Chapter 3: High Noon on Walston

"Mr. Greener, we have the workings of a plan. We've got... Forty five minutes before we need to meet Dreks. If you can make arrangements for the two subs, we'll land as close to the water as we can."

After disconnecting, she passes that plan onto the others. "How does that sound? Who wants to do what?"

"My biggest worry is the hostages. Unless we take all of them at once they may start executing after the surprise. It might be best to divide them. If a few of us, or even one, land in Starpoint as Dreks asks, he will have to come out to claim the ship, probably bringing at least a few pirates with him. Then the rest of us take the sub to get to Hanky Panky's and surprise any pirates that are left. When Dreks realizes the ruse, he will be separated and pincered between the ship and his hideout. What do you all think?"

"I can do that!" Alerio offers immediately! She hadn’t seen much action in the air, and she felt more comfortable on the ground.

"I can draw them down into the port and punch them in the nose! Just don’t take too long getting linked up with me!"

"I can land the bird in Starpoint. I hope. I mean without dying before I set her down, Zuni suggests with a meek smile that doesn't reach his eyes.

"But if it's just me, how will I fight off Dreks and his pirates?"

Seally passes that onto the discussion. "So that's probably a no go on the subs. We'd need a landing craft and we don't even have a vehicle bay for that. Dreks will track us as soon as we hit atmo."

Fallon smiles. Ask, and ye shall answer. We can use the Beowulf. Zuni can land our bird in Downport, while those assigned to the ground assault land in the Beowulf."

"I’m going with Zuni." Alerio says, not one to be ignored.

"Two heads are better than one. Not to mention two guns! We can buy you and the Beowulf some time!"

"Right! Okay, everyone. Sounds like we have a plan! Distract, distract, distract, oh, and shoot!" Zuni takes a full rotation in his seat and then asks, "How will we coordinate? We better do it quickly. The clock is ticking. Oh, and take my stun grenades. You will need them more than us, I think."

Seally says, "We'll leave coordination in Captain Falkirk's hands. Captain, if you can spare a crewmember to relay messages for an hour or so, there are five of us to gladly come aboard and welcome being shuttled to the surface."

Alerio looks at the five meaning to board the Beowulf. They were all about descend into a fire fight at best, and a bloodbath at worst!

She hoped it wasn’t the last time she’d see all of those faces, but she couldn’t say the words! Speaking it into existence would be bad…

The crew splits up! Alerio and Zuni stay on the Wayward Wind, determined to land and engage with Dreks directly as Seally, Fallon, and the Heretic Squad head to the surface in the Beowulf to rendezvous with Horace Symon's coastal farming operation. There, the group will take the two subs and sneak up on Startown, and try to free the hostages!

Seally, Fallon, and the Heretic Squad depart. The Beowulf smells of burnt plastic and ozone, and everywhere there is damage. She's barely spaceworthy, and they could use a hand getting the ship into atmosphere without exploding!Meanwhile, Alerio and Zuni wait for the Beowulf to descend first. They try to buy as much time for the rescue mission as possible, but they keep a close watch on the deadline Dreks has set for when he will start terminating hostages if they don't deliver the Wayward Wind. As they descend, a pirate with a thick Solomani accent contacts the Wayward Wind and gives you a flight plan to the downport.

With their medic injured and in stasis, Fallon takes up the role on the Beowulf. "All right, let's get this wounded bird safely to the nest. I'll patch up life support and other systems necessary to keep us beautiful fleshbags from flashfreezing or choking on our own CO2 as best I can. As unfashionable as they are, everyone should stay in their vacc suits just in case. "

Seally is at home on spacecraft, but her skills are bureaucratic in nature, more about administration and legalese than engineering and piloting. Her lone skill of direct application is Astrogation, and they're not planning on jumping.

"Let's see to your situation, maybe I can help reroute your subsystems."

"Just play it nice and cool. We want them to think we’re cooperating!" Alerio says, though she wonders if the pirates anticipate something of the crew’s rebellious nature. To play it too safe would arouse suspicion.

"Copy, dorks!" she calls over the comms, hoping to rile them up only a little!

"Yeah. Cool and so cooperative, which is going against every instinct I have now." Zuni was clenching his jaw to the point that it started to hurt as he watched the Beowulf descend.

"Let me know what the sensors are telling you while I guide this puppy in. We should probably be prepared for this whole thing to go sideways, so be ready."

For comic relief, Zuni makes fun of the pirate's thick accent, doing a terrible but amusing rendition of the man's flight plan instructions.

THE FREE TRADER BEOWULF

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The Beowulf's engineer dives into the M-Drive chamber as the pilot tries to get things on the way. Seally helps by rerouting subsystems after being granted access by Captain Falkirk. The computer is much less sophisticated than Goldie. There is no holo-interface or avatar to work with; instead, she labours through voice command and screen output. The Beowulf has an archaic and basic personality.

You appear to be rerouting subsystems. Would you like to run the Subsystems Wizard?

After hastily declining the computer's generic help options, she bypasses several damaged computer relays in the Beowulf's neural processing network, which gives the Engineer some slack to work with.Meanwhile, Fallon keeps her eyes on the jury-rigging that is keeping fleshbag life support going. The crew heeds her warning and dons their vacc suit helmets once more, re-pressurizing in case of sudden hull breach.And it turns it that was for good measure! Half-way through re-entry into Walston's atmosphere, the M-Drive starts to cut in and out, making manoeuvering difficult for the pilot! The comms are filled with the engineer's cursing as another plasma coil burns out on the grav plates."Buckle up, everyone, this ride is about to get bumpy!" the pilot calls out on the intercomm as grav thrusters cut out. The whole ship begins to shake as gravity and extreme heat test the ship's hull integrity. Despite the turbulence, the pilot stays calm and brings the old rust bucket into a shallow, spiraling descent path, gliding towards Horace's underwater farming operation.

The Beowulf touches down in Walston's shallow ocean with an impressive splash. After a few moments, the ship comes to a rest, floating gently on the near-waveless surface. The sputtering drive pushes you close to a floating platform with a big rusty sign: "H2Orace Harvests" On the platform's top deck, you see the old cyborg waving you in to dock. The pilot obliges as Captain Falkirk leads you to the top hatch.

"Thanks for flying Beowulf Air. Never a dull moment."

THE WAYWARD WIND

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In contrast, Zuni brings the Wayward Wind gracefully into Walston's atmosphere. The pirates grumble at Zuni and Alerio's flippant attitudes, but there's not much they can do - the boss wants their ship, and the last thing they want to do is blow it. So, the Wayward Wind descends in radio silence.

Alerio attempts a sensor sweep, seeing what she can see of the pirates' positions.

Fallon claps the pilot on shoulder.

"A dull life isn't a life worth living. If we survive this next part you all should join us at the beach. I promise it won't be dull," she says with a wink.

Without waiting for a response she heads out of the ship and onto the platform to meet Horace.