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[Paladin58]

"Jesus H. Christ, Danny boy, you didn't need to use up the biggest party favor so fast, did ya?" said Titus, knowing to instinctively duck behind cover when something exploded. Eventually, the others caught on, as a hail of gunfire began raining around them.

"Hey, hand me one of your 'bombs'," asked Titus, getting an idea on how to open up the storeroom, which seemed to be locked up tighter than a virgin Catholic schoolgirl that actually believed in her faith.

[Vortigern]

Titus pushed the bomb across the floor, sliding it gently in to rest against the door. "Cover your ears," advised Powel, and a second later the detonator ignited, sending the whole wall crashing down.

"Not bad," exclaimed Wolff, striding through the wreckage, confidently unaware that their prize now lay mere feet away from him. He waited for the dust to clear. Suddenly he caught a flashing glimpse of something bright red. His eyes lit up, and saw a monstrous translucent stone, glittering brightly in what poor light there was. It seemed to magnify the light around it. Wolff's breath caught in his throat, and he saw that Thomas and Powel were similarly entranced. Titus seemed remarkably unfazed.

"We should get that out of here pretty soon," said Titus eventually. Wolff's brain finally clicked back into place.

"Yeah, Powel, Titus, get a hold of it. Thomas and I'll cover you a bit as we get out of here." He grabbed the radio from his belt and called up the cockpit. "Mac, we've got it, we're coming out." No answer. "Mac?" Wolff shook his head. They were probably swapping stories in the kitchen, knowing Mac.

On the way out Wolff sent a single further shot echoing off the walls as he saw a head pop up. "Done over by pros," he chuckled.

They hurried back to the ship, which was, for some reason, not open. Wolff banged on the door, and nothing happened. Muttering vague profanities, Wolff trawled through a pocket and eventually unearthed a rusty old key. He opened the door, after yet more time, in which Powel and Titus got increasingly more edgy, given the load they were hiding under a not-quite-big-enough cloth.

"Anyone home?" shouted Wolff, expecting an answer. There was none, and he began to worry. A vocal message suddenly crackled in over the ship's intercom system.

"Wolffy, the cops have come. We're probably busting our way out of prison by now, but just in case, come give us a hand, please." Wolff sighed.

"You heard the man. Stash the rock and let's go break in somewhere else."

((Sorry for cutting it short, but there'll be plenty more firefights in the future. ))

[Vortigern]

((See Nology's post in 'Unnecessary Problems' to explain how this came about.))

"More fucking police. Brilliant," muttered Wolff. "Just as well we already stashed the rock. Plan, anyone?"

"You're the Captain," replied Mac. "Gunslingers or diplomats, do you think?"

"Gunslingers, I reckon. They're only the fuzz, and we only need to pin them down enough to get back on board and take off."

"You know there aren't any guns on Icarus, don't you? So if we do get inside and try to take off, we're then unable to return fire and/or fight back in any way?" asked Mac, knowing what answer he expected.

"Can't hurt to try," said Wolff, shrugging. Not entirely true, said a voice in the back of his head. Whatever, it then said, and ordered him to pull out a pistol. "To arms, men!" he demanded. "We only have to shoot through a few cops, get our faces plastered all over this sector and destroy all hope of regaining legitimacy in the near future. What have we got to lose?" Wolff stepped forward, and shouted something unintelligible at the police. They turned as one to regard him for a moment, then it seemed to click with them all at the same moment. Wolff dived for cover as the bullets began to rain down upon where they sheltered.

"Shoot to kill."

((There's a fair bit of cover, as we're in a fairly busy part of the city and the only reason it's not also full of people is the police cordon around our beloved vessel. First estimation would be that there's about ten of them, all armed and armoured. Killin' time!))

[Paladin58]

"Numbers?" asked Titus, getting used to the hail of bullets that were starting to become the norm in his life as of late. He stuck his arm up over the barricade, and let out a spray of fire from his little SMG, hoping to do some damage to something. He smiled as he heard screams of pain amid the sonic chaos of gunfire.

[war_angel]

Dan jumped behind a handily placed crate, there seems to be alot of these round here he thought to himslef, then remember where he was.
He shouted tot he guys "Kepp firing, im gunna try and get a bang there way" he stuck his pistol over the top of the crate, and fired a few shots, then quickly moved round the side of a building. Luckily he wasn't seen by the cops. He ran round yet more buildings, coming up beside the cops. There concentration was all on the restm of the guys, and so he had some time.
He checked his satchel quickly, he took out two make shift det. charges, pulled the tops off them, and pushed them together, covering them in duct tape, "Ah i love duct tape." Next was the fiddly bit, he had to try and get his new remote fuse in, the problem was, he made it himself, so it wasn't all that good.

He fiddled with it for about a minute, when he heard a yell from what he assumed was wolff, "CAN YOU HURRY UP AND MAKE THE FUCKERS DIE!" Dan decided to forget the fuse, he lobbed the charge towards the cops, he was planning on just putting a bullet into it, which should work. It hurtled through the air, and as it moved in front of the cops a few loose bullets hit it, causing the double charge to explode with a tremendous noise. The cops were thrown backwards, as was Dan and the rest of the guys, and even Icarus herself was rocked on her legs.

"WOOHOO, fuck yeah" yelled Dan, still laying with a blackened face, in awe of his creation. "Damn i love this job!"

[Fire Ze Missiles!]

Mac stood up and blinked. "Well, shit..." he exclaimed.
The entire car park was covered in scorch marks, incumbent policemen littered across it.
"Huh. Well, let's be moving on shall we, eh Wolffy?" with that, Mac hurried across to the Icarus, feeling very conscious of how exposed he was, and opened it up.
"I'd say we've got, what, three minutes 'till reinforcements arrive? Maybe four. At any rate, it's probably time we made like a tree..."

[Paladin58]

"...And get the fuck out of here?" said Titus, moving to help secure the ship. He loved ad-libbing sentences, and Mac just left himself open there. He chuckled, and as soon as the door opened, he bee-lined right back to the engine room, to get the reactor up and running.

[Vortigern]

Wolff shook himself. "Right. Leaving. I get it. That was a hell of a blast." The crew hurried aboard, and Wolff followed Mac up to the cockpit. "Seatbelts, everyone!" he shouted over his shoulder. "This is probably going to be a hell of a take-off!" He strapped himself into the co-pilot seat and swivelled to face his oldest companion. "Let her ride."

* * * * * * * * *

Icarus jumped through the atmosphere of Prometheus, gaining altitude faster than most people would have thought possible in a ship that bulky and apparently designed without a thought for aerodynamics. As they broke out into space, Mac's grin returned.

"We're not out yet," reminded Wolff.

"As good as," said Mac, happily. They pushed on, building up to speed for the jump into warp. "Let's rock and roll." The ship launched deep into a dimension humanity was never meant to traverse.

* * * * * * * * *

In the kitchen they all sat about, swapping old stories and jokes. Titus was in the middle of telling a particularly strange one involving a brothel, a sixteen-armed robot and a gang of wild horses when the entire ship lurched. "What the fuck was that?" demanded Titus, instantly getting to his feet, no doubt with a thought for the engines.

"We're in warp," said Mac, slowly. "There's nothing to make us lurch in warp. There's nothing to hit, no gravitational pulls to be exerted on us, nobody to put us in a tractor beam, nothing."

"Well, there's obviously something," countered Titus. "I'm going to have a look at the engines."

"They'll be fine, we're in warp," replied Mac, again. Repeating yourself was fine when you had a point to make. "You know as well I do that the engines are essentially in stasis while we're here. Unless we have a saboteur on board nothing could be wrong with them." He looked around at the sudden consternation. "But we're all here, there couldn't be anyone in the engine room," he added, for the sake of everyone's piece of mind.

"Then what made that happen?" put in Wolff. Suddenly the ship lurched again, so violently that Warind and Chez were thrown from their chairs and Titus stumbled, off balance while standing. Mac rose and made a dash for the cockpit while Titus ran off towards the engines. Wolff followed Mac to the cockpit again, bouncing ideas off him. "Pirates? Confederacy? Henson's men? The ATL?" They were both stumped.

Mac whizzed around the controls, gathering information like water to a sponge. "We're coming out of warp. Not even halfway to Hermes. Something's pulling us, I think. It's almost like some kind of anti-warp tractor beam..." Mac trailed off, confused. He had never heard of such a thing.

"Icarus, is that you?" crackled a voice over the com-link. Mac and Wolff both froze, nonplussed. Mac inched over to the com-link, and replied in the affirmative, a hint of professional curiosity beginning to creep through. "Good," carried on the voice. "You have something we want. Prepare to be boarded." They heard a mumble in the background. "Fine," said the voice. "And shot at. Now you've been given fair warning." The link shut off.

"What in the name of all that was ever holy was that?" wondered Wolff. The ship lurched again, and, from the cockpit ports, Wolff could suddenly see the stars, shining bright and clear. "And how the fuck did they pull us out of warp?"

"Does it matter? They've locked onto us and they're going to board. You go tell everyone else, get us defended, and I'll keep trying to break us out." Wolff hurried out, his mind spinning. Henson was clearly more trouble than he was worth.

"Crew members! To arms! We're about to be boarded! Defend the bay!" Titus came hurtling out of the engine room, half confused, half amazed. "Get yourself a gun, Titus. And, Dan!" Wolff shouted after the demolitioneer. "No blowing up my ship!"

((So, yeah, about to be boarded, by pirates. They're about on a par with us, so we can take them. They're coming in through the docking bay, which is where this big-ass valuable rock we've rescued is ensconced. Hence, protect the prize, kill the foe.))

[some_weirdGuy]

((rofl, "Prepare to be boarded.... Fine, and shot at." ))

Chez pulled out his gun. as much as he loathed killing, he would not let a bunch of pirates kill the men aboard this ship... especially one of those men... himself!
i came here to get away from danger! Away From It! he said to himself in his head
"should have boarded another ship..." he said out loud.

[Vortigern]

((I thought I should add a description of the hold, wherein we shall be attempting to repel the boarders. There are two levels of railed balcony running around the perimeter, with stairs at the front of each side and at the back in the centre. The back has a third tier of balcony, though this runs along where some of the cabins are and can only see the hold from gaps between the support struts and the floor. Each railing his perforated steel barriers from about waist-high to the ground, which are roughly bulletproof, but not really. Better than nothing. There are also six storage chambers on the right side of the hold, for cargoes which require controlled conditions for transporting. These all have doors which can be sealed and opened from the outside only, but are airtight and have very solid reinforced doors. You will be safe from being shot in one of these, but you may end up freezing or burning to death instead. Just a warning. The hold doesn't currently have much stuff in it because we aren't carrying any cargo except for this big red rock, which we seriously need to protect. There are, however, sheets of replacement outer hull metals in the hold, which are fucking heavy, but completely solid. If you can prop a couple of these up, they're good cover.

That is all there is.))

Edited by Vortigern, 01 July 2008 - 11:09 AM.

[war_angel]

"No blowing up my ship!"
"Aww" Dan muttered to himsef, he now felt as useless as... as... well he wasn't quite sure, but whatever it was, it was fucking useless!
He had finally got some shells for his shotgun, though Thomas was quite reluctant to hand them over. He loaded it, and took cover on one of the balconies, he wasn't a strong guy, or a particularly good fighter, so he would just have to weather the storm form up here.

[Vortigern]

Everybody slowly got into position, but for Mac, who remained at his controls. The hold was covered by weaponry on all sides. Through the port at the top of the doors Wolff, from his vantage point in the centre of the lower back balcony, could see the other ship as it slowly drifted into position. Larger than Icarus, bright red, apparently teeming with angry, if well-spoken and rather sporting, pirates. The airlock clicked into place, and Wolff wiped a bead of sweat off his brow. He noticed others doing the same, though noticeably not Titus or Thomas. They were both calm, readily awaiting what fate would throw their way. In contrast, Chez could probably have done with a bucket and sponge. The door began to slowly winch down, and Wolff aimed his long-barreled rifle directly into the gap, slowly lowering his aim with the door. As the lip clanged down onto the floor of the hold, all was silent. Dan coughed.

"Surrender, please. We don't want to get hurt," came a voice through a megaphone. "Sorry," it corrected. "We don't want you to get hurt." Wolff almost laughed.

"Then stop trying to board my ship, idiot!" he shouted back.

"Whatever. Prepare to be boarded. We're good with our guns, I warn you."

"So are we!" That's probably a lie... At least two of us know how to use our guns. The inter-vessel airlock began to open. I forgot that was there... Never mind, they're coming now. "Prepare yourselves, lads!" ordered the captain.

((Go!))

[some_weirdGuy]

surprisingly, Chez was the first to shoot. he head the load clank as his bullet hit the metal walls. this was soon joined by more gunfire and shots, the Pirats came rushing, in, many falling as the flooded in, chez shot one in the leg, who fell, tripping over two more people behind him...

Chez kept shooting, ducking for cover and wiping his brow as a bullet whirled past his head. he then came back up, firing off more shots...

[Paladin58]

Titus was on the upper balcony nearest the door, marching forward, lugging around one of the steel plates as portable cover, and as an improvised weapon. He pushed it over the railing, and immediately dropped to the ground as his former cover was now crushing poor bastards down below. After this Indiana Jones-like maneuver a hail of bullets followed, which made him inch towards the side not facing the door, while trying to reach his SMG, stowed on his back. He grabbed it, and stuck his arm over the side, in order to send the hail of bullets back to sender. Instead, he decided against it, and began to crawl to relative safety towards one of the walls of the cargo bay, where he would have some better cover.

(OOC: I hope that the walkways are covered completely, and not mesh. Perhaps diamond-stud steel? )

[war_angel]

Dan Jumped up from his cover, fired a roughly aimed shot, then ducked back down as he pumped his shotgun.
"Fire proof matches" he shouted, as he realised just what he was as useless as.
Someone chuckled from behind him, and Dan carried on shooting rounds, just thinking how much carnage he could cause with just one of his toys.

[Vortigern]

((Nology, the walkways are completely covered, with that kind of steel plate with the holes in. It's proper steel, not just wire mesh.))

Wolff chuckled at Dan's firefight humour, and spun out from behind the balcony rail, into the space where the steps led down to the bay. He fired off six quick shots, two from each pistol, held one in each hand, and smiled a malicious smile as he heard a shout of pain and another gurgling scream.

"They're going to get blood all over my ship!" he shouted, suddenly realising the worst thing about being boarded. "Kill them all!"

[Vortigern]

((Icarus may now be going on a short hiatus. You guys are free to post whatever you want within the realms of what's going on, but I'm away and about for the next week, or thereabouts. I'll pass some instructions on to FZM for further leading of the band of heroes if you so desire.))

[Fire Ze Missiles!]

Up at the helm, Mac frowned as he heard gunfire behind him. Clearly the boarding had commenced. Or somebody had jumped on Thomas and surprised him. Attempting to push the noise from his mind, Mac focussed on the problem in hand. Well, the problem in his hands. Seeing as technically there were several problems in hand, such as the ship being boarded and all tha-
'Stop that!' he thought to himself commandingly. 'Concentrate! Jeez...you see what I have to work with?'
Mac stared at the controls. And stared. Something was definitely different. Something minor, something insignificant, something that he would never notice unless he looked for it. Fuel lines were all in place, warp reactors stable, not tampered-with...
Suddenly, a flash of inspiration hit him. Pushing his chair away, he crouched on the floor and looked up at the small bank of dials arrayed underneath his usual controls. Showed how often he used them. His frown deepening, Mac examined the read-outs. There was a slim chance that they had...no, surely they weren't stupid enough to try that. Surely they hadn't...
"Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear..." chuckled Mac, "My silly little pirates."
What the opposition had done was lock onto the tiny, microscopically small signature emitted by the Icarus's empty tractor beam port, and affix there own beam to it. This had allowed them to physically pull Mac's ship out of warp-space and into reality, a mean feat by anyone's standards. Unfortunately, it also had the significant down-side of giving Mac a clear line through to the red ship's main controls, which he fully intended to exploit.
Grinning, Mac dragged his chair back to its rightful place at his behind and began to tap at various keyboards and buttons, several of which didn't actually do anything other than look important.
"Right then. Time to wreak some havoc..."

((By which I mean, time to make funny things happen to the enemy ))

Edited by Fire Ze Missiles!, 06 July 2008 - 10:57 PM.

[Paladin58]

As Mac furiously tapped away at buttons on the keypads that were surrounding his piloting station, Titus felt a twinge of something different in the atmosphere on the ship, no, the gravity... He felt lighter. It was noticeable enough that he could suspend himself in the air with one hand, but not enough to let him float away. He got an idea. He turned, saw another plate of hull, and dashed towards it - which didn't work out too well, because it was like jumping in the lowered gravity that Mac induced. He launched himself low off the plate, towards the hull piece, and hit it with the force of a train slowly nudging a cow off the tracks. He planted his feet, and picked it up, and promptly pulled out his SMG with his free hand, since this piece of hull had what seemed to be a gripping bar and left his other hand free. He jumped down off the balcony, and landed right in the thick of the firefight, rapidly deteriorating due to the lack of gravity.

"Get behind me!" said Titus, standing like a Spartan of old from ancient Terran history, his 'shield' acting as apart of a phalanx at Marathon.

[Vortigern]

Wolff poked his head out from behind the wall of the storage space, and was rewarded with a sudden blast of gun fire. Ducking back inside, he winced at the damage the bullets had done to the interior of what was once a sealed unit. He ducked down low and snuck another look around the corner, this time accompanying it with three shots from his pistol; each connected with flesh, and Wolff grimaced as blood spurted across the formerly clean hold. Wolff shouted a message across to Titus on the balcony, and whoever else happened to be hearing it.

"Just try to wound them, I don't want them all dead!" Dead men couldn't talk, and Wolff wanted to know what was going on here. It wasn't considered good form for pirates to simply pick off other pirates in the middle of space, so they were either severely desperate or in the employ of someone rich. Another quick glance showed at least four of the enemy, hiding around and about behind the airlock inner door and the stairways, but there were probably a few more that Wolff couldn't see.

((Icarus is back from my holiday, so feel free to post as much as you like again ))