Ice watched as Cat dragged Sergeant Brigham while Captain Drake swung a sword at an automaton that got close. He winced in sympathy before the blade hit but when it cut the automaton cleanly in half his jaw dropped open in amazement.
"Ice, you should probably close your mouth. While they can't see it, I can and they didn't exactly give you a toothbrush while I was… absent."
Ice closed his mouth and rushed down the ramp grabbing the pull handle on the back of Brigham’s armor and easily yanking him aboard the ship. "Captain, let's go. We don't have a lot of time."
Captain Drake swore as he slashed once more at a reaching arm before turning and running towards the ramp. His breathing was ragged and there were flecks of blood on his lips. Something was wrong internally and he just had to hope it wasn't that bad. He felt something grab one of his limp arms on his left side . Looking over, it was one of the large automatons, the ones his sword didn't cut through easily. Glancing ahead he saw that Ice was busy and had no time to help him and Cat was nowhere in sight. Sighing internally he went with th most expedient option and cut through his own arm even as the automaton’s grip began to crush the bones. One motion, a scream, and it was done. Stumbling forward, he grabbed the stump with one of his other arms and forced himself to keep moving to get just one step closer to the ramp.
Ice looked up when he heard the short scream just as Drake’s arm fell from the automaton's grasp. He saw that the man wasn't going to get far enough to avoid being grabbed again and reflexively ordered Beta to fire every remaining railgun round into the enemy's torso. The looming automaton crashed backwards as Beta drained his matter converter dry using the last of his emergency power cell to assist Father one more time.
Captain Drake forced his body up the ramp even as he felt himself slowly getting cold. He stumbled once, then twice, before falling. When he opened his eyes he felt searing agony and the smell of cooked meat. Cat was pressing its plasma claws carefully to the stump of his arm, cauterizing the wound shut while Ice blasted down the ramp at something out of sight.
"Get him back to the Forge! I don't care if he walks or you drag him just get going. I don't know where they are coming from but we gotta go!" Ice yelled at Cat over the sound of metal shrieking as his railgun slowly began to overheat.
"Matter converter dangerously low on materials unable to reload. Unable to reload."
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Emperor was furious, not only did they refuse his hospitality but now they were actively trying to escape! "Francis send in the Combination Soldiers. Let's see how they like fighting my experiments."
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The horror that was part Theriope part human and part automaton shambled in from the laboratory. It had only a single motivation . feed the queen.
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Ducky watched as Ice and Cat drug Captain Drake onboard and strapped him in next to Sergeant Brigham. "Are we good to leave, Captain?"
"Get us the fuck out of here, Ducky!" Ice shouted back, summoning medical supplies from the store as fast as he could apply them.
Ducky finished the spool-up cycle for the engines and activated the Nano Cannons to fire on their way out; hopefully. Disabling anything capable of following them a came out of the battleship's landing bay. They blasted out, the guns firing on something again and again. Ducky couldn't make out what it was but he could hear the scream through the hull of the Nano Forge. It was full of rage and agony.
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Ice pressed the quick seal patches against Captain Drake's arm and Sergeant Brigham likewise. He looked down at his nearly destroyed armor and laughed. They had done it, they had escaped. He slowly stood up and walked towards the armory setting his armor on the pedestal to be repaired and rearmed.
It looked almost pitiful, parts of it were caved in and others were just gone. There was a huge gash in the chestplate. When he climbed out of the armor the undersuit had come with him and he remembered Raven saying it provided some medical care.
Ice walked out of the armory towards the mess hall, meaning to get something to ea When he sat down the ship lurched and he cursed standing up and running towards the bridge. e jumped into the pilot seat yelling at Ducky. "What the fuck was that?! Are we under attack?"
"No, Captain. We just scraped the bay doors on the way out a little bit. Everything's fine… Did you know that you're bleeding?"
Ice looked down and the number of injuries on his body finally hit him as he slowly sank to the floor. Into the black.
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Ducky watched Ice sink down and went back to controlling the ship. Someone had to make sure they didn't get pasted by one of the secondary turrets on the station. "Raven, you should get all the bios strapped in, this might get a little rough. I'm giving you enough control over the ship's nano field that you can form an avatar."
A tall thin woman appeared wearing a ship suit. Her skin was remarkably pale but the blue of her eyes practically glowed. In fact, they did glow in the dark.. "Thanks Ducky, I'll get them strapped in." She bent down and gently lifted Ice in her arms as she walked off the bridge to his quarters, strapping him into the crash couch inside. After checking on his injuries, she programmed a small subset of the undersuit's nanos to act as a pseudo tissue; patching him up for now.
She proceeded into the main room where Cat was struggling to buckle Drake into a crash couch not meant for so many arms. Raven chuckled at the sight as she moved to assist Cat, her more dexterous hands working better than his jaw.
The drone looked at her and sat down. "Mother, you have a body. That is good."
"Speak in complete thoughts you might be in the body of a recon drone but you are still an AI" She chided him.
After strapping everyone in she moved back to the bridge and sat down next to Ducky. "So where do we go now?"