Author's note: I listed the "cast" with their call signs on a tumblr post since my updates are so few and far between lately I felt like it would be hard to remember who belongs to what call sign– if you want to check it out:
Missingthemuse dot tumblr dot com/post/130638232162/the-greater-share-of-honor-call-signscast-list
While you are there – check out the awesome edits wms5012 did for the story on their FFPSE blog
Ffpse dot tmblr dot com
We get to see Beca, Stacie, Chloe and Aubrey!
And also so sorry for being a space cadet about posting…
Chloe had a love/hate relationship with being on point. She loved the adrenaline rush that came with not knowing what was waiting on the other side, but she hated surprises. This meant that being the first through a door or into a situation gave her the best of both worlds – she got the adrenaline rush that came with risking her life and she got to beat the crap out of whatever surprise was waiting for her on the other side.
This time was no different except for the steady presence of Beca next to her. She glanced at the smaller woman as they waited for the docking clamps to connect. If Beca noticed her staring she gave no sign, staying focused on the handle that would open the hatch for Chloe to go through. Chloe said a silent prayer that she and Beca would get to have that talk.
Aubrey's voice echoed a little, breaking Chloe out of her thoughts, coming over the comms with a slight delay while she stood behind them in the transport. "Okay team, here we go." The sound of weapons being readied echoed in the small space. "Beca, open it."
The inner airlock door opened with the tell-tale pressurized "woosh." After waiting a beat Chloe advanced into the dimly lit hallway. Emergency lighting lined the floor giving the space a sickly yellow glow. As soon as the redhead entered the space, lights started flickering on, illuminating the grungy off-white walls. The automatic lighting gave an eerie feeling of being watched, Chloe paused waiting to see if anything else would happen.
"Motion sensors." Beca supplied in a hushed voice from behind her. The slim brunette glanced at her surroundings feeling like she was in one of the old movies that had been made before space exploration had become commonplace. Shaking her head slightly she cursed Jesse under her breath for making her watch the one about aliens on a freighter. Turning her attention back to Chloe, she waited for the redhead to move.
Nodding to acknowledge Beca's comment, Chloe stepped further in, feet landing firmly on the floor, "Gravity too." She paused a beat and then reported over the comms, "Hallway is clear. Door twenty meters ahead."
"Well at least we have gravity," Donald commented to Aubrey as he trailed after the women into the space. Then he continued, more out of habit than anything else, "Everyone stay on your re-breathers, we can't be certain if there is a biological threat present." The Marines nodded their acknowledgement.
Aubrey was next to speak, "Okay, let's get moving, continue Rider." The blonde woman had moved directly behind Beca and it was all the smaller woman could do not to jump when the blonde placed her hand on the slim brunette's upper arm. She felt Aubrey squeeze her shoulder in reassurance through the thick mesh of her suit. Beca nodded without turning around, waiting a beat for Chloe to get a few steps ahead before following.
The two teams passed several minor hallways that Aubrey and Donald marked to come back to later if they had time. Several rooms turned out to be storage areas, with building supplies still sealed in crates. Benji and Stacie were carrying a special optical camera that used all spectrums of visible and invisible light. The two Marines were busy using them to analyze the contents of the boxes.
The Marines were spread out over one of the storage rooms examining the contents of the crates. Stacie was running her heavy duty scanner to see if there was anything out of the ordinary present but so far they had just found building materials both for colony use and space station use.
"The crates used to have Shinrika stamped on the side, it looks like they removed it on purpose." Aubrey glanced over Stacie's shoulder seeing the ghostly outline of the branding illuminated on the screen. To the naked eye the crate was just a gray box.
"Shinrika? You think they built this?" Donald asked Aubrey.
CR piped up from across the storage area, "They are in the business of building space stations. But theirs don't usually look like they were designed and built by a drunk monkey."
Jessica added, "Shinrika's in the business of everything. My parents work for their fabrication section. They make everything from shoes to pre-fabricated buildings for the colonies."
"But where's the profit in this?" Sophia wondered aloud, "They're usually after prime real estate and build their space stations in the major shipping lanes between the colonies. This isn't even close to another settlement, so what were they out here doing?"
"Let's hold off on jumping to conclusions, like Jackal said, they're in the business of everything, so maybe they just sold this stuff to whomever did build this." Aubrey looked down triggering her suit's computer to project an illuminated schematic on the floor. She pointed to the section where a red dot was blinking in almost the center of the station. "Socks, we have an elevated power signature throughout those sections that is strong enough to cut through the interference."
Donald looked at where Aubrey was pointing, "That definitely didn't show up before."
The blonde Marine followed up, "Take your team and check it out, we are going to head down a few decks. It looks like they may have had a hydroponics bay and living quarters; we are getting increased carbon readings from that area." Chloe shot her a look, obviously unhappy with splitting the teams. Aubrey ignored her and put the lid back on the crate she had been looking through.
Before they could move out Bumper's voice echoed over the comms. "Valkyrie, this is Bumper. You want the good news or bad news?"
Aubrey exchanged a look with Donald before replying, "Bad news first, Bumper."
"We have signs of sabotage down here. Several main systems were damaged. Most of the station is running on a backup system that we triggered by docking apparently. But it looks like they didn't finish the job for whatever reason." Bumper paused while a follow on conversation could be heard in the background. "Wonderful." He said after a moment in reply, "Ghost just informed me that this is in fact an ancient space station. Or at least it started that way. The fuel systems are compromised so we have several major leaks of rocket fuel among other things."
"That's really corrosive." Chloe exclaimed.
Bumper continued, "Yeah, apparently Ghost almost fell through deck plating it had eaten through."
"What's the good news?" Aubrey asked.
"We found engineering logs. Apparently these guys were old school so we have paper logs that cover at least a few years. We're still searching to see if they have digital logs. Denise is going through the most recent paper ones to see if there is anything relevant."
Donald broke in, "When was the last entry?"
Bumper asked someone off mic and then came back, "Looks like fourteen months ago is the most recent we have found. But just boring shit about pressure differentials on the pumps and maintenance routines for the life support systems so far."
"Alright, keep us posted on anything else you find. Be careful in case they left any surprises behind." Aubrey ordered.
"Aww, Valkyrie I am touched you're concerned. We'll be careful – Ghost put that down!" Bumper mumbled something under his breath and then finished, "Bumper out…Ghost I said…" the mic finally clicked off and Chloe bit back a smile.
"Socks be careful, they may have tried to sabotage other areas." Aubrey cautioned before motioning Chloe to move out.
"You too Valkyrie." Donald replied, then shifted his attention to where Beca was waiting by the door. "Nomad, I sent the layout to your HUD, take your time."
Beca nodded her understanding and he moved to take a position next to Stacie, using her eye movement to load the layout onto the screen of her facemask. The 'Heads-Up Display' or HUD, allowed her to access a real time map of the station so she didn't have to look down at a scanner. She could control it with her eye movement. After committing the next few rooms to memory Beca switched it off and waited for Donald to finish handing out assignments.
The slim man continued, motioning to Stacie, "Angel, make sure we are scanning for any and all explosives. I don't want any surprises."
Aubrey was on her way out of a door when she looked back quickly at hearing Stacie's call sign, catching the tall brunette looking at her. Stacie smiled and mouthed, "Be careful" before turning and following Donald out of the room. Aubrey hurried to catch up to her team smiling softly to herself, warmth at the other woman's concern chasing some of the foreboding away.
It became apparent soon after they left the storage areas that the previous occupants of the station had left in a hurry. Furniture was left upended, papers, cups and other belongings were left scattered about. It was eerie, with the lights flickering on and off at their motion adding to a growing sense of unease. Three sections later they found that not everyone had made it out alive. Pushing through a hatch that was only half dogged down Chloe had frozen in surprise just inside the door.
"Rider?" Aubrey enquired a hint of worry in her voice at Chloe's abrupt halt.
Chloe moved inside the room tentatively, waving Aubrey forward, "Looks like something bad happened." Aubrey followed close at her heels and felt her stomach lurch uncomfortably at the carnage inside the small space. A streak of what looked like dried blood went from floor to ceiling with a mutilated body slumped against the wall.
"Arterial spray." Jessica murmured almost absently. Several other bodies lay sprawled across the deck. All of them were mutilated beyond recognition.
The Marines were no stranger to carnage, having a practiced detachment garnered from years of bloody conflict, but even so Chloe felt herself swallowing back bile at the sheer savagery of the attack that had left the remains in pieces. She was grateful that her suit was a closed breathing system so she didn't have to smell the decay. The far doorway was open and hanging almost off of its hinges.
"Jesus, what did that?" Jesse had just stepped into the room behind Benji and both were gaping at the damage to the heavy door.
"Whatever did it could still be around. Weapons hot." Aubrey raised her rifle for emphasis and nodded towards Chloe. The redhead nodded, moving to take a position at the far door without a word. The blonde then turned to Jessica, the light inside her helmet illuminating the slight sheen of sweat on her temple. "Jess, see what the scans say. I want to know what we are dealing with here."
Benji groaned, "This means decon will take forever."
Jess looked back at him and smiled, "Hey look on the bright side, maybe this is the time the radiation mutated bacteria turns us into superheroes." Benji smiled back brightly, eyes lighting up at the possibility.
"Dude, mutant bacteria doesn't usually end well." Jesse held up a hand to head off the argument he saw forming on Benji's lips. "Besides Spiderman okay."
Aubrey turned to look at diagrams on the wall, not really seeing them, but wanting any excuse to look away from the bodies on the floor. She ignored the banter happening around her, concentrating instead on just breathing. She swallowed back the lump forming in her throat at seeing the bodies, or what remained of them on the floor. Her mind kept wanting to flash back to the deep red that covered her hands after carrying Chloe back to the transport. The blonde jumped when Jess laid a hand on her armor's shoulder pad.
"Hey Aubrey," Jess paused, pretending not to notice Aubrey's obvious discomfort. Smiling gently in understanding she waited for the Captain to turn to her. When Aubrey finally looked up, she continued, "The scans are showing human and animal DNA strands along with something...weird."
"What do you mean?" Aubrey cursed the confining helmet. She really wanted to brush at the sweat that insisted on dripping down the side of her face despite the climate controlled environment the suit offered.
"Well, it doesn't register as any of the chemical compositions for known life, but the scanner says it is biological in nature." Jess looked back at the bodies on the floor, suppressing a shudder, "Whatever did that to these people, might be something we haven't seen before. The samples here are pretty degraded though, and with all of the radiation we can't really be sure."
Aubrey stood there for a moment lost in thought at all the implications before finally shaking herself out of it. "Right, well let's go find some answers Marines." Chloe nodded and stepped through the doorway.
Meanwhile, in a different part of the station:
Donald's team had made relatively good time through the first few sections of the station. They were mainly storage rooms filled with building material. Now, they encountered dead end after dead end. Some sections were so heavily damaged that the connection doors had sealed and others looked like they were deliberately decoupled.
"This is like a shantytown version of a space station," Sophia grumbled into the comms after their third dead end caused them to backtrack, "Everything is stacked on top of each other."
Stacie snickered at the comment, while Kolio challenged, "What would you know about shantytowns anyway?"
Sophia threw a quick glance over her shoulder at him, "I grew up in the east side of Old Philadelphia."
Cynthia Rose whistled low in sympathy, "That's harsh."
"Focus, people." Donald's chastisement silenced the group.
Beca grimaced, they had spent the better part of thirty minutes going through rabbit like warrens of corridors that seemed to either end abruptly or turn back in on themselves. Gravity seemed to fluctuate in this section, right now it was a little more than earth standard which made the task of climbing through the debris that much harder.
"Nomad, hold up." Donald walked over to Stacie, checking the scanner she held for a few moments before straightening up. "Okay guys, we're almost there. Only a couple more sections to go."
"That's what you said three sections ago." Beca mumbled to herself.
"I heard that Nomad." Beca turned surprised eyes back at Donald. The slight man just smiled good-naturedly and nodded. "Move out."
Two sections later after climbing through debris and overturned furniture Aubrey's voice came over the comms, almost startling Beca into tripping over a file cabinet. "Socks, we have found casualties and evidence of a fight. Hostiles may still be present."
Donald knit his brows, but didn't question her, "Copy Valkyrie."
"We are continuing with our search." Aubrey paused, "Just…be careful."
Stacie turned to look at Donald who stared steadily back at her a moment, both recognizing the strain in Aubrey's voice. Donald took a breath then responded, "You too Valkyrie." He nodded at Stacie and then addressed his fire team. "You heard Valkyrie. Eyes open Marines. Nomad, when you're ready."
Beca smiled grimly, briefly making eye contact with Stacie before turning to continue leading their push deeper into the station only to be stopped moments later by a blockaded door. Sophia and Donald had pushed up next to her, jimmying the door open with a metal bar only to find several heavy objects stacked against it on the other side.
Sophia stepped back from the door, steadying herself on the uneven flooring by holding onto a grommet on the wall. "This extra gravity isn't helping."
Donald looked at the mess barring their way, "Angel, any other routes available?"
Stacie shook her head, "No we already tried the two alternatives. Only way is through here or all the way back to where we left Valkyrie."
"That will take too long." Sophia offered. Donald nodded and looked around, weighing his options.
"So anyone else feel like this was deliberate?" Cynthia Rose questioned, looking at the way the debris was set.
"Are explosives an option?" Donald queried.
Cynthia Rose typed something in to the scanner, "No, too much structural damage. Even a shaped charge risks spacing us and half of what's left of this section of the space station."
Beca looked at the bottom of the doorway, bending down to peer through a small opening. Sophia grunted, "Your tiny Beca, but not that tiny." Beca waved the taller woman over.
"Look, if we can raise that up a bit, I might be able to slide through." Beca turned to look back at Donald, raising an eyebrow in question.
"I don't like it Nomad, you could end up trapped on the other side." Donald looked at the scanner over Angel's shoulder. "Plus, we can't be sure something isn't waiting for you on the other side."
Beca looked at the steep angle of the section they were in. It was already set at over a forty-five degree cant, forcing them to brace themselves on the wall or risk sliding back down.
"It's the angle right? It's too steep for us to push this stuff past whatever is there. I get on the other side and can try and move it, or at least see if I can cut through it." She used her hands to mime a sawing motion, "We can't do that on this side without it falling on top of us." She paused a beat while that thought sank in then continued, "Plus, we really don't have time to take the long away around."
Donald looked at Sophia silently asking for her opinion. Sophia shrugged, "Yeah, I don't have a better plan."
Stacie gave her a funny look but Donald interrupted before she could say anything.
Sighing Donald turned to face Beca, "Okay Nomad, but if anything seems weird you get back here right away."
Beca gave a lazy mock salute, then turned and knelt by the opening, handing the metal bar back to Sophia. The taller brunette moved up next to her and positioned the bar in the opening. She made eye contact with Beca, "Ready?"
Beca laid on her stomach and pushed her rifle through the opening, "Go."
Grunting Sophia pulled up on the bar, moving the debris with the sharp sound of groaning metal echoing in the small space. As soon as Beca saw the opening widen she pushed through the tight space, holding her breath in an unconscious effort to help herself through the small space.
The grinding of shifting metal on metal quickly turned shrill. Beca grabbed the edge of a large slab of flooring that had broken loose and was now covering most of the doorway. Muscles straining with effort she pulled herself through the tight space, hearing Sophia groan, "Hurry Beca."
She wriggled through the last few inches and panted out, "I'm through."
Sophia let go of the bar and the debris shifted with an ominous thud, closing off all but a few inches of space.
Donald's worried voice came over the comms, "Nomad! Are you okay?"
Beca responded, voice winded from the exertion, "Yes. I'm through."
"What's it look like?"
Beca pursed her lips, looking at the haphazard pile of metal sheeting, rigid flooring and plastic paneling that covered the door. She turned and looked behind her, groaning at the steep rise of this connecting module. It would be a difficult climb to get to the next section.
"Nomad?" Donald prompted again, voice tinged with concern.
"Oh uh, yeah." Beca shook her head to clear her jumbled thoughts. "I think I can move enough of the debris and stuff, but we'll have to climb to the next section. Beca turned her helmet's recorder on and sent the images of what she was looking at back to her team. "It will still be a tight fit, though."
"Right, we'll do what we can from here." Donald moved everyone away from the opening except for Kolio and Sophia who helped Beca work the debris loose, sending a section of it crashing below, the entire station corridor shuddered at the impact.
Cynthia Rose shouted up to Beca "Easy there mighty midget! This whole corridor is unstable."
"Bite me." The breathlessness from exertion took some of the punch from her reply. Beca really wanted to be able to wipe her forehead, having already banged her gloved hand against the face shield once forgetting the barrier was there.
Fifteen minutes later Beca poked her head over the edge, still panting from the effort required to move the junk. She had opened a big enough section that the team could wiggle through one at a time. The rest of the team formed up and climbed through the opening.
CR reached down, helping Stacie stand after the brunette pulled herself through the opening. Once the lanky brunette regained her feet, she made a show of adjusting her boobs earning a laugh from the rest of the squad. Beca rolled her eyes and started climbing up the corridor.
"You still good to take point Nomad?" Donald asked after he had pulled himself through the opening.
"Yeah Socks." Beca ignored the burning in her legs and arms from the heavy lifting, just happy to be moving again.
"We're close now, to what looks like their Science Wing." Cynthia Rose reported. Donald motioned them forward and the team started crawling up the side of the hallway section, using the corridor's natural joints to pull themselves up to the next section.
Beca no longer considered being shorter than average a flaw. Sure her height required a waiver to get into flight training and she usually had to bribe the mechanics to tweak her jet so that flying was more comfortable. But she had found that being small meant she could curl up and sleep just about anywhere. Where her tall friends were uncomfortable in the jump seats, she fit snugly, with their disgruntled glances showing that they wished they were small for once. Where her height still bit her in the ass, however, was climbing like this. She swore the suit was supposed to help, it did have motion assist joints after all, but it still made her feel bulky and slow; the gear she had to carry felt like it weighed almost as much as she did.
"Doing okay there Nomad?" Sophia's teasing tone broke Beca out of her musings.
"Ugh, yeah. Peachy." Beca grunted out as she swung her foot over the last edge of the conduit and into the junction between the two sections. She quickly leveled her rifle, noticing the door hanging off of its hinges and signs of battle damage on it and the surrounding walls. She felt Sophia come up next to her and when her hand landed on her shoulder Beca still jumped slightly even though she was expecting it.
"We've got signs of a firefight here. The area is too narrow for all of us." Sophia reported to the others.
"Take it slow and steady." Donald radioed back. The others weren't far behind but the landing they were on was too small to fit more than a few people, so they would have to push forward. Sophia tapped her shoulder and Beca moved as silently as possible into the room.
The doorway opened up into a spacious room, at least by space station standards. It looked like a research area with long waist high white tables that looked like they belonged in a college chemistry class. The area was trashed as if a hurricane had blown through.
Beca and Sophia had paused just inside the door, taking cover behind one of the tables.
"We're at the landing. Report." Donald's voice came over the comms.
Beca spoke first when Sophia remained silent behind her, "It's some type of lab with lots of expensive broken shit on the floor now. Looks like power may be iffy in this section, some of the lights are blinking." The short brunette paused in her description, knitting her brows trying to place the eerie feeling of familiarity that she had standing here in the lab.
Sophia picked up where Beca left off, "Definitely a lab. Looks like Genetic and Biological testing. No sign of whatever did this though."
Beca frowned, there was an edge to Sophia's voice that she couldn't place. She chanced a glance back at the other woman and saw her normally tan skin looking distinctly ashen even for the poor lighting in the suits.
Switching to private comms, Beca asked softly, "Hey, everything okay?" Sophia's eyes whipped to hers and she pushed Beca lightly forward.
"Let's check it out Nomad." Beca raised an eyebrow at the other woman's deflection but didn't push. She raised the plasma rifle and moved towards the far end of the room, dropping down quickly when the lights suddenly turned on. After waiting a beat where she was sure her heart was going to thump right out of her ribcage Beca felt Sophia nudge her from behind. "Motion sensors."
The rest of the squadron filed in taking up defensive positions in the room. Once they were certain everything was secure, Donald nodded to Stacie and CR, "Angel, Trips, see what you can get off of their computers." The two women started trying to revive some of the computer banks.
Nodding to Sophia he continued, "Jack, take Nomad and Pieces and check out the next room."
Sophia turned, following Beca to the far doorway, smiling softly as they heard CR cursing ancient technology and drunk monkeys.
Sophia opened the hatch to the next room watching as Beca and then Kolio entered quickly and quietly. She followed blinking away the mild disorientation as the lights flickered on around them.
"Holy fuck." Beca breathed out in surprise, fighting the rising nausea in her stomach as memories came rushing back.
"What the fuck are those?" Kolio asked, fear tinging his tone.
"Focus. Nomad forward, Pieces left and I'll take right. Clear the room." Sophia laced some steel into her tone, though she completely echoed their feelings. The room they had entered was still a lab of some sort but there were huge tanks lining the walls. The tanks filled with a greenish liquid that looked thick and viscous. Misshaped forms that belonged in some gory freak show hovered in suspension within. Umbilical tubes ran from them into the ceiling and ground, connecting to the base of the tanks.
"I'm counting six broken tanks." Beca's voice sounded strained and Sophia fought to keep her mind off of the greenish liquid and confining tanks. She kept seeing that liquid around her, smothering and choking her. She could tell that Beca was remembering now too. A loud crunching broke her out of her flashback and she looked around quickly to where the other woman had stepped on a glass, shattering it underfoot. Sophia swallowed thickly and saw a matching look of horror on Beca's face when she turned to look back at her.
"Not now," was all she said, Beca nodded woodenly back at her. The shorter woman moved almost on auto pilot to the rear of the room and tried the door there, trying in vain to push the images flashing in her mind.
After unsuccessfully trying to activate the door controls she said, "No good, it's hermetically sealed I think." Beca pointed to the hinges and doorframe that were thicker than the other doors on the station.
"Well if these things are out here, I am okay with that door staying sealed." Sophia responded. Beca gave a quick nod then both women jumped when they heard Kolio yell. In an instant the two women were on the move towards him, weapons humming as they primed.
Beca skidded to a stop next to him, rifle pointing to the corners, looking for the threat. Kolio pointed unsteadily to the floor next to one of the tanks, half hidden behind an overturned table. Beca slid around, weapon up as Kolio stood there rifle hanging loosely in his grasp.
"Fuck." Beca sucked in a breath at the size of the carcass on the floor. It was reddish black, with a gaping wound in its side that exposed yellow ribs. The creature had bled liquid that was now dried black on the floor with ropes of entrails spilling out of the wound, making it look like it had given birth to snakes. The small woman did her best to repress a shudder at the sight, but failed.
At the sound of Kolio's yell the rest of the team had entered the room, remaining silent, but alert. They waited with raised rifles for the others to signal it was clear to approach. Turning now, Beca waved Donald over, keeping one eye on the thing on the floor, hoping it was really as dead as it looked and wouldn't leap up like some zombie. She really was happier before Jesse made her watch all of those old horror movies.
Donald stared at the thing at their feet and at the tanks around them before keying his microphone, "Valkyrie, there's something you need to see here. We may have hostiles loose."
" -s. Re- - st - ." Aubrey's voice cut in and out, a thick crackling static causing everyone to wince.
"Valkyrie this is Socks, you are broken and unreadable over."
"Socks,-ing -loc-ken -able –- -er."
Sighing he keyed his mic one more time, "Valkyrie, in case you can read us, we are going to attempt to head your way. Station corridors are heavily compromised. Socks over and out."
Donald shook his head, motioning to Stacie and CR to come further into the room. He typed into his keypad trying to send a text message to Valkyrie and grunted when it failed to send. "This section must have dampeners active, no comms are going through."
CR and Stacie walked up with Stacie turning away quickly at the gore on the floor.
After a moment of looking at the monstrosity laying on the deck plates, CR growled, "I fucking hate scientists."
"Hey!" Stacie frowned and tapped CR on the helmet lightly in admonishment.
CR grumbled pushing Stacie away gently, "Just because you wised up and joined the Marines instead of becoming some egghead, doesn't mean you need to get all violent on their behalf."
Stacie winked at CR, "Science isn't bad."
Donald cleared his throat ending their banter. "Can you guys get any of this tech working? I want to know what we are dealing with here.
"Sure thing boss." Stacie sidled over to what looked like the main computer console, sitting her rifle down against it, starting to flip switches in an attempt to get the system to turn on. While she was fiddling with the controls Beca came over to stand next to her and away from the tanks.
Several seconds later the system came alive with a low hum. Beca's gaze was drawn away when Cynthia Rose rapped her fist against another console that had some damage to it. A tray with what looked like black bricks with gold plating slid out. "This tech is new."
Donald frowned, "What do you mean?"
"Well the rest of the station looks pretty old, yeah?" She paused, pointing at the black bricks in the tray for emphasis, "This is a new quantum drive, better than military grade here." Donald nodded at her but it was obvious he didn't understand what she was getting at.
"What CR is saying is that this is some crazy computing power here." Stacie continued to fiddle with her keyboard while she spoke, "We're talking like computing genomes for an entire planet in seconds here." The rest of the Marines just stared back blankly at her. "Sheesh, would it kill you guys to read the tech news? They put it in the wardroom every week you know."
Beca wiped her glove over her mask as if trying to wipe away a smile, "Um, if you ever see me reading tech news please know that I have been possessed by the geekiest demon ever."
Stacie's grin at their banter turned to a frown, hands still flying over the keyboard of the console in front of her, "Oh shit."
"What did you do?" Beca couldn't keep the worry from entering her voice.
Stacie started frantically punching keys on the interface. "Nothing! It shouldn't do this." The tall woman glanced over at Cynthia Rose, "CR, need you here."
With a hiccupping whir the machines in the room started to turn on, red lights blinking and turning over to green as the tanks. Donald raised his rifle, "The tanks are lighting up. Angel what's happening?"
Grunting in frustration Stacie replied, "The system is rebooting."
"Can you stop it?" Beca waved the hand not holding her rifle for emphasis.
CR had joined Stacie at the console looking over her shoulder, while the green lettering scrolling on the screen below reflected eerily on her helmet, "Whoa, this shit is in Chinese."
"Japanese," Stacie replied distantly, attention focused on gaining control back of the system, "you can tell by the Hiragana."
Beca raised an eyebrow in surprise at the other woman, "Can you read it?"
Stacie shook her head, "Not well enough for this."
"Fuck, can we get Lily?" CR asked.
"Way to stereotype dude, her grandparents were from Jersey, back on Earth." Beca huffed.
Donald broke in, "Fuck Jersey, I want to know if these tanks are going to open." He paused, watching as another tank lit up. "You know what, never mind. Angel, Trips try and fix it – the rest of you get behind something."
"Why don't we shoot the tanks before shit wakes up?" Kolio asked.
"No!" Stacie jumped in, "From what I can tell, that could trigger everything to wake up as a failsafe. Plus I can't determine what the chemicals are in those tanks, they could be flammable."
Kolio nodded, "Right, fire bad." He still eyed the tanks uneasily.
Beca pushed slid in behind one of the long tables where she had a good view of the tanks on the far wall. "Socks, if we have to leave in a hurry, we can't go back the way we came."
Donald turned to look at her from across the room. "Fuck. You're right, still too much debris across that doorway."
CR looked down at her scanner, "The only option is through that door ahead. Looks like another lab. We head there and through two more rooms and we hit the section that heads towards where Valkyrie's team went." CR moved her glove across the screen, "I think there is a section that heads towards engineering too. But it looks like there is a fuel leak showing in the section that connects this module to Engineering.
Beca looked back over her shoulder at Donald, "Can we just shut everything down?"
Stacie shook her head, "No, I think that is why they blew engineering. I can't shut this down from here, the systems are compromised and working off of backup power, which follows a different line."
Sophia made a noise of disbelief, "They blew up half of the station to prevent whatever is in those tanks from being released?"
"Can we get that door open?" Donald asked Stacie.
Beca raised an eyebrow, "Do we want to get that door open?"
"Valkyrie and the rest of our team are on the other side of that door," was all the brunette replied with, ignoring Beca in favor of concentrating on the console in front of her. CR was at the adjoining workstation trying to jury-rig a connection from her scanner to the system.
A few moments later CR looked over at Stacie, "I'm in. Give me a sec and oh…fuck."
"Now what?" Beca huffed.
"Shit, this is bad." Stacie echoed CR's worried glance.
"What is happening?" Beca contemplated smacking CR's and Stacie's helmets together to see if it would help them complete a sentence.
CR turned her scanner so Stacie could read it, "This was deliberate."
"What was deliberate?" Donald asked.
Stacie shared a look with CR before continuing quickly, "Someone introduced a virus into this system. Someone wanted this to happen."
"So, bottom line it for me," Donald was losing patience with the two and their tech babble.
CR continued doing something with the scanner, "Look it will take a while to decompile this, but it looks like whatever virus they introduced was meant to overload the systems and release the locks on the tanks."
"I'm trying to countermand the virus, now that I know what to look for I might be able to slow it from propagating." Stacie pointed at keypad next to the console. "That opens the next door, and I'm blind to the systems over there. Everything is going to be online in a few minutes, so we can try and make a stand here or see what is behind door number two."
Donald shared a worried look with Sophia. They both understood that there were no good decisions to make here.
"Aubrey's team could be headed this way if they received our transmission." She figured talking it out might help. "We don't want them walking blind into whatever is on the other side."
Kolio frowned at the two Captains, "It's been months right? Shouldn't everything be dead anyway?"
Donald raised an eyebrow, "We are only assuming months, hard to tell but this carcass looks more recent." He looked around at his team, "So we plan for the worst case and hope for the best." Nodding at Sophia he turned to the rest of the Marines. "Form up, we're going through that door. Stacie, CR, you have sixty seconds to download whatever you can and then we're getting out of here."
"Already on it." CR disconnected her scanner and reached down for the quantum drive, placing it in her backpack.
Stacie gave one last look at the console and tore herself away with a groan, "Okay, I did what I could, but whatever we're doing we might want to hurry."
Donald nodded, "Game faces people." He paused feeling the energy in the room shift from one of wariness to a calm determination. "Open the door Angel."
*************************************************************************************Friends, readers, wanderers – it is apparent that I really could use a Beta (and a very, very long vacation from work and life). After re-reading this story on the plane again, I realized I am letting too many errors through – even simple ones and that kills me.
Having a Beta would hopefully help me stick to a better schedule as well – I had an absurdly tough time with this section and the next one, spending spurts of time trying to proofread and rework problematic sections. I also wanted to make sure I am capturing all of the story elements and not forgetting anything. A Beta would allow me to bounce ideas off of someone and to have another pair of eyes checking my work and making sure I am tying things together properly. I left out half a chapter by accident in a previous chapter…that having a Beta hopefully would have prevented.
The downside of being a Beta, other than dealing with me and my ridiculous work schedule, is that it would involve spoilers. Though I would try to keep spoilers to a minimum, there is quite a bit of backstory, world building and setup happening. You would get access to my One Note where I have all of the research etc. though that might be fun as I have several other snippets of things there, like a fight scene between Gail and Chloe that I really wanted to use but did not fit where I wanted it originally so it had to be scrapped.
The benefit of being a Beta would be having a positive influence on this story and we could maybe work out a deal where I write a story you want to see . You would also have all of your questions answered!
If you are interested – take a chapter and Beta it – tell me what you would fix, what you would have commented on, or wanted to see presented differently. Then let's talk and see what we can work out.