7 Chapter 6

"So, you chose to fight?" The figure had asked.

He stepped forward, fully revealing his face. The figure somehow... looked human. Well, that was a lie. His face may have shouted 'human' but... the same didn't apply to his body. For example, his skin, asides from having abnormal coloration, was scaly. His skin was orange, but the same didn't apply to others. There were green, black, purple, yellow, and blue. He was bald, and so was everyone else. They had blue suits, with vertical black stripes.

SRD nodded. "I can kill all of you." Without giving much time for a response, SRD ran forwards, the thrusters in his legs activating, giving him a boost. He was running at quite inhumane speeds and seeing how short the distance was, there wasn't much to be seen.

Less than a second passed, and SRD stood there, with the Martian's head on the floor. SRD's eyes quickly scanned the area, checking for heartbeats or anything indicating a hidden Martian. He suddenly took a step backward, thrusting his elbow right behind him.

A man materialized behind SRD as soon as SRD's elbow made contact. He did not seem affected by the punch though. SRD's elbow opened up, and a blade was thrust out of it, piercing through the Martian.

"Invisibility will not pass through my systems. Not again." SRD muttered clearly. His leg thrusters fired up, making him leap forwards towards another Martian. SRD's speed was too fast for his legs to catch up, and it looked like he was about to trip a few times. The Martian immediately pulled out a gun. It had a round tip at the end and a small glass container on the side filled with a blue substance. The round tip started to turn a little blue before a blue-colored shot was fired at SRD. Before anything else could be shot, SRD's blade goes through the Martian.

The substance was sticky, almost like Slesium in most of its properties. The goo started to melt SRD's shoulder, revealing some of his internal gears. It stopped piercing through, this was like Slesium... but acidic. Highly acidic...

The closer he got, the riskier things got. Only four were left. They all followed in the footsteps of their friend and pulled out their own pistols.

SRD's blade began to transform back to a regular hand, with a few barrels taking its place. "Mini-gun: Active." The barrels started to spin around, slowly increasing their rotation. Bullets began to fly through the air, piercing through each of the Martians. Before they fell, they had managed to get their acidic substance on SRD. His knee, chest and left eye were starting to melt down, leaving several holes inside of him.

SRD turned over to M. "I've got them... what do we do?"

M stared at the scene in surprise. He was clearly impressed by the mechanics of SRD, how his hands shifted from weapon to weapon, and just how everything was packed inside of him. Even with the old wires he has, he can take down the Martians- Old wires... Oh, it looks like he forgot about those... "Hey uh... SRD. Listen, your wires are old, they can't take the amount of heat you're giving them. Don't push them too hard or you might explode. Other than that, wow! That's impressive!"

SRD nodded. "Thank you. Now, if you may, please tell us where we should head. There are probably Martians on us now..."

M shrugged a little. "Steal one of their communication systems... If they have any. Try to act like one of them. You can tell them that none of the Martians were killed, but we managed to escape to the weapons factory. You should also tell them that you need major enforcements there. That'll distract most of them, and probably give us a chance to sneak by and find the ships."

"Okay..." SRD walked over to the dead bodies of the Martians. They were spilling out dark red blood, with a slight hint of purple. Strange colors compared to humans. He went over their clothes, trying to spot anything of importance. Nothing... he turned back to M. "Not much here. Your plan fails once again."

"Again?"

"You failed when your real body got kidnapped."

"Ugh, that wasn't me. Anyways, take their pistols, we can use them later. That substance looks interesting."

"But it was you." SRD's vision is blurred by a big message. 'Caution: Wires are overwhelmed. Turning off weaponry to avoid errors. Reducing speech and vision to avoid errors.'

"Wires are overwhelmed. Can't lift you." SRD had said, his vision getting blurred a little.

M shrugged. "Oh, whatever." Holes opened from his sides, and M's spider legs had emerged from inside. He walked by SRD. "We'll have to sneak by, then. You said your wires were overwhelmed, so that means your weaponry is probably down too. We can't afford to lose again." M started to walk forwards, and SRD followed.

They strode on for almost 20 minutes, and finally, they were able to see the manufacturing factory in the distance. Another 10 minutes of walking and they reached a few large shipping containers. Or... that's what they looked like from outside.

"Hey, SRD, what's inside of those containers?" M asked, seemingly curious.

"Robots. Or robot parts." SRD answered, his vocabulary was starting to get limited, and so was his speech.

"Must be valuable. Maybe we can use those for weapons..." M had muttered.

"Valuable indeed." SRD had commented.

"Okay, containers aside, go check the area for any Martians... If your scanner still works, of course."

SRD nodded, trying to activate his scanners. It, in fact, worked. SRD could see 20 Martians inside of the factory. They looked to be using the machines inside. Either way, his scanners weren't as accurate as they were before. "20 people. Using the machines. No one outside."

"Okay! That's great! We just avoid the inside, then. Alright, scan for their ships, we need a way to get out of here."

SRD nodded once again. His scanners activated, and then he nodded. "Only one ship. It's big." SRD said as a faint blue outline of a ship appeared on his scanner. "Do we take it?"

M smirked a little. "One ship, you say? That means they're not many, and if we take their ship, they'll be stuck here until we come back. How far is the ship?"

"60 meters. Right around here." SRD took another glance from behind the container, making sure that no one was there. He couldn't scan anyone, but it could be an energy distribution problem. He gestured for M to follow, and with a nod, M followed.

Strangely enough, they weren't interrupted or interrogated. They peacefully walked to the ship, with no encounters to worry about. It even started to make M worry a little.

"Don't you think it's... odd? We weren't stopped by anyone... What's so important inside of there?"

SRD shrugged. "We have to be thankful. This is better." SRD had replied. "Come on. The ship is close." SRD had said, and before them, stood a large spaceship.

The ship quite sizeable, it could probably hold in 20 people at max. It was equipped with weapons both from inside and outside. The ship stood on four legs, with multiple thrusters at the back and sides of it. It was colored in cold colors, blue, white, and silver. The main body was blue, with a white stripe right below the 10 windows on each side.

"Wooo. Okay. SRD, try to break through the door. I should be able to access it if we get inside."

"I can't. Wires will burn. I'll break the windows."

M grumbled. "Yeah... right. That'll make a noise, so we'll have to be fa-" M freezes as the door started to open. It slid open from up to down, revealing a tall, slim figure behind it. He looked down at the two revealing a set of rectangular glasses on his eyes.

"I... uhm-" The Martain stared down at the two in disbelief. His voice had a higher pitch than most others, and his skin was a light green, with his scales clearly shining through.

"SRD! Knock him out!" M had shouted. He definitely didn't want to get caught.

SRD took a few seconds to realize what was going on, before immediately giving the Martain a jab towards his face. For some reason, the Martain fell down from one hit, he was quite fragile, it seemed.

"Oh- That was... easier than expected. Okay, pull him inside, we can't afford to get caught now."

SRD nodded a little. "Will do." A small ladder was formed, leading up to the entrance of the ship. He walked through, pulling the Martian closer in. M followed leisurely, before walking over to the main wheel.

The interior was similar to the exterior. There were lights on the roof, and both the roof and floor where white. The walls were a light blue color. The front consisted of two seats, and a large panel, covered by buttons, levers, and switches on every inch of it. The panel was open from the bottom, revealing a bunch of wires. A toolset was right next to them. On the top part of the front, an advanced flat screen was hung down, firmly attached to the roof.

"This Martain must've been fixing something. Are you sure it's safe?" SRD had asked.

"Yeaaaaaah, no worries." M inspected the insides of the panels. Finding a few thick wires inside. "Hey, these look like the main system wires. Plug them in me. I think they're 5."

"Okay." SRD had walked back to the panel. Grabbing the cables and plugging them into M. He surprisingly had several openings, and all were compatible with the cables he plugged in.

M's display went off, and instead, it showed a loading message. "1%... 8%... 14%... 32%... 47%... 56%... 73%... 94%... 100%."

M's face showed up on the larger screen. "Woo! I got an upgrade! Now... everything is connected, let's start up the ship! Grab onto something, SRD, we're taking off!"

SRD slowly walked over to one of the seats, sitting down and then nodding. "You can go. And what do we do with the Martain? Do we leave him on here?"

M nodded. "Yeah, he looks flimsy, he won't be much of a danger." M coughed a few times. "Now, we'll go off in 3... 2... 1... And go!" The thrusters started up, and that could easily be told by the loud noises. They lifted the ship into the air. It entered a hovering state, barely above the ground. "Okay... here we go..." The sounds of the thrusters increased, reaching a deafening point. The ship rocketed through the Earth's atmosphere at increasing speeds, winding up at low Earth orbit in no time. "We're here! That was quite the ride, wasn't it?"

SRD nodded a little. As always, his expression couldn't be read. Nobody could tell if he was surprised, scared, or unfazed. What an odd design.

"Now... fortunately, this rig has the needed extraction devices. Which means that our next stop is to Venus!"