Vex'ess rescue

Rye returned to the bridge in the aftermath of the blast, and stood open mouthed at the destruction that had been carved across the system. “What the actual fuck did you humans put on this ship, Dusty?” Her voice was hard to judge - was it fear or awe at what had unfolded while she’d been traveling to and from engineering? Dustin sighed and ran a hand over his head. “For what it’s worth, I didn’t expect it to do that much damage in one hit. I’m guessing the blast was head on to the reactor core on that first ship, it blew almost immediately. But we can talk about that later - get us close to that Vex’ess ship and lets get geared up to rescue whoever it’s still possible to save over there.” Meli straightened up from her console. “I’ll head down to the med bay and get it ready. Emely, go with Dustin - we can’t guarantee communicators will be working properly, and you speak a little Vex’esl don’t you?”

The redhead nodded. “Enough without revising to get them to medical, once we’re there Sola’s translation systems can take over as needed. Rye, they said that the hull’s mangled towards the front but if we come in from the rear we should only need to make sure any jury-rigged docking port is airtight to be able to get to them. That was the last comms I had though - they killed their reactor just after I gave them the heads up that Dustin was going to do… whatever that just was.” Dustin stood at that point. “Okay. Me, Rye, Emely down to the shuttle bay. Shuttle two’s got an emergency dock setup fitted still right?” At a nod from Rye, the trio left to begin their rescue attempt.

Despite the urgency of the situation, Dustin still smiled as the trio changed into their space suits. It was always a pleasure to see Emely’s red-furred body of course, and Rye’s toned form was more than easy on the eyes, but over the last week and a half the pair had adjusted their appearance in ways that he recognised as significant. Much like Meli’s adoption of the pastel choker that indicated her engagement to him, Emely had adjusted the trim of her fur - sculpting a tiny part of it into a form she had explained was the closest she could get the elaborate patterning of Feliax styling to reading ‘Val Smith’. And of course, there was Rye’s tattoo. The ink was adaptive, she’d said, and would grow as they continued their pairing until the pair conducted the final ceremony. While small, Dustin had already noticed tiny spirals forming along the edge of his - delicate filigree work that made the plain band around his finger look more elegant. Ryes on the other hand was growing slowly curling branches that were far more noticeable on the woman’s toned stomach as she stripped off her overalls to pull on her spacesuit.

Once they were dressed however there was no more time for perving on (or adoring) the form of his ladies. Instead, the trio clambered into the shuttle and Rye swiftly took them out into the black. As they crossed the void towards the stricken vessel, Emely and Dustin ducked into the cargo hold and set up the emergency docking device - once they got close, they would be able to take it out of the cargo hatch, clamp it to the hull and hook up the shuttles docking port to it to free the survivors. Rye signalled when they were in range, and the cargo bay opened with a hiss as the last of the atmosphere escaped.

Up close, the Vex’ess ship looked in even worse shape if that were possible. Even here on the more intact end of the vessel the hull was pockmarked with impact dents, and it took them a moment to find a location clear enough to safely secure the clamps of the emergency dock - but once they’d done so, the powerful cutting torches built into the frame burned a hole through the hull as soon as a pressurized corridor from the shuttle had been linked. Air hissed as it stabilized, the pressure slightly lower in the tunnel; with a thud the hull plate fell backwards as the doorway opened fully and Dustin followed his comms officer into the wreck.

That the hive ship belonged to an insectoid race was apparent from the moment he stepped aboard. Angular passageways - despite the damage and debris - and an elegance to the construction gave hints to a species who’s ancestors had built homes not that different from ant hills and bee hives on Earth. Emely moved quickly, a tool she’d grabbed on the way to the shuttle sweeping the corridors for life signs. At each junction she shook her head at all but one path, leading them rapidly towards what looked like a storage bay. The door was sealed tight; Dustin and Emely heaved on the manual release for what seemed like an age before at last it opened with another puff of air. Emely glanced inside before her helmet speakers issued a chittering, clattering sound.

From the far side of the door, an answering call - sounding somehow questioning to Dustin’s ears - followed by a brief exchange. Then, the fox girl turned to him, her eyes stricken with tears. “There’s only two of them left, sir. A ship this size should have hundreds aboard if not more, and there’s only two left. They’re exhausted and can barely move due to the loss of enviro - we need to get them back to the shuttle as soon as possible.” Dustin followed her lead as she stepped into the room, and beheld the pair of Vex’ess for the first time.

The first of the two struck him as the youngest. Round faced, looking almost like a doll’s head if you ignored the mandibles, with a soft looking almost humanoid body that seemed more grub than the exoskeleton he’d been expecting. The other was taller, with a head dominated by two sets of mandibles and a narrow almost mantis-like body that then tapered into a wide secondary abdomen protruding from it’s rear, the entire form covered in chitin plating. Emely issued a few more clacking sounds, then there was a burst of them from the shorter insect. The larger one barked out a handful in what seemed like a command, and the one Dustin was guessing was the junior shuffled over to him.

“I’ll help the queen, captain, can you carry her handmaiden? She shouldn’t be too heavy, but she’s not built for speed and we’re not sure how long the rest of the hull will hold.” Emely’s instruction was simple enough, and he offered his back to the bug. After another chitter from Emely he felt soft arms wrapping around his neck and too many legs gripping his torso before he took the insect’s weight, straightened, and began to head rapidly back the way they had come. Emely was right - the hull had looked bad on the flight in, and this was no place to get trapped. They had space suits, but the Vex’ess didn’t appear to - if the hull got breached or a bulkhead failed, this rescue mission could rapidly become a funerary one.

Thankfully, there were no such disasters on the way back to the shuttle, and it was with some relief that Dustin helped the handmaiden follow her queen into the med bay a short flight later. Meli was prepared and began rapidly fussing over the two with scanners before nodding to him. “Initial checks done captain, no obvious injuries. Translation systems should be online now as well if you wish to…” There was a chirping sound from the queen, before Sola’s the systems kicked in and overlaid her speech with an English translation - albeit English with clicking afterthought. “My thanks’k, captain’k. Had you not arrived when you did’k… We would surely be dust by now’k. I hate to impose upon you’k, but this must be reported to the overqueen’k.” Meli interrupted at that point with a physician’s briskness. “And it will be - once we’ve checked you are both uninjured. Sola checked the database while you were being rescued and the nearest place we could drop you along our route would be the prime hive in any case. We’re already moving to the first jump point - we can send a message ahead after I have finished checking both of you fully.”