#korenna

"Don't get too excited," said Gorst over the communicator. "Going off these readings, most of these husks of junk have been stripped of anything valuable."

"Yeah, I figured. But still, this many wrecks, this close to each other?" She shook her head incredulously. "I've never seen anything like it!"

"That's what's got me worried. It would be one thing if there'd been a battle here, but hese aren't military ships- they're all personal craft. Most likely other scavengers chasing the legend of the Ganymede."

"And speaking of-" just on the edge of her sensor range, a Dorsun battle cruiser came into view. It was as motionless as the other ships, but in pristine condition. "There she is. Wish me luck!"

"Korenna, wait." There was a slight pause- Korenna thought he was likely trying to remotely override her engines. Unfortunately for Gorst, she'd disabled that long ago. "These other scavengers didn't just drop dead on their own- there's something else going on here."

Back at Hopkins Station, Gorst was reading through the data from Korenna's ship uplink. "These readings..." he said, half to himself. "This doesn't make any sense. Ganymede's been derelict for decades, but the energy profile it's givng off is almost like..."

A flashing light on Korenna's dashboard caught her attention. "A target lock? From who?" She looked around, but couldn't see any new ships- but her eyes went wide when she realized the source. Ganymede itself, the plasma railgin on its front starting to glow with power.

Gorst's voice came over the speaker, "Korenna, MOVE!" but she was already slamming on the control stick, upper thrusters bursting to life as her ship dove, just in time as a lance of plasma shot forth from Ganymede, blazing through the spot she'd been moments before. She threw her ship into reverse and shot back towards the debris field as smaller cannons sprung to life, filling the area with laser fire. She wove between the bolts as best she could, but with the sheer volume of lasers, she wasn't going to last long. "Gorst, give me something!"

"Shit! Uh..." He frantically scanned through the data output. "There's a big cluster of wrecks at these coordinates," he said, sending her a telemetry. "Take cover there!"

"That plasma cannon's gonna punch right through! I know you've got that bet with Louis, but trying to get me killed is a bit much!"

"Trust me, I have a plan!"

She groaned, but headed for the cluster, firing her retrorockets to come to a stop. The wrecks absorbed the bulk of the laser fire, but her sensors picked up the plasma cannon recharging. "Now what?"

"The logo, on your dashboard- right before the cannon fires, press it and dive."

"What?"

"Just do it!"

"This better work or I'm haunting you." Korenna hovered one hand over the logo, keeping the other on her control stick while she watched the plasma cannon's readout. 70 percent charged. 80 percent. 90. Now!

The plasma cannon fired, obliterating the first wreck it struck and sending the rest scattering into space. Ganymede's sensors made a sweep of the area. Detecting no active ship signals, it reentered standby mode.

No active signals detected. Entering standby mode.

Just below the now-destroyed cluster, Korenna's heart pounted in her chest as she watched Ganymede's guns power down. After a few tense moments of quiet, she reached for the communicator. "Gorst, what the hell was that?"

thoughts about korenna i had while drawing this

-would be hunting monsters whether she got paid or not, but she insists on being paid because if she does it for free people will expect it of her (vomit emoji)

-actively considers herself malicious, she's not even one of those characters who's an asshole but genuinely thinks they're doing the right thing. she thinks "haha wouldnt it be fucked up if-" and then shes already in motion. technically thats not outside of her job description as a grey one, but she is still morally responsible for it.

-hm what if i gave her antlers or smth.

other thoughts i had while drawing this

im, in pain

Korenna felt the heat of the plasma blast as it streaked by inches from her face. Swearing under her breath, she scrambled behind the nearest pile of debris. This place was supposed to be abandoned, what was a combat bot doing here?

She pulled a device from the bag at her waist, twisted the top, then lobbed it over the debris. She heard another plasma blast as the bot auto-targeted the projectile, immediately followed by the low thrum of an EMP explosion, then quiet. That wouldn't hold it for long, she needed to act fast. Korenna vaulted over the debris, ran toward the motionless bot, yanked the plasma rifle from its hand, and shoved it into her compressed storage unit. While she couldn't use it herself without company credentials, it could fetch a good price later.

Only a few seconds later, the bot's optical sensors flickered back to life. The cool blue glow instantly shifted to a bright red as it saw Korenna standing before it, and it raised its arm, fruitlessly attempting to fire a rifle it no longer possessed.

"Ha!" Korenna said, between heavy breaths. "Not so tough now!"

The bot continued to stare at her. It raised its other arm, then straightened and fully extended both of them. With a soft hiss, its fingers retracted into its hands- only to be replaced moments later by a pair of whirling buzzsaws.