"The long Journey" (a Shadowrun crossover with everything)

[Admiral Breetai]

Especially as a Necron. Which is why the Necrons are going to be in FPE.

that is gonna be boss

[Khas]

And considering that Species 8472 is already in this setting (they're called the Undine after their Star Trek Online name), we have multiple reasons not to want to live in that universe. Of course, there are still more reasons...

[Praeothmin]

Short update...

Chapter 53

James looked at the man, still engrossed in his thoughts.
Riddick wasn’t acting like the cold-hearted killer everyone expected and feared, and once more his reaction puzzled James.
Jack – or Kyra, as she was now called – had apparently threatened Riddick’s life, but the man had only restrained her as a result.
And when the girl had cut his cheek, he simply let her go, and had kept James from going after her.
Yet James could see the internal struggle happening in Riddick, his animal side wanting revenge on the girl, his human side aiming towards forgiveness.
Or he thought he could see it.
Riddick had shown himself a mystery since he first met him, and today wasn’t any different.

“What do we do now?” Asked James, not really sure how to continue the mission.

“We wait!” Answered Riddick.
“I need to talk to Jac… to Kyra.
There are things we need to clear up.”

They sat down in the little alcove and each ate one of their protein bars and drank some of their water.
Footsteps approached them, but neither moved, they simply tensed and readied themselves for any attack, but soon saw they needn’t have worried.

“Still here, I see?” The Convict leader said.
“I've been here Eighteen years.
See this?” He asked, showing an old engagement ring he wore on his right hand.
“I remember how gorgeous she was.
Well, gorgeous in a certain light." He added with a wink.
"And now, for the goddamn death of me, I cannot remember her name.” He finished, sadness in his eyes.

If Riddick cared at all, he didn’t show it.
James was about to tell the man how sorry he was for him, but a ringing bell interrupted him.
The Convict leader froze for only an instant, panic in his eyes.
They heard a loud voice coming from the top of the prison.

“Feeding time!” It said with sadistic joy.

Loud snarling noises were heard from the prison entrance, and from the volume they seemed to come from big creatures.

“We're here for the rest of our unnatural lives.” The Convict leader said with resignation.

The snarling continued, and appeared louder and coming closer.

“Here they come!” Said the man, turning around to leave the alcove.

As he was exiting, he turned around one last time.

“Whatever you do, don't make eye contact.” He added, and then turned around and ran.

They heard howls of fear from prisoners higher up in the prison, cell doors closing and people pleading for their fellow prisoners to let them in.
James and Riddick got up and started moving.
They immediately ruled out going into a cell, as it would cut off all exit route in case they got cornered.
So they looked for nooks and crannies, hiding places animals without prehensile extremities would have a hard time to attain.
James found one, and jumped up to grab a strut from the walkway above, pulling himself up between girders, and sat in his new perch to look at the approaching creatures.
He saw some movements at his eye level, and when he looked up, he saw Kyra, less than ten meters away, sitting in a similar position as he was, and she was looking intensely at him.
James returned the gaze, unsure of what she was thinking or if she had decided he was an enemy, but then, out of the blue, she smiled at him, and it was then he realized just how beautiful the girl was.
She had wide blue eyes, curly reddish-brown hair and a round face with full lips.
Her lithe body was supple, and she moved in an enticing way.
He kept thinking of her as a girl, but she was clearly a young adult woman, not much younger than he was.
Her gaze certainly told him she had seen and experienced much in her young years, perhaps as much as he had in the Seattle barrens on Earth while growing up.
Yet at the same time, Kyra displayed a vulnerability James would not have expected of someone with such life experience.
He could easily imagine the young orphaned waif, her naïve blue eyes looking for someone to protect her, finding Riddick, with his animal power exuding from every pore, and thinking he would be the best protector she could ever have.
James knew that feeling, as he had also looked for some patron, some protector on the mean streets of the Redmond barrens in Seattle, only to learn soon enough that in the world he lived in, the SIN-less had no protectors, and could only count on themselves.

“You like what you see?” Kyra asked enticingly, still smiling.

James realized he had been staring at her all this time.
He simply smiled back, and looked for Riddick, hoping he had been able to hide in time, if only for a second, and then berated himself silently for even thinking the ever resourceful Riddick could ever be caught unaware or unprepared.
The howling creatures soon appeared, and their appearance took Kyra’s smile away.
They looked like big, scaly dogs, roughly the size of very large St-Bernard’s dogs, but their teeth were more serrated and their heads looked like a scaly cross between a dog and a large feline.
They reminded James of Hellhounds without the flaming breath.
They came in fast, under Kyra’s weary gaze, hunting anything that moved in their field of view.
There were three of them, but they weren’t hunting in packs, in fact one had jumped over the railing to land on the level below, more than eight meters away, and at least four meters lower.
It quickly disappeared around a bend in one alcove, towards what appeared to be the prison showers.
The two remaining set their sights on a young prisoner, no older than Kyra.
The poor young man had tried to find shelter, but everyone was too fearful of the coming beasts to even try to open their doors, and James quickly understood that the guards would most likely not recall the beasts until they had eaten a few prisoners.
He sighed, knowing all too well what he had to do, and let himself drop to the walkway under Kyra’s surprised gaze.

“No!” She cried, panic in her voice.
“They’ll tear you apart.”

While James knew she might be right, he just couldn’t let a human being die with such cruelty.
He landed heavily on the platform, the noise and the power of his landing shaking the walkway, catching the attention of the two creatures, as he had wanted.
The creature closest to James crouched low on its haunches, readying itself for a jump towards this new prey, while the other one turned its attention back towards its dinner.
The young man was shaking, James saw, but he hadn’t used the distraction James had provided to run away, fear keeping him pinned in place, his legs turned to stone.
And so James also crouched and got ready for the creature’s jump.
He didn’t have long to wait, for it jumped less than a second later, soaring high into the air, heading straight for James, or rather, for James’s old position, for as soon as the creature had started moving, so had James, plunging to the walkway in a roll that took him well under the attacking creature.
He finished his roll by getting up and running towards the second creature, which turned around again at the noise, fangs bared.
As James ran at it, it opened its mouth and tried to bite him, but the big Shadowrunner was the faster of the two.
As the beast’s mouth came forward, James sidestepped to his right and dropped a hammer blow on top of the creature’s head.
The powerful blow stunned the creature, and it could no longer focus on prey, it could only shake its head from side to side in the hopes of regaining its senses.
Knowing the beast was out of the fight, at least for a few moments, James diverted his attention on the one that had charged at him.
It had landed and turned around and was coming at him in a run, this time remaining low in order to keep his prey from going under it.
James waited patiently, and as soon as it was in range, as it reared to attack, he simply sent a powerful spinning right kick in its ribs.
The steel-toed boots meant the kick could have been very damaging had James wished to hurt the creature.
But James had noticed by the way these creatures had moved and hunted that they were pack animals, and pack animals always had an alpha leading them.
James had decided he would show these creatures he was their alpha, by showing them how dangerous and dominant he was.
And, he had figured, if these creatures didn’t yield, then he’d have no choice but to hurt them, maybe even kill them.
But unlike the acid-bleeding aliens, these creatures weren’t simply killing machines, they were predators, killing only when hungry or to defend themselves, their goal being one of survival, not of eradication, and so James felt he had to try a non-lethal approach first.
He soon realized his gamble had paid off, as the two creatures seemed to understand that they were hunting on another predator’s territory, one who would not share his prey, one who could fend off competitors, one who was beyond their capabilities.
They hung their tails between their legs, and slowly went back the other way, understanding that fresh meat was out of the question this day, that they would only eat what pittance the guards would give them.
They had gone up a few meters when they stopped, turned around and growled a bit.
James understood immediately what that meant, and he turned sideways, keeping the retreating creatures in view while looking back the other way.
As he had suspected, the third creature was there, growling menacingly at him.
It was constantly sniffing at the air, and its keen nose picked up the faint trail of fear from the other two animals, and the complete lack of it coming from the big prey in front.
But further sniffing, and looking at it, had the leader of the pack convinced this big one was no prey, it was, just as the one it had met earlier, a predator, an alpha, like itself and the other.
A dangerous alpha, to have cowed its two pack-mates into retreat, and so the leader of the pack wisely chose to respect these two tall creatures’ territory, and led his pack’s retreat back to their lair, wondering how two Alpha males could share such a small territory without killing each other.

[sonofccn]

Short but sweet eh? Still needs more Toombs through :)

[Praeothmin]

Another shot one...

Chapter 54

James watched the creatures move back up the walkways very attentively, but he quickly realized they would no longer even try to attack, as they now viewed him as an Apex Predator, and would consider any attacks on him as a folly.
He heard a small voice offer him thanks at his back, barely more than a whisper, as if the person’s vocal chords had been robbed of all strength.
He turned around and saw the young man looking at him, still trembling, though his fear was now turned towards James.
He knew the young man was grateful, yet also knew his display of animal power had marked him as an Apex Predator with the prison’s occupants as well.
He knew they would give him a wide berth from now on, and realized with satisfaction that any retribution their early attacker’s friends might have wished against him most likely had evaporated the moment the creatures had retreated from him.

He heard a very light step on the walkway behind him, and knew who it belonged to before he heard the voice.

“Impressive moves,” Kyra said, her voice displaying a slight tremor, “Would you show me some of them?”

The last part came out playful, to James ears, and when he looked at her, he noticed her gaze on him had taken on an almost feral, lustful quality.
He understood instantly he’d become prey in a hunting game she had just devised –a sexual prey- and this made him very uncomfortable indeed.

“We need to find Riddick.” He said, hoping to change the mood.

He succeeded, her demeanour becoming distant, cold.

“Find him on your own.” She said, then turned tail and ran away.

For a moment, he thought of pursuing her and forcing her to follow him, but then decided against it.
Forcing a confrontation neither was ready for, even if needed, never led to the best conclusion.
He wondered if he would ever understand her, and turned around to go look for Riddick.
Who was standing less than two meters away from him, his goggles lifted from his eyes, staring at James as if he was ready to attack.
James returned the stare in full, noticing the effect this contest had on the surrounding prisoners.
As during the creatures’ run, all went back in their cells, slowly, as if unwilling to provoke any reaction from these two, and carefully closed their doors.
None of them wanted to be caught between these two if they decided to fight.
James’s mind was working fast, trying to understand why Riddick’s behaviour had become so bellicose, when they’d been so cooperative in the hours before.
But then a slight flicker of the killer’s eyes towards the receding Kyra, so subtle no one else could have seen it, gave James all the information he needed.
He understood Riddick’s stare in a new way, understood this wasn’t the stare of a competing Predator, but the stare of an over-protective big brother, fearing a Predator’s interest in his kid sister.
James’s stare relented, and Riddick’s posture told him the man did too.

“She’s not ready to talk yet, Riddick.” James told the killer.
“We’ll have to wait some more, or else you’ll never have the conversation you want with her.”

“Then we’ll wait.” Was all Riddick said.

He led James back to their original alcove where they sat in silence for some time, filling their stomachs with much needed food, as James realized he had gone many hours without it, and his body was famished.
A loud noise was suddenly heard, coming from the top.
They went out of their alcove and looked up, noticing the top of the prison, the guard quarters, were moving up and away from them, stopping after climbing for some ten meters.
Loud clanging sounds were heard, and fresh air came pouring in the prison, replacing the stale one they had been breathing.

“So they do go topside to swap out air.” Said Riddick, mirroring James’s line of thought.
“Interesting!” He added.

You have that right, James told himself.
It was nice to have alternatives in case their original plan didn’t work out.
They moved as one, both men quickly walking to the higher levels of the prison to get a better look at the surfacing mechanism, and to ascertain how they could exploit it to escape, should they need it.
As they kept advancing, James’s augmented ears heard a muffled curse coming from a small, natural cave formation ahead of them.
He recognized the voice as Kyra’s, and so he signalled for Riddick to follow him silently.

“Check her for me.” He heard a man say with what sounded like a Russian accent.
“She's always got a blade somewhere.”

He heard some quick laughter which didn’t last long, as another man grunted after what James presumed was an attack from the girl.
Groans came to his ears, then some more grunting.
He heard hard objects impacting with soft tissue, and knew Kyra was being beaten, most likely before the men raped her.
Anger surged in James, and he moved in to teach the would-be rapists the price of their savagery.
Or he would have, if Riddick’s hand hadn’t shot out to block him.
With a look that allowed no arguing, he moved ahead of James to take care of the men inside.
James decided they would have been better off against him, and silently followed the dangerous man.
He stopped at the entrance of the cave, an interrupted the men fighting against a struggling Kyra with only his words.

“I don't think she likes being touched.” He said, his voice displaying mirth his body didn’t share.
“I'd take my wounded and go, while you still can.” He added, the undertone of menace unmistakable.

Why he hadn’t ploughed into the men, killing them all, was beyond James, for all of a second.
Then he understood.
Kyra, Riddick’s little sister, was there.
She was watching and listening to everything coming from Riddick, the man who had left her with Imam to protect her from his lifestyle.
He was sending her as much a message as he was sending the prison guards who had attacked her – for James could now see they were guards.
The men facing him, not having seen him in action, stared him down, taking solace in their number, since James had decided not to show himself.

“Is there a name for this private little world of yours, huh?” One guard said, trying to bolster his and his men’s confidence.

His men not running away allowed him to muster the courage to ask:
“What happens there when we don't just run away?”
He looked Riddick over, and noticed the big man didn’t have any apparent weapons, that the only thing he was holding was a cup in his right hand.

“You'll kill us... with a soup cup?” He asked derisively, eliciting laughter from his men.
James noticed they all had vicious looking hammers.

“Tea, actually.” Was Riddick’s impassable answer, though James definitely read the barely contained rage of the man.
He was certain Riddick wished the men to attack him, even though for Kyra’s sake, he was determined not to initiate the violence himself.

“What's that?” A black-skinned guard asked, not sure he had understood correctly.

“I'll kill you with my teacup.” Riddick repeated offhandedly.

The guards were shaken, but tried hard not to show it.
One of them, the black-skinned one, decided to continue the display of bravado they had shown.
He turned around towards his friends, James’s enhanced hearing distinctly hearing a knife being pulled out of its sheath.

“You know the rule.” He said.
“ They aren't dead if they're still on the books.”

And then the man made the last mistake of his life.
He turned around and lunged at Riddick.
While the killer’s left hand deflected the knife attack wide to his left, his right hand turned the cup upside down and smashed it hard on a rock ledge, creating a serrated edge which he then plunged in the man’s torso, straight through his sternum.
The guard’s body jerked a bit, and then the guard fell down on his back, dead.
The scene would have been almost comical if there wasn’t a dead man involved, James thought.
The remaining guards lifted their weapons and tensed up, almost acting foolishely enough to attack, but then Riddick reached inside a pocket and produced a small item, which he placed on the same ledge he had smashed his cup on.
James saw it was a small key.
That was more than enough for the already panicked guards, who picked up their wounded comrade and retreated, leaving their dead friend there.
From his hiding place, James saw Kyra, relief all over her face though she tried hard to hide it, crawl to the dead guard, and pull the cup out of the dead man’s body.

“Death by teacup.” She said with feigned admiration, trying to appear tougher then she felt.
“Damn. Why didn't I think of that?”

The comment didn’t please Riddick in the slightest.

“I didn't come to play who's the better Killer.” He told her aggressively.

“But it's my favorite game.” She replied teasingly.
“Haven't you heard?” She said, her voice now with an angry undertone.

“I heard you came lookin' for me.” Riddick explained to her.

“Is that all?” She asked.
“Then you missed the good part.
Hooked up with some Mercs outta Lupus Five.”

She was circling him again, James saw, playing her dangerous game with Riddick, pushing him to the limits of his self-control.
She kept talking while she moved.

“Said they'd take me on, teach me the trade, give me a good cut.”

She paused, standing in front of the killer’s face, showing him all her contempt.

“They slaved me out, Riddick.” She said, her tone clear she was blaming him.
“Do you know what that could do to you when you're that age?”
When you're thirteen years old?”

“I told you to stay in New Mecca.” Riddick replied, the words coming out more as growls than actual language.
“Did you not listen?” He shouted, channelling all his anguish, all his guilt –because James saw clearly it was guilt- at leaving her those years ago and what had happened to her as a result.
He truly cared for Kyra, James knew with absolute certainty now, knew that the cold-hearted killer wasn’t so cold-hearted, that the man could actually care for someone other than himself.
“I had mercs on my neck.” He added.
“I'll always have mercs on my neck.
I spent five years on a frozen heap just to keep 'em away from you.” He kept yelling, each word hitting like a .45 slug, eating away at Kyra’s bluster, chipping at it slowly, but surely.

“And you go and sign up with the same fake badges that wanted to cut you up and use you for bait.”

He had calmed down, Riddick had, James understanding that what had been heating him up had finally come out in the open.

“What are you pitching, Riddick?” Kyra asked, trying to remain tough, the bluster taken from her.
“That you cuttin' out was a good thing?
That you had my ass covered from halfway across the universe?” She said, wetness threatening to come out of her eyes.

“You signed with mercs.” Riddick accused her once more, though his anger had left him.

“There was nobody else around.” She answered.

And with those little words, James saw, Kyra cut Riddick deeper than any blade ever could.

[sonofccn]

Another good update, always love the way you weave back in scenes from the movie. Feels like I'm watching some super special addition of said. Always nice.

[Admiral Breetai]

Hah Riddick man..Kyra makes a valid point.

you should do a collection of Anti-heroes

Riddick, Jonah Hex, Vegeta and James vs the vong cleaning house.

Hex might be the only one tougher than either Riddick Or James who isn't superhuman in that trio..

Any way how is Evil Mister rogers vs Picard coming? Do you need more samples of Vi'retess?

[Praeothmin]

Vire'Tess and Picard is on ice for the moment...

I've got a good idea of where I want to bring my story, and I have less time to write, so I have to concentrate on only one story...

[Admiral Breetai]

Vire'Tess and Picard is on ice for the moment...

I've got a good idea of where I want to bring my story, and I have less time to write, so I have to concentrate on only one story...

lucky bastard I have no idea where to go with my story right now..other then bad ass fight scenes..that mother of all writers block wont let through.

[Praeothmin]

Update...

Chapter 55

Riddick remained pensive for a long while, unable at first to come up with any satisfactory reply to Kyra’s statement.

“I did what I did in order to protect you, to offer you what I thought you needed.
And the last thing you needed, Kyra, was to live a life evading every half-assed con posing as a Merc, hoping to cash in on a once-in-a-lifetime payday bringing me in.”

He was no longer angry at her, and was speaking quietly, as if he was afraid that just mentioning Mercs would have them come down on him in droves.

“That’s my lot in life, I made my bed and I’m sleeping in it, but I’ll be damned if I let anyone share my life who doesn’t deserve it.
And you didn’t deserve this life, Kyra, you still don’t.
I’m sure Imam would still be willing to help you, give you shelter, food, if you only went back to Helion Prime.
It’s safe now.” He finished, waiting for her response.

She looked at him, and then at James.

“The safest place in the universe is next to you two, so there’s no way I’m leaving.” She said with determination.
“Besides, Riddick, you owe me for leaving me.
Now you’ll have the chance to make it up to me.”

She had a faint smile, but her eyes told them both she wouldn’t accept “no” for an answer.
James thought Riddick might argue anyways, but when he looked at the killer, he saw the man had already decided, and that he had accepted her statement as fact and would allow her to follow him.

“Let’s get out of here then!” He told them, and took up the lead to the top of the cell complex, followed closely by Riddick and Kyra.

The other prisoners kept well out of their way, their determined looks ensuring no interference from anyone.

They arrived at the end of the walkway on the top level, the entrance to the guard quarters being blocked by a locked metallic gate.
The gate’s lock looked like a very basic lock, but James had never had any occasion to practice his lock-picking skills.
He looked at Riddick who nodded, and so he moved back a bit, and let the dangerous man use his skills on the lock.
It was unlocked in less than five seconds, Riddick trying to open the door silently.
He failed, as the rusty hinges starting screeching as soon as he moved it.
James and Riddick looked at each other, nodded, and Riddick pulled the door wide open while stepping back out of James’s way.
The bigger man, by far the fastest of the two, went through the opening like a bat out of hell.
He went through a short corridor which opened up in an office, where three guards – one of whom he recognized as Kyra’s potential rapist- were looking his way, having been intrigued by the opening door’s noise.
The office was small and round, no more than four meters across, with a hole in the middle of the floor through which a rope descended, attached to a pulley system secured over the hole by two small, yet very tall trestles.
Another corridor exited the room only one meter to the left of the corridor James’s had entered from.
There was only one desk, behind which a guard, obviously the leader, was sitting down.
One other, the would be rapist, was bent over the desk, as if he had been looking at the small touch-pad his leader had in front of him.
The last guard was standing at the other end of the room, opposite from James, getting a cup of coffee.
As soon as they saw James, they reached for their guns and drew them out to fire at the escaping prisoner.
At least, they tried to.
As soon as their hands moved, James acted.
The nearest guard was sitting behind the desk, so James took a few steps and then kicked the desk with all his strength.
It slid up to the guard, hitting him with enough power to make him lose his breath, and continued sliding until the wall behind the sitting guard stopped it and its prisoner.
While the desk was still moving, James used his right leg, still up after the desk kick, to spin around and whip in the gun arm of the would-be rapist, breaking it.
As soon as his spinning kick was over, James set his right foot down, pivoted to his left and mule kicked the big guard at his colleague near the coffee pot.
The two guards collapsed in a heap of hurting bodies, unable to get back up.
James looked at the guard’s leaders out of the corner of his eyes and saw the man was struggling to get his gun hand out from behind the desk.
James simply spun his left foot right at the man’s face, snapping it sideways, breaking the man’s jaw while knocking him out.
As he finished the move, James realised he was in the gun sight of another guard who had come from the other corridor to investigate the noise made by the door.
As his finger depressed his weapon’s trigger, Riddick came out of their original corridor, grabbed the guard’s gun with both hands and spun the weapon up as it fired, making the guard shoot his own head off.
Riddick used his newly appropriated weapon to shoot another guard coming out of a side room inside the second corridor.

“Did you have to kill them?” James asked Riddick, exasperation in his voice.

“Would you rather if I had let them kill you?” Riddick replied with a smile.

“There are ways to incapacitate without killing, but I’m sure you know that.” James said, dropping the point, knowing it wasn’t the right time to argue.

He confiscated the guard’s weapons and disassembled them before exploring the rest of the complex.
The second corridor, the one with the two dead guards, had two doors.
One led to the guard’s living quarters, and the bigger one, around two meters wide, apparently led to a passage leading to the surface hangar for the prison.
James went up to the door, followed closely by Riddick and Kyra.
He spotted a big red button by the right side of the door, which he pressed, guessing it was the door’s automated opener.
The door rumbled to life and started moving, a crack appearing at their left, slowly widening to its two meter aperture, showing a tunnel with a loading dock right behind the door.
As the door passed it mid-point, James found himself face-to-face with a familiar man.

“Oh shit!” Toombs said, reaching for his holstered pistol.

He companions, occupied in unloading their unconscious cargo, most likely another bounty James realized, turned around at his swearing.
Toombs’s right hand started coming up, his weapon ready, heading towards James’s body, when the big man simply clamped a heavy left hand on the Mercs’s right wrist, lifted the man’s arm at a perpendicular angle to the ground, the gun aiming at James’s left, then the Shadowrunner’s right fist impacted Toombs’s shoulder joint, dislocating it, eliciting a growl from the Merc.
As the Merc’s companions went to their weapons, James right-kicked Toombs in the stomach, propelling him in the air at two other Mercs at the bottom of the loading platform.
James jumped down next to the fourth man, who had unlocked his weapon and was now pointing it at him.
His left hand shot up and across, from left to right, as the Merc fired.
His bullets started chewing up the wall besides them, peppering them with cement chips.
James’s right hand snapped straight out at the man’s face, rocking his head back, and the man slumped to the ground, out cold.
James kept the Merc’s gun, and searched his pockets for extra ammo, pocketing two extra clips he found.
Riddick jumped down at his back, punching out the other two slumped Mercs to ensure they were out.
As he was about to relieve them of their weapons, both men heard Toombs’s voice coming from a few feet farther behind.

“You may be tough and fast, you son of a bitch, but you ain’t bullet-proof.” He said, pain in his voice.
“And next time, you may want to remember I’ve got two hands.” He finished, cocking a gun he was holding in his left hand, pointed at James’s head.

“Not anymore!” Kyra, ghostlike in her movements, told him.

Toombs grunted from what appeared to be a slight punch from Kyra to his hand, but when the young woman finished her move and stood next to Riddick, James noticed something protruding from the Merc’s hand.
Careful examination showed it to be some kind of a shiv, most likely manufactured by Kyra herself, that went in from the outside of Toombs’s hand, and came out the other side, at an angle letting James know it had gone through behind the trigger, making it impossible of the man to depress it, thus making it impossible for Toombs to fire at them.

“And this,” She said proudly, looking at Riddick, “Is how you incapacitate someone without killing him.”

She looked straight at James then, and it was clear to him that she was waiting for his approval.
He gave her a quick nod, and moved up to Toombs, who was still suffering.
He locked the trigger in place with his left thumb while he pulled the shiv out with his right hand, then took the gun from the injured man’s hand.

“You’ll find a first aid kit in the door at your right.” He told him.

“You stinking piece of…” Toombs started to say, but James’s right hand snaked out and grabbed him by the throat, cutting off all sound.
He then lifted him a few feet in the air, and held hi there for a few seconds before speaking, to ensure Toombs knew exactly what he was dealing with.

“Never find yourself in my way again, or I promise you won’t live to regret it.” He said, then dropped the choking man on the floor hard.
“Oh, by the way, thanks for your ship.” He added as they mounted on the transport and sped off.

[sonofccn]

Yeah Toombs! The man of a thousand fails. :)

Thanks. I really needed that.

[Praeothmin]

Update...
Hope you guys like...

Chapter 56

The rail-sled they were using was fast, so within a few minutes they had covered the close to thirty kilometres –absentmindedly estimated by James from the speed of the lights passing them by overhead- separating them from what James suspected was the ship hangar, where they’d most likely find Toombs’s ship.
He almost felt bad at the thought of stealing the man’s ship, but then he reminded himself that Toombs preyed on people, without regards for their wellbeing or whether or not they were actually guilty, and so any guilt he might have had was rapidly forgotten.
They needed a ship to get off, since after having beamed in the prison through the solar radiations and atmospheric ionization, the Musashi would have gone to the other side of the planet to make repairs while hiding from any pursuing ships.
It would be out of communication and would not be able to transport them back, so the only remaining possibility of escape was by stealing a ship.
Their sled arrived at the end of the tunnel, slowing down gradually until it lightly bumped the shock absorbers at the end of the rail, stopping them completely with only minimal discomfort.
This end of the tunnel was just like the one they had left, the rails ending at the bottom of a loading platform, stairs to the side leading up to a large automated door.
They disembarked, carrying their appropriated weapons, and went to what they hoped was the entrance to the ship hangar.
The door opened slowly, rumbling all the way, and they went through.
As they suspected, they were in a hangar, close to fifteen meters wide and almost twenty meters long, though the ceiling wasn’t that high, stopping only four meters from the ground.
The saw a few crates here and there along the walls, and the great door, three and a half meters tall by at least ten meters wide, at the opposite end of the hangar told them where ships came in and out.
And in the middle of the hangar sat Toombs’s ship.
It wasn’t much to look at, but James knew it was capable of getting them to the Musashi quickly enough, with sufficient room for all three of them.
As they made their way towards it, the hangar door came to life and slowly opened, receding in the ceiling.

*******************************************************************

They would pay, he vowed to himself.
They would suffer, they would know their doom, and they would pay, for what they had done to his fleet.
The Lord Marshall would not suffer this humiliation for much longer.
His trackers had told him the upstart vessel had come this way, and his ship had tracked it easily enough, damaged at it was, bleeding plasma and crying out its pain in high intensity bursts of radiation, but they had lost the upstart vessel’s trail near this very planet.
Thus the Lord Marshall had deemed that the inhabitants of this system would most likely have seen them pass by, and would know where they went, perhaps even know who they were.
They would tell him, and then they would be graciously converted within his troops, or he would take their souls and destroy their flesh vessels.
And he would know peace again.
As the hangar door passed the halfway point of its aperture, he saw them.
Two breeders, one dangerous looking, and a frail young girl, although the scent of her aura told him she was anything but frail.
And then, “he” came out from behind the small cargo ship stored in the hangar.
The man he’d seen single-handedly wipe out an entire unit of his soldiers, the man who’d killed one of his best field commanders, Irgun, within heartbeats.
The Furyan he was told about by the captured Elemental, Riddick.
There would be no conversion for the Furyan, only death, a death that would deliver the Lord Marshall from the prophecy that had haunted him for all his life.
No more, he thought, today, Riddick dies and I become free.
He would suck out his soul, so that the Furyan’s life-force would be added to his own.
Before anyone could move, he leapt towards the big Furyan, and tackled him to the ground.
He placed his hands on both sides of Riddick’s head, and grabbed at the Furyan’s soul, pulling it out slowly to the anguished yells of his victim, his face filled with sadistic delight.

**************************************************************

James saw Riddick’s facial expression while the killer was looking at the hangar door, and so he turned around just in time to see something coming at him fast.
His reflexes kicked in and time seemed to slow down, and so what came towards him was clearer.
He saw a man, physically present, yet shadowy at the same time, fully encased in armor, yet his face was showing, and it displayed a mask of rage, sadistic rage, aimed straight at James as it seemed.
The shadowy man tackled James with surprising strength for one much smaller than him, and they both went down.
But as James’s reflexes made him flex and get ready to throw his opponent off him, the shadowy man’s hands shot to either side of his head, and then immense pain shot through him.
He felt as if his body was dipped into molten metal while thousands of small serrated blades slowly cut his skin open.
He cried in anguish, he wailed, and the pain intensified.
He felt promises of soothing calm, of a painless existence, and knew all he had to do was to let go of his body and go towards the soothing light he perceived in front of him.
It seemed so easy, so relaxing, so lonely as well.
James saw himself clearly at that moment, saw his soul, unhidden, unhindered, and knew it wasn’t his time, knew he could not let go.
And so he fought, concentrating and trying to find his body in this ethereal world where he found himself, and when he found it, he willed himself towards it, willed himself to enter it, through the pain, through the despair he felt, until he felt in sync with his body again.

*****************************************************************

Riddick saw the shadowy figure move faster than he’d seen anyone, except James, move before, and it was upon James before he could react.
But as the two locked into combat on the ground, Riddick saw the shadowy figure had not come alone.
There were many soldiers encased in armor, soldiers he recognized as Necromongers, and they were coming at them, and so he didn’t have time to help James, though he doubted the big MACO commander truly needed him.

“Kyra, remember that favourite game o’ yours?” He asked the young girl with a smile.

It took her less than a heartbeat to catch on.

“You mean, who’s the better killer?” She almost purred.

He barely looked at her before heading out in a run.

“Let’s play!” He called out to her.

He skidded under the wing of Toombs’s ship, firing at legs and crotches, anything that came in his field of fire, while Kyra jumped on the same wing he was going under, firing at anything she saw, like heads, upper torsos and arms.
The Necromongers were not ready for this, they saw, for over half their force was looking back at the surrounding area, covering their leader’s entrance, while the other half had been taken aback at their leader’s sudden attack, and so many died from the furious assault from Riddick and Kyra.
One Necromonger wasn’t taken by surprise, though, and was aiming a weapon at Kyra just as she reached the forward edge of the ship’s wing.
Riddick saw this, and so, as he slid out from under the wing, got to his feet, fired at the Necromonger soldier with one hand while the other grabbed Kyra and brought her down to the floor.
The Necromonger simply grabbed one of his soldiers and pulled in front of him, but the movement cost him some time, so his shot went over the girl’s head as she was getting dragged down to the floor.

“What the hell?” She started yelling as a graviton pulse sizzled by her head to impact the ship’s wing.
The ship’s armor was tough, though, so the shot didn’t do much damage, but it still left a mark, and let them know that had it hit Kyra, she would be dead.
She dropped down to one knee then, using the ship as cover while she was driving bullet after bullet at the turning Necromongers.
Riddick, his gun still pointed at the troop commander –because it was clear this is who he was facing- advanced calmly towards his opponent, Necromonger shots whizzing past him, fired from hurried troops being decimated by Kyra’s fire.
He looked at the Commander, shrugged while lifting the gun, and threw it away.
The Commander looked at him and raised his gun, smiling, as if he was about to fire.

“What, you ain’t afraid of me, are you?” Riddick asked, mockingly, while he retrieved two curved blades from his back.

The Commander seemed to think about, and Riddick was ready to jump aside should the man fire, but then he let his gun drop to the floor and drew a long, vicious looking dagger from its belt sheath.
Then they ran at each other, smiling.

*************************************************************************

The Lord Marshall simply could not believe anyone could resist him, yet this man, this Furyan, was regaining control over his soul.
As he was struggling to pull, the other yelled only louder, and after what seemed like an eternity, the Lord Marshall felt his grip on the man’s soul loosen up, and as an ultimate defiant gesture, the man kicked him in the stomach with enough force that he lifted up in the air and hit the small ship’s fuselage, denting it.
As he fell back down, the hit surprisingly hurting, he punched straight at the big Furyan’s face, or he wished to.
But the Furyan, with speed equalling the Lord Marshall’s own, simply rolled out from under him, and so he hit the hangar’s floor, a blow powerful enough to crack it.
The man had rolled back and was up to his feet, an intense gaze emanating from his eyes.

“You are only delaying the inevitable, Riddick.” The Lord Marshall said.
“I’ve killed many Furyans before, and today will be no exception.”

The man looked at him, and smiled.
The impudence of the man appalled the Lord Marshall, and so he attacked viciously.
He sent a right side kick to the man’s left knee, which was blocked when the man lifted his leg in a circle, from left to right to left again, to slap at the inside of the Lord Marshall’s thigh in a stinging intercepting kick.
He tried a rapid left cross to the Furyan’s face, using the momentum imparted by his right leg going to the back, but it was also blocked by the man’s right hand, which grabbed the Lord Marshall’s wrist, as he delivered his own left cross which connected, before connecting again with a powerful straight rick kick to his abdomen as he let go of the Lord Marshall’s hand.

“Wrong man, wrong decision!” The man told him, and from the way the Lord Marshall’s body hurt, he was beginning to believe it.

***************************************************************************

So once more, he was mistaken for Riddick, and by the leader of the Necromongers, no less.
The man’s first attack, a magical attack not much different from Managuy’s aptly called “Painerizer”, a spell designed to kill while delivering the maximum amount of pain to the target, had almost wrecked havoc with James.
But, unlike spells from his world, as soon as the man had let go, the pain had subsided, and so James could now bring his full might in this fight.
The man was fast, but was obviously used to fighting people much slower than he was, because his attacks, while well executed, didn’t show much imagination or variations, unlike the Elite leader James had fought on the Dyson Ring.
Still, underestimating opponents was the best way to get killed, especially one possessing magical powers, so James remained prudent, and did not rush towards his adversary, taking the time to study him.
Sending a quick look to his allies, he saw Kyra devastating the Necromonger troops with well placed bursts of her weapon, while Riddick was…
James couldn’t believe this.
Riddick was simply walking towards his target, slowly drawing out his wicked knives.
Only as James’s gaze was going back to his own opponent did he see the dangerous killer run towards his next victim.

**********************************************************************

They came in fast, both possessing well-honed reflexes.
Riddick’s initial pass, a right to left sweep of his right knife at his opponent’s throat, was evaded with a simple back-step, his second sweep, a vertical one from his left weapon, was deflected out wide by the troop Commander’s knife.
The Commander reversed his sweeping deflection while taking a step forward, trying to disembowel Riddick, but the killer simply trust out his buttocks while retracting his stomach, his right coming down in a circular sweep, from up to down, right to left, coming in at the back of the Commander’s sweeping arm, trying to cut it open.
It made contact, but the Commander’s continued movement, turning into a full body pivot with a small step sideways only resulted in Riddick’s blade leaving a deep cut in the man’s vambrace.
At the end of his pivot, the man was standing a few feet from Riddick, both combatants staring at each other intensely.

********************************************************************

The Lord Vaako smiled inwardly.
Finally, a worthy opponent.
The Necromongers, brilliantly led by the Lord Marshall for so long had always triumphed easily, too easily, in all their engagements, that they had become complacent, Vaako believed.
All of them, until a strange, unknown vessel, had decided to defend Helion Prime a day ago, laying waste to an entire armada of their most powerful ships, spurring the Helion Prime defenders, who were ready to surrender, back in the fight.
The outcome was uncertain, though even with so many ships destroyed, and their World Converters gone, the remaining armada was a formidable force still, and after the Lord Marshall disposed of this Riddick, they would go back to Helion Prime and lead their armies to a worthy victory.
But here and now, Lord Vaako was facing an opponent who apparently matched him in intensity, speed and power, for his attacks had not been easily fended off, which made him happy.
Had Vaako been a lesser fighter, he would be dead.
But he was the best fighter the Necromonger army had, next to the Lord Marshall, and no “breeder” would put him down easily.
So he welcomed this challenge, one he had not had since facing other Necromonger Commanders like him, trying to gain rank and position by killing the opposition in fights sanctioned by the Lord Marshall, to ensure only the strong remained, fights which transferred all the loser’s wealth and possessions to the winner.
You keep what you kill, Vaako thought, and once I’ve killed you, I’m going to take your knives, and that little girl you travel with.
He went at the breeder again, with sweeps, punches and kicks, all of which were blocked, parried or deflected.
He realized quickly the breeder had him backing up, his attacks coming in from all angles, never in a particular rhythm, never in the same way.
Vaako slowly realized this breeder was more dangerous than he’d thought, and he regretted his decision of dropping his graviton pistol to fight in melee.
Out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed one of his downed soldiers’ weapon a few feet from him.
He let the breeder’s attacks push him back further towards his new goal, and then plunged for it.

**************************************************************************

She was firing like a maniac, emptying clip after clip at the advancing enemies.
After some time, they had finally understood how dangerous this opponent was, so they had started to use cover, and had stopped their advance.
Still, she was as trapped as they were, since she could not leave cover either, being pinned in place by so many enemies.
Their weapons fire was also slowly eroding her protection, forcing her to look for other prospective covers, and more importantly on finding ways to get there without getting killed.
Even worse, she realized, was that she was about to run out of ammo.

****************************************************************************

The Lord Marshall gave him all he had, James knew, but with each of the Lord Marshall’s parried attack, with each retaliatory strike that sneaked through, he saw they both knew the fight was nearing the end, and as with James’s last fight with Riddick, they both knew who the loser was.

*******************************************************************************

Kyra ran out of bullets at the same time her opponents fired the bursts that would destroy her cover.
She dove forward in a roll that brought her under the fuselage of Toombs’s ship, where her hand found Riddick’s discarded rifle.
She came out of her roll, rifle in hand, looking for a target.
She found one immediately.
As she was coming out of her roll, she saw the troop Commander come out of his own roll, twisting around to point a graviton pistol at Riddick.
She knew he found fire before Riddick could reach him, and that he couldn’t possibly evade the shot.
But he didn’t need to, for Kyra, using all the experience she had acquired as a Merc while looking for Riddick, simply aimed her rifle at the Commander and pulled the trigger.
The weapon roared to life in her hands, bucking wildly, her lithe form struggling to maintain her aim.
The bullets slammed in the Commander as he was depressing his own trigger, forging his amr sideways as the graviton bolt flew out of his weapon, passing less than a few inches to Riddick’s right.
She saw Riddick drop on the Commander, both blades digging deep in the man’s torso, as he lifted his face to look at her.
She saw his smile disappear as she felt hot agony pulsing through her body, lifting her off her feet, her weapon flying from her grasp.
Her unconscious form impacted the ground to Riddick’s agonizing cry of her name.

******************************************************************************
The Furyan heard his friend’s cry and turned his head towards it, giving the Lord Marshall an opportunity he wouldn’t waste.
He jumped to his feet and, stiffening his fingers on his right hand, went for a throat shot that would crush his opponent’s windpipe and kill him.

*******************************************************************************

James heard the cry and turned to see what had Riddick yelling so, taking an automatic step back in the process, which had most likely saved his life.
As his unconscious mind had him turn his head back to his opponent, he saw the hit coming in, and barely had enough time for a defense.
He bent his head to his left, his opponent’s fingers raking across his throat, his enhanced skin taking the hit without breaking, while his right hand went and punched the man on the nose, cracking it, spraying blood all over the man’s face.
James sidestepped, letting the man pass him by, then snaked his left hand to the man’s head.
He pulled back and down as his left knee came up at the back of the man’s neck with enough force to break it.
His opponent dropped to the floor, dead.
As he turned around back to Riddick, he saw the surviving Necromongers sneaking up to Riddick, trying to surprise him and shoot him.
They were all dead before Riddick even acknowledged their presence.
James came running at his side, and saw the reason for Riddick’s distress.
Kyra was lying on the floor, her side open, her life force slowly ebbing from her.
As James kneeled besides her, Riddick looked up, with tears in his eyes, which profoundly shocked James.

“Please,” He said, with a voice barely above a whisper, “Save her.”

James took out his communicator and activated it, hoping the Musashi was in range.

[sonofccn]

Very nice. Lord Vaako actually surprised me, I doubted he had the nerve to actually fight mano-a-mano. As well James has got to start carrying a signcard saying he isn't Riddick. It is at the very least very inconvient.

[Praeothmin]

Update...

Chapter 57

It flew lazily in orbit, its most recent battle having barely added any damage on its sleek hull, still battered after the Helion Prime defence.
It glided through the newly created debris field, the Necromonger capital ship having lasted less than ten seconds in battle after it had fired its initial volley at the Starfleet vessel.
Captain Kirkinger could not believe a single vessel , no matter how big, could believe it was capable of battling against one who had taken out an armada by itself.
When they had first detected the Necromonger ship, his first act was to send a peace offering, stating that they had attacked the Necromonger fleet only to defend the planet from total destruction, but that they did not wish to continue the fight.
The Necromonger reply had simply been a volley of graviton shots, which the shields of the Musashi, weakened as they were, absorbed easily.
The Phaser barrage retaliation, however, had carved up the Necromonger ship like a hot knife going through butter, one beam even burrowing to the ship’s power core, causing a cascading reaction which blew the ship up in a few seconds.
Captain Kirkinger had been saddened by what he thought was unnecessary bloodshed, but then realized the fight had simply been a reflection of the Necromonger way of life, where you battled, and either won and lived, or lost and died.
As he was pondering the ramifications of such a faith in an advanced civilisation, he heard the familiar chirp of an incoming signal.

“Captain,” Cmdr Teramak said, “We have an incoming signal from the surface.
It is a Starfleet communicator signal.” He added.

Kirkinger smiled, sure of the identity of the caller.

“Put him through.” He told the Cmdr.

“Major Reynolds to the Musashi.” The call said.
“We need immediate emergency Medical beam-out for three people.” The Captain heard James say.

“Musashi here,” Kirkinger replied quickly, “Prepare for transportation.”
He turned to his Tactical Officer.
“Have Transporter room three beam them directly to sick bay now.”

Teramak nodded and relayed the orders, hoping they would be in time.

***************************************************************************

As the familiar energy beam enveloped him, James smiled, thinking Toombs would get to keep his ship after all, allowing him to continue his life of failures.
Looking at Kyra, his smile faded, and it was grim-faced that he rematerialized in the Musashi’s Sickbay.
As soon as Kyra appeared on a bio-bed, Doctor Numorr shoved past Riddick, whom James grabbed by the shoulders and slowly pulled away, and her crew went to work, using bio-stabilizers and aseptic gel, bio-foam and all of Starfleet’s incredibly advanced Medical equipment, doing all they could to treat Kyra’s wounds.
Not long after they had started, the Doctor had thrown a quick glance and a smile at James, then had looked at Riddick, and a quick nod had James taking the dangerous man, now more subdued than James could have possibly imagined, out of Sickbay to let the Doctor and her team try and save Kyra’s life.
James had to believe they could, for he had seen Valis and her team do the impossible too many times to doubt, on Boomer, on himself, and on so many crewmembers.

“She’s going to make it, Riddick, don’t doubt it for an instant.” He told him as he was leading him away towards the Star Lounge.

Riddick stopped walking and stood in the middle of the corridor for a few heartbeats, before turning around to James.
He looked him straight in the eyes, and James saw all the pain, the guilt, the sadness this man had cumulated over a harsh life, no longer able to hide any of it.

“I cannot have found her to lose her again, James, I won’t accept it.”

“She won’t, Riddick.” He told the man.
“Starfleet’s medical science is second to none, I’ve seen it myself, and I come from a world where organ transplants and replacements are routine procedures.
She will make it!” He told Riddick with more conviction than he actually felt.

He didn’t want to imagine the man’s reaction should Kyra die.
Riddick had seen through his attempted deceit, James saw, but he was too pained to mention it.

“If you save her, if your Doctor saves her, I am yours.
I will work for you, I will put my life and my abilities in your hands.
I will be forever in your debt.” Riddick told James honestly.
“Just save her.”

James was shocked to see how much Kyra meant to the man, how much he cared for her.
Here was a man who valued his freedom, his self-determination, above anything else, and yet he was ready to pledge his life in what he would most likely call servitude to Starfleet.
Once again, the preconceived notions he had about Riddick received a heavy blow.

“Let’s just wait and see how it turns out first.” He replied, leading him to the Lounge.

He ordered a few drinks for both of them, and led Riddick to a table in front of the large windows, where a view of Crematoria, the sun coming back their way, was afforded to them.
It was a spectacular view, the fiery wave front coming over the mountainous ridge like an angry ocean of fire and plasma, burning everything in its path.
But Riddick didn’t care, didn’t even look at it, absorbed in his glass’s liquid content, slowly sloshing it around, not even drinking it.
James told him he had to go, but that he would come back soon, and left at Riddick’s absent minded nod.
He called out to Boomer, and asked her to keep the dangerous man company in while he was in meeting.
He didn’t want Riddick wandering around the ship, getting into trouble in his actual mood, yet at the same time, having an armed guard detail with him could result in the very thing James wanted to avoid.
And so he had decided in one person acting as some sort of guard, and the one who had the best chance of at least slowing down the dangerous man –James knew full well no one onboard except for him could stop him- was Boomer, her Cylon strength almost on par with Riddick’s, and her natural toughness would ensure her increased chances of survival in the case of a battle.

He went to the ship’s Bridge to meet with the Captain, who led him to his Ready Room with Teramak in tow, where he gave them a complete report on what had happened on the planet’s surface.

“And you think you can trust him to honor his word if Kyra should be saved?” Teramak asked James.

“Yes, I do.” He replied.
“He’s proven reliable in Crematoria, and his gifts would be an incredible asset in our missions.”

“I think he’s a loose cannon and that it’s not worth the risk,” Said Teramak, “But then again, I said the same thing about you, and look at how you turned out to be.”

“I’m not entirely sure about this, Major.” Captain Kirkinger replied, pensive.
“But I’m willing to give it a try if you assure me you’ll keep a tight leach on the man.”

“As tight as I can keep it.” He promised the Captain, and so the decision was made.
If Kyra made it, Riddick would be part of the MACOs.

In turn, James learned that repairs were progressing well, the planet’s raw materials helping them in manufacturing the necessary parts.
There was, however, one serious issue: their Dilithium Crystals had cracked in the last battle, and they had been scheduled to receive spares during their scheduled supply run at Starbase 43, more than a month ago.
If they couldn’t get new Crystals before this one completely broke, lacking the means to re-crystallize it, they would be forced to run off their Impulse fusion plants for the foreseeable future, which meant very limited or no Warp Drive, and an overall power level of less than twenty-five percent.
So it had been decided that the Musashi’s most pressing mission at that moment was finding some Dilithium crystals, raw or refined.
Full sensor sweeps had found nothing so far, but they were ongoing still, knowing full well the rare ore had a distinct spectroscopic signature a ship could detect many Light-Years away.
They just hoped no unknown enemies were coming their way to test their mettle in the meantime.

********************************************************************

They no longer had a leader.
One of their Lensers located on Crematoria had sent them confirmation of the death of their Lord Marshall, and of their best troop Commander.
They had seen the one who should have become their Lord Marshall, the Furyan known as Riddick, disappear in a shimmering beam of light, dying after killing their leader, which meant he would not keep what he killed, and would not lead them to glory, to the Underverse.
They new what was coming, knew that the Necromonger ranks were about to destroy themselves through infighting in order to find a new Lord Marshall.
So that they would be reborn, refreshed and ready to grow anew, aiming to be reunited with the Underverse.

*********************************************************************

He left the Ready Room half an hour later and headed the Sickbay to see if Kyra had pulled through before going back to Riddick, so that he would have some information for him.
When he arrived in Sickbay, though, he found out Riddick was already there, along with Boomer, standing over an inert Kyra.
James feared the worse, but when Boomer saw him, she simply smiled and nodded, letting him know Kyra was going to make it.
He came over to look at her, to see how she seemed to be doing.
She was asleep, most likely kept under sedation so her body would recover faster, one of her hands buried within Riddick’s, the big man simply looking at her, relief in his face.
He saw Valis at her desk through one of her office windows and went to see her.

“How’s our patient, Doctor?” He asked, smiling.

She looked exhausted, and he knew Kyra’s treatment had been a rough one.

“She’ll make it, she’s a tough one.” The Doctor said, stifling a yawn.
“I’m keeping her under sedation so she’ll recover more quickly.” She told him, but then she remembered he was a trained physician and most likely knew that already, and she simply smiled.
“I’ve been working for twelve hours straight, the damn ship repairs and battles have pushed us over our limits.”

“I can see that.” James told her.
“Anything I can do?” He asked.

“Actually, there is.
I would be greatly appreciative,” She said, emphasizing the word, “If you and Doc could put in a few shifts in the next six hours or so, while I get my beauty sleep.”

“No sleep can make you more beautiful.” He told her, and immediately felt foolish, blushing a bit.

She smiled again, but this time could not hold her yawn, showing him just how tired she truly was.

“I’d like to ask you to dinner when I wake up,” She began, “But I’m afraid if I do the ship will go through another wormhole and we’ll have to pass again.” She finished with a small laugh.

“Get some rest, Valis, you need it.
And don’t worry, we’ll cover your shifts, and we’ll grab lunch when you’re awake.” He told her.

She got up, gave him a small peck on the cheek, and left.
He exited her office and went back to Kyra’s side, noticing the strange look Boomer threw his way.
He looked at her and mouthed the word “what?”, but she simply shook her head as if nothing mattered and went back at watching over Riddick.
James was trying to understand what had just transpired when Riddick broke the silence.

“A promise made is a promise due.” He said softly.
“I’m yours to command, Major.” He finished, surprising James by actually sounding respectful of his title.

Boomer’s eyes went wide at the announcement, and James held up his hand to indicate it was not the time to talk about it.

“Are you sure about this, Riddick?” He asked him.
“Because this means you will have to follow my orders, whether you like them or not.”

“You saved the one person who truly counts, James.
I gave you my word, and I intend to keep it.” He told James, the finality in his voice indicating it was a done deal.

“I won’t have any trouble with you, will I?” He asked the dangerous man anyways.

Riddick turned to him, displaying the first smile he’d seen in a while.

“Of course you will, Major.” He told him in all honesty.
“But I’ll always have your back.”

[sonofccn]

Ah yes, Toombs shall continue his life of failure. All is good. :)

So what's next? More action against the Necromongers or jump to another universe?