Gasping for breath, Eric staggered to his feet, bracing himself against the remains of the central island, as his vision flickered with aborted notification windows being sent for the moment to unread mail. Hissing, steaming blood and thick amniotic slime covered his entire body, his shirt already starting to come apart. Thankfully, the strange fabric of the cargo pants he was wearing appeared to be resistant to the corrosive effect of the broodmother’s fluids. More surprisingly, his skin also didn’t seem to be affected, and he felt nothing but a slight tingling all over his exposed body.
Osar was little better since, without his armor, he had next to nothing on that was capable of keeping him unscathed by the noxious deluge that had cascaded over him. His upper body had taken the most damage and now bore smoking open wounds. The Urgan warrior was stoically nonchalant about the matter however, quickly downing a healing draft before ignoring the closing wounds completely.
Standing on the torso of the dead beast, her hammer still imbedded in the creature’s crushed forehead, Serra appeared largely untouched, none of the creature’s blood having reached her. Sensing Eric’s gaze, the young woman gave him a brilliant smile and a thumb’s up. Shaking his head, Eric straightened and proceeded to rip the rotting fabric of his shirt off his body.
“That was exhilarating!” Cid’s booming voice sounded from the doorway.
Now that the fearsome beast was dead, the heavy-set scientist rushed into the blood-spattered chamber, rounded eyes taking everything in eagerly, his demeanor like a kid let loose in a candy store.
Eric took a moment to look around the chamber, noting three dark metal gates, with what looked like carved decorations on them, on each of the walls aside from the one where they had entered. The entire space had the feel of an antechamber or a hotel lobby, a place where official gatekeepers would screen visitors and direct them to whatever VIP occupied the offices beyond the gates.
For the moment, Eric put aside thoughts of exploration as he turned to regard the chaotic mess around them.
The bodies of Osar’s former companions had been thrown all about the room during the brief but fierce battle, and now lay scattered in various undignified positions, interspersed with the gasping, slowly dying, aborted Sesang drones.
By general consensus, and with few words exchanged between them, the four companions began moving the Geludan team’s cadavers into neat rows and laying them out at one edge of the room. When they were finished Eric counted nine corpses, only four of which were human.
“These were your teammates huh?” Eric asked Osar, his gaze lingering on a creature that was clad in a dark black uniform but looked to be mostly insect, with a pair of antennae's and delicate chitinous plates surrounding its compound eyes. The Urgan had come up to stand beside Eric to look out at the forlorn line, his face still bleeding at places. Like Eric, Osar was using a towel to wipe off most of the broodmother off his half-dressed body, but the stink around them both would probably persist until they both had a shower.
“Yes Jad-Os,” Osar answered grimly, eyeing the dead with a disapproving eye. If the smell around the two of them bothered him at all, he didn’t show it. “Didn’t know most of them, and honestly, I didn’t even care to try: Most Geludan’s are reavers, ravagers, or slavers, and many times all three.”
“What is a Geludan exactly?” Eric asked. “By the variety I see here I assume it’s not the name of a single species.”
“This is Geludan,” Osar said, bending down to rip a small, enameled pin from the collar of one of the dead humans. He then straightened and dropped it into Eric’s hand. The symbol on the pin was a circle surrounded on the outside by nine tentacles, and inside by small pointy triangles that Eric assumed represented teeth. “They are Clan/Group active in this Sector, small criminal but very dangerous.”
“Why’d you join up with them then?” Serra asked, a hard set to her jaw. Eric studied her intently, watching for signs of her temper boiling over: Serra hated pirates above all other things, and by Osar’s description, these people had been just that, and maybe even worse. Despite her hostility, Osar answered calmly.
“This crew hired me at Carasus Station, said they needed a hunter and guide who knew the Razmin Reaches and surrounding areas as they provided security for a client. Offered top rates and paid half in advance.” The Urgan barked an ugly laugh. “Should’ve known they not intend to let me get back alive.”
“Will anyone miss them and come gunning for us?”
The big warrior inclined his head at Eric’s question, brows knitted as he obviously tried to understand Eric’s question. Perhaps I should dial back on the idioms and colloquialisms, Eric thought, remembering troubles with some of the xeno-speak translators he had been issued before.
After a moment, Osar shrugged dismissively.
“This crew was an exploratory/scavenger outfit, temporarily taking a side-job for a dragon venturing into regions unknown… if we be careful, no one should even notice involved we were in their deaths.”
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Eric grunted in acknowledgement, one of his worries temporarily put at bay.
Osar nodded stiffly, lightly scratching at a healing spot on his left forearm. Most of the wounds on the Urgan’s face and torso had closed, showing up as mere patches of pink growing skin over his normal grey. Casually the big alien took out a dark red tank top from his ring and slipped it on, ignoring the broodmother residue that still clung to him.
Eric followed suit, stowing the soiled towel and taking out a shirt to wear, grimacing slightly as he pulled the warm, probably synthetic fabric over his still-damp, filth encrusted hair.
Hellfire! What he wouldn’t give to have a proper bath!
At that moment Cid walked over, holding a white and blue device that looked remarkably similar to a military-issue laser pistol.
“Captain, look,” The scientist was excited, cradling the gun with exaggerated care. “I would need a proper set of examination instruments but I believe this weapon contains advanced ceramics, metallic alloys, and utilizes some form of energy I have never encountered before! Even my AI database has no entries or correlates for some of these materials!”
“Maybe you could write a paper about it later, Mr. Arth-Veda,” Eric told the man, which brightened up Cid’s face for a moment before fading quickly when he realized Eric was probably making fun of him. Eric quickly held up a hand in a placating gesture at Cid’s change of expression. “Jokes aside, Cid, we’re going to have to rely on you to figure out the science behind everything here, yeah?”
Cid nodded slowly, looking out over the mess they had made of the room. Serra, with Osar who had wandered over to help, were picking up the rest of the dropped weapons and were placing them beside the bodies.
“There are a lot of things I would like to look into…”
“Good man!” Eric said happily, clapping Cid on the shoulder. “We should get you your first Core quickly so you can choose a Type and...”
“I would suggest we wait a while for that Jad-Os,” Osar said as he came alongside the pair. The Urgan smoothly inserted himself into the conversation, his expression serious. “Choosing a Prime Core is a matter of much importance, not to be rushed. Friend Cid should choose when all resources we have gathered, yes?”
Eric nodded after a moment, considering. He wanted to give his companions the best advantage possible in this new reality and Osar, though Eric still did not trust him completely, was at least advocating for sensible caution. His attention fell on the ring on one of the dead human’s hands. Speaking of resources…
“How’d you feel about us taking the rings of these people Osar?” Eric asked, pushing down the flash of excitement he felt at the possibility of getting loot. Serra looked up at his question, a knowing smile on her face, which Eric pointedly ignored.
“Take them Jad-Os,” Osar said with a roll of his shoulders, which Eric surmised was the equivalent of a shrug. “Then I ask you please store the bodies in your ring for later, there is more we use them for.”
Eric’s eyebrows rose at that last, but let it go as he bent down to see what he could get from the first body. Osar and Cid, who had begun asking the big alien questions, had started to walk off before suddenly turning back, apparently remembering something. “Oh… and in case you didn’t know, do not place any of their spatial devices inside another spatial device, hear?”
“Why not?” Eric’s hands froze in the act of doing just that with the newly looted ring.
“The devices go boom!” Osar said with a dark laugh. “Very, very bad.”
“Thanks, man.” Eric said after a moment, licking his suddenly dry lips. “Good to know.”
With a chuckle Osar turned away and Eric returned to his ghoulish work, going through pockets and divesting the piled corpses of anything valuable identified by his Dragon Sight.
It was half an hour later when Eric approached his three companions as they stood in front of the slumped corpse of the broodmother. Osar was holding the beast’s Core in his newly blooded hands, which he passed to Serra as Eric joined their group.
Eric carried the looted spatial rings in a small canvas sack, from which he fished out one and silently handed it to Cid. The scientist took the device solemnly, knowing it had been taken from a dead person, giving Eric a silent nod of thanks.
Serra flicked her wrist and extended the small knife she had used to cut herself during her own ring claiming earlier.
“What do we do with her?” Eric asked Osar, indicating the body of the broodmother as Serra assisted Cid in claiming his ring.
“Do you still have space in your storage device, Jad-Os?” Osar asked. When Eric nodded the big man looked surprised, but continued talking. “We should store her too. I’ll process her body later, get what we can… When we have time, we’ll go over the contents of those rings you have and get an idea of what supplies and resources we have for our uses.”
“Hey, I can understand you perfectly now!” Eric noticed, eliciting a grin from the Urgan.
“Yes, some words and phrases will probably still sound strange but that should improve over time… In truth, the child-talk was getting irritating.”
Eric chuckled softly as he reached out and touched one of the broodmother’s blade arms and willed the entire carcass into his ring. There was a whoosh of air rushing in to fill the space the body had occupied, accompanied by the sound of some debris clattering to the floor.
“The light projection has reappeared, sir.”
Eric, startled by Pig’s voice in his head, whirled around, in turn startling his companions. Osar had a sword in hand in an instant, but stopped in astonishment as he saw what had taken form behind them.
It was the light wisp that had been guiding Eric and Serra earlier.
Now, instead of a vague blue color, it was an arresting purple, and agitated bands of darker colored light rippled through its incorporeal form from time to time. Its limb-like appendage pointed towards the steel gates that stood at the opposite end from which the group had entered, its surface covered with what looked like intricately-carved figures.
“What is that, Captain?” Cid asked shakily.
“It’s what led us to Osar and that beast he was fighting.” Serra answered for Eric, but her eyes were wary.
“It beckons us towards that entrance, yes?” Osar interjected, his eyes busy searching for hidden threats as the wisp floated to the gate in question before merging with the metal and going through.
The four companions shared a glance, Cid’s worried, Serra’s dark, and Osar’s curious.
“Shall we?” Eric asked as he started walking.
The others soon caught up and, as a group, the four of them approached the gates.