped into the sauna, where a fluffy white towel was offered to him.

LeberMac wrapped the towel around his hips and ventured into the steamy sauna, finding one of the massaging stations by touch as much as by sight, and sat down underneath it while the robotic shiatsu massager went about its work.

“Ahhh, now THIS feels great…” he said as the massaging station kneaded away the tension in his shoulders and neck, “… perfect.”

“Oh, it’s not perfect yet, sugar…” a voice purred in his ear.

LeberMac jumped, losing his towel and adopting an instinctive combat stance, arms flexed and preparing for a new attack out of nowhere, or fourth kidnapping attempt, or for something to explode randomly.

The female itani merely put her hand over her mouth, adjusted her own fluffy towel, and giggled. “Impressive…” she mockingly said as her gaze dropped a bit from his eyes.

“Um!” he said as he scrabbled on the floor to retrieve his towel, “Hello, I mean… yes. Hello. What are… who are you?”

The slim itani sat up straight, threw her shoulders back and introduced herself, “I’m Geosha. Pleased to meet you.” She extended her hand to the wary LeberMac.

He secured the towel around his waist again and shuffled closer, clasping her hand as briefly as politeness would dictate, and sat down a seat away from her as if she might transform into a slavering Serco guise at any moment.

“I find the sauna very relaxing, it’s good to have someone to share it with,” Geosha said coyly, “This poor station’s been powerfully boring lately. Where you from?”

LeberMac awkwardly stammered, “I.. I’m from Epsilon Hold… I think.”

“Ooooh! How exciting!” Geosha hopped to the seat right next to LeberMac , “I hear all kinds of things have happened there recently. Is it true that someone blew up their power core? ‘Course it could all be rumor, you know how folks’ll invent stories to pass time on lonely outpost stations.”

“I’m not sure, I’ve been through a lot, “LeberMac said as he let down some of his defenses, “There’s been a lot of fighting, and a lot of explosions, I can’t say that it’s all very clear. It’s very stressful…” he faded out as Geosha’s fingers lightly touched his shoulders, setting off a galvanic skin response.

“Oh my - but you’re stiff as a board!” Geosha explained as she rubbed the knots in LeberMac’s shoulders.

LeberMac panicked and looked down at his lap self-consciously. No, not stiff as a board, but getting there. Geosha pretended not to notice LeberMac’s social discomfort as she moved behind him so she could put both hands to work on his aching shoulders. He visibly began to relax more and closed his eyes. She made her move, her lips brushed his cheek as she whispered into his ear, “but you DID order the ‘Ultimate’ package, dear.”

LeberMac sat up straight in surprise as Geosha continued her massage, losing her towel and moving ever lower as the sauna scene got ever more steamy…

Meanwhile, Lysander was outside, becoming more agitated. What the hell was taking so long? He was about to yell into the shower when a much-more relaxed LeberMac came out of the shower, draped in brand-new clean station-supplied garb and chatting animatedly with a lovely companion on his arm.

“What the hell is THIS?!?” he exclaimed, sputtering and almost dropping his pipe. “Who’s that?” He pointed.

“This, “ LeberMac said chivalrously, “is Geosha, and she is an excellent masseuse.”

“Among other things, honey.” Geosha said and stood close to LeberMac as she whispered, “Standard gratuity is 50%, darlin’.”

“Oh, of course,” LeberMac demurred as he pressed his thumb into her discreetly-held datapad for payment. She winked as the payment was acknowledged, “See you around, sweetie! Come tell some more stories about getting kidnapped next time you’re in-station!” Geosha waved as she strutted off towards the bar, all long legs and high heels as she stalked her next mark.

Dumbstruck, Lysander shook his head, then looked at LeberMac, then Geosha, then LeberMac, who was grinning like a madman. “Amazing. Utterly, stupidly amazing.”

“Yes she is.” LeberMac said. “Hey, I’m starving. Let’s get some grub, looks like I have a hefty amount of credits in my account, I’m buying. Now that my head’s clear I need to talk to you about a few things, like why I’m in this mess and what I can do to get out of it.”

Lysander eyed LeberMac suspiciously and puffed on his pipe. “No tricks? No trying to escape?” He wasn’t sure what LeberMac was playing at, but after a detox scrub and a nice shower, all of a sudden the clean & sober LeberMac appeared rather more formidable.

“I can’t even remember where I would go if I DID escape. I’ve got no ship and this is a private station.” LeberMac said as he spread his arms, “Come on, I’ll get you a seat in the smoking section and we can… discuss things.” He and Lysander meandered across the station in guarded silence until they found a cantina with some local flavor, where they did indeed find a plush booth in the smoking section, away from the rest of the patrons. LeberMac sat opposite Lysander and made a show of adjusting his new outfit, his hand brushing against the well-concealed DL-44 blaster at his hip. Indeed, that Geosha had been amazing in her selection of garb that was not only form-fitting but her selection of clandestine weaponry; next time he’d have to remember to tip better. He deftly undid the hidden holster clasp with his right hand as he idly picked at the wall behind him with his left hand.

“So, what’s all this about a bounty, and what’s it take to make it go away?” LeberMac said. “Tell whoever it is that I’ll get them their money. I can’t remember what it is that I’ve done to warrant such a large bounty, but even the best of us lose sometimes. Do you think I had a choice?"

Lysander answered with a puff of smoke, "You can tell that to the bounty masters. They may only take your ship."

"Over my dead body."

"That's the idea. I've been looking forward to this for a long time," Lysander quipped, and reached for his gun.

---------------------------

Meanwhile, Geosha keyed her subvocal communicator while pretending to make smalltalk at the bar with another likely mark.

"He's here. Pickup ready. Single hostile."

The message was broken down, hashed, encoded in triplicate, and forwarded in scatter-broadband across grayspace. Asteroth picked up the transmission and grinned. It had started out rough, but this mission might actually end up easier than it began.

((How the hell did a random Itani/Serco/whatever chick sneak into a heavily defended secret station that she probably didn't have a key for? I dun geddit.))

OOC: Ssssh. She's sexy and sneaky and probably has an interesting role to play, if you'll let her. ;)

((Oh, alright. I think I get what you're going for, after a few rereads. Carry on.))

As Rin flew his recently un-mothballed Corvult toward the wormhole to Latos, having found the sector empty of Serco, his communicator signaled a message from Samwise. Huh, they caught part of Okada. Rin had thought they meant Okada's head, but Samwise said it wasn't his dingus so it must have been a hand or critical implant or something. Rin sent back a typically informative and helpful response: "Cool." Yup, nothing like being ambiguous.

One jaunt through higher dimensions later, and he was scanning Latos B-6 for threats. Nothing, just the remains of that Trident. This suited Rin just fine. Now that he'd gotten to shoot some stuff and knew Okada was being handled, he could get down to business on Project Solitude.

Rin looked over the wreck. It seemed the starboard pylon had come loose. Must not have been warrantied. His scanner didn't show any signs of shielding being up either. So he flew up to it for a quick closer look at the damage, then carefully docked. There didn't seem to be any other ships parked inside, and the atmosphere had all escaped through the stump where the pylon used to be. He had already donned his EVA suit back at Ukari Outpost, so that wouldn't be a problem. He popped open the canopy and drifted out (the artificial gravity was also inactive).

The place seemed abandoned, but Rin didn't want to take chances. He kept his blaster out and carefully (by his standards anyway) explored the Trident. He didn't find much of interest, besides a few tracking transponders that he quickly located and disabled (he'd learned that lesson the hard way, several times). Of course, with the power out he couldn't search their computer systems for interesting intel, but he doubted he'd find anything in there anyway. If it were a movie he could just go contact his buddy the hacker and have the best encryption algorithms known to Sercokind (an oxymoron?) broken in a matter of hours. Pfft. The sad thing was that some people actually thought that was realistic. Hell, Rin knew guys who thought that he was their hacker buddy. As though writing a bunch of custom flight software meant he could just wink at a computer and have it spill its innermost secrets. Okay, so that technique did work for him once, but he hadn't even known she was an android at the time! He'd certainly never managed to repeat the feat with any other computers, droid or not.

What was he doing again?

Oh yeah, grumbling about how boring this Trident was. Well, that was okay. He'd make it plenty interesting soon enough. Having verified the Trident was empty (barring any troublesome nooks or false panels - he'd have to do more thorough bioscans later just in case), he drifted headfirst down the corridor intending to break open the personal storage lockers to see if he could find anything entertaining. He wondered why the Serco hadn't set the Trident to self destruct or left behind traps or something.

That was when all the lights suddenly came on and he got a lurching feeling in his stomach. The next thing he knew, the floor rushed up and knocked the wind out of him, much faster than any floor had a right to be rushing. He tried to get back up to take stock of his surroundings and maybe find some cover, but he felt like he weighed four hundred pounds more than he should. He decided some joker must have cranked up the artificial gravity, because there was no way this crippled Trident was suddenly accelerating vertically at around four G. As he struggled to get up, some flashing lights caught his eye. They were coming through a porthole. Odd, they looked kind of like the light-show when a ship jumped.

Oh. Shit.

With his old accomplice Adrenaline now at his side, Rin started crawling toward the hanger as fast as he could. A few moments later he observed that he hadn't been obliterated yet, meaning the Trident hadn't been set to automatically jump into the center of Latos-the-star, or perhaps it had tried but missed.

He reached his ship a couple tedious minutes later, and dragged himself into it. That had been exhausting. He wasn't as debilitated as many people who spent all their time in space, since he frequently pulled high-G maneuvers in his ships, and did take various supplements to help combat space fatigue despite his lack of disciplined exercise. But he was no Serco. Nor was he Itani. He did try using hitherto undiscovered mystic brain powers to help lift him into the cockpit, but it hadn't done anything. When he'd tried harder, he'd just passed gas. Not fun inside an EVA suit.

One fall and much cursing later, he was seated with the canopy descending and the life support systems booting up. He dialed up the pressure slightly so that it would be a little higher than the pressure inside his suit, and waited impatiently. Finally he was able to remove the helmet and get some "fresh" air.

Pulling up the nav computer, he saw that he was now at H-9. Huh. Oh, wait. He pulled up a map of Odia. Yep, if this had happened in Odia, he'd be waking up in a cloning bay right about now. They must have forgotten to reset their trap once they'd started traveling. Or maybe they just hadn't had time. He still didn't know how it had been attacked in the first place. Hell, he hadn't know there was a Trident involved in any of this until he had flown past the wreckage earlier.

By this point he was reasonably sure that the ship was indeed empty after all. It had to have been an automated trap. A human would have just shot him in the back and then taken his Corvult. So, that was good news. Also, the power, artificial gravity, and jump drives were all apparently functional. And now it had serendipitously moved itself to an empty sector where nobody would interfere with his work. Excellent.

Still no shields. That was a mixed blessing. Shields would be nice to have, certainly, but Rin wasn't sure they'd work with the plans he had in mind anyway. Eh, he could look into that later. He grabbed a spare air canister, held his breath, and put his helmet back on. Then he opened the Corvult's canopy as well as the suit's exhaust valve and the outlet on his old air canister, purging it. Once the canister was nearly empty and suit pressure was dropping, he closed off the exhaust valve and swapped in the fresh canister. Much better.

Now for the "fun" part. He struggled back out of his cockpit and got some new bruises on his subsequent short trip to the floor. As he started psyching himself up to drag himself all around the Trident looking for the gravity controls, he saw something that brought a grin to his face. It was one of those little wheeled coaster things that mechanics lie on when they need to slide under a ship to fix something. He crawled over to that with gusto and got on. Fortunately it was designed for Serco, so it managed to support his current 550 pounds without issue.

"HA! Can't stop me now, Toasters! Muahahahahahahaha!!" Rin shouted as he scooted toward the main corridor. There was an incline at the threshold, probably to help keep spilled fluids and stuff contained, but he was able to get over it easily enough. Being able to get some momentum going helped. And then he was coasting down the hall, cackling as he went. He wasn't sure whether the gravity controls would be at the bridge or in the engine room. He suspected they'd be in both. The seats in the bridge were cushier though, so he intended to try there first.

Struggling up into one of the chairs, he perused the controls in front of him. Oh, communications array. He decided he'd better just power that off for now. Jump drives as well. And there next to the jump drive was a toggle for the artificial gravity. He didn't see any dials to adjust the strength. Maybe that part was in the engine room, or just not labeled right. He went ahead and flipped the toggle, and sighed in relief as he lifted slightly out of his chair.

Now much more comfortable, he continued acquainting himself with the controls and displays. Especially those angrily blinking red bits. Air supply exhausted, no surprise there. Starboard engines unresponsive. Fuel supply nearly empty. Well, that wasn't the end of the world, but not ideal. He doubted the Serco would have been flying around on empty. Must be leaking. Where was the battery information... oh, there. Okay, it looked like at the current output level it had about half a day's worth of electrical power once the fuel ran out. He started turning off systems he didn't need. Most lights, the water reprocessing system, the atmospheric recycler (though it didn't have air to recycle, it was still running), the music system which had apparently been vibrating futilely against the void this whole time, etc. That looked like it extended the run time by... two hours? What was left to be using so much power? A battery that big ought to be enough to power the computer and emergency lighting for a week. Must be something shorted enough to leech power but not blow a breaker.

He picked up the coaster and drifted back to the hanger to return it. Then he looked around to see what he had available for tools and spare parts. Not too much, but it would have to do for now. He grabbed a tool-belt and an assortment of tools, ensured all of them had their retractable cords attached to the belt, and slipped outside.

He wasn't much of a mechanic at all, but then he wasn't intending to actually fix anything, especially not right now. No, he was more concerned with just stopping whatever leaks he could, getting it airtight, and trying to find and break that short.

"Oh, hey, woah. Better go back inside and shut down the power to this area before sticking my arms in there."

A few minutes later he had found the appropriate power cutoffs. He detoured to the bridge before returning outside and verified that the power consumption had now been cut way down. Back outside, he used an infra-red scope to see if he could locate any particularly warm areas. He did find one, which looked like some cables had melted their insulation and fused. He went ahead and just cut that area out, wrapped everything in electrical tape, and taped it out of the way. Then he sealed up any hoses he could find. Finally he looked at the prospect of sealing the whole mess away. He had no intention of ever replacing the pylon, so he decided getting some metal plates and just welding it over the whole mess would be the simplest solution. That would probably take a mothload of plating... Moths. Hmmm....

Rin went back inside and reactivated power to the rear starboard area of the ship, keeping a hand on the wall to feel any explosions. Nothing exploded. While a part of him was disappointed, the logical part of his mind reminded him that this was a good ting, and that there would be plenty of explosions later.

He floated over to the bridge. Yep, that took care of the short. He supposed he could have just left the area disconnected, but there was probably some stuff in that area of the ship that still worked. He doubted it was anything essential, probably just additional air exchanges and stuff. But having that stuff online would provide more redundancy, and put less overall strain on the rest of the ship. So Rin was pleased with his work.

He was about to return to his Corvult so that he could initiate the next exciting phase of Operation Solitude, but then he realized that the Serco might eventually realize that the Trident might have ended up here instead of inside the sun. That would be non-ideal. Rin turned back to the console and pulled up the nav map. D-12 would do. He plotted the course, crossed his fingers, and initiated a jump. By now all of the fuel was gone, and a jump would pretty much deplete the battery, so Rin strongly hoped that he didn't get caught in an ion storm or come out in a sector some hive queen had decided to haunt.

A few seconds and flashy lights later, and Rin relaxed his fingers. All was well. The battery only had a half hour left, but he didn't really need it for anything right now anyway. He switched the computer systems to standby, leaving only the emergency lighting active. That way there would be a little juice later if he needed it, though he intended to ferry some fuel out here before then.

As he floated back toward his waiting Corvult, he wondered what he should name the new ultimate bedroom he was building. He gathered that LeberMac had named his personal fort Tequilaria after his favorite drink. Rin was more of a food person than a drink person. So, perhaps he could name his sanctum Pizzaria?

No. That would be silly.

Beds, Hammocks, and Beyond? Ehhh..

Slumberopia?

No. But he would think of something. Perhaps he could track down LeberMac and get some advice from the apparent master. After all, if he had that many people after him, he must be doing something right.

Okada watched with satisfaction as the Itani ship tore the Centaur apart, even killing off the passenger section where he had been with Asteroth earlier. No better way of cleaning your tracks than letting your enemy destroy you. Unlike Asteroth, he had picked the trace on the mem-crystal up immediately and had formulated a plan. The latest generation Serco cybermancy tech, stuff that was so advanced that he didn't have the faintest idea about how it actually worked himself, was leaps and bounds ahead of the old crap he had detected inside Asteroth's head. The Itani trace had stood out like a ten-pound turd in a strawberry daiquiri, so he had just read a complete copy of the data instead of actually touching the chip. He knew of the Itani capabilities within gene-tampering and coding, so he would prefer not to get any of the material on him.

He had ejected Asteroth towards a waiting Warthog that had been floating in space somewhere deep in Ukari before jumping to his own hide-out. Well, not strictly his, and not strictly a hide-out, but a location he was aware off, that was accustomed to serving odd needs at odd times, without asking odd questions. He had primed a sub-routine into the Centaur that would allow it to fight, albeit ineffectively, fly and even jump along a pre-set course before following it in his own rather more stealthy ship. And now he was here, more than 50k metres away from the Centaur as it was being expertly chewed into little pieces by an enraged samwise. He jumped out, allowing the hard radiation to show where he had been, before jumping randomly three more times to lose all trace of his whereabouts. Now, he just needed to clear the border turrets of Helios and they'd have to place yet another medal on his chest.

###

Hive Queen XG-2108 received the message from one of her observation bots that an anomaly had been detected floating in space. A giant asteroid of refined ore that was ripe for the processing into yet more Milanar assault drones. After a short sharing of mind with her five sisters, the collective decided that the metal of the asteroid would be sufficient to enlarge the Milanar hive's expansion and allow the hive to create a second Leviathan. This would push the collective within reach of producing the three Leviathans that were needed to produce a Hierosphinx, the actual intelligence behind the collective, and the facility that was able to produce capitol ship-sized drones.

The hive decided to invest several teams of miner/guardians to investigate and conduct preliminary mining on the asteroid before committing an entire Queen cluster. The drones arrived in-system and started to fly towards the oddly Trident-shaped asteroid…

((OOC: You'll never get any sleep there Rin:) However, Great stuff and from samwise and Leebs too!! Okada, your shot?))

Rin set his coordinates for D-12. He'd decided to just be lazy and buy a mothload of fuel from TPG, since he'd never had much luck with stealing volatile stuff like that. And anyway, it's not like he couldn't afford it. Fuel was cheap, unlike new engine pylons.

Normally he'd have preferred to do business with Xang Xi or Orion, but Xang Xi was out of commission for the time being, and Orion was still mad at him for some reason. Fortunately he had a few normal Behemoths parked at the TPG station, because he hated those under-powered and unarmed XC models.

He'd grabbed some more tools, supplies, and a milkshake while they filled his cargo hold with fuel. The attendant (Rin hadn't bothered to read his nametag since he knew he'd forget immediately anyway) had been curious what it was for. "Salvage op," had came the gruff reply.

"Oh yeah? What kind? I got this buddy, he be lookin' for a-"

Rin cut him off. "I ain't sellin' it. 's fer me. Gonna be the best damn bed ever."

"Ummm.... alright then," said the bemused attendant. "Hey, ain't I seen you before?"

Rin had just shrugged and tried not to flick his eyes at the assorted wanted posters on a nearby wall. He was pretty sure the third one from the left was him, but he had a shorter beard nowadays. Between that and the fact that he was actually paying for stuff, nobody had made the connection.

So, now he had enough fuel to keep his new and abused Trident powered for a while. He initiated the jump. What he saw when he arrived made his smile freeze. There were Milanar Collectors swarming all over his now pockmarked Trident, blasting off tiny bits of hull with their mining beams. As this registered, his face started to twitch a little. Finally, he kicked the turbo, slapped the com over the sector range, and started screaming.

"NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!! BAD HIVE. BAD! THAT'S MINE. You no can haz! SHOOO!!! GET! Get outta here!"

The hive bots, of course, ignored this. When one of the guardians turned to face him as he drew near, Rin lobbed off a volley of swarms. Then he shot another volley at the next nearest guardian for good measure, just before he slid into the docking bay. Cursing the Random Number Goddess for her painful teasing, he propelled himself up to the bridge and powered up the docking facilities, and plotted a series of random jumps around the hopefully empty areas of Latos. Then he rushed back to the docking bay and started connecting the Trident's fuel siphon to his Behemoth's cargo hold. That done, he set it to pumping and rushed back to the bridge. Along the way he decided that he rather really wouldn't mind if he never found out how to reset the artificial gravity, because rushing about in zero-G was just so much less tiring. Thank you, inertia!

Back in the bridge, he powered up the jump drive, and then he reached over and flipped on the sensors so he could take a look around while the drive charged up. It looked like several dozen hive collectors and half a dozen guardians were milling about. Some of the collectors had stopped when the power came on, but most were still at it. Suddenly the guardians all rotated to face the Trident at the same time. Crap, they must have realized it was coming back to life.

Rin decided to take a chance and fire up the remaining engine. The ship slowly started moving in a lazy circle, but it didn't buckle - he hadn't been sure how much damage the Hive had caused, but apparently it was mostly superficial. The ship's movement caused most of the collectors backed off, but the guardians were still shooting. He was moving much too slow to throw off their aim, but at least he had a respite from the...

Nope, now the collectors were trying to settle in above and below the ship. Damn. No, wait, they're used to dealing with asteroids. Some asteroids spin. But asteroids don't suddenly spin different ways. Rin pulled the control stick back and the ship started pitching upward. Yep, that scattered them again. They started reforming around the diagonal axis, so he twisted the stick, keeping them guessing.

*Bing*

Ahh, the jump drive was ready. Rin directed the crippled Trident through several jumps between sectors, finally losing the hive. The ship had taken a real beating though, mostly during the time while he was gone. And if the hive had found him once, they'd surely find him again. But he'd bought himself some time at least.

He cut the drive, made sure he had several more random hops plotted and the jump drive primed, and set the proximity sensor. When the hive did catch up with him again, he'd just hop away before they could do anything. But he'd need to work fast meanwhile, because one mothload of fuel wouldn't last him forever.

Speaking of fuel, he checked on the Behemoth. Yep, all the fuel had been siphoned. Good. He disconnected it and unloaded most of the supplies. Next he grabbed some vacuum friendly welding gear, hopped in the Behemoth, and brought it out alongside the damaged area. This was the tricky part. He got it as close as he dared, then got out and started cutting away bits of metal until there was a shallow moth-sized indentation as well as some open areas he could fit through while he worked.

Next he went back inside the moth and got out a couple winches, cables, and magnetic grapples. Then he used them to winch the moth and trident together, the bottom of the Behemoth nestling in amongst the severed pylon mounting of the Trident.

Once Rin got it all welded down, he released the winches and put them away. Then he took a break, moving the Trident several sectors away just in case. Next he found a maintenance passage through the pylon mounting, took some of the plating he'd brought along, and started extending it until it reached one of the hatches on the Behemoth. Once the shaft was theoretically airtight, he opened the hatch (letting all the air out of the Behemoth through the remaining holes in the Trident itself). Then he started running a cable from the Behemoth's bridge to the nearest data port he could find in the Trident.

After this, he jumped again, checked that there was still plenty of power, and started reprogramming the flight software. He needed to get things set up so that the Trident would control the Behemoth's engines. Then he needed to adjust the scaling on the remaining engine so that it would balance with the Behemoth's relatively pitiful thrust.

That done, he tried a test run. He figured he'd have to tweak things a bit due to the altered weight distribution, plus natural variations in the actual equipment vs. what the specs listed. Very slowly, he increased the throttle, while watching how a star in the background moved relative to the specs on the windshield. Still too much thrust out of the real engine, and it appeared the Behemoth was mounted at a slight angle as well, adding clockwise roll. Well, that wasn't unexpected. At no point in his construction work had he been remotely precise.

Making some adjustments to compensate, he tried again. And again. After a boring number of iterations, he had it where he wanted. It would fly straight along the three cardinal directions (albeit at very slow rates of acceleration, even for a Trident). Rotations behaved strangely, but he could live with that. Now, what was that annoying beeping?

Oh. The proximity alarm. It looked like the hive had brought some assaults this time too. Rin hit the jump button, and then jumped a few more times for good measure.

Safe once more, Rin checked the fuel. Damn, he'd already burned half of it. Well, the good news was that he could maneuver now, even if it was very minimal. And that meant he could bring the ship over to the pirate station at I-8, fuel up, and finish the repairs in relative safety. Safety from the Hive, that is. He figured he'd probably have to kill a few wannabe ship-jackers, but that was par for the course at I-8, even when you didn't have a ship. Besides, who else would want this beautiful Frankenwreck? Those philistines would probably just see a bruised and battered derelict. But Rin knew a piece of Art when he saw one!

Chuckling, he jumped to I-8. Then he quickly squinted at the nearest defense turret - sometimes they forgot he was a friend and tried to blast him. Rin didn't really blame them. But it looked like they were working correctly today, so he registered one of the designated frigate parking zones off to the side of the station and started flying over to it.

A few minutes later he got board and started crunching numbers. At the rate it was going, he estimated it would take about an hour for the ship to get settled into its spot. So he set the auto-pilot, grabbed a couple spare air canisters, and hopped out the airlock. Then he used the canisters as thrusters to propel himself to the station in a much more reasonable timeframe than that of his pondering future-bed. Once he got inside, he planned to go find that joint that made the good pizza-burgers. He'd been there once before, but he'd been lost at the time so he wasn't sure where exactly it was located. He thought it was over near The Latosian Nosh though, so he'd start his search there.

Something tells me they weren't actually aboard.... Whatever. Leebs is safe and sound aboard a FAMY controlled station, and that means mission accomplished. I'm still not sure how bossman's going to take the loss of another Hound...whatever; I should probably get back and make sure those two haven't killed each other yet.

Sam began jumping back towards Latos I8 and continued his inner monologue.

And I can't wait to see what comes out of that bogus genome sequences.... I mean yeah, it was mainly just a tracker, but I hope they actually do end up using it...if I ever saw a braindead flipper baby Serco sitting in the cockpit of an opposing Prometheus, that would make this entire ordeal so worth it. And with that, he reached B6, suddenly remembering he had no clearance. He made a precautionary jump to I7, just in case he was being followed, and asked the higher-ups for his clearance back, entering his long, convoluted Employee ID to ensure they knew it was him. A beep and a "New Access Code" alert let him know it was safe.

He landed again and performed another aura scan, noticing Leebs and...another Itani? Was it Footballprophet?...nope, he didn't recognize it. And he didn't recall any other Itani employees being promoted to station access.... He decided to check it out.

The trail led him into the station's bar, and he saw a...rather attractive Itani female, wearing...not a whole lot. Making the front of his flightsuit as baggy as possible, he tried to sneak by, to no avail. "Well, hello there, handsome. You look like you've had a long day." Sam froze in his tracks and glanced around. "Uh...me? Uh...yeah, it's...not been normal to say the least...uh.... I actually have uh...something to take care of.... Hey, you haven't happened to see another Itani and a grumpy pissed off BLF member, have you?" "I think I did," she replied, making a gesture towards the back. "But why don't you sit down here and tell me all about your adventures? If it has anything to do with those two, it must be quite fascinating...."

"Uh...I really gotta be somewhere right now.... Raincheck?"

She nodded, and then handed Sam a business card. Massage services. Might be nice. "By the way, I'm Geosha. Nice to meet you."

"Uh...Samwise. Call me Sam. Nice to meet you too. Glad to see one of my own kind here...."

With a giggle, she bid Sam farewell and turned back to whatever she was doing. Okay then...best get out of here while I still can, he thought to himself. And I better make sure the boss knows about this...there's been all kinds of code leaks lately, and...yeah.... No idea what a random masseuse would be doing on board what's supposed to be a secure station.

He eventually found the two of them, sitting across from each other in a booth...Lysander had his hand on his blaster and looked about one step away from blowing Leebs's brains out. Looks like I got here just in time.... Ooookaaaaaaay then, better put a stop to this. Once within a reasonable distance, he created a pair of small, contained shields around Lysander's wrists, restraining him. "Okay guys, none of that. Let's just chill out and figure out what we're going to do to finish this. Lysander, let go of the gun."

With a huff, he relaxed his grip. Sam then manipulated his restraints and forced Lysander's hands onto the table. "There. We gonna get along now?" Leebs responded with an "I don't think so," retrieving his concealed blaster and shoving it into Lysander's face.

"Leebs you insufferable idiot..." Lysander chuckled "... I dare you to fire." He closed his eyes and a look of intense pain washed over his face. Around his wrists the air shimmered and popped as he stood up, his wrists passing through the rapidly deteriorating field.

Samwise and Lebermac stared dumbstruck.

"Leebs... only you would try to kill a man who'd already agreed to hand you over to your rescuer, and only you would be able to fail while he 'restrained'." He looked at the tiny blaster in Leebs hand and sighed.

"Sammy, not to seem rude but I'll take my payoff and this flat scan is all yours."

Samwise sensed something was off... his psyscan of Lysander was faltering just below the skin. Something was blocking him, but it didn't seem to be Lysander. All he could gather before the scan failed was that the man before him clearly not Serco nor was he UIT or Itani.

Lysander moved calmly and without malice towards Sam and stumbled. Samwise moved gracefully and caught his arm steadying him.

"Are you ok?" He asked with genuine concern... for some reason Savet insisted that theterrorist not be harmed. He decided to use the contact of flesh to run a simpler scan... a fraction of a second later, he was in his mind. Whatever blocked his psyscan wouldn't be able to do it again, not with a portion of his mind now in Lysander's. He'd planned on giving him the money but the blocked scan piqued his natural Itani curiosity. It was a simple enough plan... a rapid search would turn up where this man had been, and where he was from... and with luck a sense of national pride... a dead give away to what his race was. He extended his conscience, his essence seeping through Lysander's mind. It took less than half a second before images flooded into is displaced mind.

Within another half second he was frozen in abject terror. Images of death swirled around him... a little girl, clutching a terrified infant watched screaming as flames engulfed her parents... soon after the fires raged onward as the little girl stood in shock as she and the infant were bathed in flame. before his eyes a city was built and destroyed and nothing but decay. Bodies rotted at incredible speed and became dust mixing with sand. Samwise felt he was on the verge of madness

This was not good. It was random... everyone has random thoughts scattered through out the rational ones. Everyone has memories of pain but, no ones entire mind is filled with nothing but this level of horror. Samwise tried to withdraw... he was no longer in control.
His field of vision expanded... scenes of horror and carnage from a thousand different worlds, all filled with death.
Sometimes war, sometimes plague... always no survivors. He tried again as panic set in. There were rumors of Itani agents projecting them selves into an enemy psychic, and becoming trapped...but these were just legends. Even if they weren't... there was no way a UIT turned Serco was powerful enough to trap him.

The scenes melded into a single barren landscape. In the distance... a lone figure moved steadily towards him.

Samwise tried again to extricate himself from this horror. The figure was a distance away, but Sam felt he was smiling. Even worse, the smile was genuine... filled with innocence and joy. The ground shook.

Ashe looked down... a mass of hands gripped him, pulling him below the surface into a perfect void of nothing, perfect darkness. He found himself wishing panic had set in... panic would have been something
... this was abomination, it was pure and simple nothing... and still, he felt no sense of malice.

A voice made of a million childrens dying screams filled the void. The sense of horror left him in waves. A tear slid down his cheek. This lunatic landscape, this mind of insanity hidden behind a mask of calm detachment... it was insanity at its purest form, the innocence and hatred of a child. It was chaos and confusion... it was absolute sorrow beyond words.

"I will not hurt you, but I cannot let you remain. And with that one sentence he was back in the cantina.

Itt was his turn to stumble. Lysander caught him gently and laid him down with care on the floor. Samwise tried to move.

"Relax... you've experienced a major psychic trauma. You will not be able to move for some time, I promise you... it will fade." Lysander whispered to him, for the first time Samwise noticed that his voice was not the hollow metallic echo of the Serco. It was as if many voices spoke at once, perfectly modulated as one "With luck, you may forget everything you've seen and maybe years from now... you will be able to sleep without drugs." Lysander picked up the cred chip and transferred half back to Savet. He turned to Leebs as Samwise tried to erase to horrors he'd seen from his mind.

"Leebs..." he said with a cheerful smile, "...you tried to kill me... with a tiny little blaster."

"What'd you do to the other guy?" Leebs exclaimed... staring dumb struck at the pirate shivering on the floor. For the second time in one day, the second time in all of his adult life... Lysander was not smiling, none of his trademark out of place joy was there... there was nothing. Leebs risked making eye contact... even he could still read a man through the eyes.

Lysander was on him in an instant... forcing his head to look away.

"You damned idiot! You honestly don't remember anything do you? If you ever try such a direct contact with my mind again... I swear by all every race that has ever existed has ever held holy... I will let you." It wasn't a threat, it was a plea... a plea whispered the way a child whispers to its dying pet, no understanding of what happened... just that the consequences are beyond comprehension. He pressed his large Bractian blaster into Leebs hand.
"You may need more fire power to get out of here. There is a very angry detachment of shock troopers on the way."

Lysander turned slowly, as though this familiar station was as alien to him as the Itan capitol. As he walked away, Samwise caught his ankle...

"What are you? How do you live with all of that?" He gasped, his throat raw and rasping. his eyes deliberately looking away from Lysanders.

Lysander looked down at him and and smiled a forced smile that could never conceal the horrors and sorrows it futilely tried to conceal. He knelt down, placed a hand over Samwise's eyes and brought it down his face. Leebs had seen this before... though he was to busy barricading himself behind an upturned table.

As Sam drifted into the merciful blackness of dreamless sleep... he thought he heard someone whisper... "I don't."

Lysander's carefully learned attitudes of carefree joy and happy go lucky nonchalance settled back on his face as he boarded a shuttle leaving the station.

"When will they learn, I hates guns."

His finger tapped a small raised bump of flesh under his elbow.

Back in the cantina, Leebs was beginning to think he'd been had. The alleged shock troops shoud have been here by now. Without warning... the Bractian blaster grew very hot. Wave after wave of electricity shot through Leebs' body. The last thing he saw, or thought he saw as he faded to unconsciousness was his Phoenix Alliance friend... Chi... but, why was she dressed as an Itani High Chancellor Monk?

((uh...have you ever considered a career in writing horror? because that actually freaked me out a bit IRL.))

Sam... thank you so much!

Chi moved towards Samwise with a dancers grace as her body guards positioned themselves between her and any perceived threat, though no one seemed to be paying any attention. Even the cantina's staff gave them a wide berth.

She knelt near the sleeping pirate and after checking his physical vitals, removed a gloves and placed a hand over his heart and the other over his eyes. Relaxing and tuning out all distractions she began to meditate so that she could enter his mind.

Her assistant, who had been taking energy resonance readings looked up as he realized what she was doing.

"Chancellor!" He screamed. "Don't touch that man!"

The desperation in his voice snapped her back from the trance just as he reached her. She looked up from her kneeling position, her expression asking all that needed be asked.

"He's suffering from extreme psychic shock... look."

He held out to her his resonance scanner. The display read the ambient energies around them, the room was bathed in conflicting colors centered around Samwise and the table where Lebermac sat under the guard of two Itani soldiers.

"So he was here... by the residual energy, not long ago..." She looked at her men, each the best of their respective units. All of them could have been extremely powerful monks had they not chosen to serve in the military. All of them loyal to the death. "...he may still be on the station, leave two men with us, the rest of you fan out. If he's here find him, if not... find out where he's gone. Remember, don't trust your scans... he may not even register. Bring him to me alive."

The soldiers spread out, each determined to find their fugitive... not out of competitive nature or because they were ordered to but because they knew it was what must be done.

Felol looked to Chi as she took scans of Samwise, it pained him to see her forced to use technological devices for something her mind could do so easily.

"He did this to him, didn't he?" He asked, confusion and concern edging in his words. The man may be a pirate and a criminal, but he was also Itani and this made them brothers.

Chi looked at the scanners readings.

"No, I don't think so... I think..." The scanner erupted in shrill alarm, in unison Chi and Felol looked at the readout in horror. She motioned to her two remaining body guards. "...he needs treatment, bring me a list of all Itani on this station in order of their healing abilities, if there are none send a comm to the nearest IDF medical vessel, link their navcom to ours and tell them to meet us with all possible speed!"

Felol looked confused.

"Is he dying? He doesn't appear hurt in any outer fashion. What happened?"

The pain on Chi's face betrayed her as she spoke as calmly as she could.

"I suspect that he tried a deep scan or direct invasion or our fugitives mind, honestly I don't know. He's definitely suffered a massive psychic trauma as well as severe psychological damage... but, if it was caused by the man we're after... he should be dead, or screaming and driven beyond madness. None of this makes sense."

Lebermac stretched and with great effort rose from the floor, his muscles aching and his hand badly burned. Felol rose as he did training a sleek phase blaster at him.

"Thats far enough... no one may approach High Chancellor Chi!"

"He says he's my friend." Lebermac stammered, trying to remember why this woman looked so familiar. "He said he was going to save me, but when he touched the other man I was with he just stopped. Will he be alright?"

Chis rose and approached this new player in the unfolding drama... he looked familiar, but she could not place him.

"The other man that was with you, do you know his name? Do you know where he went?"
She asked in her most calming voice.

Lebermac stared blankly.

"I don' have any idea... he left before I was put out. He made that one..." he indicated Samwise "...very sad, but the he fixed him..."

Felol interrupted...

"His name, what was his name?" This was the closest they'd had to an active lead in years, impatience and stress bubbled to the surface of his usually calm demeanor.

"I never heard his name... the big Serco guy just called him 'Terrorist'... I don't think they trusted each other much. None of them did."

"Terrorist?" Chi's eyes widened as the word escaped her lips. "thats conformation... prep the pirate to move, and be careful. Tell all units to meet us back at my Trident."

Felol indicated Lebermac.

"And him? Do we bring him?"

Chi thought for a moment and set her resolve.

"Bring him along. He may be able to shed some light on these events, check his ident and scan for warrants or past crimes... until our troops report back, keep your weapon on him."

Lebermac shifted from foot to foot, he was getting tired of unanswered questions and weapons pointed at him.

"Do I get any say in this matter?" He asked looking at Chi, still unable to recognize her.

Chi spun on him.

"You, who were at the scene of a massive psychic disturbance and attack, you who were in the company of a known pirate and a wanted terrorist..." the word stung her even as she spoke it,but the truth was to complicated... "you can seemingly offer no credible evidence for what you claim happened... do you get a choice?"

She turned on her heel and walked towards her body guards as the returned. Without stopping, she barked her orders.

"Secure them both and bring them. Medical bay for the pirate, brig for the unknown... both under heavy guard. Now."

Right about then is when Rin prowled around the corner. Some of the Itani had been psychically searching for threats, but as Rin's mind was so firmly fixed on food, he hadn't registered as anything but a hungry civilian. Perhaps a smuggler or small time crook, but surely no threat. He didn't have a single violent or negative thought in his mind. One of the guards stepped forward to block his path and politely inform him that he needed to detour around the High Chancellor. Rin didn't hear it. He'd just noticed the sign up on the wall behind the crowd of Itani.

"Okay, there's The Latosian Nosh. Now which way did I wander after they kicked me out last time?"

"Sir! You need to-" began the Itani, reaching to restrain the self absorbed UIT as he tried to veer around him. With no warning, Rin instantly started moving in the opposite direction. "No.. I think I went this way. Yeah, because the Nosh was on the left." The Itani attempted to redirect his lunge but failed. Falling, his training took over and he turned it into a roll.

Seeing the commotion, a second guard turned. He trained his gun on Rin and tried to probe his mind. Then his gun slowly sagged until it hung limply at his side. The guard next to him took this to mean Rin was no threat, and asked what his partner had seen. "Piiizzaaaliciousssss...." was the murmured reply, accompanied by a bit of drool.

Meanwhile the first guard had come out of his roll in a crouch, with his gun centered on Rin. Humiliated and angry, he pulled the trigger. An instant before the motion had begun, Rin noticed a signpost to his right and stepped off course to examine it. The shot missed, vaporizing a large potted plant that had been set along the opposite wall.

The much beloved sound of blaster fire finally got Rin's attention (the sign hadn't mentioned anything that sounded like a burger place anyway, just a barber shop, a pawn shop, and a novelty ID store). Turning to look behind him, Rin saw an Angry Itani, a Hungry Itani, a Confused Itani, as well as some startled Itani who were turning to see what was going on. Oh hey, was that LeberMac talking to the Itani woman who looked like she thought she was all that and a moth of gauss?

Rin quickly sidestepped to his right, just dodging the second round fired by Angry Itani, and grinned as he put his hands up in the air. "Woah, don't phase me bro! We're all pirates here. We don't gotta be fighting eachother. Save it for the traders, man." This was all drawled out in a laid back style Rin had picked up from a documentary on ancient sports. Apparently people used take planks of synth-wood and use them to ride on large molten ice-roids.

"Say, you dudes wouldn't happen to know where I could find the joint with the gnarly pizza burgers? I'm like, totally starving right now. Hey Leebs! You and your girlfriend can come too! My treat, man!"

By this point the other Itani had aimed their weapons at Rin, but were not firing. Angry Guard looked like he wanted to, but Haughty Chick gave the guy a sharp look. Man, that guy was wrapped all around her pretentious finger. Rin wasn't sure he'd ever seen another pirate with this big of an entourage. Well, that one prophet had a pretty good sized group, but that was more like a mixture of peers and disciples than this group of outright minions. These guys had coordinated uniforms and everything!

When Haughty Itani Woman appeared confident that Angry Mook had his finger off the trigger, she turned to address Rin. "And who are you? What business do you have here?"

Rin cleared his throat and resumed his normal voice. "Well, like I said lady, I'm here for some grub. There's this really good burger joint around this end of the station somewhere, but I don't remember where, so I'm trying to find it. And I wasn't kidding either, you two are welcome. Um, but I ain't gonna feed all your mooks. That would be a tad excessive methinks." He gave the guards an apologetic look. "Sorry guys, but I've been a little negligent on the looting and plundering lately. But hey, maybe next time alright?"

Officious Itani, who was standing next to Haughty Itani, barked at him, "The chancellor asked you your name, scum!"

Rin sneered at him. "Now listen here you bureaucratic paper humping slug-minded exhaust product! I might not be some mind-raping psychic perv like you 'tanis, but I DO have functioning ears, and I know how to use 'em."

Angry Itani scoffed at that, for some reason.

Silencing her pet worm before he could form a no doubt outraged rebuttal, Haughty Itani Woman tried to seize control of the conversation. "Yes, we meant you no insult. Now, what is your name?" She seemed to concentrate for a moment. "....Ahhh, hello Rin Ganborro."

Rin's face showed the barest moment of confusion before it was overrun by anger. His amused gaze flickered to an enraged glare "NO PEEKING BITCH!!" he shouted. He seemed to struggle with himself for a moment, and then his glare shifted into a leer. "Now. I have business to attend. LeeberMac! Come! Heel!"

LeeberMac glanced between the two and then started to edge toward Rin, but Haughty Smurfy Bitch wasn't having it. "LeeberMac, Stay!" He stopped. She did have those guys with the guns after all. Satisfied, she continued, "Rin, what is your interest in this man?"

Rin just leered harder, then smirked when the pervy smurf took on a look of outrage. He'd learned that the trick to blocking psychic probes wasn't merely to focus intently on a single thing, as most people claimed, but to specifically focus on something that disturbed the person doing the probing. So Rin was doing his very best to visualize his current antagoness in skimpy neon-green swimwear. He observed that this seemed to offend her, and he figured there was no way she'd order any of the men surrounding her to view the vivid mental image Rin was creating. Especially when he started imagining the knots oh so slowly loosening.

"Siora, assist me!"

Shit. One of the Itani guards was female. He didn't think he'd have enough concentration to keep the both of them out. He could only visualize one person at a time with enough focus to prevent mental perusal, so he continued desperately visualizing Haughty Beachwoman since she seemed the more powerful. But wait, what was this? Siora had started out with a look of stern concentration, but by now something was different. Her face still held concentration, sure, but it wasn't so stern anymore. More... hungry? And was that a blush? Well, how fortuitous!

Realizing she was essentially on her own, Haughty Bitch gritted her teeth and tried to break past her own image, but all she got was a few faint whispers of food. Rin felt the slight deviation and ran with it, mentally covering the curvaceous Itani woman in melting cheese and tomato paste. Siora seemed to appreciate the additions, but Haughty Bitch shook her head in disgust and withdrew.

"Kill him," she commanded in a quiet but firm and profoundly angry voice.

Unfortunately for her, Rin had been carefully backing further away during the mind probing and her guards had been afraid to interfere. He'd only ever used this particular blocking maneuver on one other woman, and he knew Damned Well what the consequences were. He hadn't feel like dying this time, so he'd prepared to make a quick escape. As soon as he heard the words, he was off and running. Angry Guard managed to finally burn a chunk out of Rin's left shoulder before he made it into a side passage.

As Rin barreled down random corridors, he pulled a syringe out of a compartment on his belt and injected himself in the left shoulder. It was a mixture of short-range pain killers and blood clotters. They ought to minimize the trouble his shoulder would give him without much negative impact on the rest of his system. It wouldn't help with the actual healing though - in fact, it would indirectly make it worse, since he'd be a lot more likely to keep using his arm and making things worse since he wouldn't feel the pain. In a society where he could just respawn inside another cloned body, the risk of permanent or long-term injury didn't concern him much so long as he could accomplish his objectives.

Right now, his objectives were to lose any pursuers, locate that burger place, and then make his Trident airtight. Getting LeeberMac to assist with naming it was much lower priority. And if getting LeeberMac's help meant pretending to get along with LeeberMac's uptight girlfriend, Rin would just figure out a name on his own.

((OOC: Just to be clear, I'm not meaning to contradict Ryan when I call the guards mooks. I'm just illustrating Rin's obliviousness. Any one of them could probably tear Rin apart in a stand-up fight.))