Quebos had done some fine work with installing the new plasma cannon on the ship. It was an Aschen weapon that he painstakingly recreated after several years. That bitch, Natasha, destroyed the prototype and his notes though by hiring Goro and working under Ortix he got enough Aschen tech under his belt to recreate the weapon.

So when the three pirate ships had been threatening Ortix's vessel Quebos was not about to turn over all that work he did. His people even captured that traitor Goro who attacked him for precious secrets so he could work on his own Aschen tech though Goro did not have the resources. His people were barely a step or two into space age having a lot thrust upon him.

The weapon was an intriguing design. If it connected with the shields of a ship it used the energy of that shield to power up the attack. This usual meant one or two shots destroyed a ship. Of the three pirate vessels there were only two left and one had been crippled in space with the other having to retrieve escape pods before it too blew.

However, Quebos had a science craft and not a war ship. Good sensors but the skirmish brought down his shields to a mere 20% and communications had been knocked offline. The worse of it was that the cannon took a hit and was offline. The only good thing was that it had not taken a direct one and might be salvageable though he would have to look at it first.

He was limping away as fast as the engines allowed but could not initiate his star drives which were going to be offline for the next hour or so as they were being repaired.

Levi and her crew had been contacted then by the captain of the Widow Maker, the ooze was contained in his battle armor and the visual field had been coming in and out. The bridge seemed frantic at that and emergency lighting had been on.

“... pursue … we damaged the engines … want … cannon … took out two ships. Busy with survivors. Here … coordinates.” Captain Andros of the Oblix people was braking up and it was clear that his communications had been patchy at best.

A set of coordinates were transmitted, the Fact Finder was not far off.

The distress call was received and the lovable lock jaw was in hot pressuit on the Fact Finders trail. The battered and bloodly ship was ripe for the taking as it weakly limped away from the scrap it had with those three rak'dos vessels.

Honestly more suprised. Who was stupid enough to pick a fight with the rak'dos armada? ecspecily now? The figure thought, while looking out through of ships cockpit at the smoldering vessel the chaser ship was quickly gaining on.

With a flick of a switch, the Lovable lock jaw hailed the Factfinder with a message, If even choosed to awnser.
On their view screen of the factfinders ship, a helmed figure would appear afther they awnsered her hail. Only the helmets multiple eye lights glowing with a sinister hue was visable as if seeing in all directions, speaking with a deep metalic voice. " This is Red..... Surrunder now... or els run you down...."

Red spoke, cold and cruely, befor the lovable lockjaw fired off a few warning shots to disable that last 20% of the fact finders shields as a barrage of lazers let loose from the vessels toothy shark maw.

"Last warning.... Cut off your engines or els Ill cut them off for you..." Red said one last time befor cutting off the communicatios. Giving these Factfinding bastards ten secionds to comply, but honestly.... Red had no intetion of letting the ship get off this easy.... not without taking a nibble first.

Weither they cut their engines or not, The Lovable Lockjaw's maw opened widly, befor the shark shaped ship put all fire to the engines and quickly gained speed as it ran in close ramming the vessel with its opean maw befor activating the preasure hydralics to chew up those pesky engines, crippling the vessel as the lock jaw fired off cables into the factfinders haul to get a fine grip on its pray.

However the lockjaws maw, oppscured the boarding pike. Like a tounge that pierced the Factfinders haul allowing the imfamous Red to board alone.

There had been no answer to the hail seeing that communications were down though the presence of that ship did not go unnoticed. There was enough power to establish short ranged communications though. Quebos tried to run but the other ship was gaining and his precious cannon was still offline. He had other guns though they were to the front of the ship and merely two other low powered cannon seeing this was a science vessel.

Those guns were mostly to cut through debris and asteroids and deter minor pirate threats. There was nothing to the rear of the ship though and Quebos was searching for a miracle here … he sighed when it was obvious they could not outrun the other ship.

“Scan that vessel … prepare for boarders ...” the escaped Ashlyn were less of a worry at this stage. They were confined for the time being. Tracking the ship he could direct security to whatever side boarders approached from though he did not have too much in the ways of defense he did have a last resort but first he would assess the situation.

Closer still the ship came and with a sigh he issued out his commands. “Answer that.” There was a lot of static on his end. Quebos was in a sealed environmental suit and had his arms crossed over his chest.

“Do it.” Engines were cut as were communications though the ship lurked as it was struck. There went the last of the shields. Then a crunching sound as the Lock Jaw bit the ship. Engines exploding and going offline. “The rear of the ship!” The alarms went off as the hull was breached and the security was not at the breech obviously allowing her to board.

“Seal the blast doors ...” He commanded. The doors to the bridge had blast doors as well that he had installed and while that would not stop her from eventually getting through them they could slow her down at least. Security was being deviated in her direction, spiders about the size of a wolf with red bands over their thoraxes though there were no more than half a dozen of them.

The Lock jaws gapping maw crushed the portion of the Vessel it sank its teeth into with ease. Engine exploding under the preasure effectivly crippling the ship that Red was charged with chasing down to give her clan time to catch up as soon as they could, but in the mean time it was time to have some fun...

The boarding pike, a large pod like tube erupts from the lovable lock jaws powerful jaws, acompanyed by the sound of tearing metal, bending gurters, and air escaping through a massive hull breach in the engine room, only to be sealed by debri being sucked out into space. The boarding pike fallows the same idea as an escape pod, just backwards... Letting the one known as Red board the ship from a hatch on the side of the boarding pike.

The boarding pike hatch creeks open quickly as from it crawls out a helmeted petiet young form. Clad in a red and black armor desiged for the clearly curvy young females small body as she pulled herself from the hatch only to slam her boots down on the engine room's metal grated floor. Having little to fear of the decompression in her own protective pressureized suit as Red scanned the shattered engine room from behind her four eyed helmets as she did a quick strech, and cracked both her kunckles.

"Ok! Lets get to work.." Red said out loud (not like any one would hear her anyway) as she drew a blaster pistols off her hip and made a quick dash to the engine room preasure door, taking a knee beside it as she checked her wrist computer for preasure safty, getting the green ok! As Red twisted that hatch door open hopfully ready for whatever was on the other side.

She had time as the security was out of place though there were two hallways one to the right, one to the left. Automated sprinklers turned on to dose some of the fires that had been started though it was foam rather than water to better fight electrical fires.

There was a thin coating of this foam that built up on the floor making it a little slippery in the case of quick moves. Fortunately she was not alone on her ship today and there were a few other Rak'dos with her. The four of them had been returning from a job when the message came through and caused them to respond.

The massive Claw, a Rhek left the ship. He was about twice as broad as Levi and the top of his armored head nearly grazed those sprinklers. He had a blaster mounted cannon on his left shoulder but had a huge claw on either gauntlet that sat above his hands.

Pyro was next. The Hel'Corian enjoyed a good explosion and had a harness that had a dozen various grenades. Some were frag, some were smoke, others emitted an miniature EMP. He had a rifle and normally he would have used a smoke grenade to give them concealment though they were coming in by an unconventional approach so he had refrained from leading the charge.

Taking up the rear was Gizmo. His species had been unknown seeing that he was never seen outside of his armor. He sported two blaster pistols and had a wrist computer. He or it had been a wiz at bypassing locks and hacking into computers though he was a fair shot too and known to get into the fray having a short fuse.

Security approached and Claw heard them. His armor boosted so that the audio and visual sensors were sharper. “Red. We have incoming to the left … five … no six individuals. ETA three minutes. It seems that the egg heads are still going to put up a token of a fight.”

“Then let's not disappoint, Red,” she could feel Gizmo's smile as he took up a pistol in each hand. “Only six though, a shame ...”

Red moved the engine room's preasure seal hatch door and waited for her companions to crawl out from the boarding pike and join her befor opening it. Red picked the three up off war torn planet a little under 14 hours ago, the four were traveling back to Laz'sari befor they got the call about the ship cannon crisis.

Red Flicking her gaze back at the size of the boarding pike hatch, it some what small for The Claw, but he managed to climb out with some effort. Gizmo and Pyro soon both getting out after him, needng to proble give him a push.

"Ahaha... look at that... its like watching a clown car..." Red's comm chattered as she giggled behind her helmet, watching the huge being crawl out from her ship as foam sprayed from the sprinklers over head, partly oppscuring their views from inside their helmet as Red wiped a hand along her face plate to clear the foam. "Auh.. discusting... Gyzmo... can you shut this crap off...." Red ordered befor sharply looking to Claw as he spoke of incoming.

"Only Three minutes?" Red repeated as she tugged on the wheel to open the hatch. "Their respone time is slow....ergh.." Red grunted pushng oen the battered preassure door. "Yeah... such a shame... to bad they wount know what hitt them..." Red smirked from behind her own helmet and got out into the hall.

"Pyro!... Set a low powered proxy mine in the left of the hall.... set t for 1 meters then join us to the right .... We need to cripple the escape pods as soon as possibe... Oh and Pyro... rigg the engine room door too..... I dont want any of these egg heads laying a fanger on my jaws..." Red ordered as she took her steps to the right and started walking down the hall with aswagger in er step aftger drewing her own two diffrent pistols off her hip. "Lets show these egg heads who their messing with.... " Red said viciously.

“Things need to be bigger to account for us Rhek.”

“Go on a diet,” Pyro smirked from beneath his helmet. Of course weight wasn't the issue and they all knew it. His species had been big. “I love blowing the hell out of things. On it Red.” He had been the only one with a pack containing all his gear and deadly explosives. Booby trapping the door he would get to trapping the hall.

Gizmo got on one of the non damaged computers her plugging into it with retractable cables from his wrist computer. One handed typing, it was extraordinary had how fast he was with a single hand. The sprinklers soon stopped though by then the little fires had been out and Pyro was urging him out of the engine room so that he could set his trap and seal the room.

While Pyro set his mine the three others moved on. Soon enough they came across the Chitine. The spiders pressed forward. Two were on the floor, two on the ceiling and one one either wall.

Each had two strange blasters that two of their legs were inserted it and they fired at the opposition, Claw being hit as he had nearly no place to dodge. “ARGH! Son of a -” he dropped to a knee as his laser cannon tracked one of the spiders and fired at it causing it to explode in a sea of green gope.

Two shots to each spider of the walls from Gizmo ended those two. “Awww … this is too easy!”

Oh weight was the isue but it didnt stop Red and the other from making fun of Claw. He was hudge afther all, a point that was made clear as those things in the hall started shooting at them as Red took her cover behind the huge rhek, putting her small back to his massive one. Two on the ceiling, two on the floor and two on either wall spraying them with close corders fire, yet Red didnt worried, Claws armor was thick... he could take it as he took a shot with that cannon of his afther whipping it off her back.

Powerful shots rang out as Claw wiping out the two on the ceiling withhis BFG, while gizmo's two pistol style destroyed to two spiders flanking the walls with easy, leaving the two Chitine on the floor behind covered in tat green goo.

"Oh! suck it up Claw!" Red shouted in reply to his gruntsand groans of pain, getting hit sevral times as she simply took her step out from behind the hulking Rhek and fired two shots with her duel blasters at the last two remaining Chitine droans, nailing them both between what Red assumed were their eyes easyly ending them like her brothers....

"So easy... but their creepy?" Red agreed, her helmet turning to look in Claw's general direction as she shook her head. "Come on get up you big baby... be both know that didnt hurt..." Red said jokingly as she patted his armored arm befor she looked to her partner Gizmo, motion twords the spider creatures. " What are these things? They arnt no robotic droans Ive ever seen..." Red said as she walked up to one, putting her boot on its carcus, rolling it over to have a better look. "Ehh its... what are these egg heads messing with in here?"

“I have an idea … next time I use you for cover Red. Those blasts are hot.” Claw grunted taking a second to push up off the floor and shake his head. His armor was thicker than the others seeing that he rarely had the option of dodging and Rhek's were damn tough. Even without his armor he would have lived though he would need medical attention of course.

His armor was heavy and did not allow for stealth so on jobs he was often brought in when a show of brute force was necessary or to guard something.

“Aww, poor baby. Red, kiss it and make it better.”


“Shut the hell up, Giz.” By then Gizmo was looking at the bodies.

He made a kissing noise then answered Levi. “Chitine. See the bands? The color notes their caste. These are the warrior caste the rarest of the bunch. They are usually in battle armor but they didn't have enough time to gear up I'm assuming. Most are techies … these are the egg heads. Seeing that this is a science vessel there are probably a lot more of them scattered about. Red bands equal warriors.

The others should be easy. Engineering is essentially a mess so taking the bridge should allow us to capture the ship. Unless you feel like sulking here a bit longer Claw.”

Claw flipped him off. “I'm good. It frigging burns though. The plates of my armor where the struck.”

"Fine! The next time just hide behind me!" Red snaped as she moved forward. "You know I'll make better cover then you!.. Freaken stupid behemoth cant even do a simple job as just standing there right... god you suck.." Red snapped agin as she kicked over the spiders corpse.

"Aww... And mybe afther I kiss it better and the raid is over I'll even take you outfor a treat! or make you a plate of cookies and tell you how great you did at your job!.... psst... get real..." Red joked with Giz, making fun of Claw befor her helmet turned in his direction.

"Wait? These things are the egg heads?" Red said, sounding suprised as she flicked her view the the spiders corpse and shrugged, kickig it agin. "Huh... learn somthing knew every day... So red band mean warriors... Thats kind of cool..." Red smirked behind her helmet befor turning to Claw, watching Gizmo and him both have a back and forth as Claw stuggled to stand on his feet.

"Hurry up claw.... Lets move.... this ship isnt going to sit her all day.... if we get to the bridge fast enough we can still get the shrot man bonus...." Levi stated befor she started to walk ahead, twirling her pistols playfully as she went.

“No, no, it's fine. Their blasters only burn.”

“Cookies sound good. Especially your cookies Red. These are sentient beings though there are medics, techs, warriors … if this is all they have … our armor will protect us but if they get a solid hit they will kill us. Not Claw though, not unless he takes twenty blasts in rapid succession.

“Let's move out.”


---


Quebos Balnab drummed his fingers on the consul before him. He listened to the clicks of the Chitine. Well, there went all of his soldiers. He looked to the monitor and viewed the three through one of the hidden cameras as they moved through the well monitored areas that housed the labs.

He had two tricks left and only two. That locked door wasn't going to stop them. What was the other one doing? The three only appeared on the monitor as the moved close to the lab.

“Tell me the security systems are still online.” He heard the response … “Excellent. Flood the labs and take the locks off of E-5. Place 2179 on standby. We'll see how effective this is.”


---


Vents in the ceiling opened and gas was pumped into the corridor. If those weren't sealed suits then the gas would render them unconscious. Gizmo's was sealed as it double as an environmental suit as oxygen irritated him and prolonged exposure could cause several adverse effects. Plus he could function in zero g situations when equipped with his jet pack and his boots were magnet though they could be powered on and off as necessary. Currently they were off though.

A wall slammed down somewhere behind them and another elsewhere sealing off the labs. The gas was a blue mist though Gizmo who was good with tech realized what sort of gas it was by the color.

“DAMN!” He gazed frantically about himself looking for a computer he could interface with. He had already planted programming into the ship's computers to allow him remote access but it was tricky without a direct connection. Fingers flew over keys as he tried to access it as Claw dropped to a knee, the Rhek particular susceptible to the gas seeing how his head was closer to the ceiling than the others and he got quite a lungful of the gas already as it virtually blasted in his face.

"My cookies are to good for you...." Red snapped coldly from behind her helmet. If only they could see her face, blushng red as she walked away in a angry stomp from her two companions joking about her "cookies" it was a bad joke one she easly fell for and walked straight into.

However to trio walked down te corridor for a while longer befor suddenly their was the metalic hissing of hydralic doors slamming closed behind them and ahead sealing up as Red and her companions all sharply turned to look befor the hall started to fill with a blue misty gas....

"What the hell?...." Redshout suprised as she aved her hand in the mist for a momment befor she sighed lookingbtwords Gizmo. " Are these egg heads stupid or somthing?" Red ask moreas a]sarcastic statment befor she lookedtwordsvthe nearist camera, knocking onnher own helmet to show the bsd guys on the other end as she shouted. " These suits are seal idiots!"

It was befor Red turned and saw Claw drop to one knee, the rhek coufing loudly as he got a lung full of gas as Red jumed in suprise at tge sight. "Ahh! Shit! Claw! Your suits not preasurized you idiot!!" Red shouted as she quickly ran over to him, jumping up as she latched her arms around the hulks neck to attempt pull him down lower onto the floor and get him under the gas so he could breath easyer. "Lay flat you moron!" Red shouted as she flicked her sights back to Gizmo. "Turn off this gas! NOW!"

It was the expense of the armor actually. To get something so thick and protective cost a fair bit but one that was also sealed too was even more so and since he did not battle in Zero G's he thought he would save a few credits.

Quebos was watching from the bridge. The labs could be sealed given the danger of the Ashlyn they were carrying. As was the gas should there be any security breaches and the bugs got free they could be sealed into the section and gassed into unconsciousness. The gas was pretty good against the bugs and somewhat good against humans.

E-5 was unlocked and was the lab that they were transporting the Ashlyn in but the damage to the ship allowed them to get free. Fortunately they were pinned down in the cargo bay about now.

Gizmo worked feverishly muttering as he went. The security of the ship was pretty good and he wasn't able to get on it remotely.

“Nalgasha!” Gizmo spat but the insult had been in a language that Levi never heard spoken. He shot the camera in frustration as he shook his head.

Claw was out! The lug head already snoring despite Levi getting him as low as possible.

“There good … tech wise … I thought I had there system pegged but they fooled me in thinking I had it cracked! Come on, he'll be fine here. I have to get to a computer Red. The gas might not be a problem for us but I got to get those doors open so we can get to the bridge. It could have been worse, that could have been a lethal agent he was exposed to rather than a knock out gas. Makes me wonder what they were keeping in the ship. If they had it all throughout the ship they probably would have used it when we boarded but they waited until we got here so chances are it's a defense for just this section.”

"Damn it! GET LOWER!" Levi shouted as she pressed her compaion's helmeted face agiest the metal floor as hardcas she could to get him as low as possible. Hoping to have gotten him below the gas but that plan didnt work it rarly does as she quickly found her Rhek friend snoring loudly asleep face first onnthe floor as she sighed disapointly.

"Well....Damn.... Claw is out cold..." Levi said looking to Gizmo afther she stude up, showing her find by giving Clawa swift kick in the rib cage. Hearing Gizmos anger as she sighed behind her helmet. "No use in beating your self up over it.... It happens... It just means you really suck at this is all... I mean look at Claw.. Hes sleeping? Cant get muh worse then that" Levi joked agin as she pointed her thumb at Claw, givinghim one last kick then walk on.

"Lets fine that consol, get this gas clear... and take the brige.. If Claw doesnt wake up soon he loses his cut! Got it! "Red said coldly as she agreed to Gizmo, holstering one of her pistols to talk into her wrist comunicators and contact pyro. "Hey Pyro... Claw is down... uhm... can you rig him to blow two? I mean once you see him?... what do you mean no!?.... But! it will be funn..." Levi whined as she argued with Pyro as she movedwith Gizmo to the nearest consol.

“There just better than I anticipated though remotely it's no surprise I can't do shit.”

It was useless. Claw didn't even stir given the thicker armor Gizmo figured that he hardly felt the kicks. He nodded though. “More for us. He'd just spent it on women and booze any way rather than saving up for those adjustments to his armor. He can't save for a damn.”

He lead the way through the gas filled corridors hearing her talk to Pyro along the way.

“What? He's dead? From these losers? Not dead … asleep? Well no. I mean, yeah, I could booby trap a body … but cripes if he's just asleep …” Pyro took in the details.

“I can rig him with EMP charges. They won't kill him but all his powered gear would go off line. For him that would just be the strength servos in his armor and that cannon but he's got those blades and anyone messing with the body would find their gear disabled though with his thicker armor a smaller charge … no, I won't risk it. Alright I'm finished here and on my way.”

They had got to E-5, the room devoid of any security though Gizmo interfaced with one of the computers here working on turning the gas off and getting those doors open. Levi could see several bodies of spiders here most with purple bands though one or two had blue ones. In the center of the room were several clear vats that were shattered or opened at the top. Green slime was all over the chamber and appeared very sticky securing dead bodies to the floor and walls of the Chitine. There was an ant body … at least it looked like a red ant with limp tentacles that looked to be retractable at the sides. It was dead though there did not appear to have any cause of death.

“Got it!” As soon as Gizmo pronounced this an armored individual appeared on a bank of computer screens.

“Surrender now, it's your last chance otherwise I'll leave you to 2179.”