Scott
As the elevator back to the boarding station opened up to the hallway, I had to mad dash through, and I slowly shifted my gun back to a low but ready position. Once again, Millie and I slowly walked through the surprisingly empty U-shaped hall, given the necro that was supposed to be visible from the elevator. "Be ready for an ambush," I said. I got a hum of acceptance from Millie and just simply kept leading her down the hall. When we made it to the storage room at the center of the hall, I paused and opened the door, my gun raised to see inside. When it opened, I had to look away from the completely eviscerated corpse that stained the room in its entirety.
"Wow, fuckers had a field day with this guy," Millie said, not at all feeling queasy from the brutality before her. I wasn't shocked, given her being a hellspawn assassin, and the good chance she had done something similar herself. Still, I took a breath and let stress defense shake off the shock from the scene as we both entered to raid the place. I grabbed the node and ammo, while Millie found another Stem-gel, commercial grade, for the supplies. When she offered for me to store in my pocket storage, I said no.
"You keep on your person, it will do you better in case of an emergency," I said. She nodded and stored it away in her pants pocket. When we returned to the room's door, I didn't take any chances and opened it while we stood on either side of the door. When nothing was there, I nodded to Millie, and we both kept moving down the hall. Not a single necro bothered us as we made our way back to the boarding area and the door to the ship docking bay. "Alright, so the plan is simple, we pull Johnston from the ship, and make it back to the tram, which is probably the safest area she can be at."
"Should I wait here out of sight?" Millie asked, and I started to shake my head, when I remembered how bad the explosion could be, and then nodded.
"Actually, yeah, hang back at the doors, and be ready to kill as the ship's explosion will cause an ambush for sure, game logic or no," I said as I handed over my plasma cutter again. "I'd rather not risk a piece of the ship's debris killing you in the explosion, and I'm gonna need my hands to carry Johnston so you can be overwatch."
"Mmm, yeah, that would be a pretty dumb way to go," Millie said while spinning her knife before sheathing it and taking the offered weapon. I nodded again, and we both pushed into the docking bay. While Millie hung back, I jogged to the ship, Johnston seeing me and calling out.
"Hey Scott! Come give me a hand!" she shouted out, and I didn't respond as I walked into the ship. "I did my best, but the singularity core could use an-HEY!" Johnston continued, but was cut off as I grabbed her injured self in a princess carry, her pulse rifle in an instinctual death grip in her hands at the sudden motion. "Scott, what the hell are you doing!" she said with a slight blush on her cheeks.
"No time to talk, shits bad, Johnston, and we need to get you to safety," I said as I kept moving off the recon ship I had arrived in. When I stepped onto the docking bay floor, I heard Millie fire off my cutter and knew I needed to pick up the pace.
"Ahh," Johnston whined in pain as her broken leg didn't enjoy the faster pace a started up as I ran down the open deck. "Easy, Scott, watch the leg! And what do you mean shit's bad? What happened?" she said, looking at me and not the necros that were being gunned down by Millie as they bum rushed her from both above and below the entrance door. I started to explain, when at that moment the necros I knew were damaging the recon ships' singularity core had finished the job. In a blinding white light, I felt the pressure on my back as the ship imploded, causing a shock wave that lifted me off the ground for a second.
If I didn't have the martial talent and stress defenses, I might not have recovered enough to catch my footing before I ended up dropping my injured teammate. "Holy shit!" Johnston shouted out after the explosion happened, and I saw her looking behind us at the destroyed ship, and her cannon's final resting place, if I hadn't pulled her from it in haste. Hell, it might have been mine, given this wasn't a game world anymore.
"Like I said, shit's bad, Johnston," I said while making it back over to Millie. The Imp had cleaned out the first wave ambush on her side, before she started to fire behind me at the necros I assumed had crawled out after the explosion happened. I couldn't do anything but run, so I just pumped my perfectly sculpted and muscled legs faster as Millie kept lying down cover fire before my cutter ran out of charge. Thankfully, I was practically to the door and so just shouted, "Millie, door." She nodded and slapped the holo display, allowing me to run through as she passed me into a leaping jump at the necro right behind me. The blow caused the creature to stumble back, while also letting Millie leap off of it and into the room, just before the door closed on the docking bay.
I gasped out in sudden exhaustion as my legs burned from the sprint I had pulled while carrying Johnston. "Fuck that sucked," I said before walking over to one of the many chairs in the room and sitting her down. I then quickly took the gun from her hands as she started to swing it around towards Millie.
"Fuck! Scott! One of those things is behind you!" Johnston said, while I just kept taking deep breaths to calm down my heart rate. Ignoring the freaked-out pilot, I walked over to Millie and handed her the pulse rifle while taking back my cutter and reloading it. "Scott! Did you give that thing, my gun?" Johnston shouted out as Millie smiled at the oversized gun in her hands. I looked over to the pilot and nodded as I took a second and sat down to rest after the extremely fast-paced, back-breaking action I had just been through.
"Johnston," I said, waving a hand at the pilot. "Millie," I waved over to the Imp. Millie smiled with a wave, making Johnston flinch back even more at the razor-sharp teeth the Imp had. "Millie, Johnston," I waved back over to the pilot.
"Scott, what the fuck is that thing, and how do you know its name?" Johnston shouted out, making Millie growl at being called a thing. I took a final deep breath as my breathing got back under control.
"Look, it's real simple, she's an Imp from hell that just happened to find herself here after being thrown through a portal by some demigod wannabe bitch" I said as I got back up and started to walk over to Johnston. The pilot gave me an exasperated look of disbelief before looking over to Millie, who just frowned at her. When she started to say something and look back at me, I sucker punched her in the face, causing the woman to slump into unconsciousness. "And by the time you wake back up, I will have hopefully got Millie a suit like mine with a full face mask, and can just say she's a little person and that you just had a very bad hallucination."
#####
Millie
Scott and I were walking down another hallway when his holo-com pinged with a call, making him shift so that I wouldn't be shown.
"Scott, what's happening down there? We heard an explosion," who I believed was Hammond said.
"Kellion's singularity core overloaded," Scott said, but showed the unconscious Johnston, who was slung over his shoulder. "Saved Johnston, though, she fainted from the explosion as we ran away from it." He lied. I could just see the downtrodden expression on the two on the call.
"No!" Hammond shouted out at he news.
"The Kellion was our only way home. We're trapped," Daniels, I assumed, said, looking defeated.
"No," Hammond shouted again. "I'm not losing hope just yet, not after losing Chen to this! What about the Command Computer?"
"It's a brick. All the primary systems are locked down, with the captain's codes." Daniels answered.
"So we find Captain Mathius. Track his RIG." Hammond commanded.
"Okay," Daniles said while she moved away from the screen. Scott didn't say a word as he just watched both the screen and the hallway for any threats. "Okay...here. Captain Benjamin Mathius. Location: Medical. Status...deceased?" she read off in disbelief. Scott still didn't say anything as he let the news play out for everyone.
"Scott," Hammond said, shifting to look at Scott directly through the camera. "You're closer to Medical. You can double back and cut through Maintenance. Find the captain's body and get his RIG. With his codes, we-" Hammond started to order Scott when something screeched from inside the screen. "-What was that?" Hammond questioned. Slowly on the screen, both Hammond and Daniles got up from the holo screens in front of them and looked off-screen. At least I think so. I was taking the lead down the hallway and saw a flipped image as I saw the backside of the projection.
"Chen-?" Hammond questioned as more growls sounded out from off-screen.
"Oh god. Hammond, run!" Daniels said as she dashed off-screen. Hammond quickly joined her, and soon the camera we were looking out of was slammed onto the floor, showing the two crew members running away from a necro before cutting out completely.
"Alright, off to medical," Scott said as he dropped his hand and pulled out his cutter again.
"Not worried about your teammates?" I asked as we claimed into an elevator at the end of the hall. Scott tapped the button and shook his head.
"No, both shouldn't die too easily, even if they don't have plot armor. And if I can carry them to the end of this, I will, if I can't? Then I can't. Plus, one of them is a spy," He said. I looked at him with a raised brow.
"Which one's the spy, no wait!" I shouted as he started to say who. "Don't tell me, hmm- is it...Daniels?" I asked, and he nodded. "Ha, I thought she looked a bit shifty-eyed on that call", I said with a smug grin. Scott chuckled.
"And the fact that it was a fifty-fifty shot at being right didn't mean anything, huh?" I blushed at his words but didn't dare to comment on that fact. Finally, the elevator opened and we stepped out into another tram docking station. "Alright, let's see if we can't get you some better gear," Scott said as I looked over to see him putting Johnston down and walking over to a small cubby with a holo display that said store. I smiled brightly at finally being able to get out of these blood-soaked clothes.
#####
Johnston
Blinking slowly, I groaned as motion made consciousness come back to me. "Unnn~ what-AH!" I shouted as I touched my sore, aching jaw. The pain woke me up fully as my mind played back what had happened. I was off the Kellion, no, not just off, I was dragged off by Scott. Then the Kellion exploded by... monsters? YES! I looked around as I remembered that we were being chased by horrible, grotesque monsters. Looking around more, I saw that I was sitting inside a moving tram. "I must be on the Ishamuria, I guess," I said while looking at the tight confines of the tram. "But where is Scott?" I questioned as the tram came to a stop.
"Now docking at Medical," the ship's AI sounded out, making me tense as the tram's doors opened fully. Peering out, I looked to see-"Oh thank god it's you, Scott," I said as I saw his large and imposing frame right outside the tram doors.
"Oh good, you're awake," He said as he walked into the tram. I started to ask what had happened when a smaller form entered with him, and it made me pause. They were wearing another engineer's armor, though with the weirdest addition of two black horns welded to the top of the helmet. "You remember Millie, right?" Scott asked, and I had to take a second to try and remember. Yet try as I might...all I could remember where monsters and not another person.
"No, I'm sorry but no, I don't," I said, making him nod as he walked over and checked over my face.
"Yeah, you had a really bad spill after the Kellion exploded by those monsters," He said while finishing his check. "You still remember your name, if you remember mine, yeah?" He asked and I nodded, making him nod in return. "Good, anyway, Millie is a survivor of this fucking shit show," he said, and I looked over the three-foot woman based on the name and hips. I just nod dumbly as I'm still trying to remember what happened after I passed out from the explosion.
"Scott, what is happening?" I ask, and he sighs and sits down on the other side of the tram.
"I can't sit here and give you a detailed story, so just the fucked up summary will have to do," he said before he started to ramble. It wasn't a long talk as he spoke about walking into the Ishamiura, getting ambushed by the monsters, realizing they were the crew, losing Chen, trying to head back to save me on Hammoned orders, and finally on what he had to do now.
"Fuck, Scott, what the hell is happening?" I whispered after he finished and got back to his feet.
"Yeah, it's bad, Johnston, and that's why I need you to lock down in the tram and try and contact Hammon as soon as possible. Millie and I are going to go get the RIG from the captain, and then hopefully find another way off this death trap we flew into. I nodded dumbly once again as I just didn't know what to think right now.
"Yeah, okay, you two be save you hear" I said and both nodded and left the tram. I quickly got up and locked it down from the inside and then slumped down and just closed my eyes as I just felt exhausted.
#####
Daniels
Things had not gone to plan. This mission was simple: board the Ishamura, slip away to give the captain his true orders from the higher-ups in the church, and then bring the marker home with me. Easy no? Yet what I was not told was of the fucking mutated monster crew who had killed that fucking weak ass security lead Chen, who had then been turned into one of those things not an hour later. Which means I could be turned into one of those things if I get killed. No, fucking, thank you. I took my chance and dodged what was once Chen, knowing my mission needed to be completed, and found myself in a less-used hallway from the bridge.
Thankfully, Chen chose that fuck up, Hammond, to follow, leaving me to easily head to the brain of the ship to hopefully locate the Marker. After that? Find a ship to hold the thing, and then get the fuck out of here to collect my pay. Now wasn't that a pipe dream of a plan...Whatever, I knew the captain must have a ship, given his allegiance to my bosses, and god knows how fucking paranoid those ass hats are. I flinched at the creak of a nearby vent and sorely wished I had grabbed the Plus rifle Hammond had, but the man wasn't letting his weapon go that easily. Sighing, I just did my best to quietly yet quickly race down the hall to the security computer servers of the ship.
As I slipped into another hall I got a call from Hammond, but ignored it as my cover wasn't as important as it once was. "No need to take orders from the fool anymore," I said as the call ended. I'm sure he would be calling Scott to rope the engineer into what had happened to the two of them, which was a good idea given how competent the engineer was. "And isn't that a surprise in itself?" I mumbled as I remembered seeing the man on the other side of the tram station, armor soaked in blood and yet still whole. Honestly, it didn't make sense given the denial the man is in, if that video he plays over and over is anything to go by. I mean, who can watch their wife die over and over again and be fine to function?
"Actually, it kind of makes sense that the crazy fuck is so good at killing now that I think about it," I said while getting into an elevator. Thinking about it some more, I wondered if he would make a good gopher for me. "Maybe I might just need to call Hammond back if things seem a bit harder for me to handle by myself."