The hologram disappeared and they were back in darkness. Becker tried fiddling with dials and when that did nothing he brought his fist down upon the robust-looking console cursing to himself.

“Lazarus has control over the whole city’s power distribution. We might need to take him out if we have any hope of getting things back under control.”

Chernov marched over to the man and grabbed him by both shoulders. “Are you mad? Have you seen the state of this place? We should be leaving. A short-range shuttle should get us off the Moon and back to Earth.”

“The problem with your idea is that Lazarus controls where we go. There’s a good chance Port is already locked down. And I somehow doubt he’s in the mood to let anyone leave. Now get your hands off of me!”

Chernov let him go and rejoined Sergei.

“We got a message out at least,” said Sergei.

“Yeah, but someone else heard it too,” Becker said as he rubbed his brow and faced them. “We still have time before they arrive but by the time they get here. They’ll be marching headlong into a bloodbath.”

“So that’s it then we agree. We take Helios,” said Sergei.

“It’s about the only thing we can do,” said Chernov.

Before they could do anything the door they came from hissed open and in walked three others. Each of them dressed in neutral black matching that of the person, Sergei and Chernov had killed earlier. These people were the ones responsible for the outbreak in the first place.

“You know how you thought I was one of those responsible for this mess, well Chernov and I encountered someone like these guys before. They set us up.”

The middle man looked to Sergei and spoke in Russian first. “You killed one of us.”

“Aye, he tried to kill us first though.”

“Is that so,” the man said looking at Becker. “Orcus? This far from home. Must be nice to take a walk every once in a while.”

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“No thanks to you of course,” said Becker keeping his weapon pointed at the newcomers.

“I’m afraid, this is just the beginning. The Deterrent will bring all of us together in Unity. Isn’t that what your Maxim strives for? Comrade,” the man said raising and clenching his fist towards the two Russian men.

Sergei snarled at the thought of ever calling this man comrade. “The Deterrent would strip us of our minds. Our freedom. It would be a tortured existence.”

“No, no, no. Comrade, it would liberate you. All of you would be spared from this torment.”

The guttural voice in the back of his head sent shivers down his spine.

‘You’re using my cores for this.’

Sergei found himself tuning out the conversation it was hard to know which of the three was talking to him. They all looked the same. Then it dawned on them, their outfits weren’t covert uniforms. Instead, they were a rubbery-looking projection of the symbiote deep within them. This amorphous shell looked nothing like the monsters he had encountered already.

Sergei’s eyes shifted black and he raised his weapon, he let loose a couple of shots into the unprepared Orcus guard. That sent him sprawling to the ground.

“Sergei! Snap out of -” Chernov gargled as an elongated psion blade pierced his back and came out through his chest.

“All good things come to rest.”

“Once you have Lazarus, what then?” Sergei asked dryly.

“The World,” the man said his blade dissipated and he stepped back. Chernov hit the ground and Sergei shook his head in dismay.

“I won’t do your dirty work.”

A force unlike any other forced him down to his knees.

“You don’t understand there’s an alien ship coming. We’re all going to die!”

The strange force lifted long enough to let Sergei stand as the three black-suited men spoke to each other. The one responsible for Chernov’s murder looked back his way and smiled. “Perfect. When the time comes, we’ll take that ship too.”

A voice came over the radio attached to the dead Orcus guard. “Sergeant Becker, do you read me? The penitentiary just experienced a massive power fluctuation. All power is being rerouted to Helios. Do you hear me? I need a response.” Static made it hard to follow what he said next. “That power redirect just released a whole lot of hell. Listen, forget saving this place. Get off this rock, before they get you too.” The next sound was heavy gunfire followed by a long drawn-out death scream before it cut out for good.

“Lazarus is bunkering down in Helios and letting everyone suffer because of it,” Sergei said.

“Then we are aligned,” said the leader of the group. “Time to finish what you helped us start, Sergei.”