Chapter Text
The War Machine projected its first activation through its singular eye, a red hue overtaking its central optical bulb as its rusted features hummed to life; statue-esque limbs cranked and groaned as they pressed against the glass casing and shoved it with disgusting force, catapulting it past Daisuke and Swansea as it clambered out, glanced upward to see the rapidly approaching colossal tendril, and assessed the situation in less than half a second.
| "Gaiters detected, initiating Vastitas Protocol." |
"JOB'S DONE!" Swansea shouted through the receiver to Daisuke. "LET'S GO!"
As the two of them fled toward the entrance to the chamber ripped asunder, P-1 stood atop his coffin, peering up indifferently as his left arm mechanically morphed into a two-meter-long high-carbon steel blade, his right arm manifesting into a gargantuan magnetic railgun that replicated a pure-white alloy round the size of a cannonball from P-1's internal nanofiber fabricator.
(Music: "THUNDERSTRUCK", by AC/DC)
Hhhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv!!!!!
His railgun, labeled 'HEAVENBREAKER' in bold white letters across its module, begun to generate electromagnetic force, replicating an alloy the size of a cannonball and spinning it at 20,000 RPM, charging its kinetic energy until the shot would be the equivalent of a small nuclear missile. Right as it finished within the next half-second, P-1 aimed the hand cannon at the approaching tendril, bearing down so close it had completely blotted out everything else in sight.
The sheer magnitude of colossal force concentrating within the War Machine's arm was so devastating and malevolent that P-1 had to deploy dozens of anchor rods into the steel floor of the station to maintain stability. Before it unleashed annihilation, the android vocalized an ancient Latin expression, one which revealed the religious background of the engineers who created the War Machine.
| | | "DEO GRATIAS." | | |
PSSH!------BWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMPPPPPPFFFFFFFF!!!!!!
The projectile was unleashed out of the railgun at the speed of sound, sending raw and undulating shockwaves through the surroundings as a white-hot flash blinded everything in sight and sent roaring vibrations through everything within a mile of the station, before the vacuum of space almost looked to warp like a bending sheet of glass, the kinetic nuke launching out of the railgun and leaving a trail of pure-white blur as it vaporized every layer of muscle and sinew of the tendril, piercing through the other side and obliterating the head of the Leviathan, drawing an endless trail through the depths of space past the devastated corpse; the tendril folded in on itself from the sheer amount of raw force that had traveled through it, and the colossal remains of the Gaiter Leviathan floated motionless in the void of space, its tendrils still hooked into the station's infrastructure.
Just as Hawkes, Theseus, Muse, and the Praetores had made their way back to the entrance of the decapitated chamber, the shockwave had sent all of them, along with Swansea and Daisuke, careening down the hallway like ragdolls, their bodies slamming and cracking against the walls, ceiling, and floor. P-1 was already blasting and slicing at every part of the Gaiter leviathan it could get its hands on; and those Gaiters who attempted to ambush, swipe, and stab at P-1 were brought low and eviscerated by hundreds of different combinations of blade and bullet.
Mere seconds passed, and P-1 was gliding through the depths of space with its exterior jetpack, rending flesh from bone, precisely slicing through hundreds of ambushing Gaiters on all sides, morphing its hand-cannon into a high-powered minigun, generating small alloy rounds and kinetically launching thousands of those newly-formed bullets into thousands more Gaiters before seconds could pass by. P-1's blood-soaked visor spotted the Predator Moons and immediately redirected itself, deploying thousands of micro-fabricator bots from its chest area and defending them against hundreds of thousands of descending Gaiters, whilst those bots worked away at rapidly creating a super-massive launcher the size of a skyscraper.
Every second which passed was paired with hundreds of Gaiters being riddled with bullets or cleaved in twain by P-1's sword-arm; every minute was the culmination of hundreds of thousands of Gaiters disposed of with the most brutal efficiency possible. To the human eye, P-1's movement speed was a blur; simply teleporting and blasting Gaiter guts wherever it wrought itself.
Twelve minutes passed, millions of Gaiters obliterated by P-1's making, and the skyscraper-sized launcher was built, with an extremely heavy and station-sized spherical counterweight built below it, tethered to the launcher by tens of thousands of ultra-high-strength fiber tethers. P-1 reformed its blade-arm, attaching it to the launcher as it shot down approaching Gaiters, and sent an order for the launcher to generate a behemothic tungsten alloy, taking a few more minutes to do; and hundred-thousands more Gaiter corpses floated through space by the end of its creation.
The launcher rotated with extreme rapidity, generating enough kinetic energy to discharge the gargantuan missile at 5% of the speed of light; a shot that would be the equivalent of millions of nuclear bombs. As this process took place, P-1 detached from the launcher thousands of times the size of P-1's already-staggering 12-foot frame, and propelled itself away from the weapon; any electronics nearby would short-circuit from the sheer amount of electromagnetic energy it would discharge. Miles upon miles of space would be affected; and thus it had to travel as far as possible to avoid the backlash to his systems.
(Music: "ANGELS CARRY ASSAULT WEAPONS", by core5k)
The launcher charged up; pulsating with energy as the frame shuddered from the force of the projectile's rapid kinetic rotation.
ZZZZZZRRRRMMM... CRRREEEEAAAK... HHHHMMMMMMMM...
It was about to fire its shot; and P-1 was slaughtering through droves of Gaiters as it waited, keeping far away from the launcher before it fired; knowing electromagnetic waves from the backlash would destroy all circuitry within miles. Right at the second it was to launch the catastrophic projectile, P-1 uttered:
| | | "LAUS DEO". | | |
THOOOOM! KRAAAAAKKK-BOOOOOOM! SSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH... FSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHH! WHOOOOOOOOOM! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT...
CRAAACK-KRRRRAK-BOOOOM-THHHHHHHHHHHHHH! KSSSSHHHHHHHH-FZZZZZZZZZZZZT! SWOOOOOOOSH-KRRAAAAAK-BOOOOM!
The rail screamed as torque ripped through the trusses; a white-hot flash, then a knife of pure light stabbed through the darkness — the entire launcher spun dozens of times, slowed down by hundreds of jet propulsion devices affixed to the back of it. Micro-bots on the frame were flung from their stations, and immediately short-circuited from the cataclysmic backlash of the electromagnetic energy it emitted.
BANG! CRRRRRRRAAAAACK! KREEEEEEAAAAA-K-THUNK! SWOOOOOOSH! RRRRRRREEEEEEEEE! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! KSSHHHHHHHH-CRRAAACK!
CRRAAAAAAACK-KTHUNNNK-BLOOOM-SSSSHHHHHHHH! VVVVVVVVMMMMMMM-THRREEEEEKKK-KRAAAK!
The sheer amount of force generated by a projectile reaching 5% of the speed of light traveled down into the counterweight, causing anchors to strain and crack as the immense power traveled through its material.
SSSSSSHHHHHHH-CRRAAAAAAAK-BOOM! FZZZZZZZZZZSSSSSSHHHHH! KRAKK-THWUUUUUMP! PLOOOOOOMF! KSSSSSSHHHH! CRRRRRAAAAK-BOOOOM! RRRRRRMMMMMMMM-SSSSHHHHH!
CRUNCH-FZZZZZ-SHHHHHHHH-KKKKKRAAAAAKK-THOOOOM! SWOOSH-BANG-KRAAAAASH!
The Predator Moon the launcher was aimed at erupted with a curtain of plasma flowing like smoke from the impact; the Moon belched molten chunks as it tore apart in rapid fashion, before exploding completely- launching billions of molten-hot pieces of debris into its nearby Moons, spattering them and killing hundreds of millions more Gaiters in the process; one Moon was completely annihilated, with two more remaining and wounded heavily from the blowback of the first. The spectacle was life-changing to anyone able to behold it; including Daisuke, Swansea, Hawkes, Theseus, Muse, and the Praetores bearing horrible witness to the disgusting power of the launcher and P-1's capabilities.
Meanwhile, shrapnel from the Moon's obliteration rocketed towards Inferis Station and peppered its exterior, causing catastrophic damage and casualties within, slamming through dozens of metal walls like paper and puncturing crew and Gaiter alike. Then again, P-1 was never designed with the intent of minimizing human collateral; only obliterating every possible Gaiter in sight.
"Good God..." Swansea muttered; utterly bereft of any other words.
"KEEP RUNNING!" Hawkes shouted at the group, and they continued making their way to the transport ship; which was itself being assailed by dozens of Gaiters randomly launching themselves at anything and everything man-made. Hawkes knew they only had minutes before the Gaiters overwhelmed the crew defending onboard.
(Music: "Majesty", by Apashe)
Meanwhile, P-1 rocketed its way back to the launcher, which was slowly returning to its original position, slicing and firing at thousands of Gaiters bearing down it; the Moons redirecting as many nearby Gaiters as possible towards P-1, having clearly identified the biggest threat to their existence at the current moment.
It was for naught; P-1 cleaved and shot its way through them like a knife through butter, utterly and solely designed for this one purpose. As it reached the launcher, it traveled below its gargantuan barrel and began disconnecting the rods anchoring it to the counterweight; and as it finished, it attached itself to the bottom and used the jet propellers on its back to move it towards the other two Moons; all the time being clawed and gnashed at by an increasingly-dense mega-horde of the alien crocodile-esque beasts.
P-1 propelled the launcher until it was positioned between the two Moons, almost unable to move from the sheer amount of Gaiters clawing and grabbing at its body frame; it faced the barrel of the launcher towards one Moon, with the back end of it facing the other Moon. Its virtual interface couldn't see anything at this point except the scaly skin of Gaiters; their claws unable to tear apart P-1's ultra-dense frame, and instead directed to simply pack themselves together around P-1 until their collective mass could crush its body.
But it was too late; P-1 sent an order to the launcher to charge up its next shot, before quickly detaching and beginning to slice and shoot through the massive ball of scaly flesh trying to break it to pieces.
ZZZZZZRRRRMMM... CRRREEEEAAAK... HHHHMMMMMMMM...
In mere moments, P-1 had sliced its way out of the Gaiter ball and used every portion of its energy to propel itself as far away as possible. The launcher began to hum once more, pulsating with massive waves of energy as it charged another cataclysmic blast. And even still, as utter annihilation awaited the last two Moons, P-1 continued to hew and cleave Gaiters in twain, aiming with perfect precision and blasting away distant ones with its high-powered minigun.
As the launcher reached the pinnacle of its charge-up, soon to fire in the very next second, P-1 uttered an expression once more into the depths of space, heard by no one except God Himself.
| | | "SOLI DEO GLORIA." | | |
THOOOOM! KRAAAAAKKK-BOOOOOOM! SSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH... FSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHH! WHOOOOOOOOOM! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT...
CRAAACK-KRRRRAK-BOOOOM-THHHHHHHHHHHHHH! KSSSSHHHHHHHH-FZZZZZZZZZZZZT! SWOOOOOOOSH-KRRAAAAAK-BOOOOM!
The launcher erupted with that familiar blinding white-hot light, sending another megaton kinetic nuke straight into the heart of the rightmost Moon; the projectile tearing through the tough outer shell of the Predator Moon and exploding it into absolute pieces; Gaiter limbs, gore, flesh and shell bits from the Moon all flew through space at unending speeds, whilst blooming clouds of plasma shot from thousands of cracks in its surface.
In the same micro-second, the launcher itself, only kept together by extreme inertial dampeners was propelled backward at the same speed as the projectile it shot, slamming through the shell of the leftmost Moon and out the other side as shrapnel, causing the Moon to explode outward in similar fashion to the other. It wasn't an understatement to say the vacuum of space was blotted out by Gaiter and Predator Moon remains, the culmination of P-1's absolute carnage and slaughter of this threat in such rapid fashion.
And yet still, P-1 was not finished; still seeing millions more Gaiters floating through space, tens of thousands breaching into the Argonaut II, and tens of thousands more ravaging Inferis Station. Without so much as a nanosecond of hesitation, P-1 rocketed into the station to continue its gruesome work.
Hawkes and his crew, who had navigated the rapidly-decaying station with chaotic haphazardness, were nearly at the transport ship which brought them there, were quickly bearing witness to the sight of P-1 tearing through the hallways, painting the walls, ceiling, and floors with the offal of Gaiters and with no regard for any crew members standing in its way.
"GET ON THE SHIP!" Hawkes yelled in fright; even someone as robust and experienced as him could be easily terrorized by a 12-foot-tall android teleporting around and slaughtering everything in sight.
The crew practically stumbled onto the transport ship, which (surprise!) was filled with Argonauts fighting off dozens of Gaiters and screaming for their lives. Theseus took his axe and cleaved Gaiter heads in two and finished the engagements within a few seconds; beckoning Hawkes and the rest onboard.
As they boarded, Hawkes beckoned Wally, his EVA leader, closer to grab his shoulder roughly.
"When that nightmare finishes the job and shuts down, load it onto the Argonaut and lock it the fuck down. We'll need that beast to help with the Canaris onslaught!"
(Music: "War Pigs", by Black Sabbath)
"Does everyone have a weapon??"
"Can I trade my rifle for a shotgun?! I have terrible aim!"
"Christ, O Lord, please save us on this day, keep us safe..."
"EVERYONE TO STATIONS, GAITERS INCOMING ETA TEN MINUTES!"
The Argonaut II was alight with fervor, fear, and ferocity; soldiers, stewards, cooks, supply technicians, practically everyone with a pulse was running to defensive positions, weapons in hand; having already coordinated their siege defense against the Gaiters long before they arrived. The entire interior of the mile-long Argonaut shook as the hundreds of cannons outside the vessel fired away at the hundreds of thousands of Gaiters swarming through space toward them.
The majority of Argonauts had celebrated after hearing the Predator Moons were annihilated by the War Machine, but that excitement quickly died down as everyone onboard heard of the massive pack of Gaiters zeroing in on the Argonaut II.
Danny and Sammy were giving directives to platoon leaders, Lilia was on watchdog duty over the cameras, Elise was piloting combat drones to assist in shooting at the incoming Gaiters, Faulkner was preparing for triage alongside Annie, Ali was assembling his toolkit for repairs, and Jazz was laughing maniacally as he began putting together the parts for a minigun; only now allowed to use it in the Argonaut for just an emergency scenario like this.
Meanwhile, Curly, Anya, Clémence, Caz, and Ramirez, along with the Tulpar crews' families, were holed up inside an extremely reinforced and large panic room, trading nervous conversation and mentally prepping themselves for the fight of their lives. With them were a team of Praetores, two-dozen Canarii, dozens of the best Argonaut sharpshooters, and the other of the two Magna Caedes deployed with the Argonaut's journey- Eris, who'd joined Hawkes on many campaigns and had great familiarity with the Argonaut II. She loomed over the panic room, war glaive in one hand and a Riveter in the other, towering with her sleek-black bulky armor frame.
"Are you sure we shouldn't have just stayed on Canaris?" Anya's mother muttered with deep apprehension, loading rounds into a bushel of rifle magazines and loading the clips into a small pile of new-age rifles.
"Gaiters are attacking that planet in greater numbers, don't you remember?" Anya's father muttered, trying to reassure himself with the words as he, too, was extremely fearful of this decision to stay on the Argonaut; even if him and his wife had serious beef with the Gaiters. "Pass me those rifle magazines."
Meanwhile, Daisuke's mother and father and Swansea's family were still grilling Clémence for information; having not been told where they had gone, why they weren't in the panic room.
"We just got our boy back, and now you can't fucking find him, you SON OF A BITCH?!" Daisuke's mother interrogated the Garrison Captain.
"Where the FUCK is my husband?!" Swansea's wife hissed, trying not to raise her voice and frighten her children; children who were carrying handguns and setting themselves up in a defensive position behind one of the many barriers in the room. Swansea had ensured to train his kids in firearm defense from a very young age, being the stalwart and vigilant man he was.
Captain Clémence groaned internally as the heated family members got in her face with reddened faces and clenched fists; she could completely understand why they felt the way they did, but she didn't even know herself where they were; the last thing she'd been told was by Swansea, who said they were running to the bathroom first.
"We've searched the whole ship twice over, guys." She muttered tiredly. "I've been assuming they're with Hawkes for the last hour..."
"WHAT?!" Daisuke's mother screeched. "RADIO THE ADMIRAL NOW!"
"I've already tried dozens of times, madam," Clémence stated in resignation. "He's likely switched comms to EVA for the mission. But I'll try one more-"
Kzzt!
Her radio lit up, and as quick as she could, Clémence thumbed the receiver; knowing it was Hawkes.
"Admiral!"
"CAPTAAAAAIN!!!!"
Hawkes' voice blared deafeningly through the radio with unfettered rage; immediately everyone in the room clenched their ears, and Clémence looked mortified.
"THESE TWO IDIOTS WEREN'T IN THE PANIC ROOM! WHAT THE F-U-C-K WERE YOU DOING?!"
"S-Sir, they said they were just heading to the bathroom-!"
"WE'RE HAVING A T-A-L-K LATER, CAPTAIN. WE'RE BOARDING RIGHT NOW, RADIO DANNY AND TELL HIM TO PROVIDE COVERING FIRE!"
"Y-YES, SIR!"
The radio went mute once more and Clémence sobbed mentally. She had a feeling they'd joined the mission and knew that later on was going to be a bad time for her; it was, after all, her responsibility to keep watch over the Tulpar crew.
"They're coming back?!" Swansea's wife yelled desperately, whilst Daisuke's mother broke down in tears of relief as her husband comforted her.
Kzzt!
The radio buzzed once more, and Clémence phoned in the receiver once again.
"What's up?"
"This is Orion, Gaiter swarm, forty-thousand-strong, inbound ETA one minute, over! GET READY, OVER AND OUT!"
"Copy, over!"
Clémence released the button and gestured to everyone in the room with a raised hand.
"GET IN POSITIONS, THEY'RE ABOUT TO ASSAULT!"
As the room full of Argonaut garrison soldiers and the partial crew and family of the Tulpar members, Curly looked around in extreme anxiety, deeply against the idea of being torn to shreds by Gaiters; even if being revived was on the table. Additionally, if the Argonaut was overwhelmed and/or they failed this mission, there was a very good chance he nor anyone else would get the option of revivification.
"Anya, just stay behind the barriers," Curly warned Anya, who was wearing an expression of utter determination and grit; yet another indicator of the gradual personality change she'd undergone since the Canaris visit. "We'll let the guards handle all the action, so we can focus on keeping our families safe."
"Not a chance!" Anya seethed, checking the cylinder of her sea-blue and gold-plated revolver to ensure the bullets were in there; there wasn't a need to reload, as the bullets fabricated themselves within the cylinders in mere seconds- an invention which was only made a year prior by a renowned Canaris weaponsmith. "These disgusting vermin killed my grandparents, they're gonna pay!"
Curly chuckled weakly, entirely dismayed by the bloodlust from Anya; but not surprised as he saw her family checking over their own weaponry and holding the same aggressive expressions on their face. Clearly, to Curly, they took family matters quite seriously.
"30 SECONDS!"
Gun barrels were laid across the tops of barriers, Canarii unsheathed their las-swords, and Sergeant-At-Arms Eris, readied her glaive and Riveter, preparing for the burrowing and immediate assault of the incoming Gaiters. Even if the panic room was reinforced by some of the strongest Achilles material in the galaxy, Gaiters were infamous for developing stronger and sharper claws to burrow through alloys as they adapted to new defenses and armor created by humanity. The only armor they consistently had a tough time breaching was Magna Caedes armor; primarily because it was one of the strongest composites in the colonized galaxy, and so incredibly painstaking and expensive to forge that it would pose a challenge to armor-sundering creatures like the Gaiters.
(Music: "Hell Broke Luce", by Tom Waits)
It happened immediately and in a vast rising cacophony, the sound of dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of Gaiters burrowing through the sturdy protective armor of the Argonaut II; loud and feral hissing could be heard through the vents, so unbearably unnerving that several of the Argonauts in the panic room began yelling their own war cries to steady themselves for the onslaught. Curly and Anya aimed their weapons at closest sound of burrowing, right across the room-
BSSSSHHHH!!!
"HHHHHHH!!!!!"
The first of the Gaiters clawed its way through the interior of the Panic Room, and was immediately splattered with bullets from every gun in the room.
BRRRT-T-T-T-T! PSSSH! PSSSH! BWWWM-BWWWM!
KSSH-KSSH-KSSH! BANG-BANG-BANG!
The Gaiter was shred to pieces by the litany of projectiles, but its death was quickly irrelevant as dozens more of its malformed kin stabbed through into the interior and began spilling into the Panic Room.
"DIE, UGLY BASTARDS!"
"CANARIS REIGNS!"
"DIIIIEEEE!"
The defenders of the Panic Room shouted their insults as they fired upon the near-endless horde of Gaiters flooding the interior; this wasn't even to speak of the volume of Gaiters the Argonauts across the ship were facing, as the Panic Room was buried as deeply into the Argonaut II as possible.
Eris avoided melee fighting and fired Riveter rounds at the biggest groupings of Gaiters, primarily because she did not desire to jump in the line of fire of her comrades in arms. Her arm guided the Riveter from group to group, her mind augmented to possess the quickest possible reaction time a human being was capable of. To everyone else, it looked as if the Magna Caedes was a rapid-fire turret, locking onto groups of Gaiters and blasting them apart within half-seconds.
One of the Gaiters managed to pounce on a nearby Argonaut, piercing his armor and nearly goring him before locking onto Curly and pouncing at him. Curly, who'd been practicing every day with the gunsword, raised its lasered edge and slashed it aggressively at the Gaiter as it launched towards him.
SHHHHCCKKK!!
The lasered edge melted through the Gaiter's tough outer layer, slicing into its internal organs and causing the Gaiter to hiss in agony as the sword slowly cleaved through its body. Curly found himself unable to dislodge the sword, and angled the gun-barrel until it was pressing against the underside of the Gaiter's jaw, then aimed for the continual flood of Gaiters spilling into the room from the multiple openings in the opposite wall.
KRAK-KRAK-KRAK!
The bullets, which were comparable in size to Riveter rounds, blew off the Gaiter's head and rocketed into the creatures at the far end of the Panic Room, slamming through them and creating deep dents in the walls behind them, splattering their antediluvian blood across every surface conceivable.
Even with all the firepower leveled at their greatest enemy, it wasn't enough to stop the constant flow of the massive creatures; their bodies stacking on top of one another, yet they continued to advance, tearing through their former comrades' bodies to reach the nearest human flesh. It wasn't long before they fell upon the first Argonauts, clawing and biting as those Argonauts bravely fought and died violently in the wake of the Gaiters flooding in.
And it was at this point, when they had occupied a significant portion of the room, that Eris sprung into action; immediately holstering her Riveter and two-handing the War Glaive. She brought it low and to the side, before rapidly swinging it in a circular motion around herself as she stepped into the fray and sliced through the chests, stomachs, heads, and legs of those creatures unfortunate enough to stumble into her warpath.
Those in the back of the room provided aimed shots at Gaiters not engaged with Eris, fully intending to let the behemoth take on as many of these sordid beasts as possible. They weren't particularly worried about accidentally shooting Eris in the back; some of them had already done that by pure accident already, and the bullets merely pinged off of it like pebbles.
Those still alive continued to fight raucously, and yet still more Gaiters continued to flood in, seemingly unending as their bodies continued to stack on top of one another, until there was practically a wall of Gaiter corpses stacked between the perforated openings and the remaining survivors. Not a single person was thinking about death; the chaos of the tight-packed engagement had wrapped their minds in a feverish desperation to shoot away their terror.
Eris continued cleaving away, rotating the long handle of the War Glaive with masterful skill; she held back the horde of Gaiters with her weapon, then summoned her strength and pushed them backward like dominos, before reorienting her grip and slashing diagonally through those left standing. Her boots thumped across the floor as she leveled her glaive and stabbed through several Gaiter bodies like a kebab, swinging them around in a circle to knock over the other Gaiters and make them easy targets for the auxiliary fire support behind her.
More came, and the slaughter continued; by this point, half the room was utterly covered in Gaiter blood and gore, littered with half-shredded corpses of Gaiters as their kin ravenously dug through them to reach their targets. Eris's armor was soaked in offal, her glaive similarly so, and yet she could not slow for one bit, as the Gaiters continued their onslaught to try and overwhelm her by sheer numbers. And still she continued to hack, cleave, and slice away, charged with the duty of protecting the Tulpar crew and their family by Admiral Hawkes himself.
"I'M STARTING TO THINK WE SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN ON THE TRANSPORT WITH THEM INSTEAD!" Curly shouted in terror, realizing just how confined the Panic Room could become when thousands of Gaiters were swimming through the ship's interior and flooding the enclosure.
"NO TURNING BACK NOW!" Anya shout-replied. "I HOPE THEY GOT HERE IN TIME!"
(Music: "BADASS MOMENT", by MoonDeity)
Meanwhile, Hawkes, Daisuke, Swansea and the rest of the return crew from Inferis immediately bolted onto the Argonaut II moments before the Gaiter swarm hit the ship; Hawkes, Daisuke, Swansea, Theseus and Muse sprinted for the Panic Room, whilst the rest of the transport ship's crew fled into the various corridors to set up defensive positions.
"MY FAMILY!" Daisuke shouted in pure desperation. Swansea was equally as outraged at the potential danger his family was facing, but kept his rage silent and honed in on his surroundings; Hawkes informed them that they had less than a minute before the Gaiters breached, and neither of them was going to leave a single second to chance.
Thankfully, the transport ship had docked to the closest entry port to the Panic Room at Hawkes' order; but it was still five minutes away. For once, Hawkes cursed the fact his vessel was so massive, for in situations like this it was a massive disadvantage.
One minute in, and the Gaiters had breached. It came in waves upon waves, with the first of the Gaiters burrowing through and puncturing into the hallways, immediately engaging with Argonauts and attempting to swarm Hawkes' team as they honed in on the Panic Room.
Without hesitation or dread, and nothing except family in their minds, Swansea and Daisuke worked in near-perfect tandem, blasting away at Gaiters with their plasma cutters and stomping in the heads of those Gaiters still wriggling on the floor. Hawkes and Theseus had their hands full fighting through their own Gaiters, having to avoid the sudden entry of hundreds of the beasts slamming through the hull and immediately filling the hallway space around them.
Muse continued using her micro-atomic punches, throwing haymakers as she held the rear guard of the forward-moving team, using the various implements all across her body to deliver various projectiles directly at the Gaiters attempting to ambush the group from behind.
"HOW CLOSE ARE WE?" Swansea shouted at Hawkes.
"AROUND TWO MINUTES AWAY, KEEP YOUR EYES FORWARD!"
It was the same slogging, dreadful experience of constant battle they had all experienced on Inferis Station, and so their efficiency to which they slaughtered Gaiters while continually moving had improved dramatically; Hawkes felt a knot of guilt slowly balling up in his gut as he was forced to step over the torn and dismembered corpses of Argonauts, reminding himself to provide an ample reward to those crewmates who had died so violently for the preservation of the Argonaut II.
Finally, after what felt like years to the group, they reached the entrance to the Panic Room; Hawkes unlocked the door with an eye scan, then shoved it open to reveal-
"MARSHAAA!"
"DAD, MOM!"
The room was half-filled with corpses of both Gaiters and Argonauts, dozens of breaches along the eastmost wall as Gaiters flooded through the openings and fervently lunged at those within the Panic Room, who were fighting with all the might and determination they could muster. Eris was struggling to kill as the Gaiter mass began to push her back, their claws scratching at her pristine armor.
Without a word, Hawkes' team charged in, immediately firing shots and slicing away at the Gaiters still flooding the room, whilst Daisuke's parents and Swansea's family called out to them in great distress and relief. For several more moments, it was a tumultuous battle between the two sides, bodies continuing to pile up as the engagement intensified; by another minute in, blood and gore caked the armor and outfits of every single person in the room.
And then, the flow of the Gaiters began to slow; slaughtered, butchered, shot, impaled; and the slow fell into a trickle. Then a trickle... to a stop.
The last of the Gaiters relentlessly flooded into the room, only to be systematically wiped out nearly as quickly as they entered by Eris, who used her glaive as a guillotine and lopped off the heads of those Gaiters who entered the room keenly.
The cosmic beasts had stopped arriving entirely at some point, which was not known to the crew as they were disoriented from the constant battle. Hawkes, who regained his senses first, radioed in to Lilia.
"You okay?!"
"Yes, Admiral."
Hawkes breathed a sigh of relief, yet felt an equal mixture of dread. He had no idea how many dead crewmates he would see along the hallways and throughout the ship when this battle came to an end.
"Any more Gaiters left aboard?"
"No, Admiral. We've wiped them out as far as I can see across the cameras. Our exterior sensors aren't detecting any trace of bio forms, either. That War Machine wiped them out in the minutes you all were fighting aboard."
"Roger that. Wait, wh... they're all... dead? That quickly?"
"The rest of the Gaiters were either blown out of space by the ship guns or slaughtered by the War Machine. I am not detecting any more Gaiters in the vicinity."
"....Um, alright then. Good..."
Hawkes was, understandably, fatigued. He let go of the comms button and looked over at the other huffing defenders of the Panic Room, feeling a great swelling of pride as he saw the Tulpar crew and their families holding weapons and wiping their brows exhaustedly.
Now you're real fucking warriors! He thought giddily. Being Canari, martial prowess and demonstration of such ability in wartime was one of the highest forms of pride he could feel for his allies, and what he always yearned to demonstrate in reverence of his home's teachings. Seeing the Tulpar crew and their families transform from the mild-mannered citizens they were, to being hardened Gaiter veterans, was something he found extremely admirable in character.
"Just got news." He shouted, gathering everyone's tired attention as Daisuke and Swansea ran feverishly towards their respective families and sobbed in relief. "The Gaiters are dead. WE. HAVE. WON!"