“Steady at the helm”, came the order from Thrash, captain of the
Collective Marine Scout Redemption. “Take us within two kilometers Crom, and
keep watch for debris”. “Aye sir.”, came the muffled reply from the pilot’s
rig. “Two kilometer’s, mark” Thrash leaned over to the Address System and gave
the order for a standard scan of the debris and a Collective transport we had
found. “As soon as the marines are off the ship, take us out to three
kilometers and set us into orbit around the transport” he instructed. The comm
erupted into life and dimly we could hear the marine squad leaders voice, in
this case Jani, report that the squad had touched down with zero casualties
and were starting to search the ship for survivors.
“Sensory to Bridge, sir, we cant get any readings on that ship,
someone’s set up a cloak field. And the debris consists largely of unknown
minerals, along with some faint traces of a hyperspace junction. Appears to be
of unknown origin. We didn’t see it earlier because apparently the debris
reflected our scans.” “Crom, take us out to two clicks and hold a sheer
course, heading zero seven six, and hook it!” “Aye!” came the hearty reply.
All around the bridge the crew were strapping into their seats, preparing for
the sudden surge of power that they knew was coming. However, space decided to
interject one last comment into the situation. “Sensory to Bridge, sir, the
transport, its...bending? Get another read on that...it cant be rig...” The
comm system gave out in a silent protest that everything was all right, in
itself proving that something was indeed very wrong. “Flagston, can you get me
any data on what’s going on??”, Thrash demanded. “Sorry sir, all data lists
have gone blank, I cant even get the computer to tell me what time it is.”
came the reply, sounding quite a bit more than scared. “Uhh...sir...you might
want to see this.” Crom called. Thrash went into the center of the oval bridge
and peered into the depression in the floor that severed as the main viewer,
and what he saw told physics to go stick its head in a bucket. The
transport...its...collapsing...” What he saw was a Collective Transport, quite
a large piece of metal in itself, imploding into itself. Not only that, but
all the random debris around the ship was going with it, including the C.M.S.
Redemption. “Engines are go for course correction, hold tight boys!” shouted
Crom as he attempted to jockey the ship around using just his eyes, since all
data lists were dead. A sudden roar filled the bridge as the mighty engines of
the Redemption blasted the void, attempting to put some distance between them
and the now obvious Hyperspace Junction. “Sir, we’re just barely holding our
own here! Not to mention we’re starting to get some hull strain! I’m going to
have to switch off the engines or we might rip in half!” “Fine! Cut engines!”
yelled Thrash. “Arm all defensive weapons and bring the EM shields online!”
Ten seconds after this, in a remote sector of unremarkable space, an eye
searing light appeared. It was only a molecule across and a molecule wide, but
the light seemed to spear off in all directions, making it appear like a new
binary star had been created. Stars somehow seemed to grow closer together
around the blinding light, as if they were somehow attracted to it. Suddenly
the mysterious light winked out, like God had flipped a switch somewhere
above, and a strange metallic shape started to blot out the stars where the
light had been. Space somehow seemed to twist around the object, and the
object itself seemed to be almost liquid at the point where it was growing
from, and as solid as a planet where it was far away from it. Soon the shape
stopped growing and the searing light reappeared, as if it had just been
hidden somewhere behind the starship, which it was now revealed to be.
Assorted chunks of indistinguishable material floated through the light,
exactly like the ship had, but with less majesty. After a full minute, the
light once again disappeared, only to be replaced by another metallic shape.
It grew in the exact same pattern as the other, but it seemed
somehow...smaller. If anyone had been watching this event, they would have
said it was the exact same type of ship coming through the singularity, but in
fact it was the C.M.S. Redemption.
“All hands, report!” shouted a voice, very much like Thrash. Which
meant, thought Crom, that he must still be alive, or at least not dead. “I
said report!” came the persistent voice. “Sensory to bridge, no data still.”
“Engineering, engines seem just fine, sir.” “Security, all personnel accounted
for.” “Astrogation, all systems are down.” “Piloting, all gear is good to go
sir.” “Comm, all systems are dead, and our hyperlink was sheered off in the
junction, no time to retract it.” “Gunnery, weapons charged and EM shields
holding at 96%.” “Damn!” cursed Thrash,”Well, can anyone get a read on the
marine’s?” “Not a sausage captain, sorry.” Thrash embarked on a five minute
experiment to find out how angry he could get, and found that apparently,
there was no limit. “OK!” he shouted,”Everyone on-board, prepare for
ship-to-ship docking maneuvers. We’re going over there for a little chat.
Crom, are your data lists online yet?” “The lists are still down sir, but I
think I can land us in the escape pod bay. If gunnery can blast a big enough
hole in their backdoor.” “OK, gunnery, target the EP bay and blast the door
off, try not to rupture the hull, OK?” “Aye captain!” gunnery replied. The
next instant a brilliant blue beam of plasma arced off into the void protected
by a class 2 helix and splashed against the seam of the EP bay. The plasma
just splashed off at first, but after a second or two the splatter went away
and a steady stream of air blasted out into the starry night. After a minute
or two the door was suddenly blasted out into space, fortunately not at the
Redemption, and the EP bay was exposed. “Its full...” came Sensory’s appraisal
of the bay. “Odd considering this ship is floating dead in space” said
Thrash,”perhaps they teleported onto another ship.” “Or perhaps their all
dead.” stated Crom,”which would seem to be likely in this case. I wouldn’t be
surprised if this was a trap. The rebel’s force is getting stronger in the
Solar System these days, I wouldn’t put it past them to hit something this
big.” “Crom, I dont care what you think! Just get us into that EP bay and
touch down!” shouted Thrash. “Aye captain. But I want it on the record that
I’m against this”, replied Crom. “Fine. Your statement is duly noted, now land
this ship, or do I have to relieve you of your post?” stated Thrash, in an
oddly calm voice. “No, ill do it, sir.” Crom grumbled.
The sleek scout ship of the Collective Armed Forces slid thought the
inky blackness of space toward the goliath of a transport. The running lights
on the outside were still working perfectly. One could hardly tell it was a
dead ship. However, on closer inspection, it was revealed that in some places
there were gaping holes in the outer hull, and some of the running lights had
been blasted out from the inside, as it looked from space. All together an
obvious ghost ship.
Marine Lt. Commander Jani watched the darkened hallway with barely
constrained fear. Ever since getting beamed into this ship things had gone
badly. Shortly after they had reported that all were aboard and that they were
starting their search, the Redemption had stopped sending signals. He had then
ordered the comm officer to check his gear. He found that a cloak field was
established around the ship, preventing all transmissions out of, or into, the
ship. He had then ordered that a beach head be established at the primary LZ
so if the Redemption did come for them, they would know where to look. Jani
had then taken four of his best men with him into the ship, just to see if he
could find out what had happened to the crew. He had also ordered that a cloak
dampener must be on at all times with all team members, so nothing could sneak
up on them without warning. He had taken his squad deep into the transports
inner systems, until he found the command bridge. However, what he had found
there was enough to frighten him and his men into a sort of stupor. The bodies
of the entire crew were laying all over the place, mostly together in the
center of the bridge. Obviously piled there. No gunshot wounds were evident,
but instead great slashes and gaping holes. The only place in the room that a
weapon had obviously been discharged was the pilots rig in the forward part of
the bridge. Someone had shot it several times with a fusion pistol, melting
the keyboard to slag and utterly destroying the LCD view screen. “Someone made
sure that no one can ever pilot this ship without some repair work.” stated
Jinn. “Sir, you better take a look at this.”, Trig said. When Jani went over
to the diagnostics console he was simply amazed. “This is impossible!” Jani
flustered,”No one can remove those engines short of dry dock, and towing a
ship this large into the middle of no where would take years!” You see, the
immense distorter ion drive of the transport was simply not there anymore. In
its place was a cluster of technologies that none of the troopers could even
begin to figure out, but they were obviously not human in origin. “Shit.”,
muttered Jani in a vaguely worried voice,”I really think we need to get out of
here. Perhaps very soon as well.” Suddenly their communicators flared into
life and carried a voice thick with fright. “Sir, we’re under attack! We cant
get a positive ID on the attackers, but its not the crew! So far we’ve been
able to hold them back behind a bunker we were able to construct across the
main doors, but I’m not sure how long its going to last! Wait a second...why’s
the floor movi...” The comm broke out into static and automatically shut
itself off again. “Jani to beachhead! Report! Jani to beachhead, report
please! Damn!” Jani threw the comm into the wall, shattering it into a
thousand pieces. “Lets move!”, he shouted. The small group of marines retraced
their winding path back to the primary LZ to aid their squad. Along the way
they started to hear odd noises coming from all around them. Strange hissing
sounds along with a perpetual clicking noise that was beginning to grate on
Jani’s mind. Suddenly a floor panel in front of them rose up half a centimeter
and dropped back down with an audible clank. “Fire!”, Jani screamed. An
audible blast of air, similar to when a super-sonic aircraft flies over you
and blasts your ears into your skull, filled the hall as Jani and his team
blasted the floor with Double SMG’s, Assault Rifles, and assorted energy
weapons. A low wail sounded from under the floor and a loud thump, and
suddenly all the sound just stopped. Utter silence. Even the constant clicking
that had followed Jani and his squad since they left the bridge was gone. One
of Jani’s team slowly went to the deck plate that had lifted up, now full of
smoking holes and carbon scoring, and slowly raised it half an inch. Nothing
happened. He raised it all the way and let it lock into the open Position and
he glanced down into the black hole. Suddenly the man disappeared over the
edge and the clicking returned with a vengeance. Jani bellowed with rage and
filled the deck plating with heavy Double SMG fire. Deck plates jumped from
the concussion waves of tungsten plated, depleted uranium slugs slamming into
steel plates, and going through it like a knife through butter. His gun
clicked to signify that it was finally out of ammo, and continued clicking as
Jani left his finger on the fire switch. One of his team came over and gently
removed his finger from the button and sat him down on the floor plating. A
deck plate fell through to the lower maintenance level and clanked hollowly as
it hit the various pieces of equipment below. “Their all dead.”, Jani lamented
in a voice devoid of feeling,” And its all my fault.”
A jarring thump was felt all through the command bridge of the
Redemption as it finally settled down for a landing inside the Ejector Pod
Bay. “OK everyone, we’ve been unable to raise the squad so far so we’re going
to do a search operation. We must assume that there is a heavy enemy presence
here, so I want the squad to stick together. Ill take point, and Green, you
take the flank.” Crom stayed behind to guard the Redemption, seeing as Thrash
was angry with him. Thrash took his team to the airlock that shut the Ejector
Pod bay away from the rest of the ship. “Two at a time.”, Thrash said over his
suits comm,”and try and cover each other.” Thrash and Mindel stepped into the
airlock and the green light turned to red as it cycled. “Its clear!”, stated
Thrash,”but there’s some sort of interference with the rest of the squad
still.” As the rest of the squad came into the long hallway that they had
entered, they switched over to filtered air instead of their tanks, just in
case. Thrash split the team in half and sent the other half to the primary LZ
point, just in case. Thrash led his half of the team to the command bridge, to
see if they could discern what had happened to the ship.
“That’s odd.”, thought Crom as he read the data list on his console,”the
ships moving...” Indeed it was. However only Crom knew this, as he was the
only one with access to an astrometrics data list. He attempted to raise
Thrash or Mindel on the comm, or even Jani, but the interference had swallowed
all signals they sent. He hurried down the long corridor that led to the comm
station to see if he could find a way to reach the team.
“Sir! Get up sir!”, Trig said in a voice full of tension,”we need to get
out of here!” The clicking had begun to get bad again and it was wearing down
the four mens brave souls. All attempts to get Jani to move we’re an abandoned
cause. “Sorry sir, but I’m afraid we’ve got to get out of here! If you can
hear us, we’re going to the hyperlink tower to try and raise the Redemption!
See you on the other side, sir!”, yelled Trig over the now exceedingly loud
clicking. The three men ran down the corridor over the badly dented and abused
deck plating towards the front of the ship. Jani, in a fog, watched his men
run away from him. He found himself unable to shout or even to move a Mussel.
This was the first time he had ever found himself afraid, and it made him
unable to move. Unnoticed by him, the clicking gradually withdrew after his
remaining men. A few minutes later shots rang out followed by a single short
scream of terror. Silence.
“What was that?”, Thrash muttered. “I didn’t hear anything, sir.”,
replied the Redemption’s medical officer, Tinslow. “My mind must be playing
tricks with me.”, thought Thrash as he jogged towards the command bridge. In
the background an odd hum had filled the ship. Like some sort of generator.
This went mainly unobserved by the squad and it thundered down the corridor.
“Hold it!”, shouted Thrash,”Here’s the command bridge!” The doors we’re closed
and looked like someone had used something to cut deep grooves into the
surface of the door. They opened the door to find the bridge in shambles. Deep
grooves were on every surface and most of the view screens were smashed into
nothing. Liquid crystal stained the carpet around the computer consoles and in
the very center of the bridge was a huge red stain. “Blood.”, stated Tinslow.
This seemed to worry Thrash a little, but the look quickly faded. “See if
anything in this room works people! We need some information!” Thrash ordered.
He then tried to raise Mindel’s squad but got only static. “Damn
interference.”, he muttered. “Sir!” someone yelled,”we found a data pad over
here! It still works!” Thrash hurried over to a group of officers and grabbed
the pad away. He then examined its memory and found that all it contained was
a single message and a schematic. The message was just a lot of clicks and the
schematic didn’t make sense, so he threw it away.
Jani slowly pulled himself together. He realized that everyone was now
dead, and that he was alone. He flicked some spots of blood off his armor and
stood up. He then turned back towards the command bridge and started to jog
brokenly towards its location. He quickly slung his Double SMG over his back
and drew his Assault Rifle, which still had some ammo packs left. Every time
he heard any sort of click he fired a quick burst at the wall or floor and ran
faster. As he came towards the bridge he noticed that the lighting systems in
the hall were starting to dim slightly. With a jolt the they shut off
completely. Ahead he saw a doorway that had a crack of light around it. It
was, of course, the bridge. The doorway was closed, which in itself was odd.
And then he noticed that there were grooves in the door that had not been
there before. He quickly opened the door and rolled into the room. When he
came up in a crouch, he took aim at the first thing he saw, and pulled the
trigger.
Crom stared in frustrated silence at the comm gear in front of him. He
wasn’t that great of an engineer and stuck mostly to astrogation and piloting.
Comm gear was quite beyond him. Instead he quickly decided that he would go
and find Thrash or Mindel alone. “After all,”,he thought,”someone has to
inform them of the ships new heading.” He raided the armory and grabbed a
Fusion Grenade launcher, a energy pack, a suit, and a shotgun. Thusly armed,
he walked through the airlock on the Redemption and keycode locked it behind
him. He then ran to the lock leading into the transport and quickly cycled it
open. A few seconds later he was in the hall and running like mad down the
first direction that came to mind.
“What the hell!”, yelled Thrash in a rather annoyed voice. The marine
commander had blown the door in and charged up to Thrash, pulling the trigger
on his Assault Rifle. The gun issued a light click and refrained from firing.
“Captain?”, whispered Jani,”what’s going on?” “We’re not sure yet Jani, where
might I ask is your squad?”, asked Thrash. “Dead.”, stated Jani in a lifeless
voice. “All of them? That’s impossible! Who is onboard? Rebels?”, Thrash
streamed the questions out all at once. “Not rebels sir”, Jani muttered,”but
something else. Im not sure what. They move under the deck plates, fast. They
make this horrible clicking noise! Whatever they are, they removed the engines
and put something else in their place, we couldn’t figure out what. They just
aren’t human!” Thrash seemed like he wasn’t listening. “What happened to the
primary LZ?”, Thrash asked offhandedly. “The entire squad stopped
transmitting. I believe them dead also sir.”, Jani answered. Thrash quickly
flipped his suit comm on and send out a desperate message to Mendels team, but
was answered only with static. Out of the blue every comm system on every
trooper suddenly turned on and a single voice asked one simple question.
“Anyone out there?”
Crom was happy that he had found the rest of the squad finally, or what
was left of it as he understood it. It was hard to imagine that many marines
getting wiped out, but then again this ship was almost two miles long. It
could hold a lot of enemy troops. The whole business of aliens just made him
wonder if Jani had cracked under pressure. It was his first job as commanding
officer and perhaps he just couldn’t handle it. Thrash had ordered them to
plant a Nova Detonator in the center of the bridge, in the middle of a large
red stain. Thrash again split the squad and sent half the squad to place
router beacons along the hall to the main energy generator of the transport.
They were also to hook up the Nova bomb to the fusion reactor so that the
entire ship would be blown out of the sky. Thrash team was to go back to the
ship and place routers on the way. The Nova bomb is a complicated affair that
requires three parts, the sequencer, the detonator, and the actual bomb. The
sequencer provides the codes to the detonator which routes the signal to the
bomb, resulting in a massive output of thermal energy. Its designed primarily
as a planetary warfare device as in space its much to large for anything but
demolition. The order of its use caused the squad quite an uproar, as the only
known Hyperspace junction nearby was within the calculated blast radius. It
was unknown if the Redemption could outrun the blast.
Halfway back to the ship, Thrash squad began to hear a clicking noise
that seemed to come from everywhere at once. Everyone noticed Jani suddenly
jerk upright and grab his newly reloaded Double SMG. Something clanked loudly
up ahead and the squad let fly with a barrage of gunfire. Someone in the rear
of the squad screamed and was cut short. Crom turned and fired his Fusion
Grenade launcher and saw it hit a solid wall of three foot high black lizard
creatures. They had six inch long claws and apparently lots of teeth. The
origin of the mysterious grooves in the walls and doors was now solved. The
man had six of the creatures on him and was already dead as he fell. A second
fusion grenade blew the man into cinders and took the creatures along with
him. The entire squad broke into a run led by Thrash, Jani, Crom, and Tinslow.
Screams could be heard along with bellows from the small creatures. Oddly they
sounded seven feet tall. Soon the squads numbers were countable on two hands.
As the squad reached the airlock to the outside, they all switched to onboard
air systems and Crom squeezed the trigger on his Fusion launcher, blowing the
airlock outwards. A sudden gust of wind blew all four team members out the
lock and into the open bay. Thrash, Jani, and Crom were able to use grapple
lines to grab onto projections before being blown into space. Tinslow grabbed
onto Thrash leg and held on for dear life. About twenty little black creatures
blew out of the door before the wind ceased and gravity was restored. The
little creatures apparently didn’t need air, since they ran towards the crew
remarkably quick. Jani fired a continuos burst of SMG fire down their throats
while Tinslow sniped with a Gauss rifle. Thrash took Croms Fusion Launcher and
started laying about him like a maniac. Crom meanwhile opened the airlock to
the cargo bay on the Redemption. The remains of the crew ran up the ramp and
quickly turned, sending a volley of gunfire down at the creatures. The ramp
slowly closed itself as Crom punched the close code. All of them breathed a
sign of relief. Unfortunately, it was short lived. The entire ship shook as if
someone had just struck it with a hammer. Everyone ran forward to the bridge
and took their stations. Thrash took hold of his command chair while Crom
floated up to the pilots harness and strapped himself in. Tinslow quickly took
control of sensory while Jani took his post at gunnery. After all was done,
artificial anti-gravity was turned off and Crom used bypass controls to start
the engine pre-start sequence. Dull thuds could be heard through the hull as
Jani extended the ships anti-personnel weapons and laid about the ship with
them. When Crom guessed that the prestart was done, he grabbed the manual
controls and lifted the ship up on its underjets, vaporizing several of the
creatures. Thrash quickly laid in a course and plotted the astrogation needed
to outrun the nova bomb, if the other team had ever gotten it planted. Crom
send the ship barreling out of the Escape pod bays doors and out into space.
The transport dwindled amazingly fast in the viewer. Suddenly the transport
seemed to turn on its axis and turn towards them. “Oh shit!”, yelled
Tinslow,”incoming missile volley!” Jani fired off some decoys while Crom took
evasive. Thrash was muttering to himself about codes and fiddling with a
sequencer. Suddenly the entire viewscreen was engulfed in a huge ball of
incandescent light. Crom punched the accelerator to the max and crossed his
fingers. After a light shaking the ship quieted down. “So,”, Tinslow
muttered,”we made it?” “Aye, that we did!”, shouted Thrash. The crew of four
all sighed in relief as they realized they were alive, while at the same time
realizing that over 400 people had died. The crew of 320 onboard the
transport, and the crew of 80 on the scout.
As a pinpoint of light dwindled in the distance, speeding off to the
nearest junction point, a molecule of dazzling light appeared in the center of
a metallic cloud. Out of which a strange ship began to flow...
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