In the Middle of Nowhere

[redletalis]

"You know, I bet she's one of those paper pushers." Willson said. "Or one of those trying to get up by sucking someone's cock. Perhaps she just sucked the wrong one. Or filed something wrongly." He went back to polishing his rifle.


Namir snorted. "Dat all yuh t'ink about? Jookin'?"


"He doesn't know what 'jookin' means." Adam snorted and scratched his left shoulder right next to the metal border. He, like the other two, had ditched the uniform. It was too hot. It was too much hassle. Nothing would happen that would require a space suit. Besides, they had their guns at hand. That was all they would ever need.


Willson flipped them the bird. "I fucking know what jooking is! And yes, I think about sex all the time. I mean, if we're to suffer having a woman around then we might as well get something out of it. She probably isn't good for anything else anyway."


"She ta be wi scientist, show sum reespek. Got more brains dan you."


"I would if I could bloody well understand what you just said."


Adam rolled his eyes and propped his legs up on the desk. It was supposed to be a workdesk, but it was covered with bottles of beer, wrappers, weapons and weapon parts, ammunition, and a jungle of rolled up papers. It was no different than any other part of this little office and outpost of theirs. Whoever had the idea to put a single, small, lonely outpost right in the middle of the most crime ridden and dangerous part of space was either insane or a genius. Adam was leaning towards the former right now.


"She must have done something to be sent out here into hell." Willson got up and went over to their little fridge and took out three beers. He threw one to Namir. "No one choses this place of their own free will. Just look at us! We're practically criminals ourselves.... some of us actually are criminals. Cheers mate."


Adam caught the bottle thrown at his head and flipped the bird in return. "I get the damn job done, no? So stop complainin'." He opened it with a twist of his hand and chugged the cool liquid down.


Namir used the bottle opener to open his. "Wa a madda anyway? Wi cyan stop it. She a dead at first fight an' wi rid o' her. Simple."


"I'll drink to that." Adam raised his bottle.

 

[Detective Rascal]

Sonja hated the heat that was currently blasting through her space suit, she hated the heat in general, but this was her first proper experience of the temperature of her new home, and she had an all-mighty need to complain about it. The suit was meant to protect her from the heat, though it may just have been Sonja's intolerance of it or her suit actually malfunctioning, but she was really feeling it as she walked towards the station in front of her.


She had been dropped off on the surface by a pod, leaving her on the ground without much ceremony, along with the small amount of belongings that she had in her bag. She was within a small distance of the station, the landing strip that ships used to land and take off acted as like a path to the station building standing all alone in the dessert. It didn't take her long to reach the metal door that was the entrance to the building, it wasn't too long of a distance really, Sonja was just dragging her feet on the half sand covered landing strip so she didn't have to be in the station any sooner.


She stood in front of the door, waiting a second, before she started to bang on the metal with the side of her fist. If they had heard the pod landing and taking off, and hadn't come to welcome her in yet, she figured they weren't going to do it at all unless they were prompted with her presence.

 

[redletalis]

The three of them jumped at the sudden knocking. Namir straightened in his seat, Williams choked on his drink and Adam was pointing a gun towards the sound within the blink of an eye. They slowly relaxed again once nothing tried to break in. Namir got to his feet, but Williams simply looked a bit awkward while Adam groaned and put his gun down before chugging down the rest of his beer. Well, shit.


"Our princess just arrived. Go open the door." He grumbled and stretched his right arm. Last fight had damaged something in the mechanics of it, he just hadn't been able to figure out what. It made the arm stiff and less responsive. Not really noticable to anyone but him, but it could mean the end of him in another fight.


Williams shrugged. "Don't look at me. I ain't going."


"Mi'll go." Namir rolled his eyes and went to the door. He had to struggle to open it. Sand had gotten into the grooves and they hadn't bothered truly cleaning it out. Mostly they used the windows and the back door to go out and fight monsters when they had to. In the end the door opened and he looked down at their newest team member. Or sacrifical lamb. Whatever one wanted to call it. "Aye?"

 

[Detective Rascal]

Sonja lowered her hand when the door started to shuffle a bit, just so she didn't make herself look like an oaf in front of whoever was opening the door. Having a fist in the middle of the air when someone opens the door doesn't always give off the best impression, and even though she was pretty much in hell, she was going to be stationed here for some time anyway.


A burly man opened the door, taller than Sonja by a few good heads, and was certainly way better built than herself. She had the smallest amount of muscle definition on her, and this man was certainly the opposite of that.


He also looked a little menacing, with an eye patch, lack of hair on top of his skull, and a bright scar across the left side of his face. Even with the helmet on, Sonja could see it was fresh, the flesh still looked a little tender, but old enough to scar at this point in time. She wasn't a medical doctor by any means, but she knew a thing or two about scars.


Though Sonja didn't take anymore time before rushing inside the station, mainly trying to get away from the outside. She would have waved hello or something to respond to whatever greeting the guy gave her, but really getting inside was first priority, so she could get out of the suit.

 

[redletalis]

"Cum inna, gyal, an' fala mi." Namir chuckled and managed to close the door after her, blocking out the wind and the sand. He motioned for her to followhim through the tiny building and to aptly dubbed common room where Williams and Adam waited. Both of them looked up when Namir came in, eyes searching out their new team member around his considerable bulk. "Shi ran inna like de devil was pon har heels. Be kine, yuh."


"I'm always kind! Especially to the ladies." Williams grinned and turned to the unknown person in the room. "Welcome to the devil's arsehole. Pull up a chair and sit yourself down!"


Adam personally didn't think it would help any if he was kind to anyone really, she would still be dead by the end of her first skirmish. "Whatever," he muttered and finished his beer. Just about the only good thing they had going for them here, the supply of alcohol was so good that they didn't have to get it blackmarket even. The army probably figured that even wanted convicts had to be constantly drunk in order to wish to stay here for any amount of time.

 

[Detective Rascal]

Sonja followed the man through the building, mainly just cause that's what your meant to do when you don't know the layout of a new place. It took the entire walk though for her to figure out what the man had said at the door though. Whether it was an accent, or the guy had a speech impediment, it was hard to understand him, and Sonja filed that away in her brain as useful info.


He seemed to be kind, though Sonja had only 12 seconds, maybe less, of contact with him. So she made the decision to try harder to understand the brute, for communication purposes, and just so she wasn't an asshole to him.


Though the guy lead her to a room, with two other men hanging about in it. The guy leading her spoke again, and this time Sonja was able to understand a little quicker. She always had been a quick study, even if languages were well far away from her strongest area.


The man who greeted her though, Sonja didn't get the greatest gut feeling about, and the man lazying about on a desk covered in filth, well he didn't seem to be too happy about her showing up.


But Sonja wasn't just going to go and be rude first thing meeting these folks. She had to leave some sort of good impression right? The higher ups had placed her to keep her in check, and she knew that they were going to keep her on this planet for as long as they needed her to be gone, she might as well greet them in a positive light.


Sonja reached for her helmet, and took it off with a small twist and pull. She was inside, no need for the suit anymore, and she preferred to talk without any obstructions. Taking off her helmet revealed her face, and the rest of her head.


She had short cut hair, it almost being a black colour with a tinge of brown in places. Her eyes were also a dark brown, and it wasn't hard to see the bags under her eyes, almost like black rings surrounding them. Her skin was already a tanned, olive colour. She hadn't gotten any sun for ages, and collect radiation from passing suns didn't count for tanning, so Sonja was worried about how far her skin would go now that she was in the dessert.


"I think I would rather get out of this suit and find my room before I join you fellas here. I'm not one for the hot weather, and this thing is killing me."

 

[redletalis]

"Want me to join you and show you where you'll sleep?" Williams practically purred. There was a long time since they had a female on the team, and most of the civvie women knew to keep away from them or just didn't want much if anything to do with them. Those that did, well, they had already been there and done that and fresh meat was always appreciated.


Adam rolled his eyes at the other's reaction and put the empty bottle on his desk. "You're such an idiot. Grow a brain. Might stop ya from bein' totally useless."


"It's easy for you to say, bastard, yours has probably already been bitten eaten by a moorwen." Williams flipped the bird before picking up his gun again.


Namir sighed and turned to Sonja. "Welcome ta blud-fiah."


"What the hell did you just say? I swear I never understand more than a couple of words coming from you." Williams threw his rag at Namir.

 

[Detective Rascal]

Sonja was close to sighing out her frustrations right in the middle of the room, she had a feeling things were going to be like this, and she was at least glad to know that she had a knife on her currently, even though the men had guns.


She could appreciate the words said by the man beside her aswell too, the two men in front of them seemed to be well versed in each other's arguments against the other, and at least Sonja knew who she could trust and not to trust, somewhat.


Though Sonja didn't drop her greeting smile when she responded to the pervert.


"Make too many unwanted advances towards me, mate, and I'll castrate you."


The guy was an asshole, he probably deserved her threat coming to reality. And Sonja probably wouldn't hesitate too, usually she wouldn't be so extreme, but she had a feeling she was the only female stationed there, and she wasn't going to let herself get hurt by them.


Though Sonja turned towards the man who had brought her in, since she didn't know anyone's name yet he was still known as guy in her head, and introduced herself to him.


"I'm Doctor Sonja Johnson, sir. Glad to at least meet someone of some sort of decency here."

 

[redletalis]

"Rawra! I love a girl who talks naughty." Williams wriggled his eyebrows in her direction, looking her up and down and blatantly imagining undressing her from the space suit himself. Adam rolled his eyes, grabbed Williams's gun and whacked him hard over the head with it, leaving him practically unconscious on the table and keeping the gun for himself. He had wanted a new one anyway. Nowhere near the quality of his sniper rifle, but good enough in a pinch. Or to further whack Williams over the head with. Either way.


"He ain't decent," Adam said absentmindedly as he started disassembling the gun and checking the parts. "He's just as bad as the rest of us. You ain't been lucky comin' here, princess."


Namir rolled his one good eye. "Namir. Communication. Him ah Adam, sniper. An' him ah Williams. Don't really know wah mek him dey yah."


"He's here 'cause they ain't got nowhere else to put 'im." Adam whacked Williams on the head and got a groan in return. "Still alive. Bastard."

 

[Detective Rascal]

Sonja felt just a tad sick at Williams's words, and his disgusting display. She had a feeling she was going to cope alot from him, and she had a feeling that she would have to come through with her threat too. Though Adam next to him clocked him over the head, and Sonja was tempted to laugh at Williams's getting what he deserved, but she didn't feel like laughing at this point of time.


"Thanks for that. I'll go with my threat, but I kinda really don't want to go near his junk. It's probably nasty." Sonja said to Adam, she kept talking though. "And I know I ain't lucky ending up here mate, but upstairs needed a prison camp for me, so here I am."


Sonja shrugged her shoulders, and readjusted her bag so that it was now resting on her shoulder, so it wasn't just hanging by her hand anymore, since now her fingers were getting sore from it.


"Hey Namir, could you show me the living quarters? Or wherever my room is? I would like to move in and drop off my stuff, and get out of this thing."

 

[redletalis]

"Fala mi." Namir said before Adam could give a reply and ruin the relatively good impression they had made. It was better than the impression they had given the last newbie that had showed up. That guy had been dead within the day and hadn't been reported for another three weeks until they had had a proper alien life form attack to blame it on.


Namir led her to the other side of the small base. In a small corridor there were five doorways. None of them had doors to close and three were occupied already from the sheer amount of things lying around. One was clean and clinical, and the other was messy but had started to gain the telltale signs of dust and sand that had somehow gotten in through cracks. Recently occupied and the last inhabitant's things were still around. No one had bothered to box it up.


"Yuh can choose wish one yuh want." Namir pointed at the two rooms. "Peerson used deh pone. Him ah ded."

 

[Detective Rascal]

Sonja saw that none of the rooms had doors on them when Namir lead her to the living quarter, and her heart sank a little. Of course there wouldn't be any doors, it wasn't like she was going to get any privacy in this place! If she wanted to get dressed Sonja probably would have to wait till she was alone in order to do it with some privacy, or just lose any shame of her body infront of three men, one of which being a pervert.


This was going to be difficult, but Sonja would just have to live through it if she was going to stay here.


"Thanks Namir, when I've settled in a little I'll come back to the common room. I'm probably going to need you to show me if you guys have a lab here or not too. Upstairs gave me a bunch of work to do while I'm down here, and analysing samples will probably need whatever equipment you have down here, if you have anything at all."


The people in charge who had sent Sonja down to the surface had given her a workload too, looking at soil and core samples of the planet, along with cataloguing alien life forms on the planet. It wasn't hard work, and Sonja knew it would be done well before the deadline, but she had a feeling that the higher-ups only gave it to her so she had something to do in order to not get bored.


But Sonja stopped thinking about that and chose her room, picking the one furtherest away from the others already occupied. She would at least have a few metres of distance between the men, since that would probably be all she would be getting.

 

[redletalis]

"Adam's room ah nex to yuh." Namir pointed at the closest door to Sonja's chosen room. Adam's room was just as messy as any of the others. The only clean spot was around the case holding his sniper rifles, and the path to them. The last thing anyone wanted was for the sniper to stumble in the dark during an attack and accidentally fire off a highly sensitve weapon and kill someone. Adam would never have lived it down so at least he did enough to keep that a little bit cleaner than the rest.


Namir continued, pointing at the other doors. "Mi's at de end. Willson's between wi. We will kip an eye pon him. Maybe. Holla ef yuh need som'ting. As fi deh lab, mi tink dat wi 'ave one somewhere. Don't know, neva used it before." He shrugged in farewell and then walked away, back down the corridor and to the common room.


Adam looked up when Namir entered. "Princess settlin' in? The room next to mine and furthest from Willson?" he grinned when Namir nodded to both of those questions, and turned to kick at Willson's leg. "Hah! Told ya! Now pay up, sucker!" he kicked him again.


"Lucky guess!" Willson shouted only to hiss and clutch at his head. "I hate you. I fucking hate you for hitting me on the head! I'm going to have a headache the size of the planet for the next few hours, you bastard!"


Adam kicked him once more. "Fuck that and pay up!"


"Stop kicking me!"


"I will when you pay up!"

 

[Detective Rascal]

Sonja would have thrown a thanks to Namir after he had finished talking, but she was just soaking up the info and Namir had left before Sonja could respond to him.


But at least with the info about the room arrangement, Sonja felt a little better. She had that Adam fella between herself and Wilson, and Adam seemed to have enough respect for her to be violent and keep Willson away. So she at least had some defense, but the lack of doors was still annoying. Maybe she could make a door, or set up some kind of field or trap so no unwanted visitors would come into her space.


But Sonja stopped thinking about that, and started removing the space suit she still had on.


She had a little privacy right now, so she didn't feel so bad when she started to walk around the room in order to get the dang thing off. It clung to her skin, her sweat and the material were almost glued together, and it took the movement to get the suit off.


Sonja was just left with her underclothes, a singlet and some shorts, slowly unclinging to her, and her space suit on the ground. The absence of the suit let her skin breathe though, and even though it was still boiling hot for Sonja's standards, her sweat was cooling her down.


She left her suit on the ground as she went to her bag, she would pick it later, once the thing had dried from her sweat. She open up her duffle bag, and ruffled through it, trying to find something to wear.


Sonja ended up picking up a loose company shirt, and some three quarter pants that stopped at about halfway through her shins. She really didn't have all that much for this kind of heat, but the stuff she was wearing was cool enough for her. And it wasn't like her hands and feet weren't cold either, so Sonja just pressed her fingers wherever she was hot, in order to cool down.


Though she went rifling through her bag again to look for shoes, and she found her black steel capped shoes, her socks, and her ankle brace.


The suit she was wearing before didn't need Sonja to be wearing any kind of footwear, and it gave her enough support that she didn't need to worry about her ankle, but now she had to wear the brace with she wanted to walk anywhere with ease.


Once dressed, Sonja grabbed her small knife and its thin sheath from her space suit, and clicked it on her belt around her waist. She didn't trust herself being with the men on the station without a weapon just yet.


And then Sonja left her room to go back to the common room, thinking about what state the lab in this station would be in. Hopefully in alright condition, but considering the station and the men looking after it, along with Namir saying that he had never seen it before, Sonja didn't have high hopes for it.

 

[redletalis]

Adam and Williams were just getting into the heat of the argument, hands slowly reaching for other weapons and Namir sighing and preparing himself to be the referee and stop them when they got too far out of hand, when an alarm started blaring through the small building. It was loud and sharp and enough to give a person a headache, and not even a drunk person could sleep through this.


"Fuck! Again?! Those little shits ain't learned yet not to fuck with us!" Adam groaned as he abandoned the argument and got to his feet. There was no time to actually put on any protective gear. They just had to hurry and grab their weapons and specialized sunglasses-and-comm-unit and jump out of the nearest opening - the windows. Williams and Namir were already outside, running a set distance away and scoping the terrain. Adam stopped just long enough to find their newbie.


"Stay inside, princess, this ain't somethin' for you!" with that he jumped out as well, ignoring the way the sun was beating down on his bare chest and metal arms. He used the scope on his sniper rifle to scout the terrain ahead of him and to his left.


"Fuck Peerson for dying on us!" Williams's voice came through the comm unit. "Now we've gotta pick up his slack!"


"Wouldn't have been so bad if the damn brass sent a soldier rather than a princess scientist wannabe." Adam replied. "Now do your job! I ain't seein' anythin' over here. Namir! Report!"


"Mi see notin'."


"Nothing here, either. Fuck! Where are those bastards?" Williams growled.

 

[Detective Rascal]

Sonja could barely hear Adams words through the loud siren of an alarm going off, but she did catch what he said and she didn't appreciate it. Yeah, he was probably right, she hadn't been here for a good ten minutes yet and already there was some form of an attack happening, hell she had no idea where anything in the station was so she had no clue where the station's weapons were or anything like the sort. But it wasn't like she couldn't handle herself, maybe if she knew what was making the siren go off she would have a better idea about what was all the fuss.


Though the siren was getting annoying at this point, it was loud and Sonja was pretty sure it was going to make her deaf in the long run. So she pushed the tragus part of her ear down to cover her ear-hole, and then let it go. It left her hearing just a small whining sound and the rumble that the body usually made, and the sound of the sirens nearly disappeared from her hearing. It was a neat trick, it helped when Sonja needed to concentrate without noise being a distraction, and right now it was helping her keep focused on things without the siren distracting her.


Sonja walked towards the window where the men had jumped through, bring one of her hands to just above her eyes so she could see a little better out into the dessert land of the outside, and her other hand went to her knife at her hip. She brought the weapon in front of her, the knife and her stance positioned in the defence, just in case whatever was out there decided to barrel through the window of the station.


Sonja couldn't see anything yet, and it seemed that the boys couldn't either, but all of them were on guard. Adam was the one that Sonja could see the most of though, since the light, the terrain, and the fact that Adam went through the window last, gave her an almost direct line of sight on him.

 

[redletalis]

Adam swiped the scope back and forth slowly, ignoring the sand and sun beating his body. He hated being out here, he hated being forced into this job, he seriously hated everything the damn military represented, but he was still going to do his fucking job. If he didn't then there was an entire underground city that would suffer. Adam was a bastard and a criminal and a crook, but he didn't want that many lives on his conscience, and-


"Wait!" he hissed into the comm unit. "I see somethin'. Half a click north, by the cliffs. That a moorwen glow or just the sun?"


"Moorwen." Namir confirmed. "Mi see one. Half ah click, towards de dried up riva bed. Red glow. Male."


"I've got a green female." Adam replied, eyes never leaving the large form.


Willson groaned. "What the hell? We actually have amorous moorwen on our hands?! Seriously?! Since when was this our life?!"


"Moorwen impress each other with kills. Could be more contenders, so keep an eye out." Adam ordered. "We've got a princess with us who ain't got comm unit yet. Best wait another day or two before we let the moorwens eat her."

 

[Detective Rascal]

Sonja walked back from the window just a couple of steps, to get away from the bright sun so her eyes could rest. Her hand really wasn't that much of a replacement for any kind of sunglasses, and her eyes needed a break from looking at the bright light. She had no idea about what was going on, but seemed that the boys outside had it under control, and Adam looked as though he knew what he was doing as he slowly walked about with his rifle up.


Though Sonja was still looking out the window, watching Adam and the outside terrain, and something glimpsed her eye. It was like a yellow light, almost like the same colour as the ground and sand, and then Sonja saw the thing that the light came from.


It wasn't a pretty thing, though Sonja wouldn't have been surprised if that was one of the things Upstairs wanted her to look at.


And then she realised that this thing was the reason there was a siren wailing about and probably the reason why everyone ran out of the station to kill it. Sonja didn't jump out of the window just yet, but she did get close to jumping out of the window, before she started yelling with almost all the air in her lungs.


"3 O'CLOCK JONES! SHOOT AT 3 O'CLOCK!"

 

[redletalis]

With the comm unit in one ear and the wind and sand buffeting the other Adam could barely hear the newbie's voice. He certainly didn't hear her words, and turned around in order to ask what the hell she wanted. It was only luck that he still had the scope up and he caught the yellow glow through the lens. A moorwen at full tilt and heading straight towards him.


"Fuck! Moorwen attack!" he shouted into the comm and aimed. He pulled the trigger over and over again, barely noticing the recoil of the rifle. Neon, poisonous yellow blood splattered the sand, and with a roar the massive moorwen jumped at him. Adam stood his ground, aimed and fired four shouts right in the middle of its skull as fast as he could. The beast fell dead to the ground, sliding on the hard baked earth and sand until it lay right before Adam's feet. He nudged it with the muzzle of his rifle and, satisfied that it was properly dead, he turned around to look back at the moorwen that he had previously kept an eye on. "Moorwen at half a click towards the rocks is gone now. I'm not seein' it anymore."


"Noting here edah." Namir said. "Ran off wen yuh started shooting."


"Fuck! I hate it when they do this disappearing act only to appear when and where we expect them the least!" Willson groaned. "Is it just me or are these bastards actually getting smarter on us?"

 

[Detective Rascal]

"Oh thank fuck."


Sonja was still at the window, but she had relaxed a little and was no longer worrying about whatever the alien thing was, and was no longer worrying about Adam's immediate safety. At least he heard her, or at least enough of her so that he was able to kill the thing. But Sonja felt a little deflated over the image of the alien having it's head shot and laying on the ground right at Adam's feet.


She was pretty sure she was meant to study that thing, and having it's brains blown out probably wouldn't have helped with her investigation and analysis, but obviously the alien was dangerous enough that it needed to be killed in order for people to be safe. Otherwise why else would the station have an alarm and men at the ready to fight.


Sonja stepped away from the window again, feeling as though she didn't need to be on the lookout anymore. They killed the thing didn't they? The fellas probably would be coming in any moment now, probably coming in through the window like how they left.


Which was kind of a concern for Sonja, didn't the station have a proper quick and easy exit? She was pretty sure the window wasn't the greatest option for getting out of the station quickly.

 

[redletalis]

"I ain't likin' this. Over too soon." Adam grumbled, swiping his rifle and scope from one side to the other, trying to spot other beasts. Left to right to left. Walking further out and to the left, checking the horizon in precise movements. But there was nothing apart from sand, hard baked earth and sun. Nothing so much as twitched out there. "They usually attack more than just once. Somethin' ain't right."


"I hate it when you say that." Willson huffed. "Usually you're right and I get my arse kicked from here to the next ice age. Last time they bit me in the arse! Nearly took my balls off! How am I supposed to have fun with the ladies with my balls are gone?"


Adam rolled his eyes. "You ain't got much in the first place."


"You-!"


"Me 'ave tracks! Small tracks!" Namir's voice broke in before they could start arguing again. "Dem ah going to deh station."


Adam whirled around and started running for the station window. "They're trying to sneak past us! You two keep guard out here! I'll deal with this shit!"

 

[Detective Rascal]

Sonja had moved well away from the window at this point, mainly so the area in front of it was open enough so the men outside could get back in and not trample her on the way. She gravitated towards the desk that was covered in bottles though, it was a mess compared to the rest of the surfaces inside, with bottles and wrappers and rolled up pieces of paper on it. There was even some mechanical parts strewn about in the maze of all the other mess, and Sonja felt a little disgusted at the idea of these mechanical parts being ruined by booze or whatever else could potentially get them broken with ease.


The desk was probably Jones's when Sonja thought about it, she saw that the man had mechanical arms, and these bits were probably for them if they weren't for any other machinery.


That would probably something Sonja would bring up, when everyone had come back, the mess the station was in. Obviously some kind of entrance had be broken if the window was being used, and the place seemed to have dust or sand in every corner, and the mess that the men left behind with their stuff was pretty bad. She'd seen their rooms, and the common room was also a testimony to that.


Sonja was probably playing right into the gender role as a female by wanting to keep everything clean and wanting to fix things up, but really it wasn't healthy or sanitary, and that was what she was really thinking about. There was no point living in filth, and really these guys should have known better if they were all from the military.


Though Sonja didn't notice the moorwen climbing through the window as she was pushing the papers and wrappers of the desk onto the floor, so someone could clean them up later, and she couldn't hear the alien since she had pretty much turned off her hearing to ignore the alarm still blaring in the station. The moorwen had climbed through the window, stretching it limbs to keep itself quiet even though there was a pretty loud noise blaring through the air already, and it took a few steps once all of it's clawed paws were on solid ground.


And then it pounced at the female scientist, the thing's jaws clamping at her shoulder and it's tail whipped around her neck and tried to use it by pull her neck back to break it.


Sonja yelled when she felt it's teeth rip through her shirt and sunk into her flesh and whatever else was inside her, she could hear the things jaws and teeth clamp down hard on her through just the vibrations it caused, metal and bone sounding as loud as her voice, even though she couldn't hear it with her ears. Though her voice didn't carry out as far as her insides did outside of her body, as the tail of the alien animal wrapped around her neck, and cut off her voice box.


Blood was gushing and seeping from the wounds at her shoulder, and Sonja pushed herself with her feet, using them on of the side of the desk, to help propel herself down and body slam herself into the alien and the floor.


She had dropped her knife somewhere between the moorwen pouncing on her and falling to the floor, which was less than even milliseconds to lose it, but loosing it had at least let her have a free hand for her to grip the tail around her neck, since she couldn't use her left arm at the moment, trying to pry the thing off before it did any super-serious damage to her neck.

 

[redletalis]

Adam heard Sonja shout just as he jumped in through the window, rolled on the floor and was up and running through the rooms and corridors of the small building. Never had the building seemed so big, and he cursed as he looked through the rooms for the princess. Of course, despite all his searching, he found her in the biggest and most central room of them all. A young moorwen was on her back, claws digging into her skin and teeth buried in the soft spot of skin between shoulder and neck.


"Fuck this shit!" he shouted in frustration and ran over to them, burying a long, serrated knife in the moorwen's throat and pushing with it upwards through its neck and up into its brain cavity. Only then did the creature stop struggling and finally die, its hold on Sonja relaxing little by little. Adam helped to pull it off before rigor mortis could set in. Moorwens were funny like that, once rigor mortis set in and you were unlucky enough to be caught in its grip, then it could be just as dangerous as with a live moorwen. Some sort of last bit of twitch or something. No one had made a big study out of it because of the dangers.


He turned to Sonja and crouched down next to her. "What the hell were you thinkin', princess?" he demanded, voice low and dangerous. "Tell me, because I'm startin' to think you ain't got no brains in there in that supposedly smart skull of yours!"