Chapter 3 - Hold them close
Continuing on the freighter -- three days prior to current day
The electric crackling around his power fist was dying, the arcing current was fading and leaving him with only the physical weight and retractable blades held within the armoured gauntlet. All around, he could hear the rumble of the horde, down ever dark corridor, every direction.
Reactor was holding steady, his armour had plenty of strength left in its synthetic muscles and it proved that when a Slave leapt at him from behind. Spinning on the spot he thrust his power fist out and a pair of scissor like retractable blades erupted from it, skewering the Slave with two sizeable metal blades through the neck.
He retracted the blades and pulled his fist back in one smooth motion, causing the aggressor to drop to floor, blood pooling beneath it and dripping through the floor grating. His radio played nothing but static as he ran through the corridor after corridor. The mission had changed, there was no one left to save, no one left to defend. The minutes proceeding this had etched into his brain, the sound of metal being ripped apart, creaking, groaning, like the ship itself was crying out in pain.
He needed to focus, the squad was gone, surgically decimated one at a time. He watched the horde suddenly surge forward, flowing like a river down the steel corridors and push Zaunder off his feet, they brought power tools looted from the techies quarters, empty eyes, hungry hands and buzzing saw blades were brought to bear, cutting his armour to pieces with him still in it.
He saw the larger Nodes gang up and take down his left hand man, Dennis. They whipped at him with bright purple energy whips, restraining him whilst another one ran up behind and pulled his helm off with her bare hands, ripping through the clasps with sustained effort, he lasted seconds after that at most.
The last squad member, Arga, was gunned down by his squads own weapons, looted from the fallen guard and used by the Nodes. No matter what move they made, the intruders had an answer, working together like perfect clockwork. He'd never seen people move in such a manner, it was like a greater hive-mind was moving the pieces from above.
What worried him more now though, was that he wasn't being pursued by the horde any further. He was back on the lower deck where the fighting was most intense and now, there wasn't a soul to be seen from either side. Corpses had been removed already, leaving on bloody marks and bullet holes in the wrecked innards of the ship. Yet aside from the occasional roaming Slave, the wall of hungry faces he'd seen taking his squad to pieces was no where to be seen.
He paused for a few seconds, checking his ammo and status, leaning against one of the bloody walls as he did so.
I'm not letting this beat me. I can still make it out. I deserve that at least.
His break was cut short as something grabbed his attention suddenly. This corridor was ran the half the length of the ship and he was able to see more than a kilometre unobstructed, down the far end of the corridor, it looked like someone was shining two flash-lights at him... Two bright, level orbs were briefly visible for a moment, he couldn't make out anything else, the lights were mostly dimmed and the sweat accumulating on the inside of his helm reduced his visibility a little, but despite the slightly blurry sight, he knew what he saw.
I've got no time for light signals. You're on your own. If I can make it to the techie's den, I can get out via a maintenance exit but i'll have to ditch the armor, or I can try my chances at the hanger and keep my protection... I'll go wherever the resistance is weakest. Hanger first I think, I don't want to ditch this gear on this planet if I can avoid it...
He got his sense of direction back and figured out the route to the hanger, sticking to the narrow maintenance tunnels to avoid where he thought the horde may be, since the rest of the ship had fallen, he had lost access to the live feeds, so he had to rely on his senses alone to guide him.
The first few minutes were quiet, aside from the occasional groan of the ships piping or a distant scream. But again, the horde was nowhere to be seen. He felt a pit in his stomach though, something was stalking him, he was sure.
He was under the main corridor leading to the ships hanger and would now need to exit through one of the hatches as the hanger wasn't directly accessible from here. As he went to climb the metal ladder bolted into the wall however, he heard thumping, exactly the same as what Romeo broadcast before he went dark.
It was loud and heavy, but fast this time, approaching towards him rapidly. He guessed it was in the main corridor above but had no way of knowing if whatever it was knew he was in the tunnel below. He held still, knowing he was defenceless within this tight shaft and waited.
The thumping approached quickly, louder and louder, but as it sounded directly above him, it carried on, likely into the hanger he was planning on going to. A quick ammo check on his helm advised him he had three magazines left for his main rifle and decided to take his chances, waiting a few seconds before ascending the ladder.
Pushing the thick metal hatch open slowly, he ascended up and found the corridor quiet once more, curiously, there was yet more thick black goo coating the walls in certain spots, it looked fresh this time. Rifle raised and ready to fire, he approached the blast doors that cut him off from the back rooms of the hanger and pressed on the panel to open them up.
They hissed open and parted slowly, revealing yet another conflict stained but otherwise empty room, the room was somewhat open with a set of workbenches in the middle and some cargo crates on the far side, the edges of the room were lined with empty tool racks but otherwise, the room seemed clear.
He took a step through the doors and listened closely, watching every door with baited breath. As he surveyed the room, black fluid dripped onto his shoulder and helm from above, trickling down his plating and staining it. Thinking quickly, he aimed his rifle high and fired several rounds directly up, not taking any chances with something ambushing him from above.
Ceiling tiles and piping fell from above, crumbling to the floor and he took a moment to glance up, seeing nothing but a black stain and several gaping bullet holes.
They must know I'm here... where the hell are they?! Fuck it, i'm charging straight for the hang-
A huge black hand erupted from the floor and grabbed his thigh strongly but unlike before, it pushed him up and from the sudden hole in the floor emerged a massive Czarite, rising from the ground and picking the guard captain up with ease, throwing him off his feet and directly into the wall behind him, his rifle shaken loose from his grip by the force of the assault.
He rose to his feet, deploying his arm blades and charging forward, fist met fist with a shuddering impact and the blades punctured right through the alien's hand but she appeared completely unphased. His attention was brought to the monstrosity as she stared intently at him with unblinking, spotlight eyes.
She was a towering, murky obelisk of a creature, well built with muscle that lined her dark, super curvaceous figure. Oily umber coloured skin coated her monstrous form and was broken up at her shoulders and neck with thick charcoal carapace. Although somewhat dwarfed by her mountainous sexual assets, her limbs were powerful and solid with highly tort muscle. From her back protruded a set of six, thick identical tentacles, constantly oozing with viscous tar-like fluid that stained everything it touched. Her carapace was limited to her neck, shoulders, head and hips, with massive curved spikes on her shoulders that sat like a demonic throne.
Eyes like two amber spotlights were bright with malicious intellect and intent, glaring down with an unblinking death stare. A single faintly glowing amber jewel sat within the crown of carapace on her head, centred squarely in the middle of her forehead, like a third eye. Large violet jelly dreadlocks erupted from the back of her head, glimmering faintly from the silver specks contain within them. Thick glossy black lips with a menacing set of large, bone crunching teeth sat behind them gave her spotlight like eyes and pretty golden freckles a twisted, unique appearance.
He went through a variety of emotions as he took in her details, from stultifying fear to creeping realisation.
"L-lamp...? Is that you?!"
Her smile grew wider and she twisted her arm that was currently locked against the guard captains blades, the metal snapped cleanly and one of her tentacles pulled the blades free from her skin in a smooth motion, deep brown goo oozing from the wound but rapidly stopping after only a few seconds.
"Captain."
"W-what happened to you?!? Y-you're huge!"
"You should be more focused on what's about to happen to you." She shunted him backwards with tremendous force, throwing him across the room and slamming back first into a empty rack. Before he had a chance to stand, she was upon him again, tentacles wrapping around his limbs and binding them tightly.
"L-lamp! We can talk about this!"
"I'm sure we could, Captain. We could talk. We could do a lot of things here couldn't we?" Her eyes remained fixed on him, staring into his own even those his helm should have prevented her from seeing his.
She placed a large hand on his helm and danced her fingers over the metal, her claws etching into the plating as she did so.
"Lamp! We can-"
"I'm going to rip you out of that armour, Captain. Then i'm going to tear you into pieces, slowly."
Before he could respond, she slammed him into the wall again, knocking the air out of him and letting him fall to the floor. He went to roll away but she pounced on his back and began to forcibly rip sections of his armour away. He tried to fight back but her strength was overwhelming, his limbs were locked down and the sound of her hands getting closer to his body as they burrowed through the metal shook him to his very core.
He felt air on his back as his skin was exposed, the seal has been broken, she became more ravenous as the sound of screeching metal and hissing circuits filled the room, with a sudden motion, he felt her hands on his back and shoulders and she yanked him half way out of the armour, his limbs getting somewhat caught as he held onto the internals with all the might he had but it wasn't enough, she gripped his limbs tightly and pulled hard again, freeing him from his protection entirely, his skin and fur somewhat cut up in the process.
She bound him once more and pinned him to the wall, holding him up to her impressive height.
She was growling with every breath she took, a snarl escaping her lips as she stared as it quivering form.
"Good fucking god, look at you!" The familiar voice of Leech called out from the hanger from behind the pair, staring at the massive Czarite with awe. "Absolutely gorgeous! Oh we're gonna have some fun later... Is this the douche-bag in charge of the guards?" She approached quickly, eyes darting between Lamp and the guard captain.
"Yes. Yes it is. I'm going to pull his limbs off and watch him bleed to death." The smile simply would not leave her face as she spoke.
"That sounds fun but I have a better idea, you want this guy to suffer, right?"
The guard captain remained motionless, watching the two huge aliens in bewilderment and horror as they discussed his fate.
"I do, more than anything." Lamp replied, licking her teeth and lips.
"Then don't just tear his limbs off. Start at the base and work your way up. That's all good nerve real estate that's ripe for inflicting pain, you tear the limb off immediately and you're just losing out. Make sure you lock down the wound too once you've finished with his limb or he'll bleed out before you can get to the others." She paused for a second, looking closely at the tentacles binding the man's limbs. "These tentacles have hydraulic action?"
Lamp nodded, listening to Leech carefully.
"Then you could use those to prevent him bleeding out in a pinch. Every inch of skin is 1000 odd nerve endings you can squeeze suffering out of. Flay the fucker."
"YOU CAN'T JUST LEAVE ME WITH HER?!? PLEASE?!" The captain looked at Leech desperately, pleading with her to do something, apparently not paying too much attention to the on-going conversation.
