Chapter 7, Blitz

The USG Ishimura's many hangar and cargo sections were designed as a maze, to separate different loading operations that may react poorly when close to each other. Ore, the Marker, the Type 17 Tsugumori's torso and Barrow's shuttle, they were all blocked off each other for one reason or another. Worse, there were still a good number of unsorted bodybags from Aegis VII left in one of the near-zero kelvin storage sections; security cameras showed they have already started reanimating long ago, against the unforgiving cold.

Even after Alissa's team split off heading for the shuttle, Nagate and Shizuka still operated with a handful of seasoned and heavily armed security guards: Mike, Zoe, Shen and Hanson from the chief's own squad, and Gabe who left for the planet before planet cracking but miraculously returned on the second shuttle.

The plan drawn by White and Kyne was ambitious while singleminded: Strike at key positions, gather survivors, release two emergency beacons simultaneously.

A Leaper crawled along the ceiling, then coiled its rear body into a spring, propelling itself to dive at Nagate. He dodged left as he activated the newly added stasis module on his spear. The blast of less-than-optimized stasis energy only hit the Leaper's left arm blade, slowing the edge down to a crawling speed - and snapping it in two like a brittle bone icicle. The broken shard flew off sideways, while the Necromorph maintained its charge. Nagate swiped a long horizontal cut in response.

The stasis shut itself off just after impact; pulses of disruption in momentum rippled at the spearpoint, cutting into undead muscle like a chainsaw through clay! A sick rain of organic matter was let loose as the Leaper was cut open in less than a blink, showering the formerly white Sidonian pilot suit. It had went through decontamination for every previous fight, but when the run for the hangar began, it was visibly beyond the medical department's effort to clean.

He felt relief at the Necromorphs' inhuman looks, unneeded tissue all deformed by super high metabolism during reanimations. The living dead looked like nothing less than miniature Gauna to him, must have also made fighting back feel much further from murder for the security team.

"Can you still see human faces on them?" He thought he heard Eiko ask, "Did you see mine?"

Above him, a red flash darted across the air and hit the volatile sack of biochemical compound on an Exploder. As its content began to rapidly evaporate, a short burst from Zoe's pulse rifle ignited It into an oily fireball.

"Thanks, Shizuka!" The security guard cheered under her helmet.

"Hoshijiro, proceeding mission as normal."

Benisuzume sported a new look; she accumulated enough Hyggs energy to materialize a suit of armor all over the CEC indoor uniform given to her by the medical staff, all made with the red ceramic-like hardened Ena that once covered her gigantic skeletal combat form. It was like a cross between the same skeleton and the eponymous insect, joints articulated well around her human body. Her head wore a helmet like Nagate's, its front a titanium-white mask that resembled her own face. The aesthetics were entirely designed by subconsciousness, the only external opinion was her "first apostle" Dr. Kyne recommending white for the mask. On her back was a simulated RIG meter for humans to check on her particle reserve, two rows of round orange lights along her armor's spine.

In her right hand, she held a massive dual-projectile launcher that could fire both Ena bolts and Hyggs particle at high velocity, shaped like a medieval knight's conic lance, and perfectly usable as a melee weapon. She has been slowly gaining her Hyggs particle intake rate, so she could afford more expenses on both defense and offense.

Shizuka was an icon for the cosmic power of justice, in Irons' words; pictures of her fully armored form were distributed all across the ship's remaining RIG network to both boost morale and help survivors identify her security detachment.

"Dr.Kyne seems very knowledgeable on the concept of Convergence. If he said the Marker has given me power to send all souls trapped in these reanimations to Convergence, I'll trust him. Made me feel a lot better."

"Are you really needed? You are not whole... You're not the real me." She saw the reflection of her old self on a patch of still-fresh blood, "Make is whole."

"...I want to talk to Nagate when this is over."

& Hostile signal transmission

& Hostile energy source in close proximity

Covered by Shen and Gabe, Mike charged forward into the passage cleared by the explosion. His Johnston Family Special was now modified for the changed times; a Line Gun took over the place of the submachine gun mounted on top. Moving into cover, he fired two wide cutting arcs into the darkness ahead.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Heavy, fleshy thumps echoed in the hangar floors, its source slowly but steadily pacing closer to the center of the action. It was rhythmic like a synchronized goosestep, yet also felt like it had the dense core of a charging animal. Rhinos were a rare sight on earth, just a few decades away from joining the Extinct Animal Friends collection; the thumps made the security team wonder if the ship was also carrying an entire preserved, and easily ressurectable, rhino for some art exhibition.

A wave of lighting failure washed over this part of the hangar; several pairs of Necromorph eyes appeared in the darkness. Mike made a brief calculation of limb height, then fired his Line Gun above the mass of eyes.

The arc of energy fizzled as they were broken by two massive bony biomechanical scythes. The residual energy and flashlights illuminated the massive undead: Each blade taller than a human, no, even taller than a Slasher. They looked like they were formed from an entire Slasher, connected to a torso made of many semi-dissolved humans. Apart from these blade arms, the thing stood on four thick legs covered in segmented armor plates.

"Jesus fuck!"

"Brace for shock, switching to grenade mode!" Hanson announced, Zoe following suit. There was an inviting target on the composite Necromorph's center mass, a mouth constructed from at least three ribcages, located below the sensory array of many heads. It even had a tongue longer than a human arm.

Plop! Plop! BOOM!

Two pulse rifle's half-full magazines flew straight into the gigantic mouth, exploding on the tongue as a blue cloud of energy. It created a fine mist of biomass - but before it settled, the undead giant pushed through with only a little blood to show. A dim yellow glow of bioluminescence lit up inside the cavity.

"Did it work?"

"Scatter! Scatter!" Shen pulled Nagate behind her, heading to a large container for cover together with him.

"Oh you fucker..." Gabe readied his stasis and kinesis modules, anticipating the incoming spitting attack. As the organic bomb was launched he activated stasis, but his aim was disrupted by the constantly moving tongue, and only managed to freeze half a tongue. The incoming bomb flew towards Nagate in an arching path.

BOOM! A flash of red energy pierced the bomb, imploding it, spraying burning organic fuel onto the giant composte undead and every surface around.

& Warning: Ammo reserve low, requesting energy diversion from defense megastructure

O& Protect Nagate

"A good time to die draws close!" The voice in Shizuka's head said, she looked around, suspecting that others may have heard their own equivalent of it,

& Reminder: Death is a concept exclusive to [DATA INCOMPLETE] form of existence

& Quality assurance: OS identity security level against hostile signal adequate

The stubborn assurance made her hold down a bitter chuckle against her Gauna firmware, couldn't these rock-brained tentacle bacteria understand she had biologically died ever since they tried to connect fist-sized wiring onto her skull, and then every time she was reconstructed as a component of Benisuzume? What's once more?

"He will never feel safe to expose his back to you. Do you want to test him, see whether he would care if he sees you bleed for him? Disengage your armor."

Nagate has left the container, and occupied himself right away: An infector flew at him, maybe seeing him as the easiest prey with the lowest number of metal armor plates. He swatted with the stasis spear in his right hand, and sprayed it with the centuries-old SCAF submachine gun Mike shared with him. Shizuka felt a spark of pride seeing him in action with a natural flow, applying fine motion controls used in Guardian piloting to personal combat. She had a hand in teaching Sidonia's greatest hero since the day he emerged, and she served as his greatest nemesis.

Oh no. Shizuka blinked as she realized where the smooth chain of motions would end up. Nagate was trying to make a way to the giant Necromorph!

Humans, including a genetically enhanced super pilot, could feel enticed at attacking the apparently many weak points on the composite mutant's body and limbs; however, to the scanning array occupying Benisuzume's right eye, the bone plates were moving too unpredictably and there were too many defense mechanisms hidden under the melted skin.

& Gravity repulsion active

Several pairs of wing-like armor on her back switched open, lifting her off the deck. A small ring of Hyggs propulsion ignited and adjusted their boost direction. In a resounding metallic howl of particle reaction, she charged between Nagate and the colossal undead, her lance held horizontally like a sword or cleaver.

SNIKT! The lance impacted off one of the overhead blade arms of the monster, making a clean, deep cut, but not enough to break the organic blade in two.

"Out of my way!" Nagate said in his helmet radio. He attempted to sway around her; a cluster of the seemingly redundant vestigial heads on the giant composite's back escaped their sockets, branching off one by one, snaking towards him on lanky enhanced necks. Just like tentacle missiles from the Gauna that ate Eiko.

Three of these heads on endless long necks escaped his stasis spear swings. Their lower jaws divided and latched onto him, then began to pull him apart limb from limb. One head was cut off by a lucky cut; it's eyes flashed orange and exploded right after separation, slamming Nagate into the nearest wall. He stood still weapons in mid air, concussed into a dazs.

"Stasis! Everyone, please!" Shizuka sprouted a statement with notable urgency and emotion, a rare occasion. The security team fired their stasis modules, doing their best to avoid the red-and-white duo.

She blasted away the remaining two skulls and scooped up Nagate from where he stood, then mentally pushed her booster to maximuml They returned to the humans' improvised defense line.

"Sarge, we need to leave! There's no getting through the big fucker, but we can still find another way!" Gabe addressed the detachment team's leader, "How far are we to this waypoint?"

"Yes, we're leaving." Hanson whispered, not to avoid ears of the undead but more like doubting his own judgment, "It's the hangar after all."

BOOM!

The giant Necromorph generated another biological bomb from its chest cavity, intercepted by Mike's Line Gun shot. He fist pumped the air to celebrate, only to be smacked down by Shen. The composite undead kept pressing on.

"Team, reload your weapons, center peel retreat tactics." He raised his voice, "We're going to find a shuttle and get off the fucking ship!"

"Sarge, Sarge, what did you fucking say?"Gabe asked.

"I said we're going! You wanna weigh down the team? You people made me do this!" Hanson pulled out his pistol and pointed It at Nagate,"It's all of you, but especially him!"

"Calm down, we have a mission..."

"The mission is fucking confidential! White and Vincent don't care about us, fuck them all!" His finger moved to the trigger," Nobody's special, we all die!"

SPLAT!

A piece of molten, clay-like red Ena flew onto his gun at high speed, melting on its barrel. Benisuzume pointed at Hanson, her finger briefly exposed by the reforming Ena material. The pistol's muzzle bubbled and melted.

"I nominate Gabe Weller to be our acting squad leader, by his seniority." Zoe said, handcuffing the still panicking Hanson to herself, nobody objected.

"Nagate, lead us to the objective, we'll fucking finish it." Gabe said, "If you book it, if you die on the way, I will stick my hand up your ass and puppet you until the mission is done."

"Understood." Nagate recovered from his concussion just in time, "Please let Benisuzume put a clean shot on the Marker."