RP: Cirrus Station [Episode 5] A Unique Encounter

Deacon heard very little of the conversation as he came down from the observation room. The flames had done a good job removing all evidence of the Uniques having been there. But there were a few things he had noticed, that he was deeply hoping would satisfy the Head Administrator.

"If you're looking for evidence, Mistress, what about them?" He pointed to Keziah and Cyril. "We're not allowed to use any other weapons but the Variable you gave us. You can search us personally, but none of us are carrying Xaser weaponry. You could ask the Uniques to show their weapons, and you will see that the wound on Master Vanderhuuge will match with the calibre of their pistols. And I would have evidence of what Noburo said, but when I was practicing my culture's deathrites, Master Kokuten began throwing a hissyfit, and I lost that proof to the blue flames."

"Deacon," Noboru said calmly, "Don't mind Kokuten. He's hard-line military and probably wanted to look out for your life." He strode over to the big Kohanian, then immediately strode back to his spot when he remembered who he was speaking to. "Aaanyways," he continued, "while you were down gutting that Unique- which was awesome, by the way- there could've been someone creeping up on you." He smiled behind his helmet, but quickly noticed his blunder.

"Err, uh, not that I doubt your sensory abilities, they're pretty well and beyond what we can handle as Nepleslians, Yamataians and Freespacers..." Noboru scratched his helmeted head in thought. 'Speaking of Freespacers,' the Yamataian thought, 'Where has my friend Scarlet gotten off to?'

Proof huh? Jen removed her arm from speedy looking a little glum herself. Now to think of it, I could have used the beacon in my eye to record video, my foresight must be bad.

Jen stood at relaxed attention and said, "Mame, what we fought here was a professional force of Power Armors wearing dresses. Our weapons were very ineffective and had to adapt to the conditions we were presented. When we were able to overpower a few of them, the enemy self destructed to cover their tracks.

"Mr. Vanderhuge may also be able to vouch on our behalf." Jen finished up, hoping that statement could assist in their assessment.

Serra arrived with the others from Squad 35 that were picked up by Abeck and his team, she perked a brow at the comments made by Cassifin.

"She questions us, even though we were very nearly killed by these harlots." Serra grumbled. "Shouldn't security cameras and scanners be enough evidence, aside from everyone of us telling her the exact same thing?"

The Kohanian smiled at Noburo's reactions, and then turned to the winged member of his team. "The power was out, remember? That's why we needed you to open the doors, Mistress Serra." The hyena male said before turning back to look at Noburo.

"You flatter me with your compliment, and while yes, I would have been able to sense another presence, don't forget that the rest of my team was standing in the doorway. Other than it offending his personal beliefs, there was no need for him to say anything. Unless, if I get a higher rank than him one day, he wants me to start forcing my beliefs, morals, and feelings of how things should be done...on him."

He quirked a brow to punctuate this statement, and then fell into a relaxed stance, just watching everyone. His ears continued to swivel though, taking in all sounds around him.

Stovaa remained impassionate, letting his teammates say their piece before opening his mouth again.

"Forget the wounds of us, look at the wounds of the dead Cirrus crew around this hangar. They won't bear the hallmark wounds of a CSS rifle, ma'am. We were trapped in the briefing room at the time, as any security logs pre-power shutdown will show, and it took some time before we were able to escape. In the meantime, these 'people' were able to massacre the staff working in here, as well as these pirates."

He took a step towards the CEO and her friends, his weapons holstered and his hands behind his head, arching his back and stretching.

"Question is, what did they do this for..."

Cassefin looked around incredulously, not sure who or what to believe. "Keep your voices down," she warned. [/i]"there was a complete power shutdown to this station module...all of my surveillance equipment and the Savtech system was disrupted as a result. I still don't know what could've caused it..."[/i] Cassefin explained, apparently unaware of the enormous weapon she had been firing but a few hours prior to now. "B-but! Even if Administrator Vanderhuge were to agree with this wild story...I have people dead here, and I have nothing. Nothing! I can't...I can't-!"

"Ma'am," Abeck interrupted, finally finding the answers he was looking for during their hushed conversations. The guard captain was all business in appearance. "They're telling the truth."

Cassefin's mouth hung open, finding herself thoroughly defeated. "...but how...?"

"I just have a feeling, ma'am," Abeck answered simply, turning a last time back to Squad 35 to see if they had anything else that needed to be added to their argument.

Claire was caught a little off guard by Keziah's sudden display of affection towards her, but she welcomed it. As Cassefin began to sputter and question what had just happened during all the insanity, she walked over and sat next to Keziah, wrapping her arm around her but being careful not to touch the wound. She could understand Miss Montreal's disbelief. Surely she was trying to make a good impression on important people, and to let something like this happen right under her nose was not a good thing. But for the uniques trying to cover up their tracks, they didn't do all that well on the 'eliminate all witnesses' part, as evidenced by everyone here to tell the story.

She looked over at Deacon again and let a small smile form on her face. "You did good, dear. I'm sure I would've taken more than just a glancing shot if you weren't around." Speaking of which, she pressed her hand to the tears in the side of her uniform's thigh. She still wasn't sure how she had been so lucky, but she'd gladly trade Keziah for wounds right now... It did look painful, even if she seemed to be handling herself pretty well.

A stray thought crossed Claire's mind. "Hey, would somebody make sure that the hanger is sealed? I'd rather they not try to leave prematurely before we're done here."

"You could check their ship." Serra said with a shrug. "Who knows, maybe they captured our evidence for us."

It was a long and crap shot idea. But who knows, Squad 35's pretty damn lucky.

Lance nodded in agreement, "Serra's right. I think that chances are good that their ship's sensors, scanners, or maybe some other odd bit of equipment recorded something."

After thinking quickly, he began to talk again. "Ma'am, aren't the bodies of the pirates in a small group? That's rather atypical for a combat situation. If the pirates and CEO's weren't working together, the pirates wouldn't be dead near their ship, but near the doorway they had used to enter, and they certainly wouldn't be as tightly grouped. Also, I don't believe the station crew would have been gunned down as such with the Uniques in the hanger. If the pirates had indeed been counted as hostiles, they would have immieditly been gunned down by the Uniques, not allowed to close to such range, and they would have especially been eliminated by the better equipped and trained Uniques long before they could have gunned down all of the staff of the area." he again paused, thinking hard, "Not to mention, if you look around and examine the bodies and appropiate areas, you'll be able to note that their wounds are not consistant with the weapons that are currently being used by us or the Uniques." he finished there, not sure of what else he was missing.

Comfortable and allowed, finally, to rest, it would've been easy for Keziah to simply fall asleep. But she couldn't, not until she was certain that Cyril was going to be all right. The medic hovering over him with the scanner didn't look concerned, so she resolved to not be that concerned, either. Still...

She let herself nestle into Claire. The medic came over and gave her a shot of a painkiller before turning back to Cyril, and very quickly she could feel the drug flush through her system, taking away with it all the aches she had built up over the firefight. Her very first bit of combat against armed soldiers. Very first time she had ever been shot at, or seen people die. She remembered the dock crew, and not even the painers could keep back the wave of nausea that whipped through her.

Closing her eyes tightly, Keziah curled up on herself, hugging her chest as chills ran through her. It passed after a long minute, leaving the tang of bile in the back of her throat. "I'll be fine," she wheezed, preemptively dismissing any concern directed her way.

Claire smiled faintly, looking down at Keziah as she curled up, scooting over so that her head rested on her lap. She affectionately ran her hand down Keziah's neck, playing with her hair a little. "Just rest a while sweetie. You've had a rough day." Claire was making an entry for 'understatement of the year', apparently. A medic noticed the tears in her uniform and the shots she had taken, but was waved away when he tried to assist. Normally Claire would enjoy the male attention, but she would be fine for now.

Tweak made it back onto her feet and made her way back through the conduits in her civvies. It was no use, she was too drained to recreate her uniform. She needed more than raw energy, she needed materials for her blood to use and aside from leaving gaping holes in the sides of the conduit there didn't seem to be any way of replacing it.

So she retraced her path and took a side route that would take her back to the observation room, then wandered out into the hallway. Voices drew her attention toward the bay, but she wanted to investigate the place where most of her team had taken their stand. However, the 'spacer neko was sure to draw attention. Although her ears were covered, she was rather noticeably out of uniform.

Cassefin gazed disparagingly at the Vinross Yu-Cranker vessel a last time, her brow furrowed in hopeless frustration. With Laj safely on board, the rest of the Uniques followed him in. Docking lights on the bottom of the ship began flashing, signifying the ship beginning procedures for take-off. The only ones left on the ground were Marrisa Cranker and Captain Bell...and surprisingly, they had turned to the Head Administrator and were quickly approaching. "Everyone keep quiet, let me do the talking," Cassefin said quietly and suddenly, cutting her conversation with Squad 35 to a momentary pause as Miss Cranker approached.

"Head Administrator Montreal," Marrisa said with a slight nod. "I'm sorry to hear about the casualties your employees have taken...but right now we have a very serious matter on our hands. Laj Vinross Yu was injured by the brigands during the attack; I blame my own security force for allowing it to happen, but luckily his injuries are not fatal nor permanent. Never the less, we are going to take him to one of our nearby facilities; Vinross Yu-Cranker has its own private staff of doctors, so we need not trouble you for the Cirrus' medical staff when your employees seem to need them more."

Captain Bell, her helmet removed for the moment revealing more of the tightly-bound blond ponytail and straight, strong face, remained quiet for Marrisa's explanation. However, midway through the conversation it could be clearly seen that she and the guard captain, Abeck Winston, were waging a secret war behind everyone's backs, the two of them locked in critical stares. Before long, Bell cracked a smile at the handsome guard captain. Abeck simply continued to glare through narrowed eyes.

---

"Uh...that you, Tweak?"

As Tweak left the observation room, entering the relatively empty hallway, she could sense two figures catching sight of her from the arches on both sides of the bulkhead door. Two figures were standing guard there, no doubt positioned their earlier by one of their superiors; two familiar figures, one smaller than most, the other taller. Both of the figures raised their visors as the smaller one exclaimed his slight surprise to see the green-haired CSS member, revealing the familiar faces of George and Lenny as they continued to deduce exactly who had just stepped out of the room.

"Wow, uh, thought that room was empty. You...uh...forget your uniform today or somethin'?" George asked, scratching his chin mindlessly.

---

"So, you understand how we will be making preparations to launch immediately," Marrisa continued. "I suppose I am to apologize to you as well; it's highly likely that these pirates heard about our business venture to your station and that we were indeed the targets of the aggression. We will have to discuss these things later on, however. You, as the head administrator, understand our position, correct?"

Marrisa Cranker didn't bother waiting for Cassefin's answer, turning back around and making her way towards the ship. Captain Bell, Unique helmet hanging loosely in the crook of her arm, lingered for another moment or two, however, still silently at odds with the CSS Guard Captain. Finally, the sinister woman shifted her weight, starting to turn and follow after Marrisa.

"Good to see you again, Abeck."

"No."

Claire had only taken long enough to gently set Keziah down before rising and aiming her weapon at Captain Bell. (Believeing her to be the greater threat.) She quickly eyed the marines around her, hoping they would either join her in her refusal to let this go or prevent Cassefin from doing anything to try and stop her.

"You honestly believe that we are going to let you leave after we witnessed you killing these people down here and trying to kill us? I don't fucking care what lie you spout or what you lead Mrs. Montreal to believe." The seething anger that radiated from Claire would put even Cassefin to shame. She rarely got angry enough to be hostile, but when she did... it was a miracle she hadn't shot already. "You know damn well that you can't cover up what you did here. I refuse to let you leave just because you're too much of a coward to own up to your failure."

Claire's eye twitched as it glanced at the hangar doors. "And why is NOBODY FUCKING SEALING THOSE OFF YET?" This was primarily directed at Serra, but anyone that would do it would be cooling down Claire's temper a little.

Speedy followed Claire's example, since he also had a bone to pick with the 'visitors'. He still had the modified canister in his weapon, and he stepped forward to level his weapon at Captain Bell, with a smug satisfaction that if he missed here, the weapon would punch a hole in the ship (or at lest cause significant damage) He help his fire however; he wasn't going to jump the gun.

"Sealing hangar doors." Noboru sprinted off towards the hangar's control panel. He had barely an inkling of what was going to happen when he started hitting buttons- he wasn't trained for ship operations. Nevertheless, he went over to the control panel and hit the most obvious button, which was (by a stroke of luck) the hangar door control.

Serra followed behind Noboru and watched him hit a button on the control panel. Looking over his shoulder, Serra noted he hit the proper button to control the doors. She then reached to the panel and activated the other button that sealed the doors.

"Close." Serra mentioned as she turned and walked back to the assembled detachment.

A couple gasps of surprise and murmurs began rising from some of the Cirrus Station personnel in the immediate area. None of them moved to assist Claire or the others, most likely simply from uncertainty of just what was happening. The doors separating the Vinross Yu-Cranker ship remained tightly closed, prompting Marrisa and Bell to pause at the start of the vessel's entrance ramp.

Cassefin Montreal was really the only one to react to Squad 35's efforts. As they bustled about, the Head Administrator immediately pulled up a volumetric panel before her, furiously tapping away at the series of keys with a stern, unwavering expression. As a result, the bay doors began to open, slowly but steadily, revealing the open space beyond the massive doors. Shimmering, distorting effects skewed their view of the countless stars outside, created by the simple suppression field holding back the vacuum of space. Despite all of their efforts, neither Serra nor Noboru would be able to reverse the process.

"We can't keep them here," Cassefin said as she finished, her voice laden with several different emotions. "Stand down."

Speedy, still ready for blood, even though the Head Administrator ordered them to stand down, remembered one thing; he was a soldier. And if soldiers must do anything, that was following orders. he didn't leave eye contact with Captain Bell even when lowering his weapon; if they made any sudden moves, he might forget his training for just a moment...