THUNK sisssss. The pirates were coming. In moments they were going to breach the hull and come in shooting. Arblis wasn't concerned for himself, blaster fire would pass right through him, but he would be damned if he let a bunch of pirates take what was his by right and conquest.

His mind reached out to the circlet he still carried and transmitted his request at the speed of thought.

"Coran, have you been listening to the situation so far? I'm going to need your assistance or you will be captured by a crew of pirates."

She appeared to him, in her usual grouchy mood. And why would that be any worse than my current situation. I doubt they would see me as anything more than a trinket, and whoever they sold me to might have a bit more respect than you have shown so far"

He released a heavy breath and resisted the urge to throttle the little spirit.

"First, because I can feel the emotions of an Undine with the pirates. She at least will know a Vordani artifact when she sees one, and I doubt you will enjoy your treatment with them. Second, because if I need to take out all of the pirates without your help, there is a very high chance Myra will die or be captured and forced back into slavery. You are supposed to be a protector of your people, and right now the only Vordan you can reach needs your help. And third, if you refuse to help on your own, we will find out whether your defenses are strong enough if I attempt to crush your will and force you to assist me. I don't want to destroy you, but if it is a choice between that and being stranded in space we both know which I will choose."

"Very well then, what do you need me to do."

"I need you to link my mind to each of the pirates as they come through the breach. Then you need to put up every barrier you have and hunker down, because I am going to siphon off their desire until they lose the will to live. I will try not to let it affect you, but it would be best if you stay as far out of the way as possible."

Coran's eyes widened as she listened to Arblis describe his plan. "Are you insane? There must be a dozen hardened veterans out there. I admit you have some power, but there is no way you can control that level of energy. You will be burned to a crisp, and the backlash will probably destroy me with you."

"I won't need to drain all of them. The ADD Agent will take down some of them, and I can feed the emotions I steal from some back into the others as a need to do what I say. I doubt I will need to fully drain more than 3-4 to take out everyone on that ship. Now I am going to go take on a ship full of pirates, and if you want to keep your mind intact you are going to help me."

He broke the connection before she could respond. He had just reached the port side when the plasma touches finished their work. It was time to get to work.

Two tendrils of mist shot forward into the smoke, guided to where Arblis felt the aggression and anticipation of the first two pirates. Each arm wrapped once around a pirate's neck, thin as piano wire, before solidifying and jerking tight. Both enemies fell in a fountain of blood, hidden by the smoke and unable to scream.

A the same time, he felt Coran reaching into the minds of the remaining pirates, and he chose two Kreslar to draw power from. Their weak wills made them easy targets, and their blood thirsty nature made them perfect fuel for his purposes. He dove deep into their minds, pulling out the darkest, most soul crushing moments of their lives, then magnifying them a dozen fold. As one, the Kreslar let out agonizing screams of anguish and dropped their weapons to clutch their skulls. With the the memories set, he focused on their weakened wills, pulling all of their determination out their his bond with Coran. Within moments, each pirate was left drooling on the floor, a shatter husk of a once sentient creature.

Even with four combatants out of the fight in a matter of seconds, he still had a lot of work to do.

The good news was that there were only six pirates attempting to board and many were the weak willed Kreslar. The pair of Undine, who were far stronger to Psionic attadropped from the tendrils of smoke that entwined their necks without their notice and in no time the other Kreslars, who saw the bodies crumple to the deck given the goggles, barely had time to react before unconsciousness set in.

Arblis could feel the mental strength within them though they were male warriors, their wills strong save against the mental “attacks” of their females who they obeyed. If they lived long enough they became females after all and learned the mental tricks associated with their species, foremost being Telepathy though a few actually developed mental attacks and defenses. Those that had managed to learn the secrets of the living coral possessed by the Vodrani and Coran had cause to worry since Rin would recognize her origins. Living coral had been prized by them.

For the moment though all had been quite save for the hissing of that smoke grenade as it continued to empty it's contents. Minerva did not even have to fire her weapon though this had to be only a boarding party, the pirates not counting on such stiff resistance nor being taken out so easily.

There was the smoke before them though the way to the other ship was clear for the moment. There were only half a dozen pirates on the ship, Rin and five others, though half of these had been outlaw humans there was one Undine and one Kreslar among them.

So far so good, no contact had been made to see if the other ship was secured yet given that everything had been resolved so quickly and thus they had a bit of time before the others should get alarmed.

Minerva had just arrived to area where the boarding was taking place. The agent readied her side arm as she took positing behind one of the doorways that lead to the area that the pirates were attempting to board. The agent had heard could hear where they the noise of the pirates cutting through the hull. Minerva took a deep breath so that she could prepare to fight the pirates as she attempted to board.

The redhead turned and positioned herself to shoot through the doorway. Minerva silently cursed as the hallway filled with smoke. This was not the pirates’ first boarding action and they seemed well prepared for any tricks the defenders could pull off. The pirates had tossed a smoke grenade as soon as they opened a hole in the ship. Quickly the hallway filled with smoke, ensuring that the pirates would have plenty of cover as they moved aboard.

The agent could fire blindly into the smoke, hoping that her shots hit the concealed attackers through educated guess work or sheer luck. However there was a chance that her shot would hit something fragile on her ship and Minerva had already done enough damage. Even worse for the redhead, is that she would give her own position away making it easier for the pirates to focus fire on her and perhaps take her out.

The agent could only brace herself as she prepared to fire, hoping to take out the first pirate that stepped through the smoke before he could react. So the last thing the agent had expected was a pair of thuds hit the grating floor.

The Lieutenant blinked with wide eyes, disbelieving what she had heard. A second pair of thuds quickly followed, confirming the redhead hearing was not playing tricks on her. There were bodies hitting the floor. A final pair of thuds occurred though they were significantly later than others, leaving the hallway quiet except for the hissing of the smoke grenade.

The agent hesitantly made her way to the smoke worried that something was going to jump her, however nothing moved. It was through the smoke that Minerva could see the bodies of the boarding party. Something had taken them out fairly easily. She had no idea what could have caused it but she carefully moved forward prepared to take out any more pirates.

Arblis had felt the mental power of the Undine as soon as they walked through the hole, and had focused his physical efforts on them specifically. He immediately redirected the energy he had stolen from the Kreslar currently curled on the floor and shoved in against the minds of the remaining pair of pirates. Their wills were no stronger than their fellows and in a moment he was past their defenses, forcing a desperate need to follow his orders into their minds. One of them couldn't handle the psychic pressure and stood behind the door drooling, while the other fell to the floor prostrated to his new lord.

His insubstantial body appeared from the cloud of smoke was he called out to others softly. The strain of what he had just done was clear in his voice. "Are both of you alright? We don't have much time before the others recognize the attack didn't go as planned. I doubt I will be able to take out the rest of the crew this easily once they are prepared. Take these and get ready. We're going to go turn the tables on these bastards. You come too." The last was delivered to the fawning ex-pirate looking up at him adoringly. two tendrils of mist grabbed up the fallen rifles on the ground and handed one to each of the women. He purposely chose the energy rifles for their assault. With the hole cut in Myra's ship and no way to repair it, they were going to need to capture the pirate's ship intact if they wanted to continue.

He pointed at the thrall who had stood and armed himself. "You lead the way to the bridge. If you see less than four of them, I want you to open fire. If we find more than that, wait for me to deal with the extras first."

"Yes master, right away master."

The four of them moved forward, the pirate in front (Arblis had taken Grimm by pure chance), followed by Myra and Minerva a few steps behind, while Arblis resumed his invisible form and drifted above Grimm's head. The followed a dimly lit corridor, then turned right and entered what must have been the armory. Lockers on each side of the room were flung open and equipment for weapons maintenance was scattered about on several long tables. A male Undine was busy working at one of the tables when he saw Grimm walk through the door. The Undine only had a moment to look up and smile at the ship's second in command, thinking the enemy was defeated, before three beams of light shot forward and hit him squarely in the forehead. The hapless pirate's skull evaporated in a red and black mist of blood and char, and the tri-blaster's beam continued into one of the weapons lockers. There was a loud explosion as one of the energy packs was hit and a plume of dust filled the room. Unfortunately, Arblis hadn't noticed which weapon the Kreslar had taken from his dead colleagues.

"Damn it. Well they know we're here now." Arblis grabbed one of the energy rifles on a table and thrust it into Grimm's hands. "Take that and try not to damage the ship too much. We are going to need it." Just as he finished speaking, four more pirates skidded to a halt in the doorway at the end of the room. Arblis let out a shout of warning to his crewmates and rushed forward to do battle.

Myra had went back to the cockpit rather than assisting the others until her eyes fell upon the flashing warning lights. Hull breach in the port side … as executed. There was a a force field she could use to cut that section off from the rest of the ship, their was another at the cargo bay doors and the door at the starboard side though these fields were weak and could keep out gases or vacuum physical objects could pass through the shielding.

She sighed though when noting the fields were down, damaged in the crash and pulling away, as damaged as they were, didn't bode too well for their survival so instead she went to the port side of the ship in time for everything to get wrapped up.

“Yeah, fine.” She added, the smoke thankfully concealing the deceased Undine from her. They boarded though and had she been in front her reaction would have been much the same, the only good Undine was a dead one though by the time she catches u it's head had been blasted off of his shoulders making recognition impossible though the scaly blue body reminded her of them.

Myra didn't have time though to think about it. Four pirates, three human and one Kreslar, attracted by the sounds were at the end of a passage … they were what remained of the pirates save for Rin was was still at the bridge.

The pirates, seeing Grimm and not seeing that Minerva was armed only that there were others there with her had not opened fire right away and Myra, being the worse combatant of the three dipped behind a bulkhead.

“What's going on?” One of the human outlaws asked as he drew closer. “Why aren't you on the other ship? What the -” His eyes go wide seeing the smoldering Undine body as he neared.

Within moments, a from seemed to emerge out of the smoke, it appeared to be to be made of smoke much to Minerva’s disbelief. U-mmm yes. Yes I am okay. One of the pirates remaining seemed to be only staring at the smoke creature, as if nothing else that mattered. It terrified the young woman to see a creature weld such power over another. Still that was not important for the moment as the redhead took a rifle from one of the tendrils. There was still pirates trying to take ship and they had cut a huge hole in the ship. The ragtag crew would have to capture the pirate ship if they were going to have any chance to survive. And that meant they would have to kill or capture every pirate on ship.

The agent looked at the rifle she was handed, it was some sort of energy rifle. Minerva disliked energy weapons but she knew it was for her own good. Conventional bullets would ricochet too much inside a ship’s confines.

The unlikely foursome moed into the pirate ship. The others allowed to pirate to take the lead as they traveled through a dimly lit corridor. The smoke like Arblis seemed to dissipate into the air above the others, seemingly turning invisible before the agent’s eyes. They continued to move carefully through the dark hallway until they came across what appeared to be armory. There was a Undine, completely unprepared and not expecting an attack from his fellow pirate. Grimm lowered his rifle and fired as the shot went his former comrade and into one of the lockers nearby. Instinctively Minerva attempted to shield Myra as the room exploded into fire and dust that filled the room. Now there was no hope for the element of surprise as everyone would know that they had boarded the ship. Still the four boarders were fortunate that they had not been hurt in the explosion.

We are going to have to careful from here out. We don’t need to damage any more of this ship, but I think there are still a lot of pirates on board. As if on cue four pirates arrived to see what had just happened.

Almost instinctively the agent dropped into a firing position near a bulkhead, as she fired on the closest pirate…

The four pirates that came around the corner were clearly bewildered to see their fallen comrade, and their indecision cost them dearly. While the first human approached Grimm, Arblis was already moving, his smoky form only visible as shifting in the dust filled air. A tendril of his body struck out like a battering ram, smashing the first pirate backwards into his fellows and crushing his chest with a sickening crack. Two beams of energy slashed past him as Grimm and Minerva opened fire, dropping a second pirate in a matter of seconds.

The remaining two retreated behind the cover of the door frame and returned fire. Arblis heard a terrible scream from behind him, and knew that Grimm had been hit. He had neglected to give the thrall self preservation orders, and he must have been a sitting duck standing out in the open. He had bigger concerns at the moment as he finished crossing the room and reached the enemy's hiding place. Two razor thin threads of his body solidified and slashed along each of their bodies. The human collapsed clutching his throat, but the Kreslar was wearing some form of body armor Arblis was unfamiliar with and his attack only left a deep gouge in the hard material. It frantically raised its weapon to return fire, but the blast met only smokey air. To the pirate's horror, the smoke seemed to surge forward through the gaps in his armor, and a moment later he screamed as thousands of spikes formed and drove into his flesh.

The dead pirate collapsed, and Arblis flew back to the others to survey the damage.

(sorry about the delay, I only got a notice when Minerva posted and none for Arblis so I thought I was still waiting)



Minerva's aim was true as the pirates got to their feet scrambling after the first had been flung back into them though unable to dodge the second human was a sitting duck for Minerva's shot as he rolled into it, jerking away from a blast by Grimm. He dropped, leaving the two others to scramble behind cover and fire back as their stupor ended with all the noise and the compatriots meeting their fates as far as they could tell.

Grimm soon screamed out, hit once in the chest and shoulder. His species had been fueled to fight but his weak will was overcome by Arblis' command as he tried to comply pushing himself up off the deck. Hurt, the Kreslar could take a ton of punishment and neither wound was fatal though the direct hit to the chest nearly incapacitated him.

Myra was pulling him back behind cover though even as he was about to seek it. The few shots she made only hit bulkheads and the agent was much closer.

THUD! The human dropped though Arblis encountered something weird upon hitting the Kreslar and creating a gorge in the armor. He could feel it … the armor was alive! Not just that but it had an extraordinary will, though the intellect behind it was too simply and could only defend.

The armor was stolen of course after the pirate killed the original owner. It was found on Kreslar a living organism that lived in symbiosis with a host. It was rare and so only the elite guard of the royals or important warriors owned a suit.

What it did was defend against mental attacks against the wearer while it fused itself to a host drawing nutrients from it. Unfortunately the armor only defended against physical attacks and a small portion of energy that it absorbed from blasters. The armor would self repair after a time but not before the wearer was killed. It was over …

“I'll stay with him,” Myra wasn't much use in a fight though she had nothing on hand to assist in first aid she could at least make Grimm comfortable. The ship was quite and unknown to the intruders there was only one pirate left, the captain, Rin.

“Don't keep a girl waiting,” a voice came over an intercom. Whether Rin had seen them board from a hidden camera or not and had just been guessing that they were still alive given the relative silence and not being contacted by one of her crew was up for debate after all. Regardless, either Rin was real confident of ready for them.

The first pirate slammed into another pirate, already dead from Arblis’s attack. The second desperately struggled to stand up after being knocked down, but unfortunately for the outlaw he was too slow and was an easy target for the redheaded agent. Her shot as well as Grimm’s hit the pirate and crumpled to the ground. The remaining pirates quickly made it cover as they prepared to put up a fight.

The pirates quickly began returned fire, forcing Minerva to duck for cover. Grimm was hit twice and to the agent’s surprise did not fall over at not at once. Instead he shouted out as he struggled to continue to fight, however the pain seemed to be too much and he stumbled back. All Minerva could do was provide covering fire for their acquired ally.

Myra grabbed the former pirate and pulled him behind cover. Minerva quickly began to empty her pistol. With luck the sheer amount of shots would keep the other pirates at bay.


Suddenly more smoke streaked across the room and quickly dispatched the last human pirate. However it seemed like the alien pirate managed to resist the second tendril. Minerva believed he was a Kreslar, however she had not really read much about them or their culture.

The creature fired into smoke spraying fire everywhere. Minerva once more had to dive for cover to avoid a shot that was marked “To whom it may concern.” She looked back and fortunately Myra had pulled Grimm to cover at this point as was safe from the fire.

The smoke soon surrounded the last pirate and began to look like it sucked into his armor. The pirate let out a painful shout as he suddenly stiffened. The alien finally fell over dead as the fight finally ended.

Are you sure your safe here? Minerva was a bit concerned that Myra would be vulnerable since Grimm was unable to really move. Still someone would have to take care of the wounded ally.

Be careful. The last one is the most dangerous. She is very aggressive. Minerva grabbed one of the pirate’s rifles to replace her empty pistol. She was not sure what was stranger right now that she was fighting along some sort of creature made of smoke or that she had just invaded a ship that was about to capture for just a while ago.

Arblis watched looked over the carnage he had wrought in the armory, as he returned to the two women. Myra knelt beside the wounded thrall, and Minerva stepped up beside him, just as a voice came over the intercom.

"I think we can handle her two on one without too much trouble. Lets go."

The pair move along the main corridor, ignoring the few branching paths leading off to other areas of the ship. The bridge would be the nerve center of the vessel and would undoubtedly would have the largest hallways connecting it to the other sectors. Arblis flew slightly ahead of the red haired agent, carefully checking for signs of automated defenses. After a few minutes, they came to a set of large blast doors, clearly designed as a last line of defense again boarders. Unfortunately, the doors were not designed to handle beings on his level.

"I will force the door and hold it while you go through. Be careful, I won't be able to provide much help until we are both clear. Are you ready?"


Arblis waited for a nod before moving up to the doors and sending an infinitesimal sliver of his essence to probe the crack where the halves joined. The wisp was only able to slip an inch or two between the tight fitting metal, but it was enough. He formed a solid shell around his essence in the crack and poured more of himself into the gap. The tendril expanded, pressing with irresistible force against the doors as more and more of his smokey form solidified in the slowly growing crevice. He could hear the groaning of gears behind the walls on both sides when a thin line of light appeared, showing the bridge beyond.

On the far wall was a bank of displays, the largest displaying a video feed of Arblis and Minerva's current attack on the door. He couldn't see any signs of life yet, but too much of the room was out of his field of view to be sure.

He continued to apply pressure to the doors, with Minerva standing to the side, out of the potential line of fire. Eventually, with most of his body squeeze tightly between the massive plates of metal, there was enough room for Minerva to begin her assault.

Just as she cleared the doorway, Arblis could feel a large spike in mental energy from within the room. It seemed that Rin was one of the rare Undine who possessed psionic abilities, and they were being brought to bear entirely on Minerva. The young woman turned in a slow jerky motion, and began to raise her weapon, not at the pirate captain behind cover somewhere in the room, but at the very solid djinn attempting to hold the door.

He shouted within the circlet "Coran, we need to link with her mind NOW!" as he threw all of his remaining strength into dispelling the control over the agent about to shoot him.

Rin watched the progress of the pair. Just three she noted from the monitors though only two that had been on the way here. The Undine had not been particularly worried, not about the corporeal sources of course and there were a few things she could do against the other.

The odds had not been on her side but she had that element of surprise working for her. Like all Undine females she could project her voice through Telepathy which was about the only Psionic ability that they possessed.

Of course she knew far more than average tactics. Keying in some commands she realized that damage to the ship would delay what she had in mind and so she had to buy a little time. She could only hope the agent was important enough to be protected for now in order to figure out what was going on here.

As for the Princess … oh she had plans for the Vodrani.

Pulling back with her mental defenses she hide her own presence and sought cover deeper in the room. She heard them at the door, her eyes flick to the monitor to watch them at work though as Minerva entered she attacked dropping her suppressed nature as the spike in energy could be felt as she unleashed a wave of mental energy on the agent.

Minerva might not be able to kill him but keeping him busy … well there was nothing wrong with that!

She grabbed his attention by having the agent wheel on him seeking to shift him from attack to defense. Though it was tougher with her then expected. Her will was as strong as any Undine's and this had been unlike (but not unusual) for most humans.

Coran did establish that link and Minerva's mind was now the battlefield. Arblis could feel the presence of the Undine just as she could feel his though what was going on was a briefing … a false memory not over what she had to protect from the pirates but another where Aarblis' image was projected onto a screen by an agent … a Major …

“... he's a dangerous slaver that must be treated as hostile. His standard methods of operating are mental domination. He will try to convince you that he is your friend … after some time though the nanites you were injected with prior to this meeting with discharge electrical pulses within targeted portions of your brain braking foreign control of your mind ...”

Minerva nodded her head as she and Arblis began to look for the bridge.

The unlike pair began moving down the main corridor. There was other corridors of course, but it would be along the main corridor that the bridge would be most likely be located. Only the fear of some sort of automated defenses slowed the two as they made their way to bridge. Fortunately the pirate vessel was not build to resist a boarding. Now the only thing that kept from the bridge of a set of blast doors. However that was not going to be enough to stop the determined redhead or her new companion.

Right. I will go in and cover you as you move through. For now at least Minerva was ready.

He began by sending smokey tendrils into the door. At first it did not appear anything was happening other than fog began to fill the door. Then Minerva could hear the sounds of the groaning of gears as if they were struggling to resist something. More smoke began to fill the door as slowly the doorway began to be pushed back. Finally the door gave way enough to show the bridge beyond. It was time for Minerva to act, she could not see any signs of life in the little of bridge she could see. However she could see a bank of displays show their assault on the door. If anyone was inside, they would be well prepared for an assault.

Minerva knew she would have to move quickly, as this was going to be the most dangerous part of the assault. She would have to make it inside before who was in there shot, it would only be then she could defend herself.

As Minerva brought up her weapon to ready position, she suddenly felt a tremendous pressure on her mind. All at once the redhead grabbed her head as she struggled with the thoughts that was pressed into her mind. She was perhaps one of the strongest willed women of the Directorate, and any other would have quickly fall to Undine. However, her body struggled as she fought between what she knew just a moment ago and what was being pressed in her mind.

Her body began to jerk as she slowly spun back towards the door. Her gun shook as her mind filled with thoughts of what an evil creature the Major had briefed her on. Still it didn’t seem to be fully right, and she could not really understand why. Her hand began to depress on the trigger of her gun…