"Are we doing this the same as the warehouse?" Tela said, her voice even, face expressionless.
"It worked before and should again." Rigel said professionally as he looked between the weapons on the rack in front of him. "From what Nova was able to find on Jaroth's omni-tool, the facility is underground. She's going to blast a hole into it with the on-board missiles then drop us in. She would just blow it all sky-high but we need to know if they sent the data anywhere else or if it's all cataloged here." Rigel pulled the Empty Vessel and the Lunulata-4B from the rack, slinging the Empty Vessel over his shoulder and gripping Lunulata tight.
"And why can't we just use the front door?" Tela said, checking over her rifle and making sure she had spare thermal clips.
"Because it's an airlock. Urdak's atmosphere isn't breathable. It's a safe bet they have cameras in there as well as security measures of some kind."
Tela fixed Rigel with a dry look. "So instead of going through the airlock we're going to depressurize the entire facility by blowing a giant hole in it?"
"If they're competent, they'll have secondary doors that seal the second they're breached. If not, fighting Eclipse mercs gasping for air will make our job a lot easier."
"And you can't just teleport us in because…?"
"Two minutes to drop." Rigel said without answering, not willing to share the limitations of his transmat beacon.
Tela exhaled sharply through her nose, but schooled her expression quickly. She affixed a breather to her face and settled in to wait with Rigel.
"Missiles away." Nova said, appearing over Rigel's shoulder. "Hold on to something. I'm about to dive in close enough to transmat the two of you. I'll keep the ship close enough to control it remotely and deal with any air support they bring in."
"Sounds good." Rigel said, nodding to Nova. "Drop us in when you're ready."
"Dropping in 3…2…" Nova began.
Tela and Rigel both grew tense, readying themselves to appear in the midst of a firefight.
"...1. Initiating transmat." In a flash of light, Rigel and Tela disappeared from within the Blind Well, reappearing in the wreck of an office space left by a missile bombardment.
There was only one other figure in the room with them. A panicked asari was pummeling the fused latch of an emergency canister in the corner of the room, her eyes wide and movements frantic. The canister's locking mechanism was jammed shut. The asari looked up as Tela and Rigel transmatted in and she grew even more erratic. She reached down to draw her pistol but her clumsy hands couldn't settle on the grip.
Tela's rifle barked, boring a hole through the asari's head. "This was probably the worst spot you could have hit if you wanted to decrease their numbers. Looks like this was an officer's office."
"Yeah yeah." Nova said as she appeared next to the monitor in the non-destroyed half of the dead asari's office. "Next time, you can fire blindly from a moving target at a structure that doesn't appear on any scanners. I'm sure you'd do wonderfully."
"Enough, Nova." Rigel said, maneuvering around rubble to look at the monitor. "Is there anything useful here?"
"Some things. I have a basic layout of the facility now. This terminal housed her research log but doesn't have any notes on the formula itself. She was one of the heads of the project. Apparently they're ready to test the serum on their own people. Be prepared for asari with enhanced biotics. They might get desperate and shoot up if we back them into a corner."
"Noted." Rigel said as Nova faded away. He walked towards a circular blast door at the far end of the destroyed office. "I guess they're competent." He reached forward and touched the door, violet energy spilling off his hand. A hole was quickly devoured in the door, expanding wider and wider as the Void ate away at any material in its path. The moment the hole was created a large column of hissing air blew past Rigel and Tela as the pressure began to equalize with the outside atmosphere, prompting a second door to slowly begin to close down the hall.
"Let's move." Rigel said to Tela, barreling through the hole in the door in front of him and sprinting through the second door before it could close.
Tela slipped under the door just before it closed, leaving the pair of intruders standing in a hallway that led off in two directions.
"Nova, how do we get to the lab?" Tela said, looking down both hallways, her rifle up.
Head left. Nova said in Rigel's head. The main lab and the data servers are in that direction. We can dismantle all their equipment and delete their research at the same time.
"Follow me." Rigel said to Tela. The spectre fell in behind him, her rifle aimed down the hall behind them to cover their backs.
The door at the end of the hall in front of Rigel opened with a hiss.
The asari merc's eyes widened as she saw Rigel and Tela advancing towards her. She tried to duck back behind the door but two rapid twanging sounds saw her falling with an arrow embedded in her neck. The first shot had disrupted her barrier, the second arrow killed her.
Tela spun around at the sound of Rigel's bow, bringing her rifle to bear on the threat. When she saw the asari already dead, she turned to Rigel with a surprised expression. "You got through her barrier with a bow?"
"I guarantee you that you've never seen a bow anything like this before." Rigel assured her, stepping up to the open door and scanning the room beyond for further threats.
The room appeared to be a small lab. There were tables laden with vials containing liquids of varying colors. Open flames heated beakers suspended by metal housings. There were no Eclipse personnel in the lab, but Rigel inferred from the uncompleted work that the researchers had only left recently, likely when Nova had bombed the facility.
How much further to the data center?
It's through that door and to the right. The main laboratory is straight down the hall from this lab.
"Their data servers are down the hall to the right. The lab is at the end of this hall." Rigel relayed to Tela as he exited the lab through the door opposite the one he'd come in. The halls were empty save for the flashing red lights indicating a breach in the facility's pressurized environment.
"You handle the data servers. I'll take the lab." Tela said, speeding up to overtake Rigel. She passed the door to her right with only a brief glance to ensure no attackers leapt out of it.
"Be careful." Rigel called after her as he positioned himself to breach the server room.
Do you want me to download everything or wipe it?
If there's anything that might be useful, take it, but I want all records of their experiments and everything they learned about making their serum gone. Keep only one copy. Rigel was a Warlock, he knew the value of dangerous knowledge. Even knowledge he had no intention of ever using.
Copy that.
Rigel thrust his open palm towards the door. A fast-moving orb of Void energy spun out of his hand, connecting with the door to the server room and blasting it open.
"Contact!" a voice screamed from the other side of the explosion. Gunfire tore through the ruined doorway into Rigel's shield.
With a thought, Rigel teleported out of the hallway to avoid the gunfire. When he reappeared in the center of the server room, he drew Ace with one hand and extended his free hand out from him.
Ace barked in tandem with the ravenous hum of Void energy as Rigel engaged the Eclipse mercs on both sides of him simultaneously. His hand cannon blasted barriers apart and dropped the asari shielded by them with just three fluid trigger pulls. The Void devoured the asari mercenaries even faster, moving through the air uncaring of their meager shields to dissolve their bodies into nothingness.
It wasn't long before the server room was filled with bodies to Rigel's right and empty space to his left.
I'm going to– "–need a minute." Nova said, materializing next to a monitor on the wall mid-sentence.
Rigel took up a sentry position at the door to the server room while he let Nova work, his eyes peeled for any Eclipse mercs migrating towards him from another part of the facility.
"Done!" Nova chirped in a proud tone. The servers started sparking as she disappeared. Pops and uncontrolled whirring could be heard from each machine as they began to overheat.
These servers show no signs of data transfer. I'm pretty sure this was their only data storage facility in regards to the Minagen X3 experiments. I started the servers on their way out. But a good explosion or two would certainly help things along.
Grinning, Rigel unslung the Empty Vessel from his back as he walked out of the lab. Without looking, Rigel propped the grenade on his shoulder, aiming behind him, and fired into the room. There was a satisfying explosion as Rigel walked away from the server room.
You know you look like an idiot right now, right?
I'm walking away from an explosion without looking at it. It is just plain impossible for me to look like anything other than a badass right now.
One of these days, I'm going to transmat your helmet while you do something like this. I'm going to teleport it so it lands on your head perfectly backwards and blinds you so you run into a wall.
I'd just stop walking. I'm not stupid.
A digital sigh signified Nova's unwillingness to continue the current line of conversation.
Rigel slung the Empty Vessel back over his shoulder and jogged down the hall in the direction Tela had vanished. He pulled out Lunulata as he reached the open door and stepped through, his weapon raised in preparation for any threats Tela had missed.
The room had clearly been a lab, but it had also clearly played host to a vicious firefight. Large drums spilled red-colored liquid through large bullet holes like a bloody water fountain. A series of cupboards along the back wall contained solutions of different red hues. Some cupboards were blown apart. Six asari in Eclipse armor were laid across the floor, their eyes unfocussed, expressions dead. A metal operating table sat in the center of the room, a collection of mechanical arms and blades curled around it like fingers jealously hoarding a precious treasure.
Just beyond the operating table were two figures in addition to those lying dead around the area. A fierce, fury-filled expression painted Tela's face as she attempted to struggle against the force controlling her. She had lost her breather at some point, allowing her bared teeth to be visible from afar. A vibrant amethyst energy completely encapsulated her body, forcing her to kneel before a figure in crimson-red armor.
An asari floated in the air directly in front of Tela, her legs bent slightly at the knee to allow her to hover lower. Her entire body was bathed in coruscating amethyst energy. It poured off of her like boiling broth spilling over the ridge of a soup pot. The asari stared down at Tela with an expectant look upon her face, the rampant destruction evident around her seemingly not a concern. A syringe was in her hand, its needle already stuck into Tela's jugular. The asari had been in the process of speaking when Rigel had entered the room.
"–ound anyone powerful enough to test it on. You will–"
An arrow impacted the asari's forehead, deflected away as a powerful barrier flared into being.
The asari frowned, looking up at Rigel in irritation. "You're interrupting scientific advancement, you stupid human." She depressed the plunger on the syringe in her hand, injecting Tela with its questionable contents. She removed the syringe from Tela's throat and flicked her hand to the side.
Tela's body ragdolled into the wall of the lab as if she was a stuffed animal with no control over her limbs. The amethyst energy keeping her subdued faded as the asari focused on Rigel, allowing Tela to spasm uncontrollably, a scream of pure agony tearing out of her throat. Tela's body was coated in a new layer of biotics, these originating from herself. Blue energy flashed to amethyst then back again as her power flowed in and out of her at random, completely out of her own control.
"What did you do?" Rigel growled as he loosed more arrows into the asari, each deflecting uselessly off her biotic barrier.
"Cease speaking, useless primate." the asari said with narrowed eyes as she floated forward. She raised a hand and the air around Rigel was swallowed by a vortex of amethyst energy, lifting the nearby Eclipse bodies and the liquid spilling from the drums into the air to revolve around a fixed point in space.
Rigel felt himself fall under the effect of the asari's power. His feet had only risen a millimeter from the ground when he teleported out of its influence.
Rigel threw Lunulata away to clatter under a shelf as he spun the Empty Vessel around his shoulder. He slammed another grenade into its tube and fired it directly at the floating asari.
The asari distractedly waved a hand, causing the grenade to bend around her unnaturally and detonate harmlessly in the hall behind her. Her head was tilted, gaze curious. "That should be impossible. Teleportation is pure theory." A vile grin spread across her face, her eyes shining with desire. "I must have you." She raised her hands out to either side of her head, amethyst energy alighting within each of her palms like shining jewels.
Rigel grunted as his entire form was suddenly enraptured by amethyst energy. His arm moved without his prompting, reaching straight out. His fingers unfurled and the Empty Vessel fell to the ground with a thump. Rigel tried to reach for Ace, but the energy rejected his movements. Rigel found himself kneeling, his limbs forced into compliance as the woman drifted through the air towards him.
"Two treasures have delivered themself to me at once! The Goddess smiles upon my work."
It's time to stop holding back, idiot! Nova's panicked voice screamed in Rigel's head.
With a roar of rage at being confined, Rigel exploded. Violet energy spilled off of him in waves, devouring and scattering the weaker amethyst power.
The asari went rigid in midair as her control of Rigel disappeared. "What? That's not–"
Rigel teleported directly behind her, throwing his arms wide with a scream. Ravenous Void pulsed away from his body towards the asari. Rigel was shocked as the woman's amethyst barrier glowed bright around her, coiling around her and flinging her away from Rigel's attack moments before it would have consumed her.
The asari was flung into the far wall. She fell to the ground, the amethyst glow around her body all but gone, having used itself up to defend her from the Void.
Rigel growled, teleporting again before the woman could stand.
She looked up with wide, frantic eyes. Her arms shielded her face as she cried, "That's impossi–"
Another wave of Void spilled away from Rigel. The asari was vaporized mid-sentence, her strangely powerful biotics no longer able to protect her.
Rigel's breath came in enraged huffs. His feet slowly lowered to the ground as he let go of his power.
Rigel!
Rigel spun around, dashing towards the prone form of Tela.
Nova beat Rigel to the thrashing, screaming, sobbing woman. She materialized directly above her and scanned her, dancing white lights streaming out of her shell.
"She's…I can't even explain it." Nova said, floating back from Tela, her shell shaking in disbelief. "Whatever that bitch injected her with is eating her alive. Her biotics look like they were just hooked up to a jump drive. They're overpowering everything and her body can't supply enough energy to keep them functional. Her muscles are eating themselves trying to create enough energy."
Rigel knelt down next to Tela. He nearly leapt backwards as Tela's hand thrust forward and latched onto his arm.
Shaking, Tela dragged herself around to face him. "Help mehhhaaAAAAAA!" she fell backwards, her grip failing as another scream tore out of her throat.
"Do what you can." Rigel said to Nova, his voice clipped.
Rigel clenched his fists and closed his eyes, forcing the Void away from himself as he called upon another energy. A blazing inferno settled just beyond his reach. He reached out with his every sense, willing the fire to himself.
Hurry, Rigel. She doesn't have long.
Rigel inhaled deeply. When he exhaled, smoke was expelled from his nostrils.
Rigel stood to his full height. With a roar, he brought his hands in front of him, grasping at nothing. A flaming sword materialized in his grip just as his hands were about to close around empty air. Still screaming, Rigel slammed the flaming sword into the ground just a foot away from Tela's spasming form.
Bright golden light exploded forth from the sword, bathing the ruined lab in splendor. A rapidly swirling vortex opened like a halo around the sword with the blade as its centerpoint. Rigel felt his muscles strengthen, his power swell. That was not why he'd summoned his Well.
Tela bolted upright with a surprised gasp as healing fire poured into her body, flowing up her nostrils and down her throat to swim through her veins, restoring and empowering the asari in a way she had never experienced before. She moved to stand, shuffling away from the flaming sword with wide, uncomprehending eyes.
Rigel stopped her by placing a firm hand on her shoulder. "Don't. This will restore you, but only if you stay still."
Tela's frightened eyes locked onto Rigel's helmet and she slowly relaxed. She was still shaking, but the screams and sobs had subsided.
"Nova?" Rigel said, worried, having noticed Tela's biotics were still swimming around her form, blinking back and forth between blue and amethyst.
Nova floated directly in front of Tela, scanning the asari's entire body. "The Well didn't purge the serum from her body. It had already bonded to her biotics in a weird way I can't unravel. We were too late to eliminate it. What the Well is doing is regenerating everything her body ate of itself and providing energy for whatever change is taking place."
"Change?" Tela said, her voice hoarse and weak from screaming, but no less firm than normal.
"I don't know." Nova said, rotating around Tela's body as she scanned her. "Whatever she injected you with is empowering you. Did she tell you anything about it?"
"She–" Tela broke off as a coughing fit overwhelmed her. Baring her teeth in rage and frustration, Tela said, "She said it was permanent. The one she shot up with was temporary. I was her test subject." She clutched at her chest, falling backwards in pain.
Rigel knelt behind her and caught her before she could fall. He pulled his helmet off with his free hand and looked over Tela's shoulder at Nova. "Is it hurting her?"
Nova's shell shook side to side in the negative. "I think Tela's got it right. The serum is making her into a permanent version of whatever that woman was. So long as the Well keeps feeding her the energy she needs, she'll come through with no complications."
"And…how long will…that take?" Rigel said, having to stop to take several lungfuls of air in. There were beads of sweat peaking through on his forehead.
Tela's head snapped towards him in concern. "Rigel?" she said, reaching up towards his face.
"Keep it together, Rigel!" Nova yelled, flying right up in front of his face. "You need to hold out for another minute. The change is slowing and will be over by then."
"I'll…last…" Rigel ground out through gritted teeth.
"What's happening to him?" Tela demanded, already looking far better than she had even ten seconds ago.
"He's about to pass out. He summoned a lot of power to kill that bitch and then even more of a different power to summon a Well of Radiance. Even for a Risen as old and powerful as him, switching between powers and using their individual magnum opus is too much in such a short time." Nova explained distractedly. "Hold on just a little longer, Rigel."
"Stop…Talking…Distracting…" Rigel said, his eyes closed, sweat pouring from his forehead.
Tela graped Rigel's hand and squeezed it, feeling Rigel respond by clenching her hand in a death-grip. Seconds felt like years as Tela's biotics slowly melded back into her body, their blue coloring replaced by an amethyst glow.
"That's it!" Nova called.
No sooner the words reached Rigel's ears then his body crumpled, the Well of Radiance dissolving into nothingness around him.
Tela caught him before he could fall. "Is he ok?"
"No." Nova said, flittering around Rigel in a panic. "We need to get him back to the ship."
"Just teleport him then." Tela said, reaching over and picking up her rifle from where the biotically enhanced asari had knocked it from her grasp. Tela threw the rifle away with a hiss of frustration. There was a large hole in it directly through the weapon's trigger assembly, rendering the rifle useless.
"I can't." Nova said, whirring to face Tela in a brisk tone. "There's too much blocking a transfer down here. I don't know if it's that crazy bitch's biotics or the rock the facility is buried under but I can't lock onto him."
Sighing, Tela stood up, dragging Rigel's arm over her shoulder and awkwardly hauling the unconscious man half-way upright. "Immortal ass is heavy." she grunted, calling on her biotics to help lift him into the air.
Shining amethyst energy exploded out of her hand, lifting Rigel's unconscious form far higher than she'd intended. He rose so high so fast he nearly slammed into the ceiling.
"No!" Nova shrieked, rapidly flying over Rigel and burrowing into his stomach, pushing him away from a frayed, sparking electrical cable jutting out from the ceiling as he floated like a limp corpse in the vacuum of space.
When Nova had pushed him back to the ground, Tela let her biotics fade, holding her hands in front of her face and staring at them in wide-eyed shock. She was pulled from her internal reflection as Nova's shell rammed into her temple.
"Hey! I didn't mean to–"
"You almost killed him!" Nova yelled, floating right up into Tela's face.
"I'm sorry, alright! I didn't mean to throw him that high. Whatever that serum did seriously screwed up my botics. I need to–"
Gunfire sounded from the hall leading to the lab. Tela kicked the table in the center of the room over and ducked down behind it, her head whipping back and forth in search of a weapon. Despite being shot at, her attention was grabbed by Nova's shell burrowing into Rigel's stomach, pushing his body across the ground towards her improvised cover. Tela reached out and grabbed Rigel by the shoulder, sliding him the rest of the way towards her.
"Now would be a good time for him to wake up." Tela said, ducking down as the side of the table was blown away by a large-caliber round.
"You need to stop them!" Nova said. Tela had never heard her so frantic.
"No shit." she said, clipped. Tela stood, thrusting her arm forward. A biotic orb rushed towards the hallway. Tela let out a shocked yell as the gravity well of her own biotic attack started to drag her behind it. Only Nova's well-timed flight into her stomach kept her from being pulled with her own attack.
The gravity well splashed against the wall of the lab a full five meters right of Tela's intended target. The Eclipse mercs in the hall, there were four that Tela could see, ducked behind the wall to wait for the gravity well to disperse before risking another volley.
Tela fell on her ass as Nova shoved her free from the gravity well's pull. She shuffled across the ground until her back was plastered against the table she'd been using for cover. It wasn't very effective at stopping rounds. She needed to think of something before the Eclipse mercs started shooting at her again.
"Hey! Time to wake up!" Tela said, gripping Rigel by the collar of his robes and shaking him around.
Nova's shell rammed into Tela's hand, forcing her to drop Rigel. "Worry about the Eclipse, idiot. You won't wake him up that way. You're supposed to be some badass Spectre. Act like it!"
Tela practically growled in frustration as she peeked back around the table. Her well was diminishing more and more by the second. She caught a glimpse of an Eclipse asari peering through the doorway.
With her biotics so unpredictable they might as well be self-destructive, Tela was limited to shooting back, but her rifle had been rendered nonfunctional.
Tela looked down as an idea came to her. She grasped at Rigel's leg, sliding his massive sidearm out of its holster. "How do I load this thing?" Tela demanded, firing a few blind shots over her table cover to keep the Eclipse mercs pinned for a moment longer.
"The cylinder release is to the left of the hammer just like any revolver. Depress it and put one of these in the cylinder."
Tela watched in confusion as several small drums shimmered into being on the ground next to her, but she quickly decided to focus on more important things.
Her gravity well had disappeared from the wall. With it gone, the Eclipse mercs had grown brave. An asari in bright yellow armor charged through the doorway, firing her fully-automatic rifle into the table Tela and Rigel were hidden behind.
Tela stood, hefting Ace with both hands to better line up her shot. She'd used human revolvers before, but she'd never seen a gun quite like this one. Tela squeezed the trigger. The gun kicked like a mule, but the bullet struck true, the asari's shield deflecting it.
Tela brought the gun back to bear as she felt her own barriers take a hit and unloaded the hand cannon into the charging asari.
The Eclipse merc's shield held out for two more hits, but the third and fourth shots blasted away parts of her torso.
Tela ejected the spent drum and bent down to retrieve another from the small pile on the ground. She dropped one into the cylinder and stood back up, already shooting as two more asari entered the lab.
One of the asari fell before she could attempt anything, but the second one fired off a biotic warp.
Instinctually, Tela raised her hand to deflect the attack with her own biotics. An amethyst shield appeared before her hand, easily absorbing the attack, but blasting the table Tela had used for cover across the ground.
Nova let out a frantic yelp, flying into Rigel's stomach again to push him back behind the table, his arms and legs dragging behind him as the ghost propelled his unconscious body across the floor.
Tela seethed in frustration, forcing her biotic shield away and finishing off the asari with two more shots.
The fourth merc Tela had seen stepped into the doorway, her rifle aimed at Rigel's unconscious body as Nova slowly pushed it back towards the cover of the table.
Tela's eyes widened. Once more operating on instinct, she flared her biotics and leapt towards Rigel and Nova. Her body was coated in a shimmering amethyst energy as she came to a stop directly in front of Rigel. She held her hands up and erected a barrier in front of her.
The asari at the door opened fire. The bullets deflected off the barrier uselessly.
Tela let out a roar as she charged towards the last mercenary.
The Eclipse merc tried to scramble out of the way, but Tela was much too fast. Tela's speed surprised even herself.
Tela rammed her biotic barrier into the last merc, forcing her back and trapping her against the wall. Using a trick she'd learned almost forty years ago, Tela created two gravity wells simultaneously. One above the asari's head, the other directly below her stomach.
Normally, this trick would pull the target apart in two different directions, snapping their neck, but Tela's biotics were acting strange.
The asari screamed moments before her head was pulled off her shoulders. Her head bobbed in the upper well while her body slowly swam through the lower.
Tela backed away, dropping her barrier with wide eyes. She hadn't meant to do that, but she couldn't deny that it had been effective.
"Hey!"
Tela's attention snapped back to Nova as the little ghost peeked up over the table she'd successfully pushed Rigel behind.
"Are there any more? We need to get moving back to the ship before even more come."
Tela rushed over to the door, pointedly ignoring the amethyst aura around herself. Peeking down the hall, she said, "It's clear." She ran back behind the table and slung Rigel's arm over her shoulder again, keeping her right hand free to return fire with Rigel's revolver if the need arose.
"Go right and take the first left." Nova said, floating over Tela's shoulder. "There's a staircase there that should get you close enough to the surface for me to pull you out with the transmat beacon. All their data is already gone, so we'll just bombard this place from the sky once we're out."
Tela grit her teeth, hauling the surprisingly heavy human with her as she hobbled down the hall.
A trio of Eclipse mercs emerged from a door at the end of the haul just as Tela reached her left turn. She emptied Rigel's revolver at the mercs as she rounded the corner, then called up the smallest amount of her biotic energy as she could to enhance her muscles.
Feeling invigorated, and almost dislocating Rigel's shoulder unintentionally, Tela ran down the hall, reaching a short, metal staircase leading towards another door.
"Just get to the top!" Nova said as she flew ahead. "I'll handle the rest." The ghost disappeared to wherever she went when she wasn't physically present.
Tela hauled Rigel up the staircase. She felt bullets impact her barriers from behind but didn't turn to return fire. She needed to get to the top.
Right as she was about to reach the summit of the stairs, the door at the top opened and five asari in Eclipse armor ran through it.
Tela's eyes widened as she looked for cover but there was none to be found. Rifles, pistols, and shotguns were leveled at her, but they were too slow.
There was a flash of white light and Tela found herself standing in the Blind Well's cargo bay. Heaving a massive sigh of relief, Tela let her whole body go limp. She collapsed with Rigel onto the floor of the ship and stared at the ceiling, her breaths coming in deep gasps.
"You cut it real close, Nova." Tela said when she'd gotten her lungs under control.
"Next time run faster." a snarky voice replied over the ship's intercom.
Tela couldn't help the weak laugh that escaped her. "I'll keep that in mind. Now do me a favor and blow that place to hell."
"Already done." Nova said as she appeared directly above Tela and looked down at her. "Missiles are away and we're already flying away from the planet's surface. I'll handle taking us through the relay. Feel free to get some rest."
"Rest sounds good right now." Tela said weakly, her eyelids already feeling heavy. "I think I'm just gonna lay here awhile."