Firefight

Dustin scrabbled sideways, half-dragging Rye with him as he sought cover behind a control console, This hadn’t been been on the list of things he’d expected or planned for when they’d come down to the station - they’d done a sweep from orbit for life signs, but had been expecting that if they found any it would be either Dronth or Selssa. Biological in other words. And since they’d not found any, he hadn’t thought to take anything out of the ship’s armoury. Beside him, Rye’s face was pale, her eyes open wide as another blast rippled over their heads and punctured a hole in the outer wall of the station. What little atmosphere there was in the room fled immediately; fortunately had been thin already so they weren’t dragged too far from their cover by the change in pressure.

With no other options to hand, Dustin grabbed the multitool from Rye’s belt. He’d worked with her enough on projects since she’d joined the crew to know the basics of how it worked, and there should be… there, the jump-weld setting. It’d have the accuracy of a marshmallow at this range, but he raised it above the console in the direction of the alien and hit the activator. Micro-bolts of plasma jumped from the tip of the tool, filling the room with sparks and halting their assailant’s fire momentarily. Cautiously, Dustin peeked out from around the side of the console, only to duck back just in time before another blast scored a hole in the floor where his head had been.

By this point Rye seemed to have gotten at least a little grip on herself. “What do we do Dusty?” she half-whimpered, fear in her eyes as Dustin remembered that she - like all of his crew - had been trained by species that had been peaceful for thousands of years. Actual close quarters combat training was therefore not part of her upbringing, unlike the Star Cadets that he’d been a member of for a few summers as a teenager or his limited combat training after winning the ambassadorial lottery. “Keep activating this in the direction of that thing” he said, handing her the multitool. “I’ll try and get close to shut down it’s ability to use that weapon.”

The Rabyth woman nodded shakily, taking the tool as if it were something poisonous before breathing in deeply and holding it up to fire. As she started discharging the device, Dustin moved, darting from cover to another console closer to their opponent. A moment later, another blast cut across the floor nowhere near either Dustin or Rye; it seemed their foe was now blind-firing as well. That said, Dustin noted something about the attacks - the fact that their foe took time between shots seemed to indicate that his weapon wasn’t capable of burst fire. Some kind of recharge time? Dustin tensed, waiting - then another blast arced out, destroying the cabinet next to him and he ran full tilt around the room.

The multi-limbed alien reared up from behind the console it had been using as shelter from Rye’s erratic plasma bursts as he approached. The gun was swung around, trying to bring it around to aim at Dustin but he moved faster, stepping inside the arc of the weapon and pushing it down. Another blast drilled a hole in the floor by his feet, but he was close now. It was hard to figure out what of the figure was **** - in the low light of his torch and the glow from the tiny plasma fires dotting the room after each of his partner’s shots all he could make out was a swirling darkness. Working on the basic assumption that it was bipedal however, he did his best to put what combat training he had into effect and slammed his elbow into where he hoped the creature’s face would be.

A satisfying crack and a metallic screech of pain accompanied the blow; Dustin didn’t hesitate however and brought his other hand down as hard as he could on the limb gripping the gun’s trigger mechanism. With a thud the device dropped to the floor and he kicked out instinctively, sending it skidding away from it’s owner. As he did so, two more of the alien’s limbs caught him squarely in the chest - the **** of the blow sending him flying. He struck the wall and landed awkwardly, the impact dizzying him. As he tried to rise Dustin gasped in pain; whether from the blow or the impact with the wall one of his legs refused to bear his weight. Shaking his head to clear the spinning feeling, he became aware of the beeping from his suit’s diagnostics indicating a broken limb. Looking up, he sucked in a breath as he saw the creature stalking towards him, limbs moving erratically as it half walked, half crawled over the nearby counters in a spindly motion that put him in mind of a predatory spider moving in for the kill.

As he took that horrific vision in, Dustin shifted his hand - and felt it brush against something. Looking down, he saw the creature’s weapon had ended up near to where he fell in the scuffle. “I really, really hope this isn’t locked so only you can use it” he was aware of thinking dimly as he fought against the pain in his leg and the fuzz in his brain to hefted the cylinder. The creature paused as it saw him bring the weapon around, then started to scurry backwards. “No chance.” Dustin said, and pressed what vaguely appeared to be a trigger. With a kick that felt like it nearly dislocated his shoulder, the weapon spat a blast of energy - and blew a hole through the alien’s upper torso, severing one of it’s arms completely.

A mechanical wail echoed through the room - and then to Dustin’s horror the multiple limbs of the alien began to crumble. It staggered away from him, one limb reaching out to the bag even as a second fell from it’s body. As it reached the bag it stumbled, the legs dissolving before it’s upper body began to disintegrate as it reached for it’s goal, dragging the pack to it with one of it’s two remaining limbs. The other limb pulled at it’s harness - and it looked to Dustin like it had just pulled the harness clean through it’s own chest, although the disintegrating body making it hard to tell. With a shudder, it pushed the bag into the strange straps and slumped forward over them, finally losing all cohesion before turning into a pile of black dust that slowly began to drift in the thin atmosphere towards where the hull had been punctured.

For a moment Dustin was still - and then he felt like his head was being pulled from his neck. From the communicator, he heard Rye’s pained cries as the entire room seemed to fold in on itself, twisting around and pushing down on his body in odd ways. The combination of that sensation and his already broken leg was too much - with a whimper, he blacked out. It was some time later that he came around, finding Rye strapping him into a bed in the shuttle. “What?” he asked and she shook her head. “Can’t tell how bad you’ve bust your leg with the suit on, and since it’s saying it’s not currently life threatening I’d rather take it off once we’re back on Sola, just in case there’s another of those… things.”

“No, what happened?” Dustin said, trying to fight against the pain. Rye looked blankly at him. “No cogging idea, Dusty. You saved our lives by blowing a hole in that… whatever it was, then it did something weird and when I looked I couldn’t find any trace of it - or that bag it was holding. Only thing that was left was that gun - but when I looked at that it was scrap, internals completely slagged. I gave it a once over right away after I checked you weren’t about to die on me in case our spindly friend had any buddies, but I can’t figure out how or what it fired - or how that thing managed to trash it when he imploded. Maybe with the tools back on ship I can figure out more, but for now hold tight and we’ll go home.”

As she said that, the communicator chirped into life. “How is he Rye?” Meli’s voice was monotone as if she couldn’t trust her ability to voice emotion, and Emely’s a moment later - “are you both safe?” was so worried that Dustin **** himself to sound cheerful. “I’m alright, just a bit battered, maybe a broken leg is all. Did you see any…” he began, before his science officer interrupted him. “No ships in the vicinity that we can detect, and the instant I saw energy blasts being fired down there I ordered Sola to do a full scan to be safe. Which is where… Dustin, are you sure you are alright? Both you and Rye?” Dustin shrugged at the bunny girl, confused by his fiancé's concern. “We’re both alright Meli, like Dusty says he’s just bust his leg according to the suit readouts. What’s got you so worked up?” Rye replied for him - at which point Meli’s voice shocked the pair of them. “I’m worried because the last thing we detected before Rye got in contact to say you’d been in a firefight was something activating a weave-jump right next to you. That is to say, impossibly close to you; there’s not enough space in the area involved for any weave drive tech I know about to function - according to the readings, the jump… It was in the same room, Dustin.”