Commission for  lexiegreywinds of, well, herself!

And Lexi was awesome enough to write a story to go with the commission as well, so I posted it below! Please enjoy :3



Written by Lexi:

The ship had been in low orbit in a holding pattern since early morning local time until it got clearance to approach. Lexi watched as the spaceport came into view and maneuvered around to connect the mooring lines which would feed Starcruizer 42 fuel, power and various coolants for the next several hours. It was a routine stop but 42 was one of the few ships headed toward the outer systems close to where Lexi's home would be. She was eager like the rest of the crew to leave the ship, even if it wasn't home quite yet. As soon as the all clear signal was given the bay doors opened and transport ferries began to lower personnel to the surface.

It was a medium sized port, active with other ships refueling and repairs as well as countless merchant shops, restaurants, bars and other places to cater to the needs of long haul space crew. It was largely useless to Lexi, while outwardly seeming biological there wasn't much such places offered that as a synthoid she really needed. Despite the time she had spent in space, the novelty of the shops had not worn off so there was plenty of fun to be had shopping. Several junk and tech shops tried to sell her various devices and equipment sets. She had to smile, nothing they showed her came close to the level of technology that she was made out of. Nothing, not even the ships were even as advanced by half came close. She had just moved on to a clothing district and was looking at an fine dress woven by a reptilian/draconian race, at least the runes and symbols lead her to believe it as such when as slight disquiet began to overcome the market. People leaning in an whispering to one another, few stalls began to pull in their wares but not actually close. As she observed this she quietly keyed up her com systems and quietly listened to the traffic over the open channels. She could have easily gotten around the Port A.I. firewalls and listened into all of what was going on but she didn't want to draw attention to herself like that. There were free robots in the galaxy but not all were treated kindly. She filtered out normal operations, flight paths and clearances. The pulses of the communication didn't cease, but she noted less of security and officer traffic. Lexi was about to break her silence and talk to the Dockmaster A.I. when it spoke first to everyone.

"Attention. Several ships have broken out holding formation and are refusing all communication. Scanners and Holographics confirm one ship is on a course to this facility. These actions are to be considered hostile and all Captains are instructed to recall their crew members to their ships for immediate departure. All port personnel to shelters. Planetary defense forces have been mobilized. This is not a drill."

For 0.35 seconds Lexi marveled at how biological beings who having no internal communications, baring those with implants, could move all together so quickly and with purpose before she too began to move. Clearly the word had been spread of a possible attack before the official word got out and Lexi knew she had to get back to the 42's fueling bay. She had just left the market districts when several shock waves slammed into the port as several troop drop ships jumped into the atmosphere right overhead and began deploying attack forces in heavy armor. Heavy caliber miniguns, grenade launchers and plasma rifles of all kinds these guys had it and wasted no time in attacking those who had not made it to the ships or a shelter. Lexi had just taken cover as one of the exo-suits leveled a formidable charged particle cannon at her. She cursed herself for leaving her side arm aboard the 42 in her cabin's safe. She had no choice, she had not done this in years and had hoped never to do so again. She closed her tight and activated long dormant systems and core programs.

>>CODE/SYS.CMD:: Combat Systems Activation Sequence. //@:OCnG%#K(+DG_8ATDU*@r$,_A9i'$/TbZ;Ec#j::Status [CONNECTED] //Core.Query::ProtonBlaster_Status //Checking:: Plasma.Flow [96%] >>SYS.MVTargeting:: Bl7O'@4bu#Ci"/8F`8I?AS5F'FD,];F*(u6F!+n3AKYW( //Movement Acclerator::87c4O+=C`;+E_WU+@L-c-ZgJ@Ec6#?+EV:.+EMXFARTFs/c [On-line] >>Adaptive/Regenerative.Shielding:: Synced and online

It was done. She had opened her eyes and her whole world had changed. She had become the weapon so many wanted to her to be. Her right hand glowed and burned away to expose the reddish-purple hyper-alloy beneath as her hard light circuitry glowed brightly. She moved in swift, fluid almost graceful strides as she stepped out from cover and lifted her arm toward her attacker and fired, blowing a hole clean through the armor and the one inside it. It almost felt good as the power flowed through her body and outward. Almost. She had just given herself away as a powerful target or prize. Her scanners had already locked and tracked three more whom had saw what she could do and were turning to fire. To her they moved so slowly as with a sudden burst of speed she ran at them that no living being could achieve. With a leaping kick she sent the middle of trio flying back, her shielding system dampening the impact forces against her. Two more blasts finished to other two who had been stunned at her speed. She registered more forces, a lot more forces. She was just getting ready for another attack when she noticed they were not approaching. Scared? No. Smart, as she noticed too late the dropship overhead had turned and one of the large cannons pointed in her direction. She wondered for a moment if these guys were pirates or mercenaries to have reacted to her like this. Then the canon fired.

The 600-ton ferric-tungsten anti-ship slug slammed into platform penetrating through all the levels downward, right where she had been. Lexi blacked out for a moment, recovering to find herself flying through the air as well as on fire. Her shields were destroyed and her Core fighting to restore power to the rest of her. She had survived by an instinctual flare from her Code, all power she could bring was diverted to her shields for a split second as the round hit. It didn't stop the worst of the effects, she was damaged but she had survived. Her body slammed into one of the lower platforms that had not collapsed under the blast and rolled. She felt her systems trying to recover as she stood slowly and brushed off flaming pieces of her clothes as well as bits of her fur and flesh. The luminescent blue of her gel layer dripped off her inner frame and hyper-alloy from where she had been hurt. She had landed on her right side so most of the damage shown there. She couldn't do a full system check here. She had to move, while the drop ship couldn't get to where she had landed she no longer had shields. The attacking forces had enough weapons to fill the air with pure firepower, even if she had not taken that direct anti-ship round she could not handle that. She took off running again, she was not able to reach full speed but it was fast enough. Running and jumping she tore past the scattered destruction of the port. She saw the fueling station not far off, Starcruizer 42 still in dock, smoke pouring from the surrounding buildings. Seems other assailants had landed here too. The ship was still locked by the mooring line, there were no tech crews around. It looked like civilian population had all been evacuated before they could disconnect the line. This was good and bad, good because the ship was still there for her to escape onto. Bad, because the ship was trapped there as long as the line was still connected.

Lexi gritted her teeth, she didn't need her scanners to tell her that several dropships were inbound on her location. She vaulted the railing and ran towards the mooring line, her comms pulsing as she signaled the ship and forced her message through all priority channels.
"I can draw their fire. Get yourselves disconnected and ready to jump out of here as soon as you do." She closed comms as she sped up again, whipping around to see several armored figures rushing in and firing.

Bullets whizzed past her and pinged off the floor as she ran to keep them from getting a good shot. She fired in return jumping backwards as she made them follow her away from the mooring lines. She was going to make it hard on them, to give the ship every chance to escape. She saw just by the numbers reading on her scanners that this was just the start...