The Grey Chronicles Part Two: Under Siege.

Chapter 21: Pretty Picture, Angry Computer.

Anarchist landing site, surface of Stonehaara One, August of 8096 AL.

Salem stepped out of the forest and into the clearing, staring at the wreckage and those who were pillaging it. Korana stood beside him, Augustus was directly behind them. Several hundred yards of torn earth and debris stretched between them and the cold thruster tubes of the Anarchist. That, and two hundred Nephilim soldiers. The creatures crawled all over the rear end of the ship, searching for a way inside.

"So, they don't know how to work a doorknob?" Augustus asked quietly, "I know they're stupid, but..."

"Jaeger," Salem interrupted, "He locked them out. They'll have to either go through the window of the bridge, which is nineteen feet thick, or the thruster tubes."

"Beautiful, how do we take care of them?" Augustus smiled. Salem looked over his shoulder.

"They'll eventually quit looking on the hull and just go through the thrusters," Salem tapped his chin, "But, if we were inside and warmed up the engines..."

"Crispy critter," Augustus chuckled, "How do we get inside?"

"If my son is still operating, he would have closed the emergency airlock blast doors," Hyde said to Salem, it was the first helpful input he'd given since their crash landing; mostly he just hummed song lyrics and laughed when Salem disemboweled someone. "There is an override code, enter it on the keypad beside the maintenance door on the port side of the hull. I'll mark it on your HUD."

"Understood, thank you Hyde," Salem thought to the other voice in his head. "We'll go through the maintenance door on this side of the ship, towards the aft end. I've got an override code to get in."

"Oh? You have the code, do you?" Hyde thought in a snarky tone.

"No, but I'm sure you do, and you wouldn't mention it if you don't intend to tell me," Salem thought back smartly.

"You just assumed I would give it to you? Don't assume things, Jekyll, it makes an ass of us both."

"You do that on your own, what's the code?" Salem thought, a twinge of annoyance in his tone.

"Say you love me."

"Oh, so you want me to lie?"

"Say it, and say you appreciate me. Give me compliments, you're never romantic anymore, Jekyll! The romance is all but dead in our relationship!"

"I, love you," Salem thought reluctantly as he started walking along the tree line. "Activate your camouflage, if we keep our distance they'll be too busy searching to notice the noise we make."

"And?"

"And I appreciate you, you beautiful bastard," Salem griped, leading the way towards the Anarchist. He remembered roughly where the maintenance door was, it led to just inside the engine room beside the blast door. At least, he thought it did.

"Humph, I suppose that will do. It's 'Daddy loves you Jaeger,'" Salem almost felt his chuckle, "I set it before we departed, with security measures to ensure he couldn't change it."

"Charming," Salem smiled, looking around at the wreckage. Scraps of plate armor were strewn about the clearing. Though, clearing was a misleading term; the area in which they stood had been shrouded by the canopy cover of the massive trees around them. Until, that is, the Anarchist crashed through it and dug a two-kilometer-deep trench, half-burying itself in the ashy soil. Salem could hardly stand to look at it; while the majority of the ship's armor was intact, it was intact and thrown about like a colossal toddler had ripped it off with a crowbar. Salem looked at the nearest plate, interested to find he was looking through his own arm; the active camouflage in their armor was incredible, he'd never seen better.