And then what happened? It got worse. Lifelines: Part 2
Lillian looked at Zalis, and said, "You didn't leave any flares. I was bumbling around in the dark. Apparently with that thing on the loose."
Zalis wrinkled his snout for a brief moment, his mouthful of sharp teeth coming into view for a brief second. "You have a seclite. And it is better to move with stealth, and adjust to dark. Light gives you away, makes you a target."
Lillian grinned slightly, "This coming from our IAA, almost sounds like an endorsement of criminal behavior." She gestured with the gun towards the people on the walls. "You bring them down, I'll cover you. My gun is bigger."
Zalis shrugged and got to work pulling the people down. Lillian sent a PDA message one handed, casually slinging the laser cannon on it's strap with one hand. It beeped and she swiftly typed a short response. This went on for a few minutes, then she slipped the message device back into her pocket, saying, "I sent a message to medical and Jericho. He's going to escort someone here to get them out and treat them, then all three of us are going to hunt it down."
Zalis chuffed softly to himself as he gently laid the second crewman on the floor, checking his pulse with an expert touch. He pointed at the egg-monstrosities. "We should destroy those. Nothing good can come of them."
Lillian nodded and pulled her PDA back out to send another message. Then she took the cannon back wordlessly. Zalis looked at her expectantly, but she shook her head. "I had a better plan than the gun. First we get these people out."
After a few minutes of waiting, they heard approaching footsteps. Lillian shined her seclite down the hall while Zalis crouched in the darkness near the survivors, his pistol reloaded. Jericho shined his light back at Lillian and approached swiftly. "I got Hector and Axel with me like you said. We brought roller beds and medical supplies."
The three new arrivals loaded the two survivors onto the beds gently, then pulled the beds up to their full height. Hector checked both survivors with his PDA, gently scanning wounds and over major organs. "There is extensive damage. They need to be in the Medical Bay, as soon as atmosphere is restored. For now we take them to Genetics."
Axel quietly eased over to Lillian, and Zalis stood uneasily nearby. Axel said, "I got that stuff you wanted, Ms. Helsbrecht. Here..." And handed her a backpack that clanked and clattered. "I took the liberty of putting them together. It wasn't hard to guess what you intended to make."
She smiled and unzipped the bag, pulling out a homemade, short range flamethrower. She handed one to Zalis, who eyed it suspiciously. Lillian took the other flamer and turned to the two egg-people. "Alright, we gotta get these people out now. Jericho, go with them." She looked at Zalis, "Ready?"
He nodded, his grim black-scaled visage eyeing her inscrutably. He flicked on the flamethrower pilot light and experimentally sprayed a burst of fire. The heat was intense, and the egg-people caught flame immediately, burning brightly. They both edged back a bit, and Lillian fired a spray of flame, fully dousing the two corpses with fire. They heard an outraged shrieking come from nearby, and they both turned in slow circles, looking for any sign of the creature. It was nowhere to be seen though, and reluctantly they retreated to the maintenance exit Zalis had found the blood at.
There, Jericho had already returned from his escort mission. He had a laser carbine clamped to his armor and a combat shotgun slung across his chest, holding it uneasily. Zalis sealed the Maintenance shaft, activating a local quarantine protocol. He turned to look at Lillian, "We'll have to seal each section's maintenance shafts independently. It will be a tedious, dangerous task. We need more help, and we need to evacuate nearby sections."
She nodded, and keyed her headset, "
Axl, we need support if we're going to keep this contained. Anyone you can deputize? We also need the Engineers to start sealing off Maintenance and the air shafts, immediately."
Silence greeted her.
They all three waited a long moment, nervously grinning, or in Zalis's case, thumping his tail against the floor. "
Axl?" Lillian said. Nothing. "Um. Let's go to the brig." She concluded. They all nodded solemnly and trotted away at a brisk pace.
---
Somewhat earlier
---
Axl closed the Armory doors, and turned to face the empty Security room. He locked a few unlocked Security Officer lockers quietly, and walked towards his office. He heard an odd thumping coming from above, probably in an air vent somewhere. A malfunctioning fan, maybe. He made a mental note to call an engineer about it, and opened the door to his office. He sat at his desk and finished writing a few notes on his Report of Armory Dispensation, then putting it in a folder.
He looked up to see a huge black creature drop out of the vent in the middle of the ceiling in the Security room. He dropped to the floor beside his desk drawers, and scrambled under the desk. It was open, so he had a good view of the creature as it slowly stood fully erect, it's head nearly touching the tall ceiling. He pulled out his energy pistol, flipping it to lethal quietly, and pulled out his telescopic baton.
Axl slid the chair out of the way, and moved to his door swiftly. It hissed open, and the creature turned suddenly. Axl stood, aiming his pistol calmly and with a steady ease. The creature hissed abruptly as it saw him, baring it's teeth. It's posture hunched a little, and it's tail came up straight behind it, slightly curved so the tip faced forward. Attack posture.
Axl fired, the laser blast striking the beast on the side of it's head, but it was moving, so it was a shallow angle and he struck obliquely, doing little damage. His second shot took it in the center of mass, eliciting a savage screech-roar. And then it pounced.
Suddenly it cleared a table and twenty five feet of intervening space in an instant. Axl's third shot went wild into the ceiling, and he flipped out the telebaton, extending the club to it's full length. He smashed it into the beast's side, knocking it off of him and into his office. He sealed the door before it could attack again. It regained it's feet in an instant, and eyed him through the locked door. Except it had no eyes.
Axl smiled and aimed his pistol at the thing again, but it leapt up unexpectedly, yanking off the vent cover of his air vent with astonishing speed. That fast, it was back into the air vents above him. He aimed his pistol cautiously, listening for sound of it's movement, but it was either holding still, or moving very quietly. He turned, watching the ceiling with growing anxiety.
About the time he heard the vent tearing, he remembered that there weren't only vents on the ceiling. He looked down to see a clawed hand latched around his ankle tightly. He turned his aim on it, but the creature yanked him off his feet, and his pistol clattered to the ground next to him. He clubbed the hand, and it retreated, but he knew the beast would press the attack.
He rolled, coming up with his pistol, looking around for it. It dropped from a vent, and bowled a table over with it's huge head. Axl fired at it, emptying his pistol as he tracked fire after the beast. A few shots found their mark, but many struck nothing but hull. The beast came in obliquely at first, then cut around the edge of another table, bounding off of it like a springboard.
Axl swung at it, striking it's face with his baton at it as it powered into him forcefully. They slammed into his office windows and toppled in a heap. Axl slammed his baton into it again, hearing a bone, or perhaps it's exoskeletal hide, crack and snap. One of it's monstrously large hands clamped around his wrist, then it grabbed his other arm. It casually forced his arms away with brutalizing strength.
Axl was not a weak man, by even the most strenuous of standards, but this monster was beyond strong. It pulled his arms to their full extension, and leaned forward, it's mouthful of sharp teeth coming close to his face. Axl headbutted it, and it's mouth opened, and another smaller mouth shot out like a steam-driven piston. Axl's head was down though, and it punched into his armored black cap. The force of the blow was enough to knock Axl unconscious...
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Topic: The Lillian Helsbrecht Story (Read 28218 times)