The Rembrandt Legacy

A soft, insistent alarm went off and the suit's gel harness hardened, nearly crushing me.

"Direct missile hit, left chest." I quickly checked the suit's armor diagram. Just like that, I had lost eighty percent of that location's armor. But lucky for me, it wasn't a breaching shot. Snarling, I raised my gun and fired, catching three Faceless in the blast and splattering them against the nearest wall. Padari dashed past me. Her wrist-mounted launchers coughed twice, expelling small, disc-shaped projectiles which embedded themselves in the floor between the Faceless before erupting in a hailstorm of lethal shrapnel. I winced.

But to my surprise, the frag grenades didn't turn the hangar into a slaughterhouse. Don't get me wrong, the sight was ghastly -- limbs flying everywhere, pale soft tissue splattering across the dark floors -- but the Faceless just stood back up. My stomach churned as I saw one of them bend down and reclaim his arm, pressing the limp appendage against his side and re-absorbing it. A new arm grew from the bloody stump of his shoulder.

"Cutting or piercing attacks won't help," Crush needlessly advised, unloading a new torrent of burning plasma, turning two Faceless into screaming torches. "Use energy weapons or blunt force."

"Thanks for telling me now," Padari snarled, going for her own plasma rifle.

"Data transmission incoming," my suit advised. A moment later, just inside my peripheral vision, a set of schematics appeared.

Praecor took another missile hit. Armor rained off his arm like dandruff. He shook himself like a wet dog, then opened his visor. There was a low, tooth-rattling thrum and a shockwave, emanating between the widely-scattered surviving Faceless. To a man, they went to their knees, clutching their heads. The mentalist's visor slammed down again. Lily, Padari and I rained shots down on the stunned enemies, flattening or burning them where they stood. Fifteen seconds of hellfire, and it was over.

"That all?" Crush asked. His armor looked much less impressive now, with three large craters on his chest and abdomen and a large crack along his visor.

"For now." Praecor said. "I don't think they have that many combatants in reserve. If there are still any awake, they are scattered all over the ship, repairing the damage the Nor fleet has inflicted. Assembling them will take time. I'm certain the Brain Queen will be busy waking up a new batch of clones, so let's not hang around here much longer."

"Let me fix a bit of the damage real quick," Cosina said, pulling small grey packs from compartments on her hips. She pressed two of them into the craters on Crush's chest until the plastic sheathing popped. A thick, viscous paste expanded and filled the craters. She turned around and used another pack on me. "That's just a stop gap. Please try and avoid direct hits from now on."

"Understood." I said, clasping her arm with my suit's hand. "Do you know where the bridge is?"

"Yes. One second." A waypoint appeared on my HUD, along with a colored line on the map, connecting the hangar and another room within the seed ship. The label "Command Center" lit up.

"That's my cue then," I said. "Let's go."

"Maybe we find some more trouble on the way," Crush growled. He sounded way too eager for my taste.

* * * *

Normally, I am not claustrophobic. I can't afford to be. As an engineer, I spend way too much time wedged into small narrow spaces, working on plasma conduits or other highly dangerous equipment needed to run a starship. But making our way through the narrow halls and corridors of the seed ship was a new, terrifying experience I would have preferred to avoid. The hallways were barely wide enough to accommodate two non-armored people walking side-by-side. Our bulky suits scraped along the panels, and we trotted through the corridors like an armored and clumsy catarpillar, with Padari in front and Cosina bringing up the rear.

"Why is no one attacking us?" Crush complained, flexing his power glove in frustration.

"Either they're waiting for the right moment or someone wants to find out where we are headed," Praecor mused.

"Hello, hello? Is this thing on?" Vaels voice, somewhat muffled by the intervening layers of ship structure, piped up. "Good news guys. I've got the ship systems rebooted. Lumia is ready to lift off."

"So good to hear your voice," Lily said. "Any problems so far?"

"If you mean if I've found any Faceless trying to eat me -- no. I'm still me."

"I have to double-check that later," Praecor said ominously.

"Anyway, make sure to close the cargo hatch until we're done. Best not to test our luck," Lily said.

"Understood. And guys?"

"Yes?"

"Please bring back Rem in one piece, okay? I want him in the Circle of Truth once this is done."

Laughter erupted. I was glad my armor hid the monstrous blush which suddenly was all over me.

"Okay, play time's over. I want some comms discipline," Lily snapped. "Cosina, please hotwire that elevator over there. It should allow for a little quicker progress. Crush, Padari, Cosina, you'll take this route," a second nav line appeared on the map, "and set up a flanking position on the command center. The three of us will take the initial path and go in through the front door."

"Is it wise to split our forces like that?" Padari asked.

"Well, considering we're a slow cork wriggling our way through a much-too-narrow bottleneck, we can split our forces, become two slow corks and have a few more tactical options."

"I see your point," the Zuthrian conceded.

Next to us, the elevator doors opened. Crush, Padari and Cosina crammed their suits into the cabin as Praecor tore open the adjacent stairwell door. The mentalist leaned inside, then cursed. His wrist launchers coughed, then he ducked into the stairwell as two fierce strobes flashed past his shadow. When he returned, he tossed two unconscious Faceless into the corridor and stomped on their rocket guns, flattening them.

"Nasty. Nearly ambushed us," he said. His pose conveyed thoughtfulness.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked him. The elevator groaned as it took off with our crew mates.

"I'm tempted to try and connect with the hive mind," Praecor said.

"No fucking way," Lily snapped. "I don't want you out of that armor unless you absolutely have to. Besides, the moment you connect, the hive mind will know what we're up to. At the moment, we're simply a raiding party."

"You're right." The Mentalist squeezed into the stairwell and trotted up the stairs. I followed suit. Lily brought up the rear. The stairwell was even narrower than the main corridors, forcing us to crab-walk sideways up the steps. If the Faceless would attack us here, there was little chance of us mounting an effective defense. I breathed a sigh of relief when we reached our destinations three floors higher. The corridor led into a much wider thoroughfare, spacious enough for two of our suits to stand next to each other. From somewhere below, I heard the sounds of heavy fighting.

"Rem, you stay behind us," Lily ordered, squeezing past me into the main corridor, ending up beside Praecor. Together, they slowly advanced, from cross-cut to cross-cut, securing every branching corridor.

"I hope the others are okay," I muttered, using the suit's rear cameras to make sure nobody was following us. It was unnervingly quiet on our level, while below, the sounds of battle only seemed to intensify.

"I bet Crush and Padari are having the time of their lives," Lily said. "Oh, fuck me."

"What?" I peeked between her and Praecor's helmet. We had reached a large, funnel-shaped area terminating at a large set of bulkheads. Between us and the bulkhead they waited, six huge ...somethings. They were humanoid in shape, but nearly as tall as our armors and covered in off-white bone plates. If they had heads, I couldn't make them out. Maybe they were recessed between the enormous, bulging shoulders. Huge, braided strands of muscle corded around arms the size of tree trunks which ended in formidable, clawed hands. One of the things yawned, the bone-plated torso jutting open just above the waist, showing several staggered rows of sharp, jagged teeth. I shuddered just thinking what might happen if soft tissue ended up there.

"What... what are these things?" I asked, no one in particular.

"Faceless battle forms," Praecor said, switching to his plasma rifle. The battle forms took that as a cue to attack. Like gorillas, using both arms and legs for propulsion, they bounded at us. I pushed my hand past Lily and Praecor and unloaded my stun grenades at them. My visor filtered out the strobes. My heart sank. The flashbangs didn't even slow them down. On the contrary, they seemed to grow even more feral.

One of them crashed into Lily, claws scraping over her armor, digging for purchase. Without the suit's built-in stabilizer, the sheer force of the attack might have bowled her over and back into me. Lily balled her fist and punched, cracking bones as the armorgrade glove connected with the battle form.

Praecor had dashed to the side, allowing me a clear field of fire. I dropped my concussion gun and went for the stock of the plasma rifle as two of the monsters crashed into me. Their combined momentum was enough to bowl me over. The noise of their claws digging for purchase was ear-splitting inside the armor. Then, there was another note, the distinct sound of pained, bending metal. A chill breeze slipped into my armor. The patched chest plate! I redoubled my efforts to shake the monsters off me, but the best I could manage was a kick, shoving one of them off me for a moment. The other one raised one arm and brought it down with vicious intent. A heartbeat later, my chest exploded with infernal pain and I screamed as razor-sharp claws dug deep into my flesh. I could feel them close, then they yanked back, tearing a huge chunk out of me.

My HUD erupted in red and exclamation points while I thrashed helplessly. Thick gel poured into the horrible gash in my chest, instantly numbing the pain. A needle found the nape of my neck and icy cold poured into my blood stream. I gasped air into my lungs as my field of vision narrowed, almost into a perfect tunnel with extra clarity. Noises around me seemed to drone on forever, even my screams seemed to turn into slow-oozing syrup as my system was flooded with what I could only presume were combat drugs.

Suddenly one of the monsters jerked upright. The torso glowed like a miniature sun for a heartbeat before it erupted, bone fragments, soft tissue and buckets of gore spattering the panels around me and raining onto my prone form. Finally with enough leverage, I yanked my good arm up, balled my fist and smashed it into the side of the monster still trying to eviscerate me. It crashed into the nearest wall, dazed. My armor had begun to pour a fast-acting compound into the gash, closing the breach. Huffing, I fought my legs back under me and stood up, just in time to see Praecor's armor bear-hug a battle form and Lily press the barrel of her plasma rifle to the monster's back.

A bestial roar was the only warning I got. Turning towards the noise, I brought my gloves up just in time to block a vicious swipe by the monster I had barely knuckled off me, it's maw gaping wide open. Without thinking, I plunged my fist into the opening and unloaded all my frag grenade down it's gullet. Even if shrapnel didn't kill it outright, it would at least buy me enough time to get my plasma rifle ready. The launcher coughed and the monster stumbled back. It's body pulsed three times, then it bent over and vomited prodigious amount of a clear, chunky substance. By the time it had found it's footing, swaying slightly, I had my plasma rifle out and at the ready. Not hesitating, I jammed the hexagonal muzzle into the monster's maw and fired a full salvo, liquefying it.

Lily screamed. Turning to face her, I saw one of the battle forms yank at her armor, cleanly tearing the dome-shaped helmet off the suit. With my opponents dealt with, I accelerated, marveling at the icy cool clarity, the needle-point focus keeping me together. A sideways glance told me I had lost most of my left pectoral muscle and half a rib, but I felt no pain. Instead, I thundered like a human-sized freight train, connecting with the battle form attacking Lily just as it raised a clawed hand to decapitate my captain. I closed my arms around it, not slowing down until I rammed it full-force into the wall next to the bridge bulkhead. The impact deformed the metal paneling and stunned the battle form. I took one step back and pounded it with my suit's heavy battle fists, each punch shattering bone plates, then there were the squishy sounds of brutalized flesh. The Faceless tried to shift shape, morph out from under me, but I wouldn't have that. A merciless kick stopped it in its tracks, shattering one of the stunted hind legs and causing it to wail in agony. Punch after punch rained down onto the battle form.

"Rem."

More punches. I had to make sure this thing would never rise again. More. Punches. I had to protect Lily. And Praecor.

"Rem!" A ringing slap bounced off my helmet, finally cutting through the red haze of the combat drug.

"It is dead." Lily. I stepped back and looked at my handiwork. A clumpy pile of biomatter was all that was left of the once mighty battle form. I had to fight hard to keep my stomach down. The disgusting sight before me was more than enough to sober me up. The mad rush, the irrational bloodlust dissipated somewhat.

"Thanks for the save," Lily said. She was pale, but unharmed, even though her armor looked like it had been put through a wringer. Deep claw marks were gouged into the metal and a ring of sharp indents close to her elbow showed where one of the battle forms had tried to gnaw her arm off. Praecor looked only marginally better, with one arm hanging limp by his side.

"That all of them?" I asked, the rush of the combat drugs still tearing through my veins. Despite the horrible injury, I felt more alive than I ever had, ready to take on the universe.

"For now," Praecor panted. "For now. She brought out the big guns sooner than I had hoped."

"Hey guys," Crush grumbled. "You okay up there? I thought I heard Rem scream."

"We're fine, so far," Lily said. I could see her eyes move down my armor. "Had a run-in with six Bee-Effs. You?"

"The same. But the bridge's secondary accessway is clear now. They got a few scratches in. And boss?"

"Yes?"

"Padari can fight." He sounded truly impressed.

"Well, what are we waiting for then?"

The bulkhead opened, sliding into the floor and revealing another large room. This one was dominated by a throne-like seat looming over rows of consoles. Even a passing glance showed rows of complicated, unfamiliar controls and displays. My Legacy hummed in anticipation. From a similar bulkhead to the side, our other crew mates entered. Their armors were spattered with biomatter and dented in places, but looked quite a bit better than ours.

"No one here?" Crush asked, puzzled. He swung his plasma rifle to and fro, trying to cover the whole room.

"Between their own repairs and our attack, they must have been spread out pretty thinly," Lily said. "Let's count our blessings and take what good fortune we can. Alright. Padari, Crush, Praecor and I will cover Rem and Cosina. You two, get the ship under control. Space anything that's not us if you have to."

Cosina stopped a few feet away from me. I couldn't see her face, but the double-take she did told me how bad my armor really looked. I activated the disembark sequence. The suit beeped twice and projected a stern-looking error message into my field of view.

"Guys... the suit won't let me get out. Says I'm too hurt."

"Ah, I was afraid of that," Praecor said. "Send me your medical status please."

I fumbled my way through the suit's diagnostic menus until I found the relevant data points and sent them.

Praecor inhaled sharply. "I'll treat you right here and now. Sending clearance."

A moment later, the words "Override authorized by medical personnel" appeared on my HUD and the armor opened. Somewhat. The attacks of the battle forms have left my chest plate a bent and cracked mess, so it didn't open as wide as it once could. I squeezed my body out of the armor and looked down. I wish I hadn't. My left side was drenched in half-dried blood, and a thick pancake of medical gels and fluids had closed up my chest. Praecor disembarked from his own armor and went for the kit at the suit's hip, quickly withdrawing several cans, tools and bandages.

"Lay down here," he ordered. I did as he said, very aware of the gazes Lily and Cosina sent my way. With detached amusement I noticed myself getting hard.

Praecor used disinfected wipes to clean his hands, then dug his tools into the glob of matter on my chest, carving large slices off it. He whistled. "You're one lucky bastard. A few millimeters more and you might have lost your left lung. This calls for desperate measures."

He placed his hand on my chest. "This might sting a bit." He closed his eyes. Fascinated, I watched his gem pulse. Sweat beaded on his brow, then I noticed a sharp pain and a gross, scraping sensation inside my chest. Using a pair of pliers, Praecor dug a piece of broken bone free and tossed it aside. Then he generously sprayed the cavernous wound with some medicinal-smelling foam before sealing up the injury with thick, sticky dollops of pink synthflesh.

"Can't you heal the whole injury?" I asked him. It was a very surreal feeling, watching someone stuff things into your own body and barely feeling anything.

"Normally, I wouldn't hesitate," the Mentalist murmured. "But I have to conserve my strength. Regrowing bone is no laughing matter." He motioned for Cosina to lift my upper torso so he could wrap a bandage around my tortured chest. "How do you feel?"

"Still on drugs, if that's what you mean. No real pain, just the feeling of something foreign in my chest." I pointed at the bandage.

"That has to do until we can get you back to the Lumia."

"Guys, I don't want to rush your bonding moment, but I'm afraid there are bad guys inbound," Lily called, pointing towards the bulkheads. More Faceless, well-armed and accompanied by battle forms, were rushing towards the bridge.

Praecor stood up and reached down, pulling me to my feet. Cosina zipped past us, slamming her fist onto one panel next to the bulkheads. On the far side of the room, Padari did the same. The doors closed, just as the first Faceless dove through.

I stood there, butt-naked, hopped up on combat drugs, and felt utterly paralyzed. A part of me wanted back into my armor, tearing more Faceless to lifeless bits. A part of me was still reeling from the horrible injury I had just sustained. I didn't feel the pain, but I knew I had a near-fatal brush with Death. And then there was the sudden weight of responsibility crashing down on me. They all depended on me, that I could convince that ship to dance to my tune.

How could I manage that if I couldn't even watch out for myself?

Huge claws screeched against the bulkheads, shocking me out of the sudden panic attack. I slammed my hands onto the nearest console.

"Come the fuck on!" I yelled, trying to force my Legacy to cooperate. I squeezed my eyes shut, tried to tune out the sounds of battle as Crush and Padari fought the few Faceless which had slipped past the closing doors.

Visions of the failed raid on the Mars Refit Yards welled up. The image of my friend, Degeera, her body perforated by 7.62 hollow-point rounds as the Terran Navy marines had mowed her down. Only this time, her face looked like Lily's. Or Cosina's. Or...

"Not again!" I growled. "Never again!"

Inhale. Exhale. Just like Praecor had taught me. Void. No distractions. Breathe. You are the center of the goddamn multiverse. You and the tech.