“They appear to have noticed us...” Leech sighed, disappointed but not particularly surprised. She stared at the space station through the thick, green-tinted glass of the Radon’s cockpit. The white shell of the station was surrounded with a faint cobalt-blue bubble, rapidly saturating in colour as increasingly visible hexagons crackled to life over its transparent surface. 

 

Power to shields. 

 

It was taking every ounce of willpower she had in that moment to keep her hands from shaking. Her stomach was in knots, although whether that was because of the literal hell she was about to waltz on into, or was more due to the fact she’d been on a small, fast-moving ship for three days and had spent most of that time throwing up, she couldn’t say. Everything that the corruption had changed about her, everything that the corruption had taken from her, and she still got space-sick. Just one final fuck you from the universe. 

 

With a deep breath, Leech flicked open the transparent covers over the weapon controls, exposing the two bright, red buttons on the ship's leather-covered yoke. After a few precision flicks of seemingly random switches on the extensive control panel in front of her, two double-barrelled cannons deployed from the front of the Radon’s sleek body, aiming directly at XITD’s space station.

 

The hum of the reactor shifted slightly, accounting for the new drain on its supply.

 

“Will that work?” Ink leaned forward, resting over the top of the cushy pilot’s chair that Leech was currently sitting in.

 

Wasting no time, Leech hit the big red buttons, and the song of the Radon’s cannons vibrated through the ship. Several bright, pear-coloured pulses of energy erupted from their barrels, splashing jaggedly against the station's shields.

 

Both Controllers watched closely. After several seconds, the fiery green explosions died away, to reveal the station's shield untouched.

 

“Apparently not. I mean, we didn’t secure this thing for its bombardment capabilities.” Leech sighed again, nervously, but before she could do anything else, a warning flashed up on her right. The radar flickered to life over the top of the glass surrounding her. “Ahh shit! We have interceptors on route!”

 

Ink stared up at the approaching blips on the screen blankly. Leech couldn’t tell if her seemingly uninterested, unconcerned expression was due simply to her inexperience or just plain ignorance, but either way, her reaction made the anxiety already in her stomach churn worse.

“How long?” Moltezz called out from behind them. Her voice was stern and loud as usual, and equally unconcerned.

 

“One minute to contact! Do I need to start evasive manev-”

 

“You do not.” Moltezz replied, cutting Leech off firmly.

 

The mellow hum of the ship's interior and the slight internal panic occurring from within the cockpit was punctuated by a solid, weighty footstep of metal on metal. Ink and Leech both looked over their shoulders to see the molten mistress walking towards them, clamping a sealed mask to her face. Those gleaming, searing yellow halos for eyes shone through the darkened, featureless visor. Her shoulders and arms were covered in thick, black, metal armour which linked together via several cables to a glowing utility pack on her back. The most notable component of her array, however, was her knuckles, which had a set of glowing blue ports each, contrasting to the ruby red palms of her unprotected hands underneath them. She stopped beside a sturdy-looking ladder, which led up to a sealed hatch in the roof of the ship.

 

“Open the top hatch. Thanks to that Node, I know precisely where to aim. I will endeavour not to incinerate either her or Plasia, as we agreed.”

 

“You both remember the plan? Ink, you’re heading down to the basement levels, we have our Nodes on the ship to keep her running whilst we board. Molt-”

 

“Leech, please.” Moltezz interrupted again. “Just follow my lead -” Moltezz smirked behind her visor, gracefully lifting her foot onto the first rung -

 

“- and you’ll survive this just fine.”

 

*

 

“Shields at ninety nine-point-nine-eight percent, Ma’am! Should be completely regenerated within a few seconds. Local interceptors due to hit within forty seconds.”

 

“Excellent.” Evangeline nodded from behind her desk, rising from her seat to view the aggressing ship from her window. “I very much look forward to seeing that piece of scrap torn apart for daring to attack us.” She scoffed, tutting loudly. “What are they thinking? And to take the black box from our fallen craft too, assumingly to try and sneak their way in… honestly, it’s just a thoughtless, inept strategy.”

 

She tapped gently against the window and a holoscreen display appeared before her. She swept her fingers across it, and the display smoothly zoomed in on the ship as it was scanned by the station's equipment. A small grin was creeping over her face, when something caught her attention.

 

Someone was emerging from inside the craft. They stood on top of the ship, arms folded, and glaring directly at the station.

 

“Oh how quaint. A surrender perhaps?” She laughed quietly to herself. “Denied.”

 

“Interceptors entering local space, fifteen seconds, Ma’am.” Her security detail updated through her comms again.

 

Evangeline’s eyes were glued to the figure standing on the ship, watching her every movement with deep curiosity as the computer scanned and cleaned up the resolution. Her tongue briefly licked the corners of her lips.

 

The lightning blue trail of the interceptor engines bolted onto the horizon, rapidly homing in on the intruding ship from opposite flanks. There was no getting away now.

 

The figure slowly, gracefully unfolded her arms, and raised them out either side of her, fists clenched, aimed towards the approaching interceptors.

 

Do your worst.

 

A bright blue flash stung Evangeline’s eyes as Moltezz uncurled her fists and two massive beams of cerulean energy erupted through space like a pair of flaming lances, spearing through both interceptors instantly. The attack was swift, the consequences immediate; the ships were reduced to nothing, the orange embers of their hull spraying out into the dark, black void.

 

The comms lines filled with a panicked chatter of the guards as Evangeline struggled to pick up her jaw.

 

“INTERCEPTORS ARE DOWN!”

 

The figure turned back to the station. She didn’t know how - their attacker was still miles away, and there were hundreds of windows besides hers on this floor alone, but she could feel her gaze, unflinching, unwavering, directly on her. 

 

“Shields at one-hundred-percent. We’re fortifying the docks; prepare to board!”

 

“Ma’am, may I suggest a relocation to the station's panic room?” A guard had suddenly appeared in Evangeline’s office, completely unnoticed as she watched the ship draw closer. She jumped slightly, but quickly composed herself and turned as he continued to speak.

 

“We shouldn’t be under much -”

 

A blinding, magnesium flash cut his sentence short, carving his jet-black silhouette into the glass behind.

 

The guard screamed from deep in his throat, he clutched at his face and braced himself against the wall. His world had suddenly been thrown into total darkness, as his eyes burned.

 

Evangeline snapped her fingers, causing the window to tint and she spun back around to face this latest attack. She felt a wave of panic shiver through her scales as she realised what the figure had unleashed.

 

A curling volley of white, comet-like missiles were closing in, spreading out through the void of space like the brilliant burning fangs of a cosmic beast, biting down on the station. Her station.

 

They collided with the shield in a series of trembling explosions that shook everyone on board to their core.

 

“Medic to my office immediately! Shield status?” Evangeline barked into her comms device.

 

“SIXTY-FIVE PERCENT, MA’AM!”

 

“Sixty… five?”

 

The hexagonal shimmer of the bubble shield was already starting to crack. The once stable, blue sheen that protected their base was now flickering, far more violently than just a few seconds ago.

 

Her heart thumped in her chest as she raised her arm to shield her eyes from several more near-blinding flashes, erupting from the figure in spectacular fashion. The cosmic skyline was bleached a pure white with the sheer amount of energy on display.

 

The station began to shake violently, nearly knocking Evangeline off of her feet, but her stumble was caught by another guard who pulled her out of her office. Evangeline couldn’t help herself; as they made to leave, she turned and watched through her office window as the new round of missiles peppered the station's shield, cracking through it cleanly.

 

“SHIELDS AT thirty-five - fifteen - SHIELDS DOWN! BRACE!”

 

The bubble shield popped. A deep groan vibrated through the floor from the station’s reactor. 

 

Evangeline braced herself, tensed her body for what was surely mere milliseconds away - the complete and total destruction of her work, her livelihood, her station, and the loss of thousands of lives…

 

But the remaining projectiles curved away from the station. They missed. Barely missed, but still… Moments later, several more flashes of explosive white light erupted across the darkness, so they must have hit something.

 

Evangeline’s brain was working overdrive. There was so much to calculate, comprehend, so much that simply didn’t make sense… She stood in a daze as a small squadron of guards formed around her person and forcibly removed her from her office. Finally, she came to her senses, her world snapped back into focus and she quickly moved with her escorts, towards the emergency hangar, when a loud crash shuddered through their feet.

 

Something else had hit the station.

 

A second impact sounded, this one louder, closer, shaking several of the guards violently.

 

Then one more.

 

The walls behind them heaved and bulged outwards.

 

Evangeline watched in awe and horror as her office was hit. The corridor filled with shredding metal and glass, followed immediately by the forcible pull of the vacuum of space from the breach. Everyone in the corridor was sent stumbling backwards, just for a few paces before the station's reactionary shield kicked in, preserving their environment and stopping the vacuum pull. Shards of pulverised glass had punctured Evangeline’s wings, and bright red blood was seeping down her black and white form. Luckily, the rest of her body had been physically protected by the guards around her.

 

The ringing in her ears was drowning out the sudden, frantic alarm that was sounding out over the entire station. Evangeline, unsteady but never one to be stopped, found her way to her feet, and the guards pushed her forward, towards the next security door.

 

“S-Status report…?” She stuttered.

 

Her comms line crackled for a few seconds like an eerie silence, but after a few seconds, a small bleep played and the same guard from before replied.

 

“Ma’am. They've taken out the utility deck, comms centre and your office; we’re on local lines only.” The guard paused, her voice shaking as she continued. “They've also bombarded the dorm-barges… they’re all gone, Ma’am.” 

 

“All the dorms?!” Evangeline visibly stumbled, her eyes bolting open wide with shock.

 

“Y-yes, ma’am. We can’t see any survivors… We recommend immediate evacuation with what ships we still have docked. Environmental regulation is disabled as well, we only have what is stored in the tanks.”

 

The dragoness’ firm expression faltered for just a second. Her breath felt like lead in her lungs, but she knew she had to keep it together.

 

“Confirmed, get everyone off the station. Are our attackers still firing?”

 

“Negative ma’am, they appear to be getting ready to board. Top-side figure is…” The guard stopped, desperately trying to comprehend what she was seeing.

 

“STOP FUCKING WITH ME AND JUST COME OUT WITH IT!” Evangeline yelled, the stress visible on her face and AUDIBLE in her voice as her surrounding guards plucked glass out of their armour, and sprayed her bleeding wings down with medi-gel. It clung to her wings in thick cyan blobs. “WHAT DO YOU SEE?!”

 

“They’re about to land, ma’am. They’re heading directly for your office! The ship is landing at the communication centre breach!”

 

The words were followed by two bright amber jets behind them, lighting up the ruined office and exposed corridor with what looked like the roaring flames of a jet engine.

 

*CLOMP*

 

Evangeline froze.

 

A pair of heavy feet landed firmly on the creaking metal floor.

 

“Oh, Evangeline?” A regal voice called out mockingly. “A little Mook asked me to pop by and introduce myself.”

 

Moltezz strode out into the corridor. She was immediately greeted by several vulcan rifles aiming directly at her from down the corridor, as Evangeline was hurried through a security door, they locked eyes for just a moment, one pair filled with fire and rage, another icy and cold. The security door clunked shut, leaving Moltezz alone with the cornered escorts. A grin stretched over the mistress' face as she caught sight of the dragoness’ increasingly terrified expression. 

 

“There you are! I’m so looking forward to the feel of your ash against my skin, against my tongue.”

 

The tension broke and the corridor suddenly filled with the vicious *BUZZ* of the vulcan rifles, soldiers emptying their magazines of razor sharp, hypersonic needles into the intruder. And yet Moltezz stood, unharmed, each needle burning away into a mere spark as it approached. They may as well have been firing little sparklers at her.

 

“Standard needle munitions ineffective due to heat shielding! Advise the guards to upscale their calibre, deploy cryo units.” The squad leader called out, standing taller than the rest of his troop. “Fall back and re-equip! I'll hold her.”

 

Moltezz’s burning eyes stared down at the lead guard, visibly amused by his words.

 

He unsheathed a silver blade from his back, curved and wickedly sharp. He briefly straightened his back out and made to stare her down right back, before charging down the corridor at their towering intruder.

 

He swung high, his blade cutting through the dangling wires and loose metal of the station’s once-inner circuitry with ease, but his slash was immediately halted. A blast of heat from one of her palms erased his sword hand, her other palm struck him in the stomach-

 

*BANG*

 

The guard’s liquified insides exploded out of his spine, burning furiously as his legs and torso were separated in a single, explosive strike. The other guards unleashed another volley of Vulcan fire, desperately but again, fruitlessly. The stress was easily visible in their sunken eyes and worn brows as Moltezz clapped her fists together, causing an explosive shockwave to ripple through the corridor.

 

The deafening thunderclap filled the air and, just like that, the guards were no more. They had been reduced to a liquid slurry of melting scales and armour. The once pristine white tiles of the corridor were now a smouldering charcoal, as the station's insides began to warp under her heat.

 

“It’s going to take a lot more than that, Evangeline, darling.”

 

*

 

Leech hugged the station walls tightly as she made her way up through the space station. She was wearing a black combat-modified lab-coat, with a thick utility belt around her waist. Her body was surprisingly unarmoured, aside from a flak plate over her chest. She knew fully well that the scavenged nomad armour they had access to would have only served in weighing her down; the DA’s vulcan weapons were brutally effective versus physical armour. Her hands were clasped tightly around the warm handles of her custom-built weapon. The rounded, brushed metal handle was slipping slightly against her palm as she tried to maintain her grip.

 

I’m rubberising this bloody handle when I get back - less slippage. Daft.

 

Her portable laser cannon was long and unwieldy in the tight corridors of the station, its barrel hard to move quickly, but the effectiveness of the weapon was undeniable. A guard stumbled out into the corridor ahead of her, looking back over his shoulder. As his head turned, he stumbled to a stop, locking eyes with her and fumbling for his vulcan rifle.

 

A searing beam of amber erupted from the front of her weapon with an aggressive hum, cutting straight through the metallic scale armour, and the flesh inside. He fell with two distinct thumps, steam rising from the precision cut. A cloud of toxic smoke began to seep out from a fresh, gaping hole in the wall behind the guard’s body with a sharp hiss.

 

Leech pushed on through before pausing again, as the corridor opened into a blind junction. There was noise coming from all around her. Hundreds of steps of footsteps were moving towards the back of the station, towards the escape pods. Faint but piercing, she could also hear the distant boom of Moltezz’s laugh, echoing throughout. 

 

Moments later, the entire station shook, threatening to bring Leech to her knees. She steadied herself against the wall and, as the shaking subsided, reached for something clipped to her belt.

 

It was a severed Slave's head, functional and very much alive, despite the obvious lack of organs or anything else really, that the average person needs to stay alive. The head had been attached with a surgical presion onto a new, robotic spider body, the neck cleanly sealed to the chassis underneath. Its hungry eyes were still constantly flitting about, searching for victims, despite the obvious lack of any meaningful way to spread its corruption. Unfortunately, the final execution of Leech’s… creation was actually rather crude. The head was far too large for its body, and no amount of precision cybernetics could disguise the fact that this was simply a severed head with spider legs, even if it was impressive on a technical and biological level. She held it out at arm’s length in front of her by a thin slither of cable, similar to how one might hold a lantern.

 

Carefully, Leech inched it around the corner, just enough so that one of its eyes, and as such her own, could look around without physically exposing herself.

 

Ah shit… Ten guards, all in full tactical gear blocking that stupid door, and aiming down here of course! If I try to cross in front of them, I’ll get torn apart.

 

Sweat was beading down her forehead. She quickly wiped it away with the palm of her free hand, but she wasn’t fooling anyone; her breathing was fast and heavy, her legs were trembling slightly, and the stress in her eyes was plain as day. 

 

I am way out of my comfort zone here. What the fuck am I doing, this isn’t my thing, this is Seeth’s thing! Seeth is supposed to go charging into chaotic and dangerous situations, whilst I sit back and judge her for it as she inevitably gets her ass kicked… Oh fuck.

 

“~Moltezz! I need some back-up! I can’t carry on without being gunned down. Look at this shit!~” She shook the Slave’s head impatiently.

 

Leech waited a few seconds for a response, but nothing came back through the hierclasty.

 

“~Moltezz?~”

 

Suddenly there was a commotion from down the corridor.

 

Leech watched through the Slave’s eyes as the guards scrambled away from the centre of the room, their perfect formation broken as the ceiling above began to glow bright orange, the room billowing with an unbearable heat.

 

That’ll do!

 

Leech gripped her laser tightly, clipping the head back onto her belt and charging across the corridor to the other side. She made across and pressed back against the wall out of the line of fire of the guards.

 

Or so she’d thought.

 

Searing pain filled her arm as the unmistakable *BRRRR* of a vulcan rifle rang through her ears. 

 

She glanced down at her arm, then back towards the corridor, then immediately shot back to her arm, eyes wide with shock. Her forearm was barely clinging on; both her bicep, and the purple black crystalline bone within, had been completely shredded.

 

OH SHIT!

 

Moments later her damaged arm had gone numb. The last remaining strands of muscle, tissue and skin tore and peeled away, and the limb fell from her body with a wet thud as it hit the floor. Her laser cannon clattered to the ground with it. For once, she was left utterly speechless.

 

M-MY ARM…! FUCK! 

 

She ducked down with a yelp as the sound of the vulcan rife rang out again. She fumbled on her belt for her medi-spray, and quickly and generously sprayed over the oozing wound, halting the relentless flow of blood and goo from the shredded muscle.

 

The station was shaking again, and Leech lost her balance this time. She fell back against the wall, her eyes transfixed at the site of her twitching, severed arm, splattering across the floor. Words continued to fail to find a way to her mouth.

 

Their needles cut through bone… which means my carapace and armour won’t protect me… SHIT! I’ll never make it to the labs if I keep hitting pockets of guards!

 

“~MOLTEZZ, YOU NEED TO PULL MORE OF THEM!~”

 

*

 

Evangeline and a refreshed crew of escorts quickly pushed their way through the station, marching underside towards the lifeboats.

 

Every few steps they took were accompanied with an explosive shudder. The dragoness winced at every one as she pictured the damage to her station, to her people. The distant cackle of their assailant seemed to follow them, no matter how far across the station they went.

 

Their march was barely short of running, and it didn’t take them too long to reach the lifeboat dock. The lifeboats were dark, sleek, well armoured spacecrafts, designed to hold and protect around a couple of hundred people each. They made the most out of every inch of space within them, so they felt a little cramped inside, but it was a small price to pay for the safety they provided. Five of them were docked ready to be fired - literally - from the station when required. Evangline was immediately led towards the biggest, centremost one. Moments later, she was being pushed down into a comfy, if snug chair, and several safety belts strung across her body. She blinked rapidly as her eyes adjusted the surprisingly dim interior of the lifeboat.

“Your orders, Ma’am?”

 

“We don’t launch until we absolutely need to.” Evangeline fought hard against the panic rising in her chest and her voice remained calm, if a little louder than usual. “Show me the intruders.”

 

Several holo-screens flickered on around her, projected from the ceiling of the lifeboat.

 

The first showed a stumbling XITD guard in one of the many, many white corridors on the station.

 

A bullet slammed into his shoulder, knocking his rifle out of his hands. Several more shots followed in rapid succession, thumping hard against his armour. They didn’t penetrate the metallic scales of his suit, and only succeeded in making him fall over as he desperately reached for his weapon.

 

“Where is that?”

 

“Server room door, ma’am.”

 

Several more shots collided with him, each one sure to leave a bruise, but none of them causing any real injury to his body. The data feeds indicated that he was alone down there.

 

The gunfire halted and the guard tried to pick himself up, clutching at the many points of impact when a new figure stomped into view, taking up most of the camera's view, her long, numerous tentacles licking at the walls as she stomped towards the guard. Evangeline’s eye twitched slightly as she stared at the thick, black trails dripping down her walls by the intruder.

 

She tossed an oversized handgun to the ground and reached down to grab the guard instead, who went for a knife on his thigh but fumbled as the czarite hauled him up in the air, and immediately slammed him down into the floor, repeatedly. The crack of shattering bone and screaming sounded through the lifeboat’s speakers with a disturbing clarity. The sound was only drowned by an annoyed growl from the alien as she pulverised him in several, clumsy slams, reducing the poor man to near liquid in his armour. His body had fallen limp after the second pound but she continued to pulverise him, denting the floors with his face.

 

Such violence… my poor guards. Ugh, I don’t want to watch this anymore.

 

She swiped at the screen, scrolling through her CCTV feeds until she landed on a distant shot of another czarite, who seemed to be stripping down her laser cannon with a single arm, a tool of some kind gripped between her teeth. She watched the czarite intently for a few moments, when something else caught her eye, staring back at the camera directly with its two beady little eyes.

 

Evangeline shivered in her seat.

 

I-Is that a head?! Mounted on a spider drone architectu- WHAT THE ABSOLUTE FUCK IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW?! At least someone shot this one’s arm off, with any luck she’ll just bleed out now.

 

“W-Where is this one?” Evangline asked, desperately trying to mask her growing anxiety.

 

“Below the E-labs, Ma’am.”

 

“Below? Didn’t she board at the comms centre?! Did we scramble the signage around the station?”

 

“As per standard procedure, Ma’am.”

 

This can’t be a coincidence. How did she know where to go so precisely? Has someone been feeding them information? Have… they..?

 

Evangeline paused, lost in thought  for a few seconds before swiping through the rest of the cameras, all of which were blank.

 

“What's happened to these?”

 

“Destroyed, Ma’am. We can’t get a good visual on the other intruder. We think she’s right in the middle of the station, likely heading to the reactor.”

 

“Reinforce the reactor immediately; we’re still evacuating.” Evangeline commanded. “I want as many people off this station as possible.”

 

As she spoke, more XITD personnel began to shuffle their way onto the lifeboat, strapping themselves into seats around her. She couldn’t help but notice a particular agent sitting down right next to her, pulling the straps across his milky white body…

 

“Scyler.”

 

“Evangeline.”

 

They sat for a few brief, silent seconds as he clicked the straps into their locks.

 

“This had better not have anything to do with you, Scyler.”

 

*

 

“~Are you moving again, Leech?~” Moltezz asked, flinging another scattered handful of firebolts down the empty corridor behind her.

 

“~Y-Yeah. I’ve, uh, had to remodel my weapon - only just fucking built the damn thing too - but I’m on route to the E-labs. There were guards ahead of me but they’ve moved, I think they’re heading towards the reactor.”

 

“~Good, then my rouse has worked. I'll reduce them to slag. Now, we’re on the clock so get your butt moving, darling.~”

 

The firebolts bounced repeatedly off the walls, up and down the corridor, leaving scorch marks with every impact. There was no getting past, the corridor had become an impassable wall of bouncy fire, threatening to melt the skin off anyone who dared approach.

 

Despite the carnage around her, Moltezz was keenly in-tune with her surroundings, feeling the body-heat of the various soldiers close by, cowering in choke points as they waited for their turn to face the molten mistress. She strode down the corridor and stopped in front of a closed set of blast doors. She could feel an abundance of heat from inside.

 

There must be at least fifty guards in there… Wonderful! Hmm… What is this place, then?

 

She looked up at the sign above the door, but its electronic lettering was scrambled.

 

Hmm. Based on that Node's memories, I believe this is the lunch hall…? 

 

It took only the briefest of moments for her to confirm.

 

It is! There’s only the emergency life bay behind it, nothing too important… So vastly irritating that I must stride a narrow line between killing enough personnel to draw their attention, but not too many as to truly piss the DA off… Well, I can think of no finer way to dispose of these mutts in tune with their surroundings.

 

She pressed the unarmoured palm of her hand against the door, the curve of her grin rising in time with the clicking and warp of the metal as it began to glow a bright orange.

 

It started with a single scream, muffled behind the door, then suddenly a chorus of kindred agony erupted from the other side. Several bursts of needles shot through the walls fruitlessly, either missing and punching into the wall behind her, or melting away before even coming close to her.

 

She pumped more heat into the room. The door sagged in its frame, coming away from the wall in sloppy chunks. The volleys of desperate retaliatory vulcan fire began to die off, followed by many, many muffled thumps.

 

After a few more seconds later the door gave out completely, collapsing into the mess hall as molten slag, taking most of its ruined frame with it. Moltezz briefly peered inside. The air was wavey and painfully dry. The soldiers were gone, slumped over their makeshift cover, stone still. Their faces were wet with their own melting flesh.

She turned and continued on down the corridor, satisfied. 

 

Not too long into Moltezz’s continuing rampage, she felt the warmth of another large group of guards somewhere ahead, seemingly waiting in ambush. She could hear the faint hum of their environmental shields.

 

She was half way down another blank corridor when a guard jumped out at her. The guard was wielding a pressurised sprayer and wearing a gas mask over her face, to protect herself from whatever she was carrying inside the tank of milky blue fluid on her back.

 

She pulled the trigger and unleashed a thick jet of icey fluid, which collided with Moltezz’s heat shield to create a massive blast of billowing steam with a furious hiss. The corridor was immediately blanketed in a cloud of steam. A second guard, equipped with the same gear, jumped out from behind and followed suit.

 

The steam made it impossible for Moltezz to see, but she could hear more guards arriving to help, their eyes landing on her, kneeling beside their allies and firing their own jets at her, the room was thick and heavy with water vapour as a stormy haze was unleashed around her.

 

Through the steam, Moltezz’s heat shield flickered. A jagged hole appeared at around her knee height, visible to the guards even through the fog. It closed after just a second, but more sprayers quickly arrived, now fully surrounding the mistress on both sides.

 

“KEEP FIRING! WE NEED MORE TANKS! HER SHIELD IS FAILING!”

 

More jets sprayed at her and the hole appeared again. Like a bullet hole in glass, new ones began to open up, as her shield appeared to be cracking.

 

*CLACK-CLACK-CLACK-CLACK*

 

Several Vulcan pistols opened fire through the fog, but their needles still burned away, unable to harm the giant alien but getting closer to Moltezz than before.

 

“STILL NOT ENOUGH! WE NEED MORE! QUICKLY!”

 

But just as the soldiers seemed to be getting the upper hand, just as they seemed to be holding an edge over their pursuer… the steam began to swirl.

 

A sudden, ominous buzz drowned out the hiss that had filled the soldier’s ears since their cryo ambush, and a black orb materialised, as if from nowhere, between them and the mistress. It started sucking the steam into it faster than the cryo jets could fire, and as the fog began to pull away, the guards could see the alien’s armoured hands hovering around the orb, almost cradling it.

 

“A valiant attempt… scum.”

 

The orb suddenly collapsed with a deafening *BURRRR* and a beam of nightmarish energy erupted from it in a brilliant black flash. In the blink of an eye, the guards in its way were just… gone, nothing but some scattered remnants in the air and over the floor, barely more than a whisper of ash. It was as if they’d never existed in the first place, but the blackened walls and angry clouds of copper vapour erupting from the cracks in them was evidence enough of her assault.

 

The guards behind her stumbled backwards, their cryo jets still honed on her in sheer desperation.

 

“You still won’t yield? Please. You’re thoroughly out-classed here. Allow me to show you.”

 

She raised her hand up, her palm facing towards them.

 

“Just don’t run. Commit to your decision.”

 

Searing heat began to encroach down the corridor, battling with the jets of icey fluid. As the fluid impacted the wall of heat, it hissed violently into superheated steam.

 

The guards looked on in horror as the wall of steam approached them slowly, creeping down the corridor inch by inch.

 

“Hold your ground! We need to buy time!”

 

The wall crept closer, completely concealing Moltezz from view, but still the soldiers kept their sprayers up, increasing the flow as their tanks quickly drained, but it did nothing to impede the creeping fog wall.

 

The most forward member of the squad, kneeling at the front, shuffled backwards slightly as the wall of steam licked at her boots.

 

“Hold!”

 

The wall pushed forward again, and it swallowed the girl in front, her environmental shield cracking and failing with a blue flash as soon as her silhouette was eaten.

 

Through her lenses, all she could see was red hell.

 

“HOLD!”

 

The rest of the squad were slowly consumed by the fog, their weapons spluttering to a stop as the cryo fluid now hissed from the nozzle as steam. The girl in the front began to desperately flail, clawing at the tanks on her back as the metal began to glow, the rubber of her mask ran down her armour in thick black lines. She pulled the emergency release strap on her equipment, hoping the tank would fall to the ground, but it remained fixed to her - fused to her skin. A jet of gas erupted from the tank with a rising squeal, the glass cracking as her screams began to battle with the horrendous cacophony of noise to be heard.

 

The other squad members made to copy her, and pulled their emergency release straps, but their suffering was cut short as the girl’s tank exploded, showering her team with hot, molten shrapnel, cutting through them like hot coal through paper. In the spots where they were killed, their boots remained fused to the floor.

 

The entire corridor was left sagging and melting. Moltezz remained where she was stood, palm up and grinning as the ceiling began to drip onto the floor. Her shield was already back to full integrity.

 

She spun around on her toes and continued her journey as if nothing had happened, slamming her gauntlets together with a sharp metallic *crack* and scattering more firebolts into the surrounding corridors as the station's blaring sirens began to warp and pitch shift, her grin wider than ever.

 

*

 

“Ma’am! There is a new ship on approach, a DA hyper fighter; we think it's parked up at your office!”

 

The lifeboat was now full of XITD staff, all of them strapped in and clearly shaken. Evangeline sat at the front, with some room to command her staff.

 

“Oh, fantastic! This is great! Someone else wants a piece of us?! Forget them! How many people are left on the station?!”

 

“We still have a sizable amount of staff left aboard, but they cannot proceed. The psyker has left traps that they cannot pass, and she’s destroyed key sections of the middle deck that leaves other routes impossible. The cafeteria is still showing an internal temperature of over a thousand degrees, so we cannot get any staff through there. That only leaves the maintenance pathways to the side, which have severely limited through-put.”

 

“Well get them through there! We’re on the clock! She’s going for the reactor!”

 

“Ma’am, we can’t, we-”

 

“Wait. Wait… Why is she going for the reactor…?”

 

The guard’s response drained away as Evangeline contemplated her own words.

 

“Ma’am?”

 

“Assailants will usually only attack the reactor if they lack the bombardment capabilities to destroy their target outright, but she clearly has the firepower to destroy us… Why would she board us, to then threaten us all with a reactor attack? It's like boarding to plant a bomb when you have a damned psyonic missile battery ready to fire! Just fire the missiles! They have exposed themselves for a reason.” The dragoness spun around in her seat to face Scyler. “Why do I feel like this has something to do with you?! This isn’t a random attack at all is it?!” Her temper rose sharply as she addressed him.

The guards around her looked at her as if she was going insane, but the cogs in Evangeline’s head were spinning, putting the pieces together. 

 

“That ultra-class psyker on Barru-X, what did she look like!? Is this her?!”

 

“I-I haven’t seen… Big, red czarite?”

 

“Yes! Big! Red! Amber eyes with white rings!”

 

“Sounds like her!” Scyler nodded, cautiously. He’d never seen Evangeline lose her temper before, and he wasn’t sure what to expect. 

 

Evangeline leaned over, pulling at the belts strapped over her until she was right up in Scyler’s face, a growl audible in her breath.

 

“WHY IS SHE ON MY STATION, SCYLER?!” Evangeline screamed. Her voice reached even the personnel at the back of the lifeboat, over the blaring alarms in the background.

 

“I-I don’t know!” He yelped back, squirming in his seat.

 

“DID YOU LEAVE ANYTHING THAT COULD BE TRACED TO US?!?”

 

“N-Nothing!”

 

“You mark my fucking words, Scyler, I KNOW this had something to do with you and that damned student!” She jabbed a finger into his chest, hard. “The dorm ships are destroyed and ninety percent of my staff are going to die, melted to the fucking floor by some hell-bitch who you have a personal history with!”

 

“Evangeline, I swear to you, I don’t know why she’s here!” Scyler pleaded, genuinely upset and a little bit fearful.

Evangeline was screaming at the top of her lungs, her claws digging into the armrest of her chair. “IT'S BEEN LESS THAN A WEEK SINCE MOOKI WAS CORRUPTED! We’ve had nothing for six months! But only days after you shove your beak in, they’re here, knocking down our door!”