The mental abilities of the Ashlyn had been enhanced a little but the physical abilities had not been touched. Perhaps however was working on it wished to keep it so that it was easy to dispose of so as the current rushed down that tentacle Alex was able to free herself as it recoiled in great pain.

It was stunned to the effect that it had not reacted allowing the agent to get to her weapon, the current nearly killing it. Tentacles drooped on the ground and it was still twitching as spasms rushed through it.

Alex opened fire, the stunned creature having no chance. There was no cover for it and I was easy for her to destroy though the others were connected to it and had been aware of it's passing they could not afford to send others immediately after her like normal lacking the numbers.

They could only remain alert and maintain what they were doing. In the empty hanger there was no machine, just the dead Ashlyn. There was some blue slime smeared on the floor here and there when the tentacles of the Ashlyn made contact with the floor on occasion leaving a trail of bread crumbs so to speak as far as where it had been going.

She had an easy out if she should take it right there unless the machine was on her ship.

With the alien dead, all that was left was the war machine. It was damaged from the explosives and electricity. But, Alexandra's suit was practically out of power. She lost her physical strength and speed tht the suit provided. Her ship was here. She could run but that meant leaving the others behind.

Alexandra went into the ship and grabbed some heavier weapons. She had a high powered rifle and more microbombs. If she finds that robot again, she will find a way to avoid it or disable it. She then contacted the fighter that was up in orbit, informing the agent of what happened down here. Then the others can be warned as reinforcements arrive. Armed, the agent headed out of the hangar, keeping close to the wall as she peeked out of every corner. If it was clear, she would move quickly to the next room and begin her search for the others.

The machine had been no place around that she could tell. There were no signs of it ever having been here though that was not a surprise as it was not. Alex was unopposed as she gathered up more fire power from her ship before contacting Anise and appraising her of the situation at the base.

“Damn. These bozos are incapable of doing anything with their engines out. I'll transmit that to whoever I can reach and come back you up. I'll be there in five minutes.”

Unless Alex was against this and had a good reason not to get some back up Anise was coming. She was aware that she was about 15 minutes out so she was going to push her craft to get to the base.

The base was quiet without the alarm going off and all the people taken who knows where. The trail of slime lead through the base though she checked the labs as she passed them. There was the mess, the barracks, four labs, a communications room and a storage area which was quiet large seeing that this was originally a pirate base.

The rooms where empty though the third lab had that black cube sitting out in plain view. The machine was in there too where she had seen it before the hanger. It was not looking at her and a quick look before dipping out of sight revealed that it was either in standby mode or off as their had been no flashing lights active behind that face plate.

Not taking a chance she avoided it rounding a corner in time to see another bug, this one far larger than the one she had been dealing with being the size of a mid sized dog. There was a buzzing sound coming from the lab that the creature seemed to be guarding.

There were so many reasons why Anise should not come to the surface. Right now, Anise is the only agent still safe and can inform the others as they arrive. There was no telling if whatever was on that cruiser was making repairs right now. The final reason was if they both fall, there would nothing stopping the alien attackers from taking what they need and leaving. If Alexandra falls, Anise would have to disable or shoot down whoever tries to escape the planet.

This of course left Alexandra alone to fight the alien threat which seemed to have come from out of nowhere. She spotted the currently offline robot. Moving onwards, she spotted another alien creature. It was larger but thankfully Alexandra brought some heavier weaponry with her. She was able to recharge her suit back on her ship so she had that as her last line of defense if she was ever grabbed by those tentacles again. The ADD agent went to one knee and steady her aim before opening fire from long range at the large alien insect. After a few shots, whether it killed it or not, she would retreat into another room just in case the robot decided to come investigate the conflict.

The soldier had not seen the worker in a timely fashion and with the distress pheromones that lingered in the air it was alert. The link with the hive mind was lost and it had acquired the information that the worker had gained, albeit it did he worker no good the hive was now aware of how the suit functioned or at least one aspect of it.

So the soldier was vigilant. There was little cover here and rather than remain out in the open it stuck more to the shadows, the lights near the lab disabled to grant it some concealment though the red coloration of the bug did not assist it all that well. Though well enough given that the first shot missed it.

The bug spun in her direction and rushed forward, Alex's suit assisting with her aim it seemed that this one was incapable of launching any sort of slime or the effective range was much closer. Tentacles whipped out from it's sides as it came though it was still to far to use them.

A shot meant for it's head hit a tentacle that interposed itself causing half the tentacle to explode and the bug to screech like a lobster placed in boiling water. Additional shots killed it before it could get close but Alex high tailed it out of there in case of that machine though she had not heard it . She was alone in this convincing Anise to hold back until help arrived.

Close to the lab with the machine she would have heard it if it activated as something like that would have been incapable of stealth.

In just three shots she managed to take out that soldier before falling back which she would have done whether she took it out or not with that last shot.

Alexandra listened. Nothing. No alien bugs came nor did the machine. The large bugs took more shots to kill but were still no match for laser weaponry. Taking a slow breath, the agent calmed herself and moved out. She returned to where the bug was killed, keeping close to the walls as she checked to see if any more creatures were coming. Only when she was certain it was clear would she start to approach where the alien was guarding.

Silence had been the answer she received rather than a swarm of enemies or others checking out the noise that her shots induced as if there were none present. She was aware that there had been something that she heard in that lab though and sneaking back she could see the scorch marks on the floor from her first missed shot as she grew closer to the bug, dead on it's back with a lone tentacle blasted off.

The chitin looked thicker than it was on the worker and the mandibles larger. Her knowledge about earth ants could be misleading here but it probably wasn't as it seemed that this one was guarding the room and it's larger size indicated it was a soldier, the other a worker. At least that was the logical conclusion here.

Both soldier and worker could be taken out with energy weapons and that was the important thing.

She was unable to determine what caused the buzzing earlier but looking into that room revealed that the trail of blue slime continued up to a wall and vanished though closer inspection revealed that there was a glob of blue slime on the wall over an area of the wall that could be depressed to open up a section of the wall that lead further into the place.

This lab was abandoned currently though seemed to be pristine as far as dust went. There was a centrifuge her and vials and beakers of that blue slime as well as the green. In a locked cabinet had been all manners of drugs and there was a table here. It looked as if the lab was converted over to a medical bay given some of the additional equipment here that she would see in a doctor's office. A sink, a box of disposable gloves, a soap dispenser and a machine that blew out hot air to dry one's hands. This was the mundane though if she looked she would find bandages, a med kit and the stuff to treat minor injuries.

No activity at all. Alexandra saw the dead alien bug and saw another lab. The beakers showed slime similar to what the aliens were spitting out. So this lab was studying them? That may explain why they were here in the first place. But, why didn't the agents here notice? The Russian woman noticed the slime could be pushed and it even opened doors somehow. Her only guess was the other agents were taken this way. With her weapon at the ready, Agent Losev continued deeper into what could possibly be an alien hive.

Studying the bugs or the slime at the very least. There seemed to be no place for live specimens that would explain the presence of the bugs though the section of the wall she touched depressed and a panel slide open revealing a corridor about 10 meters long.

There were areas on the floor with portions of smeared slime from incidental contact she had assumed and though the passage was not illuminated there was light from the end of the corridor and a room there.

Creeping along she eventually could see into that room. There had been more advanced medical tech in here, a computer set up at a desk and six clear cylinders each with one scientist stuffed inside. The women were unconscious as a white gas as thick as fog pumped through each chamber probably some sort of drug to keep them unconscious. Each of the cylinders had a read out on it showing the vitals of the being within and sensors scanned the occupants to keep appraised to their heart rates, oxygen in take and the levels of that gas. It was probably controlled by the computer which was on and it seemed that this was a secret lab that no one knew about. Perhaps the women knew about the slime in the other room but not anything here.

Assuming the bugs came from here there were six cylinders so no more than six though the workers were small enough to have been stuffed in two per cylinder. Having killed a soldier though that accounted for one of the chambers so 10 workers at most though as far as handling and safety reasons it was probably one bug to a tube.

From the ceiling though something dropped down upon Alex, the larger insect catching her eye as it fell though other bugs dashed out from the shadows and beneath desks a mix of soldiers and workers though the exact number she could not tell but there were roughly a dozen, the smaller ones fired globs of green slime at her while the larger ones moved in to take advantage of the situation hoping that she was distracted it seemed.

Alexandra found the other agents even ones she thought died from the war machine's attacks. She did not have time to look around before a large heavy bug fell down on top of her. The other smaller bugs revealed themselves as they rushed out to try and subdue the human woman. "Get off of me!" she screamed as her entire suit discharged through the soldier's limbs and body. Her suit would help deal with the heavy weight of the now hopefully dead alien. It's larger body would act as cover against the green goop as she grabbed her rifle and tried firing at the charging workers. She was so close to saving them all. She just had to deal with these last few...

The bug was fried falling away it hit some of the slime that had been destined for her. She fired at the charging soldiers, the workers supporting them with ranged fire as they spat that slime. There had been roughly a dozen of them, half seemed to be soldiers and if she had not been caught up in the heat of the moment she would have realized that not all of these bugs could have come from the cylinders.

Several of the soldiers dropped before getting close blasted though the tentacles of one of them managed to wrap about her hips.

The fighting was quick and brutal with only four of the things left, three of which were workers one of which was securely holding her trying to hinder her from evading the slime of the two others or so she might have rationalized.

Some slime managed to clip her left shoulder forcing her back but without anything to latch on to she had managed to get lucky hear. From outside the room she hear a large crash and the scurrying sounds of more of the bugs approaching this area in a hurry.

Another Ashlyn targeted her weapon trying to goop up the end of it as it launched more slime in her direction.

Bugs were shot down one after another, Alexandra standing her ground against poor odds. There was no hope of out running these things and their green slime. It was desperation, fear of being taken again. She did not want to imagine what these things would do to her.

Green slime her her shoulder with a wet smack. The blow knocked her back but thankfully the only thing sticking to it was some of her hair. The last soldier grabbed her around the waist. But the result was the same as the previous creatures that tried this. She released her suit's energy, running a current of electricity through the tendrils and directly into the soldier's body.

This allowed Alexandra to keep moving while firing at the remaining workers. Once she dealt with them or the noise of scurrying grew closer, the ADD agent would turn her attention to the open door. She pulled out a new thread of microbombs and tossed them out the door before closing it behind her. The charging Ashlyn were about to get a big surprise when they swarm into the room.

She rushed to the console, trying to find a way to free the imprisoned agents. There was no telling how many bugs were here. They needed to get out of her right now.

That soldier fell away too as electrical current raced through it. The remaining workers were easier to deal with given how her suit assisted her and the fact that they were far less durable than their larger kin.

The micro bombs used and the door to the room closed Alex moved to the computer seeing that it was in that same hybrid language she had encountered earlier. Though she did not know the language there were words that she remembered from earlier and she could tell what many of the common phrases on the screen meant.

The computer was monitoring the cylinders and it seemed to be monitoring all those cylinders. Life signs looked good and turning off the case was something she managed to figure out. Yet any second she had thought she would hear the bombs going off though she heard nothing.

Time seemed to stand still for the time being and a light on each cylinder went from green to yellow as a beep announced that the gas was no longer being cycled through the cylinder. The cylinders would not open yet until the last of the gas siphoned through them she realized though as she had checked on the progress and discovered this she had seen one stationary Ashlyn hidden in the shadows near the tanks furthest to the back.

It was watching her and while it was as large as a soldier it was clearly a drone given the wings. None of the others had wings though it was a deeper red more of a maroon color that allowed it to blend in to the shadows a bit better. Did the alternate color mean anything or was it just a simple effect of being older than the others. It was watching her, perhaps waiting for an opening.

She was confused on why the bombs had not gone off yet. There were several moving in the halls and now it was just silence. The consoles were in the same broken language as the rest of the lab. But, she managed to find a way to shut the pods off. Soon, the other agents will be freed and they can see about getting the hell out of this place.

Alexandra looked around to see if there were any weapons in the room. The agents will need to be armed if they were to help with the escape effort. It was during the search she found another alien bug that seemed to be watching her. Why it did not attack sooner she had no clue. But after being attacked by these things and a giant robot, Alexandra was not about to take any chances.

She brought her rifle up with the intent to fire at the creature. If it was like the other workers, this would end quickly.

The weapons here were mostly tools for first aid, at best improvised weapons such as needles, scissors and such though there was one blaster stored in a desk, perhaps the go to weapon of whatever researcher had been working here, or a back up. There was one other weapon here though, a rather obvious rifle hanging on the wall.

It was not an energy weapon but a sonic one directing blasts of sound in one direction. Of course the wielder would hear the sound as well but the brunt of the blast was propelled forward. The operator of the device would hear it just as loudly as the recipient and Alex would have either deduced it was a pointless weapon if not for the fact someone crafted it. Either for a species of deaf creatures, emitted sound in a frequency that went unheard by the species that used the weapon or more likely then the others the weapon was a fire ax so to speak, the Ashlyn were vulnerable to sound, killed or probably stunned by it. Stun was more likely given the alarms that went off earlier and perhaps it was some sort of capture weapon in the event that the bugs got free or a means of transporting them into and out of the tanks when the gas wasn't in effect.

Whatever the reasoning she discovered the Ashlyn drone watching though as soon as she raised her weapon she felt a jerking tentacle wrap about an ankle and pull as it scurried to get out of the way.

A large Ashlyn soldier was there hoping to distract the agent long enough to throw off her shot that splattered against the wall. It was in a quandary seeing her fighting, reasoning that she would simply fry the soldier with her suit it searched for something, anything as tentacles coiled about a fire extinguisher on the wall, ripping it off only to toss it straight at the agent when it came back into view seeking to grasp something else to throw straight away since touch was out hurling objects had been it's primary attack though it had been startled into quick action seeking to concentrate a bit better now if it had been able too.