The blaring sirens did little to help me process the sheer wealth of new data dousing my mind.

Intuitively, I blinked — and when I opened my eyes I saw a whole new world.

The lush plant-life in my dorm bursted into patterns that glowed like hot molten iron. A myriad of reds, oranges and purples revealed themselves to me in organic tapestries on the flowers and leaves I had thought I’d known. I didn’t even notice the disappearance of the flashing red emergency lights, unable to pierce through the ultra-violet spectrum of my new vision.

I blinked again and the world went mute in black and heat.

While the plants around me went silent in comparison to ultra-violet sight, I turned into a radiating mass of heat, my infrared sight showing me the radiation ebbing from my skin.

I blinked one final time and I saw through my skin.

My bones twisted and moved under my now invisible muscles. The massive high-resolution screen that used to project a rotating image of Earth revealed underneath a dense layer of wires and circuits.

I focused my vision at my door, only to cock my head in confusion. I peered through the hyper-steel separating my room from the hall and I saw… bodies?

Loads of them, just strewn about the floor as if half the wing had just serendipitously decided to have a sleepover in the hall.

My thoughts raced through what could possibly be happening.

Yet the slowly building dread of seeing a hallway of unmoving bones was lighting a fire in my skull.

I was seeing it, and yet even with my new supernatural sight I couldn’t believe it.

What the fuck was going on.

A separatist attack?

It wasn’t impossible, but how had they gotten so far into Royal Dominion without even a hint of warning?

It seemed ridiculous, the A.I super systems would’ve reacted almost immediately.

I sucked in a deep breath, and turned my vision back to normal.

Returning to the cold reality of my dorm was like a bucket of freezing water overhead. The flashing red emergency lights returned, and I felt like I had taken my first breath since I awoke.

I couldn’t just hide away like this, whatever was happening, I was a sitting duck. The station could be on the verge of collapse for all I know.

I moved around my room with newfound fluidity, a heightened degree of accuracy and clarity laced in my eyes.

The nano-bots had improved every-single facet of my existence in a single slumber. It felt like I had taken a magical elixir.

I felt stronger, faster, and my reflexes had made a drastic leap, though how much I couldn’t tell specifically.

The feeling was intoxicating.

I grabbed my Personal Defense Side-arm that I hid underneath my bed. The simple dark metal handgun wouldn’t fire anything lethal, since it was only given out as a deterrent and a litmus test for any morons who slipped through the recruitment process.

I had only thirty stunner-rounds. Thankfully, I was already in my W.E.T-suit and uniform, though the weave wouldn’t stop anything super-kinetic or energy based, it was better than nothing.

I made sure to drink some water and piss before anything. My throat was already parched and needing to piss in combat was a surefire way to have your bladder rupture.

With my PDS in hand, I took a deep breath. My goal was to reach the armory, coincidentally on the way was Camerai’s and the couple’s room.

The sound of gunfire in the hall was not a good sign.

Manually overriding my door, I pulled it open.

I was immediately hit with a disgusting stench. A putrid taste filled my lungs and made me want to hurl my synthetic lunch.

I gagged, covering my nose with my hand as the blaring sirens echoed endlessly down the hallways. The intermitted flashing of red lights did little to help my vision.

But what the hell is up with the smell?

A question I really did not want to know the answer to — yet the guttural scream from down the hallway felt otherwise.

I felt a shiver down my spine and I turned the barrel of my weapon towards the noise.

I tried to focus on what was coming, but I made the mistake of looking around me.

The entire hallway was littered with the bodies I had seen before — morbidly, however, I noticed a pattern.

They had all been either decapitated, de-limb or had their brains destroyed. Gore and viscera was strewn about as if Jack the Ripper had a field day in the cadet-wing.

What on fucking Earth?

“GUUUUAAAAAAAEEHH!” The scream had gotten close, close enough for me to see the slowly lumbering silhouette flashing against the red emergency lights.

I hid behind the corner of my door, peaking through a single eye at what was to come.

I swapped to infrared.

Yet I couldn’t even fathom the sight.

Slowly limping forwards was a single cadet, with both of his arms missing.

Yet despite the lack of limbs, he limped forwards at an almost casual pace. His breaths came out in groans, as if he had lost the proper function of his tongue. The heat pattern in his body looked incredibly off, tendril like strands scorched across his skin in disturbingly organic pathways and his brain was far too cold.

I grimaced at the sight.

Zeta-virus?

Oh, Mother Earth.

I was screwed. My chances of survival easily dropping to below zero percent.

This station was going to be culled.

I, was going to be culled.

I had to make it to the escape pods, and quickly.

I ran through the nearest escape routes in my head. Towards Zero Hall, past the mindless zombie lumbering its way towards me.

“Gurrrr…” The zombie croaked. Its head leaning back and snorting the air.

I didn’t hesitate, they weren’t as mindless as the tropes would lead me to believe. If anything reductive in cognition — but extremely feralized.

My PDS vibrated. I effortlessly sent two rounds hurtling down the hallway, electrically charged darts whistled through the air and slammed into the virus infested cadet discharging electrical current into its body, sending it spasming to the ground.

I quickly ran forwards, my brows furrowed in what I was about to do.

With all the new strength I could muster I sent my boot crushing down onto its head.

CRUNCH!

I shattered its skull with a single kick. A feat I couldn’t have even fathomed achieving just a day ago.

I stepped away, holding my hand over my mouth. The sight of the limbless cadet, still squirming to move was too much for me and I bent over and spewed my synthetic lunch out.

I heaved, but quickly pulled myself back to focus.

I mustered the will to send another stomp onto the zombie cadet, this time cracking open its skull wide open.

I aimed my PDS and fired a dart directly into its brain. The zombie jolted, eyes rolling back as it frothed at the mouth before going lifelessly limp.

I’m not taking any chances, I doubt it’s dead.

I heaved breaths into my lungs, slowly regaining mental strength. I quickly continued down the hallway, stepping over former cadets until something caught my eye.

In the clutches of girl, slumped in the corner of her room was an actual weapon. A HC-Revolt, a hand-cannon of a pistol.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Under my infrared vision her body emanated heat, the corpse incredibly fresh, perhaps the victim of the cadet I had incapacitated only recently.

I didn’t bother taking the risk of getting close and fired a stunner round into her preemptively. An incredibly morbid maneuver but one that was validated by the sudden lurched scream of her coming back to life, despite missing a large chunk of her throat.

I sent another two rounds into her and a kick at her skull. The fleshy noise of her head slapping against metal made me wince.

But I sent another…

And another, until I finally had a shot at her brain.

I sighed, before another wave of nausea overtook me. My HUD flared and a notification about metabolic cleansing ensued.

The burning of bile in my stomach quickly calmed as the nano-bots moved to stabilize my internals, but the stench of death still threatened to consume me.

I sucked in a small breath, using my arm as a terrible filter.

I pried the hand-cannon from her hand checking its remaining ammunition.

Fifteen round capacity, with only ten remaining. Ten lethal, 24 stunner… okay — Things might just be looking up!

As if to mock my efforts the over-comms for the entire station kicked in. Osiris itself spoke, its robotic A.I voice frazzled even more than usual.

“skrrrrtt— T-MINUS— TWEN— SKRZZZZT… —kkrt— TO STATION CULLING— KRSSTZZZ…”

Twenty something minutes? Hours? Fuck I don’t know.

I needed to start hauling ass, just to be safe. It would take me at least ten minutes to get to Zero Hall’s escape pods normally.

I started sneaking as quickly as I could through the halls. I frequently swapped between x-ray and infrared, ensuring that I wasn’t walking into some zombie-filled clusterfuck. Whatever the initial barrage was, it seemed I had slept through the worst of it.

What the hell was the point of this attack? Osiris was important, but not nearly as important as the larger stations around Mars and Jupiter.

And what about the Earth Sanctuary Accord? Releasing fucking Zeta-Virus on Osiris, I’m being caught up in a war crime right now!

I ran into one more zombified cadet along the way, though it was pinned between a door, flailing about trying to find its footing… which was a fruitless endeavor because it was missing both its legs.

I ignored it and reached Camerai’s room. The door was still closed, which was a good sign. I looked through it with my x-ray.

Nothing.

Goddamit Camerai, you better be either dead or… maybe with Hatch & Helena?

I sucked in a breath, gritting my teeth. I moved slightly further down the hall towards Hatch & Helena’s room.

The door was also closed.

I held my breath and looked through.

I grinned as I saw three—no four people? well, three skeletons waking around and one blurry image of another, the concern in their movements clear as day.

I rhythmically knocked three times on their door.

I watched as one of the skeletons came and tentatively returned the knocking pattern on the door.

I looked around me, hoping that I hadn’t alerted any zombies, but the coast was clear.

I heard the shift of metal and the twist of the manual override lever.

The door slid open and I was immediately greeted with four glowing PDS barrels.

It was a beautiful sight in these circumstances.

“Hey folks.” I whispered, turning off x-ray.

A chorus of whispers replied, “SADA! What the SHIT! YOU’RE ALIVE you son of a bitch I KNEW IT!” Camerai’s excited voice called out to me and I smiled.

I quickly ducked into the room and Hatch closed the door behind me.

I turned to see the barrels still focused on me.

I withheld a laugh, trying to avoid being stunned to oblivion.

“I haven’t been bit, honestly I just woke up ten or so minutes ago.” I cleared up.

Everyone sighed and the glow of the PDS barrels quieted. Helena probably would’ve shouted but whispered instead in light of our circumstances.

“You’re joking. You slept through… a Zeta-virus outbreak? How is that even possible.” She said face palming. I shrugged in return and Camerai laughed, “This guy would fall asleep in zero-g practicals when Mathias wasn’t looking, but this is a new record my Spec Ops friend!” He said, patting me on the shoulder before suddenly gripping me harshly.

“W-wait? What the fuck Sada? Why are your eyes filled with Tyrelion GOLD?” He shouted at me.

The entire room winced at his sudden outburst. Helena quickly slapped him on the back of his head, and in the most subdued muffled scream, “ARE YOU TRYING TO GET US KILLED YOU—” she said before also catching sight of my eyes. “--wait he’s not wrong? What the hell Sada?”

I didn’t even know they were gold…

Helena grabbed my face with both her hands and stared deeply into my eyes. My face squished and lips squashed, I murmured over to Hatch for help.

He only raised a brow back at me.

“They’re not fully Royal, only the rim and a little iris…” She observed. I grabbed her hands and yanked them off of me with surprising ease, “Special Operations, RSSF.” I explained, rubbing my face, “I got head-hunted by House Tyrelion.”

They all sucked in a breath, and I heard the click of a tongue from behind me.

I turned to see a person I wasn’t familiar with. A woman, almost as tall as me, taller than Hatch, but shorter than Camerai. It was hard to tell in the dim red emergency lights, so I switched my vision to thermal. She had slick dark hair pulled back into a bun and purple eyes that glowed eerily over a sharp jaw and impeccably luscious lips.

Another Royal? Purple eyes… House Leganto?

“Who is this?” I asked and she scoffed, “Watch your tongue, Tyrelion dog.” She scorned.

The hell? Dog?

I turned away, ignoring the blatant disrespect, looking to the others for answers.

Hatch & Helena sighed, shaking their heads and Camerai gave me a curt grin, “Introducing, my childhood friend and Seventeenth Daughter of House Leganto.” He flipped his hands outwards as if he was a show host, “Lucianna Rendo Halifax Leganto — but you can call her Luci for short.” He proclaimed in a soft whisper.

Luci however, quickly corrected him. “No you may not call me Luci, you may address me as Dame, or majesty, Tyrelion dog.”

‘…’

The silence was painfully awkward. I turned to look at Camerai and he only apologetically shrugged.

“Oh—kay…” I said, turning away from her. I could honestly care less for her royal high-collar ass. There was much MUCH bigger fish to fry currently.

“Long story short I was supposed to be at the Tyrelion wing when I woke up after taking their Nano-bot concoction, and obviously that didn’t really go as planned.”

Camerai’s eyes widened, “Wow, congraduations on getting your hands on Tyrelion Ambrosia, even if it seems it’s not their full concoction. But my uncle’s tell me even a sub-par Tyrelion Ambrosia nearly matches our houses best.” He said, slightly saddened.

I nodded, I wonder what their direct lineages are capable of? I had never met a Tyrelion, only seen them from afar during ceremonies or on Royalist run propaganda holo’s. They lived like gods in comparison to the other houses.

“My first question, is how long until the station cull?” This was the most important piece of information.

“We should have about twenty something hours left, a little less than a day?” Helena informed, “Standard culling procedure is one day grace.” She added.

Hatch nodded, “We’ve been trapped here, trying to weather the initial barrage. Camerai saved our asses, he came to us immedaitely and we locked ourselves in. Initial entry is most likely near Zero-hall, coincidentally by the escape pods.” He looked into space for a moment, his eyes calculating, “I’d reckon the pods there have shit the bed, and or the place is infested to the brim.”

They attacked the escape pods? If there was any doubt this was a war crime beforehand, it was now fully erased from my mind.

“Are they purposely attacking the pods?” I asked to nobody in particular.

Camerai scratched the back of his head, clearing his throat a little uncomfortably. “I think so… this doesn’t look like a haphazardly conducted attack.”

“But why?” I asked.

“Because Osiris is filled with royals.” Luci interjected from behind. I turned to meet her gaze, her purple eyes trying to dig into my very soul.

Ah.

I turned to Camerai, “You said your family was coming for the graduation ceremony?”

“Yeah. With the exception of our House Lord and the upper echelon, but enough to matter.”

I turned to Luci, “I assume it’s the same case for you?” She scowled, her brows furrowing in disgust.

“Yes. My mother is aboard…” She said, her voice trailing off.

Yikes.

My jaw dropped slightly, realizing that an entire space-station was massacred as a by-product of an assassination attempt.

I scratched my cheek, “I’m going to go out on a limb as assume that most if not all the escape pods were targeted… which leaves us—”

“Having to STEAL A SHIP!” Camerai exclaimed, to which he received another slap from Helena and Luci this time.

“Ow, cmon, the hell? How can I not be excited about possibly becoming a motherfuckin’ PIRATE!” He defended himself, the passion in his voice palpably clear.

And he’s goddamn right.

But I wouldn’t voice that aloud.

Hatch chimed in, “Closest ship bay would be Dock 042… about two hours from here without the acceleration platforms working due to emergency power.”

He rubbed his fingers through his scruffy beard. “We’d have to worry about getting access to a ship—”

“--I have a cruiser docked there.” Luci said non-chaulauntly, I looked to Camerai who was still to busy pretending to be a pirate to hear.

She has a whole ass cruiser?

“Okay. It seems we have our plan. Weapons check?” I said, trying my hardest to hide the envy in my voice.

Helena quickly noted, “Four stunners, we’re all our last clips but we can scrounge up more along the way.”

“I’ve got 24 stunner rounds and ten .45 for the Revolt I found, though I would rather use it as a last resort as it can be heard from probably a mile away.” I noted.

They all nodded.

“I also have crazy new vision capabilities, infrared, ultraviolet and x-ray. It’s how I knew you guys were here so I’ll take point.” I explained.

“WHOA WHOA WHOA! You can’t just tell us Tyrelion secrets like that man!” Camerai quickly hushed.

I shrugged.

“We’re in a literal zeta-virus outbreak.”

He scratched the back of his head, giving out a sigh. “Okay, fine — just promise you won’t spill the beans later. I have active camouflage, and can make some short-range holo-projected decoys if needed, on-top of the base physical enhancements.”

Whoa, invisibility? Shit that was cool.

“Is that why you appear blurry to my sights?” I asked.

“Dunno, probably, but the fact I still appear at all is a little concerning, I guess you really can’t hide from eyes of gold.”

I turned to Luci, only to meet two purple eyes glaring me down. Obviously unwilling to share her own house secrets.

Well, hopefully she’ll help out if she can, she will right?

“Okay, everyone grab what you need for the escape, empty your bladders, we leave in five.”

Hatch, Helena and Camerai nodded while Luci just rolled her beautiful eyes.