The surrounding space around the Phoenix was seemingly void of any kind of matter. In the distance a lone star shone brighter than those around it but not by a considerable margin. The pinhead sized star had a pale red glow.
“Begin scanning the surrounding area for any signs of the Krath’let or the Procyon Lotor.” Alex ordered. “Midshipman Clemens, plot a system-wide orbital search pattern and take us out on an Acceleration of one point one-five. Lieutenant Hazaari, broadcast our presence across the whole radio spectrum. Use the lights to flash morse code, smoke signals, whatever. Let me know the second you hear anything.”
Lt. Hazaari nodded in acknowledgement and twisted her chair to face her console and spoke into her headset “This is Unified Terran Alliance Battleship: Phoenix, registry one-eight one-four two-two-seven-four six-four eight, hailing Procyon Lotor, hailing Krath’let, please respond to this channel and transmit your location.” Hazaari went silent for a moment then repeated herself into the microphone like a mantra.
Alex opened a channel to the Astronomic’s lab; a small series of labs that was entirely staffed by civilian contractors. The concept of civilian scientists taking residence on his purpose built battleship seemed ridiculous. “Bridge to Astronomic’s, I need you to deploy five telemetry probes and have them launched to cover a wide area. Program them to seek out any strong signals consisting of starship construction materials.” Alex took his finger off the button to close the channel, he stared blankly out of the windows.
“Aye aye, Captain Rowan. It’ll take us about ten minutes to prepare them for launch.” A male voice spoke.
For a while only Hazaari’s mantra could be heard among the gentle hum of the artificial gravity and the ventilation. Alex heard a loud whoosh of air being flushed through the ventilation above as the pumps cycled themselves throughout the ship. He felt a draft on the back of his neck from the vent above the doors that led to the CIC. Alex pulled up a direct channel to Fëderov.
“Captain, what are your orders?” He asked patiently.
“Major, get your marines prepped and ready. No signs of either vessel yet, but I want your men prepared nevertheless.”
Fëderov acknowledged before he ended the call.
Muffled through the bulkheads, Alex heard whirring servos whine. Another whirring sound with a deeper pitch than the last told him it was the loading armature of a torpedo launcher, a couple of clunks and a hiss told Alex it was being loaded before another hissing sound and suddenly a whoosh of air. A shimmer caught in the corner of his eye drew Alex’s attention to the probe being launched out of a Torpedo tube. It looked like a small rectangle covered in bronze attached to an even larger rectangular chassis frame that contained the thruster ports on each corner. Shortly after, a beep sounded off which caught his attention to the screen on his armrest, a message brightly displayed telling him that the probes were launched in succession. A different beeping signal caught his attention, on the screen it registered the caller from the Astronomic’s lab and he answered it. “Captain Rowan here.”
“Sir, this is Doctor Vawilk from Astronomic’s.” A masculine voice with a European accent said. The same voice from earlier. “We have detected an S-type asteroid with high metallic readings, it's possible one of the ships has anchored itself to it. However, I must inform you that we've detected a region of unusually high energized gamma radiation readings between us and the star.”
“In what way is it unusual? Is there any biological danger to the crew from this radiation?” Said Alex with concern in his voice.
“No sir, our hull and AURA shielding will protect us from most of it. I do advise avoiding prolonged exposure at the center of the region. As for the radiation itself, it is unusual in the sense that the star shouldn’t be emitting this level of radiation.”
“Duly noted, Captain Rowan, out” And with that, he tapped the end call button.
Alex checked his armrest monitor and studied the coordinates provided by Dr. Vawilk. Alex humored himself at how quickly it was discovered, he was expecting the search to take days before they found anything. A thought of realism settled in the back of his mind telling him it's possible the asteroid contains deposits of metals that are consistent with starship construction rather than an actual starship. Alex cocked his eyebrows as he continued to monologue internally. There’s no chance we are going to discover them immediately after Jumping. Spirits above, why couldn’t that V.R.O tug just do its job instead of wasting a battleship?
The coordinates displayed in the star system model showed a small blip indicating the Phoenix’s current position. It had shown they were at the furthest away by twenty AU’s from the second planet in the system and another ten from the star. It didn’t seem significant other than it seemed to be the only lead they had, Alex forwarded the coordinates to the Navigator, Lieutenant Collins; a man with hazel brown hair and a widow's peak with fair skin. Ordered Clemens to take the Phoenix to investigate the possible site. After grabbing the controls, the ship rumbled in response to his touch as he expertly propelled them.
From behind, Alex carefully observed Clemens’ wrist rotate ever so delicately to the Starboard whilst maintaining a firm grip on the control handle. Even from a short distance, Alex could tell the young midshipman held it firmly by the arteries bulging out from under his skin, his bony fingers wrapped around the rubber handle as if he held on for dear life. As though if he were to let go Alex would send him back to prison.
Leaning further on the edge of his seat Alex kept his gaze focused on the view outside. The starry vista shifted away from the sun to an empty pocket of space. After an hour had passed, the empty region they flew toward had a small and unusually bright star slowly form over time, Alex let out a soft groan before he spoke “Can we get a closer look at the rock?” The window glass imposed a tab of one from the external cameras pointed toward what he was looking at. The view was still too faint and small to be identified. All he could see was a small silvery blur on the screen. Alex ordered for the view to zoom in at maximum magnification and the view likewise closed in rapidly. The asteroid had gone from a small coin sized blur on the screen to a blur that took up the entire screen. He let out a sigh of frustration and asked for contrast to be increased. Slowly the picture had begun to take on a more definitive shape while retaining a low resolution quality. The asteroid itself was unusually potato shaped with a smooth surface and a high albedo made apparent by the side facing the star. Its regolith surface reflected the light and glared brightly in the camera but from the distance of the Phoenix it looked no more inconspicuous than the stars behind it. Alex had a good feeling in the back of his mind pressing him to go toward that asteroid, obeying his gut feeling, he ordered Clemens to increase velocity. The asteroid was millions of kilometers away but the Phoenix closed in rapidly before it grew in size. He called on the Astronomic labs once more for more information about what he saw.
“Preliminary scans show it to be an average S-Type asteroid: one hundred and forty-two kilometers at its highest peak, fifty-two at its thickest and another forty-seven wide. Large deposits of nickel-iron ore at its north pole and a rich vein of lithium around the equator.”
“Anything about the starship grade materials?” Alex asked impatiently.
“… Yes sir, I am detecting… Hold on… Yes, I am getting mixed readings from all the background radiation, but I have a positive signal that one ship is currently anchored and moored itself to the asteroid.”
Alex closed the channel and looked out the front window as the asteroid drew closer. He ordered Clemens to put twenty kilometers of distance between them and the asteroid, Alex accessed the camera controls again and looked out the window as the screen displayed the camera view and zoomed in for a closer look on the asteroid, The brightly lit surface obscured something hovering next to the asteroid which had attracted Alex’s attention, he adjusted the focus on the lens and soon the surface glare of the asteroid obscured to shift the perspective to allow a small glare that could be seen orbiting the surface of the rock. Alex perked up as he saw it, he pointed at the screen and ordered Clemens to get in closer. He continued to zoom in and even as a blurry dot compared to the massive asteroid next to it was the Krath’let. Alex let out a smile before chuckling to himself. He pulled his gaze away for a moment to open a channel to Major Fёderov.
“Fuck!” Clemens shouted, his voice rose a pitch giving it a tone of fright.
Without any warning a loud thud banged against the hull followed a clank that had collided with the glass, catching unsuspecting Clemens off guard. The sound of the impact sounded like the glass had been chipped and it snapped Alex’s attention back to the present situation at hand, he looked forward and noticed the rest of the bridge staff looking around to find the source.
“The hell was that!?” Clemens said.
“I didn’t see anything!” Hazaari shouted.
With little time to react, Alex barely saw the piece of debris coming towards them before it collided with the window leaving a sharp clink sound before the piece had ricocheted off into the void leaving everyone staring at it. When Alex returned to looking forward, he spotted a swarm of debris heading their highway some larger than others, the front window was showing signs of cracking despite its tempered construction. A sudden chink and the crack started to slowly spread from the impact source like a cancer threatening to comprimise the integrity of the health of the bridge crew.
“Clemens, full stop!” Alex shouted. He felt the inertia drag him forward shortly after giving the order. He accessed blast shielding controls on his armrest panel and sealed the blast shields over the cracking window before the cancerous tendrils reached the edges of the windowpane.
Alex cursed out loud and called up the engineering division, he asked Milo to send someone to fix the glass on the bridge and Milo responded he would be there himself shortly. It wasn’t long before the ship came to a dead stop. Clemens muttered something about his disdain for the present situation under his breath. Alex immediately told him to hold his tongue before he sat up and walked over to the window next to the sealed blast shield to look out of it, he saw the debris idly floating about around them before he checked the screen on his chair again and viewed the camera to view the surrounding area in front of the ship. The camera caught sight of a region of razor-sharp shrapnel of metal statically idle. Alex saw glittering in the distance around the Krath’let, when he zoomed in on the ship, he saw more of the debris surrounding it.
A closer inspection of the Krath’let’s hull showed panels had been blasted off the interior framework. The freighter looked like a silver and dark gray version of the hologram they saw earlier, but Alex zoomed in on the airlock they were meant to dock with. With a flick of his wrist, Alex sent the display from his armrest onto the window in front of Clemens and the entire bridge. Everyone stared at the image of the freighter. Long slender body with large menacing canards at the front of the ship. Towers of airtight cargo containers stacked upon each other at varying heights along the body. Clemens shook his head before he spoke. “Look at that damage. The docking ring is warped and bent all out of shape.”
He leaned closer to the screen to catch some small detail Alex didn’t see yet. “I think the airlock doors are compromised. Yeah, there is no way I can pull the Phoenix into this!” He said looking at Alex, he jabbed his thumb toward the screen as he spoke.
“Shit,” he muttered. Alex proceeded to open a channel to Major. Fëderov, when the channel opened, he responded in his usual gruff tone “Is there problem, sir?”
“Nothing we cannot handle, but we are pushing up our timetable a little bit.” Alex said. “Have your men aboard the Wedge-Tails ASAP.”
“Aye aye sir.”
Alex left the bridge for the CIC. In the command center he was able to observe and watch the marines board the shuttle craft that was housed within the Phoenix’s hangar through the cameras. On one section of the room, the monitor was filled with smaller displays each depicting the point of view of each marine from their body camera and the status their bio-monitors were reading. All their heart rates were elevated but that had to have been from excitement at finally being deployed. A small spike in almost each of their heart rates didn’t alarm the captain as he knew they had taken a combat booster designed to keep them on their toes. The shuttle carrying team Alpha sealed its doors and began flight preparations while the airboss could be heard through the cacophony of radio chatter preparing to decompress the shuttle bay to let the craft leave among other talk of preparation.
“Begin to seal ventilation and divert all pumps back into the main O2 feed. Close all doors and seal all hatches. Shut down ventilation.”
“Refueling at eighty-five percent, should be about five more minutes.”
“Warm up engines, stand back.”
Alex pulled up a display on the nearest monitor and showed the decompression cycle of the shuttle bay, watching the circular chart with a percentage drop rapidly until it had hit zero. The camera showed the shuttle bay doors slowly slide apart, runway lights built into the deck plating flashed red in sequence. The Shuttle’s landing gear retracted into the body of the craft yet it continued to hover above the ground. The thrusters glowed orange as it pushed the shuttle out of the hangar bay, shortly following behind it the shuttle that carried Team Bravo took off with the launch bay doors slowly sealing themselves. Alex tapped on his console and the camera changed perspective to an external camera mounted on the nose cone of the shuttle; Through its perspective the Krath’let could be seen in a small blurred form whose resolution increased over the closing distance. Objects whizzed past and the shuttle immediately banked to the right as it avoided colliding with any of the larger debris. Through the cameras of several Marines, it had captured their interaction with each other while they were going ahead with final equipment checks ranging from checking their ammunition to testing the cascade ability of their helmets. One marine commented on the helmet pinching the skin on their necks whenever the helmet retracted. Fёderov quickly told the marine to quit his complaining, much to the humor of everybody else. Another was in the middle of sharing a funny joke about their Drill instructor. Alex switched the camera to the exterior hull of the dropship. His concern grew ever so steadily watching them navigating the debris field.
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Watching the shuttles duck and weave through the debris field while approaching the Krath’let had given food for thought to Alex, He tapped on the controls once more and zoomed in on the Krath’let. He didn’t get a clear enough picture as the focus kept readjusting itself for every maneuver the shuttle made but it was enough for him to see the shredded hull. When the shuttles were a kilometer away from their ingress point, it became obvious the damage on the Krath’let was not as extreme as was once believed. The density of the debris had greatly increased surrounding the side of the freighter, visibly it had looked like it had suffered multiple explosive attacks which might have explained the exposed compartments. Both shuttles greatly reduced their speed as through the radio the clanking of debris smacking against the shuttle’s hull could be heard. Alex switched the camera to the perspective of inside the shuttles compartment with Team Alpha led by Major. Fëderov standing near the hatchway with his rifle lowered. Many of the marines had unslung their weapons and kept them pointing at the floor.
Meanwhile the shuttle carrying Team Bravo had circled around the Krath’let to get to the Starboard side airlock. Alex ordered the pilot to use a spotlight to scan the vessel for any signs of personnel. He watched the shuttle gently glide past the main tower at the rear of the ship with its spotlight illuminating the dark insides. He felt disappointment when the spotlight had shown the bridge and its breached windows. There was no clear way for them to see inside to see if anybody made it out but Alex knew the answer when he saw a lack of blast shields down around any of the breached sections. Suddenly, in Alpha team’s shuttle the entire personnel shook and the pilot announced they had successfully docked and were secured to the airlock. The pilot announced that the other side of the hatch held no pressure, on command all marines had activated their helmets to cascade over their heads. Next, the compartment made a sharp hissing sound that had grown silent until it was none existent. Fëderov took charge and opened the hatch letting the rest of his team enter through, Alex saw their hand gestures yet heard nothing over the radio. On their body cameras, through Fëderov’s perspective he closed the hatch behind him as he crossing through the airlock, once inside the camera saw the inside of what appeared to be a machine shop; the marines looked around with only the lights from their helmets displaying what could be seen.
“No gravity, no atmosphere, no power. This area has been decompressed. Moving on to next section” The Major said in sync with his hand gestures. “Alpha team to Phoenix, do we have anyone responding to your calls?”
Alex checked in with Hazaari, she merely responded with a shake of her head and pity in her eyes, all the while never breaking her mantra in hopes of a response.
Alex let out a long drawn breath. “Negative, Alpha team, if anybody is alive, they are choosing to ignore us. Proceed to search.”
The camera on Fëderov displayed his movements around the machine shop. He carefully scanned the room and then proceeded to exit the room. Alex watched through the assortment of body cameras the advance through the dark and lifeless corridor of the freighter. A marine let out a frightened shriek, catching everyone in the CIC off-guard. His heart rate monitor had spiked and his breathing was loud enough to be transmitted back through the radio. Fëderov approached him and asked what he saw, his body camera faced the opposing wall before it had swung around to another corridor, he swung his rifle up and activated its flashlight: Alex’s eyes widened when he saw the bodies that littered the corridor, he counted five of them all suspended in the center of the corridor. Two lycans, a minotaur and two humans, wore dirty one-piece jumpsuits covered in oil and blood stains. The marines stared at the suspended corpses surrounded by droplets of their blood. Their bloodied hands had coated the handle bar for the hatch that they rested in front of.
“Team Alpha,” Alex said “Somebody grab a body for visual inspection.”
One of the marines complied and reached out and grabbed the body by the jumpsuit. The man was pale with blue spots that pockmarked his skin. His expression was that of horror with a blank stare in as if he saw something he was not meant to see. His body was covered in blood, his left hand was severed clean off and he suffered multiple impalements to the chest. It was conclusive that these men did not die from exposure.
“What are we looking at, pirates?” Alex asked.
“Negative, the wounds are not from bullets or lasers, this is the work of some other tool. Judging from the entry wounds I would say it was a sharp blade of some kind, the crudely torn flesh around the wound would suggest the blade had serrated edges for extra damage when it got pulled out.” The combat medic said. “The wounds have gone through to the back, suggesting the blade was at least two feet in length. Possibly curved.” The same medic checked the other bodies and all had suffered similar wounds. Another had suffered a large slash across their abdomen causing their entrails to drift out, while another had their leg entirely removed from the hip joint.
The team, at the behest of Major Fëderov, shuffled along the wall carefully to avoid disturbing the bodies any further. Team Bravo finally had entered through their ingress point and encountered similar signs of death and destruction inward. Team Alpha opened a blast door that had been sealed for some inexplicable reason as it did nothing on both sides of the door, however, to the Marine’s intrigue, a bunch of the former crew had been piled around a closed hatch. One marine closed in on the hatch and read on the door: Armoury. The bodies surrounding the hatch looked as though the crew were trying to get inside before whatever had found them killed them. Alex noticed something on the camera feeds.
“Wait, stop!” He said to them, Alex looked at the monitor he observed from and read the name of the viewer “Lance Corporal Mullins, pan to your left” The camera obeyed and he saw the bulkheads riddled with bullet holes and blast damage. Likewise, the rest of the marines took notice of the ballistic damage before the Major knelt down and rubbed his hand along the surface. Using his index finger, he felt around the hole and pointed directly back toward the welded Armoury hatch behind him.
Fёderov approached the bullet holes and placed his finger on it as he spoke. "The depth of these holes suggest that the shooter was positioned at that hatch, possibly from inside it before sealing themselves in.” Fëderov speculated. He stood up and looked back at the bodies that were piled on it. “They most likely sealed themselves in and refused to let anybody else in.”
Alex suddenly inhaled, he hadn’t realised he had been holding onto his breath for a while, his observing of the Marines had him caught in suspense as they searched the ship. A beeping from his wrist pad caught his attention and he saw Hazaari’s name come up, he tapped to answer it “Yes, Lieutenant?” He answered.
“Sir, could you please come to the bridge. I believe I found something of interest.”
He acknowledged and walked to the bridge and approached Hazaari at her station. She turned to see her Captain approach and then took off her headset before offering it to him.
“Listen to this,” she said, promptly she tapped a button on her console.
Alex pressed the ear piece against his head and listened to static that had sounded like the tormented screams of the damned, however as he listened closely to the static, he heard a faint voice speaking amidst the verbal madness. It was faint enough that no information could be extracted from it, not even the gender of the speaker.
Took the headphones off before speaking. “I hear a faint voice, but I cannot make out anything.”
“Hold on, give me a moment to adjust it sir.” Hazaari said. She faced her own console and her screen displayed all kinds of bars and sliders that she toyed with, Alex continued to listen as Hazaari finely adjusted a slider and the voice became much clearer above the static and background radiation.
“...War-...-Zero-one-zero-five-... -ayday-... -ocyon-… or… warning, war-… -sust-… -ing cri-… locati-… -…-ero-…-ve…” it said in between moments of white noise.
“It sounds modulated,” Alex spoke. “Is this automated?”
“yessir”
“Is this being broadcasted from the Krath’let?”
“I do not think so, the message is badly damaged and the high energy particles in the region are scrambling it badly.”
“Alright, keep trying to trace it, it might be from the Procyon Lotor.”
Hazaari acknowledged it.
Alex walked back in the CIC and observed the multiple camera perspectives. He pulled up Major Fëderov’s perspective as he had rallied both teams, on the radio he had been giving orders for everyone to split up into groups of three to cover more area of the ship, with him he had taken two marines to follow him up to the bridge; Lance Corporal Connors and Private Colroy. He turned to face the group of Marines before he spoke.
“Listen everyone, chances are this is most likely a ghost ship but in case it isn’t I want radio silence maintained unless absolutely necessary, use hand signals if you must communicate; am I understood?”
All the marines nodded. Fëderov turned around and brushed past his two subordinates who proceeded to follow closely. Alex closely watched Fëderov power his way through the corridors until they reached the elevator doors. The Major tapped on his wrist pad to activate the magnetic grips in his gloves and proceeded to open the elevator doors, upon successfully opening them he tapped the controls to disable the magnetic capabilities in his boots. Next, he swung himself around inside the shaft and looked up to see the elevator stuck further up, he pushed down on the ledge and gently glided his way further into it before gripping an exposed outcropping and acrobatically throwing himself onto the deck. His boots activated and stuck him to the floor, when he looked behind him, he saw his two subordinates lag behind in the elevator shaft. Upon exiting, the trio carefully treated other bodies before coming to a staircase where the Major had disabled his magboots once again and pushed himself off the ground, he grabbed the railing at the top of the stairs and flipped himself over before activating his boots once more before he hit the deck. Connors and Colroy followed suit. On the wall ahead of them, a sign pointed to the bridge’s location to the right section in front of them. Alex switched the camera to view another trio as they entered the engine room, even on the CIC he could still feel the immense size of the cavernous engine room, the lights only capturing glimpses of the machine’s titanic dimensions.
Another camera change and it showed the mid-section of the ship, according to the schematics, a series of escape vessels could be launched via the process of atmospheric propulsion: The compartment surrounding the vessel was under high pressure and upon the detonation of explosive bolts surrounding the weakened panel the sudden decompression would eject the vessel at a high velocity. The soldiers checked the escape pods to see if perhaps any had been launched, and to their surprise they found none had left.
In another section of the ship, the marines had halted their advance in part to the openly exposed section. The entire bulkhead was missing as well as was the deck they were on and two decks below them. The open area was dimly lit by the distant star in the distance. A series of steady beeps caught his attention, he checked to see the source of the warning signals. The marine’s bio monitors had shifted to a red colour while the numerical value on their inbuilt dosimeters increased drastically. Alex opened up a channel to the trio.
“Private’s Fincher, Anuo and Makra; you are being exposed to highly energised radiation out there. Retreat back inside.” He said sternly.
The marines didn’t respond verbally, instead they looked at each other and responded with hand signals intended for the captain to understand. Alex copied their current monitor data and forwarded it to Liyurch before he had opened a new channel to the infirmary.
“Doc, some of our marines got dosed. I’m forwarding their data. Tell me; are they still safe?”
“D-dosed?... Oh! You mean with radiation? Yes, hold on and let me review this quickly… Hmm, yes… Okay, they are fine for now but advise them to avoid going outside from now on. In fact, advise all marines that.” Liyurch said.
“Duly noted, doctor.” He opened an open channel for the marines to hear. “All Marines be advised: Your armour is not rated to handle the highly energised radiation in the area. Avoid prolonged exposure wherever possible.”
Across the board a small green light flashed along with a small beep sounded off by marines to confirm that they understood the order.
The captain decided to check up on Hazaari to see if she had caught a location on the Procyon Lotor. On the bridge he saw the Garuda mildly adjusting dials and finely turning the signal. She looked at her captain with intrigue when he drew close enough for her to hear him.
“Have you made any progress with tracing the source?” he asked her.
“Yes sir, I have been able to triangulate the source with our telemetry probes and while I worked on clearing up the signal, I have discovered something you may want to hear.” She said as Hazaari turned on the speakers on the bridge, she flipped a switch on her console and the bridge was filled with static before it died down before a voice could be heard.
“-gency beaco-…-zero-one zero-five X two-one-five-… Procyon Lotor… -ackbox- deployed; sustaining crit-… -age..”
Alex lowered his head hearing the emotionless machine voice. The Blackbox was emitting the distress call. He guessed it could have been ejected as a way to signal for help.
“Lieutenant, have you located the blackbox?”
“Yes sir,” she responded with meekness. “I’ve triangulated its source to be coming from the equator of the asteroid. Almost directly under the Krath’let’s anchor.”
Alex took a deep breath as he pondered his options.
“Alright Lieutenant, thank you, leave this to me and continue to clean up that signal as best you can.”
Alex paced his way to the holographic display table and pulled up a live photonic recreation of the Krath’let with pulsating blips spaced out the insides of the ship. Alex turned his head toward the monitors to see the marines passing through bodies, welding doors open, jumpstarting the engine. He looked back at the hologram and pinched the section of the hologram that showed the Wedge-Tail dropship attached to the exterior hull like a parasite leeching off its host. He tapped on the holographic dropship and a small display of its details showed up, he tapped once more to open a channel to the shuttle.
“Captain Rowan to Angel Two, do you read me?”
“Angel Two to Captain Rowan, this is Midshipman Copalo reading you sir.”
“Midshipman, are you equipped with low gravity suits?”
For a moment there was silence between Alex and the Midshipman, for a minute, Alex had thought the neutrinos had blocked the signal. Before he could speak into the microphone once more the midshipman spoke up.
“Confirmed sir.”
“Good,” Alex said with a sigh. “I need you to detach from the freighter and get yourself around the anchor point of the ship on the Asteroid. I need you to search for the Black box.”