Terrahawks- And I Must Scream
"This is the Commercial Refinery Vessel Arrow. Whoever is receiving this, please respond. Something terrible has happened on this ship. This is an emergency."
The Spacehawk was one of the most advanced spacecraft known to man. For all its size, it was mostly unmanned. The one-man crew, a Lieutenant Hiro of the Terrahawks, received a distress call.
Somewhere near the Pacific coast of South America, a Dr. "Tiger" Ninestein, commander of the Terrahawks, was informed of the distress call.
"Hiro, you're sure this is worth it?" Ninestein asked.
"Doctor Ninestein, the Arrow is an important component of the entire space mining industry. If the ship is offline, the industry is bound to collapse." Hiro answered.
6 hours later-
The entire Terrahawks crew was assembled on board Spacehawk.
3 days later-
Spacehawk arrived at the Commercial Mining Vessel Arrow, which was a large mineral refinery. Ninestein began to brief the others.
"The ship's ventilation system is very expansive- if you need to get around, you can crawl through the air ducts. Treehawk will dock on the exterior hull, and we'll proceed to EVA into the main ship. Any questions?" Ninestein explained.
Captain Kate Kestrel raised her hand.
"Tiger, what sort of emergency could it be?" She asked.
"Kate, I'm assuming that it's basically an electronics malfunction that the ship's technicians weren't able to fix." Ninestein answered.
3 hours later-
The Treehawk, a SSTO shuttle used by the Terrahawks, left its docking bay in Spacehawk. For the flight to the Arrow, the shuttle's computers took over. However, the computers brought the ship to Section 3 of the Arrow.
Some time after landing, the 4 spacesuited Terrahawks and a squad of Zeroids were inside the Arrow.
"Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder where you are..."- Audio log
Team 1:
The first team, consisting of Sergeant-Major Zero and Space Sergeant 101 (two of the Zeroids), began to investigate.
"Zero, what's your 10-20?" Ninestein radioed.
"Section 1, sah." Zero replied.
"Report back every half-hour to 90 minutes." Ninestein ordered.
"Yes, sah." Zero replied.
The two spherical robots began to investigate Section 1.
Team 2:
Kate Kestrel and Lieutenant Hawkeye were already investigating the Engineering department.
"It appears that someone made quite the mess." Kate announced.
"Kate, how's Engineering?" Ninestein radioed.
"Tiger, it would take months just to get the electronics back online." Kate radioed back.
Hawkeye found one of the crew's audio logs and played it:
"This is Warrant Officer Brennan. That...thing...it's feeding on...blood...Tennenbaum and Lambert are in one of the shuttles...it must be getting around using the air ducts...here it comes!"
"I heard that audio log, Hawkeye." Ninestein radioed.
"What are we dealing with here?" Kate asked.
"I don't know- so expect the unexpected." Ninestein replied.
Team 3:
Doctor Ninestein and Captain Mary Falconer were investigating the sickbay. On a bloodied operating table, Ninestein found an audio log and played it:
"This is Doctor Scott Kane. The crew is being killed off one by one. Cause of death appears to be a combination of dehydration, blood loss, and anemia. It appears that whatever is doing this is draining the victims of electrolytes, hemoglobin, and blood- namely blood plasma."
"Warrant Officer Brennan's last log revealed that something was killing the crew." Mary piped up.
"I have a theory." Ninestein replied.
Team 1:
"Sah, there's something interesting in Section 1." Zero radioed.
"What is it, Zero?" Ninestein replied.
"The doors are welded shut, sah." Zero answered.
"101, anything to report?" Ninestein radioed.
"Nothing, Doctor Ninestein." 101 replied.
Team 2:
"Navigational computers are fried. We've got one operational, but it's all we've got." Hawkeye radioed.
"That's not all- ship's main comms are offline." Kate replied.
"Kate, Hawkeye- I need you to deploy Zeroids 55, 18, 21, 42, and 13 from Treehawk. Use the remote control system." Ninestein ordered.
"10-10, Tiger." Kate replied.
Team 3:
"What happened here?" Ninestein asked.
"A fight." Mary answered.
Mary picked up an audio log and played it:
"This is Captain Seth Crenshaw, Commercial Mining Vessel Arrow. CSC isn't answering our transmissions. My men are trapped like rats in this ship...and that monster...is stalking us. It's smart- it's destroyed our electronics- we've got only one computer capable of navigation that wasn't smashed- external comms are gone- the ship's losing power- it's found me! Die, you brute-"
"Crenshaw must have died here." Ninestein announced.
"What gives you that opinion?" Mary asked.
Ninestein pointed at a desicated corpse that was pinned to the wall with a metal girder.
"That's Crenshaw." Ninestein stated.
Mary looked at the body, turned off her radio, and screamed.
END OF CHAPTER 1
Terrahawks is property of Southern Star. If this sounds quite a bit like Dead Space, it's because the game's plot was a major influence on the story.