System Overclocked 2 -Ch20- (Patreon)

“Reporting in. Access point reached. Tongsta present. Injured Tongsta. Triage. Major medical. Medical used.”

“Understood. Do you need more?” Talker asked.

“Affirmative. Affirmative.”

“Two more?” confirmed Talker.

“Affirmative.”

“Sending it,” Talker reported.

“You know, he wasn’t very useful at first. But now he is,” Tickaht reckoned with a chuckle. Then she hopped down off the device and looked down out of the access point. “They look like they’re doing it right?”

“They are,” agreed Wrench.

A team of Hume were working together to apply a bandage to a Tongsta just as Wrench had done. Though they’d done it according to the instructions that’d been included, rather than how Wrench had done it.

Apparently when done correctly, there was no after-effects.

Wrench had done it wrong with Goodie.

“That’s so much better,” gushed the Tongsta that was being worked on. They’d been losing gel faster than the others in the room when the Hume team arrived. Wrench had quickly designated them as the triage target. “Thank you, little friends. Thank you so much.”

“Of course!” Scrunch said happily. His abnormal structure, and strength it provided, had given the Hume the opportunity to push their medical kit into the gap.

It was within view for Wrench thankfully so he could oversee it from even here.

The other three Tongsta were wounded, severely even, but not in an immediate need.

They were in fact the only reason the seriously injured Tongsta was still alive, though they weren’t too far behind him without aid.

The Tongsta’s issue had been a lack of a proper medical kit, as well as being able to get to the injured Tongsta. They were partially crushed by something and the Tongsta were too big to get to them.

Nor were they able to budge the wreckage.

Once they realized the Hume were here to help they’d first told them to help their injured comrade, then helped as best as they could with the wounded Tongsta.

“Two more kits are coming!” Wrench called out. “Scrunch, figure out where the next one is injured.”

“Yes, sir!” Scrunch replied, then set off at a hop. Moving toward the next Tongsta. “Where… where are you injured?”

The strange Admini gestured with his hands at the Tongsta and then moved them around somewhat wildly.

“What?” asked the Tongsta.

Scrunch huffed, then started to slowly move around the Tongsta, only to pause near one side of it.

“Found it. It’s a tear again,” Scrunch called, looking to Wrench. “They have it shut with something weird but it’s still leaking.”

“Okay, check the next one,” Wrench ordered, that didn’t sound immediately life threatening to him.

“Hello there, little Hume. You’re looking to know where I’m injured, right?” asked the Tongsta in a strangely sad voice. “I’m afraid it’s not something you can help with. I was hit with a hardening pod. It’s… inside of me already.”

Scrunch who had just flown over to the Tongsta turned and looked to Wrench.

Hardening pod?

The fuck is that.

Wrench looked to the communication device, then realized he could use it for communication with this Tongsta. He needed more information on what this hardening pod was.

“Tickaht, will you help me?” he asked, looking to the Grae.

“Mmmmm, you need me?” moaned Tickaht, fluttering toward him quickly.

“Tickaht,” Wrench started. Ever since discovering that making noises like that at him caused a response, she’d been quick to do it.

Clicking her tongue, Tickaht lifted her chin and looked into his helmet.

“What is it, Wrench?” she asked.

“Help me carry this over to the Tongsta,” he said, gesturing to the device.

“Sure, not a problem. Be sure to look at me,” Tickaht ordered and then nimbly flew around the duct. Almost as if she were doing a backflip.

She landed behind the device and giving it a hip bump. Sending it diagonally away from herself.

It cleared the access point before she grabbed the back of it, then moved forward. Taking it clear out of the duct.

“Wow,” Wrench mumbled, somewhat surprised. He thought they’d have to maneuver it around a bit.

“That’s right, look at me,” whispered Tickaht as she led the device away from him. Her helmet was turned and she could clearly see him watching her.

Okay. She’s just… okay, she is kind of amazing. Graceful and lethal feeling at all times.

Like how Seventh is amazing, just in how she can process combat and fighting like she does.

Though, why is Tickaht so focused on having me look at her? Is that some sort of Grae thing? How curious.

Wrench caught up to her right as she bumped the device up against the Tongsta.

“Hello little ones. I… what is that?” asked the Tongsta.

Leaning over, Wrench tapped several buttons.

“Reporting in. Triage. Need direction. Major medical. Injured Tongsta. Need direction.”

“Uhm, you… what?” asked the Tongsta.

“Err, hello,” said Talker nervously. “Are there Hume in front of you?”

“Yes! Yes there is. They’re… they’re providing medical aid, surprisingly enough,” replied the Tongsta.

“Are you injured?” Talker asked.

“Yes. I-I have a hardening pod in me.”

“Ahhh. They wanted to help you. They wanted to know how to help you.”

“Triage. Major medical. Need direction,” Wrench insisted through the device.

“There’s nothing we can do, Wrench. There’s no way to survive a hardening pod. It just… it forces a Tongsta to harden,” explained Talker.

“I’m boxed,” said the injured Tongsta.

“Negative. Triage. Need direction,” insisted Wrench once more.

“Just tell me what would need to happen, damnit,” he growled.

“The hardening pod has to come out,” Talker succinctly explained. “There’s no way to find it, let alone get it out. Not without some extremely expensive and hard to move equipment.”

Wrench frowned and looked at the Tongsta. He hadn’t really looked that hard because he hadn’t really cared much to do so. He’d honestly bet on it just being another rip.

“Think that’s it?” Wrench asked, pointing to a small fist sized object floating inside the Tongsta.

Tickaht looked to where he was pointing and then floated up that way. She pushed her helmet up to the exterior of the Tongsta.

“I think so,” Tickaht murmured. “There’s a weird change around it. It’s a normal Tongsta color everywhere except there. There it’s—” the last was said with a hoot, rather than a word.

“Whatever that last color was didn’t translate. You might see more colors than I do, Tickaht,” surmised Wrench. Looking to the Tongsta he saw that the pod was about halfway into the Tongsta.

“I do? We’ll have to compare later,” Tickaht said and then turned back to him.

Wrench tapped the device’s buttons.

He had a stupid idea of how to get it, but he wanted to see what Talker though. If it worked, it would just make Hume even more noteworthy and generate more status for his race.

“Reporting in. Triage. Major medical. Tongsta present. Access point reached. Hold. No assistance required. Hold. Triage.”

“Uhm, what?” asked the injured Tongsta.

Talker didn’t reply immediately.

Through trial and error they’d been able to communicate fairly effectively.

“You found the pod?” Talker suddenly asked.

“Affirmative.”

“How? There’s no way— I don’t—” the injured Tongsta’s voice fell away.

“Okay. Well. I don’t know how to get it out,” Talker admitted.

“Understood. Moving. Moving. Hold. Moving. Moving. Triage.”

Again, talker fell silent. Then there was a strange and confused noise from the device.

“You’re going to go in after it yourself?” Talker asked.

“Affirmative. Move. Move. Hold. Move. Move.”

“You’re going to go in, get it, then get back out,” summarized Talker.

“Affirmative.”

“Well… okay. I’m not sure who I’m talking to, or if you understood all that, but Wrench wants to go inside of you and get the pod,” explained Talker. “If I were you, I’d take the gamble. We’re not going to get to you in time.”

“You want a Hume to-to go inside me,” the Tongsta breathed out in a strange voice.

“That’s what Wrench wants to do, yes.”

“Affirmative.” Provided Wrench with a button tap.

“Okay. Ah… how… would you do that?” asked the Tongsta.

“Probably up your xxhht. Unless you want to cut a hole in yourself.”

“Oh my roundness no,” hissed the Tongsta. “My xxhht?”

“Got a better idea?”

Groaning, the Tongsta quivered in place. Then it seemed to roll itself around in place.

“No. Okay. Alright,” whined the Tongsta. “Alright.”

“Sorry Wrench, at least you’re in a suit that’ll keep you safe. Just have one of your team-mates remain at the xxhht so you can get back out,” advised Talker.

“I’m going to go up it’s asshole aren’t I?” Wrench mused.

“I… think so,” agreed Tickaht distastefully.

A strange hole opened up in the Tongsta. Off colored Tongsta contents began to ooze and slide out of it.

“What-what’re you doing!?” asked one of the other Tongsta.

“Shut up!” screamed the wounded Tongsta.

“Yup. Right up it’s asshole,” Wrench whispered. Then dove forward after Tickaht joined him at the hole.

There was a shloop noise and he was suddenly inside of the Tongsta.

Once he got past the waste that the Tongsta was excreting, he found it was much easier to move about. As if the material being pushed out was much harder than normal Tongsta innards.

Though to be fair, he was quite literally swimming through it. Moving his arms back and forth as if he were pulling himself through water while kicking his legs.

“So… does that mean you just had sex with a Tongsta?” Tickaht asked with her honking laugh. “Hey, now that you’ve crossed that barrier, do you think we should try out Grae Hume relations?”

“Tickaht, I’m going to hug you real hard after this. Smear all this on you to share it with you,” threatened Wrench.

“Uhm… please don’t. I’ll help wash you off after this,” she said, sounding much more serious now. “Sorry, I’m just kinda… this is all so new to me. I’m excited. It’s fun. It’s interesting. But I’m also a little tense and a little freaked out.”

“That’s fair,” Wrench said, swimming through the Tongsta toward the pod.

“No. No… by the round there’s a Hume in me,” whispered the wounded Tongsta sounding disgusted and scared. “I can feel them churning up my insides.”

Tickaht snorted at that but clearly fought down a honking laugh.

“Okay, that was kinda funny. You can laugh about it,” admitted Wrench, to which Tickaht chuckled. “Not something I expected them to say. Unrelated, Tongsta are weirdly colder than I expected.”

Wrench suddenly had a much harder time moving through the Tongsta as he got closer to the pod. He could see it in front of him now.

It reminded him of the waste the Tongsta was pushing out, in fact.

Grabbing at that harder gunk, Wrench pulled himself along.

Then he was there in front of the Pod. Grasping it, he put it under one arm, and began swimming back to where Tickaht was.

In no time at all he practically fell out of the Tongsta. Hovering there just outside of the hole he’d gone in from.

It quickly closed up on itself as the Tongsta groaned.

“You-you got it,” one of the other Tongsta gasped.

“He got it,” the injured Tongsta agreed. “I’m not… I’m not going to harden.”

Tickaht took that moment to hit several buttons on the device.

“Triage. Affirmative. Medical used. No assistance required. Moving.”

“Good-good work, team four,” whispered Talker. “Great work. I’ll let the captain know.”

Shaking off Tongsta goo and waste, Wrench had gone away from the group. He was actively trying to scrape it off himself and knock it all lose.

He let go of the pod and it slowly floated away.

“Shit! Team four, return to base!” called Talker. “Pirates inbound. We need to go! Now!”

“Huh?”

“What?”

“Abandon everything. Leave them with the medical kits,” ordered Wrench, looking up to the Hume at the access point. He slapped the “Understood” button of the device and then shot away. “We’re getting out! Now! Everyone into the access point and out!”

Not waiting, every Hume rushed up to the access point.

Those at the point, pushed out the medical kits for the Tongsta, then zipped into the duct. Everyone was entering and vanishing.

“Th-thank you,” called the Tongstga behind them. “That’s… no one will ever believe me that happened.”

“Do you think that’ll start some sort of Hume fetish?” Tickaht asked as she entered the access point just in front of him. They were the last two inside.

“Funny, funny girl,” growled Wrench.

“I am, aren’t I? You’re a sarcastic and funny Hume yourself. I like it,” Tickaht admitted, flying through the duct at a high speed. She was managing it while looking backward at him surprisingly enough. “Nunnkish won’t believe any of this. She’s probably wondering where the hell I went.”

Wrench hesitated, he was busy trying not to bounce off the walls as he flew forward through the duct. Unlike Tickaht, who seemed to have a sixth sense for this, he felt quite clumsy.

“Nunnkish is your friend?” he asked after feeling a bit more comfortable.

“She is! I… well… I admit she’s prettier than I am, but I have bigger breasts. Hume like breasts more than pretty, so I don’t mind if you look at her a little. Though not too much.

“It’ll go right to her head. Well… maybe. She was never really as interested in Hume as I was.

“Have you always been a fan of Grae?”

This was a strange conversation to be having while zooming down a duct, covered in Tongsta crap, while pirates were apparently attacking.

“Yeah. They’re really fun to look at,” he admitted before his brain caught up with him.

“Ha! I knew it! It’s the breasts!” gloated Tickaht with a long peal of bright honking laughter.

I… yeah, it is.

Up ahead a brilliant flash of light lit up one of the access points. There was a bright flame that went with it, washing over one of the Hume.

Then Tickaht went into the same area.

She ducked to one side, skipped off the duct, bounced off a different wall, then kept going. Her feet having hit the wall at two points and kicking off it. Repositioning herself in mid flight.

She’d somehow regained her original trajectory without an issue.

Wrench didn’t think for a second he was as nimble as the lithe Grae was. Instead he dipped into his Systems with only a thought and dialed himself all the way up to a “Combat setting” as he thought of it.

His mind sped up and the world slowed down. Everything became much easier to see and the danger of the situation cut off sharply. He didn’t feel as if he were hanging on to the edge of his ability to not smash into the walls.

Appearing out of the shadows, Wrench now saw what Tickaht had dodged.

Scrunch was floating still through the air. Their momentum kept them moving, but it was obvious they weren’t doing well.

Grimacing, Wrench grabbed the Admini by the arm, rolled over in doing it and tried to keep going as fast as he could. The move felt awkward, stupid even, but he pulled it off.

Though Scrunch’s foot bounced off the wall as they went, he thankfully didn’t slow them down too badly. Wrench could see his face and his eyes were fluttering open and closed repeatedly.

Well, he’s not dead.

Can’t leave him here.

Everyone was exiting the duct up ahead.

Tickaht posted up against it and looked to him, waiting for him. Her eyes were narrowed, her mouth was turned up in a weird smile, and her face looked tense.

Huh.

Her smiling is her tension face. Her grimace is a smile. How curious.

It’s oddly discomforting to see her smile.

Wrench went to exit the duct and found his responses were dulled due to carrying Scrunch. Tickaht was there to quite literally put a boot on his ass and push with all her weight.

There was a fight breaking out in the cargo bay. Everyone was retreating back into the transport that’d brought them here. Talker was holding the carrier with the Hume in it, and defending himself at the same time.

He was waiting for the Hume and had the carrier open. Wrench had no idea if he was counting as they entered, but he didn’t hurry to close the carrier.

A Tongsta attacked Talker and hit him with a club. It’d been done with enough force that a split in Talker’s flesh immediately tore open. Tongsta goop began to spill out from it as he started to back up to the transport. The carrier held in a tentacle behind him was shielded and safe for the moment.

Tickaht shot past Wrench, flying toward the carrier. He was struggling to keep up given the loss of speed from redirecting out of the duct, but he wasn’t extremely slow either.

Talker was struck a second time from a new attacker. This time it was obvious the Tongsta was gravely wounded. The club he’d been struck by made a strange ripple through his body and a jet of Tongsta goop shot out of the previous wound.

Going nearly still, Talker started to float away. The carrier clutched to his side as Hume continued to pile in.

Tickaht made it to the carrier and looked back to him.

A large Tongsta grabbed Talker and began dragging him to the transport. No one was waiting behind any further.

Wrench wasn’t going to be able to catch up given it looked like the ship was already closing it’s doors.

Well shit.

Realizing he had to act now, Wrench spun around and hurled Scrunch with all his strength. He had aimed Scrunch to the best of his ability and threw him toward the open transport ship. Then he chased after the Admini.

There was no way they’d make it to the carrier. The entrance was just too small to hit at high speed.

The transport would be much easier.

There was an explosion off to one side and shrapnel tore through the air. A large piece of what looked like metal came hurtling toward Wrench.

With a grimace, he flipped around and put his hands and feet out toward it. There was no way he could stop in time, or avoid it.

The laws of physics were unkind in the frictionless nightmare that was space without gravity. It seemed he wouldn’t be getting on the transport through the door.

There was a clang when his hands and feet hit the metal and he did his best to let his limbs take the hit. Bending at the elbow and knee to absorb the shock and let the momentum of the object redirect him.

Rather than simply splattering against it outright.

His joints screamed at him in discomfort and heated up rapidly. The force of the object causing everything to feel as if it’d been broken.

Then it passed and he was flying away from the transport.

The sheet of metal he was on slammed it’s edge into the ceiling and launch Wrench like a stone from a sling. All the momentum he’d picked up from it kept him moving despite the metal no longer doing so.

Panting, he looked over his shoulder and saw the wall approaching.

Turning his body end over end, he got his legs and arms out and tried the exact same maneuver again.

A hard thump was the last thing he processed cleanly before he couldn’t quite think straight anymore. His helmeted head had slammed into the wall after his arms and legs did.

By the time his brain caught up to the world around him, he watched as the transport ship slammed it’s doors shut, turned, and put down a stream of some type of fire out the rear of it.

Baking several Tongsta to a crisp as it exited post haste.

At some point, his Nervous System had gone back to a normal number as well. He couldn’t tell if the pounding headache he had was from it hitting a limit or from slamming into the wall.

“Wow, that was a little insane,” Tickaht remarked, followed by a honking chuckle. “Though we probably need to be quiet. I’m not sure those pirates are fond of pets.”

The Grae was floating toward him and wasn’t far off.

At some point, she’d fled the carrier to join him.

Well.

Now what.