The sound of a footstep behind Killik sent him spinning around, his ballistic pistol leading the whirl, and coming to rest aimed directly at Raine's head for all of half a second before he quickly bent his elbow aiming it at the ceiling. "You know, you really shouldn't sneak up on people when we're being boarded, it's bad f..."

He was cut off as a bolt of blaster fire ripped past his nose, almost taking off his face. His right leg jutted out as his left bent, bringing him to half his height as a volley of fire ripped through the space his head had occupied just moments before.

Another pirate's leering face was hanging from the ducting that his friend had died in before. He didn't last long, however, as a high caliber bullet ripped through his body, leaving a bloody mess hanging from the duct work.

Killik decided he had just about enough of that and pulled a thermal detonater from his vest as he ran toward the ducting before anyone else could show their faces. Once there he could see the slight glow of super heated metal, where a tubule had cut through the hull and injected itself into the ship, and, by the glow of the metal, he could see at least one more pirate climbing down. Unfortunately the pirate saw him as well.

Killik's back hit the ground as the thermal detonater flew into the duct just as more blaster fire erupted outward, charring the floor and burning away bits of mangled pirate. The volley ended, however, as soon as a slight metallic 'ting' could be heard from deep within, followed by a muffled, "Oh shit!" and the sounds of many feet scrambling.

"GET DOWN!" Killik shouted to Raine as he rolled over onto his stomach, and, in another second purifying flames burst from the duct, blowing apart a section of the inner wall and the tubule, and disintegrating the corpses of the dead pirates.

The Namkin stood and brushed himself off. "Now then, as I was saying... it's bad form to sneak up on someone while they're being boarded."

Raine ducked behind the corridor's riveting as the thermal detonator went off, blasting a large chunk out of the boarding tubule.

"Well, Killik, had I said anything, you'd be just as itchy. Besides, there's a low probability that you'd shoot me, as I'm not the normal pirate stature. Now, I might inform you that reactor room 3 is being breached..." Raine said matter-of-factly, peeking around the corridor doorway she was hiding behind to see a pirate walking through the airlock access behind Killik. Raine rotated her flechette rifle's sling to rest the stock on her hip, aimed down the hallway and sqeezed the trigger. The weapon's moderately loud discharge almost drowned out the sounds of the pattern's edge flechettes richocheting off the sides of the corridor, punctuated by a high pitched, liquid scream from the pirate as the little darts found him and tore up his insides.

"Damn, I love this gun..." Raine sighed, flipping it back up over her shoulder and pumping the action.

"Well, we should get to engineering before we lose power." She said to Killik, pointing down the corridor behind her, "That way. You take point, I'll cover the rear."

Killik did an acrobatic manuever known as a 'kip' to come to his feet, elevating his legs and then flipping them down with enough force to throw his entire body into an upright position, even as his arm reached into his vest for another detonator. He clicked the button and hurled it with all of his strength, which was, admittedly, somewhat lacking for a human of his physical condition, but it was enough to send it through the airlock. This was, of course, followed by him running for the first time since he'd gotten up that day, as he didn't have much time to get around the corner before another explosion ripped through the hallway.

With the second line of attack in that hallway taken care of Killik looked over Raine. "Well... I was going to go to the ramp and do a little counter boarding, but I suppose I'll take care of the reactor core first... how long do we have to get there? I despise running."

"How fast can you run?" Raine said jokingly to Killik, then quickly regained composure, "Approximately 2 minutes. Down the hall, slide down the laddershaft, engineering should be close by." She said quickly, adding, "Oh, and do you really have to blow up the whole ship just to kill a few pirates?"

Raine dashed down the corridor to the laddershaft, checked the surrounding area for pirates, and punched in the lock-release codes, opening the door. She waved for Killik to hurry up, who was obviously not kidding about despising running.

"Technically? No, I don't have to blow up the whole ship, but it's faster and easier than shooting them all individually," Killik responded as he finally broke into a run after Raine finally signalled him to hurry.

It didn't take him long to arrive once he decided to move quickly, as that the entire Namkin race was built for speed. He might have even been able to win a few medals in human track competitions if he weren't a wanted criminal.

He looked down the shaft for a moment, and then pulled out another thermal. "There might be a few pirates down there already. Maybe I should clear the area just to make sure..." he said with an expression on his face that was half kidding and half what you'd expect to see on a child's face on the Fourth of July as they watched the fireworks.

"Two tubules are down. Explosions." Robert reported, which made sense, since the ship had shuttered several times over the past two minutes. "The reactor tubule is latched, but it's still sniffing around for a good opening. I'd say another minute and it'll be venting scum into reactor room three."

Adam frowned at the news and at the readouts he was getting around the internal structure of the ship. It had all been reading as 'green' at the beginning of the encounter, but the parts of the hull once connected to the destroyed tubules and their related internal structures were turning amber. "How we doing, JEN?"

"I have eliminated six hundred firewalls. But the crew of the Behemoth is actively trying to impede my progress now, their encryption modifications are increasing per unit time."

"Keep trying, you might get lucky. Rob, any luck getting through that force field with the sensors?"

Robert shook his head. "No, but just so you know, the tubule on Deck 1 just latched, it'll be ripping through the airlock in about twenty seconds."

"I've already locked down Deck 1, they have a lot of stuff to blast through before they can reach us." Adam looked back down at his console. The sensor sweeps on the invading pirates were finished. Most of them looked to be cannon fodder, unarmoured, equipped with basic weapons. As much as that comforted Adam, there was an element that worried him. How did a bunch of half-naked pirates commandeer a Behemoth?. Many of the life signs started to drop around Killik and Raine. Adam smirked, then started focusing the sensor power on tracking the movement of all the pirates near their position.

Jim had never been one for defending onboard the ship. Jeremy had stopped the entry at the boarding ramp, and had headed back to the ship. When the nearest tube thing burned through, Jim went into it.

The pirate coming from the other end found himself exiting the tube the way he came, while his companions attempted to close the hatch to it, Jim quickly fired his coilshot. It's micro pincers clung to the wall, providing a grip that couldn't be broken, even if pulled on by a speeding fightership. With twist of his wrist, the coilshot pulled back in the line, propelling him into the room just in time as the hatch closed behind him.

There were four pirates awaiting him, excluding the unlucky sob who had been on the recieving end of a carefully aimed ricochet shot of the Jacori Shotgun. A direct shot would have shredded him, and there was still a chance the ricochet did kill him.

As they pulled out their guns Jim butted a human female to his left with his shotgun. A heavybuilt male friend of hers came to give James a flying tackle, which he quickly sidestepped and gave a swift kick to the pirate in the ribs. As the Female managed to get away, a Sleat (Reptillian humanoid) pulled out a heavy custom weapon and fired thick hot beams of plasma at Jim.

Quickly, Jim put a leg on a nearby control panel and kicked off of it to leap above the bursts and fired his shotgun at the Sleat's feet. the Sleat jumped back to avoid losing his scaly legs. Jim was quick to roll as he landed, as the fourth companion, a small person covered entirely in a silk cloak except for it's eyes, let loose with a small energy pistol that shot small bullets of energy.

Jim rolled underneath the shots and ripped the gun from the cloaked figure, and gave it a sweeping kick the legs. The heavybuilt pirate at this time had gotten back up and grabbed Jim buy the back of his armor and threw him back at the hatch, where he hit the metal hard.

As the Heavybuilt Male, and the Sleat came towards him with their weapons in hand, Jim put his shotgun into his left hand while his right whipped out his Viridian burner. The two stopped, but before they could do anything, the spread of the sweeping lazer made waves of hit rock them backwards. The Sleat's scaly skin got a little red from the heat, but it managed to get away from the scorching death. But the man handn't been as lucky, as his armor, clothes, and skin had been set aflame by the burner. The man flailed around under the pain of his flesh burning, and Jim took that opening to charge into the man, shoving him out the door and into the hallway. He slammed the man into the wall, and leapt back, patting the fire off of his own arms.

As the man fell to the floor and rolled on the ground, the other three followed into the hallway. Jim took a quick look at his surroundings. The Behemoth was a rustbucket, with broken cieling tiles, bleeding rust walls, and pipes that leaked water and coolants. Obvioiusly having such a meager crew to such a large ship was to blame.

Jim put away the burner and pumped his shotgun. The three crewmates looked at their burning comrade, and at Jim and the cocky grin stretched across his face. The Sleat readied it's gun.

<Okay... I need a nonlethal solution to this dilemma... think... think... Sleat, shotgun, crappy Behemoth, loose floor tile, pirate chick, burning guy, Sleat, burning guy, shotgun, floor tile, pirate chick, SLeat floortile shotgun... Hmm... Floortile Shotgun Sleat?>

James leapt to the right side of the hallway, and the Sleat opened fire. With a kick of his foot, Jim sent a loose armored floortile into the air which was sent spinning a by the plasma beams. But a quick movement by Jim made this chunk come flat against the barrel of the shotgun, and another quickmovement of his trigger finger sent the tile at the Sleat. The Sleat was beaned smacked in the head by the tile, hit the opposite wall, and crumpled.

The Pirate Woman and Cloaked figure looked at each other, at their burning and out cold muscle, and started running down the hallway. Jim let them go, and gave a swift kick to the head of the now slightly smoking heavybuilt pirate.

"Looks like I'm in the belly of the Behemoth now, Jam."

Jam peeked out of a front pocket of Jim's armor. "Nah. Mow! It ve like zee Colon!"

Julice was doing much more running than gunplay, heading for each new duct as she was fed information on intruding targets. When she got to a duct, she cleared what she could, then raced to the next closest breach. She only had reloaded once during the whole encounter, and a lot more of her running required her to leap over bodies, all of them with one or two bullet wounds, usually in the face or torso. Julice wasn't taking prisoners but she was taking body count. Already, eight intruders had fallen to her assault. Once the worst of it was over, she'd consider taking one or two of them alive.
Oh, well. At least I'm getting a helluva workout.

After checking an information kiosk in one of the hallways, Raze'el made his way to the engine room, taking a shortcut through a service tube there.

***

He arrived just a minute later at an airduct, just above the upper catwalk in the room. Peeking out the grating, he spotted three in the room: one woman on a lower level, one human male trying to get into the engine, and one more male on the upper level. With his face devoid of emotion, he quietly opened the hatch and slid down, landing silently behind the man on the upper catwalk. He seemed to be trying to access one of the control panels up there, probably helping his friend out.

Not for long, though.

Raze'el simply walked up behind him, clicked the safety back off his gun, and fired a round through the man's skull before he could react. As the man fell over the railing and to the floor below, Raze'el held the gun up to the ceiling and stood confidently overlooking the lower area, watching as his two friends spun to look up in shock. "Not much for strategy, are ya boys?"

The man quickly pulled a blaster and fired, but Raze'el simply stood as the bolts flew past him, and sidestepped calmly behind a pillar to his left. The bolts zinged past and hit the pillar uselessly, as he stood with his gun lowered and patiently waited for his chance. With his head turned to the left a bit he listened to the gunfire, and heard it move a bit to his left, so the man could get a better firing sight. He also knew the female would be moving to his right, to outflank him.

Three... two... one... quickly and easily he stepped forward and strafed to the side, walking so far that there was metal grating floor between him and man now. He couldn't get off a shot. Frustrated, the pirate rushed up a flight of stairs towards him, while the female ran up the other other flight and hurried up to the second deck... where she found just the other pirate looking at her, also dumbfounded.

They shrugged at each other, and then that's when a leg erupted from a nearby crate, cracking her in the jaw and sending her out onto the floor. The pirate raised his gun again and ran over to engage, moving off to the side. He circled about the crate, moving slowly once he got close, and kicked it once when nothing moved.

He checked his gun again and waited. Still nothing. He kicked it again, and then fired a couple rounds into the metal, moving around to the other side to look at the opening.

But as he looked inside at nothing, that's when Raze'el erupted from another supply crate to the pirate's left, and tackled him to the floor. The blaster fell away from the pirate's hands as the woman started to come to again, while Raze'el punched the guy solidly in the jaw and then dragged him up on his knees, standing up behind him with an iron grip on the man's hair. The guy's arms went up in the air a bit as if to protest, but Raze'el shot him in the back of the head and threw his body down on the ground, that one taken care of.

He only got a second to gloat though, as the woman then hit him over the head from behind with a box, sending him rolling on the floor. He ducked as he rolled though and stood again, watching as the box fell to the floor and she assumed a fighting stance. His gun was in his right hand, and he was ready to brawl too, hovering with his free hand ready to grapple as they stared off. For a second this lasted, until she stepped forward and high kicked, then spun and leapt up in the air with a kick from the other leg, both of which missed him as he leaned away. She then landed and gave him a few missed chops and another roundhouse, but it was the final backhand chop that finally caught him across the face as he stood up from a duck.

He backed away smarting, and put his free hand to his cheek as she smiled. "Now I make it a policy never to harm a lady..."

"Really?" she asked, just before leaping at him again with another high kick.

He blocked it though, grabbing her leg, and forced her back to the ground where he then slapped her hard across the temple with the butt of his pistol. At this time Killik and Raine finally made it into the room, and saw as he blocked the kick, then knocked her cold and stood over her body.

"But if you insist," he told her, sneering.

He heard footsteps behind him and turned then, seeing the two of them enter. Composing himself, he walked over and down the stairs towards them. "This room is clean."

(OOC: Should we take a count of who we've taken out so far? If there's a given number of enemy pirates, then we might end up fighting more than there actually were. Though one could suppose that a ko'ed pirate may get back up and run to another spot for another beating)

Jim walked down a dark hallway in the ship, in utter silence. The sounds of the ship being attacked didn't reach here. Jim was looking to see if he could find the Ship's control room, and from there he could release the tractor beam and possibly any other locks that hampered the rest of his shipmate's easy escape. Jam had supplied Jim with a map, but sadly since Jam didn't know how or care to use a standard printer or holo-visual display, he used crayons.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y25...ne/jamsmap.png

Thus, Jim's dillemma. He decided that the direction the Woman and the Cloaked figure took must lead to the control room. As for the other things, he thought it best to ignore them. What jam says is in there and what really is in there is all up to jam's perspective. Like a room full of widdle puppies is a room full of genetically engineered Bio-Cerberuses.

At the end of the hall, he found another door but this one led into wide open room that Jam hadn't decided to put in. Or Jam didn't care to make his map ratio wise. It was dark within the room, but he could barely see that it had boxes and lockers and various vehicles within it. He couldn't see an exit, or the pirates he had chased, until someone else turned on the lights. And revealed the Pirate woman from before standing behind a large stationary chaingun turret. The doors behind Jim closed shut.

"Welcome to the Freight elevator." The woman said with mock courtesy. "What? No elevator music?"

The woman hit the trigger and the chaingun began to spin.

"Jam, get this elevator going up!" Jeremy yelled as he dove behind some cover.

"Meorry Jimmy! I don't know where the button is! And ONly i get to push the button! ME! ME! MEow!"

"Bugger." The chaingun's bullets tore through the locker he hid behind like a hot knife through butter, as Jim hopped behind a vehicle used for heavy lifting.

<This is going to be difficult...wonder how everyone else is doing?>