Ania quickly attempted to spin around to try to save the Trixian royal. Instictively, An did the same but it not quick enough.

With a surprised shout, the pink haired beauty was yanked off her feet. Within seconds the poor royal found herself being up and away from the platform. The tentacle continued to carry the young Trixian over the near bottomless pit towards to one of the ever hungry flower pods that seemed to populate most of the hulk. It opened its petals as it showed hundreds and hundreds of feelers that all seemed to dance excitedly in anticipation of tasting the Trixian as she was pulled helplessly towards the creature.

The only thing that Octavia had to defend herself was the weapon that Ania had handed her. As the Trixian attempted to use it she had a choice she could attempt to fire it at the pod which would be difficult for a princess unaccustomed to firing weapons from awkward. Desperation sunk in as there was only one way that the pink haired female could assure a hit. She jammed the barrel of the pistol into the tentacle and pulled the trigger.

Instantly the pink haired beauty began to fall as she screamed. She did not fall far before another tendril wrapped around her waist. This time though it was Ania whose tentacle had caught her not one of the flowers’.

Octavia did not have long to even be thankful, the monstrous creature reared up and slammed down on the monorail. The poor metal was already groaning under the weight, snapped under the violent movement. The four women let out cries of surprise as the entire platform collapsed. With one loud crash, it landed on top of another monorail just slightly below them.

The Princess was not sure what divine protection had managed to protect them, but all four were still alive….somehow. Almost at once Ania tendril had put the Trixian royal on her feet as the agile alien herself got back on her feet. An assisted her fellow handmaiden back up to her feet as they could not be sure how long this platform would remain balanced on the monorail. The four of them soon scrambled off the monorail over to a nearby corridor. There at least for the moment they were safe, as the Trixians gasped and caught their breath after such a harrowing ordeal. Still it was clear they had a long way to go.

"Come .." Ania carefully nudged An as an indication that the healthy handmaiden was bound to relay the same command to the remainder of her people. "We have to move on before anything else arrives on the scene." She had been aware of their state, that the situation was exhausting and grew all the more dire with every encounter aboard that hellish prison on which they had crashed, but the noise of yet another conflict which involved gunfire would inevitably draw attention to their presence.

It was impossible to rest and the foursome was bound to leave their latest nightmare in the wake of their advance, hopefully forever forgotten save for when they actually had to head back to their escape vessel. She wound up supporting Enru as much as possible in order to allow the other Trixians to recover whilst pressing onward, determined to reach their destination without further interruption from the outside world.

The royal Trixian didn't have to wait for long in order to discover what exactly awaited the four at the end of their journey. Vibrant fluctuations of light lit up the far end to corridor they currently traversed, lulling the dull metallic walls in constantly changing hues of every color in the book. Every brief flare sent a tremor through the floor as though the two had been summoned forth by the same source, the sound of heavy machinery up ahead certainly indicative of what lingered up ahead.

A voluminous chamber opened itself up to them shortly after, leaving them nearly at the apex whereas the source of both noise and light revealed itself to them in the form of an ebony colored spire with a swirling vortex in the middle of the ancient construct which periodically pulsed in flashes of various colors. Once again several walkways dictated the paths they could take, but thus far nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It was noisy, but surprisingly tolerable by comparison to everything else they had suffered through.

According to their map they were finally there, at the center of the colossal hulk, but upon looking down they did have another surprise lingering in the relative darkness between each pulse of light. The entire lower sections had been riddled with the smaller yet agile specimen they had encountered numerous times, their bodies dormant as though they had been caught up in deep slumber which had the huntress lower her voice until it became obvious that they had yet to wake.

"I suppose that's it, then .." Bright blue eyes skimmed over the structure at the center of the chamber, wondering if An even had any experience with regards to flicking off the switch on that thing, for the lack of a better term. "Have you ever seen anything like it? Do you think you can deal with it?"

Ania nudged the brunet who then carefully got the attention of the Princess and Enru with a few hand signals. The shorter handmaiden nodded back to Ania as they prepared to head out. The four of them had been worn out but there was no time to rest. The creatures were simply relentless and there seemed to be no part of the hulk that was safe. And the more encounters the women came across the more noise was made and the more attention they would get.

The poor women had to advance if they were to find some means to escape this nightmare that was the hulk. The only way they were really going to find any rest would be able to find out how to stop the gravity that was keeping their ship trapped in the hulk. Hopefully they would be able to find it soon as Ania wound up supporting the poor injured blonde Trixian so that her fellow Trixians could recover from the chase so far.

The four continued on as they tried to find some end to the ordeal that they had gone through as they traveled through the hulk. Eventually though there was some sort of light that was at the end of one of corridor. It flickered as if it was only getting power sporadically lighting the halls with different colors. Every once a while there was a particularly strong flare up, which was accompanied by a tremor that shook this part of the hulk. As the women approached they soon could hear heavy machinery indicating that this part of the hulk was still active.

They slowly approached the end of the corridor until it opened out into the chamber that was huge. In the middle of chamber was an ebony colored spire that had a swirling vortex. There was lights and noises that pulsed and produced sights and sounds that filled chamber. It would have been quite distracting if they had not already gone through so much to make it to this part of the ship. And they at least had the luxury of choosing one of several walkways to get to the spire and figure out how to turn off the gravity.

However a particular strong pulse of light revealed a new, potentially deadly, problem. In the darkness of the lower sections where numerous, perhaps hundreds, of the smaller creatures that had threated to overrun the Trixians on the bridge. It was terrifying to see so many down there, but they were not moving at least. In fact they appeared to be quite asleep as if they were hibernating until something woke them.

“Yes your right,” Whispered An. “Unfortunately I have not seen anything like it. However if we are going to escape I will have to figure out how it work.” The young handmaiden shook her head. “You will need to cover me as I make my way up there, I’ll have to see if there is someway to shut that thing down.”

"I'll do what I can." Ania calmly responded, briefly letting her eyes dip to the sea of lethal adversaries below. "However, I don't believe we'll last long enough in case you haven't finished by the time they wake up." Far too many to fight resided on the bottom of the chamber, squirming and groaning in their sleep, but they remained dormant nevertheless.

In essence Ania remained a huntress, destined to battle against the horrors of this world and the next among her travels throughout the universe. She wasn't a scientist, unable to discern which repercussions would follow in the wake of simply blowing their obstacle to bits which would not only rouse those beasts from slumber hence attempting to shut it off seemed to be a most sensible idea for the moment at hand although staying around for these vile creatures to rouse from slumber dampened her thirst for adventure a little bit

It was simple enough to ascend to the masterpiece of engineering with which An found herself confronted and the Trixian quickly discovered a loose panel alongside the main body of it. Many years had passed since anything here had been last used, but everything appeared to be in order.

An unfortunate discovery awaited the lovely female for when her eyes finally laid themselves unto the inner machinations of the machine, there weren't any cables or switches to manipulate. Several miniscule energy beams had been connected through a series of slightly protruding nodes, seemingly powering various systems which were indicated through red and green lights depending on their active or inactive status.

The nodes could be turned around their own axis as An was bound to experiment and promptly discovered their ability to shift, absorbing a single beam from virtually any direction while she could decide on where to guide the resulting energy. In essence they were limited to transferring energy from node to node, but now An only had to figure out which ones did which lest they might be in for a horrible surprise.

Ania responded calm as the looked down to the at sea of monsters that lie dormant below. Below the four women the monsters squirmed in their slumber, some occasionally groaned as if they would wake up any moment. If all that mass of creatures woke, not even someone of Ania skills would be able to stop them.

An gulped a bit, a rare moment of panic set in the handmaiden. Being an elite guard assigned to guard Trixian royalty, she was not show fear. However the fact that even their blue skinned companion found this intimidating, gave the brunette pause. The fact that the huntress did not believe she could not last long against the horde below should the creatures wake from their slumber and discover the four women that stood just above them. Whatever An did, she was going to have to do it as quietly as possible and as the quicker the better.

Fortunately the shorter handmaiden, climbing the mysterious device was relatively easy, and the Trixian made quick work of it. She soon found a panel that was loose, as if it was some sort of maintenance panel that she could remove to take a closer look inside.

As the brunette quietly moved the panel to side, she finally was able to look inside to see how this machine worked. However to her surprise, there was no cables to remove, no switches to flip. Instead there was energy beams that when from one node to another. A single light on the node seemed to indicate how they worked, whether they were active or inactive. A very strange method to run such a device.

The brunette had no choice but to experiment, first starting with nodes themselves. After a bit of work, An discovered that the nodes could be shifted allowing them to adjust how and where they absorbs beams. It was an extremely weird method, but for the handmaiden she realized how less maintenance this method used. Now all she had to do was figure out which one was controlling the gravity without waking the creatures below.

Flashes of red and green appeared in front of An with each experimental touch, connecting node upon node although without inscriptions and century old machinery, one could only guess as to how everything functioned together in harmony. She seemed to be making progress of some kind as previously unconnected nodes somehow lit up in spite of her working on an entirely different portion of the apparatus.

Suddenly another color appeared. It lit up blue, swiftly followed by another red light flashing white before turning yellow. Somehow there was more to it than it seemed, but an equally pleasant as well as sobering experience washed over the whole group as the earth quaked beneath the Trixian handmaiden and the platforms holding them aloft trembled under increasing pressure. It became clear what had happened to anyone as their bodies felt heavier, harder to keep as their muscles strained against artificial forces.

She unknowingly dialed up the gravity in the area and felt the effects herself as her own weight compelled her to descend onto the floor. It tore on her, slowly growing beyond twice the natural order and one could only imagine what the horrors below took away from the situation. An had to reverse the process. Applying everything currently lit up on the board in reverse seemed to do the rest of what the lovely brunette sought to accomplish as gravity began to fade away, slowly but surely lulling them in a zero gravity field.

An had to rush in order to return before they wound up helplessly floating around in that growing bubble of zero-g. However, they had to make their way back and thus far they perceived of a few high pitched and seemingly displeased screeches from the depths below.

As An played with the nodes flashes of red and green light appeared connection on node to another. The brunette wished that she had some instructions or even diagrams that would be able to help understand what to do. Her only indication was that nodes that were not connected were now beginning to light up despite the handmaiden’s work on a different part of the strange and ancient device.

It was then that something strange happened, a blue light appeared. An did not know what to make of it. Almost instantly another light appeared, this time alternating rapidly from red to white and back for several seconds before finally turning yellow. The handmaiden did not know what to make of it, until the entire area began to tremble. The brunette suddenly felt her body become heavier as if something was pulling her down. But it was not pressure in any one area, it was across the brunette’s entire nubile body.

Her body continued to be pulled down towards the ground as it got heavier and heavier. The creatures below had to be noticing this. “Oh Goddess!” The handmaiden had to do something quickly lest her own weight pulled off the apparatus to the wave of creatures below. The brunette fought hard to stabilize herself and begin to go backwards through the steps that had gotten her to this point. With luck, An hoped to reverse what she had just done. Slowly but surely her body became lighter and lighter.

Soon An had completely reduced the gravity down to nothing. Now the brunette had to hurry back to others before she found herself helpless. Already she could hear the screeches of the monsters below, not thrilled with the situation. The handmaiden began to make her way down to the others.

Soon An rejoined with the others, pulling herself along the railing whereas with a little force the handmaiden could propel herself forward just enough to close short distances reliably. They happened to be accompanied by the sound of stirring monsters, however, ear piercing screams resounding off the cavernous chamber in their wake as soon as the four of them got the hell out of dodge.

Slim metallic protrusions jutted from the walls along the corridors and served them in their efforts to move along despite having to move through zero gravity as though the former creators themselves had been faced with necessary maintenance and thought it wiser to disable artificial gravity locally rather than try and invest more manpower into setting up measures to defy it. In any case none of them actually had the time to contemplate any of their architecture much further considering what immeasurable forces they had been up against.

It was a race against time and everyone knew it. Shaking them off had been virtually impossible and detours had to be made for what insanely twisted maniac would return to that massive creature which could practically move around freely now that gravity no longer impaired it.

A mob of creatures followed in their wake and while they lagged behind, they would remain within ear shot and drew upon the scent of their prey to stay on their trail. It was fortunate that they, too, had to make sacrifices in their agility to follow them, but not nearly as much. Solely through a period of initial confusion did the four manage to cover more ground than they had.

Somehow the four managed to drag themselves back to that familiar flower pod and the open hatch nearby, leading to the more or less relative safety of the Trixian research ship. The crowd of predators seen here earlier appeared to have dispersed, but looking for them had been beyond feasible to the women who happened to be out of breath and exhausted.

Ania did not have the time to do a full sweep of the area nor their escape vessel and would have to trust that every handmaiden could defend herself for the moment as first An, then Enru had been lifted up by these powerful tentacles. Octavia soon followed them through the opening whereupon Ania climbed inside last, evidently ranking them higher than herself in their struggle for survival.

"We have to seal the hatch, or the entire portion of the ship before taking off." Needless to say the hatch itself was downright shattered thanks to previous waves of blood thirsty creatures who sought to feast upon the former Trixian crew. Currently they had no trouble with the opening since they had been stuck in the ancient hulk, but the moment they took off, everything including their oxygen would be sucked out into space. "You two should prepare us for takeoff while I and Octavia remain behind in order to take care of this."

She was unsure as to how Enru was holding up and chose to have the Princess assist her personally. An seemed to be more technologically versed than the previously injured handmaiden, but they worked as a team throughout years of guarding the Princess hence keeping them together appeared wiser than tearing them apart in a most crucial moment of their journey.

An moved as fast as she could given it was zero gravity. The handmaiden had some minor experience with zero gravity during her training so she was at least knew what to do. The brunette soon made it back to the other three women, which seemed to be just in time. The creature below made a horrible ear piercing screams, it was a though An had thrown a rock at wasp’s nest.

The four women tried to quickly move down the corridor as best they could. In the case of Enru, the blonde injured handmaiden, it actually made it easier to move. It meant that she did not have to support her injured body. Unfortunately for the Princess, it was actually to harder. She never had to deal with zero gravity before so was unprepared for the concept of not walking down the hallway. The pink haired royal would have to rely on the help of the others if she wanted to move at any speed down the hallway.

There was hand holds that made movement down the hallway easier, it seemed that whoever created this hulk wanted to be able to move in zero gravity if needed. That would make it easier for the four to make their way back.

Behind them, they could hear the creatures. At first the women seemed to be gaining ground as the creatures seemed to have trouble moving in this zero gravity environment. But then quickly, way too quickly, the sounds of the creatures had begun to get closer and closer as it was evident that the monsters were not nearly as hampered by the lack of gravity as the Trixians and their one lone ally was.

At what seemed like forever, the four women had arrived by the remains of the flower pod and the hatch that was just above it. There was the ancient Trixian ship and their chance to escape. Octavia tried to listen to see how close the creatures were, but she could not behind her own exhausted breathing.

The young royal struggled to catch her breath, there was a sudden shout that got her attention. The pink haired beauty looked up to see that An had already been positioned in the hatch of the Trixian vessel. Enru was being brought up at that very moment by Ania’s tentacles. No sooner than the blonde handmaiden been place in her partner’s arms, then tentacles soon wrapped around Octavia’s waist. Within moments she found herself being propelled up to the hatch and potential safety.

Ania finally was able to make her own way to the hatch, now they were all at least in the ship. Unfortunately the hatch was absolutely destroyed by the creatures that previously invaded the vessel. It meant they would have to find a way to fix the hatch or at least seal if off from the rest of the ancient vessel. Else this ship would be far from space worthy. The Trixian’s alien companion quickly realized and had opinion about try going about fixing it.

An instantly didn’t like it and was about the protest it. However now was not the time. There were more of the creatures trying to find the four of them and would be upon them in no time. Also An could not be sure that the ship was clear of monsters, monsters that would fine Enru easy prey is she was left alone. “Fine, but I am charging you with the safety of the Princess. You will make sure no harm will come to her.”

"You need not tell me twice, now hurry up and move along. We've got work to do." Azure eyes scanned the premises, examining the three women available to aid in their escape from the hellish prison that damned hulk had become and with an affirming nod toward An did the huntress direct her attention to the royal, albeit briefly before beckoning Octavia to stand off to the side and keep a watchful eye on their surroundings. While the two handmaidens headed straight for the engine room since kicking off the engines had to be done before going over the controls themselves.

"All I need you to do, Princess, is watch out for any of those things crawling about. I'd hate to disappoint you now and the easiest way to get the two of us killed is if we get jumped by surprise." In the meantime Ania approached some of the cylindrical containers scattered about the biologic compartment of the vessel they found themselves in earlier, looking at them up close before exploring the surface with her tentacles.

She might not see much of the process itself or have any deeper understanding, but soon Octavia could see the metallic outskirts bend around these blue appendages as they sliced into the protective alloy and practically cut an enormous chunk out of it which the lavender hued amazon proceeded to sculp into a massive square piece.

"Alright, I think that should hold for a while .." It was then Ania headed over to the gaping opening and attached the piece to the walls in much the same way, adhering it to the open hatch which had been sealed shut under the growing noise of high pitched screams and menacing snarls. They would not be alone for long and once the huntress finished, it was time for the two to head further inside.

"We should seal off this section on our way to the bridge, just in case any of them get through before takeoff." She did not have to shoot any of them, fortunately, but sealing this portion was only part of the plan. If their seal did not hold or others remained in the unchecked portion of the ship, Ania sought to have them separated until they all reunited in the relative safety of the bridge. Of course they had to move past the corpse of that massive beast in the corridor anew, but at least they didn't have to worry about fighting it again.

Octavia looked on as the group split up. It was telling that An helped Enru up and began to move with her to the engine room. Prior to today, the brunette handmaiden would not left her royal charge behind while she helped Enru to the engine room, regardless of how injured the blonde Trixian was. The situation had forced the handmaiden to trust their blue skinned alien companion, while the two guards made their way deeper into the ship to try to start up the ancient machine.

The Princess attention was soon turned to Ania as she explained what to do. The pink haired royal was glad when Ania told her to keep an eye for any of those creatures. Octavia was no warrior and no engineer, so shooting or building was not something she was going to excel at. Shouting a warning about a monster on the other hand, that was an entirely different matter. She was pretty good at that.

The Princess looked around trying to keep out for more of the disgusting creatures until she heard a loud metallic crunching sound. The Trixian royal turned around just in time to see Ania’s tentacles finish ther work of cutting a huge chunk out one of the containers nearby. It was amazing to see how easily Ania was able to it.

With little effort, the lavender warrior moved the now separated portion of the container to the opening on the wall. The Princess could hear beyond it the horrible sounds of screams and snarls, as those abominations got closer and closer. Ania in a simple motion shoved the container into the entrance to form a perfect barrier from those dreadful creatures.

Already Ania was planning their next move, That makes sense. We should be able to seal this part of the ship off. Not only would it keep the new creatures off the ship, but it should protect them from dealing with any decompression. The pair soon began to move again, Octavia was a little concerned about running past the massive beast on the ground, but its lay there dead and the Princess pressed on…

The beast was slain and there was nothing for them to fear on their way to the bridge. Instead of nearing imminent slaughter from any creatures hiding aboard the ship, they had been met with an eerie silence that stretched on for the brief duration of their journey.

Admittedly sealing off the ruptured biology section had been a sensible idea were it not for the fact that Ania could neither understand nor read the Trixian tongue hence none of the symbols made any sense to the sapphire hued amazon. Octavia happened to be a member of the royal family and the huntress doubted that there was any room for such matters in her life, especially due to her having two handmaidens to do these tasks in her stead.

However, An and Enru had not arrived yet, presumably kept busy in the engine room where they had to wrap things up before coming to the bridge itself. Ania considered leaving for them, but that entailed dragging Octavia along with her once more.

"Shall we wait for your handmaidens or should we head to them instead?" She left the matter open for Octavia to decide since they appeared to be relatively safe for the time being. It was solely a matter of time before their makeshift seal in the hatch would be torn asunder.

The creature fortunately was just as still as it had been when it had finally been killed. It made their trip to the bridge so much easier as they did not encounter anything on their way to the bridge except just eeire silence.

Octavia assumed that Ania could read the Trixian tongue as the royal’s mind was able to translate the meaning of anyone nearby seem like they were talking in Trxian to pink-haired princess. So the princess had assumed that her alien protector had made the right call as oppose to an educated guess on her part.

As the young royal looked around on the bridge, she could not see any signs of her handmaidens, An and Enru. She could only assume that they were still in the engine room, but she hoped they had not gotten in trouble.

We should head to them. I just want to makes sure they were safe. To be fair, their was little the pink haired royal could do but to make sure Ania was aware of any trouble should they come across any. It was the well-endowed alien that was the true warrior among them, definitely not the young royal.

"It is your decision." Ania thought it best to set out for the other two as well. Safety came in numbers and on the final stretch of their journey, the confident amazon did not wish to lose any of them.

Nothing out of the ordinary appeared to be happening to the two handmaiden initially, but working under pressure they would soon discover that being aboard their escape vessel did not translate into actual safety. Slowly but surely the two of them managed to bring the engines back online, but under the guise of the resulting sounds could barely hear the metallic thunks of claws which indicated the arrival of unwanted company.

Suddenly one of the ceiling panels fell away and Enru had been pounced on the chest by one of the more nimble specimen, knocking the air out of her lungs whilst her body smashed into the wall behind her, but thankfully far from hurt in the same manner as the first time around. It managed to tear away part of her uniform in the resulting fall, uncovering some minor portions of skin although it was preferable to having her flesh punctured. Due to that particular lack of leverage it actually managed to slip away, losing hold of its prey which allowed An to line up a shot.

Everything happened far faster than anticipated. An found herself on the initiative once the first creature tackled Enru in the chest and managed to dispose of it with a single shot, however more happened to be pouring inside and while some had been picked off without trouble, one of them did manage to rush up to the handmaiden and deliver a far more menacing blow than the other woman had suffered thus far.

It pierced her lower calf with one of its scythe shaped forelimbs like a hot knife cutting through butter, slicing deep into the muscle tissue therein with near surgical precision before pulling out as though it had merely placed a sole jab out of many, leaving a menacing, bleeding gash behind. It was about to strike again before a dark blue burr practically severed the creature into two pieces, killing it on the spot upon which their saviors moved in.

Ania and Octavia had shown up just on time to deter their most lethal attack yet whereas the engine compartment hummed encouragingly, hinting at their success in starting up the engines themselves. All they had to do now was safely return to the bridge, tending to their wounds either now or in the relative safety of their last safe harbor. They lacked bandages, disinfectant, virtually anything to aid them in that regard and the huntress ripped apart one of the sheets used for a makeshift resting place earlier and carefully patched up the gash on An’s calf before picking her up and off the ground.

“Head back to the bridge, now!” Their lines were wearing thin and Ania would not have An’s pride get in the way on the final stretch of their escape. There was no time to argue anymore. If these things managed to take them out, there was no hope of leaving this infernal hulk alive.

Octavia felt safer if there was four of them rather than just two. While two could cover each other’s back, four would be able to provide a better defense.

Meanwhile the two handmaidens had made to the engine room. There was no sign of anything admiss and it looked exactly as the Trixians had left it earlier that day. Now An and Enru began the process of starting up the ancient engines. Fortunately for the handmaidens, the machine was made of far superior quality that what could be mustered today and slowly the engines came to life. Sadly it masked the sound of creatures as they approached.
Without one of the ceiling panels came crashing to the ground near Enru. The blonde handmaiden let out shout as something slammed into her chest from above. It with such force that the handmaiden was thrown to the wall nearby, while the thing when flying another way. There was a rip as part of Enru’s uniform was ripped free. As the thing tumbled on the ground, An immediately recognized as one of the small creatures that was trying to kill. Instinctively she drew her pistol and fired at as it stabilized itself.
One creature was no match for the prepared brunette. But now more of the creatures began pouring inside of the room from the hole in the ceiling. An immediately pulled the trigger as fast as she could, each shot killing one of the creatures. But she could not kill them fast enough as they moved down the walls towards the pair of women below. Eventually one got close enough to strike even as she aimed at it.

An let out a shout as he felt white hot pain from her calf as a scythe shaped forelimb cut through her leg. The poor brunette tumbled to the ground and the creature jumped on top of her to finish her off. As the creature prepared to strike, a blue blur shot out across the room. The creature jerked and then fell away in two. With that, Ania and the Princess had entered the room to save the injured handmaidens.

Faced with a new threat, the remaining creatures had retreated for now allowing the four women to treat their injuries. Without any medical supplies for An, the best that could be done was to make a makeshift bandage out of one of sheets that had used for bedding. It meant that now both handmaidens were largely useless until they could get some professional medical help. Ania immediately picked up An before she could say anything. “W-wait a minute.” The handmaiden had little choice in the matter as time was of the essence.
Octavia in the meanwhile had helped Enru up. Though she was not further injured by the attack, the handmaiden still had difficulty moving around and would need all the help she could get as they retreated to the bridge.