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

[Rxxy]

Suddenly an applause erupted from the slight silence after the other human’s question. Suddenly it hit her and she slumped forward. A drill, a stupid drill, why did I believe help had arrived? She questioned of herself. Then the chirping began and her heart sank to the pit of her stomach. The Covenant, here, great now I am definitely screwed. Suddenly she heard the tittering of Jackal feet on metal and knew a few of them were coming towards where she and Agent Hyde were bound. She closed her eyes despite the darkness and awaited the embrace of death. Although the next moment a small knife like object would slide between Alesia’s wrists and cut the tape binding her arms together. Without thinking her hands instantly shot to her blindfold as her legs were slashed free. She had to see what was going on even if it risked getting her shot. The blindfold was a short knot like that of a five year old, but it was slightly bound by the tape. So she pulled it up and over her head rather than untie it.

The sight that appeared before her wasn’t what she had expected. Two Jackals stood in front of her and Chris, their backs towards the newly freed captives. While a third was trapped by another human. His uniform wasn't from the insurrection, but Alesia didn't know what side he fought for. The man held two karambits, one to a Jackal’s neck and the other to its spinal cord. The only Jackal remaining was standing at the door where they had entered. Alesia looked down the one closest her and noticed the boarding pistol in a small holster near its hip. Suddenly Alesia’s impatience lead to her switching personalities. With a swift movement she reached down and grabbed the Jackal’s side-arm. With ease she slipped it from the holster. As she spotted Chris pulling at the tape over his mouth her brain instantly made a plan. When the tape came off the agent made a small grumble and Alesia raised the pistol in her dominant hand. She brought it down as hard as she could on the alien’s head and it went limp. She grabbed its shoulder and held it up as she grabbed the R-4 before it hit the ground. She aimed the boarding pistol at the second who was slightly distracted, by Hyde’s discomfort.
The creature was just out of her reach from where she stood holding the other. So she slowly laid him down doing her best not to cause any sound. She took a step still slightly masked by the other ONI operative. She grabbed the creature’s beak holding as closed as she could. She placed her hand on the back of its head and yanked to right. She continued doing so until she heard the snap of broken bone.

“Now we’re is business.” She said as she took off the duct tape from her mouth. She grabbed the second firearm and laid it down in front of Chris as she slowly took aim towards where the last Jackal stood with the boarding pistol.

[SPARTAN-A120]

Petty Officer 1st Class Richard A. Chen
ONI Section III Field Operative "Panther"
March, 2548 - 0310 hours
Upper Deck
Aboard "Your Days are Numbered," Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
"Run Away like the Good Old Days"
(Tags: Faclan & Llau )

“Arrgh!” Chen heard Agent Moretti over his comms. There were a few grunts and what sounded like signs of struggle before Moretti gasped in pain, “You...fucking...piece of shit!”

That didn't sound good for Moretti's side of things. So far, he was getting plenty of hands-on action while Chen was acting like an oblivious bastard who had it easy for the duration of the mission. It wasn't the first time that Chen was playing a boring role, but it did give him a chance to observe and analyze the opposition. He figured it was best not to intervene as it was a tactical advantage for the Agents that the Kig-Yar would take care of the Innies so they wouldn't have to handle it themselves. Let the two warring parties weaken each other so that it would be easy picking in case the Kig-Yar didn't stay true to their end of the bargain.

“Sure...give me a minute, Panther...” said the grunting Moretti from the other end of the secure communications channel.

Before Chen could mutter a reply, Nek finally released his grip. "Sorry Patrick...glad you survived the initial onslaught...hopefully some trading can still happen," said the Kig-Yar translator.

Chen climbed out of the overturned table where they were 'taking shelter' and he observed Nek doing the same. Chen rolled his left shoulder forwards and backwards which was where he landed moderately hard from when Nek had pulled him down to the ground to avoid getting caught in the crossfire. When his shoulder was loosened up well enough to feel comfortable, Chen nodded over at Nek and said, "Thanks for the save, Chick Peas. And yes, the trade will go... as planned."

Chen tried his best to speak without being interrupted by the combat Moretti was having with an Innie who seemed to put up a good fight. Chen dusted himself off as he awaited a response from the Lieutenant Commander. It sounded like there was a knife fight since there were faint sounds of thin metal clashing against metal and the sounds of blades slicing through air. It was all too familiar to Chen since he worked with a variety of bladed weapons as he grew up and even today, his proficiency with short blades and swords like a Japanese Ninjato could prove handy. If only swords were standard issue, Chen would have a blast of slicing and dicing enemies from all angles.

The fighting on Moretti's side sounded like it was coming to an end since there was a lot of heavy panting, but it was good that Moretti was panting heavily. It indicated that his lungs were in good condition and he was pretty much alive and well. Too bad his tactical glasses didn't have the features of the VISR system or Chen would've pulled up the fellow Agent's Bio Readings. He just hoped his partner was in good shape so he wouldn't have to haul him and the hostages if they couldn't walk. Chen had done plenty of hauling of unconscious or dead bodies to avoid detection, but never did he have to haul Friendlies since his time in ONI.

The sounds of the Kig-Yar language was being spoken between Nek and Gaz, but Chen didn't pay no mind. His priorities had changed now that a battle was initiated and Jenny is unconcious. Even though the Insurrectionist Leader looked like she weighed around a hundred and something pounds. It wasn't her weight that mattered since Chen had hiked with roughly the same weight for a five kilometer during his ODST days. It was his limited mobility that was a problem and he sure knew he wasn't an augmented human with power armor to be sprinting with a fully grown adult on his shoulder.

“Sorry for the delay, Chen...” Moretti sighed through through the comms. It was about time. Chen activated his low-light vision on his tactical glasses so he didn't have to wait for the duration of a delay before it was up to full power. He closed his eyes to prevent the amplified light from blinding him and smirked. Soon, after, the lights went out through within the room and presumably throughout the entire ship too.

“Trouble just seems to love to find me,” Moretti finished.

When Chen had heard the sounds of electricity powering down like a multiple flip of power switches, he opened his eyes to the dimly-illuminated green vision that the tactical glasses provided and he identified the doorway he came through which led back to the rest of the upper deck. He made a sprint towards the exit and vaulted over a table with his left hand in the process.

"Ummm Patrick, did you or your friend do this?" Nek said, but Chen was barely able to hear it as he was nearly out of the room.

His escape was quick and efficient. When he reached the top of the stairs, he lunged forward instead of going down step by step and upon landing, executed a shoulder roll and used the momentum to rebound back on his feet to continue running. He was following the tracker that was indicating where his gear was stashed away on his HUD and made a left towards the restroom. It was weird that Moretti would store Chen's gear in a restroom, but at least it allowed some privacy and freedom to re-equip himself in peace. Well, that was what Chen hoped he could do.

It was roughly a 3-second sprint to the entrance of the restroom and he baseball slid into kneeling position near it to catch his breath. He scanned his surroundings for the moment, spotting a few Kig-Yar mostly busy near the bow of the ship, trying to take the bridge. The sound of mixed gunfire from human weaponry and alien weaponry can be heard echoing throughout the ship. Chen liked the gunfire. It provided enough ambient noise to operate at a faster pace since he didn't have to mask his footsteps or the shrieks of his enemies, but up to a limited capacity.

After Chen caught his breath, he drew his hidden backup combat knife from the inside of his boot on his left leg and readied it before he keyed open the sliding door leading into the restroom. He carefully walked into the restroom with his knife in a reversed grip at a ready position in his right hand with his left arm slightly extended to block an attack just as a precaution. He closed the door behind him. With his senses guiding him, Chen was cautious in proceeding into the bathroom. His low-light vision had illuminated the environment well enough so he was able to clearly see urinals and stalls of the toilets. He stopped before the row of stalls and slowly kneeled on his left knee. With his left hand for support, he leaned towards the floor and checked each stall to look for feet.

There were none to be found so he rose to his feet and manually checked each stall to ensure it was clear, going from left to right. Instead of using his free left hand, he conducted a light front kick on each one. He was expecting someone, or something, to be cowering on top of the toilet in a crouched position, but his satisfaction was not fulfilled when he kicked open the last stall and found an unflushed toilet full of piss. "Holy hell," Chen thought as the horrible smell filled his nostrils.

He sheathed the combat knife into the sheath on his lower back and unscrewed a vent with his multi-tool. There was a black duffle within arms reach and Chen spent a couple of minutes re-equipping his gear and weapons. He then sent Moretti a Situation Report using his original comms setup which consisted of throat mic which allowed voice transmission even at the lowest mumble or whisper and earplug for the left ear; replacing the miniature comms device that he should've place in his right ear to protect his eardrums from Jenny's shouting.

Chen said to Agent Moretti, "Report: I escaped the fun zone and going solo. Status Green. I'm restocked thanks to your storage space. Unfortunately, our HVT is unconscious and is being guarded by a Kig-Yar squad along with a translator who speaks and understands English like a duck and their Chicken Leader and is more arrogant and ill-tempered than my ex. How copy?"

[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
Tag(s): Faclan , SPARTAN-A120 , Rxxy



His eyebrows burrowed as he tilted his head in disbelief. Hearing the group of Kig-Yar applaud as they gazed at the knife-fight's victor was...well, and interesting development. The good news is, at least they didn't shoot at him. He figured they realized he was dressed differently than all of these Innies on board the ship. He soon stared at one of them when the male Kig-Yar approached him. He frowned a bit, looking on as it felt like earlier when those other two pirates approached him and Chen as they exited out of their ship. He smiled a little at the memory, as the Kig-Yar spoke in broken English at him.

"You odd...we takk Cap'n. Dem two," Moretti heard him say, and then watched as the alien pointed behind him toward the two hostages. He glanced behind him for a moment, to make sure they were still okay, and then returned his attention on the Kig-Yar. "Gif weapon."

The Lieutenant Commander stood still and calm as he watched him take a step forward, holding out his hand. The Italian sighed, muttering under his breath in annoyance, but decided to give up his handgun anyway, and then handed it over with a smile on his face. “I'd rather put a bullet into your brain, but...sure. Here you go.”

He then glanced behind the male, and watched as another Kig-Yar standing near the entrance picking up his carbine. “Shit...” He murmured, while he looked back to see that the other two Kig-Yar were cutting Hyde and Voleinkov down to unbind them. He had to smile at that, thinking it was good to have an extra pair of hands, but then again, there was his friend. He groaned at that. “Oh, brother...”

Rolling his eyes, he glanced back at the male, who seemed to not have been satisfied after being given his sidearm. He bit down on his lower lip when he heard the Kig-Yar telling him to give up the Karambit he still held in his hand. He scoffed, shaking his head. “Hell no.” He grumbled.

Once he saw the male was reaching for his knife anyway, he frowned, muttering, “Bad idea, asshole.”

He tightly snatched the Kig-Yar's wrist, and yanked hard to throw him off balance as he quickly pulled him to the side, and then kicked him in the back of his knee to make him fall back into him. Now resting against his lower torso, he quickly pressed the Karambit's warm, sharp blade against his throat, and then unsheathed his other Karambit to press the pointed end against the base of the alien's spine. He slowly smirked down at him, noticing how the pirate froze as he decided not to reach for his weapons when he realized what kind of situation he was in now. Around him, the other pirates reacted, cheeping and raising their weapons at him. The pirate he held at knife-point raised his hand to stop the other Kig-Yar from shooting at Moretti, and then Moretti watched as the pirate raised both of his hands and seemed to smile up at him.

One wrong move, one single sign of hostility, and then the field operator would cut his throat and shove the other knife into his spine. He was expecting it, but the alien was smarter than he looked.

"...You kep?"

Moretti smiled. There we go, he thought.

“Gladly,” He replied to the pirate he was holding. Still keeping him as “insurance”, he peered over his shoulder, looking down at Hyde when he heard the man cry out in pain. He slowly smiled, laughing to himself in amusement.

“Yeah...tape hurts,” He then asked, “How are you doing, buddy?”

He returned his attention to the female Kig-Yar who was holding his carbine, and wondered if his friend could tell her to give back his gun, and if she didn't, then well...he glanced down at the male pirate he had at knife-point, and smiled mischievously. When he looked back again, he noticed that both of the Kig-Yar who were in front of the two ONI agents were down. One was unconscious, and then he smiled over at Voleinkov, who thought she had killed the other Kig-Yar by breaking its neck.

“Business, huh?” He chuckled quietly, keeping his eyes on her, while Hyde went to grab the pistol to point it at the one who she thought broke its neck; though, he was obviously not happy about doing that. “Ha...yeah...I hate to break it to you, but that didn't work. There's a way to actually break their necks, but it's not that way. Their necks aren't like ours. Heh.”

Seconds after, he heard Chen speak to him. "Report: I escaped the fun zone and going solo. Status Green. I'm restocked thanks to your storage space. Unfortunately, our HVT is unconscious and is being guarded by a Kig-Yar squad along with a translator who speaks and understands English like a duck and their Chicken Leader and is more arrogant and ill-tempered than my ex. How copy?"

The Lieutenant Commander then kept his eyes on the last armed Kig-Yar in the front of them, and reported back. “You're welcome, Panther. I hope the smell wasn't too shitty for you, hm? Heh. Status is green. Both hostages are safe and secure. Will be having a friendly conversation with my new friends here about the chicken leader and to try and get them to give up our lovely HVT to us. Meet me on the party room level shortly. ETA, ten minutes...give or take. I'll be bringing in my own translator.”

He glanced down at Hyde, who was still frowning about having to point the gun at the downed Kig-Yar pirate. “Chris,” he asked, “Can you get up and come over here, man? Agent Voleinkov can watch them both.” He then said to Voleinkov, “If they try anything, shoot them.”

“Ugh...can I just get something to eat instead? I'm hungry, man...” Muttering about food, Hyde nodded, standing up and taking the pistol to point it at the Kig-Yar as he moved over to stand beside Moretti.

“What do you need?”

“Translate for me,” Moretti grinned. “First thing's first. Tell the chicken with my carbine to drop it and kick it over to me. If she doesn't do what I say, then she can watch as I make this chicken's neck smile. Or I stab him in the spine. Whichever I do first.” He then said, “Then, if she does what she's told, tell her to sit down by the door and wait while this new friend of mine tells me everything about their Captain Angry Space Chicken here before we go and meet with him to talk business.” He smiled again, looking at him before peering down at the poor Kig-Yar he held hostage.

[Faclan]

Nek Dal - T'vaoan Translator
Aboard Innie vessel Your Days are Numbered!
So...this is awkward.

"Chick....peas?" Nek said quickly as he tilted his head at the darkness. That was a new one to him. Humming a bit Nek tried to decide weather that was a compliment or an insult. But the cold water all over his chest and neck soon distracted him as he started to try and wipe some of it off. But as he wiped he decided that it was an insult. Humans were often always insulting him anyway. But still there wasn't a response to his question so he decided to ask again.

"Patrick?" Still no response as Nek could hear footsteps and so closed his eyes and rubbed them as he felt something shift the table he as against as some wing blew against him. Opening them Nek ducked under the table just to see Patrick leap up the stairs and then he was gone...Well that was just rude.

"Patrick!...Wow rude." Sitting back up against the table Nek rubbed some of the water off his vocal sac and jacket, have a little cough, before looking over to see that Captain Gaz was just happily still sat on the table eating some of the food. "Ummm Captain Gaz, we may have an issue."

"What is it now Nek?"

"I don't know if you saw Captain but Patrick has run out of the room toward the stairs. He could be trying to go back to his ship to run away, or get weapons to foolishly try to do something."

"If he doesn't want to die then he best not. If he attacks the bridge assault crew then they will kill him and save me the trouble. But I'll have some of them search for him once the ship is mine. I'll have those on the Blades bridge keep an eye on the ship and if he leaves he'l get shot down." He nodded as he started to speak into his helmet about these orders as Nek sighed a bit and stood up to better get some of the water off his jacket. He could see fine now as could nearly all the other Kig-Yar doing their various activities around the ship.

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

Two Upper level Kig-Yar;
We are searching for a Human to NOT kill?

With their ears still ringing from the short but violent bridge take over the Ruuthian and Ibie'shan male Pirates nodded as they were directed back down the stairs by the crouching female T'vaoan boarding lead as she was tended to from the many hits she took during the take over. Her armor saved her from death, but she was clearly revealing in the slaughter as she laughed as her bullet wounds were cleaned by a small Ruuthian. But the two selected Pirates, Kai and Val, reloaded their larger R-5's as they walked down the bridge stairs and into the Upper level.

They slowly went from room to room, sniffing carefully and trying to sniff out the Human. The dead human bodies made it tricky but they had been told he was on this floor somewhere. And so would find him. But when they passed the other Humans they smelt somthing different from Human...Kig-Yar. But they had been with the bridge assault group. No-one had broken from the assault to go into this airlock. Val nodded and said he would go check as Kai continued to move and check the rooms.

Val would eventually head toward the storage crates where Tun and Bar were securly tied up and silenced. Both of them thankfully still asleep as he checked around the area before heading back to the crate and trying to find a way to get it open to find out what was making the smell.

Kai on the other hand would go room by room trying to find this Human, and only found dead ones that had been shot on their way up. Soon the only rooms left to check were the bathrooms...and one of them smelt really terrible. So instead Kai moved over to check the other one as he stood with his back to the wall beside the door and slowly working on opening it as he held his R-5 ready in his other hand.

(Now Chen can get in on the Kiggy stabbing , if you think he can get away with it. Or Kiggy knocking out/sleeper holding :> - just for clarity Kai the Ibie'Shan is outside the bathroom door and Val the Ruuthian is at the ONI airlock trying to find out the smell. So far no other Kigs are on this level. )

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

Various Lower level Kig-Yar;
Well this sucks.

Pyz kept as still as he could as he glanced over sideways as the oppf and flop of Hie being cracked over the head and then slumping to the ground as Tog was grabbed by the female Human and then had his head twisted to the side...thankfully he was still alive as he was laid on the ground and was reaching for his weapon before the Human that had screamed held a pistol on him. Looking back up at the Human that was still holding him very securely he just tried to keep still as his position was still just as bad. He could barely see Balc from where he was but she looked very angry as she tried to move the Human rifle she has back and fourth to cover all the weapons pointed at her. Tog was keeping still on the ground as well as he held up his hands as he too didn't want to die.

But the Human was soon talking with the hairy one and the hariy one soon moved over toward him...Aecor what was going to happen?!

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

Chris Hyde - ONI Section I Agent (hungry)
Your Days are Numbered! Storage room.
wehwehweh.

"Doing shitty." Chris grumbled back as he picked up the boarding pistol and aimed it at the Kig-Yar that was set down after his neck was 'broken'.

Food and drink would be so good right now...as would be a shower, and then a day of sleep. But now he had to hold the Kig-Yar who just untied him from this hell at gunpoint. What was going on with the world! I mean sure they looked pretty 'hard' with some tattoos and all their weapons...but they were here to help right? He hoped the Kig that had his head jerked to the side was alright. But after carefully stepping over the unconscious Kig-Yar Hyde stood beside Mike and just nodded a bit as he rubbed his eyes try to piece together the words he would need to say in his head before finally clearing his throat and started to cheepy hiss out at the female and the male Mike was holding. It was a terrible accent but hopefully it would get the point across.

"Put down rifle and slide it over here, so we no have kill this one."

The female hissed back but after glancing at the female Human who also had a pistol trained on her she complied and set it down slowly before sliding it nearly too Mike and Hyde.

"Thank you, now sit." That got her looking even more angry. As she glared at the three of them and seemed to be tempted to grab for her pistol before Pyz spoke up as he waved his hands a bit.

"Balc! Do it please! I don't wana die!" So her name was Balc, good to know. She glared for a few seconds before sitting down, resting her hands in her lap as she watched the three.

"Thank you Balc...see we friend here? We need know about you Captain before we go talk with. What would help us? Also what you name you unfortunate one?" The one held looked up at Mike and tried to gulp again before gagging a bit at the tight pressing of the knife over his throat.

"Pyz...please don't kill me, we can talk all you want."

"We no unless you bad." Turning to Mike he bit his lip a bit as he nodded down at the one he was holding. "Mike could you loosen up a bit? Pyz can't talk much with you near choking him with that blade."

"No need...I'll answer." This made Hyde look over quickly as the female Balc spoke up, but he just nodded as she hissed a bit and then just started to talk. "I best have your word that we won't just be executed when we are done...But Captain Gaz," now they had a name that would be helpful. "Isn't supposed to be out here on this trade meeting." She paused at this and looked down at the ground before looking back up at the Humans and Pyz. "Before I continue Gaz will know someone on the crew talked if you bring this up to him...which I assume you will to try and get out of this alive or with a better deal. So I won't say anything more unless you agree to take me and perhaps Pyz, Tog, and Hie away from this when we are done. Captain Gaz is a good Captain but he oversteps The Mistress too much."

Ok so it was something to do with Gaz's wife of sorts but didn't know exactly what...God this was a hard decision. He knew that if the Kigs went with them they would be going to a prison or worse. But from what he had gather so far from the Kiggy talking and Mike they seemed to be stuck here until this Captain Gaz was dealt with. Glancing at Mike Hyde did the probably unexpected thing and just nodded as he sighed some. Making the decision for himself as he knew Mike would have had to arrive in his own ship to get here and the Kig-Yar could be dealt with later...Maybe they could even just leave them as some Innie place if needed. But time seemed to be of the essense so Hyde just nodded and looked back at Balc. "We have space, you four go with when we leave, hide till leave."

Balc seemed hesitant about this but seeing as she had a gun trained on her and one of her friends held at knifepoint she just nodded and explained. "The Mistress is well liked among the crew, and Gaz directly disobeyed her by coming to this trade meeting instead of transporting their three year old chick to her. He will make up some excuse as to why he was late as he didn't tell the crew he needed to get to her immediately. When they learn they will inform her and Gaz could have his ship taken away."

Well that was certainly some powerful info. Thank god it was easier to understand the Kig-Yar spoken language then speak it as he turned to Mike, trying to ignore the still slightly panicking Pyz that Mike looked like he was about to butcher. "First of all I had to agree that we would take Balc, the female, and these three away from this ship when we leave to get the info...I'm sure your ship has space. But we have leverage over this Captain Gaz. He isn't supposed to be here and because of him stopping here he will be late to delivering his three year old chick to his Mistress. Not all the crew know this and if they find out at least one of them will talk. And once she finds out she may take his ship away...I'm sure you could hack into the intercom and blab if needed Mike...Can you let Pyz go now so we can try to work out where to hide them until we leave?" Yawning a bit Hyde looked pretty tired as well as looking like shit, thankfully he could see everyone here in the storage room, but the room outside the open door was pretty blurry.

[SPARTAN-A120]

Petty Officer 1st Class Richard A. Chen
ONI Section III Field Operative "Panther"
March, 2548 - 0312 hours
Upper Deck
Aboard "Your Days are Numbered," Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
"Finally… Some Action"
(Tags: Llau & Faclan )

Chen heard the response from Lieutenant Commander Moretti when he said, “You're welcome, Panther. I hope the smell wasn't too shitty for you, hm? Heh. Status is green. Both hostages are safe and secure. Will be having a friendly conversation with my new friends here about the chicken leader and to try and get them to give up our lovely HVT to us. Meet me on the party room level shortly. ETA, ten minutes...give or take. I'll be bringing in my own translator.”

The Petty Officer started a countdown timer for ten minutes on his HUD as well as is ONI Military Ops wristwatch. He then replied to Moretti, “Copy that. I’ll be lurking in the darkness around that level until you arrive. How’s Cole Protocol doing? Maybe I could get us started by inserting a data wiping virus on the NAV computer?”

A sudden sound interrupted Chen from finishing his transmission. It came from his left side, where the entrance to the restroom was. He didn’t want to risk it by saying, “Be right back” or “I got company,” but at least he got his important point across to Moretti.

“This is about to be good,” Chen thought.

He quietly entered the last stall which had the unflushed toilet and closed the stall door to a crack and drew his M6C pistol from his hip holster. The smell was unbearable being this close to the toilet, but he ignored it as he was close to a life or death situation. He raised the pistol to chest-level when he heard a muffled sound of something impacting the floor. Something like a foot step. A short moment later, another foot step, then another followed. Whoever it was, or whatever it was, it sounded cautious. This was deduced by the delay in between steps. It was about a second in between each foot step. Unfortunately, the sound of the footsteps were overwhelmed by the sounds of gunfire. The individual didn’t bother closing the door. Well, that was not what Chen wanted. When he no longer heard the sound of the footsteps, he became uncomfortable.

Chen reacted by shifting a little at the sound of creaking to his right. He smiled to himself. That was a good sign because it was a dead giveaway and could be utilized by Chen to estimate when the individual would arrive to the last stall.

He just hoped that the individual in the restroom with him didn’t go near his stall since it wreaked of unflushed urine that probably had been sitting in the toilet bowl for quite some time. He also hoped he wouldn’t catch some airborne disease from just inhaling the somewhat toxic stench. Chen hated the dirty bastard who didn’t bother to flush. Hell, the guy probably didn’t even watch their hands before leaving.

Another creak emitted from his right. That was the second stall door. Four more before the individual would reach his door. He slowly and carefully unsheathed his primary Tanto-styled combat knife from his left drop-leg sheath and held it up in a reversed grip facing the door with his pistol in his right hand using the left arm to support the pistol.

The third door creaked open on his right. “Jeez, this folks could using some oil on their door hinges,” Chen thought. He then heard the sounds of sniffing. Sniffing. Why would anyone sniff at the smell of urine? No human being would sniff at the smell of urine unless they had some sick fetish.

“Human being… “ Chen thought again. “No, it can’t be human. There’s a damn Chicken in here with me."

The fourth door creaked open. His body tensed up, but he later loosened up after realizing that he almost acted like a Private straight out of Basic. His patience was being tampered yet again by being placed in this situation. He didn’t enjoy it, but it was his nature to play the waiting game. He always enjoyed be a predator awaiting its prey. It was the thrill of the hunt.

The fifth door opened, but this time it didn’t creak, but it lightly slammed into the wall connecting the fifth stall with the sixth. Chen flinched slightly with a hard blink, but didn’t move. He was in a combat stance, ready to kick the door as soon as it moved, hoping to knock the Kig-Yar backwards and providing Chen with the upper hand. His right leg was in a good enough distance behind him to provide a powerful front kick as if he were to kick a door down to initiate a door breach on a thin door. It was a good thing that these stalls didn’t have the stoppers to prevent the door from swinging outwards, but he hoped it wouldn’t swing back towards him when he lunged.

There it was. A Kig-Yar with barefeet with three sharp talons standing before his bathroom stall door. Chen prepared to execute a front kick as soon as the door moved. A second passed. Another second passed. A third second passed. Something was not right.

To Chen’s surprise, the door swung towards him in a speed he couldn’t react to. It impacted his hands first which disarmed him of his combat knife and M6C and he fell backwards, but luckily didn’t end up with his ass in the toilet bowl since gained a grip on a nearby toilet paper dispenser and held on to it like a lifeline.

He looked up to see the Ibie’Shan, Kai, staring back at him with what looked like to be wide eyes which suddenly changed into a Kig-Yar impression of a frown with slitted eyes. “Sonuva-” Chen mumbled before Kai raised his R-5 at him. Chen didn’t like being on the receiving end of his enemies’ weapons while being disarmed. If anything, he was angry.

“Hooo…. you?” Kai hissed in broken English. He probably noticed Chen wasn’t wearing an Innie uniform like the others which might have been the reason for the question.

To Chen's surprise, Kai lowered his weapon into a rested position and continued speaking in broken English, "You... Patrick?" 

Chen slowly got up from his awkward close-to-falling position that he was in and nodded at the Ibie'Shan. "That's right," Chen replied to Kai. "I'm Patrick."

"Yesss. I take you bak to Gaz. Gaz orders."

Kai then took a step to the side to let Chen exit the stall. Chen on the other hand, was cautious and was slightly angry from the Kig-Yar kicking the door into him. He leaned down and reached for his weapons that were dropped in the brief encounter and shaked his left hand since it was slightly bruised. "No wepons. Come, with no wepons," Kai commented when Chen was grabbing for his M6C.

"No. I keep weapons. Self defense," Chen said. He didn't like the Kig-Yar giving him orders.

Kai hissed with discouragement, but then nodded.

Chen holstered his M6C and sheathed his combat knife in their proper places and gave a hand motion to Kai to take the lead. Kai nodded and started walking toward the restroom's exit. The Section III Operative had his chance of giving the Chicken a beat-down, but he refrained because that would only cause more problems. Instead he contacted Agent Moretti and said, "Be there in five. I've got an escort..." Chen transitioned to speak to Kai and asked, "Como te llamas?" 

Kai looked back at Chen with the looked of confusion. He realized that he just spoke Spanish to Kai so he "Oh... sorry... um, what is your name?"

"I is Kai," the Ibie'Shan replied.

Chen continued speaking to Moretti, "And his name is Kai." He then looked back at Kai and asked, "You're a male? Right?"

Kai hissed at Chen. 

"Sorry. Just making sure," Chen said with a grin. He adjusted the sling of his MA5K and pointed to the general direction of the Party Room. 

Chen and Kai were cautious that there was a battle going on in the ship so they carefully looked around once in a while to make sure they won't get shot or walk into crossfire. 

---

OOC: RIP Combat Scene lol.

[Llau]

Lieutenant Commander Michelangelo N. Moretti
ONI Section III Field Operator - “Ombra”
March, 2548 – 0312 hours
Aboard “Your Days Are Numbered”, Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
To Kill or Not to Kill...
Tag(s): Faclan, SPARTAN-A120, Rxxy



Moretti stood there, still pressing his knife against Pyz, while he listened to Hyde tell Balc what he wanted the Section One Agent to say, while he watched her. Every muscle in his body tensed up when he heard her hiss at what Hyde translated for her to do first, but then relaxed a little when he saw her slide his carbine over to them. He continued to look on when Hyde told her to sit down, and noticed she was looking angrier than before, and then his eyes gave Pyz a quick glance when he noticed movement, and saw that Pyz was waving his hands, and then cheeping something urgently at her. When Balc finally sat down, the Lieutenant Commander relaxed a little bit more, but not completely.

Chen then responded to him, saying, “Copy that. I’ll be lurking in the darkness around that level until you arrive. How’s Cole Protocol doing? Maybe I could get us started by inserting a data wiping virus on the NAV computer?”

Moretti whispered his answer into his ear-piece, “No need. I've already put a worm into their computer systems when we first arrived...it gives me control, but it will also eat up every information they have on their NAV computers.”

He then heard Hyde converse with Pyz, but kept his eyes on Balc until he heard Hyde speak in English to him.

"Mike could you loosen up a bit? Pyz can't talk much with you near choking him with that blade."

He stared deadpan over at Balc for a few seconds, and then slowly gazed over at his Kig-Yar-loving-nerdy friend. Not responding to him, he gazed back down to the male Kig-Yar indifferently and decided to sheath the blade that was pressed against the alien's skull. He then loosened the knife from his neck far enough that it would just brush along his neck and not cut him, and then cautiously moved it away; brushing the blade along the alien's skin in an intimidating manner. He snatched him by his spines with his now free hand, and pressed his foot down on the inside of his knee to force him to sit down on his knees.

Pyz hissed in pain, and then hissed and cheeped in pain again when Moretti roughly yanked his head back to expose his neck, as he returned the Karambit to it's place across his throat. Of course, this time, he didn't press it too hard. He grinned a little, noticing that Pyz was still panicking a little. He glanced over at Hyde, realizing that the man was looking at Balc, and then noticed that Balc was the one speaking to the Section One Agent. The field operator didn't really care, as long as one of the Ruuthians in the storage room were talking.

He continued to look on quietly, glancing behind him to see how the other agent was doing with the other Ruuthian pirate who was down on the floor with his hands up. When he returned his attention forward, he saw that Hyde was finished speaking with the female Kig-Yar, and now looking right at him.

Hyde explained what was said between him and Balc. "First of all I had to agree that we would take Balc, the female, and these three away from this ship when we leave to get the info...I'm sure your ship has space.”

Moretti's eyebrows furrowed at this. He wasn't happy that Hyde decided to agree without consulting with him first, but he let the man continue.

“But we have leverage over this Captain Gaz.”

Moretti's eyes lit up, looking at him curiously. A small lopsided grin forming over his lip.

“He isn't supposed to be here and because of him stopping here he will be late to delivering his three year old chick to his Mistress.”

He snickered at that. “Uh oh...”

“Not all the crew know this and if they find out at least one of them will talk. And once she finds out she may take his ship away...”

“Aww...tough break...” Moretti muttered under his breath at that. “Probably has to sleep on a couch, too.” He chuckled to himself in amusement.

“I'm sure you could hack into the intercom and blab if needed, Mike...”

“Of course...depends on how I feel,” he replied quietly.

He then heard Hyde ask him, “Can you let Pyz go now so we can try to work out where to hide them until we leave?"

Moretti scoffed lightly at his friend's request, standing up straight as he slowly released his hold on Pyz. Pyz breathed out happily when his spines were finally released, rubbing his head a bit and his throat as he stayed there on his knees.

 “Sure,” He said rather happily with a smile. Standing there, he sheathed his knife, and looking at his friend as his smile faded. “We only need one of them.” He told him ominously and in a completely different tone from what he said to him moments ago.

Hyde was pretty pleased with how this was going so far, even chuckling a little at the couch joke. But when the Lieutenant Commander ominously said that they only needed one, he dropped the smile and turned to Moretti. "Mike....what are you doing?" Still at a normal volume for now.

While he told him that they only need one of them, he pulled his M6C out of its thigh-holster, and shot both of the Ruuthians who were on the ground in the head. He then shifted in his stance, taking aim at Pyz as he went to grip the sidearm in both hands.

The scientist jumped in surprised at this as he blurted out. "Mike! What the fuck!"

The two Kigs on the ground barely given any time to react but Balc cheeped in surprise as did Pyz as he looked up and flopped onto the ground, holding up his hands. "No! No! Mercy, please!" Hyde meanwhile tried to grab Moretti's hands and direct him away from Pyz.

He ignored Hyde's surprise, and then became very angry when the scientist tried to grab his hands to stop him from shooting the now pleading male Ruuthian. His expression became furious, and he glared directly at his friend's eyes; sneering as he roughly pushed him away with all of his strength. "Get off!" He snapped, aiming the gun again down at Pyz, and quickly pulled the trigger before Hyde could do anything again.

The bullet missed it's mark. He cursed, but continued to struggle with his friend, who was trying to stop him once more.

As he saw the two Humans fighting over the gun, Pyz rolled and crawled as much as he could toward Balc, but just before he was about to reach her, Moretti fired again; just missing his beak which makes him freeze as he looked back at the Humans.

Hyde grunted when his friend shoved him away, but he was soon back in it as he tried to get in front of Moretti. "Mike! Mike stop! These Kig-Yar didn't do anything to us! Those fucking Innies did! There's no reason to murder them!"

The Italian aimed down the sights at Pyz, and when Hyde was talking to him, he sneered when he focused his anger on him. With a free hand, he tightly grabbed his friend by the throat, and squeezed. "Stay out of my way, Chris, and let me...do my fucking...job." He hissed, eyes filled with murderous intent, body tensed with anger and adrenaline, while he continued to squeeze and try to make the man go down to his knees.

Glaring at his hazy friend, as best as he could, he used both hands to pull Mike's hand off of his throat as he seemed to be getting into a proper nerd rage. "Your job was to probably save me and clear this ship of bad info, not go on a murderous rampage against people who may be helping us! Not aliens, people! They even disarmed to you and you are doing this to them! You may work for ONI Mike but you are not like this!"

Not like this? That's what you think, Chris...Moretti thought. 

He once more then unwisely tried to step in front of Moretti to protect Pyz, who was now sitting with Balc.

The Lieutenant Commander kept his attention on him, breathing heavily, and responded venomously with a shaky, angry voice, "Emergency Priority Order 098831A-1, also called General Order 098831A-1. Cole Protocol. To safeguard and protect the Inner Colonies and Earth, all UNSC vessels or stations must not be captured with intact navigation databases that may lead Covenant forces to human civilian population centers. Activate selective purge of databases on all ship-based and planetary data networks. Initiate triple-screen check to ensure all data has been erased and all backups neutralized. Execute viral data scavengers. In case of imminent capture by Covenant forces and boarders, all UNSC ships MUST self-destruct. All enemy must be neutralized. Any UNSC Navigation Personnel must be taken to safety or executed to prevent capture. Violation of this directive will be considered an act of TREASON and pursuant to UNSC Military law articles JAG 845-P and JAG 7556-L, such violations are punishable by life imprisonment or execution." He took a breath, and added, "Don't try to stop me."

He was silent as Moretti rattled off the procedure. Hyde knew much of it but he never thought he would hear his friend be such a wet blanket about policies and rules. But he then nodded as he spoke up in Kig-Yar. "Pyz and Balc, are you guys Covenant?"

"No...no, sink those bastards!" said the two aliens at the same time.

Hyde then said, "See? Not Covenant? So protocol doesn't matter to them....so put down the gun Mike..." He went quiet near the end. It would be clear that Hyde was scared to be in front of Moretti with a gun pointing at him.

The Lieutenant Commander slowly smiled, though not in amusement. He glared, keeping his gun trained on his friend at close range. "Covenant or not...I don't care..." He whispered. "Last warning, Agent Hyde...don't stop me and stand aside."

He seemed to falter a bit when the field operator was still being a little shit as he 'uhhhed' and pointed up at the ceiling. "Their captain is up there, and you said you still needed to get something from him. How will killing his crew help with that?" He questioned, still standing there.

He smiled a little at him, but angrily. "It's not like he'll know. By the time he does, then we'll be already gone with you two and the Innie leader, and...they will all be dead anyway," He whispered to him.

The linguist didn't like the sound of that at all as he shook his head. "No, Mike. They may be pirates or pillagers or marauders or whatever. But they didn't do shit to you, didn't do anything to me. In fact, they rescued my ass when you were fighting some Innie. So no, they won't be all dead. We are going to go and talk to this Captain, with these two - I'll have them say they died to the Innies or they could hide. We'll get whatever stupid thing you need. And then we're going to leave and go fucking home."

Moretti slowly looked over at the two Ruuthian pirates while Hyde spoke to him, and then he started chuckling a little as he shook his head in amusement. He lowered his gun to his side, and stood there, looking down as he continued to chuckle. He then breathed in a deep sigh, gazing back up toward the ceiling as he let out a small groan.

"You..." He smirked, looking down at him. "Fine. Fine, Agent Hyde. You want me to play fair, make nice to these space chickens?" He firmly placed a hand on the man's shoulder. "Since it's you...I'll play fair, but they are going to all die if they don't leave in a certain amount of time. Okay?" He smiled. "Tell them that they are going to pretend they died by Innies, or fucking hide. I don't give a shit, but if thy try anything, like take revenge on me, then I will kill them. Got that?"

Sighing in relief as Moretti finally lowered the gun, he listened carefully as his friend spoke, but was distracted a bit with his stomach growled as he nodded a little. "Thanks man...I know you don't like them but you never know when kindness is going to be repaid...I'll try to explain it to them."

He would then turn and crouch down to explain what was going to happen as he best knew. Probably this ship exploding so they needed to get back to their ship as soon as possible...and that he was sorry about their friends. They didn't deserve that.

[Faclan]

Chris Hyde - ONI Section I Agent (annoyed)
Your Days are Numbered! Storage room.
Could have been worse...but why couldn't it be better?

"I sorry again for you friends...but at least save you."

"Just keep that one away from us...we'll stay down here and when you are all gone up we'l head up and meet up with the others." Balc said quietly as Pyz was busy carefully watching Mike.

"Thank - I hope you tew stay safe."

The two Kig-Yar just nodded as they said something about getting the bodies back up to the other level so they slowly got up, watching Mike and the female Human carefully, before edging over to the two dead Ruuthians and slipping arms under their arm pits and around their chests before starting to drag them out of the room.

Sighing a bit at how this had to went down Chris moved up his hands to remove his glasses...before remembering they weren't there. So he grabbed empty air before just rubbing his eyes and turning back to Mike and Voleinkov. "They are going to gather the bodies of their...friends and comrades. Then wait down here until we are up at the meeting before moving up after us..." Grumbling some about Mike putting a bullet in two of them that didn't deserve it he knew it would be pointless to argue now as he nodded at the other two Humans.

"Lets go to this meeting then. Hopefully we can avoid that much further death." He mused before starting to leave the room, slipping the boarding pistol he had been holding into his pocket after flicking the safety on. Thankfully it fit as he tried not to look at Pyz and Balc as they dragged the other dead Kig-Yar toward the stairs who were averting looking at the Humans...At least Mike didn't kill those two and seemed to have not killed the other one either. Maybe there was still some hope for this to go peacefully yet. Pyz looked a bit disgusted to be dragging the bodies of his dead comrades around while Balc just looked pissed. But they didn't make any hostile movement and just kept working as they tried to get as little blood on them as possible.

------------
(Sorry about your combat scene 120, it was a good one though )
Val and Kai, upper level;
Found some stowaways!

Rolling his eyes at the foolish Human Kai ran a hand over his short hair spines - stupid Human not knowing the basic differences between the sexes. But then again he was a stupid flat face so it was amazing he even knew he was a Kig-Yar to begin with. Exiting the bathroom he turned to head toward the stairs down to the party room before he was distracted by some talk in his radio from the bridge crew. Holding up a hand for Patrick to stop he moved up a finger to tap on the little headset over his ear holes and listened. Unknowing to himself that he was currently flipping Patrick off since he was using his middle finger to hit the ear piece as he cheeped in Kiggy.

"Uhh...huh...not responding? We'll tell the Cap'n, not me - I don't know how these things work. You should have kept one of the Inside Humans alive then. Don't hiss at me because of your poor planning from the front Mistress!" There was a series of rapid hissing from his head set but Kai just rolled his eyes and pulled it backwards off his head and let it rest on his neck and shoulders as he shrugged at Patrick. "Consol up der," he middle finger pointed up at the bridge stairs as he went back to English, as Val pattered out of the airlock room where Patrick and his friend had come from - he looked worried. "No work, lock. May be blud al on um. Xeli complinain - say my falt when she kill 'um. Femal somtim ya know?" He then switched back to Kiggy language when Val ran up to him.

"Whatcha want?" He asked the smaller Ruuthian male.

"Kai! I found two of our own, I think its Tun and Bar! Stuffed in a box in the other Human airlock!" There would be lots of pointing back toward Patricks air lock as he stood there probably annoyed at this interruption.

"...Dead?"

"No, but restrained with this sticky wrap around their beaks."

"Then they are fine then, probably tried to sass our new Human friends." Kai replied with a shrug as he gave Val a shove back toward the airlock. "Tell the Captain then go get them roused and then have them come to the main room." The Ruuthian nodded as Kai chuckled a bit at Patrick and nodded as he started down the stairs with Patrick in tow - speaking in broken English again. "Smak arond Tun n Bar did ya? Good work. But good no kill, or we would kill ya. Good ta know you and frand not push over - Cap'n will like dat. Nice glass by ta way" He finished with as he pointed at the shimmering glasses Patrick was wearing before he gave the large Ibie'Shan Captain a little salute before he moved over to nibble on some morsels.

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

Nek Dal - T'vaoan Translator
Aboard Innie vessel Your Days are Numbered!
Welcome back.

Finally with most of the cold water off his face, throat, and jacket Nek just seemed content to sit and shiver a bit as he continued to look around the still dark room as he wondered if the lights were going to ever come back on. Darkness like that was normally the sign there was some power issue. But the life support and gravity were still online as was the console he could see on the wall. So power was still working...Could have happened due to the fire fight on the bridge. Or the Humans could have done it some how. Frowning at this thought Nek decided to not think like that. If they had control over the ship and wished them dead they would have gone back to their ship then shut off life support after locking this one down. Leave them to slowly claw at the windows and suffocate. Shuddering a bit at that thought he looked over when he heard broken English and people coming down the stairs. So Patrick was finally back.

Standing up to go and speak to him again he glanced over at Cap'n Gaz but he seemed busy with a message on his helmet radio as his feet still rested on Jenny. "Welcome back Patrick...you sure look," Nek greeted in English as he looked the Human up and down. "More ready for battle than you did before...Surprised Kai let you have that. But I trust it's a precaution because of the shooting that has happened as we can still have a peaceful talk and trade." He finished with, hopeful that it could be true as he glances behind Patrick but still saw only him. "Are you going to have your friend come here so we can talk? The Hostages should be being brought up now by the Lower Level team too so we can all have a talk. Captain Gaz is still willing to let you have the hostages for your nukes and perhaps this vessel."

Gaz meanwhile guffawed at something he was told on his radio...at least it was better than him being angry as he quieted down to a snicker and popped a little sandwich into his stubby beak.

[SPARTAN-A120]

Petty Officer 1st Class Richard A. Chen
ONI Section III Field Operative "Panther"
March, 2548 - 0314 hours
Upper Deck
Aboard "Your Days are Numbered," Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
"Didn't have to fire a single round. That's a first."
(Tags: Faclan & Llau )

Chen was halted by a hand signal from Kai and then flipped him off. Well that was what Chen initially thought until he realized the Ibie’Shan’s finger was pressing against a communications headset.

Chen stopped and went down on one knee while pulling out his MA5K that was slung to his back and scanned the area to maintain security. He kept Kai in his field of vision in case if the Reptile-looking Kig-Yar tried something slick. The sounds of the Kig-Yar language filled his ears as Kai was speaking into his headset.

There was a blur of motion that came from his left side so Chen quickly pivoted towards the incoming unknown target, switched off the safety to semi-automatic, and took aim. He lowered his aim when he identified the unknown as another Kig-Yar who ran straight to Kai and started a conversation. While Chen was taking precautions, Kai took off his headset to speak to the Kig-Yar who seemed to be part of the flock.. or whatever the Kiggies called their teams.

The other Kig-Yar was cheeping and chirping frantically. Chen wasn’t paying his full attention to the two Kig-Yar until the other Kig-Yar pointed towards the airlock where Moretti and Chen’s ship was docked, Airlock Two.

Chen tightened his grip on his suppressed carbine and was ready to take these two out of the game if they attacked him. He was at least three yards away from the Kig-Yar duo, but his CQB skills met the criteria to conduct two double-taps under a second and a half. With every word the two Kig-Yar in front of him were saying, the closer his trigger finger moved near the trigger, veering away from the resting position.

To Chen’s satisfaction, the conversation didn’t result in a shootout when Kai said to Chen in broken English while pointing at Chen’s tactical glasses when he was finishing, “Smak arond Tun n Bar did ya? Good work. But good no kill, or we would kill ya. Good ta know you and frand not push over - Cap'n will like dat. Nice glass by ta way.”

After that, the escort went up the stairs and saluted Gaz before taking a bite to eat from one of the tables that weren’t flipped from the previous engagement between the Kig Mercenaries and Innies.

Chen replied to Kai when he entered the party room with him, “They started it. And thanks. I got these ‘on sale’ from a space vendor.” He adjusted his tactical glasses at the mention of it.

A familiar voice came from his right. Chen turned his head to see Nek approaching. Chen discreetly keyed on his comms to let his partner listen in on the conversation.

"Welcome back Patrick...you sure look… " Nek greeted in English as he looked the Human up and down. "More ready for battle than you did before… Surprised Kai let you have that. But I trust it's a precaution because of the shooting that has happened as we can still have a peaceful talk and trade." The Kig Translator took a peek behind Chen, apparently looking for an absent partner. "Are you going to have your friend come here so we can talk? The Hostages should be being brought up now by the Lower Level team too so we can all have a talk. Captain Gaz is still willing to let you have the hostages for your nukes and perhaps this vessel."

The Petty Officer slung his MA5K onto his back and crossed his arms before replying to Nek, “Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.” He then addressed the question about Moretti by saying, “My partner should be here shortly.” Chen kept his mic activated. “And yes, the deal can still go on… “

Chen took a look at the unconscious Jenny who was being used as a human footrest by Gaz. If he only had a camera to take a snapshot of this and send it to ONI's Section II for propaganda purposes. That would definitely stir something up in the Innie 'community.'

[Rxxy]

Alesia glared at the smart remark the other human had made at her poor knowledge of alien anatomy. Although she remained silent as the two males began to converse. She didn't have much to care about she kept her eyes on the Jackals around her until she heard her name. she looked over at the new comer who said about her watching the jackals. She nodded, but personally she was waiting on orders to shoot them. Then she remembered something. She reached under her shirt and pulled out the datapad. She needed to check if it was still active and hadn't been damaged. When she pressed the hidden power button on the top the screen lit up with three green letters PEP. She tapped the code she had put on the pad and the text from the research station appeared. She heard the rustle of scale across metal and glared down at the Jackal she had hit with the boarding pistol she now held.

"Freeze scum or I pop your head." She said glaring down at it. The jackal instantly opened one of it's eyes. It saw the pistol aimed at it and decided not to move any further. Suddenly as if on queue the other agent spun and blasted two bolts. The two Jackals died nearly instantaneously, but the one she had been about to shoot stared up at her and she turned to see Hyde fighting the other man for his side arm. Alesia took a step forward before realizing she wasn't going to help either of them to have her fighting as well. Rather she pointed the gun at Balc as best she could. Eventually however the two men came to a compromise and the fight stopped. The remaining Jackals were let stand and they walked over and collected their dead cause Alesia to wonder what was going on.

"We're letting the bastards go?" She questioned of the two. Although much like most of the conversations between the two men and the aliens, she would be ignored. Chris said about continuing and going to a meeting.

"Beats standing here doing nothing." Alesia commented as she turned off the datapad and replaced it where she had hidden it. She then slipped the boarding pistol into the side pocket of her pants.

[Llau]

Lieutenant Commander Michelangelo N. Moretti
ONI Section III Field Operator - “Ombra”
March, 2548 – 0317 hours
Aboard “Your Days Are Numbered”, Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
Tag(s): Faclan, SPARTAN-A120, Rxxy


Picking up and shouldering his DMR, he silently glared at the two Ruuthians and Hyde as they spoke to each other for a long minute or two, but turned away to glance over at Voleinkov when he heard her speak about letting the two aliens go. He ambled over to her, trying to smile, but he was too damn pissed off to be able to. Looking up at the tall woman, but not in the least intimidated by her height compared to his, he spoke to her rather rudely.

“Yes, we're letting them go, agent,” he said, “Since I'm a very fair person, they can live...for now. Though...”

He glanced down at the two dead Ruuthians he killed. He chuckled lightly. “Well...accidents do happen.” He slowly gazed up at her, smiling a little before stopping to listen to what Chen was saying to him. He put his finger to his ear-piece, and listened to the conversation the Petty Officer was having with Nek.

“My partner should be here shortly.”

“Will meet you in the party room in a bit, Panther,” he quietly informed the other field operative.

"They are going to gather the bodies of their...friends and comrades. Then wait down here until we are up at the meeting before moving up after us..."

The Lieutenant Commander turned around to face Hyde again, and walked over to him as he nodded to what his friend said. He then noticed how the younger man started to grumble about something, and he figured it was about him doing what he did. He frowned at that, inhaling a deep breath to control himself.

"Lets go to this meeting then. Hopefully we can avoid that much further death."

“Yes, lets get to it. Although, avoiding further death depends on the captain chicken, Chris,” He replied harshly, glaring over at him as he walked out of the storage room to head up to the party room level. “Heh...then again, it really doesn't matter once I can take Jennifer away from him.”

Slowing down his pace, he started walking beside Hyde, and then wrapped an arm around shoulder; seemingly friendly, but clearly, it wasn't. “You're lucky that I consider you a good friend, Chris,” he said, “If you were anyone else, I would have arrested them or summarily executed the person, you know?” He smiled and chuckled, which probably was unsettling, before continuing.

“Like I said, you're very lucky, but that luck won't last forever,” he whispered coldly, “Stop me again from doing my job when Cole Protocol is activated, and then...I will stop you.” He smiled once more, patting his shoulder a few times before walking away a little quicker to be ahead of the two agents.

Moretti turned around, walking backwards for a bit, as he raised his hands. “That's how it is, Agent Hyde,” He called out to him, smiling angrily.

With that, he turned around and walked away.

***

A few minutes later, he arrived at the party room after a couple of pirates allowed him and the two other agents enter. First, he glanced over to where Chen was, and nodded, and then had to chuckle when he saw that the one he presumed was the pirate Captain Gaz, sitting down with his feet propped up on the unconscious Innie leader's back.

“Hahahaha! Oh my God...” He slowly approached the scene before him, smirking in amusement. “Shit, man...this is great. Fantastico.” He laughed again.

Moretti tilted his head a little, crossing his arms as he gazed at her and Gaz. “Oh, this...this deserves a picture.” He took out a data-pad from a pouch along his vest, crouched down near Jenny's unconscious form. He raised the pad up, and took a photo with him showing his pearly whites, with Jenny and Gaz behind him on the other side of the picture.

He lowered the data-pad, and viewed the picture before saving it, and sending it off to everyone at Section Three, with the title, “Found Something Innies Are Really Great At Being”.

He stood up, putting the pad back inside the vest's pouch, but was still grinning happily. At least there was something that cheered him up.

“All right, now that I'm here...” He glanced at Chen again, and then fixed his eyes on Gaz. “Let's talk business; especially now that we don't have to worry about these group of assholes and that little bitch. I never wanted to deal with her anyway, so...it's good that your fine group of pirates are here, Captain Gaz.”

[Faclan]

(The lights are back on now and have been for about three minutes in thread time, the Kigs on the bridge managed to get enough console control to turn them back on but haven't been able to unlock the consoles more than that.)

(Italics will be alien language for easier reading)

Nek Dal - T'vaoan Translator
Aboard Innie vessel Your Days are Numbered!
...What are you two doing?

Still blinking a bit at the lights coming back on Nek was thankfully no longer shielding his eyes as they had adjusted as Patrick mentioned that he was keeping his weapons in case something came up. A valid reason and one that was perfectly normal to Kig-Yar, especially since there had been fighting before. The Human bodies by now having been dragged out of the room but Nek still didn't like being this close to Patrick with the weapons he had. Glancing at Kai to silently ask him why again.

Kai just gave a little cheeky wave as Nek glanced back at him and all the weapons that Patrick had...but at least Patrick was here now so they could get on with the meeting and then Nek could leave. Still a bit worried as he had been told before that his bright red vocal sac was like a large target. So he just nodded as Patricks response before backing out of grabbing range as he had the feeling that Captain Gaz wouldn't care if he was a body shield. The Human probably able to see despite his lack of knowledge with Kig-Yar that Nek looked a bit jumpy as he backed up.

"Good...good, glad to hear that. We'll wait for your friend to arrive then." Smiling as best he could Nek took a breath and then just waited around, occasionally drumming his fingers on the table until the other Human finally showed up...with two more Humans with him. They must have been the hostages then...But where was the lower floor team? Even if the six of them had really messed up the firefight they wouldn't have all died to the four Humans down there? Tilting his head a bit at this lack of ground team he started to key his radio while turning to Captain Gaz to ask about the Lower Level team before Patricks friend, he assumed since he was in the same basic outfit as Patrick with the same glasses, started to laugh as he stepped forward and moved toward Captain Gaz.

------

Apparently it deserved a picture, and so the Human took one. Gaz looked a bit surprised that he was being signed up for a photo op and after it was taken he hopped off his table seat to pad over to look at it. It was an alright one...But Gaz thought it could be better. So he tapped the Human on the shoulder and gave a genuine smile and then pointed back at Jenny's slumped body as he called over to Nek. "Nek! Tell him to take another one, I want a good one!" He seemed pretty happy about this possibility and in a good mood now after whatever he had been told on the radio. So he took off his helmet from his belt and plopped back onto the table as he set his helmet on his knee pointed toward the camera. He then set his left hand on it and pulled out his Dart pistol as he turned to be more facing the camera before setting that over his other knee so it was in view of the camera. Finally he set his feet back on Jenny's back and learned forward a bit as he gave the camera a smirk and waited for the picture to be taken. The deal could wait.

-------

Nek just blinked again at that as he watched Gaz get into position and then the Human start to talk business. The fact that the Human got into his own picture and now Gaz was giddy about more pictures...that wasn't an emotion he had seen on Gaz before. But he just nodded and first spoke to the Human before translating for Gaz.

"Captain Gaz would like you to take another picture - he want's a better one."

"Hes ready to talk business after your photo Captain Gaz...He is also thankful for you and your crew for taking care of the Inside Human problem."

"It was no trouble, and yeah yeah Business," he responded, still keeping his pose and smirk as best he could while responding. "We can do more pictures later, always up for spreading the name and visage of our crew around so we will get better deals with these Inside Humans."

Turning back to Mikes friend he nodded as he waited for the picture to be taken before speaking up again. "Good, Captain Gaz is ready to talk business - but is interested in more pictures later. He also says it was no trouble for taking out the Inside Humans, they sassed him a lot. As you were on your ship and...seemingly downstairs I haven't met you yet I am Nek Dal and you seem to already know Captain Gaz's name." He then held his hand out toward Patrick's friend. "And you are?" But he jumped a bit when one of the hostages looked over from stuffing his face and nearly leapt over to him to grab his hand a shake it instead.


Chris Hyde - ONI Section I Agent (Elated)
Your Days are Numbered! Party room.
Uhhh...Hai Mike? OMG A TALKING KIG-YAR.

Nodding as Pyz and Balc pulled their dead comrades out of the room Hyde rubbed his face some more before rubbing his parched throat as his stomach growled some more. He really hoped they would be done soon so he could get some food...and a shower and sleep. But he was distracted from all this by agent Voleinkov asking if they were really letting 'the bastards' go. And he turned to start to reply to her before Mike did it for him...and then Mike put an arm around his shoulders and started to speak to him.

Mike's expression was one he unfortunately had experience with before and knew that despite his normal tone in his words that Mike was very angry. Hydes own face would drain a bit as he just gulped and nodded...Knowing that Mike's ONI scaled morality stuff would make him pull the trigger on him in the moment, and just feel shitty about it later. So Hyde hoped it wouldn't come to that as he just nodded again when released and shouted back at before he quickly got his act together and followed. Glancing to the side a last time as Balc and Pyz were trying to lay their dead friends down at the bottom of the stairs but both Kig-Yar were avoiding their looks.

-------

When finally in the Party room the first thing Chris would notice would be the Kig-Yar up here too, a T'vaoan in a leather jacket of all things, and an armored and armed Ibie'Shan using a Human as a foot rest. He had to assume the Ibie'Shan was this Captain he had heard about. But he was soon distracted about all that as he say many of the tables not tipped over had food on them!

Quickly moving over to them Chris registered the armed Ruuthians and Ibie'Shans around the room but was more focused on the tiny sandwich plate as he started to quicky hoover them into his mouth and gulp down some water. God it was so gooood. Looking over as he heard more Kig-Yar languages he waved a bit at the other what he assumed to be ONI agent as he kept eating. Apprently it was picture time as Mike snickered at the females position and moved over to take a selife of all things!? Rolling his eyes at that Chris busied himself on getting ride of his hunger and thirst. But all of that stopped when he heard the T'vaoan speak English.

Setting down the glass and the mini sandwich he was about to eat Chris watched the one in the leather jacket as he introduced himself in damn near perfectly English and held out his hand. Quickly Hyde started to move over to this T'vaoan, wiping off his hands as he did, and quickly moved in front of Mike to grab that outstretched hand a shake it!

"Fair Wind Nek Dal! I Chrees Hide, langua...speaking study person. Is really good to meat one who speak both speaks!" The T'vaoan looked equally stunned as Hyde had when he heard the linguist attempting to speak the Kig-Yar language but soon smiled as he shook Hyde hand back and tapped the end of his beak in what appeared to be a manner of greeting.

"Fair Winds to yourself Chris - your translation is a bit rough but I'm impressed you have made an effort...And while I would love to chat I think I need to focus on the trade between your friend and the Captain. But if we have time after I would love to try and help you with some words." Chris nodded as he awwed quietly but then said that he hoped there would be time before moving to the side so Mike could more easily see the two Kigs. Thankfully the second picture had already been taken as Chris patted at his pockets before gahhing and snapping his fingers.

"Damnit...The one time I need a damn notepad! Mike! Can I borrow your tac pad for notes please? Nek can speak English! This is amazing!"

Nek meanwhile just smiled as he waited for the deal to continue - please to see that at least one Human was happy to see him.

(Next post some fun stuff is gona happen >:3, some sneaky sneaky attempts from the Kigs and some old friends showing up.)

[SPARTAN-A120]

Petty Officer 1st Class Richard A. Chen
ONI Section III Field Operative "Panther"
March, 2548 - 0321 hours
Party Room, Upper Deck
Aboard "Your Days are Numbered," Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
"No lollygagging"
(Tags: Llau , Faclan , & Rxxy )

“Will meet you in the party room in a bit, Panther,” Chen heard Moretti say to him in a near whisper via comms.

He nodded slightly as if he was agreeing at a good thought, but that was what it appeared to be. Man, was Chen slick like moss on a rock. The Field Agent thought it wasn't necessary to reply to Moretti because he was still undercover after all. He didn't want to blow his cover by indicating he had a clear communications network with his partner which was bound to contain mischievous planning under discreet acting. Without a doubt, if the Kig-Yar were smart enough to put two and two together; Chen wearing a headset and throat mic communications system, it would be a dead giveaway in plain sight.

To Chen's surprise, the lights in the Party Room and presumably around the ship too, came back on. It blinded him momentarily as he took off his tactical glasses briefly with his left hand and rubbed his burning retinas with his right hand; closing his eyes in the process. If it was time for the Kig-Yar to strike him down, now would be the time, but he didn't hear anything approaching him. All he heard was the sound of electricity coming back to life and the occasional munching coming from Gaz's general direction. He had expected not to be attacked anyways. If Moretti had found Chen's corpse instead of a live and well Agent, there would be no deal and bloodshed would've been inevitable. Sucks for Chen though. He didn't have much action besides the takedown of the Kig-Yar welcome party and escaping the room to get his gear.

"Good...good, glad to hear that. We'll wait for your friend to arrive then," Chen heard Nek say while he was still massaging his eyeballs.

Chen deactivated the low-light vision in his tactical glasses before wearing them again. He opened his eyes to see Nek give Chen what looked like a smile, but with plenty of bared teeth. His vision was slightly blurry from the blinding light his eyes took in, but he regained his vision. Nek now looked like a Griffin.

"What in the world..." Chen muttered and closed his eyes and tilted his glasses upwards so he can rub his eyes once more.

When the Petty Officer regained his proper vision, he noticed that Nek was backing away slowly and appeared a bit jumpy like he was before the takeover of the ship. Was something bad about to happen?

Shortly after Chen's realization of Nek's nervous behavior, he heard footsteps coming from the stairwell to his right. He assumed it was his partner and the rest of the two ONI Agents, but he kept his right hand on the pistol grip of his M6C just for safe measures. He didn't want a rogue Innie getting the drop on him and risk killing the HVT in a crossfire.

Fortunately, it was a familiar face of Lieutenant Commander Moretti that eased Chen's aggressive-defensive state and he removed his hand away from his pistol and crossed his arms. When the older Field Agent saw Chen, he gave Chen a nod. The younger Agent returned a nod and was about to say something, but was interrupted by laughter that came from Moretti.

Chen saw another man with a dirty ONI uniform, what appeared to be a broken nose, and a decent lengthed beard who came into the room, took a glance at the Kig-Yar, and took off to the tables where there were snacks and drinks. He identified the man as Agent Christopher Hyde of Section I.

Chen averted his attention to Agent Moretti when he pulled out his data-pad to... take a selfie? Chen snorted with laughter slightly when the Lieutenant Commander indicated what the hilarious selfie was for. Jenny being used as a footrest. Chen’s wish came true. Now, every Innie would be humiliated in the eyes of ONI; possibly even by the entire UNSC. A few seconds after the photo was taken, Chen's TAC-PAD vibrated.

The Petty Officer checked what the notification was for and found the photo with Moretti taking up nearly half of the photo while Gaz was sitting with his feet propped onto the unconscious Jenny's back on the other half. The caption read, "Found Something Innies Are Really Great At Being."

Chen shook his head and muttered, "The Innies won't be too happy when they find this lurking around on the net. Talk about demoralizing."

He spotted another individual coming through the door and identified her as Agent Voleinkov due to her height. Not many women towered over men unless they were Spartans, but the female Agent is one of the few unaugmented human to be tall. Nevertheless, it didn't faze Chen. He had taken out enemies twice his size, but size didn't really matter. If they were hostile, they're going down. The Petty Officer hoped Voleinkov wasn't hot-headed because that would be like gasoline and a lighter.

Chen returned to observed Hyde just in time to see the Scientist wave at him after stuffing his face. Chen returned the gesture by nodding and giving a two fingered salute and turned towards Moretti when he spoke.

“All right, now that I'm here...” Moretti glanced at Chen again, and then fixed his eyes on Gaz. “Let's talk business; especially now that we don't have to worry about these group of assholes and that little bitch. I never wanted to deal with her anyway, so...it's good that your fine group of pirates are here, Captain Gaz.”

Gaz caught Chen's attention when he said something in the Kig-Yar language that came off as aggressive. At first, Chen thought that he was asking what Moretti was doing and why he was taking pictures. This caused Chen to reach for his sidearm again. Then, Nek's translation saved the day. Chen was surprised that Gaz wanted another picture. He also mentioned that Gaz appreciates Moretti's assistance in taking care of the Innies. Gaz continued speaking after Nek's translations.

Nek reinitiated his translations and said, "Good, Captain Gaz is ready to talk business - but is interested in more pictures later. He also says it was no trouble for taking out the Inside Humans, they sassed him a lot. As you were on your ship and...seemingly downstairs I haven't met you yet I am Nek Dal and you seem to already know Captain Gaz's name." He then held his hand out towards Moretti. "And you are?"

Observing in silence, Chen was about to make a smartass remark, but Agent Hyde had nearly dashed across the room and in between the Lieutenant Commander and the T'vaoan translator and grasped Nek's and shook it. Nek was startled hy the sudden approach, as were the Kig-Yar guards who raised their weapons slightly, but lowered them after seeing the somewhat friendly gesture - if it weren't for the Section I Agent's violent handshaking. Hyde then started speaking the Kig-Yar language to Nek which made Chen cringe and rub his temples with his right hand.

"Oh for the love of God..." Chen muttered under his breath.

"Fair Winds to yourself Chris - your translation is a bit rough but I'm impressed you have made an effort...And while I would love to chat I think I need to focus on the trade between your friend and the Captain. But if we have time after I would love to try and help you with some words, " Nek replied.

Chen observed Hyde patting himself for something and then he said, "Damnit...The one time I need a damn notepad! Mike! Can I borrow your tac pad for notes please? Nek can speak English! This is amazing!"

Chen was about to toss a chair and flip his shit. Hyde was stalling like a Pelican without vertical thrust and it was a nuisance. He took a deep breath and sighed before he commented at Hyde's behavior by saying, "Hey, uh... we got stuff to do and places to be... so can you do this after? I bet you're still hungry. Why don't you finish so you can regain your strength." He tried to keep his cool and gestured towards the tables with food with his left hand.

After that, Chen closed the gap between him and Moretti and stood a few feet away the man's left side. He took a look back towards Agent Voleinkov and said, "You too. I bet you haven't eaten much. Go join the bearded man."

"Bearded man..." Chen thought. "Who the hell says bearded man?"

He cringed slightly at the thought, but returned his gaze towards Nek and said, "Business before pleasure. Are we ready to make deals?"

[Rxxy]

Alesia wasn't apposed to the idea of working compromises in the field, but this was long over exaggerated. Working and allowing Jackals, or Kig-yar as Alesia had heard the Agent and Hyde say, was far beyond her reliable acceptance. As they walked her mind slowly began to relax as the sound of restless kig-yar and growling Innies who hadn't been killed began to make her life full of sound. This calmed her impatience slightly, but she was still expecting to leave quickly. She walked calmly, but her eyes never left the armed thugs surrounding her. They weren't human and shouldn't be this close to earth let alone interacting with humans. Her hand remained on the grip of the stolen pistol, prepared for the enemy should they come. However she knew the pistol wouldn't hold up to the small army of Jackal and skirmishers. So for now she followed some distance from her cohorts as they discussed things more quietly then Alesia would've liked. She halted at the entrance to the room the 'meeting' was in. She lingered as the others pressed on. She caught the eyes of a T'vaoan, who's beak was scared. She continued on into the room.

She came in to see the man whom had 'rescued' her, taking a picture of a Kig-yar sitting on top of a human. Alesia wondered what was so comical about the situation to commemorate the occasion. That was until she realized that the woman was an insurrectionist. Alesia grinned as she turned her head to spot another man. He had similar apparel to the latter. She assumed this was the famed partner she had heard little about. slightly behind him at a table with multiple foods and drinks splayed out with Hyde picking at them. They seemed to make small gestures in greetings meaning they had met before. She seemed the only one without a clue who the others were. Suddenly she heard a voice she didn't recognize at all. Then she saw the most bizarre thing she had ever seen. One of the Kig-yar was speaking in English. It was astonishing to Alesia who assumed all the aliens were unintelligible gibberish. Here however this Kig-yar, Nek Dal, spoke fluently. She stared in disbelief wondering if fatigue was setting in. Suddenly a burst of speed from Hyde caught her eyes as he sprinted to the Kig-yar and took his hands immediately. Alesia shook her head and took  a step to the side as she heard more foot steps from below. She turned to see it had only been a Kig-yar passing the stair case, but assumed it might be prudent for her to block the door.

"You too. I bet you haven't eaten much. Go join the bearded man." said the man.

"Sure, I'll go." She said trying to be nice still at a loss for the man's name. She walked over to the table and grabbed a piece of bread. She glared at the two men then turned her attention to Hyde.

"So, Chris, who are those guys any way?" She whispered trying not to be disruptive of the incoming negotiations.

[Llau]

Lieutenant Commander Michelangelo N. Moretti
ONI Section III Field Operator - “Ombra”
March, 2548 – 0321 hours
Aboard “Your Days Are Numbered”, Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
Tag(s): Faclan, SPARTAN-A120, Rxxy


Keeping his attention on Captain Gaz, he watched as the Ibie'Shan cheeped at Nek before he took off his helmet from his belt and plopped back onto the table as he set his helmet on his knee pointed toward the camera. He then set his left hand on it and pulled out his Dart pistol as he turned to be more facing the camera before setting that over his other knee so it was in view of the camera. Finally he set his feet back on Jenny's back and leaned forward a bit as he gave the camera a smirk and waited for the picture to be taken.

The Lieutenant Commander tilted his head a little, realizing, even without the translation that the Captain wanted another picture done. He chuckled lightly, grinning in amusement, while slowly taking out his data-pad from his vest. He glanced over at Nek as the T'vaoan translated what Gaz told him to tell Moretti, and then the Italian gave him a nod. He stood there, pointing the data-pad's camera part to Gaz and the sleeping Innie leader, this time, not being in the picture himself, and snapped the photograph. He showed the Captain it for a few moments before walking away a bit to send the photograph to Section Three – titling it, 'Space Chicken Pirate Leader, Captain Gaz, Strikes A Pose', along with the very little information he had in a growing dossier on Captain Gaz. 'Will add additional information when able to.'

"Good, Captain Gaz is ready to talk business - but is interested in more pictures later. He also says it was no trouble for taking out the Inside Humans, they sassed him a lot. As you were on your ship and...seemingly downstairs I haven't met you yet I am Nek Dal and you seem to already know Captain Gaz's name."

“Of course, I do,” Moretti smiled a little. “Word gets around.”

He then watched as Nek held his hand out toward him, while he was placing his data-pad back inside one of the cargo pockets of his vest. "And you are?"

“I'm - “ He was about to reach over to shake the alien's hand, but stopped when Hyde leapt over to introduce himself instead.

Moretti stood there, glaring at his excited friend. He was silently fuming at this point, glancing over to where Chen was, and then back at glaring at Hyde while he and Nek spoke to each other.

He stood there, lowering his head as he stared at the floor for a moment before closing his eyes, as he tightened his relaxed hands into two fists he was tempted to use on the Section One agent.

He muttered under his breath, “Oh, per l'amor cazzo. Il vostro entusiasmo per questi polli spaziali maledetti e uno di loro a parlare in inglese sta per farci uccidere, Hyde. Incredibile, amico.“ (“Oh, for fuck sakes. Your excitement for these damn space chickens and one of them talking in English is going to get us killed, Hyde. Unbelievable, man.”)

"Damnit...The one time I need a damn notepad! Mike! Can I borrow your tac-pad for notes please? Nek can speak English! This is amazing!"

Moretti quickly looked up at him, clearly very pissed off about Hyde speaking his real name out so carelessly. Of course, he heard Chen speak to Hyde first, saying, "Hey, uh... we got stuff to do and places to be... so can you do this after? I bet you're still hungry. Why don't you finish so you can regain your strength."

To the older field operator, he didn't think that was enough. He smiled just as Chen told the other agent to go eat too. He grabbed his friend by the arm, and roughly pulled him away from Nek, and made him sit down at the table with the food platter. Still gripping his arm tightly, he leaned down and whispered harshly into his ear.

“What. The. Fuck. Are. You. Doing? Huh? Chris. You're going to get me and Chen killed if you keep this up. As far as I'm concerned, you and I do not know each other. Chen and I aren't ONI, we're Innie dealers, and you and Agent Voleinkov are still prisoners, but to us two now.” He glanced over at the table and slid the platter of food closer to him.

He continued to whisper in his ear. “Don't talk to anyone at all again, unless I tell you to speak.”

He released his arm, standing up, and continued to glare at him some more. He shook his head, hoping that Voleinkov knew what she needed to do to keep them all from being found out, while Moretti tried to negotiate with Gaz. Before turning around to walk away, he slapped Hyde in the back of the head, but not too hard.

“Shut up and eat,” he growled, “You told me you were hungry. Asshole.” He sighed. "God damn, ONI bastard..."

“Christo...” Moretti muttered, walking away with his hands on his hips, and glancing over at Chen with a look of disbelief.

He cleared his throat, clasping his hands together as he went back over to stand in front of Gaz.

“Anyway...Captain,” he began, “It seems you want our friend here...” Indicating Jenny with the point of his finger as he continued, “...to yourself, which, I understand because I want her just as bad as you because quite frankly, she's been on our shit list for a long time now. I can't stand her attitude, and she's not really a favorite among dealers, and you found out why she isn't.” He smiled a little.

“I'm willing to trade all of our nukes for not just the two ONI agents, but for her as well,” he said to him, “Because all of the nukes we have with us now, they equal the same amount of pay for these three humans. Plus, we know someone who REALLY wants this sassy little bitch for what she did to them.”

He clasped his hands together in front of him. “So, what do you say? I'll let you think about it, of course,” he gave him a nod. “No rush.”

[Faclan]

Val, Tun, n Bar - Pirates.
ONI landing airlock.
Getting to secret work!

Still grumbling a bit at Kai shoving him and then Captain Gaz guffawing uproariously after he reported in Val grunted as he as carefully as he could pulled out Tun and Bar from the crate where they had been shoved. One would have probably thought he would be furious at their Captain for not taking this seriously but Val knew that it was just Cap'n Gaz being Gaz. Where on his ship should you have a dispute you setting it with fists if words aren't enough - and these Humans clearly had had some kind of dispute with the greeting party.

Finally getting both Kig-Yar out of the crate Val tried to prod them a few times but they seemed to be fully out. But he did check again for a pulse on both of them after his initial shock and quick check when he found them first time and breathed a sigh of relief when they were both still alive. Their restraints looked pretty damn heavy duty too. But a good first step would be freeing their beaks. Carefully laying both Tun and Bar on their backs as much as he could with their arms behind his back - hoping they were weren't too injured, Val carefully went to work pulling the grey wrappings off their beaks. It was very sticky whatever it was but he didn't want to use his knife unless they woke up and startled, that could end up ugly.

With that finally done he gave the bindings around Tun's ankles a little tug before trying to cut it with his knife before shaking his head. Those weren't coming off without bolt cutters of good strength...But at least they would have an easier time breathing now and could talk if they did wake up. Doing a last little check to make sure they were as comfortable as they could be on their back as he didn't want to move them too much - he wasn't no doctor. But that was done....and the sneaky Human's ship was right here.

Sheathing his knife and adjusting the Dart carbine across his back Val stood up and then headed toward the airlock before just trying to hit the open door button. But it just beeped and did nothing. Scratching his neck a bit he started to try some of the more involved ways to open the door.

Both undercover ONI Agents would get an alert ping on their systems that their ship was trying to be accessed without the proper codes.

The security feed that Mike likely had hooked up showing Val at the door with the unconscious bodies of Tun and Bar behind him in the room.


Nek Dal - T'vaoan Translator
Aboard Innie vessel Your Days are Numbered!
Ummm...ok.

Well that sure took a turn to be unpleasant as the one seemingly called Mike looked shocked and...furious? At the Chrees person who was happy to see him. And then grabbed him and down right threw him into a chair after dragging him away. Chrees's face went from shock to fear as he just nodded and then sat there with his hands in his lap...Well then. It seemed like they knew each other though judging by Chrees's reaction - or they had really hit off a relationship on the walk up the stairs. But then Mike called him an ONI bastard? This was all getting very strange.

While all that was going on Nek's head would be tilted a little to the side as one of his eye ridges raised up a bit as he tried to figure out allegiances.

But his head returned to level as Mike started to talk to Gaz again, even though Gaz couldn't understand him. That made Nek chuckle a bit, even though he was still confused and would have to ask the Human about that little outburst as he was the only Kig that would have caught all of that. But he gave the Human a little wave as Gaz worked on slipping his pistol and helmet into holsters and helmets.

"I'm the one who you will want to talk to Mike, will be easier to translate if you direct it my way so I don't miss anything, but one moment." Turning to Gaz he looked away to cough a bit as he stood sideways to Mike and Gaz, but with his head facing Gaz as he translated.

"Captain Gaz - firstly I think these Humans all know each other...could be that they are all part of the same Inside Human clan and this was a rescue." Chress widened his eyes and scooted his chair a bit as he waved his hand to try and get Mike's attention but Nek was too busy watching Gaz as he shrugged and took another drink of water.

"So? They could be brothers for all I care - we are here for business and now business and looting. I'm happy to be lenient now that I have an entire ship free to me."

Well...except the lives of his crew that fell taking the ship. But Gaz didn't seem to be careing about that now as he just nodded and went on translating. He would ask Mike when he translated Gaz's response. "Of course Captain Gaz; Mike however wants the Hostages and your Human footrest - and will give you the nukes for it."

Gaz looked furious at that but then calmed down and tapped his snout a bit, drumming his toes on Jenny as he did so. After a few seconds he actually nodded. "I'm willing to agree to that, I've gotten what I wanted from this Human whore and the pictures taken will spread my name. As long as he understands I will be taking this ship as well as those Nukes then we can part on good terms." Nek started to turn around before Gaz cheeped to get Nek to look back. "And Nek, get this Humans contact information, I am interested in more business in the future."

The T'vaoan nodded as he looked back at Mike and did his best to look happy and friendly...but still had that question in the back of his mind. "Alright Mike; Captain Gaz is willing to part with Jenny because the photos you took will spread his name. But he will be taking this ship. But for your nukes you can have Jenny and the hostages. Before we part Captain Gaz would also like your contact information."

With that done Nek nodded as he waited for Mikes response, but after tapping his two middle fingers together a bit he leaned forward to whisper a last question. "But do you and the hostages know each other Mike, if that is your name aplogies if it is not? Chress seemed to know you?"


Chris Hyde - ONI Section I Agent (sad)
Your Days are Numbered! Storage room.
...Sorry ;-;

Barely registering what was happening as he was grabbed, dragged back, and then thrown into a chair Chris was about to try and get back up indigently before he saw Mike's ear right by his head and pretty much growling at him. Quickly sitting still he just nodded and laid his hands in his lap and stared right ahead.

He had fucked up...Oh god he had fucked up. After Mike turned around Chris's head fell forward into his hands as he tried to breath and stay calm...God he hoped he hadn't thrown the entire rescue ops. But a name wouldn't dot hat would it?! Quickly silencing that voice in his mind he just sat there. Mike would know, this wasn't his job in ONI - he was just a scientist. So instead he just listened to the talking going on, doing his best to remember how Nek was speaking as it was one of the extremely rare times it wasn't a captured Covenant Kig-Yar speaking. It was very interesting how the tempo of his speaking was so different from what he had heard before. Perhaps it was a T'vaoan thing. But then he heard Nek tell Gaz what Mike had warned him would happen. That wasn't good.

Scooting his chair a bit he tried to wave at Mike to warn him of what could be coming. But Mike clearly didn't want anything to do with him right now and just kept not paying attention to him. So Chris quickly quieted down and sat still, then breathed a sigh of relief when Gaz informed Nek that he didn't care. Well that was good...Mike would probably want to know that. But he had been told to not speak. So he just sat there quickly - finally going back to poking at the sandwiches and snack foods.

Now he felt terrible physically, mentally, and emotionally that he had let his friend down. But he did look back at Alesia when she asked him who all these people were. He assumed she meant the Kig-Yar so he just shrugged before whispering back. "As far as I know they are pirates, maybe they were hear to make deals with the In...other Humans and we just happened to be in the cargo bay. But the Ibie'Shan is Captain Gaz and the T'vaoan is Nek Dal."

[SPARTAN-A120]

Petty Officer 1st Class Richard A. Chen
ONI Section III Field Operative "Panther"
March, 2548 - 0323 hours
Party Room, Upper Deck
Aboard "Your Days are Numbered," Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
"Mouth Shut. Eyes and Ears Open."
(Tags: Rxxy , Faclan , & Llau )

Chen nodded at Agent Voleinkov's response and turned to face Nek and Moretti and found the Lieutenant Commander mumbling Italian. Chen partially understood what he was saying, but it was not enough to get the big picture of what the Section III Agent meant. Chen didn't really care. If it wasn’t the enemy speaking Italian, he didn't bother to waste the effort unless his life depended on hit. Sometimes knowing multiple languages had its perks.

The smiling Lieutenant Commander caught Chen's attention with a hint of flaring nostrils; the man was hiding his anger. The next thing Chen saw was Moretti dragging Hyde towards the tables full of food and shoving him into a chair like a child. The things Chen saw while on the job was sometimes priceless. It was sort of like a scene out of those shows with the good cop and bad cop. Chen being the good cop and Moretti being the bad cop that uses intimidation to get what he wants. In all honesty, Chen never really worked undercover operation with a partner.

Technically, Chen had never really officially worked with a partner. Chen's partners would provide overwatch and surveillance to monitor his status in case he needed to get out a tight situation and quickly get extracted, but it was never two Agents operating like a dynamic duo until now. Beforehand, it was always Chen infiltrating an Insurrectionist Cell by attracting their attention, gaining their trust, and dismantle it from the inside out, but this new playing field was unfamiliar to Chen. He just had to adapt and adjust to it as it played.

Ultimately, Chen was a lone wolf; an omega. The outcast who never really got too close to a social life besides occasionally dating once in a while, but that wasn't the reason why he decided to become what he is. Yes, it was his job to follow orders, comply with commands, and go the whole nine yards to do whatever it took to complete the mission, but deep down inside, he was looking for his mother who had been Missing in Action for quite some time now. No one knows how Chen had been keeping this secret for so long. Not even polygraphs or psychologists were able to detect this during the selection process. Whether Chen was a ticking time bomb is unknown, but what is questionable is why he hadn't gone rogue to search for his mother? The one individual who Chen will always have a place for in his mind, body, and soul. The woman who had raised Chen to what he is today.

A sound of a slap snapped Chen back out of his thoughts. Even though he was thinking about life choices, Chen was observing his surroundings to keep on a lookout for threats. He was obviously aware of Gaz holding a boarding pistol in one hand, but he knew Gaz wasn't going to shoot. Chen's pistol may be holstered, but his right hand was near it resting on the back of the M6C's pistol grip; being capable of drawing and firing in 1.5 seconds with good conditions and variables. Even though it would be firing from the hip, from the range he was standing away from Gaz was relatively close.

The Petty Officer looked over at Agent Hyde to see that he was seated in a chair with disappointment and sadness covering his face. If Chen had to guess, Hyde had received a slap on the back of the head.

“Shut up and eat,” Moretti growled at Hyde. “You told me you were hungry. Asshole.” He sighed. "God damn, ONI bastard..."

Chen crossed his arms as Moretti gave him a look of disbelief. The Lieutenant Commander continued the deal when he clasped his hands and said to Gaz, “Anyway...Captain. It seems you want our friend here...” Indicating Jenny with the point of his finger as he continued, “...to yourself, which, I understand because I want her just as bad as you because quite frankly, she's been on our shit list for a long time now. I can't stand her attitude, and she's not really a favorite among dealers, and you found out why she isn't.” He smiled a little.

“I'm willing to trade all of our nukes for not just the two ONI agents, but for her as well,” he said to him, “Because all of the nukes we have with us now, they equal the same amount of pay for these three humans. Plus, we know someone who REALLY wants this sassy little bitch for what she did to them.”

Moretti clasped his hands together in front of him. “So, what do you say? I'll let you think about it, of course,” he gave him a nod. “No rush.”

Nek replied, "I'm the one who you will want to talk to Mike, will be easier to translate if you direct it my way so I don't miss anything, but one moment." The T'vaoan turned to conversate with Gaz using his native tongue and Chen lost interest.

A rapid movement coming from Chen's left made him turn to that direction. It was Hyde who was frantically trying to get Moretti's attention, but he finally gave up a few seconds after. Chen wondered what that was about. It was probably nothing of importance since Hyde stopped. Or maybe not...

After a semi-long conversation, Nek returned to say, "Alright Mike; Captain Gaz is willing to part with Jenny because the photos you took will spread his name. But he will be taking this ship. But for your nukes you can have Jenny and the hostages. Before we part Captain Gaz would also like your contact information."

Moments later, Nek whispered something to Moretti, but Chen distracted by the vibrations coming from his TAC-PAD. He read the red words that were displayed on his screen which said:

! Security Warning: Unauthorized Attempt of Access, //RICH MAN'S PARADISE\\ !

He immediately walked over to Moretti and whispered, "We have a problem."

[Llau]

Lieutenant Commander Michelangelo N. Moretti
ONI Section III Field Operator - “Ombra”
March, 2548 – 0324 hours
Aboard “Your Days Are Numbered”, Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
Tag(s): Faclan, SPARTAN-A120



Each time the T'vaoan said his name, was each time he probably would have punched Hyde in the face. Nothing made him pissed off more, than someone using his real name during an undercover operation. He'd rather keep his real identity hidden, no matter the operation, and no matter the enemy they were dealing with. If he wasn't a father, he wouldn't have cared, but he was a father, and did care to not have his name be so carelessly spoken out among the enemy. If the enemy has his first name, then they'd eventually could gain his last name; especially when they could have a face to match up with the name. He would have to make sure to do a quick scan of their systems and see if everything was wiped from the Innie's ship – including the security footage when they first arrived, and so forth. Sometimes, paranoia had its perks and advantages, as years out in the field had made him think this way. Some may think it's an undesired trait, but he much preferred it, as it saved him many times before.

“That's fine about the ship,” Moretti said to him with a shrug, “I'm not here for it anyway. He can have it.”

He soon stared at Nek, when the T'vaoan asked, "But do you and the hostages know each other Mike, if that is your name apologies if it is not? Chress seemed to know you?"

The Lieutenant Commander twitched slightly, frowning a bit, “You asked me that question now? It should have been the very first thing you should have asked me...” He sighed. “Whatever. Nek, right?”

He smiled when the T'vaoan nodded. “Okay...” He stepped closer to him and leaned over slightly. He gave him an unpleasant smile, and said to him, “Maybe he does know me, but, um...if you say anything...” He rested a firm hand over his shoulder, and then lightly tapped his free hand over his shoulder harness he was wearing, to bring his attention to the two Karambit in their sheaths that they were attached to. “I'll turn your life into a line of poetry, written with a splash of blood. Got it?”

He patted his shoulder gently, and straightened up just as he heard his TAC-PAD beeping a few times quietly to alert him. He gazed down as he raised his forearm up to read the alert message. 

! Security Warning: Unauthorized Attempt of Access, //RICH MAN'S PARADISE\\ !

“No shit...” Moretti muttered to Chen, but mostly at the security warning.

He switched out of the alert screen, and went to gain access of the backdoor he kept in the Innie ship's security camera systems, and showed Chen who was trying to gain access into their Yacht.

“Hey, Nek,” he said, “Tell Captain Gaz, if he wishes to actually make this deal with us, to call off the one who is trying to break into our ship.” A smile as he fixed his attention onto Nek when he showed him the security feed.

“I mean...I wouldn't want anything to go wrong with our negotiations when it's been going so well for each of us so far. Like...one of the nukes "accidentally" blowing up some how, in which would cause a chain reaction, and blow the rest of them up...which means it will obliterate his ship as well.”

He chuckled at that. “Heh. I'm sure he wouldn't want anyone he loves who might be with him on his ship and his crew to die over someone being bad and trying to break into an arms dealer's ship that is filled with WMD's....you know?”

Sometimes being possibly insane and being a risk-taker had their perks and advantages as well...

[Faclan]

Nek Dal - T'vaoan Translator
Aboard Innie vessel Your Days are Numbered!
Aecor why issues now at the end!?

This was going well so far. As Gaz had said it didn't matter if the Humans all knew each other. Even if this was a rescue op they came with payment and were now just trading one item for another. Frowning at that thought Nek glanced away from Mike as he thought about that term...item. That's what those Sisterhood had called him when he was their slave. An item used to fix engines and machines. He needed to not think of those Human hostages like that as he hoped they didn't have to go through the years that he had to go through on their ship. They didn't beat him because he just went along with what they wanted but it was still far from pleasant. Looking back at Mike or whatever his name was as Mike addressed him, unfortunately he missed the twitch as Mike informed him he should have asked him first.

"But why? If this was a rescue operation it doesn't change anything? It's not like you and your other glasses friend were going to try and kill everyone." He said, voice raising a bit at the end as the hand was set on his shoulder, firmly. The message was pretty clear even if he only knew that poetry was a very long winded meandering Human story often written sideways on a page but his widened eyes and quicking breath likely made it clear that he got the message as he quickly nodded. Once his shoulder was released he took a step back and a deep breath to calm himself before he was distracted by Mike's PP beeping at him.

He showed it to his other friend whatever his name was and looked very angry. He then fiddled with it for awhile before his name was called out. Telling him to call off the Kig trying to break into his ship? He had never heard Gaz command that...and if things were being done without Gaz's order then there would be harsh punishments soon meted out. But he nodded as he listened to Mikes ultimatum apparently and it made sense to him that he probably had remote control of those Nukes. Nodding again he started to turn to address Captain Gaz. But Mike would have been able to see that Gaz was already on his way over to the screen, and he looked curious and perhaps annoyed.

Grabbing Neks shoulder he firmly, all the firmness with Neks shoulders today, moved Nek to the side as he watched the camera for a little. His expression getting a lot more angry as he looked up at Mike and nodded as he growled before tapping his radio, but he gently took the screen and moved it sideways as he also moved to the side so both he and Mike could see Val poking at the door controls.

"Val..." Gaz hissed out as the Kig-Yar in the video feed jumped a bit and then reached up to his headset.

"Yes Captain Gaz?"

"Did I order our new friends hull examined for leaks?" The Kig-Yar was now getting visibly nervous and jumpy as he took a breath and then replied...as he slowly looked up at the camera that had been watching him, closing his eyes and mouthing something to himself.

"N...no Captain Gaz."

"Then report to the stairs leading down to this room, we are heading up there." Shutting off his headset Gaz nodded as he started to heard toward the stairs. "Nek tell our new friends we can do the transfer now, and I apologize for my crews unordered actions, they will be punished."

Nek just nodded as he adjusted his jacket a bit before starting to follow Gaz as he spoke up. "Captain Gaz would like to do the transfer of goods now so you can probably leave." Gaz cheeped out some things and pointed to Jenny as two of the Kigs in the room trotted over to pick her up and carry here toward the stairs as two other Kigs moved over to make sure that the hostages were following the group as well. "He also apologizes for Val's actions as he did not order that and he will be reprimanded." He looked up at the top of the stairs as he heard a shaky 'Captain Gaz'. There Val was at the top of the stairs, with Gaz right about to be at his level. It didn't take much for Gaz to make a quick right hook at Vals head and deck him right behind the eye. The Ruuthian pheeping quietly and starting to fall before Ibie'Shan Gaz caught him and gave him a little toss over his leg. Val flipping and landing on his back and shoulders as he started to tumble down the stairs. The throw Gaz had done making Val curl into a ball as he rolled and fell down the stairs to finally thunk into the floor of the party room soon sprawled out at the bottom of the stairs. Still alive but shook up good and still unconscious.

Nek gulping a bit as he carefully stepped over Val's sprawled form and started to climb the stairs toward Mikes ship.

[SPARTAN-A120]

Petty Officer 1st Class Richard A. Chen
ONI Section III Field Operative "Panther"
March, 2548 - 0327 hours
Party Room, Upper Deck
Aboard "Your Days are Numbered," Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
"Watch it, moron."
(Tags: Llau & Faclan )

“No shit...” Moretti muttered. Chen cocked a brow towards the older Field Agent when he replied.

Chen didn’t know if the rude remark was directed towards him or the security alert, but he didn't pay no mind after a few seconds. He took a few steps backwards and moved his hand towards his holstered sidearm. The Chickens were sure shady. If Chen only had a Credit for every time he placed his hand on the pistol. Obviously, the Chickens would clearly see him with his hand on his weapon, but if they were smart enough to understand that any form of foul play was not going to make Chen a statistic in the KIA data of 2548.

“Hey, Nek,” Moretti said. “Tell Captain Gaz, if he wishes to actually make this deal with us, to call off the one who is trying to break into our ship. I mean...I wouldn't want anything to go wrong with our negotiations when it's been going so well for each of us so far. Like...one of the nukes 'accidentally' blowing up somehow, in which would cause a chain reaction, and blow the rest of them up...which means it will obliterate his ship as well.”

Chen heard the Lieutenant Commander chuckle before he finished off, “Heh. I'm sure he wouldn't want anyone he loves who might be with him on his ship and his crew to die over someone being bad and trying to break into an arms dealer's ship that is filled with WMD's....you know?”

The Petty Officer didn't pitch into the conversation. He felt like it wasn't necessary to say anything else since Moretti had basically said what was required. And any human would understand that repeating something in another variation was a waste of time and annoying unless it was used for an interrogation; usually repeating a question in a different form to see if the individual has a consistent answer.

On a different note, Chen was quiet. This was what he would usually do when someone else can do the talking for him, but if any of the observants were to focus on Chen's quiet behavior, they would suspect him of something. Clearly, Moretti was doing all the talking and taking the spotlight as team leader, but Chen's lack of words was not the first impression he established when he first encountered the negotiating parties.

Chen focused on Moretti as he moved to show him who were the culprits trying to break into their ship using his TAC-PAD. Chen nodded in response and recognized the two unconscious Kig-Yar that were lying down behind the one who was tapping on the access pad. Moretti moved to show Captain Gaz and Nek after that.

There was an exchange of Kig-Yar language between Gaz and his radio which was somewhat intense. If only Chen understood the language, he would be all smiles and easing up. For all Chen knew, they were probably conspiring some kind of plan to get rid of him and the rest of his species and take everything. It was more intense when everyone started to move out the room.

Captain Gaz was urging the group that he wanted to start the trade as he accepted the negotiations. When Chen was about to climb the stairs out of the room, he saw Gaz discipline a Kig-Yar, the same one that tried opening the hatch to the ONI ship, and was almost made contact with the Chicken as it fell down the stairs.

Chen cursed quietly as he sidestepped and look at the now unconscious Chicken and then looked up at Gaz with a squint of anger. He was ordered by a Kig-Yar guard to go up the steps by pointing its talon up the stairs and said, "Go up."

"I don't take orders from you, fucking Do-Do," Chen spoke angrily and looked back towards the armed Kig-Yar with his hand on the grip of his combat knife.

The Kig-Yar took this as a challenge and hissed at Chen until Gaz cheeped and chirped something that stopped them from advancing. Chen kept his hand on his blade, but he turned back around a few seconds later and climbed the stairs in twos and caught up with the rest of the group.

Chen was pissed.

---

OOC: Feel free to progress the story

[Llau]

Lieutenant Commander Michelangelo N. Moretti
ONI Section III Field Operator - “Ombra”
March, 2548 – 0328 hours
Aboard “Your Days Are Numbered”, Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
I think I'll Let These Kigs Live...and Use Them Later...
Tag(s): Faclan, SPARTAN-A120



After showing Nek and Gaz what was going on, he waited while the two Kig-Yar spoke to each other, and noticed how angry Gaz was when Nek told him about Val. The seasoned field operator glanced around the room, while he stood around, waiting for Gaz to finish speaking to Val over the radio. The Italian glanced over to Chen, noticing that the younger man was becoming tensed as the new situation unfolded, and then his eyebrows furrowed slightly at him for a moment. After the short conversation was over with, he heard Nek speak to him.

"Captain Gaz would like to do the transfer of goods now so you can probably leave."

“Good,” Moretti replied, “Let's get this over with then.”

He glanced over to where Jenny was, and watched as two of the pirates picked her up to carry her out of the room.

"He also apologizes for Val's actions as he did not order that and he will be reprimanded." Nek told him, and Moretti nodded at that.

“Good, asshole deserves it...” He muttered, making sure the two ONI agents were getting up to walk out with the rest of the group.

The Lieutenant Commander walked ahead of them, while following Gaz out and toward the stairs. At the top of the stairs, he saw the Ruuthian who was trying to break into their ship, and then watched as Captain Gaz went to discipline the crew member. The disciplinary action caused the corner of his lips to tug into a small grin of satisfaction, while he watched Gaz deliver a right hook at Val's head, and then a toss over his leg before tumbling down the staircase. The field operator stood at the top of the stairs, gazing down at the alien for a moment, before heading down there with the grin still over his lips.

Once he was at the bottom of the steps, he gazed down at Val's sprawled and unconscious form, as he stood beside him with his hands in his pockets. He chuckled lightly in amusement.

“Ooh, that had to hurt,” he whispered. He lightly kicked at the Ruuthian's foot, and then continued walking, but sighed in annoyance when he saw Chen about to get into it with one of Gaz's guards when it told him and the others to “go up”.

"I don't take orders from you, fucking Do-Do."

Moretti clamped a hand on Chen's shoulder when he stopped behind him, and whispered quietly to the younger field agent, “As much as I want to kill all of them, I really don't want to deal with any more problems, while we are almost done here, Petty Officer...” While adding, “Relax. That's an order.”

He released Chen's shoulder and headed toward their ship to exchange the nukes they brought with them, after giving Hyde and Voleinkov a glance to make sure they were still keeping up with the group. Before long, Moretti and the rest of the human and Kig-Yar group were at in front of the Yacht, and the Lieutenant Commander unlocked the ship as he stood in front of the entrance.

“Hyde. Voleinkov, head inside and take a seat,” He told the two ONI agents as he headed back to where the group was standing around at. He looked over at Nek, and said, “Tell Gaz I'll only allow those two Kigs who are carrying Jenny on board. Chen can help them carry out those nukes.” In other words, he wanted Chen to keep an eye on them, while Moretti finished speaking with Nek and Gaz. 

While he stood near Nek and Gaz, he started pressing some buttons on his TAC-PAD, and spoke to Nek. “You said he wanted my contact information?” He asked.

He gave Gaz a name and then gave him one of his many contact emails, and sent it to Gaz's Personal Pad after he took a bit of time searching for it on the network. Wasn't too hard.

“There you go,” He looked up with a small, pleasant smile. “I hope we can make more deals in the future.”

[Faclan]

Nek Dal - T'vaoan Translator
Aboard Innie vessel Your Days are Numbered!
Hopefully closing out the deal.

Looking back down as he walked up the stairs he could see Patrick...if that was his name since it seemed like these none hostage Humans loved to just change their name when they felt like it - looked very angry. And then went and swore at one of the crew who was just trying to make sure they were going so the Humans could leave...very rude.

"Patrick, we're just trying to make sure that nothing else happens and that you can leave as soon as possible...no need for name calling." Nodding a bit he was still stopped as he watched Mike or whatever his name was head back down the stairs to nudge Val's body and smirk at it. Well Val was trying to break into his property so that was fine, just so long as he didn't injury Val too much since Gaz was the one with that authority. But yes, it probably did hurt as these stairs were stiff. Thankfully it wasn't that far and Gaz knew what he was doing with his toss and so Val didn't suffer nearly as much injury as he could have sustained if he was just thrown willy nilly. Especially since he was a Ruuthian. But then Mike seemed to stop to tell Patrick something, hopefully it was about not being so rude when Gaz was actually being very polite and giving them the deal they wanted even though Gaz could have easily just killed them and taken their ship and nukes for nothing besides the cost of bullets...Humans sometimes.

They soon made it to the Human airlock however, and the finally waking up bodies of Tun and Bar. They still looked pretty groggy but when they noticed Patrick and Mike they looked really angry. But Gaz moved first. By laughing at them, uproariously.

"Hahahahaha! Look at the two of you! Beat down and trussed up by these two Humans?! Without even being able to cheep out in warning? Hilarious - you must have really pissed them off. But shut it for now, you can try to explain yourselves when they are gone and I have my prize."

The two just nodded and scooted back to sit against the large crate they were stuffed inside and settled on glaring at Patrick and Mike. Nek was pretty sure Mike and the others could guess what Gaz had said and so didn't translate it as Mike then informed him of who would be allowed in as he nodded and turned his head to face Gaz. The two hostages quickly filing into the transport as Nek cheeped to Gaz.

"He only wants the ones carrying Jenn onboard, Patrick...or Chen now? These humans and their names, he will help them carry the nukes out."

Gaz actually looked a bit sad at that but then nodded, though he did move over toward the door so he could get a looksie in. "That's a shame, I wanted to see what kind of goodies they had, but I'm sure we can meet up again later...but I want those Nukes so fine."

The two Kids who were carrying Jenny just nodded as they moved in as carefully as they could carrying her while Nek hmmm'ed at Mike when he spoke up again. "Oh...yeah he did. Thanks for reminding me." Turning to face him Nek was expected to be handed a data-chip or a piece of paper or something but instead he was given nothing as Mike spoke like he had given him something? Tilting his head a bit he was about to ask before Gaz looked down at his PP beeping and nodded. "Got it." So he nodded and waited for the cargo to be secured and moved, hoping that there wouldn't be any more problems.


Chris Hyde - ONI Section I Agent (relieved)
Your Days are Numbered!
Finally going home?

Still all worried since Mike was angry Hyde kept listening carefully as Nek and Gaz talked to each other. Not so much for spying purposes but more for research purposes as he kept eating the little snack foods. But finally it was time to move after Gaz and Nek informed everyone that there would be some discipline laid out for the attempted entering of Mikes ship? He was sure Mike would love to be the one to do that but it was interesting that Gaz seemed to insist, by not offering an alternative, that he was going to be the one to do it. Maybe that was a thing in Kig-Yar culture, that instead of a third party punishment or the offender doing it its always the 'boss' of the one who messed up? Very interesting. But he jumped a bit from his musings when he was poked to get up by one of the pirates. Nodding he quickly stood up and moved toward the stairs but oooohed a bit as he watched the one who he knew to be Val from the conversation roll and bump down the stairs to sprawl at the bottom. That probably did hurt a lot and he would be sore and bruised when he woke up...but interesting punishment method. But as Mike had demanded he stayed quiet and just walked, thankfully still able to see the stairs and the slightly blurry everyone else to make it to apparently Mikes airlock.

Judging by the plastic ties around the two Kig-Yar in this room this is where Mike and Chen entered...but then Captain Gaz laughed at the bound up Kig-Yar? This sure was an interesting view into Kig-Yar culture, or perhaps it was just Gaz? He would have to record it as soon as possible anyway and try to figure that out later. Maybe he could use that contact information to talk to Gaz or Nek later?...He really wanted to try and get Nek's info but Mike had told him to be quiet so he was doing - and when told to go and take a seat he did so quickly.

BUT THEN Mike just went and outed Chens name! Oh so it was fine when HE did it but not when Chris did it!? Well thats real fair! But he just seethed inwardly and grumbled to himself as Jenny was thankfully deposited in the chairs across from them and not beside them and was strapped in by the Kig-Yar who were soon directed toward the reinforced boxes with the nukes and started to wheel them out toward the exit and the Innie ship.

It was all unloaded pretty quick and then Chris heard what sounded like Nek from the outside after Gaz cheeped out somthing he didn't catch.

-----

"And that's seven boxes, a ship for me, and contact information for a good strong contact," giving Mike a little salute Gaz then patted the boxes of nukes. "Fair winds to you Mike, pleasure doing business with you."

"Captain Gaz is glad the deal is concluded and wishes you fair winds on your travel. When we are finished here and back with the fleet we may contact you but untill then have a safe trip Mike." Nek said, coughing a bit before smiling and holding out his hands - after it was dealt with however Mike wished he could load up in his ship, shut the doors and the airlock, and then leave.

[SPARTAN-A120]

Petty Officer 1st Class Richard A. Chen
ONI Section III Field Operative "Panther"
March, 2548 - 0330 hours
Aboard "Your Days are Numbered," -> Boarding “Rich Man’s Paradise,” Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
"Going home without a single kill. Bummer"
(Tags: Llau & Faclan )

The angered Field Agent was too preoccupied with the Kig-Yar in front of him that he didn’t see the LCDR nudge the incapacitated Kig-Yar that almost struck him during Gaz’s version of a disciplinary action.

Chen felt a firm grip on his shoulder and was about to toss whoever it was, but eased himself when he turned to see the face of his team leader. Agent Moretti spoke, “As much as I want to kill all of them, I really don't want to deal with any more problems, while we are almost done here, Petty Officer… Relax. That's an order.”

“WILCO,” Chen acknowledged. He didn’t think it was necessary to disobey superiors since it was his own fault that was about to stir further tensions between the humans and the Kig-Yar. Maybe he’ll learn to ease his discrimination in the future if he had more interactions with the non-combatant side of the Chickens.

After Moretti had released his grip from Chen’s shoulders, the younger Field Agent continued up the stairs and followed the entourage towards the airlock where they docked their refitted yacht. He kept his head on a swivel as he proceeded; ensuring that they weren’t being walked into an ambush or be unexpectedly attacked by a surviving Innie.

He heard Nek’s voice behind him as he was walking and didn’t bother to turn around to eye the T’vaoan. "Patrick, we're just trying to make sure that nothing else happens and that you can leave as soon as possible...no need for name calling,” Nek said.

“Heat of the moment. My bad,” Chen replied, although there was hint of sarcasm.

When the group arrived at the airlock, Moretti gave Hyde and Voleinkov orders to take a seat within the yacht after he unlocked the hatch. Chen perked his head up as he heard his real name being used when Moretti said, “Tell Gaz I'll only allow those two Kigs who are carrying Jenny on board. Chen can help them carry out those nukes.”

Chen looked over at the older Field Agent and gave him the “What the fuck?” stare while he mentally flipped out at Moretti. If only he could beat the living crap out of his superior and get away with it, he would’ve done so in an instant. Operational security was about to be compromised. The Petty Officer quickly took initiative and countered the revelation by saying to Moretti, “Don’t call me that.”

He turned towards the two familiar Chickens that Moretti and Chen encountered as soon as they stepped foot on the Innie Ship. They were regaining consciousness and Gaz seemed to find the scene hilarious. They looked furious when they saw him and Moretti, but Chen didn’t mind it. If they could take them down that easily, the second time would result in both of the Chickens’ deaths.

After that, Chen was the third to enter the yacht after Hyde and Voleinkov and eyeballed the Kig-Yar that were hauling Jenny’s unconscious body into the ship’s refitted cargo area. He kept a close eye on them as they were hauling out the seven fake Fury Tactical Nukes that were encased in secure containers which had bulletproof shells to prevent premature detonations. Although, it didn’t prevent the mini-nuke from being remotely detonated which is what the box cannot contain. The boxes were obviously secured with a unique four digit pin number for each individual box. If the user failed a total of three attempts to unlock the box, a ten digit passcode would be required.

Chen was well aware that the nukes were fake. Each of them only produced an explosion and a kill radius equivalent to a modern fragmentation grenade which would be very disappointing to the Kigs if they did utilize it. The UNSC wouldn’t be trading actual nukes for the sake of safety and security. Nevertheless, Chen treated the nukes as actual “live” nukes. Specifically, the two Kig-Yar that were moving the cargo out had clipped the corner of the container into the frame of the hatch door as they rounded the corner. In reaction, Chen yelled out, “Hey! Careful with those unless you want everyone on this ship to be floating in space as molecules.” His stern and angry face reassured the Kigs that he was serious.

When the Kig-Yar pair had removed the final box from the yacht, Chen went into the cargo compartment and secured Jenny so she wouldn't try anything stupid on the ride back to the Black Cat Sub-Prowler (callsign Raven 3) that was stationed as long range overwatch. He applied steel flexi-cuffs on the Innie leader’s hands and feet, applied duct tape to her mouth, and blindfolded her. Chen felt like it was too much, but it was procedure and it was required that all prisoners are secured in the same fashion unless circumstances limited how they were transported. He finished securing Jenny by locking her inside a small 8x12 compartment and walked out of the cargo area.

He locked the door behind him, grabbed two bottles of water and MREs, and placed them on the table that was between Hyde and Voleinkov. “If you’re still hungry, eat up and rehydrate. We have a couple of hours before we reach civilization again, “ Chen said to them.

The Petty Officer then contacted Moretti via earpiece to give him a status update, “Ombra, Panther here. The trade is complete and our package is secured. Prepping the ship to undock and take off as soon as you’re aboard.”

[Llau]

Lieutenant Commander Michelangelo N. Moretti
ONI Section III Field Operator - “Ombra”
March, 2548 – 0332 hours
Aboard “Your Days Are Numbered”, Boarding “Rich Man's Paradise” Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
And now, we're off...
Tag(s): Faclan, SPARTAN-A120



While talking to Nek and Gaz, he was able to ignore the glares from the other two Kig-Yar pirates who Chen and himself took care of earlier. It was interesting and amusing to say the least, how their own Captain thought it was hilarious, but the Lieutenant Commander was honestly relieved that Gaz didn't get angry at him and Chen instead. While he was able to ignore their glaring, he couldn't help but notice the 'what the fuck?' stare his partner was giving him before disappearing into the Rich Man's Paradise to keep an eye on the two Kig-Yar.

Before Chen went inside, Moretti overheard him say, “Don't call me that.”

What? Don't call him what? What the fuck was he talking about? He wondered as he stood there in a slight daze, finishing his conversation with Nek, who was translating what Gaz was saying, and then what the field operator was saying to Gaz.

He then heard Chen's voice in his ear-piece, “Ombra, Panther here. The trade is complete and our package is secured. Prepping the ship to undock and take off as soon as you’re aboard.”

"Captain Gaz is glad the deal is concluded and wishes you fair winds on your travel. When we are finished here and back with the fleet we may contact you but until then have a safe trip Mike." Nek said, extending his hand toward him.

Moretti nodded, reaching over to shake the T'vaoan's hand in a firm handshake. “As am I, and fair winds to you both and to Gaz's crew,” he said, “Have a safe trip.” He released Nek's hand and walked toward the Yacht, disappearing inside.

Once on-board, he took off his ballistic vest and dropped it in a crate, and then placed his gun in the gun rack, but kept his sidearm in the holster before heading over to the front of the small ship as he rested the HUD glasses on top of his head, while he sat in the pilot seat. Glancing over at Chen oddly before giving him a curt nod, he started to help finish prepping the ship before un-docking it from the airlock carefully, before flying off toward Raven 3's position two to three hours away.

During the flight back, he quietly chuckled mischievously to himself.

He spoke to Chen, “Those chickens are going to have quite the surprise. Not just the fake nukes, but how the Innie ship will be a useless pile of junk after my virus finishes up there...” Another chuckle. “Hope they brought oxygen masks, and enjoy being in zero gravity...”

Chuckling again, he checked the screen of his TAC-PAD to see the status of his really nasty virus, and grinned. It was finished. “And done. Have fun chickens.” He cackled briefly. He shook his head in amusement, and continued to fly the ship toward the Black Cat sub-Prowler.

He took off the glasses from his head and switched them with the ship's headset to speak with the Black Cat's Radio Communications, and then set the glasses down onto the dashboard in front of him.

“Ombra to Raven 3,”

“This is Raven 3. Go ahead Ombra.” Responded the one manning the communications.

“The eggs have been successfully exchanged. Protocol has been a success. We're coming home.”

“Good to hear, Ombra. The Eagle is pleased. Have a safe flight back. See you when you return.”

With that, Moretti took the headset off, and set them down on the dashboard next to the glasses, and then leaned back in his seat with a sigh. He gazed quietly out the window for a couple of minutes, but then moved out of his seat, and headed to where Hyde and Voleinkov were sitting at to check on them as he went to the back to grab a couple of water bottles, and then returned to the pilot seat. He sat down after handing Chen the other, in case he wanted one, and then opened his to start drinking some of it. Screwing the cap back on, he placed it in a cup holder, and was quiet for a few awkward moments, and then finally spoke to the Petty Officer again.

He sighed quietly, speaking seriously this time to him. “So, let's hear it,” he asked, sounding slightly agitated, “What did I do to piss you off?”

While he sat there though, waiting for him to respond to his inquiry, he slowly leaned to the left of the seat, tilting his head a little as he stared out the window at nothing in particular, while he rested his temple against his finger tips. He winced a little, but he pretended like everything was normal. Everything most certainly wasn't, as the pain in his head was sudden, and yet subtle at first, but growing more and more unbearable. He kept wincing, but was forcing himself to ignore it. Though, the more he ignored it, the worse it was getting.

"No,no,no,no,no,no,no...not now...stop it..." He murmured under his breath in a desperate-sounding voice, grimacing slightly. 

[Faclan]

Nek Dal - T'vaoan Translator
Aboard Innie vessel Your Days are Numbered!
Well at least this happened now and not during the deal.

Nodding at Chen/Patrick as he apologized and was soon into his transport Nek just watched as the boxes of what he assumed were the nukes since it had NUKE on it in big stenciled letters.

The boxes were eventually all moved out despite some shouting and it was finally time to move. If these weapons turned out to be legitimate it was quite a lot of firepower that Gaz now had at his disposal, and he sure didn't want to be around them now. So he hoped that Gaz would drop him off at his ship soon so he could put some distance between himself and these many boxes of boom.

Nodding to Mike when he shook his hand he gave a little wave as did Gaz as Mike entered his ship and both the ship door and airlock closed. Tun and Bar being dragged back toward Gaz's ship by a few other Pirates as the dead lower floor Kig-Yar were found as well and were being carried back toward the ship. Even the sleeping and dead one in the vents were found. Gaz just saying it was the now dead innies before the entire ship shook, the lights going off again, and then everyone started to float.

Mikes little virus had breached another level of the ships defenses, thankfully the life support was still on but the gravity and lights were gone. Thankfully the ship was still teathered to Gaz's ship so they could get back to it as it. All of the Kig-Yar closing their eyes as they patted around their belts for their tools just designed for this eventuality as they waited for their eyes to adjust.

"Nek! M-Stick!"

"Yes Captain Gaz." Now that Nek could see again he passed the small collapsible tool to Gaz and lightly gripped Gaz's ankle as Gaz extended the tool and clicked the button on it as he was pulled towards the floor and then the pad at the end magnetized to the floor. Nek being pulled along for the ride as Gaz pulled himself back then lunged forward while turning off the electro-magnet before latching onto the next piece of wall or ceiling as he made his way back to his ship.

"Everyone off for now," Gaz said into his radio. "I don't want anyone dying on a dead ship. We'll send in some suits to check it out in a bit and if its dead for good we'll just strip it."

"Aye Captain Gaz." Came the reply though the radio as everyone was M-sticking their way toward Gaz's ship, or hanging onto someone that was doing it.

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

Chrees Hyde, ONI beard;

Listening as best he could as the Kig-Yar who were unloading the Nukes talked Hyde just tried to keep their words in his mind before they were finally leaving. But Hyde waited untill they were a ways away from the ship before unbuckling himself and quickly heading up to the cockpit - water bottle in hand.

"Well Umbra, best buddy of mine - its because you got on my case about your name and then just outed Chens - right there!" He said, smiling a bit as he meant it in jest before seeing Mike lean to the side and whisper as he stepped forward and tried to put an arm on Mikes shoulder. "Mike...Mike whats wrong?"

[SPARTAN-A120]

Petty Officer 1st Class Richard A. Chen
ONI Section III Field Operative "Panther"
March, 2548 - 0334 hours
Aboard “Rich Man’s Paradise,” Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
"In need of Diagnosis"
(Tags: Llau & Faclan )

Once Chen saw Moretti conclude the trade, he went over to the cockpit and started the engines and ran through the pre-flight diagnostics while the Lieutenant Commander was stripping off his vest and placing his weapons into the gun racks, but kept his sidearm. Chen was in the co-pilot’s seat and had just finished the diagnostics when Moretti had arrived and took his place in the pilot’s seat and gave Chen a curt nod. He saw that Moretti had his HUD glasses resting on his head like pair of shades. What a cool guy. The Petty Officer returned a nod of his own and transferred controls to Moretti’s station.

The younger Field Agent knew how to pilot ships and small aircraft, but he was only the co-pilot for a reason. His ONI qualifications were more focused in ground warfare and tactics so he only received the basics of piloting, taking off, landing, and the standard procedures for almost any given situation. With all that aside, Chen felt that it wasn’t necessary for him to take command even though Moretti was wounded.

During the flight back, Moretti quietly chuckled mischievously to himself.

He spoke to Chen, “Those chickens are going to have quite the surprise. Not just the fake nukes, but how the Innie ship will be a useless pile of junk after my virus finishes up there...” Another chuckle. “Hope they brought oxygen masks, and enjoy being in zero gravity...”

Chen looked over at the older Field Agent, but remained silent. Back to his old personality.

Chuckling again, the Lieutenant Commander checked the screen of his TAC-PAD to see the status of his really nasty virus, and grinned. It was finished. “And done. Have fun chickens.” He cackled briefly. He shook his head in amusement, and continued to fly the ship toward the Black Cat sub-Prowler.

He took off the glasses from his head and switched them with the ship's headset to speak with the Black Cat's Radio Communications, and then set the glasses down onto the dashboard in front of him.

“Ombra to Raven 3,”

“This is Raven 3. Go ahead Ombra.” Responded the one manning the communications.

“The eggs have been successfully exchanged. Protocol has been a success. We're coming home.”

“Good to hear, Ombra. The Eagle is pleased. Have a safe flight back. See you when you return.”

After that, Moretti took off the headset and left his seat to go to the food storage area. A few seconds later, he returned with a two bottles of water and handed the second one to Chen. The Petty Officer indeed felt thirsty so he took the bottle and said, “Thanks.”
Chen twisted open the cap of the water bottle and took three gulps. He recapped the bottle and did the same as Moretti; placing the bottle in a universal cupholder that was on his station.

Moretti sighed quietly,and said to Chen with a serious tone, “So, let's hear it,” he asked, sounding slightly agitated, “What did I do to piss you off?”

While Moretti was speaking, Chen heard footsteps behind him so he took a look with his right hand already on his pistol, but found Hyde approaching the cockpit. Chen took his hand off his pistol and was about to respond to Moretti, but was interrupted by Hyde.

“Well Umbra, best buddy of mine - its because you got on my case about your name and then just outed Chen’s - right there!” said Agent Hyde.

The Lieutenant Commander didn’t reply immediately. He was looking out the window on the Port side with his head resting on his fingers. Chen then observed him wincing a little. The wince became a frown and the frown became a facial expression of agony.

"No,no,no,no,no,no,no...not now...stop it..." Moretti murmured under his breath in a desperate-sounding voice, grimacing slightly.

"Mike...Mike whats wrong?" Hyde asked while placing his arm on Moretti’s shoulder.

Initially, Chen thought it was Moretti’s wounds and that he may have been stabbed or nicked by something poisonous. Then he thought if his commanding officer was suffering from withdrawal because of use of narcotics, but ONI conducts a drug screen for all Agents every 6 months so that wouldn’t be the problem.

When Moretti bent forward and held his head with his hands, it worried Chen. The Petty Officer transferred controls to his station and activated the ship’s autopilot function. He then pulled a first-aid kit from his dashboard's compartment.

“Hyde give me some space,” Chen ordered Hyde.

“Sir, hold still,” Chen said to Moretti

The younger Field Agent grabbed Moretti’s wrist and timed his BPM. The Lieutenant Commander’s heart rate was pumping at an abnormal rate.

Chen was about to continue to the next checkup until Moretti tore away from Chen’s grip. Chen's gut told him to ready himself for the unexpected so he took a step back towards the gun rack; heading for the tazer that was held in place by the wall mount.

[Llau]

Lieutenant Commander Michelangelo N. Moretti
ONI Section III Field Operator - “Ombra”
March, 2548 – 0334 hours
Aboard “Your Days Are Numbered”, Boarding “Rich Man's Paradise” Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
Tag(s): Faclan, SPARTAN-A120



"Mike...Mike whats wrong?"

He was leaning over, grimacing in pain, and couldn't tell who was really talking to him. They were muffled, as if he was underwater, while the high-pitched ringing in his ears. What was worse, was that he felt like someone was hitting him repeatedly in the head with a hammer. So much so, the pain was making him feel rather nauseous. His body tensed as he groaned in between his heavy panting.

“Hyde give me some space.”

“Sir, hold still.”

More voices. He grimaced some more. The worse thing was, he couldn't tell if they were coming from Hyde and Chen, or he was beginning to hear voices that weren't really there. He felt a hand grab his wrist, and Moretti suddenly tore his arm away from Chen's grip. He groaned again, clenching his teeth, as the agony increased. He slowly staggered out of the pilot seat, holding on for dear life as he doubled over in pain when he practically ran into Hyde.

He murmured under his breath, though incoherently, as he pushed the man out of his way, and staggered along toward the back, clutching at his head with one hand. Groaning and moaning, he rambled on about having to deal with this and wishing it didn't happen around others. The agony he was feeling was unbearable, and now his nose was starting to bleed; blood tricking down slowly from one of his nostrils. He hissed, doubling over in pain again, he managed to lean against the doorway toward the back of the ship, but then ended up lurching forward to dry heave before finally puking up some of his stomach content.

Moretti quickly made his way toward the back, hoping he would just pass out – anything to escape the high-pitched ringing and agony in his head. He staggered into the small bathroom, and slammed the door shut behind him; leaving the door unlocked. He pressed his back up against the door, panting heavily and sweating profusely by time. Grimacing, he stepped over toward the sink, turned on the cold water, and started to splash the cold liquid over his face to try and cool off. He groaned, leaning forward somewhat as he stared down at the sink bowl, while his hands tightly grasped around the edges of it. He stood there for about a minute, and then backed up into the corner and slid down carelessly to the floor, with his knees slightly bent.

The Lieutenant Commander clutched his head with both hands, grimacing as he continued panting heavily. He murmured again under his breath, begging whatever it was tormenting him to stop. He then started to painfully laugh, as if he wasn't all there, but the laughing soon went to sobbing as the pain, and the bleeding, and the high-pitched ringing in his head continued. Straightening his right leg out, he reached a trembling hand to his sidearm, and slowly drew it out of its holster. He gripped the weapon tightly, resting it on his lap as he stared down at it.

The hand gun was slowly starting to have it's appeal...

[Faclan]

(Nek n Cap'n Gaz just chilling in Gaz's ship and getting tech teams ready to scour their new temperamental vessel.)

Chris Hyde - ONI Agent.
Rich Mans Paradise
Oh god whats happening?!

Quickly moving back when told to by Chen Hyde looked incredibly worried for his friend but did what he was told. Mike looked like he was having some kind of mental beakdown. And when he shot out of the chair and seemed to be in great pain Chris tried to hold out his water to Mike. But he was just shoved aside as Mike staggered past him toward the back of their ship.

The bearded ONI looked equal parts worried and confused at this as he had never seen Mike act anything like this before. He had been angry when Chris had stopped him executing those Ruuthian pirates on board the Innie ship but this wasn't anger. It was more anguish and he had no idea what to do. Looking back at Chen to see if he knew anything to do he could see him going for the tazer...Well if that was recommended procedure then fine but Mike didn't look like he was going to hurt anyone as he looked back near the back to see Mike throw up over the back of the shop. Tossing his bottle of water into his seat he started to slowly make his way back as he spoke to Chen. "He doesn't seem agressive...just in anguish. Don't think the tazer will help."

Looking back as Mike staggered into the bathroom he was glad that the Innie leader wasn't awake yet as that would complicate things a lot as Chris moved over toward the bathroom. Water was running and then he heard laughter. So Mike wasn't drowning himself so thats good. Stopping outside the door he noticed that it hadn't been locked as the little indicator over the door handle was still green. But best to take this slow as this was uncharted territory for him. So ummming a bit he knocked on the bathroom door a few times before trying to say something.

"Mike?" No reply. "Mike - do you want to umm...talk about somthing? Is...Is there anything we can do?"

[SPARTAN-A120]

Petty Officer 1st Class Richard A. Chen
ONI Section III Field Operative "Panther"
March, 2548 - 0336 hours
Aboard “Rich Man’s Paradise,” Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
"Easy Way Out."
(Tags: Llau & Faclan )

Chen observed the Lieutenant Commander literally jumping out of the pilot’s seat and was doubled over while holding on to the headrest of the seat as he nearly ran into Agent Hyde. After that, he muttered something inaudible before he shoved Hyde aside and ran towards the read of the ship while he clutched his head.

After groaning slightly, the older Field Agent muttered something again which was unintelligible to Chen since the ambient sounds emitting from the ship’s engines concealed his words. Chen could've sworn he saw blood dripping from Moretti’s nostril has he passed him and stopped before the hatch leading out from the cockpit. Moretti leaned against the door momentarily before he doubled over once more and vomited.

Chen cringed at the vomit before he saw an object flying towards his right. It was Hyde’s water bottle. The Petty Officer turned to see Hyde as he said to him, "He doesn't seem aggressive...just in anguish. Don't think the tazer will help."

Chen nodded in response to Hyde and closed the weapons rack. He then witnessed Moretti opening the hatch and ran into one of the two small bathrooms and closed the door behind him. How did it come to this? If Moretti has suffered this during the mission, it would've nasty.

Agent Hyde made his way to the bathroom and Chen trailed behind. As he approached the bathroom Moretti was in, he noticed that the bathroom door wasn't locked which meant that Chen didn't have to plant a breaching charge to get to the Lieutenant Commander. The sounds of running water could be heard, but the steel was just thick enough that was not able to hear everything that was going on. He pressed his ear to the door to get a better sound.

Chen's mind was racing with theories to why his team leader was acting in such a way. Painful headaches that led to nausea and vomiting, nosebleeds, dizziness, elevated heart rate, and sweating. Most of the diseases and illnesses known to humanity had been cured for the most part, but Moretti's symptoms shown symptoms of some kind of head injury which was what humans were still vulnerable to, unfortunately. Based off of the nosebleed and painful headaches, it was probably hemorrhaging in the brain. The circumstances that made Chen infer a brain hemorrhage was the fact that the Lieutenant Commander had engaged in combat during the operation and was probably struck in the head hard enough to trigger the symptoms.

The sounds of laughter made Chen frown. There was a long pause before Hyde broke the silence by knocking on the door a few times before he said, "Mike?" No reply. "Mike - do you want to umm...talk about something? Is...Is there anything we can do?"

Chen looked at Hyde with a brief squint of irritation before he continued trying to listen for any sounds that he didn't like. The sink was still running which made it difficult. This concerned the Petty Officer. He didn't want to open the door just yet so he powered on his TAC-PAD and pulled out a retractable cable from the top-right corner and stopped pulling when the wired was extended to the maximum length of one and a half feet. It was a optical camera to allowed him peek through cracks and crevices to see behind closed doors, vents, and other locations. He then kneeled and carefully slid the optical cable through the bottom of the bathroom door. The video feed was good and he was able to see Moretti sitting on the floor with his back against the wall. The Lieutenant Commander was holding something in his hand, but Chen couldn't make it out so he zoomed to 2x magnification and his eyes narrowed at the familiar outline of a M6C SOCOM.

The younger Field Agent looked up at Hyde and shook his head left and right. After that, he detached his TAC-PAD and placed it on the floor to maintain a visual on Moretti’s movements. He didn't expect Moretti to be suicidal, but Chen was not going to let a service member eat the gun. Chen pulled out his M6C and checked the load of the magazine to see if was still loaded with stun rounds. After confirming he still had stun rounds, he reinserted the magazine and racked the slide to see if the round in the chamber was a stun round. He was glad the blue tipped bullet flew out the ejection port so he deactivated the safety and got ready to enter when it was necessary. He quietly ordered Hyde, “Keep talking to him. Talk him out of the bathroom or I will have to intervene with force.”

He tightened his grip around his sidearm while his left hand was prepped to open the door. He kept his eyes on the screen of his TAC-PAD.

[Llau]

Lieutenant Commander Michelangelo N. Moretti
ONI Section III Field Operator - “Ombra”
March, 2548 – 0337 hours
Aboard “Your Days Are Numbered”, Boarding “Rich Man's Paradise” Unknown Space, Inner Colonies
If Only He Knew Why...
Tag(s): Faclan, SPARTAN-A120



Groaning and gritting his teeth, he rested his head back against the corner of the wall; grimacing in agony as the pain and the high-pitched ringing and humming continued throughout the inside of his skull, and blood had rolled down from his nostrils and down passed his chin, but seemed to not be bleeding anymore. He shut his eyelids as tightly as he could. Every muscle kept tensing up, and his rapid breathing sounded ragged and forced, as his chest heaved up and down. The pain was agonizing, and he doubt anyone would understand. He explained it a few times before to doctors, but they could never find a cause because it rarely happened. All they could do was tell him to take it easy, and then told him that they will be keeping an eye on him. The thing was, the last time this happened was when he was off-duty and at home, where someone was able to call his mother, and she took care of him, since she was pretty much his main doctor. If this problem was getting worse, as well as his other symptoms that he has experienced, he would surely be discharged from military service. That didn't sound too bad actually...it sounded just as good as shooting himself in the head to end it all. Ending it all sounded quicker than being told later on that he was going to be discharged due to medical reasons. 

Which...

He tightened his grip around his gun to make sure it was still in his hand. He didn't know why he thought it wasn't, but he tested to see anyway.

His eyes parted somewhat, looking down toward the corner of the doorway, but was staring at nothing; panting and covered in a layer of sweat from the pain. He overheard Hyde asking him a question, but he couldn't make it out what his friend was trying to say to him. He sat there in silence for a couple of minutes, but it felt like forever to him, just like how long the pain was lasting. His lips then started to move, as if he was speaking, but not a sound was formed.

He licked his dry, parted lips, and then he spoke again. It was barely audible, but he was murmuring the same words repeatedly for the next three to four minutes of sitting in there.

"Senza emozioni. Senza sentimenti. Senza l'amore. Senza odio. Il resto è solo un orologio. Ticchettio, ticchettio, ticchettio, ticchettio, ticchettio. Ticchettio, ticchettio, ticchettio, ticchettio. Il resto è solo un orologio. Ticchettio... " ( "Without emotions. Without feelings. Without love. Without hate. The rest is just a clock. Ticking, ticking, ticking, ticking, ticking. Ticking, ticking, ticking, ticking. The rest is just a clock. Ticking...")

Of course, he didn't even realize what he just said, or knew why he was repeating the same lines, over and over again. He suddenly stopped, snapping out of it. His eyes shifted away from the corner of the door he'd been staring at, and then he gazed up toward the ceiling for a long moment in a deep, seemingly exhausted daze.

“Painless...” He whispered in English.

Moretti closed his eyes, raised his gun, pressed the barrel under his chin, but groaned as he fought against the notion. The gun returned to his lap once more, and then he slid sideways against the wall, and laid down on his side in a fetal position. He grimaced in agony as he laid there for a couple of moments before painstakingly moving up to his elbows and knees.

“Help me...” He forced out in a low, desperate whisper.

The Lieutenant Commander gazed toward the door, and then slowly crawled over to it as he still held his gun in hand. He looked around, trying to focus his eyes as he continued to wince and breathe heavily. When he finally noticed the snake camera, he leaned closer to it. His face was a mix of agony, desperation, and anger as he stared into the lens as he yanked up the wire in his free hand.

“Help me before I blow my brains out, you asshole,” he cried out to either of them, “Fffffuck...” He released it, lowering his head to the floor as another round of pain pounded throughout his skull.

He grimaced again, sitting straight up on his knees, and tilting his head back as he pressed the gun underneath his chin once again to show that he was being serious.

"I'm not fucking around!" He shouted in a very angry, but desperate tone. 

[Faclan]

Chris Hyde - ONI Beard.
Rich Mans Paradise
Here for you.

Nodding at Chen as he was told to keep talking and to try and get him out of the bathroom Chris turned back to looking at the door. Still noting that it was unlocked but not wanting to enter with Mike acting like this. He may not have seemed aggressive that much but for all Chris knew he was just one jump scare away from going crazy on everyone. Try to take it slow? Best guess he had now.

But before he could say anything he was distracted by Chen shoving a little fiber cam under the door and what sounded like Italian from inside the room. All gibberish to him but he hoped that Chen was recording it so they could ask him about it later. But the sight of Mike holding the gun to his mouth made Hyde freeze again as he wondering what he was supposed to do now? He was a danger to himself like that as he kept muttering whatever it was he was saying over and over again. "What are we supposed to do?" He quietly asked Chen, really worried for his best friends safety now before he heard something that he sure did understand from the bathroom. A cry for help. Never mind the blowing his brains out or anything but that he understood.

And so without a moments hesitation he gripped the bathroom door and shoved it open, stepping inside and looking over Mike as he did so. He started to walk over but then stopped himself when he remembered Mike wasn't a fan of touching so he just crouched down in front of him. Trying really hard to ignore the gun that could have been pointing at him as he tried to smile.

"Thats what we're all here for Mike. Helping you no matter what the issue is. But remember you also help us. You help Renny and all of us stay alive in this crazy universe. Shes always here for you, as are Chen and myself and your funny grandparents with their food stuffing ways. All of us here for you man." Still doing his best to smile he opened his arms some and beckoned for Mike. "All of us here to help you Mike, you don't need to do this alone."

(That was as much as I could do, bringing back bad memories of having talks like this in real life, sorry you two. Chen could maybe work on landing the ship in the Prowler or talking to the ONI on it?)