Starbound: A Space Odyssey 23 The Erchius Mining Facility Incident 11

"I'm good now." John walked toward Lenny, "Let's get this done. This place is making me sick."

"Then..." Lenny looked at John's wounds, "I don't think you can fight in this situation..." John's whole body was covered in scratches from the previous explosion, two wounds from the gunfight with Mouro and a more deep injury in his abdomen.

"I'm alright..." John mumbled.

"No, you're not. Sit down while I search for a med kit or bandages." Lenny sternly ordered.

"Fine..." John grudgingly sat down.

Lenny shook his head and started to take out the belongings of Mouro.

Tungsten Pistol, Tungsten Sniper Rifle, Steel, a strange object that looked like a cellphone that had an antenna on top of it, Knife and grappling hook. That was the items that were outside of Mouro's inventory.

Lenny separated the items, took Mouro's PIPS and started looking inside the inventory. There was food, water, flashlight, a med kit, bullets, and maganizes for the weapons.

"Here..." Lenny took the med kit and went toward John, "Take out your Chestguard, let me take a look."

"f.u.c.k off, I will do it myself!" John s.n.a.t.c.hed the med kit from Lenny's hand.

"Okay." Lenny just shrugged his shoulders and walked away.

John carefully took out his Chestguard.

"Urgh..." He silently groaned in pain when the armor pa.s.sed through his injuries.

He opened the med kit and saw the contents, there was some syringes that had a red liquid inside, some natural salves and bandages.

The red syringe was in fact Regeneration Induce Liquid or RIL for short. It is a red liquid that once it enters the body, it induces the body to prioritize the healing process of injuries rather than any other bodily function. That's why when people use the liquid they feel weak for 1 to 5 minutes, depending on how bad or quant.i.ty of wounds there is.

John took the salves, put them in the bandages and started to bandage himself. After he placed the bandages he took the Red RIL Syringe and injected in himself.

He lumped weakly by the stone wall.

"Say..." John started a conversation while he waited for the Red Syringe to do its job, "How was your... First kill?"

"Really?" Lenny glanced at John, "Are you really in the mood for this?"

"I don't know..." John shook his head.

Lenny sighed, "It was 20 years ago...when I was 23. I was already an explorer, together with...Oscar. But on that particular day I was alone. I was traveling around the planet when I met a human wearing a complete set of purple clothes. He was heavily wounded and I, innocently, decided to help him. He was unconscious, so I carried him back to mine, and Oscar's camp. Oscar was away, hunting. I bandaged his injuries and even sewed his purple clothes back. But..."

Lenny's face became grim and his fist tightened, "When he woke up, the first thing he did was stare blankly at me. He realized I was a Novakid and started to say things like 'You filthy non-human, you dared to touch me with those foul hands!' and other phrases like 'By the Occasus Cult I must wipe this filthy creature in front of me from the universe' He reached for the knife that I was using to make food and charged toward me. I tried to reason with him, but it was of no use. He was crazy, a lunatic. He kept saying that he must kill me for the Occasus Cult and that he was blessed by his great leader Asra. I wanted to defend myself so I took my pistol to threaten him, but he still charged toward me, so I unconsciously pressed the trigger... He died with a bullet lodged in his brain."

"..." John kept his head lowered while listening to Lenny.

"I felt bad, but just for a moment. I convinced myself that I was protecting my own life. It didn't change a lot about myself, maybe because I'm a Novakid. I don't know how humans deal with this kind of situation, or any other race. The only thing that really changed me was that I became more distrustful around strangers."

"..."

"Well... That's it..." Lenny looked at John and stood up, "The effect of the Red Syringe must have gone way by now. Take that guy's stuff and let's go."

John calmly stored Mouro's stuff in the inventory and walked toward the stairs with Lenny.

They steadily wiped out the rest of the Moontants guarding the elevators and search for one that was still working, and in good condition.

"This one." Lenny found a service elevator at the utmost right side of the giant hole.

John inspected the machine and saw that it was working. He used the young miner's ID and was able to enter in the elevator.

John pressed the lowest floor and they soon began descending.

"Will you be able to fight in your situation?" Lenny asked John while he was reloading the Tungsten Sniper Rifle. Lenny preferred normal guns rather than Energy guns.

"I should be fine." John moved his limbs around, "The Red Syringe really work fast."

"We'll probably have to face off against what they call Erchius Horror." Lenny said in a somewhat serious tone.

"We have this." John showed the key for the Mining Laser Cannon, "You're faster then me in dodging and you are uninjured, so it would be for the best if you distracted the thing we'll face while I search for the Cannon."

"We don't even know if we are going to need the cannon and neither if it will be effective against the monster."

"It's better to have a plan than having none when facing the unknown."

"Okay, okay. We go with your plan first..." Lenny agreed with John's plan.

Soon enough the elevator arrived at the deepest part of the mine.

When the door opened a strange Moontant appeared in front of John and Lenny.

"That Moontant..." John blankly stared at the monster.

"Yep..." Lenny nodded, "It is wearing an armor and wielding a weapon."

The Moontant was different from the others because it was bigger, wearing a Steel Tier 1 Armor, belonging to the security of the base, while wielding a giant hammer that was probably used by some kind of machine.

*ROAR!!!!*

It roared and charged toward them.

John and Lenny jumped in different directions. The monster glared at Lenny and swung the hammer at the Novakid.

"Whoa!" Lenny exclaimed and ducked his head. The hammer was only able to take out Lenny's cowboy hat from his head.

*Bang, bang, bang...*

John started to fire at the monster, but most of the bullets were only able to make some charred dents in the armor and in the armored mining helmet it was using.

Seeing that the energy pistols weren't working, John decided to switch to the Hyperion Energy Sniper Rifle (HESF02). Lenny gave it back to John after he took the generic Tungsten Sniper Rifle from Mouro's body.

John carefully aimed with the sniper. When John was about to fire, the monster turned around and sw.a.n.g the hammer toward John.

John dodged by rolling backward in the ground.

*Bang*

Lenny took the chance to fire his sniper at close range.

*ROARRRRR!*

The bullet successfully penetrated the armor and hit the monster on the back.

The Moontant turned its head and glared at Lenny with its viciously looking red eyes.

"Looks like I successfully made it angrier..." Lenny turned around and ran.

*Bang*

The Moontant was about to pursuit when John also fired his weapon that made a charred hole in the steel armor.