As the last of her breath left her, she wavered slightly, before sinking to the ground, hand clutching at her wound.
"Hannah, are you injured?" Fred's voice asked over the earpiece. His silence during her fight had been a blessing, the last thing she needed was him distracting her during combat. She had a suspicion it was intentional, and he knew what had happened.
"I've been dismembered," she replied calmly.
"Fuck," she heard a voice as she tightly closed her eyes, "fuck, fuck, I knew we should have done something sooner, fuck."
"Fuck," Hannah echoed, almost amused before rattling, "calm own."
"You're arm's off!"
"Panicking isn't going to help," she snarled, shooting a sharp eye at him. Her entire body was shivering.
Weldon hissed a breath, and let out a huff of air, "what do you need?"
"The med kit."
He was off, and Hannah shifted from her knees to sitting on the floor cross-legged, focusing on her breathing instead of the pain.
Weldon returned with the kit and Markley, looking cut up himself. Hannah took the kit and opened it, taking out the burning plate. She set it down and opened it, getting it started.
"I need solids," she hissed, "glass, ceramic, plaster, s-something."
Markley nodded and made his way back to the window to grab the glass he had been thrown through. Weldon looked around and began to grab pieces of the tile cracked from the fight. The two marines put what they had into the blue flame and Hannah poured the blue catalyst into it. While that melted she snatched tools from the kit, grabbing the antiseptic first and snarling as she poured it onto the wound.
She grabbed and set aside the health shard, and grabbed the small flat knife, stirring around the blue gel that had formed in the burner and gathering some on the knife.
She held her breath, and placed it against her shoulder. She tried to hold in the scream but it came out anyway.
The two men looked at her, then her equipment, seemingly lost for what to do.
It took nearly the entire amount of blue gel to cover the whole wound, and by the end of it, Hannah jabbed half of the health shard into her chest, and curled into a ball, brow pressed to the blood-covered tile and loudly cursing every living thing in the universe that wasn't Jar-hidda.
She even cursed herself.
As she uncurled, her eyes landed on Weyland's head. Her face twisted in loathing and she reached for her trophy, gripping it by its hair and maneuvering it into the net at her side. She then moved and put everything back into the med-kit, the pain mostly subsiding. She moved to get to her feet, and hands were there to help her up.
"J-jar-hidda's things," she stated calmly. She leaned against Markley as Weldon grabbed whatever Hannah pointed out to him, loading himself up with weapons and equipment.
"Why'd you fight him?" Markley's voice murmured smoothly.
Hannah didn't even look at him, watching as the younger marine gathered things.
"Because I'm not human e-either."
She didn't expect the marine to understand, but she appreciated his silent nod he gave.
"I'm not going to be very good in a fight holding all this shit," he commented.
"Jar-h-hidda's nearby, you w-won't be carrying his stuff for long."
"Wait," Weldon bent down and scooped a black shape from the ground. Hannah blinked slow and leveled her gaze on the weapon.
"This is a human gun, why's it here?"
Hannah stared for a bit, before breathing deeply, "Beretta 84FS Ch-cheetah... it's mine."
The Marine looked at her, then looked at the gun, ejected the magazine, counted the bullets and put the magazine back in.
"Take your gun back M-markley, I'll carry that one."
The man slipped away from her and she caught her balance, holding out her hand and taking the gun. Markley took his from her belt and she slipped the cheetah into it's place.
"Let's go," she commanded, looking to the door.
"What about your arm?" Weldon asked, looking at the appendage on the ground.
"L-leave it," Hannah rattled, "I have a-another one."
Markley lent her his shoulder again. She leaned on him as they left the room, walking over broken glass and down the hallway to the room there. Weldon opened the door and aimed his gun inside, before motioning silently to proceed. Hannah and Markley walked in after him, the red light making the shadows a stark black around the room.
A shape moved from within the cage, and Hannah leaned away from Markley, gripping his shoulder and taking a step forward. The too-pale form lifted and stood, naked body pressing against the clear cage door and looking pitifully at the group there.
Jar-hidda was no where to be seen, and in his place was Nielson.
Hannah let out a roar and charged, smashing her good shoulder against the door. The doctor stumbled back against the wall, face twisted in agony.
"Where is he!?" Hannah snarled, slapping the glass, "WHERE IS HE!?"
Nielson only shook her head, pathetic, afraid, looking like she had been crying. Hannah rattled and smacked the door one more time, before walking away, holding her shoulder.
"Fuck," Weldon angrily swept some equipment from a table, "what do we do now!?"
Hannah breathed, trying to figure things out. If Jar-hidda wasn't here, had he managed to escape? If so, where was he? There was no damage to the elevator doors so he hadn't forced them, and all his weapons and armor was still there. She could only conclude that he hadn't escaped, but rather he had been moved.
"F-fred," Hannah whispered, turning her back to a wall and sliding down it, "Jar-hidda's not h-here."
There was silence for a bit in response, the background noise of the voices of people chatting while being boarded onto the shuttles had turned into a hiss. Hannah's eyes opened and she leaned forward as she started hears a cry of fear, then someone crying, then screaming and gunfire.
Then Fred's voice came through evenly.
"Hannah, they're here."
Hannah looked up at the marines, listening to the chaos erupt in her ear. It didn't take her long to figure what she needed to do.
"New plan," she growled, bracing her hand against the wall to stand, "th-the bomb, give it to me."
"Bomb?"
Hannah pointed at Jar-hidda's wrist computer in Weldon's hand, and he looked at it, "you said this was a timer!"
"I-t is, i-it's a wrist computer that controls almost e-everything a yautja has in his arsenal, y-you can set it to overload to deal with really big problems, like the gro-owing one we have."
Weldon stepped forward and looked at the wrist computer already on Hannah's wrist.
"Mine doesn't," she said bluntly, extending her arm, "Jar-h-hidda's is too large for my wrist, but i-it should fit on my bicep."
Weldon nodded and set down the rest of what was in his arm and moved over, sliding the wrist computer over her own and then up her arm. With her guidance he pressed the button that allowed the device to adjust to her arm, though it still felt loose.
"Alright," she sighed, "h-help me carry what I can."
The two marines worked with little input from her, strapping and setting weapons and gear where she directed and where they fit. Now fully armored, she also carried Jar-hidda's glaive, two of his burners in addition to one of her own, and the shoulder armor he'd need to hold the burners. His mask was in her trophy net along with his other gauntlet. Everything else would weigh her down, and already disadvantaged as she was, she couldn't afford to be slow with the kainde amedha running around. As much as she didn't want to, she ordered the rest to be left on the ground.
"I-if I find him, we can come ba-ack for it," she assured the marines, "these are the es-ssentials."
"Alright," Weldon said, dusting off his hands, "now what?"
"Let her out."
The marine blinked rapidly at her snarl, then looked over at the naked woman in the cage. He gave her a side-ways glance and Hannah nodded. Markley took the initiative and stepped to the panel inspecting it before tapping on the buttons. Hannah walked up to the door and Nielson backed away. There was a tense moment of silence before the door opened and Hannah rushed in amid the pleading cries of the woman.
She grabbed Nielson by the hair as she tried to run around her, then dragged her to the ground so that she could position her to be grabbed by the back of the neck. Standing the sobbing scientist up, Hannah growled as she marched her out.
"So this is the plan you two," she snarled, walking right out of the room and towards the elevator, Weldon snatching up the scientist's clothes as they walked, "they need y-you at the evacuation floor, the kainde amedha are attacking and w-we need to get as many people off this ship be-efore there are more of them. We're going to go back up, w-we're going to split up, you're going to go join your ranks in fighting the kainde amedha, Nielson and I a-are going to go to where they're coming from."
Weldon and Markley looked at each other before glancing at Hannah, "we were ordered to make sure you found your buddy."
"He's not here," she growled, "and... I suspect I-I know what happened to him. If I'm right, I pla-an on dying on this ship with him. You two don't need to sh-share in that fate."
Markley stopped as they approached the elevator, Weldon taking Nielson from Hannah and dragging her to the panel to get it working and to get her dressed.
"You think he's been taken?" Markley asked.
"Jar-hidda w-wouldn't have left his things here, especially not the bomb, i-it was integral to our plan," Hannah rattled slowly, "the only reason h-he w-would have left this here, is if he was taken below."
Markley looked over at Weldon and the crying Nielson, "she may know something."
"I considered that too, l-luckily she and I will have s-some time to talk on the way there."
The elevator doors opened to Nielson's inputs and Weldon dragged her inside. Hannah and Markley entered and Hannah leaned against the wall, steadying her breathing and trying to get her shaking under control. Nielson's makeup-streaked eyes looked at Hannah, the scientist herself shaking. Hannah saw the question in her eyes, but merely growled. Nielson's eyes looked to the wound, and then dropped to Hannah's hip at the net dripping with barely glowing blood.
She gave out a shriek and retreated back into Weldon, begging, "no! Please don't! Don't let her please!"
Hannah snarled, "you best be quiet, Nielson. The la-ast thing I need is the kainde amedha c-coming after us because you couldn't shut up."
The elevator opened and Hannah stepped forward, gripping the woman's arm and taking her from Weldon. Nielson whimpered but kept relatively silent as they stepped out into the crimson-lit hallway.
Hannah looked down both ways before looking to the marines, "we w-won't meet again," she warned, "I-I hope you survive this, or die well."
Weldon snorted, "die well?"
Markley nodded, "die well."
The older marine saluted Hannah and she stood straight and nodded. Weldon nodded back and saluted as well. Hannah held Nielson's arm tightly as she watched the two marines head down the hallway, guns ready, until they vanished from sight.
Hannah turned and yanked the scientist along with her, down the hallway towards where the secret door was located.
"You," she hissed at the woman, who turned her frightened eyes towards Hannah, "y-you are going to tell me everything."