“We should hurry up and get to him before he recalls the rest of his team. If it is only him, we still have a chance to save Ang’Tue.” Alena said, using the local comm integrated in their helmet.

“Agreed.” Robin said and quickly hurried towards the ship’s exit.

It took them only a moment to get to the door and without much hesitation they both jumped out, taking cover behind the earth mound.

“Look who we have here!” Siller said, his voice now broadcasted to proximity comm, “Put your weapons down and slowly come closer.”

Robin hesitated but Alena gave him a nod.

“Do it.”

“You have a plan?” Robin asked while he threw his weapon over the little wall.

“Maybe…” Alena said while she, too, threw her sword away. With her foot however, she pulled the hidden sniper closer.

“Can you call ROMAS?” She asked.

“No, we are too far away and even if I could reach him, the hangar door is closed.”

“Well, I’ll need a distraction…” Alena muttered.

While the two had their silent discussion, Siller had yanked Ang’Tue to his feet.

“You fuckin’ bastards, you killed Gutty and Bekker!” He raged, “I really hope Mason will let me kill you slowly and painfully!”

“No one will kill anyone, right Mr. Tulward?” A new voice joined the channel, stern and controlled but Robin still noticed the anger and annoyance in it. Looking to the Hubble, he saw that its hangar had opened and three figures were marching out.

Despite this rapidly escalating situation, Robin’s gaze quickly returned to Ang’Tue. He cursed in desperation when he saw small streams of black smoke rising from the Eltaran’s eyes.

“Oh no, please not!”

He wanted to call out to him, tell him that everything will be alright and they didn’t need him to diffuse the situation, but Ang’Tue was missing his helmet and as such lost any way to secretly converse with the others.

He barely registered Mason talking in the background, having a wild argument with Alena. Robin only had eyes for the black smoke. There had to be a way to solve this. Unfortunately, they were still too far away for him to scan Siller for any electronic devices he could disrupt and create a distraction.

While he was looking for a way out of the impending disaster, Robin’s gaze dropped from Ang’Tue’s face to the man’s hands. They were shackled in an attempt to suppress his-

“Wait, what if…” He mumbled to himself and rummaged through his pockets.

“Oi, put your hands back where I can see them!” Siller immediately shouted.

“Be ready!” Robin told Alena and slowly raised his hands.

“What is that? Drop it!” The sharpshooter yelled, not able to identify the remote from that distance.

“Sure!” Robin said and pressed the button in hope that the man had his mutation active right now. He had some kind of vision-based G-Anomaly, so he should be using it, right?

Robin’s question was instantly answered when Siller stiffened up as Ang’Tue’s personalized version of Suppression-Shackles sent strong arcs of electricity through his body. He had taken them from the old man earlier, not sure what the bracelets were used for. Now they electrocuted him from inside his own pockets. After a few long seconds, Siller finally fell to the ground like a dead log, his survival unknown.

Alena, while amazed by the shackle’s immense effect, didn’t let the short window of opportunity pass and picked up the Storm. In one fluid motion she raised the gun, took aim and pulled the trigger.

A loud shot echoed through the forest and Robin saw the chest of one of the figures far away by the Hubble explode in a bloody mist.

“Go!” She yelled and took aim once more.

Robin didn’t hesitate and sprinted toward the Hubble. Soon, he heard another shot from the Storm but none of the remaining men fell, instead one of them hurriedly took cover behind the crates they had placed outside. The other figure rushed forward, not unlike Robin.

A third shot could be heard and this time Robin saw the bullet splashing up dirt and earth right next to the running man. Somehow Alena had missed a second time.

Robin closed in on the Hubble and when he was about to meet the person running towards him, Alena fired her last bullet. While she missed once again, the man was forced to jump out of the way, away from Robin’s path. He passed by, not stopping or turning around.

That guy seemed to have some strange mutation and he could only hope that Alena would be able to deal with him. His target was the last one of the boarding party that had hid near the Hubble.

When Robin came closer, the guy tried to shoot him from behind his cover. But since he was afraid of the woman with the sniper, he could only aim that much and missed all but one shot. Robin was hit on his arm but his armor took the brunt of it. He didn’t dare to stop and rushed into the hangar as fast as he could. Only after he had found cover himself, did he return the fire.

More through luck than actual skill, Robin managed to land a decent hit on the man as well, but he was disappointed when a light blue bubble appeared around his target, protecting it from any harm.

“A personal shield, great!” He cursed and hunkered down to be completely hidden by the shelf he used as cover.

He quickly tapped into his mutation, searched for the crate and activated his new skill. Moments later the box blew up in a small fireball after the explosive they had prepared got triggered.

“Wow…” Robin marveled at the sight. This was the first time he found a way to actively use his mutation in combat. While he had gotten some use out of it in his fight against the drone-guy on Seavis, it wasn’t anything as offensive as this.

Unfortunately his little stunt wasn’t enough to kill his enemy, which Robin realized when the guy opened fire even while his armor was still burning.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Burn in plasma!” Robin gasped and retreated further into the hangar, “At least his shield is gone.”

Moving to the second and last trap he had prepared, Robin crossed the room and hurried into the hallway with their bunks. They had pushed out one of the beds that he now used as cover before opening fire towards the approaching man.

“Go, get him!” He whispered to his trusted companion.

* Connecting to BTW drone…

* Connection established

* Approaching target…

Mason, the man who followed him, stopped at the doorway and returned fire. Before ROMAS arrived behind his back however, the shots suddenly stopped coming.

At first Robin thought he was reloading and used the time to send out an Echo Pulse to get a better idea of his surroundings. His eyes went wide when he realized that the man wasn’t reloading but had pulled out a small object with way too much energy for its size.

“Grenade!”

Instantly he began running down the hallway, sending Echo Pulse after Echo Pulse. When he saw the glowing orb flying towards him, he stopped and jumped into the room to his right. A low bang could be heard and then a strong wave of energy rolled through the hallway, making his passive sense tingle to no end.

“That wasn’t an explosive…” Robin wondered, “A stun-grenade? Damn, that guy is still trying to catch me alive. He is not taking me seriously at all.”

As he didn’t want to be trapped inside Happy’s bunk, he quickly rushed back out into the hallway. The man hadn’t come closer yet and just stood in the doorway, assessing the situation.

When Robin saw the huge form of the UAV rise behind him, he could hardly suppress his grin.

“Good fight, mate!” He muttered and finally let go of some of his tension.

“Good fight?” Mason chuckled, having heard him, “Do you think it is that easy? Do you think you are the only one with a trick up your sleeve?”

With horror, Robin watched as the man opened his right hand and pushed it to the ground. Behind him, the BWT drone also crashed down into the floor.

“That’s the real shit!” Mason madly yelled and, with some effort, drew a half circle with both hands. The drone, moving in concert, actually flipped sides and landed on its top.

* Drone incapacitated.

* Mission failed.

* Terminating connection…

“Holy plasma!”

Robin didn’t need ROMAS’ update to know that shit just had hit the fan quite hard and started running again. While he fled deeper into the Hubble, his mind was racing with dozens of different ideas - one more useless than the next.

***

At the same time that Robin realized he had run out of tricks, Alena also found herself in quite a desperate situation.

She had stayed outside, not leaving the little earth wall that served as cover, and tried to kill the remaining enemy. At first she thought she had simply missed him because of the flurry of activity all around or the huge distance between them.

With the second shot she took her time, aimed carefully and calmed her breathing. The result was the same however, missing the approaching figure by a slight margin. She couldn’t be sure, but got the feeling that he had actually evaded her bullet.

“A mutation of the reflexes?” She mused, “No, that wouldn’t allow one to dodge a bullet…”

She used her last shot to distract the figure as it was about to reach Robin. Once again she missed and this time Alena was sure they avoided the bullet by stepping to the right.

“What bullshit mutation is that?” She gasped and dropped the empty sniper. When the figure was just twenty-something meters away Alena saw it drawing a weapon.

“At least we’ll have a proper fight!” She laughed and likewise picked up her sword.

It turned out the following melee was not what she had expected and definitely not something to enjoy. Just a few minutes into the fight Alena was riddled with cuts all over her body. If it wasn’t for her trusty suit, she would long be gone.

The problem wasn’t that her enemy was stronger, faster or more skilled than her, on the contrary, she beat him in nearly all fields. But whatever the G-Anomaly was that the guy used, it allowed him to predict each and every move of her, leaving Alena clueless on how to proceed.

“It’s definitely not the reflexes.” She thought while trying to analyze the situation, “He often reacts before I even move, as if he knows what I will do next.”

She deflected a sloppy low swipe and prepared to counter, when the guy suddenly stepped forwards and foiled her attempt. Before she could react, the man’s empty fist crashed into her side, threatening to knock her off balance. Alena quickly adjusted her footing and continued the fight.

“Soothsaying? Like scrying? Really?” She mused but dismissed that thought. That was far beyond what G-Anomalies could grant. Suddenly she had a realization and took a few quick steps back, disengaging from combat.

“You little fucker, you’re a telepath. A frickin’ mind-reader!” She thought and stared at the man.

“Took you long enough.” The man laughed cheerfully, “You are really skilled with the sword, Mrs. Vlasov, if it wasn’t for my… delicate abilities, I would have long lost.”

“You are an Ommih? Never heard of a human that came even close to your level.”

“Alan Vernes, at your service.” The man introduced himself with a small bow, “How about we stop this useless fight and wait for my colleagues to return? I’m no advocate of torture, so I would be happy to stop cutting you up like a fish.”

“Don’t give me that bullshit.” Alena scoffed, “No mutation is perfect and I’m pretty sure that even yours has its limits.”

“Oh it does, but what price are you willing to pay to find out?”

“Don’t you know already?” She grinned and ended their conversation by jumping back into the fight. Alena wasn’t bluffing and for once, she had to thank her brother for pestering her with his stories about crazy mutations and their effects. He often crafted theoretical scenarios in which two people were pitted against another, each having a different kind of rare mutation. Then followed hours of nonsensical discussions about what each of them could do to beat the other.

Alena hated this stuff. Her mutation was quite basic, even if it helped her in way more fields than most other mutations did, in the end it was just a slight enhancement of her five senses. But some things she still remembered. As such she was not only sure that there wasn’t a G-Anomaly for scrying, but even proper mind-reading was off the table. There were some rare cases in which an Ommih got the right mutation that worked well with their natural gift of empathy, leading to something like mind-reading but that’s the limit.

“Even if he can’t read my mind like a book, at least he is damn good at guessing. He probably catches glimpses of my intentions but isn’t able to grasp complex ideas. I would have been long dead otherwise.” Alena mused after she blocked an attack and halted her advance. She observed her opponent’s body to see if he reacted in any way to that trail of thoughts. He didn’t and just attacked again.

“If it’s like that, I know how I can beat him. But he wasn’t wrong: the price will be heavy.”

Not hesitating any longer, she switched from defense to offense again. Alan immediately noticed the change not just of the fight but of her mindset, too.

“Oh? You have decided to test the waters?” He asked while evading her incoming strikes.

“Just a small feint. I eat his counter directly and retaliate afterwards…” She thought, focusing her mind more on highlighting that one idea than the attack itself.

When the opportunity came, Alena struck out and Alan happily took the bait. He knew that she was playing him, but he also understood that this could be his first real chance to land a proper hit. He trusted his abilities to evade her planned counter as he could already feel how she wanted to strike next.

“Going for the heart? Quite vicious of you he laughed as he deflected her vertical slash and stabbed at her. His eyes opened in shock however, when Alena didn’t try to evade at all and literally jumped into his sword. Before he could even pull back his sword, Alena’s blade slashed through the air, leaving nothing but a thin red line on his throat.

“What? But…” Alan Vernes didn’t get any further. His eyes dimmed just before his head tilted and fell to the ground.

“Fuck…” Alena groaned in pain as she pulled the sword out of her stomach and slumped down together with the rest of his body.

She tried to crawl to the ship behind her to get a recovery stim, but before she even reached the entry, she lost consciousness and everything turned dark.