B3-30 - Mother's Claws (Patreon)

Nope, Maya thought. I’m not going to see the System because I’m not about to friggin’ die just yet!

Pain was the surest sign that you had just fucked up, according to Pops Sullivan. Maya was in pain and she knew she had fucked up. It was a simple thing called vetting all the damn Tarvana that Bad Blood had decided to bring to her ship and into her most sacred of places, the Hanganathorie.

I just trust people way too much, Maya thought. There was George and all his stealing. There was… well, George was the biggest thing. Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice…

“Do you always have to come here when you’re suffering?” a voice asked.

“You’re not here,” Maya said. ‘I’m not dying or near death. This is just a moment for me to reevaluate my life choices and ponder my next move.”

“Well,” the System said, “you might not be dying, but you’re not doing very well either.”

“I know, I know,” Maya said. “I just want to wallow in my stupidity for a while.”

“You can do that back in the real world,” the System said.

“Are you kicking me out? Your only friend? When I’m in great emotional stress?”

“I’m not your friend and yes I am kicking you out.”

“That just-“

Maya opened her eyes and stifled the scream that tried to claw its way out of her throat. The cracked HUD of her suit flashed red and she took a sobbing breath as auto injectors stabbed her with healing potions and emergency numbing meds. The intense, mind seizing pain ebbed away and she could think again.

She rolled over and winced as she saw that her legs were exposed. The metallic armor that had been salvaged from Shen’s zombies so long ago, had been fried. Her legs were reddened and she could see the black char of burned flesh along with it.

“Fuck,” she whimpered.

“Maya!” Tender’s voice screamed in her head.

“I’m here, buddy. Still alive,” she croaked.

“There are Tarvana infiltrators. They are destroying everything they can get their hands on within the Hangy!”

“Secure what you can, keep yourself and Scotty safe,” Maya said hoarsely. “Trip the emergency defenses. Get those fuckers out of my ship.”

Maya heaved herself to her feet and wobbled as her damaged legs’ screams were muffled by pain blockers and potions. She staggered forward, a large crater sat in what had once been Bad Blood’s tent. The remains of the suicide bomber didn’t exist anymore, but Maya saw the twisted and burned form of a familiar figure.

Bad Blood hadn’t been wearing a combat suit and she had been the target of the explosion. Maya wondered how much mana that bomber had carried? What Skills had it used to fool her and the others? Maya didn’t know, but she was determined to find out so that it wouldn’t happen again.

Bell’s high-grade healing potion was working. Maya noted the skin on her legs healing and the pain subsiding within her body. She felt a pop in her chest as some dislodged bones moved back into place. Her breathing became easier and she crouched down before Bad Blood.

The Tarvana was still alive. A single eye blinking at her and blood dribbling from her multiple wounds. Her fanged mouth opened and closed, blood bubbling on her lips and only wet sucking sounds emanating.

“Easy there,” Maya said. She summoned an emergency pouch, pulling out another high-grade healing potion and shoving the auto injector into the woman’s flesh. Bad Blood shuddered and her eyes widen with pain. Perhaps a high-grade was too much.

Maya watched as the burned, seared, and sloughing flesh began to reknit itself. The torn and ravaged skin began to regrow and soon the blood and bones returned to where they should have been the whole time. Bad Blood gasped, no longer making wet choking sounds.

The Tarvana sobbed, the pain of her injuries finally hitting her. Maya injected some pain blockers and various medications for victims of heavy trauma. Bell had made a list, a series of potions and medications that were required to be administrated when someone was badly hurt. She followed the directions and watched as Bad Blood take slow and calm breaths. The medication already working. One eye was missing, along with one arm, and thick ropey scars covered half of her body. She hadn’t had much protection against the bomb, but combined with her own healing abilities and the potions, she would live.

Maya picked up the woman and carried her. The camp, she finally noticed, was in an uproar.  There seemed to be fighting going on, groups clashing and killing one another as they thought Bad Blood was dead or that the High General was about to kill them all.

“Free Tarvana!” Maya shouted. Her voice booming across the dark landscape, translated for all to hear. “Bad Blood lives! The Struggle continues! Stop your fighting!”

Her voice cut through the noise and the fighting, heads turned in her direction. A large work light shone upon her, revealing her battered and broken armor and the woman in her arms. Bad Blood raised her head weakly and spoke.

“My people!” she cried. “I live. The cowardly attack by the High General has failed. Now we must find those that sought to betray us and kill them all!”

Bad Blood’s surviving guards raced up to her as Maya set the woman down. She was wobbly, but she stood on her own two feet and stared down anyone who questioned her strength.

“You got this?’ Maya asked. Bad Blood nodded. “I’ll get Nan to see you once we get connected with the Cage.” Bad Blood nodded again.

Maya swapped out her armor for a ship suit. The world plunged into semi-darkness and she sighed. Without the sensor box of her suit, the world was completely dark and oddly chilly. Maya shivered and then felt the rumble of something in the distance. She looked and saw that it had come from the Hangy.

She began running back to the Hangy, chewing up ground quickly. She cursed her poor vision and summoned the helmet onto her head. The cracked HUD sputtered, but it still managed to create a sharp view of everything going on. There were fires burning in the Hangy, signs that there had been more than one suicide bomber ready to take them all out.

***

“Tender!” Maya shouted into her comms. Only static and a screeching noise emanated from the speakers. Maya tried adjusting the frequency, but there was nothing to be gained from it. The airlock she had exited not so long before was a twisted wreckage of metal and debris. Fires were burning, hot and scalding.

Maya pushed through them, trusting her ship suit to absorb some of the punishment. She’d been burned before, what was a little second degree that she could get healed easily?

Bodies littered the corridor, a hot blast of air hit her and she was glad for the filtering abilities of the helmet she wore. The flame retardant nature of her ship suit was being put to the test as she pushed her way into the warped corridors of the ship. She summoned bottles of water and liquids she had stored in her Inventory, tossing them around liberally to stop the worst of the flames.

A few dozen feet from the remains of the airlock was a small closet. She tore off the door and pulled out a canister; it was a meter long and half as wide. The heavy metal canister thudded to the ground and she popped the top of it.

A blue mist poured out of the canister, seemingly homing in on the fires and heat. Within moments the flaming hell she stood in was snuffed out, revealing charred bodies and the pinging of superheated metal. Maya stared at the bodies and shook her head.

“Tender!” she cried into her comms again.

The comms crackled and a voice spoke. “Maya, I’m here. We have a problem. Scotty has been damaged and there are Tarvana armed and looking to kill all those that have been working for you.”

“Shit. Got any ideas where they might be?”

“I’m sorry, Maya. I don’t know. The ant drones I have been using were targeted. I only have five remaining and they are in bad condition. I feel I should abandon my position and put down these traitors.”

“I need eyes, Tender. Get those drones you have left moving. I want to make sure these fires don’t spread,” Maya ordered as she moved through the blue mist. She came across a Tarvana, curled into a fetal position and weeping with pain. “Break out the low-grade healing potions and meds. We’ve got a lot of injured here too.”

“Alright, boss. Shall I release the combat drones?”

Maya paused. “No, I think this is just a ‘throw us into chaos’ attack, not a ‘kill us all’ attack. Keep the combat ants where they are. We can’t recharge them once they’re used.”

“Okay, boss. Stay safe.”

Maya summoned a healing potion from her Inventory and injected the Tarvana. They hissed in fear and then went still as the potion took effect. Maya added some medication to the injectors and got the Tarvana stabilized. She marked their location and continued onward into the ship.

***

The skinny Tarvana charged at Maya, sword in hand and foaming from the mouth.

Breaknail

Level 40

[Mother’s Claws] Level 20

Maya sidestepped the wildly charging Breaknail and then slammed down with her axe upon its exposed back. The Tarvana cried out once in shock and pain and collapsed to the deck, dead. Maya turned back down the corridor and waited, tense and waiting for another attack. None came.

It had been less than an hour and there had been more than a dozen ambushes from the Mother’s Claws. It appeared they were a dedicated group of assassins or something. After fighting the assassin ants and their inhuman speed and power, the Mother’s Claws were a piece of ration bar.

Maya slapped her helmet, the damage she had sustained seemed to be getting worst. She didn’t have the resources or time to stop and fix the helmet nor did she have a replacement on hand. There was a spare suit in Tender’s control room, but she was barely half way to his location.

A drone ant limped by, it was carrying a large medical kit and was followed by five Tarvana armed with makeshift weapons. They stopped and stared at Maya.

“We’re cleared this area,” one of the Tarvana said. “None of the Mother’s Claws are in hiding there anymore. We have also taken care of the dead and dying.”

“They were no killing of the wounded,” Tender added noticing Maya’s expression. “They are under medical stasis and will await our reconnection to the Cage.”

“Good,” Maya said. “Two more hours until Yosi opens up the connection.”

“I suggest you obtain better armor, boss,” Tender said. “We shall guide you to the control room.”

Maya looked down at her ship suit. It was torn, burned, and covered in her own and the assassin Tarvana’s blood. “Yeah, maybe you’re right,” she said.

“Mistress,” the Tarvana bowed as she walked by.

“No bowing,” Maya muttered and followed the limping drone.

***

Sparks flew and the groaning of machinery filled the air. Maya cursed as she shoved aside a half melted assembler and picked up the armored AI core of Scotty. One of the improvements had been using the hive ships armored AI core containers, as soon as Tender had recommended them. It was basically a high-grade material that would allow an AI core to survive a fairly close ranged attack.

The manufacturing room was a mess. It seemed more than one of the Tarvana had decided to blow themselves up within the room. She cursed herself for not vetting or taking a long look at the Tarvana that Scotty had hired to ease up production.

Now a lot of the machinery was damaged or destroyed. Fires had raged in the room and had been only put out by Tender’s drones. Scotty had been somehow knocked offline. Maya hoped the engineering AI wasn’t dead, it would be the second time that core had been fried by an enemy.

“Tender, get some people to check on the black goo and mana netting. Secure the liquid mana tanks and the tesseracts Scotty has finished.”

“On it, boss.”

Maya summoned a tablet and then disengaged the armored shell around the system tech AI core. The thick plates clattered to the ground, revealing a round core covered in what looked like red foam. Maya brushed aside the foam, from what she remembered, it was a type of heat and kinetic dissipation material.

“You alive in there, Scotty?” Maya asked, as she hooked her tablet up to the core.

“Maya?” a voice asked, confused and small.

“Scotty?”

“Yes, it is I,” the voice said. Relief filled the voice. “What happened?”

“Tarvana blew themselves up and wrecked the manufacturing room,” Maya said.

“Tarvana… the… the Tarvana I hired?” Scotty asked.

Maya winced. She had forgotten that part. “Uh, it’s not your fault, Scotty. These are just suicidal assholes looking to hurt us a bit before the big fight begins.”

“This is my fault,” Scotty said. “I tried… I tried to maximize efficiency and now I’ve destroyed it all with my foolish trust.”

Maya sighed. “I’m not blaming you, Scotty. You did what you were supposed to do. Now, I need you to do what you are supposed to do. I need you to hook back up with the machines and give me a run down on what’s working and what’s become scrap. Can you do that?”

“Yes, Maya,” Scotty said, his voice becoming more steady. “I can do it, if you trust me.”

“I wouldn’t be asking you if I didn’t,” Maya said.

“Okay.”

The data began appearing on her tablet and the windows Maya had opened. She scanned them and the frown on her face deepened.

“Shit,” she muttered.

***

Maya winced as Nan poked and prodded her.

“Even with high-grade potions, these injuries you sustained are no joke,” the doctor said. Her blue eyes flashing as she shook her head. She was in her human form, her mouth frozen into a frown and occasionally a bit of sharp teeth bared. “Healing potions aren’t a replacement for medicine.”

Bell snorted. “No, they’re far better,” he said.

“Christ, Maya,” Marcus said. He looked her over, worry and fear etched in his face. “You got blown up.”

“Yeah, been there done that,” Maya replied. “Didn’t I say these turds were fanatical. Figured I should have thought of them sending in suicide bombers to screw up things.”

Yosi skittered into the room, eyes wide. “You’re alive!” she cried.

“If you can call being held captive by Nan living,” Maya said.

“I am not holding you captive. I am keeping you under observation for the time being,” the doctor replied.

“Look, I’ve been fine for the last three hours. Nothing a little healing potion, a lot of pain blockers, and some coffee can’t fix.”

“You got blown up!” Marcus cried out.

“And I’m still kicking, cowboy,” Maya said. “There are scores of Tarvana that are hurt and dying. Go deal with them. Bad Blood’s been hurt pretty bad and we’re looking at the Blood Harvester Army trying to take advantage of this chaos.”

Maya pushed away Nan’s hand, the power behind the system tech doctor was fairly intense, but Maya wasn’t in the mood to play patient.

“I can heal on the move,” Maya said, popping another healing potion combined with a stamina potion and a rejuvenation potion. The three potions were thousands of credits each. The kind not normally sold to the denizens of Earth. They were just far too expensive to be purchased by them.

“You can res-“

“No,” Maya snapped. “That fucking High General tried to kill me and he pretty much succeeded in destroying our manufacturing abilities. I don’t take kindly to people blowing themselves up in my base and killing tons of innocents in the process. He wants to fight dirty, well then I’ll show him how to fight dirty.”

Maya stormed out of the medical room.