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Sat 10th Dec 2022 08:08

Surviving the Nannites

by Khadyr Sabah

Captain Lysia Wada and I were looking at the computerscreen and there it was. The sequence had accelerated and now we only had 30 minutes to get off the station or we all would be dead. We only had 30 minutes to get off this planet. But that was easier said then done. The Zeluba Brigade controlled most of Dhaab 1, so we were more then likely to run into some of their soldiers on our way to the shuttle.
 
Just as we were getting ready to leave the command centre a woman called Niema entered. Moses had contacted her because she knew all the ins and outs of the the computer-systems on Dhaab Station. Together with Shamus, who was getting more and more focused, Niema was able to enter the computersysteem and slow down the sequence. It gave us an extra hour, to get away.
 
Now we had some more time we decides to try and stop the Zeluba brigade from taking the Nannite technology off the planet. We went to the basement where the labs were. But first we ties up the three Zaluba soldiers in the relaxation room. But first we took their smoke granites, their frag granite, the shock stick, a communicator and a vulcan carbine to take with us. Lysia Wada and Niema stayed behind to keep checking the mainframe.
 
And as expected, in the basement we ran into a Zaluba soldier. Suddenly Shamus went completely crazy. Before we could stop him, hen ran to the soldier fiercely attacking him, shouting something about a Leeroy Jenkins. And before we knew what happened he killed the soldier. It was a bloody mess. Shamus laughed demonically and Moses told him that he was a good Red Hyena.
 
I was shocked about what Shamus did but I had no time to think about it, because the soldier was not alone. Quickly I threw a smoke grenade. Shamus and Moses attacked the first one. This time with the shock stick, stunning him. Then Armand shot the second one dealing some dammage, so I could kill him. The Red Hyena's only managed to hit one of the soldiers but not killing him. The soldiers fought back wounding Armand and me. Shamus went wild again and with the help of Moses killing the remaining soldiers. Armand and I couldn't believe our eyes. Was this the Shamus we knew and loved. While Moses calmed Shamus we saw Jussuf lying on the floor in the vaults behind the dead soldiers. We checked him and found oud he wasn't dead.
 
After Armand did some first aid he regained consciousness and asked us to take him of of the planet with. In exchange we would share in the reward for the Nannite technology. We didn't trust him with the very dangerous Nannite technology so we said he could come with us, but he had to give us the Nannite technology. Suddenly Shamus asked me if he could have my gun. He wanted to take a look at it he said. When I gave it to him, he walked up to Jussuf and shot him in the head. " So..." he said, "That's settled".
 
I got a message from Wada that we lost an hour. We had only thirty minutes left. Our only option was to go into the Laboratory to try and access the subroutine again and give us some more time. Because we didn't know if there were Nannites in the lab we threw a Nannite grenade. When the damp it produced was gone, we went inside. We hailed Wada and Niema, but Niema said she needed Shamus to get into the mainframe again. We got Shamus and together they managed to give uw two more hours.
 
This was enough time to put Shamus into one of the scanners in the Lab. First Shamus was not very eager to go in. Moses kept asking him if this was what he wanted. But eventually he got into the scanner. It detected the Nannites and started to remove them. The computer showed that it would take thirty minutes. After that Shamus wad finally back to his "normal" self, or so we thought.
 
We now had no more then five teen minutes left. I contacted Wada en Niema and asked them to joined us quickly. But before we could get to the shuttle we had to get passed three Zaluba soldiers, with two automated Dial gun's, at the platform. We were outgunned and Armand and I were wounded and we also felt sick. It turned out we suffered a mild Nannite infection we caught at the laboratory. To try something I threw a smoke grenade followed by Armand who threw a frag grenade. The frag grenade hit one of the dial-guns. Moses tried to get closer hoping to take out one of the soldiers. But he walked into Raquel, who stepped out of the shuttle. She put a knife to his throat and demanded that we hand over the Nannite technology to her or she would kill Moses. Moses shouted not to give her the Nannite technology and he cried out to Shamus.

Before Raquel or anyone else could act. Shamus raged towards Raquel. She and the Zaluba soldiers were so shocked by his frantic move, they forgot to do anything. While again shouting the name Leeroy Jenkins Shamus killed Raquel and the remaining soldiers within seconds. Moses gave Shamus a big hug. We stared at Shamus in disbelieve. He singlehandedly saved us.
 
We suddenly heard Timon's voice over the intercom system, urging us to leave. We quickly boarded the shuttle and took of. While captain Wada flew over the the station we could see a chain of axplotions, destroying Dhaab-2 en Dhaab-2 entirely and taking the Nannite technology with it. We sight with relieve that we survived and that the Nannite technology was destroyed as well.
 
While we were talking about all that had happened, Moses and Wada were also talking to each other. After a while they came up to us. Wada told us that she was going to work with Moses. She had nobody left she could trust, but Moses. After they dropped us at Sesame, Wada would go on to Djachrum with Moses to join the Red Hyena's!
 
Because Wada was thankful for our help, she gave us her ship, the Mantella! She had no use for it anymore and maybe we could use it well.
 
This adventure wasn't as easy as we thought. We had to fight for our lives an we nearly lost Shamus. Shamus who looked pretty normal again, showed us a site of him we never saw before. Were it really the nannites or.....
 
Before heading to Sesame, we first have to make a short top on Surha to pick up Shamus his barrel of junk and Jezebel. We didn't have any money to pay for the repairs of the Black Moth, but we did have two extra ships now, and more importantly we made new friends, Lysia and Moses. They assured us that if they had an interesting mission for us, they would get in contact.
 
But first some rest and a prayer .....