“Buddy.” He smirked to himself as the pair raced through the station. “Go the ship, ensure you are locked into the system, neither Aphrodite or I are a pilot.”
On it.Buddy zipped through the air ahead of them. The noise of the station instantly died off as the bay doors to the launch pad shut behind them. Stepping onto the elevator platform, ripping through the air, Xexis strained his ears for any sound. Nothing but the soft rumble of a single ship and his own breathing.
The stars loomed past them, beckoning him into their endless abyss.Come, hunt them down, save your family.
Xexis tugged Aphrodite an inch closer before the platform stopped. A ship, lit up and roaring with life, sat before them.
Xexis, I have locked onto the signal of their ship, we can catch them.
Xexis and Aphrodite dove into the smaller, two-person vessel seconds before the doors snapped shut. They weren’t sat as they launched into the stars. Xexis caught Aphrodite by the chest in two hands and held onto a bar at the roof of the vessel with the other two. Buddy, tentacles locked into the dashboard, drove them at top speeds.
“Zhat muq brotesqu,”Aphrodite whispered into her comms, sinking back into his touch.
Chapter Forty-Nine:
WhenBuddypromisedtheycould catch up, he meant it. Their ship came screeching into view. The stars slowed down and Aphrodite tried to swallow all the organs that swam up her throat, back down. Then she took a moment to study the large ship before her. “Wait, why didn’t they take the Council ship?”
Buddy answered:
The Council ship was not docked when they left the station. I tried to shut down their departure shortly before the pest locked me in that vase. Someone else took the Council Ship out…they were forced to take something slower.
From the observer’s view, the Vroskrowz ship loomed ahead, stopped and imposing over them. A massive, dark cloud that blocked out the light from the stars behind it. The front lights were flashing.
S.O.S.
Aphrodite locked her helmet into place as Buddy crept up toward the docking area of the ship. With a few taps of his tentacles, their loading door opened and the smaller vessel crept inside. Aphrodite tiptoed across the floor of their ship as they docked insidethe larger ship.That’s not a good sign.
“Xexis, how many people does it take to run this large of a ship?” Aphrodite peeked over her shoulder at her mate.
“Six crew are needed just to steer. This is an emblem ship, much like the first one you were on. This is Xnasis’ royal vessel.” Xexis’ mask kept his face impassive, but his voice was thick with concern.
“How many do you think they have on this ship?” Aphrodite directed the question to Buddy.
I am still calculating, but I can see two life forms that are not infected and twelve that are.
Aphrodite pulled away from the dash, “Come with me, Buddy, if we forsake our escape vessel for saving Xnasis and Kinsi, so be it, but I need you with me.”
Buddy chirped, disconnecting from the ship and bobbing above her head. Aphrodite faced Xexis, he nodded to her quietly. The whole ship went dark, as did the larger one. Emergency red lights made the darkness feel even thicker.
“Safe to say they know we’re here.”
“They baited us…they want more infected to the Council.” Xexis put his gloved hand to the sensor next to the smaller vessel’s door. “But we are not the prey today.”
Aphrodite felt the two claws pop out of the back of her armor as she nodded toward the door. The endless parade of doubt inside her mind was silent for once as they crept out of the ship and into the loading bay of the other. Buddy scanned the ship with a soft blue light. Her data pad chirped as a map was uploaded. They treaded lightly, following the path up the loading bay and into the belly of the laboratory on the ship. Tubes of gurgling water as theonly light source inside the lab, Aphrodite tried not to look too closely. Memories of an angler fish man eating others would come back to rock her resolve.
Xexis produced a blade from his side, the edge of it sparkling with electricity. Aphrodite hunkered down behind him as she checked her scanner. Three red dots appeared before them. Buddy lit up the room in an orange grid and she could see the technicians ahead of them. Hunkered over, lumbering forward, their fingers clawed at their heads.
Then three faces jerked up, foam spilling from their mouths. Red eyes, fingers ripped to shreds, the dead launched across the room. Aphrodite didn’t have time to react as Xexis cleaved through them with ease. Every movement and strike from his body was fluid. He danced between the enemies, his blade cleaving through their skulls and burning the Brexzkit from their corpse.Thump. Thump. Thump.Aphrodite stepped out from the shadows, watching him in awe. Three more dots surged forward. Then three more. A wave of bodies and infected human, Vroz, and others.Where did they come from? Were they from the station? Were they just collecting corpses?Xexis was surrounded as Aphrodite sent Buddy into the center.
His flash went off, startling the army of infected.
Xexis struck, using the bright, disorientating beam to his advantage.
Fortunately for Aphrodite, it illuminated a different enemy. Seconds before a knife could embed in her helmet, Aphrodite spotted Danny descending into the lab from the bridge above. She rolled away from him, bolting across the room. Buddy zipped to her side, but Danny was much faster. Without having to use his armor or suit, Danny wasn’t hindered with technology. His body was loose and gummy, arms swinging wildly. Aphrodite dodged, ducked, and danced out of his reach but he didn’t stop. His kniveslit up with the same kind of electricity as Xexis’ and Aphrodite realized too late the damage it could do.
Danny buried it between the platelets of her armor and pried one off like the top of a clam shell. Her armor crumbled, sizzling and hissing.
“Not the only one frying technology, are we?” Danny sneered, swinging again. Aphrodite dropped to the ground, kicking at his shins as she hit the deck. Danny grunted, something deep in him cracking. She heard it, but the Brexzkit never seemed to be bothered by wounds. He snarled, crawling after her like a feral spider. Foam dripping out of his mouth and eyes glowing bright red.
