After their failed escape attempt Ali had been tossed back into their cell. They had even cuffed her, despite the fact that she pointed out that alone she didn't have a hope in hell of being able to reach any electronic systems. Apparently that wasn't a risk they were willing to take.

She'd cased her cell again anyway, mainly out of boredom, but partly out of curiosity to see what might come in handy if opportunity presented itself. She could see guards outside the door, but they were paying her surprisingly little attention. They clearly felt confident she wasn't getting out again, or certainly not without getting shot - or worse.

Dropping out of light speeds was such a familiar and minimal sensation that Ali almost didn't register it. The lurch from evasive manoeuvres, however, got her attention as did the rumble caused by being hit by some kind of weapons. "Hey, what's going on?" She yelled at the guards. To no great surprise they ignored her and she thumped the panel in frustration before stepping away from the door and further into her cell as she set to working the cuffs open. Ali had picked up many skills on her forced sabbatical from USEP, and the cuffs soon fell to the floor and she rubbed at her wrists. She was formulating any follow up when the lights went down, and she found herself thankful she'd already got her hands free.

When she heard a commotion in the corridor she instinctively pressed herself back against the wall that separated her from it, hands raised in readiness as she watched the door from the side. She didn't know what was going on, but if the guards wanted to take anything out on her, or if pirates or another merc group wanted to kidnap her for their purposes, she wasn't going down without some kind of fight.

From her defensive place she heard the door open rather than saw it, then a flashlight pierced the dark of her cell. She stayed still, trying to keep her breathing low and hoping whoever it was had no interest in being thorough. "Ali, I can feel you in there and I don't want you jumping me."

"Rila!" Ali gasped happily, hesitating just long enough to reach out with her telepathic senses to ensure Rila wasn't also a hostage. Reassured by what she could feel of Rila's emotions, she pushed herself off the wall to join her.

"Still alive then?" Rila teased with a soft voice as she held out an energy pistol for Ali to take.

Ali was about to retort but faltered as she heard the shot in her memory again, as she remembered Pixie's face.

"Ali?" Rila asked, making Ali blink and look up from her weapon again.

"They killed Pixie," Ali whispered.

For a moment Rila's tentacles fully relaxed around her shoulders, drooping with her sadness before she regained herself. "Then we need to get going."

Ali nodded her agreement, everything else could wait till they were safe. As Rila radioed in their current status, Ali clicked the light on on her own weapon. "What's the plan?"

"We get back to the evac coordinates," Rila explained as she handed Ali a scanner with the coordinates pre-loaded. "Wood's with a team guarding them, and I snuck through whilst Spud causes some distractions."

That explains why the lights were down, Ali thought. But she had a more pressing question. "You brought Spud!?"

"We needed an engineer, one who can hack and set explosives."

Ali had to admit, that did rather limit their options. Though she wasn't sure she'd ever willingly put Spud in a firefight situation, no matter how many people she had protecting her. Knowing there was no point discussing it now - the decision had already been made - they had more pressing matters, Ali asked instead, "how many possible routes do we have back?"

"Quickest - and preferred - is a straight run down the corridors through two decks," Rila whispered. "The backups involve detours through water treatment or the computer banks."

"Charming," Ali muttered.

Once Rila checked Ali was ready, she indicated her captain follow her and set off back the way she'd come. Both of them using their weapon's torches to see by, Rila alert with her telepathic senses to prevent anyone getting the drop on them, and Ali watching her scanner for the same purpose.

They both located the first threat at the same time, but it was Ali's scanner that gave them the most accurate data first. Three, she warned Rila as they both turned off their lights at the same time. Whilst they knew that it was a rare skill to be able to use telepathy simultaneously in a fight - but given the little they knew about this group they weren't entirely ruling it out - the Pikaya association meant that they wouldn't be able to sneak up on these guys.

So they diverted through Rila's suggested alternate route. Hoping that Spud's distraction meant that the areas they would normally consider guarded had been abandoned because of more pressing matters. Though the look the women shared as they came to the first access ladder was rather dubious about their chances, but they also both knew that their best chance involved avoided as much fighting as possible.

There was something Ali found unsettling about travelling through a spaceship in almost complete darkness. Maybe it was because the last time she'd done this it was on a ship that had been blown to pieces. Or maybe it was because she'd seen one too many horror vids.

Ali wished she had time to learn more of the plan from Rila, but they didn't have the time to bring her fully up to speed. She knew enough to help fight their way through a ship full of guys who wanted to shoot them. Their route was risky, but they were hoping it was worth it to flank their enemy, and there was the possibility of cover, which the corridors were sorely lacking.

Spud, if you're still in control of the systems, maybe it's an idea to bring up the lights a bit?

Already working on it! Ali didn't waste any more of Spud's time or divert anymore of her attention.

Rila was leading, she had had time to study their limited intel on the ship, and brought them to a halt at the corner that brought them within sight of the water processing chambers. Ali held out the scanner so Rila could see that there were only two guards. Rila pointed to one of the blips and then to herself, and they needed no further communication to know that the other was for Ali.

Rila set off first, as Ali hooked the scanner back onto her belt, and then followed in pitch black. Both using their telepathic senses to reach out and sense their surroundings. As if their minds had a aura with a physical presence to brush up against objects and minds. Ali found it far easier to register minds, but with enough training she had learnt to understand objects as well.

But reaching that semi-familiar zone required a lot of effort - hence her limited use of the skill - but right now it gave them a possible advantage to travel the corridors without their eyes. Assuming of course this wasn't when Spud brought the lights back on. It felt like an eternity to stealthily traverse the corridor to be close enough to pistol whip the one Rila had assigned to her, moments after Rila had subdued hers.

Rila quickly double checked the guards as Ali turned to use her pistol to bash off the cover of the manual override for the door controls. Spud hadn't taken out every electronic system, but there wasn't a lot of rhyme or reason to the ones that had gone down. "Be careful if you need to start shooting, there's some high pressures in there," Ali warned as the door opened.

The only sound in the purification section was the humming and whirring of the pumps. Ali swore that the large volumes of water - even encased behind inches of reinforced metal and polymer - did something strange to a room's acoustics. Either that or it was her subconscious playing tricks on her because that's what she expected. She had her scanner back in her hand as they moved as swiftly as they dared through the service walkways. She hated catwalks.

They were most of the way through when the lights slowly came back on, and they were all grateful Spud didn't just blind them. They took a second just to check that they were both okay and their eyesight had adjusted, but there were no issues.

In fact, it was what Ali would describe as suspiciously easy until they were almost at the other end. Then she saw another group of life-signs where they'd left the stunned guards. "We're gonna have trouble," she said indicating behind them.

Rila moved to look at the scanner, unsurprised that there was also a group of mercs at their exit as well. She glanced up at the water tanks around them. "Dangerous, you said?"

Ali looked at Rila then at the tanks and back to her second in command. Then sighed. "I am a bad influence."

"Please, I had far worse influences than you."

"That's not reassuring," Ali retorted. "Okay, where do we need to be?"

Rila pointed to the wall next to the door. "You'll need to work your magic to get that open, I'll just wait for an opportune moment to prevent them flanking us."

Ali nodded and they both took up their positions against the wall. Ali quickly prised the control cover off again to be ready for Rila's signal. Though she was keeping an eye on her scanner to try and reduce the chance of any nasty surprises. Watching the life-signs on the other side of the door curiously until the controls she'd just revealed sparked and she dived out of the way of any danger.

"Captain?" Rila asked, lifting herself slightly but Ali waved her back.

"I'm okay, I think they've tried to seal us in."

"You can fix that though, right?"

"I'll let you know," Ali said, rather too honestly, before turning cautiously to the controls as she tried to not only ascertain what they had done, but what was safe for her to touch in an attempt to fix it.

She flinched as she heard a shot above her head. "It would help if you don't let me get shot!"

"No promises!" Rila retorted as she used the railings to swing herself up or left out of cover to keep their flank guessing as to where she was about to pop out next.

"I thought you had a genius plan for them?"

"I'd rather we were out of the firing line first!" Rila admitted. "Besides, you're working with open electronics, even I know to keep them dry."

Ali couldn't argue with that as she continued working, trying not to duck and cringe at every loud noise that seemed a bit too near to be comfortable. It wasn't that she didn't trust Rila, but her self-preservation instincts had been well honed to keep her alive this long, and it was difficult to ignore them.

It took her longer than she'd like, but she finally managed to work her way through the maze of wires and circuit boards to find the override the mercs had engaged. "Do we need to shut this again?" She asked.

"No," Rila confirmed, shooting from a low position.

Ali was absolutely fine with that, so yanked hard to disconnect some wires, before bypassing their components and the door slid open. "Done!" She yelled as she turned to the now open door with her pistol raised and charged through to take advantage of the guard's surprise.

The first one was easily dealt as she shot him whilst she rushed through the door. The second guard tried to jump her as she did, but she had expected such an attack and dodged out of the way as she heard a loud, crashing roar behind her, she span around to confront the merc only to see Rila shoot him as she surged through the doorway to join them.

They paused for a moment, tense and ready for some kind of additional attack, but when they didn't detect anything they relaxed and nodded to each other. Ali set to the guards they'd just knocked unconscious, whilst Rila went back to the catwalk to check over the railing. The emergency seals had clamped on so no fruther water was escaping from the hole Rila had made. A jet of water had cascaded across the catwalk and washed the mercs with it due to the pressure it had been under. "I reckon it'll take them a few hours to escape from that," Rila observed, considering that job dealt with as she turned to rejoin Ali.

"Here's hoping," Ali agreed. "Good job."

"Better get moving, or they'll catch up with us again."

Ali nodded and they picked up their journey, weapons raised and hurrying down the corridors. They were surprised not to find any guards on the computer banks, but they weren't going to complain. Though they didn't need to share the look they did about how they were worried what that really meant. They'd both been in too much trouble, seen too many ambushes, not to expect the worst. They could feel the suspicious dread in the pit of other's stomach.

They slowed to pick their way through the maze of blocks that house exabytes worth of data and the processing power required to access and maintain said data. Even though she was consulting her scanner, Ali still had enough awareness of her surroundings to spot the console they passed by. She stopped, tilting her head as she quickly assessed it's purpose, before reaching a hand out towards it.

"What're you doing?"

"We're in the middle of their databases, isn't it worth a look to see if there's anything worth grabbing?"

"And if it's alarmed and we bring a bunch more mercs down on us?"

Ali hummed as she thought about that. "Run like hell?" Rila's tentacles tensed by way of response to Ali's joke, only for her captain to offer her an innocent grin. "Fine, no data mining," she acquiesced, before pointing to a different terminal. "But we could disconnect their databases," she suggested, "but that will alert them."

"Could be a useful diversion?" Rila said as she thought. Ali nodded. "How long?"

Ali thought for a moment. "Gimme two minutes?"

"Done," Rila agreed.

Ali set to her work, quickly tapping at the screen on the console in question to disable the power and sever the connections digitally, before quickly pulling off the side panel and physically disconnecting as many systems as she could before Rila warned her that her time was up. She tried to stash the chipset she held in her hand in a pocket, but Rila just grabbed it from her and chuckled it across the room. Ali rolled her eyes was and teased Rila that they wouldn't bug their own databanks.

Their banter almost instantly died as they heard weapons fire almost as soon as they left the databank section. Ali pulled Rila back into the cover of the doorway as she braced herself against the wall. Spud, we're almost with you, tell me you've still got a few tricks left.

Sorry, busy hacking a mech! If you could split their attention, that'd be great.

Ali would prefer to be asked to do something like that when they had more cover available to them, but it wasn't like she could be picky right now. She quickly relayed the information to Rila and they agreed that they'd take their chances. Rila made a quip about Ben's only real use was that he was a good shot that had Ali biting her lip to muffle her laugh.

They ran down the last portion of corridor that separated them from the others, hugging the walls as best they could until they came to the corner. That would be the end of their cover, and they shared an unhappy look at that as Rila pressed herself as close as she dared get to try and get some kind of read on the situation.

Ali waited as patiently as she could before Rila relaxed enough to pull back slightly. "It's a mess."

"You wanna go high and I'll go low?"

Ali knew Rila was not best pleased with that suggestion, a memory of a previous mission hitting them both, but both of them knew they didn't have a lot of options. "Sure."

They traded places so Ali could crouch against the wall, and Rila with her legs pressed against Ali's back, whispering a countdown before they both moved, trying to hone in on possible targets as quickly as possible.

They weren't able to take out as many as they had hoped, but they did achieve their aim of splitting the merc's attention. Though Spud did a much better job of it when she finished hacking the mech and it exploded. Unprepared and awkwardly crouched Ali was knocked off her feet, but with Rila to quickly yank her back down the corridor she escaped relatively unscathed.

Rila had already darted back to the corner to see what help was still required, leaving Ali to get back to her feet and retrieving her scanner. She reached out to Sput, situation?

Most of the mercs are down, Ben's team and Rila seem to be tidying up the rest without much issue.

Ali nodded to herself, reassured by Spud's answer, before Rila turned back and confirmed they had a clear run to their colleagues.

They didn't waste time and regrouped to action their next steps. Spud instantly hugging Ali, as Ben issued orders to what was left of their security team to ensure the area was secured - as much as it could be. Ali pulled away from the hug when she felt a hand on her shoulder, she turned and smiled at Ben, squeezing the hand he had on her shoulder as Spud realised they didn't have time for this right now. "Where's Pixie?"

Ali's face faltered, and she bit her lip and shook her head sadly. Spud looked set to pull her friend back into another hug, but Ben nodded once before he said, "then we should get going before they cut off our access to the evac point."

"Okay, let me shut this down," Spud agreed before she scurried back to her equipment, her fingers practically skimming over the controls in her haste before she yanked it out of whatever access points she'd used to hack into the systems. "Done."

"Okay, they're coming for us from the other direction, so our flank is gonna be most in danger," Rila reported.

"Then Ali, you and Spud lead and make sure that shuttle docks, we'll follow and provide cover as required," Ben ordered.

Ali nodded and, with Spud issuing directions, she led the way, just in case there were some guards Rila hadn't got when she'd analysed the situation. She heard Rila order their ride in once they had started moving.

When they arrived at the sealed airlock Ali ordered Spud to stay at it just in case she needed to hack the controls. If she were in Tihud's shoes, she'd have put some extra security on any access points in and out of the ship. They were exposed where they were, but it was only temporary so if they had a bit of luck on their side, they wouldn't need to have a shootout. Their group was large enough to cover most of the potential angles, but was retreating in waves.

"Shuttle's docked and… door is good," Spud reported after quickly bypassing the security protocols once the pressure had stabilised. The door slid open for her.

Ali ordered Spud into the shuttle as the next pair came around the corner, and continuing to order each lot in until Ben and Rila came within sight. "Ali, we good to make a run for it?" Rila asked, backing up as she continued to shoot.

"Yep," Ali confirmed, pistol still raised but chancing a glance at her scanner. "How many you got following you?"

"More than I want, but not enough to stop us," Rila quipped.

"Famous last words," Ben said, also shooting.

"Then don't tempt fate and run!" Ali added, ordering her last companion into the shuttle and following him in. A couple minutes later Ben and Rila joined them with the last two of the security team. Spud was ready to seal the door behind them and disengage the lock so that they could fly away.

All of them were holding on tight to the various hand holds in the shuttle as they were buffeted around as their pilot weaved their way around the battlefield between Tihud's ship and the Endeavour and Faraday.

It wasn't until they were within the bay of the Faraday that the entire compliment of people in the shuttle let out a breath they hadn't realised they were holding. They shared disbelieving and weary smiles as the adrenaline rushed out of them. "I vote we don't do that again," Spud decided firmly. Ali wasn't the only one who gave a wry chuckle at that.