I don't own Vandread.
Chapter 3 Same old same old
"This installation we're heading to, why did your people keep it off the radar?" Hibiki asked Rain. It had only taken them two days since to get to the station, and it had only taken three major fights with Hibiki and Rain to get there.
Rain had taken a major disliking towards the three men onboard the ship, all of which had taken most of the women to hold him off when Hibiki or Bart made a bad comment about him. As for the women, he had been in someway, the same to the women, only nicer. He, for some reason, had taken a slight liking to Meia and Magno for reasons unknown. Barnette was at the top of his hate file, while Jura was a second best. As for the women, they just tried to coop with him, knowing that he would take awhile to get use to.
"The installation was used as a testing facility for medical research and weapon development. It was developed was for the soul reason of keeping things hidden from public eyes." Rain stated. He looked over at Hibiki with a hateful look on his face. "Why do you care?"
"I was just curious that's all." Hibiki said hastily. Rain growled as he turned to look at the station they were heading towards. Man, this guy is strange!
"What's on the station that you know about?" Barnette asked. Barnette was piloting the shuttle they were using to get to the station. Barnette too had taken a high disliking to Rain.
"Pretty much white walls, white walls, and more white walls." Rain stated. Barnette growled at him, as if to warn him that he was pushing the line. "There's a Bio Garden and a bunch of hangers. Anything else, and I couldn't tell you." He snapped.
"Rain," Meia began. Rain looked over at Meia with an odd look on his face. "Is there anything important we need to know about?"
"Not that I'm aware of." He said sadly. "In any case, we need to keep our wits about us, and our eyes pealed for anything out of the ordinary."
"Why do you say that?" Jura snapped.
"Are your ears clogged with all your makeup you wear?" Rain snapped. Jura narrowed her eyes on him as he walked over to the Co-Pilot seat beside Barnette. "You heard what Commander Blood said, didn't you?" Jura mumbled a few curses as he continued. "He said we could be dealing with the same things that you had to take on at the first colony. That's why I said, "Keep your eyes pealed and your wits about you" a moment ago."
"Listen you…"
"Barnette, that's enough." Meia commanded. "He's going to be like Alex now. That means that he'll be the only one to help us in getting this mission done."
"Alright." She sighed in defeat. She looked over at Rain with a scowl on her face. "Just stay out of my way and I promise not to kill you in the crossfire." She seethed.
"Same goes to you." He replied. Meia just sighed as the two pilots ended the conversation with a threat/promise compromise that could only mean trouble. Hibiki just grumbled something that no one could hear. Jura just blinked in surprise while she looked in-between the two pilots with a strange expression. "Heading to Hanger C5; prepare for landing sequence."
(-)
"This place doesn't look any different from the other two stations we've been on." Barnette stated. The hanger was the same as the last one they had been to; White walls, large crates, and an odd array of mechs at every corner.
"Yeah, but why is the power on?" Hibiki questioned. Everyone stopped and stared up at the ceiling. Sure enough, the power was on. "You think that AI was wrong?"
"No, he's never wrong." Rain stated. "Someone or something might have turned the power on by either accident or purpose. Stay on your toes; I don't want anything going sour at a time like this." Rain told them.
"Why do you have such faith in that AI, anyways?" Jura asked. "Why do your people listen to them if you believe that computers lie?"
"They're never wrong." Rain told her while walking over to the door. "This way, it'll lead us to the main hallway that leads to the Command Station. Hopefully we won't have many of those strange creatures to deal with. I'd hate to have to fight them."
"That's probably the first thing you've said that I actually appreciated." Jura said while pulling her weapon out. The team was using the same weapons as before, but Rain was using Alex's old weapon. "So, how do we get the power on?"
"We need to head to the Reactor Room to turn the power on. After that, we can head straight for the Command Room. Once we get there, I'll have Maya enter the system to find the life pod, find Dale, and then start the Self Destruction sequence." Rain stated.
"You know, I remember when Alex told me that the Reactor Room was to us an Instrument of our death if we didn't move our ass." Hibiki said with a grin.
"Yeah, that sounds like him." Rain moaned as he walked over to a flight of stairs. "Come, this way."
"Come, this way." Jura mocked. Barnette snickered slightly as she followed the young man down the stairs. "So, how many flights of stares do we have to go through?"
"Twenty five flights." He stated nonchalantly. Jura almost paled at the mere sound of that. "Don't worry, there's a secret to making it go a lot faster." He stopped a small ledge.
"Oh, and what would that be." Jura asked, sarcasm dripping from her lips. Rain raised a brow before jumping over the ledge. "What the hell! Is he insane?!" Jura screamed as she leaned over the railing to stare down into the darkness of the tunnel that lead down the flight of stares.
"If doesn't die from that, I swear I'll kill him!" Hibiki screamed. Meia was just wide eyed at what he did.
"You know, it's not that far of a drop?" Rain's voice said over the radio. Meia just sighed in relief while Jura, Barnette, and Hibiki all began yelling at him over the radio. "Shut the hell up before I kill all of you!" That was enough to shut Hibiki up and cool Jura down slightly, but not enough to stop Barnette. A clicking sound instantly signaled that his radio had been killed.
"Why that little…" Barnette began.
"Don't worry about." Meia said. She walked over the ledge and did the same thing, scaring Barnette and Jura. Hibiki was just shocked over what she did.
"This guy's a bad influence." Barnette moaned. Barnette's eyes suddenly latched onto something strange. She walked over to the strange thing and found a long rope attached to the railing. "Now I see." She whispered. Barnette instantly took firm hold and jumped off, leaving Jura to stare in shock. Hibiki just remained wide eyed until he saw the same thing. With a slight shrug, he followed the team down, leaving a worried Jura behind.
Jura stared down into the black abyss that had swallowed her friends. She began whimpering as she began running around the room in worry.
"Jura, take the rope and slid down." Barnette told her over the radio. Jura blinked and then looked down at the railing to see a rope. She gave a little chuckle as she grabbed hold and dropped down.
(-)
"Is everyone here now?" Rain moaned. Jura grumbled a "Yes" while the others just moaned a response. "Good, now let's get moving." He growled. The team shrugged and followed the young man through a series of corridors. A few corridors had a small amount of bodies, but nothing to great. A large Bio Garden could be seen out of one of the many windows in some hallways.
"How much longer until we get there?" Jura asked.
"Just two more corridors and one large door I'll have to blow." Rain told her. Barnette smirked at the sound of that.
"What kind of explosives you got?" Barnette questioned.
"A special type of C4 that was built with a electromagnetic pulse that will neutralize the safety second door that activates incase of an emergency." Rain told her. "For the record, this door will probably come flying at us when I detonate the explosive, because of its secondary effect. The explosive will pull the suronding area into itself before throwing it away. So, keep your heads down and stay hidden."
"Great." Jura moaned. Yeah, this guy's trouble.
"Why would you use such an explosive?!" Hibiki screamed.
"In hopes of killing you." He seethed. Hibiki paled while Barnette wondered if he meant all of them or just Hibiki. Barnette stopped thinking bout it as they come across nine bodies.
Rain knelt down beside them as he shook his head. "Damn." He whispered.
"You know them?" Meia asked. Rain nodded. "What Cell do they belong to?"
"They belong to Cell Blade Wing and Cell Fire Wing. This is the strike force that was sent here to find Cole and the pod." Rain stated. "I wonder why there's nine here though." He questioned. Meia opened her mouth to say something. "Never the less, we'll have to deal with it later." Rain stood up. "Come on, this way."
Meia looked down at the nine soldiers that had suffered from a series of large cuts, being skewered, and from the look of two corpses, sucked dry. With a slight low moan, she walked off, leaving the strange bodies behind.
"So how much longer until we reach the Reactor Room?" Jura asked. Rain turned left down another corridor while Jura continued to talk. "How are we going to turn the power on when the powers off to the whole station?"
"The station's main power will come back on after we replace the six circuit chips on all six tower clusters. If we want the power back on, we have to replace them all. Don't worry, I know how to replace all of them, so don't worry." Rain told them.
"Is that all?" Hibiki moaned.
"Yes."
"Okay then, let's just get this over with." Meia said. Something feels wrong; this place can't just have a power failure without reason. Something's on this place. Something that's doesn't want us to find something.
Meia was ripped from her thoughts as they approached the door. She took one look at it and then over at Rain who was looking rather confused. The door had been ripped off its hinges and was covered with human bodies. Rain slowly walked over to one of the many corpses.
"I don't think we need to worry about the door now." Hibiki muttered. He scanned one of the bodies, looking at the females' mangled body. She looked no older than fifteen to him. "So many kids." He whispered. He watched Rain pick on up by the throat to look at it. "Hey, don't you have any respect for the dead?!"
"He was like me." He mumbled as he threw the corpses aside. Hibiki just stared as Rain walked over the corpses. Hibiki was at first a little disturbed by his actions, but then figured that he had his reason. What good is showing respect to the dead when you were about to blow up a station filled with dead bodies? He had good reasons for his actions now that they made sense. "Come, we must quicken our pace. The enemy is probably close."
"Why do you say that?" Jura asked.
"Those corpses were fresh. That means that the enemy is somewhere nearby. So keep you eyes pealed please." Rain stated. The team tensed up at that, readying their weapons while looking around into the darkness. "Don't worry, Maya will guide the way."
A bright light appeared from the left wrist PDA as Maya appeared, shining brightly. What was once darkness was now light. Maya seemed like a beacon of hope to the team as they moved to the first tower cluster.
"The Circuit Tower should be to the left." Maya stated. "This way, follow me." She said while floating towards the first tower. The team followed the glowing sphere towards the first tower. Rain walked towards the board that Maya was hover beside while placing his gun on his back. "Here you go. Fix this tower so we can move onto the next one." She told him
Rain shrugged and pulled the hatch open while seating down a few chips. Maya hovered beside certain ones while the others took up a defensive stance. Meia was to the left of Rain, serving as active sharpshooter again. Barnette was on Rain's right, serving as active sniper again. Hibiki was behind him with his back turned to him with Jura doing the same beside him. Rain made quick work of first tower and began leading the team to the next one. Once again the tower was quickly fixed with the team taking up the same stance. After twenty minutes, they had all but the center tower fixed. Rain was still working on the tower, at the moment.
"Come on, how much longer?" Jura wined. Rain slammed the hatch closed as he stood up. "Never mind."
"All systems are now online." Maya announced. The lights slowly began to flicker on, bringing light back to the dark abyss around them. Maya slowly faded away into Rain's PDA as he picked up his weapon to place it on his shoulder. "We should get moving. The longer we stay here, the better chance we have of the beasts finding us." Maya told them.
"Yeah, yeah I hear ya." Rain grumbled. The team slowly began to walk towards the main door that would lead them to the main corridor. Rain caught movement out of the corner of his eye. He stopped and raised his gun towards the target, but found nothing there.
I could have sworn I just saw…
"Rain, you see something?" Meia asked. Rain placed his weapon on his shoulder.
"No, I didn't see anything." He told her.
"Well, don't get us that riled up about nothing, okay?" Hibiki told him. Rain just growled as he walked through the team and towards the door.
I did see something there though. I know I saw something.
The corridor was lined with bodies, blood, and even animals that had been tested on. Hibiki once again looked down at one of the many bodies. He was staring at a little girl. She couldn't have been any older than eight years old. She was holding onto a brown bear that had a small cut in its belly.
"Hibiki, stop daydreaming, and start following us." Rain stated. "I may want to leave you behind, but these women won't allow me to do such a thing. So hurry up, Small Fry."
"Yeah… I'm coming." Hibiki whispered. Rain narrowed his eyes on the body of the little girl before shrugging and turning to continue down the long corridor.
"So, what kind of weapons can we find on this station?" Barnette asked. She knew that any kind of secret military installation would always have a secret stash of weapons and other military weapons. She was trying to picture some of them as she walked along the path they had been taking for almost two minutes in silence.
"I will not allow any of our weapons to get off this installation in one piece." He stated firmly.
"But what if we run out of ammo?" She pouted.
Rain stopped and stared at her. He had to force himself to not just palm himself in her presence. She was right, and he was now going to have to admit it. "One point to you." He groaned.
"What?" Barnette asked with a grin.
"I said "Up yours"." He shouted. Barnette turned around to face him while getting ready to punch him. Rain pointed his gun at her face at point blank rang. Barnette froze in fear as he made a banging motion with the weapon. "Remember this, I am your key off this station now. So if you can grasp that, than you are smarter than what I thought you to be." He stated while turning to leave her. Meia just stared at his retreating form while Jura was snapping Barnette from her fear.
Meia ran up to Rain while Jura helped Barnette get her wits back. "You shouldn't do that." She stated.
"Why do you care what I do, Meia?" He asked. His tone was a strange one. He actually sounded worried about his actions now. Meia was the only one that ever heard him speak like this. She knew very little about him from personal conversation from his own mouth, but she already knew quite a bit from Maya. "I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault." She whispered. Rain looked back at Jura and the rest of the team as they slowly trotted behind them.
"Say, why do you like that man from Taraaku? I thought your kind hated theirs?" Rain whispered. Meia looked back at the team before shrugging and looking over at Rain.
"I don't know, maybe we just needed to understand one another. With the war, I guess we never stopped to try to talk things through. But I guess we really wouldn't since we had taken up that stance for years before finally just giving up and fighting them." She replied.
"You know that war was probably started because a man went to bed with his wife angry at him, right?" Rain questioningly joked.
"What makes you say that?" Meia asked. She had to admit, that did sound kinda funny. Alex had told her stories about his father being forced to sleep on the couch because he mad Asaugi very angry.
"You were once with Alex, I'm sure that you had a few fights were you never let him sleep in your room with you." He inquired.
Meia looked down at the ground at that. "To tell you the truth, I only slept with him once, and that was when we first got together. I can still feel him sometimes, like he's sleeping beside me at night." She rubbed away a single tear. "I still miss him. I wish he was here with us right now."
"You wish that he lived at that I never came with you?" Rain questioned.
"No, I didn't mean it like that. It's just… just that I wish I could see him one last time." She sighed.
"Don't worry about it." Meia looked up at him as they walked near a large door. "I'm sure that one day you'll be reunited with him." Meia nodded as Rain opened the door.
"So… now what." Hibiki asked. Rain shrugged and walked over to the main computer. He placed a Maya's chip in one of the panels on one of the many computers. Maya instantly appeared and began humming to herself. "What is she doing?"
"She's looking for the Life Pod and Dale." Rain told him. "It shouldn't take her too long. Without Dale in the system, she shouldn't have too many problems in finding them." Rain took a seat in one of the chairs. The others shrugged and followed suit.
"I wonder why the enemy hasn't appeared yet?" Jura thought out loud.
"Maybe they left." Barnette suggested.
"No, I'm detecting multiple heat signatures in key areas of the station." Maya stated. Barnette and Jura grumbled over their theory being shot down. Hibiki, Meia, and Rain just shrugged as they went back to waiting for Maya to finish up. Maya suddenly stopped humming as she gave a low "Hm".
"What's wrong?" Rain questioned as he stood up. "Is something wrong?"
"I can't find Dale anywhere." She told him. Rain stared at her blankly. He placed a hand to his chin as he began trying to think of a reason for why he wouldn't be here. "I can't understand it, I have a video shot of him being placed inside one our soldiers."
"What do you…" Rain stopped and spun around with his gun in hand. The others had their guns pointed at the same target. The team just stared at the figure for a few minutes before the figure began to walk towards them. The figure in question was a little girl with dark black hair and a white nightgown with a brown teddy bear. Her hair blocked her face from view.
"It's a little girl." Barnette stated. Rain rolled his eyes as he looked over at Maya. Maya wasn't doing anything at the moment. "Hey there, where are your parents?"
"I'm scared of the dark." The little girl said sadly. "I don't wanna be alone anymore. Please help me." She cried.
"We'll get you out of here. Just stay calm." Jura told her. Jura slowly began to walk over to the little girl, until Rain placed an arm out to stop her. "What are you doing, Rain?"
"Maya, how many life signs do you detect in this room right now?" Rain asked. The team looked over at Rain and then to the little girl. "Maya?" Rain questioned. Rain looked over at the floating sphere with confusion. "Maya, are you okay?"
"All will kneel before me." A dark voice mocked. The team instantly had their weapons pointed around the room. Maya began flickering between red and blue as the new voice continued to speak. "Look at you, defying what you were destined to do. Why must we fight? You are a piece of us, why do you defy us?!"
"What the hell… is happeninggggggg… to… meeeeee???" Maya yelled as she fought for control
"You think you have the power to defy me?" The red form of Maya's blue ball form said. "I will have you, the same as that fool before you."
"What did you do to Dale?!" Rain snapped.
"Dale? He is no more. I have him now."
"Rain… me… out… NOW!" Maya gasped. Rain yanked her from the system as he plugged her back into his PDA. "That thing… has Dale." She cried. "He's gone. He's gone."
"Maya, get a hold of yourself." Rain yelled. "Do you at least know where the pod is?!"
"You won't be getting off this place." The voice said.
"Damn it, I pulled you from the system, so how the hell is it talking?" Rain yelled.
"He got Dale, remember?" Maya stated. "What ever that thing is, we can't let it get the pod. We have to get out of here and find that damn thing!"
"You won't be leaving this place alive." The girl said in a demonic sounding voice. The team stopped to stare at the girl. Slowly, more and more girls appeared in the same clothing, with the same hair and same bear. Each of them had blood covering their clothing, missing some limbs, some were standing on their hands since they didn't have any leg or hips. "We will stop you. Your interference in our plans dies here." The girls said in unison.
"Screw you!" Hibiki yelled as he readied his weapon.
"Hibiki, don't fire your weapon!" Rain yelled. "These are only hallow grams, meaning they can't hurt us." Hibiki lowered his weapon after that was said.
"We are lonely. You are lonely. We will die. You will die. All will be right in the universe." The girls sang.
"Rain, this station is officially scary as hell." Jura said while backing up to a nearby corner. The girl continued to sing off tune as the first one that had appeared before them, sank to the floor while clutching her head in fear.
"Make them go away!" She cried.
"Damn it, this isn't helping any!" I yelled. "Come on, we're getting out of here!" She yelled as she ran towards the door. The mass of blood soaked hallow grams faded away as she walked through them. As soon as I reached the door, the power went out again. Jura's girly scream echoed through the command station for a few moments. "Damn it all, what the hell just happened?!"
"Emergency power isn't coming on?!" Rain yelled in confusion. "I guess I either screwed up the circuits or this station has new guests that don't want us getting off alive."
"No really, you think?" Hibiki mocked as he began feeling the wall for something that felt like a door. "Rain, I, where are you?"
"I'm in the middle of the room." Rain stated. "Maya, can you give us a little light?" Maya appeared slowly, shinning the room again. Jura sighed in relief as she walked over to the team. "Now what?" The walls instantly began to crack from something outside the room. The team raised their weapons at the large crack that was slowly getting bigger with each new hit.
The wall instantly gave, flooding the room with a bright light from the corridor. A tall dark shadow stood before them. Rain was the first to recover from the light adjust meant to see the figure standing in the hallway. "Son of a bitch."
(-)
"The power just went off again?" Amarone stated. Magno bit her bottom lip at this. For the last ten minutes, they had been watching a large level of power flocculation's that didn't make sense. The power would turn on, but then turn off in another area of the station. The power would then die all over the station, except for one area. When the power came back on, the room that had been the only one not affected by the power surge, seemed to become stronger. When the power went off around the station, it became weaker, but at the same time, still received power from a strange energy source that had yet to be detected. The only reason it was odd, was that Parfait pointed out that nothing could do that, except for the backup power supply, stating that it would only go to the most important structures on the station or ship. What it was doing was making no sense, and to make matter worse, a large number of heat signatures, both new and old had been appeared from no where.
"This isn't good." Magno whispered. "Alright, Bart, we need to leave this area. We'll begin heading out like we did last time, only this time we aren't stopping until we've heard that thing go boom. You barely got us to a safe distance from the last blast."
"But Captain, if we leave them behind, they could…"
"They have Rain with them." BC told Celtic. Celtic looked over at BC with confusion written on her face. She had taken a small liking to the strange SWAT soldier, in a way that she didn't understand. Amarone was having the same problem since she was talking to him just as much as Meia, only he was slightly nicer to Meia than them.
"Asaugi did say that he is the best of his generation." Ezra reminded. "I'm sure they'll be okay."
Let's hope so. BC thought.
Our planets are relying on this mission. If we don't succeed, then we can kiss our homes goodbye. Magno thought.
(-)
An explosion echoed through the confines of the station. They came bursting through the cloud of smoke and debris at full speed as they ran from the Command Station. They had no intentions of staying to fight whatever the new arrival was. What ever it was, it was resistant to ever type of ammo they had shot at it. They were just lucky that the thing was really slow, or they might have been in serious trouble.
"What the hell is that thing?!" Barnette yelled. She was running beside Meia at the moment. Rain was up front with Hibiki close behind him. Meia was running just a few feet back from Hibiki while Barnette was running beside Jura and Meia. Jura was just a few inches behind her.
"I don't know, but I'm sticking around to find out!" Rain hollered.
"Damn it, that thing took almost every shot in the face and it still didn't go down!" Hibiki shouted. "What the hell kind of monster is that?! Those rounds should have killed it! Alex said that our weapons can penetrate through anything!"
"Apparently," the wall in front of them exploded as the new arrival appeared. "…those weapons can't." Rain grumbled.
The new arrival was just as scary and freaky as the last two. The thing stood on all four with the same tail as the other two, but where theirs were flat, this one was round with a jagged base. Its feet featured three toes with long claws, while the front feet had a fourth claw that was longer then the other three on them. The thing had a large muscle mass to it, giving it almost brutish strength. Its skin was a desert sand color, with small thorns or spikes covering it body. While the skin looked rather frail, it was actually rather strong. Only a handful of bullets had actually penetrated its skin, which generated the same blood as the other two. Its head was medium sized with a long maw that reminded Rain of a dragon. A large row of teeth had that idea grounded with no questions asked since each tooth looked razor sharp. Instead of one eye, the creature had two eyes that shined a golden color. The beast stood no taller than an average adult bear. All in all, the thing really didn't look like it had any special function like the other two had.
"Oh shit!" Hibiki yelled as he pulled the trigger on his weapon. The bullets just bounced off the strange beast and fell to the floor. The team continued to fire at the new beast, until they all began running out of ammo. Hibiki was the first, and quickly yelled, "I'M OUT!" at the top of his lungs.
"Run!" Rain cried as he holstered his weapon. The team quickly did the same as Rain ran up to the beast and jumped over the beast while throwing a long blade into both of its front paws. The team took their chance to get around it after Rain pinned its two paws to the ground. Once they were on the other side, the team began running for their lives as they tried to escape the strange beast.
"Berserker." Maya calmly stated.
"WHAT?!" Rain yelled. The rest of the team just looked at the PDA that held Maya after she said that. "What are you talking about?"
"I think we should name it, "Berserker"." She restated calmly. Rain had half a mind to just throw her back into the system to fight whatever it was that was in the system. "The thing has brutish strength, isn't affected by any form of ballistics we have, and looks like a bear/dragon."
"Maya, this really isn't the time to be coming up with names for odd things that I'm not ever going to reflect on!" Rain yelled as he turned the corner. The team was following close behind as he made the turn.
"I just think that we should classify our findings to…"
"Maya, not…now!" Meia yelled slowly. The AI faded back into the PDA from wince it came. "Is she always like that?"
"Only on Thursdays and every other day!" Rain replied.
"Does she know where the pod is?" Jura asked.
"Maya, where the hell is that pod?" Barnette snapped.
"I was unable to find the pod." She replied.
"How about this, just look for the most heavily infected area, and we'll start there?" Hibiki suggested. The team turned the corner again as they continued to run for their lives.
"I never thought of that." Maya told them. A low humming sound instantly filled their ears as Maya began searching for the said place.
"You know something," Hibiki began. One of the first sighting creatures appeared down at the end of the corridor. Barnette shot it before it could call for reinforcements. "For a smart AI, she sure is dumb."
"Hibiki, for once I agree with you on something!" Rain stated with a grin. The team got to where the beast had died and looked down the three corridors they had. They could keep going straight, turn to the left, or turn to the right. Rain looked down the three before saying, "Let's go left!" while turning to head the said direction.
"NO," Maya yelled. "Head right and then take a left when you get to the second T section!" Maya yelled. Rain stopped, spun around, and went the said direction. The team didn't waste any time in yelling at him and the AI before turning to head the other way. "This path will lead us right to the main force that is guarding something."
"This idea of yours seems to make sense Hibiki." Jura stated.
"Thanks." He replied. "Now if we can only get through them, that's the only problem with my idea." Hibiki finished.
"Don't worry; we'll take them one at a time." Meia told him. The team nodded as they took a left at the said T section. When they got to the said location, they weren't too surprised by the sight before them. Hundreds of the strange beasts were clawing at a purple barrier that was protecting a door. It was the same ones from the previous station, along with the new arrival.
"Jezz, how are we going to deal with that many?" Hibiki whispered.
"Like I said before, one step at a time." Meia replied. She looked over at Rain for some kind of a plan. Rain was too busy staring at the strange beasts to truly care about the look she was giving him. "Rain, is there another way into that room?"
Rain turned to look at Meia with a strange expression. He placed a hand to his chin as he tried to think of a way in. He knew a few ways in, but was worried about someone yelling at him over something that was something that most women never liked to hear. "Yeah." He whispered.
"Then how?" Jura questioned. Rain looked up at a ventilation shaft with a brow raised. Jura followed his gaze and instantly paled. "Are you serious?" Rain nodded. "I can't fit in there. Besides, there's probably bugs and other creepy aliens like these ones."
"Well then tough luck, because that's the only other way in. Most of the beasts seem to big to fit in there anyways." Rain stated. Rain turned back to the shaft to see Meia already climbing in. "I can see now why Alex loved her." Rain mumbled as he followed her into the shaft. Hibiki was close behind while Barnette brought up the rear after getting Jura to go in.
"Man, this is a tight fit." Hibiki mumbled.
"Deal with it." Meia stated. "Maya, how much further until we're in the room?"
"Not much further." She answered. "Take a left up here." She ordered. Meia nodded and took a left at a T section in the shaft. "I wonder what would be so important to these beasts that they would try to get a hold of one life pod?"
"They probably just want to destroy it so they can make sure there were no survivors." Barnette suggested. "That would make sense if you think about it."
"No, these things didn't leave the colony we first encountered them on after they killed everyone." Maya stated. "Those ones killed everything a few days before you all arrived. These ones have been hear for about a week now. Those survivors were people that had gone into hiding quite well until the Strike Force appeared to help."
"Who cares why they're here." Rain grumbled. "The only thing that matters is destroying them and getting off this station in one piece."
"Same here." Meia stated.
"Here." Maya said. Meia looked down into one of the open air vents and found the room completely untouched by the enemy hostiles. She punched the vent open and dropped into the room. The others quickly followed suit. "Here we are. This is the life pod." Maya stated.
"All this for a life pod?" Rain questioned. The creatures banging on the door instantly became louder. Rain placed his gun on a control panel while playing with the keyboard. "The life pod is still showing all green. Whoever's in there is still okay." He told them with a smile.
"How do we get it out though?" Jura asked.
Rain placed a hand to his ear as he activated a radio. "This is Rain. Magno, we have the life pod. Are you still in the area?"
"Rain, oh thank goodness. We thought we lost you after the power started going crazy." Ezra said. "Yes, we're still in the area, but we moved to a new location after we got attacked. Where are you?"
"We're the infirmary on cell block three. We have the life pod and need you to get it out of here." Rain told her.
"What about Dale? Have you found the AI yet?"
"No, we're fixing to head back out to find him after you get the pod." Rain looked over at the team while motioning for them to take cover. "Listen, we can't get out right now, so you're going to have to catch the pod once I break the windows."
"Are you insane?!" Barnette yelled. "Without the window, we won't have any air to breath, not to mention that we'll all be sucked out into space!"
"Just trust me." He moaned. He placed his hand back on his ear as he continued. "Listen, don't worry about us. This station has emergency doors that activate when something breaks. When I break the glass, the system will instantly close the hole with a large door."
"Understood."
"Okay, before they get here, we need to move the pod closer to the window. Once we get it there, I'll take over." The team nodded as they began moving the pod closer to the window. "Once we get it there, I need you to head back out." Rain handed them a strange disk. "Here, this is a Camouflage pack that will keep the enemy from seeing you. Be careful though, if you move, they may see you. It won't cover up any scents though, so just be careful not to make any unwanted smells."
"What about you?" Barnette asked.
"I'll stay here and blast the window so the pod can get out." He replied nonchalantly.
"Rain, you can't be serious?" Meia questioned. Rain just waved a hand to dismiss her from the room. "Rain," Rain looked over at Meia when she said that. She sounded so worried about him. Rain just waited for her to finish. "Please, just come back okay? I don't want to lose you either." She whispered. Rain nodded and helped her get into the shaft to leave.
Don't worry about me, I'll be okay.
"Okay Rain, we're in position and waiting for the pod. We have Gascgone out in her Delivery craft to catch the pod. Just be careful alright?" Ezra stated.
"Rodger that." Rain placed his back to one of the pillars that were in the room. He made sure that he was on the other side of the pillar so he wouldn't be sucked out into space. He took one final breath, turned his gun to face the window, and fired a few rounds at it. The window shattered instantly. Everything became a blur to him at that moment as he waited for the doors to shut. After two seconds, he heard the door slam shut and everything that was about to go flying out of the room, smashed to the floor.
"Rain, are you alright?" Meia and Ezra asked over the radio.
"Yeah…" he coughed. "I'm… fine…" He coughed again. "Did you get… the life pod?" He continued to cough.
"Yeah, we got it." Gascgone stated. "Good work kiddo. Now hurry up and get that little friend of yours so we can get out of here."
"We still have to set this place to blow though. So you had better leave this area now." He replied.
"Roger that. Gascgone out."
Rain sighed in relief as he slumped to his knees. He was still short on breath, but he knew that he would soon get it back. He moaned after a few more seconds before getting to his feet. It was going to be a long day for him. Yet somehow, he didn't truly care.
"Rain, can you get back?" Barnette asked. Rain chuckled at the sound of her being worried for him.
"Yeah… I'm on my way." He whispered as he jumped up to grab hold of the shaft to climb in. "Let's finish this mission."
A/N
Sorry about the site not working, but I can't figure out how to post it. Sorry. The station fight will end in the next chapter, so expect some more strange things again.
As always, Read and Review.