'Twofer'

Who: Dysart and SNIDE
Where: The Thorax
When: Seconds before Lester's previous post
A last stand. That sounds familiar.
Dysart peeked over the pockmarked wooden table. Half of the prison was
destroyed. The easiest way to describe it was like that someone thrown
a cup of hydrochloric acid at a bucket of mint ice cream.
But only just beyond that the Hymenopterans slowly boxed him in.
"C'mon... c'mon! Just one step closer! I've got a whole smegging bar
over here." He ducked down immediately as a plasma bolt soared over
his head.
Dysart briefly wondered what the smeg this table was made of. Immunity
to energy weapons seemed a hell of a way to go towards making a
scratch-proof table.
SNIDE leaped over the up-turned dining table and dropped into Dysart's
metal lap, smelling distinctly of bug guts and looking the part too.
"That's it... the soaker is empty. We're down to two tinnies of
Victorian bitter and a bottle of El Toro Tequila. I think I can pour
it over you for a couple more attack runs then after that...
well...SNIDE, it's been an honor."
SNIDE offered a soft chirp. His little arm curling up with a slight
salute.
With a deafening crack the table was torn away from him. The
Hymenopteran bruiser tore it away and tossed it over it's shoulder
like it was made of Styrofoam. Dysart's arms pulled up into a
defensive flinch over his body, readying for the imminent attack.
Which didn't come.
His holographic eyes blinked rapidly. He slowly pulled his arms away
as the beast just above him merely breathed heavily but as though it
was in a state of complete mental paralysis. Like a brain freeze from
hell.
Dysart's head rolled back and quickly noticed that all of the
Hymenopterans were immobile. Where once they were howling... no...
furious... well... they weren't shooting at him anymore at least.
The robot slowly rose to his feet, fisting a bottle of El Toro in one
bony hand.
Dysart cautiously exited his cover. SNIDE lept up on his shoulder,
letting out a flying chirp of frustration as he over shot it and
sailed over his target.
The irate little robot let out a little hiss then swiftly skittered up
Dysart's leg and onto his head. A few seconds later it let out a final
growl and leap down.
"Don't get pissy at me. It's not my fault that my hologram isn't see
throu-hey what the smeg are you doing to my light bee?!"
The little spider-bot crawled up onto his chest and with a few quick
flick he managed to shut down his projection unit. Dysart's
holographic form gave a few waning flickers before it shut down.
Satisfied, SNIDE lept his way back up the former Janitor's body and
perched contently on Dysart's flat head.
"Great... now I'm a walking stool."
SNIDE snickered in response.
Suddenly all the Hymenopterans gave a nervous twitch.
Dysart shifted into a ready stance while SNIDE propped up on the tips
of his feet. Rather than suddenly attack en mass, they moved away from
the two. No matter how close he came to time they utterly ignored the
two but freely interacted with each other.
"What the smeg happened to these guys..."
Dysart pulled away from the mob. It was unnerving when they stayed
still but now it was almost HP Lovecraft level of disturbing.
The robot touched his forearm, pulling up contact with command.
A generic polite Caucasian's woman's voice popped on. "...I'm sorry,
all JMC help-services line are currently full. Please continue to
hold..." An equally generic clip of Beethoven played. It was short and
it looped. Just as Dysart was ready to kill someone, another more
masculine voice crooned the JMC jingle: "Live the good life in the off
world- *click*."
"Fifty smegging years and nothing has changed." Dysart grumbled under
his breath.
Dysart was brought out of his funk by SNIDE chirping and tapped on his
head. "What? Look, Lester could understand you but I haven't a
smegging clue what you're on about."
Snide wasn't stopping and if anything was quickly growing more insist.
"Enough already!" Dysart's arm swung up and grabbed the little machine
but wasn't able to shift it from it's sudden vice grip."-Look if you
don't!"
The only warning he had was the slight tremor that ran through the ship.
The horrific sound of tearing flesh, half of the prison suddenly tore
itself open. The bright green glow of a capital ship's laser lanced
through the Thorax like a... well... like a magnifying glass on a
Barbie doll's forehead.
Half of the till-recently docile Hymenopteran's were sucked out
through the half kilometer wide and long hole and into the vacuum of
space while the others daisy-chained themselves in an almost admirable
but still pathetic attempt to stay alive.
The unending hunger of space quickly reapplied it's now familiar touch
on Dysart's gut. The scream of air past his sensors deafened him. His
legs dug deeply into the fleshy floor but only slowed the pull as it
tore deep gashes into organic material. The tiny machine atop his head
finally let out a long, but ultimately silent squeal before slamming
his legs into the sides of the robot's head.
"G-gAAAHHH!!"
The machine collapsed to the floor, his hands digging into the deck
frantically.
The light bee's hologram flickered back to life.
The JMC jumpsuit once more sheathed the user's body only this time his
head was different. A crop of wild brown hair replaced his flat
sterile grey.
Then a pair of wild brown eyes unsheathed along with a smirk of
overwhelming
glee.
Pushing off the floor the machine sprinted against the vacuum. Within
ten second it pulled free. The sheer speed whiplashed him forward into
the corridor.
The hidden speed of the series 10 was made so for a reason as the
twisting mechanoid quickly began to wear down it's joints.
Nevertheless the few minutes that it pushed itself and the sheer
control exerted was like a cross between parkour, nirvana and 100 cups
of coffee.
The Thorax was slowly getting torn to pieces by the fierce-some
counter attack by the Space Corps. It's self-healing capability was
attempting to hold it together but it was patchy at best. In time the
life form would die under the unrelenting and bloody beating it was
getting at the hands of the Space Corps and JMC.
Even still, the lancing beams and vacuuming holes only provided
another welcome challenge for the runner as he made his way.
The metal runner moved through the vessel like some sort of
animalistic terminator. Dodging and weaving like a champion athlete,
the cowed Hymenopterans provided no obstacle to the series 10's
vaulting jumps.
Inside the otherwise free entity a distant tug compelled him towards
to it's target.
Deep inside the Thorax, a tracking device beeped on Lester's arm.
Within ten minutes it found the chasm that Lester fell through. With
barely a second thought the runner jumped and cork-screwed into the
depths of the void.
~~~~
Who: Lester & Lester
Where: The Thorax, brain
Lester breathed quickly and shallowly. He felt his body slowly
descending into the crumbling mass under him. The once lively and
lethal bugs fell now upon him like drunkards only none of them were
moving. The mass and stench slowly threatened to suffocate him. His
arms attempted to push back against the tide but even they could
barely move let alone struggle against the weight.
Although his head was still above the rot soon even that would quickly
disappear.
"S-so... this is it."
"Yeah... I guess so."
"For what it's worth, I-I'm sorry."
"Don't, just don't."
"I-I just... I-... I don't want to die..."
"It's ok, look, it's okay. Just accept it. We did well... you did well."
"I-I *hic* d-did?"
"Yeah. You were brave. We saved a lot of people. Before we die, I just
wanted to
say..."
"...aaaa."
It was then Lester noticed a long scream echoing from the top of the void.
"...What the *smeg*?"
"aaaaaaaAAAAAHHHHH!!!"
Lester's eyes widened as a single blue and grey blur quickly flew
towards him.
*FOOOOOMMM*
The runner smashed down into the Hymenopteran brain at terminal
velocity, barely a few meters away from Lester's head. As the smoke
cleared Lester saw an unfamiliar grey chassis whose hologram quickly
shorted out into oblivion. It's legs were twisted and bow-legged, it's
arms shaky while it's head shivered violently, the series ten
mechanoid was undeniably no longer in near-mint condition. Freecycle
stuff, rather than e-bay. Yet despite all that it got up again.
"What... now?" Lester growled weakly.
Moving over to him shakily, the machine was obviously falling apart.
Loosened bolts and shards of metal fall to the ground like steel
dandruff with every step while a metal of different shine atop it's
drooping head fell into view with every shaking step.
"...It's okay Lester. I'm here. We're getting out." A strikingly
familiar yet somehow alien voice filtered out from the machine's voice
box.
"D-Dysart?"
"My name... is Dysnide."
Cue the hero music.
Lester pulled a face: "what?"
A single metal arm dove into the organic mass and wrenched out the
weak Lester by his limp metal wrist. Without a word 'Dysnide' pulled
him over his bony shoulders and slowly limped away from the crumbling
hole.
<Tagging Lester, where to?>