Connors stared in shock at the sight of the raptorial appendages raised high above its narrow head, poised to strike. Its shrill sounding shriek made it impossible to think, even in the comfortable safety of the Phoenix Alex, along with the rest of the crew’s hands flew to their ears to shield themselves from the abhorrent sound.
This is what happened to the Procyon Lotor. This is what killed them! Alex thought to himself in a panic.
The creature threw its lances to pierce Connor through her armour and destroyed the body camera, she let out a blood curdling scream. Her bio monitors beeped erratically and flashed red in a desperate bid to draw attention to her vitals but it mattered not to what Alex was seeing. Its backward bent legs extended, raising Connors up in the air while it still had her with its bladed arms. Fëderov's expression turned to ice cold steel as he fired in short bursts at the creature. His first volley was ignored, he fired a second time this time striking it below its chitinous plates that covered its neck, if it had one. Without breaking its hold on Connors, it turned to face the Major and Colroy, its bulbous eyes and mouth appendages twitching excitedly.
“Private Colroy!” Fëderov shouted without a change in expression. “Your rifle is not a prop so open fire on that thing!”
Another burst of bullets hit the creature and it retaliated with a short screech before it threw its back and pulled its scythes from Connor. She fell to floor with a loud clunk as her armour dented the floor panels leaving her seemingly lifeless body to lay resting, Alex saw her vitals, they were flashing repeatedly showing internal and external blood loss, her suit was punctured in multiple areas. But she was nevertheless alive. Fëderov hunched his body while carefully watching the creature leave Connors. It came up the ramp heading for its attacker. Fëderov didn’t break sight of the creature as he rubbed his finger along the rifle and flicked a switch.
“Private, switch to Full automatic mode.” He stopped for a second, his breathing grew intense like he was priming himself to either kill the creature or make it difficult for it to kill him. “Fuck first contact protocols. I want it dead!”
Colroy remained unresponsive, he stood still while unaware that Fëderov raised his rifle at the creature. It crouched low and used its scythes as limbs to walk in a quadruped stance, it moved faster. Fëderov held the trigger down as the muzzle flashed, temporarily blinding the camera. The creature took more hits as it drew closer. It pushed itself off the floor and raised itself on its legs with its arms ready to strike once more. It threw its scythe down at him, Fëderov narrowly evaded its attack by rolling out of the way and fired another volley at its back. He took notice of Colroy standing still.
“Unfuck your shit, Private before I kick your teeth in!” The Major shouted.
Alex looked concerned as he stared at Colroy’s biomonitor. His heart and blood pressure had skyrocketed as he stared blankly at the insectoid creature. Nobody was certain if he even registered its presence or if he knew it was approaching him. His synaptic activity showed he had gone into a state of shock and the power armour’s internal sensors displayed a warning that the internal waste processor was full. The Major shouted again at Colroy to snap out of it with a creative use of obscenities. Alex opened up a channel to Colroy, “Private, get your act together and fight!” which seemed to have done the job. Ragged breathing could be heard over the radio. Short and shallow breaths followed by a quick shake of his head had seemed to snap the stunned marine out of his daze. Colroy was quick to raise his rifle at the creature and unleash small controlled bursts. From his perspective it was almost on top of his commanding officer. Fёderov crawled on his side to put distance between him and the creature. It kept its pace with him all the while it’s scythes were raised. Suddenly its back was peppered with bullets which turned its attention toward Colroy. Its mandibles and pedipalps flared outward in anger letting out a shriek. Alex looked over the body cameras of the marines rushing to the trio’s location.
“Marines, what the fuck is taking so long!?” Fëderov shouted on an open channel.
From Alex’s perspective viewing through the assortment of body cameras, the marines and engineers had all abandoned their posts and ran to their Major. Several of them had already found themselves outside the sealed vacuum proof doors and began a combined process of tricking the door to open up and forcibly cutting it open with a plasma torch. The pale blue light flared in the cameras as some of the marines shielded their eyes from the sparking torch. The operator cursed as he examined the scorched area of where his torch tried to cut through with no visible evidence of melting. Another camera suddenly lifted itself off from its horizontal bearing. Connors. She groaned in pain as her suit started flooding her body with pain medication and combat drugs. Connors struggled to lift her rifle sufficiently at first until she activated an adrenaline shot. She yelped in surprise as her senses came back to her. She raised her rifle once more with success and proceeded up the ramp to see her commanding officer reaching for his rifle off the floor while Colroy emptied entire magazines into the creature with it seemingly unfazed by the assault. Connors fired a small burst at its chest which drew its attention to her once more. It got down on all its limbs and dashed towards her. Alex tapped on his wrist pad and called for Liyurch to make his way into the CIC, he hoped to get a medical opinion of this thing.
First contact and it’s with a fucking murder cockroach?! I hope Liyurch’s extensive medical training covers this thing.
On the monitors it showed the insectoid creature gliding over the floor panels. Clinks and the sound of metallic taps was the only sound it made as its scythes touched the floor on its advance toward Connors. The trio sprayed bullets at the creature before it broke off its pursuit of Connors. It got back on its legs and it jumped down into the depressed section of the room before it dove for the exposed vent. Its ability to squeeze itself into the small opening was an almost impressive feat before finally disappearing behind the bulkhead. Fear gripped Colroy once more when he heard the creature scuttle around in the vents, he turned around to face the door. “Fuck this, we’re gonna get out of here my way.” he frighteningly declared. His rifle was pointed at the door and gripped the tube attachment on the underside of the rifle. Major Fëderov saw Colroy and realised what he had planned.
“Private, don’t fire!” He shouted, arms outstretched as if to take the rifle away from him. But too late, Colroy shouted almost proudly, “Fire in the hole!” and with a Thwump sound he launched a grenade from his rifle, the projectile streaked across the room leaving a small trail of smoke in its wake and detonated with a loud explosion, the shockwave had sent all loose objects that were cluttered near the door away from the blast. Colroy realised too late the error of his actions.
Alarms rang again and the ship's computer spoke once more. “Explosion detected. Activating Starboard Lounge blast shields.”
Colroy, Fëderov and Connors looked at the smouldering crater left impacted in the door panels before they heard the sound of clanking and metallic creaking coming from inside the walls. A set of clanks signalled that the locks disengaged and a set of thicker doors slammed shut on both sides of the Lounge while the windows blast shields sealed them in the dark room with the exception of the bright orange warning lights that flashed in the room. Alex furrowed his brows as he saw the commotion unfold. He whipped around to face Milo who had been coordinating the rescue effort. His eyes told of worry and panic.
“Commander, forget protocol. Tell your engineers to force their way in, cut the hydraulic lines. We need to get them out!” He ordered.
“Sir,” Milo softly spoke. “That thing cannot escape through the ventilation. It's stuck in there with them.”
Alex looked toward the monitors as he fiercely gripped the table top corner his hands rested on. Opened another channel on all frequencies. “All marines, this is Captain Rowan. I am clearing you to use whatever force you deem necessary to get them out of that room.”
They acknowledged.
One engineer had the idea of forcibly removing the panel next to the door. The exposed section revealed the exposed hydraulic lines behind it. He cursed at himself when he realised he lacked a cutting tool before one marine told him to stand back as the soldier raised their weapon and opened fire on the line which sprayed red fluid all over the place. The walls and the floor were coated in the ship’s own blood. The hoses violently whipped about, spraying its fluids in every direction before the second hose ruptured and likewise whipped its tubular form around. Together, their combined might of their power armour was able to force the door panels apart to open the first layer. Over the radio, strained grunting and heaving dominated the radio waves, they were interrupted by a loud crashing of metal which had drawn the attention of Alex who had turned to face the screen and see the creature standing in the room. Above it, the ventilation had been broken from the inside.
Fëderov was the first to lay eyes on the insect; its scythes raised and its black, bulbous eyes on its comparatively small triangular shaped head were fixed on Connors who stood closer to the creature than Fëderov. Connors cursed suddenly when she saw the creature look at her before it started taking tentative steps toward her. She responded to its advance by unleashing a bullet storm on the creature. The rounds ricocheted off its chitinous hide and the insect remained unfazed as it slowly stepped towards the panicking Marine.
“Connors, get out of there!” Colroy shouted, distracting Connors who quickly glanced at her comrade in the corner which was enough to cost her dearly. The insect lunged forward and its scythe thrusted itself into her shoulder again. She would have screamed if she was not pumped up full of combat drugs. Connors dropped her rifle in order to use her hands to remove the scythe, however, the insect revealed another set of limbs emerging from under its chest plating of the creature’s chitinous hide. Each limb contained only three fingers that seemed to be locked in a small fist. The tiny hands reached out and grabbed Connors by her forearms with surprising force. She let out another scream as it held her arms with an ironlike grip away from her body. The insect removed its appendage before it thrusted its left scythe down past her collarbone releasing her ichor all over her armour plating along with a series of alarms from her Bio monitors. The insect swung its appendage swiftly by her neck letting Connors eke out a meagre yelp of pain before she was suddenly and permanently silenced in one swift, fluidic motion of the creature’s unoccupied appendage. It had swiped the air in a blur with only a thwick to be heard. Poor Connors’s helm teetered off from her body and rolled away from the creature as if it were a last-ditch effort to escape its grasp. In the CIC, her monitors screamed flatline. Alex looked on with horror as he watched the helmet camera rotate on the floor before coming to a halt. The multitude of alarms beeping along with the flatline alert had almost become musical to Alex when he found himself staring blankly at the screen.
“CONNORS!” Colroy shrieked. His shrill cry filled with sadness turned into fury had even Fëderov find himself distraught at the sight before his own fury guided his rifle toward their aggressor once more with the intent on killing it. It dodged their volley of rounds before it zeroed in on Colroy. Panic spiked and his aiming became erratic. Alex watched the cameras intensely, watching the creature move when his study was interrupted by the young Draconic doctor brushing up to his side. When he looked down to see the quadruped reptile next to him, he noticed his vertical slitted eyes narrow themselves at the monitors; Alex figured that Liyurch, much like himself before, had been trying to focus on the insect. Suddenly his eyes shot wide open and he was filled with anxious energy.
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“Oh, oh… I-I need to talk to them, Captain. How do I do that?” He said in a panic.
It caught Alex off guard again and he looked down at the dragon. Without breaking his gaze, he opened a channel on wrist pad and brought it close to the dragon’s head. “Speak into this” Alex instructed.
“Major? Major Fëderov? It’s me, Doctor Grayich, the new CMO. Listen to me-“
“Not now, doc!” Fëderov interrupted.
“Major!” Liyurch insisted. Alex wondered if he really had something worthwhile to talk about. “Its armour is an exoskeleton you have to aim at its joints. Shoot its joint sections, that’s when it can be hurt.”
The Major ceased his assault for a split second, he aimed down his rifle once more and continued to fire in single bursts that had managed to hit everything around the joints. The insect had closed in on Colroy who had turned to run from the thing but not before it had thrown its scythe-like appendages through his chest and arched its back hoisting Colroy off the ground. Its abdominal arms reached and grabbed him by the waist, still holding him up off the ground. Its scythes retracted out of him as Colroy screamed in agony along with the scream of the bio-monitors seeking urgent medical attention to be applied. With its raptorial appendages freed it then made quick work of decapitating Colroy as his shrieks of terror had finally been silenced.
Another flatline tone beeped alongside Connors monitor.
The two squads of marines had worked on sabotaging the hydraulics. Milo claimed that they were close to opening the bulkheads. Fëderov helplessly watched the creature discard Colroy's body with reckless abandon, no respect for the deceased. He aimed once more and squeezed the trigger, holding the rifle firmly as it kicked back into his shoulders; he aimed for what could have been its elbow on its raised appendage and even Alex shook his fist in celebration when its joint exploded in golden ichor. The release of a high tone shriek told everyone that it was hurt badly. Its appendage, its tool of death now lay useless and limp from its joint before returning its gaze back to Major Fëderov and continuing to move towards him. It examined its limb twitching uncontrollably before it brought its joint close to what passed for its mouth; its mandibles flared up and spread out before biting down and chewing its tender flesh. Liyurch’s face twisted into horrific fascination watching through the cameras the creature’s unusual physiology and behaviour fascinate him. During his observations, Liyurch noted the creature autotomizing itself as a form of self-preservation just as its appendage drops free of its body. Fëderov fired again at its chest allowing the recoil to move the gun upward until he had shot it square in its face. Its left bulbous eye exploded; golden fluids erupted from the organ as the creature shrieked, flaring Its mouth pieces wildly as it screamed in agony. The major clicked a button on the rifle which ejected its magazine before quickly inserting a new one with rapid succession before aiming at its head and fired another burst of rounds into its triangular head.
It fell to the floor with a loud thud.
The creature ceased its chorus of high tone shrieks and clicking sounds. Its limbs curled inward towards its centre like a spider in its final throes of death. Behind him, metal creaked and groaned from the doors being pushed aside and settling slowly on its track. Marines squeezed through the small opening between the doors and spread out in formation with rifles raised before they pointed downward at the insect. A Staff Sergeant offered his hand at Fëderov who graciously grabbed and lifted himself up off the floor; Fëderov retracted his helmet disabling the camera attached to it. Alex continued to watch through the body camera while the Major hovered menacingly over the alien creature, after standing still for a solid minute he had swung his foot to kick it in the side of its armoured chest. Alex called out for the Major to stop but he had already planted his foot a second time. Two marines approached the Major and pulled him away from it, Fëderov struggled for a moment but he eased up and the marines eased their hold on him before taking a deep breath.
“Major Fëderov, I understand your anger and need for vengeance but you cannot lose your head at a time like this.” Alex said in a calm tone.
“At least I still have my head!” Fëderov responded aggressively. His attempt at calming himself was undone in a matter of seconds. “Four men and women are dead at the hands of this- this thing!”
Alex looked down at his boots as he thought about the losses before raising his head to look at the screen once more. As he spoke, he had put on a veil of authority. “Major Fëderov, you are ordered to collect the remains of our men and women and prepare them for transport. Then I want you to secure the remains of that thing and prepare it for transport to the Phoenix so it can be examined by our onboard medical staff.”
“… Roger that, sir.” Fëderov said with contempt and anger.
Alex looked down towards Liyurch who had his head cocked to the side looking at Alex. “Doctor, how do you feel about performing the Alliance’s first alien post mortem?”
The young drake’s lips curled upward exposing his pointed teeth. “I will prepare the medical bay.” He said with contained excitement before dashing out of the CIC. His galloping form bounced off the metal panel before skidding to a halt before he collided with the door panels and took off once again as soon as the gap was wide enough.
Alex looked back over the monitors as he processed everything that had happened. I don’t get it, the ship disappears and it ends up here. What happened to it? He would say to himself. Through the body cameras the marines had already placed the bodies of Connors and Colroy into plastic sleeves that covered the entirety of the remains. Another marine had snatched the dogtags off their bodies and safely placed them in his pocket. Alex knew at the back of his mind what needed to be done, but the urge to discover what happened outgrew his following of orders. It would not have made sense for him to leave the mission area and not have all the facts and figures for when he reported back to STARCOM and Chancellor Grayich. He looked around him to see officers attending their stations, the gentle chorus of beeps and murmurs helped Alex focus himself on the present. Any hesitancy he had about what he wanted to do to satiate his own curiosity was quickly quelled as he felt he owed it to Connors and Colroy to know what happened. Alex opened up a direct channel to Fëderov, who accepted the call but did not say anything. Alex understood his anger.
“Major Fëderov, Captain Rowan here. I have new orders for you: Have your team search that freighter top to bottom and find out what happened over there. Pull any recordings out of the ship's computer.”
“Anything I should be looking for specifically, sir?” Fëderov said. His voice contained a tone of attitude that Alex barely tolerated.
The captain breathed in deeply before replying “Find out what you can about that insect creature. Did the crew pick up a hitchhiker, did they find an alien ship? Anything for when I report back to STARCOM.”
“Aye, sir,” Fëderov acknowledged.
Alex looked towards the monitors again, he felt a sudden weight bear down on his shoulders. It felt as though he had something wrong, the feeling of regret or impending regret. It seemed to him that he hadn’t really considered the consequences of his actions fully. Mentally he struggled to bury the feeling under his focus and awareness of his current surroundings but even still he could feel its malignant and distracting presence, however suppressed. Still, it got him off-guard when he felt his heart rate suddenly spike and his lungs drew short breaths. His heart was beating in his chest, thumping away against his ribs and pulsing through his ears loud enough to drown out the ambient noise around him. Alex dismissed himself from the CIC while covering his impending condition by taking long strides with rapid succession, almost as if he had intended to power walk; his breathing grew shorter and more rapid, Alex noticed his hands starting to shake. He ran down the length of the well lit corridor until he had made it into his office and slammed the hatch door behind him. Alex turned his back to the door and leaned against the cold metal hatch. He didn’t even register the pain from the handle poking in his back. Inside his office, he hyperventilated, his heart kept its pace, tears formed from his eyes and he clutched his chest in pain. Alex pushed himself off the hatch door and tried to make it to his desk, almost collapsing to the ground before finding support on his desk, his head spun and he could barely manage to walk straight. He accessed his terminal and engaged the Black mode which let him force to scream out at the top of his lungs after it was in effect. In his office he felt no shame as his yell of anguish turned to sobs of shame. With one arm clutching his chest and feeling the beating of his heart underneath did Alex try to reach for Liyurch to come to his office. It took effort but he had managed to string enough coherent words to ask for the young dragon to come and see him, which even now Alex had felt embarrassment in the court of his own company. Sooner than he had expected he heard the sound of knuckles rapping against the solid metal door. Alex was able to make his way over and break the seal, however he had only little energy to make it back to his desk, the young dragon slithered out of the opening in the door that he had created with his body. Draped over the sides of his body looked like bullet proof gear for dogs but white with pouches on the side and the familiar red cross. The dragon opened his mouth but he didn’t say anything when he saw Captain Rowan lying back in his chair firmly clutching his chest.
“What happened, are you alright?” He said with concern.
Alex shook his head. He shut his eyes which forced tears to drip down the side of his cheeks.
Liyurch trotted over behind the captain's desk and threw his body onto the desk. With one clawed digit he pressed against Alex’s neck while checking the time on his wrist pad. The dragon was careful not to press his sharp talon into his patient’s neck.
“Any difficulty breathing,” The young drake said stoically. “Any chest pain, irregular heartbeats?”
“No, my-my heart just raced and then… then I just- my breath, couldn't breathe.” He said in between shallow breaths.
Liyurch reached into his satchel and pulled out a tablet. Its design was different from that of the standard tablet issued to all navy personnel in that the case was white and bulkier than the slim build of normal tablets. Liyurch pressed the tablet against Alex’s chest. Alex looked down to see his chest rapidly expanding and contracting, watching the tablet rise and fall he saw a grainy image projecting on the screen. He couldn’t tell but the device started to make a loud whooshing sound almost in sync with his own heart. Liyurch pulled the tablet off his Captain’s chest and swiped on the surface as he studied the contents intently.
“When did you experience these, how long ago?”
“Uhmm… N-nearly ten minutes ago.”
The young drake looked up with his golden expressionless eyes. “Do you, Captain Alexander Rowan, give consent for me, Chief Medical Officer Grayich to scan your Bio-monitor?”
“Y-yes!” Alex wheezed.
Liyurch tapped and swiped on his screen hastily as his eyes darted front and back scanning the monitor. Alex couldn’t help but wonder if he filed his claws to avoid damaging the tablet screen. Did it have scratch marks all over its surface? Alex’s lip curled upward involuntarily at the thought. “Well, I have good news! You are not dying or anything Captain, it just looks like you had a mild panic attack.”
“It certainly felt anything but mild.” Alex said, wheezing and clutching his chest. “What caused this? I am much more composed and have overseen dozens of dangerous operations.”
“Given what has transpired and what we had all witnessed I am more impressed that more officers are not complaining. I will administer a sedative: Chlordiazepoxide, it should be best for your situation.”
“A-are you not going to get some slug down my throat to treat this?” Alex said, smiling knowingly.
Liyurch packed the tablet away with a warm smile while he chuckled mildly. “I don’t have anything that can treat this. Besides, I never disregarded modern medicine. I merely hold the belief that simpler methods of healing may prove to be better in some situations than others. And in this case it is my firm opinion as a doctor that you need something strong, refined and probably hard to gain access to that would help you. You’ll be alright, just try to lie down on the couch and I’ll be back with the sedative.”
Alex stood up from his chair to lie on the couch, he watched Liyurch slither his way out of the hatch frame without closing the door behind him. Alex stared at the ceiling for nearly fifteen minutes, he tried his best to slow his breathing except nothing worked. His heart rate continued to accelerate; he thought he was going to die. I cannot die. Not like this, not this way please! Finally, salvation arrived. Liyurch walked in through the hatchframe. Alex’s vision was starting to blur, he panicked more. He saw the sand coloured blur reach over his chest and force something into his exposed neck, Alex didn’t feel the needle break his skin but he could feel the intrusion of a foreign liquid enter his bloodstream. Suddenly his vision cleared; Liyurch was mere centimetres away from Alex’s face. He could almost count the individual scales on the Dragon's face. His breath reeked.
The Drums of war in his chest had slowed its pounding, it slowed down until he could barely hear it in his ears. Likewise, his thoughts began to slow down and Alex felt the effects of the sedative work and his breathing eased up allowing him to breathe normally again. The fear, the anxiety. All had slowly disappeared. Alex slowly lifted himself off his back and rested his head in his palms. Liyurch said something about taking it easy however Alex was not paying attention to catch what was said. He looked up to see Liyurch look concerned with his claws surrounding the injection pen. The small rectangular device with interchangeable canisters for injecting anything. Alex would have felt bad about the young drake walking into the medicine storeroom and giving his verbal authorisation to have the sedative dispensed had it not been for the fact the sedative was in him now.
“Thanks doc, I think I’ll be alright. You are dismissed.” Alex sighed.
The doctor nodded before slithering out of his office one last time. Rowan stood up and rubbed the moisture out of his eyes while walking to the matte black monolith in his room. He engaged the mirror function and stared at his own reflection with a critical eye that eliminated his red eyes and any evidence of what had transpired.
He stepped back in the CIC once more and resumed his position of overseeing the operation. The monitors showed Fëderov and a squad surrounding the bridge controls. They had a hardline connection to one of the terminals which Alex saw as a upload of data to the Phoenix’s computer core, he opened up one of the files to the newly loaded folders called Crew Logs: He opened one from the captain on the day the Krath’let had left that newly established colony. The contents of which read:
November 11th, 2418. Captain: Roland McKenzie
Departure from GF-1026/A had gone by the book. Over a thousand tonnes of steel and another thousand litres of drinkable water were delivered to the new colony. Prior to cast off we had a message from the harbour master who had relayed a message to Second Officer Brullis. Apparently he had gotten some hooker on the colony pregnant. The message was played on the bridge. No punishment was administered to my Second officer as the humiliation he experienced from the raucous laughter of those that were present to hear the message, myself included, was punishment enough.
I must admit, I have no clue what is so special about the contents of this cargo transfer. I do agree with officer Keller that it would be reckless of us if we did not inspect the cargo, regardless if we were paid handsomely to not look at it. We gave the colonists the benefit of the doubt and sent the precious cargo into Warehouse One. It should be safe there in the unlikely event we are boarded.
Nevertheless, we experienced another shaky Jump. I have put in a work order with my engineering team to look into purchasing replacement parts for our FTL engine.
The recording of the captain's thoughts continued on about how he felt suspicious about their current delivery before it devolved into a tirade regarding how he believed to be cheated out of a senior officer poker game. Then Alex stopped reading. He scrolled back up and read the message once more to read between the lines and find meaning. Warehouse One. He called up the three dimensional hologram of the ship and peeled pieces of it off as he looked deeper and true to his hunch he had found the sealed off airtight section where certain cargo could remain relatively unharmed.
Alex instructed Fёderov to inspect the internal warehouse located within the freighter’s bowels. No sooner did the Major comply and rallied the majority of his subordinates to the warehouse. Eventually they had descended into the cavernous hollow interior of the ship which was trapped in perpetual darkness. The beams of light from their helmet lights and rifle lights helped them to see the blood smeared along the floor panels which led to a gaping chasm created by two large doors that weren’t opened fully. All around them they saw the rusted and decrepit fuselage and the gaping chasm from the massive blast proof doors that hopefully would lead to the source of this creature's origins.
Major Fёderov said nothing as he looked through his rifle’s scope. He flattened his hand and sliced the air in front of him, pointing towards the opened doors. The marines converged silently as they closed in on the entrance.