(( OOC: I return!  :D ))<br/><br/>"Copy that, Churchill. Thanks, buddy." The reply came with rays of sunshine, the waves of appreciation coupled with the freighter flotilla's violent burst of their impulse engines to bring them to full speed.<br/><br/>The slow lumbering hulks of metal made their way pass the opening that the Churchill had provided for them, the full length and mass of the haulers made known with each passing minute. They were known to carry hundreds of thousands of tons of produce, goods and equipment at a time, much more than what most ships capable of space travel can carry. These normally reach their destinations within weeks if empty, and within months if fully loaded, a powerful sextet of old industrial grade engines pulling the gigantic crafts through vacuum. Even then, it was far too expensive to move them from place to place without any cargo to be sold or shifted elsewhere, so they sometimes fill their holds with prefab bunks for civilian transport and stasis corrals for large livestock. The class that the Churchill would have looming above their topside was a heavy variant, if not a mass produced class of freighter used commonly by rich space faring corporations.<br/><br/>"Cant wait to get a bit of moolah after this haul."<br/>"Watcha gonna do with this load, Sunny?"<br/>"Get myself a nice new wedding ring for the lady back home, Buck. Heh."<br/>"Its either you are completely insane or you really cant get the behind of said lass out of your dirty little lame brain of yours."<br/>"Anyways, drinks are on me. Ain't long before we gotta head out again so we better enjoy the sights and the ladies while we still can. Consider this next payday your last bachelor's party, Sunny."<br/><br/>The chatter went on. The pilots did not seem to care who was listening to the general channel, like they had done hundreds of times before. They knew that they could be muted at any time by technically anyone within range. They also knew that no one would bother shutting them up. Merchant types who bother bo one except for those who listen to orbit traffic.<br/><br/>"Hey, wait a sec, guys." The pilot they all called Sunny spoke up after a moments silence, "I'm picking up an energy surge in my hold. No. Two of em. Three. Think theres a short circuit down there."<br/>"Well, get it fixed. We'll be mooring soon so you better haul ass."<br/>"What the.... Numbers bumped up to six. Ten! Twenty! Its a bloody chain reaction!" Disbelief and confusion mixed into his voice.<br/>"Oh, God! Sunny! You have to got to jettison the hold!" The one they called Buck called out in desperation.<br/>"But its good money in those-"<br/>"Do it, Sunny! Its a containment leak! It wont hold for long!" Buck cut him off, "Get those things out of your hold! Now!"<br/>"Oh, shi-! My controls! They're shutting down! I'm losing power!"<br/><br/>The disturbance was now visible. The ship was right on top of the Churchill, and from this angle, the crew could see the massive six engines suddenly sputter and cut short, the mighty flames of impulse propulsion fizzling to nothingness. The hulk was now floating aimlessly in space as the other two freighters started to steer clear slowly.<br/><br/>"I cant-" Sunny seemed to panic, the chaos on the comm channel escalating, "I cant get them back online! Stupid console!"<br/>"Sunny! Get the hell out of there, you son of a bitch! Its gonna blow!"<br/>"Doors jammed! I'm trapped!"<br/><br/>Not long before the final transmission, the hull of the massive freighter suddenly expanded, bloating the craft into a form similar to that of a snake that had just swallowed a large egg. The spectacular explosion of red yellow and blue that followed afterwards split the ship into two, snapping it like a twig under the immense pressure and power of the internal shockwave. Pieces of debris flew everywhere and with the Churchill in proximity, its hull was being peppered by super heated metal shards, bouncing and ricocheting of it like deadly fragmentation. The other two ships in the flotilla also took the brunt of the explosion. A large chunk of what was left of the bow lodged itself into the side of one of the steel beasts of burden, letting loose a gut wrenching metal screech like nails on chalkboard. That freighter continued to veer away from the explosion still, never seeming to stop as it slammed into in orbital boey full on its opposite side.<br/><br/>"Alert! All ships in the vicinity!" The familiar voice of the spaceport sounding on all channels within seconds of the accident,  "Please stay clear of sector 3-4! Emergency crews report to stations for immediate space flight accident sortie! Repeat! All emergency crews report to stations for immediate space flight accident sortie!"<br/><br/><div align="center">======================</div><br/>Elsewhere, within the office of the supervisor down on planetside, word caught on almost immediately, a comms officer reported in bated breath as if he had just ran a ten kilometer marathon. His boss' chair was facing the window and the silence of the room that came after would give even the toughest mercenary bodyguard the chills.<br/><br/>"Good.... Now that we have caused the Churchill delays with possible repairs, we have all the time and convenience in the sector to apprehend their away team." The voice of the supervisor said calmly.<br/>"Sir, a civilian freighter full of hydroxian gas has blown up in space and all you have to care about is their away team?" The comms officer, apparently new meat, exclaimed in utter disbelief.<br/>"Accidents tend to happen.... if you give them a little push to help on the way to inevitability. Hydroxian gas and<em>faulty wiring </em>make a nasty combination, but it had to be done." There was a pause, "The Dominion spy, Sunny Gonzalez, wont be bothering us any more, and even then, his ship served us well by being in the right place at the right time. I would have to congratulate his passing."<br/>"Sir, this is insane! You're mad! With all due respect, I think this has to stop! Enough people have died-"<br/><br/>Before the cadet could finish, a silenced shot from the dark, a splatter of blood on the cadet's temple, and he fell silently over. His silencer stood at ready once more, never uttering a word or regretting what he had done.<br/><br/>"I will do whatever it takes.... to get what I want...."<br/><br/><div align="center">======================</div><br/>Within the base, the alarm continued to stay silent, and no clomp of footsteps could be heard either. It was eerily quiet, as if the last episode with the missile launcher had never happened. Pop up defenses were now active all over the base and there was no telling where they might appear. All personal seemed to also have disappeared.<br/><br/>There was a sudden skitter of movement. The stench of Zerg invaded whatever nostril it could get to, and both Shadir and Gonathi would be able to sense it. Around the corner came a pair of zerglings, which apparently seemed to have come from nowhere. The chattery winged things scampered side by side each other, unusually not noticing Shadir or Gonathi. They seemed to be running blind, as any rogue zerg would be, but these were more lost than any of them. They bumped into walls and staggered to keep up a running pace on their legs, clawed arms twitching uncontrollably. As they neared Shadir, the walls on both of the zergling's sides predictably opened, revealing another array of deadly Terran robotic weapons, a pair of flamethrowers. With a long hot burst of flame, they cooked the zerglings in mid stride, burning them to a complete crisp. Once the flambe' was over and the sensors did not detect any other threat within roasting range, the arrays close shut into the walls. It seemed that the way forward was blocked by them.