The Ether..

[Carthrat]

Lights flashed! Gauges moved! The entire ship seemed to rumble.. and then, miraculously, started to move, picking up speed... and to Kaoru, it was quite nerve-wracking, as it was getting faster, faster, lots faster, ohmyfreakinggodI'mgonnacrash faster..

*Woosh!*

The ship soared into the sky, albeit wobbling here and there and looking like it's about to stall any minute..

[Carthrat]

A short time later, Kaoru managed to navigate the ship through the debris surrounding the Earth and find her way into the nearby Gate. Her flight computer told her than 2000 woolongs had been deleated from her account, reducing her to a meagre 11000. Some inner instinct told her than that was about 110 dollars..

The flight computer told her that it'd take about about three hours to get from Earth to Mars...

[Bean Bandit]

Bean sighed as her ship entered the gate. "Lucky I got that back from robbing the cash register at the amusement park..." she sighed. "Still...'Hiroshi' said we...how many kids am I supporting?" she wondered, and flicked the autopilot switch, hesitating and watching to make sure she stayed on course before moving away to rifle through the place for information...

[Carthrat]

After a few minutes of rooting around, Kaoru found a Photograph.

It was a picture of her and five kids; one was Hiroshi, but the other four were unfamiliar. There were two boys and two girls. One of the guys looked about sixteen, but the rest looked somewhere between seven and twelve. Hiroshi himself looked about thirteen. They were all standing out the front of a house, which looked to be a fairly nice place, two stories, nice garden..

Her musings were interrupted by a sudden warning beep from the flight computer. However, she didn't have a chance to go and see what was happening before a massive *CLANK!* rocked the ship, and Kaoru tripped over.

In the background, she could hear various mechanical noises, sounded like hydraulics operating..

[Bean Bandit]

Bean picked herself up off the floor as every profane thing she could remember, and a few she made up on the spot spilled out of her mouth. She hurried to the front of the ship to find out what happened...

[Carthrat]

The flight computer informed Kaoru that, somehow, another ship had docked to her.

It also informed her that it was being hacked into, and her main hatch was in danger of opening thanks to an outside influence.

At that moment, her ship comlink started to bleep.

[Bean Bandit]

Bean growled, and went to retrieve the submachine gun and her sword before answering the comm. She activated the comm when she returned to the cockpit, busily removing the safety from the gun...

[Carthrat]

Kaoru managed to grab her junk, but as she returned to the cockpit, her main hatch popped open, and she heard a metallic object, as if something was being thrown inside..

[Bean Bandit]

Oh hell...if that's a stun grenade or something... Bean closed the door of the cockpit, opening it just a crack to watch the unwelcome intruder for an explosion, or some other clue to it's purpose...

[Carthrat]

There was a pop, and a hissing sound. The cabin started to fill with a kind of greenish smoke..

[Bean Bandit]

Oh Shit... Bean slammed the cockpit door shut, then frantically began searching for a re-breather, or a oxygen mask. I dunno if this ship has a gas mask, but they should have some sort of emergency breathing equipment...even planes have them...

[Carthrat]

Kaoru did manage to turn up sort of SCUBA-gear type stuff; an oxygen-filled tank with a breather extending from it. She notes that it looks like it belongs to a spacesuit..