Imogen rushes to the downed reaper, now a charred stain in the center of the room. She cares more about the state of his armor than his body. Reaper combat drugs contribute to their aggression, but they also have regenerative powers, and it is the latter Imogen desperately needs. His legs are still mostly intact, and one of the stims mounted there is unharmed. Imogen extracts it and runs to Lilly. There might be negative side effects, but keeping her friend alive is more important. She injects Lilly with a painkiller and the reaper combat stimulant, but it is not enough to wake her. Imogen unclips Lilly’s backpack and slides her off of it, then starts rooting around in it, searching for other medicine. Spider mine, hard candies, I <3 Umoja mug… but no painkillers.
“Aiden!” she shouts. “Aiden, have you secured downstairs?” She checks Lilly again. Her friend seems stable but remains unconscious.
“No, these two are holed up in here,” her brother replies. “I’m thinking maybe it’s time to burn them out.”
Imogen hears Aiden bang on the door he was guarding… the door to some sort of medical room. She runs across the engine room, calling back her reply. “No! I need what’s in that room intact!” Imogen slides down the railing, getting to her brother before he can damage any useful medical supplies with fire. When she reaches him, she says, “I’ve seen an infested man melt through the walls of something. Can you do that? Have you tried?”
“I haven’t before, but it’s something I’ve been told I can do now. Need to practice at some point, right? But I thought you just said no.”
“What I said was not to burn the place down.” Imogen cocks her pistol and levels it at the door to cover the site of the potential hole.
“Aye, but I meant acid burn.”
“Lad, the factory is on fire. How was I supposed to know you meant that?”
“It’s not really the time to quibble over words, Sister,” Aiden admonishes her, pushing back his sleeves.
“Lilly’s been blown up! I need whatever medical supplies are in that room!”
Aiden asks if Booker is dead, and Imogen tells him the reaper is a stain on the floor. “Ach, well, that’s why you hire mercenaries.”
“Hire a mercenary?” Imogen asks, confused.
“Aye. You hired her as a mercenary to help with the rescue operation, right?” He rolls his wrists and extends his arms, but the two siblings continue sniping at each other.
“That’s not what happened at all! Uncle called and said you were in trouble and that I had to come home.”
“Aye. So you hired a mercenary to help. You did the right thing. It’s unfortunate that she died. I’m not saying she deserved it; she was very nice. But that is what you hire mercenaries for.”
“Lilly’s my roommate!”
“Stand back!” Aiden braces himself, arms out, and… nothing happens. “I don’t have a good sense of what’s going on…” he mutters. “Sorry, can you look away for a second? This is kind of… awkward.”
“Afraid you’re not going to be able to fire?” Imogen asks with a smirk, but she lowers her gun and turns away.
“Again! This is very uncalled for! From my own sister, no less…” he grumbles.
Imogen hears a spraying sound and the impact of liquid on metal. She turns back around and watches acid eat away at the door. Through the hole, they can see the back of the cabinet that Marshall pushed against the door. Around its edge, he is visible, cowering in the corner, but Jan has a pistol ready. Imogen evaluates the situation. She and Aiden could try pushing the cabinet over, but they would expose themselves to attack. Firing in at the pirates through the hole would be tricky. But maybe there is no need for that… Imogen makes an offer. “Your factory’s burning down around you. Not only did I bring an insider for the job, but we’ve allied with the local zerg. The game’s up. Just surrender now, and we’ll let you live. Probably the zerg will let you go uninfested.”
Marshall is not keen to accept. “No. No! You’re not taking me alive!” He brings his pistol up, but rather than firing off shots at the Owendohers, he places it against his own head.
Splattered with remnants of her partner, Jan is more willing to deal. “Look, I’m just a lackey here! Just let me go. I don’t want to mess with anyone, I just want to get out of here! I didn’t have any choice. It was this or be resocialized into the Dominion military. I didn’t want that. Please, don’t sell me to the zerg!”
Imogen looks to Aiden. He has no personal qualm with Jan, so Imogen tells the pirate their terms. She is free to go, provided she tells Imogen how to send a mayday call to Jackson’s Revenge and also gives up any communication devices she has. Imogen does not want the pirate leader getting any information about what has actually happened on Jarban Minor. Normally, there are codes required for messages between the pirates, but maydays are just beacons sent on a specific frequency. The battlecruiser is in-system, and Jan’s estimate on response time is about an hour, once the signal is sent. Based on what Jan has described, Imogen figures it is better to just transmit the message from the factory, rather than try to reprogram it into Saffron’s computers.
Aiden takes Jan’s gun and escorts the pirate out of the factory to go take her chances in the wilds. Imogen stays behind, far more concerned with finding something to help Lilly. She tears apart the room. It is disappointingly small, more a closet than a medical bay. From the looks of things, it was not well-stocked to begin with, and whatever was here was either ruined in the crash or consumed by pirates treating injuries from it.