Orange

Frida landed like an old school comic book character. The cluster of people following behind her didn’t do as well. The twenty foot drop from the window above was something that stopped most bipedal creatures. The new body Frida had just stolen didn’t have any issues with it at all.

The Core Company was paying good money for this prototype, Frida needed to keep it in at least living condition. Clearly the foot soldiers behind her were not nearly as worried about it. The parking lot of random rockets and shuttles she was sprinting through provided plenty of cover for her foot race with the soldiers, but it was one she didn’t expect to win this easily.

The new body was extremely fast and reacted better than most of the droids she had driven before. her senses could barely keep up with all the input coming in. She mentally had already plotted at least eight ways to get to the jump off point so she could catch the flight out.

The Orange skin of the prototype was her only real surprise with this job. It was something that would make blending in impossible, but with as many physical extras the body had, she doubted she would even need to worry about it. Forty feet from her rocket she encountered the first real issue.

Six soldiers sat with their weapons aimed at her. The first two younger cadets opened fire. As the shots started, Frida felt the chemicals kick into her new body. The feeling was almost painful. every synthetic muscle tensed, and her eyes dilated out and the whole surrounding area came into a much finer focus.

Time didn’t slow down, but her senses reacted more quickly than she imagined possible. The nerve relays told her how to react, the path of every shot was calculated and she twisted into a tumble flip that let her avoid the weapon fire. The shots blew past her and she avoided them like playing an ancient game of dodge ball.

The sprint forward had surprised her as much as the soldiers. The difference between them was that Frida was ready to fight hand to hand, and the soldiers were not. The flurry of unarmed combat was brutal. Frida literally ripped them apart and broke through the small group.

The small escape rocket shot out from the planet leaving an orange trail of vapor. The orb helmet almost didn’t fit over her head and hair. She hadn’t even realized how much hair was there. The seal around her neck locked and the air she breathed would now be consistent. She internally realized that the orb over her head was probably stronger and more valuable than the rocket she was flying out on. Sitting down in the cramped cabin she did a self-examination of herself with the Body tools she had downloaded with her.

The orange skin was tinted orange purely for aesthetics, but under that was a surprisingly tough substance that clearly had some alien tech in it. The pores could act as a breathing system if needed. The first scan of the internal structure also showed alien tech in the nerves. Nearly instant control of any muscle and the muscles themselves were clearly state of the art as well.

A red light started blinking on the control panel above her before anything else could be examined. The monitor showed why Core Company hadn’t been worried about losing this body. The space worm twisted its way behind her. The giant mouth agape with teeth as it moved through the gap between them.

Sighing, she picked up the plasma gun she had taken from the soldiers below, and opened the airlock. The orange skin immediately changed texture and she felt the changed in her nerves too. The Balance system she had been using changed, and she realized with a little relief and a lot more confidence that she had gone from a gravity center, to a non-gravity center, and her body had changed with it. She had no feeling of up or down, but the normal disorientation that went with it was gone as well.

Using the gravity tech in the boots she climbed around the ship and steadied herself in one of the atmosphere stabilizing fins. The Space Worm was closing in fast, but she grinned as she prepared herself for the jump.

Frida The body Snatcher.

Pushing a command through to the rocket, she pushed off the side as the rocket changed course, Firing a plasma shot into the after-burn of the engine, she felt the force of the explosion push her out and straight into the mouth of the worm.

The gullet of the worm closed in before it could react and she bounced down the cavernous throat of the worm unharmed. Pressures changed as she went through different parts of the worm, as she felt the sides of the worm close in, she found what she was looking for. The helmet glow illuminated the stomach of the worm and she saw the acid sack start to bulge before it spewed open to digest everything. As it bulged Frida aimed the gun over the bulging pore.

The plasma shot ripped into the sack and far into the flesh of the worm. Liquids and acids went everywhere. The Plasma shot popped a hole in the side of the worm and the pressure suction from space pulled Frida and most of the contents of the worm’s stomach. The worm writhed in pain as it twisted with no direction before becoming still and floated around its own internal organic matter.

A quick command to her shuttle and her red rocket turned and picked her up. Securing herself inside she felt her borrowed body reconfigure itself to the shuttle and she strapped herself in for the rest of the ride home.