“I really hate this plan,” Jaxon’s voice sounded staticky over the earpiece, but Darryn could still hear the sarcastic tone he was so used to. “Have I mentioned how much I hate this plan?”

“Can we keep the lines clear, please?” Eralis was fidgeting with the cargo ship’s seatbelt, eyes fixed on the hatch that was the only thing separating them from the black expanse outside.

“Clearly you’re new to this business.” Mik was sitting atop one of the crates full of supplies for the lab, idly scanning through computer protocols and programming his gauntlet. “Extra chatter keeps everyone sane.”

“In my experience, extra chatter causes distractions,” Eralis huffed. “Distractions get people killed.” 

Mik shrugged and went back to his computer screen. Darryn leaned back against the side of the cargo hold, eyes half closed as he listened to the hum of the engines, steelsong reverberating throughout his body. He had grown used to the on edge chatter of his crew while approaching a job. It helped to settle their nerves. He personally had long had his own nerves beat out of him by The War. Awaiting a bloody battle against alien monstrosities kinda put a simple burglary into perspective. Even if this was no ordinary job. 

“You’re approaching the lab,” Honorbound’s soothing purr came over the encrypted channel. “No sign of trouble so far.” 

“Emphasis on ‘so far,” Jaxon shot back. 

“Rocoram happy to see Mr. Jaxon in good mood today.” The Gath’s gravelly tone was harder to interpret, but Darryn was pretty sure Rocoram sounded amused.

He tuned out the crew’s bickering, instead focusing on the one moving part he wasn’t certain of. Eralis. The Federation Agent was on edge, fidgeting with anything close to hand and having trouble focusing on one thing. He was back in his street clothes, boots tapping impatiently on the floor of the borrowed cargo vessel, and Darryn noticed the Fed’s eyes kept flicking towards the wall separating them from the cabin. 

Mik noticed this, too. He grinned and interrupted the bickering on the comms. “How’s our passenger up there, Rocky?”

“Is very quiet. Not talkative for some reason.” 

“Don’t be too hard on them. Maybe they’re a little tied up right now!” The kid looked extremely pleased with himself, and Eralis looked like he might be sick. 

There was a long pause before Jax answered. “Kid, I say this with all seriousness. If I hear one more bad pun, I will stab you once we get on the ground.”

Darryn went over the plan again in his head. They had already accomplished the hard part, if Eralis was to be believed. They had ‘acquired’ a cargo ship on route to Ventura and commandeered it, knocking out the pilot and tying him up in the cabin. The original plan had been for Darryn to dress up in the pilot’s uniform and ‘take care’ of the one guard that would greet them once they arrived at the space station, but the pilot had turned out to be a little too wiry for that and, though he complained, Jaxon had to play the part. Eralis had strongly suggested the man trim his hair and beard to better look the part, and Jaxon had strongly suggested just where the Fed could stick his opinion. 

Rocoram was chosen to pilot the cargo ship, in case they needed his strength, while Honor was to stick with the Viper, lurking just out of reach of Ventura’s scanners in case they needed a swift getaway. The cargo ship was built to haul freight, not outrun Federation cruisers.

Once inside Ventura, Mik, Jaxon, and Eralis would find the central computer and download the necessary files, while Darryn and Rocky would look around for anything useful. Assuming the Fed’s intel was correct, and they didn’t run into any problems, they would be in and out within the hour. 

“Ventura hails us.” 

Rocky’s voice snapped Darryn out of his thoughts. “Jaxon, you’re up.”

He could vaguely hear the other man grumble before he turned off his earpiece to keep the signal from interfering with the equipment in the cabin. 

Eralis’ foot started tapping faster. Darryn shot him a glance. “You’re gonna put a hole in the ship if you keep that up.”

“I thought you said you were experienced?” Mik snapped his computer closed and stared curiously at the agent. 

“Forgive me if I am concerned about your weapons expert’s ability to pull off a Federation pilot,” Eralis snapped. “I am not overly convinced of his capabilities.”

“Jaxon has several skills you are unaware of.” Darryn leveled his calm gaze, locking eyes with Eralis. “I think he’ll surprise you.” 

“Alright, we’re in,” Jax’s voice came over the earpiece. “Do your thing, Rock-boy.” 

“Approaching bay.”

“Good luck, boys,” Honor said. “See you on the other side.”

Darryn checked his pistols to make sure they were charged up and Mik pulled the straps tight on his gauntlet. Eralis took a deep breath and checked his own weapon. The comms had fallen silent and Darryn knew the rest of the crew would be performing similar checks of their equipment. 

The steelsong fell silent, the cargo ship shuddered as it landed with a dull clang, and the  cargo hold fell silent as the engine sounds died away. 

The group waited in tense silence for several minutes before circuits began to whir, and the back hatch opened to reveal Jaxon, looking very uncomfortable in a Federation uniform and dragging an unconscious guard up the ramp. 

“We’re clear,” he grunted, depositing the guard on the floor in the cargo hold. 

“Good work, Jax.” Darryn led the way out of the ship, eyes rapidly adjusting to the  bright fluorescent lighting. The bay was empty except for their ship, and would be until the scientists began to arrive tomorrow morning. The only way out was through a small door leading to a guard post on the other side of the room from the huge metal doors which led to space. 

Jax grumbled something and started towards the guard post, ripping his uniform jacket open and sending several buttons scattering across the floor. Darryn could practically hear Eralis’  eyes rolling as the Fed followed him. 

Darryn motioned for Mik to follow them and turned back to the ship, looking for Rocky. The Gath was collecting his rocket launcher and speaking soothingly to their prisoner. “We go now, but return soon. No need for worry.” He gave the prisoner a pat on the shoulder before leaving the cabin. 

“Scaring the prisoner, Rocky?”

“Encouraging,” the Gath replied, heavy footsteps echoing throughout the chamber as he followed Darryn towards the others. 

Mik and Eralis were busy at the computer, the kid working his magic and the Fed offering up codes when requested. Jax was standing at the door to the rest of the station, keeping watch with his pistol at the ready. 

“Gotcha!” Mik declared triumphantly, pressing a button and projecting a map of the building layout onto one of the screens. “Main computer core looks to be here.” He pointed at a room in the center of the station. “The labs we’re most interested in should be in the Military research wing, here.”

“On the whole other side of the place, of course.” Darryn nodded thoughtfully, eyes scanning the map for what he was looking for. “Any patrols?”

Mik fiddled with the computer and the map lit up with several moving dots. “Looks like we’ve got a few guards wandering the halls, but I can program the map with the route Eralis gave me, and we should be able to avoid them.”

“Good.” Darryn looked at Jaxon. “All clear?”

“Yep.”

“Then we’d better get to it. No funny business, stay on comms, and we’ll meet back here as soon as we’re done.”

Jaxon nodded and motioned for Mik to follow him before slipping out the door. Eralis took one more look at the map before following. 

Darryn looked at Rocky. “Follow me, and keep as quiet as possible.” 

The Gath nodded, and Darryn stepped out into the hallway. It was as empty and white as he remembered. He took a moment to get his bearings, then confidently led Rocoram away from the area Mik had indicated on the map. 

Jaxon quietly led the way down the hall, listening for any sounds of movement. Mik was closer on his heels than he would have liked, but no matter how many times Jax waved him back, the kid somehow managed to creep up on him again. 

“Left,” Mik whispered and Jax paused to check the next hallway was clear before turning the corner. He could hear Eralis’ boots clicking against the cold, white floor behind them and had to keep himself from reaching for his knife. He couldn’t tell if it was just that being here again creeped him out, or if there really was something off about this situation, but he didn’t like having his back exposed to the Fed. 

They passed hallway after hallway, door after door, each as clinical and dead as the last. Even Mik seemed to be affected by the deadness of the place, only speaking when necessary. He had paused by a few of the doors early on to try and sneak a peek at what lay beyond, but he had soon given up once he realized how many rooms they were going to pass before they reached the main computer. 

“Right,” Mik whispered. “Then left again.”

“How much further?” Eralis’ voice was jarring after walking in silence for so long. 

“It should be just around the next corner.” Mik studied the screen. “It looks like we might have a guard heading our way.”

“Let’s pick up the pace.” Jaxon doubled his speed, still on high alert, rounding the corner and coming face to face with a door clearly labeled ‘computer room’. 

Mik opened the door and stepped into a room full of computer banks, with several monitors above a row of switches and blinking lights. “We’re in.”   

“Good,” Darryn responded over the earpiece. “Get that data and let’s get out of here.”

“Linking in, now.” Mik started typing away at the computer with Eralis hovering over his shoulder. 

Jax stepped into the room, pulling the door closed behind him, but keeping an eye on the hallway outside. “How soon until that guard gets here?”

Mik glanced at his gauntlet. “Two minutes. If we’re quiet though he shouldn’t notice us.”

“But he’ll be between us and the ship.” Eralis looked at Jaxon. 

Starfire. Jax looked back at the hallway. “How long do you need?” 

Mik furrowed his eyebrows and bit his lip, deep in concentration. “It depends on how long it takes me to locate the right files, and how much there is to transfer. A few minutes, tops.” He stopped typing and turned to Eralis. “I need the code for the central servers.”

“09203909925.”

Jaxon tuned them out, concentrating solely on the hallway. If he focused he could hear the click of the guard’s heels against the floor. It was an ominous sound, and the more he concentrated on it the louder it got until it completely drowned out Mik’s fingers tapping on the keyboards. By the time the guard was passing the door, the footsteps were a ringing bell resonating throughout his whole body. A continuous alarm bell. 

Jax waited until the man had gone a little ways down the hallway before turning to the others. “I’ll deal with him. Just get that data.” 

Without waiting for a reply he silently opened the door and slipped into the hallway, following the guard like a leopard stalking its prey. He gripped the handle of his knife and began sliding it out of its sheath.

As soon as he was sure Jax had gone, Eralis began reaching into his pocket. “How are you coming on those files?”

Mik’s eyes were focused on the screens in front of him, making it easy for Eralis to slide his communicator out of his jacket without the pilot noticing. “I think I’ve found the right section of the mainframe. I just need to isolate the correct data so we don’t waste too much time downloading things we don’t need.” 

“Good.” Eralis quietly opened his communicator, flipping through its functions, searching for the right ones. 

“Got things you want to see, Mik.” Rocoram’s voice was grating in Eralis’ ear. “Will carry back to ship for you.” 

“Make sure not to break any of it!” Mik scrolled through several lines of data, highlighting and removing the ones he didn’t need. “I’ll need the finished pieces in order to reverse engineer their process. It’d be nice if we could take some more of this data home with us.”

“Don’t worry about the data,” Darryn interjected. “It would take too much time, and we’re already pushing our luck here as it is.”

“Just seems a shame to let this much government research go to waste.”

Eralis found the right function and pressed enter. If the captain replied to Mik’s comment neither of them would hear it. He pulled his gun, reached out and stopped Mik from pressing enter.

“Change of plans. We’re looking for a different file.”

“Mik?” Darryn stopped rifling through the scientists’ notes. “Mik, do you copy?”

“Problem, boss?” Rocoram looked up from where he was loading a cart with various experimental weapons. 

“Could be.” Darryn stepped away from the desk, running through the possibilities. It was highly possible the kid had gotten wrapped up in his work and hadn’t heard him. But he usually chattered while he worked, so that didn’t make a whole lot of sense. They could have run into trouble, but he wasn’t hearing anything from Jaxon or Eralis either, and there should be sounds of gunfire or shouting. He couldn’t think of any reason for total radio silence. No good ones, anyway.

“Jaxon, Eralis, come in.” 

No reply.

“Honor, do you read me?” 

Nothing.

Darryn turned to Rocky. “Yes, I’d say there’s a problem.” 

“What Captain want me to do?” Rocoram drummed his heavy fingers on the cart handle. 

Darryn’s mind raced back through the events of the night, trying to picture the route Mik had highlighted on the map. Rocky, ever patient, waited silently for him to finish thinking. 

There it was. And their current location…Darryn finished planning his route and turned back to Rocky. “Get back to the ship and wait. I’m going to find out what’s happened.”

Rocky nodded and grabbed the cart, wheeling it into the hallway and back the direction they’d come. Darryn took a second to adjust his internal map and took off running in the other direction, soft soled boots thudding quietly against the floor. “Mik, Jaxon, if you can hear me, stay put. I’m coming to you.”