“No your other left Kat,” Whip whispered urgently, pointing with a gloved hand. “The stallesp network has that hallway covered in warnings about failing structural integrity and radiation leaks. I don’t think we want to head in there unless you want to come out the other side glowing.”

“Fine,” Kat replied sheepishly, turning to her left. “Sorry about that Whip, it’s just that the inside of this place is a mess.”

She reached out, touching the smooth, slightly curved black metal of the ship’s wall. The hallway that they were in, like every other passage in the downed warship, was a tube rather than a square or a rectangle. It wound to the right, curling like a snake inside the innards of the alien battlecruiser.

“I know,” Whippoorwill responded, tension tightening her voice. “I’ve managed to download a full map of the ship from one of its maintenance subsystems, and the crew quarters are absolute chaos. Really, it’s more of a warren than anything orderly like a military base.”

“Wait.” Kat perked up. “If you have a map of the ship then you should be able to know where the surviving-

“Sorry,” Whippoorwill cut her off. “I have maintenance schematics, little more than blueprints really. Hell, I think this file is from the shipyard that built the battlecruiser. It won’t even have any modifications made in the last century, let alone the locations of any of the survivors.”

“Century?” Kat asked, peeking around a corner, the unfamiliar pulser clutched tightly in her right hand.

“That’s what the schematics say,” Whip replied with a shrug. “It sounds like it takes a while to build a ship this big, even with Galactic Consensus technology, so they build them to last. There are some notations on the file indicating that the ship was overhauled in dry dock once every twenty five years or so, but it doesn’t look like there were any major changes other than standard repairs to some of the more fragile containment equipment used on the antimatter reactors.”

“Please tell me that those are still working,” Kat implored, slipping into the new hallway. “That would really be the cherry on top of the sundae wouldn’t it. After all of this struggle and conflict, we all die when a reactor goes critical and cracks a hole in the Earth’s crust.”

“Probably?” Whippoorwill answered hesitantly. “I mean, the radiation sensors in this sector are active and there haven’t been any spikes yet, so…”

Kat winced under her mask, moving in a quick crouch down the hallway. Her head scanning back and forth as she searched for any potential threats. A pair of rounded tunnels branched off from their hallway up ahead. One walkway was dark while the other flickered intermittently, a sure sign that something had happened to the series of lights embedded in the roof of the battlecruisers’ passages.

As she approached, the groan of tortured metal sent Kat diving toward a wall. Her breath caught in her throat as she brought the pulser up in a double handed grip, waiting for something to step into the upcoming intersection.

The sound faded away, replaced by the clicking of cooling metal. Kat swallowed, willing her heart to leave her throat as she eased away from the curved wall of the starship.

“It’s another left up ahead Kat,” Whip’s voice broke the silence as she motioned toward the upcoming intersection. “The lift system is up ahead, but the diagnostics on it are dark. You might be able to climb up an antigrav elevator shaft, but there’s on way in hell I can. Left leads to a series of secondary access tunnels that are used for emergency repairs. They won’t be fun, but at a minimum we’ll have a ladder.”

“But,” Kat began, only to trail off slightly as she looked at the dark passage to the left. “That route doesn’t even have lighting. There’s no way you have access to the security systems. There could be anything lurking over there.”

“Yes,” Whip replied, “but our only other options are to scale a non-functioning anti-gravity lift or to traverse a hallway that I know is about to collapse, and that I know is choked in enough radiation to give both of us a lethal dose before we reach the far end. Then, once we’re on the other side of the ship, we can try and climb the same maintenance tunnels. Of course, there are no promises that there will be power when they get there either. I really don’t have a good read on any of the subsystems that are more than a room or two away.”

“If we’re blind, then I’m leading,” Kat said decisively. “Stay ten seconds behind me, and if you hear any sort of fighting, then back off.”

“If I hear you fighting with a stallesp,” she began, only for Kat to cut her off.

“Then you will back off,” Kat repeated herself sternly. “Look, I’m going to have a hard enough time fighting a high level player on my own, if you’re there I’m going to be worrying about keeping you safe. I might have the luxury of watching your back against ordinary samurai, but that isn’t going to help either of us here. Stay back, and stay safe.”

Whip looked like she wanted to argue with Kat further. From the tense way she held her shoulders to the nervous energy in her twisting hands, everything about the younger woman screamed discontent.

But eventually she nodded, triggering an internal sigh of relief in Kat. Everything she’d said to Whippoorwill was completely true, but at the end of the day it wasn’t her real reason. The idea of Whippoorwill risking her life turned Kat’s stomach. Even thinking about it now was enough to send her heart pounding.

She took a deep breath, pressing her back against the curved wall of the battlecruiser just before the intersection. Kat closed her eyes, mentally willing them to switch into the black and white of her low light vision.

Kat ducked, spinning around the edge and dropping to one knee with the pulser at ready.

There was nothing. An empty hallway stretching into the bowels of the spaceship, interrupted only by a handful of girders that had punched through the tunnel’s walls and obstructed Kat’s view.

Quietly, she activated Shadow, feeling herself blending in perfectly with the dark passage. Kat tip-toed closer to the first obstruction, reaching out with her left hand to touch the rod of super hard metal that had punched through the walkway at almost neck level. It was still warm to the touch from its descent through Earth’s atmosphere, but despite its violent introduction to the tunnel, it was as smooth as a mirror.

She leaned down, slipping under it and moving deeper into the ship. A broken door fizzled to her right, struggling to close on its own but obstructed by a chunk of metal furniture that had been dislodged at some point.

A quick glance inside confirmed Kat was alone, and a second later she was moving down the hallway once again, her eyes trained on the next obstruction. She was almost halfway there when a deep rasping breath stopped her short.

Kat froze for a second, activating Cat Step as she tried to locate the source of a sound. A second later it repeated itself, a pained wheeze that trailed off with a slight whistle. Her head jerked slightly to the side, eyes locking on another empty doorway on the left side of the tunnel.

She couldn’t see whether the door was propped open, or if the crash had destroyed it entirely, but whatever the noise was, it was coming from that room. Steeling herself, Kat cast Levitate before springing into action.

The hallway blurred around her as Cat Step propelled her silently forward. She hopped over the torn metal that blocked the highway, toes touching down gently on the other side as she continued her approach.

Just before the doorway, Kat jumped into the air, not bothering to use a skill as she torqued her body to the side. Her right foot touched the far wall of the battlecruiser and she pushed off, practically running along the wall as she lined her pulser with the yawning doorway.

She barely had a moment to see her opponent, a stallesp with half of its fur burned off, a missing left leg, and most importantly, an ugly snub nosed carbine clutched in its hands. Kat pulled the trigger.

Most of the alien’s chest disappeared as what remained of its body jerked backward, bouncing off of the curved floor of the spaceship from the force of her attack. Its gun clattered to the ground, followed by a wet squelching sound as the rest of the creature’s body slipped to the floor.

Kat landed, cushioning her blow with her left arm as she pushed herself into a roll that ended with her on one knee, pulser in her right hand, elbow stabilized on her upright knee.

Nothing.

Other than the painfully loud sounds of Whippoorwill entering the dark hallway, there wasn’t any noise. Kat crept forward, popping her head into the now empty room before sheathing the pulser and picking up the dead stallesp’s gun.

It was about as long as her arm, made of the same black metal as most stallesp construction. She picked it up, slipping her right hand around the pistol grip but keeping her finger off of the firing stud. The gun was slightly too large to hold properly in one hand, but that was easily rectified as Kat wrapped her left hand around the grip further up on its stock.

She frowned slightly, holding the weapon away from herself and pressing a button she’d found on the underside of the grip. A blade, almost a third as long as the carbine itself, slid out of a concealed housing under the gun’s muzzle.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

It began to hum, buzzing as it slid forward and backward, barely a millimeter at a time but rapidly enough that Kat could barely see its movements. She pressed the button again, and the blade slipped silently back into the gun.

A bayonet then. Not exactly her style, but certainly something she could use if push came to shove. Kat wasn’t exactly sure what material it was made of, but it certainly looked both sharper and more resilient than her own knife. Given that her blade was advertised as one of the best available, even without the carbine’s built in motor it far outclassed anything else she was likely to find on Earth.

Hesitant footsteps drew her attention back to the dark hallway. Kat slung the gun’s fabric carrying strap over her shoulder and walked out into the passage, tapping Whippoorwill on the shoulder as the other woman crept forward.

Whip jumped, yanking her hand from the rounded wall of the passage where she had been trying to feel her way through the dark and fumbling for her crossbow before Kat spoke up.

“There was a mole. I handled it, but we need to be on the lookout for survivors. The fact that none of us would have survived the crash doesn’t mean much. We have no idea of their individual and technological capabilities.”

“Honestly,” Kat continued, cocking her head. “I’m surprised you didn’t hear the gunshot and hold back. That’s what we agreed on after all.”

“I thought it was just the sound of the battlecruiser settling,” Whip answered, shuffling her feet slightly. “The structure has been creaking, groaning and crunching the entire time we’ve been here. Without a shout or something else to clue me in, a single gunshot isn’t all that different from the background noise.”

“Next time I’ll make sure to get into a running gunfight,” Kat said dryly. “Maybe something with a high speed chase running over a fruit cart and some explosions to ensure that you’re fully in the loop.”

“Well,” Whippoorwill whispered back sheepishly, “We should be pretty close to the access tunnels. I doubt there will be anything in there, but after that it’s just a matter of climbing up two floors. From there it shouldn’t be that hard to get to the backup bridge.”

“Are you sure about this?” Kat asked, walking a couple of steps ahead of Whippoorwill, guiding her through the dark. “If I were a survivor, I’d be heading for engineering or the backup bridge. We’re almost certainly going to run into moles if we do this.”

“It’s the only chance I’ll have to reintegrate the ship’s systems,” Whip replied with an uneasy shrug. “Right now I can use the cypher to take control of equipment near me, but the ship is huge. If we’re going to have any chance at clearing it out and ending this turf battle over it, we are going to need to have some semblance of control over any of the still functioning systems.”

Kat blew out a sigh. Unfortunately, Whippoorwill wasn’t wrong. The 3445 should be holding firm outside the battlecruiser, but GroCorp forces weren’t nearly as close as NeoSyne or Tri Holding reinforcements. Her job was to neutralize any threat posed by the downed starship, and if possible provide support to the hovertanks on the ground.

“Fine,” she said reluctantly, grabbing the pulser from her calf and passing the handgun to Whippoorwill. “Take this. If we’re going to do something this dumb, you should at least have a weapon that can punch through stallesp armor.”

“No,” Whip interjected, shaking her head. “I’m not letting you go in there with just a knife. If anyone is going to have the alien gun, it should be you.”

“It should be fine,” Kat corrected her. “I picked up a new toy off of the dead stallesp. I’m not sure exactly what brand of alien space blaster it is, but it’s pretty clearly a gun and at least some of its functions seem to be working. Just remember that when the time comes, you need to keep moving. We don’t have a great idea how resilient these hallways are. For all we know, every gun the stallesp have made will punch straight through any cover we can find. It’s better to dodge and not get shot than to die relying on a door to stop a bullet.”

Whippoorwill nodded, clutching the pulser to her chest with both hands. Kat drifted away from her, leading her partner down the hallway and past another two partial barriers where chunks of the ship’s superstructure had crumpled through the gently curving walls of their tunnel. Finally, she stopped in front of a fairly obvious hatch made of a greenish plastic.

Ten or so seconds later, Whip caught up to Kat, pausing to check the schematics in her smartpanel. She nodded.

“Unless the stallesp have completely reworked this part of the ship,” Whip said quietly, “this should be it. We’ll need to go two stories up before exiting. Then it’ll be a right turn at the end of the first corridor and we’ll be on the sixth deck’s main hallway. From there it’s a straight shot to the backup bridge.”

“Well,” Whippoorwill said, amending her previous statement. “As straight as anything is on this ship. It looks like it snakes gently back and forth with an overall slightly rightward curve, but you get the idea.”

Kat reached down, curling her fingers around either edge of the hatch. She pressed down on the tabs, releasing the lid and pulling it free. Ducking down, Kat shimmied through the opening. The access tunnel curved upwards, curling around the body of the ship like the more horizontal passages.

She passed one landing, stopping at the second. It was a bit of a chore for Kat to lean backward and pop the hatch off of the access tunnel, clearly her body wasn’t built the same as a stallesp’s, but the fifteen or so seconds of struggle gave Whip a chance to catch up.

Kat winced as the hatch clattered to the curved floor of the hallway, wincing slightly at the sudden bright glare from the overhead lights before her perks kicked in and deadened them. Twisting her body, she pushed off of the ladder’s rungs and rolled out onto the battlecruiser’s curved deck, the carbine slung across her chest clattering on the floor.

Gingerly she stood up, pressing the carbine up against her shoulder. Although her exit from the maintenance shaft had been as graceful as possible, that didn’t mean much. Her gun had made enough noise to alert anyone nearby.

Behind her, Whippoorwill clanked up the ladder, cursing loudly enough for her voice to carry. Kat winced slightly, eyes and gun tracking back and forth as she scanned the passage. Despite the clamor she’d made and Whip’s ongoing ascent, nothing moved.

The hallway stood empty, a snaking cylinder of black metal shining in the overhead lights. Here and there the circular outlines of doorways stuck out of the wall, but nothing moved. Even the lights glowed the same gentle yellow, unblinking and without any static or pause.

Really, if it weren’t for the sound of Whip struggling, the entire scene would be too peaceful. Despite the recent crash, it was like the entire floor was stuck in stasis, waiting for something to wake it from its slumber.

With a grunt, Whippoorwill flopped into the hallway, wheezing for breath. Kat surveyed their surroundings one more time before reaching down with her left hand to help the other woman up.

For a second, Whip’s hand lingered on Kat’s arm before Whippoorwill jerked it away, muttering something apologetic and unintelligible.

“How is the path to the backup bridge?” Kat asked, taking pity on the fidgeting woman. “Do we have to worry about radiation or any enemies?”

“No,” Whip answered gratefully. “The backup bridge is in the center of the ship for a reason. The stallesp have a number of concussion dampening fields that are supposed to protect this area of the ship. None of them are rated for the sort of ‘improvised planetary landing’ that it just went through, but things here are still far better off than the outer areas of the ship.”

“That sounds like survivors to me,” Kat grunted, pressing the carbine tight against her shoulder. “If the stallesp knew this section was reinforced, this is almost certainly where they would congregate.”

“Probably,” Whippoorwill agreed. “A number of the rooms have some element of organic matter in them. It certainly looks like they were trying to get to cover only for the crash to shred them. The good news is that there isn’t anything breathing in our section of the ship.”

“Just let me know when that changes,” Kat replied, edging forward. “We’ve already found one survivor. It’s only a matter of time before we find more.”

It took them almost five minutes to work their way down the corridor. Even with Whippoorwill tapped into the stallesp system, Kat insisted on checking intersections and rooms for ambushes.

The hallways were a simple matter, a quick sweep with the alien gun pressed against her shoulder, but the rooms were a bit more grisly. It wasn’t hard for Whip to trigger their doors, but the smell and distressingly sticky interiors were a bit much.

Still, Kat preferred nausea to being surprised by a stallesp that might also have access to the ship’s internal systems. The fact that they didn’t find any ambushers didn’t mean that there weren’t a couple lurking somewhere in the ship. As unpleasant as the task might be, Kat knew that caution had the potential to keep both her and Whip alive.

Finally, a hand on Kat’s forearm stopped her progress. She looked over her shoulder only for Whippoorwill to motion her closer. One more quick review of their surroundings later, Kat leaned in.

“Three survivors,” Whip whispered, pointing to a larger door cut out of the black metal of the spaceship’s hallway. “They’re all in the backup bridge trying to activate emergency systems. I can’t really access what they’re doing without tipping them off that we’re here, but it sure looks like they’re trying to stitch the ship’s network back together. I’m not sure if it will be enough to get it flying again, but they will almost certainly have control of communications, life support, and-”

“Weapons,” Kat finished for her, brow furrowing beneath her mask. “I don’t think things end well for GroCorp or the 3445 if they succeed.”

Kat reached down, checking the knife sheathed at her waist, chewing at her lower lip as she went over their options. One enemy she could handle. That was simply a matter of getting the drop on them and shooting first. With three?

“Fuck,” Kat muttered. “Is there any way you can take control of internal security systems? Maybe give us the edge against them?”

“Sorry Kat,” Whip replied with a shake of her head. “All three of them are in their network right now, and they know it better than me. The lokkel cypher gives me a leg up, but the minute I start poking around in there they’re going to know that someone is on the ship. When the time comes, I should be able to open the door and run enough interference with the automatic turrets to stop the stallesp from using them on us, but beyond that, I won’t make any promises.”

She closed her eyes, rapidly counting down from five as she tried to calm herself. Kat could feel her knuckles whitening as she squeezed the metallic grips of the gun in her hands.

Unfortunately, she hadn’t had a chance to test fire the weapon. It's holographic sights functioned just fine, projecting the view down the carbine’s barrel with a floating sphere hovering in the air in such a way that Kat could see it perfectly no matter how she held the gun. Most importantly, there was a small green indicator in the lower left corner next to a tiny picture of the weapon and a rune indicating the remaining ammunition.

According to Whippoorwill, the display wasn’t visible as anything more than a flickering light for anyone more than a step or so away from the carbine. Enough to betray a sneak attack if Kat were foolish enough to close to point blank range, but not anything that an enemy could actually use to steal information.

In short, the pulser carbine worked. Kat didn’t know how much it would kick or how fast it fired, making any estimation of how she would handle three enemies at once guesswork at best. Still, it wasn’t like there was any other option, and if all else failed, she always had her knife.

Quietly, Kat approached the door to the backup bridge, pausing just outside the massive circle of dark metal. She closed her eyes, casting Shadow and Pseudopod on herself. Biting her lower lip, Kat stretched, cocking her head to the side and letting the vertebrae in her neck pop. Finally she exhaled, opening her eyes once again before lowering herself into a ready crouch, her Pseudopod drawing the combat knife from her hip.

Kat didn’t bother to look back at Whip as she spoke, her eyes trained on the reinforced doorway.

“Open it.”