The zombies body was in remarkably good shape, the flesh wounds had healed quickly due to the nano tech. Zero stretched the things tendons before waking Dana from her slumber. She had taken a knock during the crash and had suffered a minor concussion. The wild look in her eyes was enough to tell him she was wide awake now and he left her alone. Something about this body disturbed the human and it was something Zero couldn't understand.

The Tick pod was cramped at best, made for holding only a small squad and not much more. Releasing the hatch he watched as powerful hydraulics forced open a jaw like structure, designed to tear open enemy ships. The wall crumbled under the pressure, opening a clear path into the next room. Dust swirled in the air and the lights flickered giving the room a menacing feel, although to the artificial intelligence they were all just variables that could not be quantified and not at all fear invoking A sensation that he was not used to hit him and it took a moment to realize it was burnt flesh. Not used to smelling anything the sensation was not unpleasant, just interesting.

Having sensed that the mech body had advanced far enough and had engaged the enemy, Zero started the time cloak. He didn't expect it to go unnoticed but it might at least buy them a little time and give them an opportunity for a few cheap shots. He gave a nod to Dana who was just exiting the pod, her shaken, gaunt look actually portraying her readiness quite well. The gravity of the situation had hit her hard, but she kept on regardless. Once more, Zero cancelled thought processes of things beyond his control and instead he focused Scott's limited processing power on advancing his plan.

Without looking at Dana he started forth, separated from himself in all other forms the Zombie moved through the rooms alone. Instead of dwelling on his isolation Zero went about checking the area. Traveling light he had only Scott's shrapnel gun in a holster and Xacks' assault rifle which he kept at the ready. The map inside Scott's head was vague and lacked the detail that Zero was used to, but even getting that to stick had been hard enough. He longed for more space and felt slightly retarded in this form, as though he was coming out of a winter hibernation and was yet to warm up. The sluggish way in which the hardware worked was still a lot better than the limitations Nutmeg had placed on him in the mech body.

Edging around a corner he started, a trait he must have gained from Nutmeg. Before him stood his Mech self frozen in time, still in the middle of the fight where he had left himself. Beyond that was the living statues of the enemy, frozen in time as they burned and died in a twisted still frame. The plasma fire billowed like the petals of a flower and the black smoke that filled the corridor set the backdrop beautifully. Carefully the dead human picked his footing past the momentarily dying, the smoke particles stung his eyes as he passed and made him cough but he plowed thorough regardless.

Beyond the veil of death and smoke, another team lay in wait. Their stance betrayed their skill level, these were not some rag tag bunch of cannon fodder. Although their species varied, it was clear that this arrangement was tried and tested. Each wore the mark of battle proudly, some as scars, others in the small details of their armor. Zero unsheathed Scott's blade and approached the point man. Humanoid in form, he craned to give a signal to those behind him, his alien features, frog like mouth and dark eyes still giving a confident smirk. Plunging the knife through its neck, Zero opened arteries and with a twist he separated vertebrae. One by one he worked until each of the hapless team was disabled, some he carved their throats while others he punctured hearts or brains.

From this point on the numbers of enemy combatants shifted. The hallways became littered with individuals as though they hoped to block any advance with sheer bulk of numbers. Zero abandoned the knife in favor of using their own weapons against them, using short bursts from the first projectile firing weapon he found, to cut through flesh instead. The resulting spray, painted the walls creating a surreal situation where the after effects could be seen in part before time.

A nearby corpse suddenly collected a shot that was not Zero's own, sending a spray of blueish blood across the zombie. The bullet was followed by several more as moving targets came alive in the hallway before him and tried desperately to find a mark between the statues of personnel. The suspended flesh made good cover, as Zero returned fire, mincing a soft, frozen corpse with a fleshy explosion of meat and somewhere in the mess an enemy went down flailing. His own cover quickly disappeared, coating him in the thick gooey mess that was once a reptilian alien type. Scott's pain sensors flooded Zero with warnings as bullets tore through his own flesh and the zombies function diminished.

In his blood spattered peripheral vision, Zero saw the creatures moving in. With a mangled arm he fired the shrapnel gun dropping one of his attackers, realizing his peril too late. Quickly he sought to disable the cloak with his broken limb and burst the time bubble, but a powerful hand grabbed his own.

"Not this day." The black hairy alien sneered, picking him up with multiple arms. "You're done for today."

Zero didn't bother with a reply, this had been a very probably outcome in such a scenario. There was no point in worrying about it now, instead he directed his attention to micromanaging the nano healing, he was not done yet and it he had no intentions of being snuffed out so easily. Letting his head droop he allowed them to drag him past the still life figures of death and towards what was probably his destination anyway.