Back Alley 2975 v3

((Sorry, boys, there's no OOC for this. If you need to talk to someone, you'll have to contact them in whatever way is easiest for you. I, personally, am always on IRC. Everyone in this RP should know where to find me. Also, I have everyone's character sheet if you need to see any.))

William Fly stepped into the run down house carrying a brown suede duffel bag tactily in his left hand, a small openning in the zipper made it a quick and casual motion for him to reach inside and pull out the sawed off shotgun hidden within. He wasn't expecting a fight, but he wasn't prepared to put enough trust in Ryne to walk into a den of criminals unarmed; whether knowing he was coming or not.

"You got any guy been here for the last 3 days?", he asked the first woman he found in the front hallway. She was in her late 30s with a hardenned look about her face and brown hair framing her rectangular face.

The woman sighed slightly and let a smirk cross her lips, she turned and pointed arbitrarily down the linear hallway, "He bought out every girl here, two by two, gave us a month's worth of money", she explained, "And work."

With nothing more than a low groan, William brushed past the girl and stepped through the wooden doorway at the end of the hall. The entire building had the same rundown feeling. Mostly made of wood. A material so unreliable that it is reserved for only the poorest.

Taking the consequent doorways and halls that William figured would lead to his destination, he suddenly caught the scent of marijuana that he recognized. Muttering an expletive under his breath, he burst through the bedroom door he had identified as the source of the smell.

Peering back over his shoulder, there he was, the pilot of the Jerry Jackson, naked on a bed with a 4 paper joint poking out of his mouth and the two naked girls lying breathless on the bed with satisfied smirks on their faces. The Pilot's short uncombed black hair matted his forehead in sweat as he spoke, "S'up, Billy?" the pilot asked without the slightest air of seriousness about him; not even with his Captain staring, determined and serious, into his room.

Sighing under his breath, William walked into the room and took the joint out of his Pilot's mouth, taking a drag to calm his nerves. "Did you at least find the girl?" He asked while his Pilot dressed himself, putting on black track pants and a black button down shirt with his personal trademark on it: The letters E and N mirrored over themselves in white.

The girl closest to William slid herself into a sitting position, she had the appearance of a 45 year old, but it was obvious she was only in her early 20s and addicted to every drug available in a 100 mile radius. "EnRohbi's splitting that with us", she snapped hazily at William, snatching the joint from his hand.

"Come on, you've been fucking around in here for 3 days on what should have been a 20 minute task", William said calmly, ignoring the two naked girls on the bed.

A handful of minutes later, the Captain was down the hall in one of the smaller rooms. It retained the general worn down ambience of the rest of the house, but seemed to lack the rustic appeal of the majority, instead it almost seemed rotting and in consistant disrepair, bad enough that William wondered what the point of this room within the house was. Maybe it's for the cheap ones, he thought.

The room was small and had nothing but a single dirty bed taking up the entire far wall. William sat on a barstool in the centre of the room, pulling his long brown hair away from his face. He was facing a girl on the bed.

"Ryne has spoken highly of you", William was the first one to break the silence, "Says you're in some shit and need to get off Planet for a while, Billie."

---

Near the entrance to the brothel, EnRohbi stood just outside the door waiting for his Captain to interview the girl and meet him. He was ordered to wait outside, to make sure he didn't get 'distracted' again and spend more money. This decision also proved incosequential, however, as EnRohbi had just met a young Jamaican girl outside the house. Her name was Audi and she had with her a very large suitcase. EnRohbi never asked what was in it, figuring it was only a bare minimum of her personal belongings and that she was here to hide from someone.

A few feet away, EnRohbi could see that Ryne had tagged along with William to pick up Billie. About a week ago, Ryne had approached the Captain with the request to bring one of his old partners aboard the Jerry Jackson. He spoke highly of her and said she was better trained and more efficient than a weapon than any other criminal William was going to find. He agreed reluctantly to interview only on external property; the whorehouse.

"I have an idea", EnRohbi perked up after a moment of silence with the girl, "I have the best fucking grass..." he let the sentence hang as his offer, waiting for a response from, what he'd hoped, would be a very loose girl after a bit of drugs.

---

Vaughn watched the Cowboy approach. A man in his 30s, dressed in desert coloured clothing with black jeans and a dirty tan trenchcoat, topped off with a brown cowboy hat covering his long brown hair tied back. He walked onto the Jerry Jackson with a strange stroll that one would only expect from someone either fresh out of the mental hospital or fucked on drugs. Pheru was neither of those.

He was one of William's old friends, enemies a couple decades ago. Pheru was what could only be referred to as a bounty hunter. Employed by various governments to track and decomission high risk criminals. His profession didn't exist and would never be admitted in an official capacity, however in exchange for his services, COPs would 'overlook' his felonies. It was a great deal as far as Back Alley ships went. He was able to carry on all of his business, and when he had battles with his enemies, he would simply deliver their bodies to the COPs and inquire no penalties from anything.

"VAUGHN!" Pheru yelled as he entered the lobby of the Jerry Jackson. Their home ship and one of the best in the business. The Jerry Jackson was an old space yacht owned by a rich couple on Ganymede. Vaughn was never exactly sure how William had come to own the ship, but it was high class to the point that no COP or patrol would ever even bother looking twice at it. It had no stolen identification on it, nothing that would set off any sort of alarm at any port they would dock at. It was legally owned by Mark Smith, a non-existant persona William had managed to get his hands on several years ago. Mark Smith has no criminal record and calls no attention to himself, much the antithethis of William Fly.

Trailing a few feet behind Pheru was another man. This was the scientist they were promised. Unsure of the exact details, Vaughn just knew that an ex-military scientist was coming to join the crew. Hiding from COPs after being exposed for corruption, trying to avoid time in jail.

Pheru stopped immediately infront of Vaughn and quickly eyed the other Jerry Jackson crew that were present in the room: Manneth and Ethan, the two engineers already on the ship. "It's been too long since I've been here", was all Pheru said.

Vaughn could remember Pheru's last visit to the ship, it was almost a year ago and before James had come aboard. During his normally civil visit, Pheru had gotten into a fight with Patrick which resulted in shooting him in the face. Vaughn remembered the scene as very unnerving, more so the fact that Patrick's own brother, Juan, seemed not to care about watching his brother fall. Vaughn had always guessed that the two of them had never gotten along, more severely than most brother's fought, they'd never actually spent social time together. It was a mystery why they were even both part of the same crew. Juan had seemed happier since Patrick's death.

There was a brief interchange of greeting between Pheru and Manneth and no words spoken between Pheru and Ethan. "This Eli?" Vaughn asked as soon as there was a break in conversation.

Pheru nodded with a tip of his hat. His arms moved in the same swaying motion as the rest of his body, slowly darting back and forth as he made even the most basic of movements. "He's a fucking genius" Pheru snarled. It was sometimes hard to read his tone because of how drastically it could change between the span of two sentences. From cheery to disgust with no catalyst or reason. Many times his tone didn't even seem to sync of with the words he was speaking.

"These are the other two engineers on the ship, Eli", Vaughn said without much inflextion at all, "William needs the three of you to work out some sort of hiearchy and jurisdiction around the ship. He doesn't want three engineers wandering around fucking with each other's work."

Without much of a word after that, Vaughn walked briskly away and down the corridor to the Docking bay. Pheru had followed him, leaving the three Engineers behind to discuss.

The Docking Bay was a large circular room which had the only entrance to and from the ship, a 10 metre door; both height and width. For the most part, the docking bay was empty with the exception of metal tool benches lining the walls which had the same aesthetics of luxury as the rest of the ship, and EnRohbi's old racer in the middle of the room.

Standing in a circle under the ship were the remaining members of the Jerry Jackson crew: Juan, James and Jez.

"Alright, boys", Vaughn announced to the group as he came closer, "I got William's orders here for you." He stopped a couple feet away to address the three crew members. "He doesn't want it known that we were here so long. EnRohbi fucked up when he didn't come back to the ship, and now we have overstayed our docking pass, as you all well know. William wants the two of you..." he pointed at Jez and James, "...to get Juan into the central security office in the dock. It's only down a couple hallways, but you'll have to get in the door and past the security personnel."

"The fuck am I going in for?" Juan snapped in his gravelly voice. His fat always jiggled when he spoke. Which would have been less disgusting if the man showered, instead of being covered in a consistant coat of sweat, grease and dirt. He was a short man, almost completely bald and the roughest and dirtiest short black beard that anyone had ever seen.

"We don't have our hacker", Vaughn explained, "And William wants to be gone as soon as he gets back to the ship with Billie. So you're just going to go plant a LOW CHARGE explosive and destroy the booking computer. They only back themselves up weekly, so by the time it's up and running again, not only are we gone, but they don't think we've ever been here. Move out!"

Juan gave Vaughn a disgusted snarl before turning and walking out of the Jerry Jackson. He never liked it when he had to take orders from anyone but William, who he'd still put up a fight against.

The man that came to get her from the whore house where she’d been hiding the last 4 days was not at all what Billie had expected. The man seated across from her in the tiny room didn’t look as if he was ‘richer than god’. But, he did have the air of command, despite his clean t-shirt tucked into his pants. William had long dark hair and a closed expression. She’d hate to play poker against him, she decided quite early in the odd standoff.

Billie’s assessment took less than a fleeting second when William had entered the austere little shit hole she’d been sleeping in. She pushed long dark hair back from her eyes and smiled softly, “Well, I wish to be off planet, yeah. I’ve spent the last 8 months in jail for manslaughter, which I guess you already know about?”

He didn’t answer her, merely waited for her to continue with an appraising look.

Billie rubbed her aching left leg, and then continued. “I probably will only end up here for real or the friends of the two guys I killed will come looking me or….god knows. But, since I’m not in the military anymore, I need something better than that.” She met William’s eyes easily; not yet uncomfortable under his silent scrutiny.

Fishing out her cigarettes she knocked one loose then offered another to William, who refused it. She lit up slowly, and shrugged. “Ryne and I spoke. He’s still not himself. You know it and I know it.” She lets the smoke drift from her lips to obscure her features. “Frankly, I think I can put the pieces back together again. Mostly. We were partners in the Military. I was his spotter. We were the best team there was. I’m almost as good as he is.” She smiles at that. She’d never admit he was better had Ryne been present. “I can navigate and…” Her smile blooms more fully. “I can cook too.”

William merely crossed his arms across his chest, still regarding her in utter silence.

She couldn’t get a read on this guy and his silence is beginning to get to her. She rises from the bed gracefully to stretch her long legs. “And yes, we were once an item. It got in the way of our job. We split it off. Just in case you were wondering. We’re professionals. It won’t be a problem and I can follow orders.”

At William’s continued silence, Billie paused before him and quirked a dark brow at him. “I like the strong, silent type as much as the next girl, but are you going to say anything?”

The big man merely stood to lead the way out, “Yeah. We’re leaving.”

Ryne scoffed at En's offer towards the newcomer, his fedora pulled down just enough to hide his eyes. "It's not like you grow it yourself, you lazy fuck," he said softly. "Now shut the fuck up and just take her behind the building and fuck her like you fucked every other whore in that brothel." A breeze kicked up behind him and blew the long black hair up and over his shoulders.

He pushed his hands deeper into the pockets of his jeans, feeling the outlines of the twin revolvers on his hips. Thousands of thoughts buzzed through his mind as he brought his right hand out of hiding and rested the heel of his hand against the hammer on the revolver. Blood, screaming and death flooded his senses and he smirked to himself, though the expression was hidden by the shadow that his wide-brimmed hat cast across his face.

He muscles itched and his fingers twitched as he felt the extreme need to blow a hole through En's new plaything's face, but he held in the destruction that swelled within him and buried it. That's it, Ryne, he thought. Just suppress those urges and leave it for the doctors that will have to cut out that cancer-filled piece of colon in twenty years. He chuckled and pushed the hat back further on his head, finally letting his hand fall from the cold steel.

"Son of a bitch, En," he nearly yelled. "How fucking long does it take to tell her that she's coming with us? I've already told him everything he needs to know about Billie and...fuck...." His gaze lifted to the door of the brothel and he sighed. He needed Billie more than he had realized. She had kept him balanced and away from that dark side of his mind. He was focused when he was with her, and he needed that again. It's not like he hadn't notice the sawed-off shotgun that William had toted with him to that whorehouse. He was still wary of Ryne...or, well...the Reaper, at least.

It had been a while since she had decided a brothel was a better idea for money than, say, a job or pick-pocketing. One could say it was job, correct? However, before she could even make any cash, she was interrupted by a certain pilot whose offering of free marijuana she couldn't pass up.

Audi was in better shape now than she had been for some time. Finally giving a damn allowed her to take time to work-out. She even managed to get a couple of jobs recently for some extra spending money. Her body was slightly more toned than usual, her chocolaty skin looked healthier as well. Generally, she looked better. She had replaced her lip ring with a simple spike stud and left the ring in her nose as it was. Her umber dreadlocks seemed more "neat". She wore simple, old clothing; a faded black tank top, a pair of camo-esque capri pants(equip with cargo pockets for convenience!), dirty, old combats and a ragged green bandanna around her neck. Wooden beaded bracelets hung around her wrists to finish off her... "look", if one could call it that.

It was at this time that the other, less generous, man began to shout and carry on about shit she was uninterested in. Producing a black elastic from one of her many pockets, she tied her locks up, save several in the front, in a pony-tail. Approaching him, she seized him by the collar of his shirt, her intimidating gaze fixed on him. She pulled him close, whispering and threatening simultaneously, "Yah sometin' else, really. Yah can be 'dat rude to a lady?" her grip tightened, "I let'chu in ahn one 'ting..."

Leaning into his shoulder, her lips brushed his ears only momentarily, until she hissed, "I ain't no lady. And I tell you, bitch 'as got more balls 'den any low-life chump you find around 'ere." she gently let go of him, a serious look fixated on her dark features. Audi turned back towards En and her suitcase, snapping back, "By tha' way, I'm better than any slut you find in there." she gestured towards the building before them in certitude. Bending her knees slightly, she collected her suitcase and grinned at En.

"Now... what's 'dis I 'ear about grass?"

----->Regenerative cycle complete.
----->Initializing boot sequence.
------>Connecting to ethical routines
xxxx> Interrupt code 003, user initialization.
------>Initializing facial software, default setting.
xxxx>Customized facial patterns engaged. Hard Light Holographic layer engaging.

----->WARNING: Solid Holohgraphic layer not comparable with unit operation sys-
xxxx>Interrupt code 008, user initialization. Firmware Upgrade activated.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Unit Active xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Jez slowly opened his eyes as his vision cleared and he blinked a couple of times until his eyes focused properly. He lifted his left arm and looked at the barrel poking from out. He twitched his shoulder slightly and it retracted. He then looked around his cabin for his other actual hand.

As things stood, only the Captain was strictly privy to Jeremy's actual status as a person, the rest of the crew simply weren't told and aside from the fancy “soft” holographic collar he wore they knew this face he wore strictly as his.

The soft collar and his hard-light face were two seperate systems, one allowed his whole attire to change from his usual greyish duster and cargo pants to whatever he took a proper image of as long as it were a human being. He could impersonate anything up to and including a COP. But really wasn't recommended and never ever would end well.

His left hand attached neatly with a satisfying chunk and he soon picked out a small pump action pulse shotgun to slide into the subtle back holster he carried.

Moving down to the main deck area, he spotted Vaguhn barking out a few orders, followed by Juan complaining about having to get off the ship.

“Cabin Fever isn't very pleasant, Juan.” Jez said calmly before he slipped on his gloves and wide brimmed hat. “That and getting you off the ship will allow us to air it somewhat. Plus, overstaying our welcome may result in shooting, or worse. Impounding. Which is really, really boring, and I don't want to have to blame you for it.”

“Oh, and why would that be?” Juan said as he turned, jiggling, to look at Jez.

“Because I'll shoot you.” He said rather nonchalantly as he stepped onto doorway which sat flat with the ground. “Coming?”

James stood in the group under the Jerry Jackson, awaiting orders from William about what they were going to do. They had obviously been here too long. James was getting anxious to get out of here, staying in one place too long had always made him weary of things. The thought of getting caught ate at him, though, he tried to never let it show, he had always been good at hiding emotions.

A few moments later, someone finally came back into the docking bay, it had took more than long enough for someone to come. As the person came closer James noticed it was Vaughn, probably with some orders from William or something. James cracked an eerie smiled and awaited orders.

After hearing what Vaughn had said, James became filled with anticipation. Finally, they were getting out of here. They were finally going to do something, it had been a while since they had been able to do some sort of action. This was perfect, A get in, blow up, get out type of mission. A mission that would be quick and enjoyable, even with the seriousness of it.

James followed Jez and the reluctant Juan out of the Jerry Jackson and onto the main deck, listening to their conversation partially, but, he was not really too interested. “So, do we actually going to have a plan, or are we just going to wing it?” James said in a sarcastic tone, he knew they would have a plan, he just wasn’t sure how to approach it. The process itself shouldn't be extremely difficult.

James didn't know the whole layout of the building, but, he could guess how it was set up pretty easily. The security office would definitely be locked, they would either need to break it open, or get a key off of one of the personnel somehow.

((As my final OOC note for a while, due to the large number of people enrolled in Back Alley at the present time, I am not prepared to wait for people to post. I will control the characters of anyone who's lagging behind, and if you don't start catching up, I will take it upon myself to dispatch your character from the RP, likely via death.))

William didn't speak a word in the dark wooden room. The only light was coming in naturally through a dirty glass window over the bed, no more than a foot in any dimension. He sat there while Billie explained herself, giving off the impression that he was listenning intently, however not truly taking in a single word she'd said. William had little interest in her personal history, he just wanted to see what kind of person she was, hear how she spoke.

William lead the prospective new recruit quickly out of the brothel, politely greeting every girl he met on the walk out.

"Where's my fucking pilot now?", William swore as he walked out of the house to see no one but Ryne waiting for him outside. It was mid-evening by this point in the day, and the normally reddish coloured sky had faded to its dirty grey that it always reached just before the sun went out of view. The brothel was located on the outskirts of Clerkis, about half a kilometre down the road from a suburban neighbourhood. "And what the fuck are you doing here, Ryne?" The Captain snapped, "You're supposed to be back on the ship."

---

Down the road from the whorehouse, EnRohbi and Audi had found the perfect clearing off the side of the road and were working their way into their second 2 paper joint. EnRohbi and Audi were sitting on two respective rocks of perfect height for a seat. The trees were sparse and neatly kept, the clearing was obviously not natural, formed by the environmental commities when they planted the incubated trees around Clerkis, originally intended to mimic the appearance of Earth as much as possible, however mild contamination in the soil caused severe mutation in the trees. They weren't at all unattractive, they were very aesthetic, they simply did not resemble the original trees from old Earth. EnRohbi thought a lot about these things when he was working on his fifth or sixth joint of the evening.

The grass was burning perfectly. Despite Ryne's personal beliefs, this was his own homegrown. Him and Ryne had never gotten along greatly, and he didn't want the sniper to be poking around in his room trying to pinch some weed off him. He passed the joint off to Audi.

"The fuck you doing in a whore hole like that anyway?" EnRohbi asked, after a moment of silence while the cute Jamaican girl took a drag off the joint and passed it back to him.

"Cash, son", she answered simply, and short, while EnRohbi took a subsequent drag of his own, "Wahs goin' t'be outta 'dere by next week." She might have been intending to add to that sentence, but was cut off as EnRohbi handed back the joint, which was down to about half.

EnRohbi stood up and began pacing around the circumference of the clearing, neither of them were speaking as he did so. The two passed back and forth the remainder of the joint in easy succession, finishing it off and tossing the roach somewhere into the forest.

He casually pulled a pouch of marijuana from the pocket along the right leg of his black track pants and kneeled infront of the flat rock he had been sitting on. Artfully and incredibly quick, he began rolling another 2 paper joint and began to speak, "How would you like to come aboard a ship with me?"

Audi paused and stared at EnRohbi for a second, seeming to be unsure of what to say, after a pause for no more than a couple seconds, she responded reluctantly with "Can't affard 'dat."

"Don't even fucking worry about that", EnRohbi said casually, barely even addressing it as a serious concern, "I'll pay for your passage and I think I can probably convince The Captain to give you a real job once you're aboard the ship. Then you'll be making money."

Audi blinked, "Fer real? Hmm... sounds betta' 'den fuck--", she was cut off by EnRohbi handing her the completed joint to light, in record time, "--ing old men, ah?"

The two of them sat for the next few minutes in silence as they finished that joint, and the one after it. EnRohbi couldn't quite figure out why it was he was so drawn to helping this girl get aboard the Jerry Jackson. It wasn't like him. He blankly assumed that it was a mix between having been on a drug and sex binge for the last 3 days, and that he couldn't let himself leave Mars again without banging this girl.

---

William hadn't stuck around with Ryne for very long before he left the brothel to head back to the ship. That son of a bitch better not be planning to be gone for long, he thought to himself. William did run into both EnRohbi and Audi on the way back to the Jerry Jackson, and agreed to let Audi aboard as a passenger with EnRohbi paying her way. He didn't give a shit what his pilot spent the money on.

But nevertheless, William arrived back at the Jerry Jackson with Ryne, EnRohbi, the new addition to the crew and the new passenger, who he figured En was only going to use as a concubine anyway.

((I'll add on Juan's/Vaughn's part to this post tomorrow to cover the mission with James and Jez))

"Missy," he said softly, letting his hand fall to his hip again as the woman held tightly onto his shirt collar, "if I ever wanted the opinion of a whore, I'd let you shoot me in the goddamn face with the revolver that's sitting on my hip. Now I suggest you let go of me before I construct a nice little breeze-way between those pretty little eyes of yours."

She let go of him, probably not because of anything he'd said, and he straightened his shirt out and tilted the brim of his hat down a little farther. There was something about the whore that reminded him of Billie when they'd first started working together, but it was a lot more intense. He'd seen that same look that in his own eyes: She wasn't afraid of bloodshed, whether it happened around her or she was the one causing it. He shied back a little from the pair as they walked away, his eyes still glued to the door as he waited.

"And what the fuck are you doing here, Ryne? You're supposed to be back on the ship."

"Figured I'd take a stroll, Cap," he said. "Just happened to find myself here and thought I'd wait escort the two of you back to the ship. Just in case." The sarcasm was light, even bordered on playful, but he knew that it wouldn't be well responded to. He bowed his head just an inch or two as a sign of submission to show that he meant no harm and then spun on his heels to face back towards the way he came.

He'd not even glanced into her eyes for fear that he might wake from this reality into another where she would be gone from him once again. He needed Billie to make things right, and he wouldn't leave her like he had the first time. Minutes passed and they found En and the whore, then just a few minutes more, they were back on the Jerry Jackson. He finally turned and smiled at her in the softest way that he knew how to. His mind raced with memories of their previous time together and he looked away, pulling the hat from his head and tossed it onto a peg that jutted from the wall.

"Welcome to the Jerry Jackson, Billie," he said softly.

As Billie exited the ramshackle house, she caught sight of Ryne standing there, seemingly waiting on her. Given the scowl on William's face when he’d walked into the room, she wondered what Ryne had been expecting would happen. She caught Ryne’s look and noted how haunted his eyes seemed to be. But, maybe she was simply projecting something that wasn’t there. William kept right on walking, obviously angry about his errant pilot. Billie let him walk on ahead and followed along in silence with Ryne.

When they boarded the Jerry Jackson, she whistled. “Very impressive.” She grinned brilliantly, “Please tell me this ship of yours has a shower. I can’t even stand myself right now.” She wanted to lighten the tension she felt between her and her old partner. She could feel something was wrong, but she couldn’t tell what it was. Had she over-estimated her ability to pull Ryne back together? They’d lost touch for a very long time, was the bond forged as partners and lovers for so many years been shattered along with his sanity? She hadn’t been able to save him before and it ate at her.

She shook off the feeling. “Man of few words, your boss eh? I think he said a sum total of 5 words the whole time.” She knocked loose a pair of cigarettes from the pack she fished from her pocket, lit them, and then handed one to Ryne out of habit. She drew a deep lungful of smoke from her own cigarette. “I dunno what he expects or what he wants, Reaper. I guess I passed muster.”

She didn’t mention that William hadn’t seemed to be at all interested in her as a woman. He hadn’t looked her over the way most men did. He had seemed to be appraising her somehow differently. She wasn’t sure how to take it. She shrugged mentally then looked to Ryne’s profile. “Well? I don’t suppose we have time to get some gear for me, do we? He seems to be in a hurry. Tell me about the ship. The crew?” She prompted him gently as they headed after William. “Who should I know, who should I avoid? You know, the usual SOP.”

The shotgun jabbed a little deeper into the pudgy man's belly.

"You dumb fuck, you think I didn't notice the fifth ace in the deck?"

The man wimpered a little. A swift fist replaced the barrel in his gut. He gasped for air on his knees now. A heavy boot ground his face into the dirt. He tried to speak, to make the torture stop, but got a mouthful of dirt instead. The boot eased off his head.

"What'd you say, porker? Spit that shit out of your mouth."

"Porker" didn't need to be told twice. After removing the filth, he whispered in a half-sob.

"What do you want man? Money? I can get you money."

Boot to the ribs, and a loud crack, followed by a scream and whimpers of pain.

"Can you get me it in 5 minutes faggot? Cause that's when I need it. No, I don't want your money you lazy piece of shit."

Two more swift kicks, but not hard enough to break bones.

"Nah I just want to kick the everliving shit out of you. I would say "don't worry, I won't kill you", but that should just make you worry more."

A kick to the temple and the fat man is our cold. He'll wake up tied to a lightpost, naked and helpless, with 5 cuts horizontally across each of his forearms, and a 5 branded onto his forehead with a knife. He'll never cheat against another man in a poker game ever again, if he even dares to gamble. After all, he wasn't even the one that slipped into the fifth ace.

-----

Kelevra walked towards the Jackson, the Spas-19 shotgun slung from his shoulder barely concealed by the trenchcoat he wore. A cigarette hung precariously from his lips, and as he reached the docking bay, he tossed it aside, only half gone. From the looks of things, most if not all of the crew was aboard already, along with a few newcomers. Norm just shot them a glance, and made his way to his quarters without saying hello to anyone.

After entering his room, he locked the door, hung his trenchcoat up on the peg, and placed the shotgun under his cot. He rubbed his checkered head and laid down on his cot. Long day. Nap time.

Jez sighed a little as he walked away from the ship, he scatched his chin and gritted his teeth a little.

It seemed there were some storm clouds gathering and everything around the docking area was thrown into a different shade of gray from the clouds below them.

Kelevra came storming past looking pissed off, mind he seemed to look like that 99.9% of the time anyway.

He adjusted his hat a little and waved for Juan and James to follow.

The planet they were on wasn't very nice all things considered. The buildings were naught but specks far below.

Walking towards the fairly low down and wide port authority reception they were let into the main lobby area, itself decorated in the only way bureaucratic buildings good be. Boring, plain, all function no form.

The Port authority building had been built and equipped on the basis it was going to expand in demand. This simplified things somewhat and a basic map on the wall allowed the others to look at it while he drew up the schematics and blueprints from a nearby wireless network connection. It had seemed to suffer a little under staffing due to economic hardships and better ports elsewhere, so again. Things were eased a little.

Pulling up information was easy to do for him, but not placing information without leaving dirty smeared finger prints everywhere. That and he wasn't supposed to give off the fact he could probably blast his way into the system, update the permit and leave it at that. Hacking wasn't, in spire of his status, a strong point.

The map on the wall had green areas highlighted denoting public areas and greyed out corridors where members of the public weren't allowed.

“Seems relatively simple, sneak in, find a redundant office, sneak out. I'll be back in a second.”

He slipped away from the other two, letting them talk other things out.

"Your guess is as good as mine, doll," he said, taking the cigarette from her hand and placing it between his lips. He pulled a deep drag from it and let the smoke drift from his lips and towards the ceiling of the ship. "In all honesty, I've kept pretty much to myself since I've come on board. William is a good man, very protective of his crew. Vaughn, William's chief fighter on board, likes to keep to himself a lot. The man is a quick shot with a firearm, though."

He couldn't believe how quickly he was opening up to her again. He smiled faintly and took another drag on the cigarette. "En is a good man as well, but he's a little....misguided at times. Best damn pilot I've ever seen, but misguided." The cigarette was finished in silence, his eyes glued to the ceiling as the smoke drifted away from him. He wanted so badly to say something else, to be able to talk to her like he used to be able to, but he still felt different around her.

She'd called him Reaper. No one except the crew of the Jerry Jackson had called him Reaper in a long while. It brought so many feelings back to him, none of them good. He closed his eyes tightly as Kelevra walked in and past them. He heard the shotgun on the man and he brought his eyes to the floor suddenly remembering the scene of his "incident." All of that blood. All of those screams. He was haunted by everything still to this day. Was Billie the remedy to his madness or was he doomed to live this nightmare forever? He certainly hoped it was the first.

"I wanted to find you, Billie," he said softly. "I wanted to break you out, but...."

Physically, Ryne looked the same, they still passed cigarettes back and forth without thinking. He had that same shy, yet mischievous smile that he always did. And yet, he couldn’t meet her eyes, it brought home all too starkly the demons and darkness that lived within his mind. As a a man carrying a shotgun stalked past them, she noted Ryne’s closed eyes and wondered what he was seeing. She knew it wasn’t fear. But what?

Ryne finally spoke, "I wanted to find you, Billie," he said softly. "I wanted to break you out, but...." Billie shook her head, “Don’t worry about it, Reaper. I’m out now. It’s all good.” She took a deep drag of the cigarette and stretched her sore left leg gently. “How about we find me a shower, a bunk and some clothes?” Practicalities first. That was always the best way to handle a mission…or an awkward situation.

While Ryne showed her around, she took the little information he could give her and sorted through it. The three he mentioned were all combat-minded. Though, William hadn’t given her the impression that fighting was his first choice. She wondered idly about the rest of the crew; what their skills were, what jobs they might take, pay…but mostly when they’d get off this dirty red rock of a planet.