Factory Reset: Divine Corruption

Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight: Considering the Mosomarian

"Captain!" A voice sounded out from the distance, Mason squinted hard to see who was calling for him, and found that it was Nebula. The purple protogen ran up close to him, her claws anxiously scratching at her metallic thighs.

"Are you alright?" The protogen asked, first and foremost. Mason gave a weary nod, his hand shaky as he gave her reassurance. Nebula was indeed like the spiritual successor to Gear-Work in the health department, and if it weren't for the fact that Mason named her the navigation officer, she would have been the medic and mechanic.

"Is the ship alright?" Mason croaked out, Bailout manifesting a hard-light spike for Mason to lean on as he left the conversation, thinking that Mason had reason to speak in private, "Did anything break in the slow fall?" He reiterated.

"Yes, the ship is at least functional. But, we'll have to wait for another team to come with the necessary parts to fix the generators. Three folds in a few hours' notice, it isn't good." Nebula told him, beginning to walk towards the ship, Mason hobbling behind her.

Nebula's visor seemed to be transfixed with something, and as Mason was about to point it out, Nebula spun around, whipping the braided fur along her neck, "And, well, Freefall caught someone attempting to board the ship down at Backbone."

Mason raised his eyebrows, impressed, "Someone actually managed to sneak on? Who, or what, are they?" He asked, surprising Nebula was his reaction.

"A Mosomarian, I believe. Freefall has him in the brig, and she said she was 'interrogating' him. Don't worry, I made sure it wasn't torture." She added quickly at the end, observing Mason's frown.

Mason sighed, rubbing his temple with his thumb and middle finger, "All right. Has Renaissance already contacted the repair group?" Mason asked, continuing their walk towards the ship. Nebula nodded, returning her visor to it's normal, unassuming features.

"Yes. We have also relayed to them to pick up the team on the first planet, the one that had already been destroyed. The name escapes me, but they have found nothing of value anywhere." She told him, claws clattering against one another.

"Good. Please tell Freefall to release the Mosomarian to me, at least we can talk without having to wait a day or two to get back to Backbone. He'll be punished, legally, of course, but we can use him." Nebula nodded, quickly getting into a run to get to the ship faster.

Mason stopped by the edge of the forest, settling down and leaning up against a tree's trunk. All his other protogen did the same, wanting to wait for Land-Speeders from the ship's remaining drones to come and pick them up.

Bailout was the first to come close to him, plopping himself opposite to Mason, "Do you think this planet is safe now?" He asked, plucking a small device out of a compartment in his mechanical chest-plate. Mason shrugged, yawning a little.

"I don't know, honestly." Mason glanced back behind Bailout, where the frozen Pattern-Screamers lay in suspended animation. Rallycry was toying with them, tossing them up and down in the air with random abandon.

Mason glanced back at the Protogen, amethyst eyes frowning, "Which home planet is this? It feels familiar." Bailout was about to answer, but stopped himself, finding that he did not, in fact, know what the plant housed for intelligent life.

"That would be the Carians." Viscera responded from behind them, their voice rough as they pulled more blood out of their veins, using it to create a semi-comfortable chair with their hard-light.

Mason was a little surprised. He knew a lot about the universe at large, especially about the species. And with his knowledge, he found the fact that the planet, on legal documents, housed mostly Carians was a little interesting.