Page 10 of Aria's Ascension

Instead of another lab, she saw a floating platform, lit up with a soft, red glow, taking up most of the small room. Around it, lining the walls were shiny metal canisters about five feet tall and six inches wide, taking up the rest of the room.

Aria was about to back out when Kix made a sound of excitement and pressed her forward. Following his urging, she stepped in. There was barely room for all of them to squeeze inside and close the door behind them.

“What is it?” she whispered, glancing at Kix pressed up behind her.

“I believe it is a fabricator,” he whispered back, his eyes bright with interest. “It looks to be a few models newer than the one I used at work, but I believe I can operate it. This must be why we have yet to find a supply room. They do not keep things ready-made. They fabricate them as required.”

Aria looked back at the floating platform with new appreciation and pressed herself against Tirox’s chest so Kix could slide past her.

It took him a moment to figure it out, but once he did, he made short work of producing weapons for them. Thankfully, the machine was almost soundless as it worked.

At Kix’s tapping, mechanical arms loaded a canister into the back of the futuristic 3-D printer before red lasers flickered back and forth rapidly across the top of the platform, constructing a thin sword for her, an ax for Tirox, and Kix’s scythe blade.

Watching it work, Aria had a surreal moment where it really hit home that she was on an alien planet, with alien technology so far beyond what she knew it appeared more like magic than anything made by people.

Glancing up at Tirox, she found him staring wide-eyed at the fabricator. He was even more awed than she, his expression halfway between wonder and suspicion. Aria smiled slightly.

Thank fuck Kix is here to show us barbarians how to work the tech in this place.

An idea sparked. Looking back at Kix and the machine, she asked, “Can it make a gun?” At his confused look, she rephrased. “A projectile weapon.”

Enlightenment dawned, and he turned back to the keypad. A few taps later and he shook his head apologetically. Aria sighed. That was damned disappointing.

A gun would’ve been a hell of a lot more advantageous than a sword. No matter how good she’d gotten with it after who knew how long fighting here, it still required close proximity when she’d prefer distance. And if therewererobots with lasers, she couldn’t imagine her little sword would do much. With that in mind, she asked him to make some of her exploding throwing stars. Those, at least, might cause some actual damage.

“What about a clothes sprayer?” she asked hopefully a minute later, hesitating before strapping on the new weapons and holsters cradled in her arms.

If she had the option tonotfight bare-assed, she was going to take it. It was hard to feel like a badass savior of aliens when her breasts were bouncing around and her hairless pussy was on display.

Kix made a contemplative murmur and tapped on the display a few more times before he sighed and turned back to her with a frown.

“I am sorry,aessa, this appears to only produce weapons and the like.”

Squinting at him, she pressed, “You’re sure you’re not just saying that to keep me naked?”

He blinked in surprise before chuckling quietly and shaking his head. “No, my song. As immensely as I enjoy seeing you bare,” he rasped, slowly sweeping his gaze down her body before meeting her eyes again, “I would much prefer a layer of protection on your soft skin, something to keep the blood off when you wield your blade against any guards we should come upon.”

Aria damn near felt like melting at that. Going up on tiptoe, she pressed a quick kiss to his lips then dropped back down before he could deepen it and strapped on her weapons.

Finished, she gave them both a soft smack on the ass and started for the door, smirking at their grunts of surprise.

Chapter 6

They hadn’t made it twenty feet down the hallway when Tirox went stiff at her side and signaled someone was coming. Aria strained her ears, but even her enhanced hearing wasn’t a match for his ability to pick up the faintest vibrations in the ground.

Aria thought quickly. There was a door not three feet ahead of them, but they had no way of knowing what was behind it. The fabrication room they’d just come from was too far behind. Hell, it could’ve very well been their use of that machine to arm themselves that set off some kind of alert and prompted whoever was headed their way to check it out. Hiding there might only serve in getting them caught.

She could hear the approaching footsteps, now. Multiple heavy steps with clicking at the end of each, like claws on stone. It sounded like they were right on the other side of the bend. They had seconds to get out of sight.

Fuck.

Making a decision, she darted forward, quickly input the code, and shoved her men inside. Trusting them to watch her back, Aria immediately spun to the keypad on the wall to shut the door instead of checking the room for threats.

Sword raised, she moved with the door as it hissed shut, putting her body between whoever was out there and her men behind her.

The adrenaline pumping through her made the door seem like it was moving at half speed and made the hiss as it began to close sound like a scream.

Come on, come on, come on…

---