Slev Torrent- Tansental- Otto's Lost And Found

Slev was having a fantastic day. He had finally gotten to sleep in, in his own plush bed aboard the coziest star-ship imaginable. It was a rare treat to get to sleep with no danger and no impetuous to get up before the bad guys did. He was used to some rent by the hour room in the slums of a planet's industrial district best case. Or, in the worst case, a nice room somewhere, but the bad guys knew he was after them, so he had to sleep in the damn closet in his armor anyway. In case they decide to take the fight to him.

Reaching towards his mug of steaming 'coffee' Slev started to review today’s plans. Go to the actual guild hall to update his status. He had gotten a promotion after the last few jobs. Get some real paperwork for Chitters; register the little guy as a trained warbeast that would cover all but the most zealous of planetary customs offices he had to deal with. Finally see about an off-world job that put him near Alister. He was planning to try and scoop up that asshole first. If he could manage to find him, he doubted Alister's pride would let him turn the job down.

There were a series of bounty’s in the Proxima sector that just screamed of Alister's handiwork, and one of his calling cards was even at the scene of a safety deposit heist. All within the Cormag star system, oddly enough. A rough cluster of three mining worlds and vast asteroid belts surrounding a blue star. The place was about as rough and tumble as it got without being completely lawless. Not as plush as Alister's normal hunting grounds, but Slev was sure he had a reason for that specific cluster.

Chitters sleepily unfolded himself from behind the refrigerator, startling Slev so badly that he almost dropped his coffee amidst his musing. Slev stared at the bleary-eyed mantid as it started to force the fridge forward a few inches to pull itself from the nook. The fridge rocked a few times, and then Chitters let out a sad, mewling call for aid.

“Oh my god, you did it again,” Slev good-heartedly scolded Chitters while he tilted the fridge farther forward to help the critter scurry free. “Yesterday I had to let you out from the darn maintenance vents, and not even Otto knows how you managed to get into those!” Chitters cooed thankfully before scurrying up to the ceiling and taking his exit from the kitchen, still upside down.

"Whelp, bye then.” Slev made a cheers gesture towards the door with his cup. “Guess I'll eat breakfast alone then,” he said, waiting a few moments.

A bit louder “Guess I'll eat alone!” Still no response, he sighed and gave in.

In terran this time, "Here, kitty, pspspspsps Snackums, I have snackums Chitters!” Slev was regretting jokingly saying here, kitty every time he had hand-fed Chitters the first few days.

There was a booming, crashing sound of something heavy being tipped over in the commons room, followed by a clattering of fast-moving chitin on metal. Slev set down a bowl across from him at the small wall-mounted kitchen table. Just in time for chitters to round the doorframe at head height attached to the frame itself and streaming a gray workcoat behind him caught on one of the larger scythes. Chitters pounced over slev to the bowl, slapping slev with the coat on the way.

“How? You were gone for 30 seconds!?” Chitters was ignoring him and tearing into the leftover mystery meat Slev had put in the bowl. “Ehh whatever,” Slev gave Chitters a fond scratch behind the eyes and tossed the coat over to the corner, settling into his own breakfast.

Slev had armored and armed himself up for the day and made his way down to the cargo bay. Where Chitters was trying to eat a docking hook. It took him a bit to get Chitters to sit still so he could put Chitters chest harness and leash on him. He would need to bring him along to the guild. He left chitters tied off in cargo hold for a moment so he wouldn't have to wrangle him again if he inevitably decided it was time to hunt some rats. And opened up the bay doors. The gross miasma of Tansental literally rolled in to greet him.

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Slev stepped down the loading ramp on the muddy ground. "Yaaaayy, its foggy with a chance of cancer! Gotta love consistent weather, right, buddy?” He looked over as if waiting for chitters to nod in agreement. Instead, Chitters had frozen deadly still for a change and looked directly out the door. With a violent hiss, Chitters started to halfway blend in with the mists.

Slev's instincts started screaming out to him. He threw himself to his right just as the massive form hit him at an incredible speed from above and to the side. His dive turned into a tumble of limbs and mud. He flailed through the air for a full ten meters before he impacted the side of Otto's Hauler so hard that the entire vehicle rocked.

Slev struggled halfway out of the mud onto his knees when a silver spinelike tail impacted his ribs, sending him ragdolling sideways again. This time he activated his thrusters, arresting his momentum and setting him heavily onto his feet. He reached for the hilt on his back as he turned to see what the fuck was attacking him.

Before Slev one clawed foot sunken to the ankle in mud was a fucking dragon. It wasn't some fantastical beast from his favorite tales, however. This being was exposed metallic bones and synthetic sinew. A maw of sculpted teeth led to eyes that had long ago been replaced with cold metal sensors, glimmering red in the dull morning light. Wings that had trelaces of carbon fiber holding together the bits of tattered remaining flesh spread wide behind it. Its tail was shaped of bone-like segments that made horrible tearing noises as it coiled behind the figure. A horrifying Frankenstein like mix of a monster that looked as though it had been torn apart and sewn back together innumerable times. The figure stopped for a moment, and Slev could swear its horrifying maw grinned.

Slev immediately threw a microgrenade he had at the figure. Simultaneously expending vast amounts of his jet fuel to boost farther away. He was damn glad he had stocked up at the Repository. The figure bellowed out a booming roar that Slev felt in his bones and dove after him. It's tail flicked out and sent the grenade sailing back at him with contemptuous ease.

“Fuck!”

The microgrenade exploded just shy of Slev, smattering him with shrapnel, and the impact drove him into a rough, sliding landing. The dragon flew through the edges of the explosion. Claws extended forward, seemingly unbothered by the chunks rent out of its own flesh. Slev managed to get his sidearm out and fired four powerful armor piercing shots. The abomination managed to block three of them with its clawed hands, seemingly having no effect on it beyond a shower of sparks. The final shot slipped through and slammed into its shoulder. The impact caused its flight to veer, just barely sailing over slev. Its tail, however, slashed out in a brutal, cracking whip motion toward his hand. Slev's ruined pistol flew from his grasp, and the impact shattered many bones in his hand.

"Administering painkillers,” Reaper voice intoned.

Slev's blossoming pain was short-lived, the injection immediately cutting off the blinding agony of that many pulverized bones as he sprinted for the garage bay of Otto's. The figure had already landed, adjusted its course, and was sprinting on all four limbs after him, quickly gaining ground. Slev needed to think. He had his rail rifle and could probably manage a shot with his mangled hand. The grenade had been fucking useless, and he had never even gotten the Plasma Sword off his back. He doubted close combat was a remotely good idea. Slev beelined for a half-assembled hauling vehicle using it for cover. To his horror, he saw Otto staring at him from the glass elevator, desperately slapping the up button over and over.

"Get the fuck out of here!” Slev yelled

“I am trying! Fight going poorly!Will help!” Otto yelled back as the elevator began its excruciatingly slow ascent.

Slev glanced out the door towards his ship. The beast had stopped and risen back to stand on two feet. It extended its arm, and a small orb launched from its gauntlet, letting out a terrible scream as it sailed through the air. Slev switched to cover behind an engine block just as the fist-sized orb punched into the front of the vehicle. To his dismay, he saw it was a spinning mass of glowing blades. It tore through the entire length of the truck, punched out the back, and then hovered there for just a moment before screeching in his direction. Slev reached forward reaper, activating the mag gauntlets for him, and brought the awful smart ammunition to a stop just inches before it reached him. Out of thruster fuel, it dropped to the floor as he released it from the magnetics. Where it continued to scream and sink into the floor as whirring blades chopped away at the concrete.

“Do not. Get hit with that, I feel like that would do enough damage to make sure I was unrecoverable” reaper sounded concerned.

Boletela The Ancient- Tancental- Otto's Lost And Found

His hearts positively thrummed with the beat of war! Boletela couldn't help but smile as the human survived yet again, somehow plucking the hunting drone from midair and stopping it inches from ending him. This creature was full of surprises and considerable skill. It had managed to evade several blows now that the advantage of his ambush was over. The fact that it was hearty enough to survive multiple blows from him alone was enough to make this a worthy hunt.

It had slid into cover within the dwelling's garage. Wary of traps, Boletela decided to coax it out the old-fashioned way, with fire. He plucked a small canister from his side and threw it forcefully into the opening of the garage, shattering against the stone floor. The air itself seemed to slowly catch on fire within the garage.

Boletela reached over his shoulder and activated the mounted weapon, flipping it up into place. He breathed deeply; there was no overwhelming fear in the air here. Only determination and inborn violence being given the chance to test themselves. There, the human came rushing from the open door, some kind of glowing shield aloft ahead of it. Boletela smirked and aimed his plasma cannon at its exposed legs. Armor or not, this would remove them, he fired.