Crisis module activated.
Elevated voice detected, enhancing profile. Assistance may be required. Processing:
*zzzt* "LESS THAN A WEEK SINCE MOOKI WAS CORRUPTED" *zzzt*
Detected south of your current position, approximately two-hundred and fifty metres. According to station schematics, this area is designated as the emergency lifeboat bay. Voice profile matches that of XITD station head administrator - Evangeline Caizer.
No further voices detected in the vicinity.
Theo hushed the AI operator with a quick tap on his gauntlet. He paused and stared around the remnants of Evangeliene's office, taking it all in, trying to process what he'd just heard.
"Since what?"
Guilt chilled him to his bones. He rubbed his hands down his face, which was riddled with stress, and tried to keep calm. The gentle buzzing sound from the crisis module attached to his arm brought him out of his thoughts, and helped him focus his attention back to the rapidly deteriorating station around him. The melted corpses of XITD guards were visible in any and every direction he looked, their scale armour reduced to a molten slush of silver.
He swiped at the display on his gauntlet until he found Jace's name, and hit 'connect.' A loading screen flashed up for a few seconds, but then promptly flashed orange, sending bristles of adrenaline through the rhargnorn's scales.
"Fuck. This is bad."
He tapped again, trying to reach anyone he could on the local lines now, but a new flicker of red across the holoscreen confirmed that he was on his own.
Comms centre is down, it'll take at least two hours for my messages to reach him... SHIT! Guess I'm the only back-up coming!
"I gotta help anyone I can." He breathed in deeply, trying to keep calm, and quickly checked his environmental shield battery and armaments before stepping out of the office. His metal leg clomped against the floor, and the rubber of his other boot began to soften.
Every corridor he ran down yielded more of the same. His gauntlet blared with danger at every corner. Sealed doors were glowing amber with heat, prompting a warning of imminent death should his shield fail. It was a blessing in a way though; no one could survive in a room that hot, so there was no need to check and risk a hit on his shields.
Several corridors were blocked off by a series of bouncing flaming bolts, forming a weird but effective barricade; Theo's gauntlet kindly reminded him with every one that even a single one of these bolts would drain a significant amount of envirashield, and hitting zero meant almost certain death. Even for a rhargnorn like Theo, inhaling air over three hundred degrees was suicide.
He pressed on down the only corridors he could, which seemed to be leading him quite purposely across the top of the station. All he found along the way was more death and destruction; multiple pairs of boots welded to the floor, some with their owners still inside, and others who hadn't quite been so lucky, and had welded with the floor around them. Some of the bodies appeared a little more intact, with no apparent cause of death. From the temperature his gauntlet was detecting in the area, Theo's best guess was that these people had suffocated on the scorched air filling their lungs.
Not usually one to be fazed by 'collateral damage,' Theo couldn't help but fear for his safety at the clear demonstration of strength from the attackers, and the safety of anyone else left alive. After not too long, a new type of warning flashed up on his gauntlet:
Environmental shields at seventy-five percent, please remain vigilant.
The carnage seemed unending as yet another explosion shook the station, but he couldn't help but notice the sudden change in carnage ahead of him. He was approaching the entrance to the E-Labs, but the door had been cut through by a laser rather than melted off, breached cleanly into an oversized rectangle that was much larger than any typical XITD staff. Brandishing his pistol, he stepped carefully through the hole, cautiously looking down the curving corridor which all the E-Labs were currently docked into. The corridor flashed with bright crimson light from the alarms, but otherwise seemed still and - curiously - untouched by the damage that had permeated the rest of the station.
Slowly, he made his way down the corridor, passing by the entrances to each E-lab, starting at E-30.
Weird, my envirashield isn't being drained here... whoever's attacked the station seems to have spared this place.
There was no sign of life so far but, not one to be put off, Theo continued on his way.
There must be someone around here, this feels too precise. Every other room melted to a sludge but this place is just sitting pretty?
After walking for what felt like forever, but can't have been for longer than a minute, he noticed among the line of tightly secured E-Labs that one had its door wide open. He slowed down slightly as he approached, and noted the number E-16 on its side.
Although the open door may have been what Theo noticed first, it wasn't what held his attention. He stared in disbelief and a little bit of disgust at what appeared to be a severed head with spider legs, standing on a rolling shelf outside of the doors.
"What the actual fuck is that?!" He blurted out, squinting at it.
The Slave head spun around on its legs and looked up at Theo. He raised his pistol and made to shoot the damn thing, but a voice called out to him from within the lab, and he froze.
"Theo?! Is that you?!"
He didn't recognise the voice, but whoever it was clearly knew him. Cautiously, he crept closer, maintaining eye contact with the Slave head and staring at it with an increasing disgust, but it did little other than just watch him right back.
The corridor yielded little, and his gauntlet advised Theo of a heat signature coming from within E-16.
He approached the open door, weapon drawn and held an arm's length away. He turned the corner and quickly scanned the lab's interior; it was mostly intact, but seemed hastily abandoned. Papers and various bits of equipment were scattered about the floor. As he examined the room, his gaze came to rest on a figure, tucked away at the back of the lab; a large draconic woman, who was restrained on top of a surgical table by several thick metal brackets around her limbs and neck. Her skin was a deep cosmic blue, as was her hair, which was currently messy and splayed out underneath her. She also had a beautiful pair of wings, which were bundled up and restrained, just like the rest of her.
She stared over at him with large midnight eyes, swirling with purples and blues and surrounded by black sclera. They slowly began to tear up as the rhargnorn stared at who he believed to be a complete stranger.
"T-Theo?"
"Miss...? I'm trying to help with the evacuation of this station. You're under siege. Can you explain why you're restrained in this lab...?" Theo asked softly but cautiously, casting a glance over his shoulder.
"Y-You don't recognise me at all....?!" The girl broke into a quiet cry, and let her head thump back against the metal behind her. "W-What have they done to me?!"
"Should I know you, Miss?" Theo took a few slow steps forward and looked over her body for injuries. A slight, uncomfortable shiver ran up his spine as he realised she was naked.
"I-I made you the sweetest hot-chocolate you've ever had... A-And you saved my head from the evil shelving in my office..."
Theo's heart nearly stopped in his chest.
"Mooki?!"
"Y-Yup!" She fought back the tears in her eyes, forcing a smile onto her pretty face. "I think?"
"What happened?! Why do you look like this?!"
Another explosion shook the station, taking both the dragons by surprise. Mooki squealed as the table rocked.
"I-I don't know, Theo! I just - I'm so glad to see you, I thought I was going to die in this lab! As soon as the attack started, the researchers just abandoned me, left to die here, alone I suppose..." She sniffled again, watching him closely, desperately with her large eyes.
He visibly shuddered at her words, and shook his head furiously.
"Oh, like hell are you dying alone in here! Let's get you out, did they hurt you?"
"Y-Yeah, they were sticking things in me, scanning me! They wouldn't tell me what's wrong!"
Theo holstered his weapon and marched across the room, still silently processing the situation as he searched to release her bindings.
"I overheard Evangeline say that you've been corrupted. I don't know much about what that means, Jace has had me busy with the nomad colonies, but I swear to Chance, Mooki, we'll put this right." He said firmly, poking at the various controls on the table.
The restraints suddenly opened with a loud clack and Theo turned to find a spare medical gown for her. As she sat up, feeling her wrists awkwardly, Theo dropped his gaze quickly to the floor.
"Can you walk?"
"I - I think so."
She pulled the gown over her curvaceous form, hunching over as she placed a foot onto the ground, then yelped loudly in pain as she rolled her weight onto it.
"Oh shit, here, let me help!"
He ran over and put an arm around her back to support her, but suddenly, something felt wrong.
The moment his skin made contact with hers, something changed in him. The scales on the back of his neck bristled, and his every instinct was screaming at him to run. He felt an abstract sense of extreme danger, every nerve ending in his skin tensed with anticipation, like he'd just taken hold of a live bomb.
Mooki straightened herself out, putting her weight onto her feet slowly. The size difference between them became suddenly and readily apparent as Mooki stood up straight, towering over the rhargnorn. Her wing restraints clattered loudly to the floor as she stretched them out, and touched both sides of the lab with ease...
"Y-You seem... fine... Mooki." Theo remarked nervously, his heart thumping in his chest. His free hand began to drift towards his pistol.
The dragoness stared down at him, unimpressed.
