Pot calling the Kettle Black.

[Anonymous]

Seriously? Sera closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Ai was a bitch. She was probably created when he flew through the electromagnetic Cluster of Bitch.  Or something. Eitherway, Sera knew he hated his ship and that he was going to figure out how to get rid of the damn AI on it sooner rather than later. "Ai, turn the god damn ship to manual!"

"No, Darling. It is safer when I fly, 12.7 percent safer to be exact, I have a better reaction time than you do." There was a pause, "I dodge the objects being fired at us better."  Sera threw snarled a few nasty words before he was thrown against a wall. Pirates. Sure Sera wasn't a good guy or anything but seriously? Pirates. He was going to get his ass end blown off by Pirates.

"Sending out a distress signal, Darling." Sera grumbled and continued hitting buttons. There was no precious cargo on board, he'd left that at the space sation. With any luck they'd get themselves kidnapped so he wouldn't have to pay for their stay anymore. "About freakin' Time, Ai." Still couldn't believe he had to snap at his damn ship. At least he didn't have to worry about flying the thing. He was busy enough going back and forth fixing the machineary that got overloaded.

His ship was for bursts of speed. Not out running  pirates he could shoot them fine but he'd have to be able to pause and aim for that. "C'mon distress signal, gimmie a good one and not some pansy ass do-gooder. Someone that will help me and be on their marry-little-way. Promise not to be mean to the next person that finds their way onto my ship." If he promised the distress signal that, then he really wouldn't have to keep it.

[Tally]

Nathan was dozing in his chair when the distress signal started beeping.  He jolted awake, looking around for his alarm before he realized what the sound was.

Blinking and bleary-eyed, he got on Diva's comm and sent a message back.  "We got your signal.  What's wrong?"

Hopefully they were in a state to tell him and he wouldn't have to go in blind and not knowing what to expect.

[Anonymous]

Oh thank the gods.

Sera heaved a sigh after the ship took a heavy hit, the shield generator was almost blown and Ai was turning into a hag. Sera's voice crackled over the comm and it sounded rough and there was static, Ai's voice rattled off damage in the background behind him.

"This is the... uh..." Shit, his ship didn't have a name, it was a number. A number most do-gooders knew as 'this guy is a bad person', "uh.... Angelic ...Uh... Curse." God that was lame.  "My name is Serafeim, and I am royally fucked unless you can help me. Surrounded by Pirates I think, maybe they think I have some good cargo on board."

Sera rattled off his coordinates and held his breath, his eyes closed all the while Ai was trying to keep everything running.

[Tally]

Surrounded by pirates.  Just the phrase to make Nathan rethink this whole thing.  He felt for that guy, really he did, but he also had his crew to think of.  Their safety, their lives.

After a moment of indecision he got on the intercomm to address the crew.  "Papillion I need you on the bridge, Alexis stand by, everyone else hold on to your asses.  We're about to piss off a few pirates."

Would have been useful to know how many.  Alexis's new installations were going to get one hell of a test.

He sent another message to the besieged ship.  "We're on our way.  Send me your exact coordinates."

[Anonymous]

Sera rattled off the exact coordinates carefully,  Ai was telling him to relay them, so he did or they'd die. He'd die. Ai wasn't really alive. She was a machine. Sera smashed his fist against his seat while he looked at the image once the comm cut out. At least he got the coordinates out.

 At least two ships Ai was letting him see. No windows, minimal Anything Distinctive to keep him even more off the charts. Nothing amazing. Not even a banana yellow streak. Maybe that's why he looked so suspicious. The two (or three, Sera only saw two and Ai had jammed the radar so that it wouldn't 'worry him,') ships had stopped shooting, maybe to board and loot him. Or something. What a bust. He didn't even have anything good on his ship right now.

[Anonymous]

As soon as she heard Nathan's command, Papillion pulled the food she had been cooking off the heat and just shoved the pan into the fridge. She would clean it up later. She raced for the bridge, her short legs taking the steps two at a time with help from the rails.

"Here! What's going on?" Papillion moved over to the chair, nudging Nathan with her hip, "Out out. You Captain, I'll drive."

[hr:hcw14eq1][/hr:hcw14eq1]

Alexis froze, gripping the ball he had been shooting with, staring at the com. Pirates? Totally lame man! He stashed the ball and jogged to the engine room, pulling off his sweaty shirt as he went. No point in feeling gross while he worked.

He punched the com button, leaning against the wall, "Ready and willin' brah! We gonna like...run or somethin'? Ya wanna try out those sweet boosters I just installed?"

[Tally]

"Distress signal."  Nathan relinquished the chair and tapped their nav screen.

"We need a precision jump.  These are the ship's coordinates, so give us some space.  I don't want us blinking out of jump right in the middle of a pirate cruiser.  Go stealth as soon as we're out of jump."

While Papillion got them ready for jump, Nathan got back on the comm with the other ship.  He didn't know the name, Angelic Curse, and he figured he'd remember something like that.  The captain's name sounded familiar.  He just couldn't place it.  "We'll be out of jump in..." He glanced at the nav screen.  "Ten seconds.  You may not see us, but I'll buzz you."

Nathan scrubbed a hand through his hair.  This was new for him.  He was used to running away from pirates.  He got back to Alexis.  "Get 'em ready.  Think we can stretch the stealth field to include another ship?"

[Anonymous]

"Aye Aye!" Papillion started typing quickly, scanning the computer screen as she set up the jump, "You have so little faith in me. Jump into the middle of the ship my left tit!"

[hr:tw0h96p0][/hr:tw0h96p0]

"Totally! All ready to go brah!" Alexia laughed at Nathan's question, "Dude? I'm good, but with the money you give me, I'm not like magic! Unless that's a baby ship, field ain't gonna reach brah."

[Anonymous]

Sera tapped at the terminal, his fingers working feverishly while bits of equipment went offline. Truely and utterly freaked out, he chewed on his lip and slammed his fists down when the screech of the ship rubbing against the side of his, they were on the wrong side, what a bunch of lugs. But still. They could make their own door and Sera would suffocate in a second.

It was a tiny ship, maybe enough to fit three people on a good day if they all wanted to sleep together, mostly because his own personal living space was the largest room on the ship and held his kitchen too.

Sera's mantra consisted of the word 'shit' over and over again. He was stuck, he'd never get out of here and if those people he'd gotten a hold of left him high and dry he'd probably be turned into a slave himself, just like the people he sold for profit. "C'mon, Heroes, I could use your help now!"

[Tally]

Left tit?

Nathan shook his head.  "You're a poet, Papillion."

He started the jump count.  They had only seconds, so he gave Alexis his instructions in one breath.  "Peel off one of the stealth layers, two if you need it, use the boost to extend the field.  You've got..."  He checked the estimates.  "About six minutes to rig it."

The ship jumped and blinked out back into space.  Nathan had the intercom button pressed down, and as he took in the scene beyond the bridge's windows, his next words were announced throughout the entire ship. "Oh, fuck me."

Seven pirate ships.  Seven.  Fucking...seven!  What were they, a fleet?  He saw two cruisers, what looked to be three old transports rigged with grapplers and weaponry, and two Typhoon-class barges.

They were in stealth, but at least one of those ships likely had jump sensors.  They would know something was up.  Nathan called the other ship.  "We're here.  We'll be at your position in five, but you've got to get away from that cruiser banging on your hull.  We can't get you in our stealth field with it so close."

[Anonymous]

"What? Man, you ask a lot brah!" Alexis grinned and went to work, already reaching for his tools. This was going to be tricky in that amount of time. And he had to make sure he didn't let the other ships detect the layers getting peeled away.

When Nathan's next comment went out, Alexis flushed a little and grinned to himself. He would happily take the Cap'n up on that, but he highly doubted Nathan had meant that.

[hr:22wjnsg6][/hr:22wjnsg6]

"Always. And an amazing pilot and you are lucky to have meee....shiiiit. Nathan, we're gonna die. You know that, right?" Papillion grinned and reached over, patting him on the ass, "I was so sure you would get laid before I died. Such a waste."

[Anonymous]

Sera swallowed and squeezed his eyes shut. This sucked. So much. Did he accidentally steal their damn princess or something? Did someone sneak onto his ship? Shit, shit, shit. If he made any fancy sudden movements he was sure something would slam into his ship and make all his air explode out into the nothingness of space.

What a concept. An area full of nothing and everyone was floating in it.  Sera slammed his fist onto a button, it hurt his knuckles, but it did the trick. It wasn't some amazing jet burst, but they moved away slowly. He could hear the metal scraping aginst the one that was against his hull and Sera glared at one of Ai's 'eyes'. A Camera for safety measures. Sort of.

His hands were shaking and he was scared. Down in a fight? Yes please. Suffocation because of no oxygen, no not really. Gods, were they going to break into his ship and steal him? Ai directed the ship more calmly than Sera could with his freaking out. Getting away was fine when he could move without the fear of being turned into cheese coursed through his veins.

"Okay. Ai got us out." His voice was more calm than he looked. "I think. I'm not getting anymore warnin' signals poppin' up on the screen. Y'know, those ones that warn you  when you're about to get ass raped by Pirates?" Sera waited a beat before he continued " C'mon, Heroes, Angel... Uh..."Damn, what did he name his ship before? "...Cross is all yours.  Direct me and I'll be your slave." He was good at meneuvering in tight situations. This was impending doom-ie more than it was life threatening. He could do life threatening.

[Tally]

"Not now," he muttered.  He couldn't find the usual indignation for Papillion's teasing.  There were seven pirate ships out there looking for the source of the jump distortion and in his experience they hated his type.  Didn't take kindly to him flaunting his ship under their noses and leaving them in his wake with nothing to show for their trouble.

"Bring us in close.  Close as you can manage.  Don't stop, keep going.  Just cruise right on by, slow."

Back on the comm with the other ship again.  She still had some thrust and she was gonna need it.  "I'm sending you our trajectory.  You need to match it.  We can't sit in one spot, they'll fire on our position.  When you come under our stealth just follow along close and we'll float on out of here."

Now to Alexis again.  The timing here would have to be perfect.  One glimpse of the Diva's hull and they'd have scramblers and hooks on them.  "Get that stealth field boosted, then get up to the airlock.  I want to get hooked up with that ship as soon as we're clear."

[Anonymous]

"Brah, relax man. I got it, stay chill!" Alexis was breathing hard, covered in grease, but he had managed to jury-rig some things, "Just, that's a lotta extra boost man. And that power gotta come from somewhere. So, like, the engine is strained. You can't like, jump man. Not and keep the boosted field. Just, ya know, warnin' ya."

[hr:1q837953][/hr:1q837953]

Papillion just shrugged, lighting up one of her flavored cigarettes. If he was gonna make her do tricky shit like this, she was smoking and he could shove it, "Wonder what he did to piss the pirates off. And how come he keeps forgetting the name of his ship?"

[Anonymous]

((Dropping thread due to lack of a reply))