“Get your weapon ready,” Nori said as she got up. “Not you two,” she said, glancing at Lana and Nathan. “You stay right here.”

The Navigator and Engineer rushed through the cargo hold and out of the ship. Bulco was holding his big revolver, loaded with Warped Busters and Nori had a Zapper drawn in her hand.

A feeling of Déjà vu gripped Nori as they cautiously approached the broken doors and peeked into the building’s lobby. However, unlike her previous sneaking experience, the interior was now a mess.

The walls were riddled with holes from heavy gunfire and broken pieces of furniture and scorched books littered the floor.

A couple of human bodies laid among the wreckage.

“Damn it.” Bulco gritted his teeth. “That’s Lucas and D’Angelo.”

“There are several more up there,” Nori said grimly, pointing at the walkway above them.

“Yeah, that’s our standard tactic for handling intruders: grab a weapon and shoot them from above. I guess it doesn’t work as well against level nine aliens.”

A loud noise of things getting broken came from further inside the library.

“Follow me,” Bulco whispered. He stepped into the building with his revolver leading the way.

They passed the lobby and entered the library’s main floor. Most of the bookshelves were moved to the sides and center was filled with camping equipment, a makeshift kitchen, and scattered weapons. The noise sounded again, coming from the direction of the toilets.

Nori frowned. “What is he doing there?”

Bulco set his jaw firmly. “Getting in over his head. I promise you that.”

They crept forward silently until they were standing right against the door. Sounds of footsteps followed by more noise of crushing equipment came through. They carefully peeked through a crack in the door, seeing a figure in white body armor examining a glass item, then throwing it at the floor.

Fle'gak, Inthidlon, Level 9, Faction: Inthidlon 3rd fleet

“Shit, he’s destroying our lab!” the Engineer hissed.

“Your what?” Nori whispered with surprise.

The large man ignored her question. “On the count of three. One, two--”

“Wait!”

“Three!”

Bulco kicked open the door and jumped into the bathroom with his gun leading the way. The Inthidlon pilot turned to face him immediately and a helmet instantly materialized around his head. He was still wearing the same gold and white body armor as when they had met him on the station.

The gun barked, followed by a metal ding. The alien Scout looked down at the bullet, crumpled against his chest piece. The angry man fired, again and again, until his gun ran dry. The Warped Busters pinged harmlessly off the alien’s armor without even leaving a dent. Nori stood at the entrance with her Zapper extended, not sure what to do.

The alien casually lifted his arm and a small golden pistol materialized in his hand out of thin air.

“Nori!” The large man took a step back. “Shoot it!”