Dead in Space Pt. 02

Total Mission Time: 00d 01h 56m...

The tram grinded to a stop and the side door opened to the platform. Body bags were lying all over and blood was splatter in places on the ground. Some of the body bags were open; the bodies were of course no in them.

"Tyson, Carlos, do you read, this is Shawn, we are on the Med bay tram platform." I said into the short-range comm.

"Shawn, thank God, Tyson is wounded, is the Rookie still alive?" Carlos replied.

"Yea, she's alive and well."

"We are going to need her to patch Tyson up, we are moving through the chemistry lab right now."

"Alright, hold tight Carlos, we're on our way."

"No problem, Carlos out."

The comm went silent and I turned to Scarlet and said, "Rookie, your medical training is gonna be needed when we find Tyson and Carlos."

"Okay, but its just gonna be a field patch job, this isn't a safe place for a full fix up." She replied.

"We'll they are in the Chemistry lab, and we don't know how to get there."

"Only one way to find it, and that's to keep looking."

We walked through the hallway that went from the platform to the Med lab waiting room. There were more body bags in the waiting room; the bodies were of course not in them.

"What the hell are these things doing with the bodies?" Scarlet said, kicking a body bag.

"I don't know, maybe they are eating them, or maybe the bodies are the creatures we are killing." I said, looking around the bloody room.

The room was dark and blood painted the floor and walls. Shadows were also all over the room, possibly hiding some of the deadly creatures that were haunting the ship. We walked over to the door that led to intensive treatment, but the door was locked.

"Hold on, I'll try to hack the door controls, keep me covered." I ordered, pulling the door control panel cover off.

"Got it, I got your back." Scarlet said, pumping her shotgun as a show of readiness.

I pulled a few wires out and started to connect them to different ports. Although Tyson is the team's hacker, we all have a bit of training in hacking. We also all have some training in Demolitions, Medical, Heavy Weapons, Sniping. Together, we are a force to be reckoned with but alone, we are still a deadly fighting force.

"Okay, bypass complete, door opening." I said, closing the panel up.

We walking into the dimly lit hallway and the door sealed behind us. We walked silently through the hall, hoping nothing would bother us. I heard something crawling through the vent above us and I threw my fist up, showing the hand sign for her to stop. I looked up at the exposed vent, looking for what was causing the noise. A creature, with a long pointed tail and two arms that it used to crawl was moving along the vent. It clearly saw us and it growled at us before jumping up higher, into the shadowy vents.

"The fuck was that thing?" Scarlet asked.

"I don't fucking know, I've never seen these things before." I replied.

We entered a dark room with a single, small light barely giving the room a glow. I could hear something growling at us somewhere in the room.

"Weapons up, we aren't alone in here." I whispered into the comm to Scarlet.

I raised my MA5B and she raised her M90, ready to splatter anything on the wall. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something coming around a corner, arms raised and flailing around.

"There's one, kill it!" I yelled, firing at the creature.

Scarlet fired the shotgun at the beasts mutilated head and shattered it. It lowered its arms as if to fall, but it started to flail wildly. She dove to the side of the flailing, headless beast and I fired to rest of my clip into its chest. The bullets didn't even cause the monster to stumble. Scarlet fired a shotgun blast from the side, sending bloody chunks of the torso against the wall. Unknown to me, one had gotten to close to me from behind. It grabbed on to me with both sets of arms and tried to bite at my neck. I head butted it, causing it to release, then I front kicked it back. I pulled my M6C from its holster and fired at the beast's ugly face. It stumbled back a bit, growling in anger at the rounds hitting its head. I turned to look at Scarlet, seeing her dealing with 2 of the terrible creatures at once. I turned my attention back to the one I was dealing with. It growled it's messed up growl and charged at me. I twisted around it as it got close and I cracked it on the back of the head with my M6C. It turned about and swung its bladed arms, aiming for my neck. Ducking, I grabbed the arms protruding from it's stomach. I pulled as hard as I could until finally, I tore them away from the body. Throwing the arms to the sides, I tackled the beast. I slammed its head on the floor hard, attempting to crush it. After the fifth slam I heard the skull crack.

As I slammed its head on the ground, this time splattering it, I yelled, "Die, you son of a bitch!"

I turned back to Scarlet, who had killed one and blown the legs of the other. She lifted her foot above its head then brought it down, crushing the head to a bloody pulpy mess.

"Nice one, Rookie." I said, to Scarlet.

"Thanks, they never taught us to do that against the enemy." She replied.

"I don't think anyone has ever done that to a brute, it's because the situation we are in, we are doing anything we can to survive."

Suddenly, Carlos's voice came over the comm, "Sir, the chem. Lab is to hot, we've had two quarantines, and these things are practically immune to body shots, we have to leave the chem lab."

"Okay, Carlos, get out of there, we'll find a way to get to you." I replied.

"Yes, sir, Carlos out."

"Scarlet, the chem lab got to hot, Carlos and Tyson are on the move." I said, loading a new clip into my MA5B.

We through the dark room and were faced with two different paths. One went up to an area above and the other led to an elevator.

Scarlet turned to me and said. "We are not splitting up!"

"Relax, I didn't plan on splitting up anyway." I said.

I looked above the doors, looking for a sign to tell what that door led to, but the lighting didn't show. I decided that we would take the elevator down and hope it led to the chem lab. We got in the elevator and it slowly went down.

On the bottom, a lit sign with the words "CHEMISTRY LAB" on it, pointing to a room on the left.

"Carlos, we are by the chem lab now, where are you guys?" I asked into the comm.

"We are by the Zero-G therapy room, follow the right path until you get to where the newborns are, be careful, that place is a nightmare." Carlos replied.

"Understood, we're Oscar Mike." I said, then turned to Scarlet saying. "Let's go, Rookie."

We went to the right path and followed it until we came to the newborns. The room had an eerie green glow to it as we entered. There were tanks filled with liquid, with newborns in them, floating.

"Oh my God... all these babies... now without parents...it's horrible..." Scarlet said, lowering her shotgun a bit.

"Yea, but I don't think the babies are alive, no one taking care of them." I said, morbidly.

A low groan of a growl echoed through the room, a sense of fear with it.

"That doesn't sound like the ones we faced before, it sounds bigger." Scarlet said, horror in her voice.

Another groan echoed through the room, sounding closer.

"Yea... I think your right." I said, raising my MA5B.

A few seconds later, a creature, like the ones we fought and killed before turned the corner. Instead of having arms coming out of its stomach, it's stomach was large and bloated. Its hands had completely formed into large scythes, about 2 and a half feet long. Its bottom jaw was missing, as most of these beast did. The stomach was a yellowish color and looked very inhuman. It moved slower then the others but it was still dangerous.

"Shoot that fucker!" I yelled, firing on the creature.

Scarlet fired with the M90, shredding the beast's large stomach. The stomach tore open and another type of this creature came out. It looked as if it was an infant at some point. Three barbed tentacles emerged from its back and it crawled on all fours. It let out a high-pitched hiss and shot the barbs at us from each tentacle.

"Look out!" I yelled, diving to the side to avoid the barbs.

Scarlet rolled and quickly got up and fired a shotgun blast at the infant demon. It jumped onto the wall and completely avoided the shot, firing more barbs at us. I rolled to avoid and came up with my M6C in hand, firing rounds at the creatures small head. It lurched backward with each round as it hit its tiny head. I finally heard a loud and sicking crack as the skull shattered. The monster fell off the fall and onto the ground, dead. I got up of my one knee and walked to the tiny body.

Scarlet came up beside me and said. "It doesn't even look human anymore."

"Its head is in fragments, of course it doesn't look human." I said, loading a new clip into my M6C.

The bigger creature it came out of was also now just a pile of dead flesh on the floor now.

"So I guess the bigger one was pregnant when it became one of these things." I said, kicking the corpse.

"I guess... what the hell is causing all this?" Scarlet said, loading a few fresh shells into her shotgun.

"No idea... but whatever it is, we haven't encountered it yet." I said, locking a fresh clip into my MA5B.

We walked across the room and out the door into the hallway. I clicked the comm on and said, "Carlos, we're out of the newborn room, were are you guys?"

The only thing I got for an answer was static.

"Shit, lost comms with Tyson and Carlos, can you get a hold of them, Rookie?" I asked.

"I'll check, Carlos, this is Scarlet, are you there... nope, nothing but static." She replied.

"Command, this is Captain Price, we've lost comms with Tyson and Carlos." I said into the comm.

"Understood, Captain, but we can reach them ether, their vitals are all fine, Tyson appears to be wounded but alive."

"Is there any way we can reestablish comms?"

"We can't see anyway at this point to contact them, we will radio you if we find a way or get a hold of them, command out."

I turned to Scarlet and said. "We have no way to get a hold of them, but we aren't stopping, move out, we'll find them."

We went right of the chem lab, going into a dark hallway, dimly lit by sidelights. At the end of a hall, something moved away into a vent.

"Shhhh, it went into the vents, lets try to sneak by." I whispered into the comm.

She nodded and we moved silently down the hall, watching the vents as we went. We got to the end of the hall, were it had entered the vent, and nothing came out. We went left from there when suddenly, with a screech, one of the creatures jumped out of the vent, just three feet in front of me. Startled by the beast, I swung the butt of my MA5B at its head. The neck twisted and flew off, smacking into the wall. The beast stopped, the arteries in its neck sprayed blood all over my torso and visor. To my surprise, the creature straightened up and swung its blades. I ducked and shoved the creature back. I rolled away and came up, reloading my MA5B, and opened fire on the beast. It flailed its arms, missing its head, trying to find and hit me. I kicked its leg hard, snapping the leg bone and causing it to fall. With a powerful kick, I kicked the beast down the hall, then noticed, two more were coming towards me, flailing their arms. I turned and looked a Scarlet, who was dealing with 3 of the beasts as well. I fired the remains of my current clip at the crawling beast I had wounded. The rounds managed to cut its right arm of and the beast finally went limp. The two other creatures continued moving towards me, arms flailing menacingly. I took a frag grenade from my belt, pressed the activation button and hurled it at the beasts. The frag went off, blowing the creatures into bloody chucks of flesh. Scarlet had only killed one of the three she was fighting so I pulled another frag from my belt, pulled Scarlet behind me, activated the frag and hurled it at them. It detonated and shredded the terrible beasts.

"Thanks, Captain." She said, loading a few more shells into her shotgun.

"No problem, let's do a quick ammo check." I said opening my ammo pouch.

I had 8 magazines left for my MA5B, 8 mags left for my M6C and still 80 shells left for the M90. I had 2 frag grenades left and my combat knife if things came to CQB.

Scarlet had 106 shells left for her M90, 12 mags left for her M6C and 10 mags for her M7. Since she was the medic, she didn't carry any type of grenade, only a shitload of medical supplies.

We moved down the hall and into the ER room, I noticed something strange about it. I moved silently into the room when I suddenly heard someone yell. "Star!"

Instantly, I yelled back, "Texas!"

Carlos emerged from behind a table and walked towards me, saying. "Thank God, you found us, we were getting the thought that you two were killed."

"Nah, we are still alive, glad to see you two are as well" I gave him a fist bump, like I do normally and asked, "Where's Tyson?"

"Behind the table, taking cover." He answered.

Scarlet went over to Tyson, who was resting against the table and took her pack off, opening it.

"Got to take your helmet off." She said, taking his helmet off.

"Okay, Doc, just patch up the wound so I can join the fight again." He said with a grumble.

He turned around and looked at the wound on his neck. It was a fairly decent wound, three centimeter wide puncture marks were visible. She took a small bottle from a med kit and poured a bit in each wound. Tyson squirmed a bit due the sting of the liquid.

"Stop squirming." Scarlet said, putting some clotting powder in the wounds to make the blood clot up. She put a field wrap on the wound and said, "Okay that will work, need any morphine?"

Tyson put his helmet on and said, "No, I'll be fine, if it starts to hurt bad, I'll tell you." He picked his SR55 up off the ground and walked over to Carlos and I.

"Good to see you, Tyson." I fist bumped him and said. "Didn't want to lose my second in command."

"Thanks, Shawn, glad to see your alive and well, and the Rookie is alive too, didn't expect that." He replied.

"She's done great, better then I thought she would do, she can be brutal to these things." I said, glancing at Scarlet.

They looked at Scarlet, who was packing some more med supplies into her pack. She looked over at us and then quickly back at her pack. She put it back on her pack and joined us.

"Rookie... Scarlet, your doing great." I said.

"Thanks Captain." She said, sounding happier.

"Where do we go now?" I asked.

"I think we should head to the bridge, I can bring up schematics from the computers there as well as camera controls, I can get a better look at what we are dealing with." Tyson replied.

"Yea and you can get door controls from there as well." Carlos added.

"Then the bridge it is, let's move out, Alphas."

***

John and Eddie, still aboard the IMC. Shadow...

Total Mission Time: 00d 02h 38m

"Sergeant Sharpe and Specialist Kyle, get your gear and get to the pods, launch it five." Reese said into the intercom.

"Fucking finally, about fucking time." Eddie said, grabbing his M351 SAW, the M7057 and holstered his M6D.

"Awww, I was having fun beating your ass at this game." John said, setting the Dice for Eddie's Warhammer game and picking up his SR55, his Aramat Laser and holster his M6C.

"Beginners luck!" Eddie yelled back, aggravated at John's bragging.

They got the pods and Reese was at the controls for the pods.

"Load in and prepare to drop." He said, typing on the control board.

Eddie got into the pod on the left and John got into the pod on the right. The loaded their weapons into the holding compartments and strapped in. Reese signaled them to ask if they were ready and they both signaled back to drop them in. He pulled the drop lever.

The pods launched toward the ships hull, red hot melting laser heating the hull.

Eddie could hear John yelling "Weeeeeeeeee!" as the fell toward the hull so he yelled into the comm, "Shut up!"

The pods grinded through the hull and several floors before grinding to a stop. The pod doors opened at they stepped out.

"That was fun!" John said, taking his SR55 and Aramat Laser out of the rack. He put the Aramat Laser on his back, although he wanted to use it oh so badly.

"It was enjoyable to say the least." Eddie said, pulling his M351 SAW and M7057 off the rack. He put the M7057 on his back and held his SAW at the ready.

"Oh shit!" John said all of a sudden.

"What?" Eddie said, aiming around the room.

"I forgot to let Tom out of cryo!"

"Your fucking me right, your dog, that's what your worried about?"

"Your just mad because you don't get to blow shit up like I can."

"I get to burn things, that's just as good."

"Yea, not really, hey, Reese, can you let Tom out of cryo?"

"Sure" Reese replied.

"Thanks, see you in a few hours" He clicked the comm off.

"Concentrate on your dog before the mission, that is so not surprising" Eddie said, annoyed.

"No, the list goes, Blow shit up, Tom, Blow shit up, Blow more shit up, then the mission." John corrected.

"Your just an idiot!"

"Hey, carrying all the explosives doesn't make me an idiot, but if you're next to me in a firefight it makes you an idiot."

"Whatever!"

They had landed in the mining deck of the ship, an area with dust and fire everywhere. Their pods had hit where a large chuck of rock was begin held in the ship by gravity tethers. The room was dimly lit, like the rest of the ship, only this was a very big room that was like a hanger but with a giant rock instead of ships. The room had one problem with it though, it had zero gravity.

"Hey, Eddie, I'm floating." John said, with a laugh.

Eddie looks and says, "The gravity of the room is off."

Carefully, the two made their way to the door and entered the hallway. When they entered the hall, gravity came back on. John fell to the ground with a thud.

"Okay, I was swimming on air a minute ago." John said, getting up.

Eddie just shook his head and started to walk down the dimly lit hall. They went slowly down the hall, watching the shadows for any movement. At the end of the hall was an elevator with the words "Mining Entrance". They went up the elevator and proceeded out onto the entrance deck. Blood stained the metal floor and tools lay scattered all over the place. A low groan echoed through the room.

"Hey, Eddie, your mother is calling you!" John said, sounding like he was serious.

Eddie didn't say a word just pointed his M351 SAW in the direction of the noise. A tall and skinny humanoid creature walked through the door. It had the distinct missing jaw but it had no bladed arms but long, thin arms with three four claws on each hand. It looked more like a skeleton than a human, it was extremely thin.

Eddie opened fire with the M351 and John fired bursts from his SR55. The rounds tore through the strange creature, ripping and tearing flesh open. It stopped in its tracks and look like it was gonna fall. John and Eddie stopped firing and watched the beast. It fell to the ground and broke into five different pieces. The arms, and legs started to crawl around the room. The head had three tentacles coming from the neck and was moving around the room too.

"What in the fuck are they..." Eddie's sentence was interrupted when on of the arms leapt at his face. He grabbed the things wrist and yanked it off his visor. "You think you can grab me, mother fucker, well" He grabbed it with his other hand, M351 slung on his shoulder, and he ripped the hand apart, yelling, "think again!" He hurled the chunks at a wall.

The two feet lunged at John, but he was ready. He caught the two, threw them into the air, and shot each of them with a three shot burst from his SR55 before they hit the ground.