Slev Torrent – Tansental – Central Spire East Star-dock
Slev looked down at his wrist to check on how much longer Otto's project would be in transit. Just a few more minutes now, and it will be ready. Conrad was huddled under the cover of an alcove next to him. After a mad dash across the star-port they had made it to dock 70. Conrad had been instrumental in actually finding the place in the labyrinth of hallways. Slev was not thrilled at what they had found waiting for them.
Docking Bay 70 was a gargantuan open-aired affair. Cold metal walls rising 70 feet above the tarmac itself. Three cranes large enough to haul a ship engine into place were dotted equidistant across the center line of the landing area. The landing area itself was two separate metal platforms rising just above the asphalt floors. Both of the platforms were occupied. One held a rough-hewn mining ship square and battered. That looked as though it had replaced all its mining lasers and ore chewing equipment with plasma cannons and two anti-ship missle batteries.
It was cobbled together in a Frankenstein of mishmashed parts and painted over logos that just screamed I'm a pirate ship. There were at least five armed and armored men hanging off one side to do welding repairs. Two guards aimlessly patrolled the platform in between cracking jokes and stopping to take a sip off an unmarked bottle.
The other landing platform held Two oblong shuttles that looked like they could clamp onto the larger mining vessel like a couple of parasites. Currently, there was a large pink tarp draped between the two shuttles. Smoke lazily drifted out from under it, where a half dozen men were lounging on bits of cargo and roasting meat over a small grill. Quite obviously, all of them were very intoxicated.
“It's a fucking pirate barbeque, how the hell do they not already know we are coming?” Slev looked incredulously at a Charoke pirate obliviously puffing on some kind of stimulant tube.
Conrad leaned over. "These pricks aren't real professionals hell, I'm ashamed they managed to nab Dora before I could get a shot off, effective communication is probably not their strong suit.”
"Alright, I'm just not going to question it too much. You said she was in the big ship, cargo hold?”
Conrad nodded. "Yes, uh, can we hurry?"
Slev sighed "Alright, you all know the plan, Conrad. You stay hidden. If you die, I'm going to have an incredibly pissed-off butterfly. We deal with everyone outside the ship, then rush our way through to the cargo hold.”
Slev started a slow, creeping advance along the edges of the dock. He made sure to stick to the haphazardly placed crates as he made his way successfully to the edges of the 'mining ship' platform. Above them, a small retrofitted escape pod hissed into view right above the BBQ party and then lazily drifted to a landing near three very startled Charoke. They stumbled over the piles of empty bottles on the ground, weapons out towards the escape pod. With a loud crack, the door of the escape pod detonated, its retaining bolts shooting the door and the drunken pirate in front of it. A dozen feet off of the platform.
The small predatory form of Chitters peeked out with a curious look. He had long, flat strips of armor starting on his torso and extending out to the back tips of each of his claws and feet. Miniature shield emitters were built onto a half dozen places evenly along the armor. One small red ball hung from a tiny pink collar around his neck. The ball detached from Chitters collar and hovered quickly in the air, just above the heads of the pirates. Then it began emitting very visible bright red laser beams onto every pirate at the BBQ. Chitter's burbled in happy excitement, moving far too fast for the Charoke to follow.
Conrad- Nervously watching this clusterfuck unfold.
Conrad looked on in stunned shock as the drop pod hit the ground and exploded, then something small and fast shot from it in less than the span of a breath. Whatever it was, it leapt onto the face of the nearest man and tore out through the other side of his head in a burst of brainmatter. Pouncing on to the arms of a screaming Charoke, who wildly shot around himself in a panic, grazing at least two of his compatriots. The laser fire stopped as his arms fell to the ground, still clutching the rifle.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
The beast stared at the panicked drunken men for a moment, and then, like a fog in a strong wind, it melted from sight. Where did it go? Conrad could not see the awful little bioweapon. A moment later, he just saw the edges of its sharp, scything arms as it reappeared at the feet of three men in a rough circle, facing outward, terrified and twitchily scanning their surroundings. Conrad felt himself getting ill. He could hear the creatures horrendous Clattering and slurping noises as it began gleefully cutting off limb after limb. It would lunge forward, strike with all four of its arms, and move onto the next just as the first pirate realized it was down a leg or an arm, or in one case both.
Conrad tore his eyes from the charnel pit that the BBQ party had become as the awful thing scurried around, finishing off the writhing pirates with quick jabs to the eyes and throat. The oddest sonic boom Conrad had ever heard punched a two-foot hole through the chest of a previously uneen guard aiming a rifle down towards the skittering beast. There was the mythical human that massive rifle out as he took the arm from another guard and then calmly. He shot every single man still on the side of the ship welding. Conrad couldn’t stop himself from shaking, fear setting into his bones. He had just watched fourteen armed men die in less than 30 seconds, and now the human was waving at the bioweapon.
He couldn't believe it the little bladed insect had obviously turned on its master. It sprinted at the dark armored bounty hunter, almost too fast to track doging weaving and then leaping off of cargo to get at him. All the while letting out this demonic, high-pitched chittering sound that echoed throughout the entire complex. It finally made it to the man, leaping directly onto his chest and sinking its claws around his neck. It looked like it was trying to find a way through the armor. Even the human looked frozen in fear he hadn't ripped it off yet.
Slev Torrent – Tansental – Central Spire East Star-dock
“Ow Shit, Yes, you did good. Here have some scritches, Jesus. Fuck, you are clamped on there tight."An absurdly excited Chitters was demanding attention for his good job hunting, and Slev could not pry the little shit off.
Slev sighed and gave up, jogging towards the nearest entrance to the ship. With chitters bouncing along attached to him at the chest.
“I wish to take back every unkind word I have ever uttered about that absolutely perfectly efficient little angel of death.” Reaper was ecstatic about getting to control Chitter's target designator. It was the first time he had gotten to “aim and pull the trigger” in quite a while.
"Yeah, okay, you both did really good on that one, it probably helped that they were blisteringly drunk, but Jesus Chitters, you went through that one poor fucker's head." Slev looked pointedly at the gore-soaked mantis that had shifted to his shoulder.
They thundered into the narrow, worn halls of the ship. Slev bounced off the wall of the first turn he was going so fast. Stumbling down the next corridor, he leapt down a short staircase, leading presumably to the cargo area. Suddenly he rounded a corner into an open cafeteria with drab metal tables and a sad, worn-out-looking serving counter packed with off-colored slop. Two crew members turned slowly towards him, looks of surprise plastered across their faces. One of them dropped the food tray he was filling, a hand slowly creeping towards a sidearm.
Slev drew his pistol pointedly as chitters let out an ominous hiss. “Can we just not? Like, really. Im sure you are all half drunk, none of you have armor, and I'm already extremely over today.” The crewmate went for his gun.
Slev shot him as chitters flew off his shoulder over the counter, going after the cook. The cook went down, screaming with chitters on his shoulders. The screaming stopped, and the ringing from the pistol shot faded.
The final crew member raised his hands slowly with a terrified expression. “I surre....” Chitters hit him from the side in a tearing frenzy of blades.
"Reaper, erase that from our on-board footage, please." slev muttered
“Bad CHITTERS BAD!” Slev shouted at the confused looking mantis. "Okay, note to self surrendering doesn’t mean fuck all to Chitters”
“Did?..did you think it would...?” Reaper asked genuinely confused sounding.
Slev sighed and scooped the mantis back onto his shoulder, making his way away from the war crime scene. It wasn’t long down another drab hallway before they made it to a mostly empty cargo hold. Dim flickering lights on strings hung from long ignored pipes. Lighting a pathetically maintained metal room with a small prefabricated office put right at the entrance.
Slev put Chitters down for a moment, making sure Reaper kept him distracted with the laser designator, and peeked through the office window. There was a passed out drunk pirate surrounded by stacks and stacks of disorganized paperwork. His gaze settled on a large, round aquarium in the corner, with a basketball sized tadpole peeking out from it. Slev simply walked in and carefully picked up the aquarium.
"Well, mission accomplished?”
Slev simply ignored the snoring quartermaster and weaved his way back out of the ship. Retracing his path the best he could in the drab sameness of the halls. He made it back outside and jogged over to a very traumatized-looking Conrad. Carefully, Slev handed the heavy tank with the circling tadpole inside of it over.
“Here you go, Ambrosias told me she would hammer out the details beyond this.” Conrad was barley listening to Slev he was protectively shielding the aquarium, struggling under its weight, and staring at Chitters.”
Conrad finally blurted out a response "Thank you so much. I'm going to take my family to the lament for a few days and get this all settled. What is that thing?” He glanced toward Chitters.
Slev chuckled. Chitters was going to be more famous than he was getting if this kept up. “Just a stowaway.”