The Rescue Quest....

Yawnin' and stretchin', I grabbed another crate and moved it into the large storage container, "Been pickin' up salvage. It's been all I could do of late." I shrugged, "Things been rough. Maybe not as far as me bein' hurt. Healin' up real good now. Got me some decent body armor. Have to thank Seana for that suggestion on the kind. Seems it's helped."

"After gettin' holed this last time, and the slow heal, it was time to change my luck. Spent some time helpin' the rest of TTW with gettin' some stuff done.... Won't go into all the details of it. Just we had some cargo needin' to be stored. Sentry, Willie T, Dex, and me took care of the folk who triued tyo shoot at us. Hell, I even took down the ship with a rock in the turbines. The results? Unless you want to damage a ship bad, don't throw rocks at it." I chuckled at that as I moved a nother crate to the barn.

"On another note, I had somethin' I needed to do. So, when I had the chance I made sure I handed the papers to Raivenn over to Duncan. It's his ship right and clear. Can't say Gabe was to fond of seein' me 'round. She woulda cut me apart givin' the chance. The capn' told us to stop fightin' and we did. But things sort of went real strange." I stopped and set the small boxes down on the pile, takin' a mo to wipe the sweat from my forehead, "Maybe a bit of stupid on my part, maybe somethin' I just missed... I don't know. I figured I was off the Raivenn as crew. Felt pretty bad... Maybe a little mad too. I did a lot of fixin' up on that ship. Even got her new hull plate."

Sighin', I put the bandana back in my pocket. Started walkin' to the shuttle to grab a few more small salvaged cargo containers. "Anyway.... Thought I was off. Went and talked to Brooke 'bout gettin' a small job helpin' with cargo if her company needed it. Told her I was workin' salvage in the asteroid field. Gettin' supplies for, well....... If we have fightin'. Better havin' it then not, and it keeps me from under anyone's feet. I ain't forgot what Gabe said. I'm a liability, maybe get someone else killed. I don't want that." I leaned against one of the larger full containers. It was gettin' pretty hot out movin' that stuff.

I looked at the shuttle still seein' a few more crates to offload, "Wasn't a bit later, that Duncan called me out for goin' to TTW. He was rightly angry.... but He coulda told me I was still with the crew when I asked him. So gorram humpin' messed up. Made me feel real bad. Now I lost the one man what was like a father to me's respect. That ain't easy when you have to look em in the face later on. I ain't said much to him since, nor he me. But he's been busy with Gabe. I won't go into that. Anyway, in the meantime, someone come by a few weeks ago, recruitin' for a company," Walkin' back to the shuttle, I grabbed another container feelin' the weight as I lifted it and carried it into the big container.

"Some feller by the name of Doctor Wirefly. looked like some old geizer in a wheelchair. Come by with bodyguards." I frowned at that, rememberin' how they acted, "They had that real tough attitude. Looked like some rich old coot tryin' to find more body guards."Lookin' 'round for a moment, b'fore gettin' back to work,"Then there was Wind. I wanted tyo shoot him right then and there in the bar. Took Dex and Sentry to talk me down. He shot at me the noght b'fore the big battle on the Drift. Decided to take Dex to the barn and show him the nice prize I found floatin' in the asteroids...... A real nice fusion power plant. Cold fusion Dex said."

"Ended up showin' Brooke later that night. We got it moved b'fore anyone found it. Too nice an item to lose. Not like I can find another right off. I'd have to be real lucky to every find somethin' like that again. Been workin' the field since then. Lot of loose cargo bein' mistook for rocks. Covered in space dust from the field. Got to know what your lookin for." Placin' the crate on the pile, I pushed it into place. "Had Cursa do some tests on me one night. Brooke was there to help. Some sort of deprivation tank was used. Don't know the results of it yet. Bout that time Jai showed up when Cursa was goin' to tell me what he found out. Sentry showed up too. We got talkin' ' bout other stuff. Sort of to keep stuff from Jai. I know she likes to know the latest news.... But me floatin' nekked in a tank ain't one of those times."

"Then a back about five days ago a shuttle comes in to pick up those recruits what signed up with the old man. Somethin' bothered me when I saw the woman in military style spec ops gear. Too much like 'laince gear if you ask me. I walked away and went into the bar. Sentry come back.... Brooke, and Ziggy too. We ended up findin' out a bit later what was rreally goin' on. The recruits come back firin' on us, wearin' those black Spec ops suits. So 'course we'd defend orselves. We shot back... When was all said and done, and the smoke cleared we found out they grabbed Senrty. They meanin' some woman in a black fighter took him outsystem b'fore we had a chance to launch a ship. Svet was screamin' 'bout why we weren't usin' blanks in the guns too, and somethin' 'bout a trainin' exersize."

I growled a little, "Didn't like how she was on me 'bout all that. No one said anythin' to us 'bout it bein' a gorram exersize. She kept goin' on 'bout how she was slighted.... Thye grabbed Sentry... Found out a short time later they got Mikie too," I shoot my head. The whole thing was all wrong. "I won't get into it with Svet. She thinks I don't listen..... She kept goin' on and on. Got real tired of it and walked out. I think that's the first time I did. We walk in and try to get Sentry and Mikie, and the 'liance will grab anyone involved. We don't have good intel, equipment or where to go. Without any of that, and we're done for. Cursa brought up a strong point too... We go in and the 'liance will have proof of resistance.... make it more to their favor to come hunt us down."

Lookin' into the cantainer, makin' sureI'd packed stuff in good, I went for another box, "Later that night we had a visitor.... Gorram Faith come 'round. Found his ship 'bout the time he spotted my standin' on it. He scrambled into it as I shot at him and the ship. Looks like I took out the comm equipment. We found out later the ship went down.... Ok so I can say I shot down a ship.... delayed reacion to me firin' a hand gun at it.... Seems while I was fixin' Ziggy's ship we found out Faith mighta planted a body and faked his death. Got a witness to it." Shiftin' the container, i pushed it in, "As for Ziggy's ship, the Queen Betty. Big ship. Real nice. Got the electricals done, even pulled the main engine drive shaft out and repalced it. Have to give Arti some credit here.... He's plenty strong. Couldn't a done it without his help."

"Still there were things to deal with. Too much goin' on to get done", I sighed, feelin' like my own hands were tied here now, "So we're tryin' to get info and equipment. Seems we need some keys to get into the facility where they (Sentry and Mikie) are, ID's and a place to take em to once we got em.... That and a shuttle with 'liance markin's. No small trick. We got a lot of problems... Includin' one small kid mixed into the deal. I ain't goin' there so don't ask.... talk to Seana. So we been runnin' all over Hale's Moon, sneakin' round Blue Sun and Caliban. Got most of what we need but there's still the need to find a shuttle to get em with.... Another problem.... We found out Mikie's real sick. We'll need medical care for her when we can grab em. Not sure who we can find to help yet... Still workin' out the details."

Movin' the last crate didn't take long. "Then there's another problem.... Lily told me she wants a cub.... Then she went and told Xoxo she pregnant..... I don't know how the hell she is... I ain't had any relations of that kind with her. Then I hear she's somewhere 'feedin' the cub'... Well I know it ain't Aurora... Lily hates the kid. And I remember her tellin' me a few nights ago she wanted to steal Varahi's baby as a means of gettin' back at the folks what laughed at her when she went to help Varahi deliver. I got a real bad feelin' Lily took the baby and has it hid. Not sure where, but I got a few ideas. Now it looks like more'n one rescue to take care of."