Strange knocking came from the darkness of Aux Two, yet any cause vanished before their lights could illuminate it. The fog was explained by the fall in temperature, but it rippled and ebbed in haunting currents when there were no operating fans to drive circulation. But something (unseen) had to be causing it. And Patterson wondered whether it saw them.
And for brief moments she heard – buzzing? At first she had thought it was just fright borne imagination. Like how the rippling fog gave the appearance of someone moving when viewed out of the corner of her eyes. But now she heard it again and, looking toward James, she saw he heard it too.
Like a dream, everything seemed almost explainable but just slightly off. Long exposure to physical and emotional stress had sapped the perceptive qualities of their minds. She thought that was the cause for a lot of the fear as she neared the exit. But the worst was hopefully behind, and at least they hadn’t been subjected to more explosive detonations.
She tried to open the accessway door with her comms unit without response. “Who wants to test it?” she whispered.
“I will,” James said. He looked around of a deckplate that would be easy to pull up. The anchoring bolts broke with a clang which echoed throughout the Gate. The deckplate he acquired was of sturdy steel, but it had openings in between the grating. He used it as a shield while walking up to the accessway door and tapping it. “Safe on this side.”
“Cut us an opening, Holly, we’ll stand guard.”
“Make the hole centered well within the door,” James said. “Minimize the chance of triggering a proximity sensor on the other side.”
“Right,” Holly said as she took a knee at the door and placed her laser cutting torch. “What if it’s on the other side of this?”
“We’re right here,” James said. “Just shout and duck away.” He stepped a bit away from the others to maintain spacing, and he turned back to face the darkness of the Gate. “Be ready, Amanda, this is when the monsters come to play. We have to play rougher than they do.”
I wish I had your courage. “You think they’ll attack now?”
“I would,” he said, carefully looking around.
She turned into the darkness with her pistol ready. The many flares glowsticks still provided volumes of illuminating red light, but much of their deck was imperceptible in visible light – and the decks above were worse still. Infrared was working well, and her HUD was doing a fine job at producing a composite image.
She glanced at James periodically while Holly cut. She wondered what it would have been like if she had let herself be swept away by his courage and competency before encountering the derelict. She had toyed with his obvious admiration of her since the Polo job. Cautiously letting his feelings mature seemed the wise path then. She hadn’t seen the consequences that she did now. There is no way that all three of us will survive this monster.
James pulled his makeshift shield over himself and pointed. “Movement by the ventilation intake.”
She looked at the screen mesh enclosing the area. She saw the monster behind it – wearing one of their EVA suites. De Silva’s corpse. “Let’s reposition. We’re silhouetted by the cutter.”
“I’m halfway done,” Holly shouted, “keep them off me.”
A cylindrical object flew toward her group in a blurred arc. She saw James raise his shield and leap away, and she began to sprint. “Grenade!” she shouted just before the detonation hurled her onto the deck. Her right shoulder crashed into a metal column and then she fell awkwardly on her side. But she kept her pistol in her grip.
The blunt force from the shrapnel punched into her skin on her arms and legs, but it didn’t hurt much. Her HUD alarmed for a leak. “I’m alright,” she shouted.
“I’m alive,” Holly shouted in a painful cry. “Keep them off me. I can’t fight and cut!”
“Gunfire,” James shouted. He didn’t sound hurt, and his suit wasn’t reporting any alarms. “Take cover; there’s two of them!”
Her heart leaped and the pain vanished as adrenaline kicked in. I just have to fight like a savage and then this will be over. Clutching her flamethrower, she crawled on all fours to a collection of reverse osmosis cannisters for the water purification unit. She pressed her body against it for cover and tried to peer between the cannisters. She couldn’t see either attacker, and nor did she hear their shots.
Glancing at the pistol in her hand, she remembered that laser fire was silent. She knocked on metal and heard the clang, verifying her external audio was alive. The Creature was stalking in the darkness with a laser weapon. More likely, both of them were.
And then she heard buzzing, seemingly from all around. She heard it from toward Sci-Med and through the grated decks above. “Do you hear that, James!”
“Lights!” he shouted as he threw one into the darkness. “Throw more glowsticks and flares! Some of our old ones are dying!”
She patted her chest and rummaged her pockets. She only had a few of them left; the blast had torn the others away. She watched Holly light a glowstick and throw it with a painful motion. At least they all had some. At least they were all alive.
She surveyed the room using the flickering red lights and saw a large nearby opening in the deck above accommodating a couple conduit runs. She lit a flare and tossed it through. Its red glow shined through the grating and revealed the mechanized landscape above.
Heavy footsteps came from above, becoming fainter as the unseen monster retreated into darkness. And there came again the buzzing. James and Holly were shouting over comms, asking if anyone had seen it. She was afraid one of them had seen her.
She crawled to the equipment room containing the purified water tank and braced her back against the bulkhead. She now had certain safety behind her and the Pazuzu thralls likely believed she was still by the reverse osmosis cannisters. Her team appeared to be safe; James had advanced into the Gate using his shield for partial cover and Holly crouched against a storage locker which blocked shots from most directions. She needed to protect her from the open ones.
Taking a peek around, she saw that the monster she saw earlier had come closer, and was now bracing behind a metal column supporting one of the Systems Access Duts. She couldn’t see another one, but there must have been because the grenade came out of nowhere. Then she remembered the footsteps were from above.
“All the gunfire is from our level, but I heard footsteps on the deck above. They’re both here and their bating us.”
“I heard too,” James said. “There are three of them. Do the flares provide enough lighting on the deck above?”
“Three?” Holly whimpered.
How are there three? All the drones were gone and Pazuzu must have put something together from them. Heck it could even be using parts from Robbie of some of the ship’s systems that were shut down. Pazuzu was a builder. But that implied there could even be more than three. She looked through the grating above. “Visible and infrared are workable.”
“Do you see them?” Holly shouted.
“I see two of them,” James said. “One is hiding behind a nearby column. I’ve pegged him and he knows he can’t move. The other is hiding within the lube oil equipment room. I have to get closer to threaten him. The third is out of sight, but I know where he is. I don’t know what these bugs are though.”
“How do we escape?” Holly shouted.
“Just wait and we might be able to get better shots once they draw closer.”
“I got shrapnel in my leg,” Holly said. “I can move it, but it hurts.”
“Then we go,” James said. “Finish cutting the door, Holly. We’re watching for you.”
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“I’m not turning my back again!” she said. “I’m not as fast as you.”
“Listen…”
“No,” she interrupted.
“I’m not far from you. We’ll keep them away.”
Holly thundered in anger. “One of you do it. You can survive things I can’t.”
“We’re blocking the enemy. I also have the two on this deck pinned down. They can’t move. And we can quickly respond to the other.” It wasn’t a lie. She didn’t see the thrall by the purifiers, but she didn’t claim to. She could spray the area with gunfire, keeping it in cover. And maybe she could even get closer for a better shot. She peeked her head up and surveyed the Gate for possibilities.
Holly silently held her leg. The HUD showed that her suit was breached too, and worse than Patterson’s.
“The flares are dying,” James said. “We don’t have many more to use and then we’ll be in the dark. And we’ll all die if we can’t see these things well in infrared."
“If we go to cut the door Pazuzu comes closer. It has to be you.”
“It should be you!” Holly said. “I’ve risked enough.” She crawled to the accessway door and picked up the cutter with shaking hands.
Holly’s words stabbed deep. Holly had risked her life for her. She suddenly felt guilty as well as scared. Taking a deep breath, she leaned out of cover and aimed her weapon toward the threat locations. She would draw some fire to keep the pressure off Holly. If she was quick enough, she would suppress the enemy outright.
“I’m moving up to drive them further away,” James said as reassuringly as he could. “When you’re done just push the cut inward and climb through the hole. You’ll be the safest of us all.”
“Just not right now,” she bitterly answered. She picked up the cutter, crawled back towards the door, and continued the cut.
No, you’re covered. I promise.
The Gate became quiet outside of the hissing of the torch and distant buzzing.
“They’re coming,” James warned. “I’m going to draw their attention. See if you can take a killing shot. Holly, cover us once you get on the other side.” Flickering light from the accessway shined into their part of the Gate. And then there was another bright flash and a loud blast.
A piece of shrapnel struck her shoulder guard, but the detonation was distant enough to not have much force. Undeterred, she rapidly fired at the point of origin. She had only caught a brief glimpse of it but was satisfied that it regarded her shots enough to duck. A quick visual peek showed that Holly and James were alright.
“I’m fine,” James said. “Give us some covering fire when you’re done, Holly. We need to drive them back to safely get to the exit.”
“I’ll try,” Holly said, grunting while she pushed against the cut section. It soon fell with a heavy thud.
Patterson saw several bright flashes from laser pulses striking the accessway door, barely missing Holly while she climbed into the accessway. “I got column guy.” She fired several shots in rapid succession and the Pazuzu fiend was compelled to brace against the column.
“I’m handling the other one,” James promised.
Hearing that, Patterson thought it would be a good idea to quickly take one of these creatures out. “Holly, I’m going to get on the flank of the one at the column. This will expose me, but I can get it to expose itself to you also. Hit it with everything you have.”
“I’ll try,” Holly said, “I can’t see that well now that I’m in the light.”
“Use your headlamp. I’m going now!” Patterson cleared her mind (any distraction would only slow her reflexes, and she needed to do this from pure, unconscious muscle memory for maximum speed). Then she ran out in front of the water tank’s ballistics shield, leaning forward and keeping her head down to make it difficult for one of the other enemies to shoot at her from their positions of cover. She quickly took a knee, turned, and began to fire, still keeping her head lowered to protect her face.
All she knew was the reflective coat appeared to thwart its shots well enough. And she saw several impact flashes from her own shots. Further, Holly now fired on the spacesuit-thing. She was using 9mm, and Patterson saw her shots rippling the Kevlar fabric of the suit’s legs.
The heavy spacesuits were made to withstand micrometeorites. That’s not the same thing as gunfire (which involves considerably more mass but considerably less velocity) but she wasn’t surprised that it withstood that too. Even still, getting shot several times in the legs would hurt.
It thus had to be the De Silva-thing. Just like the twisted versions of her former crew which attacked before, this enemy had no pain response. But she knew from her autopsies that it was still taking damage. Burst capillaries, torn fascia, strained muscle fibers, inflammation and more were adding up. She should aggressively attack because its corrupted body would simply stop working after further harm.
She darted toward the enemy and then raised her sights toward the man-shaped thrall while falling to a prone position. She fired her first three shots aimed at midsection (which still didn’t seem to do anything and she thought it was using a protective coating too) and then aimed for the head. She was shot a few times in return but ignored them. Her suit’s paint was still working well enough.
The thrall fell onto the deck but immediately started to get up. And she now recognized it as her own EVA suit. It’s not De Silva. She rushed up and kicked it down. And then she thrust the nozzle of her flamethrower through the weakened visor, shattering it, and pumped fire all through the suit which jetted out of the holes their laser weapons had made.
The overbearing tension she felt began to diminish, and she afforded herself a second of rest before helping James. The thing reached up and grabbed her weapon. One undying hand pulled her weapon aside and then the next grabbed her. She stared in shock at the flames burning within its helmet while hearing Holly admonish her to get away from it. But it had pulled her down onto the deck before she could break out of her shock. Being on the deck overrode some of her horror with desperation. Exerting all her strength, she wrestled herself on top and pinned the fiend.
The abdominal mixture of alien flesh and human engineering only struggled for a few seconds more, and then ceased moving. She gradually realized the flames had finally ended its existence and ceased pushing down on it. “One’s dead.” Flames licked over a haphazard mess of organic connective stands and circuit boards beneath the shattered visor. God, what kind of monster is this that we’ve found? Her suit’s monitoring system beeped with a warning that her pulse was far above normal.
She holstered her flamethrower while breathing deeply. Then, taking a knee, she aimed her pistol at the other enemy. Although James had its attention, she didn’t have a good shot. And the readout on her weapons showed it only had a 6% charge left. She waited for it to pop above its cover. I’ve got you.
And then the bees, wasps, flies, or whatever – maybe even some creatures not from earth swarmed her. She flayed her arms to drive them away, but they still closed all around her. The beginning of a panic set over her while Holly yelled at her to get to the door. The bugs couldn’t hurt her, but they blinded her to the monsters in the Gate.
But then she remembered her suit was breached. The bugs could hurt her. They were made to hurt her! Panic took over and she dropped her pistol while wildly slapping her hands over her arms and legs, and she bumped her flamethrower hanging at her side.
Instantly recovering, she lit the pilot flame while loud banging such as metal on metal filled the external audio channel. Ignoring that (she would deal with it later) she sprayed fire all around in short bursts. The fire rapidly spread all through the swarm and soon flames wholly enveloped her to where it was like she was standing in fire.
And then the fire on the bugs died as quickly as it had began. Hundreds of small attackers circled to the deck like glowing embers. They filled the Gate with an agonizing screech before being consumed. Nothing that fell upon the deck moved with life. And the radiance of the smoldering creatures faded to black.
She stood victorious; her panic faded. James was beating one of the monsters into a twisted wreck with his mace. Each blow produced thundering clangs and bright sparking. A swarm assailed him too, but he didn’t pay it any mind. And his icon on her HUD showed no leak. She now recognized the ornamental relays on their foe – Robbie.
The corner of her eyes caught the silhouette of the other monster on the deck above, its movement now silent. “The big one is coming down!”
She rushed to them both, knowing her weapon lacked range. The monster effortlessly passed down a ladder well, appearing to almost float. An eerie red glow issued from around it and revealed an eldritch form of limbs and tentacles. And more bees followed it. It seemed to be grinning with its triple row of teeth.
James turned to block it with his battered shield. The monster swatted it away, bending the metal with its blow. James next swung his mace and she couldn’t see if it struck its mark. They seemed to wrestle.
His suit would withstand the bulk of the fire for a while. She belched a sustained flame, trying to keep it more aligned with the monster. Nevertheless, it enveloped them both. And soon the burning bugs made it impossible to tell which of the two was the one she wanted to kill.
They separated from one another. Two flailing, flame enveloped giants.
Alarms shown all over James’ HUD. Severe alarms showing a life-threatening condition. They would pass in a moment. She regretted that he might suffer burns but there wasn’t another option.
“I can’t see, Amanda!” James said. His voice was filled with desperation and pain.
“I’m watching you. Just keep backing up.”
The flames died down and she fixed her gaze on the Creature. She walked over beside James, standing a little in front. Her weapon stayed fixed on the Creature.
You kill those you meet – except me. “There may be some physical pain.” She sprayed a stream of fire which enveloped the abomination. It flailed and raged as the flames licked over its body. It’s angry wailing echoed through the Gate. The nearby machinery seemed to sparkle in the fire’s flickering light.
Continuing to fire, she cautiously backed up to avoid its wildly swinging long limbs. The monster thrashed and roared, and the enveloping fire seemed to be growing larger. And larger. Its flickering light shined on everything around her. And then she noticed that it was not larger, but closer.
Her heart leaped as two lanky hands reached for her from within the fire. She tried to leap back, but they captured her and took her weapon out of her hands. She ripped the wrench off her suit and clubbed the monster. The wrench slammed into something hard yet flaky, and she imagined the Creature’s skin burned to a crisp. And that gave her renewed hope that she could finish it off.
She struck it again in rapid succession. More tentacle-like limbs emerged from the fire and entangled her weapon again. And as the flames began to lick over her suit, a bright glow shined from within the fire, casting great teeth in shadow. Its tongue was barbed and rose to strike.
She instinctively blinked while her helmet visor was punched through by a dart. The blow struck her head, producing a cloud cracking in her ears and knocking her head into the rear of the helmet. And then the darkness again enveloped her and there was the sensation of falling. Something warm flowed across her face as she hit the deck.