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PREVIOUSLY: Val and his new friends have attached their ship to the side of the secret marine space station with out being detected, now they prepare to sneak inside...
Rue, Garr, and Val make their way out of the cramped cockpit of Rue's little ship and file back toward the exit hatch. Near the hatch Garr throws open a locker and pulls out a small tube. He hands one to Val, another to Rue, then pulls one for himself.
As he unfolds the ultra thin fabric of the emergency space suit, Val turns to Rue, "So ah, there is a very large door on the hanger bay, and it's usually sealed...?"
Rue grins, "Oh that's the easy part." He pulls a small black case out of his jacket and sets it aside. He secures a set of large guns in shoulder holsters, then pops open his space suit. "The tricky bit is getting up there!"
"You don't have magnetic boots?" Val asks with concern as he sits down to pull his space suit over his prehensile toes.
Garr pulls out a set of palm sized disks with a suction cup on one side and a handle on the other, he drops them into Val's lap. "Suction cups and rope."
"Have you done this before?" Val asks.
"Oh sure, plenty." Rue answers casually. Garr glares, obviously it didn't go as well as they hoped.
Val decides to stop asking questions. He pulls up his space suit, it's extra long in the arms and legs, but he has to stretch it over his large head. His thick dreadlocked hair is already getting long without the regulation military trim.
The space suits are designed to be one size fits all, which only seems to apply to Rue. Garr squeezes himself into his, but still has to stuff his thick tail down a pant leg. Rue has to help him zip it. Once sealed up, a mask with a breathing device pulls over their face. With the twist of a dial all of the excess air is forced out of the suit pulling the thin, insulated fabric tight to their skin.
When their suits are on, they tie themselves together with a rope. Rue straps his black case tightly onto his arm. Garr secures what looks like a heavy, ornate, metal walking stick into a lightweight holster to his back.
They grab their meager suction cups and head for the door. This ship has a secret hatch that exits out the bottom, it drops them down onto the surface of the Galactic Marine space station.
Rue leads, with Val in the middle, while Garr brings up the rear. The suction cups prove to be a difficult mode of transportation, always sliding a bit before locking into place, sometimes further than others. With each step they must first secure the suction cup before hoisting themselves up, then wrench the suction cup back up and start all over again. It's a long, slow, process.
Inside the hanger bay, Laurine and commander Dillian wait while three highly decorated Generals disembark from their transport. General Goddard is a tall, slender, hawk like man, his sharp eyes miss little and his mind never stops scheming. General Dubaal is a huge, fat man with a mean scowl permanently etched on his jowls. General Hannon is dark, and made of solid muscle, but his regular regiment of steroids makes him edgy and quick to anger.
Dillian salutes as the Generals and their assistants approach. The Generals look around as if something were amiss. "Where is He?" Hannon demands.
Laurine responds coolly, "He has other business to attend to, I will be acting on his behalf."
"We were told we would be dealing with him directly!" Dubaal snaps!
"I assure you gentlemen, you still are dealing with him directly."
"Where is the ship?" Goddard cuts to the chase.
"It's in the primary manufacturing dock, we have a full demonstration scheduled for eighteen hundred hours. But first we thought you might like to freshen up and have a bite to eat." Laurine responds smoothly.
"Thank God! I'm starving." Dubaal blurts out.
"Right this way." Laurine leads the way.
As the Generals and their entourage follow Laurine out of the hanger bay, Rue reaches the outside of the hanger bay doors. He stops just below the giant airlock doors, he turns and motions for the others to stop. Under the lip of doors is a smooth, black plate; it is the sensor that receives the signal to open the doors.
Rue unzips the black case strapped to his arm. Inside are an array of different tools, he selects a medium sized laser cutter and starts the delicate process of removing the sensor plate.
Below him, at the end of the rope, one of Garr's suction cups gives way. The sudden imbalance twists him sideways, which torques on the other suction cup. Before he can reattach the first one, the second suction cup gives, he falls away from the station.
Garr screams, but the vacuum of space prevents any sound from reaching his companions. He grasps for any hand hold but he's just out of reach! As he hits the end of the length of rope, it jerks suddenly on Val.
The strain on Val's suction cups drags them slowly down the side of the station. Confused, Val looks behind him, he is startled to see Garr adrift. Quickly Val tugs on the line in front of him to alert Rue. Rue looks up and swears!
With one hand Val tries to pull Garr back in. His suction cup slips under the extra weight. Garr struggles to pull himself back. Above, Rue quickly switches out tools, he pulls out the largest laser cutter in his kit. He slices a crude U shape in the hull of the space station. As Val's suction cup finally gives way, Rue jams one of his suction cups down into the U shaped slit as hard as he can.
With Val's added weight pulling them away from the station, the rope quickly snaps taught. Rue strains to hang on. The cup jammed into the fresh cut holds, the molten metal of the station's hull fuses with the suction cup. Garr slowly starts to pull himself along the rope toward Val. Val sees what Garr's doing and begins to pull himself up the rope toward Rue.
Rue heaves his portion of the rope up and through the handle of the suction cup fused to the station. He uses two hands to pull the rope, Val and Garr tumble toward the station. They slam into Rue with a thud.
Rue loops the rope through the suction cup handle again, then ties it off. As Val and Garr straighten themselves out and reattach their own suction cups Rue goes back to work on the sensor panel.
He pops off the face of the panel to reveal a jumble of wires. He selects two thin, insulated, cables with his smallest laser he slices them and rewires. When the wires are spliced back together, the massive doors of the hanger bay hitch open slightly but the atmospheric force field remains intact. Rue motions for Val and Garr to crawl up.
Val goes first; up and around Rue, he pulls himself through the door. Garr is close behind, he has to squeeze to fit between the doors. His space suit catches on the door and rips as he forces his mass into the hanger bay.
Rue uses one of his lasers to slice through the rope around his own waist. Then he scrambles up and to the door. Garr reaches out to grab the back of Rue's space suit, he hauls him into the hanger bay.
Inside Rue lands in a heap. He looks up at Garr and grins. Garr just snarls at him. Further inside Val struggles to untie the rope that connects him to Garr.
Suddenly an alarm whales: "BREACH IN THE MAIN HANGER... BREACH IN THE MAIN HANGER..."
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