Chapter 6
Union Aerospace Corporation Biological Space Laboratory/ Mars orbit/ 10:53 hours/ 7-23-2059
The thrum and whine of the reactor set in Simone and Jed's ears as they reached the squared hatch with the stencil of a two. Jed pushed the hatch open and stepped over the entry, PDR-2 leveled and ready. With only Simone at his side, he kept his guard up and eyes wider than ever. He knew he had to cover his comrade's back and likewise, relied on Simone to do the same. The both of them searched around, peering over the rail of the landing to the floor of the silo. Overhead, five more levels and landings of platforms and catwalks crisscrossed over the span of the silo. "Where's our route, Advisor?" Jed inquired over the com as he deactivated his gun mounted torch.
"Get to the top level, Reaper," he replied. The two of them moved quickly to the catwalk perpendicular to the platform. Continuing down the catwalk, they made their way to the stairs that led to the next levels of platforms. Finally reaching the top, Adam directed them to a final, wide, short set of stairs. Stenciled on the metal doors was a label reading; MAIN DECK. Jed pressed the button on the panel beside the doors which parted with a smooth electronic sound. He was first in, hands on his carbine and eyes forward. Simone sighed as he looked up the slight climb of stairs in the maintenance access shaft.
"Damn, more stairs." In no time, they climbed the squared spiral to the top of the four-leveled shaft. The clanging of their boots stopped as they reached the landing and approached the door at the far end. "Aint these eggheads ever hear of elevators," Simone remarked after taking a settling breath. Jed stood and waited for a moment. In his mind he had pictured their course like a schematic readout. Beyond this door, he knew, was the Main Deck. He tightened his grip on his PDR-2, knowing that very soon, he would have his hands full with hostiles. Another chunk of time passed, time he didn't want to spare.
"Advisor," he barked gruffly. "Door."
"In a moment," Adam barked back. "You're not the only ones I'm conducting here," he added with an irritated growl. Ten, long seconds transpired and finally, the doors opened. Slightly caught off guard, Simone jolted off to the side, hands snapping back in place on his PDR-2 slung across his chest. Jed's ears caught the distinct rapping clang of clawed feet on the metal floors of the station. He pressed himself up against the wall beside the entry and Simone followed his lead. Slowly the clanging of feet approached the open door. A series of chitters broke through the quiet hum of the station's systems. Jed lowly let his PDR-2 hang on the strap across his chest then with swift, silent hands, slid his knife from the hard-case sheath on his hip. Simone's eyes darted from Jed's gray steel blade to his teammate's hard, determined face. There was no mistaking, the alien had approached the open doorway. After taking a steady breath, Simone gave him a single nod and Jed launched from around the corner. With his bare hand, he grasped the back of the pirate's insect head and drove the serrated blade up and in under the pincer-like mouth. The pirate squealed as Jed twisted the blade and forced the alien to the now blood-dripped floor. The Pirate chittered madly, taking a desperate lunge at Jed with its pincers; deflected by a bat of his arm. Simone moved in the moment the alien was forced down, scanning the hall for any sign of the aliens. Pincers still opening and closing madly in its last seconds, Jed tried to keep them all at bay and ducked and weaved his head but was dealt a nasty cut to his cheek. Blood dripped down his hard, scrunched face as he drove the knife deeper. Finally the echoes of the chittering died out and all that was left was a bloody silence.
"That was a tough mother," Simone said as he glanced over his shoulder.
"Sure had a lot to say," Jed answered through heavy breaths. Looking down at both, fingerless gloved hands, he used the clean one to wipe at his blood from the cut on his cheek. The other, soaked in dark purple oozy blood, was covered by odd, dark clumps the size of watermelon seeds.
"Crap," he remarked under his breath with a curious grimace.
"Let's move," Simone suggested as he advanced forward. On the wall across from them, they found arrows stenciled with labels. Two arrows pointed to their left, directing them to the Habitation Deck and the Operations Deck. Indicated to their right was the Hanger Bay. The two moved left quickly, following Adam's instructions up the stairs through the well-lit halls of the Main Deck. The clean, pristine sanitated halls nearly were white and plain compared to the weathered walls of the Sectors below them. Reaching a door on the top landing, They marched down a straight hallway to the door at the far side. Adam led them through another set of platforms from beyond the door, delving deeper into the Main Deck. Reaching the next door, it opened. Jed and Simone dropped to the floor and scrambled for cover beside the doorway as a stream of acid shot over their heads. Simone leaned from cover, letting off two shots from his PDR-2. Though ineffective, the shots held the pirate at bay. Jed peeked from cover, sighting its fierce red eye with his holographic sight. Squeezing off another two rounds, the pirate jolted just in time and the rounds soared over its head. Another spray of acid launched his way. Jed ducked behind cover with only an inch of clearance. Simone peeked again and let off another pair of rounds. This time, they found their mark and the alien's eye spewed dark purple blood all over the white hall. Continuing onward, Jed and Simone leaped from cover and charged down the hall. Taking a turn here and there, they came to another door which brought them to another room much like the one two doors back. As Jed followed the directions up to a landing and another door to another couple of rooms, he boiled inside. With each empty room he came across, pressure built and the anticipation of the mission's big firefight was amplified and approaching its breaking point. Making their way into the next chamber, Simone looked up to the next landing; a smile growing on his face as he nodded enthusiastically.
"Now that's what I'm talking about," he exclaimed. Jed followed his gaze, finding the arrow labeled, OPERATIONS.
"About damn time," Jed grumbled. Right away, he set up the stairs to reach the landing.
"Hold up there, Reaper," Adam bid. With a roll of his eyes and a growl, Jed paused four steps up.
"What?"
"That's the elevator access," Adam explained.
"No crap," Jed snapped condescendingly. "We already got the hostages, who cares if they know we're coming?"
"Because, Reaper," Adam shot back over the com. "They could shut you down. You get stuck in there and there's no way out," he said then sighed to cool his own temper. "You'll have to take the ventilation duct that runs parallel with the elevator shaft."
"Roger," Simone answered. "Take us to it, Advisor." Moving into just one more room, Jed spotted the vent in the ceiling. Behind them, another bloody corpse oozed on the floor after taking two shots to the cranium. Jed held his PDR-2 up and released the spent magazine with fell with a clatter to the metal floor. From his vest's pouch, he slid a fresh one into the well of the stock housing and pulled back the charging bolt near the front. Stacked off to the side of the room, Simone found crates. He dragged one under the vent in the ceiling and climbed it to reach. Pushing gently against the shutters of the vent, it lifted out of place and he shoved it away inside the duct. Jed reactivated his torch and pointed the beam in Simone's direction.
"Need a boost?" Jed asked. Muffled laughter came from inside the vent.
"I'm actually more concerned about you needing help there, Runt," Simone said cheerily.
"Eff you," Jed growled in a low tone over the com. Half of the way through his first mission with the 863rd, Runt was almost Jed's field name. Sarge quickly corrected the team, calling him 'a mother effing reaper' after Jed managed to storm into a hot zone and clear out an entire flank of pirates pinning the Marines down. His death toll only grew from the day. Jed's first issued PDR-2, lost during only his sixth op, had been covered by tallies scratched in place with his knife as he accounted the mission's score on the flights home back to JOB Edwards. Strangely even to himself, he found himself enjoying it for those first six missions. What did he care, they were just blood thirsty pirates.
"Fireteam Bravo, this is Charlie," Hayes said over the com.
"Go ahead, Charlie," Jed replied.
"We may have a situation. Some of the doctors here are telling me that not everyone is accounted for. We think they could be holding more hostages up on the Ops Deck."
"That ought to make things easier," Simone remarked as he stuck his head out of the duct. Jed sighed with grimly.
"Copy that. Bravo, out. Advisor," he called out over the com. "Got anything to add?" Jed mocked.
"It's most likely the Ops crew up there," Adam suggested. "You're the professional, I'll leave you to it." A smirk edged on Jed's hard expression.
"About damn time," he chuckled under his breath. Simone reached down through the opening, clasping wrists with Jed as he had jumped up from the crate. With his free hand, Jed grasped the edge of the duct and pulled himself up inside with Simone's help. Proceeding onwards, they found it easier to accommodate the cramped duct by crawling low on all fours. At the end of the duct, they crawled through another dark opening. Simone found he could stand up fully but found there still wasn't too much room in the duct. He aimed his PDR-2 up at the ceiling to find what was the source of the dull thrumping over head. The beam illuminated the steady rotating of a large fan. At his side was a set of rungs climbing up to a shaft far up the wall of the duct.
"Duke, vocal silence from here on out. Any noise you guys make, they will hear from the ops deck. Back in the cockpit of the docked dropship, Adam saw Simone's fist brought in front of his carbine's camera. He raised his thumb in acknowledgment. As Simone climbed, Jed scooted low through the opening. He provided him light with his own PDR-2 as Simone climbed halfway up the ladder. Then Jed grasped the rung with one hand and held his compact carbine with the other. Once Simone reached to the top, he shined his light down on Jed. Jed released his own PDR-2 and double timed up the ladder to the passage above. Once at the top, Jed looked forward at the light which peeked inside the air duct. Quietly and in the dark, they inched to the vent. Jed peeked through the wide gaps between the shutters. The Operations Deck was a round room with large, open windows providing a view to the space around them. In the corner of the leftmost window, he saw a corner of the large red planet. Five system terminals were situated around the two-floored deck. A banister was extended from the back of the room with two sets of stairs beside each other anchoring it to the deck floor. On the top level, large, solid doors blocked off the central control room from the rest of the deck The constant flash of the red alert light shined over head of the sealed security doors. Under normal operating situations, the security doors were retracted and the control room was open to the rest of the Operations Deck. The station however was for sure under lockdown and under the control of the pirates. The deck was full of them. At least five total patrolled both the upper and lower levels of the deck. As Jed assessed the pirates' patterns, Simone gazed about for their primary objective. He noticed two aliens paired beside each other and behind them huddled against the wall were nearly five humans. Jed felt Simone nudge his shoulder and turned to find what he was pointing at. The two exchanged nods then knelt down low. In his mind, Jed played out the consequences of their next decisions. They had to do this right, or risk getting the hostages killed.
"Clear shot?" Jed whispered.
"Yep," Simone nodded as he brought the body of his carbine tighter against his cheek.
"Eff it," Jed mumbled under his breath, bringing his leg up in front of him and giving one, hard, solid kick. The vent was forced out of place, and fell to the deck floor nearly twelve feet below. He jumped from the opening and crashed into a roll, recovering in a kneeling position. The entire deck erupted in reaction. Pirates all turned their attention to the commotion. Simone worked fast, sighting one of the two pirates guarding the hostages. Taking his time, he fired one precise shot after another from his perch in the ventilation duct. Jed opened fire on the other guard; his shots just barely missing their mark. Behind the aliens, the hostages all huddled closer and ducked from the gunfire coming to their general direction. With the pirate fazed from the impact of rounds on its exoskeleton, Jed rolled out of the line of fire of the remaining aliens. He found cover behind a rear systems terminal situated off to the right on the lower deck. Finally, Simone's shot hit the soft part of the alien's face. Bleeding, the pirate collapsed on top of the hostages, causing them to shriek in fright of the bloody corpse. Streams of acid shot right at Jed, barely missing as they impacted on the terminal, corroding away the outer casing. Jed peeked from cover, aiming his PDR-2 and firing. The majority of his rushed shots harmlessly impacted the exoskeleton of the alien on the balcony above or the wall behind it. Simone diverted his aim to the second guard and took his time with the kill, sending one round down range to the alien's eye. More blood and shrieks erupted from the left side corner; the hostages were safe.
"Moving," Simone called out.
"Go," Jed replied as he switched his PDR-2's firing mode from semi, to burst. He popped from his cover and laid down, conserved, suppressive fire. Simone leaped from the duct and allowed his body to collapse into a roll to absorb the shock in his legs. Ending up on his stomach, the marine quickly scrambled to his feet and found cover behind a rear systems terminal on the left side of the room. One quick glance to his left confirmed for Jed his teammate's location. With three pirates remaining and holding the upper deck, the marines were pinned but not beaten. "Duke, I'll get the ETF's attention, you take it," Jed barked over the com.
"Copy," Simone replied. Jed took a brief moment then bolted from his cover.
"Moving!" he announced as he sent suppressive bursts down range and ran to the systems terminal in the center. Just as intended, the pirate on the lower level focused its spray of acid on Jed. Simone peeked from his cover and fired a burst, hitting his mark with a bloody result. Jed slid to safety behind the terminal just in time to avoid the splash of acid on the floor from the last two pirates on the upper level. Over the busts of gunfire from both his and Simone's PDR-2s, Jed heard the chitters and shrieks of the pirates above. Both Jed and Simone were forced back into cover as one of the pirates discharged spray after spray after spray of acid. Jed couldn't stand it anymore.
"Moving!" he shouted.
"Go," Simone answered instantly. He sprinted across the room from the center systems terminal to the terminal in front of his teammate. "Reaper, go for the upper deck, I got your six," Simone said over the com.
"Copy. Moving," Jed replied. He stood from his cover with his PDR-2 leveled and eyes looking down the holographic sight. Simone suppressed the pirate on the upper balcony, unaware that the other had descended the stairs on the other side of the room. Jed took steady yet fast steps up the stairs, all the while, peering through the sights of his carbine. A stream of acid soared just past Simone's shoulder. For a brief half of a moment, he sighed in relief but the feeling didn't last long enough. A pained, agonizing scream broke from the midst of the gasps and shrieks from behind him as a doctor was hit by the acid. Ducking into cover, Simone turned his head to find a man wearing a red maintenance jumpsuit , doubled over on his knees, gingerly wrapping his arms around his sizzling, bubbling, burning abdomen.
"Oh, crap," Simone gasped under his breath with a grimace. Jed leveled his PDR-2 at the alien at the foot of the stairs across the room. Within two, trained shots, the alien's eye spurt blood and the pirate dropped. He quickly snapped his aim out in front of him and squeezed the trigger five times to drop the alien on the balcony. The fifth shot struck the eye, throwing back the insect-like head. As Jed reached the top of the stairs, the pirate leaned forward and toppled over the rail of the balcony, falling in a bloody mess to the deck floor below. One brief sweep of the deck then Jed lowered his PDR-2 but kept it in hand.
"Clear," he announced gruffly. Simone stood from cover and turned to kneel beside the men and woman huddled against the wall.
"How bad is he?" he asked nodding to the injured man. Already the one doctor of the group had the man lying on his back with his lab coat blanketed over his torso and a maintenance jacket bundled under his head. The doctor folded the lab coat away from the wound which still sizzled. The material of the man's jumpsuit had melted into his corroded, burned skin tissue. A large, messy, hole had burned on his abdomen. The flesh was seared and eaten away, exposing bone and organs. Right away the doctor made a troubling observation, the man had stopped moving. There was no activity and movement happening inside him, let alone the constant trembling from the pain had ceased. Mortified, the doctor looked up at the man's frozen face; mouth and eyes wide open and cheeks still wet from the tears produced from the agony of flesh slowly melting away. Taking a heavy, grieved breath, Simone looked away. His gaze rested on another man wearing the light gray fatigues of the Security Force, slumped against the wall, splattered in his own blood with a gaping stab wound torn through his stomach; a casualty from before their arrival. Simone got himself together and jumped to his feet, charging up the stairs; the job wasn't done just yet. Jed had already set to work on short circuiting the security doors to the central control room. The face of the control panel had been ripped from the door, hanging in place by a series of exposed wires. Kneeling in front of the panel, Jed was fussing with the wires, cross tying select ones while contemplating under his breath which one to yank free.
"Yellow? White? Blue? Damn it! Where's Mack when you need him," he grumbled.
"Waiting for you to open the frickin elevator, Reaper," Mack replied over the com.
"To hell with this, blue it is," Jed grunted. Gripping the wire he pulled hard, ripping it from its connection to the panel. Sparks erupted from the panel and inside the hollowed out slot in the door. The flashing red light above stopped as the doors opened, stalling every other couple of seconds from the obstruction in power flow. Jed immediately moved to the wall against the doorway and Simone took the other side. With the doors half open, Jed pulled a flash-bang grenade from his pouch and primed it.
"Grenade out," he announced and chucked the device into the room. They waited for the concussive pop and flash of light before turning through the doorway. Both had their PDR-2s leveled and fired a pair of rounds each on the same alien ahead of them. Simone kept cover against the door way while Jed advanced inside. The alien at the control hub was shot down, slumped and bleeding over the controls. Jed turned immediately to the remaining alien; an unnerving sight stayed his trigger-finger. The pirate jerked sporadically, flailing its limbs about and throwing its head wildly. To Jed, it seemed as if the alien was under constant electrocution. It chittered horribly with a maniacal pain in it's voice. In his hesitation, he even took note that the being seemed extremely pale with dull pigmentation compared to its dark brown, glossy shelled comrades. Jed shook away the brief pause and fired, squeezing the trigger once. His shot was annoyingly wild and hit the beings upper shoulder. To Jed's surprise, dark blood spurt from the impact; bits of the exoskeleton crumbling away like the fragile shell of an egg. Again Jed, cleared his head and fired again and again, this time center mass. The alien tried to advance as it took each shot jolting back from the impact, but still persistent. Jed paused, knowing his magazine was running low.
"Cover," he shouted. Simone left the doorway and sidestepped along the wall, laying down cover fire as Jed backed away. Releasing the catch, the spent mag clattered to the floor and he slid a fresh one into the well. The alien stood against the line of fire and shrieked at Simone before charging at him.
"Oh crap!" the Marine exclaimed. With its pincer closed, it swung its arm, slamming Simone in the stomach, off his feet against the wall. Crashing hard on the ground, he rolled away from a heavy stomp to the head.
"Hey!" Jed barked. The alien turned its insect head in a stiff, halting motion. Jed fired off another two rounds, trained for the aliens eye. The impact threw the alien's head back and the pirate fell to the floor. Jed quickly rushed to the fallen alien, carbine still trained and ready. He eyed the pirate suspiciously.
"He down?" Simone groaned as he stood back on his feet with his hand over the lower area of his vest. Jed waited another moment, scanning from head to toe of the fallen hostile before answering.
"Yeah."
"What the hell, man," Simone said. "That was some weird crap."
"It was like it was psychotic or something," Jed suggested with a light kick of his boot to the alien's side. He then lowered his PDR-2, allowing it to hang on it's strap. "Advisor this is Bravo," Jed said into the com. "Ops Deck is secure." A pause filled the link between the two.
"Solid copy," Adam remarked dryly. "In the terminal, input these uplink access codes," he instructed. Jed walked to the central control hub. The actual hub was a crescent of consoles and terminals facing the entire, rounded window that provided a panoramic view of the space in front of the station. Jed set to work on the terminal, following Adam's directions. Simone turned away and descended the stairs, his PDR-2 hanging at his side with his hand over its frame. The other maintenance man was checking on a systems console in the room while the doctor and a scientist sat beside each other against the wall. Simone approached the scientist, clinging her arms around her chest and shaking in shock. The doctor was grieving with his face buried in his hands. Blood stained his blue dress shirt, dark slacks and was dried on his hands. Simone knelt down beside the woman first and placed a hand on her shuddering shoulder.
"Hey, hey, breathe," he said. "Breathe, come on, breathe," Simone repeated slowly and soothingly with his smooth, rich voice. Looking into his eyes, she followed the pace of his breaths. "Come on, Doc," he called to the man beside her. "Help her out." The man was frozen, still buried with grief with his knees brought up against his chest. Desperately, Simone looked across to the maintenance man at the station.
"Yo, help her out," he demanded with a nod in the scientist's direction. Nodding, the man came and approached her, squatting to eye level and copying what Simone had done. With a pat on both their shoulders, Simone stood and walked away from them. "Sarge, this is Duke," he said over the com in a low tone.
"Go, Duke," their NCO replied.
"We had hostages up here on the Ops Deck. Two are KIA and three are scared crapless."
"Copy that," he answered in thought. "Alpha's moving to the hanger any second now and we need you there. Can any of them handle a weapon?"
"Unclear," Simone replied as he glanced over his shoulder back at the hostages.
"Leave them with one and then move to rally at the hanger bay."
"Roger that." Simone cut the transmission and started back to the men and woman up against the wall. He suddenly paused and looked down at the foot of a systems terminal. Discarded on the floor, he found a standard issued M91 Beretta. As he knelt to pick it up, his initial thought was that this was the sidearm of the security officer killed among the hostages. He pressed the release beneath the safety slide and let the single, column clip fall into his hand. Two rounds were missing; most likely spent on the exoskeleton of one of the pirates as they raided the Ops Deck. Expertly, Simone slid the clip back into the well of the handgun and pulled back on the slide. He aimed down the sights at a dead pirate's bleeding corpse and squeezed the trigger. Behind him, the scientist yelped and both the doctor and the maintenance man flinched from the bang of the gun. The M91 functioned properly enough. Simone turned and approached the group. "Anyone here know how to use a gun?" he inquired firmly. The doctor seemed not to hear him and the scientist shook her head rapidly. Simone's eyes darted to the maintenance man standing in front of the woman.
"A little," he answered. Simone ran him through an extra watered down, brief run of the gun's function then gently handed it to him just as Jed descended the stairs.
"Duke, let's move," Jed said. He keyed the coms as he continued to the door across the deck. "This is Bravo, we're moving to rally at the Hanger."
