Honey, we lost the kids

Spaceport Ruins, Shadowheart, Tomin Kora The cracked and debris-strewn dome of the old Tomin Kora spaceport is littered with toppled columns, overturned kiosks and holoprojectors. A scuffed and dented CI, the logo for Cabrerra Industries, is canted at an angle atop a pile of concrete from a collapsed wall. A gap in the broken wall, shattered by the collapsing aerie structure, leads into the ruins of the aerie. The broken automated doorway - stuck in the permanent open position - leads out to the wreckage of Aurora Strand.

Wed Nov 28 20:48:24 3007

It's tensely quiet on the small landing field, though none of the Tracker's are very aware of it, Franceza and Andreo walked across the field to the Artemis five minutes ago. Both heavily armed and on guard. Just in case. At La Madre things are more cheery, every now and then the squeek of children's laughter drifting out. Up in the cockpit two small faces can be seen blowing fishlips against the windows.

A scruffy guy in cast off military fatigues may or may not be noticed among the debris of the dome. He had been rooting through an overturned kiosk rather unthreateningly, but his attention is caught by something. Looking towards the La Madre, he begins to mumble into a commlink.

On La Madre, Ethel's stern but soothing voice tells the kids to get away from the window and wait nicely for daddy to come back. She picks up the smallest away herself, rosy cheeks and moreover big belly speaking of 6 months into pregnancy. At the Artemis, all's quiet.

A little bit later a couple of guys who are scruffy enough to be the first smelly man's twin emerge from the strand. They are carry an assortment of weaponry, but the one constant is that they all tote tangler rifles. There is about three of them. One carries a spare rifle, likely intended for the first guy. You're so smart. It was for the first guy. He scurries over and collects it, pointing out the La Madre for the visually oblivious among the group.

Still, all's quiet. The hatch to La Madre opens suddenly though, and two of the kids, who apperently escaped Ethel's watchful eyes for a moment, appear when the ramp is lowered. Giggling the giggle of the very very naughty.

The ragtag bunch of ruffianry do not giggle the giggle of the naughty. They are a group comprised mostly of sneer and smirkers. They do some of this as they edge in on the ships in a pincer style movement, coming from both directions and moving towards the space between the vessels.

It's at that time that things start happening at once. From the back of the ship, Ethel can be heard calling that they'd better not have opened the hatch! And at the Artemis, the ramp is lowered as well, Andreo and Franceza waiting with a packed metal trunk, her stuff. The kids look back, suitable embarrassed. "Mo-om!"

No shame or honor amongst the criminal class of Tomin Kora. They are there and trying to bring their weapons to bear on the pair. Franceza's got her wits about her, though, and can probably get her weapon of choice up first should she so decide. Her brother, though, is distracted by the kiddies or maybe he's just a lump.

Try distracted, expression darkening as he sees what his offspring is up to. "Tony, Nando, get back inside -now-!" he bellows, angry. Frank is less distracted, and has only one thing to say as she draws her Midvyet to fire a shot at the first leering face she encounters, better be on the safe side. "DUUUCK!"

"You skank!" roars one of the men as he dives face first into the rubble strewn ground. Avoiding being pulsified keeps him from firing back, but his buddies are on good enough terms with him that they work to defend him. One shoots at Frank while the other two try to goop up her brother.

The collection of would be kidnappers handily miss the pair with their goop guns, but, other than Mr. Face in the Shards of Cement, they move forward, closing in.

Did she expect them to fire back? Hell yeah. Frank upturns the trunk so they're safer against the gunfire, Andreo gets his gun out. Frank peers up for a moment, trying to guess everyone's position, while the kids run from the open airlock back into the ship, screaming. Andreo fires three shots at random, then tells his sister, "Cover me!" And tries to make a run for La Madre. Franceza aims and fires, once.

Franceza nails a sucker, and he starts to whine and complain as he bleeds through a burnt hole in his chest area. Her brother is still slacking. She's gaining major points in the sibling rivalry game, but his shooting does slow down one of the guys, affecting his aim badly as he's struck in the shoulder. The other two, unwounded guys, seem intent on business, though, and they shoot again. No cowards on TK! That's right.

Andreo's legs tangle as he's too slow to jump around the sticky stuff, his grunt muffled by the dust he's biting. Frank screams, fires again, this time at the two who shot at her brother. But her aim's a little off due to her anxiety. At La Madre, kids are screaming still, Ethel trying to calm them down, but not daring to get her pregnant belly in the line of fire.

And another guy gets hit. This leaves one guy who is still hale and hearty, one guy who is bleeding uselessly in the dirt, and another two who have problems shooting straight. Never-the-less, the group seems to be hopped up on some sort of crazy drug, because they keep plugging along, ignoring the losses and injuries.

Dodging is hard when you're ducking up trying to take aim while at the same time trying to figure out to how to get to your brother. Frank's too late. Andreo is still trying to refind his senses. At La Madre, the children are shushed, be quiet. Hide.

"Har!" shouts a triumphant kidnapper as two of the more or less hearty ones spray the pair down with the gunk. The third one who isn't whimpering yells at the Madre, "Hey! You! You close that hatch, we gut these two!"

There's no motion or sound from La Madre, Frank fighting the goo, but unsuccesfully. Andreo shakes his head. Tries to locate his gun, it slipped just out of his reach. "No, don't! Don't hurt them!" Brother and sister shout/scream.

"Shut up," snarls guy number two who is bleeding from the shoulder. He doesn't go anywhere near the goop that is tangling Andreo up to enforce this claim. The other guy, the unwounded and perhaps smarter member of the group, yells at the ship, "I want everyone off that ship. All we want to do is rob you. Nobody will get hurt if you do like we say."

"No, don't do it!" Frank yells, even as Andreo starts fighting the sticky stuff for all he's worth. "My wife's pregnant," he warns, "If you hurt one hair on her body..."

"Quit yelling," warns Mister Smarty pants as he looks around nervously. "You don't want anyone else to show up, do you?"

In La Madre, Ethel judges her chances, finally calls out. "We've got small children. I ain't letting them out on this shitty rock. Take all you want, but we're not coming out!" In her sticky net, Frank is trying to take aim at the shoulderbleeder. "Piss off," she hisses.

The shoulder bleeder gets hit and goes down in a heap. This seems to piss off Mr. Smarty Pants. He curses and moves behind Frank, pointing a pulse pistol at the back of her head. "Last chance." The last wounded but standing guy imitates the move but on Andreo.

A muffled scream proves Ethel's watching from somewhere. "No!" There's stumbling again, tense soothing, until finally Ethel appears in the airlock, hiding her kids behind her. "Please..." There's tears threatening in her eyes, but she's a strong lady.

"You're pissing me off," warns the guy as he fires a warning shot that zips by uncomfortably close to Frank's ear.

Franceza drops her gun with a shriek, trying to wrap a hand around her ear, but the net prevents it. Ethel nearly chokes, hurries down the ramp with the six kids close behind her, as she goes to stand closer to Andreo, eyes pleading. "Take everything you want, but please, don't hurt us..."

"Go hug your husband, lady," says the scorcher of the ears. "Hug him good and tight."

The three adults look up in various degrees, all three alarmed. "She's pregnant, if you hurt her..." Frank warns, furious. But Ethel does as she's told, with shaking knees. On their own, the kids follow crowded behind her.

The bleeding guy who remains standing sprays Ethel with the tangler gun. It doesn't hurt her, but it does form to cement the bond of love between the two. The other guy eyes the pack of children, pointing his pistol now at the parents, "I want you to walk over to my friend." He indicates the injured man with the tangler rifle. "And stand still."

Maybe Ethel expected as much, because she doesn't cry out when sprayed. But when the kids are ordered to walk away, she looses it, sobbing, pleading, begging. "Nooo!" Andreo adds to that, "Run!" The six children, the youngest just a toddler, stick close, wide eyed and very frightened at the guns, at the parents and Franceza rendered useless. Frank can't get a sound past her lips, her eyes glued to Ethan and Charlotte most of all.

"Run and your parents die, kiddies," warns the talker. The guy with the tangler gun makes to aim at one of the larger childrens.

One of the kids looses it as his mother breaks down, wetting himself. Two of the smaller ones start to cry. None run. "F-frank?" Ethan's voice is a faint squeek, frightened and frustrated. The engineer shakes her head, though it breaks her heart.

The guy with the tangler gun sets it down and takes out some flex cuffs and heavy duty cord. He begins to round up and cuff kids if they allow it. If not, he gets violent. He ignores the piss stains. The other guy alternates between pointing the pistol at Frank and the parents.

Frank's next to lose it, screaming and kicking as far as the net allows, frustrated and scared. Andreo's not far behind, the big guy actually crying as she has to watch his kids being cuffed. "You die!" he vows. Ethel's just a mess. The kids shy away, but are too scared to make a run for it.

The histrionics of the adults do not seem to bother the two surviving members of the group too much. They round up the kiddies and start off, leaving the trio of adults to do their tangled thing.

The screams are bound to atract some attention, Andreo and Ethel calling after their kids, Franceza just screaming at the world at large.

Eventually a humble if heavily armed looking fellow shows up. He regards the group silently from about two meters away.

"Please please please," Ethel cries uncontrolably. Andreo stares at the man, but Frank is the only one who sees an oportunity. "Get us out and I'll make it worth your while," she promises.

The guy just shrugs and turns to go into the La Madre.

"Please! Anything you want!" Andreo barks an order for his sister to shut up, but she always was pig headed.

The man comes out of the ship eating an apple, "Still here?"

Andreo is busy calming Ethel, though clearly the man's a mental wreck himself. Franceza looks at him with desperate eyes. "Please... I beg you."

"I got a can of anti-tangler spray..." muses the man.

"Anything..." Franceza feels the tears starting in her eyes, "Please, they took our kids..."

Taking another bite of the apple before speaking, the man, who is wearing sunglasses, considers. "All right." He hoses the group down with his tangler spray. He seems to be practiced at this sort of thing, and he uses enough that it will eventually free the group, but they are not set free so quickly as that they can chase him down really once he leaves. Which he does now.

Andreo and Ethel are fighting the restraints, but Franceza watches the man go, stunned.

What happens next: the bad guys sell the kids before Rkagar shows up.