(M) The Black Star Privateers: Smugglers and Heroes IC

[SikstaSlathalin]

Sir Maximus was running as fast as he could down the half lit corridors of the Light of Heaven. He and his two companions had been ambushed by a squad of the squid things, but in the madness he had fired the last of his Shock bullets and almost had to resort to the lead spitting Neos at his side. But one of the monsters threw him into a broken section of the hallway and made him tumble down to a lower level.

He couldn't get back up the broken slope, so sadly he had to leave the other men to their own devices. But he was sure the creatures would begin pursuit so no chance could be taken. The lights were slowly going out and the Merc would be forced to slow down. He had run down his sixth or so storage corridor when he heard a man's voice and saw a faint light. Stopping immediately he pulled out the Beretta and walked slowly towards the light. It was coming from an armory and the figure was definitely a man, but not one from the Neutron.

What other dumb bastard would be down here? This thought crossed Maximus's mind as he lifted the pistol and walked up stepping into the man's light his weapon level and taking advantage of the guy's distraction. His eyes adjusted to the light and he quirked his eyebrow instantly figuring out the man's origins.
"How in the stars did a booze-hound Confederate get this deep into space? Don't you cowboys stay pretty close to the bars?"

“Shit!”, the man cursed, trying to snap a worn half loaded magazine into the rifle. It fell onto the ground, scrounged up bullets spilling out of the rusty box moments after he had fitted it into the magazine well and tried to turn to meet the man with the rifle muzzle.
In the end, he murmured a quick “Fuck it, I’d be dead already if you were here for blood”
He began gathering up the spilled rounds, fitting them back into the magazine as he replied:

“My bars right outside. I was having a helluva’ good time too, until your clunker decided that misery loves company and fried our systems”, Sam shot back, giving the new man a long once over, “What is that, a beretta? You’d be better off throwing rocks”
The big man let out a sigh, grabbing a flashlight and a wad of old duct tape he’d found in the armory and tossing everything he’d found onto the steel armory table, unceremoniously slapping the flashlight onto the side of the battered foregrip with a few inches of duct tape. He hadn’t loaded the weapon yet, better to let his new friend hang on to the upper hand for now.

“We were hired to look for survivors, you I guess. To be honest I really wasn’t paying all that much attention during the mission brief. What kind of stone age weapon is this? Its not modular, no flashlight attachment, Jesus how did people fight like this…”, Sam grumbled, veering heavily off topic.

Maximus lowered his pistol watching the Confederate fumble and drop the mag for the ancient looking rifle. He wasn't in the mood for the usual etiquette his Merc band beat into his head.
"The guy who just fumbled with the mag to his only rifle really isn't in any position to talk shit about a Beretta. And what the hell makes you think this is my ship? I'm came from the Neutron, a scav ship run by another great lump of a Confederate called Irma Beck.

As this strange man complained about the old rifle and taped a flashlight onto it Maxiums studied it closely. The Children of Arcturus made sure their warriors were well-versed many weapons both modern and archaic, he knew this old rifle.
"That is an M-16 an old weapon going back to the ancient Earth Vietnam war. You're lucky it didn't disintegrate in your hands." Maxiums kept his pistol down, but didn't holster it. This ex-jarhead didn't seem like much of a threat being as injured and bumbling as he was, but looks can be very deceiving. "So you're from the Black Star?"

If Sam fumbled before, when he heard Maximus speak the name he completely forgot what he was doing, “I-Irma Beck...You’re fucking with me right? Oh fuck me sideways…”

He’d finished with the rifle, jamming the magazine back into the rifle. “Yeah, I’m from the Black Star. We need to get back to my crew, and you...Jesus, you need to forget you ever saw me if you work for Irma…”

In the vents above there was a loud rattling, a kind that was becoming all too familiar. More squiddies, but if he had to choose between another round with the monstrosity that had threw him down here and sharing a sector with Irma, let alone her crew, he’d start climbing back up now.

“Jesus this is the most fucked up day I’ve had in a long time. My crew is about two levels up, and they can all throw down. We should make our way to them then come up with a plan, maybe get into contact with your team”

While I cower in our dropship, Sam added as an afterthought.

Maximus made note of the man's reaction to Irma's name and was about to comment on it when the tell-tale sounds of an oncoming ambush silenced his tongue.
"I fully agree, and as for Irma. I don't like her anymore than you do so don't worry about me selling you out. I don't even know if the rest of my own crew is still alive." The rattling sounds got louder and Maximus took a couple of stutter steps down the corridor. "Best lead the way confederate, I fell down a bit of broken floor myself to get here."

“Dont cha talk about my--I mean, don’t talk to a superior Officer like that. Bad habit, almost got me discharged...After I punched him a couple times”, Sam grumbled, scooping the rifle into his arms and breezing past the man. He wasn’t going to argue, he’d been here for too long already, and between them there wasn’t much firepower to deal with a squad of squiddies.

Hehe, squad of squiddies.

He pied the corner hard, pushing out into the dark hall with his flashlight only mildly able to break up the darkness, “Best stay on my ass pal, just don't go getting handsy. There's etiquette for that sort of thing”, Sam grumbled, taking the next right.
As he rounded the corner he saw a lone squiddy, ripping apart a computer case. He didn’t rightly know what it was looking for.
Three pops barked from his M-16 rifle, ripping the poor little squiddy a new asshole.
“Hey hey, it actually works. Hows that for a test fire…Didn’t think it’d actually fire”, he joked, more to himself than to his new friend. “Did more damage than my hollow points too, didn't break on contact...Nice”

He gave the machine a sharp kick, clearing it out of the hallway. “Now we’d best fuck off pronto, every squiddy on this level is going to be curious about what that noise was”

With his Beretta in one hand and his unpowered sword in the other Maximus did his best to cover the Confederate's back. He even managed to smirk at the man's joke.
"Don't worry I don't either of us were in the Navy so your poopdeck is safe." The rattling sounds of the approaching squiddies kept the space knight's adrenaline pumping adding the needed speed to his legs and the keeness to his senses to possibly foretell any new trouble.

Which found them when they came upon a monster destroying some old computer. The Merc quickly leveled his pistol, but the bigger man beat him to it and to their mutual surprise the ancient thing fired perfectly and didn't blow the Confederate's hand to bits.
"Good old American engineering I suppose, I think I ran through this hall before. I saw a stair case that I think leads to the next level come on." Now knowing where he was Maximus took the lead and moved at an easy jog looking left and right for those stairs.

He eventually found them, but just when he made the skidding turn to start going up a squid thing burst out of a sideroom and barreled into the two men. Maxiums half jumped/ half tumbled backwards and landed in another side room. This one seemed to already have someone in it cause the creature exploded with a shower of sparks and the glowing gauntlet of a shotgun glove punching through it. As the creature was propelled from the room a scornful woman's voice rang in Maximus's ears.
"The fuck Sam!"

An all too familiar voice to Sam, with an all too familiar phrase.

She was a gorgeous woman, when she wasn’t spouting how she would fuck you with a strap-on shotgun. As far as opening moments of a reunion went, it was better than Sam had imagined in his nightmares, probably only because she was just as surprised to see him as he was to see her.
It wouldn’t take long before she came up with more colorful things to say, judging by how the familiar clockwork was revving up behind her pretty eyes.

“Hi, Honey”, Sam opened casually, fairly sure he was about to have his intestines torn out and funneled back down his throat.
“You--you rusty no dick fucking--”, the beratement that followed would have been enough to make the faint of heart recoil, the woman utilizing words from languages Sam had never heard before in order to really drive her point home.
“The first thing you say to me after almost ten years is ‘Hi, Honey’? You--you fuck!”
“Frankly I’m surprised you let me live through that sentence. I see you’re still using my…”, Sam glanced at her shotgun gloves, then at Maximus, figuring if he hadn’t already gotten it, it wouldn’t be long. “My...wedding gifts…”

Most men bought their bride-to-be a ring, or some sort of jewel.
Sam had elected to get her something a bit more...practical. Military Grade Shotgun Gloves were complicated, and their market value was about triple the average wedding ring anyway…
“They’ve proven to be a lot more reliable than you were, ‘husband’”

The tension was palpable, only broken when the bulwark around them shuddered, indicating more squiddies were around.

“We aren’t done talking Lorn. Try running and I’ll rip out your hamstrings”
“This is sounding uncomfortably similar to our first real date…”
“Fuck you. Keep up, both of you”


Maxiums had an incline to what Sam and Irma's past relationship was, but he wasn't quite ready for how bad it really was. He'd seen Thantoscale territorial fights more civil and less noisy as a matter of fact. Listening to his old master's words, "keep your head down when under laser fire and when in the middle of a couple's quarrel." He let the two Confederates bark it out while he kept watch. And good thing he did cause as the creatures began ripping through the metal of the little closest they were hiding in he was quick to duck out of the way as some shrapnel shot over head.

But as Captain Beck gave the order Starcore was quickly out the door and down the opposite corridor. His pistol and sword out and ready.
"Down here!" He shouted back at the two bricks.

Sam had already flipped the fun switch, laying into the rapidly approaching Squiddies with bursts of fire.
Normally the man was a sharp shot, but age and weather had not served the rifle in his hands well. The shots were wide, not that it mattered greatly in the confined halls of the ship, but it was difficult to hit the weaknesses in the creatures armor and the round he was using was already punching above its weight-class.

He pulled back, vaguely towards where he'd heard Maximus shouting from over the roar of his rifle, breaking for it as he rounded the corner.

As Sam and Irma turned the corner Maximus was putting the last few touches on a bit of good luck. Around the corner he just bolted down there was an busted panel to the Fire suppression system, now if he remembered right these old ships used quick acting Liquid nitro that killed all fire instantly. The downside was it killed everything caught in the icy shower as well. Now after a century or so of no updating or maintenance the merc was sure the system didn't have that same potency, but maybe it would do enough damage to deter the squid bots so the three of them could escape.

"Get over here quick, I have maybe one dumb idea to get us out of this!" The solider quickly joined him and he connected the last few wires. The system jumped to life and just as Sam and Irma skidded to Maximus's side one of the old blast doors sealed shut and an ugly brown mist began raining down from the old suppression system. While it didn't instantly freeze the squids it sounded like the nitro had turned into something close to gasoline, because a spark from one of the squids trying to weld through the blast door ignited the entire hallway blasting panels off the walls and eventually bringing the system itself down upon their heads. The fire burned for a few seconds, before all the fuel was gone and the lack of air burned them out. The humans gave a silent cheer before running down the corridor as fast as they could.

A few seconds later though, the sounds of heavy muffled boots began stomping down the destroyed hallway, kicking the charred remains of squids bots aside. The stomping continued until it reached the blast door, and with two more heavy thuds the old blast door began lifting slowly up.

[SikstaSlathalin]

Whoever was in charge of this ship seems to have grown bored with watching the Privateers not die. So with all the grace and subtly of a cluster charge of nukes going off the entire ship powered up and every door opened wide admitting every Squiddie and half hell spawn mech the deranged intelligence had created in it's long isolation. The corridors of the old ship rumbled like thunder and the remaining combined crews of the Neutron and the Black Star went from a sci-fi horror movie into yet another genuine life or death struggle.

This time though...there wouldn't be some kind of overwatch coming to their rescue when things got bad, the escape plan was dead with the Black Star. Running as fast as they could the split up group reformed a few doors down from the command bridge. All bullets were gone and many of their melee weapons and exosuits were damaged. Both crew have had grim before, but this was possibly the grimmest. Togga and Beck were at the back of the group staring down at the herd of creatures barreling towards them. They filled the entire corridor and as it grew narrower and narrower their speed and ferocity increased. Only two options were before them, run for the command bridge and bar the door, they'd be at a dead end, but maybe if they killed whatever connection the thing had to the rest of the ship the creatures would drop, they'd just need to fight through whatever personal defenses the bridge had going for it. Not a great option, but there was a slim chance of living. If they didn't choose that then certain death would meet them in the form of a sea of slashing metal claws and vivisectors at full power.

With a glance at Irma the choice was made, without a single word the two Captains pointed to the command bridge and ran for it. The doors were wide open and they were probably running into a trap, but at least they might be able to bottleneck some monstrosities before they die. The crews burst through the door and slammed the old switch swishing the doors closed and locking them. Huge blows crashed into the old door denting it tremendously but not breaking it. The narrow passage made it hard for more than a few creatures to pound away at the command door, but even then the crews knew it wouldn't hold for long.

The bridge was lit up, but empty...at least for the few seconds until the holoprojecter fired up and the angry apparition appeared again.
"YOU FOOLS! YOU HAVE COME TO YOUR OWN DEATHS! I AM INTEGRATED INTO EVERY PART OF THIS VESSEL YOU'LL NEVER ESCAPE! I WILL TURNED YOUR RAVAGED BODIES INTO MY NEXT GENERATION OF MACHINES! I WILL.....BANG ZZZZT, BOOM! Togga's axe cut off the rest of the rant as he drove it directly into the command console killing all power to the room. Plunging the crew into total darkness until the dull white back-up lights kick in. The horde continued to wail away at the door each impact denting the door more taking it inch by inch off it's rails. With his axe still stuck in the console Togga clenched his fist testing his claws.
"It has being honor leading you all. But this is looking like being last of both Black Stars and Neutrons. We will be needing miracle to make it out, but I am saying we be going down fighting." He punched his open palm and let out a serious growl, the others followed his example creating a line before the groaning door grabbing whatever weapons they could get. It was an inspiring, but ultimately futile call to arms. Some pipes, a few bits of glass and chairs and whatever weapon they already had that wasn't shot to shit.

The door kept getting chipped away and the huddled crew could see the light from the corridor darting into the room shadows moved in front of the beams like the water of a shallow sea. The end was nigh, and they could only hope their bodies would be too mangled to remake as fucking abominable robots. The door had almost given, but suddenly a sound like cannonfire filled their ears and an even brighter light stung their eyes. The door muffled some sound, but the people could hear agonized screams and smell burning flesh. The horde seemed to have halved in their madness, but they lost interest in breaking the door down and began storming back down the hall. No one knew what was happening, but more cries of pain and death peals were heard and they continued for a few minutes before the final one was squelched under a heavy foot.

In amazement some of the crew forgot their desperate weapons and let them fall heavily from their hands. A song begins gently listing down the hall towards them and heavy stomp echoes menacingly in their direction. A small shingle of hope begins to fill their hearts, there is only one thing within 10 lightyears that could be. Killbot was back in action and had just saved the day! Togga moved to the door first and used his strength to try and open it so he could welcome his old friend back to the land of the conscious. But as he began to struggle with the damaged door a dark hulking figure charged it and plowed through sending both the doors and the large sharkman careening into the rest of the group. In sheer shock and horror stood a fully armed and active Killbot with the insane A.I.s face filling his faceplate.
"I TOLD YOU FOOLS THERE WAS NO ESCAPE! AND NOW I WILL KILL YOU WITH YOUR OWN TOY!" And before any of them could react Killbot opened fire. Everyone dodged and ran as quickly as they could, a horde of half-crazy squid things and old mechsuits with claws and surgical tools were one thing, but a fully crazy warbot with fully functioning energy weapons was an entirely different shitstorm.

Some died, others only lucked out before part of a wall came collapsing down on them. Togga was right were Killbot had left him never in a million years did he think the undying loyal warbot would turn on him even under the control of an outside force. But here it was his own creation gunning down his comrades, Togga never thought this day would come, but the clever Sharterran still had a plan for it.
He would initiate Killbot's forced shut down...and self-destruct sequence.
Tears rolled down the tough old fishes eyes as he shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Killbot! Be remembering the Alamo!" As the words left Togga's mouth the laserfire stopped and Killbot's arms dropped lifelessly to his side the smoking white guns dropping to the blood coated floor. The remaining crew poked their heads out from their hiding places, no one on the Black Star Crew knew Togga had put in such a feature, they thought Killbot was as unstoppable as his named would suggest. Killbot was silent for a few seconds before this song began to play softly from his speakers.

His faceplate turned back to the traditional skull and the mad bot's crackly voice returned.
"Thanks boss, now let Killbot fuck this asshole up." The warbot chuckled firing up his arm cannon it had two shots lefts and they would do all the fucking up that was needed.

Dar-Togga nodded getting to his feet clapping the bot's shoulder.
"You are having my permission friend."

Killbot chuckled picking up one of his energy weapons charging it for overload.
"Killbot tore through the walls and doors, and he made a path right back to the dropship. Use it my brothers and sisters. And move quick, Killbot will go Rocket's Red Glare in one minute." With that the warbot turned his speakers up to their highest and began destroying the Light of Heaven from the inside out. Needing no further warning the two crews ran for all their worth easily finding the holes Killbot left and making good time to the surprisingly still intact drop with piles of dead bots and squiddies around it the rest of the Black Star crew alive and waiting.

Evan saw them first and jumped out of the Gunner's pod.
"WHERE IN THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN? WE ARE COMPLETELY OUT OF ENERGY CELLS FOR THE CANNONS AND I WAS ABOUT TO SEND US BACK TO BLACK STAR SINCE IT'S UP AND RUNNING AGAIN!"

Wasting no time Togga and the remaining crew stampeded onto the drop ship.
"BE MOVING NOW KILLBOT IS ABOUT TO BE BLOWING THIS ENTIRE SHIP INTO SMASHED ATMOMS!" Sy and Racer complied eager to be done with this place. They quickly got the ship out of the loading bay and back into the Black Star. They were greeted with a cherry voice they all long thought dead.
"Hello Captain Aidebot back in action!"

"Be charting a course for the Ashmont planet in the Vegga sector and be activating instant hyperdrive! Captain authorization 77854!" The little comm Droid did as he was asked and before the rest of the Black Stars even unbuckled the Black Star was gone, a single muffled explosion being the only thing they could hear to tell them the fate of the Light of Heaven and Togga Tech, Model 001, MK X-II Prototype Combat Cyborg. Once the ship was safetly out of death the long procession from the drop ship to the various bunks and rooms in the ship were as grim as the night and as silent as the grave. They had nearly lost it all, their friends, their gear, another pay, and came very close to losing their lives. It was only luck and the sacrifice of an insane robot that saved them, what does that say about the courage of the Black Star Crew?

No one knew, but they were all too tired to admit it. Like flies the remnants of the Black Star Privateers and the Neutron scavengers dropped onto any surface soft enough to not be solid metal. All expect Togga and Aidebot, the Sharkman needed to be awake for any further trouble and Aidebot just woke up from a very long nap and had all the energy in the world. With the course set Warsong who seemed to be more human than the last time he saw her would be in control of the ship. So with nothing better to do Togga allowed himself to be talked into a tea and whiskey party with Aidebot who had been recording the crew's entire voyage and was looking for the final details to round out his logs. With a pained smile and another sip of whiskey Togga filled Aidebot in on all the hell the lucky little droid had missed.

And thus...fin

Thank you all so much for a badass story that I hope we get to continue sometime soon.