Rayland’s assailant was proving to be quite an effective if not horrifying foe as he darted around the room for his life. His HUD had just about mapped the attacker’s anatomy, revealing a large upper-body body bulk of armor and rearing an insectoid like head with its single eye ever so glued to him. Its long organic limbs propelled this creature into a rapid and clumsy crawl, knocking over desks and another devices not nailed to the floor all the while keeping up with the former AISC as he utilized his suit’s boosters to keep him at a distance. 

To his annoyance, Rayland’s Sub-Repeater seemed ineffective as the crackling energized bolts slammed into and then dispersed harmlessly against some sort of field surrounding the alien. He growled as he jinked quickly to his right just in time to avoid scythe-like arm from dividing him in two. The sharp bladed limb demonstrated its lethality as it sliced effortlessly through a desk of steel and hard plastic components.

 Regret was flooding his mind as he frantically kept his distance; he knew that this was a bad idea but he did not allow himself to think any of this through; or at least not thoroughly enough. Accidentally pulling a firearm on a fellow crew member had been the last straw on his tolerance for these haunting images this thing had been creating. He could have reported this to Sel once more but at the time, he was sure he would had been confined to quarters with the silhouettes free to harass him further; indefinitely driving him to madness. 

He could have also concluded several other outcomes had his decisions been more cooperative and precise. Rayland could have talked to the poor officer whose was nearly the victim of his own firearm and explain the situation to her rationally. He could have talked to anyone about this! Hell, there was even that new crewman aboard who even specialized in counseling and he had never thought to address this to her either. It was irrationally thinking at best and it had gotten the better of him; he was now currently alone, outside in an unknown environment, and being chased back a horrific monstrosity wanting to end him in probably the most bloodiest ways possible. In short, he messed up, big time.

But now was not the time to worry about the past as he knew he himself made the choice to come here against logic or protocol and now Rayland was going to own up and deal with it. 

Rayland cut his jump jets and slid to a halt next to a nearby pillar in the room and quickly turned to face the alien closing in on him. Just as the creature lunged for him, Rayland quickly dived below it, feeling the rough friction of his armor scraping against the alien’s through the entire process. Have successfully evaded the attack, Rayland relished the brief satisfaction as creature crashed into the pillar hard without enough momentum to break right through its structure and hit the ground on the other end.

While taking advantage of the moment to catch his breath, Rayland maintained his aim on the fallen alien which had remained motionless after running into the stone-like structure. He shifted his position slowly, flanking around his attacker to get a better look at it though the surrounding dust was making things difficult to analyze. But given the brief glimpses, it appeared to be cybernetic but to what extent? Clearly this thing was much larger than him so was it a combat machine or perhaps power armor?

[i]“Captin Sul’tari! Do you read?”[/i] came a familier and somewhat agitated voice through his helmet’s built-in comms array.

“Y-yeah I read you…” Rayland replied, still frantically taking in oxygen.

[i]“What’s your status? Where are you?”[/i]

“I’m fine. I just got attacked by…whatever the hell this thing is; I think it’s down. I’m on the eighth floor, section…Ahh…” looking around, Rayland tried to look for this room’s identification header but unfortunately he could not locate it. “…Shit, I don’t know.”

[i]“…Stay put, we already got a fix on you. Try to make yourself visible if you can.” [/i]

Thinking about the voice more, it probably belonged to the Sergeant from before who now sounded concerned than angry. Turning he head, he slowly made his way to the room’s overwatch balcony, now that the shudders had retracted, allowing him to see the rest of the pen and his ship that securely rested in it. Looking at his outside surroundings, he could identify several combat personnel moving about frantically and looking up at him, probably verifying his position. He could imagine anyone over the Battlenet was coordinating without other personnel in the area.

For a moment, Rayland began to ponder what was going to become of him since he did violate protocol. Certainly not a court marshal given his contract but he could see a shift in command of his own ship. The brig of course was sounding more and more likely as he began to think about it. All he knew was that his fate was sealed one way or another.

Then came a sound he didn’t anticipate hearing from his suit’s external audio capture.

Behind him, definitely coming from the downed creature was the aching grunts of a bipedal female being. There was clear mechanical static infused with the groans which confirmed the entire body was some sort of powered suit. Rayland kept his Sub-Repeater trained on the suit has he cautiously approached it.

“I think there’s someone inside…” he unintentionally said aloud.

[i]“…What are you-”[/i] the guard Sergeant began but the voice suddenly cut out.

The groans he was hearing slowly began to turning into snarls and the female tones mutated into something electronically bestial. Internal lights flashed within the suit as it slowly began to rise from the pillar’s debris, shaking off anything of excess that was still on it.

“I don’t know if you guys can hear me be but this thing is getting up!” Rayland frantically announced as he maintained his aim on the combat suit.

Suddenly the red insectoid eye of the suit swerved and stopped on him once more. Rayland naturally gulped in suspense as he waited for what this thing was about to do now that he was practically trapped. Sure enough as he anticipated, the alien suit suddenly lunged at him before he could even pull the trigger and bull rushed him into the overwatch frames. The shear impact made the former AISC gasp for air has he felt a sense of weightless over take him as he found himself falling out of the section with the his cybernetic attacker right on him. The two uncontrollably entered into a free fall while Rayland helplessly punched away at the dense armor of scythe-arm-carrying combat suit before the collided with the top of the Infamous Alto with a loud thud that vibrated throughout the ship as if a meteor at impacted its shields.

The second impact at first was just enough to knock Rayland unconscious but his NVP suit objected to this given the situation and forced him back into consciousness via the tapping of his neurotransmitters throughout his brain. Rayland quickly relocated himself not on the top of the Infamous Alto as he remembered but under it. He figured the impact was at an imperfect angle which caused his limb body at the time to fall off; seemed right as he was feeling pain all over.

Struggling with the pain his NVP suit was quickly trying to tone down, Rayland managed at least to sit up but trouble seemed to already be right on top of him. The alien crawled from above the ship, glaring down back at the Captain with it's single red eye, positioning itself to lunge at him once more. Rayland frantically tried to pull himself up, knowing that if he did not move he was a sitting duck. Just as the combat suit jumped into the air and dived straight for him, Rayland hit his jump jets once more and dashed away just in time to see the alien's scythes rip the ground apart from where he originally lay. Though he was able to dodge the attack, he had panicked in that moment and collided into a nearby wall of the ship bay just to escape certain death from being sliced open.

Virtually pinned once more, Rayland redeployed his Sub-Repeater and open fired on the alien, watching in dismay as his rounds dispersed once more against its barrier. His HUD was picking up allied movement around him, converging on his position to assist but would they make it time? He mentally prayed that was the case as the alien death machine charged once more.