It was over. For now. Pax heard him gasping for air as much as she did, having to sit on the floor.

"Friends again?" He said heavily.

She laughed, coughing. "Yeah."

He reached his hand to help her up. Pax hissed in pain involuntarily when getting up.

"You okay?"

She had to admit something was wrong. "It hurts like hell. I may have bruised my ribs. Again."

"Activate the first aid protocol."

"There's no time for that. The medication will leave me numb and slow."

Jason agreed after a moment of hesitation. "Help me take off the helmet of the creature." He didn't react.

Pax slowly moved towards the thing while he forced out the metal piece. "How did you do that?" Her mind couldn't comprehend how he ripped it off the wall. But the man only shrugged. "Adrenaline, I guess."

Finally, Pax was able to take off the helmet of the humanoid's head.

The flashing light reimagined everything into a nightmare scene, but she was able to see how it looked. A pair of lidless dead eyes stared into the empty space, a mouth with no lips, and skin like a dried-out membrane enticing the ribbons of muscle and metal intertwined into flesh.

She felt a shiver of disgust and fear. It must have been human, a long time ago.

"Let's go. There will be more of them." Pax looked up at Jason. His silhouette was almost indistinguishable from the shadows. His strong hands helped her stand up.

What happened here? Her mind was asking silently. The corridor was destroyed, no active life support. Bodies of prisoners stretched unnaturally on the floor. Jason led her through this silent passage of gore. The interrupted darkness left too much for the imagination. Where there was nothing a moment ago, a ripped and twisted body would surface into the light.

After an excruciatingly long walk, they reached a large opening that showed fewer signs of damage, fewer bodies. The tremors of the attack didn't stop resonating all over the structure, but there were fewer of them now.

The communicator came to life, piercing the silence in their helmets.

"... I repeat to anyone on this frequency. We are under attack! There are only two of us left, and we are pinned down...." Static "...location Omicron Gate..." After this, it cut off.

"Shit!" Jason swore.

"What?"

"Those are my friends. I need to help them." He paused. "We need to help them."

"I need to get out of here. With you or without. I'm not here to get involved in the conflict," Pax replied harshly.

"Detective, should I just remind you what your primary mission objectives are? You told me your mission is to bring back any Union soldiers and operatives back with you. My friends here are both lieutenants in the Union military. Also, all your data about the explosions is stored on my computer. So if you want to get anything right today, you have to come with me."

"I suppose I can possibly fit two extra passengers." She responded. Pax wouldn't leave anyone for certain death if she had a chance of helping them.

"Gods, thank you. These people are like family to me."

"But only if it's on the way to the hangars," she added truthfully to her intentions. Her ship cannot fall into the hands of their attackers, whoever they are. At any cost, even if that means sacrificing lives.

"Omicron gate is the hangar. They may have taken over your ship."

Pax gave out a cold and sarcastic laugh in response. Argos is fully prepared to take down anyone who will attempt to breach her without authorization. The ship's AI is able to hack the local door controls to seal itself in the hangars. But she wasn't invincible. That worried her.

"Lead the way, but you better come up with something, we need weapons. Something other than metal pipes, against these creatures."

"I can't get us guns, but I have an idea."

"I'm cringing already."

Jason ignored her snarky comment and looked around their location. Large room connecting to smaller corridors. Work stations, something that may have been a computer station. All burned and destroyed now. She picked up a few barely recognizable words he was saying. Section 10. Emergency technical support supply. Beyond that, she couldn't make anything else sensible from what the man was saying.

Jason moved away from her towards the walls of the room. Blackened, scratched, and many of them falling off. With the working lights, it was easier to see, and it was obvious he was looking for something as his hands began moving around the wall panels. For her, there was no difference whatsoever between them until he stopped.

"We are in the open here," Pax remarked, trying to urge him.

His fingers found something in the space between the metal. Two random knocks on the panel and the shallow sound gave her the answer for what he was looking for.

"Each large section such as this has a contingency security protocol in place." The man pushed on the wall where he stood heavily twice, and a mechanism revealed a storage compartment. After a moment, he turned back to her holding two intricate and beaten-up devices.

"I'm not sure what you are suggesting we do with these?" Pax never saw anything like that, and the only way she could describe it was: "Is this a crossbow? This is a joke, right?"

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

If it wasn't for the seriousness of the situation, Jason would have probably laughed at the sarcastic humour she tried applying to deflect stress, but his voice was serious.

"It's a handheld plasma cutting gun. We use these to cut through metal or stone in emergencies. The energy transmitters of the beam can be regulated to shoot a projectile, just like a gun. It was never intended to be used for personal defence in the first place, but sure, call it a plasma crossbow if you like. Quite fitting, I presume, especially for a device that hasn't been manufactured for decades."

"This day will not get any worse." Another deflection. "I'm on Mars, fighting my way through a horde of vampire-like creatures with a plasma crossbow. If this is not enough old-world culture references, then I don't know what can top this. Absolutely nothing." She was really hoping her sarcasm would help alleviate the stress.

"You know what... I need to tell you the coffee here is monkey piss bad. So bad you need to wash your mouth after having it."

"No!" Pax exhaled heavily, taking the plasma gun off him.

"Oh yes." He had a dark smile on him.

"That's the ultimate offence. Let's go kill something and get your friends."

Jason wasn't wasting time and quickly showed her how to activate and regulate the energy levels in the plasma gun to serve their purposes. The Omega gates weren't far, he assured her. They moved fast, trying to be careful not to get surprised, but the first creature showed up minutes after. Its laser weapon almost caught Pax's arm, only narrowly missing. Her reflexes immediately came alive, and with a clean energy shot, she decapitated their attacker.

"I'm impressed! Can I keep this?" She remarked, moving forward through the grim corridors, avoiding the body on the floor. The lack of life support showed when the body started to get covered with ice particles quickly.

"Sure. Think of it as compensation for the discomfort you are experiencing." Jason cut the conversation quickly when they saw more bodies on the floor. They wore security uniforms. She slowed down and stopped when she recognized one of them. It was the head of security. His body twisted with numerous burn holes. Frozen in a grim fashion. Jason made a slight angry sigh but didn't say anything. His mood changed quickly, became darker, more determined.

Once they moved again, more attackers came, and he took the next creature and the one after that head-on, without stopping or getting into cover. Burning through their flesh in rage. The man had strength in him. Pax knew it's always harder to live with the death you know if you actually see them dead. That's why Pax never attended funerals.

After the next corner, they heard a fight.

"Omega gates," The man murmured. Once they entered the adjacent room, they got surprised by a group of enemies, forcing them to quickly retreat and find cover.

"This is a problem," Pax voiced, hiding behind a corner and only showing herself to take a shot.

"They are surrounded, and we are pinned down. This is a problem," Jason didn't sound like it was a problem for him though. Hiding behind his cover, he started manipulating the plasma gun. Pax didn't say anything, just continued trying to take down the attackers.

"Cover me," he said as he leaned around the corner holding the gun. Not shooting, just charging it. She was trying to take as many shots as possible to give him enough time. After a moment, a bright blast of energy flickered through the whole room, taking down everything with it. Jason charged the weapon to produce a plasma disc that would cut through a few obstacles and the creatures.

"Let's go," he added, Pax was right after him. Her gun seemed oddly hot even though she was wearing the suit. Jumping over the decapitated bodies, they reached a turn in the corridor which opened to a much larger space she remembered from when she arrived. Omega Gates.

Two lone figures were hiding in a narrowing that protected them from gunfire and being flanked. A man and a woman.

With some odd amount of luck, Pax and Jason managed to get to them without getting shot by the attacker. It seemed like most of the creatures were here. She could count maybe 20 or 30 of them.

"Hi!" Jason shouted.

"Really, Jason?" The unknown man replied.

"Gods, I'm happy to see you," the woman added.

"I brought reinforcements," Jason added, pointing at Pax. The pair looked at her for a moment and then at each other without saying a word.

"Ideas?" The man asked.

"Just keep firing, Caelius," Jason added, leaning out of cover to take out an enemy. He couldn't replicate what he had done before as the room was too big and the group too spread, and there was no clean shot either.

As Pax leapt out of cover to take a target, her plasma gun failed, and she took a shot in her hand straight into her computer. The impact dropped her on the floor.

"Fuck!" she shouted, dropping the weapon. The woman quickly pulled her back into cover to safety.

"It's overheated," Jason added. "You must have taken too many shots trying to cover me earlier."

"Well, that's that for back-up," Caelius snarked, jumping in between his words.

"Your computer is fried. You need to take it off immediately or the electricity from the fried circuits can and will kill you!" Jason continued. Pax looked at him and then at her hand computer.

"Transmit my biometric profile to my ship. Now." She shouted. She could feel the weak electric current from the device.

"What for?" The man quizzed her.

"Just do it, Jason! This may be our way out." And he did what she told him. He nodded when it was done. Pax took a loud breath and with a swing, smashed the screen of her already broken computer into the wall. Electrical sparkles shot out.

"Are you crazy?! Stop!" Jason shouted, trying to get to her, but numerous shots slung in front of his as soon as he leaned out. Neither Caelius nor the woman did anything, just looking at both of them like they were crazy. Finally, the woman grabbed Pax's arm, but the detective looked at her with fire and she let go. Again she swung the arm, and this time it completely smashed the screen and the device. A strong electric current of the broken circuits and damaged batteries hit her arm and body. Slowly inch by inch, she took her body up, despite the pain. With just a hand forward with a broken arm computer, she came out of cover and facing the attackers.

Dozens of laser shots greeted her immediately. As they got close, arches of electricity shot out of her fingers, her hand creating a path of energy to them. Her body absorbed it. She was a conduit. Within seconds, instead of just absorbing them, the laser shots backfired with long rays of energy following the particle path they came from, leaving the creatures dead, burning through their guns.

She walked forward, feeling the pain go away as her body got used to the sensation again. Pax had to reach the edge of the electrical subfield her ship would emit after it received the transmission. Step by step, she walked with the electrical arches protecting her from the laser fire. A purple light increasingly grew in front of her, painting the electricity. More and more volatile arches appearing.

"Gods," she heard on the microphone.

One of the creatures jumped from behind cover. It ran towards her with two large objects that looked like grenades.

"Shockers!" The woman shouted.

Come on, you bastard. Pax thought as the creature approached her in a rage with the grenades.

The energy around her erupted. The grenades imploded without doing anything to her; the arches absorbed all of it and then released it back. She could feel the connection to the subfield drawing from it. An electric plasma storm grew around her, encompassing the whole room. Charged particles jumped over the entire room. Heated gases stirred in their own atmosphere, moving around her violently and painting everything around in a cascade of bright colours. Highly charged plasma particles raged through the lines of the creatures, leaving them burned. Her mind could hear and see some of their thoughts. But her gaze would not drop, even knowing the neon storm could burn a permanent imprint on her irises. She didn't stop.

She would protect these people. It was her mission. The storm was only facing forward, and they were sheltered.

The storm didn't calm down around her. All the creatures lay dead or were fighting with the chaos.

Her face reflected the brilliant neon colours of

the chemical gases circulating around, her eyes reflecting the plasma arches jumping all around. And for a moment, a reflection of a woman, for a split second.