(A/N) - Up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, its an early upload! Yep, I'm early this week, mainly because I can't trust my stupid memory to remind me to upload tomorrow. At least this way, I'll know its out there. So, this is a longer chapter and its packed. Hope you enjoy it! We're down to the last three. How will it end?! Horror, blood, guts! Maybe, I don't know...

Chapter Seven

Engineering deck

Shockpoint drive

Situated below the processing sub deck, the shockpoint drive connected directly to the engine room. Though shockpoint technology had progressed considerably in the last 200 years, drives on larger ships still consumed vast cavernous space and needed non-stop attention. The housing itself was large and broad nearing ten metres in length and four meters in width. However, the Dauntless' drive was dated having not been updated in nearly 17 years, meaning it was in desperate need of a refit. It often needed hours upon hours to recharge and it didn't help that the navigation system was shot. It sometimes dropped the Dauntless planets away from its destination or even in a different system. Jason eyed the drive with a sense of trepidation, accompanied by two other engineers. He'd switched into his large, bulky engineering RIG, a dark brown in colour with pressure seals and various pieces of armour. Despite the bulk, the RIG's weight was barely noticeable, and Jason could move freely. Jason, along with his other engineers, had been working to overcharge the drive for an hour or so. It had been a losing battle of watching the readout lead into the red zone and staying there for the last few minutes. Jason had one last trick to play and it probably wouldn't work. He lofted a large cylinder, roughly one metre in length and slogged towards the drive. He pressed a few panels and counted down before setting the cylinder inside the drive housing and backed away. The cylinder hissed and began to leak blue energy onto the drive, causing a slight burst of steam to emit. Jason was sure that wasn't supposed to happen and that the drive had only one jump left but such was the situation he had to work with. He reactivated his kinesis module pulled the drive's housing core shut and sighed in relief. In theory, stasis could be used to cool down an object as well as slowing it down. Jason was hoping it could keep the drive in the amber for the entirety of the 26-hour jump.

One of Jason's engineers, Hardy, whistled in awe. "Using a stasis core to keep the core cool for the overcharge? That's a bit ingenious boss."

Jason smirked. "Yeah, well it was only a theory when I came across it in college. And by theory, I'm pretty sure my instructor was half drunk half high. Let's just hope it works long enough to get us home." He grunted softly and dropped to his knee wearily; he'd had a headache for an hour or so now and it was only growing worse. "Give me some readings."

The other engineer, Irons, spoke in a loud deep voice, commanding attention. "Readings are creeping back into orange levels and normalising. Don't know how long it'll hold but its working boss."

Jason fell back slightly, taking his helmet off and sighing wearily. He consulted his own RIG interface and inspected the readings. "Let's just hope it hold for the final jump. Although that may be the least of our problems, the damned stress fractures may tear the ship apart."

Hardy disengaged his helmet revealing a brutal face full of scars, a pronounced nose that had been broke repeatedly, long black hair and hazel coloured eyes. "Oh, shit, I forgot about those damn fractures. Surprised the last jump didn't break the ship's back."

Irons retracted his helmet and revealed a large scar stretching from his chin down towards his neck. He was bald with dark skin, black eyes and a wide build. "Don't jinx us." He said nervously. "This place makes me feel sick."

Jason glanced at Irons; Irons, like Jason, wasn't a man to put stock in feelings or jinxes and if he was feeling nervous about the operation, something had to be wrong. The entire system felt wrong, as if the tragedy had permanently enshrouded the system. "Look, whatever happens, we're getting back to Rigel VII and I'm buying you all a round of drinks. Otherwise, I'm kicking all your asses back to earth." The men shared a laugh at Jason's statement.

The door suddenly hissed open disrupting the momentary peace of the scene. Richards, another engineer, entered wearing an engineering RIG and brandishing a plasma cutter. He spoke slowly, methodically.

"Hey, boss?" He said, his voice timid.

Mason glanced over, raised an eyebrow and spoke up. "Well, spit it out Richards I haven't got all day."

Richards's helmet disengaged and folded away into the spinal compartment. He was sweating profusely; his eyes were bloodshot and his bottom lip quivered. He spoke again. "Make us whole."

In a swift motion, he opened fire with the plasma cutter and fired at irons. A single bolt of plasma ripped through Irons' right knee, shearing the leg in half. Irons collapsed to the ground, screaming in pain, a horrific sight for a man of his normal stoicism. Hardy was frozen in fear, jaw dropped and unable to react. Richards quickly opened on fire on him, a single shot lancing through his chest, leaving a gaping hole in his body. He collapsed to the floor, dead instantly, his RIG's biosensors reacting and flatlining. Jason had little time to react; he rushed forward pushing Richards's firing arm up and forcing him to fire a blast into the celling. Jason directed a harsh jab into his stomach and a final right hook which knocked Richards out. Jason panted hard as Richards fell to the ground unconscious. He rushed over to Irons and quickly examined but he already knew Irons wasn't going to make it. The RIG's armour had done little to protect Irons from the high intensity plasma burst. Metal had fused into the area above the wound, the heat searing it into his skin. The leg itself was hanging by a single thread of skin with copious amounts of blood pouring from the wounds.

"Shit, Irons, keep breathing. I've got a med pack." Jason said, trying to control his feelings.

"Boss... it hurts, Boss." He managed weakly.

"Dammit, hang on." Jason activated the small med pack and poured the liquid into the wound and watched as it futilely attempted to seal the wound.

"Boss... there's a letter in my bunk. My sis... she's getting married. I promised her I'd have some money to help her pay for it. Whatever we get paid, give it to her okay." He begged, whimpering as he spoke.

"Dammit, Irons, quit that shit, you'll be fine. I'm getting you home." Jason said in anger, realising he was lying.

The gel had done little to stem the blood flow and was generally failing. Irons was bleeding out and medical couldn't get there in time. Jason took Irons' right hand for comfort with Irons giving a pleading face. Jason simply nodded, and Irons finally died, gasping as life left him. Jason couldn't contain his pain; he roared in anger punched the floor. That made three of his miners that had died on his watch in a matter of hours. He was getting angrier and more distraught. He was failing in his duties and something was affecting his crew. He glanced over at Richards' unconscious body, seemingly at peace despite his actions. Jason calmed himself and stood slowly. He shook his head sent a call to med bay.

"Med bay, this is Chief Mason, I've got two bodies for the morgue."

There was uninterrupted static for fifteen seconds, something that never happened since emergency calls were always answered instantly. Suddenly Kate's panicked face appeared, a small gash gracing her forehead. "Jason, oh thank god, I need you now. Please, there's something loose and it's killing people."

Jason frowned in fear and partial anger. "What? What's loose? How many are dead?"

Kate looked around, directing someone off screen to lock a door before replying. "I don't know. Please, we're locked in a storage area. I had to seal us in."

"Okay, listen. I'm on my way. Just be safe." He said reassuringly as he closed the link down and called Alex. "Bro, I need your help; send two security officers to the shockpoint drive and tell them there are two dead miners with the unconscious perp. Meet me at the tram station and bring a contact beam."

Alex didn't blink, he simply nodded and said. "Got it bro, see you there."

Jason took the plasma cutter, a few charges and sprinted out of the shockpoint core.

Medical deck

It hadn't taken much for Arnold Porter to simply slip into the medical deck, inventing a lie about an inspection on behalf of the Captain of the victims. While there, he'd avoided any detection and entered the morgue, finding the corpses of both the crazed engineer and the young woman. His father had told him how to use the fragments, placing them by the near the corpses and watched as the relics began to glow with power. His father had advised him to hide, the holy prophets that would come would not spare him and he still had work to do. Porter had locked himself in an adjacent room and accessed the camera system to witness the divine act. The woman was the first to turn, the artefact's glorious power warping her into a beautiful servant. Her body was moulded into a bat like creature with skin from her chest forming 'wings' and her arms and legs formed into a 'arm' like appendages. Finally, an enlarged proboscis formed, composed of bone and muscle. The creature at first sat still as if waiting and then attached itself to the ceiling. The marker began twisting the murder's body into something different; the skin appeared to grow pale and translucent while the arm bones sharpened into blades. Vestigial arms burst out of the gut and what was once a normal human resembled something out of a nightmare. Again, the creature remained still until the morgue door hissed open revealing an attendant. The bat like creature leapt onto the attendant directing its proboscis into his forehead. The attendants agonised cries only lasted a few seconds before his facial skin was almost peeled off by its own volition and became a similar creature to engineer. The bat creature hurled itself through a vent and proceeded out of the deck while twin creatures streaked out of the room setting upon the nurses and doctors outside. In their wake, they left a bloody trail of bodies and screams. Porter switched through different camera feeds, watching with horrific curiosity and recording the footage, ready to beam it back to earth. The bloody slaughter seemed to die down after a few minutes with fresh corpses littering the deck. Porter opened the door and proceeded to slowly walk out, making sure he was clear as he did so. There were so many bodies, almost all of them gored beyond recognition, that Porter was sceptical of how they could be repurposed. A sudden hand grabbed his foot, putting Porter on edge before he realised it was simply a dying orderly. The man's face had been nearly bisected, but he was still clinging on to life. Porter sneered in disgust as he wrenched his foot away and continued his journey through the crimson deck. Porter spotted a nearby locked storage cabinet and gazed through the fogged windows. He glanced at the lock and quickly deduced it had been locked from the inside. A sudden thump alerted Porter.

Kate Mera had managed to bandage a small gash on her forehead, but her face was pale from fear. She wasn't happy to see Porter. "Porter, what the fuck are you doing here?" She quickly shook her head. "Never mind, I need you to help us. There's something here and it's killing us. I've called Jason and I'm waiting for he to get us out of here. Can you help us out?"

Porter kept calm and played the role of potential rescuer. "The Captain sent me down to explain the recent power outage. Have you any idea what happened?"

Kate shook her head. "No, one of my nurses screamed when an orderly got bisected and I corralled the rest of my staff in this locker." Kate calmed herself again. "Porter, I know you and Jason don't see eye to eye, but I need your help now. I've got some injured and I can't treat them here."

Porter at first said nothing, then a sickeningly horrifying smile spread over his head. "You're going to die, Kate, you, your boyfriend and your staff. After this, all that will be waiting for you is perdition." Porter opened his RIG interface and began to disengage the lock.

Kate instantly realised what he was doing. She thumped the door in anger with her fists and snarled. "Stop, you bastard." She spoke through gritted teeth. "I'll kill you for this!"

Porter's smile grew into a smirk as he rolled his eyes. "Oh please, you insufferable whore."

Porter focused on his work, breaking through Kate's overrides with his own executive clearance. Suddenly, something crashed into him, sending him past the door. Jason delivered two quick blows to Porter's torso and a final heavy right hook to his Jaw. Porter fell to the ground but almost bounced back up, launching a vicious assault. Porter was a deceptively talented hand to hand combatant and easily forced Jason onto his back foot. Jason moved into a boxer's block, doing his best to weave between Porter's blows but he was too slow. Jason was famous for his legendary right hook, but it had been years since he'd had to fight for his life. Porter launched a laser guided jab into Jason's ribs causing Jason to wheeze in pain, but he managed to block a forceful left hook. He fought through the pain and grappled with Porter, landing a solid right knee into Porter's gut. Porter reeled and backed away as Jason took his chance and landed a final hammer right hook to his temple. Porter fell unconscious to the ground as Jason wearily leaned against the wall, winded and nearly exhausted.

He panted heavily before slowing his breathing and addressed his girlfriend. "You... okay?" He said in between gasps.

Kate's jaw dropped. "Me? What about you?!"

Jason dismissed her worry with a flick of his wrist. "Ah, don't worry, I was going easy on him." His false bravado didn't convince Kate who continued to look uneasy. "Let me get you out of there." He ripped the door panel off and quickly hot wired the door, breaking the lock. Kate and her staff quickly filed out, all looking exhausted.

"What's the plan?" She asked, checking her boyfriend's scratches and newly formed bruises.

"Report to ship security, get some information about what the fuck is happening. On the way here, I and Alex got calls from all over the ship. Long story short, people are going batshit insane. We need to leave the system now before this gets worse." Jason finally took a moment to take in the bloody sight. "What the hell happened here?"

She sighed softly, composing herself. "Honestly, I've no idea. One minute everything's fine and then all hell breaks loose. I think it started in the morgue and then broke out into the wards. I lost two thirds of my crew in under five minutes. At that point I grabbed who I could and locked us in here. Some of my staff are injured and I'll need to treat them elsewhere.

Jason eyed them uneasily. "They fit to travel?" Kate nodded in reply which was enough to convince Jason. "Did Mark make it?"

Kate sadly shook her head. "He was one of the first we lost." She paused, glancing down at Porter with disgust. "What are we doing with that asshole?"

Jason shared Kate's look of disgust, filled with anger but realising he had to get answers. "Hell." He said softly as he slung Porter over his shoulder. "I need him. After I get my answers I'll throw him to the wolves."

The walk from the storage room to the deck entrance was slow and fraught with danger. Jason and Kate took the lead with the staff walking closely behind them. Jason reached for Kate's hand and squeezed it softly, reassuring himself as they continued walking. He was still aghast at the sight of copious amounts of blood, but the lack of bodies concerned him. Even Kate had noticed that she couldn't account for the staff she had lost. A sudden noise caught them all off guard, startling Jason and Kate. He craned his neck, facing the source of the sound and sighed with relief as he noticed a nurse had accidentally knocked a table over. He wiped his sweaty forehead and continued forward. Within seconds a blood curdling shriek of fear sent chills down his spine. He spun on his heel and his eyes widened as he saw the same nurse clutching her stomach. She looked up at Jason, almost pleading with him but she already knew she was dead. The entirety of her insides poured out of her stomach and she fell, dead, on the ground. A horrific looking creature stood behind the nurse's body, long blade like appendages coated in crimson. It roared at the group, consumed with abject hatred.

Jason refocused and ordered the crew as he quickly as he could. "RUN!"

The group didn't need to be told twice and followed him to the deck entrance. Jason dropped the rear of the group, knowing Porter was slowing him down but also knowing he was the only one with a weapon. If push came to shove, he'd have to drop Porter and reach for the plasma cutter. He kept running and caught sight of Alex ahead, waiting near the tram.

"Bro, what's happening?" His eyes widened, and his jaw dropped in terror as he saw the monster chasing them. "What the fuck is that?"

Out of the tram, Chief Brandt emerged, wielding his divet pistol and took aim at the creature. Without stopping, he plugged the creature with three shots, each impacting the monster's torso. The creature ran right through the laser cut lead bullets, charging Brandt down. Brandt fired again, this time emptying his clip into the creature, but the monster didn't stop.

"What the fuck is that thing?" He screamed, scrambling to reload his pistol.

In a flash, Alex barged Brandt out of the way and used his contact beam to block a strike from the creature. Alex landed a hard kick into the creature midsection sending it back a few feet. He wrestled control of his contact beam, charged the weapon up and got a shot away. A concentrated ball of energy completely liquified the creature, leaving a cavernous hole in its midsection. Alex and Brandt panted as they both regained their composure.

Alex regained a small smile and hefted his contact beam up. "See Brandt, not just a mining tool."

Jason hurried the survivors to the tram and addressed Brandt. "Did Alex call you?"

Brandt shook off his shell shock and calmly reloaded his pistol. "Yeah, told me to get here as quickly as possible." He bent down to examine the remains of the monster and whistled softly. "Good job I came."

"Yeah, because that pistol did the trick." Alex muttered sarcastically.

"Screw off, whatever that thing was, it wasn't human." He said defensively. "This thing normally stops a target with one shot to the centre mass."

"No one's doubting that gun," Jason said casting a sideways glance to Alex. "But that thing took an entire clip and still didn't go down." He moved closer to the corpse. "What the fuck is this thing anyway? Some kind of alien?"

Alex shook his head as he looked the corpse over. "Nah, it's human or at least it used to be." He gestured toward the creature. "See, it's basically one of us with the shoulder blades reformed into spear like appendages. I also think some of its organs have been rearranged or even shut down. Makes it tougher to put down." Jason looked at Alex incredulously. "What? I read a lot More's the point, I think it's dead."

"Yeah we gathered that." Brandt replied sarcastically.

"No, not like that, I mean I think the body was dead before it was morphed into this thing. Maybe that's why it was so hard to put down."

Jason shook his head. "Whatever's the case, we can't take on more of them. We need to get out of here."

Brandt nodded. "Chief's right. We can continue this at ship security and discuss why you've got this prick as well." He said, gesturing at Porter's unconscious body.

Without another word, the trio boarded the tram and left behind the medical wing, still dripping with fresh blood.