Bab 101: Distance
*yeppa, new chapter for the day, yall. Let's see how it goes. Peace out and Deus vult*
He walked down the halls, taking a simple direction based on what he imagined the layout of the ship was like. Comparing it to the side where they came in and the direction they went in, he was aligned with the center of the ship, meaning that he had to go towards the strange creature he saw. The sound of the gunshot, with the tears flowing down the cheeks of whoever that woman was, stuck to his mind worse than a metal rod ran in the ground.
His eyes were fixed ahead, his swords held so tightly that the veins on his palms bulged from the pressure. Growls, wet and crooked, but the sounds soon turned to pained shrieks as Mark spent no time hesitating, sinking his sword in their midst without a second thought. Bones shattered, flesh was minced, and some parasites tried jumping at him, only to end up splattered against the steel walls. Some, however, kept the flesh moving, even as he minced it.
SAM watched from the back, noting how the swords moved with purpose, and that being none other than extermination and pure revenge, unfiltered and raw. There was a subtle hint of pain mixed in, but only he felt it. Of course, his past was still tied to him, subtle as it was. He had tried to accept it all along, but it proved harder than he thought. Seeing that woman crying about not making it back home, he just felt his hatred for the monsters flare up.
The halls turned into his playground, with the monsters succumbing to his swords. The fatigue was there, but he didn't care. His body could keep pushing, his swords could keep cutting, punishing the parasites over and over and over again. SAM, seeing his onslaught, spoke up about it.
"Preserve your strength, Mark," she said, the voice coming out low as usual. Still, he didn't listen, striking even harder.
"Do you think I care about that now? I need to punish these creatures until they know nothing but pain," he growled, striking one from above, making its flesh pudding on the ground.
"It's not your duty. For now, the smart course of action is to find the core of the ship and initiate a self-destruction sequence."
They wandered inside a large room, littered with fallen tables, chairs, and more gore than one could bear to see. It was pretty spacious inside, offering some ease of movement around. On the other entrance, the four-eyed creature scrambled in, its large frontal limbs adorned in bones, the spines connected to it moving around like tentacles. Mark smirked, holding the swords tighter.
"Oh, God must have sent me a gift by making that creature wander in this spacious room where I can move. Come here, mother fucker. I'll end you," he grinned, tossing aside logic and whatever he had used earlier. It turned from survival to a grudge, the wish for carnage the only thing to satiate Mark's need for revenge.
The creature clanked together its mandibles, the twisted jaws clanking together before a loud shriek left the beast's lungs.
"I guess we can make easy work of it; just be careful," said SAM, weapons held to the sides, ready to be swung in.
The duo dashed in from both sides, each one focusing on one arm, the thick things closer to tree trunks than normal limbs. It swung their way, both arms moving independently with surprising speed, as if the large beast were two creatures merged as one. Mark found himself dodging to the side, trying to get in closer, running his sword along the arm to try and crush down bones.
"DODGE!" shouted SAM, and Mark jerked his body backwards, leaping as far away as he could. From above, a good dozen bones plunged out, branching out into spider-like legs, turning the beast into even more of a nightmare. Other amalgamations of flesh were seeping into the room, the broken, twisted bodies barely usable, and yet they were crawling in, seeking the living.
"Ok, you know what? This is getting annoying. SAM, toss me a sword of yours," he said, throwing the thinner weapon, the one he had won from the Wardance, her way. They exchanged weapons, and Mark dashed forward once more, throwing the larger one of the two forward like a projectile, putting as much as he could in the throw.
The beast tried to protect itself, shielding the main body with the thick limbs, yet the sword packed enough of a punch to render two of them useless. Mark left only a blue afterimage as Firefly's sword spun in the air, the sharp blade running through biological matter like a hot knife in butter. Blood and grime covered Mark's suit; his visor rendered useless for the brief time, but he didn't care. He kept pushing, cutting on all sides, creating enough of an opening to step inside the chunk of flesh and destroy it from within, spinning as it tried to trash and move, yet the limbs had long since lost contact with the rest of it.
It was him, covered in the metal suit, and the sword spinning over and over until it finally sank in the large parasite that lived inside, causing it to reveal what looked like hundreds of smaller worms. If Mark could see in that moment, he wouldn't have hesitated calling for Firefly's fire to just burn the whole thing to the ground, even if he would die thanks to it.
"Mark, step out. It's done, and we have other issues on our hands," said SAM, yanking him out after noticing the movements stop. He was red, and thankfully, the costume had a function to clean the visor, which was really useful for the current context.
"What even was this suit originally made for? It seems to be a mix of combat, utility, and whatever the fuck one would need," he panted, picking up his sword as the large beast squirmed on the ground. He returned Firefly her sword before mincing every inch of flesh that he found on the ground, unknowingly killing a few of the worms, while the rest sought shelter in the near liquid flesh.
"I don't know, since Kafka simply entrusted it to me."
The answer was short and curt in nature, but he didn't mind. Instead, he motioned for her to follow and walk the rest of the way, exiting through the door where the beast came in from. His thoughts returned to how no normal human could have hoped to take down that behemoth without at least some explosives or rifles with large caliber bullets.
The rest of the halls were littered with a few monsters here and there; nothing to worry about. It was the shock and unknown factor that kept the two of them on their toes at first, but now that they understood a little better what they were up against, it felt more like they were admins in a game.
The winging halls seemed to lead to a central place blocked by a few doors, yet they all opened in unison upon them getting closer.
"I guess this is the way to the bottom, to the core. Let's see what the hell is down there," he muttered, stepping inside the lift with SAM following. Thanks to the size of the armor, she had to crouch. With the press of a button, they were taken below deck, presented with a dark corridor. The soft hum of the ship's core filled their ears, proving to be the only sound heard in there.
The dark hall presented nothing more, until the door at the end of the hall opened. The room was nothing impressive, holding a few control panels with more buttons than he could count, screens, and other things needed to monitor the core, with a large screen on a wall displaying the energy source, a blue glowing thing that he couldn't identify. For a second, the thought of blowing it up proved to be a bad idea, but nonetheless, he stepped closer, staring at the door in the corner that had more warning signs on it than one could only hope to count.
"So, I guess that the door there leads to the core. Probably a stupid choice to expose yourself to it. I feel like the radiation inside could kill someone upon entering," he muttered, checking the buttons and trying to figure out what to press and how. There were no instructions, and he was tempted to just press all of them, but it was bound to end with the core possibly exploding instantly.
"Contact the Express, Mark. Tell them to move away first, and then we'll see how we can cause it to self-destruct."
He nodded, switching the transmission mode to connect with the Express.
"Himeko, can you hear me?"
"Yes, I can," came the answer, firm and concise.
"Good. Move the Express away, since we're about to figure out how to blow up the core. Go as fast as possible," he ordered, waiting for an answer. Silence for a bit, until she spoke again, a bit worried.
"Will you be fine?" she asked softly, and he simply scoffed slightly.
"Yes, I'll be fine. I'm always fine, up and running. Just move the train away and make sure to not get caught up in the explosion."
"I see," she answered with a tinge of sadness in her voice. "We'll get closer to the nearby planet, then. Just... be careful, alright? I want both of you back alive."
He sighed, speaking back nonchalantly.
"Aye aye, I don't plan on dying unless I do it for a good cause. Worry not, we'll be fine. End of transmission."
He changed the frequency to the one used with SAM, speaking calmly.
"Alright, they should be out of the way. Now, let's figure out this shit," he growled, staring at the buttons. The two of them spent probably around ten minutes just staring, without a clue.
"Why does it always look so easy in movies and all? I see no big red button, nor do I want to just press them at random and take chances."
SAM chuckled, looking down at him.
"Did you really think that movie knowledge would apply?"
He shrugged, staring at the front of the whole thing, his coated fingers searching for something akin to a panel to keep the button locked away. Somehow, he managed to find something, but it was locked away.
"Can you try here, Firefly?"
She kneeled down, checking what Mark was pointing to, somehow getting a grip on it, and pulling the panel out, revealing a hidden part with a few more buttons. It was probably protected by some key, yet brute force worked well.
"Well, I guess this is our button. Let's see," he said firmly, pressing around and adjusting some settings. As soon as he pressed the final button, the alarm rang out in the entire place, and an audio recording warned everyone about the ship self-destructing in half an hour.
"Perfect! Should be enough time for us to leave and make our getaway in peace. I never understood why they made it explode in like five minutes in movies."
He finally stood up, and they both moved back to the lift, ready to leave.
"I guess that it's for the suspense. I seriously see no other reason why that would happen."
The lift took them up, and they both made their way to the exit, taking a different path from the one where they had butchered that large creature to bits. With the alarm ringing in the background, the red light casting an ominous feeling over the entire vessel, they ran to the exit, prepared for a swift getaway. A few more remnants of the parasites were roaming the halls, but it was all for nothing. The duo had decimated everything in their path, reaching the vacuum room once more. SAM grabbed Mark as well, using her thrusters to get away from the ship faster, and they both watched the Express get closer to the planet, until it simply vanished from view.
Mark's heart stopped, cold.
"Firefly, did the Express just..."
"Vanish? I saw that too, but how?"
The answer was something he didn't want; alas, it was the truth. Something was going on, and he had no clue what. From the long-range communication in the universe being cut off, to the weird spaceship infested with some creatures he knew nothing of, to Lucas, the man who was seemingly from the same place at him, the unknowns were piling up.
"Full power, we're going after them. Meanwhile, I'll try to contact them."
He switched the communication channel, while Firefly increased the power output in the thrusters, moving through the void of space with Mark held firmly so he wouldn't just drift off—but just in case, he had his own thrusters.
"Himeko, are you there?"
Static, and no answer. He was hectic now, the worry strangling him.
"HIMEKO! ANSWER, DAMN IT!"
Nothing. The feeling of despair was crawling up his back, and he nearly wished to just force his powers to work so he could get there faster. He switched the communication channel, speaking directly with Firefly.
"No answer. Hell, push it to the limit, please. We have to get there as soon as possible," he snapped, the thoughts crawling his mind, clouding his judgment.
"Mark, calm down for a moment. I can go a little faster, but it would still take us a while to reach it. I'm not as fast as the Astral Express, so we'll have to wait a while until we get there."
He gritted his teeth and waited, feeling the time crush him more than the thought of the suit malfunctioning and ending his life.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone