13 .

'Almost there…'

Jack slowly slid up the abused wall, it served no other purpose rather than his form of support.

His attackers were obviously after something, he'd rather not wait for them to ask for whatever it was. He wanted to make a short run for it. They would be faster than him, he had taken lots of damage. They would catch up almost immediately, so he stopped himself.

'Even if whatever they're looking for is not myself, they did stay back and watch as I killed all the others. That's indicative in itself, they would need no witnesses'. His thoughts never stopped.

'Besides, there was no way I'm going in as a slave, I would rather die here...'

He knew they were more powerful than he was in the current situation. His mind was finally made up.

"Silver, I need the shortest and most optimal route for escape" he spoke to his armor.

[Acknowledged…]

"Oh, full of tricks are we... frankly, I'm surprised you have the energy to talk" the issue was, her voice didn't sound surprised at all.

"That supposed to be sarcasm?" buy as much time as he could, let silver chart and recharge as much as she could. that was his plan.

"Buying time? Old tactic, there's nowhere you can really run to.. Look around you, we're in space, riding in a shuttle..." that was until they called him out on his bullsh*t.

"It was nice talking to you ladies then, Silver... Run!"

[Acknowledged…]

And run they did, they took off in a frightening burst of speed. The force would have been enough to squash a person to bits if they ever collided with one.

"Of course you were going to run, I'm disappointed, I sort of expected more action" her voice sounded genuine this time.

"..."

'Right now? really?...The only time you sound genuine is when you wanna rip me to shreds...'

He couldn't help but raise a brow, was it strange that he found this trio rather amusing?

'That's also what makes them even more dangerous than most foes. The ability to affect judgement...'

Jack felt his balance tilt as both his feet clamped strongly against each other. He had expected such a reaction from his attackers.

He let the weight pull him down. His hands whipped out at the last moment, preventing Him and the armor from crashing face-first onto the metallic floor. He rolled to the side with as much force as his hands could produce. His legs bumped unwieldy on the ground as their strange tied state blocked a full roll.

He used his hands to push himself hard against the ground.

The servos provided a force that threw his imbalanced body into the air. His actions were mimicked by the armor. It was surprising how well they worked together.

His legs flew ahead as his head swung low. The move made him a little dizzy, he didn't stop. He had to get away or die trying.

Clang!

His bound legs made contact with the hard ground. His arms prevented his head from making contact with the floor, again.

His luck proved to be rather short the next moment.

His armor suddenly rolled aside with enough force to send it airborne again.

Thump!

A heavy object landed hard and noisily in the position he had just moved from.

'Of course, they'd catch up…'

His form was then lifted off the ground. His arms naturally covered his head instead of flailing about. A smart decision, because…

Bang!

He was smacked hard against the floor. Blood naturally erupted from his mouth. He had broken a bone or two. The armor had managed to protect the rest.

A second swing was made.

'Of all bashing methods, you chose this? F*cking brute!'

The armor integrity had gone down after the first crash. He wasn't sure it would be able to protect him once more.

Bang!

The force almost ripped his head off. The speed and force of the impact almost knocked him unconscious.

A third swing.

'Oh no, you don't…'

His hand whipped out as fast as it could. He grabbed tightly onto the wrist. The attacker held strongly onto his feet. In that upright state, he pulled the wrist hard.

Unsuccessful. He let go of it and leaned back. His mid twisted.

This made him adopt a strange form as he swung to the side, now below. The exact opposite of the attacker's intended direction.

The attacker spun on her feet as she held onto his feet with both of her hands. She would spin, pull him up, and then bring him crashing.

He had waited for the moment when the force was at its weakest. She could not correct his direction in time. Her grip slipped. He was free again.

He spun in the air. He was too familiar with the movement, he turned naturally. That too despite his blind state.

He landed steadily on the ground.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Chink!

He had multiple spread gunshots, that was not from his attackers, he learned all that from the fact that the impact sound was not produced by his armor.

"That was rather heartless of you. Letting us get killed without stepping in even though you had the strength to put a stop to it."

A voice sounded in the strangely silent hall. The trio turned to stare. The gunshots had caused them no harm, they were not concerned with whoever was stupid enough to engage them.

"Traitorous little bitches" Ruby Canterbury, it was a miracle.

The squad captain. She was still alive.

She was smart enough to approach the warriors who had wrecked the armor. The very same that had run through her entire squad.

'Anger is both a fuel and a liability.'

Jack nodded sagely within his helmet. His visor and helmet naturally did the same. maybe the captain misunderstood what he had meant, she rushed off towards the three wrecking balls.

Left received her rage fueled assault. The captain had picked a sword from the multiple collectibles littering the ground, her previous team. Left bent back at ninety degrees. The strike missed

The captain prepared for that to happen. With no hesitation, she switched her stance. The force had her turn an entire circle. The attack changed from horizontal to diagonal. The armor bent back on its left side.

Scree!

The sword noisily screeched on the metallic shield held out. It maintained its balance, its foot expanded on Ruby's visor with surprising speed the heavy kick sent her spiraling into the air.

She managed to alter her course mid-flight.

Bang! Scree!

She landed noisily onto the floor. Her feet slid back as the force slowly burnt out. She raised her head again. The enemy had moved closer to her location during her flight.

'How fast are these c*nts, I don't remember Mag having such armors at her disposal'

Ruby had to admit that she did feel a slight sting, the captain had not gotten her one of these even though they were the oldest of friends within the crew.

Her sword whipped out again. The enemy was only slightly better at combat than her. Or so she believed...

She had expected the enemy to pull back from her path of attack, she had even planned a response to that. Too bad.

Left jumped right at her, the sword cleaved through the air as it slowly approached her mid. She pulled back at the last second, opening up slight room within herself and Ruby. Then both her hands swung out and clasped both flat edges of the sword.

Then twisted the thick blade vertically...

Snap!

"..."

Clang!

*******

Hailee silently ventured into the belly of the purple lit shuttle. Her gun was held at the ready. The enemy had been engaged in combat when she had left to follow the squad captain's order.

She could not be sure if there were more traps within the shuttle. She had to clear some room for surprises in her brain. That's what expats of old called keeping an open mind...

Her walk led her towards the engineering bay. It was a large cabin. Larger than the one they had confronted the enemy on.

The path forward was blocked. The sole occupant of the shuttle had anticipated an event whereby an enemy could sneak to the engine room.

She could confirm that she had found whatever she was looking for here. It's just that it was rather thorny to get inside without alerting whoever set it up.

If the person was as smart as she thought he was, then he'd have a contingency for his contingencies. She had to find a method to get through without alerting him.

She had brainstormed for minutes on how to get into the room.

'I could just tear down the walls, but that monster will be here in minutes...'

She could also drill through the wall till it gave in. bad idea though. Everyone would be able to tell what she was trying to do. They could feel the vibrations if it was continuous for too long. That would also increase her power consumption. An even worse idea, especially in a battle with stakes as high as this one.

"..."

Then her brain jerked, did she see something?...

"Flashlight!" she whispered into her comm with tensed breath.

If those had been her tense thoughts then that shouldn't have reacted the way she did.

She felt horrified instead.

The purple lights aggravated the issue even more.

'Why not go with a rational and more comfortable color scheme?!'

'Ok, Breathe! breathe!' The fact that she had to berate herself made the place more ominous. Her armor lights blinked on the next second.

The top of her helmet released blinding light, she turned to her right, left, back front, The speed of the turns was dizzying. Her weapon held out, the finger slightly tugging the trigger.

Nothing...

She turned to face the other way. Her steps made a noise that she wasn't too comfortable with. They sounded too loud in her ears.

Then she felt a warm breath flow down her neck.

'That shouldn't be right... I'm fully equipped in armor...' She rotated with enough speed to lift off the ground. Her skin grew massive lumps within the armor.

Then she saw it, a dark red figure.

A creature too tall in comparison with the height of the shuttle.

It's top was so high that it took her all of ten seconds in following its mid structure to end up on it's head!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bang!

Then the routine silence allocated to empty space settled within again, It was unnatural to assume that a person had been there only a moment ago. The level of tranquility was astounding.

Then...

Clink!

A bullet shell noisily hit the metallic ground...

*******

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