Cosmic Date: 2122, March 31st, Osiris Station

Hours before Zeta-virus attack on Osiris

In a ramshackled ship floating just outside Osiris’s sphere of influence, a group of cloaked individuals crowded around an ancient broken stone pillar, an obelisk snapped in half, broken and cursed. Their cloaks bore an insignia of a skull with two sideways triangles, meeting at the tip forming a sharp symbol of infinity.

They muttered under breath, voices croaking, emitting a supernatural unholy layer of chants.

“Dagaz Susurriunt,” They chanted and the ancient obelisk rumbled.

“Hagalaz Umbrae,” A sickly green energy began to erupt from within.

“Naudiz Fata,” Runes, ancient and weathered illuminated under voice of wills.

“Ehwaz Vocat.”

The moment they finished chanting, they all raised their hands. Each of them wore gloves with razor sharp metal claws attached to their fingers.

With no hesitation, they plunged their fingers into their own chests, tearing beating hearts out from within. The cloaked figures stumbled forwards, collapsing with their still beating hearts offered to the ancient broken obelisk.

The stone flashed, runes vibrating as tendrils began to seep out of the ancient pillar, snatching the hearts offered as fuel.

The ship shimmered in and out of existence as dark shadowy tendrils clawed out from within, they scoured the ship, searching for more to devour.

They looked to the distance.

Osiris in its unholy sights.

—

Operation Space Pirate was a go.

The four of us slowly stalked through the endless shiny hyper-steel hallways of Osiris. Our eyes becoming desensitized to the lifeless corpses of our fellow cadets. Me and Camerai up front, Hatch & Helena just behind and Luci imploring that she take back.

I couldn’t tell if she just didn’t trust me or honestly thought she’d be most useful back there.

I constantly flipped through my multi-spectral sights, feeling a small strain start to build in my eyes. It wasn’t to a prohibitive level but I was doubtful I could keep in up for more than three hours straight.

We came across a couple zombified cadets along our way. There was unanimous grimace in the group when I proceeded to crush their skulls before sending a stunner dart directly into their brains, which was fair. I was only barely keeping it together myself.

Though I didn’t need the comments from Luci.

“Tyrelion savages.” She whispered under her breath as she watched me step over the dying, spasming zombie.

What the hell did she want me to do? Ask them to step aside so we could pass? She was getting on my nerves. I was not even inducted into House Tyrelion yet, outside of their Ambrosia concoction.

I wonder if they’re worried that I’m loose around this station with their special royal sauce?

I shook my head, there were more prescient things to worry about. I could only pray they don’t implode my organs while I tried to escape.

—

The group was making good ground until we reached a large intersection.

A confluence point of numerous tunnels. Camerai returned from scouting up ahead, his active-camouflage warping the very light around him until he was mere shimmers in the air.

It was very similar to the shimmer you saw emanating from a road on a hot summers day.

Even with my different multi-spectral sights, he appeared as a blur. Asturian nano-tech was impressive, or at least I thought it was, all I knew was what I was currently seeing.

He crouched down and clicked his tongue, “Theres a horde of the dead blocking our path. Maybe fifty.”

The group sucked in a collective breath.

I scratched my cheek, “How good are your holographic decoys?” I asked.

“They’re quite believable for you and me, but I’m not sure if the zombies will bite. The range is a short swell.”

“Hmm…’

“It’s noise.” Luci interjected. “They’re attracted to noise or smell.” We all nodded. The zombies we had tried sneaking up on had always turned towards us if we even tried getting close.

Helena mused, “I wonder if its simple scent or something deeper, more hormonal.”

Hatch waved his hand in the air, “This whole place already smells like a rotting corpse, so it must be something deeper.” Helena agreed with him.

“Well we don’t have anything to use as olfactory bait… unless you?” I said turning to Luci, she glared in disgust before shaking her head.

I nodded, thankful that I wasn’t called a dog, “Does anyone know the maximum range of the PDS stunner rounds?” I asked the group.

Hatch, always inundated with data was the first to reply, “Well, unlike actual kinetic rounds these just need to make contact to work… but if you’re talking about how far a round can go before dropping off… about 100 meters?”

That doesn’t give us much room to work with.

I turned to Camerai, “Were there any hallways we could fire into that went away from our path?”

He thought for a moment, putting up a single finger, “Just one. And the angle is kinda shit.”

I sighed, “Any reroutes?”

“We’d have to backtrack and it’d take us four hours to detour.” Hatch claimed.

Shit, we don’t have the luxury to burn that time for the chance of not meeting another horde.

The sirens continued blaring around us, flashing red.

I looked around us and saw a couple rooms nearby.

That might…

“Spit balling here, so help me formulate.” I told the group. “We pull them towards us, instead of away.” The group huddled close as I explained the potential plan to them.

I pointed to a nearby room, “We hide in one of these rooms and let them run pass us.”

“We should split in two incase we get trapped.” Helena added. I nodded in agreement, “Distractions?” I asked.

Hatch rubbed his beard, “I could overload a PDS and set it to blow down the hall. But we’d still need to bring them towards us… and get away.”

Camerai jumped in, “I can pull the group, then dip into camouflage.”

Sketchy and risky.

“Are you confident?” I asked.

“Heeeeeeell no.” He replied, “But if this is what it takes to become a space pirate, it’s a risk I’m willing to take.” He said while puffing his chest out.

I smirked.

“I’ll be able to watch them through the walls as they pass, the only problem is making sure our timing is impeccable.”

They all nodded, even Luci. But before we broke she added, “Camerai can dive into the room I’m in, I have confidence I can easily close the door before they arrive.”

I looked at her, seeing unwavering confidence in her eyes. I looked at Camerai and he smirked, pointing at her biceps, “She’s really fucking strong.” He said proudly to an eye roll.

Is that Leganto’s Ambrosia?

I nodded, putting my faith in the two royals. “Okay, how long do you need Hatch?”

“Ten minutes, give or take.”

“No rush.” I replied, to a soft chorus of chuckles from the group.

It’s only a station culling.

—

Ten minutes later on the dot, Hatch had a rather rough looking PDS in his hands. The paneling had been ripped out, wires were hanging loose every which way.

“The second we pull the trigger we have… about a minute until it explodes.” He explained.

“What did you say your post was on the Oblivion?” I asked.

“Logistics, heavy munitions expert.” He said grinning like a mad man.

He’d make a terrible enemy.

“Camerai you ready? The window is about thirty seconds, and you’ll need to send your decoy down the hall as you duck away.”

He gave me a faux salute, “Yes sir!”

I smiled, even in these situations the guy was still himself.

I looked at them all, a small film of sweat building in my palms. “Operation Dine & Dash is a go.”

—

I huddled in a room with Hatch & Helena, my hands holding the ramshackle PDS pipe-bomb, waiting for the second Camerai appeared down the hall.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Through my X-ray vision I could see Luci just a little further down in another room, leaning against the doorway, her hands were primed on the door ready to close it as soon as Camerai dove in.

I controlled my breathing, feeling the stress of the upcoming strategy.

This… is not the brightest idea I must admit in retrospect.

But before I could have further doubts I saw Camerai’s blurry visage appear down the hall.

Immediately I pulled the trigger on the PDS, the weapon rapidly warming up and vibrating. I aimed down the hall threw the makeshift explosive. Waiting until I heard it land far in the darkness.

I ducked into the room and Hatch and Helena both pushed the door closed. I quickly turned, my x-ray vision seeing Camerai’s blur sprint past our room.

Hot on his tail was a raging army of undead. The zombies were deceptively lethargic until they had latched onto something to feast upon, useless tongues croaked and screamed in chase.

Camerai’s holographic decoy sprung to life, the hologram began to sing and ancient song about highways and hell. Camerai was pulled, or yanked as it looked like into the room by Luci and, with a single arm she closed the heavy door.

I breathed a sigh of relief before quickly backing away from the door with Hatch & Helena.

The horde of zombies ran past our room, continuing until they slowed in front of Camerai’s. The hologram had a large portion of them a little further but then fizzled out.

I could see the two of them back up against the distant wall, weapons drawn towards the door.

The moment seemed to stretch on forever.

As I watched a horde of bones begin to sniff the air around their door until—

BOOOOM!!!

An explosion shook the hall and sent the horde into a frenzied rage once more. I watched them sprint away down the hall.

“LETS GO PEOPLE.” I said in a muffled screamed.

Camerai and Luci only opened the door after I gave them a rhythmic knocking pattern. Luci swung the door open effortlessly and we all began sprinting down the hall.

I was somewhat amazed by the strength pushing me forwards, my legs carried my weight and each stride felt like I was almost gliding on air.

These royals are literally built different.

The group quickly broke into the confluence, thankfully empty of zombies. We dashed across the open space towards a larger hall with the numbers 042 weakly glowing overhead.

The second we stepped through the gate we turned around and began closing the large air-lock blast doors behind us.

Me, Hatch & Helena struggled to pull the large thick metal slab closed until Luci came for the assist.

It was like a night and day difference.

Camerai really wasn’t joking, she’s fucking strong.

Another person not to make an enemy out of, yet I’ve already seemingly gotten on her bad side.

Alas.

The moment the door closed the group let out a collective breath.

I quickly swapped through my sights, peering down the hall for any signs of danger.

The hall was relatively empty, but I saw a handful of zombified cadets lumbering over a couple cold corpses.

“Shhhh…” I whispered, placing my finger upon my lips.

With two fingers I pointed forwards, before raising five to indicate the number of enemies ahead.

The group nodded and readied their weapons.

I gave Hatch my PDS leaving me with the Revolt, though I still didn’t intend on using it.

We quickly took positions in a firing line, choosing our targets with practiced efficiency.

I counted down on my fingers from three…

Two…

One...

A barrage of darts sped down the large hallway, the electrical discharge lighting up the flashing red darkness in sporadic bursts of blue electrical lightning.

I sprinted after the shots, hearing Luci close behind me.

CRUNCH!

A disgusting cacophony of skull breaking stomps filled the air. I watched as Luci only needed one stomp to squash a zombies head under-foot wincing as it bursted like a melon.

It was a gnarly sight, and I applauded her for not vomiting at the act. She clenched her jaw, trying to hide retching urge. I wondered if she was more disgusted by the gore or the savagery. Curiously I swapped through my sights. Infrared showed me a large build up of heat in her stomach that was quickly being whisked away by her own nano-bots.

But I couldn’t see the bots themselves, even with x-ray.

They must be truly minuscule, nano — even.

I looked around the zombies we had dismantled, catching sight of a few more well armored bodies. Guards?

I searched the nearby area with my infrared sight until I found what I was looking for.

“Four battle-rifles’, grab em and then search the guards for spare mags.” The group nodded making quick work of the looting.

Everyone holstered their side-arms familiarizing themselves with the newly acquired weaponry. Unfortunately it seemed that we only had one or two clips per rifle, the guards having obviously unloaded at the zombies beforehand.

I was able to find another Revolt and spare ammunition.

We all continued down the hallway until we reached bay 042.

A massive hall with a ceiling so high it was hard to even see properly. The far-side wall was dotted with bee-hive docking bays for a numerous number of starships. To our left, was a gargantuan transparent atmospheric-barrier that separated the inside of the bay from the cold abyss of space.

It was quite the sight, always slightly unnerving to stand next to.

I looked over to Luci, seeing her trying to squint through the flashing red darkness to find her ship.

“What does it look like?” I asked.

“Long and narrow, with a shark fin on its apex, purple after Leganto colours.”

I looked around, swapping to infrared for a better image. My eyes focused and practically zoomed in for clarity. My vision immediately lit up with hundreds of heat signatures, zombies littered the bay.

“Shit.” I muttered, crouching down, which prompted the rest to follow suite. “There’s hundreds of them in here, but spread out.” I looked through the docks trying to spot the Leganto cruiser.

“There.” I said pointing at one of floor level docking bays. She raised her brow at me, almost meaning to say something about my vision capabilities, but holding it in.

“We have firepower now, we should just sprint for it.” Luci said.

Helena hummed, “Depends on how quickly we can get into that ship of yours.”

“Wait? I thought we were stealing a ship?” Camerai interjected.

“Shut up you fool, how would we steal a ship? Do you know how hard it is to bypass a full biometric security lock?”

His head dropped in defeat, “but… space pirates…” he said solemnly.

I chuckled. “Next time, man, next time.”

“Next time? When will I ever get the opportunity to become a pirate ever again?” He clicked his tongue.

I laughed, “You never know.”

Luci groaned, “Can we fucking focus?”

We all snapped out of the charade and nodded.

Seeing us listening she continued, “It’ll take a minute, tops, to lower the ramp, another to close it. Three to start the vortex engines and then we’re free flying.”

“Can the ship withstand the zombies trying to scratch their way in?” Hatch asked, curious about the integrity of the cruiser. A warranted worry because they were generally weaker than most military class vessels.

Luci scoffed, “The Derelictus is built to withstand Category III ballistics, akin to flies trying to burrow into hyper-steel, but in this case — Adamantine. We’d survive anything but a black-hole, I think.”

Hatch’s jaw dropped. “Adamantine…” he muttered, trying to calculate the exorbitant value of such a vessel.

I didn’t even dare try and run the calculations for myself, seeing the slowly widening of his eyes. All I knew was that I could work for a lifetime and only afford a kilogram of the stuff.

“Wait, why isn’t there a side ladder access point or emergency entrance?” Helena asked.

Luci looked away, but I could see the thermal heat building in her cheeks. Camerai chuckled, “Because ramps are aesthetically pleasing, when royals land we have to arrive in style you see.” He said matter of factly.

How utterly… ostentatious.

I cleared my throat, “How does everyone feel about gunning it to the ship?”

“I think we barely have enough rounds if we don’t miss our shots. It’s good that they’re spread out, it’ll give us some time.”

I nodded, “Don’t bother trying to take out their heads, just go for their legs.”

Luci gave me her battle-rifle, I passed my spare revolt and a clip to Helena and Hatch & Camerai both held their own battle-rifles. Luci was going to focus fully on getting the ship running so she would forgo a weapon.

I took a deep breath.

“We got this.”

—

I sprinted across the ship bay with battle rifle in hand. My tunic fluttering in the wind behind me.

Multiple muzzles flared with gunfire, the piercing noise of ballistic blasts sliced through the previous silence. I kept my infrared vision on, zombies in my augmented spectral sights collapsing as bullets ripped through knees and shins alike.

Around me others focused fire, the rage fueled screams of 5.56 was deafening.

In the distance I could see other zombies begin to turn towards us, the screams of their brethren calling them to feast.

We reached Derelictus before we knew it, Luci quickly slapped her hand against a biometric scanner underneath its hull to a slow gaseous release of the landing ramp. She didn’t wait for the full descent leaping upwards with super-human strength and pulled herself into the ship.

The rest of us formed a firing line, the roar of our rifles tore into a building wave of zombies.

I fired until I ran out of ammo, throwing my rifle to the ground and switching to my Revolt. The heavy thumping blasts of the hand-cannon rumbled through my body.

Zombies were disintegrated as my rounds exploded through their legs continuing on into another set of legs. Even when they slammed to the floor like puppets cut from string they continued to crawl forwards.

“IM OUT OF AMMO!” Hatch screamed, swapping to his PDS.

Helena & Camerai soon followed suite.

“RAMP DOWN GET IN.” Luci shouted from inside, immediately lifting the ramp back up.

The group all loaded aboard the ramp as it preemptively began to rise. We stay on the lip of the entrance continuing to unload our entire payload into the rapidly closing in wave of zombies.

The mass of undead quickly formed a ramp of corpses, some beginning to leap of the fallen bodies of their brethren.

Camerai, was caught off-guard by the suddenly leaping zombies. He tried to dodge out the way but was snatched by the leg. The weight-shift tugging at his ankle made him slip and fall to his chest, “SHIT!” He screamed firing his PDS at the zombie, only to accidentally electrocute himself swell.

The zombie screamed, mouth rearing to bite into his leg—

THUNK!

A Revolt flew through the air, whirling forwards and sinking its heavy metal grip into the zombies skull, snapping its head backwards aggressively.

I quickly ran forwards and grabbed Camerai by the shoulders tearing him from the zombies grip. The moment he was free Helena blasted the assailant with an excessive use of her Revolt.

We all stumbled back as the ramp reached its apex, tipping us all backwards until we fell into the small landing bay of the Derelictus.

The heavy noise of heaving breaths filled the space, before the deep whirring of votex engines, filled the air.

“Was anyone bit?” I asked, still staring up at the ceiling.

“””No.””” They all responded, one by one.

Holy fuck, we made it.

“Well, that was easy!” Camerai exclaimed, and I had a sudden twitch of dread crawl down my spine.

—

Deep in the depths of Osiris, an electronic pulse fluttered outwards from the fusion-core that powered the entire station.

Osiris itself, was semi-sentient, aware enough recognize but not understand the incoming mass of shadowy tendrils.

The culling was a simple directive, allow all humans to escape, but not at the cost of the need to contain.

It knew the shadows were trying to consume it, it knew that if it did so, it would not be able to complete the culling. Only five living souls were left, and it was unfortunately too late to save even them.

“WARN--- KRRzT… BREACH— CULL… CULL CULL SSKRTzzz—LLING —IMINENT”

The A.I screamed and its fusion-core vibrated.

—

The Derelictus quickly pulled out of the bee-hive dock. The thundering pounding of dying flesh outside was a hurricane of noise.

The group was in the cock-pit, staring through reinforced glastic at a number of zombies smashing their heads against the observation window, failing desperately to reach our supple meat.

Even though we were safe, mere moments from blasting to space I couldn’t help but feel a building unease in the pit of my stomach.

I looked at the rest of the group but only saw faces of relief.

What the hell is happening to me.

Camerai sighed, kicking his feet up on the control panel to Luci’s immediate wrath. She slapped his thigh, “Get your nasty feet off my controls you savage.”

Camerai chuckled, “After all that you’re still able to attack me, where do you find the energy?” He asked and she scoffed, focusing back on the ships controls.

He looked back at me in confusion. “Yo, man… why do you look like you just shit your pants?” He teased, though there was a clear tone of concern in his voice.

I looked at him, my partially golden eyes meeting his Asturian green iris’s.

“Somethings wrong.” I said, and regret filled my soul.

“WARN--- KRRzT… BREACH— CULL… CULL CULL SSKRTzzz—LLING —IMINENT—”

And my world went dark.