Out into the Dark Light

[Hadann]

Story Path

Hadann pulled himself away from the computer terminal. Pincing the top of hise nose between his index finger and thumb and squeezing in the hopes of nulling his headache. Hadann wasn't a scientist, he wasn't of the religious or worker castes, he wasn't designed to sit behind a desk for long intervals and he was glad another day was over.

In Earth terms it was the fall of 2263, and Ranger Hadann had been assigned to the information and intelligence hub in Tuzanor on Minbar. It was an assignment mostly assigned to first year Rangers, not a Ranger of experience such as Hadann. But there were only a limited number of Whitestars ships that survived the two wars (The Shadow War of 2260 and the Earth Civil War of 2261), and they were already crewed from the ample ranks of Rangers who had completed their training before, during or shortly after those wars. And whilst the finite resources were being allocated to various parts of the Alliance new ship production didn't seem to be one of them.

Hadann bidded his time, knowing soon, very soon a new position aboard a vessel would appear and he could again swim amongst the stars.

OOC: Sindell is the named member of the Ranger Council in Legend of the Rangers

Sindell shoo'd away his ever hovering attendants. Finishing his evening meal on the balcony of the dining suit of the Ranger facility in Tuzanor had originally been a rare self indulgence, but it had brought to his attention the urgency of the Whitestar's situation. Three of the noble and elegant vessels had landed during his meal on the land pad adjacent to the dining suit. All three had returned from the border of Centauri space where they'd gotten into a small skirmish to some Raiders, who strangeled seemed to be armed with Centauri weaponry. All three vessels were badly damaged. Although, thanks to Vorlon technology, the ship's organic systems could repair themselves several of the ship's vorlon systems had gone offline when the Vorlon themselves left the known galaxy and been replaced by more comtemporary Earth and Minbari technologies, these systems needed conventional repairs.

Sindell, having ushered away his attendants, he set down his napkin and rose from his chair. Stepping from the balcony to the typical Minbari corridor inside he pressed a control on the wall.
"Sindell to Ranger Lenaya," he called. Anora Lenaya, was a Human Ranger who had worked extensively in the field previously, but for the last few months had been working directly for the council on operations in Tuzanor as the Anla'shok outfit adjusted to it's new more formal home.
"I want a full report and breakdown of casualties and needed repairs on Whitestars 70, 91 and 130 as soon as possible."

TAG ANORA

[Anora]

((OOC: I'm assuming they use something like the links used in B5. If this is a bad assumption please correct it. Also yay for introduction of random NPCs.))

Anora made a soft rumbling in the back of her throat as the voice of council member Sindell came mechanically to her ears. She sighed and stood, leaving the half-finished sketches on the table where she had been sitting. The room didn't look half as good on paper as it did in real life, but then she had never received any formal training in the arts, and two-point perspective was not a concept of which she had ever learned. She muttered into her comm link, "I'll have it done within the hour," and made her way toward the door.

As she moved out onto the landing pad, she was surprised to see just how much damage the ships had taken. The raiders must have been resilient little bastards. A minbari stood in front of Whitestar 130, looking displeased. A smooth crest indicated he was most likely of the religious caste, and his uniform indicated that he was a ranger. Anora approached him at a quick walk. "Hello. Ranger Lenaya here on orders of Council Member Sindell."
The ranger nodded, acknowledging her. "What does he want?"
"Casualties and damage reports."
"I can help you a little there: I'm the pilot on this one." He gestured to Whitestar 130. "Our jump engines are pretty much fried at this point and the primary weapon systems are down, but most of the crew is mostly okay. Except," he muttered with an edge of irony to his voice, "For our medic, who is badly wounded, and most likely will be dead within an hour."
Anora made mental notes on these points, then thanked her fellow ranger and moved on to inspect the next couple of ships. 70 was mostly alright as well, with one death and a couple injuries but most of the ship was undamaged. 91 on the other hand, was something of a wreck. It had hull breaches in multiple places, most of the crew was dead, and the other two had essentially towed it back to Minbar.

She appeared before Sindell twenty minutes later and placed a sheaf of papers describing the situation on his desk. "Is that all?"
Sindell looked through the papers, skimming over their contents. His eyes wavered over one for a moment, and his brow furrowed slightly. "That's all for now. But make some time tomorrow. I might have something for you then." Anora nodded and pressed her hands together before bowing, a Minbari sign of respect. Then the turned and left the room.
--
"We need a new crew for 91," Sindell told the ranger council the following morning.
"Do you have a suggestion?"
"There are a few people, but one in particular. Warrior caste. He's done a lot of flying in the past. Hadann."
"We trust your judgement."
Obviously, or he wouldn't be one of them. "Then I will speak to him."
--
Early noon, Sindell sat behind a desk and heard a blip, which was a notification that someone was entering. He called "Come," having a good guess as to who it was, and dismissed those who he had been speaking to previously. He had sent a notification to Ranger Hadann that he would do well to appear before him soon, and the it seemed that this suggestion had been heeded.

((TAG: Hadann))

[Hadann]

(OOC: Apologies for late reply. Been in London with work this week with ZERO internet time. Will be the same again this week, so I'll drop this post now for you Anora. If you could drop a post back during the week my frequency should be back up to scratch from next weekend).

Sindell rose from behind his crystalline desk. The open expanse that was his office had a balcony to the right of his desk that allowed the chilled quiet Tuzanor breeze in. To the left traditional Minbari statues, and infront a large door.
Hadann entered upon Sindell's summoned. The two regarded each other for a moment.
"Councillor Sindell."
"Ranger Hadann," Sindell returned the neutral salutation.

A silence descended across the proceedings. The history between the two Minbari bubbling under the calm surface. Finally Hadann spoke; "I did not think I would ever step foot in your office."

"This is a new office Hadann. In a new City. In a new galaxy. Former sins are forgotten."

"Some may be forgotten. All cannot be," Hadann said, considering his words carefully.

Again a silence descended. The two eyeing each other almost angrily.
"I have an assignment for you. The Council has already approved it, on my word."

"Why would you recommend me for anything?"

"Personal feelings aside, you're the best man for this position," Sindell handed Hadann the Minbari equivilant of a Compad.

Hadann let his eyes fall from Sindell's for a moment to take in the contents of the compad.
"A command?"

"A Command," Sindell confirmed.

"Just want to get me off planet?" Hadann questioned, he did not trust Sindell's motives.

"You are a good Commanding Officer, and Whitestar 91 is in need of a good Commanding Officer. Needs must."

"Will that be all?" Hadann didn't like the way this sat. Sindell had an alterior motive.

Sindell sighed, Is he genuinely trying to be nice?, "That is all Hadann. Ranger Anora will meet you on the landing pad with a full report."

Hadann left without another word, closing Sindell's office door behind him and headed, finally with a purpose, toward the landing pad...

TAG: ANORA (Nice 1 setting up 91 as totally wrecked. We can meet up, talk about the extent of the wreck and start about fixing things)

[Anora]

(No problem. Not entirely sure that I can write for your character TELL ME IF I'M DOING SOMETHING WRONG.)

Anora once again stood on the landing pad near Whitestar 91. She had paper in her hands once again, to the continuous annoyance of her superiors. Paper was less efficient then the more common compads. She was aware of this, as it had been made clear to her multiple times by officers she had served with in the past. Usually she would drop the paper and use the compad if it bothered people too much, but here not a word had been spoken about her preference. She suspected it was more because they saw no necessity to harass her about it: It was the ranger council. They could spare a couple credits to keep one of their people happy. And maybe some of them were amused by the sketches that occasionally showed up on the backs of her reports. She really did like paper though. The smell of it, the feel of it, they gave her a certain feeling of safety.

Right now her pen made a skritching on the paper, as she examined the ruined ship. Repairs had been started on the ship, but it still looked bad. Well, what had she expected? Wounds took time to heal, she reflected. This ship was badly hurt. You can bandage a wound all you want, but you can't make it heal instantly. This ship would take time to heal. When it was alright again, it would spread its wings and fly so to speak. She smiled a little.
A voice came over her shoulder. "What's that?"

Anora gave a start as she realized she had been daydreaming. Looking down at her paper and realized that in the margin there was a white star with big feathery wings. She turned and found herself face to face with a minbari. She took a quick step back before realizing she had done so. "I'm really sorry, are you ranger Hadann?" This was not a good first impression, not at all. His crest indicated that the ranger before her was warrior caste as well, which meant that in all likelihood it would be very hard to get past his first impression of her.

"Yes. And you are--"

"Ranger Lenaya. I was told I was to inform you of Whitestar 91's present situation if you came." Stupid, don't cut him off, be respectful. You shouldn't have let him catch you off guard, but you don't need to compensate for it.

Alright... that wasn't the name he had been given, but most humans had two. "Anora Lenaya or just Lenaya?"

"Either one." Evidently he had been given her first name. She wondered why. That was usually only given to people she worked with a lot. "I can begin whenever you're ready... Captain." Captain. That was a good title. It implied freedom to go where you would and not have to take orders. Of course a captain did have orders, but still. It was the title she had been told he had been given. She had to admit she was a bit envious.

He gave her the go-ahead and she gave him a run-down on the ship's situation. "Left wing has a hole clear through it, same with the bridge. The hull integrity on the entire left side is under twenty percent. The right is a little bit better, I'd bet they were attacked from the left side and took a lot of damage before they had time to react. Attackers knew where to shoot too. Jump engines are destroyed and will be replaced. None of the weapon systems are online, but the secondary weapons are still in tact. Oh. And the crew is dead." She said it all as if it was completely normal, but it was beginning to dawn on her exactly what that meant. "The three that survived aren't going to be going anywhere for months, and they all need to be replaced." Her brow furrowed as she sifted through the papers. "They don't seem to have a crew lined up for you. So either they're still figuring it out, or... Maybe it's your first task as a captain."

(TAG HADANN)

(It wasn't entirely clear whether one COULD write dialogue for other people's characters, so I did it an if I shouldn't have I can do a rewrite.)

[Hadann]

(OOC: Hi Anora, sorry for not replying for a while spent longer in London for work than I anticipated and only just catching up with things now... your post was spot on don't worry, you can put words in my character's mouth it's not a problem. I'll drop this reply, if you drop one during the week... we'll have a little back and forth walking amongst the ruined ship. I'm going to be hitting everyone again with an email about the site see if we can just get one more person onboard to play an engineering character of somekind so we can move the story forward at a greater rate, if you know of anyone who would be good please send them the link!)

A slight, but confident, Human had greeted Hadann at what remained of Whitestar 91. The grim news of the fate of it's former crew troubled Hadann's spirit but he made the most of the situation. Anora seemed on the surface a little quirky, never before had Hadann seen a Human, normally a tech-hungry race, this attached to an antiquated ritual of scouring dead tree with ink. It was a trait he admired, it made him believe that maybe this was a Human who respected the past, in the way the Minbari did.

"They don't seem to have a crew lined up for you. So either they're still figuring it out, or... Maybe it's your first task as a captain."

Captain... it still sounded strange to Hadann, although this is what he wanted; part of him always questioned things... especially when they appeared to good to be true.

What was Sindell's angle?

"Please I prefer simply Hadann. Save 'Captain' for when she's in the air," he corrected her putting his hand lovingly to an open and broken conduit as he said "she's".

"Very well," Anora continued her damage report. Fair to say the ship had seen better days, and if she were a normal vessel would have probably been scraped. But with the Alliance's resources finite and the Vorlons gone, building new ships would take years of planning, before construction began. Until then the Alliance was still reliant on the might of the Whitestar Fleet, a variety of aging Minbari vessels and the odd Narn or Vree or Brakiri or whatever species offered them up on a temporary basis.

Anora and Hadann came to a stop infront of a large section of exposed hull, that it had been breached was obvious. Hadann shook hs head, remembering back to a time he'd been trapped in a small Minbari fighter when decompression had occured... the terror... the airlessness...

"How long will the hull take to heal itself?" he asked pointing to where there were obvious signs of regrowth.

Anora looked down to her notes, "Without external stimulators, which are currently focused on other whitestars in the field, it could take a week or more."

Anora could tell Hadann was disappointed by this time frame so added; "Conventional repairs should be done in half that time with a full repair crew working on her."

"With no crew, that means there's no Chief Engineer to help coordinate the efforts. A week seems optimistic."

Anora nodded reluctantly.

"Let us head to the bridge and see what systems are still online. perhaps we can piece together how the ship became so damaged."

TAG: Anora

(I'll try and drag an engineer on board to help us craft the story. So far we haven't actually established your character as part of the crew, you're still working for the Council. We need something to happen that'll make my character want to pick you to be his XO. Perhaps there was a traitor on board who's conspirators return 2 collect things from the damaged hulk of whitestar 91 and we discover them and stop them... you saving my life in the process or somet?)

[Anora]

(Okay then. Treachery is always interesting, though we will have to figure out what the motivations were: Minbari seem a bit too honor-bound for that sort of thing generally.)
(I don't know what repairs look like on Minbar, so I am vaguely basing my description off of construction areas I've seen.)
(And I'm sorry for taking a long time.)

Maybe she should just stop trying to compensate for mistakes and go with the flow. Stop worrying what this guy thinks and work on being as useful and natural as possible. Anora practiced breathing slowly as she lead Hadann around to the ship's small docking area--for shuttles and the like. The ship was obviously built to be accessed in space, not on land: Small structures had been erected to allow the few repair people working on it to access the ship. She nodded to one minbari coming down as they passed, and began to ascend the series of ramps laid down for a walkway. As they reached the top it was apparent that only one of the shuttles was present and none of the fighters were, information that she pointed out to Hadann.

"I think they made an attempt to fight whatever it was. Otherwise the fighters should still be there. The survivors were found in the one remaining shuttle. It was the only place on the ship that still had air when they found her. It was just supposed to be a patrol..." She sighed. "I guess we all know the risks when we join the rangers, but I wish we at least knew what did all this damage."

"Raiders," Hadann answered.

Anora shot him a look. "Do most raiders have Centauri weapons? I'm not wondering about the ones the other ship killed, I'm wondering about their suppliers." She sighed. "Sorry. Let's just keep going."

The two of them ascended to the docking bay, which seemed relatively undamaged, and entered the ship's interior. In this hall the ship looked almost normal, and it was not until they were another two halls down that rubble began to appear. The broken scattered bits became more and more numerous as Anora lead the new captain toward where the bridge should be.
Along with the increasing rubble was an increase in the number of uncanny movements visible along the walls. She knew the ship was repairing itself as was normal, but she found watching the process slightly unsettling. She folded one arm along with the papers across her chest, and began to use the other hand for balance. Some parts of the hallways required them to climb over the destruction, whereas others looked untouched.

Finally, they came to a door. Anora carefully removed a pole which lay against it and nodded to Hadann. "This should be the bridge." She inspected the door for a moment, running her hand across its surface and edges, then asked, "Could you hold these for me a minute?" placing the papers in his hands before he had a chance to answer.
Muttering ensued, which only occasionally became loud enough to be audible. She fumbled about in her pockets for a moment and brought out three objects: A small metal cylinder which Hadann recognized as a Denn-bok, a pen, and a pair of needle-nosed pliers. She inspected these objects for a moment, then put the pen back in her pocket. "These should work."
She carefully removed a panel of wall to reveal what looked like a control panel. She fiddled with it for a couple moments before shrugging. "Yeah, I thought as much. We'll need either a couple hours or a decent engineer to fix this, and I don't feel like waiting if that's alright with you." She put the pliers back in her pocket, leaving only the unactivated weapon in her hand. Then she began to inspect the crack between door and wall until she came to a clear part of the door, one that looked like glass.
Finding what she was looking for, she placed her weapon next to the spot on the door and flicked it on. It extended and smashed through the see-through section of the door.

"Sorry Capt--ah, sorry--Ranger Hadann, but it won't take long to repair itself and I believe we wanted access to the bridge." She used the hole she had created to push the door open manually before removing her papers from Hadann's hands. The open door revealed a damaged area, but not so much in the way of rubble. The reason for this became obvious quickly, as the main source of light was the sun streaming in through a gaping hole in the ceiling. It had probably been sucked out into the vacuum of space. "Welcome to the bridge of Whitestar 91."

[Hadann]

(OOC: Hey! Apologies for the extended absence, work's been crazy. Back Home now for the forseeable future though so posting should be regular. I've chased up our latest sign up with an email so hopefully we might have a new friend ! )

Hadann took a few paces into what remained of the 91's bridge. Through the gaping hole in it's front he could see the ever darkening sky on Minbar as night was drawing in. He took a moment to examine the stars above him, pondering why when it looked so beautiful and serene from down here, space could be home to death and destruction.

He sighed and turned to Anora. His arm had come to rest of what remained of the rear most console. He paused to take a moment to reflect on the brave man, woman, Minbari or Human who would've served at this station until their light was prematurely extinguished.

"I've gone over the report from the attacks," Anora said, breaking the silence.

"And from what I can ascertain the convoy was ambushed."

"Ambushed? The Raiders knew they were coming?"

"It seems that way."

Hadann held his chin to ponder for a moment. Does this mean the Raiders have a source inside the Rangers? He thought this but did not voice it out loud. Hadann's distrust of Sindell not yet dispelled he did not know how far to trust Anora with his thoughts.

He opened his mouth to continue when both of them were stopped by a voice at the still wedged open doorway.
"Hello in there?"

The disembodied voice was given a face a moment later when a young Minbari appeared. Anora immediately recognized him as the pilot of Whitestar 130 she'd spoken to previous.

As he was greeted by two confused faces. Hadann's one of questioning who he was, and Anora's one of questioning why he was here. The Minbari explained: "Sorry, I was just conducting a preliminary search of this section."

Anora narrowed her eyes, the Minbari seemed nervous, less sure of himself than he had earlier. Had he had a dressing down by his superiors? Or was something else afoot?
"An engineer as well as a pilot?" she asked, wanting to quiz him. Although she did not suspect serious foul play, certainly not her on Minbar, the idea that perhaps he was grave robbing did cross her mind.

The Minbari looked down, "I..." There was a pause. "... I had a friend aboard this ship. I was attempting to find my way to his quarters to retrieve some of his personal affects.." Another pause. "... For his family."

"All personal affects found will be returning to their rightful owners in due course through the proper channels Ranger," Hadann interjected, partially irritated his first look around his new command was being interupted, and partially because he did not like the idea of grave robbing.

"I understand, I... will tell his family thus."
The Minbari bowed slightly and turned to leave.

Not wanting to let the matter lie, her suspicion of him rising. "What was his name?"

The Minbari froze as if asked some terribly complicated math problem. He stuttered, "His name..?"

"Yes," Hadann butted him, realized where Anora was going with this; "You know your friends name surely?"

"Of course," the Minbari paused again, stalling for time as his mind worked. "Rennier," he said finally with relief, "Ranger Rennier."

"Of what caste? Of what clan?" Hadann asked taking a few steps towards the pilot hunching his shoulders slightly to impose his physical size advantage.

"I... I am afraid I am unsure."

"Perhaps you two weren't as good friends as you thought?" Anora offered, knowing full well these things were like exchanging surnames on Earth, it was just something Minbari friends did.

"Perhaps not." Again the Minbari turned to leave, this time he was allowed without comment.

Anora turned to Hadann, eyebrow raised.
"Yes. Troubling," Hadann confirmed outloud what they were both thinking.

"Do you think he was really after a friend's personal effects?" Anora asked.

Shaking his head, Hadann replied; "In Minbari culture, if you are friends, or even just acquaintances you would know that persons Caste and Clan."

"So you think he was just after something to make a quite buck?"

"If by buck you mean somesort of coporeal advantage, then yes. Grave Robbing I've heard it called."

Recognizing a term she was all to familiar with Anora nodded; "I've been at wrecks before and seen the same thing. Although I'm embarrssed to admit it was nearly always Humans."

"Your kind are less..." Hadann stopped, searching for a word to express the idea without offended Anora, or her species. "... less inclined to respect the dead. Your culture is different."

Hadann made a gesture to her that they should move on from the bridge, but he turned just once more before leaving to look at the view from the hole in the bridge hull. Below the almost black skyline was Whitestar 130, another almost totally destroyed ship. Shaking his head he turned away. And then Whitestar 130 exploded.

TAG ANORA

(Maybe that Ranger you introducing originally was trying to plant a bomb on whitestar 91? Maybe there is a bomb, I get injured when we try to chase and capture this individual and you end up saving me? Go with it or whatever you want :-) )

[Anora]

((Sorry for taking forever. School has been going on.))

The scream of ripping metal and the roar of the explosion rang painfully in her ears as Whitestar 130 went up in flames. She turned and saw the flames shooting into the air outside the ship and realized that with their close proximity to the blast and a hole in the roof, this was not a good place to be. She cursed and yelled "Get out of here!" though her voice was swallowed by the noise. The ship shook and the two of them stumbled off the bridge and into the hall. Moments later the sound died down to cracks and smashes in the background, still loud, but nothing compared to the initial explosion.

Hadann glanced back. "Just after he left. Doesn't that seem--"

"Suspicious? Yes. He can't have gone far though."

"The only way he could go in a hurry is this way, but watch--" Anora was running in the indicated direction already. "--out, there might be a bomb!" he shouted after her.

"Come on already, don't want to lose him?" Hadann followed, perhaps a little more uneasily. Had that been a grin on her face?

She was indeed smiling. She hadn't gotten any action since she had transferred to working for the council, and this promised to be interesting at the very least. She couldn't claim to like the death aspect of war, but adrenaline running through your veins and not knowing where the next shot was coming from... She loved that. She came to a split in the two corridors and picked the left one. Always go left, that had been a joke she and some friends in the Earth military had laughed at among themselves. It was a joke. Left is lucky, always pick left. She had started taking it more seriously when multiple times it had saved her life. So left it was.

She ran down the passage, and came to a stop in front of an engine maintenance area whose entrance was slightly ajar. It could have been done by quickly fleeing engineering staff realizing there was no more air. On the other hand, it would make an excellent hiding place for a person.

Evidently it also made an excellent hiding place for the explosives Hadann had been worried about, with two minutes left before detonation beeping away in small electronic lettering.
--
Hadann had gone the opposite direction, acting on knowledge of the ship rather then superstition. If you wanted to get off the ship you would be going toward the docking areas. That was probably where the Minbari they were following had gone.

TAG HADANN

[Hadann]

(OOC: No worries Anora! Can't wait for our new member to get involved! It's all coming together now! BTW, I like the "Always Left" in joke. I'm gonna run with that...)

Hadann memories of past battles written in his expression, and a tear rolling down his cheek enduced from the heat of the nearby explosion, stood up.

Anora had already alighted after the Minbari pilot, or grave robber, or terrorist, whatever he turned out to be. Hadann collected his senses and followed suit, calling out "The only way he could go in a hurry is this way, but watchout, there might be a bomb!" He had been suspicious of him from the start, and he didn't believe in coincidences.

The corridor reached a crossroads, Hadann took the right fork. Hadann always took the right fork, it was one of those soldier superstitions he'd picked up during the Earther war and before.

As he ran he started to collect his senses, he realized right had been the correct way as this corridor would lead him to the docking area, if the pilot was attempting to flee the ship he'd be heading there.

He came to what remained of the docking area, a large cavinous area where normally Nial fighters and a couple of shuttles would be docked, as well as the main area for the passing of personnel between the outside and the interior of the ship. Whereas before the outer hull would have given the room a comforting, if almost claustrophic feel, now, it was just another key area that had been hit by the raiders and now featured a gauping hole.

Hadann could see maintenance bots and personnel rushing toward the charred remains of Whitestar 130.

He could also see in the distance fires burning from the landing pad next over. Had more explosive devices have been planted aboad Whitestars? the thought was a grime one. Not only was the prospect of loosing whitestars and potentially lives terrifying it also meant politically the elements of Minbari society that didn't want offworlders on their homeworld would finally have a voice, it could mean the seat of the Alliance be moved offworld, severely restricting Minbar's importance in galactic affairs.

What Hadann couldn't see was their would-be fugitive. Scanning the area with his eyes he decided he'd either got away and was now mixing with the crowds outside, making it impossible to track him, or he was an innocent and was simply wandering 91's corridors confused as to what that loud bang was.

Catching his breath deeply he hardly noticed that his communicator was going off. The communicators issued to Rangers whilst on Minbar were not unlike those Earth Force personnel would use but were smaller, circular and attached to the inside of one's ear. The beeping was therefore personal to the wearer, as was the conversation.

"Hadann here."

"Ah!" came a familiar voice, with a slight twist. Hadann quickly realised as the voice spoke it was the pilot from earlier, but gone was the obviously fake timid, nervous, politeness, replaced instead by an ominous tone that could almost be described as evil.

"Hadann is it? I wanted yo know your name before the end."

"The end? You've planted a bomb aboard this vessel as well?"

"I have," the Minbari confirmed. "I was hoping to plant a similar device aboard Whitestar 70 before my presence was discovered and I was killed. However it is of no consequence my order has many members. Someone will finish the work I have started."

Hadann moved quickly. He was headed back the way he'd come, the transmission was clear so he had to be close, perhaps take the path not chosen? Hadann decided as he returned to the corridor's junction and took the left fork, where he'd previously gone right.

"What order? Why are you doing this?" Hadann demanded, these were good questions, ones that an interviewed could ask, but Hadann was more concerned with keeping this individual talking, long enough so he could find him...

"Ha! I'm not your typical villian, I'm not here to explain my order's plan to you. I..."

"... wanted to gloat?" Hadann finished for him, he'd had enough of this egotistical bastard already.

There was a pause, it seemed he wasn't quite expecting that. Hadann rounded the final corner before he saw the hatch to the engine maintenance room ajar. Slowing his footsteps so that they wouldn't be heard he approached, tapping the side of his ear to cut the transmission. He drew his fighting pike and edged closer and closer. He could hear movement inside.

With the idea of a quick dart inside, extension of his pike and knocking the bomber to the floor, he lept inside...

tag Anora. (Maybe i get knocked on my ass and you rescue me? :-))

[Anora]

((Sorry for taking so long. I like writing for actions more then I like writing dialogue, so this was fun.))

Anora considered poking at the bomb with a ten foot pole (there were plenty of ten foot poles around, THAT wouldn't be a problem) but decided against it. Fumbling through her pockets she pulled out pliers again. Pliers were good for EVERYTHING. She crawled into the maintenance area and sat down next to the bomb. Back in Earthforce, everyone got at least basic training in deactivating a bomb--there was too much in history for them to leave it out. History was littered with incidents of people in power being killed in bombings, roadside bombs going off and killing innocent people, destruction of landmarks, assassinations... Of course, most of the time with a good assassination attempt you probably wouldn't have time, or it would be built well enough that it was hard to dismantle. But with this one, the culprit had wanted time to look around, it seemed, and probably hadn't expected anyone to come along and mess with the explosives.
Of course, this wasn't something that she was brilliant at, and she understood she could very well blow the whole ship up just trying to mess with it, but if she just evacuated the ship, it would be toast anyway.

Carefully she removed the casing of the thing attached to the floor. It could be the explosive itself, or it could be just the control for nearby explosives. She didn't know, so she would go about it as if the explosives were right here. If they weren't, then no harm done, and better safe then sorry.
The wires underneath the casing were tangled together, various colors connected to different places, and under those a couple data crystals. The timer looked almost like a kitchen timer, purely mechanical, ticking town the seconds. When it hit 0 a metal needle would touch the wiring on both ends, completing the circuit and giving the signal to blow. Anora raised one eyebrow. This was not a professional thing, more like a bunch of people had gotten parts and thrown something together on the fly. And she didn't have to dismantle it entirely. She reached in with the pliers and bent the metal needle upward. It wouldn't be able to make a complete circuit anymore. She was about to close it back up when it occurred to her that she had overlooked something. Carefully moving the wires out of the way, she pulled out the two data crystals underneath and pocketed them.

"Hello there," came the voice of the one she had been hoping to find. His voice was cold with a sort of dark amusement to it. "What exactly are you doing?"
Anora looked up from the bomb she had been tinkering with and saw him at the other end of the area. She had forgotten that they usually had two entrances. She swore under her breath. Slowly she stood, glaring at him. "I should be asking you that." She backed towards a wall, wishing inwardly that there were more space here. He pulled out a gun and pointed it at her. She could have laughed. His face showed mild amusement, but he also looked slightly distracted, as if he was not concentrating on the situation here as much as he should be.
She guessed he had a communicator of some sort when he said to the air with a tone of smugness, "Ha! I'm not your typical villian, I'm not here to explain my order's plan to you. I..." He stopped, and an expression of something between annoyance and anger crossed his face. Anora heard footsteps outside and slowly reached for her weapon.

Hadann made an entrance, leaping into the room and extending his pike. Anora ducked and a shot hit where her chest had been moments before, and then the gun was pointed at Hadann. The wall was undamaged--burning hydrogen wasn't enough to hurt it significantly--and Anora dropped to the floor, pretending she had been hit and using her jacket to cover the place where the injury should be. Play dead, then strike later. Hadann was probably a good fighter with that pike of his, but the area was too narrow to allow for its effective use. It glanced off a wall when he swung it, throwing off his aim and missing the bomber entirely. The bomber pulled the trigger of the gun and a shot went past Hadann's head. This repeated a couple more times, some misses narrower then others. Hadann made a swing that looked like it might actually hit home, and the bomber brought up his gun, which stopped the blow but also cracked the gun. In disgust, he threw away his weapon and grabbed onto the end of Hadann's pike that was being stabbed toward him like a spear and dodged to the left, shifting himself down the length of the weapon before Hadann had a chance to compensate. Then he pulled on it hard and with surprising strength. The two of them were momentarily locked in a contest of strength over the weapon, and Anora seized her opportunity. Holding her hand up in line with the bomber's spine, she extended her pike.
There was not enough space for it to extend in the narrow area, and it hit the wall behind her with a crunch. It smashed into the bomber on the other side--her aim had been off, it had hit just to the right of his spine--and pushed him up against the opposite wall. He let out a sharp cry of surprise and pain. She heard the sound of a bone snapping and knew that her weapon was extended as far as the narrow room would allow it, and had the bomber pinned against the wall quite solidly. Slowly, she let go of the weapon. It did not fall, it was pressed too hard against both sides of the area. She rose from her position on the ground and did not look at the bomber pressed against the wall and groaning in pain. She walked up to Hadann and nodded to him grimly. "Don't touch the bomb," she told him, indicating the small round device on the floor. "It won't go off unless you poke at it, I 'fixed' its timer. I suppose I'll go get a medical team."

TAG HADANN

((If you want you can talk to the captive, or just skip to being at a medical facility or wherever. If it works for you, I'm thinking the data crystals could be encrypted and we need a telepath to go into his head and find the key to figuring out the code. Or something. IDK.))