For the first moments as Vreta was crossing the grass towards the side entrance, Rhia’s mind was still caught in a moment centuries past.

Normally, the agent would have taken a more subtle approach to reach her goal, but one advantage these [url=https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/010/642/340/large/marius-siergiejew-alien-species-20170301-by-noistromo-x1811.jpg?1525456200]aliens[/url] did have was how exceptionally aware they were of their surroundings. Ironically, they were completely blind, given their lack of eyes, but the hard, plated organ on their heads emitted an exceptionally refined version of echolocation. They seemed to be able to make a mental map of their surroundings, and anyone in it, even out of a normal line of sight. The design of their ship’s hallways allowed sound to propagate even further, so stealth seemed out of the question for her. 

As she neared the engine room, she saw two weapons suddenly appear from around the corner from two branching paths on opposite sides of the hallways. The aliens holding them barely exposed themselves and started firing, accurately, the moment their weapons came into view. They were projectile weapons, though, so the burst of bullets bounced off of her shields with only some damage to their integrity. The agent leaned heavily on AI assistance for her targeting. Taking a few shots with her pistol, she severed the arm of one of the aliens at the shoulder, and destroyed the weapon of the other. The uninjured one ducked back around the corner until the agent moved closer, then tried to rush out and surprise her with a jagged knife, only to be met with an energy bolt through its forehead. The second was still writhing in pain, but nevertheless tried to reach with its other arm towards the weapon on the ground. Had it not, the agent might have left it alone, but as it stood, it was a simple matter for her to point her pistol over with one hand and almost casually execute it as she walked past. 

“There is no hiding from these people.” The agent remarked. “If they had better weapons, they would have killed me three times over by now.”

The AI in her head was already analyzing and comparing observations from this encounter with all the rest. “Their echolocation is remarkably effective. It may be worth some study, honestly.”

In any case, both of them quieted down as the agent finally reached the door to the engine room. If they could take over the engines, then they would hopefully be able to divert the asteroid. 

Vreta was surprised that Rhia had not alerted him to the presence of this…creature. His echolocation implants would [i]certainly[/i] have been able to detect something of that size. At this point, he wished Void Company was with them. They would have the firepower to deal with something like this. In any case, it did not change their plan. If anything, it made their plan more urgent. “Come on, let’s just get inside. I’ll cut our way in if we have to. Do we still have control of those turrets? If it is aggressive, maybe we can turn them on it?”