Unity Station

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Just outside of Imperium space, a small but well equiped research station.

Unity is a joint venture between multiple worlds, hence the name. Xenobiology, anthropology and astronomy are some of the things researched here.
There's a small school, a few shops, one or two tiny restaurants and a coffee shop but generally speaking, the majority of the inhabitants are either researchers or family of researchers.

The chief of medicine is an insectoid woman named Yessalia.
Chief of security is a man named Tias.

Silence tilted her head at the gunshots, not sure what to make of them. She blinked slowly, then lumbered after Tala. She had no real turn of speed though, falling behind quickly.

---

Esk cursed and kicked out at his assailant, managing to get him to stumble back a pace and give him a chance to scoot backwards, hopefully out of range. He tried to ignore the searing pain in his arm as he struggled to get one glove off.

The other guy laughed as he bent to pick up the gun, cocking it and pointing it at Esk's head.

"Any last words?"

Esk glowered. "Go fuck yourself."

Tala drew her gun as she approached, readying for a fight. Upon reaching the warehouse door, she would open it quietly, so she could look in and hopefully get an idea of the situation without being immediately fired upon. Her ears twitched with irritated amusement when she saw what was happening; it seemed Vestia's worries had been well founded.

"Choose your next move carefully," she called, using the doorframe as cover as she took aim at Esk's attacker. "If the young man dies, your life is forfeit."

(Assuming the door is unlocked, of course)

Tala's interuption distracted the man long enough for Esk to get to his feet.

"Stay out of this." The man snapped.

Esk said nothing, trying to guage a good chance to wrestle that gun out of the guy's hand. Unfortunately he still had it pointed at him, and he really would rather come out of this without getting shot.

Tala's ears were back, she would have liked to just shoot this guy and be done with it, but she wasn't convinced he wouldn't manage to shoot Esk too if she tried. And Tala would really rather not lose Esk, when he was so very useful and a pleasant drinking companion.

So she went for diplomacy. Her version of it, anyway. "If you kill this man, I will kill you. So whether you kill this man or not, if someone has hired you, you will not be getting your paycheck."

Tala's reasoning was pretty sound. The man paused, almost lowering the gun which gave Esk the chance he needed.
He lunged forward, tackling the other guy to the ground.

The man didn't drop the gun but he was sufficiently stunned to be unable to fire it. With Esk's full weight on top of him he struggled and tried to raise the weapon but Esk now had the upper hand. He rammed his knee against the man's wrist, eliciting a cry of pain from the bounty hunter. There was no way he was going to be able to fire that gun now, he could barely even hold it.

Esk didn't take his eyes off the bounty hunter as he spoke, calling out to Tala. "Help me restrain him. I don't want him trying anything."

Tala trotted over, holstering her gun once she was close enough to help, so both her hands would be free to restrain the bounty hunter. "What do you plan to do with this nuisance of a man?" she asked Esk.

Esk shrugged as the guy under him struggled. "I figure we send him back to his boss, tell him if he sends anyone else after me, i'm gonna send the next one back in pieces." He glowered down at the bounty hunter.

"Get the fuck off me!" the bounty hunter yelled.

Esk snorted and took the gun, pointing it at the bounty hunter as he rose off of him.

"You got all that? Don't come after me again." Esk growled.

The bounty hunter glared, his gaze shifting between Esk and Tala.

"That seems a satisfactory plan," Tala said. "I enjoy the scent of blood, but the nice people of this space station might not like it if we killed him. I do not think we should free him until you are out of harm's way, though, for he seems dishonorable and may attempt to kill you again."

Esk nodded. "You got anything to restrain him?"

They were interupted by Silence finally lumbering into the doorway. "people coming." She told them flatly, not really appearing overly concerned by the scene. Then again, it was difficult to read that face.

Esk swore under his breath. "Security, we need to get out of here."

Tala shifted her grip so one of her hands was free, and searched in one pocket, pulling out a sturdy piece of cord. "It is fortunate that I planned ahead for this mission." She tilted her ears so that one pointed toward Silence and one toward Esk, "We could hand this nuisance over to Security."

Esk glanced toward the slumped body of the other guy. He really didn't want to have to deal with security.
"How many and how far?" He asked silence.

Silence shrugged. "three, close."

Esk nodded. "Tie him up." He gestured with the gun. He hoped Tala was better at talking her way out of trouble than he was because he wasn't convinced security was going to be entirely sympathetic.
This place didn't strike him as one that often saw violence.

"I won't be the last, they'll keep coming after the lot of you." The bounty hunter sneered.

Esk glowered. "Maybe I should just shoot you and be done with it then, send a message to leave me the fuck alone."
He wouldn't get that chance though, he could hear footsteps approaching.

Tala tied up the guy with quick, efficient Space Marine knots. "You should holster your weapon, Security will likely not take kindly to the sight of it," she said cheerily. She considered mentioning that gesturing with the gun wasn't particularly good gun safety, but decided now wasn't the time. They were about to have visitors, after all.

Esk grumbled but he did as he was told, holstering the weapon and leaning against some of the crates. Now that the andrenaline rush was wearing off he was starting to notice the pain.

Silence moved into the room as security marched in. There were only three of them and they really were woefully underequiped, but this was a science station, it wasn't like they were expecting violent bounty hunters.

The guy who seemed to be in charge took stock of the situation, frowning. "We had reports of shots."

The other two guards kept their weapons drawn and at the ready.

"Your reports were accurate," Tala declared. "When I arrived, the man we have apprehended was attempting to kill my comrade in arms, for reasons I have not yet been told." Looking to Esk she added, "I assume you did not try to kill him first. Did you?'

Esk glowered. "no." he replied flatly.

The bounty hunter protested. "He killed my colleage!" He gestured toward his fallen comrade, slumped against some boxes.

Security looked uncertain but their leader just sighed. "Right, all of you, come with me. We'll sort this out in security." He gestured to one of the other guards. "check the big guy, call medical up here."

Tala's ears wiggled as she replied to Esk, "Good! I would not want you picking fights with strangers in storerooms, it would be a bad example for the crew."
To the leader of the Security team she added cheerfully, "Shall I carry the man we apprehended? He is of an untrustworthy nature, and may attempt to run away."

One of the guards got out their radio to call in the requested medic. The other guard kept her gun ready, watching the group for trouble, although she still seemed kinda unsure about exactly what it was their team had just walked in on.

The poor security team were massively over their heads and the cheerful minotaur wasn't helping. The chief sighed and reached for his cuffs, then stopped. The bounty hunter was already restrained.

He turned to one of the other guards. "stay here with the... till medical turn up alright? Then get janitorial on the line to clean up the mess." He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "the rest of you, surrender your weapons and come with me."

Esk grumbled but did as he was told, unloading the gun before handing it over.

Silence spread her clawed hands, she didn't have any weapons on her that weren't attached to her body.

The chief didn't seem to want to get too close to her anyway, truthfully she kinda freaked him out. He had no idea what she even WAS but that grinning toothy face was unnerving.

The security guard would stay to call in the janitors, eyeing the dead body a little dubiously. They hadn't seen all that many situations like this, so it was new territory.

Tala handed over her gun without complaint, then grabbed the bounty hunter again so she could drag him along with them. Hey, Security here seemed like they needed all the help they could get.
"You are doing very well," she told the team encouragingly. She wasn't trying to be condescending, but it might sound that way.

Chief of security watched Tala dubiously.
Esk just followed along with the other guard bringing up the rear, gun trained on them in case they tried anything.

Esk remained sullenly quiet. Truthfully, he was in pain and just wanted to get back to the ship.

Silence lumbered along with them casually. As far as she was concerned, she hadn't done anything so she was just here for the ride.

The all trudged back to the security office where the chief had them all take seats.

the bounty hunter continued to try to protest he was 'just doing his job' but fell quiet when the chief slammed his fist down on his desk and glowered.

"Enough!" The chief looked pissed off and kinda overwhelmed. "I don't give a shit. All I care about is gun fights on MY station. We're going to sit here and you're going to all explain yourselves, and then i'm going to decide what to do with you all. Understood?"

Tala's ears flicked forward in agreement, she appreciated the chief trying to restore some order to his station.

"I and my associate," she started, indicating Silence, "were sent out by our captain to check on some members of the crew, as they are a very accident-prone group of people. While searching for our crew, we heard gunshots, which we hastened to investigate. Upon arriving, I found this nuisance," she indicated the bounty hunter, "attempting to kill my other associate." At this she indicated Esk.

Hey, she thought it was probably better to avoid giving out names if at all possible. Clearly someone was out to get her crew.

"The dead man was already dead when I arrived," she concluded helpfully.

The chief massaged the bridge of his nose and indicated to his colleage to separate them to interogate individually.
this would likely take a while.

Esk protested, as did the bounty hunter but the chief wasn't hearing it. He was going to figure this out and they were going to cooperate or he'd put them in a cell overnight anyway.

Eventually they were all questioned and the chief seemed, well, not satisfied, but at least appeased.

He told the three as they left not to come back, he wanted no trouble on his station, they were trouble. "You have twenty four hours to move on. "

Esk asked about the bounty hunter but the chief didn't want to discuss it any more. He was tired and done with this nonsense.

Tala, Silence and Esk found themselves trudging back across the atrium.

"Well! It was silly to dillydally here anyway," Tala decided as they headed back toward Vestia. "Now we simply have reason to leave."

Esk frowned.
He seemed in a rush.

Silence tilted her head. "You're worried."

Esk exhaled sharply in exasperation. "Stay out of my head." He snapped. He shook his head. "I'm not worried, more... aware that this ship's reappearance will have attracted attention. If they're already coming after me, what about everyone else?"

Silence blinked, she didn't understand.

"Let's just get back to the ship okay?" Esk kept walking at his brisk pace which Silence couldn't match. Though Tala likely would have no problem.

Tala's ears flicked forward, Esk raised a good point. He wasn't even close to the most valuable target on Vestia, and after being here a little over a day, someone had already tried to kill him. If people were coming for him already, then who else might they be coming for?

"You are a useful strategist, I had not considered that possibility," Tala told Esk. "But you should slow your pace, I would like to be able to guard both of you at once." It was important to get back to Vestia, but splitting up wasn't a great idea.

"I must also locate the other folk who went wandering today," she added in what for her was a quiet tone of voice. "If they have not yet returned to the ship."

Esk frowned at Tala, but he slowed down. He was accustomed to following orders and Tala was his superior. He nodded. "Who else left the ship?" he asked warily, keeping his voice low.

Silence caught up.

"The old man and the drone," Tala said. "We shall return to the ship to see if they haven't returned yet. If they haven't, you can stay at the ship while she," Tala indicated Silence, "and I go looking for them."

Esk nodded.

Silence paused, tilting her oversized head. "Someone watching." She told them.

Esk frowned. He'd been so distracted he hadn't been paying attention to their surroundings. He silently cursed himself for that oversight as he subtly tried to scan the area for whoever Silence was talking about.