Niko and Sasha trembled through the ship, past the dining, ejection and engine rooms. Eventually landing at the command room.
Despite the seemingly emergency nature neither seemed particularly keen to find out what was going on. Sashas brisk stroll juxtaposing the blaring alarms and sound of captain Jack "of the" Blackhawk screaming.
"GET YOUR ASSES DOWN HERE"
Eventually they did.
"Sorry we're late"
Sasha replied in an exhausted voice as she faked struggling to breathe.
As Niko and Sasha entered the command room, they met the sight of the other three members of the crew sat down staring at them. They seemed a little more stressed than usual.
Captain Jack the leader and boisterous personality, no-one was better at steering a ship than him.
Elio the combat expert. He had the most augmentations and the most combat experience if anyone knew how to win a fight it was this guy.
Hawk the namesake of the Blackhawk ship. A white guy with excellent navigation skills.
Captain Jack was not impressed.
"Are you fucking kidding me. I know you two are the youngest on the ship at 18 and 19, but this is inexcusable. I mean-"
Jack appeared as if he was prepared for a long speech.
"Fuck it. Don't have time."
Never before had Jack missed the oppurtinity for a lecture. This was serious.
Although it seemed Elio, the combat expert had something to say.
"Why did we even bother waiting for these fools. We're dead either way."
Pessimism had always been a key tenet of Elio's beliefs but it was clear this was different.
Hawk gestured Sasha and Niko over to the control panel.
Command rooms were usually used for ship steering when AI was deactivated or for management of all the different parts. This meant that there were hundreds of different buttons and switches that Niko for the life of him couldn't understand.
As they followed he pointed at the ships radar system. Hundreds of red dots littered the screen.
"Do you see that. We've been ambushed. We're dead."
Just on queue through the main window a gargantuan translucent figure slowly emerged from thin air. The mountain-like entity seemingly stretched kilometers long to the point where even the vastness of space had lost its visibility.
It was a mothership. Stretched across the screen. Beautiful as always.
The crew who had seemingly had their speech stolen from them as they gazed into the oppressive abyss began to quiver.
Hawk was the first to break the silence.
"Haha... Ha... We're dead. There's no way."
The small crew watched as hundreds of ships appeared behind the behemoth. They had seemingly been using camoflague technology to disguise themselves up to this point. Now the flurry of ships sent a simple message.
There's no way out of this.
It seemed that Jack now having steeled himself knew that now was the time to act.
"Open the comms. Let's see what they want."
"They wouldn't come after the ship if there wasn't something they needed. If this is a basic raid job then this if definitely overkill."
Jack was right there would be no reason for so many ships unless something was up. For the first time in his life Niko prayed that this was just a basic robbery. Losing out on all their possessions and their ship would be damaging but survival was still possible.
Since it was such a large ship it was safe to assume they weren't serial killers but slavers were still on the table.
Niko also wondered whether they were bounty hunters however he had already server his time so that seemed unlikely.
Hawk pressed the button to send comms to their mothership.
Surprisingly, they accepted.
Jack engaged them in conversation.
"Hello, do you need anything from us?"
The voice that responded was deep and grainy
"Hello. We'll be taking you as slaves. Please come peacefully to avoid confrontation."
"We will be sending a voyager to discuss peace relations or to kill you. Please make the right decision."
The mothership cut communications. As they finished their sentence a loud beep came from the systems management panel it seemed that somebody had connected their ship to the airlock despite not having permission.
"They must have hacked the system, I'm locking the airlock!"
Sasha relented as she rushed towards a nondescript button and proceeded to smash it repeatedly.
"What's happening it's not doing anything!"
Sasha cried out as she realized that there was nothing they could do to stop the imminently approaching figure.
Through the camera a black hooded figure approached, his singular augmented hand peeeking out of his cloak.
"This is who we're up against."
Elio muttered to himself.
"Not just him."
Jack responded.
"Hundreds of him."
Although there was a few walls of seperation between them it was clear to Niko and the crew that he would be able to clear them in seconds.
Through the cameras the figure could be seen efficiently tearing through metal doors as if they were paper. Slowly making his way towards the command room. Before any of them had even thrown a punch it was clear that this was a battle they could not win. In just 30 seconds he would make it to the command room and no amount of doors could stop him. Niko needed to figure something out. No matter what.
Captain Jacks knees fell to the floor as large droplets of water emerged from his eyes.
"It's over!"
He cried out.
"We're all going to be slaves. For the rest of our life...."
The captain had lost his mind. As he was mumbling incessant nonsense to himself Elio stood up and readied his blade.
"My arms may not be as strong as his, but I can still fight. You too Hawk."
Hawk retrieved his dagger from his pockets and gripped it firmly.
"Yeah..."
Despite the unbeatable odds Elio and Hawk had readied themselves to go down swinging.
"I would rather die fighting than live as a slave."
Elio readied himself in front of the door prepared for the entrance of the hooded figure.
The door flew out at maximum velocity as a reverberating crash rung out. Elio's face met the flying door and sent him flying with it as Elio's spine slammed against the control panel. The sound of crunching bones let out. The figure had seemingly noticed someone behind the door and decided to kick it down this time.
Hawk didn't even bother. The now timid and meek Sasha were met face-to-face with this seven foot monster. His hard metallic hand and overbearing figure looked around, almost passive-like.
the monster simply stated.
"What are your names?"
In that simple 30 seconds Niko had already formulated a plan and just that simple question was enough to confirm Niko's suspicions that even with the certain death in front of them there was a way for atleast four of the crew to survive this as free men.