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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/rewt66dewd on 2024-07-26 23:54:26+00:00.
The sound of a firefight continued to come from 16 Epsilon 6. It was tapering off, though. Then there was the sound of a huge explosion. Then silence.
The Solvent Girl had freed maybe twenty of the Claxvids, but at this she stopped and looked up. "Tac, what have we got?"
"Our unit at 16 Epsilon 6 is not responding, and is presumed lost. Hostiles seem to be about to enter 16 Epsilon 5... yes, here they are. Six Alanoans. One with an improvised insignia, so maybe the captain."
"Alanoans.? Let me see... yup, E-7... fast enough. Safe for Claxvids! Great!"
"Um, Solvent Girl, you seem to be moving toward the hostiles. Turn around! Safety is the other way!"
"I'm not going to safety. I'm taking point. You - " here she started speaking to the Orion Alliance refugee team, "you run back toward 16 Epsilon 1. Take everybody who's unstuck with you. I'll be back for the rest in a bit."
"Solvent Girl, you aren't armored for this!" Tac protested.
"Armor is for defense. This is offense." The Solvent Girl moved into the near part of 16 Epsilon 5, and began spraying.
"What are you doing?" Tac demanded.
"Killing hostiles. Oh, and maybe myself, but I hope not."
"Fall back! They're almost on you!"
"Falling back... and..."
"They seem to have stopped and... fallen down?"
"Yes!" The Solvent Girl surged back forward, found the downed Alanoans, and gave each of them an extra spray in the face, just to be sure.
"I'm waiting very patiently for you to explain this to me..." But Tac did not sound at all patient.
"There's one solvent we use that is really toxic to Alanoans. Like, very very quickly fatal. I sprayed it all over where they were going to walk. Only problem is, it's kind of toxic to humans too. The suit's supposed to handle it, but I need a decontamination team sent to 16 Epsilon 5, preferably quickly. And with no humans or Alanoans in it. Oh, and no Trarchids, either. In fact those three races should probably avoid all of 16 Epsilon 5, and everything one grid unit in any direction."
"That leaves you unable to continue freeing the prisoners."
"Well... either the suit was good enough to protect me, or it wasn't. If I'm still operational, I might as well finish freeing them."
After decontamination, she did exactly that. Then she went back to her ship.
She was in the sickbay for two days. The suit had been good, but it had allowed a very small amount of E-7 in.
After she was out of the sickbay, she got a huge welcome from the freed Claxvids.
The captain had one question for her: Why?
"Well," she explained, "in my training, it was drilled into us over and over that E-7 was dangerous to humans, and especially to Alanoans. When I found out that that's who was coming, I remembered, and knew I could stop them."