RP: The Fringe [Chapter 3.0] - Strangers in a Strange Land

Concordia Veil-Outside

Six Four let its finger off the trigger when it the conundrum that it had found. Granted it wanted to bathe the creature, who apparently had stolen something if Shire's calls were any sign. Keeping the weapon aimed Six Four walked out from underneath the ship, scanning the area for any sign of the robot, its initial fear replaced by purpose as it turned its whole body looking more like an automated defense robot than a doctor.

Shrie ran to the edge of the ship, seeing the robot being hit by the flames, not slowing too much though. "I am going down," she shouted at Six-Four to not get hit by more fire. Seeing that the flame was clearly not made from gas or liquid, but obviously something much worse and a lot more hot. Her suit offered protection, but it was ballistic protection. It could stop or slow a bullet or a knife, but not hot plasma. Shrie's mind also calculated, the top of the ship was pretty high up and normally it would not be much of a trouble, but there was almost twice the gravity. Still Shrie's body was highly augumented, her bones were extremely hard to break thanks to the metal that laced them. The joints would be trouble though.

There was no more time to think, as she reached the edge and jumpe forward. She wanted some forward velocity, as she traveled down the ground. She wanted to fall down into a roll so she would ease the fall.

Concordia Veil - Outside

As Shrie vaulted off of the ship, she plummeted toward the ground in a much steeper trajectory than she would have in standard gravity, but the extra forward momentum she gave herself made the difference between a painfully uncomfortable thud and a bone-shattering smash. Her joints strained under the shock, shooting intense waves of pain through her limbs as she rolled out of the fall and back onto her feet, unhappy but still mobile.

The liquid fire from Six Four's flamethrower dissipated, revealing black scorch marks and dwindling embers on the ground where the bluish grass was incinerated. Just past the end of the long black streak the spidery robot continued to flee, clinging tightly to the modest chunk of the hull it had cut away with a noticeable limp, constantly having to correct its course as it listed slightly to the right with every stride.

Shrie sighed and forced herself to get back up, her hurt knee hurting even more, but she bit a cry of pain and started moving again. Adrenalin was always there to help after all. Now the robot was limping and it had shorter legs then Shrie, on the other hand it had lots of them. The Fyunnen was relentless though as she started to run again, ready to recover the piece of hull as fast as possible. "Give back!" She shouted at the thing, in case it could actually understand her.

Concordia Veil - Outside

The Lorath, with her comparatively long stride, had little trouble catching up to the limping robot. When she reached for the stolen chunk of hull, however, the drone suddenly turned around, its red eye glowing a steady, threatening bright red. One of the flexible, hose-like clawed arms set on the front of its dome lashed out like a whip, telescoping forward and wrapping itself firmly around her wrist. It tightened with crushing force, and had her bones not been reinforced, the grip would have easily shattered the bones in her forearm.

Quickly, one of the drone's legs lifted up in a threatening pose, aiming at Shrie's heart, and stabbed forward, intent on killing its attacker. The Fyunnen swayed to the side, narrowly avoiding being impaled, but the jagged leg scraped across the flesh on her chest, cutting her open.

Concordia Veil - Outside


Six Four spotted robot as well as Shrie trying to pursue it. In the doctors mindset it would of behooved the pair to let the being run off with the small part of the ship and then chase it down when the others got back. However, logic did not win out the day in Six Four's opinion, and now a crew member was stuck and about to get de-lifed by the thing. Moving as fast as it could, the doctor got within plasma spreading range and leveled its weapon at the hostile being once again.

"Stern Request: Release the Fyunnen and drop whatever it is, that one was chasing you for. This one does not like to resort to violence but will have to if necessary."

Shrie gritted her teeth as she felt pain. Pain was a good feeling though, it meant that one was alive. Shrie went through a lot of pain in her time. The monster bot attacking was a bit of a surprise, well not a surprise, but it was simply too fast. The gravity slowed Shrie down too. But Gravity worked both ways. Shrie focused to overcome the pain from the cut and her forearm and moved closer. Her free hand ready to catch or black the claw hand, of course in a way to not get cut away. With that getting back into the combat and ignoring Six-Four due to adrenalin in Shrie's weins. The tall lorath moved forward and stomped at the robots sensor array, aka what one could call 'head'.

Concordia Veil - Outside

There was a loud clang as Shrie's boot connected with the drone's body, and immediately its powerful grip on her forearm released as the arachnid construct staggered backwards a step. The red light on its dome flickered and pulsed for a moment, as if it were reassessing its surroundings, at which point it noticed Six Four, the flamethrower barrel leveled at it once more. With twitchy, erratic movements, the drone appeared to look back and forth rapidly between the Lorath and the Freespacer, skittering to the side with its front legs raised up in a defensive, hostile posture.

Then, suddenly, it released the section of hull it had cut away, dropping it to the ground beneath its body and started to slowly back away, front legs still raised as if warning the two not to come any closer. The wound on Shrie's upper chest continued to bleed and send waves of stinging pain radiating out through her limbs. It wasn't a deep cut, but even aside from mild blood loss, there was no telling was sort of pathogens an open wound could be exposed to on this world. It needed treatment sooner than later.

"Six Four?" a voice suddenly said in the medic's helmet, startlingly out of nowhere. It was the captain. "What's goin' on out there?"

Shrie held back, letting the drone inch away. It was not her job to get the thing, but she felt her duty to get the piece of ship back. Slowly she put her boot on top of the recovered plate so the robot could not steal it again. One of her hands clasped her wound, holding it to slow the bleeding. Bandage would be required fast, but Shrie did not want to do much until the robot was well away. She also realised that her actions are largely limited without some sort of ranged weapon, so she added that on her 'to buy if get paid' list.

Concordia Veil-Outside

"Situation is taken care of." Six Four replied back "A mechanical being of sorts decided that it wanted to take a piece of the ship. It has been returned, creature is still here though however hostile functions have appeared to have stopped."

Grabbing the shoulder of Shrie, Six Four began to pull her back towards the ship while still keeping its flame thrower leveled at the robot. "This one belives you need to have those wounds taken care of." The freespacer said to the Fyunnen, "Please make your way back to the ship, This one will follow behind."

Concordia Veil - Ventral Ramp

Sienna met the Lorath and Freespacer at the top of the ship's ramp, and her brow creased when she saw Shrie clutching her bleeding chest. "What the hell?" she asked, and her eyebrows raised further when she saw the heavy chunk of metal the Lorath had tucked under her arm. It was a big piece, almost too unwieldy for the long-armed Shrie to carry with one hand, heavy gravity notwithstanding. "Get her to the infirmary, and leave that right there on the floor. I'll handle it later." The captain stood to the side to let Six Four help the massive winged woman past her, hitting the switch on the bulkhead to close the ramp the very second they cleared it. Moving her hand to the side, she pushed the call button on the intercom and leaned towards the speaker. "Crash, get us ready for takeoff. We're heading to the coordinates Oreza sent us."

Surface of Neue Jaspis IIh - Newly-created clearing, a few minutes later

The powerful thrum of engines from over the treetops grew louder, rumbling the air and the ground around Oreza, Amelia, and Tam, and soon enough the hull of the aging Jinsoku freighter appeared above them, the dim sunlight glinting for an instant off of its off-center canopy. The big Nepleslian looked up from dragging one of the last bits of foliage away, and reached above his head, waving his arm in a big arc to draw the pilot's attention, then once the ship rotated slightly he continued with his laborious task.

The rumbling groan crescendoed further as the ship's forward velocity slowed, its aft section dropping slightly below the nose protruding from the main disc. A series of loud metallic clanks echoed through the trees around the new clearing as three heavy metal doors slid slowly open, extending the ugly but sturdy landing struts from its underbelly. Dust and debris started to fly as the ship's forward motion stopped and it slowly started to descend.

After several seconds of cautious descent, the Jinsoku's landing struts touched down, and the sound of the engines roaring gave way to a descending, flywheel-esque whine as they powered down, the hull of the ship settling down on the struts as they cushioned its weight.

Oreza kept his back turned to the flying debris as he got clear and dropped the long, ponderous limb he had dragged away, resting his hands on his knees to catch his breath. "Blimey," he muttered, and shook his head. Finally he stood up and looked at Tam, and extended an introductory hand in the direction of the ship. "Well, there she is," he said a little louder.

Amelia, who had been standing behind by Oreza's request, turned to regard the landing ship. The maneuver wasn't top-notch, which already told her that Crash wasn't on the helm, makind the astrogator somewhat wary of the situation. Nevertheless, she took slow and ponderous steps under the planet's high gravity to approach the first mate of the ship.

Tam watched the ship coming in for a landing and said "At least it looks to be in better shape than the Kevish class frigate I was stuck on last time." He looked the ship over as it was coming in and started towards the pile of his gear so that he could begin staging it for easier loading into the ship.

"You need help with that?" The astrogator asked from where she was, hands resting on her hips.

"It would be appreciated," Tam replied as he started opening a pair of gigantic freight containers. "I'm going to need to empty these of their packaged goods since I don't think they'll fit as they are into your ship," he said gesturing at the size of the containers and the ship that was landing. The Nepleslian woman nodded at that and started to move towards the containers.

"I think we should first empty the containers and stack the crates so that we can make fewer trips back and forth to your vessel," Tam said as he started hauling crates out from the container that was filled with Polyaramids. Amelia helped with the load, although slower. Not only was the gravity slowing her down but she also wasn't the strongest person.

Despite his apparent exhaustion under the conditions, Oreza didn't hesitate even for a moment to jump in and help with moving the crates to where the Gartagen was staging them. "How did you come to be stranded here with so much... stuff?" the big first mate asked as he entered the nearest container via the open doors on the end.

"We were with our transport vessel and we ran into a situation where our weapons were rendered nonfunctional. I contacted the CORE that was controlling the ship and requested my gear be dropped so that I could utilize it for auxiliary weapons to equip my team. It turned out the CO had a different idea and I was left behind when some of the new joins took a tactical nuclear weapon into the wilderness. It turned out that was a fatal mistake for those two as something in the woods killed them and the incessant humidity ruined the electronics of the device. Meanwhile I was left here with my gear trying to make primitive weapons for the others in order to allow them to have some chance of engaging at range." Tam replied as he gestured at what appeared to be a hand-crafted sling staff with a rope and loop made out of polyaramid fibers and a set of polished rocks.

"Impressive on your part," Oreza said over his shoulder, and stepped further into the container to grab a hold of the nearest crate. "I am sorry to hear about your comrades, however. Is there someplace in particular you're trying to reach?"

"Not in particular, I can't go home again. I'm actually looking for a new home I guess, there's nowhere else for me to go." Tam replied as he shrugged at Oreza's apology about his losses. Tam continued grabbing and stacking crates outside the container and as they stacked outside the pile inside began to shrink.

Oreza gave Amelia, who had been carrying a small crate at the time, a look at Tam's response, but said nothing. The astrogator didn't seem to react to the statement either, with her face being hid by the darkened visor of her helmet and the suit giving little in the way of body language.

"Have you discussed your plans with the captain at all?" the first mate asked, turning with a grunt as he hefted one of the crates in his arms and started to head for the stack outside.

"I've discussed it a small bit with her via communicator messaging, however I have not had a chance to officially offer my services to your crew as of this moment," Tam replied with a shrug as he grabbed a stack of 4 crates in his arms and carried them outside to the other stack of crates and began a fresh stack beside it.

Meanwhile, Amelia fumbled with a crate that was larger than the ones she had been picking up. The astrogator's upper half tilted to one side, like a ship about to capsize, and then stopped when she arrested the movement by putting one leg in front. She righted herself and then piled the crate outside, on top of the growing pile.

As he lugged the crate along towards the pile, Oreza stepped aside the astrogator with a lurch, moving to brace her with his body before she toppled over, even though the gesture proved unnecessary. Another groan rumbled in his chest as he hefted the crate atop the stack and took a deep breath, turning to get another. "You intend to stay with us, then?" he said, wheezing slightly. "Assuming she's agreeable to it, that is..."

"I'd be willing to if your crew can see a use for my skills." Tam replied as he continued grabbing crates and hauling them to the pile seemingly not exerting any effort at all as he picked up stacks of 3 or 4 crates at a time to take out and stack up.

Oreza did a double-take at the comparatively tiny Gartagen's manhandling of the heavy cargo, blinking once in mild surprise before turning his eyes to Tam. "Well, I can see at least one use already," he commented with a slight, jovial smile hidden beneath his beard.

About that time, a hissing sound suddenly came from the now powered-down little freighter landed nearby. From underneath, a rigid ramp pivoted to the ground from a fulcrum near the center of the disk, slowly lowered by two solid-looking hydraulic pistons. A pair of tall, sturdy-looking boots were visible descending the ramp even as it was barely cracked open, following it to the edge the entire time its angle steepened. By the time it came to rest on the blasted-apart soil, rock, and vegetation beneath them, a young Nepleslian woman emerged, ducking her head beneath the hull and standing to her full height once she was clear. Her boots covered her legs to just past halfway up her calves, where a pair of dark greenish-brown cargo pants were tucked in. Tucked into that beneath a black leather belt, an earthtone utilitarian tank top that fit snugly against a fit, athletic-looking torso. A hastily-hand-brushed, thick head of short auburn hair was swept to one side over an angular, yet somehow subtly soft face with unreadable, unremarkable eyes, her nose and mouth covered by an obviously homemade rebreather mask.

The young woman stepped over a splintered tree trunk, and with a measured, slow, and deliberate gait, moved through the heavy gravity towards where the trio were stacking crates. Her eyes went straight to the Gartagen, obviously the one she didn't already recognize, and placed her hands on her hips as she appeared to size him up. "You Tam?" she asked bluntly.

"Yes I am, I'm going to guess you are the commander of this ship." Tam replied calmly as he looked the new woman over.

"Keen guess," the young woman answered flatly, and looked at Oreza and Amelia, then at the huge containers just on the edge of the new treeline. "You got all that to bring aboard?" she asked, with a little more inflection. "Not exactly a light packer, are you?"

"It's everything I have, I may as well bring it with me since I hope some of it will be useful to you and your crew. The containers are being unloaded for easier loading into the hold. I'll transfer half of the remaining pay now that I've seen you, the last part will be transferred once I am on board and we lift off this planet," Tam said as he started typing on his wrist mounted computer.

"Fine by me," the captain replied, then looked around as if on alert for some sign of danger. "And I got all the more reason for us to step it up," she added, still looking around. "A few minutes ago one of those little drone-bots we spotted on approach peeled a section of the hull off. I'm gonna go see if I can patch it, but I dunno how long before its buddies come back for seconds." She turned her eyes to the astrogator and her first mate meaningfully. "I'll send Shrie out here to help, but I'd say y'all better pick the most important stuff first, in case we need to leave in a hurry."

The astrogator gave a quick thumbs up to the captain, lowering her arm so that both were braced against her legs as she tried to catch her breath again. On the comms, she breathed heavily.

"Very well, check the escrow account when you have the time, you will find the money there." Tam said as he looked at the boxes and started considering them. "I believe the ones that would be most useful would by my personal equipment and the hermetic container of rifles for your crew." Tam said as he started collecting his personal gear and stacking polyaramid crates into stacks of 6 to make it so that he could carry as many as possible to the ship.

The captain, without another word, turned on her heels and lumbered back to the ship, ascending the ramp once more and vanished inside. Oreza cleared his throat, sucking in another few heavy breaths to steel himself to start hauling another crate, and made for the nearest stack that Tam regarded as most important. "All right," he replied. "I'm afraid our only option is going to be to drag them up the loading ramp and through the ship to the cargo bays. The exterior loading doors are too high." The big Nepleslian paused a moment with his big bear paws on either side of a crate, and looked up at Tam. "Unless you think you can toss them in this gravity?"

"Do you have someone to catch them, I don't particularly want to dent the inside of your ship by accident?" Tam asked curiously as he hefted a crate.

Oreza grinned a little at the Gartagen's greater concern with damaging their ship rather than injuring himself. "I doubt that will be an issue, unless you're even stronger than you appear to be already," he answered. "The loading doors would provide a large enough target. If you can just get them over the lip, we can be just inside and shove them in place." Looking back towards the ship, then sizing up the comparatively short Tam, he laid a hand on the back of his head, and looked back at the ship. "With a good heave, you may even be able to just lift them above your head and push them in. What do you think, Amelia?"

"What?" The astrogator asked, carrying another crate to the ever-growing pile. "I. Uh... I guess. That works," she said between every breath, raising a crate to place it on top of the others. Amelia glanced towards the ship, then at the location of where Sienna was standing. Everyone seemed quite calm despite the captain just telling them that something ran off with a piece of the ship, as small as it could've been.

"Right," the first mate said conclusively, clapping his hands together. "Let's get to it, then, while we still have time." He touched the side of his helmet again. "Dakkar to ship. We need every strong, available back out here on the double."


Concordia Veil - Dorsal Hull

Sienna set her jaw as she strained as hard as she could, grunting tightly as she hefted the arc welding machine the last few inches up the central airlock ladder and shoved it over the side of the opening with a bang. Immediately she relaxed her arms and leaned heavily on her elbows, bent over the hull with her torso sticking halfway out of the ship, her feet still planted on the ladder beneath, each one rung apart. The back of her hair was damp with sweat and her breath came in labored heaves, even through her rebreather mask. She muttered a wheezy curse as she sighed, and with another groan of effort she lifted herself the rest of the way out of the hatch, and rolled up onto her feet.

Still panting, she put her hands on her hips and glanced toward the section that Shrie mentioned had been "burglarized" in a sense - a rectangular area about three or four feet long and two or so wide. Exactly the dimensions of the section the Lorath had brought back, which was lying beside it with a welding mask and a pair of heavy gloves. The captain held up her PHC and remotely activated the maintenance drone dormant within the ship, instructing it to come up and help her with the repairs. She was strong, but she'd never be able to maneuver the heavy durandium plate by herself, especially in nearly double its normal weight. Once the message was sent, she moved to the hole and picked up the welding shield, securing it to her head with the faceplate still flipped up.

As she waited on the drone, she turned her head towards where Tam and the others were busily transferring cargo onto her ship, chewing softly on the inside of her cheek. Something about their situation concerned her. Perhaps it was the fact that a rogue drone had tried to scavenge a piece of their ship while it was still warm, or maybe it was the fact that she knew absolutely nothing about the apparently exceedingly wealthy Gartagen she had agreed to take aboard. Or perhaps it was simply the fact that she, as a freighter captain, had a one hundred percent failure record over the course of her career to date.

A clattering sound and a short clunk made her turn her head to see the Emrys maintenance bot emerging from a small port near the engines, above where the aft engineering section was located. Still trying to catch her breath, she snapped her fingers smartly at the machine and pointed authoritatively at one side of the cut-out section of hull, just before she positioned herself on the other side and squatted down, preparing to set it back in place with the robot's help.

Neue Jaspis IIh - Blasted-out Clearing - Four hours later

The moon's long sidereal day dragged on, the crew still working in the ethereal, dim twilight. The distant star was still well above the horizon, and several of the brightest stars were still visible in the hazy sky, while the moon's parent gas giant was starting to rise above the treetops, its brilliant rings and atmospheric bands actually seeming to reflect more light than the system's central star gave off. The pale blue glow bathed the woods around them in an even more eerie light than before.

Sienna had long since finished welding the "stolen" section of hull back into the ship, and initial structural integrity checks were still ongoing with Crash to be absolutely positive that the ship could handle the rigors of atmospheric flight and deep space once again. The captain toiled with Amelia in the starboard cargo bay, shoving the crates that Tam hefted inside with his superhuman strength, with Oreza struggling to keep up, loading what remained of his vast array of belongings, and Six Four was tending to Shrie's gash in its makeshift infirmary.

During Crash's diagnostics, the AI detected a sudden surge of EM signals flaring up across the ship's sensors, and then disappearing, followed seconds later by what could be translated to human hearing as a faint hiss and crackle, slowly swelling in volume.

Outside, Tam and Oreza heard rustling in the trees. The first mate, one of the medium-sized crates in his arms, slowed to a stop and set it down, trying to listen harder over the sound of his panting. His bearded face creased into an intent frown. "Tam, wait," he said, looking around. "Do you hear something?"

Concordia Veil - Starboard Cargo Bay

Amelia did some final adjustments to the pile of crates that had just been stacked together, making sure nothing would fall before it was secured and that someone could still squeeze between them if they wanted to reach a particular one in the cargo bay. She took only two seconds to inspect the 'handiwork' before turning back around and see that more crates were being put into the bay through the open airlock, much to her dismay.

The astrogator rested her hands on her hips, bending backwards to ease the tension on her back, the muscles already straining from the activity. "How many crates left?" She asked Sienna, slowly moving towards the open cargo doors.

Concordia Veil - Starboard Cargo Bay

Sienna sucked another long breath through her respirator, wiping a palm full of sweat out of her hair and shaking it to the side as she glanced sideways at her astrogator's query. Stepping over to the massive aperture where the loading bay airlock stood open, she leaned out and peered down at the ground. What she saw made her shoulders slump a little bit. "Still another half dozen I think," she replied, and rested her palms atop her head, stretching her torso out to make it easier to fill her lungs. Looking over at Amelia, she gave the woman a tired little smirk and a shrug. "Least it looks like we're on the home stretch."

Oreza's sudden pause made her double-take, however, and she peered down at her first mate with curious concern. After he didn't move for a few moments, frozen in place and staring off towards the treeline away from the ship, she removed her respirator and cupped her free hand around her mouth. "Hey, what's the matter?" she called.

The big bearded man's bearlike hand raised to silence her before she even finished her sentence, and he never looked back at her. "Wait," he said quickly, intently watching the woods.

Starboard Cargo Bay - Concordia Veil

Amelia simply leaned against the wall besides the cargo bay's door, glad for the short moment of respite. At least the ordeal would soon be over. The astrogator caught her breath back in long heaves, although most of her tiredness came from the extended exercise than from a single burst of activity, which was an entirely different kind of exhaustion to her as she looked around the room. She briefly considering pulling out her Datajockey and contacting Crash, but the mere thought of simply unclasping the pouch that contained the datapad seemed like a bridge too far in her state.

Outside

Tam cocked his head to the side at Oreza and hearing the slight rustling as well nodded and turned to look at the trees as well, while taking hold of the hilt of his Gael'Kash and preparing to draw it in case something hostile came out of the tree line. "We should finish loading quickly I think." Tam said and in a rush sprinted to the last stack of boxes and hefted them above his head before launching them towards the open airlock with a moderate amount of force. Which in theory should be just enough to get them through the door so that Sienna and Amelia would be able to stack them.

~~Computer Core~~


After storming about in the core room for a few as the ship was moved, Crash finally calmed down and plugged Itself back into the ship's computer systems and started looking around the area using the ship's sensors. It had to be careful and not use the more powerful ones or Crash would have cooked the crew working below the ship.

It wasn't long before Crash grew bored of even that, and It started bouncing sensor blasts off the planet's rings and counting how long each different wave length took to get back. It was the equivalent of a flesher bouncing rocks off a pond. Every so often Crash checked the surroundings before going back to the game of bounce the rings.

It was so entertained by the game it took three separate readings before Crash registered the drones coming at the ship. Well It had recorded them each it, but the processes weren't focused on them in the least. In a panic Crash sent a full force burst scan at the direction of the drone and got a good read on them. "Shit shit shit shit..." Crash muttered out-loud before starting the ships weapons up and the engines up. Then It hit the ship's internal alarm systems.

In a crappy digitized computer voice It spoke up across the ship's PA system. "Would the Captain and the Astrogator please report to the Cockpit, the rest of you please bend over and proceed to preform the KYAG protocols."

"Med Bay"

Thankfully the wound wasn't as bad as it appeared, abet the Fyunnen's build also helped a bit.

"That should do it." Six Four said as it finished putting the final edge of medical tape on the bandage it had put over Shrie's wound, "No strenuous activity mind you, this one did not use stitches and even so it would not recommend it. Don't need to ruin another shirt. "

At that moment crashes announcement came over the intercom.

"This one is not aware of that protocol, was it given in the ships standard operation procedures?"

Concordia Veil Computer Core



Outside

One by one in rapid-fire succession, Tam went to tossing the remaining crates into the wide open loading bay, each one crashing to the deck of the ship with a loud, rumbling bang. All the while, Oreza never stopped scanning the treeline for some kind of visual confirmation that he had indeed heard something.

Tam had barely gotten five of the eight remaining crates thrown in when Crash's message blasted through the ship's intercom, reverberating around the open cargo bay and echoing far and wide into the clearing. At the same time, Oreza's eyes widened in horror. Emerging from the dim cover of the trees, an ominous red glow brightened, and the glint of planetlight reflecting off of tarnished metal caught his eye from every direction. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of junky-looking, hastily constructed arachnoid drones, each with a menacing red "eye" glowing brightly and fixated on the ship advanced, their spindly legs clattering over the fallen vegetation relentlessly. Although each drone looked slightly unique, like they were built from whatever materials were available during their construction, they all had the same basic design: a squat, heavy metallic dome supported by eight spidery legs, and two flexible mandible-arms with tiny claws whipping about in front of them.

"Bugger," Oreza gasped, and his head snapped around to look at Tam and the two women standing just inside of the loading bay above them, his face twisted in urgency. "Ladies, our time is up!!" he roared, and moved as quickly as he could back towards the ship, but to the others, it looked as if he were trying to run with heavy weights chained to his ankles.


Starboard Cargo Bay

"Oh... shit..." Sienna muttered, her eyes widening and her jaw going slack as she spotted the advancing spider-drones. She stood there paralyzed for a second, then gradually regained control of herself. "Crash," she said moderately at first, her voice slowly gaining volume and urgency as she continued, "start the launch cycle and get us the hell off the ground!"

Three crates still remained on the ground, and Tam looked intent on finishing it. At the rate the drones were advancing, it appeared possible that the inhumanly strong Gartagen could possibly pull off getting them aboard at the last minute. However, Oreza seemed to be struggling to move in the heavy gravity amid his exhaustion, and didn't look like he was going to make it back in time.