"Can you at least tell if you found anything useful?"
"I found something all right"
"Oh come on," Violet groaned. "And I thought you had a stick up your ass before..."
Raven ignored her, not slowing down, keeping her hand on the sheathed katana's handle. The girl growled under her breath and caught up to her and the Huntress subconsciously checked her pocket and shoved the note deeper into it.
"Hey, I noticed how strongly you clutched that piece of paper," Violet murmured. "Is it something… personal?"
"… In that same vein, yes," Raven replied. "Not something for young eyes to see."
Violet narrowed her eyes and finally gave up, opting to move behind Raven and watch their rear, for which the woman was thankful. The two finally reached the mid-section between the spine and the rear of the ship, finding abandoned items and damaged electrical equipment along the way… and blood puddles of course but so far, no hostiles. Just occasional groans of metallic plates. Violet tried to aggressively deny that she jumped several times, fooling literally no one. Raven found strange solace in that. Good to know that she wasn't the only one. They continued walking in silence save for quiet curses from the engineer every time she tripped on some wiring or a personal belonging. Raven hummed quietly, checking the map. The destination was not far, just a level down.
"Where are all the nasty bitches…?"
Wow, the girl had a potty mouth, Raven learned but secretly asked the same question. Very likely the inhabitants of the vessel were drawn to the other party who were by far the loudest. Not the nicest way of thinking about it but it was quiet here in this part of the ship which was definitely a boon. Last thing she wanted was to get swarmed while she had a teenager to watch over.
*CLANG*
Violet jerked the handgun to the closest vent, trembling slightly. Raven shook her head and put her hand on the weapon, lowering it down. At Violet's mute confusion, she whispered.
"Wrong kind of sound. It's not in the vents."
"… Oh."
Raven exhaled and continued in the same hushed tone, "Whatever it is, is probably in one of the locked sections. Keep moving. The faster we get to the reactor, the better."
"...Okay..."
The two kept creeping forward. Raven was not the best with words and it was apparent in Violet's behavior. Granted her explanation was not meant to quell the teenager's anxiety. The two stopped and Raven scanned the area… A distant screech of metal drew her attention. She motioned Violet to follow her and turned the corner. Violet's fingers twitched and her knees trembled. Maybe giving her a firearm was not the best idea.
"Qrow," Raven's spoke into her mic. "Where are you two?"
"Ran in a bit of a snag," Qrow replied. "We're in an elevator shaft right now, climbing up to residential level."
Raven raised an eyebrow glancing at Violet who was struggling to fill in the blanks, "… Pardon?"
"The lift got stuck," Weiss clarified. "Decided to take a short route."
After a moment of silence, Raven spoke up, "Understood. Let me know when you're there."
"That doesn't seem like part of the plan."
"You don't say. Let's go."
*THUD / THUD*
Violet immediately knelt down, lowering herself to the ground. Raven crouched down beside her and glanced up. The little elevator stunt surely attracted the monsters' attention as the thudding that started somewhere above them started moving away in the direction of the other pair.
"Hey you two, looks like you'll have a welcoming party waiting for you upstairs," Raven radioed in. No answer.
"Do we…?"
"… No," she shook her head after consideration. "They'll be fine, we need to do our part."
Violet was about to protest but Raven's 'Can it?' look stopped her. Some minutes later, they also came up to one of the elevators. Risking, Raven touched the sensor. The door frame vibrated and the whirring sound of lift starting to go down. Releasing a sigh, Violet checked behind them. Raven kept her gaze on the sensor that was counting levels the elevator passed on its way down to them.
"Hey."
"What is it?" Raven looked behind her. Violet silently pointed up. Following the index finger the Huntress's eyes found a row of ceiling lights slowly dimming. "Mmm, that's just great."
The lights grew weaker and weaker, seemingly draining power to keep the elevator moving. Violet crouch-walked towards the lift with Raven covering her back. The lift stopped and the doors slowly groaned open. The pair got in and Violet punched the lowest floor. Only then did Raven let go of her blade and lowered the handgun.
"Sure hope the power doesn't die on us while we're in here," Violet commented. "That would suck."
"Don't jinx us, kid."
"Ain't junxing if it's true, and I'm an engineer," Violet bristled. "I didn't get the education for my good looks. I give it about ten to fifteen minutes before the emergency power goes out. Then the auxiliary batteries will be our last hope."
"Better pray your calculations are wrong then."
Getting stuck in a dead elevator with all the monsters roaming about was not on her bucket list for the day. The elevator shook, probably catching onto the bent metal. The kid was getting antsy, her hands roaming at her waist, waiting to point the pistol at any little shadow.
"You know, this ship is pretty old, like, super old."
"Oh?" Raven humored the engineer. Anything to take the edge off the damn child.
"Turbolifts are common tech these days, they use plasma energy burst to move," Violet went on and knocked on the wall. "This one doesn't. It uses cable system still."
"How can you tell?"
"The sound," Violet pointed to her ear. "The clicking sound. It's the cables unwinding."
"How long will our descent take?"
"Two to three minutes more, give or take."
"Good."
The elevator's vibrations started to grow more noticeable and the G-force on their bodies was easing. With a low groan, the contraption slowed down until halting. The women prepared their weapons and watched the doors screech open. The picture was about what the Huntress expected: corpses littered about, the floor painted red, torn metal walls and sparking wiring.
"Looks like they had good time here," Violet chuckled. Raven could hear a gagging choke in her voice.
"Let's go. Watch your surroundings, I doubt all of them were drawn away by Qrow and Weiss."
Violet shook herself and tried not to look down at the floor. Once more they were moving at snail's pace. Contradictory to her concern, Raven didn't see any signs of hostiles as they came up to huge open section behind a sealed door. Violet hotwired the controls and the doors flew open, dragging all kinds of objects, crates with parts and debris into it. The two women were then lifted off the ground, flailing for good ten seconds.
"Great," Violet swatted away a random fire extinguisher. "Zero-g."
"Got thrusters?" Raven grabbed onto bent railing.
"Yeah, do you?"
"No."
Raven glanced at her boots. This is one time she overlooked things.
"Well you can just jump off stuff," Violet did so with grace of penguin. "Momentum will do the rest."
"I wasn't born yesterday, kid."
"Just saying."
Shaking her head, she watched as the engineer made her way across the room, her little thruster doing most of the work. Tensing her legs, she propelled herself off the wall and followed.
"Man I missed playing in zero-g," Violet turned off her thrusters and rotated around like a ball. Raven raised an eyebrow at such display but didn't speak. Violet noticed and, predictably was about to nag her again.
"Come on! This is one time we'll have some levity in-"
*CRASH*
The engineer shut up and tried to reorient herself, "Holy shit what was that!?"
"Don't know but it sounded big," Raven looked back to check. That was a mistake as her attention was drawn back by shrill scream from Violet.
"Aaaaaaaaah! H- help!"
To her horror, the girl was wrestling with what looked like a… an infant with six limbs, trying to pierce Violet's suit. It was covered in the same black coating as well as a lot of blood. The two struggled for control. Violet couldn't grab her gun without risking letting go of the creature's limbs. The Huntress grabbed her handgun and grinding her teeth, pointed it at the monster.
"Kid! Hold it still!"
"Oh god!" Violet managed to tie some of the limbs together and pushed the "child" just enough away for Raven to unload the clip into it. With a screech and a lot of now floating blood, the abomination drifted off into space. The girl was still jerking around, her face mix of shock and horror. Raven grabbed the kid and dragged her through the air towards the door on the other side. Feeling the door control panel with one hand, she activated it and pushed Violet through, following and closing the door behind them. Sudden force of gravity sent Violet crashing onto the floor and Raven landed on her feet, immediately crouching afterwards, checking their surroundings. Violet's breathing was erratic and shallow, she hugged herself and crammed herself into the corner. With no other threats present, the Huntress came up to Violet and crouched down, noticing the girl clutching her right shoulder.
"Violet, breathe," Raven pried the arm off the shoulder as Violet kept staring into nothing. There was a small puncture point in the suit and a bit of blood. "Nothing too serious but it needs to be disinfected."
She took out a small bottle from her pouch and screwed the cap off. She looked at the kid whose eyes were slowly watching her movements and poured bit of antiseptic onto piece of cloth from her waist sash. Steadying Violet's shoulder, she carefully swiped the blood off it. Violet hissed and Raven then poured the medicine right out of the bottle into the puncture and Violet immediately jerked away and almost yelped out, Raven closed her mouth with her palm. She kept wiping the blood away as the engineer's struggling slowly ceased. The Huntress took out the synth-patch and slid it into the tear and applied it to the wound As it started to seal up, Raven removed her palm from Violet's mouth who by now just leaning against the wall, eyes finally focused.
"There," Raven glanced at Violet's face: little bit pale, nothing too serious. "Come on, we still have long way to go."
"N-not that long," Violet stammered and rolled her shoulder, frowning at the ache and fairly numb arm, looking up to Raven getting on her feet. "Can we spare five minutes? I might get dizzy."
The woman looked at the kid and mulled the request over. There were likely other creatures such as this one. With muted grunt, the Huntress sat down by Violet's side, checking her gear. Violet sighed and slid down the wall further, minding her shoulder.
"Well that's horrible," the girl muttered and answered Raven's silent question. "This is suit doesn't have sealing function. This exposed area is here to stay."
"Better get our task done quickly then."
"So, a mad dash?"
"Fifty-fifty on this one," Raven answered. "Sprinting all the way to the reactor is quick but it will draw attention."
"So, going incrementally again?"
"Safest option."
Violet hummed and carefully put her weight on her knees, preparing to stand up. Raven got up and held her arm to help her up. It was quite a way ahead still. Letting Violet to stick to her like a bad smell, Raven led them deeper into the engineering deck. After a while, Raven decided to break radio silence.
"Qrow, come in," Raven spoke into the mic. "What's your status?"
Violet looked at the woman while they were waiting. Dead air lasted total of five seconds.
"We're near the bridge," Qrow's voice was labored. "This whole place is one helluva shitshow."
"Locals give you hard time?"
"Indeed," Weiss's voice came through, no less exhausted. "We're progressing albeit slowly."
"Good… good," Raven absentmindedly drummed her fingers on her katana. "We're almost at the reactor chamber."
"Almost?" Qrow asked. "Should've already been there. What's the hold up?"
"Half-dead elevators, shadows playing tricks," Raven listed and glanced at Violet. "And the kid got injured."
"How bad?"
"Not the worst but I fear the right arm has lost its function for now."
"Keep us posted," Weiss spoke up. "We should reach the bridge in about ten minutes, provided no more of these things jump us."
Signing off, Raven motioned for Violet to follow her.