The old trooper paused in his patrol to relight his stogey--not much going on on this derelict freighter, which had been captured as salvage. The cargo, though, that was problematical. Logs had said it was dangerous biologicals. His partner was *somewhere* around here, poking into this stuff--a very weird pair they were, too, this old trooper and a retired xenobiologist. Gerry, the muscle of the two, stopped and squinted through his cigar's smoke and the fog rolling out of the air ducts--they'd started up atmosphere again in the ship to make it easier on the salvage team, and warm air hitting cold--well, you know. About that time, something slithered overhead and a lumpy, vaguely humanoid shape with razor-sharp teeth and a spiked tail dropped in front of him. Gerry stopped just before he put a big frakkin' hole in its head. "JEEZUS, Tsaam, I coulda blown you away," he cursed at his partner, who was hanging from the tangle of overhead ductwork, tubes, and dead wiring--chuckling, which was what that weird scratchy noise was. "Don't effing DO that." "You're gonna attract the attention of whatever got loose in here," his partner advised from his upside-down vantage point. "Not smart. But if you're gonna smoke, you gotta share." "No way! Man, you always slobber on my stogies," Gerry grumbled. "Aw come on," Tsaam wheedled. Before they could go further, the Lieutenant stuck her head in the doorway and rasped, "Will you two stop clowning around?" "I'm just trying to attract the critters," Gerry retorted. "Tsaam will eat any that are dumb enough to show their faces." The Lieut just rolled her eyes and kept going. They shrugged at each other after she left. "C'mon," Tsaam whistled sweetly through his fangs. "Pretty please?" "No!" Gerry grumbled. "Get your own damn cigars." Production notes: M4 with Last Gladiator skin and my own character, mostly; and Soto's free Shaved Scalp, wearing Xurge's M4 Cyber suit; Rawn's Gigalien playing Tsaam; stogie stolen from Mr. Mogawa (thanks, Rawn!); gun from Cyberpunk M4; Stonemason's Level 19 and crate; RazorRider Universal Props tangled stuff; color correction and steam added in post. Rendered in Poser Pro2010 using indirect lighting. Do look a the larger version; there's some detail that only really shows up after you've looked at it for a minute.