As the cloaked ship drifted closer to the moon, military vessels appeared from the kaleidoscope view as they became more visible to the naked eye. As the final vessels warped in, Shrentor counted seven ships heading toward the surface.
"Five Celerity-Class Fighters and two Titania Troop Transports," Hex read off a display. "The Titania has a maximum capacity of twenty; with both of them, you might be facing a lot of trouble down there."
"Who the hell down there is so powerful that the Federation got so distressed as to send in enough force to shut down a small revolution?" Shrentor mumbled to himself.
"I'll drop you off a few Klicks from their drop point, should give enough following distance... take this." Hex told Shrentor, ignoring what he said. "It will track highly evolved lifeforms; class 12 or higher, humans, aliens, etc." Trailing off, Hex handed the small device to Shrentor. It was a small handheld box, with the face taken up by a glass screen.
"Thanks. Hit the boosters, we need to be down there at the same time as them. Don't want any unwanted attention." Shrentor exited the cabin and went below to the armory.
The armory was in the underbelly of the ship, a stones throw from the exit bay behind a locked super blast door. The inside mostly contained empty lockers on one side, while shelves and tables were on the other side. Walking toward a locker marked Keyes, Shrentor opened it up and retrieved a combat knife, swiftly jamming it into his right boot, as well as two 9mm SG pistols and slid them into holsters on his hips, and a CG18 Tactical Rifle with a flashlight attachment, silencer, antigrav stabilizer, and a vortex detonation device held within. As Shrentor was almost at the door, he spun around, grabbed a gas mask off the table, and quickly headed out as the ship breached the atmosphere.
"Touchdown in 20 seconds," Hex came over the comms.
"Radio silence until I call back for Evac. Monitor the line and keep a safe distance," Shrentor shot back.
When the bay doors opened, a bright-green aura hit Shrentor like a Grashen rampage fueled by Jih Dust. Gigantic plants and tiny animals filled almost the entirety of the surface. Quickly stepping off the ship and bringing his CG18, he slowly walked forward and cleared the ship's thrusters, wary of every step he made. The Unholy Revenant left the atmosphere at the same time as the Federation ships. Once the reverberation of thrusters passed, Shrentor was left in silence.
Braving forward through the dense plants, which happened to be in the direction of the Federation's drop point, Shrentor realized the silence wasn't only deafening but was also concerning. The life on this planet seemed as if it were watching him as he crept through the infinite grove of plants of various shapes and structures. His feeling being watched didn't ease from the fact that he could also be surveillanced by highly-trained Federation Super-Soldiers.
Screams echoed in the distance; judging by the volume, Shrentor was close. Just as Shrentor could make out the appearance of a structure, an overgrowth of large, thick, and sharp plants came out of the surrounding groves to block his path. Pushing through the plants with his combat knife, Shrentor made his way into the clearing scorched by the Federation Purity Landing Team, a headstart group equipped with everything in flames. They burnt the drop zone of all life to make sure the standard goons didn't have any surprises waiting for them… cowards. As Shrentor crossed the burnt clearing and got closer to the structure, he made a note of the gashed and bruised bodies littering the entrance. Avoiding the corpses, Shrentor maneuvered his way through the makeshift entrance to the structure, which was clearly made by a few blasts of the Hav 66 Laser Cannon.
The roof was still burning, making it harder for Shrentor to maneuver his way into the blazing structure, but his uncertainty beyond the entrance worsened his assessment. The first step into the main chamber led Shrentor into a plant stem, which wrapped his legs around and dragged him toward the ceiling, causing Shrentor to drop his CG18 as well as his Lifeform Identifier and Combat Knife. Barging through the door were five armor clad soldiers with a purifier standing before them. The purifier's flame pack shook with every step, and his armor was burnt and tagged, which was a sign of a true veteran. Outnumbered and stuck to the ceiling of the crumbling building, Shrentor had to be quick; drawing his pistols and emptying both magazines into the flame tank, Shrentor dropped his pistols and watched the tank explode, propelling the Purifier's body toward him and the soldiers to opposite sides of the building. Shrentor grabbed the suit of armor barreling into him and ripped out the glowing hot knife from its shoulder-mounted sheath and used it to cut himself free.
"Contact! Contact!" a soldier yelled as a gray-green plant that looked hungry for blood burst through the wall.
"Got another one over here!" another screamed as one dropped from the ceiling.
"I didn't sign up for this, man! I'm gettin' the hell outta here!" the farthest one hesitated as he headed toward the exit. His escape, however, was cut short when a plant — bigger than the previous two combined but in a darker shade — burst through the floor and used its four-flowering spiky petals to grab him by the feet and drag him back into the floor, screaming throughout the entire ordeal.
Three more plants in a shade of light brown burst through the floor and burrowed into the ceiling. Shrentor miscalculated the risks to the fullest extent; the stem of each plant grew grapefruit-sized swells, and each of them subsequently burst. The burst created an ear-splitting noise that even took away the gas filling the room. The injured soldiers started falling over, and the ones already on the floor were coughing and coming to their knees. Shrentor realized his gas mask wasn't working; his legs were shaking; his lungs started burning; and he ended up fainting with a thud.
Walking up to an in-and-out Shrentor, a tall man in a lab coat and gas mask with tanks on his waist. Curious... the words coming out with a hint of astonishment, and a hint of admiration. It was the last thing Shrentor heard before the gas finally finished its job.
Shrentor, in all his life, never died; it was a staple of the kind of work he did, but to him: it was also an achievement; the more you should have died, the better you were to become. Among the near-deaths, easy fights, or serious injuries, the strangest part of it all is when you should have died but didn't. Shrentor now found himself in one of those situations; it was his first time; people never gave him a second chance, and they still ended up dead. The strangest part, however, was that he wasn't bound or chained, but was sitting on a chair, and in front of him was the last man he saw before blacking out. The room was monotone black, coated in various plants with a few counters integrated into the wall with complex machines that were empty and idle.
"Gladstone," the deep voice reverberated around the room, breaking the deafening silence.
Shrentor, attempting to process what he just heard, ceased his continuous thoughts about the demon voice, "Your name… I'm guessing?"
"Correct, good guess," The voice bore into the skull of whom it was directed at. The first word gave impressions of a man used to sizing people up, or maybe even a mind reader. Either way, Shrentor didn't know, but he did want to understand; if he were going to be part of Gladstone's team, Shrentor had to be sure he wasn't going to bail halfway through… or stab him in the back.
Gladstone continued his assault on Shrentor with an arsenal of questions that ranged from his identity, his background origins, and many more. Shrentor assumed he answered for his satisfaction, although he didn't tell a lot of information. The only things that mattered to Shrentor were Gladstone's taking a like to him, and the gun on the table next to him.
"So, where are we heading next?"
The question caught Shrentor off guard. For one, Gladstone was ready to join him and obey his commands . The second thing was that the inflection of his voice changed from nerve-racking to a more light hearted, ready-for-orders voice.
Before Shrentor could answer the question, the adjacent room lit up with red warning lights, and an alarm screamed. Gladstone turned his chair to look in the doorway. Shrentor turned back to Gladstone,
"In my professional opinion, I strongly recommend we deal with whatever the hell is going on ever there," gesturing to the room, "and then we get our stuff, get on to whatever transportation you got, rendezvous with my eyes in the sky, and leave."
"It will suffice." Gladstone uttered.
Shrentor was satisfied by the response, already being tired from the shit happening recently.
Shrentor was the first into the room, followed closely by Gladstone who surpassed him, mashing a button with a gloved fist. The screen had a display of a battle cruiser, officially called a Catastrophe Z74, commonly known as C-Z74. Shrentor noticed however, this specific ship had multiple modifications.
"Gladstone, quit manhandling the controls and take a look at this," Shrentor barked, not analyzing the figure on the screen. "Look here, additions have been made to the transport beam; see the energizers placed periodically around the edges?"
"Intriguing, the thrusters have also been modified," Gladstone pointed at the screen.
"Er, yeah, they have an increased acceleration and maximum velocity output, but with a massively inefficient engine, lots of output burns out quickly."
Shrentor was stared at the screen, "I've concluded the ship needs to refuel after every standard mission. The energizers on the transport beam are not on any record, meaning they must be very new, and very powerful. The increase in energy would fry anything that touches it, scrapping the idea of a troop dropdown. If enough power were fed into it… well."
"Proceed."
"With enough energy it could torch the surface of a planet," Shrentor said slowly with a hint of hesitation.
"It's alright," Gladstone saw past the facade, "If we can overload the energizers, they can take out the central area, splitting the ship in half."
"Logic's sound, but that's the last modification; the shield bay has been buffed to high hell; armor's virtually impenetrable only to the most massive of impacts. However, we can launch all the shield busters you have, and we might be able to get enough time for a few good shots at one of the energizers."
"Judging by proximity, one will be sufficient." Gladstone's sentences were getting shorter. "Chain reaction, domino effect."
"It's settled then, load up the ship and I'll… can you point me in the direction of my possessions?"
"Follow," Gladstone uttered, walking out the door opposite to the entrance. Entering the room was a door to the left and a big door straight ahead with all kinds of plants and machines on the walls.
"There," he said pointing to his left, "Meet," pointing to the big doors at the end of the long hall.
The tiny room held a table loaded with his weapons and only certain equipment. Shrentor then realized that not everything was removed from him, the only objects on the table were his two sidearms, his CG18, the Hot Knife he acquired from the purifier, and his gas mask, which was now modified with an extra set of mechanisms on the filter. He took all on the table and peeked into the lockers. The only thing of note was a few guns with plants weaved into the frame. Ignoring them, he hustled down the hall and barged into the doors at the end of the wall that led into a hangar, one that wasn't visible to the surface scans. The hangar was comforting and small, but it could fit a ship twice the size of Shrentors. The ship was similar looking to the weapons in the lockers. The frame was made of titanium alloy mixed with plants that had nozzles on the side of the tentacle-like appendages wrapping around the ship.
"The Songbirds Scream," Gladstone came out of the shadows of the hangar carrying one of the plant guns like the ones in the locker, although this one looked complete.
"Cool," Shrentor turned back to the ship, "So, how does it work?"
"Which part?"
"The plants and the invulnerability to scan from an ultra-powerful research station," Shrentor let a smirk sneak through.
"The plants are genetically engineered to nest into the metal; they make it their home. There are useful weapons and defenses; add the right modifications, and you get a plant that can melt incoming missiles with globs of acid bile, or ones that can even blast bouts of electricity fed by the ship that can shatter a ships hull," Gladstone droned on his monotone voice.
"The invisibility?" Shrentor stressed the word sarcastically.
"Trade secret."
"Well…" Shrentor projected a display from his hand, "the nozzles on the tentacle things have internal organs on each of them all wired up. The organs are designed to produce gas, and it has light-refracting properties and electromagnetic disturbances that rudely block my view."
"Your hand-thing can tell you all that," Gladstone almost sounded surprised, although one can't really tell.
"N-n-no… not exactly" Shrentor stuttered. He never had to explain to someone the stuff inside his head and arm; it was complicated. "It can show me diagrams, diagnostics, it can… show me things. The conclusions are all mine."
"That was… unhelpful."
"It can also hack things as well"
"That was slightly more helpful, and useful."
Gladstone led Shrentor on to the ship. The interior was more planty than the outside; it also had a simple design. The bulk gave the appearance of a tough and sturdy fighter, while the inside consisted of no fanciness or theatrics; it was simply an efficient ship designed to fit the needs of its user. Ignoring the cockpit, the ship consisted of one side of research tools and labs, while the other was combat-ready and armored, with the systems room and holding-cells at the bottom.
"Inventory!" Shrentor called as he messed with the flight systems and combat diagnostics provided by the ship.
Instead of saying anything, Gladstone handed Shrentor a paper list and moved to a screen previously blank. Shrentor scanned the paper with his cybernetic eye and looked at what Gladstone was doing. Six 34Rives designed for fast shield disruption, three clamblast EMPs, and whatever the plants could provide. According to the paper, the two offensive plants can spit acid bile and Ulver balls, which can melt hulls away. The inventory list also mentioned rations and fuel among other things.
"Diagnostics of ship classified as Scorched Leviathan," Gladstone pointed to the display.
"Cool, our weapons will do the job but theirs' will obliterate us with ease," Shrentor again used his eyes to scan the display. He then brought the info on his hand and sent it to the flight computer, "Whenever you're ready, the ship is configured to dodge most attacks. Don't count on it though; it's just a simple program."
"My ship doesn't have those modifications."
"Yeah, but I do, frankly, with the guns the Leviathans have, it won't do much and based on the sensitivity of the mission, I'll probably need most of the control."
"Why?"
"Well, it also recognizes patterns and alerts me to the next volleys."
Gladstone hit the flashing activate button on the main display, and all displays dispersed, leaving the window open with a clear view of the hanagar. The ship's AI came over the comms, "All passengers prepare for takeoff."
Immediately after the both of them were strapped, the female voice came back and the hangar roof opened up. "Preparing smoke screen; take off in T-minus 10, 9, 8, 7…" Gladstone hit a few more buttons, and Shrentor remained still, looking at the info in his head
"6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… "
There was a very dramatic pause…
"Liftoff."
The ship's engine went to maximum and was in low orbit in a matter of seconds and entered space after a few more.
The Scorched Leviathan was an utterly massive vessel; its bridge alone was as big as a museum, and its total size was that of a small city. The gunfire was immense and started as soon as the ship was within range. The Songbirds Scream was only hit a few times before the opportune moment. This monstrosity was about to be demolished with little opposition. The ship's targeting procedure was configured, launching all 34Rives into the shield and a few seconds later firing a volley of standard plasma cannons, balls of acid, and Ulver. Once fired, The Songbirds Scream beamed to a safe distance, the only hiccup was nothing happened. When the smoke from the missiles cleared, it became apparent that the shield was never broken.
"Of course nothing happened! Nothing ever happens! Nothing. Ever. Goes. Right!" Shrentor was shouting half sarcastically and half furiously.
"Reason inconclusive," Gladstone inputted.
The next volley from the Leviathan was much more effective than the last; after taking off a considerable piece of the hull, Gladstone quickly ran through the alerts.
"7% of hull lost. Effect minimal. Ship operations not affected."
"Well, yay us! We get to not die this time. Get back to me in 3.4 seconds!" Shrentor shouted over the blaring alarms.
2.9 seconds later, another volley hit the ship, taking out a chunk of the hull breaching it. Half a second later, Gladstone popped back in.
"Damage substantial. Closing airlocks. Chance of ship survival… zero"
"Goodie!" Shrentor was clearly frustrated, but he noticed the chunk recently separated from the ship. The piece of hull wasn't reflected off the shield like a normal shield would do to it. It went right through and would have hit the ship if it weren't for the small cannon countermeasures on the inside of the shield.
"Gladstone! Brace for impact!"
"Command unclear," Gladstone didn't understand what he needed to brace for. However, after seeing Shrentor turn the wheel, and the only thing out the window was the Scorched Leviathan that had its guns angled at the Songbird that was about to fire another volly.
"Switching drones to defensive" was the last thing heard on the ship before the sight of missiles came.
The vast majority of plasma and missiles missed the ship and only by luck did the plants melt some down. The Leviathan wasn't prepared for a collision course with an apparent suicide mission. Aiming for one of the many weak points in the hull, Shrentor crashed into the Leviathan as close as he could to the engine room located above the newly dubbed Incinerator, which was formerly the troop dropdown beam and the target of the current mission.
The sound of crunching metal and melting ships echoed within Shrentor's head as he kicked out the window of the Songbird's wreckage. Smoke filled the section of the Leviathan he was in with the blast doors shut. Before he could call out to Gladstone, the largest and front-facing blast door opened to reveal at least 50 troops. Ducking into the nearest pile of half-melted titanium, Shrentor pulled out his CG18. Before he could fire a shot, the Songbird's front facing plasma cannons shot out a three-round burst, with each burst annihilating the troops and blasting them through three layers of wall.
"Thank you!" Shrentor called out to the wreckage
Gladstone clambered out from the side holding his plant-gun hybrid and seemed as though it looked ready for action.
"Directions," Gladstone stated.
"Go through the holes you made, then turn left, then right, then left… then a long corridor through the docking bays… then go through a few more corridors and then we'll be where we need to be."
Gladstone momentarily stood as a statue, then motioned his plant gun to the open walls, "Lead."
Shrentor gave him a thumbs up and turned toward the open wall holding up his CG18. The edges were still melting from the plasma shots, and the dripping of molten titanium came down through the roof. The creaking of the damaged section of the ship became more obvious upon the realization that a ship did just burrow into sensitive part of it. There was no time for those thoughts right now. On either side of the duo were seemingly endless tunnels filled with an army of troops headed for them.
Turns out, the troops were not coming through the tunnels; they were waiting for them. The last corridor before the docking bays was a mass of bodies with a makeshift defense. Rolling over to the other side of the large tunnel, Shrentor blindly fired his rifle in a futile attempt to hit something. Gladstone, on the other hand, loaded a glowing sphere into the barrel and launched it to add the defense. The sphere exploded into a smaller version of the formerly-living plants on the ship. The blast knocked the two nearby soldiers to the floor, and the lifeform that came out of it burrowed itself into the right side of the barricade, leaving a trail of fire. The troops fled, while those who remained burned to death.
"What in the hell…" Shrentor muttered under his breath as his eyes darted between Gladstone and the plant, still maneuvering through the wreckage.
"What else can you shoot at unsuspecting dumbasses?" Shrentor asked him as they both rounded the corner.
"Gas and Plants," Gladstone said bluntly
"It's always gas and plants with you isn't it?"
"Effective countermeasure to life."
"Well…" Shrentor said, climbing over the destroyed barricade, "I prefer to dispatch my enemies with bullets"
"Also effective," Gladstone conceded. "However, I still like plants and gas."
"Going off what I've seen so far, I also like plants and gas," Shrentor reloaded his weapon and stood ready in front of the docking bay door.
The docking bay was loaded with makeshift garrisons and heaps of soldiers who have clearly never seen battle, all of it among the pile of people attempting to cram themselves into the nearest pod praying for escape. At the end of the long and open room was a tall man standing before what looked like a 10-foot robotic mech barking orders at those who clearly aren't listening. As soon as Gladstone and Shrentor entered the room, the mech turned its torso toward them and its dual gatling lasers poised to vaporize the duo.
"Gasmask on," Gladstone stated while loading a glowing purple ball into the barrel of his gun.
Without hesitation, Shrentor took the mask off his hip and strapped it onto his face sliding into the nearest bit of cover. He peeked up and shot the three nearest soldiers who looked at least half-competent. Gladstone was still standing in the open, oblivious to the gathering of troops in a defensive formation. Moments before the commander gave the order to fire, he launched the glowing purple ball in the center of the defensive line, creating a cloud of deep purple gas so dense one could not see a silhouette through it.
Peeking up from his cover again while not seeing through the gas, the new additions to Shrentor's gas mask allowed him to see outlines of the soldiers inside the deadly cloud. He counted four on the floor dead, three incapacitated choking on the gas unable to stand, and eight still on their feet able to return fire but still at a disadvantage. He targeted the ones on their feet, spraying into the tightly bundled group closest to Gladstone killing three on their feet and finishing off one on the ground.
Before he could fire another burst, the rest of the soldiers were on the ground dead.
"Gas masks on!" the commander shouted as he climbed into his mech. The auto fire didn't work through the gas.
"Gladstone," Shrentor made his voice just audible over the sounds of screaming and shouting. "Standard push, keep moving while taking out big groups, and I'll take care of the stragglers."
"Understood," his now somewhat soothing voice came out. It was nice for Shrentor to finally have someone listening to him.
The only thing out-of-place in the firefight was the tone: it wasn't what you would expect on a battleship. The crew weren't fighting back unless one were close. Shrentor saw only two or three escape pods leaving with fleeing soldiers or crewmembers until the rest all launched at once, empty or otherwise. At the end of the bay, some poor soul tried to dive into a pod, only to get cleanly sliced in two. Gladstone's barrage of different colored gases made Shrentor curious. In the midst of the original chaos, he never noticed that even those wearing gas masks suffered the same effects as those without. He wondered if it would have the same effect on him.
Whatever the case may be, Shrentor saw a perfect opportunity; the guns on the mech fired an uncountable amount of bullets but had a cooldown of a few seconds. The platform the mech was on also provided sufficient cover from the barrages if hugged tightly. After the next volley of bullets and dark blue gas, Shrentor quickly moved across the bay through the gas and found himself sliding against the platform. With the dark gas hiding his presence, he circled around behind the mech, knocked out one soldier cowering in the corner, and stood beneath the hulking beast.
Slinging his CG18, Shrentor grabbed the base of the mechs right leg and made his way up, making himself known to the last man standing, the mech reached its Dreynium arm around in an attempt to smash Shrentor between the arm and leg. Instead, he dropped down to the next lip in the armor plating. As the arm smashed against the leg, he grabbed on a finger. When swung back around, Shrentor was a few feet from the cockpit on the mech, jumping from the hand to the roof, Shrentor pulled out his knife and tore out wires and circuit boards.
Lights started flashing and before a second hand could crush Shrentor, he again moved out of the way. The hand caused serious internal damage to the mech, smashing even more important stuff including one of two power cores. Sliding down to the cockpit, Shrentor popped open the hatch and threw his one and only grenade inside, closed it, and hopped back over the top of the mech, rolling to the ground behind it. The commander inside jumped out as the heart of the metal beast exploded in pure beauty and fell forward on top of him.
"Thank you for all of your help. Your intense gaze just pushed me ever so forward," Shrentor teased Gladstone.
"You look as though you had it covered," Gladstone remarked.
"Yeah, well…" Shrentor looked at a loss for words. "You're right."
"I usually am."
"I'll get you one day."
"Only when I'm dead," scoffed Gladstone.
"Don't test me!" Shrentor half-shouted and half-joked, seeming to be serious at a level. Before leaving, Shrentor popped a quick shot into the still-breathing commander among his dead soldiers.
The last corridor was empty with only two branching sections which led themselves in opposite directions. As Gladstone and Shrentor crossed the seemingly endless final stretch to their destination, Shrentor became uneasy. Passing the first branching corridor with no problems, Shrentor signaled Gladstone to pick up the pace across the second one, and just as he thought, there was a group of soldiers rushing at them. Shrentor's mechanical wrist formed into a sort of mounted launcher and shot out a small circular projectile that slid across the branching corridor until it was a few feet from the squadron when it popped up and created a barrier across the entire thing. The squad leader was directing his troops into a breaching position. They fired an assortment of armaments; standard rifles, rocket launchers, and the gatling laser.
"How long will that hold them?" Gladstone started for their destination.
"Until the ship runs out of power, and the device runs out of reserves." Shrentor started to explain its mechanics to the uninterested Gladstone until -
"We're here," Gladstone stood at the door, cutting off Shrentor's explanation. "What is this place?"
"The engine room!" Shrentor shouted, breaching through the door.
The ambush waiting for them was minimal, most likely due to the fact that the men left from commander robot dude. With ease, Shrentor and Gladstone wiped the floor with them, leaving behind a bloody, gaseous mess. The engine room was very large, with its most notable feature, the giant glass spire with lightning-like beams of energy going from the floor to the ceiling, pulsating with an eerie glow, mesmerising to Shrentor. Surrounding it were five thinner spires with similar beams of energy, but these omitted bright green rather than the center spire's dark blue. Around the side of the room were platforms and pathways. Coming to the main control center directing in front of the center spire and above the door, Shrentor kicked aside the chair, which tumbled off the platform and fell next to Gladstone. Shrentor looked down at him.
"I need you at that door. Don't let anyone inside this room, and be sure to keep the corridor clear as best you can. We need to jump ship, preferably fast, in a few minutes," Shrentor shouted.
Gladstone gave a brief, friendly salute.
Shrentor took a look at the controls in front of him, and he started going to work. He was breaking his way into the locked mainframe of the engine room, he needed to trick the system into thinking the power system was overloaded, causing the seal to open as an energy release. However, the system was more powerful than he thought, the Scorched Leviathan was a state of the art ship, and clearly had all the best technology, its loss would be a hard hit to the Federation.
Gladstone launched three balls into the walls of the corridor, one blue, one red, and one green. All erupting into dark green very viney plants digging into the walls. As the first group of ten soldiers, two in heavy combat 77VI Exo suits, rounded the corner, Gladstone didn't even bother hiding behind the door, he just stood and watched with a blind… smirk? And just watched as the plant erupting from the blue ball shot a bolt of electricity that jumped to the two exo suits electrifying their users and rendering the suits inoperable. The green ball plant released a large cloud of gas into the corridor, and the red ball plant, ignited the gas, exploding the contents of that section of the corridor in a beauty of metal, flesh, and viscera.
The computer wasnt responding well to Shrentors attempts to break into its systems. His breach on the entire system failed so he attempted to hack into only the Beam energy generator, this attempt locked him out of the subsystem. Aggravated, he came up with another idea, he released the coolant valves in the sides of the room and brought up his CG18 and fired upon the nearest one. The shields went up and the computer gave out a message, Access denied. Damage to coolant systems forbidden. Shrentor was out of options, he couldn't break the system and he couldn't do a manual takedown, he made a last ditch effort to take down the weapons system, it worked, the five outer spires shut down. Weapons systems. Eliminated. Shield systems. Online. Purification beam. Online. Life support systems. Failing. Fantastic, the only thing he wanted offline is online, and the only thing keeping him alive, was failing.
"Gladstone!" Shrentor shouted down. "Life support systems shipwide are failing, I reckon we got about a half hour before we gotta be outta here!"
"Understood." Gladstone once again loaded his weapon with pink ball this time around. Launching it, the projectile let out a trail of pink slime down the corridor and a few seconds after the whole hallway was coated it in, it erupted in a wall of flame.
"Corridor disinfecting." Gladstone watched as the flames burned everything organic and cooked anyone in something mechanical.
"Good, ima try my last bet on getting the purification beam offline."
"It's still functional?" Gladstone sounded concerned, but his monotone voice made it hard to know for sure.
"Don't worry about it!" Shrentor called back down turning back to the computers.
Everything so far failed, accessing the system as a whole, accessing the beam subsystem only, blowing the coolant valves didn't even work. Shrentor had one last idea, if he could integrate into the machine he could do a manual override, changing the system itself using his own brain as a catalyst. Breaching the entire system would be a no go, too much strain and it would burn him out, the subsystem was easier. Shrentor felt the system fighting back against his brain hard, the system was powerful, but Shrentor was overwhelming, he managed to access the beam systems, but then Shrentors mind went black. The system had been fully shut down, Shrentor closed off his connection to the power off system, he punched through the screen in a blind rage
"You stupid goddammed machine, why won't you work!" Shrentor pounded the monitor into a pile of scrap.
"Attention all crew members, this ships life support has been cut off to the lower levels, proceed to the shield room to ward off our intruders, or flee to the bridge and be shot like the cowards you are, this is Captain Lomii, signing off" The PA system advertised death to the entire ship.
"I advise leaving." Gladstone said, with the hallway cleared of living bodies.
"NOT NOW!" Shrentor was clearly aggravated, "If she wants to send her crew to their deaths so be it, when they smell the burning flesh of their comrades they'll run or join them."
Shrentor looked at the active spire, its light taunting Shrentor, he screamed a type of distorted and mangled war cry and lifted the computer console and threw it at the glass. It shattered and a shield, the same thick color of the ships shields appeared, Shrentor had one last idea.
"Gladstone get ready to run!" Shrentor primed the vortex detonator on his CG18 and tossed it into the hole in the spires protective glass, the overcharge of the detonator should overcharge the battery causing one hell of an explosion, one where Shrentor and co. would likely want to be as far away from as possible.
Shrentor jumped off the platform, rolling beside Gladstone and pulling him forward while shooting the two soldiers in front of them with his sidearm. At the end of the hallway a LB020 Mobile sentry droid, accompanied by a large gathering of terrified soldiers just wanting to leave. Shrentor stopped at the branch corridor where he launched the barricade and dragged Gladstone his way before he could load his gun with a bright yellow ball oozing with a glowing liquid. Deactivating the barricade, the duo stepped through, when the soldiers rounded the corner, he reactivated it, waiting just to taunt them.
"Hex, I'm sending you a map, get to the point I've marked within the next one minute forty-two seconds or we all go boom!" Shrentor open up the comms between him, Hex, and Gladstone.
"What about the guns shredding me?" she asked in her smooth voice
"Deactivated." Gladstone uttered as he butted a cowering soldier hiding behind a barricade.
"Who the hell is that?" Hex asked.
"Gladstone."
"Who the hell is that?" Hex asked again.
"I-I-It's the new guy, don't worry about it, just get us out of here" Shrentor interjected stuttering as the corridor behind them erupted in flames and explosions from the destabilized ship.
The duo hopped over corpse and the living alike, firing at adversaries standing in their way to freedom, the ship was ripping itself apart from its loss of power, the endless vacuum of space creeping in and crushing the organs of the massive cruiser.
"Im here, and so are a bunch of other idiots." Hex came over as Shrentor kicked in someones face and put a bullet in another.
"Good, keep the LZ clear for exfil, Gladstone and I are close"
Shrentor led the way through a blast door and was pushed aside as Gladstone blasted his yellow ball into the crowd, the yellow ooze held within coated them, melting armor and flesh with ease. The next door held Hex, carving up someone into bits of flesh with her Gurthan blades, the engravings within held the blood of her last victim. Clambering over the piles of bodies, all three of them went rushed into the ship and Shrentor, having pre-programmed a flight path, connected to the ship, closed all doors and set the thrusters to maximum. The Unholy Revenant melted the hull of the Scorched Leviathan and after a few seconds was knocked forward from the blast of the center of the ship being split apart from a vortex blast. Sucking in the engine room and imploding it with the force of a black hole, blowing pieces into deep space at high speeds, while also sending debris into the populus on the planet below.
"Thrusters are shot, reserve engines only, we got to take this thing in for repairs." Hex was working with the system computers analyzing the damage from the blast.
"Handy planet in range is Sevran, it's a scrap planet, built on a foundation of repairing and creating all things spacecraft." Shrentor the planet up on the flight display "no natural satellites, and outside Federation patrols."
"Perfect." Gladstone had hit the big red button on the display, activating the warp drive sending them into the Jubnur system, only 40 AU's from Sevran.