"I dabble." Raine said slyly, "I might as well, seeing as I'm wanted now." As she observed Killik work his makeshift thermal-launcher. "Clever, and one must also remember that themal detonators employ a very unique polarized ray shield the moment before they detonate, focusing the entire destructive capability of the weapon into a perfect sphere around the warhead. Essentially, they only destroy what they're rated to destroy, and any residual backlash is only one-sixteenth the intensity of the original blast, as the shield fails halfway though." Raine's smile turned to a grin and she enjoyed educating Killik on the physics behind thermal detonators.

"Oh, I wasn't expecting to take any prisoners, or be taken prisoner myself." Raine said, as she grabbed a nearby service stepstool to gain access to the boarding tubule, "Extreme prejudice is the way to go, in my opinion..."

Her eyepiece readout device blinked to life as a new message popped up on priority channel omega. Adam had apparrently managed to have JEN hack into the Behemoth's tubule control devices.

"Hey Killik, JEN's taken control of the tubule control center. We can ride this boarding tube to another position on the Behemoth, specifically to go bail Jim out, he seems to be in trouble."

Killik nodded back toward Raine, and drew his other gun, scuttling around in front of her, to sit by the entryway of the tubule, so he'd be ready wherever they latched on. "Alright, but tell him not to put us right on top of any enemy pirates. These tubules are nice for navigation, but they aren't the best place to be in a fire fight..."

Adam moved all eight concussion rifles behind the bulky hologrid station Robert was occupying while they waited for the Behemoth's force field to start another field cycle. Thirty seconds after sending the message to Raine, the next update of the Behemoth schematic arrived.

"Raine and Killik are waiting in the tubule, I think that's an assumed subscription for the ride. Jim is still in the same room, still dealing with some hostiles. The two pirates guarding the Behemoth bridge look to be armoured, that or they're androids. Bridge is still locked down, I can't even read the life signs in there anymore." Robert reported as Adam watched the picture unfold on the hologrid.

"I now have control of the Behemoth's Tactical Siege Secondary System. Ten Sniffer Tubules are at my command."

Adam couldn't help but let loose a childish grin as he stared at the hologrid. "Carefully, seal up the tubule Raine and Killik are in, take them to..." He examined the hologrid, looking for a relatively safe spot near Jim and the bridge. "There. Deck Two. Try to keep the tubule level. Can it penetrate the force field?"

"The system would be essentially useless if it could not."

"All right. Do that. That means we've got nine more tubules laying around? Well, we should put them to good use. Robert, can the sensors tell us where their power source is coming from yet?" Adam asked.

"Well, not exactly. But logically the reactor is near the engines, and they would be on a lower deck at the back of the vessel." Robert answered.

"Ok Rob, grab a rifle, set it to the highest level of stun. I don't want blood on my hands, but I'd like to knock the pirates out in one blow." He paused, then returned to his pilot console with a rifle in hand. "JEN, think you could give me a quick tutorial on shutting down reactors using plasma ejecting tubules without causing a meltdown?"

"The specifics of such a venture would vary from ship to sh-"

"Ok, ok. Don't take the time to explain it to me, just aim all nine of those tubules at the ship's power arrays. Don't aim directly at the reactor, just take out junctions that would feed to the rest of the ship."

"Such as the bridge, and the docking bay force fields?"

"Precisely."

As Jim walked back to the elevator and jam whistled a Jimi hendrix song, He suddenly became aware of a strange vibration fillling the corridor. The floor tiles shook and popped off the floor and the sound of bending metal was heard. Looking to his left, he saw a red spot on the wall that seemed to be growing.

Suddenly, Jim realized what it was just as the tubule burnt through the wall, causing him to jump back to avoid being melted with the wall.

Jeremy readied his gun as the hatch of the Tubule opened up...

((Hey, I'm using as much plain english as humanly possible. Though I am eager for the time when we'll go to a virtual world and someone will portray Sherlock Holmes like Data. Or that whole gender bender thing. And when we meet an advance superlifeform that can bend time and space on a whim. And when we blow up the ship to close a wormhole that would pull an alternate universe into ours that ultimately destroy space time itself, but after doing so we are also sent through space-time to a dimension where our ship is a long abandoned ship in the midst of a Ship Graveyard, which we fix and carry on like normal in a universe where the first man on moon tripped and fell over a cloaked alien, thus introducing mankind to the universe earlier, and therefore the Reliance is a benevolent space democracy, and everyone we knew from the original dimension is now opposite handed and possibly of the opposite gender.))

(( I never thought I'd say this, but this RP's technobabble is much worse than Star Trek's ever was... @_@ ))

(OOC: The only 'wacky' chapter I have planned in advance involves jumping and...you'll see, but I just remembered that every space opera involves some form of alternate dimension so I'll plan for that one...anyways, CelesJessa wants to hop in so I'm going to try and get this chapter over with...)

Artemis walked through the Behemoth's halls, turning without warning down the vast corridors, the lights around him dimming as he walked past them only to return to their luminesence as the Slee's homemade elecronic dimmer passed its range.
Suddenly Artemis stopped. He happened to stop in front of a very large and imposing door. He spoke to no one.
"Is Jorda behind this door JEN?"
"Yes. How did you know I had taken over the A.I.?"
"Because I built you. Now, open a comlink." A inlaid wall screen slid out and fizzled to life, showing a frightened and disheveled man. Artemis imagined all the reports coming in, of their captives striking back and the ship being operated by hands beyond their control. Artemis's vision of pirates had been based on prolonged contact with Killik, and Jorda was no Killik, probably a man who assumed that those with bigger ships ruled space. "Jorda, please open up and submit."
"Who ARE you people!"
"People like you, just smarter. Call your men off, apologize, permanently lend us some of your stolen equipment and it'll be even."
"Are you with the Reliance? Is that it, some sort of plainclothes with orders to kill?"
"Jorda, you picked the wrong ship to mess with. Take the remains of your crew and call it a day."
"You'll never take me you Reliance pigs."
Artemis sighed. He took a small disk out of his pocket and disconected the comlink. He opened his mouth but first stepped to the side of the doorway. "JEN, open the door."
As the metal blockade slid away the area immediatly in front of it became riddled with gunfire. Artemis bent down and pressed the disk to the floor, flicking it under the gunfire into the room. Pressing a button on his person he listened to the interior sounds as the gun stopped repeating and the crys of pain took over.
Surveying the room Artemis noted the amount of stolen goods around. He bent down and snatched the disk up, returning it to its home. Below him Jorda rolled around, clutching his slightly steaming hands. "It's intended to painlessly remove a gun from the owner, both sides left unharmed...just never got that painless part down."
Two small metal links were drawn from another pocket and attatched to the pirate's wrists. A small beam of light shone forth after Artemis checked them. "These will be time-released. JEN, another comlink please."
Artemis stepped in front of the wall pane and set it for widespread transmission. "Attention all non-Killik pirates, I have your leader. Please stand down because I am now authorizing all my crew to feel free to use lethal force if they desire. Also, don't stop us if we take some of your fighter ships, its only fair."
Pleased Artemis strode back to his ship. He didn't like using Reliance fight training but it came in handy for subduing unlikeables sometimes. As he passed through the cargo bay he got to thinking about the Reliance and sat in his rooms, mulling over the situation. Even though Jorda was down the fighting wouldn't stop immediatley, plus the loading up of the fighters, so he had time.
"JEN, give me a full report of Jorda and the top members of his crew, sorted by Reliance bounty."

Half a ship away, the woman came to again on the floor, finally.

Moaning at her particularly large headache, she looked up to see Raze'el calmly playing with a coin in his fingers. "You the kind of man to kick a woman when she's down?"

He smirked at her, and kept playing with the coin. "You the kind of woman to just give up when you're beat?"

"What are you people, anyway? Reliance?" she asked, sitting up against a box nearby.

"Hardly. But perhaps you could make this worth our while... any bounties? Supplies we can... 'borrow indefinitely'?"

She chuckled sarcastically. "One pirate robbing another?"

"Well, they say there's no honor amongst thieves."

"Like turning over a fellow thief to the Reliance?"

Raze'el shrugged. "I'm a businessman."

She scoffed, and spit in his direction, "Some business you run. And you ain't hearin' 'bout no bounties from me."

He looked at her curiously, tilting his head to the side. "Perhaps. But I noticed your ship is equipped with sensor jamming equipment..."

She looked him up and down, her eyebrows furrowing up. "No way!"

"It's either that..." He shrugged again, stopping with the coin and clutching it in his palm. "Or the Reliance."

He looked over her countenance again... a curious creature she was, he recognized the species: Altarian. Her skin mottling was pleasingly decorative, outlining her facial features up towards her ears, pointed and intricate. She had her hair up in a high ponytail, but it didn't disguise the fact it was long and quite wavy. He paused as he looked at her response, watching her glance down at the thought of imprisonment. From the way she did that too, it seemed she might've been there before... "It would be a shame if I had to resort to that option."

She looked up at him with a glare, and huffed. "What do you want with sensor jamming arrays?"

He just smirked at her again. "That's none of your business."

Raine held her gun over Killik's shoulder, hoping to lend him a little fire support should the two enter into a less-than-plesant area of the Behemoth's launch bay. The plasma cutter read 95% completion when the pull plating fell away, revealing... Jam. Jim too, but Jam was the more dire threat, in Raine's opinion.

"How iz zee tube, ah?" The AI asked, in his own impish way.

"Bearable, unlike you." Raine replied, "Allright Killik. lets get out of this thing... Looks like the ship is ours."

Jim smiled at the banter between his cat and his fellow crewmembers. "We've won? Already? Bummer." Jim remarked at Raine's news. "Well, anyways guys I kinda need to pickup some weapons I dropped in the lift elevator, I'll help you take the fighter ships in a se..." Jim cut off as he turned to see a lone shadowy figure with a hood.

"You may have taken my captain, but a warrior of the Degrakhan never surrenders!" The figure pulled out two sword handles, that had no blade. Before any of the group could say anything about them however, he flicked a switch on both. The dark launchbay became filled with the glow of two plasma swords, or as Jim put them: Beamsabers.

"Is he wielding what I think he's wielding?" JIm asked in disbelief to Killik.

Julice frowned, halfway down a stairwell. "Damn, we got the whole attack wave already? I thought at least a few more would come through the ducts."
Julice pressed a button which connected her to the other pilots. "Clarentino here. The ducts are secured but I kinda went overboard and capped all of my enemies. Sorry...oh, and where do you guys want me now?"

"Yeah. Plasma swords..." Raine interjected, "Type III Degrakhan-Arms Inc. Beam-Reavers, to be exact. All flash and no class."

The gloaming unslung her flechette cannon and popped the trigger, firing a deadly pattern of eternium-durasteel flechettes at the oncoming warrior, who now, was well within the weapon's effective kill-range.

((I'll let you post to see if he gets disorganed' or not by that nasty weapon of Raine's.))
((To Down: Uh. He reflected a shotgun-esque blast of non-energy weaponsfire with a plasma sword? Impressive.))

The warrior managed to block the shots with his first blade, and the returned to Killik, Raine, and Jim who simply sidestepped them with ease. But the second blade didn't get any use, as it had been unable to block and the hand that held it cut off. The Warrior looked at the stub and screamed bloody murder, quite unlike a warrior of the sect he claimed to belong to.

"Sweet bloody hell! It hurrrrtttsss!"

The crewmembers watched in shock at the lack of toughness the warrior had seemed to have.

(I'm tempted to have Jam go Darth Vader on him, but I'm going to use self control. Maybe.)

(( That is impressive, to block flechette with a sword (even if it did still take off one hand)... h'ain't'cha played Unreal Tournament son? ;) ))

(Maybe the plasma melted and destroyed the flachette?) Killik twirled his energy gun and put it to the back of the so-called pirate's head. "Goodnight sunshine." The trigger depressed and in a blast of light and energy the warrior's head exploded outward.

The pirate then spun his gun again and leaned down to pick up the plasma weapons. "I always have wanted one of these..." He obviously didn't see any problem with ending the man's life. "Anyway, I say we call a ship conference and decide what we're going to do with our new property... my vote is we sell this hunk of junk after we take anything we can use from it, and leave the surviving pirates at the next station we go to."

((Hey, I've played Unreal tournament, but you'll notice he didn't block all of them, and lost a hand. Beamswords block everything! EVERYTHING!))

"Hey, I wanted one too... I've been wanting one ever since I watched that Quantum Saber Z cartoon series." Jim's mind returned to his younger days, which were also merely 4 days ago.

"Well I can't see any use for this hunk of junk, so I say we either let this ship go, or sell it. Either way, We're taking what we need!"

(( "EVERYTHING", you say! ))

Raze'el got tired of waiting after working out an "agreement" with the woman, and took out a commpiece, keeping his eyes trained firmly on her the entire time. "Raze'el to Captain Artemis... is it safe for me to assume the situation has been taken care of by now?"

"One moment, Gentlemen. Those are plasma swords." Raine interjected.

"So?" The two almost simultaneously replied.

"Well, 95% of plasma swords incorporate DNA encryption on their hilts, so that the weapons only activate for their weilder." Raine explained, "Luckily, it's not hard to reprogram, given a little work, and some knowlege of the system. I could do it in a few hours."

"Hostiles eliminated. The complement of remaining pirates on the Behemoth are standing down." JEN reported to the bridge.

Adam finished binding the last pirate's hands with durasteel cuffs. As expected, they were not overly competent, they just had lots of explosives. Robert had one hell of a shot too, they were down in a matter of seconds after the last blast door went down.

"Ok JEN, you can unlock the ship now, specifically Deck 1." Adam said.

"The Behemoth is standing down, its docking bay forcefields are offline. Communications and full sensor sweeps are possible now."

"Right. Whatever. I'll be in my quarters." Adam said bluntly, then left the bridge without another word.

Robert watched Adam wander off the bridge. Shrugging, he settled back into one of the seats, his rifle lazily trained on the bound pirates.

"I guess I'm on guard duty," he smiled to himself and settled back to wait for the results of the engagement to get all sorted out.

"JEN?"

"Yes?"

"What now?" his tone was quiet, but JEN picked up his question anyway.

"That is not my decision. I would recommend damage control as first priority." came the reply.

"Alright. Keep me posted," with that, Robert went back to watching the prisoners.

----

OOC: I'm back from cottage country. My thanks to Azisien for handling Robert in my absence, and, more importantly, for not turning Rob into a woman.

Julice set down the final bundle of weapons and other objects gathered in a special room where they pieced apart these things to find useful stuff and remove the traps you'd sometimes find on weapons. In Julice's experience, some weapons had traps. If someone attempted to use the weapons or disassemble them for good parts, the weapons could do such things as electrocute the victim or even detonate. Julice had heard about one time where a Clarentino member used a detonation failsafe on a gun to kill a target that apparently was good at running and hiding, but wasn't too bright. Instead of being baited into foolishness, the member set her weapon down as though she had dropped or discarded it, and the weasel took to the gun like a mouse to cheese. A few seconds later and boom, no more weasel. The member was reprimanded for using the gun that way, but only lightly. Getting the job done was more important.
After setting the devices into the room, Julice went to the medical bay and picked up some equipment. By the time she got to the others, they would most likely be done, so she decided to go ahead and take care of some of the post-conflict stuff. She then trekked from duct to duct, using the equipment to run identification checks on the bodies. This wasn't exactly her job, but they weren't a large crew, either. She was concerned mostly with collecting DNA samples, fingerprints, and if these guys had identification chips installed, those were even more practical as evidence. Chances are that at least a few if not half of the enemy crew had bounties on their heads. Turning them over alive paid more, but they were not without value if killed. Julice figured they wouldn't get much for the bounties on all of these dead lowlifes, but every Federation Credit counted. She wondered if they should keep the bodies as well, but it was probably stupid. After DNA samples, fingerprint samples, and extracting chips from their brains, the bodies were just confirming what was already obvious.
"Let's see...get identification on the invasion force, secure the armaments and devices, and map out the opposing ships..."
JEN did a lot of the work in these cases. When you got identification of the bodies and the captives, it was JEN who crosschecked their records in her database to find matches which would get them money from possible bounties. When it came to breaking down the guns, it was JEN that operated most of the machinery that got the job done. When it came to mapping out the ships, JEN downloaded herself into their onboard network and mapped it out for them. She was very efficient and should have a full report on everything by tomorrow if not tonight, but there were some things JEN simply couldn't do, which meant Julice worked to handle it on her own.
"If they're going to save the bodies, then we'll need to use the morgue on their ships as well as our own. I'm pretty sure we'll just dump the bodies into space." Julice moved from duct to duct and from body to body, using the equipment to get identification. On a hunch, she even collected her own biological data. JEN could tell her how big the bounty was on her head later.

"...So we have an agreement officer?" Artemis stared at the commander on the other end of the link. He was shuffling and trying to give Artemis a death glare, par for the course in this type of situation. Of course, he wasn't glaring down Artemis persay, as JEN had concealed their location and was currently masking his true form.
"It seems we do...I'm sending a pickup crew now."
"No need for that, I'll have their, excuse me, your ship jumped over right after the end of this delightful conversation. And after the money is wired to my account."
"Naturally..." The sneer on his face attempted to support the glare in his eyes but managed to create a vision of the extreme discomfort one gets after eating bad seafood.
"Very well, nice doing business, keep up the good work and all that." And he shut off the comlink and sat down, breathing heavily, every breath strengthening the teal tint of his skin.
"What you just did isn't illegal you know. Reliance Sub-command 17BreakerOONiner, under paragraph 12 sentence A."
Nobody, not even the people who had named it, called it that. It had a much simpler clause: Finders-Keepers. It was the Reliance fail-safe. If planets knew that just normal people were capable of taking down criminals, why have a bloated bueracratic uppity private corporation? So the Reliance offered its own bounties, usually at one and a half times the tue bounty.
Of course, since there was about as much honor among thieves as collectively shared finances, the majority of those that utilized Finders-Keepers were bounties themselves turning in the underlings or bosses they couldn't stand anymore, which is why JEN also had to have their location scrambled. The Reliance currently had a full capture force sent after Artemis's hometown.
"Yeah, yeah I know. Ya know, we're really good at this, taking down other bad guys." Artemis said absentmindedly. "I don't think we should seek them out, but if we see a ship with some really bad people it couldn't hurt...to...I dunno..."
"Forcefully board their ship, take any supplies we need and cart them to the Reliance?"
"Well...that's a bit too mechanical..."
"Much like Jorda and his crew would have done to us?"
Artemis didn't dignify the snarky comment with a comeback, instead pressing the intercom system now connected to the Behemoth. "We'll be leaving in 15 minutes, cart...claim whatever you want and get on the ship or be left behind."

Killik tossed both the plasma blade hilts to Raine and shrugged as Artemis came over the intercom. "Thanks. Reconfigure one of them for me... I guess he can have the other... I'm heading back to my room. I'm sure most of the good stuff has been taken already..." And with that he turned around and started walking, but he stopped after a couple of steps. "Oh yah, and Raine, sorry that there wasn't a whole lot of action this time. I'll try to teach you a bit more about pirating next time the opportunity arises. For now, rule 53, pirates are notoriously lazy... but we never leave behind valuable goods. Help me load up all their fighters into our ship if I'm still down there when you're done here, alright?"

He started walking once more, waving over his shoulder as he headed toward the docking bay, and the waiting ships, which, to Killik, were little more than giant piles of credits.

Raze'el raised an eyebrow after a long pause. Artemis hadn't answered him.

"We'll be leaving in 15 minutes, cart...claim whatever you want and get on the ship or be left behind."

"Hm. I suppose that answers my question."

"So what about me?" the woman asked, then got up on her knees to face him. "You're just turning me over like that, huh?!"

"Shut up," he ordered, shoving the commpiece back into his pocket. He then stepped over and hoisted her to her feet by an elbow, and started dragging her out the room. "You're going wherever we say you're going after you get done pulling your sensor jamming array."

"Why, you--!"

"Yeah, yeah."