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The Genesculptor quirked his only eyebrow from behind his voidsuit helmet. “Yes...I see, I’ll use it with the utmost caution,” he said slinging the rifle over his shoulder along side the bag that he was carrying. Connecting to the Ensemble network he relayed to the others, “Something’s amiss, keep your eye on this person. They have no idea what the weapon they or I carry is. X-Rays are entirely harmless to metal. I’m not sure who we’re dealing with here, but we should be a bit more weary with what they’re telling us.”
Turning towards Kiver, he chuckled a bit. “Haha, I don’t think we need to worry about overkill. But don’t you think you should have at least one arm open to fire or throw one of those?" He shook his head, and looked at their guide. "Even though we lost all element of surprise, I think we now effectively have them out gunned. How difficult is it to take down a defense turret? I'm going to be frank with you, I'm only a scientist, I haven't had a whole lot of experience with...well any weapon to be honest. Point the barrel, squeeze the trigger right? Just like in the holovids?"
"...My ears are still organic..." The narrow visor just gave a disgruntled sideways glance, somehow managing to frown with body language alone, despite the featureless steel muzzle of vents and antlers it called a faceplate. "The enemy is first and foremost a hacker. Making the computer think I'm dead wouldn't be too hard with the help of others, probably. I... I don't know what they are planning."
It moved to look at Gemini for a second, fixing it's scarf, but hesitated before pulling out the wire.
"Look, if you want to leave, there are still one or two working traveler shuttles in hangar. Use the zero-G corridor on the left, and go through the battery storage block. I wouldn't blame you." Emotion always carried across weirdly in pure text dumps, but logically, them being out of harm's way was better than then remaining a potential enemy. The part-machine creature was still a spacer, and knew this wasn't really their problem. "...But no, before you ask, I'm not letting that other hacker girl inside my head too."
Yanking the cord free with an uncomfortable twitch, Hollowpoint then kept their word and immediately let Gemini go free. The wires hanging from the ceiling went ignored, suggesting they might well have already noticed.
A couple of seconds later, they retrieved the detective-woman's laser rifle, and gruffly held the butt end towards them. Open hatch to the left had asteroid dust all around it, making their intended route of progress obvious, too...
Hollowpoint Mini
"Let's just knock through the walls! B-line as the crow flies!" The voidsuited stranger held their hands out lackadaisically, apparently taking Kiver's enthusiasm as a good thing. If it wasn't how some more trigger-happy Viridians actually acted, it might have seemed a bit too happy-go-lucky even for a freespacer. "We can always build new ones as long as we don't loose the whole factory, right?"
"So, Gemini. I hear this not-Hollowpoint, the one with such low regard for structural integrity, is not a 'spacer, either, and fancies herself a better hacker than you. That's just not right, is it? There are shuttles that we could escape on, if we're not looking forward to giving them the business." The way Ziggy was lovingly inspecting her laser rifle after it had been returned to her suggested she wasn't too eager to scurry off.
The person calling itself Hollowpoint actually let her out! A look of surprise sprouted on her face. It faded quickly, replaced by her regular grin. "We're not going anywhere. Don't care if the poser thinks she's better. You think if we help this fool out he will let us take a peek at the mainframe? Pinky promise I won't pwn the system." Gemini said innocently as she practically skipped out of her cell.
She walked over to Ziggy and inspected the laser she held. Finally, she spoke up in a disapproving tone. "Adorable death machine you've got. This is what they've turned us into, isn't it? Those cats." Her eyes closed. She appeared to be thinking about something intensely. The mission had to be completed. Both Hollowpoints were in her way, but maybe she could make a deal with one of them. Or maybe the Hollowpoints would kill each other.
Gemini's eyes popped open. "Fine, fine." She waved her hand nonchalantly. "We won't kill, you understand, but we will be good. No more hacking for a while. I've got a weapon too." The strange 'Spacer pulled an energy pistol out of its hiding place on her thigh. She held it up triumphantly. "This is Daisy. She's a gentle soul." Gemini explained.
Ziggy tilted her head for a moment as a thought bounced around. "Somehow I suspect the 'cats' I'm thinking of are not those you're thinking of. Though my predecessor did prefer mass drivers, I picked this up after I gave up on holdout pistols. That was when I lost my right leg, I think?" She shrugged one arm.
"I'll try not to kill them. If I leave them all for gods to sort out, I'll have put myself out of a job." Ziggy shook her head, then turned and nodded to 'Daisy'. "You can call my rifle 'Witness'." She slung her rifle down, switched into pulse mode, as she turned toward the floor hatch.
The large mechanical creature gave Gemini a look that was both literally and figuratively quite steely, before making a strange electronic shrugging noise and returning to the task at hand. Shuffling over to the large open hatchway in the floor, they waved the other two over and then gestured downwards.
It was powdery white asteroid dirt, like standing knee-deep in flour. It was probably for the best that there was no artificial gravity, or those who stood on it would probably have sunk even further. Lights illuminated a straight line on the ceiling, going about thirty feet until it met another hatchway back into the complex. Must have been a repurposed mine shaft. Tremendously chilly, but there was breathable air and everything.
The minute that the large automata hit the dirt, large pods lowered out of the back of each of their legs, bearing long corkscrew drive engines. Guess that oversized caboose had to contain something. If they weren't from this place, this Hollowpoint certainly paid attention to the little details.
Another wave... Was.... Were they telling them to hop on?...
The only response the Genesculptor would get from Kiver came in a short burst of her usual jibberish tone: Butterpats smelly.
Internally, Kiver knew that there was something suspicious about a butter analogy. She'd had one experience with the unsanitary solidified cow phlegm, and spent two weeks in the infirmary for her troubles. Too much alien bacteria needed for it to be made, however it was made. A Freespacer was unlikely to get so familiar with it.
And so... Rather than doing what Hollowpoint suggested, Kiver gave her little tottering wobbly walk a kick up a gear and lead herself forward... Out into the hallway. One little spacer suddenly staring down the barrel of an automated turret set to stop anyone coming by, and too weighed down by her heavy load of assorted guns to really get out of the way. Then again, strange things sometimes meant something: No sooner had Kiver presented a target did she drop at the knees, and push every muscle of her body into flinging her load of equipment before her. So many things to confuse an automated target tracking system, so little time.
Kiver was quick, she had the time. As her load rained down around her, one of her little drones from Bricklot drifted around her head, projecting its shield to ward off stray shots. Two handing it, whipping up her energy pistol in one hand, and a simple Gyro .500 from the armory in the other, Kiver took her shots. Flashing lights from the foreign made laser thing, and the roar of little rocket bullets cracking the sound barrier. The recoil of the shots knocking her deliberately off-balance, as she bent at the knee to get low, pushing back with her legs; diving back around the corner just in case she hadn't landed it. Perfectly executed Portrait Rezoning back-dive maneuver.
Skidding to a halt at the Genesculptor's feet she peeped up at him.
"'zabit more 'an 'atta shooty, bu' 's a low butt bazzies, yah?"
Noting Six-One's hesitation, Ziggy raised her eyebrows, half-closed her eyes, and made a smile as if she'd just said some terrible joke at her companion's expense. Nevertheless, she dropped down without a word, clambered up onto one drive pod, and hooked her less expensive right arm to attach herself to the Hollowpoint's frame, before reasoning circularly, "This must be safe enough. Why else would I be doing it?"
Six-Three looked down at the rifle he was carrying, and flicked the safety off while turning to their shady shepherd. “What is it that the Nepleslian’s say? ‘Let’s kick this pig’? Sounds like an odd ritual to be kicking something before you start, but…” he trailed off into a shrug. He wasn’t even sure what a pig was or why it deserved to be kicked, but he was sure it was important to them somehow.
That’s when he heard the clattering, gunfire, followed by little Kiver sliding up beside him once again. He could only manage a nod and a “...uuuhhh huh.” He primed the nano-bots and set them chew through metal, while setting the gun itself to autofire which had “Pew Pew Pew” thoughtfully written in place. Telling his own bots to shield him, and sacrifice themselves if need be, he quickly got to one knee and steadied himself before ducking around the corner with the gun (incorrectly) in his shoulder like he had seen in a few holovids.
The Genesculptor was a scientist however, not really much of a fighter. While he was mentally prepared for the kick, his body had no idea how to deal with the recoil. He tugged on the trigger and the gun went off flying in random directions, with his eyes closed. After a couple of seconds of spraying and not much praying, he retreated back around the corner and gave their guide a thumbs up, chest heaving at the rush.
The automata-minded turret at the intersection ahead did a pretty good job of turning to face Kiver the minute she shambled into the corridor, but fortunately for her, seemed rather more designed to blow heavy cyborgs to pieces. The twin guns had a low rate of fire, hulking large shells towards the identical bullets that the short pilot had thrown into the air. It was a moment of madness that send all sorts of metal fragments and punctured cylinders clattering around the steel decking, creating a hideous racket like half a dozen lead ingots being dropped down a flight of stairs.
Kiver too a splinter as big as a thumb in the knee, through inertia was mostly killed by the thick voidwalker suit wrapped around her legs. Drone shield protected her from much, much worse. In return, her pistol rockets took a counter-intuitive second to pick up speed, then smashed into the camera-eye of the marauding turret, catastrophically blowing it to naught but shards.
Genesculptor actually fired a little late, broiling several patches of the corridor with blobs of nanomachines, eating away at the material like acid. Interestingly, the gun seemed to recognize what he was firing at, and only ate the surface material, leaving the now-exposed pipes and wires inside.
There were several large bundles of gas lines heading towards the rooms ahead suggested the whole story about the 'laser defense room' was true. Just because they couldn't hack into the systems autonomy didn't meant those functions were actually self-contained, either. There could well be a way of manipulating the setup, if only they could find a control interface...
Hollowpoint seemed pleased enough with their progress, striding out into the corridor. They were heading towards a particularly large locked bulkhead around the corner to the left, and apparently calibrating their own nano-gun to deal with the massive exterior deadbolts held in place magnetically.
Seeing Kiver with a splinter lodged inside her, Six-Three knelt down. "You doing alright? I think I might have a bandage or two." Turning the gun's safety on, he began to dig through his bag while Hollowpoint walked by. The Genesculptor stopped for a second and looked up as the figure left them, "Hey, wait a second so she can get back on her feet. She took out the turret after all." Finally fishing them out, they were rather plain and ordinary and it looked like it would take two to cover the wound. Reaching out to hand them to her, "Here ya go. They're not vibrant or colorful, but they'll get the job done. At least until we can properly take care of that. Need any help getting the splinter out?"
Laying flat on her back for a second, Kiver did a quick mental arithmetic on her physical state. Fingers finged, elbows bowed, neck cricked noisily. Adrenaline in her body for walking straight at a gun turret draining out of her, she felt a twinge of the knee. The knee! She was an adventurer now! How was she meant to continue her adventures with a bullet to the knee? That was one of the painfulest parts to get shot in. And this was the first time she'd been shot for real!
Sitting up, she looked to her knee with a splinter of metal lodged in it. The sealant in her suit caking around it, but she could faintly feel the blood underneath her voidwalker. She'd probably need a new one soon.
"Puller out if'n ya can." She said, sounding a bit more lucid now pain was in the line. She reached over to a gunrack, pulling a rifle from it and holding it against her banged up leg. "Then if ya can, splint me please? We... We gotta go gunlegs."
Gemini looked at the large metal man, then at Ziggy. She repeated the process several times. Finally, she shrugged and jumped onto the other drive pod. She was surprisingly nimble for someone who presumably spent more time in the Polysentience than the real world. "Home, James. And don't spare the jet fuel." She said, gesturing forward. "Let's get this show on the road." While she waited for the big guy to start moving she tapped into the security feed again, trying to get an idea of how many people the intruder brought with him and what sort of firepower they were packing. She also sent a message directly to Ziggy.
The Genesculptor reached down and got a hold of the metal scrap. "Alright get ready, on 3. 1, 2,..." and then he ripped it out. It was an old trick a druid had taught him. Something about pain being worse if you're actually prepared for it. Using the meager excuse for bandages, he closed the wound as best he could and pulled out some rainbow tie-dye duct tape from his pack. Six-Three wraps the tape around in a few places to keep the rifle steady, and splints the rifle to her leg to keep her knee from bending. Standing up, he brushes off his pants and offers a hand to help her up, "Try and stand up, nice and easy." Turning back to their patron, "I think we're good, where to next? Hopefully not something that'll shoot out my elbow."
Hollowpoint returned from their little foray by the bulkhead around the corner only after continued deliberation, green boots crunching through broken metal dust still strewn about the small intersection. Instead of helping Kiver to their feet, however, the first thing they reached for was a pair of the large explosive shells.
"Don't mean to be callous, but that automata is gonna turn up and murder us any minute, y'understand?" A blank faceplate displayed no emotion, and the tone was just full of adrenaline more than anything. "We gotta make tracks. I think I might be able to bomb straight through the floor and skip the next two turrets downstairs, but I needa borrow these..."
"Are you okay my dear? It was most valiant, but..." Jack's tiny crab-junker was looking a bit useless during all of this, too small to aid their spacecase friend, and a knowledge of organic processes that was bordering on nostalgia at this point. Still, they were concerned. "But please include your survival in the plan next time, I implore you..."
Up ahead, the green-and-brown speckled form of Hollowpoint was setting up a little explosive arrangement in the far corner of the longest corridor. The two shells were stood up in a pile of nanomachines sprayed so thick they built up into a sort of smoking mound of silver jelly. Soon enough, the payload was sinking into the floor, and their shady guide was running back towards the group for cover. The shells went off when their casings corroded half way through the deck panels, exploding in a shower of orange-hot metal fragments and globs of nerfed nanomachines.
A meter-wide hole now lead directly downwards and right in front of the laser defense grid section, just as their guide had said...
~"Please keep yourself safe. Both of you."~ Jack did not sound more elated by this victory. In fact, they were communicating by secret radio channel, and sounding more suspicious than ever. Maybe even a little guilty for getting them involved in all this. ~"This mission could do a lot for us, Miss Kiver, Mister Genesculptor, but... But I want to get to know you better, by jove. This isn't worth your lives."~
Even with just one eye you could tell what they were thinking. Hollowpoint's rush to get this problem sorted was also very conveniently leaving little time for questions...
Hacking or disabling a laser grid was not going to be easy. But everything was coming to a head, and if they were going to play a wildcard decision, now was the time to do it.
Lower Corridor -> Laser Grid
In the unlikely event that Ziggy or Gemini had ever been surfing on a terrestrial planet, they would recognize the sensation now. Their mechanical guide swooped along the shallow dunes effortlessly, slipping along with tremendous ease given their considerable size and solid metal bulk. Both of them had the choice of either their waistline or a missile launcher to grip on to, and the latter was probably radioactive...
A few paces later and they had arrived at the next hatch. You could tell something important was above them by the added support pillars and the incredibly thick boron slabs layering the ceiling here. Hollowpoint wasted no time in popping a long durandium switchblade out of their wrist, and jabbing into the deadbolt lock with such force that it splintered instantly.
The cyborg still couldn't talk, but seemed pleased to be finally making progress... Right up until they realized that the little extending ladder that came out of the hatch was far too small for their huge robotic feet. Freespacer unstandardized engineering at it's finest.
They wafted an arm, ushering their two passengers to progress, but would need a hand if they were going to get up there as well.
What corridor awaited them above was pretty simple. They were at the bottom of a 'U' shape, with one end leading to an intersection bearing a large turret at the center, and the other suddenly leading into some weird red-painted section with dozens of little lenses on the walls, all guarding a single massive reinforced door. Must have been the cold storage data complex, only...
Why was there some big hole melted in the ceiling directly in front of it? Still smoking, freshly punched out of the pristine grey metal.
This could be problematic.
Gemini was having a hard time observing what was going on in the corridors above. The security camera had been knocked around in some kind of firefight. It looked like three humanoid figures, heavily armed. Freespacers wearing voidwalkers. A multitude of small drones swarmed around them. Pirates? Mercenaries? SAINT members in disguise?
Whatever they were, they had completely trashed the security turret, and it looked like they were ready to make their next move any moment now.
As the makeshift operation took place, Kiver tensed in place. Holding still. Then started to quiver, clearly trying very hard to stay still. That sort of tensed pain from someone desperately trying to mess something up. Fingers curling and clawing through her gloves at the deck floor, back arching slightly before going back to lying flat. Nothing on comms, but there was the very faintest feeling from the space station's floor as what was almost certainly a blood-curdling scream vibrated the metal deck.
Eventually, when things were done, Kiver levered herself up. Clearly unable to use her bad leg in any capacity to hold her weight. Her voice coming out with little pained gasps.
"Euhhh..." She bit back a little animalistic gasp, visor turning towards Gene. "Ahkay. You c'n walk but can' na' shoot. I c'n shoot but nah walk... Le's... Make this work, uh'kay?"
The closest thing to surfing Ziggy had ever experienced was being thrown from a vehicle in a sandy desert, so it was fortunate enough the ride didn't remind her of that. She slung her rifle and held on tight with both arms before long, anyway, familiar or not, the ride was a bit disconcerting.
She was content to climb the ladder, first, and take a look around, though she passed over the chance to look 'up' before calling down to Hollowpoint, tapping her left arm, "Rated for 200 kg, so... I'm not sure how to make this work."
Something unknown finally called her attention to the yet unseen roof of the corridor. She glanced up, spun away to and her rifle at the hole in a start, quivering, and finally crept forward to stage whisper, "They're coming through the floor, from the upper level!"
Ziggy switched on her rifle's laser sight, in the hopes that the vision of it dancing around the new hole might discourage the crew above from jumping down through it in too much haste.
All of the drones Phase had provided lit up, flashing to match the cadence that would soon come from them.
"Connection is failing! The Lor. . . done something! I can't maint. . . ection!" her voice crackled and fizzled out. Meanwhile, in the bay of the ship, Phase's lanky mobile form crashed into the ground, the light dying from the insides. Diharmonious Phase was no longer there.
Bricklot would go into open protocol, allowing any of the members of the Skeleton Ensemble to interface with the rectangular drone manufactory with legs.
Six-Three felt a twinge in his heart as he heard her talk, wishing he could do more for the pain. "Oh, right, ok, uhhh..." The Genesculptor's mind raced as he was floundering in unfamiliar territory, but he eventually settled on an idea. Thankfully his limbs were mechanical and could hold much more than her weight, and were extremely flexible. He knelt down, rotated his arms behind him and scooped the gun-legged Kiver towards him, then lifted with his mecho-legs positioning her head just a foot above his. Though a bit awkwardly with her splinted-straight leg, the scientist was carrying all of her weight on his legs so that the type two pilot could fire for them. "I believe this is called a 'piggy-back right'? I don't know what the fascination is with pigs, but they must be something, huh?"
With the organic crew away and the hull silent, there were only crab drones about to hear Phase clattering to the floor. All three of those remaining on board rapidly moved towards the commotion, only to find their friend collapsed in a heap with no explanation.
Jack had never been to the Lor System in all his years. He wondered who the Dollmaker really was, and what they were really doing. Moreover he wondered if they would ever meet again.
"How many bodies do you really have, my strange friend?" Drawing close, the three of them just gave Bricklot a look, and then began devising a place to move the empty shell. "We barely knew each other... But, rightly, I shall endeavor to keep your body safe should you return..."
Viridian Facility; Above The Laser Grid
The voidwalker-bearing guide just gazed at the hole for a minute, and then back towards Kiver and Six-Three, bracing their arms solidly around their makeshift rifle. Apparently they could see the enemy targeting laser dancing through the hole, much like Kiver's augmented eyes likely could.
"We are so close! Don't give up now!" They sounded frustrated, almost weirdly emotional. "We can make another hole. The enemy will focus on me anyway, right? So please just make for the defense controls, whilst I distract them. We can reactivate them the minute we get inside, see?"
Viridian Facility; In Front Of The Laser Grid
On the floor below, the gargantuan steel cyborg was already moving towards the grid, but was too wary guarding the busted ceiling panels to plug into it themselves. Opening their shoulder ports, missiles were trained on the intruder's suspected entry point, single minded in their annihilation of the enemy.
So far, it was clear enough. They wafted one arm towards Ziggy, then cupped their hands as if to offer vaulting them up to the floor above. The enemy seemed to be planning something, after all, so it made sense to go on the offensive before it was too late.
All four missile pods could move individually, and they were now pointing at the floor instead of the hole... Clearly, their comrade telling them were to make new holes was a part of the plan, too.
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