Sitting quietly within his darkened office, the security guard relaxed into his chair, sighing gently as he stared at the numerous screens in front of him. Each one showed the quiet, inactive corridors of the long stay wing; the many long corridors, the potted plants dotted along the halls, and numbered doors designed to look akin to planet-side hotels. Built from cheap lumber, each plain brown door could have anywhere between one and five guests behind it. The corridors had an eerie quietness to them -the carpet muffled the noise from those strutting along its lengths.

This was a far cry away from the hustle of the mall. The people who came here were looking for somewhere quiet to get away from it all, or to just get some work done from their personal computers, in their own space. This was not the sort of place you’d see any security problems, or any kind of excitement at all and really. Its paltry security force was more a formality than anything else, more used to dealing with minor disputes and lost luggage than any sort of violence.

It paid well enough, but it was damn boring work.

The guard sighed again, another shift, another twelve hours of staring at screens and watching absolutely nothing happen. Taking a sip from his coffee, he leaned back into the chair, the fabric creaking slightly under his weight. The security office was small, even with only himself present inside, the other guards were relaxing in the break room, as they tended to between the odd patrol.

A pair of knuckles rasped against the door to the office. The security guard slowly spun around in his chair, facing away from the screens, coffee still in hand.

“Come in!”

The door pushed open and revealed a tall bunny female with brilliant white fur, perfect emerald eyes surrounded with black sclera, and a sensual figure; it looked like it was trying to pop free of her shirt and black miniskirt.

“T-Tani...? Is that you...? You look different!” The guard stumbled over his words, eyes zooming all over her features and figure. “W-What are you doing here?”

“Mind if I come in, sweet pea? Thought you might be bored.”

“Sure, come on in. You can say that again, sometimes I just wish something would happen in this place, every day is exactly the same!”

She strode forward confidently, hips swinging subtly from side to side. There was no denying it, she was a lot taller than the last time he'd seen her. She pushed his chair back around to face the screens and leaned over him from behind. The guard’s skin tingled as he felt her breath dance over him and warm his back.

“It's a little quiet down my way too... who's about tonight?” She pushed her hands onto his shoulders and began to rub his muscles and neck.

“Me, Darel, K.T, a couple of newer guys, they've just come back from patrol so they'll be relaxing now. Gotta say Tani, I like this new goth look you're rocking. Are those contacts in your eyes?”

“Yeah... Glad you like 'em!” She stared at the screens, taking in any information she could. “Say... do you wanna try something for me?”

“I'm on duty at the moment Tani, maybe in a few hours?”

She spun his chair around and perched upon his lap, wiggling her hips as she put her arm around his shoulder.

“Oh I would never pull you away from your duties... I know how crazy things get here...” She giggled cutely and watched as he began to blush, his member beginning to harden as he felt her soft butt cheeks press gently against his legs. “I just want you to try something me and Mina put together, and see how you feel then in a little bit? It's nothing crazy, should be fun though!”

The guard looked over, intrigued as he heard her pop the lid on a container, and she brought her hand up to his face, two of her fingers covered in thick, neon blue slime.

“Tani... if you're planning on getting me riled up so I stop by later... I don't really have the money right now...”

“Oh shush, I wouldn't charge you this time if you did pop down after your shift... not after I've been winding you up! What kind of shrewd business woman do you take me for!?” She followed up her fack play of offence with a dramatic eye-roll.

Before he could argue back too much, she brought her goo-covered fingers up to his mouth, tracing the edges of his lips before gently pushing them into his maw. He lapped up the goo, sucking on her fingers and making her giggle as she pulled them free, winking at him and wiggling around on his lap again.

Quickly though, she pulled herself off him and made her way towards the door, making sure to sway her hips once more as she left.

“God dammit Tani... this shift cannot end fast enough... that stuff tasted kinda good, what was it?”

“Top secret. Can't say.” She winked again, running a hand down one of her ears playfully before slowly closing the door behind her. “See you soon!”

“Yeah, see you s-soon. I uh.. I feel kinda weird...”

Like the drop of a guillotine, her playful expression ceased immediately upon turning away from the guard. She closed the door behind her quickly, grabbing the handle and twisting it sharply until the metal bent out of shape, sealing the door closed.

~ “Camera's will be off in a few minutes once Plasia's goop kicks in, guards aren't due to patrol for another couple of hours yet, but they'll be easy pickings in the break room if you wanna get the jump on them. Waiting on your call.” ~

~ “CORRUPT THEM ALL! SAVE SOME FRESH BODIES FOR ME! I AM LISTENING TO THEM TALK NOW, BAD-BAD-BAD-BAD, DRASTIC ACTION MAYBE-MAYBE?” ~

*

“I am NOT letting you put a tracking chip on me; that is NOT the issue here!”

Several worried looking guards were tip-toeing around Seeth as she argued loudly with Venner in the middle of the room, Diego standing to her one side, Geralt and Oxyi on the other.

“And what would you say is the issue here?” Venner stood defiant and calm, even with Seeth staring down at her.

“THAT!” Seeth pointed to the cell containing the corrupted rabbit, who was standing idly and staring at the group, eyes flittering between the different members, but mostly focusing on Seeth. Her ears twitching as the group spoke. “She is feeding them information! This has already gone too far! Why aren't you taking this seriously?! You need to round up your men and stop this! Or hell, we'll do it!”

“What is there to stop? I don't understand what you're talking about. One drugged up prostitute is not a good enough reason to send the station into lock down.” The rat shook her head, placing her hands on her hips firmly.

Before Seeth could retort, Oxyi spoke up, stepping forward towards Venner with a steely gaze.

“What did you do to her?”

“I… don't know what you mean.” The two locked eyes.

“Yes, you do. You were eye fucking Plasia the moment we identified her to you, you knew what size equipment to give her and Seeth before they arrived - you're screwing with us! You did something to Plasia!” Oxyi scowled, exhaling sharply through her nose.

“That is a staunch accusation, I'd suggest holding your tongue before you say something you regret.” Venner scowled back, feeling her thigh for her taser.

“I will not! You're not taking this seriously! You're putting the entire station at risk, and you've done something to one of our crew mates! I saw how you were looking at her! You wanted her in that specific room! Why would you care about that unless you were doing something to her in that room, specifically?!” Her thoughts and feelings had finally bubbled over and Oxyi shouted into the room. Some of the guards looked at her, and then at each other in concern. 

“What the hell did you do to her?!” Diego hissed, stepping forward. The group was slowly advancing on Venner. The guards around the room went for their weapons, but hovered awkwardly, unsure of what to do.

“I didn't do a god-damn thing! You're the ones who brought her aboard the station! How am I responsible for any of it?!” Venner’s cool composure broke as the group stared her down.

“Because of you, we need to execute that rabbit in the cell, and all the people she's corrupted! How is Plasia staying twisted?! What did you do to her?!” Seeth raised her voice, her bellow causing several guards to shudder and point their weapons.

“E-execute?” Venner stumbled over her words, losing her aggression instantly. “Wh-what do you mean? We can cure her, can't we?!”

“No! It's over, she's already dead! She's just a tool for the enemy now! As is everyone who's been corrupted!” Seeth scowled, clenching her fists. “I need to get into those brothels immediately! I can get them to kill themselves and stop this from growing out of control.”

“Is… Is she right?” One of the guards piped up cautiously. The group’s attention momentarily flickered over to him.

“Yes.” Diego replied, flatly.

The atmosphere in the room dropped. They all turned to face the rabbit, who was staring back at all of them, open mawed and empty eyed.

“B-but she spoke... She spoke to me? She asked me where she was…” Venner looked at the group with guilt written all over her face, her tone drastically different to what it had been just a mere few seconds ago.

“She spoke...?” Seeth questioned, her mind suddenly racing.

“S-she asked where she was... I thought that would mean she was like... still with us?”

“Slaves do not speak. Please do not tell me you told her... please...”

“I pointed her towards the sign for the station.... I don't understand why this is a problem?”

The colour drained from Seeth's face. Diego looked up at her as it dawned on him what this meant as well.

“You... you've given away our position... they're coming - they're fucking coming - You need to evacuate the entire station immediately!” Seeth looked around the room frantically, pulling a plan together in her head.

“Who is coming?!”

“The ones who started all of this...” Seeth turned to Diego, getting his attention with a sharp snap of her fingers. “We cannot fight Moltezz on a space station, you saw what she was like planet-side, imagine that in a confined, pressurised container floating in space...”

The guards around the room lowered their weapons and spoke to one another in hushed, panicked voices. 

“I need a d-direct answer- Is there any hope for those corrupted?! For that rabbit in the cell? Anything at all?!” Venner was shaking where she stood, fighting to hold back the stinging tears that were forming in the corners of her eyes.

“None.” Seeth replied with a ferocious stare. “The Slaves are as good as dead, and the Nodes will rape you the first chance they get; they cannot be cured, believe me, we've tried.” Like a deer in the headlights, Venner quivered under Seeth's glare. “Do you have something you need to get off your chest, Venner?”

“How do I know you're telling the truth?!” She yelled, her voice cracking.

“You don't. But I have zero reason to lie to you, and I'm offering to go fix a problem you caused, providing your guards don't shoot me for leaving this office. What incentive do I have to lie?” Seeth folded her arms, her vision still fixed upon Venner, who was looking anywhere but at Seeth.

Venner took a deep breath, clutching her fists and rocking a little on the spot, building up to something, the room muted as they witnessed her internal conflict peak. It took her a few more seconds before she began to speak again.

“I... I.... I was blackmailed.” Her chest was rising and falling rapidly from under her flak jacket as she attempted to calm her nerves. “An agent from the DA got in touch with me, said he wanted data and details about you and the condition you have. He promised me the corruption was easily reversible... He swore he could fix it.” Her tears intensified, streaming down her face as she spat the truth out from between gritted teeth. “The DA have my husband in prison, and this guy said he would release him if I helped! But I - I never would have agreed to do this if I knew it wasn't reversible!”

The guards glanced at each other, and then at Venner. A few of them shook their heads in dismay, disappointment, but a few looked more concerned, as though they understood.

“I swear on my life, I never, never would have agreed if I knew how severe it would be...”

“What did he make you do to Plasia?” Diego chimed in, his face softening as Venner pleaded her case.

“He gave me these weird green vials, I don't know what they were but I stuck them to the inside of the mask I gave to your blue friend...”

“Green vials...? Must be something from Leech to make Plasia lose her shit, but... how did this creep get his hands on them? There’s no way in hell she’s teamed up with the DA...” Seeth thought aloud for a moment, then finally shifted her cold gaze away from Venner's quivering form, and addressed the group.

“Not important right now.” Diego huffed, biting his lip as he mulled the situation over. “What we need to do is stop this from getting any worse and then evacuate the station, the rest of the corrupted forces are coming and there won't be enough guns on this station to stop them.” 

“W-what can I do to help?” Venner wiped her cheeks and straightened her back out. “You tell me what you need and we'll prevent any more damage being done.”

“Have you seen Plasia on the cameras at all?”

“I haven't seen her leave the brothels in the adult wing, I did see Tani, the owner of one of said brothels, head towards the long stay wing a few minutes ago though... I can't imagine she's going there for innocent reasons anymore. She looked different too.”

“Different how?”

“Taller… Bustier, I suppose, with black eyes - like the ones you and him have.” Venner gestured at Diego. “Is she a Node now?”

“Sounds like it, tell your guards to shoot her on sight... Right.” Seeth began to address the room. “Venner, you need to deal with the rabbit in the cell, just shoot her in the head and make it quick, no need to make Slaves suffer. Can you also get a guard unit together and get them down to the long stay wing? Send your big guns, Nodes can take a punch and won't go down easy to low tier weapons - you give them an inch and they'll take a mile. Me and Diego will head to the brothels and deal with Plasia. Oxyi, you and Geralt stay with the guards up here, get them up to speed on what we're dealing with and keep in touch. If you see anyone corrupted on the cameras, let us know. Once me and Diego have cleaned out the adult wing, we can focus on evacuating the station. Any objections?”

The guards around her said nothing. Neither did Venner.

“You heard her, get that armoury open! I want scaser cell rifles on everyone and sixty-cal repeaters on anyone who doesn't have a scaser!” The rat addressed her men before spinning around towards Seeth again. “Will you need support in the adult wing?”

The guards dashed off, the distant jangling of keys rattled loudly, followed by the clatter of several armoured cabinets swinging open.

“No. The corruption and horde pose no threat to me, even if Plasia is there. At short range, our competing influence will cause paralysis in the Slaves, it’s your guards you need to be worried about. None of them are immune to the corruption and neither are you, so stay alert and get some hazmat gear on just in case Plasia tries something dirty. Diego, do you have enough psyonic power to fight or do you need a weapon?”

Diego swivelled around and looked at Seeth with a softening face, despite the serious circumstances. I knew she'd be serious about stopping this! He thought to himself.

“My psyonics are ready, Commander Seeth! But I could use a melee weapon!” Her saluted her, causing her serious expression to break for a split second into a smile but then she nodded and focused back into the situation. A guard marched out and threw Diego a large studded baton made of solid metal, weighty and significant to hold.

“Will that work?” Seeth questioned, watching Diego test its swing and heft.

“Yeah, I can defend us with this. You ready?”

“Absolutely. Let's gut this infection and save Plasia, shall we?”

The two turned to leave and marched out of the office quickly, heading for the stairs back to the mall.

In the holding area, Venner had grabbed a bulky looking lever-action shotgun, and stood in front of the bars of the cell, watching the corrupted rabbit who was now pushing herself up against the bars and stretching out with her arms, clawing at the air as she tried to get to Venner.

The rat looked up with guilt written all over her face, loading shells into the bottom of the gun.

“I don't know if you can understand this... I'm told that you talking earlier was someone else controlling you rather than actually you, but... I'm sorry. I put my interests ahead of yours and now... now you pay the price for it.” Venner shook her head bitterly. “I let you down. It was my job to protect this station and I've done the exact opposite of that.”

She shouldered the shotgun and pointed it at the rabbit, who was still clawing between the bars.

“But I promise, I will do everything I can to put this right. And I will never, never make the same mistake again. It was wrong. I'm just... I'm sorry you had to be my victim before I realised that.”

She steadied her arm, fingers rattling against the trigger as she tried to pull it, but her muscles wouldn't move. She shook herself out, lowering the weapon and raising it again, re-aiming and trying again to pull the trigger but once more, she couldn't bring herself to do it.

She went to try a third time, but a guard patted her on the shoulder.

“It's alright, boss. Let me take care of it. You... catch your breath, we need you focused to help us stop this crap.”

He slowly took the shotgun off her and she nodded, patting him on the back and making her way to the rear of the room, facing away from the two.

“I'll uh... just wait for the sound I suppose...”

“We'll fix this, boss. We'll get your husband back, too.” He smiled from under his helm; Venner could just make out the corners of his eyes soften through the glass visor. The guard turned back to the rabbit in the cell, addressing her. “Sorry about this, hun. It's not right, but I'll make it painless.”

He raised the shotgun and pointed it at her head, the weapon just a few inches away from her hungry, scrabbling hands, and he pulled the trigger. The gun unleashed a blast of flesh shredding buckshot that tore through the rabbit's head. As the pellets cracked and punctured her skull, a blinding white and blue flash suddenly erupted from her form, accompanied by a thunderous CRACK...

In the blink of an eye, just as the rabbit's life ended, a vaporising plasma arc jumped from her cracking bones and leapt at the guard, connecting to his shoulder. In an instant, his body was reduced to a burnt, flaming mess. His body armour melted and spilled over the floor. His entire shoulder was gone and his upper body was in ashen tatters.

It only took a few seconds for the ringing in Venner's ears to stop, but the sight of her fellow guard's melted skin and body armour oozing across the floor would stay with her forever.

*

Diego and Seeth hurried down the staircase as fast as they could. A distant bang rang out from above them, and they both skidded to a halt.

“Should we... go back and check...?” 

“The longer Plasia gets to maraud unhindered, the worse this gets. We need to stop this at the source. Once she's out of the picture, you can just control all the Slaves and Nodes anyway, right?”

“Yeah. We'll go back to check on them after. Lets keep -” The two immediately broke their conversation as a stultifying noise echoed up the staircase. An amphoric husk rattled both of them, the crackling sound of slime being pushed through air filters...

Footsteps approached rapidly from below and the two prepared themselves, Diego bringing the baton up whilst Seeth flexed her shoulders.

“YOU WON'T STOP THIS! YOU-CAN'T-YOU-CAN'T-YOU-CAN'T! THEY'RE COMING!”

Plasia's form thudded up the stairs below and stopped at the bottom of the level, just in front of Diego and Seeth. Her mask had a bloody, dripping handprint on its left side, deep blue goo dripping out of its filters on the right, and she stared up at the two with maddened eyes.

“You know you can't win against both of us, Plasia.” Seeth’s tone was cold and detached as she addressed her friend’s other half. “What’s your plan here, exactly? What do you intend to do?”

“YOU PLAN TO KILL MY ARMY! NO HURT THEM! MUST STOP YOU!” Plasia hissed, muffled under her mask.

“She wants to preserve her forces, I think it's a last ditch move... I'll restrain her, you get that mask off.” Seeth spoke quietly to Diego as they faced off, watching Plasia's every move. Despite being outnumbered, Plasia didn't stand down. Instead, she growled loudly from deep inside her throat and launched herself up the stairs, swinging for Seeth.

*** Asset is exercising poor decision making skills -/?\- Operational data will be compromised if asset is not preserved -/!\- Emergency protocols activated -/.\- ***