The railguns Ascension had equipped it's current front-line troops with were primitive by its usual standards. A set of four magnetic rails with the interior exposed to air; or vacuum in this case; a magazine that would need to be manually retracted to fire each projectile; they were the only weapon it was able to make 14 off that could actually penetrate the powered armor of Republic troops with the time and resources at hand. These armor suits might be pathetic compared to a tank, or a vehicle, or anything that any sane government would have invested the time and expense of such armor-plating on, but against simple chemical propellants it was more than adequate.

When the airlock door was forced open, and the enemy crew were forcibly pulled out by the sudden onrushing gas, they remained surprisingly composed.

Some of them already had helmets on, and immediately pulled out short-ranged energy weapons; laser-pistols, essentially, that would sweep a target with high-intensity visible light, melting a victim and usually igniting them in atmosphere; or melting holes in space-suits.

When the shots hit the lightly armored Pale Ones, little happened; despite massive gaping holes appearing in torsos; most of the shots hit center of mass; the walking corpses kept coming; each firing as part of the initial volley... which cleared out everyone who had a helmet on in the engineering compartment. As the Pale Ones moved outward on the deck, followed immediately by the faster, more precise, humanoid machines Ascension was so well-known for back home, it rapidly slew most of its targets with precise railgun rounds through the head or torso. 'First Shift' as it were, the senior crew, were all on-duty and it would be a few minutes before the sleeping second shift crew were awake, armed, and ready to fight; by which point the ship would be secure.

When the closet-sized ship's armory was hacked open by breaking its encryption, the machines encountered a momentary surprise; a Marrick marine was waiting, and fired a short-ranged plasma weapon in an arc even as the door opened; and while he died, the flamethrower-like device burned out three of the Pale Ones at once, and melted many of the exterior sensors and joints on the unit that took the killshot on the marine..

This discovery wasn't just an unpleasant surprise as to the capabilities of Republic weapons; but also of the competence of their troops. Ascension completely owned the 8AD's surveillance systems; this soldier had clearly ensured he didn't appear on them, as the ship's systems had assured Ascension this space was empty; just containing superior weapons to the railguns to make sweeping the ship easier.

Less than one minute after contact, the ship was secured. The surviving nine crew; and a single civilian guest, the former Marrick prisoner known as 'Charis'; were trapped in the quarters section of the ship, locked into their individual or group berths. The only significant exterior damage was to the bridge; and Ascension was actively sweeping the decks for more hiding troops, scanning crawlspaces, crates; making sure that there were no more surprises.

***

As Jason entered the bridge... through a hole he had made in it, apparently, able to see not just the tiny gap from where the bullet had entered, but one he could actually crawl through as an exit.... one of the machines was waiting. Ascension hadn't bothered with the usual deep red paintjob; but it had still managed to take the time to paint a hammer and sickle on the tall, slender machine; armed with a rifle-like railgun in one arm, and some sort of bulky, rounded handgun in the other that was clearly a scavenged Republic weapon.

It gave a short nod. ~The ship is secure. I will be patching the holes you made and re-pressurizing soon, as well as moving available raw materials into cargo.~

Jason settled into place; letting the magnets seal to the floor. "How long exactly til we can re-pressurize and turn the gravity back on? We've got a fair amount of leeway before the next stage of the plan, but I don't want to pull it too close."

The machine started walking away; and crawling out of the hole in the hull. Jason could see something being attached on the outside, and the light of, most likely, something being welded into place, even as the machine responded. ~While three doors, including the armory door and one airlock, are damaged, the only exterior hull damage is here, in the bridge. I will be restoring internal atmosphere in three minutes, and gravity as soon as I've swept the ship completely; five minutes and seven seconds before I have scanned every possible hiding place. In Five minutes and one second I will have prepared the ship completely and we will be ready to be underway. Notably, while removing the captain was tactically sound, it was completely unneeded; these enemies, while competent, did not at all expect ambush of this caliber.~

He gave a nod. "Not too bad then. Any prisoners, or all dead?"

The light from outside was gone; and Jason spotted a momentary flicker from the opposite end; the entry point of the bullet. ~Nine prisoners so far. One of the crew was hidden from internal sensors, and I am placing my own sensors as I sweep, as well as ensuring I get eyes on every single possible spot. It is possible, but unlikely, we may have more.~

"Keep going, then. Once this is all set, we'll be heading in-system to give a shot at stealing that Neutronium. I'm gonna need you to build me a piloting station before that."

~Mostly complete. In the event the bridge was heavily damaged during the takeover, I built a secondary command and control facility while waiting for your arrival. It is currently embedded in the starboard airlock.~

Jason shook his head, looking at the bloody mess on the bridge; both the Captain he'd removed, and the two crewmen who Ascension had slain, likely seconds later. Even knowing these were a bunch of xenocidal lunatics, it still felt a bit bad to clean them out like this when they'd been so friendly.

He walked up to the security console, tapping a few buttons, bringing up a display of the survivors. Essentially the second-shift crew; people who ran the ship while the captain was asleep. A pilot, a Tier-one Marrick watch officer who would be in command until the captain was ready to take over again. A few security. Two engineers; one of them, Lert, he recognized. Two... janitors? They actually had space-janitors. Two on second-shift, one on the first, to clean the place; apparently most of the cleaning got done while the captain was asleep.

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And Charis. A cute, attractive... drug dealer. He'd almost considered her to be an innocent victim in all this, just some victim paraded around in scanty clothes to appease high-class prisoners, before remembering she was in it for selling potentially deadly drugs to lower-tier citizens.

Their smaller, personal comm-units had been taken out, but now that the extradimensional probe was no longer siphoning off all the ship's power, the internal ones still worked. If he re-enabled them, they could talk; and he could already give them a message any time. Jason tapped a few buttons, preparing to open up a ship-wide channel.

The security display showed four images; one of the three security officers and the pilot, in their own small bunk-room; all armed, staring at the door. Their handheld laser weapons weren't able to melt through the door, but were still dangerous enough.

The next showed Charis, in her own small private quarters. She was in a skintight vacuum suit, though her room still had atmosphere, curled up in a fetal position with her magnetic boots on the floor.

The third showed the two ship's janitors, both huddled together; they wore vacuum suits as well, only in the teal and black of the Republic navy, watching the door. Unarmed as well.

The final image showed Lert, in a light power-armored suit, in his room with an unconscious, vacuum-suited fellow engineer... currently trying to piece together a device of some sort. Jason chuckled, shutting off the ship-wide channel before it could start, and opening a private one to Lert's room.

"Hey, Four-eyes. I can see you. Stop that before I have to stop you. I'm impressed, and you may well make it out of this alive, but not if I have to kill you before you can make a call."

The green-skinned alien looked up at the security camera, raising a device towards it; not a gun, he lacked one apparently... but stopped. ~...Jason Bennet? You're the one who took the ship? How did you crack the security system?~

"Easy enough. This Republic might have some very nice shields, and a few gadgets I've never seen or heard of before, but by and large they're a primitive lot. Especially when it comes to sensors, and computers. I can fake being your Captain for them without much effort, but it's honestly easier to just make all the passwords and requirements keyed to myself instead."

Lert lowered the device, staring at the camera for a moment. "...Primitive? But... our computers are Founder technology! Built by the pinnacle of all species, the original creators of us all, with the most advanced technology!"

Jason looked around the bridge. The Republic released new versions of things sometimes; they weren't above appropriating alien technology, or adjusting their equipment to ensure they weren't overwhelmed. But the datastore that scanned him and was faked into believing he was a Tier Zero creature had contained files thousands of years old, that could be used to build almost everything in the ship. It was fairly clear that a reverence for things built by the Founders was holding these people back.

"The Founders are... a primitive, backwards, superstitious lot of mass-murdering idiots. Just because technology is ancient doesn't mean its amazing or advanced. In competent species, technology continues to advance over time, especially when you have as much war to learn from as the Republic does. And where the hell are they anyway? Supposedly they're still around, why are the Marrick the ones running the Republic?"

Lert looked somewhere between alarmed and confused, and Jason signed. "Forget all that. If you don't stop building whatever that is; I suspect a communications device, maybe a hacking tool of some sort; I'll have to kill you. Put it away. I've got a bit of a speech for the whole crew."

Lert slowly lowered the device... and slid open a drawer, placing it inside, leaving his hands conspicuously visible as the drawer sealed itself.

Jason nodded; and set the panel for a shipyard broadcast. "Hello there, prisoners! My name is Jason Bennet, and I've been called many things over the years; Eyeball, Titanslayer, murderer, psychopath... and right now, captain of this ship, with its previous one dead. I can see a good blend of Tier One and Two survivors among you, so lets be clear..."

He chuckled. "I'm not a Tier Zero. I'm also probably not a Tier Two either, my brain structure doesn't resemble yours at all; I'm from another galaxy, and fooled the primitive local technology into thinking I was Tier Zero. When I came into this solar system, I brought with me a giant chunk of Neutronium, after a battle with a creature that could have singlehandedly conquered this entire galaxy. I'm going to be grabbing it, and then getting the hell out of here. If any of you lot genuinely believe that these 'Founders' of yours are the master race, and 'Tier Three' creatures like me are worthless inferiors, good for nothing but death and slavery.... I'll leave you behind. Your friends will surely find you soon enough. I plan to head out there and choose one of the many nations you call the 'Swarm' and help them fight the lunatics running the Republic. Considering I've got substantially better technology than they do... I suspect I can make quite a difference. If you're willing to help with that... you're free to come along. If not... I'll be leaving you behind when I exit the system."

He disabled the channel. The reaction in each of the four rooms was dramatically different, but he was distracted from the view for a few seconds. A Pale One entered the bridge; Jason studied it for a moment; it was a suit of Republic armor, with a hole cleanly through the torso; and a controller embedded directly in the hole. The corpse was moving about, grabbing floating debris, cleaning, preparing for...

There it was. Gravity turned back on. He sighed, and deactivated the magnets in his boots. His helmet was notifying him that the atmosphere on the bridge was now a comfortable temperature and composition; but he'd leave the helmet on for now. Time to go back to being Eyeball for a while.

Back on the monitors, Lert looked confused. Uncertain. The security team and second shift pilot had started to work on the bunkroom door, trying to break it open with prybars; one was trying to turn his laser pistol into an improvised explosive. The Janitors were just speaking quietly, trying to decide what to do... and Charis just kept rocking herself back and forth on the floor.

The door to the bunkroom suddenly jerked open; the laser-pistols apparently had a 'Stun' setting, conveying a disabling burst of electricity at short range; and the door itself had been hit by it, causing the two men trying to break open the door to fall limp; and two more shots had disabled the others. The clean grey metal machine glanced at the security monitor.

~These four don't seem inclined to accept your offer. What would you like to do with them?~

Jason sighed. "The Yogg corpses who you turned into pale ones. How did they die?"

~Some via suicide. Others via lack of air. One of them, the youngest, died of dehydration, after his companions gave him their own backup air tanks. It seems they voluntarily gave up their air in stages as they hoped for rescue, dying in groups.~

"... Are the Yogg still out there, fighting the Republic?"

~Only in the form of various bands of 'Pirates' sometimes raiding Republic worlds. All Yogg populations known by the Republic are on worlds owned by other species; mostly, it seems, as enslaved labor by the Republic itself.~

Jason nodded. Now that was a group he could admire. He should find out who was sheltering these people, wherever they were, and turn those Yogg into a real threat. "Something to keep an eye on. For now... let them die how the Yogg did. Take away any thruster fuel, comms devices, or beacons, and dump them out an airlock. Cripple the suits completely, just in case. If you can, make sure it's a trajectory that isn't likely to be spotted."

He smiled. "Hell. If you've enough to spare, put a controller in each of them, and a grenade. If they happen to be lucky enough to be found, they might get to die a bit faster, and take a few more of these monsters with them."