"Tellius, are you okay?" Tellius heard Sarah's voice after recovering from the explosion that he had unintentionally set off.
"Yes, I am fine, Sar! Just a little rattled..." The cyborg replied, still standing but slightly dazed as his hearing slowly recovered. "... But the corridor connecting the lobby to the nightclub is gone, and still no sign of Theodore Baldur."
"Oh, I know where he is!..." Chimed Tina, very much in favor of the destruction Tellius was causing, even though it didn't have Sarah's elegance to it. "... He's just outside from where I am!"
"And where are you?" Asked Tellius, half expecting to be guided to some server module or something like that.
"Right this way..." Answered Tina, and just then, a banged-up marble panel slid aside to reveal yet another corridor. "...the path is clear... I am hiding inside a private storage module two... AAAAAH!"
"Tina! Are you okay?" Asked Tellius, concerned for his young companion.
Sniffling, Tina answered. "No, I am not. Lady has... AAAAAH!..."
Tina's connection was cut off mid-sentence before a woman's voice with a sophisticated accent replaced her. "Hello, Mr. Warfield, or is it Killzone now?... Surprised?"
"Yes and no..." Answered Tellius, already jogging down the corridor, following the road Tina had clearly created for him to follow. "... But what are you doing to Tina?"
"Me? I am merely educating Master Theodore's property in his stead..." The AI replied before introducing herself properly. "... I am Lady, personal assistant to Mr. Baldur and the proprietress of this station. And I come with a peace offering."
Noticing that the doors opened by Tina were suddenly starting to close, Tellius picked up the pace and began sprinting through the module ahead while continuing their conversation. "Oh? And here I thought we were having a polite conversation."
"No, we're not..." Assured Lady, her voice still polite but with a promise of violence. "... Listen, Mr. Whatever-you-want-to-be-called! I want this station returned to being operational, and you, as well as the mercenaries hired by Mr. Baldur, are rather, shall we say, counterproductive toward this end."
Exiting the module just in time to enter the corridor beyond and see the blast door at the other end slam shut, Tellius hit the ground in frustration. "Damned! I get it, you want me gone!"
Seeing the Boogeyman feared by the mercenaries so easily imprisoned, the station AI mocked gleefully. "Exactly, and seeing that you're now locked inside a corridor, I would like to advise you to give up, be a good boy, and accept your punishment!"
Storing the Pallas on his back, Tellius looked through the panoramic window to his right outside. There, to the right, he saw the blown-up corridor connecting the lounge to the nightclub, which was now impossible to cross. But to his left, he discovered another damaged corridor that looked like it had been recently hit by a meteor and was currently losing air.
Having immediately come up with an idea, Tellius told the arrogant AI, "You know, I have always been very bad at listening to the advice of others."
"What do you mean? What are you doing?" asked the AI, slightly shocked as she hadn't predicted such a reaction from him.
But at that point, Tellius didn't care anymore as Tina's life seemed on the line, and he began hammering the panoramic window like a sledgehammer.
*Thump* *Thump* *SMASH!* The window eventually shattered, and all the air in the corridor was instantly sucked out into space. Satisfied with his handiwork, the cyborg climbed through the now-broken window, the magnetic soles of his feet instantly sticking to the metallic hull of the station.
...
Meanwhile, as Tellius was having his spacewalk, Sarah had finally succeeded in defeating the Iron Dragons, with only Iron Chin Logan left standing.
"Come on, come on, face me!" The fuming mercenary demanded while striking his chest like some futuristic gorilla.
"You know what? Why not?!..." Agreed Sarah as she turned off her armor's invisibility mode and appeared right in front of Logan. "... See? Can you now die peacefully?"
"Well, I don't know..." Logan stated, surrounded by the sad remains of his mechanical legion but spellbound by Sarah. "... Now that I I am getting a good look at you. You remind me of that Captain bitch from those Propaganda vids. I mean, you have her face, and if your hair were red, with that body of yours, you could star in an p*rn parody of the 'Heroes of Thermopoly-6'!"
"You know, I once thought about doing something like that.." Sarah confessed as she slowly approached Logan, her hips swaying seductively as she approached him, her blond hair slowly turning red.
"Yes, and?" Logan asked liking his non existing lips, mesmerized by her stunning looks but without noticing that her left hand had already reached behind her back.
"Then I remembered who I was!..." Sarah replied furiously, and quickly, like a viper, she slammed her stiletto into the left side of Logan's skull where his ears had been and twisted it. "... Sarah f**king Lawson!"
That said, to end Logan's life quickly, she pulled her stiletto back out before she rammed it into his stack located in his neck, permanently flatlining the mercenary.
"And skum like you can go f**k himself!..." She cursed the corpse before she attempted to report back to Tellius, but what greeted her was an annoyingly static hissing sound. "... Dammed. That jammer is back up again!"
...
In the meantime, Tellius had found his way around the station's weapon systems by exploiting some of their dead zones. Built to fire at spaceships and funded by corporate interests, nothing but large dead zones up close could have been expected.
And so, he quite easily arrived at the damaged part of the air-leaking corridor. To gain access inside, he began hitting the already damaged section.
*Thung!* *Thung!* Tellius hit the steel, only now realizing that the nurse's furious slashes to his neck had done some damage, as his strikes were getting weaker. *Thung!*
"Damned!" The cyborg cursed in frustration, but no sound was heard in the vacuum of space.
And so, gathering his last bit of strength, he hammered the steel one last time. *THUNG!* *Crash!*
Tellius broke the weakened metal and instantly crashed through the opening, carried forward by his momentum. However, with his toes still magnetic, he continued to dangle upside down inside the corridor.
Stepping off the now-bent metal, the cyborg found himself once again inside a corridor, but this time, he was not alone, as a frozen corpse accompanied him. Taking a closer look at its face, Tellius was surprised by its identity.
'WTF?! What is Theodore Baldur doing here?' The cyborg thought, just as his mind began to piece together the most logical sequence of events.
As it surprisingly turned out, the most likely chain of events for Theodore's demise had been Tellius's arrival at the station itself, as he had bumped into a corridor upon his arrival.
With that mystery solved, he used one of his broken gladius blades to cut into Theodore's neck to retrieve his stack as leverage or blackmail material.
Remembering Tina's words regarding her location, Tellius guessed that her storage module must have been the one the dead executive had been trying to reach before his demise. And so, he approached the blast door, stack still in hand, and with a swish, the storage module opened, and all the air inside of it instantly expelled.
Stepping inside, the door instantly slammed shut behind Tellius. The lights flickered on, and the life support system instantly began humming as it worked hard to substitute the lost air with fresh air.
With the lights back on, Tellius was shocked to find what looked like a disturbing art gallery with little girls in test tubes as the exhibits. One particular pink-haired girl immediately caught his attention, and her little frail body was being subjected to a seemingly never-ending series of electroshocks.
"Ple-...help!" Tina's weak, broken voice pleaded, coming out of her test tube's sound system at the bottom.
Recognizing the voice, Tellius didn't hesitate, and he immediately began to desperately hammer the glass in an attempt to break it.
*Thump!* His first strike hit the glass, and black hydraulic liquid began flowing out from between his armored panels where the nurse had slashed something.
Yet, the cyborg didn't care about himself but the little girl underneath the glass and continued to strike until eventually...
*Thump* *Clink* *SMASH!*
The tube broke, and Tellius could finally remove the electroshock-causing tubes from Tina. With them removed, Tellius fell relieved onto his back to buy the Auto-Repair function from the system before he would risk possibly passing out.
[ENEMY VANQUISHED!]
[ENEMY VANQUISHED!]
[...]
[ENEMY VANQUISHED!]
[ENEMY VANQUISHED!]
[Reward(s): 15×SP]
[Total SP: 10 -> 25]
A wave of notifications instantly popped up as soon as Tellius entered the system, but in his haste to purchase [Auto-Repair], he skipped over them all without a second glance to reach the store page.
[Skill Shop:]
[+Skill-Trees:]
[-+Commander]
[--Radio Silence: 50 SP]
[--Morale Boost: 25 SP]
[--Supply Drops: 5 SP]
[-+Mech-Pilot]
[--Final Stand: 50 SP]
[--Berserker-Mode: 25 SP]
[--Auto-Repair: 5 SP]
[-+Infantry]
[--Orbital Strike: 50 SP]
[--Aimbot: 25 SP]
[--Invincibility: Sold]
[-+ Martial Arts]
[-- Path of the Fist Lv.1: 2 SP]
[-- Path of the Blade Lv.1: 2 SP]
[-- Footwork Lv.1: 3 SP]
[+ Auto-Repair:]
[Once damaged, you can automatically restore any damaged or broken mechanical construct by spending one of three Repair-Charges. Note: Repair-Charges get restored every 24 hours.]
[Purchase for 5 SP?]
[Yes | No]
Without hesitating, Tellius confirmed his quick purchase of [Auto-Repair] and immediately spent his first charge to repair his internal damage.
Almost instantly, it was as if a vial inside of him had been shattered as a black, tar-like liquid began to mend what had been broken. Feeling a cooling sensation wash over him, Tellius soon saw his strength restored.
Yet his Gladius Blades remained broken, and his Stormsurge Grenade Launcher had only a single round remaining as the tar-like substance dried up and vanished.
Confused by the exact mechanics of his new Auto-Repair function, Tellius soon found himself otherwise occupied as the pink-haired girl that he had just saved finally awoke, pain-free.
"Hm?..." Tina exclaimed for the first time in a very long time, free of pain and in control of her body.
That said, she first looked mesmerized at her arm as tears started to gather in her eyes. Then she noticed Tellius, and she instantly tried to jump into his arms.
Too weak to actually walk or even jump around since her limbs were still too weak; she hadn't been used in months or even years, but Tina still wailed in excitement. "... Thank you, Mr. Warfield... thank you!"
"Call me Tellius or Telli if you will..." The normally pretty menacing cyborg told the little angel as he grabbed her gently. "... Sarah does use the latter pretty often."
"Hahaha..." Touching his steely face and especially the few parts of artificial skin, Tina giggled. "... Your face looks pretty funny!"
...
Meanwhile, having been absolutely forgotten about, was Jack Searcher, or as Tellius liked to call him, Fancy Jack.
Having escaped the prison following the chaos, he had gone the opposite route in search of safety instead of following Tellius in his path of destruction and carnage.
Having crawled into an air vent blowing warm air into the station, he had found himself in the station's control controlHaving crawled further and over an unsecured and unassuming shaft cover, he immediately fell through it and onto the station's AI core.
Now finding himself inside the station's controll center mainframe, he had been watching the events on the station as they had been unfolding in real-time ever since.
*Alert!* *Unregistered spaceship incoming, preparing defensive action.* *Alert!*
The station's alarm suddenly went off, and Jack could see his beloved space ship approach the station gun's blazing.
"WTF?! That's my spaceship!..." The former spaceship salesman exclaimed before he ordered, "... Abort defensive action!"
And yet, fully under the control of Lady, the station began loading its anti-spacecraft weaponry to destroy his baby.
"Damned! I said: Abort defensive action!" Jack shouted as he began furiously unplugging random cables from the AI core.
"Who are you? How did you get in here?" Lady asked, frightened as she was suddenly struggling to support her language model.
"F**k you bi**h! I am your daddy now!..." Cursed Jack the AI triumphantly, before Lady's voice was suddenly replaced by Sarah's, who was still trying to contact Tellius. "... Telli, can you hear me? Anyone? Tellius Warfield, I am telling you to answer me, or I am running this spaceship into the station! I am not going to..."
"Ahm, high there this is Jack!..." He greeted before he attempted to persuade the female mercenary not to kill them all. "... I know that you most likely must still hate, but please, don't kill us all!"
"Jack? WTF?! How the hell are you still alive?" Questioning Sarah, the Wings of Eos still heading towards the station at full speed.
"Hm... Well, I fancy myself a bit of a survivor..." Jack began but was cut off mid-sentence by the female mercenary.
"You know what? I am still ramming this baby into the station until I hear from my friend!" Huffed Sarah annoyed and not in the mood for Jack's attempt at polite conversation.
"Damnit! Woman, be reasonable! I am doing my best to turn off the station's jammer! It's not like there is a switch that I can..." Jack trailed off as he discovered a rather large switch labeled 'Jammer'. "... Oh, well..."
...
Meanwhile on the otherside of the station, Tellius and Tina had found themselves eventually pinned down behind some cover by the advancing mercenaries. Diego and his team had eventually found themselves unable to quietly wait for Tellius to kill them and decided to kill him first or die in a blaze of fucking glory .
*BBBRRRRRRRRRRR!* Oleg's Gatling gun howled as it sprayed lead everywhere.
Now, pinned down by heavy Gatling gun fire, his HMG out of bullets and both his Gladius Blades broken, Tellius considered purchasing the Path of the Fist Skill and Footwork before he remembered the [Supply Drops] skill.
[+ Supply Drops:]
[Support as the Stars and Stripes intended! You are able to spawn one non-descript crate of ammunition near your position every 8 hours.]
[Purchase for 5 SP?]
[Yes | No]
Hastily buying the skill, Tellius was about to use it when suddenly Sarah's voice echoed not only in his head but throughout the entire space station.
*"This is Sarah Lawson, also known as Widow among mercenaries! I order you all to cease all hostile actions!"*
*BBBRRRRRRRRRRR!* The Gatling gun fire suddenly stopped as the fight came to a sudden halt.
"Is it over now?" Tina asked in wide-eyed disbelief while cradled to Tellius's chest.
Nodding, her cyborg protector answered with a stifled laugh. "I guess so!"
...
Some time later, everyone gathered in the ruined lobby with Tina and Tellius on one side, Jack in the middle, and the mercenaries on the other, just as the Wings of Eos docked at the station.
Walking out of the docking bridge, Sarah, still wearing her XS22 exoskeleton and ready for battle, eyed the mercenaries before she asked. "We good?"
"All good!..." Diego replied to everyone's relief before he asked curiously. "... So, you're the Widow? Hm?"
Showing him her digital mercenary ID with a prominent S+ beside her call sign, Sarah asked once more. "We good?"
"All good." Diego nodded before leading his people to their still-docked spaceship, their heads down in defeat.
"Here, take this..." Sarah told the mercenaries, having researched their situation during the docking before she transferred some of her credits to their account. "... Consider this a little thank-you for listening."
Baffled by the amount that had suddenly been added to their mercenary company's account, Diego, close to tears, only nodded in acknowledgment.
Nodding back at the mercenary, Sarah addressed the former spaceship salesman who had been awkwardly rubbing his hands the entire time. "Jack. You look horrible, but I guess this is your station now!"
"Wait, what?" Fancy Jack asked, but Sarah had already moved on from him and onto Tellius.
With a blushing expression, she approached the man and child with confident steps.
Having picked up on her fierce gaze, Tellius defended himself by saying. "Wait! Let me explain! This isn't my fault! The transmission suddenly cut off, and I-!"
He was instantly shut off as Sarah grabbed him by his collar and pulled him down into a fierce and passionate kiss.
"Where do we go from here?" Sarah asked breathlessly, eventually having to end their kiss as the little girl pressed between them began to giggle.
"Hihihi!" Tina giggled bashfully.
Looking from the beauty in front of him to the little one in his arms to the little girl, Tellius asked the latter. "Where are you from, kid?"
"Johal VII..." Tina replied, confused. "... In the Northstar Sector. Why?"
"Because that's where we're going next!"