The door creaks open with the quiet hiss of a slight pressure change. The interior is silent, and the corridor deserted. Heading down to the engine room, you pass half a dozen passed out crew members, slumped against doors and in hallways where they might have been caught running when the gas hit.

The engine room is full of bodies, almost a full dozen members of the civilian crew passed out over instrument panels and on the floor.

The moment of decisions...

Activating the comms, Alright, time for the big family talk. Is the crew going to make it until dawn? Loki is starting to move them to the hold, but there may be too many. I've got over a dozen bodies around me between the engine room and the hallway.

"Diesel secure the stations and start clearing out some of these bodies, we need them out of here."

The aforementioned mage troops by, grinning madly as a small raccoon frolicks on a caravan of half a dozen floating bodies following him.

Iblis pushes a body out of the way, looking slightly irritated. Tapping into the comm system as she looks around the bridge. I'm all for more nuyen but I think we should keep the body count low. Whoever owned this tub is going to pissed off enough as is.

"Aight boss" Dieselsays with a half grin

Diesel double checks to saftey to be sure its off then goes through and checks every station before beginning to take out the trash.

All in all, the crew count appears to be around 120 souls. The command crew appears to be limited to the bridge section. Working quickly, the team manages to gather almost 60 of the crew together in the hold before the first members start to groggily shake themselves awake.

"Ladies, I've got movement down here. Lock the doors and turn the lights off. Let's give the show that no one's home."

Jake thrusts his senses forcefully into the astral plane to make up for the sudden blackness that over takes the interior of the ship.

"Anyone know how to say 'Surrender and we won't kill you'?"

Time to get to work and earn his keep.

воевать и вы стопа не будете поврежены

Iblis carries out the orders given and waits to see what happens next. She quickly pulls up the bio-readings for each team member.

Steel helps with the shuffling of bodies and locking of doors. She seems jittery, moving with quick little movements. Occasionally she winces as one of her wounds ache.

Nameless continues his walk of the ship, keeping to the shadows and looking for any crew members the team might have missed.

Crouching low with sword drawn and shield forward, Jake begins to creep down the hallway. His ears are open to the slightest sound that may signal trouble raining down upon him from the Seven Hells, the battle shaman peers slowly around the corner to check for movement. He knows that behind him a large troll with a chain and LMG stands ready to mow down any resistance that tries to sneak up on them.

Both groups moving through the ship find several small clusters of crewmen in areas not locked down by the Master code for whatever reason, but the sight of the crew, obviously armed and armored, quickly disuades whatever hesitant thought of resistance might have been put forward by the minimally compensated ship workers. Several hours later, the only section yet to be cleared is the bridge, the rest of the crew is locked securely in the hold.

"Fuzzy Bunny I need you to patch my comm signal into the main PA system, it's time to meet the natives. While she does that, I need my ghost and flower to bring our driver up. Big Guy you're with me, we've got to find where I left a body."

Jake moves through the hallways carefully, still unsure if every sailor has been locked down. Now where was the mage's room again?

Jake
The mage's body lay slumped near the door, one hand stretched out as if to open it, face frozen in a scream.

Iblis
Patching into the PA system is easy enough to do with the Master Security Code.

"Cover me."

Jake passes his astral gaze over the body and into the room taking in any information he can about astral signatures and presences. This has to have some kind of storage space for his research and knowledge, as well as, summoning circles, perhaps even a couple choice foci.

The room hums in the astral with the recent signatures of a fairly high force spell and spirit. The mage himself is wearing several small figurines carved from bone and an odd necklace of unburned op-chips. A footlocker near his bed reveals a collection of summoning materials, as well as a smaller lockbox.

"You're on the air caller." Iblis marvels at view from the bridge. She takes a moment and double checks all the security lock outs are still in place.

Jake kneels down and carefully picks up the foci and fetishes before moving to the summoning library. He glances at the powerful magical residue that could have easily smeared his astral form across the ship if he hadn't been ready for it.

"Thanks, love."

Over the ships comms.

"This ship is now under the control of independent contractors. Work with us and you will live. Resist and all of you will die. Please have the highest ranking crew member who speaks English call in to negotiate."

After a few moments, a heavily accented voice crackles over the internal comm systems.

"My name is Geoff. We understand your statement, what do you want from us?"

Letting out a slow breath, at least one of them speaks English, Jake switches comm frequencies to his private channel with Iblis.

"Ib, I need you to localize where our caller is and create a path of open doors for him to come out to the main deck. Airlock it so he has to close each door for the next one to open."

Toggling the comm back to the public line,
"Geoff, I'm going to have you come out to the main deck. Leave everyone else where they are. We'll discuss what you need to do there."

The well-muscled Italian turns to his eight foot shadow.
"Diesel have Loki sweep the ship for stragglers and then meet us on deck. I'll need him to watch our negotiator's mood astrally while we talk."

With a brief stop at the bridge to drop off the magical gear and check on his favorite ladies, Jake and Diesel go down to the main deck and wait for the Russian to work his way through the ship one door at a time.

"You got it boss." Iblis quickly moves through the system and isolates the needed locks. With a quick but sweet line of code the system is set up as requested.

Fifteen or twenty minutes later, an older man stumbles out into the main deck, glancing around fearfully. He appears human, probably 40-50 years of age. He carries no obvious weapons, and is wearing a navy blue, button downed jacket, probably heavy enough to ward off the chill in the ocean air at 3AM. He tucks his hands in his coat pockets and glances around.

"Good Morning. I apologize for any inconvenience we have caused the crew so far. What I require of you is simple, identify the command crew of this vessel and tell me how many men you will need to prepare the life rafts. The command crew will be the last to leave the ship, their lives will be held as collatoral for the crew's cooperation. Each crew member will leave any wallet, watch or form of personal identification such as credstick in the ruck sack we designate. They will then load into the life rafts and launch. Once all the crew is away, the command staff will be allowed to do the same."

Jake rests his hand on the pommel of his sword, looking over his shoulder at the looming troll with a rocket launcher over one shoulder and an MMG in hand. Moving in the shadows on the upper decks, visible to the cold Russian, Steel's coat billows out in the brisk wind clearly demonstrating the twin katanas as she crosses paths with Nameless toting an SMG.

"Are there any questions?"

The man stammers, "I..I..I am the first mate of this vessel. I will do as you ask, but tell me, how many of our crew are you keeping behind to run this vessel? It takes over 100 men to run this full time, surely you are not planning to do it with just..." he seems to struggle for a word for a moment, and then just gestures at the what group members he can see.

"We'll keep a minimum crew of hand picked men. The more capable they are, the more of your crew you can see safely off of here immediately."

Shifting over to the radio,

"Fuzzy-Bunny check with our driver to see what his minimum requirement is for able hands.

Iblis cracks a lop-sided smile. "I got your fuzzy-bunny right here." She turns to the rented talent for the job. "Uhm, I can't remember your name so let's just say it's Bob the rigger. So Bob, how many people do we need for this thing?"

A chuckle comes back over the comms.

Schnell, but Bob works. You're going to need at least 15. If you're rigger's any good, she can handle the actual driving, but you're going to need people working comms and navigation and engineering. You'll also need a few people in the engine room that know at least something about diesel engines and know how to take orders.

Switching to her comm system Iblis relies the rigger's information. Did you get all that boss man?

"Got it. Just need numbers in case the first mate wants to try something."

Jake flexes his powerful upper body to stretch it in the cold air, waiting for the Russian to decide how many men he is keeping and who he is sending to their salvation.

The man stumbles back below decks, fearfully glancing over his shoulder each time he pauses, waiting for the next door in his path to unlock itself.

About 15 minutes later Geoff calls out again from the hold.

"I have the command crew seperated, they'll come out first, and we've picked those to stay behind."

"Understood. We'll bring out your command staff and then the crew that is remaining behind. Once they are separated from the rest, we will allow your men to disembark."

After being assured that the ship was clean of anyone else, the shaman gives the command to begin the process of extracting the command staff. From his position on the bridge, Jake can't help but stand in awe at the immensity of the ship and how small it is compared to the vast ocean and sky around him.

"Diesel once we have the Captain and his men pulled out, pat them down for weapons and escort them to the second deck that Nameless is patrolling. Short stuff I need you and Schnell to arrange how you want the men spread out and where the two of you are going to be to get this lady moving again. I'll need all guns on deck when we start moving the crew off, but until then we have a few minutes to rest."

The command crew looks like the rest of the crew, as far as anyone on board can tell. There's five of them, and they quietly stand off to one side as the 5 men Geoff indicates as the 'left behind' crew members pile out of the holds. All glance around fearfully at Steel and Diesel, nudging ribs and nodding heads towards Iblis. Loki assists with the search of each man amid cries of missing credsticks and watches, quickly silenced by a look from Diesel.

Geoff, apparently somewhere in the middle of the command chain from the way he seems to defer to two other men in the command crew, nods to the command crew and the 5 men.

"These are the commanders of each department. Captain, Navigation, Engineering, Accomadations, and Company Man." The last man is a slim Asian gentleman, considerably better dressed then the rest. He gives Geoff a murderous glance as the Russian points him out, and then spits in Jake's direction.

"These men can help you take the boat where ever you need it to go." He points to the other group of 5, huddled near the hatch.

Iblis starts singing soflty. "Which one of these things is not like the others...." She strolls over, both heavily modified pistols out and primed. She places both guns firmly on the back of the head of the Asian gentleman. "Look J-J, we got a side of rice with our meal."

The Asian starts as he feels the pistols pressed to the back of his head, and he gives Geoff a murderous glare.

In Russian, Your family and your families family are dead, hung by their entrails and left for rats to feast upon!

Iblis taps not-so-gently with the barrel of one gun to his head. "Don't be rude now, speak English or start picking up your teeth from the floor."

The Asian man grimaces, and half turns his head back to address the furry little elf standing behind him.

"I simply stated," he speaks with slightly accented English, "that our mutual business associate would be unhappy with his complicity with your demands." He grins very widely in the dim light of pre-dawn.

"We value loyalty very highly."

"And I value obedience. Geoff please translate for me. Will those of you who agree with the Company Man, that you should sacrifice your lives and fight against us please raise your hands. I don't have enough to poll the entire crew so I will allow your choices to speak for them."

There is a quiet hiss through the night air as Jake's sword clears its sheath.

Geoff translates, the stammering obvious even in the other language. The command crew briefly glance among each other and then to Jake, and stand quietly, not a single hand raised.

"Very well. Thank you for your frankness and honesty."

"Time to back up honey."

The statement is barely transmitted over the comms when Jake takes two steps forward closing the distance with a low feint and then a high wide arc designed to separate the Japanese man's head from his shoulders.

Iblis quickly and quietly jogs back and to the side.

Jake takes two quick steps forward as he speaks, the sword dipping down and then sweeping up again, and the Company Man barely has time to begin to raise his hands before the heavy bladed sword whistles through the air, cleanly seperating head from neck. The command crew and Jake are covered with a spray of arterial blood, steaming in the cold air.

The body slumps to the ground, a puddle forming at Jake's feet as the last of the man's lifeblood is spilt.

The command crew are aghast, and shouts and comments race through the assembled crew as well. Several of them begin to gesture angrily to the corpse and speak in Russian until they catch sight of Jake, and conversation abruptly falls quiet.

Geoff seems appreciative, if still in shock, and stammers quickly through some English. "I-I w-wouldn't have said to do so, but my f-family thanks you." He glances around at the agitated crew, and turns back to Jake quickly. "I think it would be b-best to r-release the crew. I-If you mean to."

"Send them off, Loki."

Wiping off the blade and resheathing his sword, Jake bends down and lifts the body with one arm and the head with the other and drops them both overboard.

"You're family is welcome. Now, get this ship moving."

The small shaman nods, moving towards the crowd and shuffling them along, bright eyes and quick fingers certain to catch every watch, credstick, and occasional wad of nuyen. His ally spirit helps, scampering among legs and pointing out those that were hiding things.

In short order the crew is hustled off of the ship and onto the life rafts, and after a quick pat down, Loki nods the okay to send the command crew along, leaving you with just the 5 men.

The men move quickly split up and head back into the engineering section and bridge. 15-20 minutes later, however, the message comes up that it will take at least another hour before the ship will move again. The saboteur had done his job well.

"Loki, I need you and Katie to break down what you've got in the bag. Short Stuff, you are with me, we need to get this ship moving. We can give an extra set of hands if they need it. Iblis hit the hold and see what we have down there. Everyone else, keep an eye open and don't let anything else sneak up on us."

Jake

The diminuitive dwarf hustles down below, and reviews the situation. Quickly enough it becomes apparent that the crew was not exaggerating, and the two of you settle down to take orders in broken English from the 3 men below.

Iblis heads to the hold, mildly curious on what this tug boat is shipping.

Jake hadn't expected to get liquids heavier and darker than blood on his hands tonight, but these things have to happen. He puts in his best effort, knowing that his part down here is to speed the passage of time as much as it is to help the ship get moving.

The hold is filled with crates marked with various manufacturer's stamps, and prying them open you find, for the most part, that the cargo matches the manifest. Dozen's of brands of cheap knock-off chip players, hundreds, maybe thousands, of sim-games and dubbed sim-flicks. One crate on the bottem of the stack in the middle of the hold yields a slightly different prize, the space inside padded and filled with bags of pills and piles of one use, self activated hypos. You note the manufacturer and find only three crates from the same company, one Hazoikya Holdings. All carry the same sort of products.

Patching into the comm system, Iblis begins to sing. "There's a party in my pants....." She begins to look over the pile of drugs. "We've got crates full of drugs down here, I can't tell whether they're part favors or something a litltle more potent." You all hear a long suffering sigh. "Well, I could but no playing while working for this fuzzy elf. I have my happy friend, the guy who keeps the party going long past the music and booze, who might be able to tell us what this is and how much it goes for." She puts the lids back in place. "Everything else looks legit, cheap and crappy electronics mostly."

Laying on his back with a wrench in hand, tightening down another bolt, Jake hears the call from his favorite decker.

"No time to play now, call your friend and find out what you can. The electronics who knows...maybe we can give them away as parting gifts at the next party you go to. By the way, anyone know the secret for getting industrial strength engine grease out of your hair?"