The medbay door looms ahead of you, and appears unlocked.
As you are about to thumb the lock, you hear a laugh from inside the medbay, muted by the thick pressure door.
Sirus puts his ear to the door
Cord puts a hand on his side arm and draws it half out as he waits for Sirus to open the door.
Sirus is able to hear a muffled voice, but that's all.
Sirus glances down at Cord's weapon. Be ready.
He opens the door and steps to the side in case something came flying out.
[Spoiler= if nothing is forthcoming]
Sirus slides into the room, doing his best to not spook whoever was talking.
Cord fully draws the weapon and stands to the other side of the door as it opens. Hello? he calls. We are friendlies.
As the door slides upwards it reveals a standard issue cargo hauler medbay, rows of cots to one side and diagnostic equipment on the other.
There is one man sat on the edge of a cot, a pressure bandage applied to one knee.
He has a pistol holstered at his side, and his hand moves towards it but freezes as he sees Cord's drawn weapon.
There is a second man stood nearby, hands empty but reflexively grasping for the combat scattergun on the bunk behind him.
I thought you locked the cargo bay door Hal...
he says to his injured companion.
He did. Sirus grumbles. Now, who wants to explain what in the void is going on here before this fellow here gets twitchy?
Cord, standing part way in the doorway for cover readies an action to fire on either should they take an offensive action. He tries to note details about equipment or the way they are dressed that might give hints of their origins.
I've really got more bullets than I care to carry. he says. It would be real easy to get me to shed a few so keep your hands away from your weapons and you will find us quite friendly. Cord is trying to use his Persuasive ability here. People have either tried to kill us or left us for dead. That puts me in a bad mood.
Now let's not do anything hasty there brother...
The one of the bench holds up both hands placatingly
There seems to be a bit of a misunderstanding here...
He glances at the one left standing, but he just looks tense, eyes only for the pistol in Cord's hand.
We're a rescue team, only the mission's gone... awry...
He stares at Cord's gun and adds
Can't you lower the gun? We aren't going to try anything, just want to avoid high emotions and accidents, they don't mix well eh?
he seems to be using deliberate tactics to try and diffuse the situation rather than speaking from the heart. He want to take away the current advantage you have.
Look, this hauler, this corp... they were auctioning off the cryopods, some to mining colonies, others to private medical facilities... for spare parts or... experiments, disgusting really. Anyway, my team got the nod from an insider, came and tried to disable the ship, rescue the cargo, you guys. Only they had more defences than we counted on...
He points at the gun again
You gonna lower that?
Something does not quite seem right but Cord can;t put his finger on it. Auction off the pods? That is horrendous! What sick bastards would do something like that! And no, I am not loweringly gun, or my guard while you guys are armed. I am all for talking calmly as soon as Sirus is holding your weapons. He nods to Sirus as he shifts into a more formal shooting stance. And don't step between me and them Sirus.
Ater Sirus retirees the weapons he asks If you guys were here to rescue us why didn't you wake us up instead of leaving us in a leaking cargo bay about to dump us into space?
Sirus slowly retrieves the weapons.
Sirus grunts. Rescue personel aren't usually trained in combat of this style. And they aren't usually tagged as hostile automatically in the ship's weapons system neither.
Yup sick bastards that's right...
The man eyes Sirus as he approaches, then he rolls sideways off the bed as his comrade dives backwards for the shotgun on the cot.
Sirus is close, so he doesn't make himself a target by running. He charges the man and attempts to to the weapon from him!
Cord sees Sirus lunge for the shotgun but the other man looks like he's going to get there first...
Deciding the shot gun is a bigger threat Cord fires a single shot at the man reaching for that weapon. He hopes that will allow Sirus to retrieve it and be armed as well.
The noise of the gunshot is a punishing smash to your eardrums as the weapon discharges inside the confined space. Cord's aim is true and the bullet hammers in to the man's sternum, chewing through his torso and causing a gout of blood to splash over the cot and gun resting on it.
The other man finishes rolling off the cot and you hear his pistol being unholstered and cocked.
Maintaining his cover Cord fires at the second man while calling You do not have to die. Why be stupid? His shot goes wide.
Sirus levels the gun at the man and bellows, Drop it!
Whilst one man gurgles on the floor in an ever-spreading pool of blood, the other snarls
Goddamn popsicle, why'd you have to go and wake up eh?!
He levels his gun at Sirus and pulls the trigger
The shot goes wide, and one of the screens next to Sirus explodes.
*poke*
The bullet throws sparks as it wrecks a piece of medical equipment. Sirus scowls. I'm going to have to fix that later. He says. He then shoots the man in the shoulder, or tires to.
Even unused to the kickback of the scattergun, Sirus wrestles the barrel on target and pulls the trigger.
The metal shards stitch their way across the man's body, and he claws at the side of his neck where a sliver sticks out. He slides down on to the floor, unmoving.
Aside from the two bodies, there is another pressure door opposite where you came in, a medbay with attendant autodoc and a storage section bound to contain medical supplies.
Cord moves to disarm both men as soon as both are down. He offers the retrieved handgun to Sirius, with belt and holster saying Good Shot. We have the stim packs from that locker if we want to patch up quickly. he reminds. He then bends to try to stabilize both recently shot men.
Thursday pops her head around the corner now that the roar of weapons' fire is over. She eyes the carnage. "Messy. I suggest you let Darwin sort these boys out. Maybe they had a shuttle or something they planned on catching. I think we'll want to get to it. If I was stealing frozen people from a cargo-hauler like this, I'd destroy the ship when I left... prevents loose ends."
Sirus takes the weapon [ooc](that he already had because he fired it)[ooc] and makes sure it's not damaged.
We should get a move on as fast as we can. I want to know what, and who, I'm dealing with here.
Thursday pops her head around the corner now that the roar of weapons' fire is over. She eyes the carnage. "Messy. I suggest you let Darwin sort these boys out. Maybe they had a shuttle or something they planned on catching. I think we'll want to get to it. If I was stealing frozen people from a cargo-hauler like this, I'd destroy the ship when I left... prevents loose ends."
Sirus nods. And the damage to the engines will make this an uncertain boat at best. If we have a way to get off I say we jump ship.
Sirus takes the weapon and makes sure it's not damaged.
We should get a move on as fast as we can. I want to know what, and who, I'm dealing with here.
Aside from the two bodies, there is another pressure door opposite where you came in, a medbay with attendant autodoc and a storage section bound to contain medical supplies.
Glancing over the medbay scanning console, Thursday sees the last data set concerns a leg injury. The analysis advises a 93% probability of crush damage, with a recommendation to apply a temporary brace. Probably occurred whilst he was hauling crypods to and fro on the loader.
Thursday slinks forward along the main corridor looking for their ride out of here.
The door to the bridge looms up ahead, and it strikes Thursday that the only place another ship could be docked is off the bridge's emergency exit. These are usually occupied by escape pods, but could service as an impromptu airlock in a pinch.
The door to the bridge stretched wide across the corridor, and you can hear a muffled electronic voice on the other side intoning something in a regular repeating pattern.
These guys are toast. Cord declares and then notices Thursday slinking forward. Hey, that guy will cut you in half. he warns.
Shadowing Thursday, Cord also stands outside the bridge door, hearing the same muffled electronic voice on the other side intoning something in a regular repeating pattern.
"So, are you two gunslingers ready to assault the bridge?" She readies herself to open the door.
Sirus only looks about half ready, but he nods anyway. He's not exactly a soldier after all.
Take the shotgun and you can be a gunslinger too. Cord recommends to Thursday. He seems as ready as he will ever be.
Sensing the hesitancy in her fellow passengers, Thursday pauses. "If you aren't ready to jump into this, now's the time to speak. I've got no problem leading the charge. Give me the street howitzer, if you'd rather pop the door." There is no judgement in her eyes, just an acknowledgement that people have different limits especially when it comes to a fight.
Thursday sees that Sirus is most definitely in over his head, but he's still steady. The old spacer is made of resilient stuff. But this clearly goes against spacer culture and he's having a hard time processing it all. A ships bridge is a nearly sacred place for those who live in the void, and they were about to charge into one with weapons at the ready.
Cord seems resigned. What choice do we have. The people on the other side of that door were gonna throw us out with the trash. They are our enemy. I intend to kill them if I can.