Of Men and Spiders

Lucy awoke with a start. She wasn't sure how long she'd been out of it. It could have been minutes, or it could have been hours. On the other hand, at least she woke up, and right side up...mostly.

As she released her crash webbing, Lucy rolled out of her chair and hit the ground slightly harder than she'd meant to. All her joints ached and screamed, but she fought through it. At least her pursuit was likely in similar shape, if not worse. Knowing how lazy this bunch was, there was a decent chance some of them weren't secured in their seats at the time of the collision and were probably now just smears on the bulkhead. However, she couldn't assume they were all taken out in the crash. That would require far more luck than she usually had.

Groaning as she pulled herself up from the floor, Lucy remembered when she would have walked away from a crash like this with barely a bruise. It had been over a decade and a half since she last lived this life, and she wasn't bouncing back as fast as she used to. Still, there was a reason she was back, and she checked her last remaining gun as she remembered that reason. These people had taken something precious from her, and it was time to remind them why that was a bad idea.

Digging through the cabin, Lucy hoped to find anything else she could use if it came to a firefight again. Another gun, some more ammunition, hell, even some body armor, or a few good knives would help, but there didn't seem to be anything on board. That was until she opened a small console next to one of the passenger seats. What she saw made her grin maliciously.

-

Charlotte watched as a lone figure climbed out of the "drop ship." Based on Scott's descriptions, this was likely an adult female. It was moving in such a way as to favor a few of its ribs on its left side. Given the intensity of the descent, it was surprising it had survived at all. It was clear that humanity still had some fine-tuning to do with their drop ships. Right now, their name was a little too accurate of a description of their performance, and Charlotte resolved to do her best to prevent Scott and Alice from getting on such a dangerous device.

The female walked quickly toward the other drop ship, which had landed only a few hundred meters from the first. She was likely intending to check on the condition of her fellow travelers, but when she opened the hatch, several high-velocity projectiles shot out toward her. The small projectiles were fast enough that none of her hands could even process what they saw. Charlotte could make out the motion only with one of her eyes' advanced optical sensory capacity; even then, it was a blur. Scott was right. Such a projectile would be severely destructive, especially if rapidly fired by several humans the way the men in the second dropship were doing. It was hard to see how many there were, but Charlotte could make out at least five humans firing out the door.

The female was standing with her back pressed against one side of the doorway and was fumbling with something in her hand. Another of those guns, perhaps? But then the female did something unexpected and threw the device around the corner of the door into the ship, then immediately dove to the side, covering her head and ears. A moment later, there was a loud explosion of some kind, and the firing stopped.

-

Charlotte continued playing hopscotch with Alice while describing the situation to Scott. "I believe the humans from the two dropships are fighting one another. The first ship seemed to contain one lone female and the second several humans. The female appears to be injured, though I suspect the female killed several other humans with an explosion tool."

That made Scott stop a moment. A lone female fighting the other drop ship? There was no way... It wasn't possible... His mom could never... Then he remembered a line from the journal, "Pirate Queen Lucy." So maybe she was capable of fighting like this, but what are the odds she'd suddenly show up like this after being gone for weeks?

-

Lucy dared a glance around the corner of the doorway. Sure enough, the grenade had turned the pirates nearest the door into red smears along the floor and walls. She started to grin, readying herself to clean up any survivors when the entrance to the pilot cabinet opened. What she saw forced her to rapidly change her plans.

Running away from the ship, Lucy mumbled to herself while looking for any cover she could hide behind. "Shit, shit, shit! Of course, they have a battle suit!"

-

Scott was still lost in thought when Charlotte spoke again. "The female is retreating, using various words you described as crude in assorted combinations." Then, after a moment, she continued. "Another human is exiting the dropship, but this one is considerably larger than you described the upper limits of average human growth and seems to have a thick metallic carapace."

That could only be a battle suit. That meant the woman was in serious trouble. If it was his mom... "Charlotte, does the woman.... I mean the female, does she have red hair?"

Charlotte seemed to hesitate. "No, she does not have red hair."

Scott let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding When Charlotte continued. "I would describe her hair color as closer to orange than red."

That made Scott freeze. That was his mom. She was alone and injured, facing someone in a battle suit. "Charlotte, can you help the female in any way? That might be... it's probably our mom..."

Charlotte hesitated a moment. "I don't have any combat bodies in the area, but I could aid her with the use of my hands, though it will likely reveal our presence. Is that acceptable?"

Scott nodded. "Yes, please! Just do whatever you can do!"

-

Lucy tried to think of anything she could do to disable the suit as she was ducked behind a natural embankment. Her small handgun would be useless against advanced military hardware like that. Where had the pirates even gotten such a thing in good condition? Her own crew had captured a few, but they were patched together from all sorts of broken pieces taken from the original owners and only half functional at that, but this looked like it had just come off the assembly line. There was no way Cooper had just stumbled onto something like this. He obviously had connections somewhere...

However, all her thoughts on the subject fell away as a loud voice projected from the suit. "Awww, why don't you just come out and surrender? Not that I'll let you live after what you did back there, but I'll at least make it quick and clean!"

Lucy didn't recognize the voice, so it wasn't Cooper, but that didn't matter all that much right now. About the only thing she could do was hide, hoping the ground would cover her heat signature and he'd wander off in the wrong direction, but judging by the heavy footfalls coming closer, she wasn't that lucky.

The pirate's voice boomed out again. "Now, where's all that bravado from when you attacked our ship a few moments ago? It's just you and me now. Surely you don't want to die like a coward? Come out and face me like a... well, like a woman, I guess. How would that work anyway? What are you going to..."

His voice suddenly cut off, and when it returned, it had a very different tone. "What in the Hell is that?"

Suddenly, there was a shooting, a lot of shooting, while the pirate continued to shout. "Oh, Hell no!"

Unable to keep her curiosity in check, Lucy peaked over the bank only to see a small army of gigantic spiders rushing toward the battle suit as the pirate fired away. Once they got close enough, he reached out his hand, and a whoosh of flame washed over the front-most spiders. Despite the nightmare scene appearing in front of her, that made Lucy think. Flamethrowers were not standard equipment on a battle suit, meaning that was a custom modification. This is just another example of Cooper's crew giving into impulse over efficiency. There was no way she'd allow her men to ruin a fearsome weapon like a battle suit by intentionally adding such a glaring weakness.

Maybe now would be a good time to cut and run. She didn't think the spiders would be enough to kill the man, but if she got a good enough head start, he'd have a hard time tracking her after nightfall.

However, as the spiders started climbing onto the suit, biting and clawing as the pirate tried to swipe them off, She saw what she was looking for...the fuel tank.

Realizing she could kill two birds with one stone, Lucy took careful aim. The first shot pinged harmlessly off the suit, as did the second and third, but the fourth finally found a weak point on the tank, and soon, fuel started leaking out.

Evidently, the sight of gigantic spider monsters distracted the pirate well enough that he hadn't even noticed the small arms fire, not that Lucy could blame him, and he kept firing away with his flamethrower. It only took a moment for some of the leaking fuel to catch fire, and a moment after that, his suit and all nearby spiders were engulfed in flame.

Realizing that now was as good a chance as any, Lucy took off running, or at least running as fast as the pain in her ribs allowed. The last thing she wanted to do was get caught by more of those spider monsters.

Then, another horrible thought occurred to her. What if those spiders were the reason Cooper never found Alice and Scott..?