Vadir Kor had seldom in the past been given a reason to visit the Archives. As he knew it, the only ones that worked here were the scientists and researchers. The people who spent much of their every waking life here handled the beacon deployment and recovery. In times of real space operation near celestial bodies, they may sometimes lead an away team, but due to the urgency of their current scouting mission, those deployments were few and far between. Still, as he understood, the Dauntless had recorded much on its journey to its now final resting place. The realisation of that hit him as he led the way through dark, empty corridors. This place had been his home for so long that it never once crossed his mind that his circumstances would ever change. Now he trawled the damaged interior, finding only the dead in his path. The crash had likely killed those caught unawares, but how many now carried a Symbiote within them? He had to hurry, get the data and destroy this ship so that what occurred on Lazarus could not be allowed to spread further. Something tells me, though, that we may already be too late to stop what is inevitable.

Not wanting to lead the Welcome Wagon around aimlessly, Vadir halted them all and approached a wall that had a monitor built into it. By accessing it, he could gain an idea of the route they needed to take to reach the Archive Mainframe.

“It should be a short walk to the mainframe provided nothing stands in our way,” said Vadir.

“We already know that’s wishful thinking,” said Captain Miller. “Anyway, lead the way. You know this ship better than us.”

Vadir led them onward and when they next rounded a corner, the amount of growth that had consumed this section stopped him dead. The dark, pulsating biomass had punched through the vents and begun spilling out.

“The AI said Hydroponics had fallen to these monsters. We’re pretty close to it. That’s probably where most of this stuff is coming from.”

“Then let’s not waste any more time,” said Mason. “I can only hope these Mortes haven’t begun trying to leave the ship.”

“They’ll be stopped by the guard posts,” said Gregory.

“Not if the Mortes discover the ship’s turrets are operational.”

Vadir knew the fellow technician was right. If even some of the ship’s weapons still worked, it would take very little effort for them to punch a hole big enough for the Mortalis to flood it. “Remember, if you feel anything prodding at your mind, do not answer it, or let it in.”

“Aye,” they all said in unison as Vadir led them across the squelching biomass of mutated dead cells.

“Maria!” cried Gregory, pushing to the front. Vadir tried to grab him but he was met with an elbow to the chest.

Captain Miller swore, “Get after him. It’s inside his head somehow.”

The corridor led them to a large open room with what looked like research and computer stations dotted on either side. At the very end of this room was a massive chunk of biomass. And Gregory had begun grabbing it, still begging for Maria to come with him. The man’s expression became one of pain as the biomass shifted revealing some kind of large arm and hand. In no time at all it had Gregory by the throat and slammed him into the ground. The faceless drone then looked up and from one of its three-pronged claws, it generated a ball of energy that it tossed at the newcomers. They all made for cover and opened fire on the monstrosity. If they didn’t know where we were before they do now.

Vadir joined the fire aiming for the weak points in the joints. This appeared to work as one of the arms dislodged and landed on the floor. The creature bellowed both verbally and mentally. Enough to make Vadir shudder. He looked over at Miller. “Captain, we’re about to have some company.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

A vent cover on the right side of the room exploded and a fully formed black exoskinned Deterrent emerged. Its right arm had already appeared to morph into a bioblaster-type weapon. Jackson, the only one who had remained standing focused his heavy rifle’s fire on the creature’s centre even as it phased in and out of existence and was soon on him. While he handled the Deterrent, ventilation covers above them broke and more Mortans dropped in.

“Mason, Munroe keep suppressing the big fucker. Vadir, help me take our new friend down too.”

Vadir needed only a nod at the Captain before he opened fire, this one had yet to fully realise its strength and the first shots left it staggered. Miller bravely or stupidly charged forward and made the most of the creature’s disorientated state. He had drawn a large serrated knife and made sure to plunge into the charred centre left by Vadir. The creature lashed out and its claw caught the Captain’s face causing him to hit the ground. Vadir transferred a large chunk of his psychic energy into his rifle’s spherical aether container and held down the trigger before releasing. The explosion of energy made short work of the damaged creature’s centre. It stumbled back a little before falling backwards to the ground with a smoking hole in its stomach. This allowed a recovering Miller to finish him off by forcibly removing what remained of the smouldering symbiote.

Behind Vadir, Jackson had already dealt with his problem while elsewhere the Morte drone remained suppressed under the precise fire from Munroe and Mason. Soon much of it was left in pieces on the ground. With a bit of calm now surrounding them Miller pointed to Vadir. “Hurry up and get us to the mainframe. Before more show up.”

Vadir didn’t need to be told twice and he left the group onward until they reached a server mainframe. It was easy enough for Vadir to override the lock and despite the impact, the contents of the room remained thankfully in good condition. Vadir led the Welcome Wagon to the back of the room where sat a massive computer that stored all the recorded data that the Kaskari had learned on their travels. Mason, the surviving technician was trying to keep up with his key presses but instead only managed to look confused.

“Since we don’t have much time I’m preparing a bunch of data to be downloaded onto a storage shard. You see how I do it, Mason. Can you keep going down the list?”

“I can’t read it.”

“You don’t need to. Just follow the buttons I’m pressing and it will work out just fine.”

Miller and the other members of the Wagon continued to watch their backs, but Vadir could sense their fear. As he leaned more into the Aether, so too did the group’s emotions reach him.

“What are you doing while I do this?”

“Finding a storage shard, there’s bound to be one in here somewhere,” said Vadir, checking inside the drawers that sat beneath the massive computer station.

It didn’t take too long for him to find what he needed. A long purple-looking shard with a metal end. He stood up and looked back at Miller.

“Need the Captain’s access key to authorise the transfer.”

Miller rummaged inside his pockets and then tossed over the device to Vadir. The first he did though was plug in the purple shard and watched as Mason finished the file transfer. Once done, he plugged into the Captain’s key and an authorisation message appeared then disappeared upon recognising the code. He pressed the button that started a download and a bar appeared on the screen to show its progress. Once done, Vadir removed it and pocketed both the devices.

“Data’s secured,” said Vadir. “That only leaves one thing left for us to do.”

“To send this blasted ship to hell!” spat Captain Miller.

As much as Vadir had fond memories of his time on this ship, the Captain’s current sentiment was one he now sadly shared.