30 - Mother’s Claw

Nope, Maya thought. I’m not going to see the System because I’m not about to friggin’ die just yet!

Pain was the surest sign that you had just fucked up, according to Pops Sullivan. Maya was in pain and she knew she had fucked up. There was a simple security measure that would have prevented what she just experienced from happening. It was called vetting the damned Tarvana that Bad Blood had decided to bring to the Hanganathorie.

I just trust people way too much, Maya thought. There was George and all his stealing. There was… well, George was the biggest thing. Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice…

“Do you always have to come here when you’re suffering?” a voice asked.

“You’re not here,” Maya said. ‘I’m not dying or near death. This is just a moment for me to reevaluate my life choices and ponder my next move.”

“Well,” the System said, “if you want to believe that.”

“What? What do you know?” Maya asked. “I just came to wallow in my stupidity for a bit and now you’re dropping vague warnings.”

“I try not to interfere with the Multiverse at Large, and you can wallow back in the real world,” the System said.

“Are you kicking me out? Your only friend? When I’m in great emotional stress and possible death danger?”

“I’m not your friend and yes I am kicking you out.”

“That’s just-“

Maya opened her eyes and stifled the scream that tried to claw its way out of her throat. The cracked HUD of her suit flashed red and she took a sobbing breath as auto-injectors stabbed her with more healing potions and emergency numbing meds. The intense, mind seizing pain ebbed away and she could think again.

“Damn it,” she muttered.

She rolled over and winced as she saw that her legs were exposed. The metallic armor that had been salvaged from Shen’s zombies so long ago, had been fried. Her legs were reddened and she could see the black char of burned flesh along with it.

“Fuck.”

“Maya!” Tender’s voice screamed through her comm.

“I’m here, buddy. Still alive,” she croaked.

“There are Tarvana infiltrators. They are destroying everything they can get their hands on within the Hangy!”

“Secure what you can, keep yourself and Scotty safe,” Maya said hoarsely. “Trip the emergency defenses. Get those fuckers out of my ship.”

Maya heaved herself to her feet and wobbled as her damaged legs’ screams were muffled by pain blockers and potions. She staggered forward, a large crater sat in what had once been Bad Blood’s tent. The remains of the suicide bomber didn’t exist anymore, but Maya saw the twisted and burned form of a familiar figure.

Bad Blood hadn’t been wearing a combat suit.

Maya wondered how much mana the assassin had? What Skills had she used to fool her and the others? There had also been the teleporting, short ranged and nearly instant, but also very useful in a fight. The woman had claimed to be the Mother’s Blade. It wasn’t hard to realize what that meant. The question was: were there any more of them?

Bell’s high-grade healing potion was working. Maya noted the skin on her legs healing and the pain subsiding within her body. She felt a pop in her chest as some dislodged bones moved back into place. Her breathing became easier and she crouched down before Bad Blood.

The Tarvana was still alive. A single eye blinking at her and blood dribbling from her multiple wounds. Her fanged mouth opened and closed, blood bubbling on her lips and only wet sucking sounds emanating.

“Easy there,” Maya said. She summoned an emergency pouch, pulling out another high-grade healing potion and shoving the auto injector into the woman’s flesh. Bad Blood shuddered and her eyes widen with pain. Perhaps a high-grade was too much.

Maya watched as the burned, seared, and sloughing flesh began to reknit itself. The torn and ravaged skin began to regrow and soon the blood and bones returned to where they should have been. Bad Blood gasped, no longer making wet choking sounds.

The Tarvana sobbed, the pain of her injuries finally hitting her. Maya injected some pain blockers and various medications for victims of heavy trauma. Bell had made a list, a series of potions and medications that were required to be administrated when someone was badly hurt. She followed the directions and watched as Bad Blood take slow and calm breaths. The medication already working. One eye was missing, along with one arm, and thick ropey scars covered half of her body. She hadn’t had much protection against the bomb, but combined with her own healing abilities and the potions, she would live.

Maya picked up the woman and carried her. The camp, she finally noticed, was in an uproar. There seemed to be fighting going on, groups clashing and killing one another as they thought Bad Blood was dead or that the High General was about to kill them all.

“Free Tarvana!” Maya shouted. Her voice booming across the dark landscape, translated for all to hear. “Bad Blood lives! The Struggle continues! Stop your fighting!”

Her voice cut through the noise and the fighting, heads turned in her direction. A large work light shone upon her, revealing her battered and broken armor and the woman in her arms. Bad Blood raised her head weakly and spoke.

“My people!” she cried. “I live. The cowardly attack by the High General has failed. Now we must find those that sought to betray us and kill them all!”

Bad Blood’s surviving guards raced up to her as Maya set the woman down. She was wobbly, but she stood on her own two feet and stared down anyone who questioned her strength.

“You got this?’ Maya asked. Bad Blood nodded. “I’ll get Nan to see you once we get connected with the Cage.” Bad Blood nodded again.

Maya swapped out her armor for a ship suit. The world plunged into semi-darkness and she sighed. Without the sensor box of her suit, the world was completely dark and oddly chilly. Maya shivered and then felt the rumble of something in the distance. She looked and saw that it had come from the Hangy.

She began running back to the Hangy, chewing up ground quickly. She cursed her poor vision and summoned the helmet onto her head. The cracked HUD sputtered, but it still managed to create a sharp view of everything going on. There were fires burning in the Hangy, signs that there was fighting going on.

***

“Tender!” Maya shouted into her comms. Only static and a screeching noise emanated from the speakers. Maya tried adjusting the frequency, but there was nothing to be gained from it. The airlock she had exited not so long before was a twisted wreckage of metal and debris. Fires were burning down the corridors.

Maya pushed through them, trusting her ship suit to absorb some of the punishment. She’d been burned before, what was a little second degree that she could get healed easily?

Bodies littered the corridor, a hot blast of air hit her and she was glad for the filtering abilities of the helmet she wore. The flame retardant nature of her ship suit was being put to the test as she pushed her way into the warped corridors of the ship. She summoned bottles of water and liquids she had stored in her Inventory, tossing them around liberally to stop the worst of the flames.

A few dozen feet from the remains of the airlock was a small closet. She tore off the door and pulled out a canister; it was a meter long and half as wide. The heavy metal canister thudded to the ground and she popped the top of it.

A blue mist poured out of the canister, seemingly homing in on the fires and heat. Within moments the flaming hell she stood in was snuffed out, revealing charred bodies and the pinging of superheated metal. Maya stared at the bodies and shook her head.

“Tender!” she cried into her comms again.

The comms crackled and a voice spoke. “Maya, I’m here. We have a problem. Scotty has been damaged and there are Tarvana armed and looking to kill all those that have been working for you.”

“Shit. Got any ideas where they might be?”

“I’m sorry, Maya. I don’t know. The ant drones I have been using were targeted. I only have five remaining and they are in bad condition. I feel I should abandon my position and put down these traitors.”

“I need eyes, Tender. Get those drones you have left moving. I want to make sure these fires don’t spread,” Maya ordered as she moved through the blue mist. She came across a Tarvana, curled into a fetal position and weeping with pain. “Break out the low-grade healing potions and meds. We’ve got a lot of injured here too.”

“Alright, boss. Shall I release the combat drones?”

Maya paused. “No, I think this is just a ‘throw us into chaos’ attack, not a ‘kill us all’ attack. Keep the combat ants where they are. We can’t recharge them once they’re used.”

“Okay, boss. Stay safe.”

Maya summoned a healing potion from her Inventory and injected the Tarvana. They hissed in fear and then went still as the potion took effect. Maya added some medication to the injectors and got the Tarvana stabilized. She marked their location and continued onward into the ship.

***

Sparks flew and the groaning of machinery filled the air. Maya cursed as she shoved aside a half melted assembler and picked up the armored AI core of Scotty. One of the improvements had been using the hive ships armored AI core containers, as soon as Tender had recommended them. It was basically a high-grade material that would allow an AI core to survive a fairly close ranged attack.

The manufacturing room was a mess. It seemed more than one of the Tarvana had decided to blow themselves up within the room. She cursed herself for not vetting or taking a long look at the Tarvana that Scotty had hired to ease up production.

Now a lot of the machinery was damaged or destroyed. Fires had raged in the room and had been put out by a charred drone ant piloted by Tender. That drone lay in a blackened heap in the corner, barely twitching. Scotty had been knocked offline. Maya hoped the engineering AI wasn’t dead, it would be the second time that core had been fried by an enemy.

“Tender, I’m in the Manufacturing Room. Scotty’s down and the place is trashed. Get some people to check on the black goo and mana netting. Secure the liquid mana tanks and the tesseracts Scotty has finished.”

“On it, boss.” Tender’s voice came through the comm. He was somewhere close to her, bringing some reinforcements and drafted emergency crews.

Maya summoned a tablet and then disengaged the armored shell around the system tech AI core. The thick plates clattered to the ground, revealing a round core covered in what looked like red foam. Maya brushed aside the foam, from what she remembered, it was a type of heat and kinetic dissipation material.

“You alive in there, Scotty?” Maya asked, as she hooked her tablet up to the core.

“Maya?” a voice asked, confused and small.

“Scotty?”

“Yes, it is I,” the voice said. Relief filled the voice. “What happened?”

“Tarvana blew themselves up and wrecked the manufacturing room,” Maya said.

“Tarvana… the… the Tarvana I hired?” Scotty asked.

Maya winced. She had forgotten that part. “Uh, it’s not your fault, Scotty. These are just suicidal assholes looking to hurt us a bit before the big fight begins.”

“This is my fault,” Scotty said. “I tried… I tried to maximize efficiency and now I’ve destroyed it all with my foolish trust.”

Maya sighed. “I’m not blaming you, Scotty. You did what you were supposed to do. Now, I need you to do what you are supposed to do. I need you to hook back up with the machines and give me a run down on what’s working and what’s become scrap. Can you do that?”

“Yes, Maya,” Scotty said, his voice becoming more steady. “I can do it, if you trust me.”

“I wouldn’t be asking you if I didn’t,” Maya said.

“Okay.”

The data began appearing on her tablet and the windows Maya had opened. There was a clatter of material and Maya looked up. A Tarvana entered the room, but not one of the survivors, instead this one carried a sword and was covered in blood.

“Shit,” Maya muttered

The skinny Tarvana charged at her, sword in hand and foaming from the mouth.

Breaknail

Level 40

[Mother’s Claws] Level 20

Maya sidestepped the wildly charging Breaknail and then slammed down with her axe upon its exposed back. The Tarvana cried out once in shock and pain and collapsed to the deck, dead. Maya turned toward where the Tarvana had come from and waited for another attack. None came.

It had been less than an hour and there had been more than a dozen ambushes from the Mother’s Claws. Compared to the speed and abilities of the Mother’s Blade; the Mother’s Claws were a low leveled joke. They were dedicated and loyal, fighting to the bloody end rather than surrendering, but there were too few of them. The real danger was to the other Tarvana, whom the Mother’s Claws were seeking out with determination.

Maya slapped her helmet, the damage she had sustained seemed to be getting worst. She didn’t have the resources or time to stop and fix the helmet nor did she have a replacement on hand. There was a spare suit in Tender’s control room, but she was barely half way to his location.

A drone ant limped into the Manufacturing Room, nearly causing Maya to throw her axe at it. The drone carried a large medical kit and was followed by a dozen Tarvana armed with makeshift weapons and tools.

“We’ve cleared the area leading to this place,” one of the Tarvana said. “We have killed all the Mother’s Claws we have come across. We have also taken care of the dead and dying.”

“They was no killing of the wounded,” Tender added noticing Maya’s expression. “They are under medical stasis and will await our reconnection to the Cage.”

“Good,” Maya said. “Two more hours until Yosi opens up the connection.”

Maya leaned against the bulkhead, breathing heavily. She was exhausted and pain still seemed to radiate through her right arm where it had been sliced by Bone Blade. She looked down at the bloody torn ship suit, pushing aside the cloth to inspect the wound.

“Boss,” Tender said, suddenly at her side. He held up a medical scanner against her arm. “You’ve been poisoned.”

Maya stared down at the pulsing purple bruise that was covering her arm. She hadn’t noticed it. With all the fighting and fires, with all the ambushes and the dead, she hadn’t realized she was poisoned.

The high grade healing potion should have healed it, right?

“That fucker knew,” Maya muttered realizing that the System had ‘warned’ her of the poison. Why didn’t he just tell her? What had been his vague warning? That she was going to die?

Maya felt the world around her begin to sway and stutter. She clutched her head.

“We can’t wait for Yosi,” Maya said, feeling an intense pain burning across her arm. “We need to get that door opened.”

Tender’s drone was at her side, the long metallic arms of the drone picked her off the deck and lifted her up.

Yosi was using the Cage to pick up the Penal Brigade from Russia and drop off supplies to help Yuri. Maya clumsily pulled up a window, showing the schedule she had given Maya. Yosi might be able to control the Cage and it’s thresholds, but Maya was the Cage. She was connected to it, she had her blood with in the machine.

Maya reached out a hand and willed the doorway to open before her. She knew it would be difficult, but she could do it. She just had-

Nothing happened.

“What the shit,” Maya muttered.