When the situation finally arose, Michael had lost control and been rendered defenseless.
She stood up slowly. Looking with rage to the command room, Joanna stood perfectly still.
Pointing her laser pistol to the left edge of the ferroglass, she fired 3 times. The shots hit one after
another, with the third clearing a path through the extremely strong glass and even punching a
hole into one of the dropship's control boards within. She stepped over to the smoldering glass,
using her gun to widen the hole as the hot, viscous glass began to cool. Smoke began leaking
from the hole, and Joanna stepped back from the hatchway. The pirate now knew someone was
fighting back.
Joanna curiously looked around the corridor. "So much blood, so many lives..." she thought to
herself. Dobs's body lay just to her left. His still form was only a reminder that Michael was now
dead. Fighting back emotional pain, she realized that Dobs's battered body might conceal a
firearm of some sort. She knelt, keeping an eye on the command center, and began to search
Dobs's jacket. "BINGO!" Though only a slugthrower, Dobs's pistol gave her new hope. She
rose to her feet, and shot a single bullet through the hole in the ferroglass. A muffled ricochet
could be heard inside the enclosed room. Now Joanna held SOME power.
"Get out of the command center!" she cried out. She hoped the pirate would listen. If he didn't
surrender, she could continue to destroy the command center with ricochet shells. She might
even kill the pirate. If he did surrender, Joanna might be able to keep her dropship as well as her
life. Carefully watching the door, she repeated her demand. "GET OUT of the command center!"
Fearing to even blink, she waited for the pirate to make a move. But nothing happened.
Looking into the hole, Joanna could still see very little. The smoke clouded the room even yet.
Suddenly a voice came to life, followed by a body slamming against the hole in the ferroglass. It
was the pirate's body, but it was his back side now against the window.
"Ya like that?" Xandar asked, grinning from ear to ear. "I call that a right hook...you know, like
the kind you pulled on me?" Eyes almost burning, Xandar stood across the command center
from the pirate. Weapons lay all around the room but Xandar refused to arm himself. Instead he
dared the pirate to try picking one up. "Why don't you try for that pistol, eh BECKETT?"
Xandar's words dripped disgust. His fists tight at his sides, he waited.
"I have some explaining to do, you should know that. I know you saw me kill the other pirates."
Beckett confessed. "You see I'm not what you think I am. I'm not a pirate. Well I'm a pirate but
I'm an agent posing as a pirate."
"Sure you are. Whatever you say "agent" Beckett." Xandar said. Walking slowly across the
room, he neared the pirate.
"Wait, wait. Alright I'm a pirate. But I need a dropship captain, one I can trust. This guy Redjack
Ryan killed all of my family. All I want is to kill him and his men." Beckett said. Beckett stay
perfectly still against the hatchway door. Letting Xandar close, he did not try to arm himself.
Xandar rushed Beckett. Taking two quick steps he grabbed the pirate by the throat and pushed
him hard against the door. Raising back his right arm, he delivered a devastating blow to
Beckett's skull. The pirate's body slumped down in Xandar's grasp. Beckett had taken at the
very least a concussion. Xandar slid him off to the left side of the door, and Beckett dropped like
a rag doll. "WELL. What are you waiting for?" Xandar bellowed. Bending down, he looked
through the hole to Joanna.
"Open the damn door Harlow." Joanna ordered. Xandar grumbled, then punched the button and
the hatchway opened. "Nice work on the pirate but that doesn't excuse you for being an ass."
Joanna frowned, walking into the room. Steven was still unconscious, but the smoke was nearly
absent now. "Michael is dead by the way. He was shot by either this bastard before us, or by the
pirate who caught my top on fire." she said, pointing to her scorched hair.
"Michael's dead? This is bad. Anything else I should know?" Xandar's adrenaline was letting off.
The news of Michael's death brought him back to reality.
"Well the remaining pirates are on their way to this room. I expect they'll be at least 10. In other
words we are in for one hell of a fight." Joanna dropped into her seat, sadly looking over to
Michael's empty chair. "You have any ideas?"
Xandar looked up to the small room's ceiling. "Well we have weapons but its going to be a tough
fight." Still staring at the ceiling, he mentally weighed the options he had. "When are they
boarding the ship?"
"They aren't boarding the ship. They already have. They're the leftovers from this joker's group!"
she pointed to Beckett on the floor. "We better hope they aren't too much like him or we'll be
dead in 5 minutes." Interrupting her last words, Beckett moaned from the corner of the room.
"By the way, drag him out of this room and I'll put a bullet in his head." Joanna sneered, checking
the ammunition on Dobs's pistol.
Grabbing Beckett, Xandar slid the pirate's body out into the corridor. Instead of Joanna
following, she just turned in her seat and aimed at the pirate. "Get the hell away from him
Xandar...by the way, cover that corridor with the gauss rifle. It should be pretty effective at
sniping pirates."
Stepping away from Beckett, Xandar grabbed the gauss rifle from the floor with both hands.
Though heavy, he could carry it relatively easily with both of his arms. Contemplating on where
he should stand for best cover, Xandar stayed in the hatchway's opening.
"What are you doing?" Joanna asked. "I told you to get away from him."
"I'm covering the corner out there. You think I'm gonna take a ricochet when you nail him or
what?" Xandar shook his head. Apparently the earlier bruising by Beckett had put him in a
grumpy mood.
"Nevermind, damn you then." taking aim she shot the pirate in the calf of his left leg. Blood oozed
from the leg, filling the floor with so much red. Beckett cried out in pain, grabbing his knee
relexively and putting pressure on the wound. "He deserves a world of suffering before his
death." Joanna smiled at Beckett's spastic movements. Firing again, she shot the same leg in the
thigh, just missing the pirate's hands.
"What the hell are you doing? Shoot him." Xandar shook his head, he couldn't believe Joanna
was this cruel.
Joanna looked to Xandar curiously, finding new hate for the man. "He killed Michael. I'll kill him
as I see fit." She pointed the gun up in the air threateningly, her eyes gleaming at Xandar. "What
do you know anyways? He probably hit you on the head too hard."
Xandar turned completely around, leaving the corridor open as he argued. "I DO know that
apparently since you've lost your friend you can't handle yourself. Give me the damn guns and I'll
shoot the pirates. You just fly the damn ship." Xandar waited. "Well?"
Joanna set the gun's sights again on Beckett, this time firing above his head to scare him. "Cover
the passage Harlow." She looked back to him, but he was still standing up to her. His eyes filling
with disappointment, Xandar dropped the gauss rifle to the floor.
