Today sucks. Why did I have to get the perimeter security at 0000. There are hardly any attacks on Demeter Station. I think the last pirate attack was two months ago by a small orc raiding party, and they were blown out of the sky by the station’s ADR (asteroid defense railgun). It took out the rogue shuttle as they tried to leave after stealing a small weapons shipment that was going to the frontier. My guess was they were planning on selling it at higher cost after stealing the shipment. But we had enough defense to stop the ship and recover the cargo.
The station is on the forefront of frontier space and is used as a hub between the frontier and the home systems of many species. But commerce in the frontier was slow as it was still unexplored and most were scientific research vessels or the rogue explorer hoping to strike it rich finding a asteroid full of rare metals. But recently a lot of ships have been coming back to the core systems. Seems like the initial planets were not profitable enough for a full on colonization operation and they had given up as they were turning a large loss on the exploration of the region.. But recently the people seem a bit off and are leaving just as quick as they arrive. Well as long as they don’t cause too much trouble it’s just more business for the station which is never a bad thing.
“Hey Teage can you check on docking bay 1 . There was a transport shuttle that had a communication malfunction so I need you to check the crew before we let them on board. They’ll be docking at cargo bay 1”
“Roger that George”
Another broken communication system this had to be the third one this month. Most happened from stray debris hitting ship’s communications array, but sometimes raiders would purposely pretend their communications didn’t work and stormed a station when they docked because of this I have to go to the barracks and suit up.
Arriving at the armory I opened my locker and equipped my helmet and shield system. Shield cores were expensive so we only used them on mission of high threat. But with recent activity George has allowed for shield use during communication malfunction checks. Then I grabbed my handy A48 assault rifle. I then used a vial of blood on some spirit paper to summon my spirit partner ‘Boulder’. It was an earth elemental the shape of a medium sized dog. I’m not a very good summoner as most can create a full sized golem about ten feet tall. After getting geared up and finishing the summon I made my way to cargo bay 1.
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“George do you know what type of vessel this is?”
I wanted to know more about what to expect at the cargo bay before I got there ‘know your enemy’ as they say.
“It appears to be a medium sized science vessel with a crew of about 50 based on life signs.”
I approached the cargo bay door and pressed the open button saying. “At the cargo bay now commencing crew inspection.” What came out of the bay doors was not what I expected. It looked like an orc but it had tendrils coming from its back. It stared at me for only one second before it charged towards me. I’m dumbfounded by what I see and back away not knowing what to do. Boulder jumps in its way and creates a solid rock wall that stops the beast at the doorway. I grab my rifle and aim it at the makeshift wall turning the safety off as I back away.
“George send bots 1-6 to my location. Ship contains some unknown hostile life forms.” “What kind of hostiles?” “It looked like an orc but had tendrils coming from its back, and acted hostile.” “Backup should be there in one minute I’ll wake up the reserves.”
Then with a loud smash the orc bursts through Boulder’s hastily created barricade. I then unleashed a steady stream of bullets into its chest shredding the orc’s chest tearing away chunks of flesh until it's chest burst apart like something exploded from inside its heart. I find this strange as my rifle doesn't shoot explosive rounds and only AP rounds. It falls over from the rifle’s assault while the tendrils on its back squirm like a headless chicken until slowly stops moving.
“Boulder check if it's dead.” I wasn’t sure what it was but it looked dangerous. Boulder nodges the lifeless corpse confirming its death. I return my attention to the bay door and hastily close the blast doors.
“George I took out one of them and closed the blast doors. Send BT down here to help me clear this ship. We need to figure out what happened here and the only way to do that is to clear this ship and see for ourselves.”
“Copy that he is headed to your position and I’ll have the sentry bots quarantine the docking bay and divert traffic from the bay.” I then see the six sentry bots George had sent over to help me start erecting a walled off quarantine zone around the docking bay. Hopefully this is just a freak accident, but I have a feeling this only the start of something more.