He spoke with an excited stutter. "M-my name is Akjit Chirimar, Miss Khiyai." The Ivuori thoughtlessly reached out and grabbed another box. Outwardly, it may have looked like a young man stuttering as a result of talking to a pretty young woman, but inside his head, things were different. 'When will my fate be ready?' he asked himself in private. He took another box.

Khiyai did say she'd have someone else double check it before sortie. Akjit reached out and grabbed another box as he kept on thinking. He had time, that was a certainty, and if something did go wrong, at least she wouldn't be at the forefront of it all. 'Thank The Saints. I even have time to get to Nightmare first too.' Akjit reached out and grabbed another box from Khiyai's stack. Except, she wasn't holding any more boxes.

"W-wait a second! How'd I end up with all the boxes?!" he asked in panic.

One of the towering figures seemed to be missing an 'eye' by the looks of the other that had four of the glowing orbs illuminating its face. The two stoic figures seemed to look at the other a moment before the one with the missing eye lashed out at the Cohronl frame runner grabbing him firmly by the neck.

The other that had raised it's arm earlier aimed at the ceiling, two sharp cracking whines emanating from a built in linear rifle. Two pellets of a strong foamy adhesive impacted upon the ceiling releasing the contents. The one holding Malik then proceeded to slam the runner's back into the substance which held him firm and even seeped through the back of his clothing to his shoulders and back itself. The effect was one of him hanging there, arms and legs dangling. The two large figures having coordinated to disable their impedance.

Well. This was an inconvenience.

If you could call being stuck to the ceiling an inconvenience and not annoying. To make things worse, those two goons were escaping, walking away like nothing had happened. Luckily for Malik, they were stupid enough to leave his arms and legs free, giving him enough room to pull his Laiz pistol from it's holster, and take aim.

Now, Malik wasn't the best shot on the ship, but nor was he the worst. He liked to think of himself as the average. Of course, hanging upside down from the ceiling made things more difficult, but Malik was sure he could hit atleast one of them.

"Uglies! Turn around!" Malik yelled out as he pulled his pistol's trigger, laser beams scoring a few hits on the goons, but nothing really critical.

In truth they'd not gone far. The Laiz Pistol fire had proven to be little more then a nuance as the pair whipped around now deeming him a threat. Their eyes seemed to dim slightly as both sets of their weirdly shaped arms rose targeting the pinned runner. The guard with the missing eye did something strange with one of it's arms then. The hand split open, folding back while becoming pinned to the forearm, exposing three cylindrical prongs.

There was a moment of silence before the air around the three glowing prongs distorted. The air around Malik seemed to heat and ignite. The runner's clothing burned itself off save for what held him in place along his back. His skin however was now singed from the airburst as the remnants of his clothing began to float and dance in the air, now little more then ash.

The other guard fired several more, precisely placed rounds much the same as the one that held him in place. Except now they impacted upon his body, hitting with about the same force as a paintball, bruising him slightly while the foam formed all around him save for his head. The pair finally lowered one arm each, keeping the others trained on him easily.

By now however the two had sent a terse message to their charge.

'Hostile detected and disabled.' with the notification sent the duo simply waited.

-------------

Ishtar's mood had remained much the same, bubbly and happy at the prospect of being able to roam the ship. While she'd watched from the sensors before, she'd never actually walked it beyond the short jaunt to the bridge. And with the oncoming event planned, she could watch just as they could as well as with her own sensors. That thought set the NI off into a wide, but short lived grin.

She seemed startled a moment while cocking her head to one side. The little NI had just gotten an alert from the two bodyguard units who'd accompanied her, Akkad and Sumer. The bright golden eyes that had held a smile to them now went wide with shock. It seemed the pair had found a hostile. The girl managed to get loose of Amari, making panicky motions while she used the ship's internal sensors to get a read on the individual, cross checking records and crew manifests. What she found made her squeal in surprise while also reviewing the recordings of the event. It didn't take long for her to side step Amari, and break out into a full on run. A run as fast as her smaller legs could carry her.


"My guards attacked one of the crew!!!" her voice high and panicked as she tore off down the hallway, running right past crew members and even causing one to drop what they'd been carrying. All the while she repeated what the two on the bridge had heard fading away.

"Well, this is just great." Malik muttered, feeling helpless in his current situation though he still attempted to break free of the foam. Even with his defiant actions, the runner knew that he was stuck. Atleast he still had his mouth.

"What, is that it? You give me a nice flambe, and save me for later? What are you, giant spiders in people suits? Why are you nightmares even on the Astarte?"

"Well! It is a pleasure to meet you, Isha Ragnar." Mu'Tasim nodded his head to the women in respect, smiling warmly as he did. Though, before he could go on, he couldn't help but pick up what were the sounds of Laiz Pistol fire and other strange sounds coming from outside the rec room.

"What in Ahni's loving graces was that?" Mu'Tasim thought, dropping down a bit into a ready stance instinctively. He looked to both Zus and Isha, "One moment, please..." The Temple Guard heaved up one of the bars for bench pressing weights with one hand and put it over his shoulder before heading out to the exit. He stopped abruptly when he spotted two constructs who had apparently stuck Rashidan to the ceiling. It seemed that Malik had gotten himself into trouble again, which was beyond Mu'Tasim, how many times could a man find or cause unrest? Nevertheless, he let the bar clang to the floor and held it much like a staff that Chanda had been using to practice.

"Ah, excuse me! Would one or two of you like to explain what exactly is transpiring?" Mu'Tasim asked in a mix of kind and authoritative tones.

She smiled and nodded back only to jump at the sound of laser-fire a moment later, seeming a little frazzled. "Who in the Heavens... Why are we shooting aboard a ship?" she asked no one in barely a murmur. Vayshirin Ragnar was a bit slower to respond, but followed a few paces behind Vaytulri Farouk. After gazing tentatively around the corner, she found herself facing quite the scene.

A pair of unseemly dark figures- are they even organic?- were headed this way. Beyond them, and stuck to the ceiling of all places, was none other than the talkative Malik Rashidan. He was clearly missing his shirt, and what she imagined from this distance to be industrial-grade adhesive covering a good portion of his body.

She hurried from the doorway, but quickly stopped finding herself face to face with the guards. Looking down and looking rather preoccupied with readjusting her glasses, she turned aside and tried to slip by. "Um... excuse me. I've a medical situation to attend."

Alia was randomly walking the halls of the Astarte, trying to locate Khiyai. "Hmm, where did that girl go." She muttered as she turned a corner, and saw a scene. "...?" She stopped in her tracks when she rounded another corner and found Malik, covered in expanding foam and looking slightly redder the normal. Two tall persons standing a distance from him with raised arms.

"What in the name of the Saints is going on here?"

One of the two, the three-eyed guard turned about, facing Mu'Tasim and Isha. The same hissing death rattle Malik had heard before emanated from one of the pair. The other had stayed where it was, rifle leveled at Malik, unmoving despite two of the eyes now gazing at Alia.

The three-eyed gaunt giant grabbed its cloak, pulling it off in one sweeping motion, exposing a grotesque sight that had been hidden underneath. The fact that it looked as if it lacked skin, muscle and organs exposed to open air, pulsing, veins pumping fluids could have been startling to some even giving Isha's unasked question an answer. It was however heightened by the fact now a queer sound akin to cracking bones came from it as an armored organic shell formed over the exposed sections.

As it did so, the cloak held in the flattened hand coiled about it, forming a wicked looking blade fit to be wielded with two hands by an average person by the looks of things. The guard however handled it with ease with just one. The other hand exposed stubby flat fingers that elongated slightly to better suit it while the entity now seemed to stand fully erect, having been slouching over slightly to its full height.

"You will cease your hostile posturing and relinquish your improvised weapon or you will be re-classified as a threat. The miscreant is being detained until our superior determines what action will be taken to alleviate the situation ."

Mu'Tasim's gaze hardened with the bodyguard's declaration. The Temple Guard was not familiar with who these people were, and the fact that they demanded him to drop his 'weapon' was odd. Instead of relinquishing the bar peaceably, he dropped into a readied stance with the heavy bar pointing at the disfigured opponent. He tilted his head, and eyed what the Sund Wakir thought was it's face. Despite the intimidating and disturbing look of the Nohman, Mu'Tasim did not seem too deterred.

"While I normally would take such advisories peaceably, I will first need to know who you're acting under, and what gives you the right to act so openly." The Temple Guard stated calmly, standing stalwart.