Act III: You Can Run...

Arrivals and Departures

JP with Omni, Jaxx and redsword_7

~On the Montero~

“Man fuck that shit, Cap. I ain’t... nuh uh... you crazy. I ain’t lettin’ those fools and they damn parasites on this ship! Davis and Rye are prob’ly dead already.”, Cham said over comms.

“Cham, what are y...?” Bolaji grunted in exasperation. “Not ONE word, Hel.”, she said as she gave the woman a stone cold glare. Hel had previously warned her that Cham might be a good Pilot but he was chicken shit. “Goddamnit, Cham! Don’t you fucking leave with my ship! That is an order! If you abandon us, I swear to god I will personally hunt you down!” she shouted.

“Damn! Chill, baby! I ain’t leavin’! How bout we SWAP though? Your girl Hel can stay over here... Get your new friends... y’know... you an’ me can chill over there... Shit.”, Cham chuckled.

Bolaji calmed her nerves, tapping her foot, “Bring the ship to the Montero’s P2 Airlock. Joe, meet us there,” she said tersely.

A few minutes later, Joe showed up with Paddy, pulling him along by one arm, and covering Paddy with his own pistol.

“Reporting, Captain Bolaji,” buzzed Joe.

“Joe, I’ve got a new directive for you. We are not leaving until Davies and Rye are confirmed dead... but if they are confirmed alive, let's get them back on our ship," Bolaji ordered.

“Affirmative.”, Joe replied as he walked over to a terminal, set the pistol down on a counter beside the terminal station, and began to type away. He inserted the Weyland Yutani security card and turned a key.

The monitor displayed MUTHUR's message:
...collating...
...probing Cronus for living biosignatures...

Exterior Hull > D1 Airlock
1 x unknown entity
A Deck > Air Shaft Central Port Side
Unknown entities (quantity unclear)
C Deck > V1 Airlock
4 x Human (adults)
1 x Human (child)
C Deck > Lateral Corridor 1
1 x Unknown Entity

"Captain Bolaji, if Davis and Rye are still alive, they will be in the Ventral Airlock with two other adults and one child." Joe informed her.

Bolaji looked at Joe with concern. "Cham... How many people did you see in that Junction?"

"I saw 5 of 'em. None of 'em was ours. One was holding another on his back, another dude was holdin' a cat. And th...", Cham was interrupted.

"Shit.", Bolaji interjected. "They're gone. They're dead." she said woefully, shaking her head. “Fuck…”

Cham chattered on cluelessly, "...then they all just FREAKED out! Started shooting damn holes in the ship. I'm telling ya, girl. That ain't right."

"Shut up and dock the ship," Bolaji said as she latched her helmet. She turned to Captain Kenny and Paddy Lohan. "We lost two of our crew... Here are your options:
A) we kill the two of you and take your ship
B) we take as much of your cargo as we can, WITH your help, and head out on our merry little way
or C) you join our crew and leave all of this Weyland Yutani trouble behind.
Either way, we are taking SOMETHING with us."

Hel pointed her Pulse Rifle at Captain Kenny with raised eyebrows and her tongue in cheek.

-Dong- came the low reverberating sound of docking against the P2 Airlock as Cham positioned the Sotillo.

-----

By this point, Marshal Roberts and crew had arrived at the docking umbilical at the forward starboard bow of the Montero and Jensen had just finished pressure equalization to board the Montero.

-----

"Whaddya say, boys? Ready to be industrial privateers? Corporate spies? Huh? I'll bet it pays a helluva lot better than Weyland Yutani.", said Hel in her cocky, mocking tone.

Captain Kenny hoped Roberts and the rest of the crew would miraculously show up soon, but the numbers that they were reporting from the Cronus didn’t sound too good.

“Fine," he said. "We go to the cargo bay, take what you want, leave us with our power loader and the flatbed lift and then get your asses off of my ship.”

“Good. YOU are coming with me, Captain. Joe, take the other and prepare cargo bay 2 for unloading.” Bolaji ordered.

“Yes, Captain Bolaji.” Joe buzzed obediently.
___________________________

Once the Pod EEV connected, Roberts looked at the others "Listen we don't know what we will run into if the creatures made it over here somehow. It will be a mess, so keep quiet and move carefully."

He got his M41A ready. "Ok, open the hatch," he said.
Jensen opened the hatch and noticed immediately how dim the interior was. “The lights must be off.”

"Not good," said Roberts, leading them with his M41A.

“Thank the Lord!” Jensen exclaimed. “Fresh air.”

After closing the hatch behind them, he turned off his Air Supply and unlatched his helmet. Then he took a breath of the fresh Montero air. He looked to Clayton and Johns.

“Uhhh... Just to be safe, why don’t you guys keep yours on until we get to decon.”
___________________________

The P2 Airlock hatch opened, inside stood Lyron Cham, a man in his 50s with wide eyes, wearing a cowboy hat, leather bomber jacket, and tinted glasses. He was the only one besides Jojo the pet android who wasn’t wearing a space suit.

“We cool, B?” Cham asked as he glanced at everyone in the antechamber over the rim of his sunglasses.

“Yeah... we’re good. Let’s go, I need you to position the ship under cargo bay 2. We’re taking what we can.” said Captain Bolaji.

She headed through the airlock followed quickly by Cham. Hel nodded Kenny in the same direction with a testing scowl and he begrudgingly complied. She kissed Jojo on his blue head and followed Kenny with her rifle at the ready.

“Take care of him, darling. Tata.” Hel laughed and winked, looking back at Paddy.
___________________________

"Let's make a beeline for decon. Then the bridge." said Roberts with his weapon up walking in a commando style movement.

A few minutes later, Roberts and the small crew reached the decontamination room after navigating the dark interior of the Montero. The only strange thing was that the lights were off and their comms to the Montero still weren’t connecting. Everything else still seemed to be functioning normally.

Occasionally, Roberts heard scratches of static and dialogue over comms. He couldn’t make out any words but he recognized clips of voices of the crew left behind in the Cronus.