Sweet Venom Arc 03 Ch. 10

"They appear to have noticed us..." Leech sighed, disappointed but not particularly surprised. She stared at the space station through the thick, green-tinted glass of the Radon's cockpit. The white shell of the station was surrounded with a faint cobalt-blue bubble, rapidly saturating in colour as increasingly visible hexagons crackled to life over its transparent surface.

Power to shields.

It was taking every ounce of willpower she had in that moment to keep her hands from shaking. Her stomach was in knots, although whether that was because of the literal hell she was about to waltz on into, or was more due to the fact she'd been on a small, fast-moving ship for three days and had spent most of that time throwing up, she couldn't say. Everything that the corruption had changed about her, everything that the corruption had taken from her, and she still got space-sick. Just one final fuck you from the universe.

With a deep breath, Leech flicked open the transparent covers over the weapon controls, exposing the two bright, red buttons on the ship's leather-covered yoke. After a few precision flicks of seemingly random switches on the extensive control panel in front of her, two double-barrelled cannons deployed from the front of the Radon's sleek body, aiming directly at XITD's space station.

The hum of the reactor shifted slightly, accounting for the new drain on its supply.

"Will that work?" Ink leaned forward, resting over the top of the cushy pilot's chair that Leech was currently sitting in.

Wasting no time, Leech hit the big red buttons, and the song of the Radon's cannons vibrated through the ship. Several bright, pear-coloured pulses of energy erupted from their barrels, splashing jaggedly against the station's shields.

Both Controllers watched closely. After several seconds, the fiery green explosions died away, to reveal the station's shield untouched.

"Apparently not. I mean, we didn't secure this thing for its bombardment capabilities." Leech sighed again, nervously, but before she could do anything else, a warning flashed up on her right. The radar flickered to life over the top of the glass surrounding her. "Ahh shit! We have interceptors on route!"

Ink stared up at the approaching blips on the screen blankly. Leech couldn't tell if her seemingly uninterested, unconcerned expression was due simply to her inexperience or just plain ignorance, but either way, her reaction made the anxiety already in her stomach churn worse.

"How long?" Moltezz called out from behind them. Her voice was stern and loud as usual, and equally unconcerned.

"One minute to contact! Do I need to start evasive manev-"

"You do not." Moltezz replied, cutting Leech off firmly.

The mellow hum of the ship's interior and the slight internal panic occurring from within the cockpit was punctuated by a solid, weighty footstep of metal on metal. Ink and Leech both looked over their shoulders to see the molten mistress walking towards them, clamping a sealed mask to her face. Those gleaming, searing yellow halos for eyes shone through the darkened, featureless visor. Her shoulders and arms were covered in thick, black, metal armour which linked together via several cables to a glowing utility pack on her back. The most notable component of her array, however, was her knuckles, which had a set of glowing blue ports each, contrasting to the ruby red palms of her unprotected hands underneath them. She stopped beside a sturdy-looking ladder, which led up to a sealed hatch in the roof of the ship.

"Open the top hatch. Thanks to that Node, I know precisely where to aim. I will endeavour not to incinerate either her or Plasia, as we agreed."

"You both remember the plan? Ink, you're heading down to the basement levels, we have our Nodes on the ship to keep her running whilst we board. Molt-"

"Leech, please." Moltezz interrupted again. "Just follow my lead -" Moltezz smirked behind her visor, gracefully lifting her foot onto the first rung -

"- and you'll survive this just fine."

*

"Shields at ninety nine-point-nine-eight percent, Ma'am! Should be completely regenerated within a few seconds. Local interceptors due to hit within forty seconds."

"Excellent." Evangeline nodded from behind her desk, rising from her seat to view the aggressing ship from her window. "I very much look forward to seeing that piece of scrap torn apart for daring to attack us." She scoffed, tutting loudly. "What are they thinking? And to take the black box from our fallen craft too, assumingly to try and sneak their way in... honestly, it's just a thoughtless, inept strategy."

She tapped gently against the window and a holoscreen display appeared before her. She swept her fingers across it, and the display smoothly zoomed in on the ship as it was scanned by the station's equipment. A small grin was creeping over her face, when something caught her attention.

Someone was emerging from inside the craft. They stood on top of the ship, arms folded, and glaring directly at the station.

"Oh how quaint. A surrender perhaps?" She laughed quietly to herself. "Denied."

"Interceptors entering local space, fifteen seconds, Ma'am." Her security detail updated through her comms again.

Evangeline's eyes were glued to the figure standing on the ship, watching her every movement with deep curiosity as the computer scanned and cleaned up the resolution. Her tongue briefly licked the corners of her lips.

The lightning blue trail of the interceptor engines bolted onto the horizon, rapidly homing in on the intruding ship from opposite flanks. There was no getting away now.

The figure slowly, gracefully unfolded her arms, and raised them out either side of her, fists clenched, aimed towards the approaching interceptors.

Do your worst.

A bright blue flash stung Evangeline's eyes as Moltezz uncurled her fists and two massive beams of cerulean energy erupted through space like a pair of flaming lances, spearing through both interceptors instantly. The attack was swift, the consequences immediate; the ships were reduced to nothing, the orange embers of their hull spraying out into the dark, black void.

The comms lines filled with a panicked chatter of the guards as Evangeline struggled to pick up her jaw.

"INTERCEPTORS ARE DOWN!"

The figure turned back to the station. She didn't know how - their attacker was still miles away, and there were hundreds of windows besides hers on this floor alone, but she could feel her gaze, unflinching, unwavering, directly on her.

"Shields at one-hundred-percent. We're fortifying the docks; prepare to board!"

"Ma'am, may I suggest a relocation to the station's panic room?" A guard had suddenly appeared in Evangeline's office, completely unnoticed as she watched the ship draw closer. She jumped slightly, but quickly composed herself and turned as he continued to speak.

"We shouldn't be under much -"

A blinding, magnesium flash cut his sentence short, carving his jet-black silhouette into the glass behind.

The guard screamed from deep in his throat, he clutched at his face and braced himself against the wall. His world had suddenly been thrown into total darkness, as his eyes burned.

Evangeline snapped her fingers, causing the window to tint and she spun back around to face this latest attack. She felt a wave of panic shiver through her scales as she realised what the figure had unleashed.

A curling volley of white, comet-like missiles were closing in, spreading out through the void of space like the brilliant burning fangs of a cosmic beast, biting down on the station. Her station.

They collided with the shield in a series of trembling explosions that shook everyone on board to their core.

"Medic to my office immediately! Shield status?" Evangeline barked into her comms device.

"SIXTY-FIVE PERCENT, MA'AM!"

"Sixty... five?"

The hexagonal shimmer of the bubble shield was already starting to crack. The once stable, blue sheen that protected their base was now flickering, far more violently than just a few seconds ago.

Her heart thumped in her chest as she raised her arm to shield her eyes from several more near-blinding flashes, erupting from the figure in spectacular fashion. The cosmic skyline was bleached a pure white with the sheer amount of energy on display.

The station began to shake violently, nearly knocking Evangeline off of her feet, but her stumble was caught by another guard who pulled her out of her office. Evangeline couldn't help herself; as they made to leave, she turned and watched through her office window as the new round of missiles peppered the station's shield, cracking through it cleanly.

"SHIELDS AT thirty-five - fifteen - SHIELDS DOWN! BRACE!"

The bubble shield popped. A deep groan vibrated through the floor from the station's reactor.

Evangeline braced herself, tensed her body for what was surely mere milliseconds away - the complete and total destruction of her work, her livelihood, her station, and the loss of thousands of lives...

But the remaining projectiles curved away from the station. They missed. Barely missed, but still... Moments later, several more flashes of explosive white light erupted across the darkness, so they must have hit something.

Evangeline's brain was working overdrive. There was so much to calculate, comprehend, so much that simply didn't make sense... She stood in a daze as a small squadron of guards formed around her person and forcibly removed her from her office. Finally, she came to her senses, her world snapped back into focus and she quickly moved with her escorts, towards the emergency hangar, when a loud crash shuddered through their feet.

Something else had hit the station.

A second impact sounded, this one louder, closer, shaking several of the guards violently.

Then one more.

The walls behind them heaved and bulged outwards.

Evangeline watched in awe and horror as her office was hit. The corridor filled with shredding metal and glass, followed immediately by the forcible pull of the vacuum of space from the breach. Everyone in the corridor was sent stumbling backwards, just for a few paces before the station's reactionary shield kicked in, preserving their environment and stopping the vacuum pull. Shards of pulverised glass had punctured Evangeline's wings, and bright red blood was seeping down her black and white form. Luckily, the rest of her body had been physically protected by the guards around her.

The ringing in her ears was drowning out the sudden, frantic alarm that was sounding out over the entire station. Evangeline, unsteady but never one to be stopped, found her way to her feet, and the guards pushed her forward, towards the next security door.

"S-Status report...?" She stuttered.

Her comms line crackled for a few seconds like an eerie silence, but after a few seconds, a small bleep played and the same guard from before replied.

"Ma'am. They've taken out the utility deck, comms centre and your office; we're on local lines only." The guard paused, her voice shaking as she continued. "They've also bombarded the dorm-barges... they're all gone, Ma'am."

"All the dorms?!" Evangeline visibly stumbled, her eyes bolting open wide with shock.

"Y-yes, ma'am. We can't see any survivors... We recommend immediate evacuation with what ships we still have docked. Environmental regulation is disabled as well, we only have what is stored in the tanks."

The dragoness' firm expression faltered for just a second. Her breath felt like lead in her lungs, but she knew she had to keep it together.

"Confirmed, get everyone off the station. Are our attackers still firing?"

"Negative ma'am, they appear to be getting ready to board. Top-side figure is..." The guard stopped, desperately trying to comprehend what she was seeing.

"STOP FUCKING WITH ME AND JUST COME OUT WITH IT!" Evangeline yelled, the stress visible on her face and AUDIBLE in her voice as her surrounding guards plucked glass out of their armour, and sprayed her bleeding wings down with medi-gel. It clung to her wings in thick cyan blobs. "WHAT DO YOU SEE?!"

"They're about to land, ma'am. They're heading directly for your office! The ship is landing at the communication centre breach!"

The words were followed by two bright amber jets behind them, lighting up the ruined office and exposed corridor with what looked like the roaring flames of a jet engine.

*CLOMP*

Evangeline froze.

A pair of heavy feet landed firmly on the creaking metal floor.

"Oh, Evangeline?" A regal voice called out mockingly. "A little Mook asked me to pop by and introduce myself."

Moltezz strode out into the corridor. She was immediately greeted by several vulcan rifles aiming directly at her from down the corridor, as Evangeline was hurried through a security door, they locked eyes for just a moment, one pair filled with fire and rage, another icy and cold. The security door clunked shut, leaving Moltezz alone with the cornered escorts. A grin stretched over the mistress' face as she caught sight of the dragoness' increasingly terrified expression.

"There you are! I'm so looking forward to the feel of your ash against my skin, against my tongue."

The tension broke and the corridor suddenly filled with the vicious *BUZZ* of the vulcan rifles, soldiers emptying their magazines of razor sharp, hypersonic needles into the intruder. And yet Moltezz stood, unharmed, each needle burning away into a mere spark as it approached. They may as well have been firing little sparklers at her.

"Standard needle munitions ineffective due to heat shielding! Advise the guards to upscale their calibre, deploy cryo units." The squad leader called out, standing taller than the rest of his troop. "Fall back and re-equip! I'll hold her."

Moltezz's burning eyes stared down at the lead guard, visibly amused by his words.

He unsheathed a silver blade from his back, curved and wickedly sharp. He briefly straightened his back out and made to stare her down right back, before charging down the corridor at their towering intruder.

He swung high, his blade cutting through the dangling wires and loose metal of the station's once-inner circuitry with ease, but his slash was immediately halted. A blast of heat from one of her palms erased his sword hand, her other palm struck him in the stomach-

*BANG*

The guard's liquified insides exploded out of his spine, burning furiously as his legs and torso were separated in a single, explosive strike. The other guards unleashed another volley of Vulcan fire, desperately but again, fruitlessly. The stress was easily visible in their sunken eyes and worn brows as Moltezz clapped her fists together, causing an explosive shockwave to ripple through the corridor.

The deafening thunderclap filled the air and, just like that, the guards were no more. They had been reduced to a liquid slurry of melting scales and armour. The once pristine white tiles of the corridor were now a smouldering charcoal, as the station's insides began to warp under her heat.

"It's going to take a lot more than that, Evangeline, darling."

*

Leech hugged the station walls tightly as she made her way up through the space station. She was wearing a black combat-modified lab-coat, with a thick utility belt around her waist. Her body was surprisingly unarmoured, aside from a flak plate over her chest. She knew fully well that the scavenged nomad armour they had access to would have only served in weighing her down; the DA's vulcan weapons were brutally effective versus physical armour. Her hands were clasped tightly around the warm handles of her custom-built weapon. The rounded, brushed metal handle was slipping slightly against her palm as she tried to maintain her grip.

I'm rubberising this bloody handle when I get back - less slippage. Daft.

Her portable laser cannon was long and unwieldy in the tight corridors of the station, its barrel hard to move quickly, but the effectiveness of the weapon was undeniable. A guard stumbled out into the corridor ahead of her, looking back over his shoulder. As his head turned, he stumbled to a stop, locking eyes with her and fumbling for his vulcan rifle.

A searing beam of amber erupted from the front of her weapon with an aggressive hum, cutting straight through the metallic scale armour, and the flesh inside. He fell with two distinct thumps, steam rising from the precision cut. A cloud of toxic smoke began to seep out from a fresh, gaping hole in the wall behind the guard's body with a sharp hiss.

Leech pushed on through before pausing again, as the corridor opened into a blind junction. There was noise coming from all around her. Hundreds of steps of footsteps were moving towards the back of the station, towards the escape pods. Faint but piercing, she could also hear the distant boom of Moltezz's laugh, echoing throughout.

Moments later, the entire station shook, threatening to bring Leech to her knees. She steadied herself against the wall and, as the shaking subsided, reached for something clipped to her belt.

It was a severed Slave's head, functional and very much alive, despite the obvious lack of organs or anything else really, that the average person needs to stay alive. The head had been attached with a surgical presion onto a new, robotic spider body, the neck cleanly sealed to the chassis underneath. Its hungry eyes were still constantly flitting about, searching for victims, despite the obvious lack of any meaningful way to spread its corruption. Unfortunately, the final execution of Leech's... creation was actually rather crude. The head was far too large for its body, and no amount of precision cybernetics could disguise the fact that this was simply a severed head with spider legs, even if it was impressive on a technical and biological level. She held it out at arm's length in front of her by a thin slither of cable, similar to how one might hold a lantern.

Carefully, Leech inched it around the corner, just enough so that one of its eyes, and as such her own, could look around without physically exposing herself.

Ah shit... Ten guards, all in full tactical gear blocking that stupid door, and aiming down here of course! If I try to cross in front of them, I'll get torn apart.

Sweat was beading down her forehead. She quickly wiped it away with the palm of her free hand, but she wasn't fooling anyone; her breathing was fast and heavy, her legs were trembling slightly, and the stress in her eyes was plain as day.

I am way out of my comfort zone here. What the fuck am I doing, this isn't my thing, this is Seeth's thing! Seeth is supposed to go charging into chaotic and dangerous situations, whilst I sit back and judge her for it as she inevitably gets her ass kicked... Oh fuck.

"~Moltezz! I need some back-up! I can't carry on without being gunned down. Look at this shit!~" She shook the Slave's head impatiently.

Leech waited a few seconds for a response, but nothing came back through the hierclasty.

"~Moltezz?~"

Suddenly there was a commotion from down the corridor.

Leech watched through the Slave's eyes as the guards scrambled away from the centre of the room, their perfect formation broken as the ceiling above began to glow bright orange, the room billowing with an unbearable heat.

That'll do!

Leech gripped her laser tightly, clipping the head back onto her belt and charging across the corridor to the other side. She made across and pressed back against the wall out of the line of fire of the guards.

Or so she'd thought.

Searing pain filled her arm as the unmistakable *BRRRR* of a vulcan rifle rang through her ears.

She glanced down at her arm, then back towards the corridor, then immediately shot back to her arm, eyes wide with shock. Her forearm was barely clinging on; both her bicep, and the purple black crystalline bone within, had been completely shredded.