Showdown [Caged Bird, 7 Deg.]

[Tristram Kelly]

Merger of Seven Degrees & The Caged Bird Sings

Tristram slung his rifle over his back. "Pleasure, Shepherd." He turned toward Roger. "Trinity is just fine. The crew is still stable too. No improvement, but they're no worse than whe-..." The youth was cut off as someone plowed into his back, causing him to stumble forward into the old soldier. His hand flew to the Grach on his hip as he spun around to face... two girls? Quickly, he slid his pistol back in its holster. "Are you alri-..." He trailed off as he noticed the panicked look in the one girl's face. He shifted his focus to the other newcomer and noticed a large bloodstain on her hip. He rushed to take her weight off of the other girl. As he shifted the wounded girl, he caught a glimpse of her face. 'No way...' A shocked expression leaped to his face. "Casey!?"

[Dexter Shield]

Dexter nodded to the man who had essentially saved his life. He didn't speak, as it seemed this man and Roger had much more important things to attend to. He simply stood patiently, as he waited for things to get moving again.

As the men talked, a disturbance in the distance caught the preacher's attention. Someone was sprinting, no, two someones, and before he could warn Kelly, they had collided. There looked to be more violence, as the man went for his gun, but it passed. Seemed the two recognized each other, and the tension dropped, slightly.

Dexter keyed in on the girl with the injury, he heard Kelly call her Casey, and he stepped past. "Sit down." He said, softly but with no room for argument. He placed her gently but firmly on a nearby crate, and then he spoke again. "Now, continue your conversation." He looked at her leg, and then at Kelly. "But I suggest you start with the part that tells us why someone shot you." He raised an eyebrow, and took his kerchief from a pocket. Pressing it to the wound to stop the bleeding. "Who did you upset, child?"

[Casey Carter]

With the loss of a lot of blood, Casey was beginning to become a bit delirious. Sweating now, she looked upon the new faces with confusion.

"Tris?...Wow, long time no see. Guess what? I got shot..." Casey mumbled, and began to doze off. It took the Shepard's voice to snap her back into reality.

"Niska's protege, a very angry mobster with an accent. Why? Blame her..." Casey said, and she smiled to her new friend Annette. Loosing strength and more blood, she dozed off again, becoming incoherent and nearly unconscious.

[Roger Davis]

Roger was surprised and then a little shocked as events unfolded before them. Two girls, one of them wounded, running right into them and Tris knowing them. Well, the boy'd been on the world for a month now. Plenty of time to make all sorts of friends, the type that got themselves shot apparently.

As the shepherd moved to help, Roger kept an eye out for the inevitable arrival of the person who'd done the shooting. The he heard it. "Niska?" Roger said. "We need to move. Forget the ruttin' leg. The man is death himself. Anyone connected to him ain't much better."

Not having a free hand to help, Roger deferred the task of helping the girl to Tristram. He took up his bags once more and hustled off in the direction he remembered the Trinity to be without even waiting to see if the others would follow.

[Dexter Shield]

Dexter's face hardened when he heard the name. "God in heaven." He sighed, as he shook his head. "You are too young to be in this kind of trouble." But even as he spoke, his mind chastised him.

"Were you any different?"

He saw Roger take off, and decided to do likewise. He looked at Kelly. "Mr. Kelly was it?" he said, as he tied a temporary bandage around the nasty wound the girl had. "Would you carry my bag? I have other issues." He nodded at the man, and then tried to lift the girl to her feet. But she seemed to be rather out of it.

He grunted, and then picked her up, and followed Roger. "Relax." He said, softly to her as she jerked in his grip. "You'll be fine." He continues to talk to her calmly as he walked. He could hear Kelly behind him. It was difficult to follow Davis, he was moving quicker than Dexter could, with his burden. "Mr. Kelly.... can you take the lead?"

[Tristram Kelly]

Tristram nodded silently and hoisted the old man's bag over his shoulder. "Hang in there, Casey. We'll take care of ya." He shifted his attention to the Shepherd. "Foll-..."

"There they are!"

An angry shout caused Tris to turn his head to see half a dozen men with guns running towards them. "This way!" he shouted as he ran past Shield. With his right hand, he drew the Makarov from his shoulder, and with his left he retrieved a radio from his pocket. "Viv! We're gonna have company shortly! Set some crates up as barricades. A friend of mine will be there soon. He's the big guy with all the guns. Name's Roger. Wait for him outside, and be unarmed. He's a mite twitchy." As they ran, he gave Shield directions to the ship. "Go until you see General Store, then cut left, all the way to the edge of the docks. Trinity is back there. She's the only Firefly in the immediate area, so she won't be hard to spot." After he was certain the Shepherd understood, he veered off into an alley, waiting for their pursuers to come into view. Within moments, the herd of lowlives came barreling around the corner. The young gunhand stepped from his cover and took three shots at the men. He didn't hit any of them, but he did cause them to stop running to find cover. He continued to fire at them until he emptied his Makarov. In the time it took to swap out pistols, the pursuers began moving from behind their cover and firing on his position. Tristram dropped to his knee and peeked out from behind his corner, putting two rounds through the lead man's chest and another in one of his comrade's shoulder. Satisfied with the lead he had given the others, he began running toward the ship, bullets chasing him. He had run only a few yards when he felt a dull thud in his back. His adrenaline refused to allow him to think about what possibly just happened. He just kept running.

[Dexter Shield]

Dexter simply nodded, and hurried off after he was given directions. He carried the girl through the streets, and just as directed, the firefly was waiting. It was amusing, having left on firefly to find another. Some days.

As he approached, he saw both Roger, and some woman he didn't recognize. He stumbled as he took the last few steps, barely managing to keep his burden from falling to the ground. "Roger." He said, simply. He deposited the injured woman in his friends hands, and then leaned heavily on his staff with both hands. "You take her," He said, massaging his leg, the wound aching. "And I'll take this." He relieved Davis of one of his weapons.

"Name is Shield." He said, turning to the woman.

[Vivian Thrace]

Vivian was sitting pretty, minding her own business, and enjoying the peace and quiet when Tris’ voice came over the radio. “Sure thing Tris,” Vivian replied setting down her book. She sighed and let her feet drop from the chair they had been propped up against. She pulled her long hair into a ponytail as she descended the stairs quickly and began loading crates as he had instructed.

By the time the Shepard carrying an injured girl and Roger carrying lots of guns reached her Vivian had set up a nice barricade and had multiple weapons from her own collection at her disposal. She met the two men out front, one hand securely over her pistol just in case. “Roger,” she nodded in greeting to the man with all the guns before he was handed the girl.

Vivian relinquished a few of the guns from the other man so that he wasn’t loaded down with so many. “Vivian,” she answered, “We should get her to the infirmary,” she gestured to the girl who appeared to be incoherent and bleeding.

[Roger Davis]

It wasn't long before Roger ran all the way to the Trinity. It didn't exactly feel right to run from a fight and certainly not to run ahead of all the others but it would have been worse to get into an unwinnable situation there in the street and drag the others down with them. They'd have an out here and he'd run on ahead so that he could turn round and fight all the sooner.

He was met at the Trinity by a young woman who apparently had been expecting him. Instinctively, he drew iron and aimed at her center mass. The type of person who was a stranger but knew you and was waiting for you typically was the type of person that wanted to kill you as well. Even without the current situation he would have done the same. With the luxury of a second or two to think things through, she was looking less and less threatening. Granted she hadn't drawn on him but she did have her hand at the ready. She also seemed to have access to the Trinity and had prepared it for a defense... "Friend of Tristram?" He asked as he lowered the gun. He still wasn't going to trust her until the boy confirmed it but at least he wasn't going to plaster her guts onto the hull.

Shield was next to arrive and handed the injured girl off as if Roger was better equipped to deal with such things. He was the soldier while the shepherd was the man who'd been in the field hospital back on Hera. Roger dumped his gear on the Firefly's ramp and then gently dumped the girl there as well.

He returned to the others with rifle in hand and then quickly departed again down a block to meet up with Tristram and cover his final retreat. The young gunhand was not far off, but he'd made some friends. Roger sighted in and fired a quick two round burst into the two lead men before Tristram soon reached him and together they made the rest of the trip to the others and their "Alamo" at the Firefly's ramp.

[Tristram Kelly]

It didn't take long for Tristram to reach the General Store. One thing he didn't expect was to see Roger appear out of nowhere and start firing on his pursuers. "Go go go go GO!" He didn't even spare a glance as he sprinted past his de facto captain and around the ships toward where Trinity was docked. A few long moments later, he was pounding up the ramp of the ship. The gunhand turned to see if they were still being pursued. A few rows off, he saw the two remaining gunmen. They had stopped their chase, but one appeared to be speaking into a radio. With one last, angry glare, the men stalked away. He sat down on one of the makeshift barriers, trying to catch his breath. A dull ache in his back started to make its presence known. The youth unslung the bag from his back, and as he did so, he noticed a small hole in one of the pockets. Curious, he reached inside, only to pull out a worn Bible. The back cover was unharmed, but the front had a hole in it that matched the one in the pocket. He opened the book, and a bullet fell out.

'I was that close.'

Tristram tossed the Bible to Shield. "Jesus save, huh?" He nodded at Vivian. "Hey, Viv." He took a few more deep breaths and looked to Roger. "They'll be back."

[Vivian Thrace]

Vivian rolled her eyes at Roger, currently pointing a gun in the general vicinity of her center. With one hand she moved the butt of his gun aside as she replied to his question, “You could say that.” With a slight edge to her tone which conveyed that she didn’t like guns being waved around in her face she added, “Now, if you wouldn’t mind we have more important things to do like get out of here in one piece,” she glanced at the injured girl, “Or thereabouts.” She gave Roger a slight smile, half smirk, as he lowered his gun. It was the best anyone would ever get out of her really.

A few minutes later Vivian glanced down at the girl who had been dumped onto the ramp. ‘I’m not taking her.’ She thought to herself, then looked up in the direction of Roger and Tristram running their way, ‘Please don’t make me be the one to take her.’ Glancing over at Shield who seemed to be favoring a wounded leg and leaning on his cane she sighed. ‘I am going to be the one to take her, aren't I?’ she thought snarkily. She holstered her pistol which she had removed at the sight of Tristram and Roger heading their way with company on their tail and scooped the girl up into her arms and carried her behind the barricades. Vivian knew she wouldn’t have enough time to bring her to the infirmary just yet so instead she folded up her jacket beneath the girls head and tried to arrange her in what appeared to be a far less awkward position than Roger had left her in. She then went about slinging a round of ammo over her shoulder like a sash of bullets just in case and steadied her M14 sniper rifle on one of the crates. She looked through the scope only to see Tris and two men running away but not before they spoke into their radios. She held the gun steady for a moment before relinquishing it. “Tris,” she greeted him with a slight smile. Then glancing to the place where the men had been she said, “And we’ll be ready for them,” patting her rifle.

[Dexter Shield]

The preacher had regained his breath, and the pain in his leg had receded for now. He was about to set to tending to the wounded, when Kelly arrived in a mess of gunfire and heavy breathing. Dexter half smiled, half glared, when his bible was presented to him. "Indeed he does." He said, softly, "And his word is worth more than a few pages." He took the bible, and sighed. It had been with him for a long time. But, such was life. And after all, it was only a book. He could get another.

"They don't like it if you shoot at them." He mused, at the young man who had now been responsible for saving him twice. "But now is not the time for standing around." His voice was calm, but firm. "I suggest we get out of here before more show up, and trust me. They are coming." He had only had one encounter with Niska, and it hadn't ended well. Even as he spoke, a crazed man charged them from the nearby crowd, wires and suspicious bulges in his clothing. Dexter raised his borrowed pistol, and kneecapped the man, before continuing.

"We are going to need more than bibles to protect us if we aren't quick." He bent to examine Casey more closely. "And I don't want her to need a bible either." He glanced up, and then tossed the pistol to Roger, who had rejoined them. He reached into his bag, and grabbed a small box, which contained some meager medical equipment. "Help me get her inside."

[Roger Davis]

Roger wasn't far behind Tristram as they reached the Trinity once again. As the others started to tend to their wounded girl, Roger hastily started grabbing and heaving the assorted baggage that had been dumped outside further into the cargo hold. It would be quite a thing to run all this way carrying the gear and then abandon it right outside the ship.

Roger prepped his weapons, now complete with the return of one of his pistols. "Well, I certainly hope one of you knows how to fly." He looked around the group. Unless he'd been taking lessons, Tristram didn't. Shield might have a hidden talent but that was unlikely. He could hope that Tristram's friend, Viv or whatever the hell he called her, was a pilot but she seemed to be a shooter just like the rest of them... completely useless as far as other skills went. That left the two girls. "Preferably someone who hasn't been shot."

[Tristram Kelly]

When the Shepherd repeated the exact same thing Tristram had just finished saying, he shot the older man a look that seemed to say, "Really?". He shook his head and assisted Shield with getting Casey up the ramp and into the ship. He examined the wound. "I always said you were gonna be trouble." He mused to himself. His head snapped up at Roger's mention of flying. "No. There is no way we are leaving without getting her to a doctor. I'm no professional, but I know that she's losing a lot of blood. I don't know how much longer she can last." He took off the light jacket that made up part of his work uniform and tied it around the wound. "I'll run her to St. Lucy's. It isn't that far. I should be able to get there before any more trouble arrives. Just stay and guard the ship." With a low grunt, he lifted Casey off the floor and started walking to the ramp. Just as he was about to reach the door, a gunshot rang out, and a bullet hit the hull by the entryway. "!" He turned on his heel and ran Casey back to cover, gunfire now exploding in force behind him, before taking his rifle from its scabbard and firing off a few rounds. "Well, I've been wrong before."

[Alex Ramirez]

Alex had been on planet for about a week, and he was near to giving up on his search. His badge was Alliance-issued, which got him alot of help from the local law (he detested Alliance, but it was the best way to help his people out back home on Deadwood). He had been to every lowlife bar and club near the docks, every high end lounge and everything in between in the area. His quarry was nowhere to be found.

Royce, his wife's murderer, had left planet just an hour before Alex got to the spaceport. He should have immediately got on the Net and call up the neighboring worlds to let them know Royce was coming to them. But he was in a rage. He used his authority to get on the next shuttle to Ariel, as Royce took a shuttle there. He must have thought that was far enough away.

Alex had got to Ariel around 2 days after Royce's ship made planetfall, after which he instantly disappeared into the crowd. He had never seen a city as large as the one he was in. it was beautiful; people everywhere, glass and concrete. he was amazed.

But, after a week of nothing, Alex had given up. he was walking to the docks, thinking about whether to try Bernadette Or Osiris, or maybe one of the other systems when he heard a cacophony of gunfire. Running to the area, he saw a group of men firing into a ship. There were several people in there defending themselves, and at least one that was shot; there was blood leading into the cargo bay. He pulled his winchester off his back, took up a good cover position and opened fire on the men outside the ship. when their heads were down, Alex shouted:

'Deadwood Sheriff's Department, you bastards are bound by law to stand down! Drop your weapons and get on the ground!' They replied by returning fire, making Alex to drop to the ground under cover.

Returning fire, Alex picked his way to a pile of crates and boxes next to the ship. As he reloaded, he shouted to the ship:

'You in the ship, this is Sheriff Alex Ramirez, Deadwood department, are you all ok in there?'