Risk of Rain: Bailout

Chapter 3: Rex Quest

Lucia and Carrie continued walking through the plains, ignoring chests and looking for Rex. Their journey seemed mundane, so Carrie decided to try and make some small talk.

"So, Lucia, what do you think of this planet so far?" Carrie inquired.

"Well, it's deadly, but that just adds to the fun."

"Did you know anybody on the Contact Light?"

"Well, there was this one guy. He was a loader, like me. Soro. He helped me equip my arms with grappling hooks. He got a promotion and the Contact Light was supposed to drop him off his new location, but obviously, didn't. I don't really expect to find him here. I'm more so doing this in his honor."

"I see. I had a brother on that ship. A miner. I have a feeling he might still be here. He wouldn't go down so easily."

"I don't wanna bring you down, but I don't think you should have you hopes too high. I don't want you to be super sad if we find his body." Lucia mentioned. Carrie looked up at the sky. She didn't seem like it, but she really, really wanted to find her brother. She was about as close with him as she was with Lucia.

"Hey, look!" Lucia shouted, pointing in front of them. It was Rex, but it seemed really sapped of energy. Lucia ran up and comforted it, showing her soft, caring side for the robot.

"Oh no, Rexxy...Are you alright?" Rex replied with a few beeps that in Morse, translated to "LOW BATTERY." 

"Oh, you poor thing...Carrie! Rex has a low battery." 

"Well, where can we find him a new one?" Carrie implored.

"The escape pods. They use the same fuel array he does. Come on, Rex." Lucia motioned for Rex to follow them, but Rex's four legs barley enabled him to crawl. 

"Lucia, if we bring him, he isn't going to make it. One of us will have to watch him."

Lucia sighed. "I'll defend him. You go to my pod and take out the fuel array. There will be a panel on the back that you can open to get the fuel array. GO!" Lucia listed, rapidly. Carrie wasted no time and ran in the direction of Lucia's pod, shooting at golems and lizard men that stood in her way. 

She stopped at a rock to catch her breath. She saw Lucia's pod half an acre away. If she could muster up enough energy to get to the pod and get back to Rex, she could save him. Suddenly, she felt something nudge calf. She looked down and saw a creature with an insectoid frame on all fours, with armor-like plates embedded into its head and back. It attempted to headbutt her, but Carrie did some quick sidestepping to avoid the attack. Then, Carrie realized how slow the beetle was. It was only as fast as Rex in his weakened state. Carrie ignored it and carried on.

Carrie had finally made it to Lucia's pod. She ran around it and spotted the panel on the back that Lucia was talking about. She fumbled it open and pulled out a grey block with four circular, flat studs on its top. The fuel array. She tucked it between her armpit and turned around to run and saw them. The masks.

In front of Carrie, or, more so above her, were five aflame floating clay masks with two small, circular eyeholes each. One of them fired a tiny, quick flame projectile at her. The flame "pellet"  was so fast that Carrie had no time to react to it, and it hit her on her visor with the force of a paintball pellet. The rest of the clay masks started shooting at her, and Carrie took that as a signal to run. 

She tucked her head, trying to block the flame pellets, run, and shoot at the monsters at the same time. While she was distracted, Carrie tripped over the same beetle from before. While she was down, one of the lizard men pounced on her leg and started gnawing on it. While she tried to kick it off, she noticed a tiny laser on her chest. She looked up and saw a stone golem charging its laser on her. One of the masks shot at the fuel array, and it started shaking and humming. She was sure it was about to explode. The beetle crawled on her face, another factor that concerned Carrie. The fuel array hummed more and more, and Carrie stopped struggling. This was it. She was sure this would be her end. She closed her eyes and shed a few tears, her final wish hoping her brother would know that she tried to find him.

Carrie felt her limp body flying in the air.

KABOOM

"Wait, what? It just exploded?" Carrie thought. "Then why did I fly through the air?" 

She opened her eyes. She looked at the gigantic dust cloud the fuel array left behind. She didn't think such a tiny thing could cause a huge explosion. 

Carrie turned around, and saw Lucia holding onto the top of her visor. Lucia dropped Carrie, she stuck the landing.

"We're even now."

"What?" Carrie prodded, shell-shocked by the fact that she almost just died that she couldn't understand the statement.

"We're even. You helped me out of a jam, and I helped you out of one."

"Okay, uh...wait. You're supposed to be back with Rex. Why are you here?"

"Well, you were gone for too long, and Rex died. I decided to quickly come and help you get my fuel array, but that's no longer an option. Where's yours?"

"Uhh, not too far from here..."

"Well, lead me to it. And pick up the pace."

Carrie and Lucia ran, punching and shooting at all the monsters, when they finally made it to Carrie's pod. Lucia took the fuel array and held it, shielding it with her arms.

"You protect me, I'll protect the fuel array."

Carrie nodded, and started shooting at all the monsters around them. The lizard men, the stone golems, and especially the clay masks. She ignored the beetles, though, assuming they weren't a threat. And she was right. At the time.

Lucia was hunched over the fuel array, trying to expose as little of it as possible, when, finally, after all that running, panting, and praying, they finally made it to Rex. Its body was limp and his legs were spread out on the ground.

"We...made it!" Carrie shouted before collapsing to the ground. Lucia fumbled to flip Rex over, take out his depleted fuel array, and put in a new one before falling to the ground, panting and sweating. Rex woke up and chirped inquisitively at Lucia and Carrie, not understanding why they were exhausted.

"We...had to go...really far... to get you... a new battery." Lucia exhaled in between breaths. Suddenly, Rex frantically trilled a Morse code sequence that Carrie understood: three quick beeps, then three long beeps, then another three quick beeps. Carrie looked up and saw them. All the beetles she ignored had grouped up, and formed an army that slowly trotted towards them. Carrie stood up and stumbled backwards, shooting a couple. She just barely managed to kill one. Their armor was so strong, and they were too tired to attack them.

Suddenly, Carrie saw something out of the corner of her eye, on top of a nearby hill. A silhouette as tall as her. It armed itself with its sword and dashed into the crowd of beetles. It was so fast, and cut through their armor so easily. On the left, three beetles died. On the right, six more died. It seemed like for ever swift cut with its blade, it killed twice as many it had before. Suddenly, five beetles were killed at once. All of them with one fell swoop. Atop their bodies was the same silhouette, but in full color.

A silver-blue hardlight blade, with a navy blue handle, being held by navy blue hands. Their torso had a lighter tone of navy blue, and their entire upper body was coated with samurai armor. He had dark, black shorts, kneepads, and a grey, metal armor around their mouth, chin, and on the back of their neck. On top of this armor was a white visor, covering the rest of the head.

"If you had hired me, this would have costed extra."

Merill, the Mercenary.