Chapter 44: Cargo Bay

The runes below us blazed with a light so all-consuming that I couldn't even hope to see through it. Then the glow faded, and though it hadn't felt like we had moved at all, it was clear that we had. 

The blue sky that I had become used to in Prespian city over the past couple of days was gone, replaced by the gunmetal grey of a closed-in ceiling. Now I was enclosed inside something that looked a whole lot like a spaceship, which in all honesty was probably exactly what it was, repurposed for life down on the ocean floor. 

We were inside what looked like some sort of cargo bay, surrounded by large heavy metal boxes that blocked off all the major sightlines. Nevertheless, even with those lines of sight blocked off, the alarm had started to sound before I had even realised it. I didn't know whether it was a motion sensor or some sort of alarm based around manna signatures. All that mattered was the fact that Clan Pren knew we were here. 

"Okay Guard, this is about to get messy! Try to keep your foes alive, but be aware that they won't be offering you the same courtesy. If you have no choice, lethal force is of course authorized. If you come across a Null Space Invader, you should clear out immediately!" Squadron Leader Belana called out. 

But the fight never came. 

The alarm continued to howl, echoing ominously throughout the base. Something wasn't right about all of this. I could feel it deep in my bones. We were being set up somehow, this was a trap. 

Then I heard it. 

Something I had never wanted to hear again. At least not as soon as this. 

"Fooooooooooood!" came the warbling screech of the Null Space Invader spider hybrid, followed shortly by the crackling blast of an energy discharge. 

I buried BB deep into our synchro mode and turned on my propulsion so I could get over to the squadron leader as quickly as possible. We needed to get these Guards out of here, there was no way most of them would be able to take on that thing. It'd slaughter us all, one by one. 

Time slowed and I weaved between the aliens between myself and Belana, before stopping in front of him with a skid. 

"Squadron Leader, you have to get everyone out of here right now," I said, "That sound was made by the Null Space hybrid that we fought. The people that we have in here will just be a liability, they'll get cut down like nothing." 

Squadron Leader Belana scoffed arrogantly. "It may have managed to defeat you, human, but my people are highly trained. If anything doesn't stand a chance, it will be your so-called hybrid." 

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. The Null Space hybrid had managed to deal with me so easily, I hadn't stood a chance, and now he wanted to let that thing loose against fifty people in a confined space? It didn't matter how well trained they were, it was going to be an absolute bloodbath. 

"So many taaaasty morsels…" the haunting voice of the hybrid rang out across the cargo bay, "I will gorge on you all!" 

The chaos began all at once. 

From the far end of the cargo bay, the opposite end to where myself and the Squadron Leader were standing, the battle had begun. 

Screams began and were cut off just as quickly as they started. Magical blasts rang out and were devoured as if they were nothing. The scythe-like limbs of the spider hybrid and its dangling venomous tail lashed out and slashed its foes to bits. 

Where the null-space hybrid didn't kill people, the guards themselves did. Panic had set in instantly. While these lot may have been highly trained, it didn't seem as if they had been in any major combat situations. That made sense, they were on the relatively peaceful Prespian City after all. Where would they have managed to get any combat experience? 

Without paying attention to their surroundings some guards were allowing their energy beams to lash out and hit their own comrades. 

It was just as I had predicted, a blood bath. 

There were two people in this throng of panicking aliens that I wasn't going to allow to die. I considered both Yr'Arl and Fal my friends, and I wasn't about to let their manna get devoured by this hungry spiderling. 

I turned activated my gravity fields and cancelled my own gravity before using my propulsion to get above the now terrified crowd. I tried to ignore the form of the giant 3 foot spider chowing down on the manna that was thrown its way, its bladed legs flashing in the light as it cut through alien flesh without a care. 

I scoured the battlefield as quickly as I could, looking for my friends. Then I saw it, out of nowhere, spring into being. The shining white spectral armour that Yr'Arl favoured in a fight. It charged toward the Null Space Hybrid with its mighty sword raised, and brought it crashing down on the creature as it was distracted with spearing another alien with its tail. The blow didn't do anything, it was manna based, but it was enough to grab the Invader's attention. 

I pushed my propulsion to its absolute limits and screamed across the battlefield like a rocket, dodging stray blasts of manna I dove toward the origin point of the armour, surmising that both Fal and Yr'Arl were likely still next to each other there. 

With my arms outstretched I grabbed the both of them, used my propulsion to flip myself over, and then burned hard in the opposite direction to get as far away from the invader as I possibly could. 

We would fight the thing, there was no doubt about that, but staying in the middle of the melee like that was an easy way to get ourselves taken out, and I wasn't planning on losing anyone else today.