Chapter 7
The initial survey of the wreck had been...gruesome. By the time they arrived, most of the corpses had either deteriorated completely, been eaten, or were so horribly bloated that only DNA evidence gave any proof of who they had been.
Parker shook his head as they dragged one of the corpses on deck, each of the men dressed in full Hazmat clothing. Everyone not involved in the transport of the bodies was watching from behind the glass of the bridge, sealed carefully with the latest in biohazard proof doors. The white-clad men and women worked quickly to get the body below deck, trying to avoid causing its condition worsening, while simultaneously avoiding getting pathogens on deck. It was only a few minutes before the swollen husk disappeared below the ship to be examined and, after proper channels, autopsied.
"How many people were aboard that ship?"
"Records for its passenger list are flimsy, and we suspect that it was a mercenary vessel, but there were a few dozen at least. So far, we haven't found any survivors."
"Let me guess, we're not expecting any are we?" Parker asked glumly. All day they'd yet to see a sign of any living thing in the sprawling wreckage. He knew the probabilities of survival at sea. It had already been a few days, so it was unlikely that anyone would have survived. By the signs of it, whatever had destroyed the ship had been thorough. That fact did not sit well with him. B.O.W.'s were not thorough, they were messy, chaotic. With each passing minute he became increasingly convinced that this was the work of people.
"I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault," Parker dismissed. The woman waited a moment longer before nodding and taking her leave. He didn't spare another glance as she walked away.
Looking around, he took in the reactions of the crew. Despite the air of professionalism, he could sense the uneasiness all around. At first, he thought that it would be another standard mission for them, despite the need of his advice, but he quickly realized it was beyond the scope of their standard missions. None of them had seen this level of carnage and death before. If he was to be fair, he hadn't either. Back on the Zenobia, everyone had already been turned or consumed. Add on to that the adrenaline fueled tunnel vision, and one had a recipe for blissful ignorance.
Deciding to talk a walk, he headed down the stairs to the equipment room, uneasily rolling his shoulders. He didn't like the waiting, the looming threat of some unearthed secret. He wanted to get out there and help, not hide in the ship. And it seemed he wasn't the only one.
The others on the expedition team were already there as well, sitting around in thought. He had been introduced to them briefly, but they had all been distracted by the mission ahead.
"Parker, right?"
"Yeah. You must be Lucia?" Parker looked at the woman who had addressed him. She was a thin woman with an olive complexion and dark hair. Recalling the personnel files he'd been issued, she would be the leader of their little group. She'd worked as one of TerraSave's security force members. They weren't quite as experienced as the BSAA, since they mainly deployed to non-combat zones, but he had to admit that they were far better field medics than most of the BSAA.
"That would be me. It's a pleasure to work with you sir. We all respect the BSAA here for doing the job so we don't have to." Parker nodded. No one wanted to be the one to face the undead directly, since every wound was a potential infection, and many of the most basic kinds were stronger than the average human by a decent measure.
"And yet here you are. I appreciate the fact that you're all willing to go down there with me. So who are our brave volunteers?"
"All present are from my squad. Firstly, there's Jonah. Been with the squad since formation." Lucia waved towards a middle-aged man with reddish hair. Parker noticed that despite his age, he was still fairly fit. Probably from the army.
"We've also got Jackie. She's our team's rookie. Came from Terra Save's medical corp, but wanted to do some of the front-line defense." The girl in question was the youngest of the group by far. Her natural hair was brown, but she Parker could see lightened streaks in her hair that spoke of some bleaching in her past. She stood, slightly cocked, trying to relax, but Parker could see her tension.
"Pleased to meet you sir. I hear you've been on the ship before? What can we expect?"
"Last time I was on it, the whole thing was still floating, so it's a bit different now. But it had a lot of long corridors between the larger areas."
"That's where our last member comes in. Frank's a sharpshooter. He'll be good in those larger rooms."
"Happy to be working with you," the man said cheerfully. Parker raised an eyebrow in surprise at his attitude. Most sharpshooters he'd met tended to be sullen folk who had an ego the size of the moon. Looking again, he noticed there were still more unusual things about him. The man was unusually heavy-set for a sharpshooter, but very bulky. Parker internally wondered with a smile if he could beat the man in an arm-wrestle.
"Have any of you done aquatic missions before?" Parker inquired, turning to Lucia. The officer shook her head.
"This will be the first one. The T-Abyss is relatively new, so we haven't had a lot of field experience with it. However, just after the Queen Zenobia went down, Terra Save began training its squads for possible aquatic missions. We've only been in the simulations for it, and only a few times."
"I presume you understand that we don't have a lot of firepower down there at the minimum?"
"Of course sir. Everyone here understands this. We'll be relying on stealth, just like in the mission objective."
"Good. Now remember, it's not worth risking anyone to achieve the objective. Things get too hot, we get out of there, got it?" Everyone assembled affirmed, looking a little less stressed. A crackle interrupted the moment, and a voice came over the speakers.
"Insertion squad, please report to deck."
"You heard them, let's head up!" Lucia commanded, and the team began rushing up the stairs. She turned to Parker. "After you sir."
Parker nodded his head as they went back upstairs. Instantly, he noticed one of the medical personnel, out of their suit, among the crew. He wore a worried expression that spoke of trouble. "What's the situation?"
"We just finished our preliminary inspection of the corpses, and there's some things that cropped up. Firstly, they were mercenaries, just as our intel suggested. We were able to retrieve some identification from them. More importantly though we noticed that some of their wounds were a little inconsistent with the idea that the ship just exploded. More than a few of the bodies displayed bullet holes, some done after being waterlogged."
"This sounds more like a terrorist attack than an accident. Whoever got off the ship must have been involved in the killing of the crew," Lucia surmised.
"You mean the ship spotted near Europe?" Parker asked, starting to get the picture.
"One and the same. It's the last surviving piece of the vessel, and considering we haven't heard from any survivors, we can only assume it was the aggressors. We've got a division trying to find them. It won't be long before they're found. It does mean that we've got one more objective en route though."
"That being?"
"Finding the black box. If there's even a remote chance that it can give us some answers, we have to take it. It shouldn't be too hard to find it given the equipment we have access to."
"Anything else we should know about before going down there?" Parker asked the medical examiner.
"Just be cautious. We're unsure what would be down there, but some of the bodies have been eaten by Oozes, so you can expect a few of them down there. After your expedition, we're going to blow the place up with a series of depth charges to try and get rid of as many of the things as we can."
"Alright then. We'll try to make this quick then. I want to be back in time for dinner."
By the time they'd closed in on the black box's position, they'd already encountered a few bad signs. They'd found some submerged oxygen tanks, only partially used. The particular brand suggested they were for long term usage, which only bode poorly when there proved to be quite a lot of oxygen left in them.
When they got to the ship itself, all of them felt the thick, uneasy air of the wreckage. Perhaps it was the pressure, but it felt like something was pressing down on them. Having to look around with their headlamps made them easy targets.
Parker glanced to the left, where Jonah was using a tracker to lead them towards the black box. Other than the occasional hand gesture to guide and correct their course, there was barely any break in the monotony. Parker could almost hear the breath of relief as he motioned for them to stop, inspecting the murk on the hull. Scraping it aside, he picked up the small box, inspecting it for damage.
"Seems operational. Jackie, give me the float."
"Here you are sir." Jackie handed him a small device that resembled a cage with a tightly wrapped package on the side. Jonah took the object and put the black box inside, sealing it tightly. With a tug, he pulled a string on the side, causing the package to burst forth, inflating into a set of balloons. The float quickly zipped up out of sight, a small, red flashing light being the last sight as it beamed its coordinates out to a receiver.
"Alright. That's one taken care of. Now we just recon the sight, and assess the damage."
"We should start in the bottom. That's where the lab was. If there's any active pathogen, that's where it'd be."
"Good point. Lead the way Mr. Luciani." Parker nodded, motioning for them to move laterally towards the edge of the ship. Lucia quickly swam up beside him, assisting the point position.
Parker could hear Jackie gasp in fear as they reached the edge of the ship. He did have to admit it was slightly terrifying, despite the depth they'd already dealt with. Looking down, the side of the ship extending off into the gloom. Somehow, being on the edge and having a point by which to judge the depth seemed infinitely worse, like staring into an abyss.
Summoning his courage, Parker began the descent. "Frank, keep an eye to the waters. We're in the open here. Steer clear of windows."
The light switching direction above him told him that his order had been heard, and he lead the group down into the darkness. It was a few minutes before they reached the bottom, where the ship met the plateau. Orienting himself, Parker motioned off to the left. "The Malacoda took the front off the ship when it attacked. We should be able to enter through there."
Parker started leading when Jackie piped up. "Sir, how do we kill these things? Are they like zombies?"
"Pretty much. Shoot them in the head and all. There are some that have claws or launchers, so be careful if you see them. As for the Malacoda...well, let's hope we don't fight one. It took a helicopter to fight that thing, so we should run if we see one. Alright folks, hold up. We're approaching the insertion point."
Just at the edge of his vision he could see the fraying of the impact point. Approaching cautiously, he swung around the corner, ready to fire. Spotting a couple of Oozes, he plugged a couple of shots in each of their heads. He waved quickly for the others to follow behind him as he swam forward. "Damn. Keep an eye out. We might be swarmed soon."
"What makes you say that? These rifles are silenced and I can't see anything," Frank opined as the group moved into the shadow of the ship's wreck.
"There's still a lot we don't know about the T-Abyss virus. We haven't had enough samples beyond the vaccine in Jill's blood to compare it to. We know that it came from an Abyssal fish, but that still leaves a lot of unknowns. For all we know, they could smell blood, feel the vibrations in the water, or even sense our electrical impulses."
"We should collect some then!" Jackie spoke up, turning around.
"What are you doing? We're not going in the open!"
"But these sample could be the difference in hundreds of cases. Just think about it!"
Parker gripped his gun tightly, finally motioning for her to proceed begrudgingly. He hated the idea of being the grim one, but he didn't want to lose anyone unnecessarily. Jackie nodded, swimming out, escorted by the others. "Don't worry, we'll be quick."
Jackie was right. She reached the body swiftly, and already had several needles in the body. With a quick motion, she also severed a section of the creature's flesh, slipping it into a sealed container. Within a few short minutes, she was back at beside him, equipped with the samples.
"Glad to see it worked out. Float them up and let's push on. The less weight, the better."
"Alright sir. Just give me a sec and...there we go." Another float on its way to the surface, its red light spiralling up into the darkness. Parker couldn't help but feel that he wished he could head up with it. He also knew that everyone else was thinking the same thing, so he once again took it upon himself to be the leader and charge forth.
"We're closing in on the lab. It should be just down the hall." Soon enough the wooden walls gave way to steel ones, and he could see the telltale signs of the kind of maniacal science he'd come to resent everywhere. He was about to tell everyone to keep their guards up when his eyes fell upon a horrifying sight.
Lying about the central lab were chunks of flesh, cleanly sliced and perfectly uniform. Even in pieces, he could recognize the shape anywhere. The Malacoda.
"Jesus...Santo cazzo Madre di Cristo1!"
"Parker what's…!" Everyone fell silent as they witnessed the sight before them. "Is that..?"
"A dead Malacoda. And not the one we killed. Someone killed it."
Parker took a breath of air as the team breached the surface. It had been hell to sweep the ship, but they had managed to ascertain that there was no samples of pure T-Abyss to be found anywhere.
The dead Malacoda still weighed on his mind. They had confirmed that the security system had killed it, but it also turned out that the security could only be manually activated. All signs pointed to someone familiar with the ship, or something like it. Even more concerning, there were no corpses along the path of the Malacoda's trail, which suggested that there was no loses in the conflict. Someone had actually managed to take out the Malacoda without dying.
Parker, not to say the team, were ready to get back onboard. The sweep had tired them all out, and they had been silent for the last portion of it, aside from when they finished and headed up. As they approached the ship, Parker could see several men and women of the crew waiting impatiently. One of them pointed to where he and the rest of the team were.
"Something's happened," Parker explained without prompting, picking up his pace. He could hear the paddling of the rest of the team behind him. By the time they approached, the crew had already thrown over ropes. Pumping with adrenaline, Parker climbed even as the crew strained to pull him out, reaching the deck before the others. Without him even asking, the crew pointed him upstairs.
"What happened?" he demanded, practically bursting through the door. The operation head turned, beckoning him to the window before pointing off to the side of the ship opposite from where they boarded.
"See for yourself." Parker leaned towards the glass, eyes narrowing as he saw a ship being brought back towards the main vessel. It was one of their side ships.
"Why was it deployed?"
"We didn't deploy it. While we were monitoring the mission, a few of the crew boarded it, and took it out on the water. They managed to get to the black box before we could stop them. We tried to recover the files, but everything was deleted. Even worse, we picked up a signal blip, so we think they managed to get a message out but we weren't fast enough to stop it. We did track it though, and it was received somewhere in the Baltics."
"Did they get the samples?" Parker inquisited, grabbing the man by his shoulders. The man shook his head.
"No. They were already engaged in a firefight with us when the samples surfaced. They didn't have the chance to go after them before they were eliminated."
Parker heaved a sigh of relief, seating himself heavily in a chair as the others followed. The head caught them up while Parker caught his breath. "Do we know who did it?"
"No idea, but we think that the ship that we were tracking must be somewhere in the Baltics."
"Why would they wipe the data though? What could be on there?"
"We're in the dark on that too, but for now, we have orders to head over towards the Baltics. We'll drop the samples in at one of our European facilities for processing before taking you there. You all should get some rest; you did good work down there, despite the setback."
Parker nodded, turning to leave the cabin. The others seemed to want to say something, but none of them spoke as he left, heading to his cabin. By the time he had changed and collapsed on the bed, he was bone tired. It didn't take long for him to fall asleep, worrying until the point of unconsciousness about what they could be up against.
Click.
"We retrieved the data in the black box, and are sending it attached to this message. By the time this message finishes, Phase One will have already started. Once our informant has received confirmation of the B.O.W.'s presence, you will receive confirmation to proceed to Phase Two."
Click.
The message stopped and Raymond sighed as he leaned back in his chair, replaying the black box message again. He'd already analyzed the messages backwards and forwards several times while waiting for the confirmation. It would be any moment now…
A part of him almost wished that Rachael was on the ship, so that he wouldn't have to take care of her himself, but mostly he wanted to end her. He glanced over at the pilot, who was awaiting his orders. The man was completely masked and anonymous; perfect for the mission they would be attempting.
The file still lay at his side, emblazoned with red warnings and instructions. He knew his task by heart already:
Locate the attackers and the B.O.W. Eliminate resistance and bring back the body of the B.O.W. Do not risk live transport.
A new blip popped up on Raymond's computer, marking a new message. Impatiently, he read the text with a growing smile. He turned to the pilot, his voice commandeering. "Pilot. Site 2."
The man nodded, taking off with practiced ease, turning eastwards. Raymond closed his laptop, setting it to the side atop the file. Picking up his gun, he took aim, testing his reflexes. The mission report of the events inside the Zenobia were quite interesting. Particularly the last bit.
Target not aboard. Head to Site 2.
1: "Holy shit, mother of Christ!"
