Chapter 11: Break Out

"So, let me get this straight." Keegan was still lost on the whole point of heading to Kusari in the first place. "We are not welcomed in Liberty anymore, so we need to head to Kusari space, so we can meet up with the most dangerous and rebellious criminal organization that they have, and join them in an effort to force the Governor's hand before war breaks out?" "Correct," Marcus confirmed. "So, the plan to get to Kusari space involves us taking a pit stop in New London to buy some ships, look like a convoy, and sneak our way past the Naval Forces through the Tau systems?" "Yep." Damian's turn to reply. "And we're supposed to meet the head of the resistance group, known as the Blood Dragons, who knows Blake personally and is always welcoming new recruits?" "Right." Courtney finished. After standing in silence for a second processing the whole idea, Keegan was convinced of all the reasoning except for one important key factor. "What are we going to do once we get there?" Silence. As hard to believe as it was, in the heat of what had recently occurred, there wasn't much discussion of what they were going to do once they found the Blood Dragons. Everything had happened so quickly; the incident on the Missouri, the rush out of Liberty, and the whole way there laid a lurking paranoia that kept everyone else (and especially Keegan) occupied in thought. "That, I have no idea. Blake just wanted me to make sure that you guys got to the place. I'd imagine that if he's still around, he'll either meet or message you guys once you land." "Its just, I don't know. What if Blake doesn't make it out? You heard him, he and Rodgers are really testing the waters by doing this for us." "Keegan, he'll be fine." Courtney said. Damian was staring off into space as if he were recalling something. With a sort of lurch, he snapped back to reality. "I agree. If there's one thing that I know, it's that Blake can handle himself. He's one of the toughest people that I've flown with. If he can't stay hidden, he'll bust his way out of whatever situation that he gets himself into." Keegan was still unsure and began shifting his weight back and forth on each foot. Before he could question the plan any further, a news flash blared on Marcus' setup. "To all Liberty Bounty Hunters and peacekeeping forces: be advised there are several individuals wanted for questioning regarding the destruction of New Ithaca Station. Sending identity data now." In place of the news flash, a picture of Damian and Alice popped up, followed by a photo of Keegan, followed by another photo of Logan. "They're believed to be armed and will resist any attempt at being brought to justice. End transmission." Great, now they're ringing us all in the same criminal group. Well I guess it was only a mater of time before that happened. "Looks like you're all in a world of trouble now." Said Marcus, eyes glued to their photos. "Yeah well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. What's the situation like in Bretonia right now?" Marcus' eyes refocused as he visually seemed to hop back into his "work" self. Quickly hopping back behind his messy desk, he scanned his multiple monitors madly whilst mumbling to himself. "Dublin…New London…Leeds…" His eyes were darting around faster than Keegan had ever seen. Clearly, he had found his calling in life. After what seemed like a few minutes, he looked up again, his eyes back in focus. "In regard to Bretonia, things seem pretty stable. Most of the factions are staying neutral despite the rising tensions, and business seems to be normal throughout the entire region. The only thing that's popping up consistently is the headline 'Mollys threaten to join Kusari' but other than that…" He made one last check, making sure he didn't eat his words. "Yeah, there's nothing too out of the ordinary. Just look out for the unruly parties that run through Bretonian space and you should be mostly okay." Still nervous about the mission that they were tasked to but not wanting to waste any more time, Keegan went back to nervously shifting around on his feet. Satisfied with this reaction, Marcus looked back again at his displays, "Alright then, you better be getting back to Alice and Logan. You all have work to do as do I. Let me just—" His eyes grew wide and alert as he rushed to the other side of the room, directly to the wall behind the other three. "Marcus, what's wrong?" Damian ran over with him. "Caruto, motion to center." His voice was firm, but he failed to hide the hint of unmistakable panic. Keegan quickly assumed that Caruto was the name of his AI assistant because the desk, which Keegan thought was secured to the floor, moved to the center of the room, revealing up close to the others the situation. Discrete cameras were setup around the station and were hooked back up to monitors on the mobile automated desk. Keegan focused his eyes particularly on a camera that showed the hangar area of the station. Several men in black were seen moving about the area. All wielding side arms of some fashion and on one screen, they could be seen carrying Alice and Logan out to a ship of unknown identity, placing them near the on-ramp. "What the hell?" He was taken aback. "Who are those guys?" "Not sure." Marcus replied, moving over to his desk holding the monitors. "They've been showing up the past couple of days. Scouting the place out to see the guard shifts for this base. Since the IMG aren't around today, they must have scheduled a visit and found you guys here by coincidence. These guys may have showed up here armed, but I have a solution." Marcus pressed a button and the wall opened to reveal an arsenal. Small Arm Pistols, Rifles, Shotguns, even stun batons were all displayed as if they were waiting for whatever moment they were needed for. "Holy…" Damian wasn't the only one stunned, but he was the only one who could utter a sound. "I like to keep this stuff on hand just in case something like this happens." Marcus stated, strapping a sniper rifle to his back. "With the rising tension across the colonies, you have to be wary. Everyone grab some gear. We're going to bring these bastards a fight."

"Are you fucking nuts?" Damian asked, unsure if he had heard correctly. "Yeah, sure, let's run straight at them. We have no idea who they are, we are out-numbered, out-gunned, and from the looks of it, out-skilled. Even if we knew who they were and what we were getting into, this is the exact opposite of what West Point taught us." Marcus didn't look up, loading and then holstering a pistol. "My response: no, I'm not nuts, yes, I am aware that we're outnumbered, and I'm also aware that West Point, along with every other organized military institution in Sirius, advises in big red letters in a really old text to not do what we're about to do." He turned and looked at them. "I really don't care. My brother, as angry as he is at me, is the only family I have left and they, well whoever 'they' are, seem to be taking him away from me. You both have brothers; Courtney has a cousin in a similar role. Think about if they were in his spot right now and then tell me I'm crazy." Keegan thought about his younger brother and, even though he thought him annoying at times, how much he would do to go out of his way to help him. "Okay Marcus," Keegan strode over to the table, still wishing there was another option but convinced that there was none and grabbed two pistols with holsters, EMP grenades, and a stun baton. He turned to look at Damian and Courtney, who looked at each other, then back to Keegan. It looked like they were still on the fence. "Come on guys, there isn't much time here." Marcus strode towards the door impatiently. They both whispered something to each other and ended with a quick kiss, it was clear that they weren't very confident either. Damian shuffled over to the table and grabbed a rifle while Courtney also took two pistols. "Alright, now that that's settled, let's get a move on." Marcus took off into the small hall bordering his room and the bar, the crew jogging with their new weapons right behind.

The main seating area of the bar was, surprisingly, empty. Only a panicked bartender sat behind the bar, keeping a close eye on the gang as they walked through. "Marcus, I don't know what's going on here, but you better be careful. Whoever these guys are took hostages already." "Fear not Isaiah, I have an idea," Marcus said, vaulting over the counter, "just let me see the cameras to the hall and hangar." The bartender moved aside and gave access to the screen behind the counter. Although Keegan couldn't see what Marcus saw, his reaction told him everything. His eyes were getting larger and the blood drained from his face. "They have an army out there." He said in a solemn tone. "I'm counting at least 50 armed personnel. They have Logan and the girl tucked behind one of their ships. It looks like they're going to keep them there. I think they're trying to bait us out… yep, one of them just pointed at the camera, they are definitely waiting for us to come after them." "Still unsure of who they are?" Damian asked. "Still unsure. Though they don't look like they're taking many prisoners. Got a few equipment dealers and civvies already down and out from the looks of it." Well that's insightful. Keegan thought to himself. If Marcus still had no idea who the assailants were, then they had to be quite the remote bunch. Either that, or he was hyping himself over the top earlier Keegan thought to himself. Before much else could be decided on what they should do next, a voice rang out into the bar via the communication system. One that Keegan recognized immediately, a slight twinge of crazy mixed with an involuntary laugh that echoed in mid sentence, sounding almost like a nervous tick. "Marcus, Marcus, Marcus. You are doing quite the awful job of extracting the VIPs. We've been here for quite some time and instead of five targets extracted safely, you have hung on to three of them and the other two were… retrieved in a rather rough condition. Keegan looked at Marcus, who's face was still bent over the monitors. Maaarrrrrcusss… finish your job or Mr. Blackburn will be very… very… ANGRY. We are not going to ask you again Marcus. Bring us the wanted or you will walk among them rather quickly." A laugh that sent chills down Keegan's spine, just as it had the first time around, radiated through the nearly deserted station. He hadn't noticed it before, but the entire station, not just the bar, was void of other patrons. Okay, he said that the place was going to be unguarded, and that these guys were already making their way around the station the last few days. I wonder if… The thought hit Keegan like a brick and he immediately tightened his grip on one of his holstered pistols. "Marcus, what the hell is he talking about?" Damian demanded, already positioned by the door. When Marcus turned around, he reached for his belt and Keegan knew what he had to do. Reacting only on instinct, with a swiftness that surprised even himself, he sprinted towards and vaulted over the bar, immediately drawing one of his pistols in midair and pointing it towards Marcus' head. Marcus immediately dropped the weapon he had tried to draw. Knowing the situation he had now put himself in. "That voice. I know that voice," Keegan said. Marcus looked up slowly from the monitor in a scowl. "You're a fucking liar. You sent Springer here after us. You betrayed us. The whole point of throwing us out there against that army was to hand us all over. Why? Why would you do that?" Marcus stood staring straight ahead, breathing slowly and calmly. Keegan tightened the grip on his pistol, waiting for some sort of drastic action by Marcus to be made. Out of the right corner of his eye, he saw Damian walking towards them both, seeming to have Keegan's back. Similarly, Courtney was also moving in on his left, side arm raised towards Marcus' skull. The three were closing in towards Marcus with the wall of the bar covering the fourth direction. "You have no idea what's going on here," Marcus uttered after what seemed like minutes. "Yeah?" Damian replied, "then you better start explaining before we shoot you outright." He took a deep breath and turned towards Keegan, making sure to look at the other two as well. "I mentioned that I have contacts on both sides, haven't I? Well, Springer contacted me a day before you arrived, a few hours before Blake reached out to me. He said that he was looking for a DSE employee by the name of Keegan Sabol. He sent me your personal information and your company photo. I said I could find someone to take care of him with no trouble." After glancing to see what kind of reaction was on Keegan's face. To nobody's surprise, Keegan pushed the barrel of his gun harder against Marcus' forehead. Putting his hands up a little bit higher, he continued. "When you deal with people like Springer, there's a consequence of some kind when you say no to a task. I don't think I need to tell you that people like him are a rare breed. Any sort of hesitance on such a request means that he is one permissive gesture away from having my head. I didn't ever think that one of the targets I would have to plan on apprehending would have been you, so I was in a tough spot. I knew that it was going to be difficult to both keep you alive and keep Springer from killing me, so I had been devising a plan for working the situation out both ways. That plan was thrown in the garbage when I saw the news of a recent prisoner escapade out of Alaska." He nudged his head to the left, referring to Damian. "I knew what was coming next and sure enough, I got a call from Blake. He said that the five of you were trying to get out of Liberty and into Kusari space. He told me that he didn't know who else to turn to as most of the Navy was not only pro-war with Kusari but thought that you and Alice were guilty of the charges of treason, murder, and the destruction of New Ithaca. He wanted me to get you here safely, hence the Bounty Hunter escort, which I was able to provide on a personal favor, but from there I was torn. Springer had just confirmed that he was coming to make sure that you guys were detained and if I told him otherwise, my life was over. So, I tried to make a 'best of both worlds' decision. I was going to detain you guys until Springer and his gang arrived, only to fake a scene where you guys break out and escape to your ships. That way, you could escape, and I would be left with minimum punishment as a result." He stopped talking for a minute and looked down at his feet, trying to think of what to say next. "Let me guess." Damian said, "Things didn't really go to plan?" Marcus shook his head. "I wasn't counting on the fact that Logan was going to be angry at seeing me again, storm out, and get captured. The plan was revolving around the fact that you all would have been together. You could feign both the capture and escape together. If nothing else, Springer told me that if I brought you four in, he would let Logan go because there were no crimes against him. Blackburn has no beef with him, the Navy has no beef with him, nobody has any reason to harm or keep him for punishment." "You actually thought Springer was a man that could be trusted with deals?" Keegan asked. "The guy reminds me of a comic book villain with none of the comedic charm. Why the hell would you trust him?" Marcus turned around, looking at Keegan dead in the eyes. "We had other deals just like this workout before, this was just another day in the business. Fucking Logan. He HAD to go and get caught by them." "Yeah well," Keegan took his weapon off safety, something that in hindsight he should have done before. "Maybe there was a reason why he was angry at you in the first place. You guys have some sort of falling out that we need to be aware of?" "Guys, this isn't really the time for that. We need to move." Courtney chimed in. Damian grabbed Marcus by the collar and held him up, similarly to how Logan did upon their arrival. He spoke quietly, yet there was a sinister vibe with his words that Keegan had never quite heard out of him before. Unable to har what he was saying, Keegan holstered his weapon and took a few steps back. Whatever Damian said to Marcus worked, the tension hung in the air like a toxic cloud. Marcus had the look of pure fear locked dead in his eyes. Keegan was appalled as well. Marcus' face went ghost white at whatever Damian whispered to him. Keegan was not only appalled at that fact but at Damian's menacing stature as well. Something had happened to him since their last time at the bar together. Even Courtney looked concerned regarding what just happened. The normally mild demeanor long gone from him and an expression that could cut through Niobium stayed in his gaze. Something happened to him, Keegan thought. Okay, that much was obvious, but what had happened between yesterday and now? It's only been a day since we were hanging out and had to drag him, seemingly drunk, to Clayton's ship. Maybe I should ask what's bugging him later. Keegan quickly came back to the situation at hand as Damian opened the door. Marcus just shivered even though there was no draft; his sly, confident demeanor no longer evident. Keegan even noticed a hint of panic in his movements. Glad I'm not the only one is scared shitless of this guy. "Keegan, ease off a little bit. Let him get to the console." Keegan, very hesitantly, gave Marcus breathing room so that he could move freely. Marcus didn't move at first, but he eventually strode around to the front of the countertop and over to the console by the door. After a few seconds of once again doing nothing, Damian hit him with the butt of his rifle. "Fucking move it. Send the message." Marcus hit the speaker option on the panel in front of him and a loud echo rang throughout the station. "Springer, this is Marcus. I have the perpetrators; I'm coming out with them as soon as you release Logan." A heavy breathing took over the station comms and an intense, uneasy feeling settled into the pit of Keegan's stomach. "Are you SURE about that Marcus? Because we've TAKEN one of them with your brother already." "Yes, I'm sure. We'll be coming out of the bar. I need your men to stand down and not fire when they see us." "If you PULL any TRICKS on us Marcus, Blackburn will be VERY ANGRY… I will be very ANGRY." "It's not a trick, I promise. Give me one minute and I'll have them ready for you." With that, the station comms went quiet. Damian motioned to Keegan and he took the initiative to point his pistol back at Marcus' head. "It's going to be over for you guys." Marcus said looking at Damian. "Once they realized I've been had, you're all dead meat. You think Springer values my life more than yours? His business partners are expendable. Blackburn doesn't care what happens to them. He tells Springer to always prioritize the persons of interest. He's not going to keep me alive." "Your concern is touching, but it would be better for you to worry about yourself over us." Damian opened the door and peeked out across the hall. There was a squad making their way towards them. Without warning, Damian shoved Marcus in front of the door. "Wait, can't we negotiate this or something? You know what he'll do to me if I fall into his hands." Even Keegan was getting sick of the whimpering traitor at this point. It was easy to see where Marcus could make the most of his skinnier figure and it wasn't through fighting or bravery. "Well Marcus, I don't really give a damn, we are going to try and trade you for Alice and Logan whether you live or die." Damian leaned over and whispered in Keegan's ear, "make sure you take things slow as your walking and whatever you do, keep that gun to his skull. He's still too shifty for my liking." "Any other advice?" Keegan asked, a shake prominent in his voice. "Yeah, stay calm and use your head." Not sure how to respond, Keegan just nodded and walked Marcus out with Damian and Courtney on either side of him. The long hallway leaving them wide open to the hostiles on the other end.

"Just keep your head up and dive when I give the cue. Just in case things are going to get hot really fast." Keegan whispered to Marcus. "Oh, and incase you didn't get the memo, if you try anything funny, you're dead." Keegan kind of wishes he hadn't added that last part. The way he said it made it sound like he wasn't really convincing himself that he could kill Marcus and he could only assume what Marcus thought about it. Whatever happened, Keegan hoped that the decision of whether to kill Marcus didn't have to be a decision he would have to make. Regardless, he stood tall, gun pointed to Marcus, as they walked down the hall. Damian stood to his right, while Courtney was on his left. Slowly they stood tall and walked down the hall, trying to make as little of a presence as possible so that they could make their way down a good way. Even though he thought it was a foolish plan, he had nothing better than what Damian had thrown down onto the table. He was taking notice of the places that he could fly near to if shit hit the fan. He noticed that the benches that were double-sided and ran down the length of the hall. The base of them were large enough to take cover behind if he laid flat. Along the walls also sat metal braces of some sorts that would also work should things get ugly. Still, he was hoping for the best. Lasers flew by Keegan's head and Marcus forced himself out of his grip and flew to the floor. Reacting immediately, Keegan flung himself to the ground, trying to hug the base of the benches. He took his side arm and shot down the hall blindly, still trying to stay hunkered down amidst the laser fire. As he reloaded, he looked to see where everyone had situated. He saw that Courtney stayed behind a brace on the left wall and Damian did the same on his right. Marcus stayed on the ground and tried to slither away from them. Without saying a word, Damian shot him in the leg, stopping his escape in his tracks. Marcus didn't move, it wasn't a fatal shot, but he started bleeding profusely. Damian ran out and pulled him back behind the right wall with him; Keegan and Courtney providing ample cover fire. The unknown hostiles were taking a similar strategy to them, hiding in similar spots and moving from cover to cover towards them. "Some bargaining plan Pohlman!" Keegan shouted, amongst the chaos. "Well I thought it was and I didn't really hear any objection from the clown committee. If you didn't like it, why didn't you say something?" They both took a few more shots, a groan down the hall signaled they hit someone. "You're the big and bright Navy pilot, I trusted that maybe this plan wouldn't go ass up as soon as it left port." "You're lucky there's shots flying otherwise I would—" "Guys, this isn't the time." Courtney said, peeking and killing two more of the unknowns with sharpshooter aim. "Harp on each other like women elsewhere, let's focus on getting out of here!" Before they could say anything, she advanced to the next brace, reaching it with a somersault that looked like something out of a cheesy spy movie. The two men glanced with spite at each other before focusing their anger at their enemies and firing shots down the hall. After firing their rounds, they fell back into cover and Keegan pointed his head towards Marcus. "What we going to do with him?" He noticed that Marcus' eyes were closed, and he was turning pale; symptoms of shock from his leg wound, the damage more than necessary for keeping him down. "No clue, one thing at a time." Damian shot the closest guy to them in the chest, the force of the shot knocking him to the ground and burning a hole through his heart. The last guy made a bolt for the door and was downed immediately by Courtney, a shot in the leg crippling him a few feet away from the far exit. "Keegan, stay with Marcus and make sure he doesn't die." It was an empty command made by the Navy pilot, there wasn't much Keegan could do to help him. The other two didn't seem to care that much however as they strode over to the injured man crawling towards the door panel. With a step on his hand, Damian forced the weapon away from him and kicked it towards the wall. Keegan couldn't quite hear what was being said, but he could assume it was threat, followed by some torture… on second thought, he really didn't want to watch. Gotta check on Marcus. He checked his pulse: still breathing. His leg looked pretty mangled though. These side arms were the real deal Mark. Too bad they had to come back and bite you in the… leg, I guess. He tore off a piece of his suit and did his best to try and stop the bleeding. A soft moan from the wounded man accompanying the action. Wrapping up his makeshift bandage, Keegan heard Damian returning from the other end. "Good news, that's the last of these guys we're going to have to fight for a short while. Bad news, the door won't open. I think they're jamming it from the other side. Whatever the case, they know we're coming and are going to be waiting for us on the other side. How's that asshat holding up." "Well," he finalized the knot, "I'm not a medic, but I think I stopped the bleeding for a little bit. So, what now? Any idea on how we're going to break out of here?" They all took a survey of the hall for anything they could use to aid in their escape. Unfortunately for them, little aside from the dead bodies, scattered side arms, and benches filled the long stretch of hallway. Suddenly, Courtney suggested an idea. "In the ceiling, there's a ventilation shaft." "Yes, that is where air flows." Damian replied to his girlfriend sarcastically. "No shit," she replied and hopped up onto a bench. "From the looks of it, we can get to the hangar by crawling through it. I think there's even a split. Keegan and I can crawl through while you look after Marcus. We can open fire from the vents as soon as you open the door and hit them from multiple sides. If we're lucky, we will be in the wall of the hangar and have a few vantage points." "Do we really need this sleazy snake anymore?" Damian asked, lightly kicking Marcus with his foot. "I say the guy is a liability. He tricked us, who's to say he's not going to do it again?" "I want to have him around. Give him another chance. He was caught with life threatening pressure from two parties and made the decision to save himself and his brother. Don't tell me you wouldn't do the same for yours if you were stuck with the same luck. Besides, the kind of information he has could prevent us from getting into trouble on the way to Chugoku." Keegan was unsure how to handle the sudden change in authority. He couldn't get a read on if this was a relationship issue or an actual power struggle from within the group. All he knew for sure is that the plan to bust out was a long shot. So was barging in there, guns a-blazing from an open choke point into a waiting enemy that outnumbered them. Not to mention, no other ideas were coming to him and they were still on a timer. "I'm game so long as we keep Marcus alive. Courtney's right, with his knowledge of criminal locations and system mapping, he might have some useful information to help our escape." He said, once again trying to convince himself more than anyone else. Damian just had a slight hesitant shaking of the head and shrugged. Clearly not wanting to agree but being outvoted. "Then it's settled, we'll get into position and provide cover fire from the hangar." She hopped onto the top of the bench and popped off the vent cover. "Boost me up." Damian strode over and put her foot in his hands, telling her to be careful, and hoisted her up. "You picked a good one there. She's got some fine ideas and an attitude dude." Keegan remarked assuming she was out of earshot. "You bet I do. Now come on." Her voice echoed. "Just don't go toting Marcus around. I'm not sure he's stable." Keegan told Damian before being boosted into the vent. If he heard, Damian gave no response and closed the grate behind him.

After a quick boost, Keegan found that the vents needed to be cleaned more than anything else. Black soot covered the floor, sides, and even roof of the narrow ventilation shafts that he and Courtney were now crawling through. With a near quiet beep, he pulled up his comm link to hear a hushed Damian now speaking to him. "I'm going to watch the other door, keep comms open incase I need to send a signal." "Roger." He slowly inched his way along the vents, trying to keep as quiet as possible so as to not blow their cover. Courtney was several feet ahead of him, taking a left on the two-way junction in the system. His comms opened up again, "take the right side, we'll use the height to our advantage and get them stuck in the crossfire." Keeping his quiet and steady pace, Keegan soon found himself at the other end of the vent. The grate was barred with gaps just large enough for him to fit his pistol through. Surveying the area, he noticed that the grates were about ten meters off of the ground and were built into the wall of the hangar, giving quite a drop off should he or Courtney fall out. The hangar was larger than he remembered when they first came aboard the station. When he looked out the vent, he noticed that he hadn't really paid attention to the hangar area when he first arrived on the station. At the time, it seemed trivial at the time, instead worrying about Logan's reaction to seeing his brother again. Taking the time to check out what he was working with, he noticed that the walls wrapped around the main area in the form of a gigantic hexagon. The vents were located at the direct middle of each wall as they wrapped around the ships and equipment area. He noticed that the ships of the hostiles were that of the Stiletto model, signaling to him either Lane Hackers or Outcasts. Trying to find Courtney's vent, he couldn't quite see where she went. "Did you go to the closest vent to the door? I can't see you?" "Vent at your 10 o'clock." He heard her whisper back over the comms. Across a distance he couldn't quite guesstimate, he noticed a small glint of metal protruding from the said vent. "Roger. Got you identified. Any idea when we should start shooting?" "Let's wait for them to finish their dilemma. It looks like they're fighting over something." She was right. Despite the size of the hangar, he could hear the hostiles talking amongst themselves. Keegan did a quick count and assessed that there were at least two dozen bogeys in total. A mixture of both men and women made up the ranks. They had barricaded the door with equipment racks lined with ship weapons. Most were taking cover behind the weapon racks, but some had taken positions directly by the door in order to spearhead a potential breach. Keegan looked around for the equipment dealer and found him dead by Logan's Hawk. What Keegan felt was the most odd about the whole situation was the fact that in the midst of their mission, the unknowns all seemed casual about their circumstance. Some were cleaning their side arms, others were betting on how long it would take for their CO to figure out how to breach the door, and even others were checking out the giant ship weapons that they were taking cover behind. The whole spectacle reminded Keegan more of escort training school more than anything else. The casual behavior was interrupted however when the CO spoke up. "Simmons, are we ready to go after this guy yet? I'm about tired of waiting and playing the nice guy." The CO, to Keegan's surprise, was not actually Springer, but one of the guys Keegan got into a fight within Pittsburgh; one of Springer's cronies, once again left to do his bosses' dirty work. He found it humorous that it was also the one guy that he had gotten a good hit on, the brown, flat-topped hair was the one feature that stood out from where Keegan was viewing. "Uh, no commander Andersen, we have a slight problem going on with the main door." "What kind of problems?" Keegan didn't hear the next part of what the second in command said, but he didn't really need to: "What do you mean the door's sealed shut! Who the hell sealed it? We were supposed to keep it open to force these guys into an ambush." "Sir, I don't know whether it's sealed or not, but the locks aren't in place, we didn't seal it from our side, and it still won't open." Andersen, in a fit of rage that mimicked Springer's well, roared in anger and swung at the second guy. "That fucking rat Marcus. Springer told us that he was going to have everything under control. Why can't anything go to plan around that guy? When I get my hands on that Deep Space asshat from the bar, there's going to be hell to pay for what he did to me back on Pittsburgh." He turned to Simmons, "find whoever sealed that door and beat them to death, the rest of you better find a way to get this door open or so help me, I'm bringing every last one of you down with me." "A man full of charm and cheesy, not well thought out threats." Courtney remarked over the comms. As he was smirking, Keegan had a very disturbing thought. Of a sort of third party wandering the base. The Freeport was an Independent Mining Guild base, one of the only Freeports not owned by the Zoners, yet he had yet to see a miner on the station. The real red light, however, came in the form of confusion by the hostiles on opening the door. If we didn't lock the door, and they didn't lock the door, then who locked the door? Before he could mull over the thought too much, a shot rang out from his 4 o'clock. The hangar exploded into gunfire. The hostiles hurdled over the racks that they were once hiding behind and began firing from the opposite side away from the door. Blinded by the position of the vents, Keegan strained to see who fired the first shot. If it was another hostile, he would rather see the two factions kill each other before engaging the leftover. Who else could there be that would be after us? As the fighting continued, Keegan wondered who the numerous hostiles could possibly be having a hard time with. He was thinking about asking Courtney about the situation—his vent causing a blind spot on the new contender and her's looking at the perfect angle. He didn't have to ask however as Courtney said four words "He's alone. Jumping out." With no time to ask questions before she did it, Keegan watched as Courtney kicked the cover off her vent and hopped down behind a crate.

It wasn't exactly logical to hop out of the vent and blow his cover, but Keegan had very few other options. It was the one shot they had of getting off the station in one piece, as weird as that sounds. Looking down, he noticed that he didn't have the same kind of cover that Courtney did if her were to jump. He then noticed the fire heading in the direction of Courtney and took one last breath before jumping into the action himself. When he landed, he immediately went to his belly and began to fire upon the foes, trying to draw their fire away from her. When they turned and fired back, Keegan made use of his speed and dove behind his own stack of crates. He found a blown apart robot was also an inhabitant of the spot and smacked his head on the metal bits leftover. Seeing stars, he tried to fire again but was immediately downed by a laser that hit him square in the left shoulder. Pain seared down his left arm and up to the back of his eyes. It wasn't supposed to be a lethal hit, but something was keeping him down. Out of his left eye, he saw the blast door explode and shots fired out, knocking down several more of the tangos. Damian rushed out from the entrance and continued the onslaught with Courtney as they worked their way down towards who Keegan assumed was the "lone" man. Trying to stand up, Keegan fell forward on his stomach, now feeling groggy to the point of nausea. He started to crawl, firing at anything he thought was moving and wasn't wearing blue (since Logan was the only friend not wearing Navy apparel). He managed to move about 15 feet before finally realizing that not only was he getting further into an exposed position, but also that the fight was pretty much over. He was trying to see where everyone was, but his eyes were refusing to work. What the fuck was in that sidearm? I can't see shit. His vision looked as if he were trying to peer through a dark, grainy filter. His head pounding, and arm burning, he made a grunt and focused on trying to get to his feet. He managed to get on his knees before slumping forward once again. Come on legs, work with me here. With one last attempt at standing, he was able to get up to one knee before darkness surrounded his vision, the voices of his friends in the distance fading with it.