Raided

Shivering, Cass pulled the thin coat she was wearing closer around her and, folding her arms against the cold, resumed pacing the floor of the freezer. Ice crystals crunched beneath her canvas boots, the sound lost beneath the crash of kitchenware and screams from out in the kitchen.

“I can’t believe we’re cowering in here, hoping that thing’s going to sort out all our problems”

“We haven’t got any decent weapons” Jamie said, pointedly.

“What? – Other than fucking Mecha-Jaxx?”

“Other than him, yes”

Turning on a heel, Cass paced back across the room, her eyes dispassionately regarding Eve, laid out on a frost covered wooden packing crate, being tended to by Jade. “What’s with her anyway?”

“No idea” Jade murmured, not taking her eyes off her watch while she took Eve’s pulse with her other hand “All I can assume that it’s something to do with the Archiver weapon”

“She was like this last time as well, wasn’t she?”

Jade nodded and let go of Eve’s wrist “I’m concerned”

“What? You’re thinking it might be responsible for this?”

Jade shrugged – a worried, open gesture “I don’t know. Her heart rate is way down, but there’s no way I can tell what’s going on without access to proper diagnostic tools. I'm concerned there might be neural damage”

Curling her lip, Cass left unvoiced the thought that it might be hard to tell whether Eve had been turned into a vegetable or not and instead shook her head “Archiver tech is as flaky as fuck. Do you think we should wake her?”

“I don’t think we have a choice” Jamie rumbled, his statement punctuated by the sound of more gunfire and screams, echoing through the kitchen outside.

“How about we just give it another few minutes?”

“Cass!” Jade protested “That thing could be killing her”

“Oh, fine then, wake her up” Cass threw her hands up in the air “It was only a suggestion”

“Jamie, give me a hand” Jade began manoeuvring Eve up into a sitting position. Jamie hurried to help leaving Cass to observe the proceedings “Eve? Can you hear me?”

Limp and unresponsive, Eve’s head lolled, prompting Jade to try gently slapping her cheek “Eve? C’mon Eve... Wake up”

Pausing after a moment, Jade gently pried one of Eve’s eyes open “Pupils dilated... No response” she looked up “Cass: See if you can find some sugar or something sweet in here. The sensation sometimes helps”

Turning to gaze around at the various boxes and packing crates piled up around them, Cass started as the freezer door was suddenly hauled open to reveal the hulking silhouette of Mecha-Jaxx, stood in the doorway. Riddled with bullet holes, the construct held a large blood stained knife in one hand, while the other held a heavy, badly dented skillet, slicked blood and greyish, viscous matter.

Scanning...

“Whoa, shit” Cass backed away, wildly wondering where the hell Jay had got to and wishing that he was there with her.

“Ally Doctor Jade Black” Mecha-Jaxx rumbled as it advanced, menacingly into the room “The roody-poo candy ass threat has not yet been neutralised. Cease your attempts at reviving Ms. Stone”

Were it not for the deadly serious tone in the monstrosity's voice, Cass would have snickered at it using the sort of language that only a child would use; but this was quite evidently no laughing matter “Stand down” she said, levelly “We can take it from here”

“Negative” Mecha-Jaxx advanced further into the room “My orders come only from Eve Babe”

“But she’s unconscious and not responding to external stimuli” Jade protested “You could be killing her”

“That is of little concern. Mission objectives must be met”

“Now wait just a minute –” Jamie began.

“I’m not having this” Jade slapped Eve hard “Wake up!”

“No!” Mecha-Jaxx hurled the knife forward, burying it almost up to the hilt in the packing crate that Eve was laid out on, making Jamie and Jade leap back with startled shouts.

“I said: Stand down!” Cass raised her little V2-21 and pointed it at Mecha-Jaxx. She had almost no faith that the weapon would do anything to the monster, but she figured it was worth trying to bluff it.

Mecha-Jaxx barely spared her a glance as it advanced towards Eve, who it scooped up with one arm and turned to face Cass “Eve Babe gives the orders” it intoned.

“Yeah, but you could be turning her into a vegetable” Jade snapped.

“That is of secondary importance. The primary mission objectives must be met”

“Fuck’s sake” Cass lowered her weapon “And there was me thinking that the original Jaxx was a cretin. What are your objectives?”

“Keep Eve Babe safe. Destroy roody-poo candy asses”

“You have absolutely no idea how homoerotic that sounds, have you?” Cass shook her head in disbelief and turned to Jamie and Jade “We’re wasting time here. Let’s help see the raiders off and with any luck Eve will snap out of this herself. Failing that, we’ll make it up as we go along”

Jay would have been proud.

“Agreed” Jamie nodded, tersely.

“Eve?” Jade called “If you can hear us, it seems like the Archiver weapon is keeping you unconscious. We’re going to try and meet it’s primary mission objectives to help you wake up”

“Let’s get out of here" Cass waved them all forward "I’m fucking freezing”


The scene that greeted them as they emerged from the freezer was one of absolute carnage.

Dead kitchen staff and raiders lay sprawled everywhere, the floors and worktops riddled with bullet holes and splattered with blood. A repugnantly appetising smell of frying meat filled the air, from one of the raiders who had fallen, his brains dashed out, across one of burning the kitchen ranges.

Quickly exiting the kitchen, the little group hurried back through the corridors and made their way out onto the top deck, with the intention of providing any assistance that they could with the fight against raiders, but to their dismay were greeted by a similar scene of chaos and destruction.

Fires burned here and there on the deck, the smoke from which wafted across their view, partially obscuring the scattered bodies of the dead and the dying. The sounds of human misery filled the air.

“Can you see any raiders?” Jamie asked, his eyes narrowing against the bright sunlight.

“No” Cass frowned. Several members of the crew were helping the injured as best they were able, with more quickly arriving on the scene by the second, but of the raiders there was no sign.

“There!” Jade pointed through the smoke, up at a small flotilla of departing airships “They’re leaving” she rounded on Mecha-Jaxx “Eve’s safe now – You can let her wake up”

The construct remained silent for a moment before turning to regard her “Negative” it intoned “Eve Babe is not yet safe. There are more roody poo candy asses to destroy” it pointed up at the airships.

“For fuck’s sake” Cass groaned “You’re fucking shitting me?”

“Help us!” a voice cried through the smoke “Help!”

“C’mon” Jade moved automatically, hurrying across the deck to where a man in a bloodstained shirt was cradling another, badly injured man in his arms.

“Help” he repeated, coughing hoarsely on the smoke as the group approached.

Most of the blood soaking the man’s shirt, Cass noted, didn’t seem to belong to him. She frowned in recognition at the injured man cradled in his arms, her eyes taking in the blood spattered medals festooning the breast of his jacket. “You were with the prince”

“Yes, well done you little floozy. We were in the prince's party” the other man spat “This is Admiral Wilson. He needs urgent medical help”

“What happened to the prince?” Cass queried as Jade knelt down next to the pair with quiet assurances that she was a doctor.

“The damned raiders took him” the man seemed close to tears as he turned and looked at Jade “Can you help him?”

"I... I don't know" Jade began unbuttoning the Admiral's jacket.

"Ms. Jones" a voice called, making Cass turn to regard a sharply dressed man, wearing a top hat and cape and brandishing a ridiculously ostentatious gold revolver. She frowned at him.

"I'd just like to congratulate you on that superb performance -"

"Fuck off Artemis. Have you seen any of the others?"

Artemis seemed to deflate slightly at having been recognised so easily "No, nobody other than Ransom" he replied, tersely.

"Where's he?"

"The raiders got him"

"How about Jay?"

"No idea where your beaux might have got to..." Artemis paused and frowned at Eve lolling in Mecha-Jaxx's arms "What's wrong with her?"

"Our Archiver weapon here seems to be keeping her psychicly sedated, while he fulfils his primary objective of destroying arses"

"What!?"

Ignoring Artemis's frankly astonished question, Cass raised her voice to address everyone "We need to find the Prince and get Ransom and anyone else who has been kidnapped back" she said, discreetly skirting the issue of killing the prince and triggering a time quake "We'll need weapons, transport and a way of tracking the raiders"


<tag>
Eve's out of action for the time being, so let's run with Mecha-Jaxx

Jade: Can you help the injured man? - assuming he doesn't die, is he able to provide any help to us?
Jamie, Artemis: The Titanic might be quick, but it’s not as fast as the dirigibles – Sensor tech in this era is shit; can you think of a way to track the raiders?
Mecha-Jaxx, everyone else who hasn't been kidnapped - We need weapons and transport - the crew probably won't be all that willing to help, so what can you come up with?
Ransom and anyone else who fancies being kidnapped - how are you treated? - where do the pirates take you? - give us something interesting to work with :)
</tag>