Hael tore up the maintenance ladder like he was on XLR8. The sight of the loading drone crashing through the wall was replaying in his mind. Metal bars and rubble had fallen everywhere as the massive blue-grey drone had charged into the corridor, only metres away from where Hael had fallen.
The machine had been little more than an oversized, walking forklift; Hael knew it didn't have the capacity to know that the Gnarl were a threat. Someone must have interfered with its programming. As Hael had pulled himself to his feet, grabbed the Hemorrhage and bolted for the maintenance shaft, the drone had stood in the middle of the corridor, swinging its bulky, two-pronged arms around, as the Gnarl leapt for its spherical sensor array. The memory of the screeching sound of the drone's arms scratching the metal walls was still making Hael's teeth grit. He silently thanked whoever had programmed the drone to help him.
Reaching the top of the ladder, he pushed the panel off the wall and rolled onto a hard white floor, the Hemorrhage clattering down beside him. Hael's instincts helped him recover from the roll and sweep the gun back into his grasp, while keeping low to the ground. Settling himself against a cabinet for cover, he tentatively looked around.
Two pairs of worried eyes stared back from the other cabinet next to him. A wiry, dark-skinned Human in a ruffled medical outfit and another taller, pale-skinned Human in a dark combat suit were crouched down low just like Hael. They looked like passengers. The paler one's fingers seemed to dance in the air and a cloud of dark red particles gathered around them, while the doctor stared nervously at Hael's gun. Hael looked down and lowered the weapon, realising he was dressed like the pirates.
"Stand down," Hael hissed. "I work in Stores. My name is Hael." He pulled out his staff card and sent it skittering towards the doctor.
"This is him," the doctor told the other.
"I know," the pale one replied.
Hael watched as the misty cloud disappeared into nothingness. "So, a psychic?" he asked, creeping closer to the other two. Hael had seen this sort of thing before, but only in combat zones. The Human United Defence Force seemed to be trying to keep a lid on the existence of human psychics. Hael doubted whether the other races could ever really be duped by such a bureaucratic nightmare like the UDF.
The psychic only responded with a glare.
"You're a barrel of laughs," Hael smirked. "So, what's the situation?"
The doctor looked confused.
"The pirates have already cleared this ward," the psychic said quietly. "But they've got a guard of five or six of them outside. They are looking for stragglers. We're trying to get to the extended care ward, but they're in the way."
"Can't you do to them whatever it was you were going to do to me?" Hael asked, taking a peek over the cabinet to see three or so shabbily-dressed thugs behind the glass wall at the end of the room.
"Six-on-one is risky," the psychic replied, like he was repeated something he'd been told. "Five-on-one is only a little better."
"What about the doctor?" Hael asked, nodding at the weaker-looking man.
"He has about as much idea of battle as a star whelk," the psychic replied, taking a look over the cabinet. Star whelks were large interstellar parasites with metre-thick shells that latched themselves to the sides of passing asteroids and space ships. Regardless of all the news reports saying that they were actually quite smart, Hael only knew them as a pest. Short of being blasted by pulse laser fire, plasma torpedoes or MAC slugs, they were nearly impossible to remove.
"Hmm..." Hael nodded.
"You were a soldier," the psychic said, rather than asked. "Winter, can you patch Hael into our comm channel?"
"You're using civilian comm implants?" Hael asked. "They're barely encrypted."
"We don't have another option," the psychic replied. Hael knew that; he was just trying to make sure they knew.
"Who's Winter?" Hael asked.
"Sorry, we haven't introduced ourselves," the doctor spoke up. "I am Dray. This is Kiron. Winter is our friend on Deck 3. She's hacked the shipboard computer to help us out."
"Hello, sir," a synthetic voice said in Hael's ear. "I believe you may have met a loading drone I reprogrammed?"
"That was you?" Hael asked. "Thanks."
"You're quite welcome," Winter replied.
"So, what's the plan?" the doctor asked.
Hael looked around. "Do you have much combat training? Conditioning, or whatever? I don't want your psychics to go wobbly on us."
"A little," Kiron replied modestly.
"I say we keep low, get to the door and take down a couple from behind. The others will panic and we'll work from there. Doctor, you best stay here," Hael decided. He was desperately hoping that these people weren't going to be the liability that got him killed.
"There is one thing that might help us out..." the psychic said, before he vanished completely right in front of Hael.
Dray made a surprised sound, but it was thankfully quiet.
"I'm still here," the psychic said, reappearing before Hael's eyes.
"You... That's..." the doctor fumbled.
"Is it the suit? Some sort of cloak?" Hael asked.
"No, it's not actual invisibility," Kiron explained. "It's a mental thing, all about perception. The cameras can still see me, can't you Winter?"
"The whole time," the synthetic voice replied.
"Well, if it'll fool them, do your best," Hael said. He took a few quick glances over his cover. "Go now," he said. The psychic disappeared and Hael thought he felt an air current move past him. Hael took a quick breath and hurried out of cover. He was out from behind the cabinet and running towards one of the hospital beds before he knew it, leaving barely enough time to look up at the pirates.
For a second, he was jealous of the psychic; Kiron didn't have to worry about whether they looked at him. Hael latched himself to the side of the bed's oxygen unit and looked around. The pirates hadn't noticed him. Waiting until all of them had turned away again, he panted out quick breathes before hurrying himself towards the next piece of cover. Just as he was about to reach the safety of a modesty curtain, a voice rang through Hael's ear. Hael's heart skipped a beat.
"They've found me," came the synthetic female voice. It took a second to realise that it was only Winter on the comms.
"What? How? Depressurise them!" the doctor hissed.
"I've tried. They are in exosuits. The door is sealed, but they have a mining laser. I can see them cutting through."
"Hide yourself," Hael whispered.
"There's nowhere to hide!" the doctor whined. "She's filled the room with server boxes."
"It's okay, Doctor," Winter interrupted. "I have my poison barbs." There was an almost dramatic pause. "But if I don't make it..."
"Winter!" the doctor said emotionally.
"Hey!" someone said loudly. The window. Hael looked to see the pirates all turned to face the ward. They were looking at him. His shadow! They must have seen it through the curtain! Hael raised his assault rifle and fired at the pirates. The Hemorrhage barked loudly, as if it was happy to finally see some more use. Suddenly, one of the pirates close to the door snapped his neck sideways with a painful crack. Kiron slowly appeared from the air behind the man, as he tried to hold the man upright as a meat shield.
"Doctor, I want you to know that you're the closest thing I have to a family," Winter said over the comms. Hael tried to block her out, as the ward's glass window shattered onto the floor in an icy wave.
"I've never really understood emotions," the synthetic voice continued, while Hael's burst fire caught a pirate in the neck. The other pirates were taking cover. "But I think, if I had emotions, I would have them for you."
"Winter..." the doctor whispered.
Hael didn't need this distraction. He fired another burst as the psychic lifted up one of the pirates from their cover. The man's blue head exploded like a melon.
"Doctor, I-" Winter started, before the comm was overtaken by a soft whistling sound and a thump. "One of them is down. They're moving him out of the way. I don't have much time."
The pirates had turned on the psychic, who had dropped his meat shield and had made some sort of forcefield around himself.
"Doctor, be strong for me," Winter said. "I've taken the safeties out of the hydraulic arm above you. Do the right thing. For me." There was a series of whistling noises and the link went dead.
"No!" the doctor screamed, a long and terrible scream. Hael felt his chest sink a little, even as he fired another burst. Losing someone was always bad.
Suddenly, Kiron's shield shattered and disappeared. Hael tried to give him covering fire, but he couldn't stop a line of bullets from zipping towards the psychic's body. With the force of impact, Kiron was thrown aside. Hael gritted his teeth and steadied his gun to aim. The three surviving pirates were going to get it in the-
A sharp whistle made Hael duck as something flew over his head. It hadn't come from the pirates. Hael looked back to see Dray standing behind one of the hospital bed aiming the tip of a hydraulic arm at the doorway. Hael looked back to see a Cataron pirate slumped over the smashed window frame, with a large syringe through his skull.
"Holy shit," Hael breathed.
"Get Kiron," the doctor said, before sending another two syringes out of the window. Both smashed into the wall opposite, but it kept the slavers ducking. Hael scrambled across the hard white floor to the door, blind-firing a burst over his head. The psychic's body lay just inside the ward's doorway. Hael couldn't see any blood, but the guy wasn't moving.
Trying to stay silent, Hael bolted the last five or so metres to the doorway. Grabbing the assault rifle, he aimed it around the corner, and sent a burst down to where the pirates hid. There was a surprised yelp and a thump, followed by more whistling. Suddenly, there was silence. Hael waited five seconds before looking around the corner. Sure enough, the floor was littered with five bodies, with a sixth hanging through the window. Blood of various colours, glass, and bullet casings littered the once white floor.
Hael went over and checked the psychic's pulse. It was still pumping hard.
"All clear," Hael said to the doctor. The wiry man ducked and roadie ran up to Kiron's body, while Hael checked that the pirates were in fact dead.
"The combat mesh took most of the impact," Dray thought out loud. "One puncture wound." He turned Kiron's body on its side. "Matching exit wound. Pulse is steady, but falling. He'll need medigel and a stim." Dray looked up at Hael, whose hands were covered in blood after checking for pulses. "Grab some medigel from the nursing station over there. I can't see any stims that aren't locked away..."
Hael went over to the transparent cabinet on the wall. It was sealed, but he shouldered it open. Inside were three revolving carousels of medigel canisters. Hael wiped his hands on his pants and took as as many as he could carry back to the doctor. Dray grabbed a single canister and aimed its nozzle into Kiron's open wound. The medigel squirted out in a opaque white stream, and formed a lump on the other side. It settled quickly forming a clear layer of biologically-malleable gel inside the wound.
"I'll need to bandage it," the doctor said to himself, as he prepared a pair of stims from his pocket. "These are cold and flu stims, but I'm hoping they have enough of XLR8's active ingredients to wake him up."
"Cold and flu stims have XLR8 in them?" Hael asked confusedly, checking around for danger, while the doctor injected Kiron's arm. Hael was still riding his combat zone adrenaline rush.
"Not the complete distilled amphetamine," the doctor replied. "Just a few of the active ingredients. Enough to improve your day..."
Suddenly, Kiron sat up with a shocked choking sound.
"Or wake you up," Hael added. "Apparently."
"Kiron, you've just been shot," Dray said slowly. "I need to bandage the wound."
Kiron nodded and pulled up the top half of his combat suit. Dray reached into a pouch on his belt and pulled out two standard compression pads. Hael had seen those used in combat thousands of times. Half the time, they were the only things that remained after more than a few days of fighting. Being large squares of paper-thin material, they were easily packed up by the thousand, but they had infinitely more worth than paper. On contact with medigel - or blood - the pads inflated slightly, so as to keep a constant pressure on a wound and prevent further bleeding. Hael didn't need to watch as the doctor peeled them off their backing and stuck them to Kiron's side.
"We should get going," Hael said. "They can't be the only patrol on this deck."
"Kiron, can you stand?" Dray asked.
"Ye-yeah," the psychic said, easing himself up off the ground. The doctor looked concerned but didn't say anything.
"I grabbed some sonic grenades off the dead guys, but you two might wanna get some better clothing," Hael suggested. "Even with the combat suit, a direct hit cuts you in half. It's not exactly armour."
The doctor looked like he was going to have a moral problem with robbing the dead, but caved in.
"I'll... find something," he said softly.
"Might wanna get yourselves some guns too," Hael said. "If you won't hit me." The doctor gave Hael a sarcastic look. "What were you guys down here for anyway? How come they didn't find you earlier?"
"Our elevator crashed us here," Kiron explained. "We're trying to get to the maintenance shaft down the hall to get to my brother in Engineering."
"On a rescue mission?" Hael asked. Did he want to risk his life for a stranger? It had been his job for a long time.
"You don't have to come," the psychic said presciently.
"I... Hell, I ain't got anything better to do," Hael sighed. He was an idiot - but he was a good idiot.