Hand in hand, the two made their way down the hall, with painful scaffolding underneath their feet, and bare metal walls on either side. It was… not a very fun journey, especially for Ariel, who could still hear the banging from the door that they’d entered through, and all the various noises in the area.
Hissing hydraulics, distant alerts, chittering in the vents; not to mention that fact that her vision was constantly hued in red. Everything about her situation since the disaster started, was nothing short of sensory-based torture. Despite that, she had some reprieve. The warmth in her right hand, which Guila clenched tightly, the same hand which had struck her repeatedly already, and the spear in her other hand.
Her attention, and her trust.
Even after she’d done such a foolish, selfish thing, Guila still forgave her. Despite saying all those things after almost getting them killed. What was that, if not love? And so, she squeezed back, causing Guila to turn her head back to her and smile.
Ariel's injuries from the oozer fight still hadn’t recovered. Hence why Guila was still leading the way. But compared to upstairs, the maintenance passages were a lot less populated by insects and none of them were larger than a common rat or hamster. So, there wasn’t really much danger, and both of them were slowly releasing their tension.
They were also able to take in the sights and the freshly-new smell of hydraulics; which was non-insect related. One of these sights was a 500 meter drop towards what was, according to Guila, the ceiling of Deck C. Both of them could barely see the bottom from where they stood, but Ariel awed at the sight of massive, dozen meter-wide monochrome fans, and piping. Even though none of them were working.
“Guila, you said these ventilation fans are what’s used to circulate air across the entire station, right?”
“That’s right. There’s several of them between each deck, and they all function semi-independently. So that, even if one fails, the others can remain functional and then cover for the loss.” She started explaining, before stopping to take in the sight as well. She was actually quite happy to see Ariel be curious enough to ask about things.
‘She probably always was. Like that time in the Rainforest Safari… and I was too angry to entertain her. Well, not anymore.’
“If circulation fails, then the air starts getting worse, making it harder to breathe until eventually, the air is filled with nothing but bad things; like stenches, smoke and even diseases that reside in airborne particles. That’s actually why the air right now is so difficult to breathe in, compared to before.”
“Hmmm…” Ariel stared closer at the fans, each at least a hundred meters across and covered with metal mesh. Then, she noticed the squirming black mass underneath - barely hidden by red-edged shadows. “Is there a way to turn them on?”
“There is, but I don’t think we’ll come across the control room on our way. Why do you ask?”
“Well…” She pointed at the fans. “There are a lot of insects inside them, right? If we could turn them on, we’d kill a lot of them without needing to put ourselves in unnecessary danger, while also saving at least some people by doing so.”
“Ariel…” Guila’s expression had worsened the longer that she spoke, and when Ariel finally raised her head to look at her, she was already frowning.
“Please don’t get angry, yet.” She pleaded before glancing at Guila’s hand, still held in hers. Guila did so too, and once Ariel saw that, she drew closer and placed the back of Guila's hand against her cheek. “I promise I’m not trying to be a hero anymore.”
“It’s just, if we have a chance to do so… can you help me do it? Please, Guila?” She asked with upturned eyes.
‘What the hell...?’ Guila was dumbstruck, it’s not like she was oblivious to what Ariel was trying. In fact, it was painfully obvious. However, just like before, she still couldn’t hate it. Not when Ariel was one of the handful of people who was always genuine with her.
Seeing the noblewoman's face twist in embarrassed agony as she thought of a way to refuse, also caused Ariel to smile - making refusal an even bigger impossibility for Guila.
“Why the hell were you taught something like this?” She grumbled, but as much as she thought it was stupid, she also knew it was the right thing to do. That was the ultimate difference between the two of them, it seemed. Realizing that, Guila sighed.
‘Looks like this part of her isn’t going to change anytime soon.’
“Only if we don’t have to go through unnecessary risk. Our priority is still each other, understood?”
“Yes!” Ariel’s beaming smile seemed to wash away all of Guila’s problems.
----------------------------------------
“Fuck!” Hiiro cursed, as insect guts were splattered across his helmet. They'd gotten so much smarter in the half-hour since he’d gone alone. The things had coordinated properly and now they attacked him from every possible direction.
Just then, an Oozer leapt towards him from the corner of his eyes, and he was barely able to backhand it onto the ground. But the moment he did that, his suit started showing structural alerts.
"Shit...!"
The Heavy Mining Suit was a great piece of tech, no doubt about it. But, because it wasn't actually military grade gear, it had to be made with subpar material.
Since the equipment was primarily designed against piercing attacks and kinetic damage, this meant that it was weaker against blunt damage, such as explosives. That also meant that the constantly leaping Oozers were his greatest problem. But the smaller dog-seized insects made it difficult to target them first with his Plasma Digger. Either the things would block his view, or block the shot as well.
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‘They've also figured out the 2 second charge interval, and are timing their leaps.’ 3 more Oozers left, and who knows how many smaller ones? Now the hum of his digger as it charged, and his ever worsening line of sight, seemed like a countdown to his defeat.
“- FUCK YOU!” He roared again, ended the weapon charge prematurely and held it in his left hand. At the same time, he reached into his left shoulder pauldron with his right hand and grabbed the collapsible oscillator spear from inside. Of course, the insects took this chance to attack in unison - knowing that he'd practically unequipped the weapon that had proven such a big problem until now.
However, once activated, the spear extended to a five meter length and produced an ominous hum. It was flattened and tapered to a point, and it easily skewered the closest one of the Oozers. Then he twisted to his left and slashed horizontally, killing the second one before it could jump properly.
The third and final Oozer managed to make the leap and was aimed squarely at his center of gravity. Had it landed, it was very likely that the suit's front would've caved in. But Hiiro made use of the ship thrusters to propel himself sideways, dodging it and crushing several smaller insects in the process.
Unfortunately because he wasn’t in a zero-grav environment, the fuel use was much higher than it should’ve been. Nearly five percent of his entire tank per burst, to be exact. He didn’t wait for the insect to prepare another leap though, and he fired a Plasma shot at its rear end, killing it instantly.
Although, ‘kill’ might not be fully accurate.
These insects had a terrifying capacity to live. Even while headless, butchered, or torn part by Plasma, their limbs still kept twitching and their mandibles kept clicking. They might even resuming walking if they weren't extensively mutilated.
But, he didn’t pay it more mind than he needed to. As long as they could no longer contribute to a fight, they were as good as dead anyway. Luckily, the rest of the smaller insects were far easier to clean up, and he was finally able to take a breather. A freezing agent was then sprayed onto his helmet visor, before all the gunk was wiped off, granting him full vision once more.
He was now deep into the Maintenance layer, a buffer structure between each deck, But, instead of having constant windflow to ensure ventilation, there were clouds of tiny insects. Also, the area was now dominated by animal architecture. They'd clearly shattered every source of light in the vicinity, while every flat surface was covered in basket-like structures, made from soil, various other materials, and mucus. In fact, he could barely see any sign of the sheer metal walls underneath them.
Then his gaze moved down into the massive fan underneath the thick mesh he stood on. It was completely filled with what he could only describe as ‘waste matter’.
“Just how were they able to make such a massive nursery in a few hours?” With only a single ship’s worth of insects too. He asked himself, in fear and in awe at the insect's ability to thrive. His mind as a soldier also couldn’t help but fear the possibility of an enemy making use of them. Had they been used during the war, or if these were to be introduced into a battle, the damage done would be irreversible and might even spread to other planets.
Yet, as soon as more chittering reached his ears from deeper inside the maintenance layer, he turned his attention back to the Oozer corpses. 18 killed since he’d entered, and not a single one of them had a hostage. Surely, the display earlier wasn't just to try and stop them.
With a quick sigh and a glare, he activated this night vision and focused on the approaching attackers, coming from deeper inside. More ‘Peons’ from the air. Even more Oozers than before.
There had to be some other purpose why they didn't have any hostages. One that also explained why all the corpses used for the ‘cocoon’ nest were adults. Then the realization hit him like a brick.
‘They could still be alive and already gathered together, too!"
Hiiro immediately broke into a relieved grin. Though the thought of redemption never occurred to him, a chance to help was a chance to help. Even if he already had his own mission. So, he opened another private channel with his Brother.
“Lord Commander, is there any way we can spare resources for a possible rescue mission? I have good reason to believe it involves child hostages that the enemy have gathered for an unknown purpose.”
But there was no response. 5 seconds.
10 seconds. The next wave of Peon insects were now in Plasma range, and he promptly blasted them. However, most of them managed to dodge.
15 seconds. The Oozers had arrived and he blasted the closest one too, before he used his spear to gut the second one mid-jump.
20 seconds.
Thirty. Worry now took over his expression. Surely not…
Thirty-one.
[“Can you confirm their location, Major?”] The all-too familiar voice finally reached his ears and Hiiro’s concered look broke into a relieved grin. The Count’s voice was clearly ragged, and yet, he couldn’t be happier to hear him.
“I will try. But rest assured, my primary objective remains the same.”
[“Very well, then. The Lord Duke Jin-Ho, has expressed his desire to take this mission, should you be successful.”]
“Him?!” He growled, but the Count, no, the Commander replied almost immediately.
[“No other troop is close enough, or capable enough to mount a proper rescue for a possibly high number of hostages.”] He suddenly roared, then grunted before continuing. [“Just do your duty, Major. You have at most an hour before the Duke will be too far away to help. If you can’t find the hostages by then, focus on your primary mission.”]
“Yes, Lord Commander!”
After a sideways sweep, three more shots, and another leap, all the Oozers were dead. Then, he broke into a run, racing past several dozen Peons, before firing a shoulder-mounted grenade behind him. Brawling them was no longer feasible, he just needed to create a path and find his targets.
Which reminded him. He glanced at the constantly present map in his periphery and the two pings in the center.
‘They've made it a lot farther than I ever thought they could.’
“I guess, you weren’t the only one that underestimated them, eh, little brother?” Of course, since he wasn't in the comms channel when he said that, there was no way for the Count to answer.