Boros Parts Yard

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A RolePlay Log by
The Alliance and The Pirate_Commonwealth

Title

When Things Go South

Date

2013 January 16

IC Date

2532 March 4

Location

Parts Yard, Boros

Appearing

Randall Cedris
Beau Compton
Chastity Compton
Lt. Heather Jacy
Skinner Parrish
Jamendithas Pegason
Officer Daniel Sabo
Officer Ashley Stratton
Officer MacKenna Trent

No battle plan, or carefully scheduled flow of events, ever survives the first engagement with the enemy. Again.


Dusty, dingy, dirty and metallic - the only words which can describe the parts yard on Boros. The main office, in which business is discussed, is made completely from an assortment of metal parts, right down to the counter and chairs set by the door for waiting customers. Though polished with loving care, the metal still holds the black scorch marks of thruster overburn and the like. Beyond the business portion of the parts yard, tall stacks off heaping parts make up a twisting maze of mechanical finery, showing that just about anything ship-wise can be found here.

The Boros parts yard isn't anything spectacular when it comes to providing scenery. When it comes to providing parts, however, it's just about the best place you'll find in the 'Verse. Piles of ship parts and tools clutter the yard, providing all kinds of places to hide, use as cover, and scavenge that a spacer could want. Parked at the entrance to the Yard, at the north edge of the SpacePort is a large Alliance cargo shuttle. It only has life support for eight, but the cargo bay is large enough to hold multiple mules, and more cargo crates than anyone above an entry-level pay grade would ever care to count. Every crate is stamped for delivery to Ares, and the inventory list is in a locked safe that is anchored beneath the captain's seat. Seems the Alliance is feeling a bit secretive about this particular delivery. Rumor has it that one crate contains nothing but blueprints to the latest bit of R&D, but only the Captain would know for certain, and so far she is refusing to either confirm or deny, not that many of her crew or the staff of the parts yard is brave enough to actually ask so much as they've merely hinted.

...and parked nearby is an innocent enough Osprey class transport. Rabble Rouser is her name and she's even sporting the paint job to back that up. This is one of those missions that warranted pulling out all the stops, even having the sprogs stay up all night fixing the ship's paint. In the cargo hold, ramp still up, Beau's waiting for the rest of the pirates to join him. He's armored and armed and ready to make a show of it right here planetside, despite having hinted at the idea that he'd much prefer an aerial strike. Captain he may be, but his men know their strengths better than he does, so the majority vote'll win it. <English>

"So after we get the work out of the way, I'll take you over to my mom's place. She makes the best pirozhki this side of the 'Verse. Phenominal. Plus, she always has her cabinets stocked with rum." Daniel Sabo is saying as he walks towards the cargo shuttle, "We can do the ships first, then hit the parts office." He's wearing his long Interpol-marked trenchcoat over a nice suit, his usual attire. The man pulls out his smartcom, speaking over it on the public channel, "This is Alliance Inspections and Regulations doing a spot safety inspection, all ships please prepare for boarding." These things *can* be over quickly... Usually they're not.

And what good is it to have children if you can't get them to help you on illegal heists? So Chastity is here as well, whether Beau knew she was coming along or not. Though, given that she's armored and has a few weapons, he probably did know she'd be along. Big scale jobs are so much more exciting than robbing one guy or stripping. So she's practically giddy. <English>

How is this a bad idea, let him count the ways...meh screw it, he doesn't really feel like doing that. A young man is with the group...wearing dark shades and a black ski-cap, bandolier's worn where he little toys are all tucked away and secured neatly and he just shakes his head slowly, idly chewing on a toothpick. That's Rand. <English>

Of course it probably fell to Skinner to pilot the Rabble Rouser over to the Boros parts yard, so he might as well join in the festivities, armed and armored like the rest of the crew. "So... Remind me again... Why'd we paint the ship and change 'er name, if we're just goin' to go runnin' around with Commonwealth armor? Seems a bit counterintuitive to the whole stealth aspect," he mutters to Chastity, hopping down the last few steps to come to a stop by her side while he adjusts his new 'uniform.' "Of course, it probably stops bullets a lot better'n an armored coat, so I can't see why I'm complainin'..." <English>

Ashley Stratton is in the middle of streaming music through his smartcomm with wireless earbuds, the left one out and somewhere else but the right within his ear. He's also in the middle of walking alongside Daniel Sabo, listening to both whatever music he wants to play right now and the fellow officer. "I have no idea what that is, I'll be honest, but I'm hungry. What's a piroski?" He knows what he's asking for, he just doesn't know how to get his tongue to pronounce it just yet. A couple more tries under his breath and he manages to make it sound like 'pirozhki'. The earbud is removed and the device shut off. He spits to the side as the other man makes his announcement to the world around them. While his tongue adjusts the tobacco hidden behind his bottom lip, he looks around. A random bolt is kicked, hands in his pockets. "So how compliant are these folks usually?" <English>

Forgoing the usual cigar, Jamendithas absently runs a last minute check over his gear on his person and then snugs into the duster. Strapping the top couple straps shut as to keep the duster in place. He has left his leather fedora behind as well and replaced them with a simple ball cap and plain shades over his eyes. He waits near Rand with a gloved hand absently drumming against the handle of the heavy pistol on his thigh. <English>

While the Captain of the Alliance transport hasn't been seen on the shipyard, nor one of her crewmen, the other six have been scurrying about like chickens with their heads cut off as they pack up crates and get them loaded. They've been boisterous and joking most of the day, lighthearted banter and pranks of one another easing the heavy labor and lifting of their work. However, as Dan and Ashley make their arrivals, the six men line up across the bottom of their ship's ramp and salute, the basic grunts getting a surprise visit from those who outrank them and trying not to draw any undue attention so that it will be the owners of the shipyards dealing with inspection as opposed to their own work.

"Because Ah'd rather the Suicide King not be associated with th'Commonwealth," Beau points out. Rabble Rouser can be the 'Pirate Ship'. He's smiling a little bit when he hears the announcement over the public channel. "That could be convenient. Perhaps we'll have us a meatshield or two in a moment. Everyone out of sight when Ah lower th'ramp. Skinner, y'get ready t'get us th'hell off this rock if this goes South." It's not much of a plan, but it's all he has to work with now. "Unless anyone would like t'offer an alternative in th'next five minutes or so?" <English>

"It's like a meat pie, ground beef, onions, cabbage, mushroom, hard boiled egg... All of it baked in a pastry. You'll love it." Dan replies, looking around the parts yard and taking note of the Rabble Rouser. He pulls out his tablet and starts marking down ship ID numbers. "Usually they drag it all out with a lot of whining and arguing. If they're in a hurry they'll be more compliant." He takes up his smartcom, repeating the call and throwing on a warning for good measure. <English>

[100.00 MHZ] You transmit, "Repeat, all ships in the parts yard, there is a mandatory Alliance inspection taking place. Failure to comply will result in a lockdown and possible confiscation of your vessel. Any attempt to depart will be marked down as deliberate evasion and you will be intercepted by the many big ships we have patrolling in orbit." <English>

Chastity kisses Skinner on the cheek and grins at him. Doing Crime is exciting! "Maybe just don't get shot, yeah? That'll prolly work best." When it's suggested that everyone get out of sight, Chas finds a place up somewhere high and with a bit of cover. Still, she's never done this sort of thing before, so her location isn't likely to be ideal. <English>

"You're feeling nice today, huh? Only a possible confiscation?" asks Ashley while in the middle of looking around at the ships parked in the area that aren't a pile of junk or otherwise broken down. He brings up his right hand in combing his hair back, and then holds the hand there as his eyes continue to look around. The man spits again and then figures to get rid of his chewing tobacco in favor of pulling a small water bottle out of his back pocket. He stops looking around so that he can instead be nosy and look over Dan's shoulder at his tablet's screen. Rabble Rouser? Really? "By the way, is your mom single?" he asks curiously before taking a step back, just in case there's the usual retaliation. He'd be a good dad to Dan though. Let him stay out late and everything. Trying not to laugh too much, he turns and catches sight of the Alliance transport. "What about them?" Them being the blokes standing there. Ashley rinses his mouth out. <English>

"Alright, you see any hot ones, you let me know...kay Jay?" Rand offers to Jamendithas, taking a deep breath and shaking his head as he hears Beau's orders and he shrugs a shoulder, scanning the area and he nods once more. "Alright..lets take cover..." He slips off to the side, keeping an eye on what it is they are watching. <English>

Skinner smirks back at Chastity, returning the kiss on the cheek quickly, "I'll see what I can do, but bullets just seem to like me." For Beau, he has no kiss, but he does nod briskly to him before turning right back around and heading up the steps. As soon as he reaches the top, he turns and dashes into the engine room, hopping on the console there, waiting for some sign of trouble. <English>

Jamendithas cracks a faint grin with a nod and a glance to Rand, a quiet chuckle slipping free from between his lips. "Aye, Rand. Ah will." He rumbles in reply as he unholsters the heavy caliber pistol and flicks the safety off. He moves off towards some cover and in a position to offer a modicum of cover fire if required. <English>

"It's a lot of paperwork to confiscate a ship." Dan replies, smirking. Then when Ashley makes the joke about his mother, the man makes a half-hearted swipe at him, "Don't say that around her. She might take you up on it." He says, smirking. As he follows Ashley's gaze over to the Alliance transport, he nods, "Yeah, okay. Let's get the easy one done first." He starts walking towards the cargo hauler, calling out, "We need to see everyone's ID cards, the cargo manifest, and the last maintenance report."

Before Beau lowers the ramp, he hits the button from the outside com and announces, "Lowerin' the ramp. Be right out, sorry. Ah'm up t'my neck in oil and engine parts at th'moment. Y'all can just come on aboard and look at watcha need. Crew's all out and about, stretchin' legs and gettin' air." There's still a drawl there, but it's more Texan than deep South plantation now and it crackles and pops pretty loudly over the yard. When the ramp starts to lower, he gets himself hidden behind a crate near the door itself before it's halfway down. <English>

Valentina arrives at the location of the confiscation. No matter the amount of peaceful intentions, a guard standing off with a rifle can often make things go easier. She seems to be ready, but not threatening. Just prepared. <English>

As Dan steps up to the line of six men along the bottom of the Alliance transport's ramp and makes his requests, the man at the end of the line steps forward and salutes again, answering, "John James, Sir." He hands out his own ID as the rest of the men start grabbing their own as well. "Our last maintenance report is filed with the offices on Ares, the pink copy is with our Captain, and the yellow copy is in the folder just inside the bay doors, per specifications, Sir. Our manifest is confidential and off limits except to those at the highest clearance levels. You will need to speak with our Captain about seeing it."

"Hey now, if she doesn't mind then I'm all for..." Ashley ought not finish that statement for the sanctity of, well, for the sanctity of something so he merely clears his throat as they now begin to approach the Alliance transport. While trying to figure out what sanctity he's trying not to ruin, he looks over one of the six and then moves around them to the rear. "Where's your captain, Mister James?" Important people ask questions of people while not looking at the person asked. So Ashley looks up at the transport itself. <English>

Still saluting, the Alliance grunt answers the question posed by Ashley, "On the command bridge with our First Mate, I would assume." His answer causes a soft snicker somewhere down the row of men, but no other words are offered in reply.

Chastity is quiet now, just watching and waiting. She's certainly not going to be the first one to make a move. <English>

Valentina fingers the trigger guard on her rifle, nervously. This is the point where things often go wrong. "Command Bridge" she comments to herself. That's a military term. Most traders don't have alternate control consoles, the control deck is just the "bridge". She goes on higher alert. This may not be all that it seems. <English>

Dan gives John James a nod, looking at the ID and swiping it through the reader on his tablet. Then he goes through the rest of the crew's IDs, running them all through the Alliance database. When that's done, he'll go look at the cargo manifest while Ashley is busy not looking at the guy he's talking to. "If the captain isn't available, they can't leave." He looks at one of the crew, "Go get your captain while we inspect that other ship. We don't have time to wait around." Yeah, he's just making the obvious assumptions based on the snickering and beckons Ashley, "Let's look at the other ship. Could be a while..."

Rand takes a deep breath and asides to Jamendithas, keeping his voice quiet and he chuckles softly. "I'm gonna need something to shoot...I think...or not..." He takes finishes chewing his toothpick up. <English>

Mister James heads onto the ship to get the Captain, and after a few moments, one of the Alliance channels crackles to life among the crew members' com devices. A female voice, breathless and a little panting inquires, "You've got at least 3 more hours of loading left. Why the hell are you interrupting me with knocks instead of doing your gorram job?" The same grunt in line who had chuckled earlier can't help but aside beneath his breath to the man beside him, "She hates when she gets interrupted from mating with the Mate." And it seems a common habit with the Captain, as the aside is followed up, "Told you. You owe me ten credits."

Valentina sighs, and stays on as alert as she can. She looks like she's been up a little long. Maybe she had a rough night last night. <English>

He's as quiet as a little church mouse back there behind his crate. Beau has his sidearm out and ready. His heart's thumping a little soundly in his chest. Would be a really bad time for his batteries to start beeping. Hazel eyes flicker up to where Chastity tucked herself away and then around to where the others are laying in wait. Nothing to this, easy peasy. Snag a few purple bellies and use'm at collateral, get what's on the shuttle and go. But nothing is ever that easy. <English>

Jamendithas glances side long to Rand and reaches underneath his duster. A soft snap of a strap being released and he hands over another pistol to Rand, pausing a moment to grab some clips and hands those over as well. "Jus' in case." He rumbles in a low murmur as he settles himself in waiting. <English>

Ashley glances around and then starts to talk about how breathless the voice is, since he's standing right next to one of the six workers, but they've already got a bet in place and so he's left to look amused. He is amused. Look, Ashley Stratton is amused. He feels for his back pocket after pocketing his bottle of water, looking for something. While in the process of that arduous search, the young man shakes his head and mutters to himself. "Fucking captains," literally, in this case. He turns to catch up with Dan. <English>

Chastity is still quietly hiding. And glancing in Skinner's direction every now and then, even if she can't really see him. She catches Beau's eyes and gives him a thumbs-up and a grin. <English> After the crackle of com chatter, James must have explained to his Captain why it was her time was interrupted, as about ten minutes later she makes her way down the ramp of her ship, her First Mate flanking her as they head down to where Dan and Ashley are waiting. Her uniform is on straight, but her lipstick is smudged and her hair is mussed. There is also a streak of color matching her smudged lipstick on the First Mate's collar that is quite visible as he places his hands behind his back and stands at attention. The woman looks at the two inspectors appraisingly and then asks cooly, "Inspecting your own ships, Constables? I'm sorry to ruin your days, but I'm afraid my cargo manifests require a security clearance of Captain or higher. I am not authorized to allow you to view them." Yes, they can bust her arse six ways from Sunday for having let her First Mate bust the first few of them, but seems she's going to stick with the aloof and above reproach tactic on this.

Dan has a smirk on his face. What does he care what order he inspects the ships in? As Ashley catches up, he says with a smirk, "You don't know how many times I've done inspections when things like that are going on. You'd think when they're on the ground they'd want to get *off* the ship." The captain of the cargo ship is just catching up as they're just moving on so Sabo calls back, "We'll be back! Just dig up the cargo manifest for us while you wait! Inspections supercede cargo transport, I'll call in a captain!" And, he sounds entirely too cheerful about inconveniencing the ship captain. As they get to the ramp of the Rabble Rouser, he peers up inside, "Knock knock! Alliance!" He calls out, then looks over at Stratton. "I'm still waiting to walk onto that magical ship that's full of scantily clad young women who have all been away from port for weeks..."

Sadly, Chastity isn't so scantily clad right now. Armor tends to cover all your bits. It works better that way. But she cusses silently and gives Beau a look (whether he sees it or not). See? Dressing like a slut is ALWAYS beneficial! <English>

Valentina is quite rarely scantily clad, at least on duty. Off duty may well be the reason she's looking a little worse for wear. <English>

"Or get off off the ship?" Ashley mutters in question, making a funny. Although with the Captain and XO of the Alliance transport showing their faces, the cop does slow down so that he can get a proper look of them and potentially stop walking altogether. He wants to say something to them. When he hears about scantily clad young women, the man turns back around to where Dan is at the base of the Rabble Rouser. "Who wouldn't, man?" he asks in turn, walking to catch back up. Again. The Captain was something of a looker. "What's the hold up, up there? No one's home?" <English>

Beau has to push himself up a little to hit the com button again, but he's still out of line of sight from the outside just by virtue of being against the wall next to the door. He hits the button and the outside come crackles to life, carrying even his soft voice down the ramp. "C'mon aboard." It's not like he can step out himself, not dressed the way he is. "Ah almost got this gorram thingamagig t'fit into the whatchamacallit." <English>

Rand accepts the gun before offering it back to Jay, shaking his head. "Well I got one of those things..." He's quiet as he watches from where he is. <English>

"Well, at least he sounds friendly. That's a plus." Dan replies to Ashley after hearing Beau's invite over the com. He starts making his way up the ramp, light blue eyes skimming over the bay searching for those all-important cargo license and registration postings. Those are always some of the first things he likes to check. "That job the other night at the brothel was kinda fun though, eh?" He says with a grin, returniing to the previous conversation about scantily clad ladies. "Well, until Heather got hurt."

Jamendithas takes the weapon back, reholstering it with a faint smirking sort of grin and he nods. "Picky picky..." He murmurs in a lazy manner and a glance towards the ramp. He double checks the safety is off and he rests on the balls of his feet, waiting. <English>

Valentina continues being alert, or snoozing at her post. The difference is sometimes hard to tell. <English>

Thwap. Thwap. Thwap. It's the tell-tale sign of someone with a can of chewing tobacco, prepping to stick a pinch. That's definitely what our fair man Ashley Stratton is doing while listening to the voice in the ship. "Friendly? The hell is a whatchamacallit anyway?" It happens to be a quite delicious candy bar from Earth-That-Was, you idiot. He tongues his cheek, oblivious to his typist almost breaking the fourth wall, and follows at a slower pace than Dan due to having to spit off the side of the ramp rather than on the ramp itself. Politeness is Ashley Stratton's specialty. "I like to not be shot at. But it was fun. I'm not sure what I should do with all of the contact numbers I got from there. That one redhead kept... like... would not stop touching me." Yeah, the one that looked like Christina Hendricks. That one. Dan knows. <English>

So, speak of scantily clad women, and they shall appear. And their name shalt be called Chastity. In fact, she's topless. She's starting to pull on a translucent shift as she strides through the cargo bay. She pauses with it around her neck to scowl at the open door and ask, "Who left the gorram door open? Now we got some... uh... people on board." She strides towards the two men, unconcerned by h er semi-nudity. <English>

It takes every ounce of self control he has not to jump up and throw a fit when Chastity reveals herself like that. Really, the inside of his cheek is bleeding from the way he's biting into it. He stays hidden there, behind that crate, but every muscle is poised and ready to spring him up like a jack in the box. Just a few more steps inside. <English>

Beep... beep... beep... What the hell is that? There's not a whole lot of time to ponder it before it stops, but it was coming from over there by the ramp. <English>

Valentina immediately responds to the beeping by putting her rifle to her shoulder, and using the sight to view the area. <English>

Dan pauses on his way to the posted manifest papers, looking over at Chastity. "Whoa..." The man utters, shocked to actually *see* a topless woman coming into the bay. He clears his throat, "Alliance Inspection, ma'am. I'm Officer Daniel Sabo and this is Ashley Stratton. Yeah, that's really his name..." He keeps it professional, mostly. "Where's your captain at? I'll need to see your... I.. D..." He asks, then looks curiously in the direction of the beeping, taking a few steps in that direction, "What's that sound?"

Rand adjusts his hold on his side arm before he frowns and looks to Jay. "Why do I get the feelin' we got the shitty seats at the show?" A pause. "You hearin' that beep or are my ears ringing..."

Valentina rolls her eyes as she sees Dan chatting up a half naked crewperson. She keys her comm.... "Dan, I doubt she's unlisted cargo, perhaps you should move on?" <English>

Ashley is only about halfway and a half up the ramp when he sees breasts. This is because they're more or less at eye level and he's more or less not really seeing anything but nudity and something beeping. He opts to focus on the former and not the latter. The former is nice. The latter is annoying. The former is really nice. The latter is really annoying. He clearly does not have his priorities screwed up at all. Ashley Stratton really is his name, too. In case anyone was wondering. He brings up a hand to wave. "Hi. There." Comm chatter? No, breasts. <English>

Still entirely oblivious to the goings on, Skinner maintains his seat in the engine room. He could hear Beau's voice over the com, but it pretty much only told him what he already knew. They were on board, or almost on board, and there was about to be some fighting. Carefully he checks the console, making sure everything is set for him to quickly power up the reactor and get them out of there, but otherwise, he's mostly just playing a waiting game. <English>

Chastity pulls the shift down, though it's translucent, so really it's only a little bit better than being topless. She left her corset upstairs. She's wearing an entirely too-short skirt as well. And knee-high boots with thigh-high fishnets. "Captain," she says, tilting her head to the side and thinking. "Hmm... I do believe he's tryin' to put some metal thing into some other metal thing that's makin' an awful screechin' sound." She glances at the beeping box and shrugs. "Mebbie there's an alarm clock in there. I ain't privy to what's in the boxes." She winks at Ashley. "Hi." <English>

Jamendithas shrugs his shoulders a whisper in reply to Rand with lips pursed. A shift of his weight and he glances to Rand, a murmured, "It seems we got the short straws, aye." <English>

Beau finally decides that it's time for him to make an appearance. "That's mah daughter y'lookin' at as if she was a grade A side of beef," he intones once he's pushed himself to his feet. "Ah've shot men f'much less than that. How about everyone just set down their weapons now." Of course his is pointed right at Dan and he's sure hoping someone has Ashley covered as well. "If everyone does as they're told here, we can all walk away from it without a scratch. ...and th'very first thing Ah'm tellin' y'to do is... stop lookin' at mah daughter's woman parts." <English>

Valentina doesn't move an inch, her rifle sliding to focus on the forehead of beau. She doesn't seem terribly worried about the threat, as she knows Dan is quite competent. <English>

Chastity sighs. Not allowed to show her boobs off anymore. She's still shrugging and winking at Ashley. But if he looks towards Beau for even a moment, she draws one of her knives. No one's going to shoot her, right? Right. And hopefully she'll be observant enough to notice any sight that might be pointed at her father's forehead. <English>

Dan takes a few more steps across the cargo bay, eying the crate. Really, there could be anything in there that's beeping. "Hmm. Well, if your captain could put that aside for a moment and come-" Sabo pauses and looks over at the Beau's voice suddenly *right there* in the bay. "Oh. There he is." The man comments flatly, eying the weapon. The last time he tried to talk himself out of a situation like this, two officers with him died. Hmm, he kind of likes Ashley. Good luck, Ashley! "Your daughter walked in without a shirt on, I'd put that on bad parenting. But sure, I don't want any trouble... I just do inspections." He reaches for his gun, drawing it out slowly. Nice and slowly. He doesn't drop it to the floor, but instead tries to slowly inch around towards ramp again, "Look, I don't need to inspect your ship, right? We'll call it good. You passed." He gives the man a thumbs-up.

Valentina moves around, to get what might be considered by others a difficult shot. She's not here to get involved in the close firefight. She'll hope Ash figures out to hit the deck if things go poorly. <English>

Normally, one's knees would be sore or his body a tad tense, the sheer level of boring that radiates from being the cover is why people sometimes consider it the fuzzy side of the lollipop. However, Rand has a unwrapped and popped a normal lollipop into his mouth at this time...something about avoiding the need for a cigarette. He suckles on it quietly and idly edges one of his 'babies' into a more comfortable and accessible position on his bandoliers and he just quirks an eyebrow as he listens. "You get the chick with the gun?" <English>

"Jus' put that down now," Chastity says to Dan with a frown. "An' don't be insultin' my father. He didn't get no say in how I were raised." Aww... See? She's already feeling protective of her daddy. <English>

In the distance, another Alliance shuttle sets down on the spaceport yonder with a burst of thrusters, and before not very long Jacy comes jogging up at a steady pace, without her usual posse of Marines and without the Captain that was promised. Guess the cavalry is just Jacy. And there was much rejoicing. She brings her comm unit to her mouth and asks over the encrypted Alliance comm frequency, "This is Lieutenant Jacy, on the ground on Boros. Someone give me a sitrep please?" She can see Valentina with a rifle, pointing it into a ship. Everyone else she can't, right now. She moves her hand to her Walther to unsnap the security clip, drawing the gun but holding it pointed at the ground. <English>

"Well, Ah do declare, but this one is almost cute!" Beau announces along with rumbling chuckle before he goes back to a flat expression that matches the drollness of his voice. He sounds like something out of Gone with the Wind now, deep South all the way. "Ah-ah." He shakes his head ever so slightly. "Just stop movin' and put that down now, y'hear? Don't make this messy. It doesn't have t'be messy. Y'get us what we want and we all go on our merry little ways." He asides, "Thank you, dear," for Chastity's sake, but he's sidearm is still trained temple level with Dan's head. <English>

A slight nod to Rand as a gloved hand absently rubs the nape of his neck and spares a brief glance out from his cover. "Aye." He replies to Rand and he peeks somemore from his cover to track Valentina or at least what he can. <English>

Valentina nods to Jacy. "Dan's got a gun to his head." she always was good at the brief sitrep. "We've got a problem, several actives in the bay. The gunsel seems too confident. I am worried about this one. Dan didn't do anything unusual" <English>

Ashley nods silently to the woman as she greets him in reply before he manages to step to the side and spits over the side of the ramp. There is talking but he isn't paying attention just yet. He glances over and then spits another light stream from his mouth before realizing just what he had glanced at seconds prior. This is him turning and finding that Dan has a pistol leveled with his forehead. That's his buddy right there, so it's more of a natural reaction than anything else that finds an autoshot in his hands and trained on Beau in turn. He blinks at the gun. That was really cool, like Cortex-worthy cool. He better say something that's really cool now. "What if we like messy?" <English>

Dan really is growing less fond of having guns pointed at his head, and when the Bad Guy doesn't back down, the Interpol officers mutters a curse under his breath in Russian and drops the gun. It's just a DAS autoshot, hardly anything special. Then he snaps at Ashley, "I don't like messy! Go away!" Then he asks Beau, "So what do you want? A free pass from inspections? Ain't gonna happen." He keeps his hands out where they can be seen. He really would rather not get shot. The last time he was shot was really painful.

Chastity sighs and strides over to kick Dan's gun out of the way. She's looking at Ashley. "I think ye should put yer gun down too, yeah? You kin look at my titties again, if you want." She'll even flash them and everything. <English>

Skinner gets on to the good part of the song he's drumming out against the engine console, still waiting for... anything. <English>

Beau tsks in Ashley's direction. "Ah am so disappointed right now. Here y'friend is bein' nice about it, doin' as he's told, not beggin' any of mah people t'make a mess in mah cargo hold and y'just have t'go and be difficult." He dramatically readjusts the grip on his sidearm... the one that's pointed at Dan's head. "...all we want, is access t'that shuttle over there." He probably doesn't have to make it much clearer than the words. He's wearing the armor of the Pirate Commonwealth and there's an Alliance shuttle right over there with top sekrit shit on it. What're the odds that's the shuttle he's talking about? "Put. Down. The. Weapon." That's aimed at Ashley. "Now. Before Ah give th'order to shoot." <English>

A hot flush springs to Heather Jacy's cheeks as Valentina's words crackle from her comm, and she swallows down the bile in her throat. She holsters her comm, briefly holsters her gun so she can slip on her earpiece and throat mike from a pocket of the jumpsuit to get her hands free, and then redraws her gun. This time it's held in both hands, aimed at the floor as she scuttles around, behind Valentina, to try to scope out the cargo bay from directly behind. "We got a land-lock on this bastard yet?" she asks Valentina, over the comm. <English>

Valentina shakes her head on Jacy. "I was just on overwatch here. Dan's first on the scene. And this looks like it's going bad. We need a hard lock and eyes in the sky, I think" <English>

Of course, Skinner's more then just drumming out a bit of music, he's also watching the various systems on the 'Rabble Rouser,' waiting for anything that might mean, 'gtfo.' A land-lock, of course, would be one of those things. While he waits, and watches, he pulls out his glock and places it by his side -- wouldn't be good if he had to actually unholster it if some Alliance thug got past Beau and everyone else. <English>

Dan likes being the center of attention as much as the next guy, especially when there are girls flashing boobs, but being in the middle of a Mexican standoff? Not so much. "Just so you know, this is a level three violation. There are going to be some serious citations." The man mutters, but he looks over at the shuttle that Beau is talking about. All the pieces fall into place. The forbidden cargo manifest, the captain knockin' boots with the first mate (wait, that's not relevent) and now there's this other piratey fellow that wants what's on the shuttle. "Well... and this is the damned truth here, I couldn't get access to the stuff on the shuttle either. Had to call in a captain to get the clearance, and I didn't even do that yet cause I was kind of being a dick and making them wait, so, not sure how much I can help you with what you want."

Ashley looks to Dan and then between the two of Chastity and Beau. He wets his lips thoughtfully, probably just debating if he can get the female out of the two to flash him. Except he's not really that crude. The man angles his head to the side and lowers his chin so that he can blindly spit to the side and loose a touch more of the chewing tobacco. Gravity rolls the autoshot within his relaxing fingers and he holsters the sidearm before taking steps backwards with his hands raised. He shrugs. "I personally don't give a damn. Shoot him all you want. Catch you later, ma'am. I've got piroskies waiting for me." A beat passes. "I mean pirozhkis." Damn it, he totally screwed that one up. Still, he's more than willing to turn his back to Beau can casually walk down the ramp if he's not shot or anything in the back. "Have fun, Sabo!" <English>

Jacy doesn't waste time, getting on her comm and trying to get through to the port authority here on Boros. "Boros Port Control, Lieutenant Jacy, IAV Temperance. Boros Port Control, do you read, over?" Her voice strains a little as she sees Ashley turn and start towards her, and she readies her gun to shoot blindly past him into the cargo bay if a shot presents itself - but more in hope than anything else. "Boros Port Control, do you copy?" <English>

Chastity glances towards Beau to see if he intends to let Ashley just walk away. <English> The call that Jacy makes sends at least one person in the control tower to work, as somewhere at the Spaceport someone lifts a radio to answer her, "Lieutenant Jacy, this is control. We copy. Over."

"Ah was thinkin' more using you as a bargaining chip," Beau replies. ...but when Ashley bails? Well, he's starting to rethink his plan. Apparently Dan doesn't much mean jack or shit to anyone on his side. He speaks into his com, "How are we lookin', Skinny?" ... then just a beat before... "Where th'hell is Domino?" It appears that he does, indeed intend to let Ashley walk away.

Beau's in the cargo hold with a gun to Dan's head. Poor Dan. Ashley's walking down the ramp, Val's at the bottom of it and Jacy is somewhere near Val. ...oh and there's a topless Chastity in the hold as well.

Dan is at the top of the ramp and Ashley is starting to walk down it. Beau is off to the side in the cargo bay, standing behind a crate and pointing a gun at Dan. Chastity is standing somewhere in the middle of the cargo bay with a translucent shirt on. <English>

"Boros Port Control, I need a immediate landlock on all ships in the Boros Parts Yard. I'm targeting one ship in particular..." and Jacy squints, trying to describe the ship in question in a few terse words. It would be dandy if she could see a name and identification numbers from where she stands, but if she can't, then by hell she'll ground everyone and sort out the chaos later. She adds by way of explanation, "Possible hostage situation involving a DAS officer." <English>

Dan watches as Ashley walks away, then looks back at Beau, pursing his lips briefly before shrugging. "Ball's in your court. I got nothin'." He starts to lower his hands to his sides, thinking he might be here a bit yet. Then he frowns, hearing something in his earbud, "Do you... mind.. if I just clear something up with the colleagues?" He asks, gesturing to the smartcom on his belt.

The same voice answers from the SpacePort, "We'll do what we can, Ma'am. I'll put out orders to ground air traffic in or out until I hear from you further. Be advised, if this is a hostage situation I doubt you're dealing with the most obedient of folks, though. So I can deny takeoffs and landings, but can't really enforce it."

"Right here, Jefe," Domingo says as he makes his way into the cargo area, decked out in his usual garb. Though he does look like he just got out of the shower, as the mohawk is currently slicked back instead of spiked up. The Latino leans up against a crate and looks over all the goings on before he waves a finger between everyone, "What's all this, then?" <English>

Skinner grunts as he hears Beau over the comm, "Well Captain, they say they're not lettin' anyone takeoff. Sayin' and doin' are two different things, of course." With that said, he gets ready to start up the reactor, still speaking into his unit, "We stayin' or goin'?" <English>

Ashley is replaced by Jacy. This is good for the situation at hand but not for Ashley himself. He has to do some running though and so his chewing tobacco is tossed out in favor of having a clear mouth. "Belay that, Lieutenant!" He's headed in the direction of the Alliance patrol and hopefully where the captain and first mate lovers are still standing around. Either way, he draws his now unconcealed autoshot and reaches up to his neck to unconceal his credentials as well. Now it hangs around his neck as the plainclothes cop continues along. <English>

"Alright people, this place is too hot and we don't have enough manpower," Beau barks out over his iComm. Decision made, he reaches out suddenly with his gun hand, gun still in it, to try to drag Dan on into the ship even as he's hitting the button to raise the ramp with his lifeless left hand. It was a last minute, split second, random thing. Push him out or pull him in, Captain's going for the latter. "Skinner, get us in th'air yesterday." <English>

Jacy curses explosively, but has the grace to do so off-comm. Can't really enforce it. She switches frequencies and mutters, "Shuttle Temperance Three, Lieutenant Jacy. Get yourselves into the air, I need air cover now in the parts-yard. Make a couple of low passes, and..." Whatever else she was going to tell the shuttle that bought her is lost, as the ramp starts to close. "Daniel!" she screams, and breaks into a sprint, trying to reach the ramp before it is retracted into the ship. <English>

Chastity pouts. This was not nearly as much fun as she was hoping it would be. She didn't even get to throw a knife at anyone. She sighs and heads for wherever she left her corset so she can pick it up. <English>

Skinner grunts an affirmative over his iComm, "Sure thing, Captain." With a few short commands, he gets the reactor up and running at the appropriate levels, firing up the stealth unit as well, because why the hell not. Once both are online, he hops out of his seat and rushes out the corridor to the bridge, hopping into the pilot's chair as he starts up the absolutely necessary systems for take off. "Buckle up, we're goin' to have company." <English>

Valentina immediately narrows her eyes, and she knows Dan would prefer to be at least avenged, as a kidnapped officer is a difficult situation. She takes a sniper's breath, and squeezes off the shot. <English>

Dan is waiting, rather patiently. He's not really feeling as cool as he looks though. There's sweat at the back of his neck and his palms are sweaty. When the situation rapidly shifts from Them-trying-to-get-the-Goods, to Them-Leaving and him coming along for the ride? He reacts. Beau is dragging at him, so in a hurry, Dan grabs his smartcomm and speaks sharply, "Jacy, stop! Too many!" Then he hits the button to try and scramble the unit before the Pirates can get their hands on Alliance frequencies that they might not know about. He's dutiful like that.

Then gunshots start going off and Dan jumps in startlement, tensing up when he hears it ricochet.

Dan's voice echoes plaintively in Jacy's earbud, and she lets out a choked sob as she abandons her crazy plan to sprint over to the closing ramp, launch herself inboard, kill all the pirates with her bare hands, and kiss Dan as they fly off into the sunset. Instead she just draws her Walther and empties the magazine at the pirate ship. It's like attacking a....ship with a peashooter, really. <English>

Okay this...is now turning into a clustermess and Rand just leans against the wall where he's been hiding this whole times and sucks on his cherry flavored automic super fruit splasher bubble pop, his eyes narrow and he doesn't step out of hiding as he just shakes his head slowly and resists the urge to crunch down on his candy. <English>

Chastity retrieves her corset and pulls it on over her head as she heads to wherever Skinner ended up. <English>

On the exterior, Beau's calm as can be. Inside? He's probably shaking a little bit. He still has a handful of Dan when the shots start and he still has a handful of Dan when the ramp starts to raise. He shoves the man away roughly to fiddle with a little black box at his right side. It's about the size of a cigarette pack and attached to the waist of his pants. <English>

Truth be told, Ashley is pretty good at running. He's a pro. He should retire and become a professional runner but since he doesn't want to retire any time soon he instead settles on skidding to an abrupt stop. The ship has launched. He can clearly see that and he can see that someone is shooting at it with both conventional arms and a Walther. The man then turns back forward and checks what is loaded within his autoshot. The first crewman of the now-grounded Alliance vessel, he levels his sidearm on. At point blank range, it's going to fuck them up. "I'm going to ask you once." He tells them. "Where's your captain?" <English>

Mack runs in like a cat on fire, well, a very calm, fast cat, eyes wide, gun drawn, gaze darting from person to person to assess just /what/ in the holy hell is happening. Her eyes shift to Jacy then up to the ramp and the disappearing Dan, listening as the woman's gun spits little pinging bullets at the ship. She doesn't rush in front of other officers, and as the ramp is closing her gun is lowering, still held in both hands, watching the remainder of this horrible little event unfold. Dan. Gone. <English>

The Alliance grunt with the gun aimed at his fase points over his shoulder into the cargo hold of their transport, where his Captain is waiting more-or-less patiently for the inspectors to return, and making gooey eyes at the First Mate across the way.

Domingo slides his pistol out and levels it at Dan as Beau goes about fiddling with things. Domingo steps forward slowly and says, "Seriously, what the hell is going on? I've been rolling on some kickass painkillers for the past few days, so if you told me about this, I don't remember it." <English>

Skinner, for his part, is dutifully working on getting the ship into orbit, and then from there, into the black. Unfortunately, he knows, there's probably going to be a few bumps along the way. Once the engines are up, he starts lift off, firing up life support and the remaining essentials before he even gets a few feet off the ground. Once in the air, he keeps an eye out for any incoming hostile ships, while simultaneously trying to get them the hell out of there. <English>

Valentina opens up on the ship, not thinking she'll be able to do anything, but a few rounds into engines might help. <English>

Jacy's Walther clicks empty, the slide locking open, and so help me she shoves another magazine in and starts blasting again at the departing ship. So help me, if nothing else the ship is going to need a new paint job. Unlike Valentina, she's not aiming at the engine intakes, she's not really aiming, she's just venting her white-hot fury on the ship. Then she turns, starts to run, and then flings herself on the ground and covers her head from the hot downwash of air and debris pelted against her by Skinner's thrusters, bruising and burning exposed flesh. Pain is transient, but some pains are more transient than others. <English>

Ashley lowers his sidearm and leans to the side so he can glance over the man's shoulder. That would make a lot of sense. The guy's head was blocking the cop's view. "Thanks," he tells the man, even smiling. "Sorry about this nasty business, go back to watching the escaping criminals and being generally useless." He pats the man on the shoulder and moves to step around him so that he can approach the pair of the captain and the first mate. Ashley looks at one and then the other. "Show me whatever top secret bullshit is on here and you don't get arrested." He's still armed, too. <English>

Dan stumbles a few steps when Beau shoves him away, and just as he catches his balance and starts to look around the bay with a more critical eye, he's looking at Domingo's gun. "You don't want to shoot that off going into atmo, it'll throw off the pressure if you breach the hull." He points out, shaking his head. "That gun is way too high caliber." He reaches into his pocket, pulling out... oh, his tablet. He'll hit the 'log out' button, which should pretty much disconnect it from the Alliance mainframe and any data there.

Skinner grunts as the multitasking gets to him. While trying to make sure nothing was getting a lock on him, getting necessary sytems up, and making sure no one was falling out the back, he overlooked some -- minor -- detail. As a result the 'Rabble Rouser' love taps some of the piles of junk scattered about the area, but manages to make it out unharmed. He curses, setting her down again before anything explodes, and comes over the intercoms, "Uh... Rocket. I dodged a rocket... Yeah. Gettin' us gone yesterday, Captain." <English>

Chastity stays out of Skinner's way but asks, "Can I do anythin'?" You know, if he takes the time to explain in detail what things are... <English>

Prone on the ground, the blast still washing over her, Jacy screams into her comm. "Temperance Shuttle Three, get in the air and ram them! Take them out of the sky!" Whether her order will be followed or not is probably of lesser importance to whether she's heard in the first place over the roar of the 'Rabble Rouser's engines. And besides, ramming ships is so 1300s. <English>

Valentina reloads and fires again at the retreating ship. She knocked it down onct, she can do it again! <English>

Skinner glances to Chas, managing to flash her a quick grin, before he hooks a thumb at a seat behind him. For passengers. "Yeah, hold on tight and wish me luck." He kicks the engine again, this time managing to get her in the air without hitting anything. He lets out a breath of pent-up oxygen, then angles the 'Rabble' at correct... launch... vectors... just before givin' it all she's got. <English>

"Skinner!" Growled out over the com when things start getting a little rocky. "Get. Us. Off. The. Ground." Beau tosses a narrowed eyed glare in Dom's direction, but his ire isn't really aimed at the poor Latino. "Secure th'prisoner and Ah'll explain later," he grumbles before he's heading off in the direction of the shuttle bay. If shit goes South with a tail, he's got a little surprise up his sleeve. "Point us toward St. Albans, Skinny... halfway there, turn coarse for Whitefall. If Ah have t'launch Renegade, Ah'll meetcha there." <English>

Mack glances over at Jacy then gazes up at the ship, exhaling. Hot air whips around the area, voices are raised, not just Jacy's but other, secondary officers, techs, chatter on icoms, gunfire too, creating a tense, chaotic scene as the pirate ship absconds with one of their own. She holsters her gun and frowns her expression full of questions though she chooses to voice none for the moment. <English>

Domingo makes his way towards Dan, sliding his gun away, "Fair enough. What's your name, hermano? Everybody's got a name, right?" He walks over to Dan's side and pats him on the back, jerking his head towards one of the walls as a sort of 'walk with me over there'. <English>

Oh yeah, Chas' boobies are still visible, sorta. So she sits where Skinner indicated, and starts tucking her bits and pieces into the corset. Once that's done, she tightens the laces. <English>

Valentina puts up her gun, and carefully reloads. "I at least wrote my initials on that bad boy." She keys her comms. "Put my bullet tatoo on the APB. All channels, all ports. We need these pirates taken in prison. <English>

Satisfied that he's already had a chance during the chaos to render all Alliance intelligence on his person null, Dan isn't left with a whole lot to do at precisely this moment that would increase his odds for survival. "Dan." He replies to the question, "Yours?" Then he walks with the man towards the wall, wiping his palms dry on his coat, just in case the guy wants to shake hands. No need to tip him off to any nervousness. Nope.

"Keep me updated, Skinny," Beau mutters over the com. "Ah'll be in the shuttle bay." Waiting to launch that Ace up his sleeve if need be. <English>

"If you'll all take a look out the port window, you can see a couple stunned purple bellies with their mouths still on the ground. Wave goodbye, everyone." Whether anyone follows Skinner's advice or not, he at least waves at the shrinking dots as they quickly gain altitude. Beau's orders are heard, and he returns with, "Sure thing, Captain. So far we've got clear sky ahead and behind us, so I'd hold off on takin' off just yet." The suggested course is set, and Skinner relaxes a bit, managing to glance over his shoulder to Chastity, registering the fact that she's lacing up her corset. "Did you... Were you... Topless?" <English>

"I was bein' a distraction," Chastity says casually and with a shrug. She stands up and turns her back to Skinner. "Kin you tie that for me?" She doesn't seem to think there's anything wrong with what she did. Of course, she doesn't know much about this whole 'relationship' thing either. Also, she wasn't stripping for credits or anything! So it's not like she broke any promises. Right? <English>

The captain being threatened by Ashley seems to hold her own, at least somewhat. She shakes her head at his request and then gives a slight shrug as she tells him, "Your threats aren't worth my pay grade, Son. If you can't produce me a Captain, I can't unlock those manifests. They're headed for Ares, and if you're not smart enough to put two and two together, it's not my job to play calculator for you."

Lieutenant (JG) Heather Jacy slowly picks herself up off the ground, her gaze on the departing Rabble Rouser as it becomes a distant speck in the clear blue sky. Her gun is silently returned to its holster, and she wipes her eyes with her sleeve. No tears there, no sirree, it's just dust kicked up from the thrusters. Sure it is, Heather. Then, when the fiery dot can be seen no more, she clicks her comm enabled. "Temperance Shuttle Three, Lieutenant Jacy. Belay that last order. Follow the departing ship and keep updating us as to their course." If they've got the fuel, which is a big 'if' - the shuttle's only just arrived from Beylix. "And patch me through to the Temperance. I need to speak to Captain K'mora in person." <English>

Skinner frowns slightly, glances back over his shoulder to make sure the skies are continuing to stay clear, before he waves Chas over. "Come here. Gotta' keep an eye on everythin'." So long as she stands closer to the consoles, he'll lace her up while staying vigilant on the controls, "You know, sometimes you can distract people /with/ your clothes on. Just a suggestion." It's not like they're the classiest of couples, so he's not all that annoyed, but still... <English>

Ashley is really sick and tired of older women called him son. He doesn't even mind that she's still trying to play with her cards held close to her chest. That's admirable. He reaches up with his left hand to pinch his nose momentarily and since he's not wanting to wait to produce a captain-ranked individual the cop adjusts the sidearm so that he's now aiming at the first mate's right upper leg. "You now have five seconds to comply before I put this man in a wheelchair and strip this ship apart on the grounds of I'm doing my fucking job." <English>

Mack frowns, "Brazen. To take an officer." Those are her comments, still no questions, it's probably a bad time to ask out loud how the holy hell this happened. The exchange between Ashley and the captain draws a lift of brows then she looks back to Jacy, "What's our window?" she asks, meaning, how much time do we have to retrieve him before things end really badly, for him. <English>

The Captain of the Alliance cargo transport smirks as she tells Ashley almost coldly, "You'll want to aim between the legs instead of at them. His legs don't serve much of any purpose on this ship, much less to me." And then she folds her arms over her chest and continues to lean upon her crate as she watches the man she outranks continue to threaten a man who also outranks him in an effort to bully his way up the food chain towards information that also is above his rank.

Valentina Sighs, and puts up her gun, and watches the others work. She starts taking notes so that she can put it all in her report. Pirates! Again. She will ahve to talk to Axel about some launchable tracers. Or a rocket launcher. She needs them both. <English>

Once she's all laced up again, Chastity kisses Skinner's cheek. Really, the corset doesn't change that much. But at least her nipples aren't visible anymore. "I'll try to remember that. I was thinkin' on the fly. I went with what I know. Least they're both straight, I think. We kept one o' them." <English>

The Alliance shuttle, one of the IAV Temperance's contingent, screams low across the junkyards before climbing up and away, following the dissipating trail of smoke from Beau's Rabble Rouser. Jacy doesn't turn to watch it, preferring instead to respond to Mack. "Daniel probably has around eight hours before they break him," she says coldly. "If not sooner. Then probably another eight hours for them to finish extracting information from him. After that he's useless to them." Ever the optimist. Then she tilts her head as she's patched through to her Captain, and she steps a pace away from Mack to put in /her/ report, keeping it icily concise as she requests that the Temperance be scrambled from Beylix to make best speed towards the pirates' last known location, as given by the pursuing shuttlecraft. <English>

Ashley shrugs and aims higher, for the man's crotch-like area. He also pulls the trigger. He may have bluffed about putting someone in a wheelchair but taking a stun round to the manhood is not a pleasant feeling in the slightest. There are electrical shocks and similar things like a point-blank projectile being forced out of a firearm at high velocities. He's seen the round smash bones up close. He should have loaded lethal rounds. The autoshot is then turned toward the captain's face. "Don't make me call over the Lieutenant over there." <English>

Skinner pauses, then shrugs and collapses back into the pilot's chair. "At least we got somethin'. I take it we didn't get what we came for?" He reaches out and grabs at a spare chair that happens to be hanging about, tugging it over towards him, clearly for Chastity. Afterwards, he spares a moment to check the sensors, and relay to Beau, "There's a shuttle on our trail, but we're slippin' away quick. I'll keep you posted." <English>

As Ashley pulls the trigger on the taser, the first mate falls and screams while twitching. The Captain merely shakes her head and laughs as she finally gets her ass up from the cargo crate on which it was sitting. She reaches behind to the small of her back and grabs a pair of handcuffs, obviously relishing the chance to approach him as she murmurs almost coyly, "Constable. You're under arrest. You have the right to stop being a dumbass. Anything you have to say will most certainly be rephrased and then later used against you in a court of law."

Mack flinches just slightly at the sound of Ashley's stunner going off and her head whips that direction, "Hey we are all on the same team. Who do we need to get the information we need, quickly so that we can put this all together?" she asks, glancing to Ashley and then to his gun. "You in lock up doesn't help Dan, at all." <English>

Chastity would rather sit on Skinner, but she doesn't want to get in his way, so she sits on the chair. "Guess not. I didn't really see a whole lot. But the one fuckin' pussy left the guy we have an' just walked away." She shakes her head. <English>

Captain K'mora, on the Temperance, clearly has other ideas. She tells Jacy rather acidly to stand down, and switches comm frequencies to the Alliance base on Boros to request them to scramble one of their patrol craft, the venerable Mao Zedong, to aid in the pursuit. And so the LRS, on full afterburners but still falling behind, is replaced by the Mao Zedong, which, with a top speed of 1600 whatever-damn-units-it's-in, will still fall somewhat short of its target but less embarrassingly so. Meanwhile Jacy is walking over towards the grounded Alliance shuttle and the sound of the DAS Autoshot going off. "What the hell is going on...m'am?" she comes to an abrupt halt as she spots the Captain and snaps off a salute. <English>

Ashley raises an eyebrow and allows the woman to withdraw her handcuffs. He has a pair of those too, but he only uses the one she currently has for in the bedroom. His are much nicer. The man shakes his head once before shooting her in the knee which is a lot better than being shot in the crotch, he assumes. He turns in place to look at Jacy approaching. "She's the reason that Dan is off with a ton of Commonwealth. I'm going to find out why. She's also resisting arrest." He waves his handgun. "So I shot her, stun rounds." Even if he has a perfectly good backup weapon that could be lethal. <English>

The Captain calls down from her cargo bay to Mack, "Same thing I told your two friends doing their inspections, my cargo manifests are Classified to Captain's rank and above. I am not authorized to share them with anyone below that rank." Just like Dan and Ashley, this woman is just trying to do her gorram job. Unlike Dan and Ashley, she's thus far succeeding. She offers Jacy a smile, and as she's turning to give the Lieutenant an answer, she's shot in the knee with a taser, all further explanations cut off.

That brings up a grunt from Skinner, and he looks over to Chas, shrugging slightly, "That's the alliance for ya'. Savin' their own hides, even on a more personal level. Never changes." He probably wouldn't have objected to her sitting in his lap, but regardless, he continues to watch every damn instrument like a hawk, just waiting for the ship that /has/ to be coming. "How's your dad? Kill anyone for lookin' at you?" <English>

Without hesitation Jacy draws her own pistol. The fact that it's empty has escaped her notice - or perhaps it hasn't, perhaps she just doesn't want to spoil the effect by taking time to reload. And it's pointed at Ashley. If he's sharp he'll notice the slide locked back and the chamber open. If he's not sharp, well, he's just a dummy, then, to allow himself to be threatened by someone with an unloaded weapon. "Drop it, Stratton!" she barks, launching them into potentially the second Mexican standoff of the day. Must be catching. <English>

Ashley pivots in place and with his off-hand he draws his water bottle and aims it at Jacy. His autoshot remains poised at the two downed Alliance crew and he affords a small glance to the side at everyone else. "I'm pretty sure my water bottle is more dangerous than an empty gun." He almost smiles. He'd probably smile if he wasn't doing the silly thing of holding a water bottle like it was a real, live weapon. It's just a water bottle. With water. He's just Ashley Stratton. Good looking. He drops the water bottle though and bends down in order to begin restraining first the captain and then the first mate. <English>

Those six cargo grunts had been doing their whole stand at ease for a good long while now, so they're actually looking pleased to finally have something to do with themselves. Or perhaps they're pleased that their screw-about Captain got tazed. Honestly? It's probably a two-fer. Either way, they all back up the Lieutenant as Jacy draws her weapon. And the six sidearms that come up to aim at Ashley as well... They are loaded, and their safeties are off. And none of these weapons are set to stun. And poor John James has the misfortune of being the bearer of bad news as he states firmly, "Step away from the Captain and her Mate, Sir. You *will* remand yourself into Alliance custody, or we *will* shoot you."

CRUNCH, man...Rand totally makes that lollipop his bitch so he can to the bubble gum center. <English>

Mack is drawing about the same time the stunner goes off on the captain and Ashley should hear an audible 'kshwuf!' as it exits the holster and is leveled on him. "Mine isn't empty," she says, her voice unwavering, eyes locked on him. Ole! <English>

Jacy flushes and hastily goes to reload her useless Walther, one-handedly groping at her waist for a fresh magazine so she can slam it home. She'll be last to the point-a-loaded-weapon-at-Ashley party, but hey, the hare and the tortoise, right? She says coldly, "You're not helping, Stratton. Are you suggesting that the Captain here is complicit in Officer Sabo's kidnap?" Her gun wavers, as if she considers briefly pointing it at the good Captain, but changes her mind and keeps it trained on Ashley. <English>

Chastity shakes her head to Skinner, "No, but he told 'em ta stop lookin' at my 'woman bits' or somethin'." She laughs and then grins at him. "he's goin' to get over that though, right? <English>

"I don't know if I'm goin' to get over that," Skinner replies, off-handedly, "We'll talk about it later, though, huh?" he asks, flashing Chastity a grin to allay any concerns that he may be upset. "But no, he's not. Father's never do." After another moment of silence, he sweeps his gaze over the instruments, making a slight course correction before updating Beau on the continued lack of Alliance ships, as per his orders, then turns to Chas and grins again, pulling her in close to whisper something to her. Just in case anyone happens to be passing by the bridge. <English>

When the fallen captain's men take action, Mack lowers her gun and steps back. Her expression is a cocktail of annoyance, anger, and concern, though at whom and for whom might be hard to discern what with one officer captive on a pirate ship and another one writing his own ticket to the brig. She talks quietly toward her wrist then looks around and says some more before lowering her hand looking to the sky. Eight hours is ticking away fast. <English>

Chastity moves over to sit on Skinner's lap and snuggles in. She nods in response to his whisper and grins. "Yeah. How many dates 'til I'm allowed back in your room?" She's not used to having a protective father. Or any kind of father, really. <English>

Ashley looks up from where he's placed a knee squarely between the man's shoulder blades and against his back when he hears Jacy having reloaded the Walther. He smiles now, reassuringly. Only now does he remember of everyone else involved and looks to all of the firearms aimed in his direction. He goes back to ignoring them and stands up, dusting off his front in the process. "I'm suggesting that they're the reason why the Commonwealth were here in the first place. I'm going to go search it out now so I can go do the rest of my job. It's what I do best." Investigate, and skip proper channels when red tape is only going to slow things down. Skip corners, Ashley does that. He points with his autoshot toward the inside of the ship. "Excuse me while you find a Captain to do it officially. Oh," he pause, "Try Lieutenant Commander Wong, actually, that's well over what she's hiding behind." That inside of the ship is now where Ashley steps for. <English>

And that is all it takes for the 6 grunts to hit the top of their ship's ramp, each of them firing a round at Ashley. Their mission includes not only loading the cargo of this ship, but protecting it, too.

"Hmm, let's see..." Skinner replies, wrapping his one free arm around Chas as she settles onto his lap. Quickly, he seems to be doing a few mental calculations, pouring a great deal of effort into the problem at hand. He feigns ignorance for a moment, looking to her as he asks, "Well if we carry the three, and add the remainder... What is that?" A quick pause, then he grins, having solved the puzzle placed before him, "Oh yes, uh... I'm going to go with roughly the exact amount of dates we can have in his lifetime, because I have feeling while he's alive, it's never going to happen." <English>

Jacy doesn't fire. She lowers her gun and screams, "Enough! Safe your weapons, that's an order!" See, if the Captain and the First Officer are out for the count, she becomes the ranking Navy officer on scene. It's a good theory, now let's see if it works. "See to your Captain! And get a medical team here!" she barks, her voice ice-cold, as she holsters her weapon and starts forwards. Her expression is hard to read as she stares down at the bloodied and limp form of Ashley Stratton, but she checks his pulse and makes sure he's breathing alright, if she's permitted by the grunts. <English>

Chastity wrinkles her nose a little at Skinner. "Well that's not right. Mebbie I should remind him how old my ma was when he knocked her up." 'Cause that can only go well. "An' she did fine on her own." Wait, that's not what they were talking about. <English> The shots are nearly simultaneous. It's not that they meant to go overboard in stopping the man, so much as they all just took the shot that none of them knew for certain the others would take. At Jacy's orders, the men click their guns to safety and reholster them. Two of the six go along with Jacy and undo their belts and wrap them around each of Ashley's thighs to keep him from bleeding out from his wounded knees and hamstrings. Two more go to help get their Captain up into sitting position. One goes to do the same to the First Mate. The last stays next to Jacy, good old John James, and tells her, "I'm sorry, ma'am. But he is not authorized to the information he was after. I know you just lost one of your own to the Commonwealth, but we've lost Alliance to the Commonwealth before, and for all the proof we have, your entire crew could be decoys meant to be helping them." He points down to where Ashley is bleeding, "Particularly with the way that one was acting."




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