Time: 9.27 am
Date: September 21, 2011

At the same time somewhere else in space, Rocket Crockett dried the sweat off his forehead. "Phe-ew!" He leaned back in his seat and gazed at the blank nothingness of hyperspace with drooping eyelids. Stifling a yawn--and failing--he rubbed his eyes, trying to wake himself up. "I'm telling ya, Rusty, the Commander's got it out for me."

"You're exaggerating, Rocket," his co-pilot told him gruffly. He adjusted his thermal hood, tucked behind his neck in its pouch, then leaned back in his seat too. "But I ain't feeling the love from where I'm sitting, either," he admitted. What was the Commander thinking, sending them out at the crack of dawn with a bunch of civilians who were supposed to help them?

"The Commander's been on edge for months now, and I agree," the navigator said in his deep, throaty voice. Although his actual name sounded something like Grrshlakk, the others simply called him "Gursh" which was somthing their tongues could actually pronounce. "Something's up."

"You mean besides being stuck doing nothing and then all of a sudden there being a flurry of pirate activity in an uncharted space sector?" the final member of Team Rocket, the weapons specialist, said dryly. Like XR, her spot on the bridge had no seat. She wouldn't find such a seat comfortable, being the only quadruped in Star Command. She brushed her bangs out of her single eye, blinking boredly.

"Something like that..."

"This stinks. Like pedian slug guano stink." Rocket huffed, laying his chin in his hand and staring surly-like ahead. "Ever since we came to Portal-stinkin'-Breach, everything's been going from bad to worse. First, there's nothing we can do. Then, all we do is patrol. And then there are suddenly pirates. Pirates from freaking where?! It's like they just popped outta nowhere like all the trouble that usually goes on down there! Just turning up at random whenever things are too boring or too quiet..."

Rusty gave Rocket a long, hard look. "Ya done yet? 'Cause I think we should check on the new recruits."

The captain sighed, straightening out his back. "Yeah, yeah, I know. But it just gets me, man..." He pressed the intercom and made sure that he could be heard before speaking. "This is your captain, Rocket Crockett speaking. Report to the bridge at your leisure."

This was going to be a long, long mission...

---

Somewhere in the small, cramped cell-turned-cabin rooms would be Jana, MINERVA 4.0, Samus Aran, and Dr. Mrs. The Monarch. The hyperjump already having been completed and three hours of time head of them, they could do whatever they wanted to, even report to the bridge to Team Rocket. All they could really do was while the tIme away until they reached their destination, though.

Space, the Final Frontier. After having the right training and being given a spacesuit of her own, Sheila was eager to get out there and kick some pirate ass. It seemed though, that this journey was going to be a long one, so Sheila decided this would be a good time to get to know her teammates. You can't function well as a group without knowing your group after all.

Jana, she was already familiar with the girl, nice and tough, she could handle herself well. But that was where the familiarity ended. The girl who had been in the robot suit was here, and the one robot was here as well. She knew neither of them.

"So, the name's Sheila. I'm talented in creating weapons, and I have a Doctorates. And yes, I'm a woman." She introduced herself to the others, being sure to clarify that yes, despite her deep, manly voice, she was a woman.

It had been a long two weeks of training and gaining a space suit, but the time finally came when they jumped through hyperspace and were on a steady course for some space pirates. The cyborg didn't know how dangerous they could be, but she didn't care. She'd have fun, and that was all she cared about.

The teen looked around at the people on her team. There was Minerva (did they really leave Kev and Zippy the only ones in charge?), Dr. Mrs., and the woman in the suit that she couldn't remember the name of. She was, unsurprisingly, the youngest on the ship. Everyone else was old in her book.

She turned to Aran since she pretty much knew the other two. "And I'm Jana Snitch. I also create shit, including weapons. And I could beat any of ya in an arm wrestlin' match anyday." she gloated, smile on her face.

All week Samus had been helping Star Command train the space travel newbies. She was usually silent when alone during missions, but when with a group she could be vocal. She had her sights set on destroying the space pirates, and hoped that it wouldn't be like the last time she'd been with others. Almost everyone had been killed.

As her team came over to introduce themselves, Samus used her concentration ability and her power suit faded away, leaving her in her zero suit. Her chozo markings on her hands and the large one on her back flashed brightly as she did so.

The first of her teammates introduced herself as Sheila, good at making weapons, and with a doctorate? The former would help her more out here.

The second was a young cyborg, as it had been revealed upon scanning her and said scan revealing parts of her body made of technology. She introduced herself as Jana Snitch, and claimed to be good at making weapons, like Sheila.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Samus Aran. My connections with space pirates run deep, as they invaded my home colony when I was young. I was the sole survivor of that invasion. In case you question my brutality when dealing with pirate scum, know that I saw my mother incinerated by space pirates right in front of my eyes. Back in my world, their leader was a large extraterrestrial named Ridley. I've been fighting these barstards all my life, and this won't be the last time I do so either." Samus introduced herself fully, knowing that she was going to absolutely slaughter these pirates, like she usually did.

Jana introduced herself next, aiming her intro at Samus, and Sheila smirked. "You create shit? Well, that's hardly new. I create shit too. Tons of it. especially after eating at a Mexican restaurant." She couldn't resist that lame joke, Jana had it out there! At the arm wrestling challenge, Sheila just crossed her arms, amused. "Well duh. You got a robot arm. Its stronger than a flimsy organic human arm."

"Nice to meet you too Samus." Samus was an expert with these Pirates it seemed. She was very formal in the way she spoke...and her mother had been killed by the space pirates too. Ouch. "That sucks, but I bet you've taken a few of them down with you in return, eh?" She smiled, impressed. "I like you already!" She glanced at the last person, who must be shy or something, the robot known as Minerva. Any day you wanna talk Minerva! Tick tock, tick tock...

During the two weeks that everyone had spent training, MINERVA had also asked the LGMs to design a special spacesuit that would be compatible with her cybernetic structure. It would take a few days to rewire one, but they would it no matter what, and when it was done, it was better than what the metal cyborg hoped for. Of course it would take a while for her to get used to wearing one again.
While on the trip, MINERVA was doing the last configurations to make sure that her body's programming wouldn't interfere at all, distracting her from the conversation. When she heard silence, the blue-haired robot looked up and saw the other three staring, waiting for her input.
"Oh, sorry for not saying something," the silver cyborg apologized. "My name's MINERVA4.0, but you can just call me MINERVA or MIN, I don't minde. I guess that you call me a forced retired Ranger, but I still think that I'm still a part of the good fight. I'm more of a musician and an artist like my people, but I do love defending the innocent and upholding justice, too."
Then heading to the door, the Spiritoain asked, "Anybody want to come with me to see what Crockett wants?"

Jana simply puffed out her cheeks and crossed her arms at Sheila. "Ya know what I meant!" she said and stuck her tongue out at her before smiling goofily at Aran.

"Oh oh oh! I know Ridley~" she smiled at the name. "He's really cool and gave me a fuckin' awesome gun that destroys so much. I forgot what it was called though..." she began to ramble. Of course she was going to find Ridley cool. He was a giant compared to her, had his own scientists, had liked destruction as much as she did.

They cyborg stared at Minerva with her arms crossed, waiting for her response and tapping her metallic foot. In what seemed like forever the other actually spoke. "Well it's about time. I thought maybe ya shut down over there." stated the cyborg, flicking Minerva's nose lightly. "Also, I'd love to go up and meet our captains for today. They need to know what they'll have to be workin' with." she gave Minerva a thumbs up, turned, and headed towards the exit.

What? Ridley was by no means 'cool'. He was a savage monster that needed to be killed. Heck, him being on the breach meant she wouldn't be surprised if he showed up at some point during this mission. Although Ridley was not one for money... he preferred taking things by force and his goal was universal domination. To get that he would need to be a lot stronger though; that fight Samus had had with him... he had been lacking in loads of areas. He'd only used close-range attacks. None of his fire or technical weapons had been used, and due to Samus' severe weakening upon arrival she assumed he'd been weakened too.

Samus, staying quiet as usual, left the group and headed for the arranged meeting place with the space rangers, her chozo markings on her zero suit still glowing.

After her nose got flicked by her fellow cyborg, MINERVA scrunched her nose a couple of times to get rid of the sensation that bugged her a bit. Seeing that Samus had already went on ahead without them, the silver cyborg quickly caught up her fellow temporary ranger and said, "I'm really sorry about what happened to your people, especially your mother. I understand that this whole thing is a way to get revenge, but try to at least remember that you're righting a very serious wrong and to avenge the death of those closest to you. Just make sure that it doesn't turn inward and let start eating you from the inside out. And if you need any help, we'll all be right here beside you at any time." Hopefully, her advice didn't confuse her much and at least take it into consideration.

Ah, Minerva, nice name for a robot. ...Wait..people? Do robots have a people? Forced retirement? A glance at Jana led to a flash of realization. Minerva was no robot. She was a cyborg. A really...really in depth one. OW. Wonder what made her get 'forced' into retirement?

Jana response was a retort and sticking her tongue out. Nice. She smirked at her and chuckled, leaning back in her seat. As smart as she was, she was no space whiz. Best to let the space ranger go talk to..who was it again? Crockett? But Samus and Jana left as well, making her staying here veeery awkward.

"Oh what the hell. Guess I'll come too."

Too busy brooding, Rocket had almost forgotten about the new recruits, but luckily for him, they came along to see them anyway. He got to his feet slowly, eyeing each of them in turn. Okay, so one was a professional still decked in her own armour, another was a kid, the other was a rather attractive young woman with an amazing hairstyle, and the last was some sort of feminine-looking robot with customised suit. Besides Samus, they were all dressed in Star Command colours, and except for the last individual who claimed to be an ex-Ranger, the others should have technically been wearing civvie suits. But he didn't make the rules up. Anyway...

"Rocket Crockett here, Captain of Star Cruiser 22. Some of you might remember me from picking you up at the Space Terminal. If ya don't, no sweat." So far so good. He sounded cordial and professional enough, more or less. And now, it was time to get down to business. "Now listen up, folks!"

Here, he indicated the map that had appeared on the starshield for them. "Our science team of LGMs back at HQ came up with a trajectory route of where we're heading. It's an abandoned ship, just a mess, but the most intact of the three sites y'all be scouting out. I think Tundra's team got the worst, but hey, who's complaining. Anyways, you'll be the guys scouting out and handling it. We're the back-up. Which means that you four will go out in the shuttle, disembark, and explore the remains for any parts or anything suspicious those pirates might've left behind, capiche?"

"We'll keep in radio contact with you throughout the entire mission," Rusty added, just in case Rocket forgot to include that.

"That's right. ETA is about two hours, so go prepare yourselves and we'll call ya back when it's time."

Once the recruits left, Rocket collapsed in his seat again. "Can I take a painkiller or somethin'? I just know this is gonna be a long, long day..."

---

When two hours and come and gone and they had come upon the site, there was nothing familiar nearby to indicate their location in space. For all they knew, Portal Breach was in any direction, and no planets were in sight. They were the only living beings within lightyears, with no signs of civilisation nearby.

The recruits, already in their shuttle, would gently set off towards the wreckage, guided by Gursh's coordinates. And although the Space Rangers would constantly keep in radio contact with them, they were on their own now.

Sheila caught up with her teammates and she stared a bit at their Captain. That chin....it...it...my God. It looked like Jay Leno's chin! It actually reminded her of her husband...not that he had a big chin, but that little swirly goatee definitely made it look long. Besides the giant chin though, this guy seemed pretty on the level.

She leaned forward as he started gesturing at a map. So, the mission for today was simply scouting? And they were the back-up? Sounded pretty good to her. She nodded at Rocket, this mission sounded easy to her. "Capiche, Captain." At the dismissal she started heading back, hoping this two hours would go by pretty quick.

---

Yep, two hours done and over with! They were inside their shuttle, drifting towards the empty ship. This was pretty easy. Basic reconnaissance. They look around, see what they can find, and they were still in contact with the ship. She tried thinking of something to say to her teammates but yeah...only one she knew was Jana. The Samus chick seemed kinda uptight, probably due to all the space pirate hunting and all that, and the cyborg Minerva seemed...normal? That was all she could think of to say about that one. Maybe during these weeks, things would get less awkward..

Jana had been the second to walk into the command centre, right after Minerva. She glasped her hands behind her back and rocked on her feet as she kept eye contact with the captain while he spoke. She took a few seconds after he was done to look at the other's there. They all seemed to know what they were doing, and were all in space suits as well. They'd probably get bored just sitting here. Especially the captain. He already seemed to be board with the duty of idly sitting there and waiting for reports. The cyborg was the last to leave, adding a "Sounds good, sir~" she smiled, turned on her heel and left.
------------------
Two hours later and they had gotten quite close to the shuttle they were aiming for. Jana had spent her time checking over her weapons one last time. She wanted to make sure they were all working, in case they would ever need to use them.

"I think when we get there we should split into two teams." the cyborg said, addressing the group. "We should be able to cover more ground that way." That is, if the site was large enough that they would need to split into groups.

To split into groups could either be a help or a hindrance in the long run- who knew what kinds of challenges terrain-wise that they were going to have to face? They would soon find out, anyway. With this wrecked vessel, anything could happen, after all! The ruined systems could cause the doors to close and lock them in an area, there could be wildlife that survived in space and had come to scavenge anything here, and there could even be the odd chance that something randomly blew up! You never, ever knew with downed vessels. That was one thing you could be certain of. That you never knew.

Upon landing on the docking bay (or what was left of the docking bay) they would notice a strange thing. The bodies of the dead crew were... on the ceiling?! Yes, they were all lying on the ceiling, as if stuck like a magnet. What was going on here? The room was severely battered, and the fact that it remained whole was surprising in itself. Team Beta were going to face a number of challenges indeed, or so it seemed. The current mystery was still on how the bodies got up there, and if you looked closely all the debris from the destroyed parts of the room was up there too. The only things that weren't up there were Team Beta and their shuttle.

It was time to begin the search for answers! And most importantly, the pirates!

---------

(Right, this round doesn't count but from now on, skips are in use. Those of you who don't post once before the Universal NPC does from now until the end of the plot will gain posting strikes, and after three will be KO'd immediately. So make sure to post!)

Well....Sheila's hope for this being less awkward was dwindled, since neither Samus nor Minerva said a word. At all. Jana said something, thankfully, and it was actually useful! "I agree, that's a good idea!" Personally, she hoped she'd be paired with the young girl she actually knew.

The shuttle landed and Sheila made sure there were no leaks in her suit or anything before stepping out. Didn't want to get fucked up in space after all. She looked around, before looking up at the ceiling, and she let out a groan of disgust. "Found the crew...but why are they stuck up there..?" Several bits of debris was up there too. Yikes. She actually tried to step around where it looked like they could fall right on top of her. "So uh....where to first?"