Time: 9.27 am
Date: September 21, 2011

Another day, another mission. Clyde Kusatsu, Captain of Star Cruiser 19, cracked his knucles and leaned back in his seat with a sigh. This was going to be one bumpy ride. His team was assembled and ready for action, for one of the first real missions they were having in months. Clyde hadn't minded being idle for the first few months, but after being idle for years... it got to you.

Beside him, his co-pilot was making sure the auto-pilot controls were running smoothly, her dark blue hair falling over her shoulders. "Everything's in working order, Clyde," she announced.

"Thanks, Andromeda." He smiled, then swivelled his head around to eye his other two team mates. "What about you two?"

The last remaining Space Rangers looked up and nodded. "Everything's clear on this end," the human woman replied. "Anuk?"

Her fellow Ranger, Anuk'Tuchan, by far the most alien of the group, nodded in agreement. "All clear here. Will we enter hyperdrive now?"

"Yeah, but let me warn the others first."

Who others, you might ask, when there were only ever four Space Rangers on the bridge at a time. That's how teams worked, after all. Any more and the bridge, being the size of a small cockpit, would be cramped. Clyde pressed the intercom and spoke into it, clearing his throat. "We'll be entering hyperspace now. Make sure you're buckled up unless you want to be a smear on the wall."

"How quaint," Andromeda quipped with a small snort.

"Gotta let them know how serious jumps can be," the captain defended, cracking his knuckles again. "Janet, initiate a five second countdown."

"Yes, sir." Once the Rangers were ready, Janet pressed the intercom at her side. "Initiating hyperdrive in five... four... three... two... one... zero."

Clyde grabbed the controls, keeping them steady. The ship was almost trembling in anticipation for the jump. And then, as quickly as the trembling had started, the ship lurched disappearing from real space and appearing again in the white void of hyperspace.

"Hyperjump complete. Estimated time of arrival at our destination: oh-two hundred hours," Anuk announced.

Which, in non-military lingo, meant two hours.

Clyde pressed the intercom again. "All right, you can unbuckle yourselves now. Sorry for the bumpy ride."

---

Somewhere in the ship, in the small passenger rooms, were four lucky travellers. In this team, called Team Alpha, were Megamind, Samara, Flash Man and Bloodscream. If they valued their lives, they would have heeded the captain's warnings about the hyperdrive. What they did from here on out as the ship made its way to the crash site left by the pirates was up to them.

Eeheh. The robot had found that little 'smearing' remark amusing.

Flash's face had took an odd color of green. Nope. He didn't liked those hyperspace travelling, it made his systems all weird and made him dizzy. To a point where he would have oil reflux. But he swallowed it right back it with an enough amount of pride.

The robot unbuckled himself and gave out a long sigh of relief. 'That's it. I hate spaceship travelling..' He said with a nervous chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck. 'Eeeh. Everyone alright?'

" I don't see why you're complaining." Samara said, chuckling as she unbuckled her seatbelt and replied to Flash Man when she got the chance to. The hyperspace seemed to remind her of the sensation when an airplane hit an air pocket and them plummeted briefly from the air, or when a roller coaster went down that steep first drop. " That jump wasn't too bad. " she added shortly after.

Sam stretched a bit, standing up straight, happy to get a little leg room at long last. The journey in a spaceship wasn't too bad, but she was glad to not be stuck sitting down all the time. The fembot also was not very familiar with wearing the spacesuit she had on, though the necessity for a robot to wear one didn't make too much sense. What did make sense though was to protect the circuits from any type of radiation in the void just as you would protect an organic body from the airlessness.

Smear on the wall, that was a good one. "Colorful, isn't he?" Megamind chuckled as he removed his own seatbelt. "Everyone reacts differently to space travel, Sam. I admit this has been a lot more pleasent then my one and only space voyage. At least I diidn't get sent bouncing through an astroid belt this time."

Megamind's gaze wandered to the window and he smiled. "You can't complain about the view." He glanced at the space suit he was wearing. "The outfits on the other hand, no style or presentation at all." If course he hadn't told the woman that had fitted them that. He did have some tact, believe it or not.

Bloodscream had come to a solid conclusion, the conclusion being that if he ever had to chose between being thrown into through another portal into the nether realm again or space travel, he would choose the nether realm. The feeling it left in his gut was horrible, though to his credit his poker face remained ever present, better to not let anyone know of any weaknesses that they could exploit later.

Teamates. Hmph. How utterly rediculous. Oh don't be confused, Bloodscream had been apart of teams before. In fact, in one of his more successful employments he had been saddled with another. The one called Roughhouse, a man for hire much like himself. They had been good together as a team, despite his comrades unprofessional behavior when it came to the fairer sex.

Though despite this camaraderie they had not been friends, and they had both been happy to keep it that way. And when Bloodscream's employer sold Roughhouse for experimentation, while it could be said that he had felt a twinge of disappointment, it had been no real weight on his mind. They were tools, weapons for their masters hands, to be used and released when and however their employers wanted.

Bloodscream remained silent and unbuckled himself. It was time to get down to work, he only hoped that the others would not get in his way.

A voice crackled over the inter-comm again. "Oh, and don't forget to report to the bridge. I need t give you all an update on the specifics of our mission. Captain Clyde Kusatsu, out."

Hence, if the four of them wished to proceed, they could do so at their leisure--but mind you, don't take too long.

For once Megamind wasn't bothered by the silence that had fallen over the group. He was thinking of Minion and Roxanne, admittedly more of Roxanne. They'd only been away from her a little over a week and he already missed her terribly. He gazed out at the stars without really seeing them. It could be months before he saw his girl and best friend again. Well, at least he had the picture of the three of them Roxanne had slipped into his bag. It helped somewhat. He was pulled out of his thoughts by the captain ordering them to report to the bridge.

Megamind stood and stretched. Ugh, sore and stiff. This cramped, small room was getting on his nerves. "Sounds like it's time to go." He entered the bridge. "Reporting as ordered, Captain."

They were to report to the bridge for their debriefing on the mission, Bloodscream followed the rest down the long corridor, bringing up the back of their merry little group. From this angle he was better suited to observe who he would be working with.

To his left was Megamind, a supposed genius and an ex-villain if he remembered correctly. Behind his sunglasses Bloodscream made notes over his physical form. Everything about the man, other than his head, was thin and weak looking. A small chest with no doubt a frail rib cage, from which twig like arms and legs sprouted. A large head was held by a skinny neck that looked easy enough to snap. Bloodsceam did have to wonder though, if such a small neck would break under his hands like kindling, or if the bone would be stronger, from having to support a large head.

Moving on.

Next there was Lady Samara, the only female in their group and also a robot. Her figure was graceful, and bloodscream had already witnessed once the bite in her personality. She had the potential to be very useful. Killing her, if he had to, would be harder than killing megamind. To begin, she was not an organic, and therefore not as fragile. Her metal body made it impossible for him to drain her lifeforce, and likewise she had no blood for him to feed on either. Robots were so tricky sometimes, their memories could be saved and their bodies could take a great amount of damage, sometimes even self repair. They also had a much greater stamina than organics. If he had to kill her then he would have to be clever about it and make sure everything, specifically her brain, was destroyed.

Lastly there was Flashman, another inorganic who, if memory served, had some power to deal with time. His structure was not as graceful as Samara's or even Megamind's, however it was powerful. Flashman had obviously been designed to be somewhat intimidating. He would be the most difficult to kill, Bloodscream summarized. As his power made him unpredictable and his form seemed more structurally sound.

Bloodscream would have to think of some way to kill him later though, they had finally arrived at the bridge. Bloodscream entered with the rest and stood at attention waiting for orders. He did rather hope that he didn't have to kill any of his teammates, however, one always had to be prepared.

Flash gave Sam a weird expression. Somewhat grimacing. However he too was glad that this ride was done. He then sighed, putting his arms behind his head, looking casual and might as well say 'carefree'.

FlashMan on his side was already nicely amoured for combat. And he could resist space pressure and radiation well. After all, it would have been probable for them to travel to space considering that their father was an evil genius. Yet again... building a station into space would have been a great idea.. Flash thought, musing. He really had to stop letting his mind wander off like this. Damn.

Okay okay. where were he?

He rotated one of his shoulders. 'Alright. lets get this show on the roll' He said with a large smirk As he followed Megamind to the bridge. 'Safe an' sound, capt'n.' He said with is usual mischievous grin, tapping his boast chest and then standing still next to the others.

Samara only gave her fellow robot a shrug and a small smile. She then looked towards Megamind and chuckled, " Hey, can I really help it? ..I've been on planes a lot in my life...after awhile you tend to adjust your equilibrium before a trip." she added. After stretching her joints a moment, the femme followed her group-mates to the bridge of the ship. Samara kept an eye on the others from her place on the right side of Bloodscream. Everyone in this group the female bot had gotten to know previously before this trip, which is always a good thing when you want to figure whether or not your team would be reliable in a dire situation. That is -if- they got into anything dire before the major assault against the Space Pirate fleet.

The noise of more voices signaled that the team of four were close to the bridge, though the narrowing walkway would agree as well. Even for being the only female of the group, Sam was nearly as tall as an average male being and along with Flash, had to lean down just a little so she wouldn't hit her head on the ceiling or close wall. Upon squeezing in next to Megamind, Sam stood at attention, awaiting what the crew of the cruiser would say they'd need to do now.

The new recruits soon reached the bridge. Clyde eyed them up and down, assessing and evaluating them, attempting to recall who was who. Megamind, Samara, Flash Man and Bloodscream. Two of which were robots, one a non-human, and the last had once been considered human and was now... super-human. Clyde hated to admit it, but he found people like Bloodscream to be the strangest thing about Portal Breach.

However, he greeted them all cordially, standing up to his feet. "Good morning. I'm your Captain, Clyde Kusatsu. I hope the journey wasn't too strenuous on you." He imagined that one or two of them might not be enjoying this experience. However, they had signed up to go into space in the first place, so he didn't expect to hear any complaints.

"I'll briefly explain what it is we'll be doing."

Clyde nodded to Janet, who replied with a curt nod before bringing up a holographic, three-dimensional map on screen. "This is it."

The captain nodded. "It is. See here?" Now he was addressing the new recruits, and he pointed to a spot on the nap that Janet enlarged for them. "We'll be exploring the wreckage of what was once a cargo freighter. Its engines were blasted out, as well as significant damage done to the hull and cargo hold. Otherwise, it's fairly intact, orbiting aimlessly in space.

"The LGMs pinpointed its precise location for us, so you'll be going in with the shuttle and checking it out for any signs of the pirates, or remains or hints that we can use to track them down. Got that?"

Once the four would confirm it, Clyde nodded. "Good. We'll arrive in two hours or so, so take this precious time to prepare yourselves. Dismissed."

---

Two hours later had the foursome in the shuttle heading towards the wreckage. It was a large, bronze-coloured spacecraft that looked dilapidated, but whose interior was more or less intact. They would have to wear their helmets inside, but otherwise they could put their two weeks' training into use to maneouvre around the ship.

The Space Rangers would keep in radio contact and be on the alert for anything that might go wrong. Besides that, however, the foursome were on their own.

Samara was careful in looking over the holographic map that appeared before her, Flash, Megs and Bloodscream. It might be difficult to go through a ship like this, so it would be wise to keep track of what was what. Her eyes studied the details in certain places and made sure to keep a small memory log of them, it may turn to be useful in the future if there were complications. She slowly brought herself back into focus once the map disappeared and Clyde began his debriefing. From what the Captain said, Samara and the others had to go and basically explore the wreckage of the freight ship, in which gave the fembot a rather surprised look. The only times she had ever explored a downed ship was in Dead Space with the Ishimura...only with a human avatar and a lot of demonic looking alien monstrosities...yuck..

However, unlike that blood and gore filled game, this was real. Also to keep in mind was that this was a real wreckage with no surviving crew or anything of the like on board aside from what was left behind by the pirates. Thinking more about it, Samara smiled to herself. A new experience coupled with an honest-to-god recon job that didn't involve sorting through books, indexes or sitting with your ass planted at a desk. This was going to be interesting.

---

Within the next two hours, the four were in a small shuttle heading towards the wreck of the ship. Sam attached her helmet as advised by Captain Clyde, why she would need it didn't make too much sense as she did not require air to survive...but the basic reasons of keeping one's self safe didn't need to be questioned. Her visor, which masked her face looked towards her teammates as she switched on the voice comm.

" You guys ready?.."

Investigations? uh? Well adding 'space' in front of it sure makes it a lot more badass anyhow. Flash looked at he map, he wasn't good in memorizing things. Not as much as Sam, at least. Why do you think he takes pictures of moments?

This was like a bad space horror movie. Flash couldn't think otherwise than the deadspace game. It was a this very moment that he tried to exchange a look with the robot female. That wouldn't be..fun...at all... But he tried to chase this thought away...
Oh well. punching some alien mutating monsters sounded pretty fun anyway. Flash shrugged at himself and followed the others after being told of what to do. He decided to occupy himself for the two hours. Probably in chichat and whatnot.

---

When the two hours passed, Flash had entered in a sleep mode out of boredom. He awakened on the little space shuttle. Rubbing his face and growning. His system starting to cause slight heat from the awakening. Unlike Sam, Flash already had a helmet by default. He didn't required one.

'Showtime, sweetie~' He answered Sam with a wink.

Megamind studied the holographic map with as much intensity as Sam was. It was obvious Sam was memorizing the map and he would as well. This would be useful if they got seperated. It figured that just two weeks before they had went into space on this mision Roxanne had gotten him to watch Alien and Aliens with her. Definately would not agree to splitting up the group. That NEVER ended well.

Megamind listened closely as the captain explained what their mission would entail. It didn't sound like any fighting was expected, it was just recon. Of course, things rarely worked as expected. He would be wary. Megamind was glad he was with at least two people he knew.

----------

Two hours later they were in the small, cramped shuttle and headed for the destroyed ship.
Megamind made sure his holster with his D-Gun was secure along with a small packet of tools. Better to be prepared after all. Satisfied all was in order, Megamind put on his own helmet and secured it. He turned on his own comm. "Ready Sam." He grinned at Flash's usual confidence and flirting. "Got it all under control, Flash?" he chuckled. This was going to be an amusing and interesting mission, he was sure of it.

Bloodscream observed the map, taking in the details that he was shown and given. How strange it was, to be off fighting pirates when he himself use to be one. Well, not exactly fighting now was it? No, they were just going there to look for clues, hints that would lead them back to the nest of their targets.

----------

Two hours passed by slowly on the shuttle, however Bloodscream was grateful, as it gave him time to relax and prepare for whatever may possibly wait ahead. He checked his swords, making sure they were in fighting condition just in case.

He had never fought in space before, and was curious to see how it would effect his fighting abilities if he had to use them. Hopefully they would not be too dampened and cost someone their life.

The ship came to a stop and Bloodscream suited up with the rest of the group, minus flashman of course. When everyone was ready, they could continue.