Chapter 15: Chapter 15

Chapter 15

The asteroid shield was a decent idea. There was no telling if they actually were worried about the stray asteroid. No one came out to check on the flying rock, and no one did anything. Genesis, Eve, and Gree all managed to get to the zone they needed to get to. It was a quick maneuver that left the thrusters on their ship very silent when turning on. Using this propulsion, they kicked off the asteroid as Genesis flipped it around. They slipped into the ship's loading bay rather quickly.

From the pilot seat, the area wasn't in excellent condition. The space station had life support on, but it must've been failing from their scans. There were a lot of holes put into the station over the years. This was undoubtedly from stray space rocks and the lack of power and upkeep given to the massive space hulk. They landed without incident, though the metal of the once-reinforced walls and floor of the bay creaked with an effort to keep the ship in place. It set the trio on edge, but when nothing terrible happened, they chilled out and left the vessel in park.

Genesis was the first to speak up, "We're not moving by ourselves. I hope you two know that. If there were more people like that alien, it'd be difficult for us to survive by ourselves. He was only weakened by the entire crew exploding. As for what's here, we'll most likely encounter weak people, but their soldiers might be a step above casual pirates. But to us, they'd only be dangerous in a big group." Genesis tapped her skull for a moment as if to rack her library for any answers to their situation.

Her library opened up and scanned everything in Genesis' head...it came back empty-handed. No clever references; this was real life. They were about to head into a Scavenger Den with only three people vs. what may as well be 200-300 people. The vessel they saw had enough room to hold that much and several ships. The space station as a whole was an enigma. Genesis looked to Eve, "Eve, is there any way we can go somewhere and get mapping data or even security footage of the whole station? I think if I can check it, I could get the data within my head."

Eve hummed a little. "Whatever data is there will be utterly useless. If you haven't noticed, the data would be for when the station was complete. But this place has been a hulking bunch of junk in space for several years. Before even I was born. Asteroids, scavengers, and other disasters would've changed the internal makeup quite a bit. Maybe even some...things... might've moved in?" She looked unsure about that. Genesis didn't even know what she was talking about.

Were there things that could survive in this kind of environment? It wasn't a full-on low-atmosphere, but it had no more gravity generation, and the life support systems were failing on the station. Genesis thought back for a moment about her 'Space Resistance'. This would be the perfect time to train it so her body could resist the pressure of space itself later down the line. She removes her bracelet while looking out into the dilapidated hangar. Genesis let out a little sigh. "Gree, any ideas?" Gree tapped his scaly lips with a claw before grinning.

"We could just go directly towards the hole they were mining out." Genesis raised a brow, "What do you mean?" Gree waved a clawed hand before explaining. "We don't need a map as long as we get there. We just make a path there directly." He taps the console in front of them to bring out the picture data of the base earlier. He pointed to where they were currently, then dragged his claw up towards the hole. "See? If we just do that, getting lost is no issue."

Genesis thought about it...then shrugged. "You know what, you might be right. Let me just..." She focused on her mind and collected herself. She brought up her mind and started to hyper-calculate using her mind. The machine within her heard her query, and within a few minutes of being silent, she had an 'outline' of the map. It was a big blank zone with a 'fog of war'. Their hangar is the area that's filled in. She releases her psychic energy like a silent pulse outwards, leaving her brain to fill in the rest of the information with data. As they walked, she'd be able to fill in map data.

She exhaled and finally opened her eyes, "Alright. I'm done. We shouldn't get lost...emphasis on should. I got my mind to create a map automatically with a radar function using my energy." Eve and Gree looked at Genesis like she was some sort of monster for a few moments. Gree was the one who sighed and spoke up first, "I'm jealous. Wish I could have some kinda' crazy implant like that." Eve nodded but didn't say anything else. Genesis shrugged. "Honestly, I don't think I'm using it as much as I could be. Anyways, let us gear up and head out. We can't stay here too long."

It'd be one thing if there was no time limit, but they were forced to run and not walk. Moments later, all three of them were equipped with basic armor. On Gree's back were a laser rifle and his battleaxe. But around his waist were a couple of combat stims and medical syringes filled with a healing fluid. Genesis was similarly equipped, except with a mace around her waist and a laser pistol. Eve had both a rifle, pistol and a pair of knives. But that wasn't all; whatever Eve had, Genesis didn't know what they were. It was a lot of technological consumable items. Some looked like grenades, and some looked like small drones. She didn't ask, but she did trust Eve to know what she was doing.

The moment they left the airlock of their ship, the harsh cold of the station bit into their bodies. Thankfully their armor protected them from it, but it was still horrible. Genesis could feel something within herself, 'click.' Without her bracelet, she could walk around and breathe in the lower atmosphere. She felt herself slowly acclimate to it. It was not as uncomfortable as she had primarily thought. She could feel the light vacuum over her skin, but it didn't seem to suck away her insides to her outside or freeze her any more than the cold already was.

Genesis gave a testing move of her arm - with her Ki, she could keep herself on the ground rather than moving around in zero-g. She nodded to her teammates as they came out of the ship with her. "Alright, let's get going then. Our current target is to get closer to the mined-out hole of the station. We'll have to check out what's happening before we do anything rash." With that, the trio started to travel.

The station itself was dark and torn apart on the inside. No doubt it was several hundred years old. Metal wasn't rusted, as there really was much of an atmosphere for it, but pieces of hallways were torn up. Holes were seen in the insides due to space debris moving at high speed. Exposed wiring long laid dormant without electricity or energy being applied to them. The trio had flashlights attached to their armor over their shoulder, illuminating everything in front of them. Genesis didn't need it, but it helped the other two, who didn't hold her level of senses.

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Every once in a while, Genesis' psychic radar would fill a large area around her using pulses of energy. In a way, she was sensing things around her but not to the level of Goku around the Namek Saga. That man could feel things all over the planet. Thinking about Goku made her slightly depressed. If it was him, he'd have already beaten these Scavs up in a full-frontal attack. She doesn't hold that level of power at all. In her musings, though, she almost didn't see that her map had returned. It found something moving.

The 3D map zoomed in; something was coming for them…." Something is coming. Prepare yourselves." Down the dark hallway, something scuttled in the darkness. The sound of chitinous limbs tapping into the dilapidated metal reverberated in the hallway. Soon, it was revealed in the combined light of the trio's flashlights.

It was a strange deep blue beetle the size of a large house cat. It hugged onto the wall. It resembled a stag beetle but with angular sword-like front jaws. Plus, its shell held a glittery silver-like starry sheen mixed in with the deep blue. Genesis pointed at it, "What is that?" Gree shrugged, but Eve seemed to be a bit more animated. 

"It's a Metal-Eater! Looks like some of those holes earlier were made by these. They eat metals if the name wasn't obvious. They're not very aggressive, but-"Genesis tuned out because her pings brought back many more hits, all converging in on their location. She held up a hand to silence Eve, who was going on a tirade. "A bunch is coming this way, then. Hundreds." As Genesis spoke, more starry blue heads peeked out of the larger holes. The click-clack of chitin on metal became rather loud as the nearby walls filled with these creatures. Genesis became worried, and she looked toward Eve. "Eve, do they eat meat?" Eve seemed to think about it before nodding. "Well, yes, but they shouldn't be like this when there's all this metal aroun-"

Genesis stopped her, "If you were surrounded by nothing but the same meal for years and years, if something different and edible came along, you'd go for it immediately, right?" She stared hard at Eve. Gree took out his axe and gripped it. There was a low humming noise coming from within the walls. Small scraping noises were heard as well as metal started to be cut into. Genesis took out her mace and pistol. Eve prepared herself as well, "We're the prey here. Run." They all went into a bolting step forwards. The one they saw on the wall before moved to leap on Genesis. With a simple shot of her pistol, she bored through its head as she kept running. 

A tide of beetles burst from the walls, with metal exploding outwards from their force. Genesis' mental map was exploding in her head with nothing but a monstrous TORRENT of information. They were surrounded entirely from the back and sides as the hive knew their scent. Eve was panicking, "Why us!? Aren't there the scavengers!?" Gree was huffing as he ran, "They got protection, maybe even something to repel them. It means we're in their strike zone, damnit!" He lifted his axe and sliced a beetle that lunged at him from the wall. It was neatly split in half, the pieces splattering against the floor below him. 

Genesis kept running, "Go go go go go!! Don't stop running! Follow me and the map. There's a clear place up ahead." The trio bolted forwards; they'd shoot a Ki blast or fire backward into the mass every now and then. Or they'd smash and cut apart beetles lunging at them from the floor, walls, or ceiling. It was a stressful several-minute run that brought them through several ruined hallways. In front of them, though, were monstrous cargo bay doors. They were closed, but Genesis brought her hands forwards and used her psychic force like a crowbar. She gripped the inner workings and -forced- the age-old parts apart. Then, with the power used, the door budged open enough to crawl into a large hole made in the middle. Genesis jumped through, followed by Gree and Eve.

On the opposite side appeared to be a waste treatment zone filled with years of fossilized and frozen sludge. Good thing that it didn't smell at all. The door behind the trio was battered by a flood of beetles. Gree turned around and aimed his mouth at the entrance they crawled through. Heat condensed into his maw as Ki flowed into him. A high-powered beam of fiery energy shot through the hole, melting the edges of the hole into slag while filling the air with the smell of burnt beetle. All that did was kill some of them, but the amount coming was not going to end with just one beam. Gree sweats a little, "They just keep coming; what do we do!?" Genesis didn't know what to do. These things were relentless and just kept coming. Just then, her radar picked up stuff from above. She looked up.

Up above, several tons of beetles are gathering. Genesis paled even further as the ceiling began to crack underneath its weight. Snipping of metal parts and pieces…no! No way! "EVERYONE! SCATTER! GO TO THE THREE OTHER DOORS!" She pointed to the other doors on the different sides. The other two were slow to react. She gripped them with her psychic energy and flung them to the sides of the room as the ceiling began to collapse. Massive hunks of metal fell from the roof along with beetles. They weren't just bringing down the ceiling; the entire area was structurally unsound. The whole station around them seemed to tremble as a cascade of metal and refuse mixed with beetles fell from the ceiling with a deafening roar. Genesis had no time to make sure her friends were okay.

She had done her part. Her radar kept picking up the beetles, but hundreds, if not thousands, of them were crushed underneath the avalanche of metals inside the station. Genesis couldn't move all of that metal herself. That was impossible. The trio was all too easily split up in the enemy territory. They had to meet up somewhere… 

As much as it hurt, she turned her back on the room and bolted down a different hallway leading elsewhere, probably away from the other two. She wished they'd survive this issue.

She wasn't there to protect them against any dangers…