Lyo Hunter's Story

"Tell you what. This ship this the best. You should meet Hulio. He's a human like you, and oh my god. I mean, the beds are stone, so it's no 5 star resort, but he makes this thing called 'Mexican rice'. I mean, what even is a Mexican? Are they as delicious as Julio's rice?"

Hunter droned on. Wherever Ariel went, he went. It was his obligation, of course, and he'd attest it felt like babysitting, but the longer he droned? One could certainly feel he was enjoying it.

"Honestly, though, that's all we eat. Is rice. It's okay, 'cause I hear some guys got it bad, with like, blow-up food? Was it blow-up food? Like, where you add water, and it just blows up."

The ship was large, compared to the people boarding it. Ariel was allowed access anywhere that didn't have a weapon on it, the pilot's room included. However, her weapons were kept behind the reinforced plexiglass doors of the armory. The rooms were standard, and it was two to a room. Still, the structure of the ship was beyond pleasing.

The inside was far darker than the outside, however. Thin strips of white light lined the corridors, whose bottoms bore an incredibly tough see-through material that peeked into the wiring and mechanics of the ships innards. Every step echoed through the mechanical beast, though the harshness of the environment was set off by the surprising familial attitudes of the pirates onboard and the frequent broadcasts over the intercom.

"Our guys are a bit rowdy, though. Y'know, gotta be to let off the slack. We kick into gear, though. Gesa makes sure of that. No drinking, she says."

"It's an old Estrada espionage ship, actually. Had one of our species' ships, beforehand. For a race that was genocidally wiped out a decade ago, I gotta say, their shit's near up to par with something I'd design. Not to mention it does what it's meant to. I'm keen on finding a ship and replacing the core of this baby, but we usually only hit ships that are bigger than ours. Don't think Gesa is gonna let me slide hittin' up a warship on our roster just 'cause I want a spangly new bumper, huh?"

Hunter paused, to breathe.

"SPS Canebria, by the way. Esteemed and proud, even though we're uh... Not on the top ranks. That's just because we work strategically, though. Gotta fly under the radar. Can't leave our name anywhere, is all. But I swear, if we wanted to, we could take London and Farsrin on."

If Ariel found herself on the same train of thought as Hunter had, she'd surely find herself pushing back thoughts to accomodate new ones at light speed. Soon, they traveled to the end of the hall, where they'd met a small staircase.

"Wanna meet the crew? Show you my duds. Pilot room. All me, baby. And well, the other pilots. Gesa. And Oxe."

"Pilot and techman. Intel extraordinnaire. Resident nerd. Sponge of all things information. They make me come on missions, sometimes, if we're looking for a bit more than plundering physically. We're gonna hit the Daschund trade ship next 'cause what I scraped up."

Hunter stood in front of the door, seeming to do nothing at first. In an instant, however, a hexagonal pattern appeared in a brilliant white light over the surface of the sleek door. It seemed to imitate Hunter's figure, ever quickly, before it disintegrated in the same pattern it appeared.

He, too, took off his 'battle-suit', but only his helmet. It would show that he was, infact, not human, and bore the same features and species as Commander Gesa seemed to. Only, his features were scarred; horns were simply chopped off to their roots, ears were flayed and broken, and an ugly scar indented itself from his eye to the top of his ear. His features were barely rough, though, and they were fairly young.

"Hey, Oxe. Come over here and meet the merc we picked up."

A lanky, armored fellow looked up from his post. He seemed to be working on something concerning the monitors.

"Lyo is me, by the way. Oxe is real formal, see. This is Ariel, by the way. Ariel Moore. Got a clean track record, like you." Hunter said, and slapped his sea-dwelling friend on the arm. "But he ain't dangerous if he tries to revolt, so we don't watch him too hard."

"Myrdra aren't good fighters, anyway. Carniverous bastards, but they aren't fighters. He's better at uh... hardware. Y'know, ship shit. If you want ever to talk semantics. We're a mixed crew, y'know. Of aliens. You and Julio are the only humans on board."

The ecstatic man extended both arms, and gestured for Ariel to come forward.

"Wanna meet Commander Gesa?"

A grin played to his face as he lowered his own salute to the captain and pivoted. "Okay, so, your room. You're bunking with me, 'cause I gotta keep an eye on you. Y'know, make sure you don't try and sneak into the armory, or whatever. Not like you could do much smack dab in the middle of space, anyhow."

"Training is every other day. Mostly, the guys just hit the docking bay. Not quite sure what they do there, in all honesty. I'm a tech, so I don't really go out of my way to give a shit about keeping in shape. Sure you can check it out if you want."

Again, he stood in front of the door. Light spanned across it, and they began to walk down the expansive hall. Rooms littered every side of them.

"Ha! We're pirates, not boarding room students. Once you're off uh... watch, you'll probably be able to pick wherever to sleep. There aren't many women on board, either, other than say, Gesa. Hell, some of these guys don't even have identifiable junk," Hunter said, with a laugh.

"That's pretty much it, though. There's the docking bay, Oxe's quarters, armory, a cell, the doc's, and the shitters. We work with what we have, obviously enough. We can keep quite a few men with our setup real easy."

Suddenly, he stopped and pivoted, and then pointed to a door. He found a pad on the side that almost looked like a home alarm, and punched a few buttons on it. The door lit up.

"Step in front of that, so it recognizes your figure. It'll open up right after, and you can come in and out how you want to. Like I said, though, you'll get your own chest. It's got it's own shitter, too, and there's closet space. A terminal, if you need it, for whatever reason."

The door scanned the woman, flashed once, and then slid open for them both to access the room. If Ariel were to look to the side, she'd see the bunked beds with a metal chest at either end. On Hunter's, the bottom, lay books and comic spreads, where he'd obviously done quite a bit of reading. On the top would be Ariel's, which was neat and made up.

"There's a stand-up shower in the shitter. We added them when we got the ship. Figure a bunch of aliens don't want to get closer than necessary to eachother, no matter how excited we are on-ship."

On 'entertainment', he seemed to pause. "Well, most of that shit happens down in the docking bay. Like I said, though, I don't go down there much. Pilot's seat, and all. You'd have to check it out yourself, lady."

"She was designed for humanoids." Hunter said, and slapped the wall of the room. 'She', of course, was the SPS Canebria. "If it acts like one of us and breathes the same air, other than Oxe, of course, it can be on this ship." He grinned, and stepped back into the doorway.

"You do what you have to. Can't get in anywhere where you can make too much a fuss, anyway. If you do need to uh, clean your weapons, or whatever, then I'll be in the pilot room."

He winked. "But if that's a proposition, I'm sure we can find some fuzzy handcuffs."

Hunter laughed again, then stepped out of the room to give Ariel her privacy. Behind him, the door shut, and she was left alone.

"Wow, okay, look. No need to push. Thanks. I have feet! Which you have cuffed in chains, evidently. Is this one of those max prison things?" A voice mimicked, which seemed almost human. It was young, male, and harsh. "Are you guys co-ed? I'd like a room with a babe, if you don't min- FFFFFfuck!" He screamed, upon being met with the tazer of the guard escorting him. Whispers and conversations echoed through the halls of the prison as this particular man was escorted through, and soon brought to a cell.

It was barely high-tech, other than the pad that the guard used in to punch in a code and the door come open. He staggered in, and his wrists released, while the door behind him slammed closed.

Under the draining fluorescent light, it would come to show that the man was not human, but surely similar. He bore red skin, and red eyes. His youthful face, which contorted into a scowl, looked behind him. His forehead bore horns, which had been cut down, and his face a scar that ran from eye to ear.

Then, he peered into the cell infront.

"Roomies." Hunter dully said. He had found himself on a bed that was attached to the wall, and as shown by his uncomfortable shifting, it wasn't quite the luxury suite. He threw his legs down, and when the seeming-to-be woman was pushed into the cell, he raised a brow.

"Ho-olyyy shit."

Four eyes? If she wore glasses, she'd be eight eyes. Leisurely thoughts passed through Hunter's mind when his new cellmate had been shoved in. Still, though, he pulled his legs close to him, and rested his arms.

"You're not going to try and make me your bitch, are you?"

"Ha ha. Horny. I get it, see. Because I have not heard that, a million times." Hunter mimed, with a roll of his eyes. For a moment, he thrusted his feet forward and stood up. Then, he brought his hand to his back, and cracked it.

"Give me a moment to mull over a joke about you! And your..." He twirled his finger. "Tail. Thing. Raptor joke. Just give these bars a rapter and the guards'll come right over? Wait, no, fuck."

It would become evident that this man very much liked talking. He lumbered over to the bars, and stuck his arms through them. "By the time I come up with a good joke, I'll be up and out of here. Swear it up and down."

"No, no, I mean, see-"

Hunter suddenly turned, and crossed his arms. He stared at the alien woman, almost suspiciously.

"Who are you, anyway?"

"Okay, see, no. That's not what I meant. I mean, a prison riot will do something, and that something'll be injecting us all up with a whole lot of booty juice." The man uncrossed his arms, and stepped backward. "I got put in here for tech. I mean, intel. I - treason? Espionage? F... Don't hurt me, okay?" He sank to the opposite side of the cell.

"My crew --"

Suddenly, his forehead lit up, in the most literal sense. A circular implant on his temple flashed, and he brought a hand to it. Then, he shot his other hand into the air, with a grin.

"4G, biatch! See if your shitty, pseudo-technological Alcatraz type shit'll take me! Al Capone in this bitch!"

It would all be very confusing, assumedly. He began to speak, though seemingly not to Ky'ina. Soon, though, it would become evident he was speaking on some sort of communication system.

"Yeah." Hunter said, looking downward, pressing into the implant on his forehead. "I got caught. I'm in prison."

"My friends are coming to get me out of here. And my friends have guns. And a big fuck ton of a ship. Now you, you probably got in here for like... Murdering an entire family or something, or shanking someone, so if you would stay at the opposite end of the room, that'd be just fantastic, lady." Hunter said, his back pressed against the wall.

Again, his temple flashed, and he pressed on it. For a while, perhaps minutes, he listened. At the end of the transmission, his brow quirked.

"You're fucking kidding me, right? We'd have to... What? The security doors?"

He paused for a moment, before solemnly looking to Ky'ina. His face was laden with regret. It took a while for the man to even speak. They certainly hadn't hit it off, and...

"My friends are telling me we need to cause a commotion."

"Pretty sure these cells are purposefully made so we don't fuck eachother up. I mean, we could always yell, or something. I can fake a seizure pretty well, or..."

Hunter pulled his lips tightly together, before stiffly lumbering across the room and looking to Ky'ina. His eyes trailed to the corners, where there would obviously lay security cameras. Faking it wouldn't cut it.

"Okay." He drew a breath in. "We need a guard, so..."

He almost looked as if he'd already been stabbed in the stomach. "Hit me. When he comes to break it up, we'll hit him. Or I'll hit him, if he's tazing you, or something."

"Go ahead." He closed his eyes.

As they exchanged words, the guards outside traversed their routine paths. One strayed across the cell they shared, looking in. For a moment, he stared, before continuing again. Hunter kept quiet, and then knitted a brow at Ky'ina.

"Alright. Don't like... Hit me too hard or anything, or at all, if it's not necessary, y'know. I hope you're not heavy."

Before the guard could stray too far, Hunter grabbed the collar of the woman's jumper. Suddenly, he yelled something along the lines of

"Get off me!"

and shoved Ky'ina toward the bars as hard as one could expect a technical analyst to do.

"Okay, uh... shit."

Hunter rushed to snatch the radio from the guard's side, and held it up to his mouth. With his other hand, he pressed down onto the implant on his temple.

"SPS Canebria, calling from inside. Gesa, if you're on their line, now would be the time to line up, huh? Security doors'll be open any second, and this lizard chick is breaking noses. We'll get swamped by guards soon enough if you don't take them down."

He dropped the radio, and grabbed the tazer. Tazer, baton... And that's all she wrote. No gun, but that was predictable. What if a prisoner stole it?

He grabbed the baton and pushed his way out of the cell. "Can't open any other cells!" He said. "They got codes for it, not keys. My Alcatraz reference wasn't quite so spot on. It's just us!"

While he spoke, a red alarm flashed throughout the prison. Sirens went off. Security doors open, and guards rushed through. Ky'ina and Hunter were on the second floor. It would take a moment for the full squad to get to them, at least.

Soon, though,the man felt a baton meeting with his temple. He reered to the side, before thrusting into his own guard with a tazer.

"Ow, jesus. Fuck. God! That hurt!"

A voice came over the loud speaker. It was a voice that would formerly be monotonous, but almost seemed panicked. And it was male.

"Floor one of Section C has been breached. Reinforcement Squad C1 and C2, ple---"

The announcement cut off as soon as the Zel woman had jabbed the baton into the control system. The lights flickered, and the doors that were open locked open. The doors that were closed locked closed. The squad team at the bottom would find that the door behind them, infact, did not close.

"Okay. Speaking from a nerd's point of view, if that was metal, that would not have been a good idea, lady!"

From a downed guard, a radio sparked to life, and it came the voice of an unfamiliar female. Sounded human, though her tone carried similar to Hunter's. The radio that the man stole also sparked to life, and communicated the same message. Whatever was happening, and whatever the SPS Canebria was, it seemed that they were in control of the radio system, at the very least.

"Commander Gesa, here. Looks like you got the security doors open. Stay alive until we can get to you."

The armed guards boarded the flights of stairs. Hunter trecked backwards.

"Damn them for not carrying guns? I don't know about you, chick, but I'm not so great at dodging bullets."

As the guards armed in black and carrying sidearms approached, Hunter grew panicked and slammed his hand on the side of his face.

"They're damn well on top of us!" He shouted, then to Ky'ina. "I hope you don't suck as a shield!"

Suddenly, gunfire could be heard. The two apprehended couldnt see it, but in the back of the line, foreign, armed pirates were funneling through the security doors. There were twenty, though none had quite all arrived yet. While 5 or so guards continued to pursue the escaping prisoners after glancing backward, the rest fell back and drew their sidearms to fire at the approaching rescue squad behind them.

They were, infact, on top of Ky'ina and Hunter. Two guards soon went to Ky'ina, one armed with a tazer, and the other three to the horned male.

The pilot of the SS Canebria walked into the bar. He was a little bit of a meager man, but he was far past human. Cut horns jutted from above his brows, and ratty ears took place on either sides of his head, adorned with jewelries. His skin was red. Through all of the odd features that seemed to keep place on him, however, Hunter seemed to be the furthest thing from threatening.

The pirate made his way to the bar and sat down, only then paying his attention to Cryoface's warning. "Aw," He started. "C'mon. You don't need tap to operate a bar, do you? Can't you just pour me something out the bottle and shave me off some ice?"

For a moment, the man seemed to think. While he'd done so, he sat down in a stool. "No, wait. That seems unsanitary. No rocks please, 'tender."