Both door guards immediately light their psi-blades in response to Garim’s threatening move. One stands back, evaluating the situation. Lilly is taken totally by surprise, despite Imogen’s recent words. She raises Sweetpea but is unsure who to point it at. The pirates look tense, but none of them move to intercede. Garim has embraced events, though, convinced that he himself willed his psi-blade on.
When Malorn turns to Lilly for his own psi-gauntlets she sees no reason to to stop him from joining the fray. He shakes off his loose bonds and lights his weapons, joy in his glowing red eyes. Then he engages the second door guard. The pirates still do not care; Malorn is not their prisoner, and watching protoss go at each other is amusing to them.
As the clash begins, Imogen points her own pistol vaguely in the direction of the door guards, but she just lets events play out. Something on the very edge of her psionic perception has caught her notice. There are two living beings beyond the door. Lendasha is not alone, and whoever is with her feels protoss-y to Imogen’s mind. Unsure of the complete nature of the foes they will face in the next room, Imogen sets up mental defenses, just like Blight taught her.
Lilly, meanwhile, wonders whether any of these protoss are secretly in league with Malorn and that is the true reason for this scuffle. She is still not entirely clear about what is going on, and shooting into the fray risks harming her friend. She moves instead to a defensive position in front of Imogen, whose mind appears to be wandering again. Malorn was in such a bad mood earlier, she does not begrudge him the chance to blow off some steam here.
When Imogen’s attention returns fully to the foyer, she sees that things are going well. Although he has suffered a few nicks and gashes here and there, Malorn is clearly faster and more capable than the guards. The same cannot be said for Garim, who has taken a few nasty hits. When he stumbles back from his opponent, Imogen takes advantage of the clear line of fire the shove has created. She shoots the guard’s gauntlet, shorting out the psi-blade. Garim glances at her, and Imogen maintains her role of terran mercenary. “I’m here for my credits,” she tells him. “These fellas are wasting my time.” He charges back into the fray, and the guard is now unable to parry all his blows.
Malorn strikes his opponent down as well, and Imogen snaps at him, “Don’t make me use the psi-shrieker device on you again,” to fake bringing him back in line. Garim does not buy her hasty improvisation this time. Neither does Lilly, for that matter. The only thing she and Imogen have for controlling Malorn is beer, and even that was not working so well on the trip over here. Garim starts to make a threatening move, and Lilly fries him with Sweetpea.
As Malorn leaps in to finish the escort off, Imogen turns to the pirate spectators. “You fellas have no particular loyalty to these protoss. We’re not here to cause any trouble for you. We’re here to do what we’re going to do, and there will be fewer protoss here when we’re finished. If you want to take your station back, you might be better positioned to do so if you don’t interfere with us.”
Larry exchanges glances with Curly and Mo. “Fewer protoss, eh? Sounds like it might be useful. I think I might like to make a go of running this here station.” He tips his bowler hat at Imogen. “Thank you very much, miss. You just, well, try not to die for a while, I guess. Or do. It doesn’t really matter to me. Best of luck.” He and his mates slink off to go rouse the rest of their crew.
“There are only nine protoss,” Lilly announces from where she has stepped over to a roster on the wall.
“So, there’s six protoss?” Imogen responds, looking at the bloody corpses in front of Lendasha’s door.
“Feel better?” Lilly asks Malorn.
“Yessss,” he replies with satisfaction. “It has been too long since I felled a foul tal’darim warrior.”
“Look in the mirror, man,” Imogen mutters.