"Lights," he commanded, sending the room into pitch darkness as he approached the glass. He squinted at something off in the distance, suddenly wishing for the enhanced optics of his HEV. For an eternity nothing happened, and then one of the thousands of stars in view winked out. A few moments later it came back into existence and Astaroth took a deep breath but waited. Several minutes later a second star directly adjacent to the first vanished.
"Blackship!" he hissed, commanding the lights back on and jogging to retrieve his weapon from the spiral. "Aerienn, bring all shields to full NOW!! Gabriel, send fire teams to the engineering deck and make to get us to warp as soon as possible. A Blackship is an Exile stealth boat; advanced recon: they prepare the field for larger fleets to launch ambushes," he explained as he rushed out of the observation deck. "They're particularly nasty because they can remain hidden for long periods of time by sinking their emissions and staying out of active sensor range. The Parador's auspex system should still be able to get a lock with Aerienn's assistance," he explained hastily as he slid to a halt at an intersection as if he couldn't remember or decide where to go.
"Pinging them with active sensors sometimes makes them bug out or," he paused to look at Gabriel and grin widely. "Or this could get fun. We need weapons: if they make a move it'll be to disable and capture the ship," he finished, and then sprinted towards the nearest armory.
The Lunar Soul...
Sable awoke feeling groggy, though by all rights she should have still been knocked out by the drugs she was administered. She slid her legs off of the med table and groped to silence the medical alarms warning her not to move. Head swimming, she shambled into her quarters and stripped out of the smock she had been dressed in and pulled on a long shirt with loose sleeves to ward away the ambient chill.
"'Rothy?" she croaked, flicking wild locks out of her face and searching around the ship. "Lights, dim please." A chime from the AI signified voice recognition and the overhead lights flickered on to dimly illuminate the interior of the deserted ship.
"Scan for life signatures."
*Bong.* One. Residential deck. Biosign recognized as Claymore operative codename: Sable.
"Comm. Scarlett," she instructed, pressing her palms into her eyes and wandering into the armory on impulse. The charging stations were full. Astaroth's HEV hung in its cell, the red eyes of the helmet glowing dimly in standby mode. Hers and Scarlett's suits were on either side, and a fourth adjacent to hers with a fine layer of dust on it... the one Ember refused to wear. Odd... Astaroth never left the ship without his armor. Hell, sometimes he slept in it.
*Sable? You should be resting.*
"I know, I have no idea how I woke up or why. Where is everyone? 'Rothy's armor is charging, but the ship is empty."
*I'm in the Parador's feasting hall and Astaroth went to settle a... personal matter. What's the matter, hun?*
"I don't know... but something is... askew," she answered, almost as though dreaming.
*I'm coming.*
"No... no, it's probably just the sedatives, keep doing your social thing," she grumbled and ended the call with an irritated flick as she passed the communications console and shuffled onto the bridge. She grabbed one of the earpieces off the charger as she looked out the port onto the flight deck. Deserted.
Disconcerted and beginning to feel alert, she trotted back to the armory, lifting her sword from its resting place, fitting several daggers into the hidden sheath inside her sleeve and pulling a machine pistol off of the shelf before heading towards the airlock. As expected, it was left open, and her bare feet padded against the ramp softly as she made her way down to the Parador's deck. For a while she just stood there in eerie silence feeling like a tumbleweed should roll past in the background. That's when she noticed it in the corner of her eye: a distortion, almost like a rippling pool of water hovering in the air. Her eyes widened, turning her head and raising her gun almost felt like slow motion as two figures emerged, pulling tendrils of crackling energy with them before the portal snapped shut. They paused, and one of them looked directly at her, brushing a lock of white hair out of his face and locking crimson eyes with hers.
"You..." he said with recognition.
"You!!" she echoed.
"Inconvenient," he said with a neutral tone, then touched his earpiece. "Initiate. Tsuki... take care of this garbage."
The man turned and began walking towards one of the lifts without giving her a second glance. Sable squeezed the trigger, feeling the weapon rock back into the crook between her thumb and forefinger again and again, and though her reflexes were heightened and everything was moving in 1/16th speed, the man's figure was instantly obscured and the hail of slugs slapped harmlessly aside by a barrier. Her opponent was instantly charging her, a red tinged blade in each hand. Sable tried to walk her fire past to hit the man once, but Tsuki intercepted the fire.
Sable thumbed the release on her sword's scabbard and flung it like an arrow strait at Tsuki's head. She knocked the scabbard aside effortlessly and moments later they were face to face... however, what should have been a brilliant clash of metal was dead silence. Sable was slowly being pushed back towards the ramp and she struggled against Tsuki, but was slowly being overpowered. Sleek, featureless black plates hugged Tsuki's figure, and a pair of scarlet eyes burned from the cat-like facade of her helmet. Sable knew that the suit should be hissing as it vented excess heat from the powered assist, and that as long as she was outside her HEV she was at a serious strength disadvantage. She screamed at the man as he stepped onto the lift, but the sound was whisked away before it even left her lips. And as the doors closed in front of him, he just smiled at her.