Willow Ryder's Story

"What the fuck is going on?"

The door to the hangar opened to admit a red-haired girl who couldn't have been out of her teens, looking more than slightly dishevelled with mussed and grimy hair and a face slick with sweat and grease from mechanical components. Willow looked from Vanora to the wolven, then back to Vanora. "That take-off could quite easily have- no, by all rights should have killed us. And it's set back my work on the engine by at least three days. Longer if we don't set down again soon."

The quite clearly disgruntled teenager glowered in the direction of the cockpit. "I'm getting an idea of why this ship is in the state it's in. I swear to god if he tries to take us FTL, I'm jumping out and taking my chances with the vacuum of space."

At the sudden appearance of the battlestar, Vincent let out an impressive stream of curses, flipping switches, punching buttons, and turning dials until the Rabbit leveled off. Reaching up with one hand, he slapped on the COM throughout the ship, pulling tight at the controls and sending the Rabbit into a small dive.

"Willow! I'm needing you in the engine room for a bottomside burst; vent our thrusters until we have ten percent left. New guy and Vanora, uh, hold on to something."

He flipped the COM back off, sent the Rabbit into a dive, low and starboard, counter to the battlestar's movements. The bellies of the smaller ship and the massive Battlestar nearly kissed as they grazed each other.

"Fucking lunatics," Vincent snarled as he gripped the trembling controls, "jumping around like they're playing leap frog with an FTL system. Hurr durr, I'm a fuckface, I've sacrificed my common sense for this massive ship to hide my puny erection!"

The COM flipped back on as Vincent struggled to maintain distance between him and the bigger ship, fighting to keep the two seperated. "Willow, where is my goddamn thrust!"

Commander Octavio grabbed the nearest console as the Battlestar lurched and jerked abruptly to the side in an evasive maneuver. Alarms continued to blare. After several moments, the Commander and his CIC managed to get themselves together.

"Colonel Rose, Get me a marine strike team on board a raptor in one millicenton."

The Colonel nodded promptly. "Aye, sir."

Tychus then turned to the communications officer, a young female.

"Lieutenant Mira, send hostile challenge and ID, initiate hostile boarding protocol." He ordered, and the Officer responded.


"Attention unknown vessel, this is the Battlestar Columbia. By decree of the Emperor you're being detained. If you attempt to escape you will be destroyed without hesitation. Prepare to be boarded and searched, compliance is requested."

While the message was being played, a pair of Apollo class interceptors flew up alongside the Rabbit, and the Reverence began to broadcast a Planck field which would provide a localized FTL inhibition field.

"This is Apollo Tango One Niner One Seven, follow outlined course and prepare for boarding procedures. Any deviation will not be tolerated."

The two Apollos would then transmit landing coordinates to one of the Battlestar's Landing bays, providing escort should the ship comply.

"That would be the Captain," Vanora replied by answer to Willow's demands of what was going on.

Nearby Leon was picking himself up from the floor where he had taken cover behind some crates. "Well that was bracing," he remarked before tipping his head towards Willow. "Ma'am," he greeted as he holstered his gun.

Vanora arched a brow as Vincent's voice came through the speakers in the hangar bay.

"Best grab onto something," she parroted to Leon as she braced herself.

With a shudder and a groan the hangar bay quivered and shook as the Rabbit scraped up alongside the larger Reverence, scarcely avoiding a direct on collision.

Several large crates that had still been being loaded and weren't secured yet slid across the hangar bay and slammed into a wall.

A few moments passed as Vanora waited to see if they all died in a fiery inferno before she hit the comm button again.

"Sir?" she asked. "Might I respectfully request to know what the fuck is going on out there?"

Down in the hangar bay she remained woefully unaware of the situation outside, or the orders for their ship to be boarded.

Willow groaned, muttering something under her breath about suicide and impending doom before she turned around and disappeared back in the direction of the engine room. Only a few moments later she was back on the comms system, a rattling that sounded disturbingly like a washing machine with a brick in it in the background almost drowning her voice out as she spoke. "Venting now! For the record, if we all die in a fiery explosion because of the state of this engine, I am going to kill the lot of you. Again."

There was the sound of something snapping in the background, followed by Willow loudly cursing "Motherfu-" before she cut out, breaking off from communication, presumably to go and fix whatever had gone wrong. That or get a head start to the escape pods.

The PA system crackled again as the venting gave the ship enough push against the Aschen vessel to allow more clearance. "Some cowboy and his buddies just slipped out of lightspeed right in my flight path. Attagirl, Willow, just hold it together down-"

There was a shuddering groan as the belly of the Rabbit kissed the outside of the Aschen ship, causing Vincent to be jerked backwards, severing his connection to the controls for a moment. Immediately, he fought his way back to them, hauling hard as the Rabbit shot clear. He slowed down the speed, tipped the nose, and eased into the flight path transmitted by the Aschen. "Alright, they want to come over for a bit. Vanora, we need the deck swabbed for guests; can't have them seeing a dirty floor. Willow, make sure that there isn't any spoiled food out or anything. Uh, dog guy, keep on... keeping on."

Punching the PA system off, Vincent switched to the frequency of the other ship, rubbing his temples as he spoke. "This is Captain Vincent May-Rose of the Rabbit to Columbus. We are following the outlined route, though we got a bit jostled up back there. Look forward to meeting you guys."

He followed the two Apollo class interceptors with one hand on the controls, the other pulling out his sidearm. Without taking his eyes on the screen, he popped open a hidden compartment underneath a control panel and slid the primitive pistol in behind the jumble of cables and wires, shutting it and sealing it when he was finished.

"I estimate two minutes till we're hosting guests, guys," Vincent said over the PA, a frown fixed on his face.

The pair of Apollos guided the ship to the landing bay of the Aschen Battlestar, through the maw and into the lion's den. Once the smaller Rabbit was inside one of the massive landing pods of the Battlestar, docking clamps extended to secure the ship firmly to the dock, while Aschen Marines lined up with weapons ready on each access port to the Rabbit.

The ship likely shook and listed as the docking bay pressurized, a Marine sergeant nodding. "We have atmosphere." He called out, and the pressure in their helmets and visors equalized to the pressure of the landing bay while the group checked their disruptor rifles.

Another radio message would be transmitted.

"Open all access ports to the ship, and exit one at a time, hands raised, behind your head, once you've exited the ship, you and your crew are to line up, and get on your knees. Failure to comply will be taken as an act of aggression."

With deploy-able covers prepped and readied, the men gripped their weapons, licked dry mouths, and waited for a response.

"Understood," Vanora replied over the com device.

It wasn't their first time being boarded, and it likely wouldn't be their last. Best thing now was to just comply. The crates of supplies in the hangar bay, while not strictly being transported legally, weren't of any nature to likely draw too much attention. Some food rations and medical supplies for the most part.

There wasn't time enough to clear the hangar bay, or to dump the cargo, so they would have to hope whoever had flagged them down wasn't of the mind to look too deeply into their paperwork, or were willing to look the other way on the matter in favor of more important matters.

She slipped her rifle from her shoulder and set it atop one of the crates. The rifle was legal enough by Isirian law, but it was usually best not to have guns in hand during boarding operations unless you wanted a trigger happy government official to put a few new holes in you because you moved wrong.

After pulling herself out of the pile of boxes the small collision with the Aschen vessel had tossed her into, Willow made her way back up to the hangar with her eyes set in a glare. "Damned governments," she muttered as she emerged, "Sticking their noses into other peoples' business like there's shit worth seeing. What crawled up these motherfuckers' asses and died?"

She tossed her own gun irritably onto one of the crates and joined Vanora and to wait for Vincent to lower the hatches. "This was a bad idea..." she muttered, "Should've stayed down there in the shanty town fixing crapped out cars and mechs."

Coming out of the upper level of the ship that housed the cockpit, Vincent took the stairs down to the cargo bay two at a time, leaping to the deck with a clang of boots on metal. He moved to the three assembled crewmates, pointed a finger in Willow's face, and narrowed his eyes.

"Behave," he said, sternly. "We don't want to call attention to ourselves any more than we have to. Goes for you too, furball."

He didn't wait for a response, instead pressing the opening toggle on the hatches, opening up the Rabbit to the inside of the Aschen warship. He placed both hands on the back of his head, straightened his spine, and walked down the gangplank first.

Once Vincent stepped from his ship, he would be greeted by rows of rows of Aschen soldiers with guns drawn and pointed at the group.

The Commander nodded slowly. "That's good, nice and slow." He said, his weapon drawn and readied.

Once Vincent was out, two Marines moved quickly to search him, hands patting every which way. The same with Vanora, and Willow, they would find themselves searched and lined up by the Aschen Military.

Leon however was not so lucky.

"Hey! Sergeant! We have a Xeno here!" He shouted, pointing at Leon. "Let's take him down to Command and turn him over!"

The Marine Sergeant walked up to Vincent, and swiftly moved to bring the butt of his disruptor rifle across Vincent's cheek.

"Smuggling Xenos eh!?" He barked before he shoved the barrel of the weapon against Vincent's cheek. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you here and now."

Two Marines bum-rushed Leon, and moved to throw him to the floor while they raised their batons.

Leon kept his hands laced behind his head as two marines moved in to force him onto his knees. Out of the frying pan and into the fire it would seem.

"No one's smuggling anything," Leon growled.

At least nothing that Leon knew about. He had no love of the Aschen, but he knew well enough not to do anything that would provoke them into just shooting him on the spot. The Aschen weren't known for their capacity to ask questions before resorting to force.

Even in its dirtied and worn state one could almost make out the insignia of the WCPD on his sleeve.

"My identification is inside my jacket pocket," he told them. "I'm with the WCPD department on Terra, and last I knew the armistice between the Aschen and Terra still holds."

How a WCPD officer had found his way all the way to Isiria was difficult to say, but his credentials would check out.

Vanora meanwhile threw Vincent a look that said it all. She didn't need to speak for Vincent to likely catch the intent behind the look. 'You brought a police officer on board?'

Stepping out into the warship, Willow kept her arms carefully placed behind her head. Her eyes warily stared down the aschen soldiers and the guns that were levelled at them.

When Leon revealed his identity, her eyebrows shot up. A police officer? And from outside of Isiria? How the hell had he ended up on Blackrock?

At least that explained his bizarre appearance. By the sounds of it, though, he knew the Aschen - and his world had agreements with theirs. Maybe that could get them out of this in one piece. She could only hope.