[Mission] Operation Wolves in Sheeps' Clothing (Closed RP)

[SPARTAN-A120]

Petty Officer 1st Class Richard A. Chen
ONI Section III Field Operative "Panther"
March, 2548 - 0227 hours
Aboard "Rich Man's Paradise," Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
"Breaking the Silence... with Small Talk"
(Tag: Llau)

Petty Officer 1st Class Richard Chen was sitting in the co-pilot's seat, gazing into the vast empty space that was presented before his eyes. It was extremely awkward to sit next to someone who he had never met before. Maybe he did meet Lieutenant Commander Moretti somewhere, but Chen’s mind could place the fellow Field Agent's face.

Chen checked his TACPAD to ensure that the beacon that Agent Christopher Hyde managed to activate before his abduction was still active. Yet, the question that remained in his head was where Agent Hyde managed to hide the distress beacon and why the Innies haven't found it yet. Whatever Hyde did to keep the beacon undetected made it plausible since the guy was only a civilian with minimum training.

After verifying that the beacon was active and emitted a strong signal, Chen swiped and navigated to the mission objectives to refresh his memory.

If it wasn’t obvious, Chen was trying to avoid conversation with the other Agent who was piloting the yacht they were using. Besides a formal handshake and a "Thank you for joining the party," Chen had not spoken to Moretti when they started their journey to the Insurrectionists' ship. Moretti may have said a few things, but Chen only responded with a nod or a shake of his head. He might have also grunted once, but he couldn't remember. Chen was just simply comfortable being anti-social. He felt like if he didn't develop a relationship with his team, he wouldn't have to feel sympathy should any of the team members die. It prevented Chen from stalling; wasting valuable time that could've been utilized to finish the mission.

Chen analyzed the Insurrectionists' ship, which was apparently unmarked. It lacked designation numbers, registrations, and even a name. That made it difficult because that meant that he didn't know what he was dealing with. He and Moretti didn't know what they were dealing with.

Chen had made contact with the Innie leader though. It was moderately difficult to hack into the Innies' communications, but with Moretti's assistance, it was practically a walk in the park. The Innie leader was broadcasting on a secure channel with an outdated radio that they had a hold of two ONI "scumbags" and would trade or sell to the highest bidder. With Chen's and Moretti's yacht hauling "stolen" UNSC weapons, ammunition, and nuclear-capable weapons, it was a difficult deal to refuse. What the Innies wouldn't know is that the nukes were dummies. Non-fuctioning.

On the other hand, it was safe to assume that the Innies had a few bodies less because of the casualties that he encountered back on Planet Frontier. That meant less gun-toting idiots to deal with if they got into a shoot-out.

"Shoot out," Chen thought in his head. He ran his right hand over his hip-holstered M6C Magnum pistol.

Of course, the pistol wasn't standard issue. It was modified to fit the mission. That meant a threaded barrel to accept sound suppressors, raised iron sights to compensate for the suppressor's obstruction of the sight picture, reinforced spring system, custom made barrel, and a lot more. Chen probably spent 1,000 credits out-of-pocket to upgrade it. Hell, it was the only thing ONI didn't compensate for since he already owned 3 M6C SOCOMs, 2 M7S Submachine Guns, a MA5K Carbine in his name which was understandable. But, this was an undercover operation so he definitely did not want to give away that he was UNSC by using a UNSC "specialized" weapon.

Along with his modified M6C, Chen was wearing a ballistic gel undersuit for additional protection, a titanium plate carrier vest with useful items and ammo conveniently placed for ease-of-access, clear ballistic glasses with a HUD function, a dark grey BDU shirt, black combat boots, black BDU pants, and a black skull cap.

It was smart to wear dark colors. It meant that he was capable of hiding in the darkness and shadows when required and it made him somewhat invisible. "What you can't see in the dark is your worst nightmare. So make the darkness your friend and your enemy afraid," Chen remembered his Black Ops instructor saying.

Chen continued scrolling through his TACPAD to try to avoid conversation, but eventually his boredom got the best of him. He sighed heavily. Then he broke the awkward silence by clearing his throat and said to LCDR. Moretti, "So... uh... do you know either one of the Section Ones we're trying to get out of the shit hole?"

[Llau]

Lieutenant Commander Michelangelo N. Moretti
ONI Section III Field Officer - “Ombra”
March, 2548 – 0227 hours
Piloting “Rich Man's Paradise”// Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
“Oh...small talk? Great.”
tag(s): SPARTAN-A120


He didn't think he would pilot something like the “Rich Man's Paradise”, but there he was, piloting the small ship to rescue his old-time friend, Christopher Hyde and another agent. Lieutenant Commander Michelangelo “Mike” Moretti sat comfortably in his seat, staring out the window and then glanced down every-so-often to check on the navigation and the other equipment; other than that, the flight toward the Innie's ship to try and exchange what they had for the scientists was a very boring and quiet ride. Not that he's complaining about the awkward silence, as he enjoyed it. It's been a long time since he has piloted a small ship, but he wasn't rusty at it. Besides, when he was told of the details of his friend being captured by Insurrectionists, as well as another Section One scientist, who he never met before, he refreshed his memory on everything when they were planning and getting ready for this operation he was teamed up with another Section Three Field Operator, Petty Officer First Class, Richard A. Chen.

He glanced over at the man, before returning his attention to piloting the ship. He didn't know about Chen, not personally, but he has read his file when he was told that he was going to be teaming up with the younger field agent. Like the file said of the man, he was rather anti-social, and the pair didn't really have an actual conversation when they first met. Moretti didn't mind really if Chen was the silent type. Sure, the freshly new Lieutenant Commander could talk about anything, but he was rather socially awkward himself. He never really knew how to start a conversation, and most of the time, seemed to wait for the other person to start one. Needless to say, he figured it would be easier to work with someone, rather than getting to know them while on their way to a mission. Then again, with his scaled morality training, it was very easy for him to dissociate himself when he's working by himself or with a team. The only person he was truly worried about, was Agent Hyde.

His best friend, the one who always called him a “little shit” but continued to be his friend, despite their different opinions on the aliens, had managed to be captured, while Moretti wasn't able to be involved in the mission on Frontier, as the Italian was still healing up from his wounds he sustained during the mission on Protector. It didn't surprise him one bit that the scientist had gotten him captured, but it could happen to anyone – God, did he knew how true that was. The thing was, Hyde didn't have any training on how to deal with being captured by the enemy. The only training Moretti was able to give him, since the man was wanting it, was learning how to fire a weapon. That's it. That was the only training he had and was able to have.

'At least the nerd was smart enough to hide a beacon on him, but where...?'

That same thought crossed his mind a number of times ever since they first received their mission overview and objectives from HIGHCOM.

'I sure hope he just swallowed it...otherwise...' He cringed ever-so-slightly, looking a bit disgusted as his thoughts on the matter warped just a bit.

But how he would have managed to swallow a tennis ball-sized beacon, he would never know, and yet, he's heard far more crazier things people have done in desperate times that ended up being true. So, anything was possible, especially when one's life is on the line. Either way...it's going to be a bitch to get it out. He smirked at that thought. Oh, the jokes he could come up with after he rescues Hyde. Well, if he can, that is. He hoped so, so he can annoy the scientist with more jokes, and embarrass him with them.

“Heh...”

He relaxed in his seat, unbuckled the straps to become a little more comfortable sitting there, and stretched around somewhat. After loosening his neck, he stood up and went to where they were keeping their own equipment to check his again. He pretty much brought the same type of weapons as Chen, but he was dressed slightly differently, and had his favorite Karambit knife with him. He wore a black ballistic vest with cargo pockets for his ammo and other equipment and gadgets he was bringing with him, and a pair of digital camouflage BDU's and a solid black BDU shirt over the ballistic gel under-suit he wore underneath. He wore his TAC-PAD, and a black ball cap, but he was really happy about the ballistic glasses he was wearing. The HUD function in the lenses of the glasses were his favorite thing, and wanted to wear them a lot more often after this.

He returned to the pilot seat, sitting down with a grunt, and then glanced over at Chen when the anti-social man asked him the question of if he knew any of the two scientists. Moretti was silent for about a minute, and then he answered.

“Yeah, just one,” he explained, “I'm friends with the alien language expert nerd guy. I've known Hyde for years. Dude has a thing with aliens, mostly Kig-Yar, but I'd trust him with my life...even though, he doesn't have the same kind of training as we do.” He paused for a few moments, gazing out into space again. “You?”

[SPARTAN-A120]

Petty Officer 1st Class Richard A. Chen
ONI Section III Field Operative "Panther"
March, 2548 - 0228 hours
Aboard "Rich Man's Paradise," Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
"Friends? With Chickens? And Guns. Guns I Love"
(Tag: Llau)

Chen gave LCDR. Moretti a surprised look. It was not for Moretti's reply that he knew one of the hostages. It was for the fact that Agent Hyde had a "thing" for those Covenant Chickens. Chen remarked, "So he's fascinated with Space Chickens. I don't blame him. It's part of his job, but I expect him to know where his loyalties stand should we ever encounter any of the Kigs." Chen leaned back in the co-pilot's seat with his arms crossed. "But let this be known: I'm no fan of any alien freaks. I'm not saying I would shoot Hyde if he sides with the Kigs. But, if he points a gun at me, I will do my job."

Chen paused to let what he said sink in. He hated the Covenant down to their guts and anyone who admired them for the wrong reasons. Indeed, he had the proper training that prevented fratricide during warfare, but it didn't delay his ability to identify threats and neutralize them.

"Let's just say he wouldn't side with the Kigs. Will he know how to handle a weapon so we don't have to babysit him should the shit hit the fan? I don't mean no disrespect, but for a career field in the Office that runs military operations, I would expect both of the Section One to be able to handle a firearm. Aiming is one thing, but to pull the trigger is another. Sometimes a greenhorn can flinch and his bullet can hit something other than his or her target," Chen continued saying to Moretti.

The Petty Officer First Class sat up and unbuckled his harnesses and got up. He had to stretch his limbs so they wouldn't be too relaxed. It was also to get the blood flowing. They had been in flight for a couple of hours which included the slipspace journey from a UNSC Carrier. Chen walked around the small space of the cockpit. When he reached their gear, he paused to examine Moretti's gear without touching which was checked a few minutes ago by his partner. Specifically, Chen was eyeing Moretti's MA5K Carbine which was held securely in the weapons rack next to Chen's own MA5K.

Chen looked back towards Moretti and asked, "Hey, what kind of ammunition are you running for your Carbine?"

[Faclan]

Nek Dal - T'vaoan Translator
Aboard Innie vessel Your Days are Numbered!
Mediating a...trade.

Suf doesn't have to know...doesn't have to know. Nek kept reminding himself that as he waited for the Humans call to finish. He was sure Suf would have a few feathers from him if the Elder found out that Nek was not only dealing with Humans again but also known Kig-Yar pirates, who were trading in stolen Covenant technology. But he had done everything he could to keep this secret, just leaving his ship in the hands of his first mate Tel Yag and doing a Covenant run. Hopefully to keep Suf happy. But it would be apparent that Nek wasn't on his ship. Instead he was currently on this Innie ship, with an Innie who had introduced Herself as Jenny, and the Captain of the Bleeding Fist Gaz. Gaz being a tall Ibie'shan who Nek had owed a favor for for years for Gaz having saved him when Speed Streak was damaged. So here he was, favor being cashed in for Nek to be here translating for Gaz and this Human as they worked out a deal. But a big curveball was about to be thrown his way.

"Alright," Jenny said as she put down her tiny hand held personal pad like thing. "Just finished talking with one of my boys," she made a dismissive gesture to the side before continueing. "And the second group will be here soon to bid as well."

That wasn't part of the original deal - at least as far as he had been told by Gaz...Licking his beak a little Nek turned to Gaz and explained the new situation. "The female just informed me that another group will be arriving to bid on the Human prisoners, Captain Gaz."

"What!?" The Ibie'shan hisses out, a bit of spittle landing on Neks jacket which was quickly brushed off as he continued. "This is OUR deal Nek! Not some kind of auction house! What does this other group has thats so good to not be overruled with a Covenant reactor and engines?"

"Gaz is wondering what the other group has that interests you more than the equipment we have offered? Are they more Kig-Yar?"

"Nah Poof, Human independents - and they got not one or two but seven nukes for us! You lizards are going to have to step it up to beat that."

"They are more Humans Captain Gaz, and have seven nuclear bombs with them."

"...Damnit, that's one hell of a deal. Tell her that we have more on the fleet, it will just take us time to get it as the Covenant tech is what we have on hand now."

But before Nek could translate this for the female she held up her hand and interjected. "Save your breath, the bidding will commence when the other party arrives. Go stuff your beaks with more food if you want or just sit around."

"She doesn't want us to bid now and would prefer to only start with a full house...We can go back to the food while we wait. And you'll have time to talk with your pirate friends to check the possible stock - Captain Gaz."

Gaz didn't seem pleased by this at all as he grumbled and moved over to the table with a selection of meats and fruit on it. Jenny seemed to want this to be a party atmoshpere as Gaz shifted his beam rifle on his back to grab more food. Nek meanwhile, only with his normal carry weapons, just picked up his glass and sat back down on the beanbag he was sitting on before having to get up to mediate. Hopefully the new party would arrive soon so he could leave. He had nothing against Gaz or these Innies but he could tell tensions were starting to run high.


Chris Hyde - ONI Section I Agent (Hostage)
Your Days are Numbered! Storage room.
I hate everything right now.

Aren't you supposed to focus on the positives in times like this? To give you...what, motivation to continue? Fine, I AM ALIVE. Ok, good. Positives laid out. Negative time! Hungry, thirsty, smelled terrible, was barely conscious after the numerous beatings over the past few days, had probably given up some bad info to give up, and his god damn glasses were broken and gone and probably his nose too. These Innies were real dicks to just do that to someone. Wasn't enough for them to break down the door and gun down some of the Agents in the observatory but they had to slam him in the face, breaking his glasses right there and then, and then smack him again when he still wasn't out. His face and back of his head probably looked like shit. But its not like the Innies gave him a mirror to check. It was just smack, then waking up in a ship, then a room, punched and shouted at about ONI things, god damn it hurt. But talking made it stop. Chris really couldn't remember what he said as most of that was a mental as well as visual blur, due to no glasses.

Oh, that was another thing that was good, the transponder that he had sitting at his desk when they barged in was still in his bag they stole...maybe? It was a big tennis ball sized thing that Chris had stuck some LED's into when he was bored and different colors lit up when you rolled it and if you gave it a smack all of them started to light up in sequence. His first real electrical experiment. The innies had shoved it in his face before the smack to the back of his head and demanded what it is, and he thinks he said it was a trinket and it was thrown in the bag carried by one of the Innies. That was a possible life line. Otherwise he would probably be sold to Kig-Yar.

That was also a possible good thing, if it was Kig-Yar Hyde was confident that he could talk to them and work out a deal - most Kig-Yar were stunned when they heard him speaking their language. They may have some plan for him but there could be a good ending for that outcome.

Thinking about the things to be said Hyde kept laying on the metal floor of the Innie ship storeroom, bound up securely with silence tape over his mouth, that would also be a bitch to remove with his mustace and small beard. But right now Hyde focused on the possible outcomes as he looked at the back of the other Agent a bit ways from him, asleep.

(May not be posting with Chris all the time till stuff starts happening on the ship)

[Llau]

Lieutenant Commander Michelangelo N. Moretti
ONI Section III Field Officer - “Ombra”
March, 2548 – 0228 hours
Piloting “Rich Man's Paradise”// Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
tag(s): SPARTAN-A120


He didn't bother looking at the Petty Officer when the younger agent told him what he thought about Hyde and what he would do to the scientist if he switched sides on them. His eyes shifted over to where Chen was sitting at as he replied without any signs of aggression or anger in his voice; although, there was a slight hint of irritation etched in it.

“Agent Hyde knows where his loyalties lie, Agent Chen. He's loyal to ONI and loyal to me.”

“He's really the only ONI agent who I really gotten to know over the years,” He paused, not bothering to mention anything about his former team, nor did he want to, let alone his late girlfriend. “I may still hate aliens to the core, and would shoot them on sight as much as I can, but I've learned a lot about them thanks to Hyde's curious nature and his...strange attachment to the Kig-Yar, and how not all of them share the same fanatical, thought process of the Covenant. Not all of them are bent on our complete and total annihilation. I know that's probably hard for you to comprehend and realize, but yeah, it's true because I've met a few so far who want to live normal lives like us and not have to fight in a war.”

He sighed.

“He's not stupid though, Chen. Just because he'll try to be friendly toward them, doesn't mean he would try to stop us from shooting at them if they were trying to kill us.” He slowly shook his head though. “I understand that you will be doing your job if it comes to that, but...I think I'd rather be the one to shoot him instead of someone I haven't met before if I can't make him come to his senses.”

He turned silent after that, contemplating if he would shoot his good friend or not if all else failed, and Hyde refused to stand down. After a bit of thought, came to the conclusion that he actually would. He blinked, feeling his stomach tighten into a slight knot. He scared himself sometimes these days, and wasn't sure what to think about that, or what others would think of him if they knew he was honest in what he would do if a friend pulled a gun on him.

He gazed directly over at him after the man soon questioned him if he knew if Hyde knew how to use a gun.

“I know he knows how to handle a gun, and we don't need to babysit him. I trained him since he asked me to a while back, and I know he goes back to the shooting range to keep his skills sharp on his own time. Unfortunately, that's as far as we went with any form of field training. He is a civilian after all, and not a military personnel like we are.”

He looked back, and stared out the window into space once again, as he grew quiet after their conversation, but glanced over a little when he heard movement, and noticed that Chen had unbuckled himself from the seat and got up to stretch his legs. He nodded up at him before the man left the cockpit, and a few moments later, he heard him ask another question. This time it was what the ammunition type he was using for his Carbine.

“I'm using the M118 AP FMJ rounds,” He twisted around in his seat to look back at him, and asked, “Why?”

[SPARTAN-A120]

(OOC: ONI Agents will arrive shortly after Llau's response post to this) (Time advancement!)

---

Petty Officer 1st Class Richard A. Chen
ONI Section III Field Operative "Panther"
March, 2548 - 0229 hours 
Aboard "Rich Man's Paradise," Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
"Talking Tactics and Guns"
(Tag: Llau)

"I'm using the M118 AP FMJ rounds. Why?" Chen heard Agent Moretti say before he turned around in his seat to face him.

Chen didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he went over to his own pile of gear and removed a few items so he could access a weapons crate the size of a medium foot locker. He kneeled and keyed his passcode into the console and the crate unlocked with the sound of the mechanism snapping open. The lid of the crate popped open and Chen hauled it upwards to reveal the contents of the crate. He then pulled out two packets of ammunition with a red packet in his right hand and and a blue packet in his left. He got up from his kneeling position and held out both packets towards Moretti. Chen finally responded while waving the red packet to add emphasis, "In this red packet... are Shredder rounds. They splinter upon impact and leaves nasty wounds on flesh. Especially Innies with their lack of armor. It can be useful for clearing out groups of 'em in a room."

After that, he waved the blue packet and said, "These are Stun rounds. Can be used for when you don't want to kill. HIGHCOM said they wanted to capture an Innie for Interrogation... so these can come in handy. Just don't shoot someone in the eye. It might penetrate into their brain and make them paralyzed... or dead. And we don't want to interrogate a vegetable."

Chen smirked at his last sentence. He wasn't sure if Moretti had used these rounds in combat since killing was the most viable option for most ONI operations, but they did prove useful for certain situations. Situations where capturing someone through non-lethal means is a necessity.

"Care to add these to your kit?"

[Llau]

Lieutenant Commander Michelangelo N. Moretti
ONI Section III Field Officer - “Ombra”
March, 2548 – 0229 hours
Piloting “Rich Man's Paradise”// Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
“I'm a Lt. CMDR, and I don't know what these ammunition types are and do. Hurrr durrr.”
tag(s): SPARTAN-A120


He stared at Chen indifferently for a long minute, while the man was explaining what the shredder rounds were to him, as if he was a new recruit who was clueless to the different ammunition types they were able to use, depending on the operation. He figured Chen just loved to talk about guns and all the bullet types there were to anyone a little too much, and had a habit of explaining what each of them do to anyone – no matter if they were inexperienced field agents fresh out in the field, or higher ranking field operatives, like Moretti.

When the Petty Officer started to explain to him about the stun rounds, of course, Moretti slowly began to smile at him in amusement, especially when Chen explained about something he knew what HIGHCOM wanted them to also do during this operation. He could have burst out laughing right then and there, but he didn't. Of course, this was him, and not someone else. He let out a chuckle, getting out of his seat, and walking over to him.

Clasping his hands together, he glanced down at the red and blue packets in Chen's hands, and then up at the man's face. He then demonstrated why it was awkward for him to converse with people. He would either not be able to shut the hell up about something he liked and excited him, or...he was a complete asshole to someone he was talking to.

“I just would like to personally thank you for explaining to me what the shredder and stun rounds are all about,” said Moretti with blatant sarcasm. “Without you, this LC -” He pointed at himself as he went on, “- wouldn't even know what to use or do on this mission if you didn't go over these things with me. Because, you know, I've never been out in the field before, let alone know what type of ammunition to bring, or...” He paused, looking shocked and amazed, even though he wasn't, as he unclasped his hands to look at them. “...Or...even knew that HIGHCOM wanted me to bring in an Innie alive for interrogation!”

He gazed toward the lockers, staring at his own, and sighed with fake relief. “Thanks, Petty Officer Chen...I wouldn't know what I would do without you.”

Walking over to his locker, he unlocked it and grabbed the packets of ammunition that he had inside.

“Yep, very thankful...” He raised both eyebrows and grinned a bit as he showed him the stun rounds he was going to use on the leader. “If ONI wants an Innie, we're going to get the leader, and not some lacky who probably doesn't know have any intelligence...literally.”

There was a short pause.

“Although, I love guns and love to go loud or go silent and use them, I do prefer a more subtle approach when I have that sort of option.” He pulled out a Garrote and held the steel dowels and extended the medium-grade piano wire in both hands, which was clearly home-made.

“I made this Garrote Wire a while ago. It's a somewhat antiquated and exotic weapon in this day and age, but it doesn't need to reload and it doesn't jam and it doesn't run out of bullets. Perfect for taking out targets silently, like unsuspecting morons who aren't paying any attention to their surroundings. If...it comes to that, of course.”

He tightened his hold around the steel dowels that had black tape wrapped around them for a better grip before carefully looping the wire around his hand so he could place it into a pouch strapped to his utility belt. He grabbed some of the packets of ammunition from his locker and gave him a curt nod as he made his way over to drop the packets into the spot where his weapons were at, and then headed back to sit in the pilot seat.

He fell silent, checking everything again, and then he said, “We're almost there. Get ready, Chen.”

(Such sass.)

[SPARTAN-A120]

Petty Officer 1st Class Richard A. Chen
ONI Section III Field Operative "Panther"
March, 2548 - 0236 hours
Boarding "Your Days are Numbered," Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
"Unexpected Guests"
(Tags: Llau & Faclan )

Chen observed that Agent Moretti had a strange look on his face throughout his explanation of the ammunition he had in his hands. It was close to a puzzled look, but it was slightly difficult to confirm since it changed from a dumbfounded look to a slight grin.

"Yeah. This dude digs it," Chen thought.

It was not until Moretti started laughing lightly that caught Chen by surprise. The man got up from the pilot's seat with his hands clasped together and put on what seemed to be a sarcastic act. Chen became the dumbfounded one as he stared blankly at Moretti as he sarcastically explained how he was glad Chen explained what he just said to him. Then the older Agent started ranting. It came off as a rude, cocky, and very smartass tone. It almost seemed like he was scolding the younger Agent.

On the contrary, Chen kept his cool. There was no need to retaliate since it would only make things worse and one of the Agents would not return home and the other in a FUBAR condition. Even if the surviving Agent managed to return home, it would result in a court martial or a judicial punishment of some sort. After all, both Agents were needed for this mission and Chen could use all the backup he could get.

Chen saw Moretti walk to his locker and revealed to Chen that Moretti had the same ammunition as he did. Chen felt slightly embarrassed. Yet again, he forgot about Moretti being a seasoned Agent already and he probably had seen more action than Chen before he even joined the UNSC.

"Yep. Very thankful..." said Moretti with a grin. He then waved packets of stun rounds of his own at Chen and explained how they should capture the Insurrectionist leader as the henchmen would lack any sufficient information as if they had any information to give at all.

There was awkward pause after Moretti gave his rant. It gave Chen the time to toss the packets of ammunition back into his weapons crate.

The Lieutenant Commander continued after that and said, “Although, I love guns and love to go loud or go silent and use them, I do prefer a more subtle approach when I have that sort of option.”

Chen observed Moretti taking out what seemed to be a self-made Garrote Wire and was confirmed shortly after as Moretti said he had made it himself. He continued stating that the tool he was holding could be an useful alternative to incapacitate targets and implemented during stealth situations. Moretti finished by rolling the Garrote Wire and placing it in a pouch on his belt.

"Well, shit..." Chen muttered which was inaudible to Moretti since he was too far away. "And that's why I shouldn't talk often..." he thought.

Chen observed Moretti return to his seat on the pilot's seat after he dropped the ammo packets onto his gear and said to Chen, “We're almost there. Get ready, Chen.”

The Petty Officer checked his watch which read 0232 hours. "It's about time. And sorry about what happened just now. I normally work alone," he said to Moretti.

Chen return to his seat and put on the yacht's communications headset and switched to the Innie ship's frequency on the radio. He keyed the mic activation and said, "Seller, this is Dealer 1. Requesting permission to dock."

As Chen waited for a response, the Innie ship came into view, but it wasn't the only ship hanging around. There was a Covenant Corvette next to the Innie ship which made Chen frown. He then realized it wasn't Covenant since they would instantly obliterate any human ship that is found. "Are you kidding me? They didn't mention jack shit about alien freaks being here," Chen said out loud with a hint of disgust and anger.

The Innie ship was the size of a civilian industrial freighter that could supply enough goods for a small city. It was large, but the Covenant Corvette next to it was large enough to a shadow over the freighter. Although the freighter was overall, black, it's blue lighting emitting from its lights was sort of welcoming. It was sort of like a glowing crystal in a dark cave that you're just curious to see up close. On the other hand, the Covenant ship was kind of a counter-measure; conveniently placed to deter unwanted guests.

A few seconds later, a crackling sound came through the yacht's's speakers before a man with a deep, rough voice replied, "What? Where are you? My radar isn't picking you up."

"Surprise. Happy Birthday, motherfuckers..." Chen heard Moretti mutter under his breath.

Chen smirked. He knew they couldn't see the yacht on radar because it was coated with a Stealth Ablative Coating. It was like a shadow in the darkness in space. "And that's why we're called dealers asswipe. We're at your ten o'clock in case you need glasses. Are you gonna let us dock? If not, we're gonna just leave and your precious cargo will never be seen again. And I'm sure your boss won't be too happy about you telling us to 'fuck off,'" Chen said to the man.

There was a short pause before the man on the other side of the radio replied, "All right. Come to Airlock 2 on our starboard side so you won't collide with our guests' ship. Align your hatch with ours so we can tether securely. And welcome to our ship, 'Your Days are Numbered.'"

"No shit..." Chen remarked when the Innie reminded them about the alignment and to not collide with the Corvette.

Moretti flew the yacht around the front of the Innie freighter and slowly and precisely aligned the yacht's exit hatch to the Innie ship's Airlock. A minute later, the tethering process started. When the link reached the ship, there was a slight rumble before the sounds of depressurization occurred.

Chen picked up his MA5K Carbine from the weapon rack and slung it on his back. He conducted a last minute check on his gear before nodding at Moretti and opened the hatch. The smell of some kind of illegal substance filled his nostrils. He cringed at the scent and made the long walk down the well illuminated catwalk towards the Innie ship. When he reached the end, he was greeted with two Kig-Yar in a semi-circled facing him.

"You're shitting me, right?" Chen said.

[Faclan]

Nek Dal - T'vaoan Translator
Aboard Innie vessel Your Days are Numbered!
Here comes team two.

There sure were a lot of calls going on. Jenny was apparently talking to some of her Innie friends and Captain Gaz was talking to his ship who were talking to members of the fleet he was in about possible counters to these seven nukes. It was weird to hear two conversations in two different languages. But Jenny seemed to be forgetting he could understand here as Nek kept resting on the very comfortable bean bag with his glass of water.

"Can you believe it Condor?" That sure sounded like a code name. "Seven, yes seven, we should maybe hold off the deal until we find out more about those Spooks we caught if people are willing to give up so much for them....I guess that's true they could be fake. But from the talk we had it seemed like there was only a few of them coming with the Nukes, could always take them for free ya know. We'll see when they arrive. If we get them for free we can even get the Kigs stuff too for them. Win win for us."

"Seven! How the hell do these Human Sisterhood have seven just laying around for this?! Get me Commodore Helx and find out what she thinks of this. In the meantime do we still have that antimatter bomb and those Phantoms? Ships should be near the price of one of those nukes since they wont be able to get them unless really endangering themselves...Is that Chick Vat still not preforming up to snuff? Could offer his small ship too if the Inside Humans are going to be this difficult. Or just say Sink it all and leave, maybe blow out some windows for this Human to drag us out here to have another party just waiting."

"You, the one with the feathers," Looking over at Jenny Nek raised his head feathers as she beckoned him to come over. Setting his glass down Nek floundered a bit in the squishy bean bag before getting up and heading over to her.

"Yes Mistress Jenny?"

"The second party should be here in ten minutes or less, you know what minutes are don't you?"

"Yes Mistress."

"Good, keep calling me that its good to get some respect from you lot. But tell fat head over there to send some of those pirates he has to go greet this new ship. I want them to take their weapons so this will be a meeting fully in MY favor, and then check their ship when they come over here to make sure they arn't lying about those Nukes."

That suuuure sounded like a shitty deal to him but Nek just bobbed his head. "Yes Mistress." Padding over to Gaz he waited till the Ibie'shan recognized his presence and moved the PP away from his ear hole before speaking. "Jenny wants you to send some of your pirates to greet the new ship that should be arriving in around ten Rooks or less."

"Why in Aecor's storm isn't she doing it herself?" Nek could imagine a lot of reasons for why; she wanted his crew members to be the first in the danger zone if this new group was dangerous, or to have them distracted and not here at Gaz's side, or because she was busy using her own troops to watch the Pirate vessel. Knowing both languages helps so much when people talk into their communicators right beside you.

"She believes that your troops will be better able to deal with any issues that arise - she wants them disarmed and then a small search done of their ship to ensure the cargo is genuine."

"...Fine, but any more issues come up and we are packing up and leaving, let her just deal with the other group. Tun and Bar, come over here."

The two Ruuthian Kigs quickly trotted over, both in light armored vests with carrying pouched for darts and a few knives and just pants under that, no shoes. Each with a Dart Carbine, the rifle without its stock, over their backs and boarding pistols on each thigh. "Yes Boss Gaz?" These two were two of the still six guards still in the party room.

"Go to the other airlock and meet this ship. Tell them to disarm and that you are going to search the cargo to ensure that it is legitimate. Don't touch anything in case those nukes are real."

"Yes Boss Captain Gaz." Both of them dipped their beaks and quickly headed toward the other hanger as Gaz grumbled and bit and started to storm over to Jenny, dragging Nek with him.

"We are going to talk now female!"

"G..," turning to the side as he coughs Nek quickly straightened up. "Captain Gaz wishes to speak with you about the deal Mistress."

----------

Tun and Bar finished chewing on their rations and quickly tossed them to the side as the ship finally showed up through the safety glass shield and starting its docking procedure. The two pirates checking their weapons and holsters as they stood just outside of the airlock at half attention as they waited for the Humans to open the doors so they could explain the situation to them. The two Kigs could see the Humans moving about inside but they seemed to take their sweet time opening the door.

Finally the lights flashed to let them know the door was opening and Bar started to speak - but who knows how far into the sentence he would get before interrupted. Or perhaps the interruption would wait until he had finished his spiel.

"Great Hooman," a bit hard to understand but it would get its point across. "Boss want you give me weapon, then we check ship, you go boss."

[Llau]

Lieutenant Commander Michelangelo N. Moretti
ONI Section III Field Officer - “Ombra”
March, 2548 – 0236 hours
Nukes, Human rebels, and Aliens...what a party...
tag(s): SPARTAN-A120 , Faclan


When he heard Chen apologize, he glanced up at him, and shrugged. “It's fine,” he said, “I'm a difficult person to be around with.”

He smiled at that, and went back to pilot the Yacht, while the Petty Officer returned to his seat next to him inside the cockpit to ask the rebels for permission to dock. He had his headset on, too, but kept the microphone muted, unless Chen needed him to say something too.

While they waited, he blinked when the Covenant Corvette can be seen once they were close enough to see the ships. He glanced over at him when the younger agent ranted a little about aliens being there, and that's when he knew Chen didn't know a few things, especially on how Kig-Yar merchants and pirates make deals with Insurrectionists some times. So, Moretti wasn't at all surprised.

“Well then...that's a good way to keep unwanted visitors away...” He whispered to himself.

A few seconds later, he heard the deep voice on the other end say, "What? Where are you? My radar isn't pick you up."

He kept his eyes on the alien ship, while he muttered under his breath, “Surprise. Happy birthday, motherfuckers.”

"And that's why we're called dealers asswipe. We're at your ten o'clock in case you need glasses. Are you gonna let us dock? If not, we're gonna just leave and you precious cargo will never be seen again. And I'm sure your boss won't be too happy about you telling us to 'fuck off,'"

Now, it was the Lieutenant Commander's turn to smirk at what Chen said to who they were communicating with to gain permission.

There was a short pause before the man on the other side of the radio replied, "All right. Come to Airlock 2 on our starboard side so you won't collide. Align your hatch with ours so we can tether securely. And welcome to our ship, 'Your Days are Numbered.'"

“Yeah, whatever.” Moretti said when he un-muted his microphone.

He then went to fly the ship over to Airlock 2 of the Starboard side of their ship, and then carefully lined it up with the airlock of their ship, and then extended the exit tunnel. He waited until the ship rumbled a bit and started to depressurize as it linked up with the Innie's ship. He got up, and readied his weapons and checked his gear. He nodded back at Chen when he was ready to get this started, but glanced out the window while the Petty Officer was opening the hatch to leave.

When he saw that there were two Kig-Yar approaching, armed with a Carbine and plasma pistols, he was going to tell Chen about it, but figured the man would know by the time he walked out to see them. He followed him out, in time to hear Chen's dismay upon discovering the two aliens who were sent here to greet them.

Moretti stopped beside him, and listened to their broken English, as they told them to give them their weapons. He tilted his head a little, and stared at them for a bit. He glanced down at his MA5K Carbine that he was holding in both hands, and had it attached to a shoulder strap, and then looked back at the two aliens.

“How about I just relinquish a bullet into your skull instead? Tell your boss that I'm not going to give up my weapons. You're free to check our ship, but as far as I'm concerned, my weapons stay with me.” He glared at them. “If she doesn't like it, then tough shit. We didn't bust our balls for these nukes for some woman who's scared of two armed sellers when there's more of her dickbags inside this shithole protecting her ass, instead. Understand?”

[Faclan]

(Gona be a smaller post mainly for Bar and Tun to have something nice and aggressive for you both to react to :3 . And good to know everyone on this ship thinks everyone one else is so trustworthy and kind ^.^ )

Nek Dal - T'vaoan Translator
Your Days are Numbered! - Main room, the 'party room'
Things are getting tense...

"How dare you insult my word!" Nek barely had to translate at this point as Captain Gaz was getting very angry with Mistress Jenny. A large part of that was how she had just insuinated that he was a lier, but also becauss she kept smiling and clearing wasn't taking this seriously. Or seriously enough for Gaz's tastes.

"Captain Gaz is annoyed that you are saying that you can't trust him."

"Of course I cant you foolish bird, I'm not going to trust someone who has a ship and can go anywhere that he'll come back to me at a later time to give me some more items for a deal. That would just be foolish since he's a Pirate. And while we are too we have and old saying; 'No honor among thieves'."

"She says that because you are a Pirate and can go anywhere it would be very hard for her to just trust your Word that you would find her again and come back to give the anti matter bomb and the Phantoms, since you don't have them now."

"Why does she have to be intelligent!?" Running his hands over his head Gaz took a breath as he adjusted the beam rifle across his back before speaking again. "Find out what she needs as collateral, she said that the new offer was tempting but we'l need time to get it all to her."

Nek decided it would be best to not say that Gaz complimented Jenny's intelligence and instead just asked the last part of his question. "Is there anything that would work as collateral to ensure that Captain Gaz would come back to deliver the other items in the deal should you choose to work with him?"

-----

Tun n' Bar, Ruuthian Pirates
Airlock 2

It didn't take a great grasp on Human English to figure out that the two Humans in front of them weren't giving up their weapons and doing what they had been told. But hearing bullets and skulls made the Humans little spiel pretty clear in meaning - the weapons still in their hands just reinforced it. There was always the chance that Bar had said the request incorrectly, but it still wasn't fulfilled. So instead it was time to use some more universal language and instead make it a demand.

After a few seconds of cheeps back and fourth, Mike probably catching 'no' 'listen' 'force' from them, the Kigs focused back on the Humans in front of them and swiftly each pulled out one of their two Boarding Pistols. The Dart carbines would take too long to bring out in these close quarters. Each would have the pistol aimed from the hip, but this close and with the devastating power of their single shot weapons accuracy wouldn't be needed. Both of them also had their eyes narrowed a bit as they each held out their other arm. Bar, who was in front of Mike, holding out his right, and Tun, in front of Chen holding out his left.

"Give weapons!" Bar hissed out, followed by a "Now!" from Tun as the two pirates waited for those rifles to be placed in their outstretched hands. Each of them confident in their quick draw skills to fire should the Humans try to make a move now - they had all the advantage with their pistols here! And should the Humans do something stupid and get themselves killed, those Nukes would be all theirs for free! Plus those nice rifles the Humans were holding. All those bits bolted on to the barrel and top would probably sell for a good amount of Gekz

Despite all of this both Agents would likely also see the panel behind the two Pirates on the wall. Probably a communication panel for those recently arrived from the airlock.

[SPARTAN-A120]

Petty Officer 1st Class Richard A. Chen
ONI Section III Field Operative "Panther"
March, 2548 - 0242 hours
Aboard "Your Days are Numbered," Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
"You Bloody Asked for It"
(Tag: Llau & Faclan )

"Great Hooman," said the Kig-Yar with broken English. "Boss want you give me weapon, then we check ship, you go boss."

Before Chen could respond to the overgrown Chickens, Agent Moretti approached on the left side of him and said, “How about I just relinquish a bullet into your skull instead? Tell your boss that I'm not going to give up my weapons. You're free to check our ship, but as far as I'm concerned, my weapons stay with me. If she doesn't like it, then tough shit. We didn't bust our balls for these nukes for some woman who's scared of two armed sellers when there's more of her dickbags inside this shithole protecting her ass, instead. Understand?”

Chen placed his left hand over his face and rubbed his temples with his thumb, index, and middle fingers. He also clenched his jaw. If his body language wasn't obvious, Chen was in disbelief and slightly stressed from Moretti's aggresion towards the two Kig-Yar. He took his hand away from his face to find the Chickens whispering among themselves in their own native language. Their mixtures of chirps and cheeps did not help in understanding what they were saying so Chen just stood at the entrance of the airlock with his arms crossed.

When the two Kig-Yar were finished with their semi-private discussion, they both drew pistols from their holsters and aimed them towards the two undercover Agents; one aimed a pistol at Moretti with his right hand and the other other aiming at Chen with his left. Chen was not fazed by their pistol drawing. He simply uncrossed his arms, clenched his fists, and tilted his head side to side to loosen his neck. He remained silent until the Kig-Yar finally spoke.

"Give weapons!" said the one on the left. Then the one on the right followed up by saying, "Now!"

Chen gave a smirk, but he complied with the two Chickens' orders. There were many options that he had on his mind, but he had to take account of all of the conditions given by the environment. He ran through multiple different scenarios in his mind while he held his hand up towards the Kig-Yar and took a few steps forward.

"Okay. Threat assessment," Chen thought. "Two Chickens with pistols hold us at gun point. Arms outstretched. There would be no way they could miss at this distance. I have to do something that will distract the Chicken aiming at Moretti so he can fire a few rounds from his MA5K without getting hit. What will be the distraction? Ah, yes! I'm brilliant."

Chen turned his head towards Moretti while keeping his hands up and said, "Both of them are all yours. I just hope you have stun rounds in your Carbine or we're gonna have to mop up blood stains." He gave Moretti a wink after that, hoping the Kig-Yar didn't understand since he spoke in a tone that only his partner could hear. "Wait for the cue."

Chen carefully removed his slung MA5K from his back and slid it across the floor towards the Chicken that was aiming at him. Chen then removed two M9 HEDP Fragmentation Grenade from a pouch on his ballistic vest and rolled them carefully like eggs to the same Kig-Yar. After that, he unsheathed his 12-inch custom made Tanto-styled combat knife from his left drop-leg rig and flipped it so he can hold the knife by the tip of the blade. Both Kig-Yar flinched at his sudden gesture. That was the reaction he wanted.

"Easy... don't shoot. I'm just showing you this knife," Chen said to both of the Chickens. "Knife," he repeated slowly. He tried his best to slow down his pace for the Kig-Yar to understand him. "It is veeeery nice. See?" He rotated the knife from the left side to the right side to show it off. "Very sharp. Can cut through flesh like... uh... alligators and apes. You can keep this, but I only have one," Chen lied to the Kig-Yar. They were unaware that Chen still had his 8-inch backup sheathed on his lower back in a horizontal position so he can draw it with his dominant right hand and his M6C was still in his hip holster.

"Here. All yours," Chen said to the Chickens before he slid it in between them. "Cue ball is about to pocket the Eight Ball with in two holes," he then said to Moretti.

As expected, the Kig-Yar both looked at Chen's knife. Distracted. While the one on the left leaned down and tried to pick up the knife, Chen targeted the one standing on the right. He quickly took a few jogging steps towards the distracted Kig-Yar and forcefully hopped and twisted off his left leg; performing a 900 degree Spinning Hook Kick.

The sound of a slap and force felt under Chen’s combat boot was enough to confirm that it was a good impact on his target; the head. It was obviously stunned from the strike as it backpedalled, trying to regain its balance, but failed when it slipped over the Frag Grenade Chen rolled over earlier and fell on its back.

"Fire, now!" Chen said to Moretti.

[Llau]

Lieutenant Commander Michelangelo N. Moretti
ONI Section III Field Officer - “Ombra”
March, 2548 – 0242 hours
Aboard “Your Days Are Numbered”, Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
Two Down...many more to go.
tag(s): SPARTAN-A120 , Faclan


Moretti had a mischievous grin on his face, while he listened to the two Kig-Yar speak to themselves after he told them that he wasn't going to give them his weapons. He wasn't able to catch everything, not like Hyde would, but he was able to catch the words, 'no', 'listen' and 'force'. His eyes shifted over to Chen, noticing the disbelief over the man's face after what he told them, but also noticed that he was slightly stressed out when he checked the Petty Officer's body language.

You're working with me now, buddy...best to get used to it, he thought, glancing back at Tun and Bar once they were finished speaking to each other, and then watched as the two aliens turned their attention back on the two undercover ONI agents.

“Give weapons!” Bar, the one standing in front of Moretti hissed out, while Tun, the one standing in front of Chen said, “Now!” The two pirates waited for their weapons to be placed in their outstretched hands after demanding them to disarm once again.

Moretti stood there, still giving them that  same mischievous grin, while pointing the MA5K up toward the ceiling, letting it rest against his shoulder in a display of defiance and possibly stupidity...he's done worse with his high risk behavior. Well, most of the time. In his peripheral vision, he could see Chen complying to the two pirates, and was glad that at least one of them was, but knew the younger agent had a plan. At least...he hoped he did. He glanced over at him when Chen turned his head with his arms raised, and spoke quietly to him,

“Both of them are all yours. I just hope you have stun rounds in your Carbine or we're gonna have to mop up blood stains.”

Moretti grinned a little wider at that when the man winked, and could be seen slowly switching the Carbine to rest against his other shoulder as he held it in his other hand.

“Wait for my cue.”

He heard him add, while he gradually moved his now free right hand down to his thigh holster to unbuckle the strap that secured his sidearm in place, and then slid his fingers around the handle of the M6C SOCOM pistol that had the stun rounds in its clip; ready to quickly pull out and fire at his two targets. As much as he would love to blow these two aliens' brains out, he didn't feel like cleaning up the blood and guts after disposing of the two bodies right now.

Moretti stood silently and unmoving, while Chen was carefully disarming each weapon and sliding them across the floor toward the pirates who had them at gun point. The Lieutenant Commander slightly tilted his head downward, assessing his marks as he stared at them from beneath his eyebrows, and waited for the right moment as he controlled his breathing into a slow, calm rhythm. He listened to the younger agent as he slowly talked to them and offered his tanto-style combat knife. Once the Petty Officer slid the knife across the floor over to Bar and Tun, distracting them.

Seconds before Chen even said “Fire, now!”, the seasoned Field Operator had quickly pulled out his M6C from its holster, aimed it at Bar and fired a few rounds at him, and while Bar skittered backward and fell on his back from the impacts of the stun rounds that incapacitated him after two struck him in the chest and one in the forehead, he aimed his gun over at Tun as Tun slipped on the grenades and fell back after being kicked in the head by Chen. Once the alien was on his back though, he fired a few rounds at his center mass before the alien could get back up.

While the two aliens were now on the ground, Moretti shouldered his Carbine as he went over to check on Bar.

“Check the other one.” The Lieutenant Commander ordered Chen.

Holding his pistol in two hands as he pointed it down at Bar, he kicked the Kig-Yar's own weapon that was held weakly in his hand away, and then checked for other weapons once he knew the pirate wasn't going to be moving any time soon. He disarmed Bar of other weapons he was able to find on his person, and once he was finished, he holstered his gun, and grabbed a pair of steel flexi-cuffs that not even a Brute could break, and turned Bar over to restrain his hands behind his back.

While he was restraining the incapacitated alien, without looking, he said, “Go and speak with the Innie Leader about trading the nukes for our science nerds,” he explained, “If anyone asks, tell them that I've elected to stay and guard our ship until you get back because I'm a little shithead when it comes to disarming my weapons.” He grinned as he glanced up at him.

Next, he pulled out some heavy-duty silencing tape, and wrapped it around the alien's beak about five times. He glanced up at Chen.

“I'll handle them and hide the bodies before I do anything else.” A pause. “I'll be hacking into the control panel over there to find layouts of the ship and other information we will need. Then I'll send them to your TAC-PAD. I will also be hacking my way even further to take control of their ship...mostly the lighting and the gravity controls...I'm sure you trained in Zero G's combat, agent.”

Another pause as he went over to restrain and keep Tun silent as well. Before he worked on the alien, he said to the Petty Officer, “Leave your weapons here with me, and I'll put them in a bag and bring them along, while I give myself a tour of their lovely hellhole of a ship they have here.” He winked, but then frowned a bit. “You can keep your knifes and gadgets on you, just don't get caught with them if they decide to search you again before you get to meet with their leader.”

“I'll hide the bag somewhere on the ship where you can get them when you can if things turn FUBAR for you when you're negotiating with her.”

He patted the man on the shoulder, and then restrained Tun's wrists behind his back after rolling him over onto his stomach with another pair of flexi-cuffs.

“Remember, Chen...she's the one that we want to take back alive with us for interrogation. Get her alone, if you can, and incapacitate her and then hide her until we can secure both Section One agents, and then we can deal with getting her back to the ship so we can finish completing our other objectives.”

He stood up, and started to drag Tun over to where Bar was, and then decided to restrain their ankles together with the steel flexi-cuffs. Once he was finished with that, he dragged the two bodies one at a time over to a pile of large steel shipping containers. He broke the lock on one, and dragged the bodies to hide them inside. After closing the door of the shipping container, he ran back into the Yacht to find a bag, and when he did, he returned outside to gather Chen's weapons and place them inside.

He shouldered the bag of weapons, and then jogged over to the control panel he spied behind the pirates earlier, and got to work. He hooked up his TAC-PAD and started to hack into the control panel; bypassing a minor firewall, and then gaining access into the system. He downloaded everything to his own TAC-PAD, including blueprints of the ship, right down to recent changes and where everything was located at and stored. Once he uploaded the information to his CNI, he sent the data to Chen's TAC-PAD.

“Chen...sent you the data. Look and study it when you can.” He whispered into his ear-piece.

Once that was completed, he searched through their network until he needed to hack into their security to take control of the lights and the gravity if and when he needed to use it. He left a backdoor Trojan into their system so he could easily return to the controls at any time, installed their controls onto his TAC-PAD so he could access it from there instead from another control panel, and then left, as if he was never there. Whoever was at the controls was none-the-wiser. Now it was time to make his way through the ship, and that meant, he was going to spend his time mostly in the air ducts and maintenance tunnels to avoid detection.

[Faclan]

Feel free to post again you two, I will post after 120 responds to all the stuff Mike did, moves through the Upper Floor, and enters the Party room with Jenny, Gaz, and Nek. But to make it easier I did my best to make a map so there could be a better idea as to what is going on. First time using Pyromancer's Dungeon Painter but should work;

The main key for this;
Walls are Black lines
Innies are Green lines
Kig-Yar are Yellow lines
Jenny is Teal
Captain Gaz is Blue
Nek Dal is White
Agent Mike is Pink
Agent Chen is Red
The two hostages are Purple
Small barrels (the brown circles) are air duct/maintenance shaft exits. (I forgot to make them different, but I trust Sheep to not break the system by going right to the hostages and then right back out.)
Green crystal squares are entertainment systems, so as long as you are quiet or not disruptive while moving by them you should go unheard.
Dark green packs on the walls are panels that Mike now has control over.
The faint stair steps are stairs leading to other areas.

Map specific keys will be on their sections

* The Bridge, probably not going to be visited but the highest concentration of Innies is here, only accessible to the left of ONI's entry point; Connects only to Upper Floor.


* Upper Floor, the floor that the ONI team entered on. to the left of their entry is the Bridge stairs, and down the hall to the right leads to the party room. The statue like objects near the Party Room stairs are toilets; Connects to Bridge, Party Room, and Lower floor


* Party Room, where the Party at. The yellow cross on this map leads to the Kig-Yar Pirate ship, where many Pirates await if there is an issue. Eight of Jennies Innies are down those stairs keeping an eye on the Pirates; Connects only to Upper Floor.


* Lower floor, where the objective lies. The pink parts of the wall are hatches that can be moved through. The big hour glass yellow shape is a patrolling Kig-Yar pirate. And finally the golden chests are crates and boxes of storage items; Connects only to Upper Floor.


I'll try to be on Yappas, Steam, and Skype if you guys have any questions - hope the maps help. 

[SPARTAN-A120]

Petty Officer 1st Class Richard A. Chen
ONI Section III Field Operative "Panther"
March, 2548 - 0248 hours
Aboard "Your Days are Numbered," Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
"Let's Make a Deal, Shall We?"
(Tags: Llau & Faclan )

Chen didn’t know what happened, but before he had gave the cue, Bar fell backwards and emitted what sounded like a Kig-Yar version of a human groan. The other Kig-Yar, Tun, was shot twice a few seconds later. During the takedowns, Chen had quickly drew his M6C from his hip holster and was using a classic Center-Axis Relock CQB firing system to aim his weapon. Using the extended position of the CAR, he switched back and forth between the downed targets to make sure they stayed down.

“Check the other one,” the Lieutenant Commander ordered Chen.

Chen silently nodded and maintained his aim on Tun while he swiftly closed the distance. The Kig-Yar raised its pistol, attempting to fire a round, but Chen fired a stun round onto its forehead. The Chicken fell into a comatose-like state after the impact and Chen kicked the Tun's pistol away towards the entrance of the airlock. After that, he holstered his suppressed weapon and conducted a pat down of the Chicken to remove any weapons or items that can be improvised as a weapon.

Moretti was all ready binding the other Chicken's hands in steel flexi-cuffs when Chen took a quick glance towards him. While he was restraining the incapacitated alien, without looking, he said to Chen, “Go and speak with the Innie Leader about trading the nukes for our science nerds. If anyone asks, tell them that I've elected to stay and guard our ship until you get back because I'm a little shithead when it comes to disarming my weapons.” The Agent then grinned at Chen.

In response, Chen simply nodded and maintained security towards the exit of the airlock in case the confrontation had attracted unwanted attention. He heard the sound of tape being applied, but he didn't bother to look back as his task at the moment was to keep a lookout for visitors.

“I'll handle them and hide the bodies before I do anything else," Moretti said. There was short pause before the Lieutenant Commander continued, “I'll be hacking into the control panel over there to find layouts of the ship and other information we will need. Then I'll send them to your TAC-PAD. I will also be hacking my way even further to take control of their ship...mostly the lighting and the gravity controls...I'm sure you trained in Zero G's combat, agent.”

"No problem," Chen replied without looking back.

The sound of tape being applied occured again and a few seconds later, Moretti said, “Leave your weapons here with me, and I'll put them in a bag and bring them along, while I give myself a tour of their lovely hellhole of a ship they have here.” He winked, but then frowned a bit. “You can keep your knives and gadgets on you, just don't get caught with them if they decide to search you again before you get to meet with their leader.”

"Understood," Chen said while he handed over his M6C to Moretti.

“I'll hide the bag somewhere on the ship where you can get them when you can if things turn FUBAR for you when you're negotiating with her.”

He patted the Chen on the shoulder, and then restrained Tun's wrists behind his back after rolling him over onto his stomach with another pair of flexi-cuffs. Moretti continued, “Remember, Chen...she's the one that we want to take back alive with us for interrogation. Get her alone, if you can, and incapacitate her and then hide her until we can secure both Section One agents, and then we can deal with getting her back to the ship so we can finish completing our other objectives.”

"Will do," Chen replied. "But for the record, this isn't my first rodeo." Chen then returned a wink to Moretti.

He then gathered the items he slid over as distractions earlier for quicker packing. He removed his 8-inch backup knife and slid it inside his left leg where there was a sheath. He pulled his pants over it and tested it a few times by lifting his knee. When he was satisfied, he pulled out a small device the size of a small mint and placed it into his left ear. It was a discrete communications earplug that can send and receive voice communications. He tapped a few commands on his TACPAD to activate and connect the earplug to the secure communications network.

He took a look at Moretti and said while point at his left ear, "I can hear and transmit so keep in touch. Just don't yell my codename three times if I die." Chen left the airlock and started walking casually to meet the Insurrectionist leader and whoever managed to show up.

Chen cautiously looked around every now and then so he could look out gor patrolling Innies. He wouldn't be surprised if there were more Chickens lingering about. He wasn't stressing the thought though. What he did do during the walk was thinking about the words to saying case he was stopped. He stopped walking and figured out where he was suppose to go. He was basically walking blindly without the assistance of possessing blueprints of the ship.

Chen was about to ask Moretti for directions when his whispering voice ironically came through his earplug just in time and said, “Chen...sent you the data. Look and study it when you can.”

"My Guardian Angel," Chen replied quietly with a smile.

Chen scrolled through his TACPAD and transferred it onto his HUD. He studied it for a minute and then minimized it to a corner which displayed like a mini map. He made a right turn and proceeded straight which was the direction of the stairs. He passed by a theatre-like room on his right and noted it mentally. When he made it to the stairs, he observed the map and made sure it was the correct location he needed to be. While he was doing so, he heard someone to his left say in a muffled voice, "Oh... oh no. Please, not again. Hmmmmmmmmfffffffffff, ahhhhh! Dammit all! Hut- Pfffffffffff, ahhhhh"

Chen almost broke down in laughter. Someone sounded like they were having the bad case of the Runs. He controlled himself, and retained his character. He took a deep breath, exhaled slowly and made his way up the stairs to the meeting.

When he made it up the stairs, there was a steel door with a console on the left side. He pressed a green button, but the door didn't open. "Hmm. Must be locked from the other side," he thought.

He then pressed the red button and spoke, "Open sesame."

Chen waited a few awkward seconds before a male voice responded, "Who the fuck is this?"

"I'm one of the dealers. I'm here to see your boss."

"Dealer? Where's the Turkeys?"

"On a plate, waiting to be eaten for Thanksgiving. Now open the door."

"What? The hell you mean?" the man said. Apparently, the guy didn't have a good sense of humor.

"They're with my partner and keeping him company. He didn't want to hand over his weapons so he stayed behind. Now can you open the door?" Chen said with his tone raising slightly.

There was a few second pause before the door slid open, but Chen couldn't take a step in. He was greeted by two men with MA2B Assault Rifles inches away from his face. Chen sighed heavily and placed his hands behind his head. The men cleared a way for him to enter, but maintained their aim. After he took a few steps through the door, the man on the left shouted, "Halt! Check him!"

The Innie had a British accent. Chen winced a little from the shouting and remarked, "Fucking hell. You're like arms reach from the dude and you're shouting like he's stealing your car."

"Shut up," said the other Innie who had a heavy Russian accent. The Innie started patting down Chen and checking for weapons on his load bearing ballistic vest.

Both men looked muscular and were taller than Chen by at least four to six inches. They wore woodland camouflage BDUs and had what looked like ski masks rolled up to look like winter beanie hats. He then observed the other people... and aliens in room. There were a total of six Kig-Yar who were armed, two more Innies guarding a closed entrance on his left, and a woman with a brown ball cap, an olive drab t-shirt under a tan, light ballistic vest, brown BDU pants, and bloused into black combat boots. She had black hair, piercing green-blue eyes, and had a few small scars around her face. Another notable observation was that her body look like it was covered with tattoos. Besides the fact that the lady was an Innie, she was sure an attractive one.

The Russian Innie finished searching Chen, but found nothing of interest when he said, "He's clean."

"You... you must be the dealer with the... seven... seven nukes. Am I right?" asked the Innie woman. She made her way over towards Chen with a walk that he might have interpreted as a seductive walk. The Innie guards cleared a way for her and lowered their weapons.

"Yes, ma'am," Chen said with a grin. "And to whom may I owe the pleasure to, beautiful?"

The woman smiled and if Chen was seeing correctly, blushed. She crossed her arms and suddenly frowned. "I am Jennifer. But my crew calls me Jenny the Throat Cutter. Now who the hell are you and where's your partner?" she said firmly.

Chen was not expecting that. For all he knew, she was probably bipolar. "I'm Patrick. And my partner isn't here because he doesn't like to be disarmed so he stayed behind with our ship," Chen said.

"And the Chicken heads?"

"Also with him, keeping him company. They told me in broken English to say that we do have seven nukes aboard. Along with a supply of stolen UNSC weapons. It was a damn pain in the ass to get them. Hey, even the ship is ours. Stolen from a rich dude who was acting like a rich dude."

"Huh," Jenny reacted. "And you want the ONI Douchebags for what reason again?"

"Some sweet revenge from the past. I'm sure you understand. Sooo... let's make a deal, shall we?" Chen said with his hands clasped.

[Llau]

Lieutenant Commander Michelangelo N. Moretti
ONI Section III Field Officer - “Ombra”
March, 2548 – 0250 hours
Aboard “Your Days Are Numbered”, Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
Tour of the Maintenance Tunnels, 2548
tag(s): SPARTAN-A120 , Faclan


Moretti rolled his eyes and smirked when he overheard Chen call him his 'guardian angel', but didn't reply as he glanced left toward the bridge once he quietly headed out of the area he was in. Next, he turned his head toward his right before heading down that direction to find the vent to the air shaft and maintenance tunnel. Once he found it, he cautiously eyed the area again to make sure he was still in the clear, and then pressed the button to open up the hatch. He climbed down a short ladder, and then crouched down once he reached the bottom. Gazing around, he could feel the cool, fresh air flowing through the vent. When he found a button to his right, he pressed it, and then glanced up to see the hatch slide close.

The tunnel itself was a bit dark, but lighted by small dots of lights along the edges of the bottom and the ceiling. It was wide enough for one person to fit through, but tall enough to have a person either crouch-walk or move on their hands and knees. Of course, while he was looking at the blueprints, the maze he was currently in now had a few places where he had to physically crawl through to get to certain areas of the ship...which he needed to use to get to. No matter, he's been through worse tunnels like this one. Much worse.

While he started to carefully move along the tunnel, he remembered the younger agent telling him to not yell out his code name three times if he dies. He knew Chen was joking, but so can he. He scoffed, and whispered into the microphone of his ear-piece he decided to use.

“Trust me, Chen. I won't be calling you 'Panther'...it'd be more along the lines of 'testa di cazzo' if you end up getting your ass handed to you and become another statistic of ONI agents who made very...very poor, life choices.”

He smirked, and then his smirk faded when he could overhear someone else in his ear-piece. It was muffled, but he could still hear them say, "Oh... oh no. Please, not again. Hmmmmmmmmfffffffffff, ahhhhh! Dammit all! Hut- Pfffffffffff, ahhhhh"

He blinked once, and then blinked several more times, and had to stop. He thought to himself, Che cazzo...non importa.

He sighed, wishing he didn't hear that, and continued through the mazey tunnel of the level he was on to find the one he needed to switch to in order to head down into the lower level, where Hyde and the other scientist was being held in. 

[Faclan]

(SPARTAN-A120, You can control Jenny if you want so you and her can talk in your post and you can do your suave ONI things :> - I'm sure she would have a lot to say about Nek 'interrupting' her and the Kigs being chatterboxes.)

Nek Dal - T'vaoan Translator
Your Days are Numbered! - Main room, the 'party room'
Aecor I don't want to be here anymore...

Just before Chen had walked in Jenny, Nek, and Gaz had been discussing the collateral that would be needed for Jenny to be sure that Gaz would come back. Gaz getting more irate with each sentence translated. And as soon as the new Human arrived she just left mid sentence to go greet him.

"This Human really thinks she's that special doesn't she? Just because she has two Secret Intelligence Humans she thinks that my time is worth nothing? That she can jerk me around like this?!"

"That seems to be the general impression Captain Gaz."

"Leaving her with some of my hard earned loot as collateral?! Idiotic...Nek, how many Humans of hers would you wager are on this ship?"

"Ummm...little more than a score and a half...Why Captain Gaz?" Nek really didn't like the smirk that was starting to form on Gaz's stubby beak as he tapped his claws on the table he was near.

"We could do what we normally do with Human ships you know...take it by force and take the Secret Intel Humans for free."

"...If you do do that Captain Gaz, can I please go back to the ship before hand?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, forgot you weren't part of my crew - yeah you would. I wouldn't do it now, I would wait till we can get my boarding parties armored up and the C-10's ready. The small security team I brought along wouldn't do well against these Humans with their light armor. Only I have combat armor on now...Go tell that Human," he pointed to the one that had just been identified as Patrick. "That I want to talk to him in private. I have nothing against him for being swept up in this females games. And I want his nukes. I'm sure we could work out a deal before the shooting starts if the Jen woman continues to test my patience..."

Gulping a little at the very real boarding that could soon take place, Nek very aware of how much Gaz loved to do that despite the injuries he often sustained leading the charge, he headed over to Jenny and Patrick. But besides that initial gulp he kept his nerves well under control besides that, as this was still a talk, and Nek was good at those at least. Looking the same as he had been throughout the meeting and the same as Patrick had seen him so far the T'vaoan stepped up to beside them and waited for a break in the conversation before waving at Patrick a bit. The Human sure looked like a Inside Human with his outfit.

"Hello Patrick," he said in English, having a little cough before continuing. "When you have a moment, perhaps when you get some snacks, Captain Gaz would like to talk with you." He pointed out the armored Ibie'Shan who was busy cheeping quietly into his PP, probably getting the crew ready in case needed. "I'm Nek Dal, and I'll be translating for the two of you when you can talk with him." Bowing his head to both he headed back over to Gaz and the food tables. Letting out a breath as he refilled his glass of water and sunk back into the bean bag chair.

--------------

Bakz - Female Ruuthian Pirate Treasure Hunter.
In the vents doing sneaky sneak attacks.

Why did she believe Yab...treasure in the Human vents. It was probably just an excure for him to see her rump and feet when she was climbing into it. All that was in here was dust! But couldn't just go back now since the hatch had closed behind her. But she was in quiet a mood from having to crawl through these damn vests and so had her knife out. Hopefully once she found the exit, that she knew was somewhere from the short tour she had, Yab would be there. She wanted to show him the fancy knife she 'found' in the vents, from its sheath on her belt...But what was that other noise besides the low humming of the vest...Human?

Slowing down a bit as she neared a drop off point she edged toward the ledge and looked down. Just catching a Human shoulders and lower starting to crawl away. There was a very fancy looking rifle on its back and the outfit looked a lot different than the other Humans so far...and was in the vents also for some reason. Welp, she mused as she carefully slipped her combat knife into her beak and grabbed the bars overhead and pulled herself to be over the drop off, he was in here to get stabbed and robbed now. She would get her treasure one way or another. And if it was one of that females people then tough anchors for her.

Dropping down to be behind the Human she spread her legs out to barely make any sound when she landed. Taking her knife back into her hands as she reached out for the Humans back; intending to grab, yank back, stab a few times, then loot.

[SPARTAN-A120]

Petty Officer 1st Class Richard A. Chen
ONI Section III Field Operative "Panther"
March, 2548 - 0255 hours
"Party Room," Upper Deck
Aboard "Your Days are Numbered," Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
"Talking with a Hot Innie and Oversized Chickens"
(Tags: Llau & Faclan )

Jenny raised a brow at Chen's attempt to get straight to the point and start bargaining. As long as his cover was working, everything would be smooth sailing, but the presence of the Kig-Yar might interfere with the process. He unclasped his hands and they fell neutral by his side.

"You want to start talking about trading already? You just got here. I'm sure you're thirsty and hungry from evading the UNSC and making your way to us," Jenny said while she uncrossed her arms and raised her left arm towards the tables that were filled with refreshments and snacks.

"I already ate and drank on the way here. So-" Chen was about to finish, but Jenny abruptly cut him off.

"So you'll eat and drink some more. Please, I insist."

Chen was about to respond when he saw movement to his left. It was a Kig-Yar that seemed a bit jumpy at first, but approached him and Jenny in a calm state. Chen cocked a brow when the Chicken gave him a wave. "The hell was in that MRE..." he thought.

"Hello, Patrick," the Kig-Yar said and then coughed. Chen didn't expect the Oversized Space Chicken to speak with near perfect English if he tuned out some of the weird accent the bird had.

He saw Jenny glaring back at the Kig-Yar with eyes that intended to murder it and nearly shouted, "Hey Bird Brains, can't you see we're trying to have a conversation here?"

"Hang on, Jenny. I would like to hear what the Chicken has to say," Chen tried to persuade Jenny. When she gave him an angry look, Chen smiled and continued, "Please, beautiful, I'm sure it can keep it short and sweet so we can continue talking.

Jenny took a few seconds to respond, but when she finally did, her frown disappeared and she said to the Chicken, "All right. Talk. Make it quick or I'll shut you up."

The Kig-Yar immediately continued, "When you have a moment, perhaps when you get some snacks, Captain Gaz would like to talk with you." It pointed towards another Kig-Yar with better looking armor who was speaking into a communications device. "I'm Nek Dal, and I'll be translating for the two of you when you can talk with him." After the Kig Yar, Nek, finished, it bowed its head to Chen and Jenny and headed back over to Gaz and the food tables. It then filled a glass of water and made itself comfortable on a bean bag chair.

Jenny mustered a laugh and said to Chen, "Those Chickens are some weird freaks. Personally, I wouldn't talk to them, but if you do, don't trust them. They're pirates. Guns for hire."

"And you're telling me this because...?" Chen questioned. He crossed his arms while waiting for Jenny's response.

"Because unlike them... I prefer to talk to you," she said while lightly jamming a pointed index finger onto Chen's chest.

Chen remained still. He thought he was getting into her head. She did break character when he called her "beautiful" the first time. All he had to do was discretely continue his act and gain her trust and she'll be open for almost anything that Chen proposed, but he was afraid he might say something to tick her off and it was back to square one or the desired outcome would be far from within his reach. He didn't have that kind of time though. The lives of two ONI hostages depended on the choices he made. Maybe his life, too.

“Trust me, Chen. I won't be calling you 'Panther'...it'd be more along the lines of 'testa di cazzo' if you end up getting your ass handed to you and become another statistic of ONI agents who made very...very poor, life choices," he remembered Moretti saying to him before he entered the "Party Room."

He smirked at the thought and then realized he just did. He made eye contact with Jenny; her green-blue eyes being relaxing, but deadly to look at. Unknown to Chen, Jenny also returned a grin in reaction to his grin. She finally took her finger off of his chest and placed her hands on her hips. "Good going, slugger. The bases are loaded and all you need to do is hit a Grand Slam," he thought.

Although Chen didn't have much experience under his belt with undercover work with female opposition, he was glad he was doing all the right things. "In case you didn't notice, I would like to talk to the Chickens," he said to Jenny.

"And why is that?" Jenny questioned.

"Know thy enemy," Chen responded. "Don't worry. I'll have a drink with you before we start talking business. I have plenty of time." He winked at Jenny and then proceeded towards Gaz and Nek's table.

Jenny blushed again and returned to her table which was being guarded by the two Innies that pointed MA2Bs at him earlier.

During his walk to talk to the Kig-Yar, he was wondering what Agent Moretti was up to. Did he find the hostages yet? Did he get caught already? Was he snapping necks and slitting throats? He shook the questions from his mind and focused at the task at hand. Chen knew the [fontcolor="fac904"]Lieutenant Commander[/font] was a seasoned Field Operator, but if anything happened to him, Chen knew he'll send a warning or Chen will be operating on his own for the duration of the operation. He just hoped that things didn't go South so quick. He took a look at his watch. 0255 hours. Time sure did flew by.

Chen arrived at Gaz and Nek's table and took a seat on a bench on the other side of the table. He took a glass from the many that were gathered and poured himself a glass of water, took a sniff to make sure it didn't smell funny, and took a small sip to see if tasted weird. Of course, if the water was poisoned or rigged, the Kig-Yar would be knocked out by now. It was just Chen's paranoid nature during these times that got the best of him. After the sip of water, he cleared his throat before speaking to the Kig-Yar, "In case you didn't know yet, I'm Patrick. A 'dealer.' I heard you wanted to speak to me. But... let me make this clear: I do not like you folks and I'm sure you don't like me. Now, what do you want?"


Chen leaned forward and leaned on the table with his hands intertwined, awaiting a response from the Chickens.

[Llau]

Lieutenant Commander Michelangelo N. Moretti
ONI Section III Field Officer - “Ombra”
March, 2548 – 0256 hours
Aboard “Your Days Are Numbered”, Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
A Fight With A Space Chicken In A Maintenance Tunnel? Well...that's...a first...


He took pause when he came to a space above his head along the tunnel, and looked up to see a long vertical tunnel leading up somewhere to the upper-level of the ship. He stared for about a minute before continuing forward in the crouch-position just a few seconds before Bakz peeked her head over the ledge to see just his shoulders and body moving away. When the Ruuthian pirate jumped down onto his level, which he didn't hear, she grabbed him by the back of his shirt; surprising him. A lot.

“Hnng!” He could only muster out of his mouth as he felt a strong hand grabbing his shirt from the back and pulling him backward, nearly making him fall on his back. He struggled to keep his balance, smacking the back of his head against the ceiling, and then fell into the one who grabbed him. It would have been romantic if it weren't for the murderous intent, and if his attacker wasn't an alien. He cringed a little at the pain in his head, but then looked just in time when he saw a shiny, fancy-looking knife start to move toward him in a downward motion.

“Oh, shit!” He muttered, grabbing the attacker by the wrist with both hands to keep them from impaling him in the chest with the blade.

There were a lot of grunting and movement going on in the vent as the two roughly struggled against each other. Moretti was trying to push the knife away, while Bakz was trying to push it toward him, but the two were evenly matched in terms of strength. If Bakz was a T'vaoan though, then she would have easily won and stabbed him already. That doesn't mean she was easy to fight against, as she was giving the Lieutenant Commander a hard time, as he continued to keep her from stabbing him. While he had a pretty good grasp around her wrist with both hands, he started to quickly swing his left leg up to kick her in the face repeatedly until she squawked in pain, and stopped trying to stab him with her knife, as she moved away from him quickly, but only for a few moments.

The Ruuthian pirate stayed low, glaring at him through slit eyes, as he started to pull out his side-arm to fire one of the stun rounds at her. Before he could raise it completely, she was too quick for him. She rushed forward, swatting at his gun hand just as he fired a shot; sending the stun round mere inches away from her face and getting stuck in the wall's of the maintenance tunnel. She pounced on him, about to try and stab him again, but he used her momentum to flip her over when he lifted both legs up, and grabbed her with both hands by the collar of her shirt. She squawked again, but in surprised, as he was now on top of her and punching her repeatedly with one hand in her face. She attempted to swing her knife at him, but he leaned back, grabbing her wrist tightly with both hands as she swung the blade toward his neck; nicking him in the process, but his adrenaline was racing, and he didn't feel it at the time. He twisted her arm and hand hard enough to cause her to release her hold around the knife's handle, and then he ripped the knife away from her hand and let it skitter across the tunnel's floor somewhere behind him.

Bakz cheeped in pain, and started to only raise her arms to try and block his constant punches, but then she hissed in anger. If this human can fight dirty, then so will she. She started to struggle with him, trying to bite at him, but he kept her away, as if he had knowledge of how Ruuthians like herself fought. When that wasn't helping her, she became even more angrier, and managed to press both of her feet against his stomach and pushed him off; hard. His backside slammed roughly against the ceiling of the vent, causing him to cringe, but also causing him to bleed when she slashed her clawed feet down his chest and stomach.

Moretti grimaced, cursing loudly and groaning in pain as blood starting to leak out; reminding him of the gash across his chest that was scarring over from when Larkin had used his own Karambit to cut him with. Bakz continued to kick forward, as if she was stepping up some stairs, but on the field operator's front instead. It was painful to him, but she was enjoying inflicting some pain into the human. She then kicked him hard in the side, causing him to slam against the side of the steel tunnel, and then she let him fall back down onto his side. Panting and groaning, he clutched at his side, tensing into a small ball for a moment, while his body twitched slightly in pain. She didn't wait any time to give him some breathing room, as she tried attacking him again, but he quickly defended himself, ignoring the pain he was in, and snatched her arm, and swung her off of her feet; catching her off guard, and then nailed her in the face with his knee when he raised it up to meet her.

Although, that was a dumb move on his part, as he had flung her close to the knife he threw away from her a little bit ago. Yet, it gave him enough time to unsheathe his Karambit from his shoulder harness. Once she got her knife back, the two glared at each other from a couple of feet away; knives raised in a defensive position, while Moretti and her were down on one knee, and kept their fingertips pressed against the bottom of the vent. Panting a little, the two silently dared the other to try and stab the other, but neither of them at the moment budged from their spot. She cheeped repeatedly at him in a threatening manner. He couldn't make out every word she said, but he did pick up on the words, 'stab', 'kill', 'human scum', 'rob' and what sounded like 'weapons' to him, but he didn't know for sure.

The Lieutenant Commander slowly smirked at that. “Well, let's go then,” he whispered, “I don't have all night to deal with you...stupid space chicken.” He chuckled in amusement, knowing that would certainly piss her off if she understood it.

Space chicken?! She hissed at that. 

"Oh, good...you know it," Moretti grinned.

That insult was what she overheard some of these Innie humans saying behind her back, and really the only human word she knew...and loathed.

She glared at him murderously and rushed at him, swinging her knife in a rage as best as she could in such a small space inside the maintenance tunnel. He swung back, dodged and countered as best as he could too, but was getting cut by her knife, just as much as she was with his own. He reached an arm up just in time to block her from stabbing him in the neck, and then went to counter by punching her in the temple, but she was too quick for him.

“Uuhn!” He suddenly saw a bright light when she headbutted him in the forehead, the impact sending his head tilting back, and then he fell backward with a thud. He groaned, moving around a bit, but then seemed to have gone limp as he lost consciousness.

Weak human, she thought in amusement.

Bakz cautiously crawled up and straddled over him. She smirked proudly. Since this human didn't look like he belonged with the rest of them, perhaps she could drag him back to the pirate ship, and then her and her mates could pick and choose what the operator had for keeps. Perhaps even show the Innie leader him, and then maybe she can get something out of it as a reward for finding him. She poked at his cheek with her knife, moving his head over to the left as she studied him, while she decided on what she was going to do. Kill and rob him of his things, and keep them for myself, share with my mates, or take him to the Jenny human. Decisions...decisions...

He did put up a good fight though...she looked at him, and then went to grab for the even better looking knife of his.

“I'll take this!” She happily cheeped, but then her eyes suddenly grew wide when she felt something very sharp and long pierce underneath her jawline when she went to grab his Karambit that he held weakly in his right hand.

Her eyes slowly shifted over to his face, and saw that he was gazing up at her through barely opened eyelids, but his expression was indifferent when he managed to stab her, but with what. Her eyes shifted from his face, over to his left hand, but didn't see anything in his hand, but noticed part of a blade sticking out from his TAC-PAD he was wearing on his left arm. Blood was pouring out of her wound slowly, but once he would pull the knife out from under her jaw, she surely would bleed too death. She choked and cheeped in pain, trying to move away, but it was too painful to move from him.

Moretti slowly sat up, keeping his cold brown eyes on her eyes. Next he kicked her away from him, sending her rolling off to the side of the vent, and pretty much pulling the knife out of her wound. While he sat lazily against the other side of the vent, he gazed at her, while she laid there, bleeding too death for a few minutes. Catching his breath, he glanced down at his wounded front, where claw marks ran down his chest and stomach, and pretty much ripped his ballistic vest, shirt, and the ballistic gel suit he wore underneath in several places. Of course, the vest and the under-suit were made to stop small arms fire, and not really extremely sharp alien claws. Although, if it weren't for the vest and the under-suit, his insides would be on the floor of the vent right now.

Could be worse...like very, dead worse, he thought.

He reached into the pouch strapped to his leg, and pulled out a can of bio-foam and some gauze, and started first-aid on himself. He then sat up from the vent; carefully unzipped his ballistic vest to take it off, and then he took off his shirt and grimaced at the movement. He then unzipped the ballistic gel under-suit, and opened the front wide enough so he had room to work on the three gashes. 

So much for my ballistic vest and under-suit. Damn...Probably should have worn thicker armor. I should've expected the Kig-Yar to be here, doing business with the Innie-tards. Didn't think of that. Should've.

He grimaced, sitting back to clean his wounds before putting the bio-foam on. He looked up slowly, holding his breath, and pretty much holding his screams of agony as it burned him when he applied it to the first gash. He tensed up, and nearly passed out due to the pain, while reminding himself that he had two more gashes to tend to.

“Oh, fuck...” He forced out in a hoarse whisper filled with pain, and then he slowly slid down against the wall of the vent, and laid down and closed his eyelids, while he waited for the pain to subside.

"Any minute...any minute now..." He whispered in between slight gasps of pain and holding his breath a little each time. Managing a small grin, he chuckled a bit at what happened. Oh, the irony of telling Chen to be careful and not making poor life choices. 

[Faclan]

Nek Dal - T'vaoan Translator
Your Days are Numbered! - Main room, the 'party room'
Hopefully this Human is more cooperative.

Sometimes, like right now, Nek really wondered if Humans fully understood he could hear and understand what they were saying. Or if being rude in front of guests was just that common with them. Rolling his eyes a bit as he took another drink he mentally nodded. They did seemingly. All the Inside Humans and otherwise he had worked with often treated him poorly, shouted at him with names and such while he was trying to work out a deal with them. Seemingly because he was an alien. But they were to him, and he didn't act like that? Sticking out his tongue a bit as he lounged in the beanbag chair he decided that his Mama and Papa...or the crews - must have raised him right. Or it was a cultural thing. Ehh problems for another day. He should be focusing on the possible hostile takeover that could very well happen at any moment. He knew that Gaz's crew were already on high alert because of the Humans with guns, it would take them very little time to get the rest of their armor on and weapons ready to storm this vessel. breathing slowly he glanced over as Patrick seemed to be heading over to him. That was fast. Quickly setting his glass on the ground he pulled himself out of the beanbag chair and headed toward the table.

Gaz was still busy on his PP however, assigning Raid leads and who would hold rooms before the rest would move on. Nek had to remember that nothing would happen if Jenny stopped being rude to Gaz and himself. So Nek did his best to look normal as he moved to stand beside Patrick at the table. But his neutral one turned to a frown - Chen probably not catching the frown but the narrowed eyes would show that - as he was told that Patrick didn't like them. Why did every Human have to be such a bilge?!

"Must you begin like that Patrick? Assuming things about myself and Captain Gaz is quite rude as you would say. I've only just met you, not liking you already wouldn't be good as a translator or a business man." Nodding matter of factly about that he turned as Gaz came over, he looked anxious and quickly spoke out to Nek.

"Her people at the airlocks are getting nervous, we wouldn't have time go get you back to the ship. Hide under a table if it happens Nek. Explain to this Human that should the take over be started I want his Nukes and this vessel, he can have the Secret Mind people. He should hide under a table too."

Nodding and close his eyes as he rubbed his temples Nek nodded and gestured for Patrick to lean in, and if he didn't Nek would lean forward so he could whisper and jenny wouldn't hear. Thankfully her people were far away as well so the plan should go undetected...unless Patrick told Jenny.

"Patrick, Captain Gaz is getting very angry with Jenny. The fact she had you and your friend on the way when we got here is enough. But she keeps declining all of Captain Gaz's offers and calling him un trustworthy and scum...He is very close to ordering his Crew to seize this ship. Should this happen we have nothing against you or your friend as you are caught up in Jennys foolish schemes too. Should it happen hide under a table with me and tell your friend to hide in his ship. You can have the Human Secret Intelligence captives if it happens - Captain Gaz just wants your Nukes and this ship in return." Leaning back so he wouldn't be whispering Nek coughed and rubbed his vocal sac before finishing off his water and shakily pouring himself another glass as he tried to remain calm.

"Is that acceptable Patrick?" He asked, at normal volume this time.

--------------

The Vents, tunnels, and lower levels.

And that, fluffs, is why you don't celebrate and go looking for loot until the loot target is dead or securely bound.

As Bakz weakly kicked and tried to cheep for assistance, but only muffled gurgles came, Mike would eventually be able to move again. The female pirate giving Mike a weak last gesture of defiance with one hand as she held her throat before lying still as the vent smelt pretty badly of Kig-Yar with a bit of Human blood. But a check of the blueprints would reveal that Mike was pretty near an exit to the lower levels near its left most side. But if he kept going along the passageway he would eventually reach the small room in the back right. But it would probably be best to check out the room from the first exit first. It looked like it was just a tiny maintenance closet.

Once Mike finally left Bakz's body behind, after planting any evidence he wanted - like a real ONI, and started to crouch walk or crawl toward this closet he found find it to only be around a short corner and still with a decent smell of blood as he neared the hatch. And once at the hatch would see a Kig-Yar there...just standing there. The Kigs back to the grate. Just standing there despite all the sounds of struggle and the smell of blood. But after a bit of looking the reason for that would be clear as the ONI would spot a pair of large old Human headphones over the Kig-Yar's head and a piece of cooked meat on a stick that it was eating. The headphones snuggly around most of the Kigs head as the head band gingerly rested against his hair spines, the headphones leaning forward a little so it was resting against the back swept spines. The meat stick smelling pretty strong even through the grate. The grate would be easy to remove quietly and should Mike desire the vent would be a good place to lift the Kig-Yar into after it was dealt with.

Past the Kig-Yar Mike would also see a few wrenches and such on the wall and buckets on the floor as well as the opening in the closet, no door. The sounds of a TV or something similar to it as well as quiet Human and Kig-Yar voices outside. Should he peak out of the room he would see another grate across from him with Kig-Yar feet visible through it. But the Kig in front of him was the most important as the smell of blood would eventually overrule the meat stick. And then it would be up to him if he wanted to try and sneak to the back room or sneak across the lower levels floor.

The Kig in front of Mike started to bob his beak a bit as he took another bite of the treat as Mike could hear some of the music through the headset. The song must have changed. Sure sounded like Human music. The Kig must have either stolen it or been given the headphones, the controls for volume and seemingly song selection on the phones themselves, by the Innies. What a nice all in one system for music!

[SPARTAN-A120]

Petty Officer 1st Class Richard A. Chen
ONI Section III Field Operative "Panther"
March, 2548 - 0258 hours
"Party Room," Upper Deck
Aboard "Your Days are Numbered," Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
"This Conspiracy of Ours..."
(Tags: Faclan & Llau )

Chen observed Nek slitting his eyes when he advised the Kig-Yar group that he didn't like them. Chen didn’t display any physical fear since the Innies would gun them down should they attack, but he was slightly nervous about being this close to a Kig-Yar who was conscious and capable of doing damage.

"Must you begin like that Patrick?" responded Nek. "Assuming things about myself and Captain Gaz is quite rude as you would say. I've only just met you, not liking you already wouldn't be good as a translator or a business man." The Kig-Yar translator seemed to be nodding at his own comment until the other Kig-Yar, the one who was named, Gaz, came over with what looked like an impatient expression.

Chen didn’t reply to Nek's comments about his first impressions, but instead, observed the two Kig-Yar when Gaz initiated a private conversation. Their language was unintelligible to Chen. He wished he had known what they were saying so he could discreetly anticipate what would be coming, but he only understood a little of the Sangheili language which would not be useful in this situation.

When Nek and Gaz finished their conversation, Nek faced Chen and closed his eyes while he rubbed his head. "This Chicken sure knows how to act stressed like a human," Chen observed and thought.

Nek then made a gesture that was almost the universal language for "Come closer." Chen didn't really like being that close to the Chicken since it could practically wrap its beak around his face and chew him up like a tree nut. At least that was what Chen thought they were capable of. Usually, he would safely kill or stun them from a distance, but this was the closest he'd ever been to a fully conscious Space Chicken. He finally leaned in, but only slightly, which caused Nek to lean in more than him. He then whispered into Chen's ear to prevent Jenny and the other Innies from overhearing what the Kig-Yar said.

"Patrick, Captain Gaz is getting very angry with Jenny. The fact she had you and your friend on the way when we got here is enough. But she keeps declining all of Captain Gaz's offers and calling him un trustworthy and scum...He is very close to ordering his Crew to seize this ship. Should this happen we have nothing against you or your friend as you are caught up in Jenny's foolish schemes too. Should it happen hide under a table with me and tell your friend to hide in his ship. You can have the Human Secret Intelligence captives if it happens - Captain Gaz just wants your Nukes and this ship in return."

Nek leaned back and coughed awkwardly. He then rubbed his vocal sac before finishing his cup of water and shakily pouring himself another glass as he tried to remain calm. Chen noticed the shaking of Nek's hands as he refilled his cup. "This Space Chicken is nervous," Chen noted mentally. "If he's shaking, that either means that shit is about to hit the fan, or Nek is scared of Gaz... or me."

"Is that acceptable Patrick?" Nek asked, at normal volume this time.

Chen was hoping Agent Moretti was listening to what the Kig-Yar just whispered to him through his concealed earbud communications device. He made sure that Moretti indeed heard it by speaking a code phrase out loud which would also work as a vague response for Nek. Chen took a sip from his cup and said to Nek and secretly to Moretti, "Do you believe in Ghosts? How about Ombras? Because they're alway listening."

He then took a minute to think about the Kig-Yars' proposal. It was a direct action plan. The Kig-Yar would overtake the Innies, but not without a few casualties of their own. The Innies were armed and seemed to be on edge after whst happened back on Frontier. After the takeover, the hostages would be handed over, but should a double-cross ensue, it will not be pretty. Although, the ship did require Cole Protocol to prevent the Covenant or the Pirates from finding out about Earth. No. Chen wasn't going to let that happen.

Chen replied to Nek's proposal by saying, "I agree with everything... but..." Chen was now the one to gesture Nek to lean in closer before he said in a whisper, "We need the ship for a few minutes so we could also get what we want out of it. We are not only here for the ONI creeps." He leaned back and took a look at Jenny. She was busy on a Data Pad, swiping through whatever she was looking at.

Chen returned his attention to Nek and whispered again, "And I want her alive."

He then spoke with another code phrase which was intended for the Lieutenant Commander more than Nek, "I just hope the town is empty before the hurricane rolls through." This meant that most of the objectives were completed before something that compromised the operation went down. Chen continued, "Give me a sign before you work your magic, God, and I'll do the same." This code meant that Moretti should give Chen a signal when the hostages were located and when Cole Protocol was successfully executed and Chen would alert Moretti when the Insurrectionist Leader was 'bagged and tagged.'

"Is that good enough for you, Nek?" Chen said to the Kig-Yar in a low voice while raising a brow.

[Llau]

Lieutenant Commander Michelangelo N. Moretti
ONI Section III Field Officer - “Ombra”
March, 2548 – 0258 hours
Aboard “Your Days Are Numbered”, Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
Should come up with a code word to ask if partner is okay and not dying...
Tag(s): Faclan , SPARTAN-A120


Moretti was on the third and final gash he was sealing with the bio-foam, when he finally heard Chen talking to him in code, rather than talking to Jenny or Nek. He paused, grimacing as he stared at the dead body of the Ruuthian pirate, and listened.

"Do you believe in Ghosts? How about Ombras? Because they're always listening."

He pressed a finger up against his ear-piece. “Yeah,” he forced out in a pained whisper, “Always listening...but hey, Panther...I'm great, thanks for asking. Just almost got my guts spilled out by these damn bird pirates, while you're in there, flirting with Jenny.” He forced a smile through the pain. “Please, for the love of God or whatever you believe in...say you'll agree.”

He breathed in several deep breaths, waiting for the pain to subside, while he continued listening in on Chen's conversation and just sort of laid lazily up against the wall of the vent.

"I just hope the town is empty before the hurricane rolls through."

“It's all good, despite one minor setback, Panther...” He glanced over at Bakz body again, and then down at the now three sealed gashes. “We'll get this shit done, as long as you keep cool and, you know...give me a little more time. I'm almost there.”

"And I want her alive."

“That we do...but Christ, that Kig you're talking to sounds nervous as hell to you, or is it just me? Is he scared of you or something?” His eyebrows furrowed. "Or...does he know something is about to go down between his people and the Innies? Heh...we just don't know."

He zipped up his ballistic gel under-suit, and gathered the bloodied gauze he used on his wounds. While waiting, he moved onto his knees, discarding the gauze and the ripped shirt he had on somewhere down a smaller vent that was way to small for a person to fit inside.

"Give me a sign before you work your magic, God, and I'll do the same."

“God? Well...okay, then,” Chuckling lightly at that, he shook his head a little as he put his ballistic vest back on and zipped it up, and then returned his Karambit to its sheath. “You'll know when I get there. Is the black cat afraid of the dark?” He smirked a little, giving him a clue of the sign he will be using. “And how would he act in zero g's, I wonder?”

He started to continue through the vent again; viewing the blueprints on his TAC-PAD again. There were two exits, but the closest one was into some kind of maintenance closet.

"Hmm." 

I could probably find something there that belongs to these Innies, and plant something, particularly sharp next to that pirate's body, he thought. For a minute longer, he thought about this idea he was having, going over it in his head, and then he slowly smiled mischievously. That should work. I just have to do it fast before the body is discovered by another one of these space chickens, since they could smell it if they are near the damn thing.

With that, he moved quickly, but as quietly as he could, crouch-walking through the vent toward the closer exit to him. The closer he was, he could hear music blaring. It sounded like heavy metal of sorts, coming from the maintenance closet. Great, someone was in there. Surprise, surprise. Once he arrived, he peered through the grate, and saw that who he thought was a Innie possibly going deaf due to how loud the heavy metal music was playing, was really a Kig-Yar, with a pair of human headphones on, listening to it. His back was turned toward the grate, and he looked like he was eating some type of meat on a stick. Despite the fight, and the smell of blood, which has seemingly been overwhelmed by the meat the alien was eating, the Kig-Yar was completely oblivious to what transpired earlier with Moretti fighting against the other pirate inside the vent.

Damn, must be my lucky day...for once, he quietly sighed. Looking around the closet, he spied around the small area. He scanned his eyes over shelves with wrenches, hammers, and other tools that were left out of their toolboxes, and a few toolboxes were next to these tools. Upon further examination, he spotted some small metal boxes, spare electronic parts, and scrap metal laying on another shelf. There were also several buckets on the floor, and a couple of janitorial items for cleaning. It was the typical maintenance closet, and nothing different about it. Over the Kig-Yar's shoulder, he could see from across a room, since there was no door, another hatch, and he could also see a pair of Kig-Yar feet facing what seemed to be a television set in that room.

Well, I'm not going to go in there anyway...

Those Kig-Yar weren't important, at least not yet. He would have to deal with this one before the smell of the blood eventually would over-power the cooked meat's scent, and alerting the Kig-Yar he was currently spying on through the grate. While the Kig-Yar was starting to bob his head a little to the beat of the music, the Lieutenant Commander brought out a small tool to unscrew the screws from the inside with one hand, while sliding his fingers in between the grates to keep it secured in place, so it wouldn't create such a loud racket if it fell. The small screws wouldn't really create much noise, and with the loud music being played, the Kig-Yar wouldn't hear as each fell to the floor behind the alien. Soon enough, all four screws were out, and he carefully removed the hatch from it's place, and then he moved out halfway out of the vent, and gently placed it down onto the floor and leaned it against the wall. Once that was out of the way, he looked up at the Kig-Yar, who still had his back turned to him. Moretti suddenly placed him into a sleeper hold; pulling him up against the wall as he applied pressure by the crook of the elbow over the mid-line of the neck, and then he pinched his left arm together while assisting with his free hand as the carotid arteries and jugular veins were being compressed on both sides of the Kig-Yar's neck.

The Kig-Yar, dropped his half-eaten meat stick on the floor, and quickly grabbed Moretti's forearms as it struggled with him somewhat, but couldn't call out to the other Kig-Yar, who were sitting and watching the video on the television screen. The alien started to panic, kicking his legs somewhat, as he struggled more and more, which also caused him to panic more and more when he couldn't breathe anymore.

“Quit struggling...” muttered Moretti, applying more pressure slowly. Figures...he thought, when the Kig-Yar continued to struggle despite his warning to not do so. If only all of them knew the Human language.

Several seconds after he told him not to fight it, the Kig-Yar ceased kicking his legs around, and then went limp in his arms when it finally lost consciousness. Surprisingly, the Kig-Yar wasn't too heavy to hold in his arms. He must have been young, and from the longer beak, he was Ruuthian, like the other one he ended up having to kill. The operator sighed, still holding him in the sleeper hold just in case, as he checked to see if he really was unconscious. Once he knew, he pulled off the headphones before pulling him all the way into the vent, grunting a bit, mostly in pain as the wounds along his torso flared up a bit. Of course, he ignored the pain, and dragged the sleeping Kig-Yar a few feet away from the opened hatch. He turned him around, and then pulled out another pair of steel flexi-cuffs from his belt. After restraining him, he wrapped the beak a few times with tape to keep him quiet once he woke up from his nap, and gave him a couple of light taps on the shoulder.

“Good night, sweet space chicken,” he grinned, “Enjoy your nap.”

The sleeping Ruuthian would be out for about fifteen minutes or so, give or take. Plenty of time for him to get something from the maintenance closet, return to the female Ruuthian pirate, plant the evidence to make them think it was an Innie who did it, come back, and continue to head down to the supply room Hyde and the other scientist were being kept in. Here goes, he silently said, as he crept out of the shaft, and quietly moved over to the shelf that was hidden out of view from the other room. When he saw a screwdriver, he decided to it when he noticed there were three others just like it. If the other Kig-Yar were good investigating things, they would see that the screwdriver that was now in his hand, were the same as the others.

This could work...hopefully.

He crawled back into the maintenance tunnel, and went back to Bakz. He knelt at her body, and stared at it for a few moments before inserting the screwdriver into the fatal neck wound he caused, to get blood on it, and to match the wound with the tool.

"Ugh..." He cringed a little.

It wasn't because of the sight of the blood and the wound, but having to do this to try and keep the Kig-Yar off of his and Chen's ass once the body is discovered in here. He didn't like it, and yet, he had to do it. Although, he knew some people who would probably enjoy doing this to a dead alien, and frowned as the thought went through his mind. 

"Bitch..." He murmured spitefully.

Hope this shit works...damn it.

Once he dropped the tool beside the body, he quickly returned to the maintenance closet, closed the hatch after picking up the grate that he left leaning against the wall. He continued crouch-walking passed the unconscious body of the other Ruuthian, and then continued on toward the direction where the two captured scientists were located - using a little marker on his HUD glasses to help him navigate through the tunnel system easier instead of having to keep looking at the blueprints of the ship down on his TAC-PAD. He then estimated the time it would take for him to get to the two captured ONI personnel, was probably three minutes. He bit down on his lower lip, paused to glance down at his wrist-watch, with the digital clock pressed against the inside of his wrist to check the time. 

"Three minutes until touchdown, Panther," He whispered into his ear-piece. Then he continued to crawl toward the second hatch's location that was along this side of the ship, and also the hatch that would lead him into the supply room where his friend and the other scientist were at. "Almost there, Chris...hang in there, buddy." 

[Faclan]

Nek Dal - T'vaoan Translator
Your Days are Numbered! - Main room, the 'party room'
Aecor noooooo...

...What was that about ghosts and...something? Why did Humans have to be so obtuse and difficult about simple questions!? Face palming a little at that response from Patrick he rubbed the end of his snoot a bit as he leaned forward on the table and hoped that Patrick would have a real response before the Human Jenny walked over and interrupted them. She looked near ready to do that. Bt then Patrick had to just sit there and stare as he seemed to be thinking about this. Did he not realize that this was probably going to happen regardless of what he wanted or not? Gaz was being extremely generous to not just add him to the eventual Human body pole - but this Human didn't seem to be respecting that.

"Whats he saying Nek?"

"I wish I knew Captain Gaz, hes muttering about ghosts and specters and seems to be considering your very generous proposal."

"Its only because I want his nukes and I have a worry that they are booby trapped on his ship so need them alive. But if he keeps being difficult like Jenny then he can be killed as well, it won't be difficult."

"..Of course Captain Gaz."

But finally Patrick seemed to be willing to say something and directed Nek to lean in, which he did and probably a bit closer than the Human expected so his ear hole would actually be near the Humans mouth. But Neks beak was probably right along side Chen's face. That's the downside for having your mouth far in front of your eyes and your ears behind that.

But it seemed like Patrick was making demands now? Gaz wouldn't like that. And from what Nek was hearing out of his ear Gaz had just radioed all of his crew and told them to prepare for a boarding takeover on his signal. The Kig-Yar guards in the room just nodding as they kept acting all cool about it. But then Patrick started to say more random things before finally asking if it was ok with him?

"I'm not the one who would decide that Patrick, one moment."

"The Signal will be 'No more of these games' - then kill them all. But save the Human in his ship still and the one in green with the glasses in the main room and the two hostages. And if possible keep that Female leader alive. I have some manners to teach her when dealing with those more powerful."

"Captain Gaz?"

"And once we are sure the ship is secure you can all begin the looting, but not before. I wont be having any die to a surprise attack because they were too busy looking at a shiny."

"Captain Gaz?"

"What Nek?" He asked, finally slipping his PP back into his pocket and drumming his fingers on his helmet that was resting on his knee.

"Patrick responded, and he agrees with the terms but says that he wants Human Jenny and needs to get or do something to the Ship before we can take it."

"Why do no Humans understand that they have no power here?!" It would be evident to Patrick that Gaz didn't like what he was told as he hissed and flicked his arms a little. "Does he want to die?! Does he! I'll send him down to Aecor so fast hel tunnel into the earth itself if he keeps wanting things from this agreement! Tell him he will accept his life or I'll take that from him should this Female sass me one more time!"

Nodding a little from the shouting Nek took a deep breath and a drink of water before clearing his throat and leaning back in to whisper to Patrick.

"Based on what Captain Gaz has said I would recommend that you not try to make demands of him right now as he is very angry. But he thinks that you and your friend leaving with your lives is enough of a deal. But if Human Jenny annoys him again and the situation changes you are welcome to ask him again. Should we all...survive," he took another deep breath. "He will be in a better mood after it."

Leaning back fully from Patrick Nek rubbed his throat and then his face some more as he say Jenny strut over toward the table. Glacing back at Gaz he groaned and sat up straighter as he prepared to dive under the table. Gaz was currently sitting there smiling wide at Jenny - but it wasn't a friendly one to other Kig-Yar, it was a smirk. A dare for Jenny to sass him one more time, see what he was capable of, see how little she had this situation under her control.

---------

The only change in the lower level during all of this would be all the Kig-Yar tensing up and starting to more closely eye the Humans that were down here. If the sneaky sneak was watching them as he sneaky sneaked.

[SPARTAN-A120]

Petty Officer 1st Class Richard A. Chen
ONI Section III Field Operative "Panther"
March, 2548 - 0303 hours
"Party Room," Upper Deck
Aboard "Your Days are Numbered," Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
"Not Now... Not Now... Now?"
(Tags: Faclan & Llau )

Petty Officer First Class Chen maintained a neutral face as he heard the voice of Lieutenant Commander Moretti respond through his hidden communications device.

“Yeah,” he heard Moretti say in pain. “Always listening...but hey, Panther...I'm great, thanks for asking. Just almost got my guts spilled out by these damn bird pirates, while you're in there, flirting with Jenny.” “Please, for the love of God or whatever you believe in...say you'll agree.”


It was obviously unfortunate that Moretti was injured while Chen was role playing without a single scratch. What the Petty Officer was thinking was how Moretti managed to get himself into the mess he was currently in. It must had been the age. No. It couldn't be. Moretti was still here because he was a survivor. Maybe there was a touch of luck in the equation. Whatever it was that kept Moretti alive, Chen was glad he wouldn't have to finish the mission on his own. Chen finally heard another response from his partner who gave him a status update.

“It's all good, despite one minor setback, Panther...” the Lieutenant Commander replied. “We'll get this shit done, as long as you keep cool and, you know...give me a little more time. I'm almost there.”

Moretti continued commenting about wanting Jenny alive when he said, “That we do...but Christ, that Kig you're talking to sounds nervous as hell to you, or is it just me? Is he scared of you or something? Or...does he know something is about to go down between his people and the Innies? Heh...we just don't know."

"Tell me something I don't know," Chen thought.

“God? Well...okay, then," Chen heard the older Field Agent chuckle in his ear when he advised him to give Chen a signal when it was going down. There was a short pause before Moretti spoke to Chen again. “You'll know when I get there. Is the black cat afraid of the dark? And how would he act in zero g's, I wonder?”

"Darkness is best friend and acrobatics is my wife," Chen replied to Moretti's last statement under his breath, hoping that the transmitter picked it up.

Gaz's chirping and cheeping caught Chen's attention. It didn't sound like it was a regular chat that the Kig-Yar pirate was having on his communications device. It sounded aggressive. If the shit did hit the fan in a few moments, Chen was only armed with a knife which couldn't be drawn quickly because it was well hidden on the inside of his left boot. On the other hand, Chen could disarm a nearby enemy and utilize their weapon. With the cover of darkness, Chen was a predator; a lethal hand-to-hand combatant that knew how to kill without a weapon and had night vision on his tactical glasses.

"I'm not the one who would decide that Patrick, one moment," Nek said, which redirected Chen's attention from Gaz to Nek.

After that response, Nek initiated a conversation with Gaz and yet again, spoke in their native language which consisted of a series of chirps, cheeps, hisses. Chen didn’t like the sound of the hisses. It sounded aggressive and it made Chen tense. His breathing was slow and steady though which assisted in easing his nerves and keeping his heartbeat at a steady rate.

Chen observed the two Kig-Yar, with Gaz's body language displaying stress and anger while Nek seemed to be slightly cowering away from Gaz after each aggressive sentence hissed by Gaz. Gaz threw his hands up at one point, expression his anger. Chen frowned. The more aggressive the Kig-Yar got, the more Chen thought this deal was about to turn into a shootout.

The conversation came to an end with Nek nodding a little from the shouting. He took a deep breath and a drink of water before clearing his throat and leaning forwards in to whisper to Chen.

"Based on what Captain Gaz has said I would recommend that you not try to make demands of him right now as he is very angry. But he thinks that you and your friend leaving with your lives is enough of a deal. But if Human Jenny annoys him again and the situation changes you are welcome to ask him again. Should we all...survive," said Nek. He took another deep breath and finished whispering, "He will be in a better mood after it."

Leaning back fully from Chen, Nek rubbed his throat and then his face some more as he saw Jenny strut over toward the table. Glancing back at Gaz he groaned and sat up straighter. Jenny sure looked pissed off, but Gaz was grinning. Chen didn’t like grinning Kig-Yar. Especially when they were about to get their asses chewed off.

"Code Red. Hurricane inbound," Chen said under his breath to Moretti to alert him about the coming storm. "Chickens are about to bust out of their pens."

"Hey Bird Brain!" Jenny slightly shouted at Gaz. "Why are you causing a ruckus on my ship? This was supposed to be a civilized deal. Not a cock fight! Do that back on your Bird's Nest or whatever the hell you live in. And wipe that goddamn smile of your face because your deal is denied. We accept Patrick's offer." She pointed a finger at Gaz. "Unless you have seven nukes to trade, you can kiss your end of the deal good-bye."

Chen intervened. He got up from his seat and stepped slightly in between Gaz and Jenny and said, "Woah, woah, woah. Easy there." He held his hands up towards both of them. "I kindly appreciate that you have accepted my offer, but I'm sure there is some alternative for these Chickens."

"Denied," Jenny declined. "If they had anything better than seven nuclear bombs, we would've worked something out... but these Chicken heads don't have anything worthy of trading. Not even their dead bodies would be worth good Credits."

"Shit..." Chen thought in his head. "Nek, tell your boss to take it easy. I'm sure we can work something out. Just give me five minutes. Five minutes and that's all we need," Chen tried to persuade Nek and Gaz.

"Are you kidding me? Who the hell you think you are?" Jenny shouted into Chen's right ear.

Chen winced slightly at the shouting. He would easily traded it for a flashbang, any day. "Trust me, there's always another way," Chen said to Jenny with the most sincere face he could muster.

He hoped Moretti was listening to everything because the deal was micrometers from going South... and Chen was the saving grace at the moment.

---

OOC: IDK if Gaz is willing to hold on, but anything goes!

[Faclan]

Nek Dal - T'vaoan Translator
Your Days are Numbered! - Main room, the 'party room'
Hit the deck! Flying Chickens!

Carefully watching Jenny Nek gripped the table he was next to tighter as she delivered her verdict. It didn't a grasp on the language to know that Gaz's offer had been denied. Glancing back at the Ibie'shan Gaz just nodded as he still smirked as he gave his helmet a little spin in his hands before slipping it over his face. The pirate captain working on strapping it securly and making sure that its optics were working as it was a full frontal face helmet as Jenny kept mouthing off that the Kigs were done. But Nek was very surprised when Patrick stepped up between Jenny and them and seemed to be trying to avert what was about to happen. But Gaz was already readying his Dart Pistol and so there was no stopping it now.

Gulping and offering a quick Prayer to Aecor it was actually Nek that made the first move of the engagement. Despite the fact that he was what would be considered a civilian he was still a T'vaoan, and so was able to leap further and faster than Gaz after he had gotten out of his seat. The scene behind Patrick probably a very scary one of both Kig-Yar leaping toward his back and Jenny as well. But Nek had to intention of tackling a person to get to clawing or shooting. Instead he grabbed Patrick in an odd reverse hug like posture and pulled him to the ground as fast as he could as Gaz flew overhead right into the now screaming Jenny face.

"No more of these games!" The Captain screeched as he landed feet first on Jenny's abdomen and then grabbed her shoulders, quickly riding her down to the floor and working on disarming her. The four other Pirates in the room, with the prior knowledge that this was going to happen, quickly raised with C-4's, 5's, and handguns of both types and opened fire on the Inside humans in the room. One of the Kig's were hit but the four Humans were quickly killed as the three still able Kig-Yar split to cover the stairs leading toward their ship and the one leading up toward the bridge.

Nek meanwhile kept hold of Patrick as the gunfire started and was now legitimately hugging his back as he shut his eyes and just hoped. Unfortuantly probably pinning Patrick's arms to his side as the T'vaoan translator made odd little whimpering noises and shook.

The injured Kig set up leaning against the table she was next to and aiming toward the stairs to their ship. But that soon prooved to be not needed as a rapid series of loud booms came from the stairs and then a Kig-Yar roar of triumph. Shortly after that a very large and heavily armored T'vaoan female crested the stairs down to the pirate ship with a C-10 held ready. The female flanked on both sides by smaller male Ibie'shans holding energy shields to keep her covered. The barrel oft he automatci shotgun poking through the locked middle handholds as she gave a quick salute and cheeped out.

"Captain Gaz ShipMaster Sir!"

"To the bridge!" Gaz hissed out from where he was straddling a limp Jenny, several bruises on her face where Gaz had laid into her with fist and pistol but she was thoroughly unconscious. "I want this vessel now! Second squad follow and then break off to ensure ALL rooms are clear!" The armored and armed Kig-Yar crew nodded and swiftly moved toward the bridge with the large female leading. Her C-10 ready for more blood.

Nek meanwhile was still doing his best to keep Patrick down and shaking. Poor Nek had been through this situation on the receiving end too many times in his life so far and he just wanted it to end...


----------------


On the lower floor the muffled sound of gunfire and quiet screeching into the Radios of all the Kig-Yar would alert those to what was going on. The Kig-Yar watching the TV quickly leaping off their chairs and charging the room across from them to gun down the Innies, and the TV, they were watching with shotgun blasts. The two Innies outside the room with the two ONI prisoners had a little better luck as they were both able to riddle the patrolling Kig-Yar with bullets before one of them had a well melted face from the Kig-Yar near the boxes.

The other ducking the second plasma shot and ducking inside the storage room and locking it. Breathing hard as they backed up from the door and fumbled with reloading their compact assault rifle. The hissing and screeching from outside the door letting them know what was coming.


----------------

The two Scientists on the other hand were just trying to guess what happened as they were blind folded. But some shit sure sounded like it was going down. But the tape around their hands, feet, and mouths prevented them from doing much.

[Llau]

Lieutenant Commander Michelangelo N. Moretti
ONI Section III Field Officer - “Ombra”
March, 2548 – 0303 hours
Aboard “Your Days Are Numbered”, Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
Tag(s): Faclan , SPARTAN-A120


Ombra was crawling along, nearly at the way-point on his glasses HUD, when he heard Chen speak to him, but he couldn't really make out what was said. He stared ahead, with a curious expression on his face.

“What...? You know what...never mind,” he replied, “I'm sure I'll find out if you're in trouble...” He grinned a little at that.

While he was listening into the conversation, where the deal was quickly going downhill between the Kig-Yar pirates and the Innies, he scoffed a little, and whispered, “I bet Jenny isn't going to make a deal. She's the special kind of stupid.”

A little bit later, after he heard Chen tell him that the hurricane was inbound, and how the chickens are about to burst from their pens, he grinned in amusement. “That's a good way to put it, Petty Officer...”

When he heard Jenny nearly yell and say that the deal was denied between her and Gaz, he stifled his laughter. Shaking his head in amusement, he finally arrived at the supply closet's location. Peering through the grate, he studied the dimly lit room, where supplies were piled up everywhere on large shelves that were made to hold heavier crates and other items. He could easily jump down from the vent, onto one of the shelves below that were at a convenient jumping height for him, and then he can go from there.

“I'm at the supply room,” He told Chen. “Looks like I'm there just in time there. I will secure the two hostages momentarily after I make sure the area is clear of hostiles.”

He pulled out his small power tool from his pouch again, and started to unscrew the hatch from its place. While he was doing that, he continued to listen in on the conversation above. He had to hand it to Chen for trying to stop the fight that was about to break out between the aliens and the Innies; it was never easy to talk with someone like Jenny. Of course, when the Innie leader practically yelled into Chen's ear, he winced a little at that.

“Damn, man...so glad you placed your ear-piece in your other ear, but shit...that still kinda hurt with her yelling at you like that,” He grimaced, taking each screw out one at a time as fast as he could.

“Oh well...just let the two asshole groups fight each other. It will also give us a chance to see how the Kig-Yar takes over a ship, while we watch on the sidelines. Would be great to view their tactics and speed.” A light chuckle. “As long as life doesn't bite us in the ass, this is going to be great.”

Once all four screws were out, and had fallen somewhere on the large shelves below him, He slammed the palm of his hand in the middle of it to cause it to slide out of its place. He then watched as it fell and hit the shelf with a loud clang. He waited there inside the vent for any of the Insurrectionists to enter the room to investigate the sound, but none came. Of course, that was when the Kig-Yar started their surprise attack after their Captain ordered them to. He moved around so that his hands and feet were pressed along either side of the open vent, and then jumped down to the shelf; crouching down to lessen the sound to nearly silent. Behind him, was an open area, where there was a small room with windows in it. From what he could see from his position, were lockers, and a desk, and then an open doorway into the room. Since the ceiling was taller, the room had its own roof over it, and it had an open hatch and a ladder leading down into it. He checked his radar, and noticed that the room was clear of any hostiles, and so, he turned his attention to the middle of the room. Still crouching, he held the edge of the shelf, and peered over to his far right, over at the end of the room from across the entrance, where he saw the two bound ONI agents, while sounds of gunfire, screeching, and yelling could be heard outside of the room.

Moretti noticed that the two captives were blindfolded, as well as their ankles and feet were both bound with heavy-duty tape to keep them from moving. He pressed his finger against his ear-piece, and contacted Chen again.

“Hey, the two captives are still alive,” he said, “They seem fine from where I'm at, besides behind blindfolded and restrained.” While adding, “I'll secure the area and then free -” He stopped when the door to the supply room suddenly swung open, and he watched as a tall, muscular rebel practically ran inside, breathing heavily as he slammed the door closed and locked it behind him.

“Stand by...I spy a scared, poor Innie in my eye...” He whispered softly, watching as the man slowly backed away from the door fearfully, while fumbling to reload his compact assault rifle.

He watched as the rebel stopped, still staring at the door, while the firefight continued outside of the room. The man was tall, looking as if he were around 6-foot-5-inches, and rather a muscular man. The man definitely looked like he could fight really well, and not just fire a gun. He would have to take him out quickly, or else, he may take a while to deal with if he wasn't careful. The rebel started to mumble about something, probably about what was going on on the ship, and then started peering around the room, and kept checking on the two captives.

Paranoid and twitchy, the Lieutenant Commander thought, Good. He'll be easier to play around with.

Once the man cautiously passed by him, Moretti slowly stood, and started to walk along the top shelf, since there were only two crates on it, and kept a close watch on him. They walked several feet, and then the Italian grabbed a hand-sized box, opened it, and took out what looked to be some kind of palm-sized, mechanical part to a machine. He looked over his shoulder, and threw the part to the far left side of the door, in which it made a loud thud when he manged to throw it against the wall, and then it tumbled to the floor. The man below him gasped and whirled around to see what it was, as he stood tensely in between the two shelves. The field operator crouched down slowly again, studying him with a small grin on his face, as he waited for the right moment.

[SPARTAN-A120]

Petty Officer 1st Class Richard A. Chen
ONI Section III Field Operative "Panther"
March, 2548 - 0305 hours
"Party Room," Upper Deck
Aboard "Your Days are Numbered," Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
"I usually let cute ladies hug me... but you're neither..."
(Tags: Faclan & Llau )

Chen knew the negotiation would not work. That was what Gaz's body language read and it was confirmed that the deal had already went bad when the Kig-Yar Pirate Leader ran its claws over its holstered pistol. This made Chen on edge. There was a blur of motion that occurred on Chen's left side and he was swiftly dragged to the floor before he could react. Usually it was his enemies that got caught off guard by Chen, but this time, he fell victim to his own tactics.

The scene before him soon became chaos as he saw Gaz screech something and he pounced onto Jenny, tackling her, and knocked her unconscious with a flurry of blows. The grip of Nek, who had his arms wrapped around Chen, tightened when the gunfire erupted. Chen was immobilized by the strength of Nek. Since he couldn't move immediately, he looked around frantically to make sure no one was about to shoot at them. Fortunately, the Innie security team were eliminated quickly, but the Kig-Yar had suffered a casualty.

"Hey, uh, Nek? Mind letting me go?" Chen said to Nek in a surprisingly calm demeanor. "I mean... I usually cute ladies hug me... but you're neither, so... let me go. Now"

The T'vaoan continued to hold onto Chen from behind, probably still cowering and using Chen as a human shield, but Chen wasn't the kind of guy to lay on a cold metal floor with a Chicken that smelled like a chicken, and hugging him like an overgrown child frightened by thunder. He continued to stay there as he thought about what Agent Moretti said earlier about letting the Kig-Yar and Innies fight amongst each other.

A loud explosion followed by what sounded like war cries emitted from a doorway and Chen looked towards it in time to see a large T'vaoan with heavy armor and it was carrying a large weapon that looked like a shotgun. Shortly after, more Kig-Yar rushed into the room with circular energy shields and formed a defensive perimeter.

"Oh for the love of God..." Chen muttered.

He heard Moretti report that the hostages were both alive which relieved Chen slightly. Now that the hostages were close to being retreived and were alive, he needed to act on his part to get Jenny, alive, from Gaz.

Chen spoke to Moretti in code and said, "Bring me the darkness. I believe in ghosts, but we have many demons to deal with now. One of them have a big scythe, waiting to become the reaper with its thick cloak." This meant that Chen needed the lights to cut out so he can quietly escape and retreive his stored gear before he could recapture Jenny and he hoped the reference was good enough to give his partner a warning to what to expect.

Unfortunately, Chen had to get out of Nek's grasp somehow before he became swiss cheese with the side of a skewered chicken next to him.

[Llau]

Lieutenant Commander Michelangelo N. Moretti
ONI Section III Field Officer - “Ombra”
March, 2548 – 0306 hours
Aboard “Your Days Are Numbered”, Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
The Bigger They Are...
Tag(s): Faclan , SPARTAN-A120 , Rxxy


Wasting no more time, the Lieutenant Commander had pulled out his sidearm, and fired three of the stun rounds at the rebel standing below. He watched as the man took a step back toward the shelves across from where Moretti was currently located at, but it didn't seem to work on him, to Ombra's dismay. He lowered his gun somewhat, shoulders drooping, his brown eyes staring down at the man. When the large rebel eventually spotted him on the top shelf, he could see the anger rising as the rebel was acting like some angry steroid user.

“Hey...” Moretti calmly said, looking on as the man suddenly threw his assault rifle to the side. “Um...not complaining here, but...” He trailed off, tilting his head a little, as he stared at him oddly. “That's...not...how...”

“I'm going to fucking kill you with my bare hands, little man!”

“Ha! Okay, then,” Moretti aimed down at him again, but this time emptying the rest of the clip of stun rounds into him. Shooting him still didn't incapacitate the raging rebel, but it did, in fact, piss him off even more. “Oh, shit.” He muttered, starting to switch guns as the man approached where he was.

The rebel started to use all of his might to rock the shelf backward with a very loud crash, as everything on it crashed to the floor, while the shelf leaned up against the wall behind it. Moretti, though, leaped off of the top shelf in time, but ended up hanging from a light fixture for a few moments.

"Bring me the darkness. I believe in ghosts, but we have many demons to deal with now. One of them have a big scythe, waiting to become the reaper with its thick cloak."

He heard Chen say to him into their radio, just as the weak wires holding the light snapped, when he was going to respond; which pretty much kept his communication open for Chen to hear everything that was going on on his end. He yelped in surprise, as he fell into the angry man. Although, the man wrapped his arms tightly around Moretti's torso and arms when he grabbed him, and squeezed him really hard in a painful bear hug.

“Arrgh!” Moretti cried out in pain, causing him to let the MA5K clatter to the steel floor. He tried to struggle free of his hold; throwing elbows and kicking him, while the rebel noticed the carbine and kicked it away from them.

“You...fucking...piece of shit!”

This didn't bode well with the rebel when he heard what the Italian said to him. The man roughly swung him around, before he threw him toward the two captives like some rag doll rolling across the floor several times before coming to a stop a few inches in front of them.

“Sure...give me a minute, Panther...” Grunting and wincing, the field officerr found himself lying on his back for several seconds, and rolled over to his stomach. He managed to get to a kneeling position as the man charged at him.

Seeing this, Moretti ran forward, tricking him at the last moment, as he side-stepped, but kept his leg out to trip him. Not being able to stop in time, the rebel tripped over the operator's leg, and flipped over onto his back with a hard thud. He then grabbed for Moretti's ankle, but the little bastard was quick enough to jump out of his reach. The field operator grinned as he watched as the angry, tall rebel climbed to his feet, he snickered a little, as the man walked toward him in a threatening manner; unsheathing a combat knife from his belt, and trying to attack him again. He slowly smiled, ducking when the man swung the blade, trying to strike him in the neck.

The Lieutenant Commander took several quick steps backward to be out of range, and unsheathed one of his Karambit knives from his shoulder harness, and held it tightly in his left hand. He then swung at him several times, but the man ducked each time, and then kicked him in the torso area. The operator grunted in pain, skittering back a little, but kept his balance. He then started swinging and stabbing the Karambit, while ducking and blocking the rebel's own knife attacks. When the man lunged at him, he grabbed his wrist, and threw him over his shoulder, and onto the ground. The rebel rolled to his feet, and angrily attacked him again. Moretti staggered away from him, pressing his hand to his cheek after the Innie managed to sucker punch him, and he glared back at the taller man. Smiling angrily, he unsheathed his other Karambit, and held it tightly in his other hand. The man sneered down at him, and then two attacked each other again when the rebel struck first. This time though, Moretti had moved around quickly on his feet as he ducked and dodged out of the knife's path, and managed to counter by slashing at him a few times in the arms, legs, and chest, but nothing fatal. Yet. Clearly, the man had some form of martial training, and he wondered if he was former military, or just some brawler who was very tough and good at fighting. Right now though, the rebel was nothing more than a thug, and needed to be put down.

Panting a little, both men continued to attack each other, trying to stab and slash the other, but also the two managed to connect their punches and kicks. Although, being smaller than the rebel, Moretti was more quick and agile, despite being older than him. As he had better training and more years of experience under his belt, compared to what the Innie learned. Of course, the more he fought with him, the more the rebel became frustrated and angry – something he was using to his advantage because eventually, the man would make a mistake, as he wasn't focusing, and mostly had tunnel vision. The guy was immensely tough, able to withstand his melee attacks, but he was starting to get sloppy, and Moretti was glad about that. The field operator blocked an incoming right hook with his left arm, and then swiftly thrust his Karambit into the man's abdominal region; earning him the wonderful sound of a painful gasp, as he pulled the knife out to stab him a couple more times up his torso, before finally side-kicking him hard in the side.

While the man lied in a fetal position on the floor, Moretti circled around him for a moment to make sure he was going to stay down, and started to walk toward the two captured ONI agents, as he sheathed his two knives.

“Sorry for the delay, Chen...” He sighed, pressing down on a few keys, and then suddenly the lights went out completely a couple of seconds later. “Trouble just seems to love to find me.”

Glad that his glasses he wore enabled him to have low-light vision, he headed over to free the two agents, but stopped when he heard the tall Innie behind him groan in pain. He looked over his shoulder, and then raised an eyebrow. Turning back around, he muttered, “Oh, you got to be fucking kidding me...”

Coughing up blood, the rebel was on his hands and knees, trying to get up. He was murmuring incoherently about Moretti, as he looked around the now darkened room. “Where are you? I'm not done yet.”

“Give me a break...” murmured the Lieutenant Commander, as he walked back over to him.

Before the man could get to his feet, Moretti quickly unsheathed his Karambit, and slashed the sharp blade across the Innie's neck, but the stubborn bastard still wouldn't go completely down.

“Jesus...” He kicked him hard a couple of times, and then slashed at him around the back of his neck; which finally finished him off. “Freak.”

When the man finally collapsed, Moretti stood there, breathing hard, as he kept an eye on him for a bit, while he cleaned the blood off of his knife with the man's shirt, and then looked toward the doors before he sheathed his Karambit, and noticed that they were no longer closed and locked, but open. Not only that, but it also seemed that he had an audience, while he stared back at the Kig-Yar pirates, who were watching him from the room's entrance. 

"Whoa..." Moretti whispered, wondering how long they've been there. "Uh..."

(( Rxxy , you can post next if you want. ))

[Rxxy]

Alesia "Volk" Voleinkov,
March 2548, 0306 hours
Aboard "Your Days Are Numbered", Unknown space, Inner Colonies.
What is going on...

A few days prior to now Alesia had been tasked with helping the ONI base on the planet XVB 2476 , or Frontier as she had been informed. The base had been warned of coming Covenant force and began evacuation efforts to help get as many scientists off planet as was possible. A few field operators had been called in to assist in doing Cole Protocol on all information, as was per protocol. As the agents began Cole protocol security was sent to assist in combat alongside other UNSC forces. The base was weakened by this, but still was capable of finishing it's job. Although the unexpected would happen and the remaining staff would find themselves being attacked, by the local Insurrection. Alesia and Agent Christopher Hyde were in the server room uploading crucial test data to return to ONI. Before the insurrection had reached them Agent Hyde was able to swallow a tracker which would allow ONI to track their whereabouts. Alesia had also assisted in measures to tell ONI what was happening. Her trusted com operator had been given the information and he then passed it forward to ONI command. Sadly however before Alesia could attempt to transfer the data she had collected off of the server to her Colleague the Innies had reached the server room. Alesia hid the datapad she had put the data on, under her shirt so to hide it from the Innies.

Alesia and Hyde had seen what happened in resistance to the Insurrection and so gave in, all but willingly. For this the Insurrection took them prisoner and They were stripped of what gear they had, with the emptions of cloths. Alesia and Hyde were then blindfolded and bound. Although unknown to the two they would be smuggled off planet, onto a insurrection ship. Since their capture Alesia and Hyde had very little interaction from their prison. They had only been free on the occasion to receive rations to keep them alive. After the third day Alesia was growing impatient with this chain of events, the silence was the worst part of her imprisonment. So slowly she found ways to makes sounds. Usually by humming small childhood songs to herself.

That was until today, when Alesia was awoke to the small clang of metal on metal. She couldn't see through her blindfold but still she perked her head up to try and hear footsteps. After a few moments of silence again Alesia began to hum hating the silence her imprisonment had. Although her humming was cut short when the sound of combat hit her earlobes. she heard the sound of rushed footsteps and slammed doors wondering which side of the fighting had reached their holding cell. Shortly after however more clanking metal and Alesia wondered what exactly was in the room with them. She breathed a sigh of relief when she began hearing words in English. The ensuing brawl between one human and another went on for what seemed like days, although in actuality it was more like a few minutes. The new voice suddenly reappeared this time with what she perceived as confusion or worry. Alesia began wondering what exactly was going on around her.

[Faclan]

Tags: Llau, SPARTAN-A120, Rxxy

Nek Dal - T'vaoan Translator
Aboard Innie vessel Your Days are Numbered!
Hey...who turned out the lights?

Slowly opening his eyes when the shooting stopped, for the most part, Nek slowly looked around. He was still holding Patrick and didn't seem to register it at that moment as he was somewhat glad to see that Captain Gaz was still alive. He could hear the battle calls of Kig-Yar up the stairs toward the upper level; calls of 'in!' 'Clear!' 'Die!' filtering in between the more muted shotgun and flechette blasts as they worked their way toward the bridge. Captain Gaz was currently seated on one of the food tables picking at some of the more tasty Hors d'oeuvres as Jenny lay slumped below his feet...typical Kig-Yar there Nek thought with a smile before Patrick finally spoke up about letting him go. Because he wasn't a pretty Human Woman? Well true but could have asked in a more nice manner. But he nodded and unlocked his arms as his breathing was starting to return to a more neutral level as he leaned back onto his knees so he wasn't on top of Patrick anymore.

"Sorry Patrick...glad you survived the initial onslaught...hopefully some trading can still happen." He added, a bit hopeful perhaps as he sighed and flopped back to be sitting against the table with his water on it. Nek reaching up grab the glass and drinking some more as Patrick muttered about....darkness again? How odd...But Nek just settled on getting his nerves back under control as he heard Gaz chuckle some as he looked down at Jenny.

"Not so smarmy now are we Human? Going to enjoy slowly teaching you respect before you get to go free...free in space without any help." He chuckled darkly as his own joke and then nodded at Nek once he caught the T'vaoan staring at him. "Good job ducking and covering Nek, don't want you to die when your my only real translator."

"Your concern is...touching Captain Gaz. Do you still wish to deal with the remaining Humans?" The boarding party had reached the bridge stairs and could be heard cheeply shouting insults and death threats up the stairs as they reloaded.

"Well if by deal you may inform them of the things I will be taking yes, they best not sass me like Human Jenny did or I'll take their ship too, and those fancy glasses they have from their corpses."

"Of course Captain Gaz." Rubbing his face a bit Nek went to take another drink from his water whent he lights all shut off. Making Nek jump and dump the water all over his face, vocal sac, and top of his jacket. What in Aecors name was the issue now?!...Wait a second, didn't Patrick say something about bringing him darkness?

"Ummm Patrick, did you or your friend do this?" He asked to the dark room, his eyes slowly refoucing so that Nek and all the other Kig-Yar would be able to see very well in the dark as the bridge boarding crew cackled as some of them took out some semi blacked out goggles and started to slip it over their heads and eyes, so the muzzle flashes wouldn't blind them once their eyes adjusted. The female lead with the C-10 just flipping down a blast guard over her eyes that was already pre installed onto the helmet.

"You Humans going to go to your afterlife screaming into the dark! Enjoy your final moments!"

------------

Various Lower level Kig-Yar;
What is this guy a damn Gel?!

To the Kig-Yar as a species's credit the opening of the door was a very silent operation as the Kig-Yar, being such a law abiding bunch of bird lizards just by chance happened to have a deadbolt cutter with them!...Well, the four still living Kig-Yar happened to have three of them between them. What a coicidence!

The snapping of the lights to off only momentarily slowed them down as it took a bit of patting to pull out the tool and to find the crease in the door and the lock so they knew where to cut. Their eyes adjusting as the door was being slowly opened. The thin piece of metal was slid into the crack of the door as the end rapidly heated up and swiftly sliced through the thin deadbolt easily, the only sound being quiet popping of the metal as the door was pushed open once the operation was complete. The cutting Kig stepping back as he held the glowing tool to let it cool as two more filled the doorway with R-4's held ready.

However the three Ruuthians watching were instead treated to a knife fight for their amusement as a smaller Human in a different outfit than the other Humans seemed to run circles around a much larger Human with what looked like a metal curved talon clutched in his hand. They were silent as they watched, but kept their shotguns up and ready. It was pretty impressive, but the smaller seemed to have trouble completing the kill as he had to go back twice to ensure the larger Human was dead.

But it was finally done as he cleaned off his Talon before sheathing it and then finally looked over at the three of them at the door. Two in the front and one looking between their shoulders. He seemed surprised to see that they were there, but instead of open fire the Kig-Yar probably did something that the Human wasn't expecting. They let their shotguns hang across their bodies on their slings as they gave the smaller Human a short string of applause. For not only a good fight by him but also a good little show for them!

But once that was done they held their weapons at a ready but not pointed stance as they entered the room as the one with the tool entered last. They cheeped back and fourth a bit as they watched the short Human and the two bound up ones before the tool one, who blew on the slightly glowing tip before slipping it back into his belt nodded and did his best to speak in English.

"You odd...we takk Cap'n. Dem two," he pointed at the two hostages before continuing. "Gif weapon." Stepping forward the male held out his hand expectantly. He didn't have any weapon in hand but had a R-4 over his back and a boarding pistol in a simple holster on his thigh. Probably giving Mike flashbacks to the first two Kig-Yar they met on this ship. But he had a lot more friends around this time. Although the Kig-Yar wouldn't understand his expressions and quiet mutterings if there was any but the Male nodded happily as the handgun was handed over. The carbine being picked up by one of the other Kigs as the one with the carbine watched the Human with it, out of range for a grab, as the other two moved to unbind and cut down the two ONI.

The male with the pistol wasn't satisfied though as he nodded at the metal Talon the Human had, he had seen the work he had done with that and didn't want to take any chances as he pointed at it too. "Gif." But the Human shook his head...Frowning at this the Kig-Yar shrugged as he reached over to just take it, which turned out to be a bad idea.

The Pirate that was reaching out to take the Karambit barely knew what was happening as his wrist was grabbed by the Human and he was yanked hard to the side and off balance. What followed was a quick kick to the back of his top knee as he acked and started to fall back into the Human. But he was stopped with his back resting against the Human's lower torso as he felt something metal but still warm rest hard against his throat and then something sharp press into the base of his spine. The Pirate freezing his arms that were about to reach for his weapons as he slowly looked up at the Human...so he had two Talons. As was smirking down at him but was thankfully not showing any teeth as the other Pirates Cheeped at him and stopped what they were doing to raise weapons again. One of the Hostages being dropped in the kerfuffle. But the very so held pirate held up his hands to stop them as he took stock of the situation he was in...Not only did he had no weapon but he now had a curved blade around his throat and one ready to jam into the base of his spine. And the Human was in a position to strangle him even if he somehow got the knives away...but any hostile movement and he was dead - and he liked living. Looking back up at the Human above him he tried to smile as he opened his hands and showed them up to the Human.

"...You kep?" This Human was sure a surprising one...Gaz would want to know about him. The held Ruuthian gulping a little then wincing in pain from the gulp going past the held blade as the standoff waited for the Human to make a move. The other three Kig-Yar ready to riddle the Human with shot if he slit their friends throat or drove a knife into his spine.

The two Agents were unbound and free to get up but still blindfolded and silence taped. Although the two Kig-Yar that were in the process of unbinding them did have their backs to the two Agents - and were similarly armed with their R-4's out, but with a boarding pistol on their thighs and knives in their belts. If takedowns were in order the hardest would be getting the one with Mike's carbine that was furthest from everyone.

(Hope you Enjoy Llau ;D ....may want to let Rxxy post if she wanted to get in on the Kiggy action :3 . I'm sure the Kigs deserve it if sweet assassinations happen and youl make it good, though 'politely' asking one about Cap'n Gaz could help if one is saved.)

------------

Chris Hyde - ONI Section I Agent (Hostage)(?)
Your Days are Numbered! Storage room.
...So many Kig-Yar friends Mike.

A knife fight? That sure sounded like what was going on...and was that Mikes voice?! Mmphing and wriggling like a fish Chris tried to get the blindfold off his head, but no go, and the wriggling really made his side hurt so he just flopped and hoped Mike would be alright. If that was indeed Mike. Hard to tell with all the grunting...But it sure did sound like Mike talking to someone named Chen?

It also sounded like the ship was being attacked with all the muffled gunfire that was happening...But Mike seemed to not worry about it, or else he would have probably shouted at Chris to run or something. That sure sounded like something he would say when Chris could clearly do nothing of the sort. But then there was...clapping? The hell was going on?

And Kig-Yar voices? Were these some kind of buyers? He didn't hear any of them before now on this ship. Odd...Doing his best to shut his mind up he tried to listen to pick out as many words as he could.

"Impressive knife work by that one."

"Yeah, funny how he has to have fake talons."

"Well humans don't have any idjit, good to see that this one at least knows the power of them."

"Yeah...is he one of the Inside ones?"

"Nah, he just stabbed that one dead multiple times - and has a different outfit...Could be though. We'll take him to Gaz - let him decide." That one was the female. "Pyz, go over there and take his weapons while Tog and Hie unties those two hostages."

"Yes Mistress."

He then heard them pattering around the room with Mike apparently standing still. Hyde had to wonder if they ever wore shoes as all of them seemed to just go barefoot...odd. But then he heard one of them talking to Mike? Mmphing as he felt himself be steadied he layed still as he felt the tape around his hands cut and then his feet. God he would never think he would find a Kig-Yar hand on him to be as comforting as that was but GOD IT WAS. Quickly reaching up to take the blindfold off his head to take in the scene he was just about to catch a few cheeps of surprise and anger before he could finally see.

And what he found himself looking at was a standoff...with Mike holding a Kig-Yar at double knife point because he didn't want to give up his karambits? Did he love them that much to risk his own life?! Somtimes...Mike worried him. The female who seemed to be in charge was near the door and two other males were in front of him and Agent Volk, as well as the male Mike was holding. But he just stayed on his knees as he could see the two Kig-Yar that had unbound him and Agent Volk's backs were too him and her...and he didn't want to make any move when the Kig-Yar were obviously jumpy. But he had a sinking suspicion that violence was about to happen...did it really need too? These Kig-Yar did rescue them it seemed?

What he did do however was reached up and grip the tape over his mouth and, after a deep breath and closing his eyes, rip it off. It hurt just as much as he imagined it would.

"AHHHHH FUCK!....Ow...damnit man." He added quietly at the end as he tossed the hair full tape to the side...hoping that that didn't distract the wrong people as he rubbed his now aching mouth where a good many hairs were pulled out.


(Have fun everyone ^.^, was a fun post to write, and 4 pages in word.)