Rock, Paper, Scissors, Thermal Shock

"For science's sake man! You are a biologist! Run the scans yourself!" Artie snapped into the comms.

"Actually, you did tell me you were second in command of the medical team on your ship. You should be able to handle a simple diagnostic scan..." Jade said, with a smirk.

There was a thunderous crash.

"Crap! gotta go!" Artie said, hitting the comms and floating off down the hallway. Jade sighed and broke into a run again.

"We need to kill that freaking thing!" Artemis blurted, a stream of goop flying past.

"I'm open to any idea you might have at this point!" Jade yelled from behind.

Artemis zipped ahead to a junction housing a blast door, after a brief search Artemis found the panel covering the manual release for the door. He ripped the panel off and gripped the lever, waiting for Jade to clear the housing before throwing the level. The door slammed down, cutting the intruder off.

"That'll buy us a bit more time to think of something more...solid" Artemis said.

"I'm guessing there's no conventional weapons in the lab, and the nearest security station is at the entrance to the Science division....I doubt that pulse rifles and whatnot would be useful anyway" Jade huffed, out of breath.

"We can try something unorthodox....it's worked in the past" Artemis said, pondering what he had in stock that could be used as a weapon (see: absolutely everything in the lab). "I have plenty of syringe guns stored here for subduing subjects, but I doubt they'd work against this thing, I wouldn't be able to get the PSI high enough without major modifications"

"What about a rivet gun? Like the ones the engineers use to fix patches to the hull" Jade asked. "Their PSI range might be higher"

"That could work, I think there's an emergency supply room nearby that might have something like that" Artemis commented.

The trio navigated the lab as the intruder slowly broke through the blast door, a few more doors were shut between the supply room and the intruder to keep him busy.

After searching the contents of the closet, they recovered a few implements that might work. A single rivet gun, two torches, several canisters of fuel, and some alcohol from one of Frank Cadbury's stashes that contained enough Ethanol to make one hell of a firebomb.

"I upped the PSI on the rivet gun, but the kickback would trash my suit, so I recommend you take it Dr. Black" Artemis commented, taking the gun from the robotic workbench.

"Hell, after the day I've had I'd be pretty happy to put a few bolts in that damn mech" Jade said, annoyed with the last few hours.

"I've manage to rig a basic flamethrower using some blueprints in the auto-manufacturing system and the torches....but I doubt that it'll be enough" Artemis commented.

Jade slipped the strap for the rivet gun over her shoulder and let it hang, picking up two firebombs off the workshop table. The bombs were wired with a remote detonator, allowing Artemis, Jade, and Tu'Vass to stay out of their blast radius. A few of the spare fuel tanks were also turned into IED's, however, with more explosive force.

Jade and Artemis set up the IED's in front of the last blast door, which the mech hadn't yet reached. They would detonate them in stages to maximize the damage done. As the mech advanced through the minefield, they would bombard it with fire and rivets...hopefully cutting through the armor and hitting something vital.

Jade and Artemis braced behind a makeshift barricade, weapons trained on the door.

"The door is unlocked, as soon as it moves even an inch" Artemis said.

"I got it..." Jade replied.

Tu'Vass huddled behind the barricade, entrusted with the detonator to the mines (instructions were relayed using the translator...which was ever so slowly catching on).

There was a nerve wracking silence, Jade checked the magazine on the rivet gun, and mentally took note on how many rivets she had in the mag. Artemis started the fuel flow to the flamethrower, a small burst of flame shot out of the barrel.

The door jolted. Jade and Artemis trained their weapons on the sliver of light emanating from underneath the door.

A massive hand gripped the door and threw it open, Jade and Artemis opened fire. The Mech didn't even flinch, and continued onward.

Tu'Vass detonated the first set of explosives, which stunned the mech for a moment, but it continued onward.

Artemis and Jade continued firing, but before Tu'Vass could detonate the second array of IED's, the mech coated the floor in goo. Tu'vass attempted to detonate the IED's, to no avail.

"Fall back!" Artemis yelled as the mech fired goo at the trio, who took cover in neighboring rooms.

"We've run out of lab! Where do we go?!" Jade yelled.

"I don't know! I think I have one last idea though!" Artemis yelled, slipping a new fuel tank in.

Artemis emptied the entire tank on the mech. The intimidating monster stopped and braced itself against the fire. The blast of flame heated the intruder's armor, turning it bright red.

"Hit the fire suppression system!" Artemis yelled. Jade pulled a fire lever in the workroom she was hiding in. A rain of chemicals came pouring down from the ceiling. A horrid groan could be heard over the fire alarms....the mech gripped its chest and fell to the ground, its armor began cracking and popping off. Within seconds, the mech was reduced to a pile of smoldering scrap.

"Science beats brute force every time, bitch" Artemis said pridefully. "Thermal shock sucks don't it?"

"Is it really dead though?" Jade asked, slipping a new magazine into the rivet gun before firing several rounds into the mass of metal.

"I have no idea, but I'm gonna shoot this fucker into space" Artemis said, using a wall terminal to summon the lab mechs.

"I'll take Tu'Vass back to quarantine and see if I can't get in contact with the others, I doubt there was just one of these" Jade said, leading Tu'Vass past the intruder and back towards Quarantine.

Minutes later the remains of the mech were ejected out a utility airlock, where they would be someone else's problem in the event they suddenly came back to life.

<tag>

Are there any more on the way or are we in the clear?

Also, I'd have Tu'Vass fetch a suit or something from the ship before the exposure to the ship kills her...Artie's lab is mostly sterile but the rest of the ship is really unkempt.