Stranded: Initiation

Chapter 5

"What the... is going on?" Quinton peered into the empty bazaar, catching sight of the local forces almost simultaneously to Ref.

"What is happening?" she demanded to the approaching guard.

He frowned at her, but was too spooked to argue with her right to ask a question. "Some armed group assaulted that ship—big explosion. We got called to put down whatever this is."

"That ship?" Ref asked, pointing towards the Shifter's bay. There was a blackened stretch all around the airlock, but everything looked intact.

"Yeah, belongs to a... Situous Rather. Shifter. Never had any problem with him before."

Gatar and the other tabby-Bertania escort surged forward and started towards the ship.

"Wait, you can't—" they didn't listen to her. Their employer was somewhere in the ship, dead or alive was indeterminable. "Brilliant."

"Guess we should join them." Quinton's Castar-twin materialized armor over his chest, pelvis, upper legs and arms. A helmet grew out of the gorget and formed over his head and face completely.

The Ghirp was momentarily taken aback, having never before seen his special suit react in such a way, but then on the battleship, he'd set out ready for combat. "Is that normal?"

"Yep."

"You can't use the Dark Rounds in there—you could tear a breach in the ship."

Quinton looked back with his serrated helmet hiding what must be a grin. "I'm not a power-mad negotiator like yourself Ref, but I do know how to fight."

"I'm not power-mad." She negotiated one prisoner release and everyone apparently lost their minds about a Ghirp being the ambitious one. "You want to lead us in there?"

She followed sidearm at the ready, even though as they neared the blackened area she wondered if they weren't underwhelmingly equipped. She had regular bullets, which were specifically designed to shatter against armor, so as not to breach the hull, but that also meant they were useless against armored opponents.

Were they fighting armored opponents?

Ref had the standard ballistics training and a short course with energy weapons but really had never found a use for them outside of said training. Except for the battleship, the Out-Fields were a graveyard, which meant there was nothing to shoot at. Similarly, back at the mega-station, no one cared about yet another mat-farmer hauling in metal from elsewhere.

They were inside the Shifter and Ref's hearts were racing. She shouldn't be here. This wasn't what was demanded in her job description, nor was negotiating with the Kelbrag, or even facing the creature and nearly dying. Her pistol was gripped so tightly she felt her hands getting numb from the lack of blood flow. Relaxing her grip ever so slightly, Ref watched every corner and every doorway that Quinton appeared blissfully unaware of.

"Where are they?" Ref tried to whisper loudly but had to repeat her question when the Junja-Kith didn't respond.

"Engineering."

"Wonder that dump didn't kill them just with the inhalation of dust particulates. I think that—" she stopped in her tracks when they rounded the next corner. There were bodies sprawled out here, blood seeping into the grooves of the flooring. There was some heavy ballistics used, evidenced by the holes in the walls and the bodies.

"Two groups," Quinton said. He had knelt down to examine one, pulling off the helmet. "They're all Keloi."

"Aren't they always killing each other over something?" Ref's voice was unusually shrill and she tried to force herself to calm. Instead of looking at the bodies she tried to identify the faces, but couldn't find Rather here. "Who would do this?"