Honor amongst thieves

Layton stared through his mirror, it was a shame he didn't think of this earlier, since it gave him just the right angle to see what was happening bellow him. I just so happened that there was a thief posing as one of the guards. Well this made things even harder. He continued to observe the situation as it unfolded bellow him, as he did, the new guy pulled out a plasma sword. This surprised Layton, but what surprised him even more was when the guy went to swing at the vent!

"HOLY SHEEEEET!!!" he screamed internally, as he instinctively fired from his holstered zipline gun. Figuratively dragging his ass backwards 10 meters. The spot where he once was, was now shredded to pieces. Layton nearly died, and if he had eaten anything before coming here, he probably would have shit his pants. That was quite honestly the closest he had ever come to his death. And he was pissed. No more hiding. He was going to rip that man a new one. He began to crawl towards his new entrance, and once he was nearly there, a torrent of bullets flew directly at the vent in front of him, infuriating him even more. The bullets missed him but hit their target, the vent.

Well, at least it wouldn't get any colder.

He pulled out his tranq and zipline gun, he hung out of the vent upside down. Engaging the first target he saw. A woman holding a rifle. He shot a zipline though her rifle, pulling it away. Next he shot at her with his tranq gun, aiming at her cheek. Hoping it would connect.

As the woman started yelling at the girl, Jane grasped to the battery around her neck and pulled the energy she had stored out of it. With the other hand she pointed in the direction of the woman and the other soldiers throwing a bolt of electricity at the group. As she charged the electric bolt she immediately ran in the direction of the open door. The freed energy from the battery made the temprature rise a little. Especially locally. In the heat of the combat Jane didn't notice that one of the soldiers stood back up again.

Vir's eyes widened as she saw the bolt of lightning and the plasmaman. She quickly ducked behind one of the obstacles in the room - a crate with something held within in - as she put her hands unto her body. She slowly took out from her pocket a grenade. She removed the pin as she quickly rolled it along the ground towards the direction of the guard with the plasmasword. She waited for the explosion. Once the explosion would come she popped out from the corner and take care of what is left of the guard.

Things really began to get even more chaotic and chaotic. The guard held his sword firmly and looked directly at Vir, he then looked around taking note of everyone in the room. One, two, three and four people to fight at the same time. He didn't seem to mind very much. He quickly dashed towards Vir, accelerating very rapidly, and kicking it towards the wall near. He didn't seem to mind it at all.


Nuli felt something weird coming to her direction and she casually grabbed it, the curious alien looked at it. It seemed to be some sort of dart thing, an interesting little object. However, Nuli didn't seem to have time to imagine too heavily. When he looked down, she saw a grenade bring kicked towards the smallest person. Looked dangerous.

It exploded of course. But before the grenade could injure anyone, Nuli sprung into action. At the split second the grande exploded, The flames managed to remain confined to no bigger than a football. But, it couldn't be contained forever though. So she moved her arms a bit, guiding the floating fireball through the metal wall. The force it had still burst through the wall, leaving a giant hole to another room.

Layton was surprised to see the alien girl casually catch his tranq dart. While he was enjoying the sight, he quickly noticed the grenade beneath her feet. After witnessing something that could only be described as pseudo science or straight up magic. And before he knew it there was a giant hole in the wall. The situation was getting out of control. He had to do something about that. He quickly looked around for a solution. He thought about turning off the lights. But he had no means to do so, or did he?

He saw an electric panel next to the entrance to the room. But it was too far away to just turn the lights off by pressing a button. He could shoot it with his zipline gun, but that wouldn't be enough. But maybe it would if he somehow combined it with the shocker built into his arm. Maybe it would be enough, maybe.

He fired his zipline towards the panel; nothing. "Here goes nothing." he thought to himself, before grabbing his zipline and releasing a sturdy pulse of electricity. He could almoast see it traveling through the zipline. Lo and behold! The lights were out! The room, hallway, and probably the entire ship were out of power. Leaving them all in darkness. The only thing visible in the darkness was the plasma sword held by the other thief. "How strong was that shocker?" he mumbled to himself.

Layton smiled as he put on his NV goggles and landed on the floor bellow him. It was his time to shine.

As Jane ran into the ice-cold room she got sight of the strange object in the middle. Making use of the chaos she ran straight at it. When she was half-way an explosion threw her off her feet sending her flying. A little dazed she looked around the room from the ground. In shock, she realised there was a giant hole into the wall. At least the room wasn't ice cold anymore but, Jane barely noticed the temperature difference. Nor her scraped knees, she had to continue. She had a goal. Just as she was about to stand back up the light went out leaving them in darkness.

Luckily Jane as a moon girl had quite good eyesight in the dark. But, even Jane couldn't see much more than shadows and contours in the dim light of the sword. She thought about using her flashlight for a second but, that would pull the attention too much on her. Carefully trying to make as less noise as possible she crawled in the direction of the vague spot in front of her what she knew would be the relique. The metallic box reflected the light of the sword making it about the most clear thing next to the sword for Jane to see.

As Vir heard the kick she quickly stepped out of the cover as she took aim at the mildly distracted guard. She shoots a few bullets and lo and behold they hit and meet with the guard's uncovered head. Vir panted as she stood there, with her eyes now looking around as she sees the other beings in the middle of the cold, as their bodies were practically spilling out their bright red warmth to the surrounding cool room. Vir smirked as she stayed silent.

Lights went off, yet Vir's vision did not see much difference. Her heatvision allowed her to still see the beings in the darkness. One and two. She counted and saw two spots of bright warmth within this dark room. She took aim with her gun at the girl crawling on the ground, shooting a bullet few inches in front of her head.
''Crawling like a coward, are you now?'' Vir started walking over to Jane's direction with her heavy combat boots creating an echo in the dark room. ''...'' Vir tilted her head as she stood next to Jane, looking down at her. ''...Go on. Stand up and fight. Atleast die trying to survive, cowardly thief, the lowest breed of the filth festering in this once beautiful station.'' She said.

The cold didn't seem to be because the guards like the chill there was a very important and slightly dangerous reason. Oops. Something inside the box began to glow, with a powerful light squeezing through the tiniest openings on the cover. It was a blue light of course, but then it began to glow red. A rather powerful heat followed, with the room's temperature climbing rapidly from 18 C now 25 C 34 C. It's like an oven in here. And finally, the box exploded, very suddenly with a lot of power. All the debris flung everywhere in all direction. Hot, burning scraps of metal powerful enough to penetrate armour and deadly enough to kill life.

Nuli couldn't doge them, a few scraped her arm, but she'll be fine. What's more important is how organic life forms would respond to the surprising thing. From the distraction, that one guy with the plasma sword had disappeared somehow, Nuli was sure he has been shot in the face just a second ago. But then, he's long gone now. But there's no reason to worry about him now. Are the artefacts safe?

Well, it turns out, yes they are. What was left were just three glowing cubes, they seemed to be containing something inside of them. The cubes are writings engraved on them, and there were joints that looked like the cubes could possibly be opened somehow. Well, there's the treasure. Nuli looked at everyone else for a second. She could see Layton there and she quickly walked up to behind him, tapping his shoulder for a second.

The box started to glow rapidly, Layton observed the sight while thinking of what might follow. He felt the room getting warmer and warmer by the second. Until the box fucking exploded. shattering into a million pieces.

You know how people say when you're about to die, your life flashes before your eyes. That is a lie. Instead you make a stupid face and close your eyes because your brain stops working. He made the same stupid face and tried to block the projectiles with his arms. Like he was blocking a punch. After a few seconds, he moved his hands and looked around the room. He was surprised to find out he was still alive. In fact, he was completely unharmed. Three small glowing cubes were present where the box once was.

As he observed the box in awe, he remembered. He wasn't alone. He quickly scanned the room (with his eyes) and found the one, two,... where was the third? He then felt a tap on his shoulder. His reflexes kicked in and he rolled way facing the individual. Layton was surprised to see it was the girl that nearly killed him when he was in the vent shaft. He had to admit, she was very pretty, but that didn't matter now. He pointed both of his guns at her.

"What's with the poking? Couldn't find any other way to be creepy? We nearly got killed!" he spat out.

Jane looked up at the dark figure towering over her. "I rather am a filthy thief and be alive then die stupid," Jane spat out and reached out for her battery once more. As beams of blue light lit up the room it got visible that it was the woman from before. Jane too focussed on the woman in front of her didn't saw where the lights came from nor did she really realised it appeared in the first place.

The girl put one hand in front of her as she got to her knees. Just as she threw another bolt of electricity at the woman an explosion yet again threw Jane at her side. Confused and disorientated she covered her head as much as she felt fire hot objects fly over her head. One of them ripped her hoody, torching it. As a miracle, the girl was left unharmed. As the explosion settled down. Jane carefully lifted up her head to see what happened. In awe, the girl looked at the three glowing cubes. That must be the artefact. Those three cubes meant hope. Hope on a future, hope to leave this criminal vested space station.

Vir gasped as the sudden flash of light blinded her as it engulfed her eyes in an aura of heat for a moment. The explosion pushed her back as she groaned once she hit the ground. She groaned out in pain on the ground. She quickly rose up as she saw the room change noticably - the swordsman shot in the head was gone, and one of the boxes opened with a trio of glowing cubes.

Vir quickly got her act together as she pulled out one of her grenades, lifting it up.''ALRIGHT, YOU NASTY FILTH! WE WILL DO THIS MY WAY, OR WE'LL ALL BLOW UP! GOT IT?'' She shouted as she started flailing the grenade around in her hand, with her holding from the grenade's pin. Any moment it could break and have hte grenade go flying to a direction, yet Vir stayed in that aspect calm. ''Back off all of you, or I will blow all of you wenches up. Got it?'' She shouted as she started sliding towards the cube, keeping her eyes on whichever beings she could see in the heat.

Nuli just froze for a moment and just watched in deep silence, she was honestly rather surprised by just how extreme the person was and honestly, she didn't think the person was bluffing at all. She certainly looks as serious as ever. Nuli, of course, looked at Layton again, thinking a little bit more. Maybe she could use the guy as a diversion or distraction. So, without a second taught, Nuli quickly shoved Layton towards the three cubes, just close enough to Vir.

But before she could do anything else she felt that something was behind her. The alien quickly stepped forward, feeling a sudden burning pain on her back. A clean slice across her. She gasped for a second, her 'blood' just rushing off like some kind of hot gas. Good thing she stepped forward or that cut might have been much deeper. Nuli turned around to see that one guard again, somehow disappearing and reappearing behind her. He swung again, but this time, she ducked and stepped to his side. She did a knifehand strike on his hand and grabbed his wrist, then she kicked his arm all within a second.

Kicking his arm made it bend the wrong way slightly, he let go of the sword and shrieked in slight agony. Nuli immediately picked up the sword, forcing him to step back again. He grumbled, dropping a smoke grande on the ground.

"You talk too much, anybody ever tell you that?" said Layton as he turned his focus towards to Vir. As soon as he did, he got shoved towards her by the girl from before. "Well that's disappointing..." he thought to himself. But thankfully he was able to catch his balance and take a few steps back before entering critical distance. Which at this moment was 3 meters.

As it would turn out, the impostor from earlier had returned. He and Nuli fought, and she clearly had the upper hand. Layton took a few extra steps back and focused his aim on Vir again. She clearly had no idea what she was doing. What was she going to do? Take the cubes? They were obviously unstable, and besides, where would she go? Not to mention that she is clearly bluffing with the whole grenade trick.

At this point, Layton wanted nothing more than to get the hell out of there, but he wouldn't just run away like a coward! He still had his pride intact!

All of a sudden, there was a bang, and a hissing sound. "Is that a --?" he couldn't even finish his thought before the room was filled with smoke. As it turned out, this was perfect. He couldn't see Vir, so she probably couldn't see him either. He took the opportunity to latch himself onto the ceiling.

Jane glanced up at the woman in front of her, her heart bouncing in her chest. She grumbled once again an explosion had intervened with her electricity bolt and once again the woman seemed to be unharmed. The girl moved away from her backwards still sitting down as she glanced in the direction of the glowing cubes. She wasn't going to let a chance like that ruin because of some stupid person. "Great, so you kill all of us and then what?' she brought out, without thinking much.

But, before her words angered anyone to the point there be more explosions, smoke filled the room. In an instinct, Jane covers her face protecting her eyes and airways for the smoke. Regardless of that it still made her cough. As she cached her breath she started crawling in the direction of the blueish light of the artefact. Making use of the smoke as disguise, hoping the others are to disorientated or to busy killing each other to do the same.

Vir noticed the suddenly appeared plasma sword wielder. She proceeded to stop the flipping of the grenade and proceeded to take the pin off. She threw the grenade at the direction of where the guard was. As the grenade was thrown the smoke grenade hissed out its smokey song as the smoke emerged. She quickly used the moment to turn around as she begun to run into the cockpit once more. She had broken the pad controlling the door between the cockpit and the freezer, so the door was left wide open and allowed her to avoid the smoke a bit longer. She started reloading her gun as she ran.

And with the smoke in the air, the man was gone again and this time for good. The smoke cleared rather quickly with the particles dopping unto the floor like some kind of sand or silt, clearly, it was some kind of synthetic smoke. Designed to be thick but ware off very quickly. Of course, once the smoke had worn out, another grenade was in the air.

Not good.

This grenade exploded again, this time a little bit more powerful than the last one. The explosion shook the entire ship and the flames roared. Nuli had managed to prevent the flames from killing everyone that instant, sending the flamed towards the cubes. She figured that those devices should be able to survive the flames and sure enough, they did. Though there was another giant hole in the ship, just behind the artefacts. And those close enough to it may have experienced a bit of heat. Or even some slight burning.

Nuli took some deep breaths, feeling rather tired. She stood back, seeing that Vir Jane and Layton were very close to the artefacts. The artefacts seemed to detect the presence of people. Each one of the cubes began to 'activate' one a person got near to them. One of the cube's 'shell' began to open up, revealing a very red. It didn't do anything else.

Layton landed on the cold, steel floor almost like a spider. He had to stay focused, he was 100% sure none of them could escape alive. He was sure of it. He had to try and bring some order. Or else they would run around outsmarting each other like headless chickens.

He cleared his throat and stood tall. "Enough!" he yelled "If we keep on fighting like this, no one will get out of here alive! These artifacts are clearly unstable and foreign to all of us!" he took a few steps back "If you have no interest in these relics or whatever they are,.. leave! And if any of you do want them, the we have no choice but to cooperate..." he finished. Looking at the thieves one by one. Hoping for a civilized response. God knows he needed it.

The smoke wore off pretty quickly making it possible for Jane to look around. But, then another blast threw the girl back. Hot flames scorched her face and her clothes. As she looked up once again, hoping they were out of grenades. At least there were exits enough to escape now. The temperature of the room now was unbearably hot. In awe she saw one of the cubes had opened up revealing the red inside.

Quickly the girl jumped to her feet and ran in the direction of the cube. Hoping that maybe she could use it to get away from the others and that it wouldn't kill her. Somewhere in the back, she did hear the man yell something but, she barely registered it. She had to have those cubes. She might never have a chance like this anymore.

Vir stood in the cockpit once more as she waited for the smoke to dissipate and let her see again. The smoke blinded her as it engulfed the characters in a texture that had same temperature as rest of the room. She frowned as she waited there impatiently. Any moment now the relics must be stolen from Vir. It was then when she got the idea: She had one last grenade. She could throw it with care to the roof to force the smoke expand out from the room. She took her last grenade and took off the pin. She held it in her hand for a moment as she had to time having the grenade explode on the roof. Then she swung her hand and let go of the grenade. She let it get thrown upwards to the roof. She got to hear a little bang as the grenade hit the roof. 'Any moment now...' She thought as she waited for the explosion to let some of the smoke leave the room and go upwards to the next room.

"Listen to the human male, those cubes can kill any organic lifeform quickly and painlessly," Nuli said to Vir, she was referring to Layton of course. He was the only one who seemed to be making sense. Of course, that didn't seem to stop Vir who was throwing grenades at the roof now. As yes, when faced with problems, use good ol' explosions.

The grenade exploded, leaving a big gaping hole in the roof, exposing the room to the outside elements. Much of the hot air quickly rushed out, into the much cooler outside but it's still extremely hot and unbearable for humans. The gaping whole did help Nuli though, giving her just a perfect way to escape. With the press of a button from her tablet, her ship soon hovered above them.

Nuli deactivated her new laser sword, it's plasma might not react well with the cube's heat. She then dashed off to grab hopefully all of the devices at the same time.