Deck stepped through the doorway into his ship just as the dolly made a whining sound and died. The few inches drop to the ship had the container cracking the dolly's frame before the cylinder fell over with a heavy thud and started rolling. "Damn." Nai cocked an eyebrow watching it roll.
"Yeah. Help me get this… where do I need to take this?" Deck bent down to pick up the cylinder while Nai crouched to get the other end. "Lift with your legs" He spat out. Nai rolled her eyes then grunted when her end of the cylinder didn't lift.
"Just to the access point to the left there." Several lights lit up showing them where she meant.
"You are going to have to activate my implants again. I can't lift this damn thing." Deck eyed the canister and glanced at Nai who had already stepped away clearly not planning to help.
"Without the assistance of an exosuit overutilization of your implants could be dangerous. Please just roll it to the access cubby." Deck glanced over at the cubby.
"Uh yeah. That will work." He quickly started rolling it over to the cubby. Then stood up stretching afterwards.
"Well. We got nanites but now what?" Nai stood with her arms crossed staring right at him.
He gave her a shrug as if saying why look at me. "One moment please." The ship spoke and both glanced at the access cubby. There were a number of narrow access points looking almost like drain pipes in the bottom of the cubby. Suddenly, the container split open and a flood of what looked like oil rushed out to flow down the pipes. Despite the small size, it took several seconds for what seemed like enough liquid to fill the original protein cylinder twice over to finally flow out. Deck watched almost mesmerized as the inky black liquid that occasionally shimmered with a prismatic shine flowed out. He found it interesting the container itself seemed to dissolve shortly after.
"Networking with the nanites. Please wait." Deck looked around as if he had anything else to do.
He and Nai just stood there both kinda eying the other now that there wasn't something pressing to focus on he found it awkward. "Uh…" He was just trying to figure out what to say when the ship spoke again.
"Security forces have arrived. They are requesting to board the ship." To accompany that statement a screen on the wall lit up showing a security guard with half a dozen droids with them.
"How did they find us so fast?" Deck asked.
"Duh. Where is the first place you would look if something was stolen? The docks. Starting with the most suspicious ships." Nai rolled her eyes as if it was obvious.
"Well the container is gone, let's just let them in. They won't find anything right?" Deck moved towards the exit.
"Actually Captain. The unique gravity waves produced by the Zenderite can be detected. Once onboard their scans will locate it. Soon, the station's scanners will as well." The ship's serene voice didn't help.
"Zenderite? ZENDERITE? You stole something made of ZENDERITE? Fuck me. I shoulda worked at a brothel. They will jar our brains for a crime like that." Nai's eyes were wild as she started pacing.
"The security forces have stated if we do not open they will board us by force." The AI calmly informed them.
"Fuck its just a few junk droids and one guy. You're some badass soldier, go take them out. I do NOT want to spend the rest of eternity as a brain in a jar serving as RAM for some AI." Nai stomped over to him and pointed at the screen.
"Yeah with what? Give me even a basic blaster and I could. But unarmed? Without my combat suit?" He snapped back at her.
"They have rifles, just go take one of them!" Nai waved at the screen as if her idea was simple.
Despite the absurdity of her idea he couldn't help but study the forces outside. Six basic droids, they were all armed with sonic rifles. Pretty standard. Their short range was ideal for the station, no worrying about a stray shot. They fired a concentrated blast of sound. So intense and short it actually wasn't audible to human ears but carried enough energy to take down most organics. At least humanoid ones. Plus, no need to worry about accidentally blasting a hole in the station.
"Wouldn't matter if I did. They would be locked to the droids. To prevent that very thing." He stated that fact while still eying the screen.
The droids themselves were low grade. Their limbs looked more like slender poles than anything humanoid. That meant they didn't have synthetic muscles but worked off servos or maybe even hydraulics. Slow to move, they wouldn't be able to aim very quickly. Hitting something fast moving would be almost impossible for them…
"We are so fucked." Nai reached up and tugged on her own hair with both fists in frustration. "I didn't think this day could get any worse."
"If you were able to acquire one of the rifles I could unlock it." The ship's AI informed him in that serene voice making Nai pause her ranting.
"You can access all my implants?" He asked even as a crazy plan started to form.
"Yes, but utilizing them without a combat suit can be dangerous." The ship replied most likely reading his mind already.
"Yeah well if we don't do something fast we are screwed either way. Can you put me into Berserk mode?" He realized a smile was starting to creep up on him.
"Doing so would put a high strain on… Yes." The AI cut itself off and answered before he could even voice his lack of need for her warning.
"Perfect." Nai looked at him like he was mad, the grin on his face despite the situation made her think he really might be.
**********
Jenkins drew in a breath through his nose before exhaling noisily. He didn't know why the station master was freaking out over some petty theft. No one could leave the station while the docks were on lockdown. Everyone's money was on the frigate owned by the Malnilian, if anyone was the thief it would be one of them. He had only stopped at this "ship" because it was closest and security records showed it was currently occupied. Why they refused to open up seemed pointless. They couldn't go anywhere. Besides, would anyone really try and stash anything on a ship stripped down to little more than the frame and interior compartments?
He was just about to request permission to breach and board when the hatch slid open. "About…" A blur rushed out of the ship and raced down the ramp towards them. "Fuck! Fire!"
**********
Deck sprinted down the ramp towards the tight gathering of droids even as the one security guard gave his orders. Never slowing down he dropped into a slide as half a dozen dense waves of kinetic energy buzzed by over his head. He hit the first droid in its ankle causing it to fall forward. Twisting his body even as he snapped it upwards with a degree of muscle control to make those watching think it looked as if he was pulled up by strings.
Grabbing the nearest one's arm he twisted, hard. Metallic joints popped under the sudden strain and the droid's arm fell away leaving Deck holding its rifle. Everything seemed to be moving impossibly slow. His implants had all his synapsis thrown wide open and firing continuously. Several implants helped process the data his senses took in, augmented even further with the help of his new AI assistant. The security guard's mouth was open in shock and his eyes reflected fear as he looked at the wild eyed man that had literally just disarmed one of his droids. He'd only seen eyes hyper dilated like that in the worst of junkies or soldiers with some extreme implants, he hoped for the former and feared it was the latter. That was confirmed as he watched the man whip around avoiding several more almost point blank blasts from the droids. Worse he was somehow able to fire the stolen weapon despite the fact it should have been locked to the assigned droid.
Jenkins started to draw his blaster, not a sonic safety weapon like the droids used but a proper killing weapon. Before he could get it out of the holster a mass of kinetic force hit him in the chest. Lifting him off his feet to land on his back, sliding further away. He groaned as the world went black.
Deck kicked back hard his boots skidding across the smooth metallic floor as he avoided several more blasts after taking out the security guard. He fired off the rifle with one hand as he grabbed another droid with his free hand. Grunting he swung around and smashed one droid into another with a crunch of metal on metal.
Turning he blasted several times into the chassis of one downed droid until it stopped moving while stomping on the head of another. In less than a minute he had taken out all six droids and the security guard.
"WOOOOO! Yeah. Come on!" He practically shouted the words out. Deck's cheeks ached from his huge grin and his body felt like it was on fire. For five years he had avoided drinking. Never bothered with brothels. Nor even daggled in more illicit chemical recreation. Amongst the Red Star corps, it was practically unheard of. For him tho he never saw the point, what high could there be other than the rush of battle?
For a moment there was just the sparking of wiring from the destroyed droids. The whine of servos trying to spin joints no longer attached and the popping of capacitors overloading. Then the security guard's groans brought him back to reality and he wiped the grin off his face. 'Damn, got carried away again.' He sighed as he walked over to take the blaster from the guard's holster then gave him a quick kick to the face when he looked to be recovering.