The Solar System

The small cabin of the corvette was overfull, two pilots plus the strike team. Each and every one of the strike team operatives was well armed with submachine rifles armed with bean bags, shock rounds, and tranq darts. They were prepared for an offensive, with 8 troops in medium recon armor and two fully power suited marines. One of the marines spoke up. "The pilot of this ship is a small time smuggler but she's got ties to a major player. We need to secure the asset again. We cannot have this tech falling in the wrong hands. We put down any resistance fast. Capture over kills here though, we need the crew's info on this guy so we can finally nail him for his crimes. We breach in three."

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A few of the fighters strayed closer to the Springbok and hailed her, "Pilot, drop weapons and bring the Springbok in to dock with the CS-Karāchi." The Springbok's weapons began to holster as the ship slowly made its way towards the frigate. The closest fighters surrounded the interceptor in key points above, below and to the sides of the ship. They didn't see the pilot grin or notice her hands move to her legs to release some combat stims.

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"Breach!" The men rushed through the opened airlock and the battle cries of the first few were immediately replaced by screams of pain as impossibly sharp caltrops punched into their booted feet. "What kind of barbarians would use these?!" One of the men cried in pain. A marine stepped forward, the caltrops breaking into tiny pieces under the steel of his massive armor. "Barbarians." He lowered an assault cannon, primed for stun and walked calmly forward.

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Vesta

She had come too close to the frigate for comfort as she switched her cybernetic legs to increase blood flow. It would take some maneuvering to get past the blockade that the fighters had erected behind her on her approach. There was a lucky break though, when the merc onboard the Nadia opened fire with a Mag-rail from outside the ship, tearing apart a fighter in the process. She felt a twinge of apprehension, knowing that the merc wasn't firing on pirates like she believed but military forces instead. She didn't expect to be forgiven but she did like that her chances of escaping with the cargo intact were higher when she had a willing crew. She took the chance the merc had provided and twisted her ship around in a tight arc that caused her to undergo nearly 50g's of force and utterly surprising the fighters that had scrambled to evade fire from the mag-rail. In an instant, her turret was out and she had engaged in a dogfight with four fighters of her own. She hoped the crew inside was faring this well.

Desmond Zini

As soon as Desmond heard the boarding party start to enter he quickly entered the ducts and watched from above trying not to laugh as he stopped most of the men with the caltrops he had placed. He couldn't believe it when the man passed by not even fazed by the traps Desmond had set. He seems a bit over armored compared to the pirates I've seen before. he thought trying to think what do do next. He quickly dropped a light smoke bomb he had been saving for if something like this happened, shooting his pistol into the smoke where he had last seen the armored man then moving as quickly but quietly as possible.

Desmond wasn't sure what to do next, he wasn't expecting this. The only thing he could really think to do was stall them and keep them from getting to their destination. While staying in the vents he did his best to lure them away throwing insults their way occasionally going up ahead and doing his best to block off their path while not messing with the ship itself knowing he would most likely have to fix the damage done.

August Model, 13x Series, "Veris"

The moment that the marines breached hull of the ship, Veris blurted out "Alert: Breach detected." Unmoving for only a moment, Veris sent out a pulse transmission to the open channel, asking "Question: What is the armor and armament of the enemy?" The machine stayed in place as it waited for the response that it wanted. However, its drive hummed with activity.

Scanning its memories of its time with the scientists, Veris looked for anything that it could remember that could help it. Several easily mixable combinations of chemicals were high on the list, the two prominent ones being an acid that burned through organic material faster than most could feel the pain and a thin paste that the scientists used to quickly whip up for alloy heat-resistance testing. The thin paste was a homemade version of the chemical that they normally used, burning slightly lower temperature for only about 15 seconds, but it could easily remove metal plates, its only issue being the potential damage to the ship.

Desmond Zini

As soon as Desmond could he dropped down into a safe place and opened up the channel, "Shhhh be quiet. Most of them are in regular armor and got stopped by my traps but there's this one guy in way better armor. I could try bringing them to you if you want." Desmond quickly darted back up to the ducts moving and waiting for a response.

August Model, 13x Series, "Veris"

Going back over the open channel, Veris stated "This unit requires approximately 7 minutes. Then bring them to the entrance of the cargo bay." Walking back into the closet, Veris got to work. Pulling forth two of the plastic buckets, Veris dumped exacting amounts of different chemicals in each, mixing them with plastic paint mixers.

When Veris was done playing chemist, he looked back at the chemicals that he had made. The acid was a dark brown, sloshy fluid that seemed to rock side to side with the subtle movements of the ship. The paste was slightly thicker than what Veris remembered, but it assumed that was from the lack of pure chemicals.

Moving the two buckets to the door leading to the cargo bay, Veris took the acid bucket and set it up on the ceiling with a simple pull string to open the lid. The other bucket, however, Veris held onto very closely.

Vesta

The pilot sped her way around the space surrounding the Nadia, making sure to never put herself in a position where the fighters guns might miss her and hit her freighter. She used her ability to outmaneuver her foes to her advantage, making it hard for them to hit her and giving them a chance to hit each other when they missed their main target. Her turret stuck to one target at a time, regardless of where she was facing or her relation to the rest of the battle. Once one fighter was down, she'd switch to another. She'd tried to keep their fire off of her but she noticed a couple of fighters had focused their fire on the Merc's location.


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Inside, the power-armored marine had put up his helmet as a stray bullet pinged off his shoulder. "Contact!" He sprayed stun darts into the ductwork but the smoke had thrown his aim off. They listened as the sound of movement in the ductwork headed away. The other soldiers were getting back on their feet as the two marines took to the front of the line. Their eyes were opened for traps and any others that they saw were sprung harmlessly on the marines. They followed slowly behind the loudmouthed brat in the ductwork, unable to keep up with him as he left them with a surprise and an insult every time they'd caught up with him. They hadn't lost any troops, but their tempers and nerves were running high.

Desmond Zini

Desmond tried to stall for time to give the robot time but didn't want to be too slow and get shot, like he almost did when they first boarded. This caused Desmond to take a round about way creating almost a maze in the ship. Finally once he felt that it had been about 7 minuets he lead them the most direct rout to the cargo hold. Once there Desmond dropped his last smoke bomb that he had been saving for an event like this and darted through the doors, "Robot, where are you?" he yelled what did it call itself again... "Veris!" With that he saw the robot coming to the door, Oh, wow he is really cool. he thought to himself watching Veris set the trap. "What are you doing there?"

August Model, 13x Series, "Veris"

Veris looked at Desmond for a moment, returning its facing back to being prepared. "This unit has prepared a bucket of thermal paste for removal of the armor that is worn by the power armor units and a bucket of anti-organic acid to defend against the rest of the units." Said Veris, before continuing with "This unit advises that you stand behind this unit. The acid splash is extremely lethal to exposed organics."

Veris held its position until one of either the foot soldiers or marines fell into his trap, deploying the proper bucket against them. When the buckets were emptied, Veris would run to the nearest "safe" cover he could.

The soldiers had been moving cautiously, using the armored marines as human shields. Once they'd established that lethal force had been used against them and that they'd met only resistance upon boarding, they'd switched to live ammunition. It wasn't long before they'd followed the source of the nuisances towards what looked to be a cargo bay. "Eyes open boys." One of the marines said as he readied himself to open the cargo door. The other marine stacked behind him and when they opened a door the one in front charged directly into a face-full of anti-armor thermal paste. He screamed in agony as the neural links connecting him to his suit began to catch fire and melt.

The soldiers and the remaining marine opened fire blindly into the cargo bay, trying to shoot past the smoking, flailing wreck that had been their commanding officer.

August Model, 13x Series, "Veris"

Standing off to the side of the door, Veris saw the bullets firing over the smoking wreck of a power armored marine. Grabbing the small string off to the side of the door, Veris gave it a sturdy yank, releasing the bucket of acid over the hallway leading to the cargo bay. Staying to listen for only a few moments, Veris moved to find anything that could be improvised against survivors of the acid.

Veris knew that it didn't have enough time to mix up another batch of thermal paste, or the acid, but it needed something, anything. "Unknown organic unit, higher armament is required. Inquiry: Does unit know of higher power armament?" Veris asked Desmond.

Desmond Zini

When the robot went and hid Desmond quickly darted behind a crate popping his head out to watch what would happen. Watching as the man got coated in the paste Desmond got ready to move just encase they started shooting, which happened soon after. He quickly ran closer to the robot almost getting hit in the process. "You are so cool!" he whispered to Veris. Veris then asked something along the lines of "Unknown organic unit, higher armament is required. Inquiry: Does unit know of higher power armament?" Desmond stood there a second thinking it over then shook his head, "No, not really, my pistol is the only thing I really know how to use."

A warning popped up inside the ex-Marine's visor, distracting but not blocking her view. The second one was more annoying, a message that the rails inside her MagRail had finally broken down. Useless. She stopped firing and starting whistling to herself as a distraction. She could feel more than hear the rounds impacting the ship around her, the occasional glance off her armor. Anything more direct and she'd be in serious trouble. The first warning was, of course, alerting her to enemy fire.

She'd been working under the assumption that they were fighting off pirates and not, in face, the Marine Corps. She'd be having strong words with their pilot later. None the less she was being fired upon and now had a duty to defend herself from harm. She would just need to focus on disabling and crippling more that outright destroying.

A pull of the slide and the rails detached themselves from the gun and a gentle push sent them drifting out into the void. She pulled a spare set from her belt and loaded them, ignoring the twisting serpent in her gut as she went through all her checks to make sure the MagRail was ready to fire again. Once it was she stood back up straight and aimed for the nearest fighter, intent on taking out the engines.

The soldiers fired over the desiccated body of their commander, the second marine having taken control in his death, suddenly more frightened for their lives than they had been when they first breached their way into this nightmare of a ship. It only proved to be more of a nightmare when fully half the squad was doused in acid, the others being lucky enough to have time to get out of the way or be spared a majority of the damage by the flailing bodies of their comrades in arms. When the Marine gave the order to regroup, they were more than happy to fall back and let him toss in a nerve-shock grenade. With any luck it would incapacitate any biological systems, rendering even people in power armor unconscious while still leaving them alive and wouldn't damage the ship or any electrical components. Anyone left standing would be free game on the inevitable charge into the room.

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The few fighters that strafed around Dragoslava's position on the ship were having trouble both avoiding her fire and returning fire of their own as she brought the MagRail to bear on their engines. Those that weren't being shot at fired at the mostly stationary target when they could, doing their best to rid themselves of one annoyance while the rest of their fighters played a poor game of catchup with the wildly twisting and turning Interceptor. It looked like the Nadia's pilot wasn't quite as good at disabling other ships as the ex-marine was, but she did seem to be a fair hand at grabbing their attention and simultaneously not getting turned to scrap metal and pulp by their weapons.

August Model, 13x Series, "Veris"

Veris watched as the strange weapon bounced into the room. It appeared to be some form of grenade, but did not match any of the limited kind that Veris had an understanding of. Staying behind cover, Veris waited for the strange grenade to go off. While the device was detonating, Veris had an idea that might just work.

Bolting to the maintenance closet once again, the android grabbed exactly what it was looking for. A pressure washer. When set to the highest setting, the little machine could create a steady stream of water that could carry a high voltage charge for about 20 meters, and anything out of that range would have to deal with the pain of the force required for the water to be pressurized that high.

Commanding the door to the cargo bay to close, Veris rushed out with the pressure cleaner, hoping the door would hold long enough. Opening one of the hatches that led to a water and power out, Veris quickly got to work setting the device up and setting the positive high power out to the equivalent of a pilot light for a flamethrower. Once the set up was ready, Veris commanded the door to open, unaware of whether, or not, the enemies had gotten through. It then looked up, and fired at anything that wasn't a registered passenger/worker on the Nadia.

Desmond Zini

Desmond stood there a second as the grenade landed in the room before quickly darting out and throwing it back out of the door before quickly darting deeper into the cargo hold. Once he was far enough back he sat down. Ok Desmond there has to be something you can do that is of more help. You don't want to get killed but you want to help. Think, think. What was that? With that he darted off yet again to one side of the cargo bay and back up to find Veris spraying getting ready to spray anything that came through the door.