Private Tomb Raiders

[Delila Castillon]

"Older than me you think?"

Delila chuckled at her own joke, turning her head away from the corpses to look at Xin. She knew he wanted to laugh but would also would refrain from doing so. Instead a rare swirl pattern in his eyes that was the Nautolan equivalent to rolling them.

"I don't know. What's that redhead with the massive bosom? Don't act like you don't know Xin..."

The old soldier racked her brain until the connections finally found the name. They had stopped at one of their stations before.

"Arceneau something. She seems rich. I see their warehouses everywhere we go. I bet she could afford this."

It seemed they both were in a joking mood. It was their way to combat the overall sinking feeling that was their reality. It was becoming evident that they were stuck on some type of tomb.

"We we start cutting in the vessel thing for parts uhh..let's be cautious not to get corpse juice on us. Plus karma. I don't mess with the dead Xin."

 

[Xin Boa]

"You keep telling me how old you are," Xin laughed. "I'll believe it when I think you can't keep up with me."

"Arceneau something. She seems rich. I see their warehouses everywhere we go. I bet she could afford this."

"Oh, ATC," replied Xin.

"Can't remember her name, but know who you mean. Maybe she has the money, but not the time." No matter how many people could be convinced by her credit balance and her other bountiful assets.

---

Xin managed to track down one of the vertices between the power lines. It was like a mesh of veins through the ring, but it was still made of technology. A trail of lights they had placed led down into a level below. These were darker corridors and if Xin thought the station had any sense he would have assumed they were for maintenance.

Xin had Brak bring out some tools. With some heavier duty lights on the walls, Xin was able to force his way into a string of compartments.

"This is no tech I know," he said. He was sat on the floor in the room, an arrangement of unfamiliar parts around him. "But some of dis works the same. I think with enough of these filaments we can make a repair."

He unscrewed a cylinder that had been connecting two power lines. As he drew it apart a seal broke and another handful of long metal filaments fell out.

---

Deeper in the station, something stirred. The monument had barely been visited, but no creature had tried to disassemble anything for a thousand years. Slowly, the machines woke and started to formulate a response. They started to build.

 

[Delila Castillon]

"Nothing I've seen either. They look like ancient power delivery systems...maybe. All bundled together to deliver power and...maybe data? I have no idea. Now give me some ancient war technology and I might be able to figure a few things out. You and Brak got this though, I'm confident. If you say the filaments will work and I trust it will."

Delila had zero idea on how to refit the filaments to get the part working again. Now replacing an entire part? Sure, she could do that. Troubleshoot a little? Also a go. Actually fix such an intricate and delicate part? Not her thing. Everyone had their strengths and weaknesses and Delila knew hers. Part of the reason she kept Xin around, besides him being a pretty face.

"I'm going to walk a bit with Skreech. I won't go too far.Just yell loudly if something happens."

Skreech was perched on her shoulder as they walked along an odd, lighted section of the corridors. It was lit from below, almost as if a side passageway as opposed to a main corridor. Every so often, there would be something odd on the wall yet it wasn't blood. Hydraulic fluid? It was surmised this station hadn't been occupied in awhile, things like leaks and burst hoses were bound to happen. Remarkably well maintained otherwise.

"Whatcha thinkin' Skreech?"

"Scary!"

"I second that buddy."

The monkey-lizard scampered down her body and went ahead to look around ahead of her. She could hear his scampering and it was a sound she was well used to. Used to freak her out in bed at night, listening to Skreech scuttle through the ship. This was similar but more...metalic? Less claw like?

"Skreech, stand still for a second."

"NO!"

Yet the creature did for a brief moment. The noise still continued.

 

[Xin Boa]

"I'm going to walk a bit with Skreech. I won't go too far.Just yell loudly if something happens."

"Ya, when I drop sommit on my toes you'll hear!" Xin called after Dells.

Instead of finding the parts he needed, Xin was collecting the parts to build the parts. He didn't even know if he could do it, but if anyone could it was Brak. The Barabel was the best improvisational mechanic he'd ever known.

If they felt they had the raw materials they could take off and finish the work a few million thousand kilometers away. With the thin, conductive fibres, they would be able to measure them and bind the right amount with some ceramic compounds to fix the connector.

It would be better if it failed safely and dropped them out of hyperspace than overloaded the reactor, but only just. If they were stranded a thousand years from the nearest planet then he would prefer the explosion.

"NO!"

"Damned monkey lizard needs to keep his wide mouth shut for..."

Xin did not simply trail off as he muttered under his breath. He felt a tug at the back of his thoughts. The entire place felt unnatural, but it suddenly felt worse.

Xin bagged everything he had to hand quickly, but left the arc cutter on the floor.

"Dells?"

Ahead of her an entire piece of ceiling fell away. A skeletal force of black and white crawled out and started to skitter towards Skreech across the ceiling.

 

[Delila Castillon]

Upon hearing the skittering, Delila had already tried to think of all the possibilities of what it could been. Mynocks immediately came to mind. The little parasites came to mind, able to live in the cold vacuum of space, eating on helium and energy and various bits. Given how long the station had been around and how massive it was, it had been her first choice. Nevermind the fact she could have sworn she heard metallic scraping.

Theory didn't go untested for long.

Droids poured down from the ceiling, crashing to the floor and moving towards Skreech. The monkey-lizard had present mind to retreat, yelling as he did so, flying past herself to the safety of the Saegassum.

The droids moved creepily along the ground, moving on the decking, pushing closer to herself. She started to back away at first then decided to break out into a full run. Dells was certain the droids could outrun her but she just needed to get some space between herself and this corridor in particular. Blaster was at her side but she didn't want to take a horde on herself.

"Let's get out of here! Xin! Brak! Start the ship."

She figured they wouldn't understand Skreech's wild screaming as he tore up the ramp.

Xin Boa

 

[Xin Boa]

"Let's get out of here! Xin! Brak! Start the ship."

"What did you even find this time?" came Brak's call over the comm. Even with the filtered comms, his footsteps were so heavy they could be heard in the background. He was clearly running.

They had left the ship reasonable condition, except for the blown hyperdrive. However, they had deliberately powered down systems to make them impossible to find if any pirates followed their distress beacon.

"This time it's..."

There was a pause as Xin replied. He has the parts in a backpack over one shoulder, his carbine cradled in his arms.

The monkey lizard flashed by. Then came Dells. Around the corner a pack of droids. Some ran on two legs, but most crawled down the walls and ceiling on all fours.

Xin levelled his blaster.

"...killer droids."

He fired to Dells' left, catching a droid square in the head. Then he fired to her right before he ran too.

He glanced back over his shoulder. The two droids he had struck had fallen, but they drew back up to their feet.

"Don't know what dey made of, but that only slowed em down!" Xin shouted at Dells.

 

[Delila Castillon]

"Very reassuring dear!"

The two bolts that whizzed by her only seemed to increase the anger or drive the droids had. Dells knew they could easily catch her but they seemed to be toying with them ; or just slow from ages and ages of inactivity. Xin and Brak were running now, leaving her to be the last of the pack. She could turn around and shoot but what good would that do? The ones Xin had shot had barely been affected.

Skreech was up the ramp, followed by Brak. She would prefer to take their chances in the cold reaches of space, get captured or die due to lack of rations. Anything was better than being picked apart by what was most likely a form of security for the station. There were bigger questions, such as what the station was and if the security droids were sentient enough to have the thoughts to mess with them.

Feet quickly hit the ramp but so did something else ; one of the security droids, claws sinking into their metal plating.

Xin Boa

 

[Xin Boa]

Xin felt a flutter of panic. It was the sound I'd the machine's claws catching the ramp. The cry of metal on metal. Of something so alien and dangerous almost in their home. Almost within reach of Dells.

Xin didn't think. He strode down the ramp and kicked the side of its head with the sole of his boot. It was heavy, made of some dense alloy. He fired into its chest from point blank range, finger squeezing the trigger. The volley cut through the middle of the droid and it stopped moving.

A sudden movement in his periphery had him dive to the deck. Sharp claws came down right beside his head. They cut inches into the ramp and he almost lost another head tail.

 

[Delila Castillon]

"Brak let's get moving!"

Getting out of the hangar space and at least lifting off the ground would be helpful. The droids were intent on overwhelming and pushing their way forward.

Droid had popped down next to Xin, air whooshing next to head tails as he was intent on taking out the tall Nautolan. Delila had her blaster unholstered at this point, firing a shot and catching the unit in the back of the head. Foot kicked it off the ramp.

As they started to rise, it didn't free them from the droids. Two had latched on, metal scraping against metal as their hands clawed onto the Saegassum.

If they kept rising, at least they could possibly shake off some.

"Start closing the ramp! Maybe we can crush them before they get inside!"

Xin Boa

 

[Xin Boa]

Xin breathed a sigh of relief as he had space over him once again. Space and all his limbs still attached. The blades on the robots cut through the metal of the deck, they would have gone through him like warm butter. Their frame was made of a dense alloy that soaked up blaster fire.

It stood to reason that a civilisation that could make a station the size of a solar system could make more advanced murder bots than anyone else.

"Keep shooting at them!" Xin shouted as he rushed to hit the manual lever.

If they flew far away they would depressurise if the droid got stuck in both outer ramp and inner door. That would give them just a few moments to get through the next door before they lost consciousness.

The ramp started to rise and Xin shouldered his rifle and started firing into the face of the second robot that tried to claw up the ramp.

 

[Delila Castillon]

Brak was pushing the vessel out of the hangar and away from the planet. There wasn't much they could do in the moment ; push away and get some distance so they could regroup. Being attacked by droids at an increasingly alarming rate did not bode well for conversation and trying to find their way out of this mess. Delila voted to be be picked up by pirates, at the very least they might be reasoned with.

Firing continued as the ramp rose. A few dropped, Dells got off a lucky shot at one of their eyes, which made it completely fall off. Only several more to go.

If she thought their problems would be fixed once the ramp rose, she was wrong. As the ramp shut, it bisected a droid, the bottom half legs falling outside the ship. The head and front limbs were inside....and still alive. Most droids would be deactivated or on their last legs at this point but not these ones. These used their front limbs to crawl forward, moving towards herself and Xin as they dug into their decking.

Firing continued in the Saegassum, a risky move considering they could easily knock out something vital. Just because the hyperdrive was gone didn't mean they had to junk up their ship.

Another head shot, another droid deactivated.

"We're going to have drop the 'dead' ones out the airlock! I don't trust 'em."

Xin Boa​

 

[Xin Boa]

"I'll carry, you get a pistol pressed to its head," Xin said.

The adrenaline was flowing fast. He had been on edge on the vast, starsystem-sized station but the chase had still been a burst of fear and action he hadn't been ready for.

Xin didn't want to go anywhere near the droid, but he wanted them off the ship as fast as possible. He approached it slowly, giving it a nudge with his boot.

"Feth it."

He grabbed and arm and dragged. It was far heavier than he expected and it scraped across the floor. He grunted with the exertion, taking it a few steps at a time. He dragged it through the inner airlock door.

Xin placed his hands on his knees, breathing deeply.

"Some...dense alloy...why they took so many...shots..."

It was rare for the nautolan to be out of breath.

The depressurisation wouldn't be enough to fling them back into space. Xin grabbed the intercom.

"Brak, when I say turn down the inertial dampeners and give it some oomph."

It would push them out the back of the ship, but it would also pin himself and Dells into the back wall for a few seconds.

"We always find something worse, but we also scrape through," he said to Dells. They were, however, both getting a little slower.

 

[Delila Castillon]

Blaster pressed to the droid as Xin drug it to the airlock. She had never seen the Nautolan struggle as much pulling something through the vessel. Even herself with the quick run and adrenaline was causing her lungs to burn, indicating she had better step up her own game. Breath shouldn't be coming in little pants like she was climbing the highest mountain, begging for air.

"You okay? You're never out of breath."

To be fair (and kinder) on the both of them, they had been living a quieter life. Scrapes were fewer and further between. There was more time spent out in the black, repairing the ship and doing general maintenance than anything. Their scraps had been barfights, not full out battles...well...there was that one situation with Nej she had been in.

Still. She didn't train like a soldier anymore and Xin was getting older. Teasing grin was tossed his way now that they could breathe a little.

"Maybe its time to trade you in for a younger, hotter Nautolan." A pause. "Lets get this over with before it comes back to life. Shame too, those are some nice metals."

She took position near the back wall. No need to get slammed from a great distance. A small chuckle as Xin gave the command, Brak kicking the Saegassum into overdrive.

"I haven't been pinned to a wall like this in months."

 

[Xin Boa]

Xin laughed softly. It felt like someone was sitting on his chest as the inertial dampeners were dialled down and Brak accelerated the ship. He could hear the scraping of the droid sliding out of the ship through the floor. It was gone, but the vast and advanced station was still potentially a thread.

Their ship wasn't a fly to that station, it was a single molecule.

The inertial dampeners returned. Down - from his perspective - once again returned to the floor. Despite the danger, he was wearing a broad grin.

"That sounded like a challenge," he said. Xin deliberately kept the space of one stride between them; he knew how quickly things could escalate between them when adrenaline was running high.

"If we get the hyperdrive fixed lets see if I can manage that so you don't trade me in."

Their hope came down to a few boxes of components they had managed to salvage. Going back was not an option.

 

[Delila Castillon]

"No challenge but I will believe it when it happens"

First they had to fix a hyperdrive and not get blasted from space. Nor was she confident that just because they were away from the planet megastructure that they were safe. Far from it in her opinion, now they had to worry about the megastructure and potential attacks from those drifting by.

"As for trading you in, this seems like a lot of work for me. Retraining another one....it's just not appealing. Not everyone can pick up as quick as you did."

More teasing as she nudged him. Delila was aware why he was keeping his distance but in all reality they didn't have time for any extracurricular activities .

"You and Brak rebuild the hyperdrive and I can squeeze through and maintenance corridors as needed. I think I'd feel better if I kept an eye on the scope and any channel chatter."

Xin Boa

 

[Xin Boa]

"No challenge but I will believe it when it happens"

"Dat sounds like a challenge even if you say no challenge," Xin laughed.

Perhaps he had been in too many life or death situations, but this time he was feeling quite relaxed. If they couldn't fix the drive then returning to the station was off the table; they would be dependent upon their distress beacon.

They were also comfortable with who they were together. They could spend the day winding one another up and and up asleep with book in hand. Sometimes the opposite happened, with a spark out of nowhere.

---

"Do we really need the heat up?" Xin asked.

"Yes," Brak replied.

He already knew the answer, but Xin still liked to complain. Brak was a cold-blooded Barabel and needed to keep nice and warm to work on the engines. Xin would have preferred it nice and cold.

His grey vest was marked with grease and oil. They'd spent a little time investigating what they had stolen. The thin fibres were another kind of composite that they weren't familiar with, but they were dense and conductive.

Brak had already tried to fix the main hyperdrive power coupling, but this time they had a fighting chance.

Xin held it in place as Brak gave a few light arc welds for good measure.

"Dells?" Xin called out. "Can you get back into hatch B and push the safety catch back into place?"

 

[Delila Castillon]

In between keeping an eye on their sensors, Delila was helping with repairs. It was just easier for her to squeeze into the hatches without a tail like Brak or head tails and broad shoulders like Xin. Besides, it was nice to contribute beyond ensuring they weren't about to be snuck up upon by another ship.

Getting the hyperdrive back together wasn't as big of an anxiety as saying being without power. They had engines, just at sub-light speeds. Supplies for a bit, so they weren't in fear of starving to death.

Now if they started sub-light speed back to a trade route and couldn't get a ship to pick them up in a week or two, then it was time to panic.

"I like it warmer in here. Although I've gotten used to the cold at this point."

Every planet they visited that was warm, her and Brak soaked up the sun and heat. Probably not wise for a redhead though. Luckily she freckled more than she burned.

Shimming down the hatch, Dells slowly crawled along, Skreech joining her as he always did.

Slowly crawling along, she reached the safety catch needed.

"Alright, about to push it!"

It took a bit of muscle to do so, the results not instant as it took a moment to her the satisfying click of the safety catch back into place.

Xin Boa

 

[Xin Boa]

Very little happened at that click. Xin was left kneeling down looking at a pipe they had fitted back into place.

"Well nothing exploded..."

Xin stood back up. Brak tapped at the console.

"Power is stable," Brak observed.

Xin allowed himself to smile. He was waiting for something to go disastrously wrong, but nothing did. He rushed around the corner and stuck his head into the maintenance hatch and looked up towards Dells and Skreech.

"Don't temp fate, but that might be holding! A few more cables to replace and I think we can try it. I'm crawling up to you to finish up."

 

[Delila Castillon]

"Don't tempt fate?"

Delila arced an eyebrow, looking at Skreech as if to say, how? The monkey-lizard shrugged, both of them knowing not to question the thought process of Xin.

It didn't take long for Xin to join her in the maintenance shift. There was an array of tools she had on her person and she took it upon herself to pass along what Xin needed.

"Out of all the space stations we could pick, we find the one that wants to actively kill us. I don't know if we will be able to top this. You know no one is going to believe us."

She passed over a screwdriver.

"We're going to be those crazy spacers at the bar telling this story."

Xin Boa

 

[Xin Boa]

Xin laughed. He had become so obsessed that fate was against him. She was right, if there was fate and bad luck they must have used up enough already today.

"Yeah this place is too weird for anyone to believe."

There was an entire panel open. Whilst Brak was an efficient worker, Xin was rather haphazard in his approach. There would be some cleaning up to do before they could try fully powering the hyperdrive.

"Oh I wish I tidied up as I went," he bemoaned.

Xin took the large wrench after reconnecting a whole series of wires that mapped onto the control board and retightened. It was a stubborn socket, and at this rate he was going to be worn out before coming good on his threat.

"Am about done here...close it all up and moment of truth?" he asked. Xin turned around in the narrow space to look at Skreech and Dells.

There was little more to do now than hope.