Starbound: A Space Odyssey 21 The Erchius Mining Facility Incident 9

"d.a.m.n..." Mouro cursed, "Those guys really have some keen senses and fast reflexes..."

Mouro was the one who was shooting John and Lenny. He was on the other side of the opened area, one platform higher than John and Lenny.

Even though he had thought of the possibility of them escaping from his shooting, he never thought that his plan B, that was to make the Moontants all go crazy toward them, would also fail. He had heard the gunshots and the explosion at the hallway. He looked at his PIPS and saw that it was still able to detect the life signal of two living beings different from Moontants.

[Well... At least they won't be able to escape from the Lunar Base 12 as long as I stay jamming the signal of their Retriever.] Mouro thought.

Mouro looked beneath him and saw some Moontants coming toward him. He took a grappling hook that looked like a pistol and fired it toward the platform that was just above him.

Once the hook was sent 20 meters in the air, it stopped going further and fell on the platform. It got stuck and Mouro swiftly pressed the other trigger and soon he started to ascend.

"I'll get them next time..." Mouro muttered while he disappeared into a hallway.

...

"Found anything?" Lenny asked.

John and Lenny were at the Overseer's office. Lenny was by the door observing the outside, while John was searching for a map inside the office.

John turned on the computer, "Luckily we didn't follow my option 1, the elevators were turned off." John saw at the screen that the elevators were in the emergency mode. He looked at the keyboard and saw the yellow b.u.t.ton that Clark had pressed. He clicked it and soon he received the message from the emotionless voice of the base warning that the elevators had been turned on.

"Alright... Elevators on. Now... A map..." John silently muttered while searching everywhere in the room, "Found it" John found a Data Chip that had the words 'Lunar Base 12 Building Map'. He placed inside his PIPS and now he had the full map on his disposition.

He roamed through the floating holographic screen in front of him, looking for an alternate pa.s.sage toward the elevators.

"Got it." John exclaimed, "There's another way."

"Okay, lead the way."

Lenny followed John as they went through a tiny corridor and wide s.p.a.ces until they arrived at the platform that Mouro was previously.

"Look." Lenny pointed at the ground, "The bullet cases."

"He was here..." John crouched. He was still able to smell the faint odor of burned gunpowder.

"He might be using some kind of device to know where we are..." Lenny pointed that out.

"You mean like a life detector? But what is he detecting? Heat, noise, or he's using an echolocation device?" John tried to think about, "We cannot go down before we deal with this guy before. I don't want to be shot in the back, again."

"I can camouflage my heat and noise..." Lenny said.

"Really? How?"

"I have a tech in my PIPS that can achieve this kind of result."

"Tech...? Oh... You mean those things..."

Techs are enhancements that can be equipped into the PIPS to enhance movement and provide new abilities to the user. This Tech can affect the user's body in a molecular level making it possible to use fantastic powers and break their limits. They use the UE (Units of Energy) stored inside the PIPS to be activated.

"Yep. The one I have is called Cold Blood, it can make it appear like I'm not producing any heat to devices like the one that he might be using." Lenny explained.

"Alright... You stay here with the sniper, while I go down and act like a bait, good?"

"Good."

"Get ready."

John entered the hallway at their back and went to another pa.s.sage until he found another platform that was 10 meters beneath the one Lenny was laid, waiting.

He went forward and stopped by the handrails. He started to look around, searching and also waiting.

...

Mouro looked at the black haired Human through his scope, [Strange... Where is the Novakid...] Mouro glanced at his PIPS and saw that the Novakid had disappeared from his life sensor, [Maybe he died from wounds suffered in the explosion?]

He started to search at the other platforms, there was no one. He couldn't see anybody.

[Bait... Or decoy...?] Mouro wondered.

"Hm?" Mouro suddenly felt something. He rolled to the side.

*Bang*

The energy bullet created a little-charred crater where he was.

He stood up and ran toward the edge of his platform and jumped.

Beneath him was the abysmal hole that led to deeper into the mine, the jump he made to the other platform that was just at his side, was a jump of almost 10 meters.

He swiftly changed the sniper in his hands to the grappling hook and shot it at the Erchius Crystals above him. The hook got stuck at one of the crystals and he skillfully swung all the way toward the other platform.

*Bang, bang, bang...*

Multiple shots coming from the energy sniper was following his trail as he swung and changed his position to dodge the bullets.

He retrieved the grappling hook and took out his Tungsten Sniper Rifle. He localized Lenny and started to return the fire.

*Bang, bang...*

It was at this moment that he realized that he had negligentied John.

He took a glance at his life detector and saw that John was swiftly approaching from behind him.

He stored his sniper and took out a Tier 2 Tungsten Pistol from his inventory.

*Bang, bang...*

He fired toward the hallway and jumped to side while preparing to use his grappling hook once again.

*Bang*

A new shot coming from Lenny, but this time Lenny had aimed for the grappling hook.

The energy bulled sent the grappling hook flying out of Mouro's hands.

Mouro turned around and decided to go in for close combat against John so that it could make it hard for Lenny to shoot.

He used his pistol in one hand and a knife in the other.

The moment John emerged from the entrance he had to immediately take a defensive stance to block the slash coming from Mouro's knife.

Mouro proceeded to use his Pistol to fire at John.

*Bang*

John dodged in time and the bullet only scratched his arm.

John gave a roundabout kick toward Mouro while using his guns to fire at him.

*Bang, bang*

The pistols' bullets were dodged by Mouro, but he has. .h.i.t by the kick and he was thrown a few steps backward.

*Bang*

Lenny took the chance once John and Mouro were separated to take another shot.

*Fisst*

The bullet penetrated the place where Mouro's armor wasn't covering, the arm. A charred hole was soon present in his arm.

*Bang*

Mouro groaned in pain but still was able to take a clean shot at John that still had to take time to recover his position after a roundabout kick.