Brave New World II: The Quest for Curly's Gold

[Deleted]

Ambellina plucked the weapon gracefully from the air as she remembered her experiences with it. Accuracy was key because of the recoil. There were no second chances with the E-11. Checking the charge and the action parts and finding them satisfying, Ambellina acquainted herself with the weapon's sights. For the first time since meeting her, Gray Team would see a serious and determined look on her face.

She closed her eyes, praying to her goddess. Not the goddess of protection, or travel, but to Andraste, the goddess o Victory and Strength. The goddess of the divine hunt. When Ambellina opened her eyes, an unbreakable resolve filled them.

[MikDaTv]

When Tank finished getting dressed out into his armor, he strapped his datapad to his wrist, plugged it into the suit and grabbed his bowcaster. The bowcaster hooked into a netting he had stretched over his chest peice, allowing it to hang freely while his hands were busy. He pulled out his pistol and set it for stun.

Likewise, Danny and Runt strapped their rifles to their backs tightly and pulled out their pistols, set for stun. They may be betraying their former employers but they weren't about to go shooting them them up.

"Tank, take point. Anyone in the way gets stunned. Runt, bring up the rear." Danny ordered. He piled all of Hefty's armor into a ruck sack and shouldered the very heavy bag. which was complete with a disassembled Z-6 rotary blaster cannon hooked to the side of the bag.

They formed up and headed out. Danny wanted to keep Lady in the middle because if anything happened to her, than this would have all been for nothing. On the other hand, she looked very much like she could handle herself.

They went mostly without incident until they got closer to the hanger deck. The Colonel had gotten around to figuring out their plan and with the lack of alarm systems thanks to Tanks mucking about, he had intercomed the security chief to send two teams down to the hanger.

Tank peered around the corner with a fiber optic camera at the team assembled outside the door to the hanger. Four security troopers, armed out with DC-15S carbines. Tank hand signaled the report back to Danny who took his ruck sack off and placed it quietly on the deck.

He turned back to Runt and began hand signalling a question. "Did you bring any ordinance?"

Runt nodded and pulled out a pair of flash bangs from the back of his belt. Danny accepted the stun grenades and handed them up to Tank. "Ok," Danny said out loud but very quietly so that Lady wouldn't be left out of a hand signal conversation. "Tank's going to toss our flash bangs, then the four of us pile around the corner and take them out. Runt you'll take far right, Tank Far left. Me and lady will hit the two in the middle."

Runt and Tank nodded. Danny checked the charge on his pistol one last time before flipping the safety off and getting ready.

[Deleted]

Setting her E-11 to stun, just as the clones had with their weapons, Ambellina waited for Tank to toss the grenades. When she heard the familiar sound of the explosives going off, she rounded the corner with lightning speed, being careful to keep within Gray Team's stack. She sqeezed the trigger only once. Once shot, one target down, as she had been told to do.

As the Lady took a knee, her entire body seemed to be still and calm except for her eyes, which darted back and forth. She was prepared to follow up any missed shots from the Grays with shots of her own.

[MikDaTv]

The sound of three other stun blasts rang out along with Lady's followed by the sound of four men dropping to the floor. Danny signaled for Runt to advance and kept tight in behind him as they approached the bodies.

Danny pointed to them. "Runt, police their weapons."

The commando nodded and set about collecting the security teams weapons and roping them together for easy carrying.

Danny jogged pack and grabbed his ruck sack filled with Hefty's gear and moved back to the team. As he did so he brought a hand up to his throat where he pressed in on the bodysuit covering his neck under his helmet. "Hefty this is Senior. We're right outside. Whats the situation in the hanger?"

Hefty's voice came back "They're outside the ship trying to get in. I closed the ramp but it looks like they're about ready to get an engineering crew in here and cut their way in."

"How many?" Danny asked.

"Looks like four secrurity troopers and two flight deck watchstanders with side arms." Hefty answered.

Danny hand signaled for Tank to get started on the door to the hanger before responding to Hefty. "Understood Hefty. Senior out."

Danny did a quick recap and then looked to Tank, who had patched his datapad into the doors control console. "I can open her whenever you want boss."

"Ok team, be ready. We're outnumbered this time and by the time those doors are open they'll be alerted to our presence." Danny put a fresh power cell into his pistol and nodded to Tank. Tank pushed a button on his datapad and unplugged from the console as the doors slowly started to slide open. Senior, Tank and Runt raised their side arms and prepared to charge in.

[Deleted]

At Danny's words a smile touched Ambellina's lips.

"Then our fight will be somewhat even..."

Getting as low to the ground as she could and still remain on her feet, Ambellina waited until the first two clones piled through the door and then followed. She opened fire, utilizing her rifle's pulsing fire setting to send three blaster-bolts at a time at their targets, hoping to overwhelm them with fire. As had become instinctual for her, she started with the foes in the best firing positions first, finding her mark with all three bolts on her first target.

[MikDaTv]

Runt went in first, pistol blazing and Danny went in second. He aimed and fired at the first target he saw, downing it with a stun blast. He took a blaster round to the chest and stumbled back a bit before returning rapid fire with his pistol, downing that target.

Runt had finished off the engineering team within the first few seconds and Lady came in to clean up their scraps. The whole fire fight took less than 4 seconds.

Danny looked down to glance at his chest piece. The damage had been minimal. The security weapons weren't rated for armor penetration and their Commando armor was rated against laser blasts. He would be fine, his armor just needed some polishing. The impact had reminded him of his cracked ribs though, which began to ache. He needed to remember to replace the bacta bandage on them. "Hefty, we're clear. open up" Danny ordered into his com. "Tank, close that door then get on board and help Hefty in the cockpit. Runt, police their weapons. Lady, you and me are going to tie up our friends."

Danny pulled the ruck sack off his back and handed it off to Tank as the Commando ran up the boarding ramp into the ship. Runt started collecting all their weapons and carrying them with the weapons he'd already collected. Danny pulled out a hand full of zip ties and gave some to Lady before kneeling down next to a pair of security troops and binding their hands behind their back with them.

[Deleted]

Ambellina slung her weapon across her shoulders and set to the task at hand, doing it quickly. She tied two pairs of men together, wrapping the ties around their thumbs and wrists in such a way that it would be painful to try to escape. She laid them on their sides comfortably.

"They're still unconcious...that many stun bolts can't be good for a person."

[MikDaTv]

"It's better for them that blasting away at their flesh with high powered energy bolts of death." Runt said as he finished collected the weapons.

Danny was forced to agree. most of these people were pleasant enough. Just trying to earn some money with the PMC. They didn't deserve death because the Colonel decided to do something stupid.

"Ok, everyone on board before more security shows up." Danny said.

Runt grabbed the strapped together pile of guns and hauled it up the ramp, into the ship. They didn't need that many weapons certainly but if push came to shove they could always sell the small stockpile for some money while they figured out what to do next.

Danny walked up the ramp and immediately went to the cockpit. Tank was busy at work trying to decrypt the code that opened the external hanger bay doors and Hefty was busy with his checklists for launch.

[Deleted]

Ambellina entered the ship as well, crouching by the ramp until it closed, staying vigilent until she was sure that she was out of immediate danger. Her stern look disappeared as she shed the strap of the rifle Runt had given her. She wondered when she would be finished thanking Gray Team for all that they had done for her. For now, however, they all appeared busy so Ambellina decided to leave that for later as she took a seat beside Hefty on the pilot's couch.

[MikDaTv]

"Tank?" Danny asked quietly as they sat on the hanger deck.

"Working on it." Tank said, furiously typing on his datapad. "Almost.... there, hanger doors opening." Tank pointed out the cockpit window and they could see the hanger doors open. The magcon field held the air in so the people tied up outside the ship were safe. The sudden unsecure hatch warning started blaring in the hanger bay and the ship dropped out of hyperspace as a safety precaution.

"Hefty, get us out of here." Danny said.

Hefty put power to the repulsors and the ship lifted off the deck. A quick nudge to the throttle and the Johnny 5 flew out of the small hanger bay. "Tank, it's only a matter of seconds before..."

"Don't worry, I disabled the tractor beams before I linked up with Senior." Tank assured him.

Hefty shook his head. "No, I mean the weapons. Are the Romulus's weapons disabled?"

Tank glanced down at his datapad and tapped a few keys. "Not totally disabled, just crippled. They won't be able to find a target lock on us until the diagnostic program i put them through runs it's course. We have about six minutes."

Danny patted Hefty's shoulder. "Then lets get out of here before then eh."

Hefty smiled and pushed the throttles up. The Light Freighter's engines flared and the ship lurched forward. Her deceptivly fast engines carried her away from the Romulus quickly. Runt looked over the nava-computer and double checked all the numbers before giving a thumbs up. Hefty reached over and pushed the throttles to maximum and triggered the hyperdrive. The ship lurched forward into hyperspace.

[Deleted]

As the ship hit hyperspace Ambellina gave a relieved sigh. She had not been hit, but Senior had taken a lot of bad scrapes. She stood and crossed to him, laying a light hand on his shoulder.

"We should tend to your wounds before they become even more unpleasant."

Ambellina's eyes were full of kindness and gratitude for everything that had been done for her in the past 48 hours, and she was determined to give back what little she could.

[MikDaTv]

Danny looked down to the scorch mark on his chest plate. The black scorch on the black armor was almost unnoticeable and no damage had been transmitted through the armor to him. He wondered what she was talking about for a half moment but the pain in his chest reminded him that less than 24 hours ago his ribs had been cracked and he had taken a graze to the arm.

Danny pulled his helmet off and cracked his neck. Tank turned in his seat to look at him. "My med bag is by the boarding ramp." Tank said.

Danny nodded. "I just need to replace my bandages."

Tank tapped his shoulder pauldron. "Give your arm another spray to. It's about time anyway."

Danny gave a thumbs up. "Take over for Hefty so he can get changed into his armor."

Danny walked out with Ambellina while Hefty and Tank switched places at the pilot station. Hefty walked back with Danny and Ambellina to get the ruck sack with his armor in it.

[Deleted]

Backtracking to the ramp and finding the bag, Ambellina led Senior to the general area and took a seat, opening the bag and seeing what was what. She removed tape and a package of bandages, along with a hypodermic needle of pain-killer. When she looked up at Senior an impish look came to her face and her voice was full of humor.

"Well, I'm not going to bandage your combat armor am I?"

[MikDaTv]

Danny set his helmet down on the floor and tried to reach to his back. It was a chore thanks to his decreased range of motion due to the armor but he could manage it. Hefty stepped in and helped out though to make things quicker.

"Thanks Hef." Danny said as they unstrapped his pauldrons, which fell to the floor and then unclasped the chest and back peices.

Hefty piled the parts together before opening the ruck sack and pulling his armor out. He smiled when he saw the customized black armor and started undressing.

Danny meanwhile wiggled his arms out of the body suit his armor was attached to and let it fall behind him, hanging from around his waist.

The bandage wrapped around his chest was loose and damp from swet. He began unrapping it from his chest while he looked at his arm. The wound was still red but the bacta spray had done its job. It had gone from severe burn wound to ugly red scar tissue.

He let the bandage fall to the floor and pressed his fingers into his chest lightly. Shoot pain ran up through his chest so he knew they were still cracked. "I think i'll need another shot of bacta." He said as he pressed on another rib. He counted them up and discovered that he had 3 cracked ribs and some bruising.

[Deleted]

"The silly boys on Orlais would always wrap their cracked ribs after jousting...they heal more quickly if you do it like this."

Ambellina sanitized the area above the ribs before administering the pain hypo in addition to the bacta hypo that she had just removed from the bag. She then set to stretching the bandage, taped at both ends, tight over the flesh of Danny's side and back so that the skin stretched slightly with it, finally making several lines of tape to his opposite shoulder to support the area. She made sure that it was smooth and secure before moving on to his arm.

Ambellina made a soft clucking noise such as a mother would make as she sprayed bacta over the burn and replaced the bandage with a fresh one. When she was finished she gave a girlish laugh and kissed the dressing lightly.

"There now, all better."