Shillah-nhamekovum Qalia Achevrhyth's Story

Ben looked at Urza and Samuel. "Oi! No fighting like she said." He nodded to Karen. Then he turned to Samuel to answer his clearly voiced concerns that was directed to be earlier.

"I'm in charge here now mate I was just a gun for hire to watch this ship but the big boss left me as Val's XO. As for the op your going to have to leave those questions behind it's over now." He said pausing he listened to the others took this moment to silence the others by interjecting and answering what they had been shouting earlier.

"I'm not up for any magical stuff thank you very much I just don't trust it. But I think we all need to calm down. I bet those aschen have traced us and I've been a prisoner of theirs before and I'm not willing to do it again. So you all better stop fighting and actually toss out some constructive ideas other wise the next person to fight will meet the business end of my pistol. IS THAT CLEAR!" He said as his voice continued to rise until he sounded like a drill sergeant by the end.

He knew he was probably out of line but when things went bad he fell back on old habits. Being an Ex- Military officer it was natural for him to say this but he knew he was going to take shit for it.

"Easy there, Gunny, no need to lose your cool. Unless you've got a spare ship in your pocket, though, we're pretty well screwed. Anything in range we could lay low on for a bit?"

He folded his arms over his chest, leaning his head against the bulkhead as he tried to figure solutions out. He turned back to Karen and started ticking off on his fingers while he recounted his various abilities, hoping to touch on something to get them out of the current jam. The wounded ship wouldn't fly forever, and with their current luck they'd get spotted by a patrol or something.

"Illusions... Well, I can make one glamour of about twenty or thirty feet cubed, nothing much bigger than that. Sight, sound, smell, touch, the works. You could probably figure it out if you poked at it enough, but it'd be pretty tough to do unless you were expecting it. I can do a similar version of about the same size, minus the smell and sound, and it's a little sketchier on the touch aspect as well. Easier to figure out if you poke at it than the other one. Let's see, what else do I have in my bag of tricks... I can make an exact copy of myself, capable of making with the magic and everything. I'd have to give it a real gun in order to have it shoot, but other than that it's pretty useful. I can make one or two people invisible for a little while, but I'm not sure how useful that'll be... phantom sounds, dancing lights, some minor stuff like that... nothing I can think of that sounds particularly useful though. "

Samuel seemed set to throw Karen a scathing retort when Ben spoke up. Samuel, like Ben, had a military background, and if nothing else aboard this ship he did respect the chain of command. And that put Ben in charge of the operation until they made it back.

"As long as that thing is on this ship," he warned Ben, "There won't be a safe place in all of Isiria for us. Take my advice and drop him off on the first rock we pass."

With a shake of his head he departed the hangar bay and left the group to their discussions. He needed to cool off, and he wouldn't be doing that as long as Urza was on hand.

Reto looked up when Ben took command of the situation, then back down at his work when Samuel let the room,"Ass. I think I'll take mah chances with Sparkles the magic fairy ova' here. I was gettin' a might bit close t'gettin' up and givin' him a smack in the mouth." He looked up at Ben again,"This shit stinks, Fox. We got'a rat in here somewhere, and that means whatever we do we're gonna have the Asschen on our tails. I say as soon as we pop these collars, we space 'em, and toss Sam out too. I'm willin' t'bet good money the guy is dirty. Let's cut our losses."

"You can't just throw people into space!" Karen frowned and looked between Ben and Reto,"Look, I think we should try to meet up with the other ship, then run as fast as we can. Right now we just need to get out of here." The New Haven native was idealistic, and didn't want anyone to die if she could help it,"Besides, we don't know who gave us away. It could have been you, or me, or anyone here."

"Fuggin' detective, y'are, its me, a mutie would absolutely jus' go n' hand himself ova' to the almighty assholes. And I don't care anyways, I just wanna see that dick take a spacewalk." Reto shook his head, managing to pop apart the collar in his hands, though at the same time it discharged and shocked the Cryon badly enough that he dropped both the collar and his tools. This was punctuated by a little bit of creative swearing, and Reto climbing to his feet.

Karen sighed softly and turned her attention back to Urza,"You said that you can planeshift? Do you think you could send away just the collars? Or do they have to get them off first?"

Reto pointed his screwdriver at Urza,"By th'way, what are y'doin' here anyways? Last I knew fair folk don't jus' go about helpin' folks for nothin'."

"Well I think we can say with certainty that I'm not the one who leaked your plans to the Aschen. If I had to make a guess, and keep in mind this is just a shot in the dark, I'd put my money on the racist asshole as the rat. Just a guess though, but let's see a show of hands on who agrees with that assessment? The only non-prisoner, non-mutant, non-xeno is the likely candidate?"

He raised a hand nonchalantly, a half smirk spreading across his features as he did so. He glanced over at Reto at the mention of repayment.

"Well, I'm not exactly doing it out of the kindness of my heart, but let's just say I've got a vested interest in this little rebellion of yours and it benefits me greatly to see it succeed, and leave it at that, shall we?"

His body language and expression soured, and made it clear he wasn't keen on that particular subject. After a moment, he seemed to remember Karen's question.

"They're too tight for me to do anything on a planar scale, and even then I can only go there and back once a day or so. I could try it, but likely as not we'd just end up in Faerie with the collar intact. Maybe it's internal workings might not work there, but it'd still be on. I can yank the collars pretty easy, though, if people are willing to put up with the shock. "

Ben listened to the others and watched Samuel stalk off. He hated that the man was aschen but he was probably the closest to actually understanding Ben on a personal level than the others. He waiting until he left to move on.

"Alright well we could make the jump but I doubt the other ship will be there. This this is probably national by now they would have called the rendezvous off." He said with a sigh. "So here is the plan I'm going to go have the pilot try and make another jump and see where we can get to." He said before pausing.

"Sort yourselves out here or roam around, I'm going go tell Samuel. And no we aren't tossing anyone out the airlock." He added with a smile before walking off to locate the pilot and Samuel.

While the fugitives and escapees went about their business on the transport, a much larger, and much more ominous force was silently hunting them.

With a flicker, and a wink in time and space, roughly 15,000 Kilometers in front of the transport. The Reverence II 'A Psalm Every Day' jumped in, the 32km Long Supercarrier slowly crept through the void of space.

The Divine Shadow himself, along with the Flag officer of the Aschen Fleet were standing aboard the CIC of the Reverence II, flickering holographic displays bathed the large room in a dull blue and violet colored light. Admiral Nagala quietly watched the the DRADIS as the transport flickered on with a blip. A lieutenant turning to give the report.

"DRADIS Contact, the Fugitive transport. We're closing in." The Lieutenant reported, and the Admiral nodded. "Prepare a Raptor with a Marine Strike team, and two Apollos. Launch the Alert fighters and prepare the Planck packs." She ordered, clasping her hands behind her back.

The Divine Shadow said nothing as he quietly watched the events carrying on around him.

"Send hostile challenge." Nagala said quietly, and the AI Nodded, the Reverence sending a hail to the Transport.

"Attention hostile spacecraft, this is the Reverence Two, A Psalm Every Day, Actual speaking. You are hereby ordered to bring your vessel to a stop and surrender, and prepare for boarding. Failure to comply will result in your immediate destruction."

Another Lieutenant turned to report;

"Admiral, forward Turbodisruptor Batteries have a firing solution, I can have the AI open fire on your order."

As the Reverence closed in, it launched two small Raptors which were escorted by a pair of Apollo fighters, all four vessels streamed towards the transport.

The Divine Shadow simply silently observed, hands folded in front of him.

Urza, yet unaware of their current predicament, continued musing over their previous dilemma, how to avoid being nabbed upon reaching the rendezvous point, or where else they might go in stead.

"What kind of influence does space Hitler have on local planets? I'd hate to skip out on an ambush at the rendezvous only to bumble into an enemy stronghold. I mean, if they've got us flagged, any port authority's probably going to report us anyway, so it's really a question of which fight to we stand a better chance of winning?"

He shook his head and uncrossed his arms, gesturing with his right hand angrily and frowning.

"Hell, even if we do manage to get into a port without getting ratted out, we're still going to have to deal with the mole problem. No matter how secure we are, we're just going to get tracked down when the mole reports in to his Imperium buddies and tells them where to aim the Exterminatus. Not exactly the best scenario. First thing's first, before we find a port in the storm, we have to clear the rats off the boat. Sound good to everyone else?"

Like Urza, Reto was unaware of anything beyond the cargo bay,"Space Hitler? Whatever te fuck you're on about, the Asschin has pretty much complete control of the area, because Isiria threw its hands up when they marched in. Honestly, there's no safe port, because cash means more than any mutie or xeno in the 'verse." The collar in his hands finally popped open, and Reto tossed it on the floor,"Alroit. Lemme see if I can get these things off without zappin' the hells outta the next tin-assed sob." He set to work on Nicolas's collar, figuring that if the guy was unconscious, he wouldn't have much of a protest.

Meanwhile, Karen shook her head slightly,"He's right, sadly. We don't have a lot of options. We might be able to make it to Grinslow, but that's up to the pilot. As for our issue with information leaks...well I'd prefer if we took care of the problem without killing anyone. Life isn't just something you should throw away just because someone is rude." She looked mildly embarrassed, looking down at her feet,"I mean, really rude. I mean, he is fairly racist, but we did give him a chance to help us." She looked back up at Urza, meeting his eyes again,"After all, we're giving you a chance, aren't we?"

Reto snorted at Karen's words,"That'd be roight. I'd rather drag m'balls through broken glass than let any more backstabbin' bastards in. No offense t'present company," he nodded toward Urza,"But we don't know him, so we should be a touch more careful 'bout who we're letting in on our ops. That is if there's anything afta' this gutser."

Ben passed Scott the cutters before he walked over to look at the tablet with a sigh. He pondered the location. "What's the situation on Grinslow? We could steal a ship or if we can get there without tipping off our aschen friends we could hide out." He said with a sigh.

"Not likely we can hide out there for long. It's not exactly large," Scott replied.

Ben nodded "Well then it appears we have no choice but to steal another ship. How long would it be till you could get us up and running?"

"I'm just about done," Scott remarked. "Should have us mobile in another five or ten minutes," he explained as he went to work on the wiring inside the open panel.

Ben nodded, "I'll head up to the bridge and make sure everything else is in order," Ben said as he walked down the hall the bridge.

As he entered the bridge he saw the incoming hail and activated it. His jaw almost dropped at the message.

He frantically pressed the engine room button to contact Scott. "Scott you have two minutes or we're probably going to be laser bait," Ben remarked in a rushed voice.

Then Ben moved to send an open comm to the bridge. "Attention Everyone it appears we are going to have some company. If any of you wish to join our Aschen friends then I will kindly direct you to our escape pod bay. Other wise hang on tight!"

Then Ben switched channels to speak with the Aschen. "With whom in the Aschen empire am I speaking? I would like to talk to the lady in crimson to ensure my friends safety before we are boarded," Ben said. He knew he was bull shitting but he had to buy some time for the others to decide and for Scott to finish up his repairs.

"Generally speaking when a person sells out you and all your buddies to the Empire they don't do it because you're going to get lifetime benefits as a stormtrooper. They wanted to kill all of you very much, and it only seems fair we do the same right back. Alternately, we could always just dye their skin blue and send them back to the Aschen alive and see how peaceful the concentration camps are. Maybe they'll get to go take a shower."

He glanced up at the announcement but hardly looked surprised, shaking his head at the news that their rat had left some bread crumbs for the cats to follow.

"Speak of the devil and he shall arrive. So let's look at the tactical situation as it sits. Currently, we're dead in space in a leaky boat that's probably about to fall out of the sky, and there's a Star Destroyer off the port bow with guns locked on us, and should we get the hyperdrive running at any time soon our rat's just going to give them our location anyway, be it deep space or any port. So despite the fact that our FTL is busted, even if we had the ability to move in an infinite number of directions and in an infinite distance, these assholes would be about five feet behind us queuing up the deep strikes and revving up the chainswords so they could put size seventy boot to Xeno ass. Then there's the whole thing where we're probably going to get atomized from space, regardless of having their snitch on board, so his dumb ass is signing his own suicide note with a 'long live The Emprah'. And after all that, I'm still not allowed to kill 'em when we find 'em? Lady, you're something else. I think they make pills for what you've got."

As Ben tried to respond to the hail, he would find his attempts to raise the Aschen to be ignored. There was no response from the Aschen ship, only that it was continuing to gain rapidly.

The Raptor and the pair of Apollos was now rapidly upon the Transport, one of the Apollo pilots checked his targeting computron before he got on the Comms, Ben likely hearing the hail echo from the comms.

"This is Apollo FX-1 You are ordered to bring your vessel to a stop."

Just then the Apollo flew across the field of view, several streaks of green moving past the cockpit as the Apollo fired it's warning shot across the bow.

The Apollo then faced off with the transport. It was so close one could make out the pilot within.

----

Admiral Nagala watched the exchange on the video screen, silently she listened to their pleas while the Crew worked diligently.

"Admiral, I have a firing solution, and AI reports we are go to activate Planck packs." He reported.

Nagala nodded. "Hook em and reel em in." She said, turning to a slender black haired woman in a sleek combat skin.

"I'll handle them." She said, while the helmet of the Combat skin flipped over her face, and the visor clicked shut.

While the Reverence closed in, Aiyanna was standing on the bow of the Reverence, outside and exposed to Deep space, though she was protected from the elements by her combat skin.

She plotted the blink, her own small jump through time and space, watching the ship as it prepared to make it's FTL Jump, and with power diverted to the suit's key systems, she vanished in a flash of white light, only to appear in the middle of deep space. Her eyes watched the ship, and a small screen displayed the energy spikes typical of a powering FTL Drive.

"They're going to jump." The Android growled, then she sent a mental transmission to the Reverence.

"Admiral, they're preparing to Jump, Boarding it with Marines is too dangerous, I'll go it alone from here. Say again pull back, I'll go it alone from here." She called out.

It was then the Raptor, and the pair of Apollos suddenly backed off, clearing the transport and pulling back towards the Reverence, all while Aiyanna blinked yet again, re-appearing just above the Transport, and slowly descending onto the hull.

As she descended, her magnetic boots energized and provided a firm grip on the hull of the ship, she then crouched low while warnings in the HUD began to flash as it picked up several telltale signs of an imminent jump, more importantly the envelope of space-time distortion that washed over her and the ship. Magnetizing her hands, she fell forward and attached herself, sprawled out onto the hull of the ship, waiting for them to complete their jump.

2 minutes?

Well shit.

There was a spark as Scott redoubled his efforts in rewiring the drive and he let out a low curse and dropped the penlight from his mouth. His hand scrambled around the floor in search of the fallen object before he shone it on the open panel once more. His eyes scanned the patch-work fix before he slid out from under it. No time to test the systems out.

He made for the bridge at a run, nearly tripping as he stumbled and caught himself on a wall before entering and rushing for the controls.

He was cursing under his breath as his fingers raced across the console.

"There's no time," he warned Ben.

The Reverence would have already picked up on their ftl systems being operational again. That they had been previously down was likely the only thing that had kept the Aschen from simply firing on the vessel - either that or they actually did have an agent on the ship and were averse to blowing it up. There was no time to ponder the hows and whys as the Reverence would have them locked down in a matter of moments. Scott held his breath and hesitated only a moment before he put in random coordinates and activated the ftl drive in leap of faith that a quick death by landing inside of a star would be favorable to capture by the Aschen.

Fortunately the rest of the crew likely would never know. They either would survive, or they wouldn't.

Elsewhere on the ship Samuel had found his way to the washroom. He closed the door behind him and made his way to the faucet where he ran enough water to wet his hands and run his fingers through his hair before looking up into the mirror. As Ben's warning about the Aschen came across the ship wide comm system he sighed and rested his hands on the side of the small sink.

---

The door to the washroom closed, and the lock engaged with a click.

Meanwhile back in the hangar bay Nicolas showed no sign of regaining consciousness. His breath was shallow, and it seemed unlikely that the man would survive even if they managed to get him to a medical facility. The flesh of his arm had been charred to bone, and nothing but a withered and blackened appendage remained. Second and third degree burns spotted his chest as well where the disruptor shot had burned through his clothes to get at the flesh beneath. As expected he offered no resistance to Reto's examination of the collar about his neck, or any efforts Reto made to remove the collar.

Karen sighed softly as the announcement was made, though she had no comment toward Urza's observations, and instead made her way back to the prisoners that huddled together. She knelt next to Nicolas, as Reto managed to take the collar from his neck without electrocuting either of them this time. While the Cryon moved on to the next person, Karen sat down on the floor,"I don't know what you believe, but...me? I believe that life is sacred, and I will do what I can to preserve it. Whatever you believe in, don't you think its important?" She shook her head slightly,"If you're going to run, then do it. Take as many that are willing to go as possible. I'll stay. I can't just leave them, even if we're going to die." With that she fell quiet, her lips moving in a prayer too soft to hear. There was no what to know what would happen next, but she would pray. It was all she could do.

Reto, on the other hand, shook his head as he worked to get the collars off,"Eh, I dunno much 'bout that, but, way I see it, I can 'least get these bloody collars off so we can all die free men."

He looked up from the current collar, toward Urza,"Though I don't give a flyin' rat's ass if you do shoot that guy. In fact, if you could, that'd be grouse."

Qâlia walked over to Reto et al., watching him as he removed the collars from the prisoners.

"I believe I may be able to assist you in removing these goddessless contraptions. Is there a source of water nearby?"

Ben walked over to the comm system and activated the ship wide intercomm again. "Attention the Aschen are gone for now and we have successfully made an FTL jump. I will meet you all down in the cargo bay so please everyone make your way back there." Ben said before he turned off the comm and turned to Scott.

"I'm going to check down there keep my updated when we exit the jump." Ben said tossing Scott a two way communicator as he made his toward the cargobay.

As the ship made it's FTL jump, the lone Android merely thought to herself. Or perhaps she prayed, one could never know what went on in her artificial mind as the ship made it's jump. In the split seconds to follow, coordinates were wirelessly entered, not to some Aschen trap, but to a safe place in space that wasn't a gravity well or a star.

As the ship tore through FTL, Aiyanna crawled towards the nearest airlock. Already establishing a link with the ship's computer, with the aid of complex algorithms transmitted via subspace link; the Airlock clicked open and the Android slid inside, while the Airlock clicked shut behind her.

Once the airlock pressurized, the visor to the Combat skin slid open with an audible click, then the entire helmet retracted into the suit. Programming the suit's central computer for a simple set of subroutines, the suit was undone, and allowed to stand on it's own as Aiyanna moved from the suit in little more than a form fitting black spandex suit. Once inside the ship, She laid the suit against a wall, and the suit itself vanished as it's cloaking systems activated. It was then the Android removed the black form fitting spandex suit in favor of some clothes she had found laying around in the isolated crew quarters. A pair of green BDU pants and a BDU shirt, and of course a prisoner collar. Which given the Android's synthetic nature, would have no effect on her save for it's painful shock, which was kept in check by wirelessly disarming the collar through it's remote control systems.

Stepping out of the quarters and into the hallway, she drew up a mental map of the ship, and where it's passengers were likely to be.