Morrigan spent the supposed evening clawing out chunks of Viridian deep within the walls of the offshoot burrow. Apollyon teased her endlessly for her exuberant happiness she was experiencing but she didn’t care. She knew Apollyon was aware how much of a feat it was to finally gain some control over herself.
By the end of her gleeful harvest, she had a modest amount of Viridian which she carted back as the shift call sounded.
Morrigan could not keep from giggling as her brain fired on all cylinders with elation. The other inmates that took notice shifted nervously away from her, giving her a wide berth to let her pander her madness. Noticing only drove her amusement even higher. She let out a shrill screech of glee before silencing herself into a wide toothy grin, watching as their eyes widen in fear.
You know, I will even admit all the giggling is becoming a bit grating, Apollyon huffed.
“I-don’t-care!” she sang out in a child-like manner loud enough for others to hear.
You may not but its starting to sound like a cacophony of dying gerbils in here.
Morrigan giggled as she pictured a box full of gerbils, “all the little mousies with their noodly little tails! Soooo cuuute!” she sang as skipped along pushing her wheelbarrow.
Apollyon let out a long groan, listen, I’m happy you found your happiness and put the dope in dopamine but can we bring back your murderous crazy back? She’s a lot more fun.
“Awe, does someone need a friend?” she asked in a sardonically sweet tone.
Apollyon grumbled in the back of her cracked mind as she noticed the prisoner next to her in the back of the line had a look of horror on his face.
Morrigan's expression flashed with anger before reshaping to the jubilant smile she had just a moment before as she eyed the man she did not quite recognize.
“Oh! Not you silly,” she chimed with a wide grin before raising her hand and tapping her temple.
The man's face twisted in confusion as she went back to humming to herself.
As Morrigan reached the middle of the central warren, a cacophonous rumble resonated from the back of the mine. What ever had created the noise had been powerful enough to feel it beneath her feet through the solid stone floor.
Atlas stormed across his perch scanning the mass of inmates waiting in line. “Who’s still drilling?!” he roared thinking an inmate was still in the mines with a sonic drill.
Atlas was fair in the way he ran things in the mine. If everyone followed the rules and produced enough Viridian, everyone lived respectfully comfortable.
The look on Atlas’s face spoke to the contrary as he sought out a missing inmate despite the reassurances called out by his task masters that everyone was accounted for.
Another resonant rumble moved through the cavern, strong enough for everyone to feel the vibrations beneath their feet.
Even in her addled state, Morrigan could sense that something bad was about to happen. By the murmurs and looks of confusion surrounding her, she wasn’t the only one.
Why does it seem like everything we meet wants to eat us? Apollyon mused.
“Huh?” was all Morrigan could respond before the ground erupted towards the back of the line of inmates.
What emerged reminded Morrigan of a cross between a worm and a cobra as the long body stretched itself from the ground and towered 15 feet above everyone. As it curled down to witness its new meal, it’s body squished itself behind its head into a jagged hood and its maw split in three places to release a hiss that filled the chamber.
The near grating hiss was quickly drown out by the sounds of automatic gunfire as the guards near the service elevator opened fire.
In the brief moment that the worm-like creature reared itself back from the onslaught of the guards, she could see that their bullets had little to no effect against its natural armor.
That of course, did not keep the monster from becoming agitated.
With little warning, the creature flung itself forward at a near blinding speed, bowling over the prisoners to either side while crushing the central mass underneath its large body.
Morrigan watched dozens of fellow inmates die beneath the slinking creature before its mass sent her flying back into a stone wall by its tail. An audible crack resonated from behind quickly following the sharp throbbing that emanated from her skull.
The splitting pain tore at her vision as a litany of screams erupted around the central warren.
Hang on kid, I got you.
Morrigan felt the pain slowly subside as her eyes focused on the creature, watching it slam into the shaft and biting down on one of the guards and crush the other under body.
The entire cavern shook when the shaft was struck, causing stone to plummet from the ceiling onto panicking prisoners.
The monster turned to unleash its fury and hunger, diving into the ground underneath a group of prisoners, its split maw consuming the men as the monster pierced the ground and slipped underground at an incredible rate.
“Holy moley, did you see that thing?” Morrigan groaned as she stood herself up from the wall.
Well, it was certainly enough to make me favor women that’s for sure, Apollyon mused.
That earned a snort from Morrigan as the daze lifted from her, letting her take in a better look of her surroundings.
Bodies of men were scattered everywhere some unconscious while others coward in fear at the monstrosity that had torn through over half of their population.
Deep down Morrigan was afraid however her mind overrode that fear with her childish lunacy.
“Do you think it wants to play?” she exclaimed loud enough for the entirety of the cavern to hear.
Oh yeah, a creature that big will definitely want to “play”, Apollyon replied sardonically. Just keep that squirrel brain on a swivel princess and we might survive this.
Morrigan could feel Apollyon’s anxiety which felt odd to her. It was typically adamant about fighting however, now Apollyon seemed tentative about the concept. Its rudeness did not help either as she puffed out her lower lip in a pout as she walked towards the hole it created.
“Why do you have to be so mean to me? I'm only having fun,” she asked in disillusioned tone.
That's because the fucking worm isn't a puppy to be played with. Now is not the time for fun unless that fun is murder! That thing needs to be killed before it makes a snack out of you- which also includes me in case you forgot that I'm in here!
A thoughtful expression lit in Morrigan’s face, “but what if it just wants a friend!” she mused with a giggle as she peered down the lightless hole.
You can't be fucking serious… Apollyon groaned.
“Heelllloooooo! Do you want a friend?” she called out. Atlas crawled to the edge of his plateau and slide the six feet down the side before standing into a sprint, “are you mad woman!”
Morrigan looked up with a cheerful grin, “Atlas! I made a friend and boy is he big!” She looked down the hole again, “come on buddy let's play!” she cried down the hole in a high pitched whine.
“Get away from there girl!” Atlas called out before the ground below his feet burst upwards, sending him crying out into the air. The giant snake worm followed with its split maw fixing close around him, Atlas’s bones breaking under the pressure of its jaws.
You and your big mouth…seriously, we need murder Mori not this obnoxious happy shit!
The conscious inmates screamed in terror as they watched the creature swallow their pit boss all the while Morrigan giggled and cheered of the return of the creature.
The creature spared a glance at the small young girl cheering at its arrival before turning its single eyed head towards the numerous prisoners that scrambled to get away.
Predatory instincts driving it towards fleeing prey, Morrigan let out an indignant huff and stomping her foot. “Hey! We're supposed to play!” she shrieked before unleashing a spectral crimson claw towards the monstrosity.
That’s right, kill it for ignoring you!
The claw raked through what could be considered its thick tail nearly effortlessly, causing the creature to let out a shriek of pain that shook the cavern hard enough to strain Morrigan’s ear drums to the point of blowing and causing loose stone to fall from the ceiling again.
It turned back to see the little girl covering her ears, flicking its tail in her direction before resuming its chase of larger, more numerous prey.
Morrigan could feel bones snap as the tip of the tail nearly as thick as she was tall slammed into her and sent her sprawling into the stone wall again. This time knocking her unconscious.
Damn it woman… if that thing doesn’t come back to eat us remind me to give you a spanking, fucking brat…
ΩΩΩ
Ebony scanned rapidly through the data stream, keeping tabs on what files to ignore and which to pull into her data-drives for Federation use.
No one could argue that Ebony was talented, using four fingers between three different screens simultaneously as she read the data on each screen.
Something caught her attention though. A missive deep within the Acquisitions Database labeled “M.E. Clarke”.
The name Clarke triggered her memory, bringing her thoughts back to the time months ago when Taylor had incessantly stalked everyone aboard the Chevelle demanding if they had heard or seen his girlfriend Morrigan Clarke.
Ebony quickly opened the file to find a picture of a teenage girl sitting on a couch. She had brown hair with her bangs dyed blue with deep green eyes. Ebony noticed how fake the smile was the girl wore, because in her eyes Ebony could see a writhing anger just lurking, waiting to be unleashed.
At first glance anyone here would have guessed by the look in her eyes that she was a marine on leave, a soldier who had seen a fair share of combat but at how young she looked, the only conclusion Ebony could come to was that the girl was a fighter and a survivor.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Quickly reading through the document, it appeared to be a BOLO for the girl, describing her physicality as well common mental traits listing her as potentially dangerous and prone to lashing out in anger.
That caused Ebony to snort. She looked over her shoulder to see her squad still monkeying around ignoring her while she worked.
The thing that caught her attention was an added note towards the bottom highlighted “SUSPECTED MAGE”.
Taylor had never once mentioned that his girlfriend was a mage which was highly curious to Ebony.
She quickly transferred the file to her personal data-slate as she heard someone step up behind her.
Aleksei towered over her like a giant even as he knelt down next to her. “Almost done boss? We have company,” he inquired.
Ebony refocused on the world around her to hear shouting of CoU soldiers outside the door Aleksei sealed. As far as she and Stephanie found, it was the only entrance and exit aside from a maintenance hatch in the ceiling.
Ebony disconnected her remaining hard drives and stuffed them back in the slots on her armor, “yeah, I have enough,” she said coolly, “give me a sec, I’ll send everyone the map of the ship,” she added before looking down the line of servers to the massive hatch that was displaced by the neat array of steel panels on the ceiling.
“Get that hatch open and set a diversion to let them think we borrowed a floor down,” she ordered to her a team as she pointed at the hatch.
Her squad quickly shifted from leisure mode to work mode seamlessly as Taylor hoisted Henry up to the hatch to unlock it.
As Ebony packed up, she watched Taylor work and wondered how or if she would let him know what she found.
She figured if he knew, his efforts would double and push him further away from her which was not an option she wanted to explore. She was determined to make the stoic beefcake her own.
“Hey EB, we need to move!” Taylor called out as the sound of a plasma cutter and the blinding flashes of light came from the corner of the room.
Ebony checked on Aleksei who was setting an abhorrent number of explosives beside where she was working. With a quirked eyebrow she asked, “are you ready?”
Aleksei looked up with a big grin, “three breach charges, pile of grenades and incendiary cluster grenade to top it off. It shall be grand distraction!”
Ebony just shook head and pointed to the hatch where Taylor was waiting while the rest of the team made their way into the ceiling. “Let’s go big guy.”
Taylor braced himself as Ebony sprinted the way towards him and helped her fluidly vault into the maintenance space in the ceiling.
Aleksei helped Taylor up and both Henry and Taylor had to help pull the giant Martian up into the hatch before Henry leaned out of the ceiling to reseal the hatch.
“Okay everyone, this maintenance tunnel leads to the hanger, I’ve mapped out the path incase any of us get lost. Sending it to you now,” Ebony stated as she ran the sequence to send her team the map to their own data-slates. Everyone took a moment to memorize the map as the sound of heavy metal slamming onto a metal floor.
“Oops,” Aleksei chuckled before pulling out one of his detonators, clicking the trigger.
The resonant explosion was deafening and caused everyone to clasp their ears and let out a stream of curses.
Ebony ground her teeth as she glared at the big man who just let out a hearty laugh despite the high pitched ringing through their ears.
Growling, Ebony tapped on Jackson’s shoulder and hand signaled to move on before turning and following the path she had laid out for everyone.
Behind her Jackson repeated her orders to who ever was next to him and they signaled the next. Soon everyone was following Ebony.
ΩΩΩ
It was a rough stroll through the maintenance corridor as Taylor slowly bounced on his toes in his crouched stance to keep the back of his calves from cramping up. The down side to the maintenance corridor was the small space that required everyone to crouch through it but that did not outweigh the lack of conflict so despite the minor complaints, Taylor was okay with it.
Everyone did bask in the amusement of Aleksei having to crawl on his hands and knees seeing as he was just tall enough to have crouching be too uncomfortable.
“Woof!” Aleksei deadpanned when Stephanie made a comment about him being a dog. That caused another series of hushed laughter.
“What? Who’s there?” someone called out timidly from further down the corridor. The clunk of dropped tools increased the chances of it being a simple maintenance worker and not a CoU soldier.
Ebony clicked her tongue twice before waving ahead of her. Taylor watched as Stephanie drew two large blades from her belt and slink off ahead of the group in utter silence.
The rest of the team waited until a shrill yip pierced the air followed by a strained gurgle that quickly faded.
Taylor’s spine shook at the sound of an innocent man dying to Stephanie’s blade. His only consolation being that it had sounded like a quick death.
Ebony signaled everyone to move forward which led them to a T intersection to find Stephanie freshly coated in blood, wiping the sides of her blades against any spots should could find that were clean on her clothes.
She gave a curt nod to the team before falling back in as everyone passed.
Taylor caught a glimpse of the man who had wandered into the wrong dark corner of the ship. He was a scrawny guy who had to be barely in his 20’s which accounted for the trepidation he heard come from his voice. Any veteran worker who delved into dark, solitary areas knew better than to call out into the black abyss of their surroundings.
The guy’s neck had been crudely scissored from deep below his collar bone and through the majority of his neck, meaning Stephanie had crossed her blades deep within his torso and pulled towards herself to cut through all the soft meat. It also explained why she was coated in the guy’s blood seeing as the extent of the damage bled him out as fast as his panicked heart could drain him.
It was a brutal mercy carried out by the silent woman. Despite the macabre method, Taylor appreciated that she had the civility to make it as fast of a death as she could.
As they continued onward Taylor sidled up next to Stephanie and whispered, “thank you, for giving him a quick death.”
Her eyes narrowed as she scrutinized Taylor for a moment before letting a huff out through her nose and twisted her hands into an array of patterns he could not follow.
“Umm… I have no idea what you’re saying,” he pointed out. Stephanie snorted and shrugged, giving him a simple thumbs up in substitution.
Taylor realized at some point, he was probably going to need to learn the sign language the team shares with her. Outside of normal military signs, he never knew what she was saying.
The rest of the path was rather uneventful though Aleksei began to complain about his knees hurting as he crawled. That led to various perverted jokes, primarily made by Henry.
At the end, they came across another one of the iconic heavily plated maintenance hatches. Thankfully, the hatch seemed to be built vertically into a wall rather than attached to a ceiling or floor.
On Ebony’s signal Henry popped the hatch and peered through the sliver of an opening to spy into the awaiting hanger.
When Henry turned he whispered, “okay so we have a fuck load of civvies and soldiers. Looks like we're near the upper levels which gives us the upper hand however if any pilot gets a wild curly hair up their ass there is plenty of room to turn a fighter on us…”
The way Henry said it, he certainly anticipated such a reaction. Ebony was first to question, “how many we looking at?”
Henry gave his reply some thought, “I saw at least four fighters gearing to fly. Roughly… 60 tangos and dozens of workers.”
“So, all we have is the element of surprise. Otherwise, we're screwed,” Taylor commented.
Henry smirked, “like me at a Saturday night gangbang.”
The entire squad groaned as Henry chuckled to himself.
Ebony gave their situation some thought, the look on her face a mix of worry and determination.
“Okay, Aleksei you’re on crowd control, Taylor suppression. Jackson and Steph, you two get the short end of the stick with your skills but make due and make sure no one sneaks up on us,” she said turning to each person giving them their orders before turning to Henry.
“Since you have the only suppressed weapon, you get the honors of going first,” she added in amusement.
Henry cursed before shouldering his rifle. “Why is it I get the shit end of the stick for being the only one smart enough to board an enemy ship with stealth in mind?”
Stephanie drew one of her knives and pointed it at him with a glare in her eyes.
Henry rolled his eyes, “aside from the mute.” That earned a smirk from the blonde dread head.
Henry sighed and pushed the hatch open enough for him to hop down. Immediately Henry let out a burst of suppressed rounds. The muffled gunfire was amplified by the vast space of the hanger however, it was drowned out by the sounds of the bustling noise.
A moment later Henry stuck his face into the maintenance hatch and gave the all clear.
The team carefully worked their way out of the maintenance shaft and took a better survey of the hanger.
Henry was pretty accurate on how outnumbered they were. Ebony spotted a computer console that she started tapping into while everyone else spread out along the large overseer’s platform.
Alarms blared within the hanger which caused everyone including Havoc squad to search around frantically.
Taylor spotted the cause of the alarm sitting above the hatch to the maintenance tunnel. “There’s a damn camera!” he exclaimed loud enough to grab Henry’s attention as he pointed to the missed surveillance.
Henry popped a suppressed round into the camera. Taylor, Aleksei and Henry all took a peek over the edge, unsurprised to be greeted by a hailstorm of bullets and pulse fire.
“We may have screwed the pooch on this one EB!” Henry shouted.
Aleksei immediately started throwing explosives in every direction with reckless abandon.
As soon as the torrent of gunfire stopped assaulting their position, Taylor and Henry set up and returned fire.
Taylor did his best to only hit enemy soldiers however, from nearly 300 feet above ground, the distance caused accuracy to sink when wielding a fully automatic weapon.
Even Jackson joined in on the fire fight, having emptied out his shotgun and loaded special 12 gauge fragmentation loads.
Ebony hooked up her tools needed for hacking and went to work breaking into the hanger’s systems, “keep em busy while I link up with the Chevelle!”
The high-pitched whine of starship engines starting up caused added anxiety as Stephanie opened fire with her machine pistol, revving the saw blade and charging towards the elevator that connected the ground floor to the command platform they were on.
Taylor looked back to see that Stephanie had a handle on the situation as she gracefully intermingled with the eight soldiers that tried to meet Havoc squad on their own level.
“See! What did I tell you! Aleksei!” Henry called out as they witnessed one of the starship fighters lift into the air and spin carefully in a 180 turn to face the platform.
“Keep your skirt on,” Aleksei thundered coolly as he pulled a collapsed device from his back.
The Martian extended the cylindrical tube, took aim and fire a small rocket at the hovering starship.
The rocket took out the starboard engine on the cross shaped craft which caused it to plummet back into the ground floor before exploding on impact.
The detonation shook the entirety of the hanger, knocking many of the CoU personnel off their feet.
Henry and Taylor opened up with increased boldness, “you wouldn't happen to have more of those would you?” Taylor asked.
Aleksei looked over the edge to see that the other three starships were beginning to come to life. “Hey boss… we have big problem!” the big man called out.
Ebony looked up briefly then refocused on the console. “Give me a minute!” she barked as she switched her attention to the hanger subsystems where the automated anti-boarding turrets were housed. Digging into the targeting programs she quickly rewrote the parameters.
“Everyone get down!” she ordered with the full weight of her authority right before tapping enter.
Havoc squad dropped to the floor behind cover, even Stephanie who dragged the last soldier with her, dropping him onto the still spinning edge of her saw blade.
Dropping from each upper corners of the two pulse kinetic barrier gates that separated the hanger from the void of space was a turret with dual nine barrel 120mm rotary cannons loaded with tens of thousands of rounds of anti starship ammunition.
The turrets were designed to keep enemy fighters from entering the ship, as they swiveled around to the interior of the hanger, they were hellacious death for everyone standing in the open.
The roar of the cannons was deafening. No one from Havoc squad could hear the screams and cries of panic and nearly instant agonizing death as anything that moved was shredded. The three remaining starships were also obliterated as they tried to lift off and escape the impending doom.
Soon the hanger fell into silence as smoke began to fill the air. Ebony crouched up and looked at the console only to see the four turrets focus on her and the barrels whir into rotation.
She swiftly slammed her hand on the console hitting the command button signaling the turrets to deactivate before the automated weapons could tear her apart.
Everyone let out a held breath, Ebony shuttering at the close call. “Everyone alright?”
Taylor peered over the ledge as he stood up and shook his head witnessing the devastation she had wrought.
Nearly 100 bodies had been torn apart by the heavy caliber shells as well as the structural floor. Massive holes riddled the hanger.
Jackson shook his head to get the ringing out of his ears, “can we not do that again. Very bad for our ear drums.”
Ebony nodded in agreement along with the rest of the team, even Aleksei.
“Well strap onto something and hang onto your gear, I’m going to vent the hanger so our shuttles have somewhere to drop off.”
Ebony’s warning was heeded quickly even as Stephanie signed to the group.
Henry and Aleksei chuckled and signed to her back as Jackson quickly reached up to the sides of her ears and pulled on her earlobes and moved his fingers around the soft spot behind her ears. He snapped his fingers next to one of her ears and pointed in that direction.
Stephanie shook her hand flatly in a “so-so” motion and he repeated on the other side.
Once Jackson determined she was fine he told her the plan.
Taylor inquired what the spectacle was about and Henry told him, “Oh, she said she was now a deaf-mute and we told her now she had a real reason to ignore everyone. Jackson loosened up her ears. So, she should be back to hearing properly in a few hours.”
Taylor bit his lip and nodded as he locked himself to the railing and strapped his weapon to his chest.
Once Ebony was sure everyone was secure and she was strapped to the console, she deactivated the barriers and sucked every broken body and piece of debris into space.
Once the barriers were reactivated Ebony touched her comm unit, “Rosa this is Havoc squad, lower deck hanger is secured. Go ahead and send the boarding teams…” she peered over the console and took in the full scope of the destruction of her decision before following up, “tell the pilots not to land.”
Rosa was quick to respond, “copy that Havoc squad. Once you collect the data, you’re welcome to head back to the Chevelle.”
Ebony glanced at her team, Henry raising his hand to speak, “I could go for a nap EB.”
Ebony agreed with the state of her team looking like something a dog chewed on for hours and spit up.
“We already got the data, we'll be on the first shuttle, Havoc squad out.”