Ask There Is Always Time For That

[Xim Zhan]

As Maeve slipped away for a few moments, Xim dropped another pair of pirates. Rolling free of his cover, sent another volley of bolts and return fire with two more pirates falling and a bolt sizzling a passing shot across a portion of Xim’s chest plate; but by then, the band of second-rate cutthroats had met their match and quickly went scrambling for safety further down the hall.

Picking himself up, Xim brushed at the scorch mark with a gloved hand, mumbling under his breath something about “. . . and jist had this waxed too . . .”

“Might?” Xim questioned somewhat playfully as he looked up to the returning woman. “I’d hate to see what world you grew up on.”

“Still, we might as well keep moving. The sooner we get this figured, the sooner you can be some sort of heroine to the masses.”

Turning to go, the blood drained from Xim’s face; not that it was visible behind his masked tace. Raising a finger, he pointed toward a joist in the ceiling. With a sickening snarl, the shadowy creature leapt. Xim unleashed a golley of three successive blasts in the creature’s direction, not even stopping to see if they found home. “Definitrly time to go,” he chortled, his voice weighted with worry at whateger it was he had just see, as he took off running down the hallway. Whatever it was, Xim Zhan had no intention of sticking around to find out.

The docks where Maeve’s ship was parked was not far away and the duo made it there without resistance; which in and of itself was strange given the circumstances. Not that the Mandalorian considered such a thing. He just waved Maeve toward the row of docked ships, “Grab your gear. I’ll cover our six.” He was trusting that she would not try to abandon him to the waiting pirates outside, lesving him to fsce whatever wraith now may be stalking them.

Ducking behind the nearest ship’s landing gear, a well-maintained and heavily customized Z-96 headhunter, Xum checked his power pack and braced against the gear, waiting to blast whatever might come in the door

@LadyRen

 

[Maeve]

Maeve agreed with him and without hesitation, she started to make a run for the correct hangar. Whatever was chasing them wasn't really happy and she had no intentions of finding out what exactly it was. She and animals weren't the best combination so she wasn't taking any chances.

There was short moment of struggle as the beast charged at them, however while she skidded to a halt and flung herself out of the way, the Mandalorian handled it well. They then continued and as they reached her ship, she playfully replied, "check those 3s and 9s, too". His jargon was amusing and it offered brief amusement during the stressful times.

Once inside, Maeve literally considered her option. Thanks to her escort, she could just make a run for it and escape, however nothing ventured nothing gained, right? Prospects were either a Mandalorian ally or enemy and killing some more scum wouldn't just aid their reputation, but offered many more promises of loot and retribution. If some of them were after her for the theft of the jewels, they were better off dead.

She thus bolted for her lockers and grabbed TDs, a second blaster and shock grenades - everything that could come in handy for a louder response. As she popped back out, she said, "last chance. We could also just leave and let the station handle it", she suggested, needing to know whether he was in completely as she didn't want to waste any resources and alone, she would have just left.

@The Mad Hammer

 

[Xim Zhan]

Xim chuckled at the joke as he settled in to watch the entry. While Maeve was aboard, the hangar remained empty and relatively silent, split only by the soft distant sound of sporadic gunfire. One could almost believe it was peaceful; but that peaceful was wrong somehow. Here, in this hangar full of craft, nothing, nobody moved. No bodies littered the floor. It was just, well, empty; like anyone and everyone had just vanished into the air. The air felt heavy with the pressing aura of death. Xim furrowed his brow and blinked hard to put the weight behind him.

When Maeve offered to leave, Xim was sorely tempted; more tempted than he’d ever willingly admit. There were unknowns there too; his ship was nowhere near where they were, so either Xim trued to hotwire a craft or he hopped aboard with the beautiful strangely effective stranger. Given the alternative, the Mandalorian was almost willing to chance either.

The only thing was, regardless of all the denizens of the station; Xim was not a coward. To run from these pirates was to acknowledge their superiority and he could not stomach such a thing. As such, with a heavy sigh, Xim tongued his comms on and responded, “Nerf herding isn’t this exciting. Lets give these pirates something to remember us by before we leave.” And then, if the suspiciously not-a-hooker and he wanted to jet of into the stars after it was settled, so be it.

And suddenly, at that moment, the dull power-down of, well, everything, passed through the station. Every machine and fixture suddenly lost power; even emergency backup. “Guess we stay,” Xim muttered as he noted the staunchly closed hangar door; having closed when the ship had come under ‘attack.’

Flipping his HUD to infrared, Xim noted a couple key things. The first, at least a relief in the moment, was they were alone. The second, a much bigger concern, was the sight of the heat dissipating out of the external metals into the void of space.

Nobody really realized all the background noise that the simple mechanical operation of a station made; at least until it was gone. The purr of the ventilation, the hiss of pneumatics, the buzz of electricity and the whoosh of pressurization, all of it; gone. In it’s wake the cold creeping silence of space itself. Until, somewhere in the distance something clattered as something crashed in the dark.

Fishing a flashlight from his waist, Xim shone it toward Maeve’s ship. “Things seem to be getting worse. Perhaps we should hurry.”

@LadyRen

 

[Maeve]

So Maeve was relatively confident she prefered leaving over any possible loot there was, but while she was still on her ramp, the lights all around suddenly flickered before the sound of systems shutting down penetrated the air around them. At once she spun, scanning their environment critically, before he voiced the obvious.

"Why is shit always following me", she furiously muttered under her breath, the realization hitting her at once: They weren't just stranded here with pirate scum, but literally with no chance to escape while wild beasts roamed the area too. They were basically called in a survival game and Maeve was in no mood to actually participate, but they had no choice.

"Fantastic. Back to plan A then. Let's blow those bastards up and keep them busy while trying to find a way to restore power", she suggested, meeting his gaze behind the visor. She stored the grandes and explosives in her the bag she had slung over her shoulder and raced to get into cover behind him.

With the absence of light, she barely made it to him until he offered a little light, but Maeve's skin was already laced with goosemumps as it felt much colder all of a sudden. Oxygen wouldn't be a concern for now, but the coldness surrounding them was, so she nudged him. "Let's go...perhaps let's focus on surviving first". She bit her lip as a genuine wave of nervosity washed over her.

@The Mad Hammer

 

[Xim Zhan]

Xim nodded in the dark. Survival was desirable. Blowing the air lock from the station to the ship on the other hand; with seemingly EVERYTHING offline, Xim limed his idea less and less. There would not be any back up defaults to rely on if things went awry. They often did too. “Lets just see about getting the lights back on.” He grumbled, agreeing with the idea of making the bastards that had been wreaking havoc on the station pay a price for such behavior.

Crouched, Xim moved forward back into the hallway. Looking left and right, he could see tendrils of heat as a few frightened customers cautiously made their way in the dark. He could not blame them. Getting back to his ship seemed like a positively pleasant idea; although getting off the station had not crossed their minds yet.

Seeing an access panel, a short way down the hall, Xim hurried toward it. “Come on, I’ve got an idea.”

With an unceremoniously loud screech of metal on metal, Xim was able to use his body weight to force the corroded access handle open. The heavy panel swing wide, the dull lifeless panel of blank screens and shadowy diodes telling them whet they already knew. “Hmmm. Looks like the power is really out.” Fishing his knife from his boot, Xim squinted behind his visor. He’d never admit it, but sometimes the gosh darn T-shape so universally associated with the warrior motif in the galaxy was just plain hard to see through; especially this close and in the dark. Still he managed, slipping the edge of the deactivated blade into the first screw head. Several minutes later and all eight screws that had held the panel in place were lying haphazardly on the floor and Xim had yanked the panel facade free, leaving it dangling and lurching from the wall.

Activating the thermal blade of his knife, Cim cut away the tubing and wires allowing the panel to crash to the decking. “Hope nobody hears that,” he winced before gesturing to the snug access tube that lay behind where the panel had been. It was a one way path. There’d be no turning around or even squirming to get in a better position once inside. It would be a crawl to the bottom, wherever that was; but if anything, it’d get them closer, if not to, the center of it all; the main power core reactor.

“Ladies first?” He asked, half shrugging his shoulders as he gestured. Even with his light armor, it would be a struggle and he was not keen to climb facedown down the shaft.

Of course, that all became a moot point as the anti-gravity finally gave way with it’s last shreds of power. Slowly, Xim began to float upward. Xim raised a questioning eyebrow. Things just got complicated.

Grabbing for the lip of the panel, the Mandalorian pulled himself toward it, wriggling and kicking as he clawed and began to pull himself down the wire-laden chute, kicking his feet, wiggling his hips and clawing with his hands as he went headfirst down the conduit.

It was about halfway down when he finally stopped. Echoing up from the other end was a variety of voices and the occasional glint of light as a headlamp swept the area. Pausing, Xim had no way of telling his compatriot what lay ahead and with his arms and shoulders stretched above his head, accessing his weapons was impossible. So in the weightlessness tangle of wires and darkness, Xim’s fingers ached with pain as he gingerly tried to pull himself along until he could see something; anything.

Reaching the end of the chute, Xim could just make out through the bramble of thick black wires and cords the main reactor hold, a large walkway circling about it with a variety of stairs and ladders leading from one level another. Each level seemed to have a half dozen or so pirates, some more scientifically-minded in appearance than others, brute muscle for sure. Altogether, they appeared to be doing all they could to dislodge the core from it’s mountings.

Xim cursed under his breath. So much for turning the lights back on. He knew how to hotwire a speeder, bypass a couple of redundancy systems; but this? No way in the nine hells of Corellia could he figure out something like this out! Maybe his companion had another trick up her sleeve?

Wriggling out to his waist, Xim gripped the chute and pushed until he popped out, hanging there in the dark cool air. What he saw, chilled him to the bone. Not only was the reactor detached; but these pirates were actively working to prepare the bottom of the station for removal of the core in it’s entirety!

Grabbing for a handful of conduit, Cin pulled himself to cover behind a durasteel girder and fished his Westar made blaster free, locking the collapsable stock back and bracing jt against his shoulder, making the sidearm into a light carbine. And then he waited for Maeve to get free and take up a position. Then it would be time to act. There was little else they could do.

@LadyRen

 

[Maeve]

Things got worse every second and Maeve was subtly starting to panic on the inside. The Mando claimed he had an idea and as she literally didn't have any apart from turning the power on again to open the hangar, so she followed quickly, hoping for some additonal shield.

As they reached the panel, he soon started cutting his way inside and while Maeve kept watching their surroundings, she doubted attention was still on them. "I doubt it", she whispered in a hushed voice before she bit the inside of her cheek, hoping he knew what he was doing there.

Seconds seem to fly past and as he urged her to enter the chute first, she suddenly felt herself losing gravitation as well. Fantastic. Just what they needed. The last thing she could literally grab was the Mandalorian and so she pulled herself close to reach the hatch before she weightlessness pulled herself onwards.

Now that was her being out of her element. She was on full survival mode, knowing they had to get the power back on but at the same time afraid they simply die here. It soon turned out that pirates were indeed trying exactly that: keeping the power out and leaving everyone to their fate, and while Maeve eyes widened in pure shock, she knew they had no choice but to keep it together.

Those fucking idiots. It wasn't looking good at all, especially because it seemed like they had been the ones with a headscarf and the temperatures were already so low that she literally shivered. It was dark, too, and so their next moves were possible the deciding factor of life and death.

She squeezed past him and locked her legs around a bunch of pipes to steady herself, so that she then had to tense up her body completely to stay steady. She readied her blaster, however pondered whether a grenade would do the job as well, however given that they operated near very fragile tech, she immediately discarded the thought. "Let's do it", was all her shaking, quiet voice said before she gave him one last nod. If they wouldn't kill them and reattach the core, they were doomed.

 

[Xim Zhan]

Xim nodded slowly. Working his arthritic finger open and closed around his weapon as if to improve the circulation in the cold and dark. Things were about to go real sideways, as if they had not from the moment that Maeve had sat down at his table what felt like a week ago.

“One problem at a time,” he reminded himself as he stared down the sites of his shoulder mounted weapon, his mind pondering what would happen next, IF, and that was a big if, they won this little crackdown in the core. Inhaling, Xim steadied himself, slowly he let the breath from his lungs as he popped off two quick blasts.

A pair of crimson beams arced through the shadows and buried themselves in a pirate who had been busying himself with a cutting torch. The solitary thug slumped forward as his body began to slowly drift. It seemed, caught up in their own tasks, working solitary or in groups of two or three, maybe, just maybe the unlikely alliance could pick off a good chunk of them. The key was now to do it quickly before any more damaged was done.

Lining up another shot, Xim concentrated on the group of two musclebound thugs. Squeezing off a round, the bolt tore into the pirate’s neck. Tugging the carbine, Xim focused on the second and sent another round sizzling his way.

@LadyRen

 

[Maeve]

Admittedly, Maeve had never fought while utterly weightless and without a gravitational field, but it wasn't she could have received training in such circumstances and no one ever hoped to fight such a battle, but well...here they were. With gritted teeth she started firing in full sync with her Mandalorian ally, slowly taking out the first pirates before they noticed they weren't alone.

"GET THEM!", a deep, hoarse voice bellowed before the Mandalorian's shot hit him. Maeve meanwhile took out the one right next to him. It was a heated battle against time, but as temperatures keep steadily dropping, Maeve decided to launch herself forwards after the main force was out, knowing they had no choice but to restore power as quickly as possible.

She was hoping for cover from the Mandalorian beside her, but as a moving target she was at least hard to hit. She aimed for the first remaining once, swapping blaster for her Vibro-Daggers, but knowing a weightless fight wasn't easy, but before either of them could cut another wire, she intended to keep them busy elsewhere.

@The Mad Hammer

 

[Xim Zhan]

Xim sent a flurry of blasterfire down range in an attempt to provide cover as his compatriot drove forward. As his shots zinged off metallic panels and found their marks in several of the pirates, the rest doge for cover, buying the duo a few moments to reposition. Launching himself forward with a crouched leap from the wall, Xim glided forward like a shriek-hawk going in for the kill. With his gun in his left hand, Xim stopped his forward momentum with his free hand as he stopped over and above Maeve’s charge.

Taking a moment, the Mandalorian collapsed his weapon and reholstered it, swapping it out with the 3-pronged duo of vibro-claws from his belt. Following Maeve’s lead, he launched himself downward, conpletely surpassing the initial deck where Maeve had turned her focus and driving further. Fighting in zero-gravity was a different experience; but st least Xim had some familiarity with moving in it.

As the first pirate peered about the floating power core, Xim rather gruesomely drove his claws through the pirate’s visored face to slow his decent; ripping his flaws out to rake at another pair of nearby pirates who fired wildly into the air as their weapons were knocked askew.

@LadyRen

 

[Maeve]

Maeve wasn't alone for long at the front lines and her companion changed to Melee quickly as well. The pirate she sliced open first grunted in pain before she shoved the lifeless body away and took a look around- it seemed the Mandalorian did quite a decent job in dealing with the rest, so for now Maeve once again used her legs to lock herself into position before she started busying herself with the partly detached core.

Nothing was good, but hope wasn't lost yet. Maeve was neither an engineer nor overly tech savvy, but those idiots had literally ripped out parts of the Core that had formerly been attached to the board it was placed on.

She tried reconnecting what was left, but wondered whether anything else had to get bypassed to restore the rest of the power, but she reassuringly glanced over her shoulder to check on her armored ally in case he needed help for now. She began seeing her breath and knew it was a really bad seen while the weightlessness made her a little queasy.

@The Mad Hammer

 

[Xim Zhan]

“Four, five, seven,” Xim counted to himself as he used the magnets on his boots and his claws to move about on unorthodox ways as he carved through an array of techy pirate goons; eviscerating two at one t Making his way down the free-ish floating power core, Xim arrived at the bottom only to find that the pirates there had abandoned their post and fled into the darkness already.

What he did find; however, was equally unpleasant, mynocks, a whole swarm of them; released from the vaults or uninvited guests, was anyone’s guess; but they were rather unhappy at their food source being cut off. Xim thrashed frantically as the bat-like beasties swarmed him. Truth be told, the leathery flying rats terrified him and the best defense he could muster was tl thrash about wildly with his claws hoping they would go away. “GAAAAAAAH!” He cried out as he unknowingly sheered a mynock’s wing from his body, sending the critter spiraling in the zero gravity.

@LadyRen

 

[Maeve]

As if things weren't bad enough, it soon turned out those pirate scumbags weren't their only problem. Just as Maeve tried melting a bit of metal with her fusion cutter, a swarm of mynocks swarmed out from nowhere, making her screech for a moment. Maeve had never been super keen on animals, but this was just bad.

"KEEP THEM OFF!", she yelled as she flailed around with her arms, before the stopped swarming her for a moment and gave her time to work again. She was feeling ice cold, not just from the lower temps, but from fear too, and her heart was literally racing as she reconnected the last wires. It wasn't working. Why wasn't it working?!

Frantically, she doubted checked the wires, her legs still cramped around the pipes underneath, as suddenly the lights flickered and she unceremoniously hit the ground as gravity was back. Her head was spinning, but she immediately pushed herself upwards, trying to locate the Mandalorian. "It's back on! We have to leave!".

@The Mad Hammer

 

[Xim Zhan]

As the flurry of mynocks blew by Xim, the Mandalorian slowly looked around; his heart pumping harder from the leathery bats than from combat.

The only thing that kept the Mandalorian from falling over when the gravity reengaged was his magnetized boots already holding him to the floor. His knees did flex as they recaptured his weight with a grimace of pain. He did not have time to quip; however, as the bodies of several dead/dying pirates rained around him with a clamor. They’d either gotten them all or what remained had fled; whichever it was did not matter at this point.

In that moment, Maeve clattered to the floor as well. “You,” he began to shout to ask if she was ok before she leapt to her feet, “Yeah. You’re ok.” He smiled as he turned and beeline for a red panel on the wall. All across the station power was returning. This brought a whole new plethora of problems as systems that were never meant to lie dormant reengaged and power and pressure flowed through the ship. Already faint alarm klaxons could be heard in the distance. This was not to mention the horrifying discovery of escaped exotic and deadly creatures throughout the ship.

Reaching the panel, Xim wrenched it open. “Agreed.” He muttered to himself. “Timei to go.” In his mind he was pondering the fastest route back to his ship and calculating if the Manda Money could get him far enough fast enough. It was a gamble either way. Looking over his shoulder, Xim shouted. “Toss me a Thermal Det!” Now was the time to make sure those pirates paid for what they had done, docking clamps and all. He held a hand out toward Maeve in anticipation of catching the delicate explosive.

@LadyRen

 

[Maeve]

With the gravitation having returned, she felt her subtle pain through the meds still and it slightly made her grimace now that she know they were still faced with a whole bunch of annoying problems. Hence, her mood was just continuously deteriorating and instead of wanting to capitalize on this stupid mess any further, she had the desperate desire to leave...

"Please", she started dashing after him, however quickly realized what he was up to. Throwing a TD though?! No, this time they still had and so she broke into a sprint, skidded to a halt, and handed him the delicate detonator, not at all wanting to risk getting blown up but that shit.

"Hurry!". As much as retribution would be sweet, they needed to save their asses first, and so she waited for him to do his thing while she mentally settled on the fastest route. She half pondered on just making a run for it by herself, but given that he was the one with the main fire power and potential protective armor, she didn't want to risk it. "Where's your ship?", she was hoping it was close to hers.

@The Mad Hammer

 

[Xim Zhan]

Xim smiled beneath his helmet as he took the explosive and began to gently nestle it next to the core as it bobbed and buzzed, not being entirely secured in it’s mounts. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” He munbled as he worked the device into the wires. “I’m parked somewhere on C deck, direct shot to the bar.” Truth be told, Xim was pretty sure the station was doomed either way. A power core was such a delicate thing and there was no way they were going to get it back to prime function. It was only a matter of time before it suffered a catastrophic failure; if the rest of the station did not get the job done first.

Letting go of the explosive, Cim held a hesitant hand below it, in anticipation it would fall out. When it did not, he gave it a knowing nod. “The station is karked anyway. Lets make sure the pirates don’t get away unscathed. Pull that fire alarm there,” he pointed to a nearby alarm panel. “It will send folks running for the escape pods. Give us a straight shot to our ships.”

Xim reached a hand into the mess of wires along the core and began to twist the timer up to the top countdown, ten minutes would buy them whatever time they could get. As soon as Maeve pulled the alarm, if she did, Xim was prepared to sprint down the hallway toward safety.

@LadyRen

 

[Maeve]

Maeve still pondered on whether they'd somehow manage to gain something from all this chaos, but after all, she was still most concerned with getting out alive, so she discarded the multitude of risky ideas and focused on what mattered.

What she had done to the powercore was a temporary solution that only bought them a little time, but this meant they still only had a few minutes left before this would end fatally.

When he asked her to activate the fire alarm, she jogged over, shattered the glass that protected the little lever and pulled it. For a few seconds there was nothing and for a moment she was afraid it didn't work, but just another second later the alarm started blaring.

Were there still many travelers left here? She doubted it, after all the chaos, but adding some more here definitely wouldn't do harm. "Let's go!", she urged him to run right away, and so she did herself as she bolted down the hallway. Keeping composure was still hard, but in the end they'd make it back to the decks.

"I guess this is where we part ways", she quickly said to him, meeting his gaze behind the T-visor. "It was a pleasure working with you", a smirk spread across her lips as they had at least survived somehow, but perhaps this wasn't their last meeting.

@The Mad Hammer

 

[Xim Zhan]

Xim did not need telling twice. His knees cracked and the man winced in pain as he stumbled before regaining his composure and running after Maeve, his teeth grating against the pain of his worn knees.

Around them klaxons cried and alarm lights flashed about in sweeping circles. A few odd passengers could be seen running tither and hither, no longer sure what was going on. “Get to your ship!” Xim bellowed, waving the frightened looming spacers toward the hangars before skidding to a stop at a divided hallway, nearly crashing into his cohort.

As she spoke, Xim stared back into Maeve’s eyes. Reaching up, he detached his helmet and pulled it off his head, so she could see his sweaty face. He offered a cheesy lopsided smile. “Wasn’t the worst first date I’ve been on in this Sector,” he said with a playful wink before jamming his helmet back on and turning to head toward his ship. “If you’re ever on Concorde Dawn, look me up! I’m the one with the nerf farm!” He shouted over his shoulder before rounding the corner to sprint toward the docked Manda Money.

Thundering down the hallway with heavy wincing footfalls, Xim was glad to see at least a few haggard pilots had taken the alarm serious enough to also be running for their ships. Making the bay, he ran to his ship and quickly activated the unlocking mechanism before clattering aboard and haphazardly throwing himself into the worn pilot’s seat and throwing several switches. The ship quickly began to come online, systems booting up as the impatient Mandalorian tapped the console feverishly. “Come on. Come on. Come on.”

As the ship came online, Xim activated the thrusters. The G1-A lurched from it’s pad toward the now open ray-shielded entry and out into the void of space.

@LadyRen