Marie brought her glowing blade down in a downward stab, aiming at the creature's slimy bald head. The blue energy stream passed through the mutant's flesh and bone with barely a whisper, easily decapitating the beast. Its head fell, and rolled away into the corner of the elevator cabin, its monstrous tongue flopping limply from its deformed jaw. The monster's headless body stiffened, then collapsed on top of Nicholas, its thick tail thudding impotently to the floor between the elevator doors.
Cursing, the pilot frantically rolled around until he finally managed to shove the mutated corpse off of himself. He stared upward at Marie through the tainted visor of his RIG's helmet, eyes wide with fear and uncertain relief.
"What...the...where did it --," Nicholas struggled to find his words for a moment, before abandoning the effort altogether. With a grunt, he rolled himself up and reached over to retrieve his rifle, while Marie kept an eye on the elevator doors. The firefight in the hallway seemed to be dying down - but who had won?
The elevator chimed again. "DOORS CLOSING. PLEASE REMOVE OBSTRUCTION." The normally emotionless robotic voice sounded vaguely reproachful.
"This is so fucked, Marie," Nicholas finally spoke as he joined Marie at the doors, clutching his rifle to his chest, eyes desperately scanning the hallway beyond for signs of danger. "I...thank you."
"Thank me by returning the favor," Marie waved her hand at the yellow gunk staining Nicholas's helmet and RIG, "and you want to be careful with that."
Nicholas shuddered in revulsion but nodded. "Yeah, yeah, you're... you're right."
"Ready?" Marie nodded her head toward the elevator doors.
Nicholas set his rifle against his shoulder and returned her nod. Steadying herself, Marie stepped out onto the Crew Deck.
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