Chapter 12 - Spade
"OPEN FIRE!"
A wall of bodies met a line of waiting guns, Scasers thumping loudly as their red rounds zipped through the air, repeaters unleashing metal hell from fortified positions. Slaves crumbled and fell under the attack, their bodies punctured and half melting, slamming to the floor and tumbling down the Freighter's ramp.
The distinctive metallic clank and thump of the nail drivers rang loudest, punching through multiple invaders at a time, often sending them skidding backwards from sheer force.
"Oh please. Really. Nail-guns?" Moltezz smirked, standing tall amongst her horde as they charged past her. Her senses focused. Her hand shot up and snatched a "nail" out of the air with a satisfying clap, it was on point to impact her chest.
"Unacceptable." Her eyes narrowed, the meter long nail clasped tightly in her fist surged with heat, glowing bright orange from tip to head. She reeled back and hurled it forward like a javelin, directly skewering one of the defenders and completely decimating them, their crudely built cover falling to pieces as the red hot metal punched straight through it.
"I'll take her out! Keep them off me!" One of the mech pilots called out, pushing his mech forward through the wave of incoming bodies, the huge rock drill on its right arm began to swat back and forth, carving through the flesh in front of it with grisly efficacy, but the swarm suddenly parted and avoided the mech, like a river around a stone, leaving it a clear line of sight to Moltezz.
It advanced as fast as it could, stomping forward on its heavy triangular feet and opening fire with its nail driver.
PANG-PANG-PANG-PANG
The air around Moltezz grew dark and heavy, forming a pitch black ashen shield that halted the nails, their metal bodies barely able to penetrate through its sudden, rocky density. She advanced confidently with her full body ashen shield, walking forward to meet the mech in close quarters. All around them, Slave's were being cut to pieces by gun fire, stray limbs flying through the air, the conflict currently at an impasse.
Moltezz and the mech met in the middle of the fire-fight and the mech through its blood dripping drill towards her, the cloak of ash dropped to the ground and revealed her again, her forearm rising to meet the drill's body, just behind its spinning, jagged head. The mech hissed and pushed forward with all of its might, trying to crush her, but the alien stood defiant and firm, her muscles quivering slightly under her clothes but the metal body of the drill was beginning to creak and deform around her parry.
"Meek. My expectations were low and still, they have not been met." She scoffed, meeting eyes with the pilot through the thick tinted glass that protected him.
Her other fist glowed with blinding white and orange light, searing and brilliant. She threw it forward and it impacted the glass of the cockpit with a deafening crack, bleaching white noise and blinding light filled the hanger in a rippling shockwave.
Two smouldering yellow metal feet were half welded to the floor, bits of rock drill embedded in the wall more than one hundred meters behind them. Any exposed flesh from both the horde and the defenders had been half roasted by the heat flash.
The mech was gone. Scattered, melted, destroyed.
The defenders scrambled around, as did the horde, both levelled by the attack. The pain of their burnt skin was slowing them, some had even been blinded. But the horde was quicker, much quicker. They didn't care for the pain, and as long as one of them could see, they could all see.
The second mech turned to face Moltezz, its arms whirring as it brought its nail driver down at her, but her response was overwhelming. A clustered volley of fire bolts flung from her hands drowned the mechs frame in scorching orange fire. It's hydraulics bursting, circuits failing, pilot melting into his flaming chair.
It collapsed to the ground with a chest shaking thud, half liquefied by her volley, molten glass, metal and flaming oil oozing from its immolated carcass.
Only a couple of weapons were brought back to bear, the others were overwhelmed, their armaments dragged out of their hands. The heat coming off the flaming mech warmed the air too much and the fire suppression system kicked in, several small nozzles emerged from the ceiling and sprayed it down with white foam, dousing it to a blackened, unrecognisable slurry and preventing the hanger from burning up.
There were screams from across the hanger, rapidly muffling as the horde seized the last defenders. Most were still alive, if not badly burnt and wounded.
Moltezz turned her attention towards the far side doors, leading to the civilian hangers, where the evacuations were in progress. Her stride began as more Slaves and Nodes poured out of the freighter, heading into every door, vent and access way they could.
"Preserve the station. Pick it clean. Bring as many alive as you can."
*
Trent's foot bobbed anxiously as he waited by the airlock door, armed with a Vulcan rifle he'd looted from their ship, his face twitched slightly.
Moltezz is coming- repeatedly echoed through his head. The heat, the pain, the pleasure, it all came flooding back at the thought of her name alone. He hated that part of him wanted to go back to her. He wanted that part of him to die forever, but the more he pushed it down, the more immortal it felt.
His thought trail was swiftly derailed as the doors hissed open and revealed Oxyi and Geralt, both of whom wore an exhausted look and a hue of dismay heavily upon their slumped shoulders.
"A-any luck?" Trent asked quietly, peering behind them both briefly. Oxyi pushed past the fox, her eyes glassy and lip wobbling, leaving just Trent and Geralt in the airlock.
"Nothing. They've both just vanished into thin air and Plasia..." Geralt paused for a second to gather his composure. "... Venner says her guards fatally wounded her and the entire wings life support died a few minutes after her video footage ended. The chances she's still alive are..."
Trent ruffled his hair awkwardly and nodded. It all seemed to fall apart so fast. They both felt pulsing vibrations through the metal underfoot, buzzing through the airlock's connection to the station. They exchanged a knowing, sorrowful look.
Behind them, Oxyi yelled loudly to ensure she was heard, her voice stuttering repeatedly.
"W-we gotta go! now! That freighter has just docked and they're gonna be here, there is n-no more time!"
Both men made their way to the cockpit to see Oxyi sitting in one of the chairs, facing away from them, with little Tivy standing at her side, reaching up to hold one of her hands.
"I-I couldn't find him..." Her chest shuddered with each breath and tears rolled down her cheeks. "I'm just a failure... there's no other word for it."
"It's not your fault, Oxyi!" Tivy hopped on the spot, shuffling closer to her, feeling her own eyes beginning to sting. "Don't say that about yourself!"
The lioness thudded her head back against the seat and shook it vigorously in disagreement.
"I-it is though! I knew Venner was up to something at the beginning! I should have said something! I should have... I- It doesn't matter. We need to get the ship off the station. Now."
Tivy exchanged a hurt look with Oxyi for just a few endless seconds before sadly turning around and hopping up onto the pilots chair, gently pressing the correct arrangement of buttons to initiate the main engine start up.
Oddly, it did not start. It didn't even begin to.
Tivy tilted her head and stared at the control panel, pushing her tongue against her cheek.
She pressed the sequence again, more thoroughly this time, ensuring each button was firmly tapped but once again, the ship did not roar itself awake... Concern crept into the damaged crew as they saw Tivy's actions becoming more frantic, she hopped up onto the control panel from the chair and repeated the sequence once more, every button push was deliberate to ensure it's accuracy.
"What's going on, Tiv? We got a loose wire or something...?"
"W-we need to check the reactor! There's no ignition surge to the primary chambers!" Tivy spun around to address the men, her pupils like tiny dots in her eyes, her little body quaking as she stood on the controls.
Trent, Oxyi and Geralt stood and all made their way silently through the bowels of the ship to the lowest deck, nothing but the clanking of their boots on the metalwork and the various paces of their anxiety-stricken breath to fill their ears, the engine would usually be humming loudly by now, but it was silent, just creaking slightly from behind its armoured door.
Trent approached the door first, letting it slide open and reveal its inner workings, his breath silent as anxiety crept through his chest.
"Tivy! It looks like its been ransacked!" The three gawked around the room. Various chunks of intricate machinery had been torn out, leaving it gutted and stuttering, sparking wires and unresponsive hissing panels were one thing, but a sudden splitting *CLANK* made the three of them jump backwards, staring around the damaged reactor with increasing concern for their safety.
"I-is it fixable? Can we just undock from the station at least?!?" Trent felt increasingly small as the situation progressed, behind them, a scuttling noise revealed Tivy as she came bounding down the corridor, skidding to a stop in the middle of the room.
Her body physically stuttered, mimicking the conflict in her head. She alternated rapidly between looking at the door and glancing around the ruined reactor. They all noticed a couple of small blue drips on the floor in the middle of the room and together, they began to understand what exactly had happened.
"Tivy?!"
"W-we gotta get off the ship!" Her eyes focused briefly on a panel on the other side of the room, the gauges on it were anything but encouraging.
"We can't! We're one of the last ships docked and the freighter has landed! There's no way we can find another ride! Can't we just plug those wires together or something? Just get enough power to undock?"
"NO! You want to die slowly in a metal box?!? We'll die from an overload before Moltezz! W-we... Maybe we can - I... T-that!" Tivy's eyes spotted something, and she jerked towards it, the others following her closely. "I-I need tools! I might be able to use the charge in this surge capacitor to-"
Her words were cut short by a thud coming from upstairs, the distinctive hiss of the airlocks opening and closing...
They all stared at each-other in silence, Oxyi and Trent instinctively reaching for their weapons.
"Tivy, can you and Geralt make a start on your plan? Remember, we just need to undock and get away from the station, even if it's just a few meters, we can radio for pick-up if we're lucky... Trent, you come with me." Oxyi pointed at the ceiling. "Let's hope this is a friend; but if it's not, I might need your back-up."
The team split into pairs as Oxyi asked, leaving Tivy and Geralt to attempt to salvage some power from the wrecked reactor, just enough to break their connection to the station.
Oxyi brought her shotgun up to her shoulder and took the lead, with Trent a few paces behind her, mimicking her stance with the Vulcan rifle. Exiting the lowest deck, they cautiously paced down the corridor into the main deck of the ship, their ears twitching as they listened closely for noise.
There were multiple sets of quiet footsteps through-out the ship.
