“Fuck!”

He dodged another blast, while trying to not jostle Olivia’s arm too much. The Josagn had figured out what she must be doing, and had started lobbing electric balls through the hologram doorway. She was returning fire, but without knowing if she was hitting them or not, it was annoying.

“I’m out,” she whispered, turning to look at him.

Dustin looked down at her PED. It was scattered in parts all over the floor, and he was currently in the middle of connecting wires together.

“Any chance you could scoot the bag over so I can grab another gun?” she asked as if he had a free hand.

Gritting his teeth, he scooted it closer with his knee, and went on with the upgrade. Another electric ball flew in, and just barely grazed the top of his head as he ducked. She grabbed the bag with her free hand and started rummaging through it. His head exploded into a massive headache, but it quickly faded with his rapid healing.

“There weren’t any reloading capsules for the genetic material destabilizer on the shelf back there. I had hoped it would hold more rounds than that, but it obviously didn’t”

“How did you recognize it?” he asked, taking a part from one of the other PED’s and gently lowering it into place. Her PED snatched it with loose wires and it clicked into place as they tightened.

“I saw a lot when I was on the Josagn home world. Did you know that they were religious purists?” She pulled out a big gun and checked the energy cartridge. She knew what she was doing, even one handed, so he had to assume those memories concerning weapons had to be real. Since she had said almost the same time the last time he met with her, he wondered if the purist part was actually true.

“Really? No chance they would change some of them into other races in order to spy?”

She thought about that for a moment, then shook her head.

“I don’t think so. They were too much into hunting and killing their prey. The harder it was, the better. I don’t think they would have been very good with intrigue like that.”

Dustin was pretty sure they were, but didn’t want to argue. He was in a delicate spot, tightening another piece into place, and trying not to break it. Only a few more pieces and he would be done and ready for it to sync.

Aiming with her new gun, she started to shoot in a particular pattern, through the hologram doorway. It fired a long-lasting laser, that she swiped back and forth. The electric balls stopped, so hopefully she hit whoever was firing them.

Suddenly a swarm of yellow bugs skittered through the hologram doorway, under the beams of laser she had been firing.

“Shit! Kill them!” Dustin panicked and screamed.

Redirecting her aim to include them, she was able to get most of them before they reached the doorway. Squishing the last one with the butt of her gun, she shot him a nasty glare before going back to shooting through the doorway.

If he was capable of sweating, he was sure he would be sweating buckets. Why did those things bother him so much? Looking down at his progress, he quickly snapped the last piece in place and shut her access panel.

“Let it sync, then I have one last thing to do,” he said.

Her PED looked different from his, but still stretched from her wrist to her elbow. Grabbing the bag, he jerked it open to see bits of armor that fit over arms and legs, and a helmet piece that looked incomplete. It only covered the sides of the head, almost like a hair piece some of the women in his fragmented memories would wear.

As he dug them out, he saw that there were two sets of everything, so he busied himself putting them on. The arm piece that was supposed to go on the same arm as his PED was a little tight, but fit. Underneath them, he saw a couple more weapons. Snapping the last piece on, there was an audible hum, then he heard a sound in his ear.

“They’re holed up in the armory. We don’t have a signal on the male, but we can confirm that his voice has been heard. Copy.”

“Is there any word from Space-base on the condition of his PED? Copy.”

“The last report stated it had been upgraded past all previous upgrades. Then it went radio silent. There’s no word on why, but it can be safe to assume he will take no new forms. Space-base has confirmed that they are spamming the retrieval code so the moment it comes back online, we should be able to go in. Copy.”

She had stopped shooting the laser gun and was checking the energy cartridge with a scowl.

“Worse than a whore on Wednesday!” she muttered angrily.

“What?” asked Dustin, after making sure his headphones were disabled. That was a new one on him.

“It’s out already! Piece of crap! Why do all of these weapons have shit for ammo?”

“Maybe because they didn’t want any prisoners to grab them and use them for a long time?” he suggested, disabling her headphones before tossing her the pieces of armor. He wasn’t sure what all they did, but it couldn’t hurt.

“Wait, I need to do one last thing to your PED,” he said, before she put the arm bracer on over it.

Disabling the radio antennae, she looked at him incredulously as there was a puff of smoke and a few sparks.

“What the hell?” she said, glancing back and forth between her PED and him.

“I just disabled the radio antennae so the PED’s can’t communicate with the Josagn.”

“Wait, these things came from them?”

“Yep. Ready to move to the next room?”

Snapping her last bracer in place, she nodded, and hefted the last gun from her duffle bag. Taking it back to the shelf with the other weapons, Dustin swept as many into it, as it would hold, before joining her at the door.

Darting down the small hall, they kicked the door open, and were suddenly blinded.

Dustin ducked to the side, rolling until he came up against a wall, then slashed at the feel of feathers. Blood splattered as he connected solidly with someone, then, he felt the vibrations of someone running towards him. His visor kicked in, and suddenly he could see.

There was a flash grenade by the door shooting super bright lights, probably to blind them.

“They’ve reached the barracks! Repeat, they’ve…” the voice was cut off as Olivia shot the Josagn with her new gun. It shot a black electrical ball that, when it hit, expanded to cover the whole Josagn. He fell to the ground spasming, until smoke drifted up from the nostrils in his beak.

She nodded to him, and he looked around the room. There were beds lining the walls and clothing hanging from hooks, but not much else. The Josagn at his feet was breathing heavy as blood filled his lungs. Dustin’s blind slash had caved in its ribcage. As he watched, it dropped another grenade. He didn’t waste any time jumping at Olivia and the door.

There was another blinding flash, but this time, he could feel it burning the plates on his back. He couldn’t imagine what it would do to Olivia, since she was still in her human form.