Kale looked up as the gun spun into his hand with surprise as he saw that Dake was the one that had kicked it towards him.  He'd half expected him to stay out of the fight ... but no, that wasn't Dake, not the Dake that Kale remembered.  The kid that did whatever he could to keep up with Kale and his brother.  The two of them never did give him enough credit.

Kale didn't have time to think on that now though.  He pushed himself up onto his knees and spun around, firing off a shot at the man that he had just knocked to the ground and scrambling to his feet.

Unfortunately for Kyoko, she was now on the ground. Lei had run off, making her attempt seem somewhat foolish. Kyoko felt a mixture of relief that Lei had gotten away and panic as the second man approached her, drawing his weapon. Kyoko tried getting to her feet, but the heel of her shoe snagged something on the floor and she feel back down to the ground unceremoniously.

Kyoko swallowed hard and began to back away from the man, desperately reaching for something she could use to fend him off.

Dake wasn't a big planner.  This was bad, but also good.

The bad news first:  He had no clever plan up his sleeve.  When he entered the firing range, he dropped -- hopefully below the bullet zone.  But Dake was about motion; nervous energy; momentum.  He dropped -- yes -- but to his knees, skidding as far as he could before crawling and/or rolling to get out of the way seemed like the best plan.  And the cargo bay's floor?  Was pretty painful.  Not made for skidding.  Bad idea, Dake.  Bad idea.

He was still trying to get to Lei and Kyoko; that much hadn't changed.  He was just also trying -- not very well, but he wasn't used to this kind of thing -- not to actually get hit by any bullets.

The good "good" news?

Well.  Dake wasn't a big planner, so he wasn't looking ahead to a future of pain and/or death and/or tragedy and/or swiss cheese-like demise.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:09, Wed 30 July 2008.

Scrambling as quickly as she could away from the men behind her, it took Lei a couple of seconds to regather her senses enough to realise she was about to dart into the line of fire. Inhaling sharply she dropped right then and there to the ground.

Problem was, that was all she did.

No scrambling to get out of the way, or to find cover, or perhaps even take down a few bad guys. She simply sat, scrunched into a tight ball as close to the ground as possible, pressing her palms into her ears as if to try and shut out the overwhelming noise of gunshots and struggle. Dully, somewhere in the back of her mind she registered that she wasn't exactly safe here, but at least her tight ball on the ground was a little better than standing up. Fighting the urge to scrunch her eyes shut tight as well, she peeked up over her knees, spying a... tumbling, crawling, rolling Dake heading her way and she managed to blurt out a single word; "Kyoko."

Apparently despite her effort to block out everything around her, she had still managed to pick up on the struggle going on just behind her and seemed quite desperate for Dake to do something to help out Kyoko seeing as Lei herself was... well, rather useless, curled up in a ball of fright as she was.

Connor miraculously made it across the few feet of bullet ridden space to the weapons locker unscathed and quickly slipped inside.  No one seemed to be following him and here he was safe from gunfire and the chaos outside.  He to the back of the storage locker to the false wall which he pushed aside to reveal the secret compartment where the crew of Destiny kept their weapon storage.

There were three shotguns hung on the wall, a few pistols and a crate that used to hold grenades but that Connor remembered all too well had been used back on Torrance Station - they hadn't resupplied yet.  There was also a small collection of knives.  Outside the storage room he could hear the gunfire still going and the shouts of his crew mates.  Before he had a chance to start loading up on gear however, the man that he had tried to tackle earlier pushed open the storage room door, "Tryin' to hide, are ya?" he said with a grin.

Still in the cargo bay Wei-Li struggled beneath the weight of the man she had managed to pull down on top of herself.  He was trying hard to get her off and get back to his gun.  Slowly he rocked back and forth and each time Wei-Li offered a little resistance.  She could feel his muscles tightening up for one final turn that would get him flipped back over and able to go for his gun.  Right has he started to pull his hardest Wei-Li stopped resisting completely and his momentum flung her over him and almost directly over the pistol and caused him to lose his balance slightly, falling to his right side before trying to scramble to his feet.

A few feet away Wei-Li heard Geoff roar in anger followed shortly by the sound of a pistol being fired multiple times.  Geoff's aim and rage were deadly, the two men attacking him didn't have a chance.  The first fell to the floor immediately - obviously dead the other managed to get off a second shot at Geoff which missed, before Geoff unloaded on him as well.  He shouted as the first bullet hit his shoulder, the second silenced him and he crumpled unceremoniously to the floor.  Geoff was left standing with a smoking pistol, surrounded by three dead men.  The four by the cargo bay door were still firing though and seeing Geoff take out three of their comrades they began focusing their gunfire in his direction.  Beyond them Geoff could make out the two men who were now down the ramp and heading off into the night, presumably to get back-up.

Kale managed to get to his feet as he fired the pistol.  The bullet connected with the lead mans leg and he fell to the floor once more with a groan.

"You think this will stop Curio?" he said to Kale through gritted teeth, staring up at him.

Kyoko scrambled backwards, trying to get away from the man closing in on her.  Her hands grasped furiously for something, anything that she could use to stop him.  The man smiled, he was missing one of his bottom teeth, "You're a pretty little thing, I'll regret killing you." he said just as Kyoko's outstretched fingers fell upon one of Charlie's wrenches that she had decided wouldn't be useful for fixing the landing gear when she had gone out after they had landed.

A few feet away Dake watched as Lei dropped to the ground and curled into a small ball.  It wasn't the safest location in the cargo bay, but tucked so close to the ground like she was the bullets were flying well over her head.  Behind her Dake could see that Kyoko was clearly in trouble however, lying prone on the ground and trying desperately to scramble away.  There was nothing he could do until he got close enough to help though, and getting close enough to help through the barrage of gunfire was no easy task.  A few steps in Dake felt the sting of a bullet connect with his left forearm and he just barely managed to duck under one that would have found a home in his skull before the men suddenly changed the direction of their shots.  He heard a shout as they actually hit one of their own men, the one that Lei had ducked other and a quick glance told Dake that they were now opening fire on Geoff.

        |                                            |
        |                                  X    4    |
        |                                            |
        |                         3      D
        |      2X                  5                 |
        |                                  6  D      |
        |                                   D D      |
     1  X                X                       X  7|
        |                  X                         |
        |_____________        X  X    _______________|


                          X  X

 1. Connor
 2. Kale
 3. Dake
 4. Kyoko
 5. Lei
 6. Geoff
 7. Wei-Li

Connor's hands immediately went to one of the shotguns. He hefted it, only to hear a cold voice call out from behind him. He smiled and pumped the shotgun, before turning and pointing it at the man.

"Not particularly."

Connor advanced towards the man at the entrance to the locker. One might ask why? Well, it was very simple. Connor had a sneaking suspicion that the shotgun may or may not be out of shells. If it turned out that the shotgun needed reloading, Connor wanted to be close enough to use the gun as a club.

Wei-Li tucked and rolled with the momentum of her attacker's movements, her entire being focused on the gun.

'Land, grab shoulder roll, fire as he comes into view... Land, grab... shoulder roll, fire ad he comes into view.'

It was just like a run through on the new choreogrphy for a routine.  She knew the instructions, knew how to make her body do what was needed.

'Land... grab... shoulder roll... fire as he comes into view...'

She focused on the weapon knowing that if the man got it, nothing else would matter.

'Safety... on or off?'

'Land... '  She landed, reaching for the gun as part of the landing, with her wrists still bound toghther it would have to be a shoulder roll...

She let her breath become part of the routine she'd worked out in her head.

'Grab... shoulder roll...'

OOC - let the GM Roll...

Kale looked down at the man who was staring steadily back up at him.  He wasn't afraid to die.  The expression on his face made him think of Rhaef, that same determined look in his eyes, and he was once again reminded that this was where Rhaef had been trained, this is where he had grown up.  But this ain't who he is ... he ain't scum like this.

Kale shook his head at the man, "I ain't lookin' ta stop Curio.  I just want my man back, it's you folk that went and got all touchy 'bout it.  So I'm thinkin' the real question you should be askin' is: do you think this will stop us?"

Kale pulled the trigger then.  He didn't even wait to see if the man was dead, it had been a point blank shot, there really wasn't any room for doubt.  He turned immediately to the been that were moving in on Geoff now across the bay.

"Stop shootin' at my gorram crew!" he shouted and opened fire on the four men.

Geoff didn't much care who was shooting at him.  The fact that he was being shot at kind of set the tone of the day.  He turned, figuring he had at least six bullets left.  He had to make them count.

Sight.  Acquire.  Fire. the old, familiar litany flickered through his mind.  There were two men closer to him than to Kale.  There were another two closer to Kale.  There were another two beating a quick retreat.  He couldn't get them all.

Sight.  Acquire.  Fire.  He just had to concentrate on the closest target and deal with the rest as he came to them.  To that end, he opened fire on the nearest of Curio's men; a long-conditioned double-tap.  A quarter second pause to be sure the target was down.  Slight shift and another double-tap.

When this was all over and Rhaef was back on the ship, Geoff was going to have a little talk with the Captain's Second; a little talk with fists.  Rescuing Rhaef certainly wasn't as easy as it should have been.  Geoff was actually starting to break a sweat.

Kyoko felt her heart begin to pound, no, hammer in her chest. She was frightened. Moreover, she was truly unused to such a raw display of violence up close. So, she nearly froze up when the man pronounced how "it was a shame to kill her".

Survival instinct took over. Kyoko's hands found the wrench, and before she could even register what the hell she was doing, she let out a frustrated scream and swung the wrench as hard as she could at the man.

Dake let out a shout of pain as the stray bullet connected with his arm.  It hurt ... a lot.  Dake had always considered himself a daredevil but he had never been shot before.  This is what Nate and Kale had faced he thought as the sound of gunfire continued and he found himself ducking to the floor as another bullet whizzed past his head.  He felt small as he hit the floor, unable to will himself to move forward.  However much he wanted he was not Nate or Kale and he couldn't imagine how they had faced this during the war - how Kale continued to face this today.  He wished he were more like him ...

No, no, he didn't want to be like Kale, he didn't want to be the type of man that leads other men to their death.  That just takes off when faced with reality.  Who just abandons the people that need him most.  He was better then that.

Up ahead he could see Lei curled in a ball shouting at him to go help Kyoko.  He had to move.  He couldn't just lay here on the ground hoping the bullets would stop.  So he forced himself forward.  He reached Lei first.

"Keep low, and hide.  Get behind something big." he told her, and helped guide her out of the line of fire and closer to the side walls were there were large crates and other items for the small girl to hide behind.  Then he moved towards Kyoko just as she swung the wrench at the man looming over her.  He raised his eyebrows, "Nice shot." he commented before grabbing the guy she had just hit and grabbing for his gun while he was still dazed.

Lei let out a small scream as she saw Dake fall to the ground and shout in pain.  Everything was happening so fast that she hadn't actually seen him get hit and for a moment she was afraid that the wound had been fatal.  Immediately all of Acacia's  old medical journals that she has spent so much time reading began flashing through her head.  All the possibilities of where he had been hit and how much time he'd have before he'd die and if he could even be saved.  But a moment later he was crawling towards her.  She could see the blood coming from his arm and knew the shot wasn't fatal.  He reached her quickly and she felt herself shaking her head as he told her to hide.

Her lower lip quivered as he began moving her from the small spot on the floor that she had curled up onto.  Her body didn't want to respond to his guiding hand and her mind was too terrified to try and force it too but somehow she was moving.  Once she reached the side she had regained control of herself and began burrowing her way in between the crates and out of the line of fire.  She watched from between a crack between the crates as the rest of the confrontation unfolded.

As Connor turned around with the shot gun in hand the mans face paled considerably, he had obviously been expecting to find a scared man trying to hide from the fight and instead found someone even better armed then himself.  He didn't even have a chance to shout out before Connor fired and the man was thrown right out the door from the force of the bullet.  Things were looking up.

In the cargo bay Wei-Li's silent chant became a reality.  Her shoulder hit the metal flooring with a jarring blowing, it hurt, but not enough to keep her from the task at hand.  Her fingers managed to connect with the weapon and she rolled up onto her knee as her attacker landed ungracefully in his face on the floor.  It took only one shot at this range for the man to not get up again.  However, she didn't have time to think about what had just happened because the men opening fire on Geoff were coming dangerously close to hitting her as well.

Across the cargo bay Kale's shot rang out and the lead man lay motionless on the ground as he turned to open fire on the other four men.  He had to aim carefully so that he wouldn't hit his crew and make every shot count.  His first shot, hit one of the men in the leg and he fell to one knee and spun around, realizing that they were being fired at from both sides.  He shouted something to the other men to warn them and a second man turned to face Kale instead of Geoff.  Two bullets narrowly missed him but his second shot took down the man who he had first hit.  The second man was still opening fire however.

Geoff was luckier.  His anger driving him to perfect precision.  This is what the large man was built to do.  His aim was impeccable and the two men went down easily, before either managed to actually hit him.

Kyoko's hit with the wrench landed solidly and the man began falling to the ground, but was caught by Dake who easily managed to remove the mans gun from his hand and throw him all the way to the ground.  He stared up at Dake with a confused expression, not understanding how the tables had turned on him so quickly.

Lei remained safe in her hiding spot, watching the fight.

Two down, four to go, or was that three?  It didn't really matter how many targets were left until there were no more bullets.  He wished he knew how much ammo was left.

Geoff took half a second to process the sounds around him.  Sure, they said you couldn't tell the difference between friendly and enemy fire, but you could get a semi-decent read on the situation if you knew what to listen for.

A pain- or surprise-filled shout off to the right.  Dake or Connor.  (He couldn't quite identify their non-vocal sounds yet)  Hit, maybe not dead, but hit.  Shot-gun blast to the distant right against the wall of the ship.  No shotguns on the bad dudes so either Lei, Dake or Connor.  Man those boys got around.  Frustrated scream off to his right.  The Companion.  She'd probably broken a nail.  Shots from Kale.  In the periphery to his right.  Bad guy down.  Kale still alive.  A shot to his left.  That was Wei-Li.  No scream.  Target down; Wei-Li alive.

Oh sure, Geoff had seen enough action in his life to know that just because a girl didn't scream didn't mean she was the one alive.  But when you're in the thick of battle and fantasy is all you've got to keep you putting one foot in front of the other - and when the idea of your little sister lying dead would be enough to send you into a berzerker's rage from which you might never return - you might take a little vacation to the Land of Denial.

He had no clue whether or not his assumptions were true, but he didn't much care.  He was fighting.  Who had time to play at answering riddles while at least three bad guys were still very much alive and Geoff's gun might soon be out of ammo?

Kale would have to get the second bad guy within the ship, Geoff was focused on the two trying to get back to Curio.  They were still within pistol range; he hoped.  They were moving targets.  Geoff was a moving platform, propelling himself forward so as to be in range of a corpse's weapon should he need it.  His conscious brain was shut off, leaving nought but conditioning.

He depressed the trigger rapid-fire, stitching an arc between the two escapees.  If he could just knock them down, that would buy the necessary time to get more ammunition and complete the job properly.

He hoped this would be over soon.  He was starting to feel something odd in the pit of his stomach.

Wei-Li flattened herself out along the ground, using the downed guard as cover, she came up and focused on the men shooting at Geoff (and there-by her) from the doorway.

They had to be taken out and fast.  If they didn't get them all it would be over before it started and Rhaef and Charlie were depending on them.

Kale watched the first man fall to the floor but the second was still opening fire and his aim was deadly enough to cause Kale to start running for cover, Gorram people get on his ship and shoot at his crew ...

He ran backwards in order to keep an eye on the rest of the fight, each bullet from the mans gun narrowly missing him and each bullet from his gun narrowly missing the man.  But behind the man Kale could see that Geoff had taken out the other two.

"Catch the ones running away!" Kale shouted at Geoff as he reached cover behind the mule that was strapped down to the floor.  If they got more back up they were all going to be in trouble.  Kale leaned his back up against the mule pausing for a second, listening to the gunfire on the other side to determine exactly where the other man was so he could make this next shot count.

Most of the sounds of gun fire had died down so it wasn't too hard to listen for the gun shots.  Behind him and to the left.  Another shot.  To the left but moving right.  Another shot.  Okay, go!

Kale stood up and aimed slightly to his left, the man was almost exactly where he expected him to be.  He fired off two shots and hoped they hit home.

Kyoko looked at the wrench in her hands, almost completely shocked that she'd knocked the man over in her desperate attempt at survival. Kyoko turned it over and stood up. She walked over to the man, then aimed another strike at the man's head.

She was feeling pissed off and slightly barbaric. Huh, so this was how the crew got so riled up sometimes...

While the man was still staring up at him all confused-like, Dake used the opportunity to check and see how loaded the man's gun still was.  There weren't too many bad guys left, which was, as far as Dake was concerned, a good thing.  Once the weapon checked out he aimed it at the man and narrowed his eyes at the cargo bay doors.  He heard Kale yell for Geoff to get the ones running away, and maybe Geoff could use some help.  First he'd have to take care of the man, though, and that was a problem.  Dake wasn't a killer.  He just wasn't.  He could shoot somebody who was actively shooting at him but you get that same person weaponless and on the ground and he just couldn't.  In fact, his arm smarted so badly that he'd probably even take a lot of pleasure in shooting somebody who was shooting at him right now.

"You should go on and get with Lei -- " he started to say to Kyoko, only to practically jump out of his skin when she started bludgeoning the poor bad guy with the wrench.  He blinked and then tried to loop an arm around Kyoko's waist and pull her off the guy.  "Whoa there, Miss-More-Civilized-Than-Thou."  If he wasn't unconscious by then, Dake also gave him a swift kick.

He'd sure love to know what all of this was actually about.

Connor watched the man fly backwards from the force of the blast, before pumping the shotgun. The smoking shell ejected and chambered a new one. Connor grabbed for the first pistol her could find, tucked it into the back of his pants, then waded back into the fray.

Hopefully, this was enough fire power to start turning the tides. Connor scanned the room, trying to figure out where he was needed most.

From her vantage point behind the crates, Lei peered with wide eyes as if she were trying to make up for scrunching them shut with fear before. The relative safety of her position seemed to have forced her mind to focus once more and she was taking in all the information she could get. She only allowed herself to blink when the overly loud gunshots pierced her ears enough to make her wince. Otherwise, she attempted to focus her hearing on the conversations around her; Kale's urgent command, Dake restraining Kyoko...

Her eyes flitted quickly to the door of the cargo bay, assessing how many more of these horrible men there were, her ears straining to gather any more information that might help the crew.

Kyoko took another wild swing as Dake held her off of the man. Blinding rage had filled her and all she wanted to do was hurt the gorram thug as much as her weak self could manage.

She shouted out again, struggling to get out of Dake's grip, and failing as the man was far stronger than she.

No shot rang out as Geoff pressed down the trigger ... the gun was out of bullets and in the meantime the two men were now at the trap door that he and Kale and Wei-Li had entered when they first arrived.  He could see one of the men kneeling down, preparing to draw it open.

Wei-Li fortunately was luckier.  Seeing that the men actually in the cargo bay had already been taken down by Geoff's shots she did her best to aim out the door at the men on the ground.  Her shots rang out but from this far back her aim was not good.  Wei-Li could fight when needed but she was not a fighter and trying to shoot at men a considerable distance away was not her strong suit.

However, the shots did succeed in causing the men to pause, realizing that the shooting in the bay was now being directed at them.  The man by the hatch shouted something to the other before turning his attention back to getting the thing open.  The other man turned and fired back into the cargo bay, not really taking aim, just providing cover for their escape.

The man that had driven Kale behind the crate was exactly where he had expected him to be and his last two shots rang true.  The man let out a shout and then crumpled to the ground allowing Kale to come out from his cover.

The man on the ground at Dake and Kyoko's feet was very obviously unconscious and would probably stay that way for some time, not to mention the headache he was going to wake up with.  There was a gash on his head that blood was slowly dripping from but it didn't look too deep.  Probably not deadly.  Dake, fairly easily, was able to keep Kyoko from bludgeoning the man to death.  He didn't have time for a lecture or anything though because bullets began flying again haphazardly across the bay.  The man outside was just shooting wildly at this point and anyone in the bay was fair game.

The bay that Connor emerged into was quite a bit different from the one he had left.  In his absence the crew had managed to take out or down almost everyone.  Except the sound of gunfire was still ringing and it only took him a second to find its source.  Outside he could see two men, one firing wildly into the bay, the other knelt on the ground.

From her hiding place Lei observed the fight, her senses picking up on every gunshot, heard every shout.  Although to the others the quick orders that the man outside had shouted to his partner were indistinct Lei could make them out perfectly and what he had said sent a shiver down her spine.  "Cover me, we have to get in quick, Curio told Ford to blow the ship if things went south."
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:35, Sun 24 Aug 2008.

Connor ducked as a ricocheting bullet whizzed by his head. He breathed a sigh, then began moving as quickly as he could towards the exit of the cargo bay, where the remaining two men had retreated to.

When Connor felt he was actual close enough to fire off the gun without hitting anyone inside, or causing significant collateral damage, he leveled the shotgun at the two and pumped it, squeezing the trigger. At worst, he figured he could keep the two pinned down while the others get here.

Well, that or he could get shot, but Connor liked to think positively.

Lei's grip upon the crate she was peeking around tightened considerably, her knuckles whitening as the icy remains of her shiver lingered on. The ship was about to be blown up. With everyone on it. And nobody else realised.

Heart pumping twice as fast as it had been before, Lei weighed up her options quickly. She could let somebody know... Kale, Dake, Geoff... but what good would that do? Surely she'd get the attention of more than just the intended person. And by that time, perhaps it would be too late. It sounded like whoever this Ford person was, he was ready to blow the ship right now.

At this thought, she peeked just a little further around the crate, giving her a full view of the darkness outside the cargo bay. Narrowing her gaze very slightly, her enhanced eyesight allowed her to clearly make out any figures cloaked in the darkness. Ford, whoever he may be, must be out there somewhere, relatively close if he was to detonate a bomb, yet far enough away that he wouldn't get caught in the blast. A quick, near subconscious calculation of the distance from the ship he would need to be to hold such a position lead Lei to scan more carefully, until...

There he was.

A split second later, with a quick scan now of the inside of the bay, and Lei had made her decision. Darting out from behind her crate, focusing intently on the directions of the flying, haphazard bullets, Lei quickly made her way over to Wei-Li, being that she was the closest crew member with a gun.

"Wei-Li... I need to borrow this, please."

Lei didn't give Wei-Li very much time to think about the request, as she was already gently prising the weapon from her fingers, now aiming it with an oddly calm determination out into the darkness where she knew Ford was hiding. Biting her bottom lip in an effort to somehow concentrate yet not think about what she was doing, at the same time, she carefully mimicked what she had seen of Geoff and Kale's use of a gun, zoning in directly on Ford... and firing. Just once.

Wei-li had hunkered back down as he bullets seemed to rain down all around her.  She was startled when Lei slipped out from behind the boxes and made her way over.  She had been about to pull the girl down behind he man she'd dropped when she asked for and took her pistol before she could even wrap her mind around what was happening.

As Lei fired, Wei-Li watched their surroundings ready to to pull Lei to safety if needed.

It wasn't like she couldn't do any worse than Wei-li herself had done.