Geoff didn't pause at all, even as Charlie tried to stop him. He just pulled her along with him until she let go. He wasn't going to stop. He had to go help Lei. Had to! "Ain't gonna go on no rope!! Gonna go straight in through those gorram guards!!", he called over his shoulder as he headed in the direction of the boat,"Sayin' tha...that, ya should be stayin' here, Charlie. It's gonna get messy..."

With that, he continued towards the boat with his shaky and ambling stride, stumbling in his drunkeness every so often but always continuing onwards. When he got to the planking that led up to the boat, he just walked on forward. He wasn't going to stop for anything and that included any guards in his way.

Oddly enough the two guards that had stopped Charlie and Geoff earlier were no longer there.  They walked right up the gangplank and onto the boat unhindered.  As they stepped onto the deck Geoff scanned both directions.  One of the windows leading into the grand ballroom was open and he could have sworn he saw someone slipping through it ... although it could have been the drunken haze.

The window however was far to small for him to pass through.  A few feet to his left was a door ... three very large, and heavily armed figures stood with their back to him, blocking the doorway.  They each had their guns out and aimed inside. Screams could still be heard from the room that lay beyond although they were beginning to die down.  A loud mans voice could be heard barking out orders.

Inside the ballroom the atmosphere was that of general chaos.  At nearly every window and at all the doors were men in dark masks wearing black gloves.  The man who had spoken earlier stood at the front of the room atop the gilded stairwell.  He was still speaking as the rest of the men herded the parties guests into the center of the ballroom.  All crammed together like sheep in a pen.

"Here's what's going to happen." the man said in his deep booming voice.  "Yer all gonna shut the hell up first..." he waited a moment, a woman literally draped in pearls was hit harshly by one of the men with the back of his gun.  She let out one last squeal before the entire room fell silent ... these men obviously meant business. "Thank you." the man said, "Now, my friends here are gonna be comin' 'round.  You will all kindly give them yer account access codes and transfer all of your funds into our account.  Ya'll do just as yer told an' no one gets hurt.  Step a toe outta line an' well ... I'll get ta have a lil' fun." he laughed then and his laugh was frightening to all in attendance.

A few of the men then took out portable tablets and began working their way through the room.  One man would hold a gun to the guests head while the other walked them through the process of emptying their account.  They moved quickly and efficiently.

Kale looked up as he heard the crash of glass and screams and men in dark masks began flooding the room.  This was not good, not good at all.  "Gorram hell," he muttered, "Nothin' can ever go smooth, not ever." he said.  Just when he thought he was about to get Destiny back ... BOOM, men in masks waving pretty pistols around.  His gaze met Kyoko's as they were herded into the center of hte room with the others.  No one here was fit to deal with these sort of folk.  They were all whimpering and cowering away.

Kale didn't whimper or cower, but he did do what the men said.  Not having much of anything in his account to begin with this really didn't feel like that great of a loss to him.  As long as no one was getting hurt Kale reasoned that this was not his fight.

He looked over to Nadia then, she was grinning delightedly, Kale arched an eyebrow and shook his head ... then his gaze fell onto her father.  His frown was deeper then ever.  The thought crossed Kale's mind that if Mr. Caddigan lost all his money Kale might not be getting Destiny back after all.  As it was though, he was unarmed and greatly outnumbered.  Odds could have been worse ... they normally were.  Kale was a browncoat afterall, to him situations like this were like fighting in the war all over again.  That familiar feeling of looking around, knowing that you had lost before you even made your first move ... and then fighting anyways.  Fighting because that's all you could do.  Fighting because it was the only thing you had left.  Fighting because as long as you still stood - there was hope.

Kale hated that feeling ... and he lived for it.  He began watching the men closely, he really didn't know exactly what he would try to do ... but when then got close to him - something would be done ...

Geoff was partly glad and partly dissapointed that the guards were gone. Now that he had the thought that Lei was alive, his old instinct and joy of violence was coming back to him and he found himself itching for a fight. Especially since it sounded like there was trouble brewing around the place. Trouble and Geoff got along quite well together and he could usually add some of his own when it came right down to it. In fact, he was quite good at stirring up more trouble and took a bit of pride in that fact.

He moved clumsily onto the boat and looked around, trying to figure where to go from here. He noticed the window and thought that he had seen movement, but couldn't be too sure. The drunken haze that troubled and pleased him at the same time made it quite hard to figure if he was seeing straight. What he was quite sure that he was seeing straight was the three heavily armed men with their backs to him. They most definitely didn't belong here and he was pretty sure that they were what had caused the screaming and crashing from before.

If Geoff had been a little less drunk, he might have decided to stop and assess the situation further before making a move. Hell, to be honest, Geoff would have to be a lot less drunk and a bit more smart to do that. He was neither of those things, however, so he did the first thing that came to his mind. He drew both of his pistols and walked right towards the three men, placing his guns to the backs of the skulls of the two men on either side. Geoff did basic math then and came to the conclusion that two guns was not enough to kill three men at once. So, when he pulled the triggers on his two pistols, he also kicked upwards, aiming between the legs of the man in the middle. If he couldn't kill him, he was going to make damn sure that walking, moving and even breathing would be hard for him and a kick to the groin, as ty a move as it may be, is effective.

He smiled and laughed in a bit of a drunken giddiness as he did this. "Whoooo-eeee! You core world fellas sure do know how ta throw a party!!", he exclaimed with a laugh,"So come on then!! Let's party!!"
This message was last edited by the player at 07:39, Sun 02 Apr 2006.

Kyoko arched an eyebrow as she took in the man's demands. Silly fool thought that he could rob them like a back alley credjacker? Each person here had multible codes, redudancies and oversight. For her 'real' monies to be moved would require a vast amount of work, time and a lot more IQ points than these men hand. Still, it would be inconvient, and this fool was quite likely to consider killing them after getting the access numers.

"Sir, I fear you will find the access codes will avail you little. There are multible layers of security to most of the accounts here, far and away you've seized hold of the most securely funds on the planet or in the case of some of us like myself, mere pittances." She smiled as she played up her companion role over her heiress role.

Seeing Kale frown she shook her head and waited for the gun man to respond.

While Geoff had taken off to do his part to find Lei in th ship, Charlie had stayed behind, sitting down at the edge of the pier and looking over the side, keeping her arms wrapped around herself.  She was halfway between sickness and sleep, and it certainly wouldn't do for her to be running around and helping Geoff gun people down...truly, that was the last thing she wanted to be seeing.  It also was contributed by the fact that she wasn't even sure if she could make it up the ramp to the ship, and the thought on being on something that would be constantly moving like that...well, odds are it would be worse than better.  So while the loud noises continued on the boat, Charlie stayed back outside where she was, trying to breathe in the night air and fight off the sensation of nausea...

The man didn't get a chance to respond to Kyoko's comments as just then Geoff came bursting in the room ... literally.  Two men fell to the floor, framing Geoff as he kicked the other man to the ground in front of him.  This attracted no small amount of attention as the entrance he came through was right at the top of one of the grand stairwells leading down into the ballroom.

All eyes swiveled to slight above the man who had been speaking earlier to where Geoff stood, including the eyes of all the gunmen in dark masks.  There were screams echoing through the ballroom at the sound of the gunshots and there stood Geoff grinning, two pistols in hand.  He took a few steps into the room and the man on the stairs looked completely shocked for a few dumbfounded minutes before he shouted, "Well what are you all waiting for?!" he raised his gun to shoot Geoff, as did the man behind Geoff on the second floor of the ballrooms balcony.

Kale looked up with the rest of the room wondering who in their right mind would pull so stupid of a stunt.  His eyes widened as he saw Geoff emerge from the doorway. "Mei Yong Ma Duh Txe Gu Yong!" Kale said as he realized who it was.  What the hell is he doing here? Kale thought.  If he had even been thinking that things weren't going smooth before ... well this took the cake.  The man who seemed to be in charge spoke and raised his gun.

In a second Kale's hand flashed out and twisted the arm of the masked man in front of him.  He heard the sound of the bone break but he didn't give it a second thought as he grabbed the mans gun and fired a shot at the man behind Geoff.  He crumpled into a heap on the ground and Kale took aim at the three other men who were rushing up the stairs to join the first.

"Geoff, I don' even wanna know what yer doin' here!" Kale shouted, as he ran forward, "But we need ta get the hell out!  Kyoko!" he shouted, turning to see where she went.

The ballroom had broken out into sheer pandemonium.  People were running every which way and it was very clear that not all of the masked men were trained to be dealing with a situation like this.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:07, Sun 02 Apr 2006.

"Brently, you and the girls need to leave ahead of us." Kyoko says as shs gestrues for an entrance that leads away from the gunman, "Captain, if you can cover them and I wouldn't mind a sidearm myself either." she says as she bends down to the injured man and frees up his ammo from his belt to help the captain.

Geoff smiled a dumbly amused smile and raised a hand to wave to the captain as he saw him take down another gunman and take his gun. "Well, howdy, Cap'n! Nice ta see ya! Ya likin' yer fancy party?", he said as he stumbled forward and looked over his shoulder to where the captain shot a guy Geof hadn't even noticed,"Nice shot, Cap'n! Didn't even see that guy. I see those fellas though." With that, he lifted his pistols and opened fire on the three men rushing up the stairs.

He shook his head to the captain and shook his head as he said they had to leave. "No way, Cap'n. Can't leave. I saw Lei. Lei's here. Gotta get Lei. She's back from the dead, after all, so I can't be leavin' her behind. Can't. Gotta find her. I know I saw her.", he rambled on with an emphatic nod. It crossed his mind to tell Kale about Rhaef and Wei Li, but that thought soon passed from his mind with the pandemonium that erupted. Not noww. He'd tell him later. Right now it was time to do what he did best. Then he'd find Lei and then he'd tell the captian the bad news.

Kale gritted his teeth ... Geoff was drunk.  He could tell by his manner, but mostly by the fact that a sober Geoff wouldn't have missed a man aiming a gun at him - even if he was sneaking up behind him.  He took out one of the men rushing up the stairs, as Geoff took out the other two.  Then he heard Kyoko's voice behind him.  Good thinking on her part to get the Caddigan's to safety.  This is why he loved his crew.  He quickly elbowed a man that had just managed to throw a punch at him, it had connected solidy with Kale's left cheek, but did little other then piss him off. "Well, now that just wasn't to smart." he commented, then kicked the man in the stomach and wrestled his pistol from him.  Turning around he tossed it to Kyoko.  "Get them out of here, if someone raises a gun at ya, don' hesitate to shoot first." he shouted over the noise.

Then he turned back to Geoff who was doing a fair amount of damage on his own, even drunk.  They were almost right next to each other at this point and Kale was about to yell at him for saying he wasnt' going to try to get out of here when he heard Geoff's reasoning.  "Lei?!  The gorram girl's in here?!" Kale cast a look out over the ballroom.  This was no place for a little girl.  "Okay, we find the girl ... try ta stay alive in the meantime." a few bullets came whizzing by then, just missing the two of them.  "An' let's get off this stairwell, we're like target practice up here." Kale said, and grabbing a little end table that had been holding a very pretty plant he used it as a battering ram to make his way back down the stairwell.

Nadia grinned at Kyoko as Kale tossed her the gun, and then looked around the ballroom, the smile never leaving her face.  "This is by far the most splendid party we've ever been to, wouldn't you agree father?" she said, and then began following Kyoko.

Lei had slipped in through the first available opening to get out of the open ... a decision she was seriously regretting.  As she climbed through the window she found herself in a room full of the bad men.  She was immediately frozen with fear.  She didn't dare even to breathe.

Then she looked up as a very familiar voice began yelling.  "Geoff!" she shouted, but she couldn't be heard over the screams and shouts and gunblasts that were going on all around her.  Plucking up all her courage she began running right through the middle of the battle zone, intent on reaching Geoff, that's all she wanted.  To reach Geoff, Geoff would make it all better.

She ducked around a group of woman dressed in pretty dressed and wondered vaguely where exactly she was and why everyone was dressed up so much.  No one on Destiny ever wore things like that.  All of Lei's senses were peaked.  She could literally hear the sound of the bullets flying through the air and could easily avoid their path's based on that sense alone.  Then she noticed that Captain standing up next to Geoff, he looked angry.  Lei was frightened for a moment, but she didn't think that he was angry with her this time.  And he seemed to be helping Geoff.  "Geoff!" she yelled again, hoping maybe he'd hear her.

Kale managed to push back a few men rushing up the stairs with the table he had grabbed and was soon on the lower level of the ballroom.  Two men were firing at Geoff from the top of the balcony although there were not very good aim.  Geoff figured as long as they were aiming to actually hit him he was pretty damn safe.
The man who seemed to be in charge of this operation as he had been talking earlier had not gone down when Geoff had fired at him.  He had dodged the shot and it had only grazed his arm.  He had however dropped his weapon, this was not stopping him however as he pulled out a blade and threw it.  It landed in Geoff's left shoulder.  He then proceded to punch Geoff in the gut.

On the lower level one of the masked men spun around to find Kyoko and the Caddigan's trying to run out, he raised his gun but then realized that the armed person facing him was a woman ... a very beautiful, well-bred looking woman and he hestitated.

Geoff smiled as the captain said they would stay until they found Lei and he watched as he made his way down the stairs. It never really occured to Geoff that standing around and watching things was probably not a good idea at the moment, considering the shooting and everything going on. At least it didn't occur to him until the shots came from the balcony.

He looked up and shot a few rounds off at the two men when the sound of his name being called reached his ears. The voice was familiar so he looked about for the source of it, hoping that he wasn't just hearing things. "Lei? Lei?!", he called out as he looked about frantically. He couldn't look for long though as a knife thudded into his shoulder and was soon followed by the thrower of the knife slamming his fist into Geoff's gut.

Geoff grunted at the blow and staggered back a bit on his unsteady legs. He caught his balance and glared at the man in front of him them. "You dirty ruttin' bastard!!", he said and charged the man, slamming his shoulder into him and grabbing him in a tackle. This didn't register as a serious lapse in judgement until he realized he was heading down the stairs. He and the man both rolled down the stairs and Geoff landed heavily at the foot of the stairs, losing his grip on his guns as they slid away from him.

Kale felt someone knocking into him as he stood fighting at the base of the stairwell.  That something turned out to be Geoff.  "Ruttin' hell!" Kale yelled, in the moment he took to look over at the two men who were now sprawled on the ground the two men he had been fighting made their move.  One delivered a blow to Kale's head that left his ears ringing while the other disarmed him.  They were now pointing two guns at Kale.  He threw his arms up and began backing up against Geoff.

"Well this is a happy development." Kale said, "Yer gonna wanna be careful there with them pistols, no need fer anyone ta be gettin' trigger happy.  We can settle this all nice an' civil-like, right folks?" he glanced over his shoulder, "Geoff, a lil' help right now would not go amiss."

The man who Geoff had been fighting tumbled down the stairs as well almost landing on top of Geoff at the bottom.  He quickly scrambled to his feet, kicking one of Geoff's pistols away and grabbing the other one up in his right hand.  He pointed it at Geoff.

Both Geoff and Kale were unarmed, and surrounded.

"Ya know, situations like this are just gettin' a mite too familiar fer my liking." Kale commented.

Geoff cursed as he had his own pistol pointed at him. "Didn't nobody ever teach ya not ta take what don't belong to ya?", he remarked as he held his hands up and silently promised that he'd give the man that particular lesson in not messing with another man's guns in the most violent way possible. Well, if he got out of this, he would.

He looked over his shoulder to Kale and gave a short laugh. "Ain't that funny? I was 'bout ta be sayin' the same thing.", he said and then sighed with a shake of his head,"Damn. Ain't this a kick in the head? Looks like the whole crew is gonna end up dyin' on this gorram rock. At least Charlie should still be okay..."

Kyoko shook her head at Nadia. "Not now dear, we can discuss how exciting this is later, AFTER I keep you and your family from being shot." she says as she motions for them to move down the hall and looks to Brently with a warning in her eye. "Let's find you all a stateroom and get you looked in safely." She adds as she keeps watch on the hall as they retreat, the sooner she gets the Caddigan's safely hidden the faster she can go back to save the Captain and his foolish thug.

Rhaef and Wei-Li watched as Lei climbed over the edge of the boat and onto the deck from their spot by the cars.  Looking around Rhaef could see Larry set up on the pier, a hand held computer terminal in his hand which he was working on.  He seemed to have no interest in entering the party with the other members of the Hand.

Charlie stood outside the ship trying to stop the world from spinning all around her.

OOC: Charlie you are at the front entrance of the ship, Rhaef and Wei are going to be coming up along the side, unless you are looking there you won't see them.

Larry stared down at the computer in his hands, a smile crossing his face as he the money began rolling into the account he and Smalls had set up for the Hand.  Larry's job was to quickly transfer the money directly out of that account and into another ... this one untraceable.  Curio would then transfer the money out and into hard cash.  This would be the end of the Burnt Hand.  This was to be their undoing and the rise of a new order.  None of Larry's actual men were inside that party. Most of his men had left headquarters months ago with the exception of the few he had sent on the hospital run, who would be seeking passage off planet as soon as the theft was completed, and Smalls who was busy erasing all record of any of Curio's men from the Hand's database.  It would be a clean sweep.  All those with Curio would bet out scotch free ... the rest would be spending the remainder of their lives in a federal prison.  And finally the 'verse would be a safe place for Curio once more.

As they crept closer to the boat, Rhaef saw a man standing far afield from the others, not getting his hands dirty, "Larry," he hissed. He turned to Wei-Li to see if she was still with him or had pursued Lei, he saw that she was still there and whispered, "Last chance to turn back, and get safe, I wish you would, but I can't make you."

She looks at him and smiles.  "Lei is on that ship-- and two stand a better chance than one"

That was all she said.  That was all that needed to be said.