Topic: Do The Job, Get Paid

Pol Finch

Date: 2009-06-29 07:47 EST
RhyDin

The resounding thump as Pol landed face first in the dirt behind one of the boulders in the forest was not one of her more glorious moments. Mind you, a mouthful of earth was infinitely preferable to a belly full of lead, she reminded herself, as bullets slammed into the rock as she feverishly reloaded. "All in all, not one of our better jobs," she muttered to herself, daring to risk a glance around the smooth rock and pulling back quickly to avoid getting a fatal case of lead brain. She growled angrily, looking around. Where the hell were Brent and Cobb?

Brent was currently behind a tree, but only for a moment. He stuck his head out, followed by the long barrel of a rifle, and fired several times over. The shots, while aimed, weren't aimed to the best of his ability. He didn't have the time, they were meant as distractions to get the assailants of the captain's back long enough for her to get to safer ground.

And just where was Cobb? He had spent the evening prior to the job frequenting the local den of iniquity. So, having had a night of carousing, he woke up to gunfire. Quickly Sera was grabbed and he glanced out of the window. He had a clear view of Pol and Brent, as well as their assailants. "Aiya!" He muttered under his breath. From up above, he aimed carefully, had the time to do so, not that he needed it, and fired into the brain pan, then another. "Pickin' off fish in a barrel, darlin'." He grinned to the terrified whore hiding in her closet.

The distraction of gunfire from her two crewmates gave Pol a chance to scramble to better cover, dropping to her knees beside Brent and firing back at their newfound enemy. At least two of the seven were down, and she couldn't quite make out the leader. "Gorram it, why d'jobs never go t'way they're s'posed to?"

"That's an easy one, cap'n," he replied as he leaned out, taking time to aim now that the captain was in a better position, and fired off a few well aimed shots, then ducked behind cover once more. "If things always went the way they're s'posed to, life'd have no excitement."

Shots were being fired in Cobb's direction now, and he remained behind the wall, holding Sera up beside his ear. "Gotta go, doll." he grinned and bolted from the room. Soon he found himself downstairs and slipping out into the shadows. Another of the assailants was spoked. Sera was holstered and a wicked little dagger was brought from his boot. It was thrown, straight and true, landing in the assailant's throat. "The gorram hell's going on?" He made a mad dash then, rolling for cover beside Pol and Brent. "What went wrong?"

"Cobb, nice o'ya t'join us," Pol threw the merc a tight-lipped grin before leaning out once more, firing off another couple of shots. This time, however, she didn't move fast enough, spinning back around with a stifled cry of pain as a bullet zinged past, cutting through cloth and flesh to leave her shoulder bleeding profusely. "Gorram gou cao de hun dan wants t'take the goods without payin', that's what's 'appenin'!"

He glanced down at the captain for a moment, then over at Cobb. "S'usually the case when somethin' goes wrong," then once more he was ducking out of cover, well aimed shots taken, at least two men were downed before he was ducking around behind cover once more.

When the captain went down, Cobb raised his head, fired off two more rounds, then tucked Sera away. He peeled off his shirt and pressed it to Pol's shoulder. "Great, our pilot is out here and the captain is wounded. She needs Aidyn!"

She batted Cobb's hands away with an impatient huff, leaning back 'round to take careful aim and put another man down. Two left ... "I ain't down, I am pissed off!" she hissed. "Where in the gorram hells were you this mornin', eh?" She glanced up at Brent with a scowl. "One o'you get those two down, an' let's get outta here."

He grunted, peeling away from the cover to aim, and fire off a quick series of shots. The last two were downed, and he looked down at the captain, and up at Cobb. "Ya alrigh', cap'n?"

With the assailants downed, Cobb returned his attention to the wound on the captain's shoulder. "Hold still. " He frowned and kept pressure on the wound to staunch the bleeding. "Was takin' care o' bisnez." Frowning, he looked over at Brent. "Don't just sit there, go get the money and some water. I'll carry her out of here."

Pol Finch

Date: 2009-06-29 07:49 EST
She rolled her eyes at the solicitude of her two most manly male crew members, laughing a little at their worry over what was just going to be another small scar on her skin. "I ain't dyin', Cobb, an' I don't need t'be carried anywhere," she told him with a grin, looking up at Brent for a long moment. "M'fine, flyboy, just a scratch."

He rolled his eyes. "Shut yer face Cobb, instead o'talkin', do," he replied with a grunt as he shifted his rifle to have the barrel rest against his shoulder as he walked toward the dead bodies of the attackers, and started to rummage about for the money, weapons, and anything else of value they might have had with them. He glanced over his shoulder at the captain, nodded, and tossed off a wink, then went back to searching. "M'cap'ns gonna need a whole lot more 'n' that tae let ya carry her anywhere, Cobb."

Once he was assured that the captain was truly going to be alright, he went to assist in the looting of the bodies. He'd been called Cobb, and that was good enough for him. He had no interest in the captain and Brent's personal affairs and wouldn't reply to Brent's blatant showing of jealousy. "Think I found our pay." He called out to the two and hefted a small bag up. It was tossed casually over his shoulder, holding onto it by it's drawstrings. "Looks like a good sum, too."

"Better be, that gorram skinflint owes Badger more'n 'e thought 'e could get away with," Pol growled, heaving herself to her feet. She leaned against the pock-marked tree, hoping like hell neither man noticed the dizziness that had swept over her, and holstered her revolver. "Brent, stick the money in y'belt ... Cobb, look over them weapons, see what's worth sellin'. Then we'll get back t'the ship."

Blatant showing of jealousy? The captain wouldn't let him carry her anywhere either. All prideful and the like. He was stating mere fact. He had no reason to be jealous of Cobb, be annoyed by, sure, jealous? Not in the least. As Cobb found the loot, he started grabbing extra guns, ammunition, and whatever valuables the attackers had on their persons. He turned, offering the weapons to Cobb, and holding out the money as the captain ordered. The weapons had been packed together in a large sack one of the attackers held, it carried a few sundries originally, nothing valuable, so he dumped it. "Aye, we headed off world after this, cap'n?"

He nodded and handed over the loot and took the bag of weapons. Walking over to the captain and Brent, he busied himself with the pull they took from the dead bodies. "Mother Mary.." He pulled a weapon out of the bag and held it up. "Do you know what this is?" He turned it over in his hand and then held it up to check the site against a tree branch. Low whistle followed.

"Aye, we'll be headed back t'Persephone soon as Hendricks gives us the all clear," Pol nodded to Brent, one hand pressing Cobb's bloodied shirt tightly to her injured arm. It was only sheer force of will that was keeping her from swaying; after all, a bullet wound is a shocking business, especially when the injured person was flaming mad to begin with. Her eyes turned to Cobb curiously as he whistled, admiring the piece. "Can't say as I know it," she shrugged, hissing a little in pain, and glanced quizzically at Brent. "Any ideas, string bean?"

"Nope, I know ships, not guns," he shrugged, jerking his head in the general direction of the Nighthawke. "Whatever it is though, it can wait 'til we're on board and locked away. Fellas here might have friends," he said with a jerk of his thumb toward the dead folk. "Or the law could come sniffin' about, I'm none too keen on that."

Carefully he placed the gun back into the bag. "You ain't whistlin' Dixie, Brent. That there's a laser pistol, only issued to Alliance officers. And where there's one, there's going to be a hell of a lot more." he placed the bag over his shoulder. "Sooner we're outta here, th' better."

"Gotta grab the goods first, boys, don't be so 'asty." Pol shook her head at them both with a grin, but especially at Brent; you'd think after ten months with her, he'd have learned by now that she never walked away from a profit without good reason, risk or no risk. "Can we fence that thing on Persephone, Cobb, or is't hot goods?" she asked curiously, walking past to kick a nameless body off the crate of meds they'd come here to sell. "Brent, y'gonna need t'find us a new buyer f'this lot, too."

"I'll get on it," he nodded. "I've searched through most o'the group, a lot of rags, some coin, the loot, and all those weapon's Cobb's got over there," he said with a jerk of his head toward Cobb.

"It'll bring a shiny coin." he nodded to confirm. When the body was kicked off of the crate, he bent to lift it up. "Well, we got the loot, we got booty and we've got what we came with. Not a bad day, if you're askin' me." He smiled at the pair. "C'mon, let's get off of this rock." Glancing back, he shot a wink to the whore looking down at them from the room he'd spent the night in, then he turned back towards the Nighthawke. "Not a bad day, a'tall."

Pol Finch

Date: 2009-06-29 07:52 EST
"Gotta 'gree with ya there, Cobb," the captain nodded, waiting for the merc to step ahead of her before reaching out to grab Brent's arm, leaning on him as the colour drained out of her face. She was not the best when it came to dealing with injuries, but she did hate other people to see it. "Got paid, still got the goods, gettin' back inta the black ... best day in a long while, I'm thinkin'."

Brent paused to pass a concerned glance down at her, but knowing better, didn't ask anything, just helped her to walk along after Cobb toward the ship. "Y'need t'find Aidyn 'n' have her stitch ya up a bit," he commented with a firm nod.

"Not to mention we got some target practice in, t'boot." he grinned. He didn't bother to turn back and look at the pair walking behind him. It irked him that he'd offered help and was denied, yet the pilot could show concern and that was hunky dory. It'd been a long time since Sui had cared about much of anything, or anybody... So the feeling of family that he had towards the crew had him a bit jumpy. "Y'all right back there?"

"Aye, I know," she murmured to Brent, slowly taking her hand off his arm as her dizziness subsided again and picking up the pace to walk just slightly ahead of Cobb. "Will be when I stop bleedin'," she grinned at the merc, back to her usual self. She knew he probably didn't like that she had rejected his help, but the fact of the matter was that she didn't know any of the crew half so well as she knew her pilot. Until that happened, he'd be her first port of call, it was only common sense. "I owe ya a shirt, Cobb, don't let me forget that."

The pilot started off ahead of them, after all, he needed to key the lock on the door to let them in, and start looking for a new buyer for the meds. Upon reaching the hatch, he did just that, keying it open, then tugging it and waiting for the other two.

"Don't mention it, Cap. Jus' so long's yer alright." Cobb nodded and then hauled the goods he carried into the hatch. "I'll just see to lockin' this all down." He gave the others another nod. "See to the Cap?" He gave Brent a brief glance before placing the duffel of weapons in front of a compartment hatch.

"Sweet Buddha, you worryin' bout me, Cobb?" Pol laughed softly, patting her unbloodied hand against his back in silent thanks. Then she leaned over to the comm, pressing to speak as her voice echoed around the ship. "Ev'ryone on board?" Waiting as the round of tinny voices answered, she flicked her eyes between pilot and merc, pleased to see them at least co-operating with each other, if they couldn't get along. "Right ... Hendricks, get 'er fired up. We're 'eadin' out soon as, dong ma?"

Brent tugged the hatch closed, then motioned toward the captain, and pointed toward the infirmary. "Get, we got things covered, get the bullet outta ya and stitched up, we headed back to Persephone, right?" he asked as he started toward the stairwell.

"Jus' don' go tellin' nobody." Cobb hid a smile behind his shoulder as the hatch was lifted and the med supplies were put in first. "Get us into the black!" He called out to Brent's retreating back. "And he's right, Cap. Infirmary."

She groaned, already thumping up the stairs towards Aidyn's hideaway. "Alright, alright, I'm goin'," was the captain's whiney answer to both men's mothering. "Anyone'd think I was on m'last legs, the way the pair of ya's carryin' on." She threw them both a cheeky smile as she ducked into the infirmary. "Gorram men."

Brent grunted, rolling his eyes as he made for the bridge, plopped into his seat, and got to working on getting them off that hell hole of a planet.

The goods were finally stowed, including the firearms, and he closed the hatch. To anybody not knowing it was there, it'd seem invisible. Cobb was hungry. Gunfights always left him hungry. On his way to the galley, he popped his head into the infirmary. "Just a scratch, doc?" He grinned to his mei mei.

Aidyn looked up with a grin as Cobb stuck his head in through the door, glancing over to where the cap'n was carefully peeling her coat and shirt off. "Ain't nothin' ta fuss 'bout, Grumpy Pants," she told him cheerfully. "Cap'n's gonna have a shiny new scar in a week or two is all."

It wasn't long. Brent wasted no time in getting them off the planet, and into the black to float on for a short time while he started searching up contacts to see if he could scrounge up a new buyer. Yep ... for the first time they'd worked with a new member of the crew, that'd went mighty well.