Trials of Beta
Chapter Ten: Courage and Recklessness Revisited
"I cut it off with my own Saber..." Alex said, causing everyone to look at him in shock.
"Whoa… If your left arm offends thee, cut it off, eh?" Yuno said, not quite taking the man serious. "I bet some bot just cut if off and you're too embarrassed to tell us."
"Yuno lay off." Beta said.
"No, let the fool think what she wants," Alex said, eyeing the Ranger coldly.
Yuno returned the icy gaze, standing off with the Hunter. Neither looked away, neither backed down. Uriko cleared her throat. "Should we perhaps now move on?"
"Alex?" Beta inquired to the man's status.
"Yeah, I'm good to go. I've had more then long enough to regain my strength, and the longer we wait, the more ground HK gains on us..." He said, pushing himself off the wall, his gaze never leaving Yuno's. He was never one to back down from a challenge, and if this rookie of a Ranger thought he'd be an easy victim just because he had only one arm, she was in for a whole world of hurt.
"Yuno...?" The blue haired Force inquired meekly.
"Hmph... Let's move out Uriko. Beta, Alex, we got your back. Well, Beta's back anyways. Captain Ragol here doesn't need us to watch his back, ain't that right Hunter boy?"
"Beta, did you happen to hear anything just now? No? Must be my imagination then." Alex jested, turning an indifferent shoulder to the Ranger, who seemed a mite bit infuriated by the fact she wasn't able to evoke the response she wanted from him. The FOmar, on the other hand, just wanted to remain neutral in this small feud.
"Huh? Wha? Why are you asking me? Don't drag me into this mess!" He replied quickly, holding up his hands defensively as he followed along behind Alex. Brushing some of her sea green hair away from her face, Yuno assumed flank guard position, her oversized Crush Bullet Shotgun in the ready to fire position. Uriko brought up the rear, since she was the best suited for this role.
Stupid... Dumb Hunter. You think you're so cool just because you cut off your own arm... Well you're not cool! You're dumb and stupid and and and... Ooooooo! You make me so mad! Yuno fumed, her grip tightening on the handle of her Crush Bullet, causing her knuckles to turn a shade of white.
"Yuno, calm yourself please…" Uriko suggested. Beta noticed that the FOmarl didn't talk much, she just kind of hung out in the background, not drawing attention to herself. It reminded him of himself long ago…
The way was surprising short, just past another few rooms and activating a third pillar. The battle worn mining area gave way to what looked like the entrance to an underground building. The evidence of battle was here, but thus far, they have found no human corpses…
~*~*~*~*~*~
What we had stumbled into was a large ship, made by alien technology much more advanced then our own. How had the people of Pioneer 1 found it? Was it by accident? Or did someone already 'know' it was there? No… That can't be possible… Can it?
~*~*~*~*~*~
Almost immediately after entering the ship, Beta and his friends find themselves in a large hall, the walls made out of some sort of dark, semi-organic/metallic material, the likes of which none of them had ever seen.
"Whoa... This place is pretty high tech, in a creepy scare the bejeezus outta ya kinda way..." Alex said, inspecting a surface closely. Pressing his hand against it, he was surprised it felt warm, like it was alive, "It's warm… And… I can feel it pulsating!" He announced.
In the center of the room, four yellow circles appeared, and within these circles were a single alien creature. The creature, flanked by three identical twins, walked on stubby legs towards the intruders into their ship. Each arm was a blade, and their purpose was painfully obvious: Death. They had no eyes, or at least, nit eyes like we know them. With dark, almost black hardened exoskeleton, the creatures were unlike anything any of them could ever dream of in their worst nightmares.
Right off the bat Yuno let loose with her Crush Bullet, yellow Photon bullets arcing out from the front of the gun, to impact against their attackers, doing little damage other then a minor annoyance. "You want a piece of this?!" She screamed at them, "Then come get a piece of mama!"
Beta shook his head, amazed at Yuno and her bloodlust. Alex spearheaded the assault, engaging the foursome in close quarter's combat, while himself and Uriko were contently to support from afar, she using support magic, while Beta favored the handy Foie spell. Granted, he had more advanced magic, but magic didn't discern between ally and foe: If he let loose with a Rafoie now, he'd run the risk of getting Alex caught in the blast.
May your soul rest in peace. Beta though as the first beast went down, only to be replaced by another one that phased into the room, causing everyone present save Uriko and Yuno to be taken aback.
"What the bloody hell?" Alex voiced Beta's thoughts exactly... Well, almost.
"It's as we suspected. Forget them, cut the ones that matter and run. We can't defeat them, they will just keep on coming!" Uriko shouted, following her own advice and fleeing the area, ducking into a northwest running corridor, Yuno in hot pursuit.
"They're reinforcing their numbers! Get the hell out ya idiots!" She shouted to Alex and Beta. Cursing as more of the creatures, as well as their bigger brothers, started phasing into the battlefield, Alex followed the two women, with Beta being the last one out. The creatures gave pursuit, hot on the trail of the group of four intruders. Drawing Lunehhy's Bravace, Beta aimed the gun behind him and fired randomly as he ran to keep up with Alex and the others.
The corridor spilled into another great hall, where a trap laid waiting for the quartet. Uriko was the first into the chamber, Yuno a split second behind. From the far side phased in two more humanoid creatures, these one with one blade arm and one shield arm, unlike the smaller, more squat defenders. These were obviously designed for attacking outright. They leapt forth on powerful legs, crossing the distance between themselves and Yuno and Uriko in a single bound. Yuno shoved Uriko aside, brought up her Crush Bullet and fired point blank range into the Delsaber as it came crashing down on top of her. She screamed as it's sword arm pierced her shoulder, then squeezed the trigger a second time, it's mid-section being blown away by the five Photon shells fired into it. It's heavy body dragged Yuno to the ground, trapping her underneath it's weight. "Shit!" She cursed as she struggled to free herself.
It's partner landed right next to the two, then closed on Uriko, with every intention of cutting her to shreds.
Alex bursts into the chamber, saw what was happening, and immediately went to Uriko's aid, rushing the Delsaber from behind. It ignored Alex's attack, it's single track mind locked on eliminating Uriko.
Fear etched itself onto Uriko's face as she rolled onto her back. She knew the mission would be dangerous, but this was beyond anything she had prepared for. "Rabarta!" She shouted the name of the spell as she shoved her staff in the creature's direction. A spray of frost magic shot forth, engulfing the beast and encasing it in rock solid ice. Beta, the last one in, was panting. "More coming up! They're right behind me!" Kilala growled, more Delsabers and other beasts phasing in. It was like the whole ship was coming to kill them.
"Is there no end!?" Alex exclaimed.
"Hey! Help me assholes!" Yuno cried, still trapped under the dead Delsaber. Alex went to help Yuno as the Delsabers closed in for the attack, the beasts from the first chamber pouring into the room. They were surrounded on both sides and heavily out-numbered; things did not look good for them.
Kilala nudged Beta's neck, letting him know it was time. Nodding his head in understanding, Beta rushed to stand near Yuno's trapped form, then let his Mag do it's job, unleashing it's pent up energy in the form of a Photon Blast. Throwing his head back and his arms out to his side, Beta summoned forth a creature born of the mixture of magic and technology, a ring of light surrounding him, protecting him from those who would seek to attack him during this time of vulnerability. Seeing Beta doing this, Uriko immediately went to his side, adding her Mag's own Photon energy to the blast to help strengthen it, as well as to seek the relative protection of his shield.
Time froze for Beta, a Delsaber in mid-jump, three already on top of them, countless more monstrosities pouring from where they had just come from. Why? Why are they so intent on killing us? Pialla… Please… Please help us… Hearing Beta's request, Pialla, a powerful entity bound to the will of it's creators, came forth, emerging from a spatial portal above Beta's head. The tall, dark purple summon gathered Photon energy in it's stubby wings, then shot out rays of purple energy, lancing all the monsters around them many times, inflicting untold harm on the enemies of it's master. It remained a second longer to view its handiwork, then retreated to its haven. Time returned to normal, and all those attacking them abruptly just fell over, many holes in their bodies from Pialla's assault. Beta let out a sigh of relief.
"Way to go buddy!" Alex shouted, knocking over the corpse of the Delsaber trapping Yuno.
"I am most impress..." Uriko said.
"I was just about to do that!" Yuno said, brushing dust off her uniform as she stood up. They all went tense, waiting for the next wave to appear. But it never came. Perhaps, upon seeing the attack, whoever or whatever was sending those creatures out stopped, not wanting to send more of it's defenders to their doom. It was hard to say. Wiping his hand across his brow, Beta grinned and shrugged. He hadn't even noticed that his veil had fallen off somewhere along the way. "You're kinda cute with that veil off, Beta." Yuno said, pressing a hand to her shoulder to try and stop the bleeding.
Beta blushed, realizing that his veil had indeed fallen off, but he was more concerned about Yuno's nasty shoulder wound. "Here, lemme heal that."
"Go ahead..." She allowed him to heal her.
Concentrating on the wound, Beta's hands glowed, Resta healing Yuno's body back to full health. "There..."
"Hmmm... When this is all over, ya wanna go have dinner with me, or something? My treat..." She asked him.
Alex cleared his throat before the FOmar could answer. "I don't think NOW is an appropriate time for you two to be getting all lovey-dovey."
"Quiet, you're just jealous I'm asking him instead of you." Yuno accused Alex of jealousy.
"Um... How about, no?" He retorted.
Beta was amazed, not more then a second ago, they were all fighting for their lives, and now, once the danger has pass, Yuno and Alex were bickering amongst themselves. He himself was still feeling the adrenaline pumping in his body, his senses on full alert, which was why he sensed it coming before the others knew it was upon them. "Watch out!" He shouted as he shoved Yuno into Alex, sending the two crashing to the ground in a mass of legs and arms. Not more then an instant later, something invisible came running full speed, slamming into Beta with it's head. The force of the impact sent Beta flying like rag doll, him smashing into the wall, blood splattering from the back of his head as it slammed against the wall. Darkness enveloped him.
"Holy shit!" Someone far away shouted, their voice barely above a whisper to Beta. He was losing grip on reality, fading with the light. Am I… Dying? Was his last thought before the cold engulfed him whole...