Chapter 8 - Deconstructing Threats

You put your left foot forward and take a bladed stance with your left arm raised. You curl your fist and the scales shift until a narrow but tall shield forms. You frown, you'd have to crouch to keep your legs from being exposed. and if the path weren't so narrow, you'd have problems with angles. 

The robot right after the first raises arms and with them a fire ax. It seems Ivori has the lack of gravity accounted for it its control. The puppet brings the ax down hard. And right into your waiting shield. Well, not into so much as against. You register that there is some kind of pressure against the shield, and that bits of metal scatter out from around it. You will some of the scales into your hand and they form a grip, from that ignites a sword's blade, and you plant that right into the bot's center of mass.

You look into the red circle on it's face before it too flickers out, and you bash the bot over the side with your shield. It doesn't fall though, it just keeps drifting. You scoff as you advance and see two trying to block the path with their bulk. One has a circular saw and the other seems to be coming at you with bare clamping manipulators. 


Your head starts to hurt as you imagine the shriek the saw might be making if it was in an air environment. Shield or not, you don't want to be anywhere near that. So as the scales start to scatter back onto your hand, you draw the blaster and take aim at the future scrap pile. Staring down the sight, you quickly register that there is something red gleaming on both the saw blade and the clamps. 

"Damned." You swear as you pull the trigger and the blast shoots over its shoulder, "Murdering," Scales shift up you hand and grip the blaster to steady it in your hand. You crouch and set the blaster against your shield like a brace. "Scrap heaps." This time the blaster blows through the saw blade bot without stopping, or hitting any of the robots behind it.

You fire another miss, and another. Shooting these lumbering bots is a bit harder than shooting a metal box sitting on a console.

The clamp bot is almost on you and you growl as you lift your arm up and thrust with the shield, pushing it back. The arms reach out and try to seize you.  You stare as clamps close and open, just shy of piercing your helmet and pinching your face, like some horrible nightmare nanny-bot. You shoot out it's leg. It doesn't fall, because there isn't any gravity, but without the leg holding it to the walkway, you pivot and and strike it hard enough to send it flinging toward the far hangar wall.

You take a few slow strides as you let out a long whistle.  You can finally see your ship now, and she is a pretty thing. Her curves bear all the lethal appeal of a spear head. four double barreled turrets lined her back, and if your instincts served, those six hatches in the back fired anti-fighter missiles. Her golden canopy gleamed in the flickering starlight coming out from the now open bay doors. Just above that gleaming canopy, a golden dancer had been drawn, in a pose of equal parts motion and passion.

"Is this falling in love, all over again?" You ask. The ringing in your ears is back, maybe it's from all the excitement? Zoraida laughs over the channel, but doesn't reply past that. Must be busy, and you see running lights start to blink on across your ship. Your ship, that has a really good sound to it. "My Ship," You almost don't notice the bot running up on you with a hammer. Seriously, was IVORI just making them pick up whatever was in the Engineering section?

Zoraida did mention more lethal robots though, and the power station mentioned an 'mechanical' that wasn't supposed to be there. Shit he was just stalling. He probably didn't expect to kill you with these. You blast the head of the hammer-bot and continue forward, brisk but not running head long.

"There! Just above you!" Zoraida's voice directs you and you look up. On the roof of the room, ten meters up, is another red hatch.

"How is someone supposed to get at that with the gravity on?" You wonder aloud.

"If they have to get to that one, gravity's already failed." Zoraida answers, "Now, jump up and flip the bitch!" Zoraida's voice is encourage, and you crouch to launch upwards. "I've almost got everything ready, that'll slacken up the arms holding the ship in place."

Flight Mode Active 

The words prompt on your helmet as you accelerate mid jump. You turn your head to see two small engines extending out from the pack you have strapped to your suit. Flight suit indeed. You roll your body forward as you draw close and angle your legs to take the fall. The engines turn and flare to slow you down as you do and you land softly on the switch.

Again the scales move over your arms, and root you to the wall as you wrench the switch flipped.

There's a hull shuddering tremor that almost throws you off the ceiling, which relatively speaking is currently your 'floor'. You look up and see several crane arms pull away from the gunship, leaving it free to move.

The janitor bots flail as the walk way is shattered by the shaking and the flaring of the Golden Dancer's engines.

"Golden Dancer." You whisper, reverent at the sight and happy at remembering despite how much your head is starting to hurt.

"That's the name." Zoraida speaks up again and you see more lights turn on.

Suddenly there's a flash and the interior lights of the hangar flash on. You see from the far end of the walk way three metalic forms float out of a heavy set of broken doors. They are have disc shaped heads with several small cameras set into them. Attached to cylindrical bodies with aggressive looking arms. They float through the vacuum with short, unpredictable movements, like insects.

Then a third massive machine stalks out.

It is taller than a man, as your helmet focuses and the sight, like a lens. It's metal limbs look as thick as girders and it has various 'implements' attached to his heavy arms. It's stocky chest bears a proud insignia, declaring it as Imperial. It's disc shaped head is tilted perfectly so three optic sensors are all pointed at you, and they glow bright red. The machine must have had a pristine chrome finish at one time. But now, its arms and legs have a layer of caked, dried, and blackened blood.  

"IVORI." You growl under your breath. The giant robot is hundreds of yards away, your gunship is warmed up and ready to go, and who knows what kind of 'particles' are speeding toward this ship right now.

What do you do?
