Ark Angel, Lower Earth Orbit
For the second time - at least - in the short span that he’d served with Raven, Ebrima found himself wishing he hadn’t been raised not to swear in order to properly describe the situation he had found himself in. This was absolute bovine manure. An unimaginable pile of it. What choices did he make in life that led to him being in space, literally alien to humans with no reliable natural way of telling how far anything was when they were moving, much less actually fighting in it?
Still, one must adapt, he thought, using the provided grapple to quickly get behind some solar panels. Not like it was any cover, concealment at best, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. According to one of the small pile of materials provided in preparation for the mission, it took on average 14 seconds for a human exposed to the vacuum of space to pass out - assuming the decompression was long enough to not rip up one’s lungs. Thus, he decided double taps were the name of the game, hard to imagine anyone managing to patch up two holes in the time afforded to them.
Eventually he found something approaching solid cover - the control moment gyroscopes by appearance - and could finally stop darting around like a rag in the wind and actually aim, having hooked his foot under a handhold and started putting in work when Rose decided she was in a chatty mood.
He held his tongue. For one, people like her were not worth the breath - literally in space, where it was a limited commodity - and two, the only retort that he could come up with involved having had parents at all as opposed to a serial number, which would’ve involved a degree of friendly fire. Although Rose’s transmission had clearly had an effect, if the image of a grapple cable flying toward an Artemis position, followed by the cable pulling back with an Artemis merc with the hook impaled through the helmet’s visor was of any indication, it didn’t have an effect Rose would be happy with.
Eloise had propelled herself in the same direction as the others, keeping herself oriented on the station as a fixed object. As the hostile mercs had made their way toward them, she’d likewise driven hard for the cover of the station and it’s various jutting peripherals.
Much like Ebrima, she struggled to reconcile the distances; there were no cues. No sound, no breeze, no normal shadows. Just stark light and dark, and objects swimming in a sea of it. She hooked herself around the support of one of the shimmering solar panels, and hand-over-hand ‘climbed’ down it toward the station’s exterior hull. Vibrations came through her boots and gloves as she made contact with the station; almost reassuring to have some other sensory stimulus beyond her own self-contained environment in the suit.
When Rose came over the radio to waffle and monologue, Eloise essentially tuned it out, though mentally made a mark to give her a boot up the ass for the personal remarks - though, she figured Skye likely had that as covered as the rest of them did.
Oh, those mercs were getting awfully close… well, in relative terms, anyway.
Short lived sparks showed the muzzle flashes of her friends and allies gunfire, and likewise from the mercs. But lack of snap and pop of gunfire and of ricochets was unnerving. Nonetheless -
She unstrapped her SMG, and took careful aim, the bulky suit hampering it somewhat, before she squeezed off rounds, the bulky gloves likewise making it difficult. The shot translated as a thudding drum of vibration as the rounds sliced out through the vacuum.
“Copy, Chaos. Me and Boaro got you covered.” Skye called back, watching as the grapple smacked the merc in a mist that made Boaro’s response to Skye’s call a rather stark one. She moved through the field of solar panels, providing cover to the Cameroonian, dumping the magazine into another merc moving out around the station, before latching into cover on a hardpoint, another loaded, charging handle peeled through the thick gloves of the suit. Eloise was keeping close, quiet, but no less lethal.
There was no denying this was not in their comfort zone, but then again, Skye knew it wasn’t in the foes they were facing either. But knowing Rose was inside, or at least, towards the centre gave a bit of solace. A point. A direction to go and charge into.
Athena laid out a bit more fire, following on her sister, laying out accurate, guided fire on the mercs on the far side of the solar panel field, clipping two into a bloody mist.
“Yeah, me and Frigga have the rest as well! Get after it!” Athena called back, as Skye peeled a look, before coming back down, seeing the airlock begin to open, the insides all decompressed and opened out as they were.
Moving down, Skye peeled a look upside down from where Sam was, looking out towards Ebrima and her team, bar Freya and Athena, were located.
“All ready? We’ve got canisters to find, and a Rose Lyons to frag. Eyes forward.”
Seeing the heavies had the situation outside under control, Ebrima pushed off from his position, floating toward the airlock to take up position in the stack behind Skye.
”Tight quarters. Exactly where I’d put a mine.” He noted, seeing the corridor leading deeper into the station.
Samantha smiled as she heard the reassurances from the rest of the team. She grinned as she thought, they might not be blood family but they were found family. She grinned as she went back to work on hacking the door. Rose had layered her own security over the top of the standard protocols but she had not changed them. She was probably worried that she would accidentally delete the wrong security protocol and end it all by doing something stupid. The rare mistake gave Chaos a way to bypass the initial layer of security. She focused on the next line of code as Bob and her worked as a team to hack past the first layer.
Chaos’s work was interrupted as the guy who had fired on her from above took another potshot at her. Just like he was using the station as a shield, so was she. She used the tether to lean back away from the station and aimed her shot at his helmet. She nailed him and saw his helmet crack and he pulled back. She didn’t think he was out of the game yet but it bought her more time.
Chaos muttered angrily under her breath.
“Damn mindless spunk for brains minion. He needs to go away. Damn interruptions.” Chaos continued to work on getting past Rose’s security so she could access the station’s emergency protocols and standard commands. She was typing as fast as she could even as she was losing some feeling in the arm that had taken the bullet. She had managed to wear her undersuit under the space suit. The medical unit kicked in and put a tourniquet on her arm to control the bleeding.
Bob’s automated mechanical voice told her
“We have bypassed the outer layer of security. They know we are here but we have control of basic systems. The station is responding to standard emergency protocols.” Chaos’ voice was a little breathy as sweat rolled down one side of her face even as a chill rolled down her spine.
“Queen the good news, I have access to the emergency protocols on the station. I can get us in. The bad news is they know I am in their system. I can tell that there are sections of the station that have been removed from the ordinary protocols. I won’t have access to those areas. They are running a gap system , probably for safety. The airlock entrance is rebooting. I will have access in 5 minutes.”Chaos let the team know about the airlock. They had their way into the station. She pulled herself close to the station as the airlock finally began to cycle to allow the team inside.
The Scot replied back to Boaro's comment, then Chaos's. “Aye. But I think I know why she didn’t. And affirm, Chaos.” Skye uttered, pushing through the aperture, turning left, two more contacts in direct view as she dived immediately into cover, bullets flying past as Skye used her grapple to literally send one of them past her helplessly into the path of the other two, whilst eliminating the other, moving around elegantly, getting fast used to this. And in it, there was the atrium. Something of a larger room, but as Skye pushed in, she opened her jaw.
Body after body, in plastic bubble, she had to guess this was the rough area that it would be stored in, but it still didn't really still compute. Hers. To be specific.....
“Fuck, this is where she was…..yeah, peeling the poison out of those bodies. Literally. Christ.” Skye added, barely a moment too soon as more hostiles rushed into the room, Skye moving up and around a bulkhead, ducking out of the way as bullets flew down range.
“More contacts!” Skye yelled, as she flicked a new magazine in, aware that Eloise, Ebrima and Sam were holding the vanguard here with her. They had a bit further to go, but they’d get to where they were going, through a determined, hardened group of hostiles that seemed to get the hang of moving through a vacuum a bit better than their dead compatriots outside, their black spacesuits showing they were a little more readied for this.
Eloise’s rounds had either driven off her targets, or dealt with them in ways she didn’t care to consider; either way, they’d opened the way for her to advance, and catch up with Skye, Ebrima and Sam. They moved into the station’s interior, and it was… eerie. Bodies racked up in tubes, like something literally out of a sci-fi movie, given the surroundings.
“This is… incredibly unsettling,” she had time to quietly comment as she unstrapped her acquired crossbow and propelled herself through the interior, pushing off of and pulling along the machinery and furnishings of the interior.
”It’s like a mass grave, only somehow worse.” Ebrima agreed with Eloise’s assessment of the sight around them. After uncovering some of Luisa’s in Colombia, he thought he’d seen the worst humanity had to offer. But Skye Lyons’ Traveling Freakshow always goes to interesting places.
‘Different space suits, easy to tell from allies.’ Ebrima grined behind his helmet as the new contacts arrived. The grapple had another great use to it - the moment a hostile peeled out of cover to shoot, Ebrima could simply latch onto him or her and yank them out into the open for the others to deal with hassle-free, with the secondary effect of the other Artemis fighters growing reluctant to expose themselves lest they fall prey to a possibly deranged, bleached Scorpion.
As the bullets started flying, Eloise silently cursed and ducked behind one of the many pods, giving a grim smirk at Ebrima’s words.
“Black for baddies, that’s very gauche”, she replied, before leaning out and taking careful aim, letting fly with one of the razor-sharp bolts through the faceplate of a hostile, and quickly taking the moment to advance as she pulled the string and racked another bolt as she dived into more cover.
Samantha shivered as she kept up with the team. The sight of all those bodies in the tubes had her sighing. Rose had all she needed to make the Sol Hestia. She shook her head and kept silent. She tried to stay alert as she pulled out one of her knives. She didn’t like the idea of firing a gun inside the station.
Outside the station, Athena clipped another group of hostiles at the far end, moving through the end of the panels, the the armoured titaness still not quite sure of how the fuck this was playing out.
“Queen, we’re capping off the other end of the space station. I think I have eyes on a launch tube. Looks like the way they're launching the 'Hestia from this. Frigga, can you cover me, I’m gonna see if I can get to the end of it?” Skye heard, as she pulled out of cover, peeling bullets past a version of Rose #187, she humorously pondered to herself, also thinking about the fact she *was* partly one of those things. Which made even less sense. Laying down fire, she kept the bullets going, the space station’s integrity not a priority given it was all a tin can with plenty of zero oxygen inside of it.
“Affirm, Valkyrie! Boaro, Archer, I have you covered, keep moving and see if you can get through the next sector!” Skye called back, keeping accurate fire down, suppression at the very least on the flat level, realising she was at a different angle entirely in a 3D realm to the other two, who were virtually upside down, but across from here.
Frigga pushed off a surface and caught another surface with the claw of her line launcher, she couldn’t bring Starbreaker along, too big but she did have the claw. She fired it attaching herself, and called to her sister, “I’ve got you Athena!” She stood up on the cooling spire, looking like a grey sentinel upon the spire, “Ladies and Gentleman, the power of the Sun!” A blue-white lance, hit a merc right in the chest. When they say they can’t hear you scream in space, it’s mostly true.
Her claw growled at it came loose and she threw it forward again, pulling herself along in Athena’s wake, grabbing another anchor point, securing herself, and bracing, her AEW shifting, this time a pin point pen thin blast, a hiss…and a mercs armor explosively decompresses, “Who knew a Physics PHD would come in handy during space combat.” Another crank and she pushes off again keeping up with her sister.
Landing a third time, “Oh you think that will save you?” As some mercs knelt behind a large thick plate of something.
Clack…click…BZAAAT!
The Lightning Gun crackled, conducting along wire and materials, slagging the cover, sending the mercs scrambling and into her friends lines of fire.
With an almost evil chuckle she deployed her claw again to catch up to her sister.Eloise tensed herself and sprang out from her cover, shooting while on the move. The bolt hit, center mass this time, and the target flailed in agony.
“Mmmhh… this this is effective, but it takes too long to reload,” she growled, instead pulling her Jericho from its’ sealed holster and blazing off a volley of shots as Ebrima yanked another hostile into the line of fire. Reaching her impaled target, she met his chest with both boots and coiled, crouching against him and putting a shot through his visor, before kicking him back down the length of the module.
“Keeping them pressed back; but it’s hard going,” she called out over their radios, as a round ripped through the interior of the module and whacked something on her helmet, forcing her into a spin she had to correct in the Zero-gee environment.
With cover from the rest of his teammates, Ebrima could leverage a bit of mobility for a change, making a series of quick, grapple-assisted bounds between pieces of equipment that looked more solid than others, rapidly closing the distance as the Kuri left its sheath. In a flurry of movement, flashing steel and manoeuvres only enabled by the thruster pack that nearly made his inner ears give up and go home, the Cameroonian’s path slowly became marked by droplets of blood streaking from ruptured suits, coalescing into tiny spheres that drifted aimlessly until striking a surface, adding sparks from short-circuiting equipment lining practically every surface in the room into the carnage.
Skye exploited the chaos the two made, pushing past a group of bodies, clattering two more hostiles with a double tap to each, using her grapple to shoot across the room, clattering into side by the pair, magazine unloaded and another slid in.
“Right. Through here. Eyes open on any killswitch. Valkyrie, you in position?”
“Affirm, I’m on the other side, no windows though, so I can’t see inside!” Athena’s voice sounded back, as the Scot looked through her visor to the other two, breathing out a hard exhale, this particular move not one she ever wished on any of them. She didn’t let them lead. She went herself, and pushed forwards, peeling through, the taller module as wide as the one before, but revealing nobody inside.
Apart from her.
With Rose cornered, rifles were raised, as Skye floated through, hearing the static kick in once more. A similar suit, but a little more on her backpack. A contingency, no doubt. She seemed
"Raven, how lovely to see you up close. I wouldn't do anything stupid." Rose waved around the clacker, the DMS hooked up against her hand, the pudgy thumb latched against the pressure plate, as Skye kept rifle raised, shaking head.
Ebrima was about to shoot, only stopped by the realization of three other people on board and two just outside. The old adage of ‘Hostages only matter if the other side cares about their survival’ got thrown out the window - well, airlock - if the hostages were the rest of the team.
Eloise had replies swimming in her head about how this was already stupid; gunfighting in a soda can with inevitable death a fanny hair away, but she held her tongue and kept her cool, the muzzle of her gun still pointed in Rose’s direction, but finger out of the trigger guard. Her haunting eyes firmly fixed on the other woman as she listened - and waited.
"No fucking chance. We've got a heavy against the release. You hit it, Athena redirects it. Give it here. And you might get a chance to live. I'll see to it that you don't end up getting someone pulling you apart. Every fibre in me wants to. But for the good of everything that's fucking sane, give it to me, and let's end this."
"It's a tungsten covered, rocket-assisted canister, Skye. It's sealed, so you puncture it, that thing makes a racket. And she'll go with it, if I release. First on the list. Then about a billion. Want to risk that?" Rose replied, as Skye kept rifle high.
"I suppose we didn't really get to know each other, did we, Raven? You know....Skye's something of an enigma. When confronted with all the horrors. She told you she'd help you with all your problems. Be it prison, being an orphan, losing loved ones, comrades, family, the things you can't outrun. Give you a purpose and let you live. But she picked you because she knew you'd never go anywhere else. Just like her. You didn't really have a choice. And then she made you into machines that can only kill. At least the people I pay chase greed. But you....you all chose this because you can't help yourselves. So you killed everything in your way, and here you are, told you're saving the world. With all of its corruption, with everything it took from every one of you, and you want to keep it, rather than take a chance it might be better." Rose said, keeping an open tone to everyone, knowing they'd hear.
Make their judgement. In whatever twisted way she saw fit. Skye kept her SIG pointed at her doppelganger, knowing that in this moment, it was not exactly like they had much leverage, but they had to talk her down. A DMS meant all sorts of shit. Explosives, retro-thrusters, anything, beyond even just that WMD in her hands.
”Fixing a problem does not necessitate a clean slate.” Ebrima simply replied to the posturing madwoman,
”Boss, what’s the call?”“People like you made me into a machine to kill long before Skye was on the scene,” Eloise replied in the hushed, soft tone she always held. “And they lied to me about it, with elegant, big promises and visions like yours. Stepping over bodies to get to them and using me to do it was all part of their vision” she shrugged - the motion muted by the suit, and shook her head. “You’re just the latest in a long, long line of maniacs with grand ideas and flashy toys. There’ll be others like you, either way this ends. You’re not as special as you think you are; just another butcher in the history books, but with a more fantastic plan. I don’t care what you think of me, or why. Skye, Purna… Athena…, all of them have done and said more in this short time than you’ll ever do. You’re just a target waiting for a bullet or a blade”.
Skye stayed quiet, letting them talk, as Rose spat on her visor in response to Eloise.
"Because I'm done pretending we can't change the world and that long line exists! You think I like this? Love the idea of what we're doing? The fucking world is falling apart, it's a lie, we're consuming, using, destroying, and it'll all end now, shit, at least I give an alternative! It's a necessary evil. I told Skye that. You could live in that. You and your team. You had first refusal. And now you'll take them with you." Rose replied, her English-accented voice bitter, and the face, uncannily like Skye’s now, as she no doubt, was putting her impression on Eloise in that moment.
Skye thought for a moment on that exact ponder before she replied.
"This…..the body transfer, it's in my head too. Integrated. You know, you're not special. I went from a body to another like you." Skye uttered, the redhead knowing that fact in the last few hours had just sunk home, dropping into
"Bullshit." Rose barked back, as Skye chuckled, almost as if to drive it home, knowing she'd caught a line in Rose's heart with that one.
"Fucking look at me! No warpaint, Rose! No tattoos. Nothing. And no node sticking out of me. I'm like you. Not even metaphorically. And on my last life. And I don't want to commit fucking genocide. So don't think you're anything more." Skye almost seemed pleading, yet lost herself. Putting herself at that level. Hoping Rose could get that.
Rose stared daggers.
"All of it so he could pull the rug at the end. Zhao...he just wanted what I feared. A product. No more." Rose uttered, shaking her head inside the helmet, looking back. "So you know what it's like then. And you don't think this is any special?"
"We're just people, Rose. And we're at the end of this whole thing. Let's give this up."
Rose looked on, confused, but realising. Zhao had realised what was coming. And no doubt, that was the reason the rocket was intact. In that final moment, he realised cutting that deal had been his lifeline. One that she hadn't known if it had worked, or not.
(one last one)
”She speaks the truth. The Skye you tried to kill in Japan stayed on the island” Ebrima simply stated a fact, hoping his reputation for brutal honesty would help drive the point home.
”That’s the problem with grand causes. In the end, nobody cares what you want, only what they can wring out of you. I’m just surprised it took you this long to realize.” His tone actually approached something akin to pity, though whether it was real or not was anyone’s guess.
Eloise, shook her head again, giving a simple shrug. “Life is a balance of red and black. Don’t you have enough red on your hands? Maybe it’s time to try something else, while you still can”, she said with a hesitant, hopeful tone in her voice. Quiet, encouraging, but not quite pleading.
Sighing, Rose kept herself against the titanium door, gently stepping off, with the prose of a ballerina, into the centre of it.
"I'll give you the DMS. Only to you, Skye. We'll go up. The door’s open above. And talk. Alone. Cut the comms and call it a day." Rose asked, as Skye didn't hesitate. She moved forwards from the rest, knowing this was it.
There wasn’t much to it, but she had to, in a moment of perhaps clarity, take Rose at anything. And trust her team had her back.
With the DMS in hand, Skye came closer, separating away, going up, or down, whichever way the airlock in the cavity was facing, away as the line stayed open for one last moment.
"Work something out, team." Skye’s words almost seemed fleeting, escaping. Almost hopeful, yet knowing whatever happened, hoping to hold her cool.
And with it, Skye floated up, and towards Rose, hearing the comms channel adjust.
"We don't have to do this, Rose. Come on." Skye uttered, as Rose shook her head, DMS clutched tight.
"What was it, Heroes, by David Bowie? You remember that memory?"
"Yeah." Skye replied, the redhead looking the other in the eye, coming close, close enough to look the speck in Rose’s Earth-reflecting eye.
"It's the last time I felt human, Skye. Last moment I had. And, I wish I could go back to it every time. But everything else...there's no humanity left. And not down there either. And there wouldn't be in you either." The other voice sounded almost remorseful, confused tangled.
"Come on, Rose. There is. In you. You can still stop. Still be normal. I know how much it hurts. I know why it did. But I can't undo any of it. We can't keep going like this." Skye replied, knowing this was risky. It was stupid, dumb, Rose was unpredictable, but almost a turn in her eye had come to give it up. Realise she was outplayed. Outmanned.
"I'll let you feel that weight. You're right." Rose put her hand out with the DMS, and offered it forwards.
And into Skye’s. The trigger rested, pushed against the firm gloved palm of Skye.
The Scot not letting go as Rose released quickly, glancing one look. Into eyes that mirrored her. Uncannily. It was her, alright. A mirror with a physicality to it.
And Rose pulled her left hand in, up onto Skye's shoulder.
And fired her grapple. Skye immediately blew back, the hook smacked through her visor and straight into her skull. The DMS unwound as it fell out of Skye's lifeless hand, the impact of the pointy hook near instantly ending it, the vacuum finishing any remaining neurons.
There weren't any final thoughts to be had, bar one.
Rose wanted her to make her feel that release, that loosen of hand, helpless, absolutely. In the end, even if involuntary, it had been her own doing. As if the final laugh was with Rose. The black of the view beyond her fading light left nothing. In the end, like all those she'd killed.
Rose shoved the lifeless body of Skye back at the team, cable pulled out of her dead counterpart, and used her MMU to separate her from Skye, keeping her other body between her and the team, who were seeing Skye Rosalind Lyons rotate towards them in a method that didn't befit her dying valiantly at all.
Soundtrack: David Bowie- HeroesIn this line of work, no such thing existed. Rose preyed on fear.
Because when you had a field-generator equipped spacesuit, getting shot at wasn't the worst issue for a moment, but she could absolutely give it back. And while offense was the best defence, she had her mercs left inside the Ark Angel to help with that, bullets flying to no avail.
And suddenly, violently, the canister released from inside the space station, the plume of the pre-stage bursting, and smacked into Athena's shoulder, who pushed as hard as she could, her legs bolted against the station, feeling it spike. The rocket fizzled out, but the canister was loose. And the only thing stopping it from plopping out of the side of the space station was an overexcited twenty-two year old, who inadvertently, was now holding back certain death for an incalculable amount of people.
Athena screamed, feeling the canister rustle against her side, using all her energy to keep it in spot.
"Fuck, canister is loose, team, Fuck, we need to do something, fast!" Athena's voice actually broke in panic, as she didn't even yet clock the HUD alert of Skye's lifesigns being altered. But more importantly, Rose closing distance.
She hadn’t gone back down to Ebrima, Sam, Eloise. She’d moved further along, and out of the way. With a group of mercs to clean up the job, and her, seemingly, unable to be hit.
"You know I'm coming, Athena. Sisters who live together, die together, you can't stop the inevitable. You and your privileged fucking type. Your egos would do the same, but only for yourselves and your fucking stupid popularity." Rose taunted, knowing she was being hunted. Five to one. Terrible odds, but then again, Rose Lyons was everything Skye was, and now the latter was dead, those odds were a hell of a lot tighter. Especially when Rose seemed to not be capable of being shot.
The canister still thrusting away, Athena was not exactly in a comfortable position, rather, a stress one in more ways than literally one.
"Shit, I can't hold this! This thing is going to fucking go through me!" Athena yelled, yanking forwards and punching the propellant, killing the thing there and then, but leaving the canister still in the void with a push from the secondary that threatened to rip her away. She had to hold the canister now. Still one hard push away from doing a lot of damage, because Athena couldn’t let go.
Rose knew that.
Turning, Rose waited from a blind spot in the space station, underneath a pair of fuel tanks in the next atrium and burst forwards, knocking into Ebrima like a skittle, dumping the rest of the mag in their general direction, panicking, but almost certainly, not out of it yet.
"Maybe I'd respect you Ebrima, if you just pulled your head out of your arse and realised what they did to you! They fucking imprisoned your only friend, your only reason, made you a fucking slave, made you a fucking sock puppet!" Rose yelled back, darting around, coming into Eloise, darting around her trying to cut her route off, Rose aiming and firing another burst where she was at a moment.
"And you, I don't even know your fucking name, but I'm sure you won't be missed either!" Rose kept the fire up, Eloise lucky to get out of the way, or else she'd have caught rounds too.
Rose wasn’t seemingly able to take damage.
But, if there was ever a moment the team needed to get together, it would have to be to find a way to take out a field-generator having, equivalent to their team lead who was more than happy to find a counter to every single one of them. That, and the few mercs left in the way. Bullets wouldn’t do the trick. Freya’s AEW might, but that wasn’t going to do anything more than simply take the shield out, at best.
Ebrima caught the movement with the corner of his eye, barely ducking the spray in time. But he’d seen this before. He’d killed Luisa, he fought beside Adam.
”Repulsor field.” He cautioned Eloise over comms, hastily checking that he hadn’t been hit, all the Artemis blood staining his suit making that job a lot harder.
”Close range shots or melee.” He followed up with what had worked for him, leaving the part about a point-blank flashbang detonation while it was still in his pouch out of it as he let the rifle hang on its sling and drew the kukri once again and pushing of the wall in pursuit.
”I’m still breathing for a start, more than I can say for you in a few minutes.” he replied to Rose.
“We’ll see.” The response from their nemesis was blunt on the open comms. She wasn't halting, her next turn in the space station's small maze running her into another operative.
Coming to Sam with a grapple along the walls, Rose bolted through the insides using it like a rat-run, finding her there, knowing her team had them covered, at least, for now. She wanted this one to be personal, because seeing Sam at work.
"You again. Her worst creation. Well, no point making the same mistake twice, now that you're a gullible shit." With it, she pointed the barrel of her rifle, point blank at Sam, and as she went to pull the trig.....
Sam’s martial arts training kicked in. She pushed the barrel away from her as she stabbed Rose in the chest with the knife in her hand. She wrestled with Rose for control of the rifle.
The knife pushed against metal plate, but as Rose peeled back, going forward, the explosion from a mini missile tore through the inside, and ripped apart the space station itself, creating a split, from where Athena had anchored herself.
"Fuck you, Rose! Team, finish this mess, she's got a field generator so get closer, Frigga can probably kill her shield, but you need to find a way to flank her! Sam, find a fucking way to deactivate this fucking canister, I'm taking a lot of fire here!" Athena yelled, other mercs massing on her, and in a hysterical turn of fate, probably of all of the people that should have been like Atlas in this moment, it really, actually, had to be her…..
Eloise clamped down on any feelings; they could come later - other than her anger and her rage. But she caught them, shaped them, and turned them from a hot, fiery thing that threatened to boil over into a sharp, clear point; like the arrowheads she wielded. As Ebrima spoke, she considered his words carefully.
“The field; does it depend on velocity of the projectile?” she asked firmly and insistently. “Because if melee works, then…”
She looked over to him with meaning as she pursued Rose through the interior of the stations’ cluttered modules. Twisting as she moved, and drawing her SMG to blaze at the mercenaries.
“How many of these guys does she have?” she spat as she shot at them, weaving and ducking as best she could. “Is there a machine spitting them out somewhere?!”
”I figure magnetism. Light things are easier to affect, but at close range bullets are too fast to be diverted in a meaningful way in the time available.” He gave Eloise his best guess as he chased after Rose like a rabid dog, guessing what had happened in the airlock from the fact that Skye wasn’t right on Rose’s heels.
”I can still fucking hear you, or are you all a bunch of fucking morons!” Rose yelled back, almost cartoonish in her inflection, because now, she figured she had it personal. A real test. She’d killed so many, in the name of….well, something, died so many times, given it her all. But in this, well, she wasn’t giving up that easy.
Samantha managed to get away from Rose. She darted away, an asset in this situation. She needed to get away from the suicidal lady so she could see what their options might be for stopping that damn canister. Chaos
“Gee monologue much? How stereotypical villain of you.” She raced off and around the corner as she had Bob pull up the feed from Athena’s helmet and suit.
“Athena talk to me. I am looking to see if I can hack the guidance system on that damn rocket canister.” Samantha spoke into the comms to Athena.
“Athena do you see any panels on the outside of the rocket? You might be able to use a taser or electrical attack to short out the guidance system manually. It will be even more effective if you can apply the charge directly to the circuitry. The case has probably been hardened against such attacks.” Samantha began working on a plan B.
Would Athena have enough strength to redirect the rocket’s thrust to throw it off it’s trajectory somehow? Could they somehow manually reroute it to deep space?A few more mercs made the split between her and where Athena was, Rose peeled herself into cover, laying down fire from a M249 she’d managed to blag off one of her men in a supply crate, pinning down the team from one angle, knowing she could keep pressing towards Athena.
And then who knew she she’d be able to do. Freya was moving in closer, maybe able to take out that field generator, but then again, she wasn’t going to be able to stop her. Rose had countermeasures for that. And her fire was getting more, and more precise. Enough for her to get more mercs between her and Raven.
“Oh, shut the fuck up,” Eloise snapped at Rose, shooting her grapple with one hand to stabilise herself and winching herself into cover, snagging the toe of her boot under a wall strap. She loaded the crossbow, letting the SMG hang by its’ wrist strap in the zero gee. Time to test a theory. Buddha, Spongebob, Princess Celestia, whichever one of you is listening; let this work!
She let out a breath and sighted on Rose’s suit and caressed the trigger of the crossbow - if velocity or magnetism were a factor - well, maybe the mostly composite bolt, travelling at a lower - but still quite deadly - velocity might have a different effect…
She didn’t have long to check, as the hail of return fire coaxed a squeak out of her and she ducked behind some chunk of machinery, reloading, her little SMG and the crossbow alike, before darting out and snapping off a short burst at one of the mercs in the way.
”Oui, oui, riez tant que vous le pouvez.” The Cameroonian grumbled, too preoccupied by a chase with murderous intent to bother with the radio. Not like it would matter. The station was too small for her to run, even to hide, and what Raven’s goal was clear as day. With more mercs coming out of the woodwork - well, figuratively - he had to stop and the rifle came back into play. He also had time to set Rose to a secondary channel so he could speak to the team without being everheard.
”Only one place here she’s going: The launcher. Double back to the other airlock, help Athena and head her off. I’ll push through this way.” Sure, he had no authority, but in the absence of anyone else making a plan, he slipped back into his old ways.
As Ebrima’s voice came through on the other channel, Eloise switched to it as well. She moved herself over to his side, taking ahold of his suit with one hand and shooting with the other, switching off her radio a moment to let the vibrations carry her words to him privately.
“Listen; I’ve got an idea. That toxin - if it needs an atmosphere to be deadly - won’t exposing it to the vacuum render it useless? Can’t Athena just… destroy the projectile? Or if that fails - we launch it off on a trajectory away from Earth. Strap it up with a pressurised cannister or as many as we can get hold of - and then puncture them to give it acceleration. It’ll be long-gone before anyone can reach it!”
”Somehow I doubt she’s stupid enough to not have the canister fitted with its own guidance system.” If that had been the case and Rose was some kind of an idiot, they wouldn’t have had to go to space in the first place. But where he lacked in actual engineering knowledge, more than a decade of model building came to the rescue.
”Maybe if she can hold onto it, she could destroy the thrusters in flight. Make sure it won’t reach the planet at all. Chaos should know.”Athena felt more rounds come in, as she held the canister in one hand and the M2 in another, fragging another group of enemies coming in, floating back. Panicked, she heard Sam’s comment but was too busy in her own realisation to come back.
“Shit, Chaos, the thruster unit’s burnt out, risk is, we expose it to the vacuum, it’ll fuck any chance of us going home! I've got nothing here, it's just a sealed tungsten bloody tube!” Athena yelled in stress, knowing full well that the toxin would probably die in a vacuum- but if it stuck to any part of her, or the team’s suits, then it would come back to Earth with them.
Samantha gave a relieved sigh.
“Athena if the thruster is burnt out at least it can’t reach Earth without help now. Let’s think about this. We know the toxin exists. We need to be careful to decontaminate everyone and the equipment. We can do that before going back to Earth. This damn Space station has a lab. Didn’t we bring some of the antidote with us? We can destroy the capsule by setting it on a course to be pulled into the sun. That will destroy it nicely.” Which was a crude way, Athena realised, that Rose had made sure that if they were going to die, they were dying with Rose. Unless, and only unless, they worked something out. Something Athena hated the idea of more and more.
“There’s jack shit for now, there's nothing I can touch to even try and force a cure into it….fuck, you need to stop Rose getting here first!” Athena barked back, giving no helpful answer at all.
Rose had of course, made tracks, the field generator pinging off stray bullets, getting towards the end of the space station, the bolt pinging off without a harm. A fruitful attempt, but Rose almost called it out, as if she was making it personal.
“You’ll need more than that, Eloise!” She taunted, laying out fire towards her direction, the number of mercs between them both now diminishing.
“So, what’s it going to be, were you just being carried by her? Or are you actually still thinking about her? It makes you weak!” Rose gave even more shit, moving out of the way, a few more mercs laying down fire past another solar panel group, as she moved in and out of void, knowing they’d lost sight.
She managed to in fact, get a flank going, and with her mercs making a move, Rose, now off the radar of the team, managed to get straight into Ebrima, kicking him straight into Eloise and Sam.
And weapon pointed, knew she had the distance to take them out.
Well, close enough but Rose had made enough of a nuisance, knowing she’d thrown them, and well, gone all over the place. A Skye level trick. She ducked out of the way from the response, grappling and moving fast, faster than they’d likely expect someone like her to move, and was keeping up the fire.
Samantha found herself once more grappling and defending herself against Rose. She didn’t want to fire a gun just to have the bullets deflected. Instead of getting away from Rose she tried to get closer. Maybe she could see how to override her system. To give them a chance. Rose was fast and good but Samantha didn’t let that stop her. She let her anger and fury with all that Rose had done fuel her sparring with the evil woman. She tried to hold her in place by engaging her.
“Freya! Try overloading her shield with your weapon!” Ebrima scrambled to try to make use of Rose closing the distance, his grapple fired too late to hit even if it would have likely been unperturbed by the field at that range.
”Briefing on the station mentioned multiple escape capsules.” He spoke on the team channel,
”Could we use the thruster on one of those to vaporize the thing?”Rose got out of the way, before laying down more bullets, knowing Ebrima was good….but well, one on one, she could fight back, knowing the two had to get out of the way from her closing in.
“Run, you fucking coward! Like you have from everything, family, your boss, how many!” Rose yelled at him, spraying fire towards Sam, before using her own grapple to flip on the other side of the station’s outside, the confusion of fighting in an extra dimension stomach-churning, almost impossible to follow.
As Rose kicked Ebrima and Sam into a pile with her, Eloise yelped as the wind was smushed out of her. Only a slight, small woman, she was winded by the two other people and the impact with the wall of the module and its’ uneven surface. Getting untangled and getting her breath back gave Skye’s doppelganger long enough to rub more salt into the wound and taunt them further, and to get out of her range before she could even think about making a move.
Samantha had been thrown into Eloise as Rose sprinted away. Samantha growled and popped up just in time to be a target for Rose’s gun. She pushed off hard for the ceiling hoping to get out of the way of the gun. Samantha’s back hit the ceiling of the hallway momentarily knocking the breath out of her.
“Don’t let her have control of that canister but we can deal with that after we stop Rose.”Because Rose was already moving out of the hollowed end of the space station, Athena turning her .50 on Rose, as the field generator violently dunked away the rounds, and simply put, slapped away when Rose clattered into the side of Athena’s embrace against the station, holding it in from letting the loose thruster do its work, the hit from Rose hard enough to dislodge even the heavy’s grip. Canister loose into the void, Rose used an M320 on her side, the 40mm to blast directly at Athena, making the heavy seem almost helpless, completely pushed back, pushing forwards on the canister itself, making chase. Thrown back, the station with another hole, but with Athena pushed back.
And headed back like some stupid game of tag back around. Like she was off to somewhere else with it, on the outside of the station now, while the others moved around the half-in, half out segments.
Samantha pulled Eloise away from the wall.
“Come on! We need to go after her!” She began to chase after Rose. A minion or two popped up from side corridors along the way. She didn’t waste any time. She simply slashed at their space suits to open them up to the elements on the way by and deliver a kick or a punch. Samantha’s experience with street running was a blessing here as she ping ponged down the corridor bouncing off walls, doorways, and people as she gained on Rose.
The diminutive stealth operator followed and moved along with Sam, mirroring and marvelling at how she moved. It was similar to her own movement style; using the terrain and surroundings for agility and mobility; propelling herself off of the surroundings and hostiles in their way as they gained on Rose.
“Sam”, she panted between motions, the exertion wearing on her, especially with the bulk of the suit around her. It sounded even more chaotic; her own breathing amplified and every movement clunky and awkward.
“She’s fast, but maybe together - we can catch her up!”
“Shit!” Athena yelled out, realising she couldn’t open fire on that. Not with the torpedo in hand. Not without killing them all.
“Fucking get that canister out of her, get close in, Freya can kill her field genny, then you need to get up to her!” Athena yelped, alive after that hit, but checking all over her suit, before coming to senses, feeling the damage to her thrusters and EMU unit, but trying to make do as best as she could.
As if summoned Freya arrived where everyone was gathered. Her claw closing around a hand rail, and securing her to the position. She drew a tomahawk and looked around, then started to take in the situation. She took in the shield generator and snarled, “The fuck!? That’s almost my tech! Who the…I’m gonna scalp who ever let that out before it was ready.” She hummed, looked at Sam then at Athena, “Wait…wait…yes…okay. I think…” Hearing the idea for her to overlord the generator Frigga nods, “Give me a second.” She detaches her claw, and drops to the deck. Crouching in cover.
And cracks her AEW open and before god and all it almost sounds like the weapon lets out a pained cry, “Sorry baby….I’ll rebuild you brand new later…” On the fly and in the field Frigga reconfigured the AEW, pushing pieces up, around, into different places, pushing a catalyzer out of place, a power shunt up the energy line, splicing all the power lines together.
When she swings back out of cover, attaches her claw and aims at Rose, the AEW looks like a Franken-weapon taken to outrageous degrees. The Lightning Gun dish fully extended with the AT array and Sniper attachment molded together, and all the powercells mashed together, “Creator I hope this works!”
For the first time since she joined Raven, the AEW lets out a whine.
A kind of Whow…whow…whow. Speeding up before it dumps all the powercells into a beam of electro-magnetic static, coursing over the shield, hammering it…
And blowing the capacitors and generator like a firework.
And the light hit Rose, smacking her out, throwing her from the “underside”, at least, the side facing the Earth, hands released.
The shield dead, Rose let the canister go adrift so she could focus on the task at hand given how much it had fried her electronics and her with it, before spraying fire, cursing. The suit had integrity, but the generator, and her hold had been released on that canister.
“Bitch! You still want at me? Come on then, I’ll have fun deciding which one of you I send to Skye’s place first!” Rose yelled out, the taunt no doubt her knowing she was coming after all of them. Alone, and with no more goons, she’d just fire on the first person coming to her.
“Not if you go first!” Athena yelled back, changing to the internal system. "Everyone, don’t go straight for her, take her from every angle, get in close, and overwhelm! Do not let her pick you off one by one! And then get that canister, fuck, we can't let it go!" Athena yelped out, knowing she was no help drifting away, trying to make ground back towards the space station, hoping the thruster would hold out.
Samantha hears and takes Athena’s warning seriously.
“Guys I have an idea. Keep her busy while I alter one of the life support pods. Then let’s try to trick her into it. I am going to reprogram the pod to take her and the capsule on a one way trip into the sun.” Samantha takes a sudden left turn before exiting the space station completely. She heads over to the closest escape pod. She begins ripping apart control panels. She plugs in Bob and asks him to do something that is against the station safety protocols.
“Bob, I need you to erase the escape pod’s safety protocols. I want to set a collision course for the sun. It will only have so much thrust so we need to calculate the best angle and the burns for it. Please include the weight of the capsule and one passenger.” Bob’s voice was immediate
“Chaos this is against the safety protocols for this device. It was not intended for this. The passenger will run out of food and air. Not to mention the pod and everything in it will burn up in the sun.” Chaos was already overriding the safety protocols and laying in the malicious code that will take over control of the pod. She digs into her toolkit and begins disabling all the controls and damaging them beyond repair. Once launched there would be no way to reprogram this pod.
“Bob, just do it. We cannot let this loose on Earth.” Eloise likewise heard Athena’s urgent warning, and acknowledged it with a rapid click of her microphone. She followed Sam outside, but instead made her way over the hull, mind racing as she attempted to come up with something - before one of the drifting bodies, still hanging close to the station sparked an idea.
She grappled the corpse close to her, then another and another as she passed, gathering a morbid troupe of followers. As she was about to round the curve of the hull to where Rose was attempting to face off with the rest, she started a deliberate spin, tucking her knees up to her chest, making sure she was aware of her orientation to Rose and the others.
Her center of gravity shifted, she started to accelerate, her ‘passengers’ pulled along with her. On the third or fourth spin, she launched one off in the direction of Rose. Then the second a few moments later, then the third; and on the final spin, fired her MMU, just a brief puff, to send her in the same direction, cannoning toward the maniac twin of her friend as one of a string of projectiles in order, them blocking the view and adding more to confuse and block her view, and giving Eloise a chance to get in close, or allow her friends and allies to do the same.
That, that was a beautiful shot. Chuck’s taste in women was impeccable, Ebrima thought, a malicious chuckle growing in his throat.
”Apologies, Purna. The tongue isn’t happening.” He muttered to himself. Anchored near a shattered husk of a solar panel, he understood the task: Buy time. To do the most visible thing he could, he raised his arm, guesstimated the range and lead and fired the grapple. If he missed, it would at least make Rose flinch, look and create an opening for the others. If he hit, she’d be like a puppet on a string. He loved shots that didn’t have a bad outcome.
Frigga sighs and hangs the AEW on her back, “Sorry about that baby.” She says to it. She’d been really rough with it, and hated to damage the things she had made. Sure it’s inevitable, but the AEW is one of many favourites.
So she channels that into violence.
Grabbing her source of cover, and she pulls, while throwing her claw forward, “Oh Rose!” Her claw winch growled as it pulled her forward, the claw opened as she flew past where it had anchored, “I killed you once before! I’d like to try again if you don’t mind!”
This time the claw shot at Rose herself. And just missed! The claw crunching into the wall behind her, “Ah damn I can’t pretend to be Scorpion.” A yank and Frigga soars, her free hand unsheathing a tomahawk, “I’d really like to…ah!” She’s tackled to the side by one very brave Merc, she tumbles and slams into a wall, a big muscled woman wailing on her poor assailant, “Jævla! Du kunne ikke ha ventet! Jeg kunne ha fått henne! Din drittsekk i en tutu!” Oh good she’s gone into speaking Norwegian.Rose watched as the grapple flew towards her, turning and throwing herself away, and instead of away from the body flying in fast towards her, INTO, instead, Ebrima, before clattering into one of Eloise’s bodies that had been pushed in the way, perhaps, in an insanely cruel irony, her own use pushed against her before she had a chance to open fire on Ebrima, and then there was Freya. Barely stopped by a merc, who got clotheslined and turned into a pulp in what was, probably the most pointless, stupid attempt at stopping a freight train, but enough for Rose to breathe.
Enough for her to be pushed back into more void, against the underbelly of the station, and for a momentary bit of chaos, produced by all of the team throwing everything at her, unable to pick one target. But trying to fight
all of them. She'd pulled every trick. Made almost a last gambit. But now she knew she needed luck. And that was thin.
As Eloise saw the merc-sicle hit Rose after she bounced off of Ebrima, she thumbed the button on the remote detonator she’d pulled off of their belt. The poor, misbegotten dead man immediately turned into a silent cloud of gory shrapnel, adding to the confusion, before his friends joined him. She swivelled about her center of mass again, keeping her velocity and direction - huh, I’m almost getting the hang of this - and raised the crossbow to her shoulder, letting fly with a bolt, aiming for the suited figure’s general direction as she was pushed back against the belly of the station, trying to pin her in place by the fabric of her suit against the hull.
Seeing Rose hesitate, as if trying to decide which threat to address first, Ebrima started reeling the line back in, already on the move as he did. Launching the grapple again, this time aiming for an inanimate structure past Rose that wouldn’t dodge, he put the thruster pack, grapple reel and his legs into the charge, flying toward the clone psychopath with the kukri drawn, a stab aimed at her faceplate as he came sailing past at breakneck speed. Or at least breakarm speed, if the crunch in his left arm he heard upon slamming into the wall the hook was attached to was any indication. It wouldn’t matter if he hit, and if he missed, Rose would still have to content with getting clotheslined by the line he dragged behind him, now rapidly approaching her feet like a loose line on a ship.
Samantha was working furiously to alter the escape pod to carry the tank of poison into the sun. Even if they did just kill Rose, she didn’t trust the secrets of Sol Hestia to anyone she knew. She didn’t believe that any of the governments should have it either. It was simply too deadly. It needed to be eliminated forever. If she had her way, all the dead bodies and research would be destroyed too. They couldn’t leave any of it behind. This threat to humanity had to end here. She didn’t think the government would appreciate them blowing up their very expensive space station though. Then falling debris would be an issue for people on earth. Samantha checked in with the team.
“Almost there. How is the fight going?” Frigga finally got loose of the merc who knocked her off course, her claw hissing and as it rewound into the launcher. She pushed up and tried to catch up with her friends and coworkers, “Someone pull me closer I want to hit her with my axe!”
But as she goes she slows, and looks around, where’s Athena…
“Sis?” She looks around, trying to spot Athena, “Sis?” Okay big sister energy time, she spins, looking up around back and forth trying to get an eye on her sister. No no no, where did she go? Not happening!
Rose felt the pin deep in her lung smack through inside and out of her again, thrust her into metal, as she turned, pointing the M249 towards Eloise as a last ditch to reply, about to fire when suddenly, Rose realised in the corner, that Ebrima was sailing towards her like a missile.
And there was no turn she could make, not with the air punctured out of her lungs, no amount of resistance to pain could stop this. Ebrima frankly splintered a spiderweb of her visor off and pushed her gruesomely out of the impaled bolt against the station's composite skin, the suit punctured, and the knock pushing her away, gasping, screaming into the void, blood pissing out of the suit with her gargling, the line smacking her away and lifeless, limp, as there were no final words. Eloise’s bolt, Ebrima’s force and the team's collective fear had literally torn her out and away.
No final things to say. In space, nobody could hear you quip some bullshit about proving people wrong.
But, the team, of course, could. They had a canister to get rid of in an escape pod. Then, themselves, as the space station’s rupture started to widen, blurring the lines between outside and in. Which, at this point, was getting more and more like an outside. Time for an Irish Exit? Probably not the worst idea…
Eloise saw Ebrima’s attack, and felt a thrill of triumph as the glittering shards of glass caught the cold light of the sun as they sprayed out in an arc, and the droplets of red crystallised in the cold.
Sam’s words came over her radio, and she replied in a firm, stern voice.
“I think she’s about done; is the pod ready? Can you get clear?!”
As Rose’s body drifted away, Eloise sighted onto it and launched her grapple, drawing her in close and shifting her orientation to line up with the EVA pod.
She touched her helmet visor to the remains of Roses’ no idea if the dying - or dead - woman could hear her as she spoke in that coldly musical hush of hers.
“You know; I wasn’t here for all the rest of what you did. I didn’t have the same fight against you as the others, the same… drive built up to beat you. But the one thing you did that I can’t forgive? Wearing the face of my friend and using it for terrible things. But you know what; we’ll all remember the good things she did… and you like this”.
Reeling back, she planted both boots in Rose’s middle and booted her in the direction of the pod, looking back… and then a icy hand of fear gripping her chest as she heard the next words.
Athena in the meanwhile drifted, checking her comms, hearing Freya panic.
“Frigga, the….the MMU’s dead. Listen. Get them in. Get to an escape pod. And the canister out. Then go.” Athena never said words like that before, almost as if for a moment, it dawned on her what the facts were.
“Just….fucking hell. Get on with it, would you? Just get them pushed out!” Athena asked, cobalt in her tongue, drifting now nearly helplessly, looking around. She knew the team had to move. And she was dead weight. She didn’t want to say the quiet part out loud, but the fighting had moved them off from their launch, and well, the station didn’t have enough pods, at least, not from here to reach while things were going to shit.
She was staring into the void, the black, the infinite cold, and realising this was what it was about. This was the fight. Everything to save them. And it all clicked, there and then.
So, for a moment, she was reliant on Freya. And even that was a realisation. She wanted her to live. So much potential, so much, and in her own self-sightedness, the addiction to her image, her brand, everything…she just wanted Freya out of harm.
But Rose was dead. And with it, she knew the team had to make their way out.
Freya bounded up and onto a platform, scanning the open area, “No no…don’t you dare say that.” She scanned the dark then saw a glint.
“Hang on sis.” She planted her feet and spooled out some of her claw line. This is where both strength and physics comes into play, she started to whirl the claw, getting some force behind it, “You listen here you great big, air headed…I’m not leaving you behind! I still need you to be my maid of honor. I need to see you with a chance with the one you got eyes on. Now…”
She heaved the line, the claw sailing, “Get…”
No sound in space but the claw burred like a freight train.
CRACK….Crank….
Closed around a boot, “Back here!”
Freya hit the retract button and pulled hard, watching her sister pulled back into the light of the station, “Are we missing anyone else?” She shouted as she braced to catch Athena’s return.Samantha’s work on the pod was wrapping up.
“I need someone to bring me that canister so we can launch it into the sun. I don’t want anyone trying to find it in the wreckage of the station.” Samantha turned to Bob.
“Bob, did we manage to erase all the files on Sol Hestia on the station? Do your best to complete that while I finish getting this pod rigged for deep space.” Bob’s mechanical voice filled Samantha’s ear. [color-fff200] “Chaos, station integrity is down to 50% by my calculations the space station will implode and break apart in the next 15 minutes. The team needs to get off this station. I recommend using the escape pods.” [/color] Samantha swore under her breath.
“The space station is breaking up. We all need to head for the escape pods.” Samantha had been listening in on comms and was very confused.
What the hell was happening out there? It sounded like Freya was retrieving Athena. Eloise’s report was vague but encouraging at the same time. Samantha began pinging everyone’s comms in an effort to locate where they were on the station.
“Oh shit, yes. The thing we came here to destroy,” Eloise cursed scanning the area frantically with turns of her head, before spotting the torpedo-like object in a lazy, slow spin in the shadow of the station’s solar panels.
“I have eyes on it!”
”Can’t help with that, I’m afraid.” Ebrima all but apologized, having broken the arm that had the grapple attached to it and due to the lack of an exoskeleton, pulling on a broken humerus was the last thing he wanted to do now that there was hardly any rush. Instead, he set about making a careful way to the escape pods, having taped his arm to his chest with the vac tape to stop it from moving around, finding a hole in the station close to the escape pods and holding there to guide Eloise in once she had captured the canister.
Reeled in by Athena, the younger sister to the other armoured up Kaantario captured a hand on the station, calming down, breathing out as best as she could, looking over to her, a moment, Athena getting words out.
“We really, really…..” The noise suddenly creaked, as the space station, already at poor integrity, detonated where the fuel tanks had ruptured, blasting the side where the bodies had been apart, sending the whole thing rotating, and beginning to shit on many a laid plan.
“Really need to go! Station's far more fucked than that, Sam! Fuck, Eloise, we need it in, you need to hurry!” Athena was in total flight or fight, aware she couldn’t help either.
Quite literally, the entire fate of where they were over now, which from a third person view, outside of the entire panicked party looked like……Sweden? Poland ish? Hard to say, but indeed, that whole cluster, was in the hands of Eloise. And with Ebrima crawling to an escape pod, Athena pulled on the outside, hoping Freya had the initiative to help along, and get to one of them to help. And Eloise could make that move.
With the station destabilising, she was going to have to give it everything.
“I’m on it,” Eloise replied in a voice that hid any trace of the slowly creeping fear she felt, as she realised how close to the wire things were getting. She zeroed in on the canister, checking her wrist for the level of reaction mass left in her MMU - and cursing every word she could think of, as the warning level was blinking low.
Her mind raced, and she triggered the unit, propelling herself toward the canister, matching her spin, and reaching its surface, wrestling with it even more than Athena, who was almost twice her size, had.
All right, step one: you’ve reached the horrible WMD, she thought to herself, as she straddled it and spun along with it. Her MMU’s readout flashed frantically, telling her there was nothing left but wishes and good intentions. She took stock of everything she had, and hatched an insane, but brilliant idea. Shuffling around on the body of the weapon, she drew her handgun - and fired in the opposite direction of the spin, blazing a magazine’s worth of rounds away, until the spin slowed… and then stopped.
She checked her direction - yes! There were the lights of the escape pods ahead, and the ones of her friends’ suits, moving in the right direction…
She took a deep breath; this next bit was going to be really hard.
“I’ve got the canister, and I’m pointed right at the pods. I’m coming in, but… I’m going to need you to be really ready to get me, because… this is going to really fucking suck.”
Prepping the open door, Athena looked out on Sam, opening the other with brute force, exhaling hard.
“You to get in. All of you!” Athena hyperventilated, looking back at Ebrima, helping the injured Cameroonian in a more brutal fashion than he would have liked with a shove across towards the escape pod..
Samantha tried to reassure Freya and Athena over comms.
“Freya and Athena, you will fit inside the escape pods. It will be tight but the escape pods are meant to hold up to four people. I am headed to the nearest entrance. I need that damn canister!” Samantha was focused on getting the Sol Hestia into the rigged pod and on its way to the sun out of the reach of anyone who might come and inspect what was left of the space station.
Freya kicked over to get a look at the pods, she stared at them, “I am 7 feet and change inches tall, about two and a half times as wide as any of you, I’m not fitting in that!” She points at one of the escape pods in honest annoyance, “No way, no how.” She begins to look around, bracing herself as she sees a spar of the station sheer off. She looked up…around…down then, nodded, “Okay…Thena…do you trust me?” She looked over at her sister, “Because look if I can’t fit in one of those things, you’re wide ass won’t either.” Ahhh sibling love.
She looked around, “Physics…science…I can do something…the plunge won’t be pleasant…and the landing won’t either. But I think I can do something here.”
Athena couldn’t nod, or show it, but gave that response.
“On you.” Athena replied to her sister, realising that Sam needed to get the canister away, and while she was coming back, Eloise was coming in hot. And coming in fast, needing to regroup.
Eloise needed to get to the pods, Sam needed to get that pod loaded, and like haste, because the space station felt like it was falling more apart than ever before, they needed to go. The Arianne that had taken them here was a fading light, and any hope of getting back to it had gone to shit. Not with the MMU fuel they had left, not with how messy the fight had gotten and with the space station beginning to slowly, gently nudge itself out of orbit.
And Athena knew that Freya was right. In this moment, there wasn’t a chance they were coming down with the team. Sam was optimistic, but for a rare moment, the golden retriever that had seven and a half foot of pure crackhead energy in her now realised that they had to leave.
None of what had happened had sunk in entirely. Not letting a lot of people die, and then having to kill Rose specifically, let alone Skye….that was starting to trickle, was really there right now.
Just getting home alive was. And Athena realised she had to trust Freya, completely. She was out of ideas. Out of thrust. Out of her mind. But if dying was worth saving the world, for a glimmering, strange moment, she knew this was all there was. And moving to the hole in the space station, ready to help receive the canister, Sam, Eloise and Ebrima.
Eloise adjusted the controls on her suits’ chest panel, and increased the pressure. It was almost at dangerous levels, She secured her grapple line around the body of the canister, attaching it to herself, and…
She took her knife, and with a deep breath, stabbed a hole in her right glove. The jet of air that shot out acted like a jet, propelling her forward. Pressure on her thumb over the pinhole gave her just enough control, to aim, and slowed the leak down just enough that she wasn’t losing air quick enough to immediately freeze or suffocate, and she focused on those rapidly growing blips as her eyes got misty and vision wobbly, the cold creeping up her side.
Samantha was headed towards Eloise to help her. She had a tether secured to the handrail next to the station entrance. She pushed off and aimed towards Eloise. She waited till she was closer and then used the maneuvering jets on her MMU in an effort to help catch and slow Eloise down. Samantha could see Eloise coming in quickly. Her path was beginning to be a little erratic. She lunged towards Eloise who was tied to the canister. Samantha almost missed but managed to snag the infiltrator’s foot as she shot almost past her position. She yanked hard and pulled her closer to get a better grip on her. Then she attached a carabiner from the tether to Eloise and began to haul them back to the station as fast as she could go. She could feel time ticking away even as she tried to find out what was wrong with Eloise.
“Archer what’s wrong?” She shook Eloise trying to wake her up. She didn’t have time to stop and check on her as the clock was against them. She tried again.
“ARCHER!” Eloise slurred and spluttered back, her words and motions transmitted through the body-to-body contact. “Mm–uhh, T-The Martian, Matt… Damon… Glove thing”, she managed to mumble out, holding up her hand, thumb still clenched fiercely against the puncture in her suits’ right hand.
“Guess I really am the rocketman…”
Freya looked back to make sure everyone is where they need to be, she then pushes off, back into the collapsing station. “Okay I need this..and that…” She uses her claw to pull things towards her. A torch kit, welding line, bracings, cushioning sections from the walls. Great heaping huge pieces of the titanium walls and heat resistant tiles, “I can do this…this is what I wanted. I’ve always wanted to build a space ship, this is almost as good!”
She’s like a frenzied Gadget Hackwrench, “Thena! I need that triangle plate over there! But I can’t stop welding right now! I need you to grab it and bring it here.” She’s doing the patch job of all patch jobs as she works. Grabbing shield plating heat tiles, using gorilla glue and heat tape.
It’s a glorious dangerous monster she’s putting together. Not something she’d want to actually pilot in a normal situation. Bracing spars ripped from the walls of the station and before they can drift off, a pair of crash seats that will be a bitch to sit in. Straps to stay seated. What a glorious dangerous mad scramble.
Athena was torn- but first moved to help Eloise, peeling away metal, the suit itself feeling like the energy source deep inside was struggling, but her sheer mass, her hearts pounding oxygen so hard it built up CO2 and made her feel a little bit hazy and distracted, that she could push it towards Freya. The team were hard at work behind, the relay of bodies getting the tube in.
“You alright in there, Ebrima? As soon as the other two are in, punch the exit, yeah? And by the way, no hard feelings…..you did good killing Rose! You and Eloise!” Athena vocalised, knowing the heat of the moment, it all poured out.
Ebrima gave her a thumbs up with his healthy arm.
”Don’t get any stupid ideas, you have people waiting downstairs.”Samantha being a fellow nerd understood that reference. Hold on Archer, We are almost there!” Samantha encouraged her to hang on as the space station got closer. It felt like it took forever but in reality it was only a few minutes. She pushed Eloise through the entrance into the station and the canister. She pulled herself into the airlock which by a miracle was still working. She took a quick minute to put a piece of tape over the hole in Eloise’s suit. She motioned her to an emergency supply of air while she started wrangling the canister.
”Are you doing okay Archer? I will join in the escape pod as soon as I launch this one.” She looked back over her shoulder at Eloise to make sure she made it to the oxygen.
Eloise pulled herself along to the emergency air with handholds, fastening it to her suit and taking steady breaths. Her eyes still felt like they wanted to escape her skull, and she could taste the coppery tang of blood on her tongue and sticky wetness on her face; she expected she’d ruptured most of the blood vessels in her soft tissues; her face would look like a honey-coloured pumpkin later. And her piercings… she didn’t even want to think about how that would feel.
Well, presuming she survived. But even if she didn’t - as Athena came to her, she pushed herself toward the giant, holding onto her suit for stability.
“You,” Eloise managed to splutter out in a thick voice, spitting out blood “You’re coming back with us, or I’m staying here with you,” she said firmly. “And don’t argue, I don’t have the resources to deal with another massive bitch today.”
She pulled herself up Athena’s chestplate and bumped her visor against the giantesses’ own.
“Is Ebrima all right?”
Soundtrack: M83- My Tears are becoming a SeaAthena looked down, taking a moment to wrap an arm around, tears pouring out, realising in that moment looking at the damaged spacesuit of hers meant zero chance. If Athena and Freya might have had half baked ideas, then well, there wasn’t anything. Even Athena, in her whimsical emotional state, knew nothing more than to be a protector. And knowing that Eloise wouldn’t want to hear it.
“He's okay. And don't worry. We’ll make it home. We have more chance of making it back...but you won’t in this state if you stay here….get in the pod and do that for me. My sister has a good idea. She’s so good at this. And if not…I love you, Eloise DuChamp. I’m not letting the void take me so long as you’re there to wait for. Trust me. We'll be coming in like a light in the night sky.” The corniness of it felt almost as if in that moment, totally misplaced, like the void screaming back, as Eloise’s embrace on Athena was pulled away by a tearful hand of her own, placing her alongside Ebrima inside the pod, exhaling hard, audibly on the comms.
And another bang echoed in the vacuum, or at least, was felt and coloured in by Athena's vision.
Eloise wanted to struggle, wanted to push back, rage and say otherwise… but she knew that Athena was right; and that was what made it worse of all. The tears flowing down her own cheeks mingled with the tracks of blood from her ruptured capillaries, leaving red streaks down her face, and her vision blurry already struggled more.
“I’ll wait,” she choked out. “I’ll wait, as long as it takes. And I love you too, I’ll keep watching for that light."
Then there was nothing else to say as she stepped in, and helped secure Ebrima’s straps, especially around his injured arm, briefly squeezing his good hand, as she waited for Sam, urging her mentally to join them as she strapped herself into a seat.
“Sam, go! This thing is falling to bits!” Athena yelled out, it was getting clearer and clearer, that this lifeboat was not going to hold anymore. It was now or never, as Athena stood ready to throw Sam to the pod as she floated to it, and ready to then float over and make her way to where Freya was, and hang on for dear life.
Samantha couldn’t help but smile at the crazy stuff coming over the comms as she strapped the canister into the lifepod. She sealed the door to the escape pod and hit the launch button on the wall. The escape pod shot away from the space station and then altered course towards the sun and began to burn in its direction. Samantha exhaled hard. At least the damn toxin would no longer threaten the Earth. Now she needed to collect her pod partners and get off this damn station. She ran back towards where she had left Archer. She stopped next to Freya and dropped her tool belt and a roll of the space tape she had.
“Here take these. Fix the holes in your armor. Get out of here as soon as you can. I expect to see you at your wedding damn it! She gave her a quick hug and whispered,
“Love ya Sis. See you on the ground.” She then took off for the escape pod. She dove into the pod with the other two inside. She hit the button that would seal the hatch. She quickly climbed into a seat.
“Let’s go. The canister is on its way to the sun. Let’s blow this popsicle stand!” She looked at the other two…
“Too soon?” ”Two, three…” Ebrima counted the expected occupants of the lifepod, hand hovering a safe distance away from the lever that would close the hatch and launch the pod. He kept waiting to count number four, taking a few seconds in the moment to remember that four wasn’t coming.
”All aboard, launching. Good luck up here.” He let the two giantesses know before he once again checked that all three occupants had their harnesses strapped in and pulled the launch lever. The hatch slammed shut, independent life support kicked in and a short puff of air separated the pod from the station, letting it coast clear before turning and engaging the thrusters for the deorbit burn.
Athena moved to the point she’d helped them go to, and watching them pull the internals out, felt the space station rock again, sending her into the ceiling, kicking off, pushing towards the pod and with an almighty shunt, clearing any debris from around it, clearing the latch.
For the first time in forever, facing down what was the only way out for her, her own invincibility meant she couldn't take the easier way down. It made her silent. Quiet even.
Contemplative. In the final, well, maybe final moments, it all came to a head.
And turning to her sister, floating over, she knew it was just them alone. At the end of it all. Words were harder to come by.
“Okay, sis. Ready. Whatever happens.” Athena looked across, sniffling the tears, exhaling hard, trying not to pass out from the CO2 in the respirator, Freya having made some sort of lifeboat as the space station seemed to disintegrate live around them, bit by bit, the pod flinging away.
Freya leaned over her Franken-machine, threading a very limited steering mechanism through some of the joints. She stopped, and swallowed thickly. Setting her hand down on the outer surface of the machine. She didn’t look back. Looking at the belt and tools Sam left. Then swallowed, “Did they make it?” She asked. She didn’t want to look over her shoulder and find that they hadn’t left and had decided to wait for them. She looked up instead away from where the lifepods would be launching, “You know sis…if anyone were to stay, I wouldn’t mind if it were to be me. Sure I’d miss out on a life with Chuck. But if I were to stay here and wait until everything comes apart. At least I’d do it in Space. This was supposed to be my magnum opus. To get up here. See the Void out into the Beyond.”
She chuckles, and then gives one last pull, then motions to Athena, “Get in, strap in there’s a oxygen jar in there, should be enough to last the flight, hook up…strap in.” She grinned, “I’m gonna get us home!”
“Got it. They’re okay. They’re clear.” Athena exhaled, the dark-blue armoured titaness clambering over, saying nothing, grabbing the oxygen and attaching it to her suit, pushing into Freya, sobbing, before pushing into the makeshift harness, made for something totally different, not reentry. Enough titanium on the front might save the entire thing from burning up. But whether or not it would hold was anyone's guess. And even then, landing after that, without a parachute, was like dropping a baby elephant into hard ground.
“Sis, I’m…..I’m so sorry I never spent more time with you. Always spent time breaking the mould. And I wish I spent more. Now staring at the end. Feels....yeah.” She seemed to almost crack, as if at the end, tears rolling down someone who seemed alike Skye, unbreakable in her conviction to destroy and be that alpha, that queen on top of the pile, realising in that moment what mattered. Harnessed in, the whole thing felt like it ripped apart, as suddenly, much of the space station splintered, leaving only their bit.
“I really, really hope you did study thermodynamics at university…..but if not…..shit, you’re right. They’ll talk about us as legends. And you’re….yeah, hell of a way to become one. Maybe still be one. Titans coming to earth like this. I dreamed it once but….didn’t think it would be like this.” Her voice cracked, undulating, uncertain, but knowing at the end, she was next to her favourite person in the world. Someone she wished she’d been better with. But someone, for right or wrong, was here with now.
Freya smiles, “Oh you of little faith.” She hugs her sister, then makes sure she’s strapped in, before getting in herself and finishes the last weld. She shoves the torch into her sisters hand, “Here…try and hang onto that…” She crawls over Athena, “Look it’s alright. We all had our own fun to look into. I understand I really do. You’re my sister nothing will make me hate you. Besides the fact I still can’t get my ass as big as yours damn it!”
Then she’s crawling into her seat, strapping in and hooking up into the bottle, a super tiny window right in front of her is all she can use to see outside, it’s layered so many times seeing the blue ball of safety far far below is tough, “Okay…If an Apollo Astronaut can do it…so can I.” A shock, the ball kicks off the remaining bit of the station. She fires the three small jets a few times, getting them lined up, then burns one hard.
She gulps, “Let’s hope those tiles hold and the titanium holds up…”
She tries to keep the big glove of blue and green in the window, “Let’s see…just…aim for something that isn’t a mountain!”
Athena grinned behind the faceplate, giggling like a pig, knowing Freya knew how to touch her buttons.
“Oh, you…..that’s just a secret from Mom. That if we survive this, I’ll tell you.” Athena giggled, knowing even in the face of death, Freya had managed to make her go from crying in fear of losing Eloise, to tears of joy, as if staring down teh end.
“Got this. If we survive this. I think aim for something soft.” Athena chuckled, sighing, looking through that tiny window, at the end of it all.
“You got this, Freya. Just like when we were kids….one last time. Let's do this.” She chuckled, armoured maw against maw, facing against this end, together.
Freya grit her teeth, a feral look as she worked the small joystick to try and keep the planet in the viewport of the Franken-pod, “Okay…almost…and…uh…uh…” She looked down at the makeshift fuel gauge she had tried to install. Seeing everything empty. She sat back then, “Haaaa…Creators hands now…atleast we’re headed in the right direction.” She looked over at her sister. Pushing up the glare visor on her helmet.
“Hey ... if…no when we land…all I ask…don’t tell Mom and Dad that I strapped us into something that isn’t even safe for a hamster? Please? Or atleast give me prior warning. I don’t want Mom to track me down with her Montante…” She grabbed Athena’s hand. Right as they hit atmosphere. She licked her lips and pushed the glare visor back up, “Well too late to pull out now!” And she let out a war whoop. Nothing for it now.
Just the fall.
The orange glow, burning, glowing, and turning all white.
