Seeing the flesh melt off what Neil creatively dubbed a Xeno-rex was better than having that dancer on his lap. He nodded with a smirk, almost lost in the fantasy of having done that to Margeret the cow. He glanced behind him to Sayeeda. "I don't think I can describe how turned on I am right now." He admitted. 

He felt like he might have done this in exchange for his life though. The Xenonids streamed around them, at least a dozen eldritch beasts stood between them and the ship, some of them ravaging still living people and impregnating them as they screamed blood. Even the ever joking Neil found such a sight sobering in the middle of daylight. 

He decided that a death by liquid fire was far more merciful than death from these beasts. With a quick prayer to his Gods, he engulfed the dozens of meters before them. Fire rained around them, melting the village-folk and beasts as they screeched and screamed. Neil was guarded at his flank by Sayeeda's crack shots. "C'mon, we gotta get the fuck out of here." 

Neil yanked Sayeeda's arm, pulling her along. He knew she was competent enough not to take his cue, so he leaped from rock to rock across the boiling ground, Junebug close behind. In front of them, the last people streamed onto the ship, and Astador landed atop [i]Highlander[/i] from out of nowhere, aiming his carbine down his sights at both Captain and Pilot. Neil nearly fell off the 2nd to last rock, wondering if this fucker had an agenda the whole time. 

He discharged his carbine, and Neil heard a screech behind him, and a wet thump as one of the beasts had been clambering after them. 

There were still muffled screams within the village. Those too stubborn or too slow to leave, but the majority were now in the very nearly overloaded [i]Highlander[/i]. Neil and Sayeeda made it into the ship, but Astador didn't have time to join them. Instead, he told Neil to take off through the comm. 

"I don't know what he's planning but..." Neil leaped and slipped his way past screaming and crying men, women, and children. He had to muscle a few people out of the cockpit before he set himself into his seat and lifted off, Lonny thankfully having revved the engines up. 

Once [i]Highlander[/i] began to lift, Neil looked out of the various cameras they had atop the ship and saw Astador hanging on for dear life, his armor and rebreather keeping him alive. He'd kept the Xenonids off the ship with a daring stand. "Slow down once you reach the mountains and let me in." Astador called. 

"And I thought I was crazy." Neil said, slowing the ship down once they'd traveled 50 kilometers.
[@Penny]