ANGELUS JESCHA

D'IVA TWO MAGNETIC ANOMALY

BORDER, PARNITHA SYSTEM

NOVEMBER 15th, 2188

AKILAH SHIZUKA awoke from vivid dreams into a cool darkness surrounded by a silence broken only by her breathing, a silence she'd only experienced twice before in her entire life. Once when she'd lost control of her suit's thrusters during an EVA and damaged her comm system. It was in 'that kind of silence', she'd once been told, when you really feel how indifferent the cosmos is to you. The other time was on Torfan, she buried under a kilometre of rock brought down by a batarian tunnel mine. It had been so silent in that basalt tomb she would have sworn she'd heard the dust settle. She hadn't been afraid even though she had every good reason to believe she would die there. She was saved by Duke, Grimaldi and Flynn, spurred by the Irishman's lack of concern for his own life. It had seemed that the less he cared about living the more medals they threw at him. She remembered Duke's call for haste and Grimaldi's insistence that the entire exercise was futile…

Her dreams lingered and the fullness of them so lucid they felt like memories. Too many dead faces, too many friends gone, too many people she wished she still loved.

A groan and a cough to her left snapped her fully awake, the noise loud in the darkness. Wherever she was smelled …sterile, a sharp ozone and lifeless air.

There was then the sound of a thump and of someone spitting.

"We know who we are?" Shizuka asked quietly, her voice sounding louder than it should have.

"I'm the pretty one," a female voice drawled from the dark, "Ilola Jamilah at your service."

Shizuka shook her head. Not whom she would have chosen…

"In one piece?" Shizuka asked her. Her body ached and she felt small sharp twitches of nerve bundles firing sporadically. Her mouth tasted of strong liquid copper. She swirled saliva and spat as well.

"Reasonably so. I'm hoping I'm not blind." A pause. "I know you, don't I?"

"Akilah Shizuka."

"Yeah, I remember you." Light flared suddenly from an omnitool and Shizuka realized that they'd been separated, in small cells created by what appeared to be cargo crates. "The punchy angry one."

"Which of Lawson's lackeys were you again?" Shizuka inquired with just a smooth touch of venom. Her own omnitool flared and her space got brighter. Dim shapes came into view, light seeping between cracks in the crates.

"Gunnery Chief. Weapons expert."

"I'm the quarian lackey," a calm voice came from Shizuka's left and she recognized it as Asha'Rhaal. "Let's all try to get along, Ilola." Rhaal added the light from her omnitool to the others, likewise illuminating the spaces between crates. "We seem to be intact."

Shizuka looked her way and saw the quarian's eyes gleaming through a wide seam between crates. She inadvertently cursed with surprise.

"Oh, right, the eyes," Rhaal explained apologetically. "It's symbiotic. Quarians have light-gathering microbes that live in what you'd call our 'vitreous humour'. It helped us see in the dim light on Rannoch. Makes them shine, too."

"That's nice," Shizuka answered dryly and tried to take a scan with her omnitool but couldn't scan far. Shizuka climbed to her feet. She still had her complete uniform and she wondered at either the arrogance or confidence that would assume she was no threat unarmed. Her gauntlets were still in place and that meant enhanced fists and omniblades. She didn't need guns to be as dangerous as hell.

Rhaal's luminous eyes had gone away. Shizuka heard her sniff, smelling the air and the light moving, indicating that Rhaal's omnitool was sweeping the area.

"Sterile in here. Very clean. This holding area looks rather hastily constructed."

"Agreed," Shizuka nodded to herself. There had been no real precision in their stacking given the amount of cracks and small openings she could see between them.

Jamilah tried to scan a crate. She found a space beyond and in it another body.

"Hold on… found someone. Another quarian…"

"Kassidi Vas Raven's Fist, I'd wager," Rhaal ventured. Even as she did, Kassidi moaned and awoke with a cough.

"Who's there?" She demanded and the others identified themselves. "Oh, no…!" They heard Kassidi scrabble away from them and then a loud thump as she hit the far wall. "They've taken my suit! The bosh'tets have stripped me naked!"

"Calm down!" Rhaal called. "Define 'naked' before you panic!"

"I'm not panicking!" Kassidi shot back, her voice a little too loud. "They took it all down to my processing sleeve!"

"Not naked." Rhaal reassured her. "You still have the emergency breather in your neck lining, don't you?"

"Yes, I think so. Wait…" After another few moments, Kassidi spoke again, her voice jittery. "Thank you. You don't expect to wake up like that."

"Calm down. You're a soldier," Shizuka reminded her, "you must have had training to deal with not having it."

"Not as much as you'd think." Kassidi pushed herself from the crate and took a few steps. She was feeling better, even if all her instincts were raging. "I'm just used to it. I function better. It's part of being completely quarian! We all get this way!" She added, sounding unconvincing.

"Not all of us," Rhaal rebutted. "Scan around. The air's pretty sterile in here."

"The three of you aren't!" Kassidi complained with a cough. "I don't like not having my suit. I don't like it! Why did they take my suit?"

"Calm down, for fuck's sake!" Jamilah told her harshly. "Your suit was armed, wasn't it? There's your reason. You can still function, can't you?"

"You alone carry enough bacteria to kill me!" Kassidi had made it to a corner, as far away as she could get. "Humans are mostly bacteria, anyway!"

"Should you two be insulted by that?" Rhaal asked the humans. Shizuka shrugged.

"Well, technically it's true."

"And you have all their microbes as well!" Kassidi thrust an unseen finger toward her fellow quarian.

"I don't have anywhere near as many. Which means I could knock you out before you even sniffled."

"Let's not go there." Shizuka tried to regain some order. "We have more immediate problems. Kassidi, you're just going to have to deal with it."

"I'm trying!" Kassidi insisted. "We're trained from birth to safeguard our suit above everything else. I can't just shrug off a lifetime of that!"

"Not much choice. What's your specialty?" Shizuka asked her, keeping her omnitool running but the scans were bland. She couldn't scan into the crates or out of the room. The ceiling was just out of reach if she stretched an arm above her. A push against one 'wall' told her they wouldn't budge without a great deal of force.

"What…? I – I'm a tech." Kassidi was running her hands over her body, checking her suit linkages. "Weapon tech and armor R&D and tech."

"Oh, a solder jockey." Shizuka was scanning the floor.

"A what?" Kassidi asked.

"That's what they're called in the human military – 'solder jockeys'. They kept the gear functioning and subsequently one's ass alive. We were always extra nice to them."

"Well… good." Kassidi shook her head over the oddness of human militaries but ceased the compulsive checking. "Is there a point to this?" Kassidi activated her own omnitool and scanned herself. So far so good. Surprisingly good, actually.

"Prioritize," Shizuka told her pointedly. "Necessity over comfort. You a Marine or not? You're a quarian. You're stuck. Adapt. That's what you people do, right?"

"You have a point," Kassidi conceded after a long moment of silence. "I …apologize for my unprofessional behaviour."

"We should scan as best we can and see if we're the only ones here." Rhaal suggested. A short intense scan by all uncovered no one else.

"What do we remember?" Shizuka asked the air, inwardly sighing after they'd finished. "I remember figures in white armor. I managed to knock one down and then… nothing after."

"Not much here, I'm afraid," Rhaal answered. "The attack alert then some rather loud noise and what felt like a huge blow to the back of my head, some rather bad dreams and waking up here. Given the residual taste in my mouth and periodic nerve twitch, I'd say we were taken with a stun weapon."

"We were definitely boarded," Jamilah asserted, her voice certain. "The ship was breached. I remember soldiers in white armor and a big damn hole in the hull. Not much else. I vaguely remember shooting one but I dunno if it mattered."

"What can we figure out as to where we are?" Shizuka conjectured. "Whoever these people are, they're either stupid or overly-confident."

"Yeah. I still have my full uniform and my fine tools," Jamilah agreed. "You'd think they'd have taken those, too."

"Same here," Rhaal checked. "They're doubtless monitoring us as well."

"Great. Try anything and what – gas? A shock system?" Jamilah wondered.

"Try something," Shizuka jabbed. Jamilah ignored her.

"I can't scan a single power source in this room," Rhaal said, trying to disperse tension, "or this room is very well shielded."

"Looks like storage," Jamilah noted. "Some damn heavily-shielded cargo…"

"At the moment, that's us too." Shizuka went to a bare wall and ran her hand along it. It was cool and smooth. "Anyone find a door?"

Three negatives came back to her.

"I can't find an interface of any kind," Kassidi added.

"There has to be something." Rhaal was looking at the ceiling. "They had to get all of these crates in here somehow." Her omnitool beeped. "Ah."

"What? You find controls?" Jamilah turned.

"No. Atmos ingress." Rhaal scanned it.

"You couldn't just say 'a vent'?" Shizuka grumbled.

Rhaal scanned it again, this time more thoroughly.

"No good. The vent is just a cut in the bulkhead. Nothing to pry open."

"I'm against a bare wall in my space," Kassidi answered, "so the door is with one of you."

"Shit," Jamilah cursed. "No door. Not a crack. How did they – whoever the hell they are - build this place? There aren't even shipping marks of any kind on any of these crates," Jamilah indicated. "No weight, port or handling marks. Nothing to say it even is cargo." She knocked on one. It rang hollowly.

"No door here, either," Shizuka added calmly, not as frustrated as the others seemed. She'd been in far worse situations. Granted, she'd been surrounded by N7's or Death Mistresses…

Rhaal ran her hands along the floor.

"I'm feeling for vibrations. Every ship – if this is a ship - I've been on vibrates, which is inevitable with big engines." She sighed after a moment and stood and turned to feeling the wall. "No vibrations. Wait… I can feel a very slight line in my one bare wall. I think I have the door. Unfortunately, I can't scan an interface of any kind."

"So we're still stuck," Jamilah leaned casually back on a crate in her small section. "Well, they have to feed us sometime, don't they?"

"You'd think," Shizuka said wryly, "unless they just drop it through that vent."

"Lovely," Jamilah sighed and re-examined the crates on her side. There was no budging any of them. "Need about thirty of my friends to come give us a push."

"You have that many?" Shizuka asked dryly, wishing the same thing.

"Even more." Jamilah's smile was broad, if unseen. "Duke's a good friend, too."

"You don't make all your friends that way, do you?" Shizuka shoved a crate in frustration. It was solid.

"Just the quality ones," Jamilah rejoined.

"You're a great pair," Shizuka said sarcastically, "he doesn't discriminate like he used to… he must be getting old."

"Oh, he's not old," Jamilah chuckled softly.

"Ladies," Rhaal interjected, "please."

"Don't stop, it's getting interesting," Kassidi added from her section.

"Anybody got any war stories?" Rhaal asked half-in-jest, trying to change the subject. Everyone in the damn Galaxy had war stories.

Shizuka kept poking at crates, testing for movement or weakness.

"Well, I was fighting past the Lingyin Temple in Xihuxiang with a division from the 195th when we were ambushed by banshees." She told the gloom. "One of those bitches hit me in the face with that biotic 'ball' attack they had, you know the one I mean – smashed clean through my faceplate and right in the damn eyes. Left me blind." She reached up and rubbed her eyes at the memory. "I had a med-tech jury-rig an optic interface that bypassed my eyes and went straight to the optic nerve. It was like fighting from the bottom of a goddamn fishbowl but it worked."

"You really wanna do this?" Jamilah asked. She had been testing her crates also and gave up to slide down the wall to the floor in a corner.

"You've got someplace to be?" Shizuka shot back. Jamilah opened her mouth, laughed lightly and then began.

"I was with Hélène Janét's Sixty-Sixers when the Reapers punched into Tel-Aviv," Jamilah told her. "One of those big destroyer bastards waddled out of the Med and started flattening everything with husk droppers vomiting a few hundred thousand husks on us. Pushed us back to the Jordan." Jamilah shook her head. "Started with a thousand in my force, lost eight hundred by the second day. We piled bodies all around us for defence and kept on shooting. Two days later we were down to fifty and got relieved by Davood Fehersteh's Bahadur from Iran. The Reapers killed eight million people in two days. Fuckin' insane. Took me a week to get that blue stain of husk blood off everything."

"Insane?" Shizuka countered. "I hid in the guts of a dead brute for two solid days on Thessia with weapon upgrade plans waiting for an evac, surrounded by marauders and cannibals with a piece of shrapnel as long as my forearm through my thigh. One damn sneeze or cough and I'd have been swarmed. I stank all the way to Palaven but I got back with those plans. Almost lost my leg. Sixty million asari dead on the Extreme Front in the first wave before we slowed 'em down."

"You people tell the most charming stories," Rhaal sighed.

"You asked," Jamilah reminded her. "Where were you two during all that?"

"Where else?" Rhaal shrugged. "On the Fleet watching the geth 'hand our asses to us', as you'd say."

"I was on the Tonbay when it went down," Kassidi added. "We were surrounded by geth and then a report came through saying a Reaper had been killed by Shepard and the geth started asking us if we needed help. It was very surreal."

Jamilah pushed herself to her feet.

"Look, we need to figure a way outta here," Jamilah interjected. "I don't see any toilet facilities anywhere. Doesn't bode well."

"Don't remind me," Kassidi muttered.

"What do you recommend?" Shizuka asked with barely disguised scorn. "We each find a spoon and start digging?"

"You're the elite N7," Jamilah shot back. "So... N7 us out."

"Again," Shizuka riposted, "what do I do? Punch my way out?" There was silence from the Gunnery Chief for a minute.

"Do you have an omniblade?" Jamilah asked softly.

Shizuka wondered what was going through her mind. Despite Rhaal's warning about monitoring, she took a chance in replying.

"I have two," Shizuka said quietly.

"You could have mentioned this sooner," Jamilah snapped, her voice a harsh whisper.

"They won't cut through a bulkhead so I didn't think it was worth mentioning."

"Well, then," Jamilah told her, shining her light through a crack between the crates a few centimetres wide. "Hand them over."

"Explain it first," Shizuka told that crack.

"There are two weapon techs in the room," Jamilah told her as if she were slow-witted. "It's just a matter of ME field densities and battery power. If they can stab through armor and body tissue, it's perfectly reasonable to assume they might get through a crate or two if I soup them up." She knocked on one. It sounded only half-full.

"Humpf," Shizuka conceded, disconnecting her omniblade assemblies to slide them through the crack, "so you are more than a pretty face and ready bed."

"Y'know, Winston said you wouldn't be jealous."

"Maybe I'm jealous of him," a deadpan voice replied.

"Okay, now you're actually scaring me." Jamilah pulled her fine tools and set to work.

"Humans have an adult stage, don't they?" Rhaal gave them both an aggravated sigh.

They waited a few minutes as Jamilah did her job. She cursed at one point and tried to show an assembly through a crack to Kassidi.

"Look at the sub-router on that for me, would you? Can I channel anything extra through that?"

Kassidi examined it as best she could.

"She'd be down to a third of her omnitool power. She'd lose her light, too."

"If you can do it, small price to pay," Shizuka informed them. "I have alternate power sources if necessary."

"What?" Jamilah asked.

"If we are being monitored," Rhaal advised softly, "they don't need to know everything."

"Right. Just need a few more minutes." Jamilah went back to work. Two minutes later she passed the assemblies back. "Not guaranteeing anything. It's jury-rigged and you maybe get three solid blows each before it fries the omniblade generator," she sighed, "but it's something."

Shizuka clicked the blades back into place.

"It's definitely something," she conceded. "Nice work."

"Use our strengths," Jamilah replied, "even if actually getting out is probably impossible."

"Nothing's impossible," Shizuka countered.

"Stick your elbow in your ear," Jamilah shot back and despite herself, Shizuka found herself liking this Gunnery Chief.

"Start knocking again. Find me something to cut through."

"Anything too overt could bring guards down on us," Rhaal informed them. Shizuka sighed theatrically.

"Go gently rapping, tap-tap-tapping as if upon a chamber door," Jamilah told her quarian shipmate. "Bet you didn't think I read much, either."

"Find a copy with pictures, did you?" Shizuka asked her, tapping along one 'wall' of crates.

Jamilah just shook her head and didn't deign to reply. Two more crates and she went back to the one she'd used earlier as an example.

"Best one I have." Jamilah tapped it to make sure.

"In for a penny, in for a pound," Shizuka muttered as she activated the omniblade and positioned herself to slash at the crate with considerable force, the omniblade slicing through surprisingly easily. It had only been partially full. The crate above it shifted slightly then settled. She pushed the rest of the now-broken crate through and into Jamilah's space, her face appearing a moment later.

"I like being right," Jamilah quipped, her teeth white in the omnitool light.

"You're not right until we're out," Shizuka reminded her. "Let's be quiet for a bit."

They all waited. There was no other sounds or movements. To Shizuka's mind, unless something was either wrong or very odd, something should have happened by now. Still, you worked with what you had.

"Kassidi's best crate is right here." Jamilah pointed and Shizuka pulled herself into the space smaller than hers, advancing Rhaal's notion that the 'prison' had been hastily constructed.

"All right, everyone back off." Shizuka punched again and managed halfway through Kassidi's 'crate' when the omniblade shimmered and died. A few solid blows from her enhanced gauntlets finished the job. There was a squeaky creak as Kassidi gingerly came through and Shizuka and Jamilah had to hurriedly yank her through when the crates above crumpled in on themselves and came down with a loud crash. The women all froze for a moment.

"Asha!" Jamilah hissed as Kassidi backed away slowly and carefully. "Can you hear anything outside?"

Two long minutes ticked by.

"Nothing," Rhaal hissed back. "Nothing at all."

"Good. Let's finish." Shizuka led the way back into her own space. Rhaal shone a light between two cracks.

"Mine's to the left," She informed them.

Shizuka made it through as her other omniblade began to shimmer. They all watched it apprehensively. It strengthened and stayed on.

"I'm wagering one more shot," Shizuka told her companions. "Where's that door?"

"Before you. It's slightly over two metres tall," Rhaal told her, "but no telling how thick it is."

"Standard bipedal configuration." Shizuka contemplated it. "I'm going to take a chance. I'm thinking this place isn't a cargo-anything and like Rhaal said, they just threw it together to house us." She looked down at her omniblade. "I'm also going to wager that door is a standard width, all things being equal."

"I'll take that bet," Jamilah told her, "it's as likely as anything so far."

"Okay..." Shizuka breathed and ran her fingers up the indentation that told of the door's existence. She picked her spot and drove the blade into the wall with precision. There was a massive spark and a loud bang that flung the women back in surprise. When they rose they could see a two centimetre gap that denoted a newly-open door.

"Well, what the hell do you know," Jamilah chuckled from the floor. "Right in the security seal."

"I like being right, too." Shizuka went and peered through the gap. The space beyond was dim, but lit with a soft blue light. She could see what appeared to be bodies on the floor. "That would explain the lack of response." She wedged her fingers into the gap and pulled. The door gave and rebounded. "Need extra hands here."

Jamilah joined her and together they pulled the door open. It halted a third of the way and would be coerced no further.

"Serviceable," Rhaal announced.

"To you, maybe," Jamilah observed. "Some of us are a tad more… ample."

"Tuck them in and squeeze through," Shizuka ordered. "We don't have forever here."

In due course, all the women were on the other side. They fanned into the corridor and were checking the bodies on the floor.

"Alive, according to my scan," Rhaal informed them. "Odd readings though. I can't tell if they're unconscious or just incapacitated."

"Who cares? They're down. That's the important bit." Jamilah pried a pistol from one of the prone figures. "And guns."

"Arm up. What about usable open interfaces?" Shizuka helped herself to a pistol as well as Kassidi and Rhaal found more. Jamilah gave them a quick crash-course, noting the similarities of design from the one Duke had provided her after his escape from New Chamberlain.

"I can scan a few," Rhaal told her. She activated one just up the corridor. It was dim but functional. "They seem to be based on a variation of a HAI system. I couldn't begin to decode the language but pictographic representations seem to be reasonably decipherable."

"That's a step up." Jamilah jammed another pistol into her belt. "Getting out is still gonna be tricky."

"Fortunately some things are universal," Rhaal noted as she looked at her new gun with distaste, "for the most part."

"Stop!" Kassidi hissed suddenly. "I saw something move up ahead!"

Guns instantly pointed down the corridor.

"You sure?" Jamilah asked back to her.

"Yes. It occluded the light at the end of the hallway, moving laterally, left to right." She affirmed.

"Against the wall," Shizuka ordered, "crouch to minimize yourself and advance slowly." She knew something about fighting in corridors. "Watch any corners. Rhaal, keep an eye on the ceiling. Jamilah, on the floor. Kassidi, turn and watch behind us. They can come from anywhere." They began to edge their way up the corridor, stepping slowly over any collapsed figure before them. "Slowly," Shizuka reminded them. "We're in no rush."

When they reached the end, they saw their corridor branch into two to either side and a door to another straight ahead. The door had a dim light above it.

"Left or right?" Rhaal asked.

"Let's follow Kassidi's shadow," Shizuka indicated and they moved a bit quicker up that corridor, it likewise littered with fallen armored figures. The passageway ended with another that curved into the distance. Three doors were before them. One of the doors had been neatly bisected and pushed open. A tentative look showed what appeared to be a control centre with many active if powered down interfaces.

"This is promising," Shizuka told her companions quietly.

"This door is suspicious." Rhaal shook her head.

"Another prisoner?" Kassidi wondered.

"Let's find out," Jamilah voted and Shizuka nodded and led the way. If it was a command deck it was a very straightforward layout, with stations wrapping around the space. There were no chairs. Before them a large holodisplay dimly showed a graphical representation of a large splotch of …something with a red triangle they assumed was the ship on which they stood. It was also littered with collapsed forms, many of these in red armor.

Only one figure moved, this a tall man in black calmly working before the main holodisplay. He had two pistols tucked into the back of his belt. He turned his head slightly to regard them over his shoulder.

"I honestly thought you'd have been here sooner," he told them in a composed voice – one they recognized.

"Duke?!" Shizuka exclaimed.

Winston Black turned with a smile as they approached.

"Well, that explains the door," Jamilah said with satisfaction.

Shizuka shook her head at him.

"Explanation?"

"The Phoenix was attacked and boarded," Black told her. "I was running as best I could to help when one of their boarding craft slammed through the hull near where I was passing. The blast threw me across the deck. I had only awakened a short time ago."

Rhaal snapped on her omnitool. There was a rather large knot on his head.

"We were hit with some kind of stun weapon," she told him, "but I doubt any of us have the headache that thing gave you."

"It's tolerable. This would be appear to be a command annex," Black indicated the area with a wave. "We're on a vessel, crewed by the same people who attacked New Chamberlain." He motioned to the holodisplay before them. "As near as I can tell, we're currently hiding in some kind of energy anomaly …or they have the oddest cloaking system I've ever seen."

"Is that a planetary system?" Rhaal examined the display. "See any spatial references that could help us?"

"None that I can identify but I haven't been here very long. I awoke about twenty minutes ago. Shortly after I awoke, a rather odd pulse of light seemed to emanate throughout the ship and the power went out. There now seems to be emergency power but not much." He looked Kassidi up and down. She blinked as he did it. "I took it upon myself to explore the ship briefly and the entire crew – well, the ones I saw – are apparently incapacitated. No idea how long that will last."

"That's a chance we'll have to take," Shizuka determined. "Anyone else we know on this ship?"

"From the scans I could recognize, I would say no," Black informed her. "Whatever knocked them all out also opened a few doors. I could move reasonably freely. From what I could see when they were awake all interfaces are built into or tuned to their armor."

"Handy," Jamilah mused, "for them."

"Apparently it functions whether they're conscious or not. Even handier." A pause. "Shesi Vas Raven's Fist. You all right?"

"Yes, I'm fine." Kassidi blinked again. "I am fine." She sniffed and then inhaled deeply, waited for a moment. "I don't even feel lightheaded!"

"Shouldn't you be?" Black asked her. The rest were watching her.

"By now, almost certainly, even with this breather. Especially this near the lot of you."

"We'll have to ponder it later. Just be glad you're not useless," Shizuka brought them back to focus. "We need a ship schematic, a directional reference – hell, an arrow pointing with 'shuttle bay' under it would do." Shizuka crossed her arms and eyed the holodisplay. "Personally, I'd have rather been planetside. Ships are a pain in the ass when it comes to escapes." She addressed the other women. "Fan out and see what you can decipher."

They agreed and Black turned back to the main interfaces. Shizuka joined him there.

"I'm glad to see you," she told him quietly.

"Thank you," he replied as quietly. "You didn't seem to need my help."

"We did alright," she told him to his nod. "Why do you think weren't you put in with us?"

"I have no idea," Black replied. Shizuka shrugged and turned her mind to other concerns.

"Actual odds?"

Black sent her a sideways glance.

"Too many variables, although we've been in tighter spots. Granted, I don't recall the last time I was on a vessel surrounded by unknown technology and staffed by extremely hostile persons about whom I know next to nothing." Shizuka smiled a dry smile at that as he continued. "Still I would like to think that in spite of all that, they're the ones in trouble."

"I like your attitude," Shizuka offered him a smile, which was returned. At another station Kassidi toed a collapsed form in red armor. The figure was large. The fine silver and gold suit interfaces on her processing body-sleeve glittered in the light of the displays. She looked up to see Shizuka watching her.

"Interesting armor forms."

"Rather have them on the floor than coming at us," Shizuka reminded her.

Rhaal called them over to her interface. She was scanning it with her omnitool.

"I think I found something. Looks like an internal ship scan, likely a diagnostic. Not a schematic but usable."

"Well done," Black complimented. "That would appear to be an ancillary ship bay." He pointed at her display.

"There's one there as well," Jamilah pointed to the other side of the display, "and it looks closer. Larger ships. Might be …shuttles?"

"Shuttles would be less problematic than fighter craft," Shizuka mused. "Better flight than fight, given this situation. Control interfaces would likely be less complex."

"Regardless, both are several levels below us," Black informed them. "Best not waste time. Opinions?"

"Take the shuttles, if that's what they are," Rhaal voted. "Just hope they're fast." The others agreed. Black nodded and traced a route then committed it to memory.

"A moment," Kassidi halted them, looking at Black with some suspicion. "Back there, I saw you in the corridor. You led us here, didn't you?"

"Led you…?" Winston arched an eyebrow at her. "I've led none of you anywhere. I came here almost directly since the power went out and my door opened."

"But …I definitely saw something."

"It wasn't me, I assure you."

"Someone else…?" Jamilah began, only to be cut off by a huge black-armored figure with a grinning skull mask hiding his features stepping calmly onto the deck. He was armed with a large rifle that he used to casually kill a red-armored figure on the floor with a single shot to the head. The rifle then swung as casually in their direction.

"Now then," the figure said, "what to do with you...?"

"Well, shit," Shizuka muttered.

"Exactly that," Black agreed quietly.

Around them displays began to brighten as the ship came back to life.